WorldWideScience

Sample records for empirical potential functions

  1. A new empirical potential energy function for Ar2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myatt, Philip T.; Dham, Ashok K.; Chandrasekhar, Pragna; McCourt, Frederick R. W.; Le Roy, Robert J.

    2018-06-01

    A critical re-analysis of all available spectroscopic and virial coefficient data for Ar2 has been used to determine an improved empirical analytic potential energy function that has been 'tuned' to optimise its agreement with viscosity, diffusion and thermal diffusion data, and whose short-range behaviour is in reasonably good agreement with the most recent ab initio calculations for this system. The recommended Morse/long-range potential function is smooth and differentiable at all distances, and incorporates both the correct theoretically predicted long-range behaviour and the correct limiting short-range functional behaviour. The resulting value of the well depth is ? cm-1 and the associated equilibrium distance is re = 3.766 (±0.002) Å, while the 40Ar s-wave scattering length is -714 Å.

  2. Benchmarking FeCr empirical potentials against density functional theory data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klaver, T P C; Bonny, G; Terentyev, D; Olsson, P

    2010-01-01

    Three semi-empirical force field FeCr potentials, two within the formalism of the two-band model and one within the formalism of the concentration dependent model, have been benchmarked against a wide variety of density functional theory (DFT) structures. The benchmarking allows an assessment of how reliable empirical potential results are in different areas relevant to radiation damage modelling. The DFT data consist of defect-free structures, structures with single interstitials and structures with small di- and tri-interstitial clusters. All three potentials reproduce the general trend of the heat of formation (h.o.f.) quite well. The most important shortcomings of the original two-band model potential are the low or even negative h.o.f. for Cr-rich structures and the lack of a strong repulsion when moving two solute Cr atoms from being second-nearest neighbours to nearest neighbours. The newer two-band model potential partly solves the first problem. The most important shortcoming in the concentration dependent model potential is the magnitude of the Cr–Cr repulsion, being too strong at short distances and mostly absent at longer distances. Both two-band model potentials do reproduce long-range Cr–Cr repulsion. For interstitials the two-band model potentials reproduce a number of Cr–interstitial binding energies surprisingly well, in contrast to the concentration dependent model potential. For Cr interacting with clusters, the result can sometimes be directly extrapolated from Cr interacting with single interstitials, both according to DFT and the three empirical potentials

  3. The effect of empirical potential functions on modeling of amorphous carbon using molecular dynamics method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Longqiu; Xu, Ming; Song, Wenping; Ovcharenko, Andrey; Zhang, Guangyu; Jia, Ding

    2013-01-01

    Empirical potentials have a strong effect on the hybridization and structure of amorphous carbon and are of great importance in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In this work, amorphous carbon at densities ranging from 2.0 to 3.2 g/cm 3 was modeled by a liquid quenching method using Tersoff, 2nd REBO, and ReaxFF empirical potentials. The hybridization, structure and radial distribution function G(r) of carbon atoms were analyzed as a function of the three potentials mentioned above. The ReaxFF potential is capable to model the change of the structure of amorphous carbon and MD results are in a good agreement with experimental results and density function theory (DFT) at low density of 2.6 g/cm 3 and below. The 2nd REBO potential can be used when amorphous carbon has a very low density of 2.4 g/cm 3 and below. Considering the computational efficiency, the Tersoff potential is recommended to model amorphous carbon at a high density of 2.6 g/cm 3 and above. In addition, the influence of the quenching time on the hybridization content obtained with the three potentials is discussed.

  4. Development of empirical potential functions for the study of molecular geometry, and applications to chlorophyll a dimers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Oie, Tetsuro [Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States); Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States). Dept. of Chemistry

    1980-07-28

    A purpose of the present studies is twofold: (1) development of an empirical potential function (EPF) and (2) application of it to the studies of photoreaction center chlorophyll a dimer. The reliable estimate of geometric structures and energies of large molecules by quantum mechanical methods is not possible at the present time. An alternative method is, therefore, needed for the studies of large molecular systems, and Chapter I is dedicated to the development of this tool, i.e., an empirical potential function, which could suffice this purpose. Because of a large number of variable chemical compositions and functional groups characteristically present in a large molecule, it is important to include a large number of structurally diverse molecules in the development of the EPF. In Chapter II, the EPF is applied to study the geometrical structure of a chlorophyll a (Chl a) dimer, which is believed to exist at the photoreaction center of green plants and is known to play an essential role in photosynthetic energy conversion. Although various models have been proposed for this dimer structure, there is still a great need for information concerning the detailed geometric structure of this dimer. Therefore, in this chapter the structural stabilities of various dimer models are examined by the EPF, and detailed and quantitative information on the structure and stability of these models is provided.

  5. Empirical microeconomics action functionals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baaquie, Belal E.; Du, Xin; Tanputraman, Winson

    2015-06-01

    A statistical generalization of microeconomics has been made in Baaquie (2013), where the market price of every traded commodity, at each instant of time, is considered to be an independent random variable. The dynamics of commodity market prices is modeled by an action functional-and the focus of this paper is to empirically determine the action functionals for different commodities. The correlation functions of the model are defined using a Feynman path integral. The model is calibrated using the unequal time correlation of the market commodity prices as well as their cubic and quartic moments using a perturbation expansion. The consistency of the perturbation expansion is verified by a numerical evaluation of the path integral. Nine commodities drawn from the energy, metal and grain sectors are studied and their market behavior is described by the model to an accuracy of over 90% using only six parameters. The paper empirically establishes the existence of the action functional for commodity prices that was postulated to exist in Baaquie (2013).

  6. Empirical pseudo-potential studies on electronic structure

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Theoretical investigations of electronic structure of quantum dots is of current interest in nanophase materials. Empirical theories such as effective mass approximation, tight binding methods and empirical pseudo-potential method are capable of explaining the experimentally observed optical properties. We employ the ...

  7. Using Empirical Data to Estimate Potential Functions in Commodity Markets: Some Initial Results

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, C.; Haven, E.

    2017-12-01

    This paper focuses on estimating real and quantum potentials from financial commodities. The log returns of six common commodities are considered. We find that some phenomena, such as the vertical potential walls and the time scale issue of the variation on returns, also exists in commodity markets. By comparing the quantum and classical potentials, we attempt to demonstrate that the information within these two types of potentials is different. We believe this empirical result is consistent with the theoretical assumption that quantum potentials (when embedded into social science contexts) may contain some social cognitive or market psychological information, while classical potentials mainly reflect `hard' market conditions. We also compare the two potential forces and explore their relationship by simply estimating the Pearson correlation between them. The Medium or weak interaction effect may indicate that the cognitive system among traders may be affected by those `hard' market conditions.

  8. Modeling the NPE with finite sources and empirical Green`s functions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hutchings, L.; Kasameyer, P.; Goldstein, P. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)] [and others

    1994-12-31

    In order to better understand the source characteristics of both nuclear and chemical explosions for purposes of discrimination, we have modeled the NPE chemical explosion as a finite source and with empirical Green`s functions. Seismograms are synthesized at four sties to test the validity of source models. We use a smaller chemical explosion detonated in the vicinity of the working point to obtain empirical Green`s functions. Empirical Green`s functions contain all the linear information of the geology along the propagation path and recording site, which are identical for chemical or nuclear explosions, and therefore reduce the variability in modeling the source of the larger event. We further constrain the solution to have the overall source duration obtained from point-source deconvolution results. In modeling the source, we consider both an elastic source on a spherical surface and an inelastic expanding spherical volume source. We found that the spherical volume solution provides better fits to observed seismograms. The potential to identify secondary sources was examined, but the resolution is too poor to be definitive.

  9. Empirical Specification of Utility Functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mellenbergh, Gideon J.

    Decision theory can be applied to four types of decision situations in education and psychology: (1) selection; (2) placement; (3) classification; and (4) mastery. For the application of the theory, a utility function must be specified. Usually the utility function is chosen on a priori grounds. In this paper methods for the empirical assessment…

  10. The effect of loss functions on empirical Bayes reliability analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Camara Vincent A. R.

    1998-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the present study is to investigate the sensitivity of empirical Bayes estimates of the reliability function with respect to changing of the loss function. In addition to applying some of the basic analytical results on empirical Bayes reliability obtained with the use of the “popular” squared error loss function, we shall derive some expressions corresponding to empirical Bayes reliability estimates obtained with the Higgins–Tsokos, the Harris and our proposed logarithmic loss functions. The concept of efficiency, along with the notion of integrated mean square error, will be used as a criterion to numerically compare our results. It is shown that empirical Bayes reliability functions are in general sensitive to the choice of the loss function, and that the squared error loss does not always yield the best empirical Bayes reliability estimate.

  11. The effect of loss functions on empirical Bayes reliability analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vincent A. R. Camara

    1999-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the present study is to investigate the sensitivity of empirical Bayes estimates of the reliability function with respect to changing of the loss function. In addition to applying some of the basic analytical results on empirical Bayes reliability obtained with the use of the “popular” squared error loss function, we shall derive some expressions corresponding to empirical Bayes reliability estimates obtained with the Higgins–Tsokos, the Harris and our proposed logarithmic loss functions. The concept of efficiency, along with the notion of integrated mean square error, will be used as a criterion to numerically compare our results.

  12. A new empirical potential function and its application to hydrogen bonding

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kang, Y.K.; Jhon, M.S.

    1981-01-01

    A new potential function based on spectroscopic results for diatomic molecules is presented and applied to the hydrogen bonding systems. The potential energy of interaction is supposed to have electrostatic, polarization, dispersion, repulsion and effective charge-transfer contributions. Estimates of the effective charge-transfer quantity have been made based on the average charge of the proton donor and the acceptor atoms. For dimers such as water, methanol, acetic acid and formic acid, the vibrational stretching frequencies and dimerization energies are calculated and discussed in connection with Badger-Bauer rule. (author)

  13. Combining empirical and theory-based land-use modelling approaches to assess economic potential of biofuel production avoiding iLUC: Argentina as a case study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Diogo, V.; van der Hilst, F.; van Eijck, J.; Verstegen, J.A.; Hilbert, J.; Carballo, S.; Volante, J.; Faaij, A.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, a land-use modelling framework is presented combining empirical and theory-based modelling approaches to determine economic potential of biofuel production avoiding indirect land-use changes (iLUC) resulting from land competition with other functions. The empirical approach explores

  14. On the validity of empirical potentials for simulating radiation damage in graphite: a benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Latham, C D; McKenna, A J; Trevethan, T P; Heggie, M I; Rayson, M J; Briddon, P R

    2015-01-01

    In this work, the ability of methods based on empirical potentials to simulate the effects of radiation damage in graphite is examined by comparing results for point defects, found using ab initio calculations based on density functional theory (DFT), with those given by two state of the art potentials: the Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential (EDIP) and the Adaptive Intermolecular Reactive Empirical Bond Order potential (AIREBO). Formation energies for the interstitial, the vacancy and the Stone–Wales (5775) defect are all reasonably close to DFT values. Both EDIP and AIREBO can thus be suitable for the prompt defects in a cascade, for example. Both potentials suffer from arefacts. One is the pinch defect, where two α-atoms adopt a fourfold-coordinated sp 3 configuration, that forms a cross-link between neighbouring graphene sheets. Another, for AIREBO only, is that its ground state vacancy structure is close to the transition state found by DFT for migration. The EDIP fails to reproduce the ground state self-interstitial structure given by DFT, but has nearly the same formation energy. Also, for both potentials, the energy barriers that control diffusion and the evolution of a damage cascade, are not well reproduced. In particular the EDIP gives a barrier to removal of the Stone–Wales defect as 0.9 eV against DFT's 4.5 eV. The suite of defect structures used is provided as supplementary information as a benchmark set for future potentials. (paper)

  15. Uniform convergence of the empirical spectral distribution function

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mikosch, T; Norvaisa, R

    1997-01-01

    Let X be a linear process having a finite fourth moment. Assume F is a class of square-integrable functions. We consider the empirical spectral distribution function J(n,X) based on X and indexed by F. If F is totally bounded then J(n,X) satisfies a uniform strong law of large numbers. If, in

  16. [Non-empirical interatomic potentials for transition metals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-01-01

    The report is divided into the following sections: potential-energy functions for d-band metals, potential-energy functions for aluminides and quasicrystals, electronic structure of complex structures and quasicrystals, potential-energy functions in transition-metal oxides, applications to defect structure and mechanical properties, and basic theory of interatomic potentials

  17. Empirical potential for molecular simulation of graphene nanoplatelets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bourque, Alexander J.; Rutledge, Gregory C.

    2018-04-01

    A new empirical potential for layered graphitic materials is reported. Interatomic interactions within a single graphene sheet are modeled using a Stillinger-Weber potential. Interatomic interactions between atoms in different sheets of graphene in the nanoplatelet are modeled using a Lennard-Jones interaction potential. The potential is validated by comparing molecular dynamics simulations of tensile deformation with the reported elastic constants for graphite. The graphite is found to fracture into graphene nanoplatelets when subjected to ˜15% tensile strain normal to the basal surface of the graphene stack, with an ultimate stress of 2.0 GPa and toughness of 0.33 GPa. This force field is useful to model molecular interactions in an important class of composite systems comprising 2D materials like graphene and multi-layer graphene nanoplatelets.

  18. Assessment of semi-empirical potentials for the U-Si system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baskes, Michael I. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Andersson, Anders David [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2016-02-03

    Accident tolerant fuels (ATF) are being developed in response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan. One of the options being pursued is U-Si fuels, such as the U3Si2 and U3Si5 compounds, which benefit from high thermal conductivity (metallic) compared to the UO2 fuel (semi-conductor) used in current Light Water Reactors (LWRs). The U-Si fuels also have higher fissile density. In order to perform meaningful engineering scale nuclear fuel performance simulations, the material properties of the fuel, including the response to irradiation environments, must be known. Unfortunately, the data available for U-Si fuels are rather limited, in particular for the temperature range where LWRs would operate. The ATF HIP is using multi-scale modeling and simulations to address this knowledge gap. Even though Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations can provide useful answers to a subset of problems, they are computationally too costly for many others, including properties governing microstructure evolution and irradiation effects. For the latter, semi-empirical potentials are typically used. Unfortunately, there is currently no potential for the U-Si system. In this brief report we present initial results from the development of a U-Si semi-empirical potential based on the Modified Embedded Atom Method (MEAM). The potential should reproduce relevant parts of the U-Si phase diagram as well as defect properties important in irradiation environments. This work also serves as an assessment of the general challenges associated with the U-Si system, which will be valuable for the efforts to develop a U-Si Tersoff potential undertaken by Idaho National Laboratory (also part of the ATF HIP). Going forward the main potential development activity will reside at INL and the work presented here is meant to provide input data and guidelines for that activity. The main focus of our work is on the U3Si2 and U3Si5

  19. A comparative study of semi-empirical interionic potentials for alkali halides - II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khwaja, F.A.; Naqvi, S.H.

    1985-08-01

    A comprehensive study of some semi-empirical interionic potentials is carried out through the calculation of the cohesive energy, relative stability and pressure induced solid-solid phase transformations in alkali halides. The theoretical values of these properties of the alkali halides are obtained using a new set of van der Waals coefficients and zero-point energy in the expression for interionic potential. From the comparison of the present calculations with some previous sophisticated ab-initio quantum-mechanical calculations and other semi-empirical approaches, it is concluded that the present calculations in the simplest central pairwise interaction description with the new values of the van der Waals coefficients and zero-point energy are in better agreement with the experimental data than the previous calculations. It is also concluded that in some cases the better choice of the interionic potential alone in the simplest semi-empirical picture of interaction gives an agreement of the theoretical predictions with the experimental data much superior to the ab-initio quantum mechanical approaches. (author)

  20. Identifying Similarities in Cognitive Subtest Functional Requirements: An Empirical Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frisby, Craig L.; Parkin, Jason R.

    2007-01-01

    In the cognitive test interpretation literature, a Rational/Intuitive, Indirect Empirical, or Combined approach is typically used to construct conceptual taxonomies of the functional (behavioral) similarities between subtests. To address shortcomings of these approaches, the functional requirements for 49 subtests from six individually…

  1. Plant water potential improves prediction of empirical stomatal models.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    William R L Anderegg

    Full Text Available Climate change is expected to lead to increases in drought frequency and severity, with deleterious effects on many ecosystems. Stomatal responses to changing environmental conditions form the backbone of all ecosystem models, but are based on empirical relationships and are not well-tested during drought conditions. Here, we use a dataset of 34 woody plant species spanning global forest biomes to examine the effect of leaf water potential on stomatal conductance and test the predictive accuracy of three major stomatal models and a recently proposed model. We find that current leaf-level empirical models have consistent biases of over-prediction of stomatal conductance during dry conditions, particularly at low soil water potentials. Furthermore, the recently proposed stomatal conductance model yields increases in predictive capability compared to current models, and with particular improvement during drought conditions. Our results reveal that including stomatal sensitivity to declining water potential and consequent impairment of plant water transport will improve predictions during drought conditions and show that many biomes contain a diversity of plant stomatal strategies that range from risky to conservative stomatal regulation during water stress. Such improvements in stomatal simulation are greatly needed to help unravel and predict the response of ecosystems to future climate extremes.

  2. The empirical potential of live streaming beyond cognitive psychology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Nicolai Wendt

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Empirical methods of self-description, think aloud protocols and introspection have been extensively criticized or neglected in behaviorist and cognitivist psychology. Their methodological value has been fundamentally questioned since there apparently is no suficient proof for their validity. However, the major arguments against self-description can be critically reviewed by theoretical psychology. This way, these methods’ empirical value can be redeemed. Furthermore, self-descriptive methods can be updated by the use of contemporary media technology. In order to support the promising perspectives for future empirical research in the field of cognitive psychology, Live Streaming is proposed as a viable data source. Introducing this new paradigm, this paper presents some of the formal constituents and accessible contents of Live Streaming, and relates them to established forms of empirical research. By its structure and established usage, Live Streaming bears remarkable resemblances to the traditional methods of self-description, yet it also adds fruitful new features of use. On the basis of its qualities, the possible benefits that appear to be feasible in comparison with the traditional methods of self-description are elaborated, such as Live Streaming’s ecological validity. Ultimately, controversial theoretical concepts, such as those in phenomenology and cultural-historical psychology, are adopted to sketch further potential benefits of the utility of Live Streaming in current psychology debates.

  3. Stability and mobility of self-interstitials and small interstitial clusters in α-iron: ab initio and empirical potential calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Willaime, F.; Fu, C.C.; Marinica, M.C.; Dalla Torre, J.

    2005-01-01

    The stability and mobility of self-interstitials and small interstitial clusters, I n , in α-Fe is investigated by means of calculations performed in the framework of the density functional theory using the SIESTA code. The mono-, di- and tri-interstitials are shown to be made of (parallel) dumbbells and to migrate by nearest-neighbor translation-rotation jumps, according to Johnson's mechanism. The orientation of the dumbbells becomes energetically more favourable for I 5 and larger clusters. The performance of a semi-empirical potential recently developed for Fe, including ab initio self-interstitial data in the fitted properties, is evaluated over the present results. The superiority over previous semi-empirical potentials is confirmed. Finally the impact of the present results on the formation mechanism of loops, observed experimentally in α-Fe is discussed

  4. Probabilistic empirical prediction of seasonal climate: evaluation and potential applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dieppois, B.; Eden, J.; van Oldenborgh, G. J.

    2017-12-01

    Preparing for episodes with risks of anomalous weather a month to a year ahead is an important challenge for governments, non-governmental organisations, and private companies and is dependent on the availability of reliable forecasts. The majority of operational seasonal forecasts are made using process-based dynamical models, which are complex, computationally challenging and prone to biases. Empirical forecast approaches built on statistical models to represent physical processes offer an alternative to dynamical systems and can provide either a benchmark for comparison or independent supplementary forecasts. Here, we present a new evaluation of an established empirical system used to predict seasonal climate across the globe. Forecasts for surface air temperature, precipitation and sea level pressure are produced by the KNMI Probabilistic Empirical Prediction (K-PREP) system every month and disseminated via the KNMI Climate Explorer (climexp.knmi.nl). K-PREP is based on multiple linear regression and built on physical principles to the fullest extent with predictive information taken from the global CO2-equivalent concentration, large-scale modes of variability in the climate system and regional-scale information. K-PREP seasonal forecasts for the period 1981-2016 will be compared with corresponding dynamically generated forecasts produced by operational forecast systems. While there are many regions of the world where empirical forecast skill is extremely limited, several areas are identified where K-PREP offers comparable skill to dynamical systems. We discuss two key points in the future development and application of the K-PREP system: (a) the potential for K-PREP to provide a more useful basis for reference forecasts than those based on persistence or climatology, and (b) the added value of including K-PREP forecast information in multi-model forecast products, at least for known regions of good skill. We also discuss the potential development of

  5. Functional Measurement in the Field of Empirical Bioethics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mullet, Etienne; Sorum, Paul C.; Teysseire, Nathalie; Nann, Stephanie; Martinez, Guadalupe Elizabeth Morales; Ahmed, Ramadan; Kamble, Shanmukh; Olivari, Cecilia; Sastre, Maria Teresa Munoz

    2012-01-01

    We present, in a synthetic way, some of the main findings from five studies that were conducted in the field of empirical bioethics, using the Functional Measurement framework. These studies were about (a) the rationing of rare treatments, (b) adolescents' abortions, (c) end-of-life decision-making regarding damaged neonates, (d) end-of-life…

  6. Non-empirical energy density functional for the nuclear structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rot ival, V.

    2008-09-01

    The energy density functional (EDF) formalism is the tool of choice for large-scale low-energy nuclear structure calculations both for stable experimentally known nuclei whose properties are accurately reproduced and systems that are only theoretically predicted. We highlight in the present dissertation the capability of EDF methods to tackle exotic phenomena appearing at the very limits of stability, that is the formation of nuclear halos. We devise a new quantitative and model-independent method that characterizes the existence and properties of halos in medium- to heavy-mass nuclei, and quantifies the impact of pairing correlations and the choice of the energy functional on the formation of such systems. These results are found to be limited by the predictive power of currently-used EDFs that rely on fitting to known experimental data. In the second part of this dissertation, we initiate the construction of non-empirical EDFs that make use of the new paradigm for vacuum nucleon-nucleon interactions set by so-called low-momentum interactions generated through the application of renormalization group techniques. These soft-core vacuum potentials are used as a step-stone of a long-term strategy which connects modern many-body techniques and EDF methods. We provide guidelines for designing several non-empirical models that include in-medium many-body effects at various levels of approximation, and can be handled in state-of-the art nuclear structure codes. In the present work, the first step is initiated through the adjustment of an operator representation of low-momentum vacuum interactions using a custom-designed parallel evolutionary algorithm. The first results highlight the possibility to grasp most of the relevant physics for low-energy nuclear structure using this numerically convenient Gaussian vertex. (author)

  7. Using Loss Functions for DIF Detection: An Empirical Bayes Approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zwick, Rebecca; Thayer, Dorothy; Lewis, Charles

    2000-01-01

    Studied a method for flagging differential item functioning (DIF) based on loss functions. Builds on earlier research that led to the development of an empirical Bayes enhancement to the Mantel-Haenszel DIF analysis. Tested the method through simulation and found its performance better than some commonly used DIF classification systems. (SLD)

  8. An Empirical Mass Function Distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, S. G.; Robotham, A. S. G.; Power, C.

    2018-03-01

    The halo mass function, encoding the comoving number density of dark matter halos of a given mass, plays a key role in understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies. As such, it is a key goal of current and future deep optical surveys to constrain the mass function down to mass scales that typically host {L}\\star galaxies. Motivated by the proven accuracy of Press–Schechter-type mass functions, we introduce a related but purely empirical form consistent with standard formulae to better than 4% in the medium-mass regime, {10}10{--}{10}13 {h}-1 {M}ȯ . In particular, our form consists of four parameters, each of which has a simple interpretation, and can be directly related to parameters of the galaxy distribution, such as {L}\\star . Using this form within a hierarchical Bayesian likelihood model, we show how individual mass-measurement errors can be successfully included in a typical analysis, while accounting for Eddington bias. We apply our form to a question of survey design in the context of a semi-realistic data model, illustrating how it can be used to obtain optimal balance between survey depth and angular coverage for constraints on mass function parameters. Open-source Python and R codes to apply our new form are provided at http://mrpy.readthedocs.org and https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/tggd/index.html respectively.

  9. Empirical valence bond models for reactive potential energy surfaces: a parallel multilevel genetic program approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellucci, Michael A; Coker, David F

    2011-07-28

    We describe a new method for constructing empirical valence bond potential energy surfaces using a parallel multilevel genetic program (PMLGP). Genetic programs can be used to perform an efficient search through function space and parameter space to find the best functions and sets of parameters that fit energies obtained by ab initio electronic structure calculations. Building on the traditional genetic program approach, the PMLGP utilizes a hierarchy of genetic programming on two different levels. The lower level genetic programs are used to optimize coevolving populations in parallel while the higher level genetic program (HLGP) is used to optimize the genetic operator probabilities of the lower level genetic programs. The HLGP allows the algorithm to dynamically learn the mutation or combination of mutations that most effectively increase the fitness of the populations, causing a significant increase in the algorithm's accuracy and efficiency. The algorithm's accuracy and efficiency is tested against a standard parallel genetic program with a variety of one-dimensional test cases. Subsequently, the PMLGP is utilized to obtain an accurate empirical valence bond model for proton transfer in 3-hydroxy-gamma-pyrone in gas phase and protic solvent. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

  10. Some connections for manuals of empirical logic to functional analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cook, T.A.

    1981-01-01

    In this informal presentation, the theory of manuals of operations is connected with some familiar concepts in functional analysis; namely, base normed and order unit normed spaces. The purpose of this discussion is to present several general open problems which display the interplay of empirical logic with functional analysis. These are mathematical problems with direct physical interpretation. (orig./HSI)

  11. Structural properties of silicon clusters: An empirical potential study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gong, X.G.; Zheng, Q.Q.; He Yizhen

    1993-09-01

    By using our newly proposed empirical interatomic potential for silicon, the structure and some dynamical properties of silicon cluster Si n (10 ≤ n ≤ 24) have been studied. It is found that the obtained results are close to those from ab-initio methods. From present results, we can gain a new insight into the understanding of the experimental data on the Si n clusters. (author). 20 refs, 6 figs

  12. From empirical to ab initio: transferable potentials in the atomistic simulation of amorphous carbons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marks, N.A.; Goringe, C.M.; McKenzie, D.R.; McCulloch, D.G.; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, VIC

    2000-01-01

    Full text: Silicon is often described as the prototype covalent material, and when it comes to developing atomistic models this situation is well described by the sentiment that 'everything works for silicon'. The same cannot be said for carbon though, where the interaction potential has always proved problematical, be it with empirical, tight-binding or ab initio methods. Thus far the most decisive contributions to understanding amorphous carbon networks have come from ab initio simulations using the Car-Parrinello method, where the fully quantum treatment of the valence electrons has provided unexpected insight into the local structure. However such first principles calculations are restricted spatially and temporally to systems with approximately 100 atoms and times of order one picosecond. There is therefore demand for less expensive techniques capable of resolving important questions whose solution can only to found with larger simulations running for longer times. In the case of tetrahedral amorphous carbon, such issues include the release of compressive stress through annealing, the origin of graphitic surface layers and the nature of the film growth process and thermal spike. Against this background tight-binding molecular dynamics has emerged as a popular alternative to first principles methods, and our group has an ongoing program to understand film growth using one of the efficient variants of tight-binding. Another direction of research is a new empirical potential based on the Environment Dependent Interaction Potential (EDIP) recently developed for silicon. The EDIP approach represents a promising direction for empirical potentials through its use of ab initio data to motivate the functional form as well as the more conventional parametrisation. By inverting ab initio cohesive energy curves the authors of EDIP arrived at a pair potential expression which reduces to the well-known Stillinger-Weber form at integer coordination, while providing

  13. Large deviation function for a driven underdamped particle in a periodic potential

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischer, Lukas P.; Pietzonka, Patrick; Seifert, Udo

    2018-02-01

    Employing large deviation theory, we explore current fluctuations of underdamped Brownian motion for the paradigmatic example of a single particle in a one-dimensional periodic potential. Two different approaches to the large deviation function of the particle current are presented. First, we derive an explicit expression for the large deviation functional of the empirical phase space density, which replaces the level 2.5 functional used for overdamped dynamics. Using this approach, we obtain several bounds on the large deviation function of the particle current. We compare these to bounds for overdamped dynamics that have recently been derived, motivated by the thermodynamic uncertainty relation. Second, we provide a method to calculate the large deviation function via the cumulant generating function. We use this method to assess the tightness of the bounds in a numerical case study for a cosine potential.

  14. A reactive empirical bond order (REBO) potential for hydrocarbon-oxygen interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ni, Boris; Lee, Ki-Ho; Sinnott, Susan B

    2004-01-01

    The expansion of the second-generation reactive empirical bond order (REBO) potential for hydrocarbons, as parametrized by Brenner and co-workers, to include oxygen is presented. This involves the explicit inclusion of C-O, H-O, and O-O interactions to the existing C-C, C-H, and H-H interactions in the REBO potential. The details of the expansion, including all parameters, are given. The new, expanded potential is then applied to the study of the structure and chemical stability of several molecules and polymer chains, and to modelling chemical reactions among a series of molecules, within classical molecular dynamics simulations

  15. On the Reliability of Source Time Functions Estimated Using Empirical Green's Function Methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallegos, A. C.; Xie, J.; Suarez Salas, L.

    2017-12-01

    The Empirical Green's Function (EGF) method (Hartzell, 1978) has been widely used to extract source time functions (STFs). In this method, seismograms generated by collocated events with different magnitudes are deconvolved. Under a fundamental assumption that the STF of the small event is a delta function, the deconvolved Relative Source Time Function (RSTF) yields the large event's STF. While this assumption can be empirically justified by examination of differences in event size and frequency content of the seismograms, there can be a lack of rigorous justification of the assumption. In practice, a small event might have a finite duration when the RSTF is retrieved and interpreted as the large event STF with a bias. In this study, we rigorously analyze this bias using synthetic waveforms generated by convolving a realistic Green's function waveform with pairs of finite-duration triangular or parabolic STFs. The RSTFs are found using a time-domain based matrix deconvolution. We find when the STFs of smaller events are finite, the RSTFs are a series of narrow non-physical spikes. Interpreting these RSTFs as a series of high-frequency source radiations would be very misleading. The only reliable and unambiguous information we can retrieve from these RSTFs is the difference in durations and the moment ratio of the two STFs. We can apply a Tikhonov smoothing to obtain a single-pulse RSTF, but its duration is dependent on the choice of weighting, which may be subjective. We then test the Multi-Channel Deconvolution (MCD) method (Plourde & Bostock, 2017) which assumes that both STFs have finite durations to be solved for. A concern about the MCD method is that the number of unknown parameters is larger, which would tend to make the problem rank-deficient. Because the kernel matrix is dependent on the STFs to be solved for under a positivity constraint, we can only estimate the rank-deficiency with a semi-empirical approach. Based on the results so far, we find that the

  16. VMF3/GPT3: refined discrete and empirical troposphere mapping functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landskron, Daniel; Böhm, Johannes

    2018-04-01

    Incorrect modeling of troposphere delays is one of the major error sources for space geodetic techniques such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) or Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). Over the years, many approaches have been devised which aim at mapping the delay of radio waves from zenith direction down to the observed elevation angle, so-called mapping functions. This paper contains a new approach intended to refine the currently most important discrete mapping function, the Vienna Mapping Functions 1 (VMF1), which is successively referred to as Vienna Mapping Functions 3 (VMF3). It is designed in such a way as to eliminate shortcomings in the empirical coefficients b and c and in the tuning for the specific elevation angle of 3°. Ray-traced delays of the ray-tracer RADIATE serve as the basis for the calculation of new mapping function coefficients. Comparisons of modeled slant delays demonstrate the ability of VMF3 to approximate the underlying ray-traced delays more accurately than VMF1 does, in particular at low elevation angles. In other words, when requiring highest precision, VMF3 is to be preferable to VMF1. Aside from revising the discrete form of mapping functions, we also present a new empirical model named Global Pressure and Temperature 3 (GPT3) on a 5°× 5° as well as a 1°× 1° global grid, which is generally based on the same data. Its main components are hydrostatic and wet empirical mapping function coefficients derived from special averaging techniques of the respective (discrete) VMF3 data. In addition, GPT3 also contains a set of meteorological quantities which are adopted as they stand from their predecessor, Global Pressure and Temperature 2 wet. Thus, GPT3 represents a very comprehensive troposphere model which can be used for a series of geodetic as well as meteorological and climatological purposes and is fully consistent with VMF3.

  17. Density-density functionals and effective potentials in many-body electronic structure calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reboredo, Fernando A.; Kent, Paul R.

    2008-01-01

    We demonstrate the existence of different density-density functionals designed to retain selected properties of the many-body ground state in a non-interacting solution starting from the standard density functional theory ground state. We focus on diffusion quantum Monte Carlo applications that require trial wave functions with optimal Fermion nodes. The theory is extensible and can be used to understand current practices in several electronic structure methods within a generalized density functional framework. The theory justifies and stimulates the search of optimal empirical density functionals and effective potentials for accurate calculations of the properties of real materials, but also cautions on the limits of their applicability. The concepts are tested and validated with a near-analytic model.

  18. Assessment of empirical potential for MOX nuclear fuels and thermomechanical properties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balboa, Hector; Van Brutzel, Laurent; Chartier, Alain; Le Bouar, Yann

    2017-11-01

    We assess five empirical interatomic potentials in the approximation of rigid ions and pair interactions for the (U1-y,Puy)O solid solution. The assessment compares available experimental data and Fink's recommendation with simulations on: the structural, thermodynamics, and mechanical properties over the full range of plutonium composition, from pure UO2 to pure PuO2 and for temperatures ranging from 300 K to the melting point. The best results are obtained by potentials referred as Cooper and Potashnikov potentials. The first one reproduces more accurately recommendations for the thermodynamics and mechanical properties exhibiting ductile-like behaviour during crack propagation, while the second one gives brittle behaviour at low temperature.

  19. Development of empirical potentials for amorphous silica

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carre, A.

    2007-09-15

    Amorphous silica (SiO{sub 2}) is of great importance in geoscience and mineralogy as well as a raw material in glass industry. Its structure is characterized as a disordered continuous network of SiO{sub 4} tetrahedra. Many efforts have been undertaken to understand the microscopic properties of silica by classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In this method the interatomic interactions are modeled by an effective potential that does not take explicitely into account the electronic degrees of freedom. In this work, we propose a new methodology to parameterize such a potential for silica using ab initio simulations, namely Car-Parrinello (CP) method [Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2471 (1985)]. The new potential proposed is compared to the BKS potential [Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 1955 (1990)] that is considered as the benchmark potential for silica. First, CP simulations have been performed on a liquid silica sample at 3600 K. The structural features so obtained have been compared to the ones predicted by the classical BKS potential. Regarding the bond lengths the BKS tends to underestimate the Si-O bond whereas the Si-Si bond is overestimated. The inter-tetrahedral angular distribution functions are also not well described by the BKS potential. The corresponding mean value of the SiOSi angle is found to be {approx_equal} 147 , while the CP yields to a SiOSi angle centered around 135 . Our aim is to fit a classical Born-Mayer/Coulomb pair potential using ab initio calculations. To this end, we use the force-matching method proposed by Ercolessi and Adams [Europhys. Lett. 26, 583 (1994)]. The CP configurations and their corresponding interatomic forces have been considered for a least square fitting procedure. The classical MD simulations with the resulting potential have lead to a structure that is very different from the CP one. Therefore, a different fitting criterion based on the CP partial pair correlation functions was applied. Using this approach the resulting

  20. Recognizing protein–protein interfaces with empirical potentials and reduced amino acid alphabets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wodak Shoshana

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In structural genomics, an important goal is the detection and classification of protein–protein interactions, given the structures of the interacting partners. We have developed empirical energy functions to identify native structures of protein–protein complexes among sets of decoy structures. To understand the role of amino acid diversity, we parameterized a series of functions, using a hierarchy of amino acid alphabets of increasing complexity, with 2, 3, 4, 6, and 20 amino acid groups. Compared to previous work, we used the simplest possible functional form, with residue–residue interactions and a stepwise distance-dependence. We used increased computational ressources, however, constructing 290,000 decoys for 219 protein–protein complexes, with a realistic docking protocol where the protein partners are flexible and interact through a molecular mechanics energy function. The energy parameters were optimized to correctly assign as many native complexes as possible. To resolve the multiple minimum problem in parameter space, over 64000 starting parameter guesses were tried for each energy function. The optimized functions were tested by cross validation on subsets of our native and decoy structures, by blind tests on series of native and decoy structures available on the Web, and on models for 13 complexes submitted to the CAPRI structure prediction experiment. Results Performance is similar to several other statistical potentials of the same complexity. For example, the CAPRI target structure is correctly ranked ahead of 90% of its decoys in 6 cases out of 13. The hierarchy of amino acid alphabets leads to a coherent hierarchy of energy functions, with qualitatively similar parameters for similar amino acid types at all levels. Most remarkably, the performance with six amino acid classes is equivalent to that of the most detailed, 20-class energy function. Conclusion This suggests that six carefully chosen amino

  1. Empirical validation of directed functional connectivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mill, Ravi D; Bagic, Anto; Bostan, Andreea; Schneider, Walter; Cole, Michael W

    2017-02-01

    Mapping directions of influence in the human brain connectome represents the next phase in understanding its functional architecture. However, a host of methodological uncertainties have impeded the application of directed connectivity methods, which have primarily been validated via "ground truth" connectivity patterns embedded in simulated functional MRI (fMRI) and magneto-/electro-encephalography (MEG/EEG) datasets. Such simulations rely on many generative assumptions, and we hence utilized a different strategy involving empirical data in which a ground truth directed connectivity pattern could be anticipated with confidence. Specifically, we exploited the established "sensory reactivation" effect in episodic memory, in which retrieval of sensory information reactivates regions involved in perceiving that sensory modality. Subjects performed a paired associate task in separate fMRI and MEG sessions, in which a ground truth reversal in directed connectivity between auditory and visual sensory regions was instantiated across task conditions. This directed connectivity reversal was successfully recovered across different algorithms, including Granger causality and Bayes network (IMAGES) approaches, and across fMRI ("raw" and deconvolved) and source-modeled MEG. These results extend simulation studies of directed connectivity, and offer practical guidelines for the use of such methods in clarifying causal mechanisms of neural processing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. The Empirical Definition of the Function of Advertising Costs in E-Commerce

    OpenAIRE

    Pursky Oleg I.; Moroz Iryna O.; Mazoha Dmytro P.

    2017-01-01

    In the publication, an empirical study of the advertising costs in the e-commerce market is carried out. In order to determine the type of functional dependency of advertising costs, dynamics of advertising costs in the e-commerce markets of the US, the world, and Ukraine were researched, followed by an approximation of the series of statistical data on the Internet advertising costs. There is a functional dependency on the Internet advertising costs in the form of a power function with two c...

  3. A grand canonical genetic algorithm for the prediction of multi-component phase diagrams and testing of empirical potentials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tipton, William W; Hennig, Richard G

    2013-01-01

    We present an evolutionary algorithm which predicts stable atomic structures and phase diagrams by searching the energy landscape of empirical and ab initio Hamiltonians. Composition and geometrical degrees of freedom may be varied simultaneously. We show that this method utilizes information from favorable local structure at one composition to predict that at others, achieving far greater efficiency of phase diagram prediction than a method which relies on sampling compositions individually. We detail this and a number of other efficiency-improving techniques implemented in the genetic algorithm for structure prediction code that is now publicly available. We test the efficiency of the software by searching the ternary Zr–Cu–Al system using an empirical embedded-atom model potential. In addition to testing the algorithm, we also evaluate the accuracy of the potential itself. We find that the potential stabilizes several correct ternary phases, while a few of the predicted ground states are unphysical. Our results suggest that genetic algorithm searches can be used to improve the methodology of empirical potential design. (paper)

  4. A grand canonical genetic algorithm for the prediction of multi-component phase diagrams and testing of empirical potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tipton, William W; Hennig, Richard G

    2013-12-11

    We present an evolutionary algorithm which predicts stable atomic structures and phase diagrams by searching the energy landscape of empirical and ab initio Hamiltonians. Composition and geometrical degrees of freedom may be varied simultaneously. We show that this method utilizes information from favorable local structure at one composition to predict that at others, achieving far greater efficiency of phase diagram prediction than a method which relies on sampling compositions individually. We detail this and a number of other efficiency-improving techniques implemented in the genetic algorithm for structure prediction code that is now publicly available. We test the efficiency of the software by searching the ternary Zr-Cu-Al system using an empirical embedded-atom model potential. In addition to testing the algorithm, we also evaluate the accuracy of the potential itself. We find that the potential stabilizes several correct ternary phases, while a few of the predicted ground states are unphysical. Our results suggest that genetic algorithm searches can be used to improve the methodology of empirical potential design.

  5. Modelling metal speciation in the Scheldt Estuary: Combining a flexible-resolution transport model with empirical functions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Elskens, Marc [Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Analytical, Pleinlaan 2, BE-1050 Brussels (Belgium); Gourgue, Olivier [Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (IMMC), 4 Avenue G. Lemaître, bte L4.05.02, BE-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Université catholique de Louvain, Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM), Place Louis Pasteur 2, bte L4.03.08, BE-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Baeyens, Willy [Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Analytical, Pleinlaan 2, BE-1050 Brussels (Belgium); Chou, Lei [Université Libre de Bruxelles, Biogéochimie et Modélisation du Système Terre (BGéoSys) —Océanographie Chimique et Géochimie des Eaux, Campus de la Plaine —CP 208, Boulevard du Triomphe, BE-1050 Brussels (Belgium); Deleersnijder, Eric [Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (IMMC), 4 Avenue G. Lemaître, bte L4.05.02, BE-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Université catholique de Louvain, Earth and Life Institute (ELI), Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM), Place Louis Pasteur 2, bte L4.03.08, BE-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Leermakers, Martine [Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Analytical, Pleinlaan 2, BE-1050 Brussels (Belgium); and others

    2014-04-01

    Predicting metal concentrations in surface waters is an important step in the understanding and ultimately the assessment of the ecological risk associated with metal contamination. In terms of risk an essential piece of information is the accurate knowledge of the partitioning of the metals between the dissolved and particulate phases, as the former species are generally regarded as the most bioavailable and thus harmful form. As a first step towards the understanding and prediction of metal speciation in the Scheldt Estuary (Belgium, the Netherlands), we carried out a detailed analysis of a historical dataset covering the period 1982–2011. This study reports on the results for two selected metals: Cu and Cd. Data analysis revealed that both the total metal concentration and the metal partitioning coefficient (K{sub d}) could be predicted using relatively simple empirical functions of environmental variables such as salinity and suspended particulate matter concentration (SPM). The validity of these functions has been assessed by their application to salinity and SPM fields simulated by the hydro-environmental model SLIM. The high-resolution total and dissolved metal concentrations reconstructed using this approach, compared surprisingly well with an independent set of validation measurements. These first results from the combined mechanistic-empirical model approach suggest that it may be an interesting tool for risk assessment studies, e.g. to help identify conditions associated with elevated (dissolved) metal concentrations. - Highlights: • Empirical functions were designed for assessing metal speciation in estuarine water. • The empirical functions were implemented in the hydro-environmental model SLIM. • Validation was carried out in the Scheldt Estuary using historical data 1982–2011. • This combined mechanistic-empirical approach is useful for risk assessment.

  6. Production functions for climate policy modeling. An empirical analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van der Werf, Edwin

    2008-01-01

    Quantitative models for climate policy modeling differ in the production structure used and in the sizes of the elasticities of substitution. The empirical foundation for both is generally lacking. This paper estimates the parameters of 2-level CES production functions with capital, labour and energy as inputs, and is the first to systematically compare all nesting structures. Using industry-level data from 12 OECD countries, we find that the nesting structure where capital and labour are combined first, fits the data best, but for most countries and industries we cannot reject that all three inputs can be put into one single nest. These two nesting structures are used by most climate models. However, while several climate policy models use a Cobb-Douglas function for (part of the) production function, we reject elasticities equal to one, in favour of considerably smaller values. Finally we find evidence for factor-specific technological change. With lower elasticities and with factor-specific technological change, some climate policy models may find a bigger effect of endogenous technological change on mitigating the costs of climate policy. (author)

  7. Empirical distribution function under heteroscedasticity

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Víšek, Jan Ámos

    2011-01-01

    Roč. 45, č. 5 (2011), s. 497-508 ISSN 0233-1888 Grant - others:GA UK(CZ) GA402/09/0557 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : Robustness * Convergence * Empirical distribution * Heteroscedasticity Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics , Operational Research Impact factor: 0.724, year: 2011 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2011/SI/visek-0365534.pdf

  8. Understanding Functional Reuse of ERP Requirements in the Telecommunication Sector: an Empirical Study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Daneva, Maia

    2014-01-01

    This paper is an empirical study on the application of Function Points (FP) and a FP-based reuse measurement model in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects in three organizations in the telecommunication sector. The findings of the study are used to compare the requirements reuse for one

  9. Development of an empirical typology of African American family functioning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mandara, Jelani; Murray, Carolyn B

    2002-09-01

    This study empirically identified types of African American families. Adolescents (N = 111) were assessed on family functioning. With cluster analytic methods, 3 types of families were identified. The cohesive-authoritative type was above average on parental education and income, averaged about 2 children, exhibited a high quality of family functioning and high self-esteem in adolescents. The conflictive-authoritarian type had average parental education and income, an average of 2.7 children, exhibited controlling and rigid discipline, and placed a high emphasis on achievement. The defensive-neglectful type was predominately headed by single mothers with below average education and income and averaged about 3 children. Such families displayed chaotic family processes, and adolescents tended to suffer from low self-esteem. The typology exhibited good reliability. The implications of the typology are discussed.

  10. Gap-filling meteorological variables with Empirical Orthogonal Functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graf, Alexander

    2017-04-01

    Gap-filling or modelling surface-atmosphere fluxes critically depends on an, ideally continuous, availability of their meteorological driver variables, such as e.g. air temperature, humidity, radiation, wind speed and precipitation. Unlike for eddy-covariance-based fluxes, data gaps are not unavoidable for these measurements. Nevertheless, missing or erroneous data can occur in practice due to instrument or power failures, disturbance, and temporary sensor or station dismounting for e.g. agricultural management or maintenance. If stations with similar measurements are available nearby, using their data for imputation (i.e. estimating missing data) either directly, after an elevation correction or via linear regression, is usually preferred over linear interpolation or monthly mean diurnal cycles. The popular implementation of regional networks of (partly low-cost) stations increases both, the need and the potential, for such neighbour-based imputation methods. For repeated satellite imagery, Beckers and Rixen (2003) suggested an imputation method based on empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs). While exploiting the same linear relations between time series at different observation points as regression, it is able to use information from all observation points to simultaneously estimate missing data at all observation points, provided that never all observations are missing at the same time. Briefly, the method uses the ability of the first few EOFs of a data matrix to reconstruct a noise-reduced version of this matrix; iterating missing data points from an initial guess (the column-wise averages) to an optimal version determined by cross-validation. The poster presents and discusses lessons learned from adapting and applying this methodology to station data. Several years of 10-minute averages of air temperature, pressure and humidity, incoming shortwave, longwave and photosynthetically active radiation, wind speed and precipitation, measured by a regional (70 km by

  11. Empirical scoring functions for advanced protein-ligand docking with PLANTS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korb, Oliver; Stützle, Thomas; Exner, Thomas E

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we present two empirical scoring functions, PLANTS(CHEMPLP) and PLANTS(PLP), designed for our docking algorithm PLANTS (Protein-Ligand ANT System), which is based on ant colony optimization (ACO). They are related, regarding their functional form, to parts of already published scoring functions and force fields. The parametrization procedure described here was able to identify several parameter settings showing an excellent performance for the task of pose prediction on two test sets comprising 298 complexes in total. Up to 87% of the complexes of the Astex diverse set and 77% of the CCDC/Astex clean listnc (noncovalently bound complexes of the clean list) could be reproduced with root-mean-square deviations of less than 2 A with respect to the experimentally determined structures. A comparison with the state-of-the-art docking tool GOLD clearly shows that this is, especially for the druglike Astex diverse set, an improvement in pose prediction performance. Additionally, optimized parameter settings for the search algorithm were identified, which can be used to balance pose prediction reliability and search speed.

  12. Application of empirical hydration distribution functions around polar atoms for assessing hydration structures of proteins

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuoka, Daisuke; Nakasako, Masayoshi

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: ► Empirical distribution functions of water molecules in protein hydration are made. ► The functions measure how hydrogen-bond geometry in hydration deviate from ideal. ► The functions assess experimentally identified hydration structures of protein. - Abstract: To quantitatively characterize hydrogen-bond geometry in local hydration structures of proteins, we constructed a set of empirical hydration distribution functions (EHDFs) around polar protein atoms in the main and side chains of 11 types of hydrophilic amino acids (D. Matsuoka, M. Nakasako, Journal of Physical Chemistry B 113 (2009) 11274). The functions are the ensemble average of possible hydration patterns around the polar atoms, and describe the anisotropic deviations from ideal hydrogen bond geometry. In addition, we defined probability distribution function of hydration water molecules (PDFH) over the hydrophilic surface of a protein as the sum of EHDFs of solvent accessible polar protein atoms. The functions envelop most of hydration sites identified in crystal structures of proteins (D. Matsuoka, M. Nakasako, Journal of Physical Chemistry B 114 (2010) 4652). Here we propose the application of EHDFs and PDFHs for assessing crystallographically identified hydration structures of proteins. First, hydration water molecules are classified with respect to the geometry in hydrogen bonds in referring EHDFs. Difference Fourier electron density map weighted by PDFH of protein is proposed to identify easily density peaks as candidates of hydration water molecules. A computer program implementing those ideas was developed and used for assessing hydration structures of proteins

  13. Prediction of Reduction Potentials of Copper Proteins with Continuum Electrostatics and Density Functional Theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fowler, Nicholas J; Blanford, Christopher F; Warwicker, Jim; de Visser, Sam P

    2017-11-02

    Blue copper proteins, such as azurin, show dramatic changes in Cu 2+ /Cu + reduction potential upon mutation over the full physiological range. Hence, they have important functions in electron transfer and oxidation chemistry and have applications in industrial biotechnology. The details of what determines these reduction potential changes upon mutation are still unclear. Moreover, it has been difficult to model and predict the reduction potential of azurin mutants and currently no unique procedure or workflow pattern exists. Furthermore, high-level computational methods can be accurate but are too time consuming for practical use. In this work, a novel approach for calculating reduction potentials of azurin mutants is shown, based on a combination of continuum electrostatics, density functional theory and empirical hydrophobicity factors. Our method accurately reproduces experimental reduction potential changes of 30 mutants with respect to wildtype within experimental error and highlights the factors contributing to the reduction potential change. Finally, reduction potentials are predicted for a series of 124 new mutants that have not yet been investigated experimentally. Several mutants are identified that are located well over 10 Å from the copper center that change the reduction potential by more than 85 mV. The work shows that secondary coordination sphere mutations mostly lead to long-range electrostatic changes and hence can be modeled accurately with continuum electrostatics. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

  14. MEP family of wind speed distribution function and comparison with the empirical Weibull distribution. Paper no. IGEC-1-156

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, M.; Li, X.

    2005-01-01

    The probabilistic distribution of wind speed is one of the important wind characteristics for the assessment of wind energy potential and for the performance of wind energy conversion systems, as well as for the structural and environmental design and analysis. In this study, an exponential family of distribution functions has been developed for the description of the probabilistic distribution of wind speed, and comparison with the wind speed data taken from different sources and measured at different geographical locations in the world has been made. This family of distributions is developed by introducing a pre-exponential term to the theoretical distribution derived from the Maximum Entropy Principle (MEP). The statistical analysis parameter based on the wind power density is used as the suitability judgement for the distribution functions. It is shown that the MEP-type distributions not only agree better with a variety of the measured wind speed data than the conventionally used empirical Weibull distribution, but also can represent the wind power density much more accurately. Therefore, the MEP-type distributions are more suitable for the assessment of the wind energy potential and the performance of wind energy conversion systems. (author)

  15. wACSF—Weighted atom-centered symmetry functions as descriptors in machine learning potentials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gastegger, M.; Schwiedrzik, L.; Bittermann, M.; Berzsenyi, F.; Marquetand, P.

    2018-06-01

    We introduce weighted atom-centered symmetry functions (wACSFs) as descriptors of a chemical system's geometry for use in the prediction of chemical properties such as enthalpies or potential energies via machine learning. The wACSFs are based on conventional atom-centered symmetry functions (ACSFs) but overcome the undesirable scaling of the latter with an increasing number of different elements in a chemical system. The performance of these two descriptors is compared using them as inputs in high-dimensional neural network potentials (HDNNPs), employing the molecular structures and associated enthalpies of the 133 855 molecules containing up to five different elements reported in the QM9 database as reference data. A substantially smaller number of wACSFs than ACSFs is needed to obtain a comparable spatial resolution of the molecular structures. At the same time, this smaller set of wACSFs leads to a significantly better generalization performance in the machine learning potential than the large set of conventional ACSFs. Furthermore, we show that the intrinsic parameters of the descriptors can in principle be optimized with a genetic algorithm in a highly automated manner. For the wACSFs employed here, we find however that using a simple empirical parametrization scheme is sufficient in order to obtain HDNNPs with high accuracy.

  16. Evaluation of several two-step scoring functions based on linear interaction energy, effective ligand size, and empirical pair potentials for prediction of protein-ligand binding geometry and free energy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahaman, Obaidur; Estrada, Trilce P; Doren, Douglas J; Taufer, Michela; Brooks, Charles L; Armen, Roger S

    2011-09-26

    The performances of several two-step scoring approaches for molecular docking were assessed for their ability to predict binding geometries and free energies. Two new scoring functions designed for "step 2 discrimination" were proposed and compared to our CHARMM implementation of the linear interaction energy (LIE) approach using the Generalized-Born with Molecular Volume (GBMV) implicit solvation model. A scoring function S1 was proposed by considering only "interacting" ligand atoms as the "effective size" of the ligand and extended to an empirical regression-based pair potential S2. The S1 and S2 scoring schemes were trained and 5-fold cross-validated on a diverse set of 259 protein-ligand complexes from the Ligand Protein Database (LPDB). The regression-based parameters for S1 and S2 also demonstrated reasonable transferability in the CSARdock 2010 benchmark using a new data set (NRC HiQ) of diverse protein-ligand complexes. The ability of the scoring functions to accurately predict ligand geometry was evaluated by calculating the discriminative power (DP) of the scoring functions to identify native poses. The parameters for the LIE scoring function with the optimal discriminative power (DP) for geometry (step 1 discrimination) were found to be very similar to the best-fit parameters for binding free energy over a large number of protein-ligand complexes (step 2 discrimination). Reasonable performance of the scoring functions in enrichment of active compounds in four different protein target classes established that the parameters for S1 and S2 provided reasonable accuracy and transferability. Additional analysis was performed to definitively separate scoring function performance from molecular weight effects. This analysis included the prediction of ligand binding efficiencies for a subset of the CSARdock NRC HiQ data set where the number of ligand heavy atoms ranged from 17 to 35. This range of ligand heavy atoms is where improved accuracy of predicted ligand

  17. Approximate self-consistent potentials for density-functional-theory exchange-correlation functionals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cafiero, Mauricio; Gonzalez, Carlos

    2005-01-01

    We show that potentials for exchange-correlation functionals within the Kohn-Sham density-functional-theory framework may be written as potentials for simpler functionals multiplied by a factor close to unity, and in a self-consistent field calculation, these effective potentials find the correct self-consistent solutions. This simple theory is demonstrated with self-consistent exchange-only calculations of the atomization energies of some small molecules using the Perdew-Kurth-Zupan-Blaha (PKZB) meta-generalized-gradient-approximation (meta-GGA) exchange functional. The atomization energies obtained with our method agree with or surpass previous meta-GGA calculations performed in a non-self-consistent manner. The results of this work suggest the utility of this simple theory to approximate exchange-correlation potentials corresponding to energy functionals too complicated to generate closed forms for their potentials. We hope that this method will encourage the development of complex functionals which have correct boundary conditions and are free of self-interaction errors without the worry that the functionals are too complex to differentiate to obtain potentials

  18. Incorporating Functional Genomic Information in Genetic Association Studies Using an Empirical Bayes Approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spencer, Amy V; Cox, Angela; Lin, Wei-Yu; Easton, Douglas F; Michailidou, Kyriaki; Walters, Kevin

    2016-04-01

    There is a large amount of functional genetic data available, which can be used to inform fine-mapping association studies (in diseases with well-characterised disease pathways). Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) prioritization via Bayes factors is attractive because prior information can inform the effect size or the prior probability of causal association. This approach requires the specification of the effect size. If the information needed to estimate a priori the probability density for the effect sizes for causal SNPs in a genomic region isn't consistent or isn't available, then specifying a prior variance for the effect sizes is challenging. We propose both an empirical method to estimate this prior variance, and a coherent approach to using SNP-level functional data, to inform the prior probability of causal association. Through simulation we show that when ranking SNPs by our empirical Bayes factor in a fine-mapping study, the causal SNP rank is generally as high or higher than the rank using Bayes factors with other plausible values of the prior variance. Importantly, we also show that assigning SNP-specific prior probabilities of association based on expert prior functional knowledge of the disease mechanism can lead to improved causal SNPs ranks compared to ranking with identical prior probabilities of association. We demonstrate the use of our methods by applying the methods to the fine mapping of the CASP8 region of chromosome 2 using genotype data from the Collaborative Oncological Gene-Environment Study (COGS) Consortium. The data we analysed included approximately 46,000 breast cancer case and 43,000 healthy control samples. © 2016 The Authors. *Genetic Epidemiology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. Empirical likelihood

    CERN Document Server

    Owen, Art B

    2001-01-01

    Empirical likelihood provides inferences whose validity does not depend on specifying a parametric model for the data. Because it uses a likelihood, the method has certain inherent advantages over resampling methods: it uses the data to determine the shape of the confidence regions, and it makes it easy to combined data from multiple sources. It also facilitates incorporating side information, and it simplifies accounting for censored, truncated, or biased sampling.One of the first books published on the subject, Empirical Likelihood offers an in-depth treatment of this method for constructing confidence regions and testing hypotheses. The author applies empirical likelihood to a range of problems, from those as simple as setting a confidence region for a univariate mean under IID sampling, to problems defined through smooth functions of means, regression models, generalized linear models, estimating equations, or kernel smooths, and to sampling with non-identically distributed data. Abundant figures offer vi...

  20. The Empirical Definition of the Function of Advertising Costs in E-Commerce

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pursky Oleg I.

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In the publication, an empirical study of the advertising costs in the e-commerce market is carried out. In order to determine the type of functional dependency of advertising costs, dynamics of advertising costs in the e-commerce markets of the US, the world, and Ukraine were researched, followed by an approximation of the series of statistical data on the Internet advertising costs. There is a functional dependency on the Internet advertising costs in the form of a power function with two coefficients that relate to the level of consumer awareness of goods and services in the e-commerce market and the level of saturation of the e-commerce market for advertising investments. The use of the power function of advertising costs has allowed to theoretical definition and statistical confirmation of existence of the effect of saturation of the developed e-commerce markets with advertising, where the growth of investment volumes in the Internet advertising begin with an increase, then peak and start to decline. The optimal level of advertising costs is determined by the condition of the full consumer awareness and the maximum saturation of the e-commerce market with advertising.

  1. Modeling ionospheric foF2 by using empirical orthogonal function analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. A

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available A similar-parameters interpolation method and an empirical orthogonal function analysis are used to construct empirical models for the ionospheric foF2 by using the observational data from three ground-based ionosonde stations in Japan which are Wakkanai (Geographic 45.4° N, 141.7° E, Kokubunji (Geographic 35.7° N, 140.1° E and Yamagawa (Geographic 31.2° N, 130.6° E during the years of 1971–1987. The impact of different drivers towards ionospheric foF2 can be well indicated by choosing appropriate proxies. It is shown that the missing data of original foF2 can be optimal refilled using similar-parameters method. The characteristics of base functions and associated coefficients of EOF model are analyzed. The diurnal variation of base functions can reflect the essential nature of ionospheric foF2 while the coefficients represent the long-term alteration tendency. The 1st order EOF coefficient A1 can reflect the feature of the components with solar cycle variation. A1 also contains an evident semi-annual variation component as well as a relatively weak annual fluctuation component. Both of which are not so obvious as the solar cycle variation. The 2nd order coefficient A2 contains mainly annual variation components. The 3rd order coefficient A3 and 4th order coefficient A4 contain both annual and semi-annual variation components. The seasonal variation, solar rotation oscillation and the small-scale irregularities are also included in the 4th order coefficient A4. The amplitude range and developing tendency of all these coefficients depend on the level of solar activity and geomagnetic activity. The reliability and validity of EOF model are verified by comparison with observational data and with International Reference Ionosphere (IRI. The agreement between observations and EOF model is quite well, indicating that the EOF model can reflect the major changes and the temporal distribution characteristics of the mid-latitude ionosphere of the

  2. An Empirical Comparison of Seven Iterative and Evolutionary Function Optimization Heuristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baluja, Shumeet

    1995-01-01

    This report is a repository of the results obtained from a large scale empirical comparison of seven iterative and evolution-based optimization heuristics. Twenty-seven static optimization problems, spanning six sets of problem classes which are commonly explored in genetic algorithm literature, are examined. The problem sets include job-shop scheduling, traveling salesman, knapsack, binpacking, neural network weight optimization, and standard numerical optimization. The search spaces in these problems range from 2368 to 22040. The results indicate that using genetic algorithms for the optimization of static functions does not yield a benefit, in terms of the final answer obtained, over simpler optimization heuristics. Descriptions of the algorithms tested and the encodings of the problems are described in detail for reproducibility.

  3. Multiscale empirical interpolation for solving nonlinear PDEs

    KAUST Repository

    Calo, Victor M.

    2014-12-01

    In this paper, we propose a multiscale empirical interpolation method for solving nonlinear multiscale partial differential equations. The proposed method combines empirical interpolation techniques and local multiscale methods, such as the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM). To solve nonlinear equations, the GMsFEM is used to represent the solution on a coarse grid with multiscale basis functions computed offline. Computing the GMsFEM solution involves calculating the system residuals and Jacobians on the fine grid. We use empirical interpolation concepts to evaluate these residuals and Jacobians of the multiscale system with a computational cost which is proportional to the size of the coarse-scale problem rather than the fully-resolved fine scale one. The empirical interpolation method uses basis functions which are built by sampling the nonlinear function we want to approximate a limited number of times. The coefficients needed for this approximation are computed in the offline stage by inverting an inexpensive linear system. The proposed multiscale empirical interpolation techniques: (1) divide computing the nonlinear function into coarse regions; (2) evaluate contributions of nonlinear functions in each coarse region taking advantage of a reduced-order representation of the solution; and (3) introduce multiscale proper-orthogonal-decomposition techniques to find appropriate interpolation vectors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods on several nonlinear multiscale PDEs that are solved with Newton\\'s methods and fully-implicit time marching schemes. Our numerical results show that the proposed methods provide a robust framework for solving nonlinear multiscale PDEs on a coarse grid with bounded error and significant computational cost reduction.

  4. Green function iterative solution of ground state wave function for Yukawa potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Zhao

    2003-01-01

    The newly developed single trajectory quadrature method is applied to solve central potentials. First, based on the series expansion method an exact analytic solution of the ground state for Hulthen potential and an approximate solution for Yukawa potential are obtained respectively. Second, the newly developed iterative method based on Green function defined by quadratures along the single trajectory is applied to solve Yukawa potential using the Coulomb solution and Hulthen solution as the trial functions respectively. The results show that a more proper choice of the trial function will give a better convergence. To further improve the convergence the iterative method is combined with the variational method to solve the ground state wave function for Yukawa potential, using variational solutions of the Coulomb and Hulthen potentials as the trial functions. The results give much better convergence. Finally, the obtained critical screen coefficient is applied to discuss the dissociate temperature of J/ψ in high temperature QGP

  5. Time-dependent potential-functional embedding theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang, Chen; Libisch, Florian; Peng, Qing; Carter, Emily A.

    2014-01-01

    We introduce a time-dependent potential-functional embedding theory (TD-PFET), in which atoms are grouped into subsystems. In TD-PFET, subsystems can be propagated by different suitable time-dependent quantum mechanical methods and their interactions can be treated in a seamless, first-principles manner. TD-PFET is formulated based on the time-dependent quantum mechanics variational principle. The action of the total quantum system is written as a functional of the time-dependent embedding potential, i.e., a potential-functional formulation. By exploiting the Runge-Gross theorem, we prove the uniqueness of the time-dependent embedding potential under the constraint that all subsystems share a common embedding potential. We derive the integral equation that such an embedding potential needs to satisfy. As proof-of-principle, we demonstrate TD-PFET for a Na 4 cluster, in which each Na atom is treated as one subsystem and propagated by time-dependent Kohn-Sham density functional theory (TDDFT) using the adiabatic local density approximation (ALDA). Our results agree well with a direct TDDFT calculation on the whole Na 4 cluster using ALDA. We envision that TD-PFET will ultimately be useful for studying ultrafast quantum dynamics in condensed matter, where key regions are solved by highly accurate time-dependent quantum mechanics methods, and unimportant regions are solved by faster, less accurate methods

  6. Identifying electricity-saving potential in rural China: Empirical evidence from a household survey

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yu, Yihua; Guo, Jin

    2016-01-01

    In recent years, there has been a fast-growing body of literature examining energy-saving potential in relation to electricity. However, empirical studies focusing on non-Western nations are limited. To fill this gap, this study intends to examine the electricity-saving potential of rural households in China using a unique data set from the China Residential Electricity Consumption Survey (CRECS) in collaboration with the China General Social Survey (CGSS), conducted nationwide at the household level in rural China. We use a stochastic frontier model, which allows us to decompose residential electricity consumption into the minimum necessary amount of consumption based on physical characteristics (e.g. house size, house age, number of televisions or refrigerators) and estimate the consumption slack (i.e. the amount of electricity consumption that could be saved), which depends on various factors. We find that rural households in China are generally efficient in electricity saving and the saving potential is affected by (fast) information feedback and social-demographic characteristics, instead of by the (averaged) electricity price, or energy efficiency labelling signals. In addition, we find no evidence of regional heterogeneity on electricity saving potential for rural households. Policy implications are derived. - Highlights: •Electricity saving potential of rural households in China is examined. •Unique survey data from the CRECS in collaboration with the CGSS are used. •A stochastic frontier model is applied. •Information feedback and social-demographic characteristics matter. •Electricity price or energy efficiency tier rating does not matter.

  7. Reconstruction of Missing Pixels in Satellite Images Using the Data Interpolating Empirical Orthogonal Function (DINEOF)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, X.; Wang, M.

    2016-02-01

    For coastal and inland waters, complete (in spatial) and frequent satellite measurements are important in order to monitor and understand coastal biological and ecological processes and phenomena, such as diurnal variations. High-frequency images of the water diffuse attenuation coefficient at the wavelength of 490 nm (Kd(490)) derived from the Korean Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) provide a unique opportunity to study diurnal variation of the water turbidity in coastal regions of the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea. However, there are lots of missing pixels in the original GOCI-derived Kd(490) images due to clouds and various other reasons. Data Interpolating Empirical Orthogonal Function (DINEOF) is a method to reconstruct missing data in geophysical datasets based on Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF). In this study, the DINEOF is applied to GOCI-derived Kd(490) data in the Yangtze River mouth and the Yellow River mouth regions, the DINEOF reconstructed Kd(490) data are used to fill in the missing pixels, and the spatial patterns and temporal functions of the first three EOF modes are also used to investigate the sub-diurnal variation due to the tidal forcing. In addition, DINEOF method is also applied to the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite to reconstruct missing pixels in the daily Kd(490) and chlorophyll-a concentration images, and some application examples in the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico will be presented.

  8. Source analysis using regional empirical Green's functions: The 2008 Wells, Nevada, earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendoza, C.; Hartzell, S.

    2009-01-01

    We invert three-component, regional broadband waveforms recorded for the 21 February 2008 Wells, Nevada, earthquake using a finite-fault methodology that prescribes subfault responses using eight MW∼4 aftershocks as empirical Green's functions (EGFs) distributed within a 20-km by 21.6-km fault area. The inversion identifies a seismic moment of 6.2 x 1024 dyne-cm (5.8 MW) with slip concentrated in a compact 6.5-km by 4-km region updip from the hypocenter. The peak slip within this localized area is 88 cm and the stress drop is 72 bars, which is higher than expected for Basin and Range normal faults in the western United States. The EGF approach yields excellent fits to the complex regional waveforms, accounting for strong variations in wave propagation and site effects. This suggests that the procedure is useful for studying moderate-size earthquakes with limited teleseismic or strong-motion data and for examining uncertainties in slip models obtained using theoretical Green's functions.

  9. Application of an empirical model in CFD simulations to predict the local high temperature corrosion potential in biomass fired boilers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gruber, Thomas; Scharler, Robert; Obernberger, Ingwald

    2015-01-01

    To gain reliable data for the development of an empirical model for the prediction of the local high temperature corrosion potential in biomass fired boilers, online corrosion probe measurements have been carried out. The measurements have been performed in a specially designed fixed bed/drop tube reactor in order to simulate a superheater boiler tube under well-controlled conditions. The investigated boiler steel 13CrMo4-5 is commonly used as steel for superheater tube bundles in biomass fired boilers. Within the test runs the flue gas temperature at the corrosion probe has been varied between 625 °C and 880 °C, while the steel temperature has been varied between 450 °C and 550 °C to simulate typical current and future live steam temperatures of biomass fired steam boilers. To investigate the dependence on the flue gas velocity, variations from 2 m·s −1 to 8 m·s −1 have been considered. The empirical model developed fits the measured data sufficiently well. Therefore, the model has been applied within a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of flue gas flow and heat transfer to estimate the local corrosion potential of a wood chips fired 38 MW steam boiler. Additionally to the actual state analysis two further simulations have been carried out to investigate the influence of enhanced steam temperatures and a change of the flow direction of the final superheater tube bundle from parallel to counter-flow on the local corrosion potential. - Highlights: • Online corrosion probe measurements in a fixed bed/drop tube reactor. • Development of an empirical corrosion model. • Application of the model in a CFD simulation of flow and heat transfer. • Variation of boundary conditions and their effects on the corrosion potential

  10. Semi-empirical long-term cycle life model coupled with an electrolyte depletion function for large-format graphite/LiFePO4 lithium-ion batteries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Joonam; Appiah, Williams Agyei; Byun, Seoungwoo; Jin, Dahee; Ryou, Myung-Hyun; Lee, Yong Min

    2017-10-01

    To overcome the limitation of simple empirical cycle life models based on only equivalent circuits, we attempt to couple a conventional empirical capacity loss model with Newman's porous composite electrode model, which contains both electrochemical reaction kinetics and material/charge balances. In addition, an electrolyte depletion function is newly introduced to simulate a sudden capacity drop at the end of cycling, which is frequently observed in real lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). When simulated electrochemical properties are compared with experimental data obtained with 20 Ah-level graphite/LiFePO4 LIB cells, our semi-empirical model is sufficiently accurate to predict a voltage profile having a low standard deviation of 0.0035 V, even at 5C. Additionally, our model can provide broad cycle life color maps under different c-rate and depth-of-discharge operating conditions. Thus, this semi-empirical model with an electrolyte depletion function will be a promising platform to predict long-term cycle lives of large-format LIB cells under various operating conditions.

  11. Potential-functional embedding theory for molecules and materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Chen; Carter, Emily A

    2011-11-21

    We introduce a potential-functional embedding theory by reformulating a recently proposed density-based embedding theory in terms of functionals of the embedding potential. This potential-functional based theory completes the dual problem in the context of embedding theory for which density-functional embedding theory has existed for two decades. With this potential-functional formalism, it is straightforward to solve for the unique embedding potential shared by all subsystems. We consider charge transfer between subsystems and discuss how to treat fractional numbers of electrons in subsystems. We show that one is able to employ different energy functionals for different subsystems in order to treat different regions with theories of different levels of accuracy, if desired. The embedding potential is solved for by directly minimizing the total energy functional, and we discuss how to efficiently calculate the gradient of the total energy functional with respect to the embedding potential. Forces are also derived, thereby making it possible to optimize structures and account for nuclear dynamics. We also extend the theory to spin-polarized cases. Numerical examples of the theory are given for some homo- and hetero-nuclear diatomic molecules and a more complicated test of a six-hydrogen-atom chain. We also test our theory in a periodic bulk environment with calculations of basic properties of bulk NaCl, by treating each atom as a subsystem. Finally, we demonstrate the theory for water adsorption on the MgO(001)surface.

  12. Empirically Defined Patterns of Executive Function Deficits in Schizophrenia and Their Relation to Everyday Functioning: A Person-Centered Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iampietro, Mary; Giovannetti, Tania; Drabick, Deborah A. G.; Kessler, Rachel K.

    2013-01-01

    Executive function (EF) deficits in schizophrenia (SZ) are well documented, although much less is known about patterns of EF deficits and their association to differential impairments in everyday functioning. The present study empirically defined SZ groups based on measures of various EF abilities and then compared these EF groups on everyday action errors. Participants (n=45) completed various subtests from the Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) and the Naturalistic Action Test (NAT), a performance-based measure of everyday action that yields scores reflecting total errors and a range of different error types (e.g., omission, perseveration). Results of a latent class analysis revealed three distinct EF groups, characterized by (a) multiple EF deficits, (b) relatively spared EF, and (c) perseverative responding. Follow-up analyses revealed that the classes differed significantly on NAT total errors, total commission errors, and total perseveration errors; the two classes with EF impairment performed comparably on the NAT but performed worse than the class with relatively spared EF. In sum, people with SZ demonstrate variable patterns of EF deficits, and distinct aspects of these EF deficit patterns (i.e., poor mental control abilities) may be associated with everyday functioning capabilities. PMID:23035705

  13. Using non-empirically tuned range-separated functionals with simulated emission bands to model fluorescence lifetimes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Z C; Fan, W Y; Chwee, T S; Sullivan, Michael B

    2017-08-09

    Fluorescence lifetimes were evaluated using TD-DFT under different approximations for the emitting molecule and various exchange-correlation functionals, such as B3LYP, BMK, CAM-B3LYP, LC-BLYP, M06, M06-2X, M11, PBE0, ωB97, ωB97X, LC-BLYP*, and ωB97X* where the range-separation parameters in the last two functionals were tuned in a non-empirical fashion. Changes in the optimised molecular geometries between the ground and electronically excited states were found to affect the quality of the calculated lifetimes significantly, while the inclusion of vibronic features led to further improvements over the assumption of a vertical electronic transition. The LC-BLYP* functional was found to return the most accurate fluorescence lifetimes with unsigned errors that are mostly within 1.5 ns of experimental values.

  14. Empirical likelihood based detection procedure for change point in mean residual life functions under random censorship.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Ying-Ju; Ning, Wei; Gupta, Arjun K

    2016-05-01

    The mean residual life (MRL) function is one of the basic parameters of interest in survival analysis that describes the expected remaining time of an individual after a certain age. The study of changes in the MRL function is practical and interesting because it may help us to identify some factors such as age and gender that may influence the remaining lifetimes of patients after receiving a certain surgery. In this paper, we propose a detection procedure based on the empirical likelihood for the changes in MRL functions with right censored data. Two real examples are also given: Veterans' administration lung cancer study and Stanford heart transplant to illustrate the detecting procedure. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  15. Modified complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition and intrinsic mode functions evaluation index for high-speed train gearbox fault diagnosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Dongyue; Lin, Jianhui; Li, Yanping

    2018-06-01

    Complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD) has been developed for the mode-mixing problem in Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method. Compared to the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), the CEEMD method reduces residue noise in the signal reconstruction. Both CEEMD and EEMD need enough ensemble number to reduce the residue noise, and hence it would be too much computation cost. Moreover, the selection of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) for further analysis usually depends on experience. A modified CEEMD method and IMFs evaluation index are proposed with the aim of reducing the computational cost and select IMFs automatically. A simulated signal and in-service high-speed train gearbox vibration signals are employed to validate the proposed method in this paper. The results demonstrate that the modified CEEMD can decompose the signal efficiently with less computation cost, and the IMFs evaluation index can select the meaningful IMFs automatically.

  16. Testing the gravity p-median model empirically

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kenneth Carling

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Regarding the location of a facility, the presumption in the widely used p-median model is that the customer opts for the shortest route to the nearest facility. However, this assumption is problematic on free markets since the customer is presumed to gravitate to a facility by the distance to and the attractiveness of it. The recently introduced gravity p-median model offers an extension to the p-median model that account for this. The model is therefore potentially interesting, although it has not yet been implemented and tested empirically. In this paper, we have implemented the model in an empirical problem of locating vehicle inspections, locksmiths, and retail stores of vehicle spare-parts for the purpose of investigating its superiority to the p-median model. We found, however, the gravity p-median model to be of limited use for the problem of locating facilities as it either gives solutions similar to the p-median model, or it gives unstable solutions due to a non-concave objective function.

  17. Evaluation of an Empirical Reservoir Shape Function to Define Sediment Distributions in Small Reservoirs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bogusław Michalec

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Understanding and defining the spatial distribution of sediment deposited in reservoirs is essential not only at the design stage but also during the operation. The majority of research concerns the distribution of sediment deposition in medium and large water reservoirs. Most empirical methods do not provide satisfactory results when applied to the determination of sediment deposition in small reservoirs. Small reservoir’s volumes do not exceed 5 × 106 m3 and their capacity-inflow ratio is less than 10%. Long-term silting measurements of three small reservoirs were used to evaluate the method described by Rahmanian and Banihashemi for predicting sediment distributions in small reservoirs. Rahmanian and Banihashemi stated that their model of distribution of sediment deposition in water reservoir works well for a long duration operation. In the presented study, the silting rate was used in order to determine the long duration operation. Silting rate is a quotient of volume of the sediment deposited in the reservoir and its original volume. It was stated that when the silting rate had reached 50%, the sediment deposition in the reservoir may be described by an empirical reservoir depth shape function (RDSF.

  18. Essays in empirical microeconomics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Péter, A.N.

    2016-01-01

    The empirical studies in this thesis investigate various factors that could affect individuals' labor market, family formation and educational outcomes. Chapter 2 focuses on scheduling as a potential determinant of individuals' productivity. Chapter 3 looks at the role of a family factor on

  19. Time Eigenstates for Potential Functions without Extremal Points

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabino Torres-Vega

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available In a previous paper, we introduced a way to generate a time coordinate system for classical and quantum systems when the potential function has extremal points. In this paper, we deal with the case in which the potential function has no extremal points at all, and we illustrate the method with the harmonic and linear potentials.

  20. Empirical potential and elasticity theory modelling of interstitial dislocation loops in UO2 for cluster dynamics application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Le-Prioux, Arno

    2017-01-01

    During irradiation in reactor, the microstructure of UO 2 changes and deteriorates, causing modifications of its physical and mechanical properties. The kinetic models used to describe these changes such as cluster dynamics (CRESCENDO calculation code) consider the main microstructural elements that are cavities and interstitial dislocation loops, and provide a rather rough description of the loop thermodynamics. In order to tackle this issue, this work has led to the development of a thermodynamic model of interstitial dislocation loops based on empirical potential calculations. The model considers two types of interstitial dislocation loops on two different size domains: Type 1: Dislocation loops similar to Frank partials in F.C.C. materials which are stable in the smaller size domain. Type 2: Perfect dislocation loops of Burgers vector (a/2)(110) stable in the larger size domain. The analytical formula used to compute the interstitial dislocation loop formation energies is the one for circular loops which has been modified in order to take into account the effects of the dislocation core, which are significant at smaller sizes. The parameters have been determined by empirical potential calculations of the formation energies of prismatic pure edge dislocation loops. The effect of the habit plane reorientation on the formation energies of perfect dislocation loops has been taken into account by a simple interpolation method. All the different types of loops seen during TEM observations are thus accounted for by the model. (author) [fr

  1. Development of a machine learning potential for graphene

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rowe, Patrick; Csányi, Gábor; Alfè, Dario; Michaelides, Angelos

    2018-02-01

    We present an accurate interatomic potential for graphene, constructed using the Gaussian approximation potential (GAP) machine learning methodology. This GAP model obtains a faithful representation of a density functional theory (DFT) potential energy surface, facilitating highly accurate (approaching the accuracy of ab initio methods) molecular dynamics simulations. This is achieved at a computational cost which is orders of magnitude lower than that of comparable calculations which directly invoke electronic structure methods. We evaluate the accuracy of our machine learning model alongside that of a number of popular empirical and bond-order potentials, using both experimental and ab initio data as references. We find that whilst significant discrepancies exist between the empirical interatomic potentials and the reference data—and amongst the empirical potentials themselves—the machine learning model introduced here provides exemplary performance in all of the tested areas. The calculated properties include: graphene phonon dispersion curves at 0 K (which we predict with sub-meV accuracy), phonon spectra at finite temperature, in-plane thermal expansion up to 2500 K as compared to NPT ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and a comparison of the thermally induced dispersion of graphene Raman bands to experimental observations. We have made our potential freely available online at [http://www.libatoms.org].

  2. Improved MODIS aerosol retrieval in urban areas using a land classification approach and empirical orthogonal functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levitan, Nathaniel; Gross, Barry

    2016-10-01

    New, high-resolution aerosol products are required in urban areas to improve the spatial coverage of the products, in terms of both resolution and retrieval frequency. These new products will improve our understanding of the spatial variability of aerosols in urban areas and will be useful in the detection of localized aerosol emissions. Urban aerosol retrieval is challenging for existing algorithms because of the high spatial variability of the surface reflectance, indicating the need for improved urban surface reflectance models. This problem can be stated in the language of novelty detection as the problem of selecting aerosol parameters whose effective surface reflectance spectrum is not an outlier in some space. In this paper, empirical orthogonal functions, a reconstruction-based novelty detection technique, is used to perform single-pixel aerosol retrieval using the single angular and temporal sample provided by the MODIS sensor. The empirical orthogonal basis functions are trained for different land classes using the MODIS BRDF MCD43 product. Existing land classification products are used in training and aerosol retrieval. The retrieval is compared against the existing operational MODIS 3 KM Dark Target (DT) aerosol product and co-located AERONET data. Based on the comparison, our method allows for a significant increase in retrieval frequency and a moderate decrease in the known biases of MODIS urban aerosol retrievals.

  3. Studying Regional Wave Source Time Functions Using the Empirical Green's Function Method: Application to Central Asia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, J.; Schaff, D. P.; Chen, Y.; Schult, F.

    2013-12-01

    Reliably estimated source time functions (STFs) from high-frequency regional waveforms, such as Lg, Pn and Pg, provide important input for seismic source studies, explosion detection and discrimination, and minimization of parameter trade-off in attenuation studies. We have searched for candidate pairs of larger and small earthquakes in and around China that share the same focal mechanism but significantly differ in magnitudes, so that the empirical Green's function (EGF) method can be applied to study the STFs of the larger events. We conducted about a million deconvolutions using waveforms from 925 earthquakes, and screened the deconvolved traces to exclude those that are from event pairs that involved different mechanisms. Only 2,700 traces passed this screening and could be further analyzed using the EGF method. We have developed a series of codes for speeding up the final EGF analysis by implementing automations and user-graphic interface procedures. The codes have been fully tested with a subset of screened data and we are currently applying them to all the screened data. We will present a large number of deconvolved STFs retrieved using various phases (Lg, Pn, Sn and Pg and coda) with information on any directivities, any possible dependence of pulse durations on the wave types, on scaling relations for the pulse durations and event sizes, and on the estimated source static stress drops.

  4. The Internet and Generalized Functions of the Public Sphere: Transformative Potentials From a Comparative Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adrian Rauchfleisch

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Almost since the advent of the Internet, there has been great interest in analyzing and understanding online communication from the perspective of public sphere theory. The question of whether the properties of the Internet and, specifically, social media actually contribute to the public sphere is the matter of ongoing and somewhat heated scientific debate. The aim of the article is twofold. First, we propose a hierarchical model of generalized functions of public sphere. On a theoretical level, we interweave different strands of thought on the public sphere, and the resulting model is more inclusive and less rigid than each of those strands on their own. We identify four generalized functions: identity building, agenda-setting, control and criticism, and deliberation. The Internet does not contribute equally to these functions and we evaluate the impact of the Internet on each of these functions as a diminishing marginal utility. Second, we empirically explore the plausibility of our model in a global comparative analysis with focus on the Internet. With the help of macro-level variables which indicate the structural preconditions for a public sphere, we identify the highest possible function of the public sphere for each country to which the Internet can potentially contribute. Based on this approach, future research can be contextualized: case-study-based research can plausibly articulate expectations regarding the impact of the Internet on the public sphere.

  5. Zeta-function approach to Casimir energy with singular potentials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khusnutdinov, Nail R.

    2006-01-01

    In the framework of zeta-function approach the Casimir energy for three simple model system: single delta potential, step function potential and three delta potentials are analyzed. It is shown that the energy contains contributions which are peculiar to the potentials. It is suggested to renormalize the energy using the condition that the energy of infinitely separated potentials is zero which corresponds to subtraction all terms of asymptotic expansion of zeta-function. The energy obtained in this way obeys all physically reasonable conditions. It is finite in the Dirichlet limit, and it may be attractive or repulsive depending on the strength of potential. The effective action is calculated, and it is shown that the surface contribution appears. The renormalization of the effective action is discussed

  6. Reconstructing Regional Ionospheric Electron Density: A Combined Spherical Slepian Function and Empirical Orthogonal Function Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farzaneh, Saeed; Forootan, Ehsan

    2018-03-01

    The computerized ionospheric tomography is a method for imaging the Earth's ionosphere using a sounding technique and computing the slant total electron content (STEC) values from data of the global positioning system (GPS). The most common approach for ionospheric tomography is the voxel-based model, in which (1) the ionosphere is divided into voxels, (2) the STEC is then measured along (many) satellite signal paths, and finally (3) an inversion procedure is applied to reconstruct the electron density distribution of the ionosphere. In this study, a computationally efficient approach is introduced, which improves the inversion procedure of step 3. Our proposed method combines the empirical orthogonal function and the spherical Slepian base functions to describe the vertical and horizontal distribution of electron density, respectively. Thus, it can be applied on regional and global case studies. Numerical application is demonstrated using the ground-based GPS data over South America. Our results are validated against ionospheric tomography obtained from the constellation observing system for meteorology, ionosphere, and climate (COSMIC) observations and the global ionosphere map estimated by international centers, as well as by comparison with STEC derived from independent GPS stations. Using the proposed approach, we find that while using 30 GPS measurements in South America, one can achieve comparable accuracy with those from COSMIC data within the reported accuracy (1 × 1011 el/cm3) of the product. Comparisons with real observations of two GPS stations indicate an absolute difference is less than 2 TECU (where 1 total electron content unit, TECU, is 1016 electrons/m2).

  7. Internuclear potentials from heavy ion fusion excitation functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Birkelund, J.R.; Huizenga, J.R.

    1977-01-01

    A discussion is given of the determination of internuclear potentials from heavy ion fusion excitation functions. It is found that this calculation is complicated by the difficulties involved in a calculation of the frictional energy loss and by the problem of measurement of excitation function with sufficient accuracy to closely define the barrier radius. Any quantitative comparisons made between the nuclear potential derived from fusion data and theoretical nuclear potentials depend upon the solutions of the above problems. 15 references

  8. Development of an Empirical Model for Optimization of Machining Parameters to Minimize Power Consumption

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kant Garg, Girish; Garg, Suman; Sangwan, K. S.

    2018-04-01

    The manufacturing sector consumes huge energy demand and the machine tools used in this sector have very less energy efficiency. Selection of the optimum machining parameters for machine tools is significant for energy saving and for reduction of environmental emission. In this work an empirical model is developed to minimize the power consumption using response surface methodology. The experiments are performed on a lathe machine tool during the turning of AISI 6061 Aluminum with coated tungsten inserts. The relationship between the power consumption and machining parameters is adequately modeled. This model is used for formulation of minimum power consumption criterion as a function of optimal machining parameters using desirability function approach. The influence of machining parameters on the energy consumption has been found using the analysis of variance. The validation of the developed empirical model is proved using the confirmation experiments. The results indicate that the developed model is effective and has potential to be adopted by the industry for minimum power consumption of machine tools.

  9. Technical Note: A novel approach to estimation of time-variable surface sources and sinks of carbon dioxide using empirical orthogonal functions and the Kalman filter

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Zhuravlev

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available In this work we propose an approach to solving a source estimation problem based on representation of carbon dioxide surface emissions as a linear combination of a finite number of pre-computed empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs. We used National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES transport model for computing response functions and Kalman filter for estimating carbon dioxide emissions. Our approach produces results similar to these of other models participating in the TransCom3 experiment.

    Using the EOFs we can estimate surface fluxes at higher spatial resolution, while keeping the dimensionality of the problem comparable with that in the regions approach. This also allows us to avoid potentially artificial sharp gradients in the fluxes in between pre-defined regions. EOF results generally match observations more closely given the same error structure as the traditional method.

    Additionally, the proposed approach does not require additional effort of defining independent self-contained emission regions.

  10. A computer program for lattice-dynamical evaluation of Debye-Waller factors and thermodynamic functions for minerals, starting from empirical force fields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pilati, T.; Dermartin, F.; Gramaccioli, C.M.

    1993-01-01

    A wide-purpose computer program has been written (Fortran) for lattice dynamical evaluation of crystallographic and thermodynamic properties of solids, especially minerals or inorganic substances.The program essentially consists of a routine affording first and second derivatives of energy with respect to mass weighted coordinates, properly modulated by a wave vector algorithm, so that diagonalization can immediately follow and arrive at frequencies, density of states, and eventually to thermodynamic functions and Debye-Waller parameters thorough an automatic Brillouin-zone sampling procedure. The input consists of crystallographic data (unit-cell parameters, space group symmetry operations, atomic coordinates), plus atomic charge and empirical parameters, such as force constants or non-bonded atom-atom interaction energy functions in almost any form. It is also possible to obtain the structure corresponding to the energy minimum, or even to work with partial rigid bodies, in order to reduce the order of the dynamical matrices. The program provides for automatic symmetry labelling of the vibrational modes, in order to compare them with the experimental data; there is possibility of improving the empirical functions through a minimization routine. Examples of application and transferability of force fields to a series of minerals are provided. (author)

  11. The Use of Asymptotic Functions for Determining Empirical Values of CN Parameter in Selected Catchments of Variable Land Cover

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wałęga Andrzej

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study was to assess the applicability of asymptotic functions for determining the value of CN parameter as a function of precipitation depth in mountain and upland catchments. The analyses were carried out in two catchments: the Rudawa, left tributary of the Vistula, and the Kamienica, right tributary of the Dunajec. The input material included data on precipitation and flows for a multi-year period 1980–2012, obtained from IMGW PIB in Warsaw. Two models were used to determine empirical values of CNobs parameter as a function of precipitation depth: standard Hawkins model and 2-CN model allowing for a heterogeneous nature of a catchment area.

  12. Exchange Rate Exposures and Strategies of Industrial Companies: An Empirical Study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aabo, Tom

    2001-01-01

    This article investigates empirically the potential and actual exchange rate exposure strategies of industrial companies in relation to identifying and quantifying the neutral financial positions in an optimal hedging strategy.......This article investigates empirically the potential and actual exchange rate exposure strategies of industrial companies in relation to identifying and quantifying the neutral financial positions in an optimal hedging strategy....

  13. Improved Density Functional Tight Binding Potentials for Metalloid Aluminum Clusters

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-06-01

    unlimited IMPROVED DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL TIGHT BINDING POTENTIALS FOR METALLOID ALUMINUM CLUSTERS by Joon H. Kim June 2016 Thesis Advisor...DATES COVERED Master’s thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE IMPROVED DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL TIGHT BINDING POTENTIALS FOR METALLOID ALUMINUM CLUSTERS 5. FUNDING...repulsive potentials for use in density-functional tight binding (DFTB) simulations of low-valence aluminum metalloid clusters . These systems are under

  14. Secondary control for microgrids using potential functions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mehrizi-Sani, A.; Iravani, R. [Toronto Univ., ON (Canada)

    2009-07-01

    Issues with power grids include reliability, aging infrastructure, limited use of communications, efficiency, and low asset utilization. The smart grid involves a vision of the future electric system. Core elements of the smart grid include information technology, communication, and power electronic devices. This presentation discussed and compared the current grid with the smart grid and presented operational requirements of the microgrid. The concept of potential functions for secondary control based on availability of communication within the microgrid was introduced. The smart grid vision requires the microgrid to remain in operation even when islanded. The existing primary control does not guarantee stable islanded operation. Other topics that were discussed included primary and secondary control; proposed secondary control; the control hierarchy; and advantages and differences over conventional methods. A case study involving different scenarios was presented. It was concluded that the microgrid central controller minimizes each potential function to determine the set points of the corresponding distributed energy resources unit associated with the minimum of the potential function. tabs., figs.

  15. Empirical Green's function analysis: Taking the next step

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hough, S.E.

    1997-01-01

    An extension of the empirical Green's function (EGF) method is presented that involves determination of source parameters using standard EGF deconvolution, followed by inversion for a common attenuation parameter for a set of colocated events. Recordings of three or more colocated events can thus be used to constrain a single path attenuation estimate. I apply this method to recordings from the 1995-1996 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence; I analyze four clusters consisting of 13 total events with magnitudes between 2.6 and 4.9. I first obtain corner frequencies, which are used to infer Brune stress drop estimates. I obtain stress drop values of 0.3-53 MPa (with all but one between 0.3 and 11 MPa), with no resolved increase of stress drop with moment. With the corner frequencies constrained, the inferred attenuation parameters are very consistent; they imply an average shear wave quality factor of approximately 20-25 for alluvial sediments within the Indian Wells Valley. Although the resultant spectral fitting (using corner frequency and ??) is good, the residuals are consistent among the clusters analyzed. Their spectral shape is similar to the the theoretical one-dimensional response of a layered low-velocity structure in the valley (an absolute site response cannot be determined by this method, because of an ambiguity between absolute response and source spectral amplitudes). I show that even this subtle site response can significantly bias estimates of corner frequency and ??, if it is ignored in an inversion for only source and path effects. The multiple-EGF method presented in this paper is analogous to a joint inversion for source, path, and site effects; the use of colocated sets of earthquakes appears to offer significant advantages in improving resolution of all three estimates, especially if data are from a single site or sites with similar site response.

  16. Dissociation energies and potential energy functions for the ground X {sup 1}Σ{sup +} and “avoided-crossing” A {sup 1}Σ{sup +} states of NaH

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Walji, Sadru-Dean; Sentjens, Katherine M.; Le Roy, Robert J. [Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 (Canada)

    2015-01-28

    A direct-potential-fit analysis of all accessible data for the A {sup 1}Σ{sup +} − X {sup 1}Σ{sup +} system of NaH and NaD is used to determine analytic potential energy functions incorporating the correct theoretically predicted long-range behaviour. These potentials represent all of the data (on average) within the experimental uncertainties and yield an improved estimate for the ground-state NaH well depth of D{sub e} = 15797.4 (±4.3) cm{sup −1}, which is ∼20 cm{sup −1} smaller than the best previous estimate. The present analysis also yields the first empirical determination of centrifugal (non-adiabatic) and potential-energy (adiabatic) Born-Oppenheimer breakdown correction functions for this system, with the latter showing that the A-state electronic isotope shift is −1.1(±0.6) cm{sup −1} going from NaH to NaD.

  17. Empirical evaluation of decision support systems: Needs, definitions, potential methods, and an example pertaining to waterfowl management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sojda, R.S.

    2007-01-01

    Decision support systems are often not empirically evaluated, especially the underlying modelling components. This can be attributed to such systems necessarily being designed to handle complex and poorly structured problems and decision making. Nonetheless, evaluation is critical and should be focused on empirical testing whenever possible. Verification and validation, in combination, comprise such evaluation. Verification is ensuring that the system is internally complete, coherent, and logical from a modelling and programming perspective. Validation is examining whether the system is realistic and useful to the user or decision maker, and should answer the question: “Was the system successful at addressing its intended purpose?” A rich literature exists on verification and validation of expert systems and other artificial intelligence methods; however, no single evaluation methodology has emerged as preeminent. At least five approaches to validation are feasible. First, under some conditions, decision support system performance can be tested against a preselected gold standard. Second, real-time and historic data sets can be used for comparison with simulated output. Third, panels of experts can be judiciously used, but often are not an option in some ecological domains. Fourth, sensitivity analysis of system outputs in relation to inputs can be informative. Fifth, when validation of a complete system is impossible, examining major components can be substituted, recognizing the potential pitfalls. I provide an example of evaluation of a decision support system for trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) management that I developed using interacting intelligent agents, expert systems, and a queuing system. Predicted swan distributions over a 13-year period were assessed against observed numbers. Population survey numbers and banding (ringing) studies may provide long term data useful in empirical evaluation of decision support.

  18. Image-potential states and work function of graphene

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niesner, Daniel; Fauster, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Image-potential states of graphene on various substrates have been investigated by two-photon photoemission and scanning tunneling spectroscopy. They are used as a probe for the graphene-substrate interaction and resulting changes in the (local) work function. The latter is driven by the work function difference between graphene and the substrate. This results in a charge transfer which also contributes to core-level shifts in x-ray photoemission. In this review article, we give an overview over the theoretical models and the experimental data for image-potential states and work function of graphene on various substrates. (topical review)

  19. Dissociative identity disorder: An empirical overview.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dorahy, Martin J; Brand, Bethany L; Sar, Vedat; Krüger, Christa; Stavropoulos, Pam; Martínez-Taboas, Alfonso; Lewis-Fernández, Roberto; Middleton, Warwick

    2014-05-01

    Despite its long and auspicious place in the history of psychiatry, dissociative identity disorder (DID) has been associated with controversy. This paper aims to examine the empirical data related to DID and outline the contextual challenges to its scientific investigation. The overview is limited to DID-specific research in which one or more of the following conditions are met: (i) a sample of participants with DID was systematically investigated, (ii) psychometrically-sound measures were utilised, (iii) comparisons were made with other samples, (iv) DID was differentiated from other disorders, including other dissociative disorders, (v) extraneous variables were controlled or (vi) DID diagnosis was confirmed. Following an examination of challenges to research, data are organised around the validity and phenomenology of DID, its aetiology and epidemiology, the neurobiological and cognitive correlates of the disorder, and finally its treatment. DID was found to be a complex yet valid disorder across a range of markers. It can be accurately discriminated from other disorders, especially when structured diagnostic interviews assess identity alterations and amnesia. DID is aetiologically associated with a complex combination of developmental and cultural factors, including severe childhood relational trauma. The prevalence of DID appears highest in emergency psychiatric settings and affects approximately 1% of the general population. Psychobiological studies are beginning to identify clear correlates of DID associated with diverse brain areas and cognitive functions. They are also providing an understanding of the potential metacognitive origins of amnesia. Phase-oriented empirically-guided treatments are emerging for DID. The empirical literature on DID is accumulating, although some areas remain under-investigated. Existing data show DID as a complex, valid and not uncommon disorder, associated with developmental and cultural variables, that is amenable to

  20. A new hydrocarbon empirical potential in angle bending calculation for the molecular dynamics simulation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ping, Tan Ai; Hoe, Yeak Su [Department of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim (Malaysia)

    2014-07-10

    Typically, short range potential only depends on neighbouring atoms and its parameters function can be categorized into bond stretching, angle bending and bond rotation potential. In this paper, we present our work called Angle Bending (AB) potential, whereas AB potential is the extension of our previous work namely Bond Stretching (BS) potential. Basically, potential will tend to zero after truncated region, potential in specific region can be represented by different piecewise polynomial. We proposed the AB piecewise potential which is possible to solve a system involving three atoms. AB potential able to handle the potential of covalent bonds for three atoms as well as two atoms cases due to its degeneracy properties. Continuity for the piecewise polynomial has been enforced by coupling with penalty methods. There are still plenty of improvement spaces for this AB potential. The improvement for three atoms AB potential will be studied and further modified into torsional potential which are the ongoing current research.

  1. Measurement of nuclear potentials from fusion excitation functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huizenga, J.R.; Birkelund, J.R.

    1984-01-01

    The basis for measuring nuclear potentials from fusion excitation functions at energies above barrier is reviewed. It is argued that because of experimental and conceptual problems fusion excitation functions at high energies cannot lead to model independent measurements of internuclear potential at small separations. The Al 27 + Ne 20 reaction previously analyzed by others is used as an example of problems arising from the inability to distinguish complete and incomplete fusion in experimental data

  2. Artificial potential functions for highway driving with collision avoidance

    OpenAIRE

    Wolf , Michael T.; Burdick, Joel W.

    2008-01-01

    We present a set of potential function components to assist an automated or semi-automated vehicle in navigating a multi-lane, populated highway. The resulting potential field is constructed as a superposition of disparate functions for lane- keeping, road-staying, speed preference, and vehicle avoidance and passing. The construction of the vehicle avoidance potential is of primary importance, incorporating the structure and protocol of laned highway driving. Particularly, the shape and dimen...

  3. Intuition in Decision Making –Theoretical and Empirical Aspects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamila Malewska

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available In an economy dominated by information and knowledge, analysis ceases to be the sole and sufficient source of knowledge. Managers seek alternative ways of obtaining and interpreting information and knowledge. Here, managerial intuitive potential begins to play an important role. The aim of this paper is to present the issue of intuition in decision making in both theoretical and empirical terms. The first part presents the essence of intuition and its role in management, especially in decision making. Then, the empirical part attempts to identify the intuitive potential of managers and the extent of its use in practical decision making. The case study method was used in order to achieve this goal. The analysis involved a Polish food company “Fawor” that employs more than 300 workers. These literature and empirical studies in the area of intuition were conducted within the research project „The impact of managerial intuitive potential on the effectiveness of decision making processes”, financed by the National Science Centre, Poland (funds allocated on the basis of decision No. DEC-2014/13/D/HS4/01750

  4. Spatial prediction of near surface soil water retention functions using hydrogeophysics and empirical orthogonal functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibson, Justin; Franz, Trenton E.

    2018-06-01

    The hydrological community often turns to widely available spatial datasets such as the NRCS Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO) to characterize the spatial variability of soil properties. When used to spatially characterize and parameterize watershed models, this has served as a reasonable first approximation when lacking localized or incomplete soil data. Within agriculture, soil data has been left relatively coarse when compared to numerous other data sources measured. This is because localized soil sampling is both expensive and time intense, thus a need exists in better connecting spatial datasets with ground observations. Given that hydrogeophysics is data-dense, rapid, non-invasive, and relatively easy to adopt, it is a promising technique to help dovetail localized soil sampling with spatially exhaustive datasets. In this work, we utilize two common near surface geophysical methods, cosmic-ray neutron probe and electromagnetic induction, to identify temporally stable spatial patterns of measured geophysical properties in three 65 ha agricultural fields in western Nebraska. This is achieved by repeat geophysical observations of the same study area across a range of wet to dry field conditions in order to evaluate with an empirical orthogonal function. Shallow cores were then extracted within each identified zone and water retention functions were generated in the laboratory. Using EOF patterns as a covariate, we quantify the predictive skill of estimating soil hydraulic properties in areas without measurement using a bootstrap validation analysis. Results indicate that sampling locations informed via repeat hydrogeophysical surveys, required only five cores to reduce the cross-validation root mean squared error by an average of 64% as compared to soil parameters predicted by a commonly used benchmark, SSURGO and ROSETTA. The reduction to five strategically located samples within the 65 ha fields reduces sampling efforts by up to ∼90% as compared to

  5. Green's functions potential fields on surfaces

    CERN Document Server

    Melnikov, Yuri A

    2017-01-01

    This book is comprehensive in its classical mathematical physics presentation, providing the reader with detailed instructions for obtaining Green's functions from scratch. Green's functions is an instrument easily accessible to practitioners who are engaged in design and exploitation of machines and structures in modern engineering practice. To date, there are no books available on the market that are devoted to the Green's function formalism for equations covered in this volume. The reader, with an undergraduate background in applied mathematics, can become an active user of the Green's function approach. For the first time, Green's functions are discussed for a specific class of problems dealing with potential fields induced in thin-wall structures and therefore, the reader will have first-hand access to a novel issue. This Work is accessible to researchers in applied mathematics, mechanics, and relevant disciplines such as engineering, as well as to upper level undergraduates and graduate students.

  6. Empirical Differential Balancing for Nonlinear Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kawano, Yu; Scherpen, Jacquelien M.A.; Dochain, Denis; Henrion, Didier; Peaucelle, Dimitri

    In this paper, we consider empirical balancing of nonlinear systems by using its prolonged system, which consists of the original nonlinear system and its variational system. For the prolonged system, we define differential reachability and observability Gramians, which are matrix valued functions

  7. Consistent evaluations of (n,2n) and (n,np) reaction excitation functions for some even-even isotopes using empirical systematics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Manokhin, Vassily N. [Russian Nuclear Data Center, Institute of Physics and Power Engineering, Obninsk (Russian Federation); Odano, Naoteru; Hasegawa, Akira [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

    2001-03-01

    An approach for consistent evaluation of (n,2n) and (n,np) reaction excitation functions for some even-even isotopes with the (n,np) reaction thresholds lower than (n,2n) reaction ones is described. For determination of cross sections in the maximum of the (n,2n) and (n,np) reaction excitation functions some empirical systematics developed by Manokhin were used together with trends in dependence of gaps between the (n,2n) and (n,np) thresholds on atomic mass number A. The shapes of the (n,2n) and (n,np) reaction excitation functions were calculated using the normalized functions from the Manokhin's systematics. Excitation functions of (n,2n) and (n,np) reactions were evaluated for several nuclei by using the systematics and it was found that the approach used for the present study gives reasonable results. (author)

  8. Testing an excited-state energy density functional and the associated potential with the ionization potential theorem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hemanadhan, M; Shamim, Md; Harbola, Manoj K

    2014-01-01

    The modified local spin density (MLSD) functional and the related local potential for excited states is tested by employing the ionization potential theorem. The exchange functional for an excited state is constructed by splitting k-space. Since its functional derivative cannot be obtained easily, the corresponding exchange potential is given by an analogy to its ground-state counterpart. Further, to calculate the highest occupied orbital energy ϵ max accurately, the potential is corrected for its asymptotic behaviour by employing the van Leeuwen and Baerends (LB) correction to it. ϵ max so obtained is then compared with the ΔSCF ionization energy calculated using the MLSD functional with self-interaction correction for the orbitals involved in the transition. It is shown that the two match quite accurately. The match becomes even better by tuning the LB correction with respect to a parameter in it. (paper)

  9. Analytical potential energy function for the Br + H2 system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurosaki, Yuzuru

    2001-01-01

    Analytical functions with a many-body expansion for the ground and first-excited-state potential energy surfaces for the Br+H 2 system are newly presented in this work. These functions describe the abstraction and exchange reactions qualitatively well, although it has been found that the function for the ground-state potential surface is still quantitatively unsatisfactory. (author)

  10. Statistical microeconomics and commodity prices: theory and empirical results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baaquie, Belal E

    2016-01-13

    A review is made of the statistical generalization of microeconomics by Baaquie (Baaquie 2013 Phys. A 392, 4400-4416. (doi:10.1016/j.physa.2013.05.008)), where the market price of every traded commodity, at each instant of time, is considered to be an independent random variable. The dynamics of commodity market prices is given by the unequal time correlation function and is modelled by the Feynman path integral based on an action functional. The correlation functions of the model are defined using the path integral. The existence of the action functional for commodity prices that was postulated to exist in Baaquie (Baaquie 2013 Phys. A 392, 4400-4416. (doi:10.1016/j.physa.2013.05.008)) has been empirically ascertained in Baaquie et al. (Baaquie et al. 2015 Phys. A 428, 19-37. (doi:10.1016/j.physa.2015.02.030)). The model's action functionals for different commodities has been empirically determined and calibrated using the unequal time correlation functions of the market commodity prices using a perturbation expansion (Baaquie et al. 2015 Phys. A 428, 19-37. (doi:10.1016/j.physa.2015.02.030)). Nine commodities drawn from the energy, metal and grain sectors are empirically studied and their auto-correlation for up to 300 days is described by the model to an accuracy of R(2)>0.90-using only six parameters. © 2015 The Author(s).

  11. Electrostatic potential profile and nonlinear current in an interacting ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Unknown

    Since the Poisson distribution crucially depends on charge densities ... formedon a large number of systems using semi-empirical to first-principles ... known by now that the current in these systems is a nonlinear function of the voltage and ..... the middle of the molecule and the potential drop is smaller near the interfaces.

  12. Model and Empirical Study on Several Urban Public Transport Networks in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Yimin; Ding, Zhuo

    2012-07-01

    In this paper, we present the empirical investigation results on the urban public transport networks (PTNs) and propose a model to understand the results obtained. We investigate some urban public traffic networks in China, which are the urban public traffic networks of Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan and etc. The empirical results on the big cities show that the accumulative act-degree distributions of PTNs take neither power function forms, nor exponential function forms, but they are described by a shifted power function, and the accumulative act-degree distributions of PTNs in medium-sized or small cities follow the same law. In the end, we propose a model to show a possible evolutionary mechanism for the emergence of such network. The analytic results obtained from this model are in good agreement with the empirical results.

  13. Protein-Ligand Empirical Interaction Components for Virtual Screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Yuna; Wang, Weijun; Sun, Zhaoxi; Zhang, John Z H; Ji, Changge

    2017-08-28

    A major shortcoming of empirical scoring functions is that they often fail to predict binding affinity properly. Removing false positives of docking results is one of the most challenging works in structure-based virtual screening. Postdocking filters, making use of all kinds of experimental structure and activity information, may help in solving the issue. We describe a new method based on detailed protein-ligand interaction decomposition and machine learning. Protein-ligand empirical interaction components (PLEIC) are used as descriptors for support vector machine learning to develop a classification model (PLEIC-SVM) to discriminate false positives from true positives. Experimentally derived activity information is used for model training. An extensive benchmark study on 36 diverse data sets from the DUD-E database has been performed to evaluate the performance of the new method. The results show that the new method performs much better than standard empirical scoring functions in structure-based virtual screening. The trained PLEIC-SVM model is able to capture important interaction patterns between ligand and protein residues for one specific target, which is helpful in discarding false positives in postdocking filtering.

  14. Estimation of Cumulative Absolute Velocity using Empirical Green's Function Method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Dong Hee; Yun, Kwan Hee; Chang, Chun Joong; Park, Se Moon

    2009-01-01

    In recognition of the needs to develop a new criterion for determining when the OBE (Operating Basis Earthquake) has been exceeded at nuclear power plants, Cumulative Absolute Velocity (CAV) was introduced by EPRI. The concept of CAV is the area accumulation with the values more than 0.025g occurred during every one second. The equation of the CAV is as follows. CAV = ∫ 0 max |a(t)|dt (1) t max = duration of record, a(t) = acceleration (>0.025g) Currently, the OBE exceedance criteria in Korea is Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA, PGA>0.1g). When Odesan earthquake (M L =4.8, January 20th, 2007) and Gyeongju earthquake (M L =3.4, June 2nd, 1999) were occurred, we have had already experiences of PGA greater than 0.1g that did not even cause any damage to the poorly-designed structures nearby. This moderate earthquake has motivated Korea to begin the use of the CAV for OBE exceedance criteria for NPPs. Because the present OBE level has proved itself to be a poor indicator for small-to-moderate earthquakes, for which the low OBE level can cause an inappropriate shut down the plant. A more serious possibility is that this scenario will become a reality at a very high level. Empirical Green's Function method was a simulation technique which can estimate the CAV value and it is hereby introduced

  15. Testing intermolecular potential functions using transport property data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clifford, A.A.; Dickinson, E.; Gray, P.; Scott, A.C.

    1975-01-01

    The viscosity of hydrogen has been measured at eight temperatures from 273 to 1060K, using a capillary-flow viscometer. The results have been used to test the repulsive part of a recently formulated H 2 /H 2 intermolecular potential function, obtained from molecular-beam measurements. Agreement between the experimental and predicted values for viscosity is within 3.5%, which corresponds approximately to the combined quoted uncertainties in the two sets of data. However, if the value of the distance parameter of the potential is reduced by about 1.5%, the agreement obtained is within 0.75% over the whole temperature range. This modified potential function gives better agreement with the available higher temperature viscosities and second virial coefficients. (author)

  16. Empirical data and moral theory. A plea for integrated empirical ethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molewijk, Bert; Stiggelbout, Anne M; Otten, Wilma; Dupuis, Heleen M; Kievit, Job

    2004-01-01

    Ethicists differ considerably in their reasons for using empirical data. This paper presents a brief overview of four traditional approaches to the use of empirical data: "the prescriptive applied ethicists," "the theorists," "the critical applied ethicists," and "the particularists." The main aim of this paper is to introduce a fifth approach of more recent date (i.e. "integrated empirical ethics") and to offer some methodological directives for research in integrated empirical ethics. All five approaches are presented in a table for heuristic purposes. The table consists of eight columns: "view on distinction descriptive-prescriptive sciences," "location of moral authority," "central goal(s)," "types of normativity," "use of empirical data," "method," "interaction empirical data and moral theory," and "cooperation with descriptive sciences." Ethicists can use the table in order to identify their own approach. Reflection on these issues prior to starting research in empirical ethics should lead to harmonization of the different scientific disciplines and effective planning of the final research design. Integrated empirical ethics (IEE) refers to studies in which ethicists and descriptive scientists cooperate together continuously and intensively. Both disciplines try to integrate moral theory and empirical data in order to reach a normative conclusion with respect to a specific social practice. IEE is not wholly prescriptive or wholly descriptive since IEE assumes an interdepence between facts and values and between the empirical and the normative. The paper ends with three suggestions for consideration on some of the future challenges of integrated empirical ethics.

  17. Density-functional errors in ionization potential with increasing system size

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Whittleton, Sarah R.; Sosa Vazquez, Xochitl A.; Isborn, Christine M., E-mail: cisborn@ucmerced.edu [Chemistry and Chemical Biology, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, California 95343 (United States); Johnson, Erin R., E-mail: erin.johnson@dal.ca [Chemistry and Chemical Biology, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, California 95343 (United States); Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, 6274 Coburg Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2 (Canada)

    2015-05-14

    This work investigates the effects of molecular size on the accuracy of density-functional ionization potentials for a set of 28 hydrocarbons, including series of alkanes, alkenes, and oligoacenes. As the system size increases, delocalization error introduces a systematic underestimation of the ionization potential, which is rationalized by considering the fractional-charge behavior of the electronic energies. The computation of the ionization potential with many density-functional approximations is not size-extensive due to excessive delocalization of the incipient positive charge. While inclusion of exact exchange reduces the observed errors, system-specific tuning of long-range corrected functionals does not generally improve accuracy. These results emphasize that good performance of a functional for small molecules is not necessarily transferable to larger systems.

  18. Energy spectra and wave function of trigonometric Rosen-Morse potential as an effective quantum chromodynamics potential in D-dimensions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deta, U. A., E-mail: utamaalan@yahoo.co.id [Theoretical Physics Group, Physics Department of Post Graduate Program, Sebelas Maret University, Jl. Ir. Sutami 36A, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia and Physics Department, State University of Surabaya, Jl. Ketintang, Surabaya 60231 (Indonesia); Suparmi,; Cari,; Husein, A. S.; Yuliani, H.; Khaled, I. K. A.; Luqman, H.; Supriyanto [Theoretical Physics Group, Physics Department of Post Graduate Program, Sebelas Maret University, Jl. Ir. Sutami 36A, Surakarta 57126 (Indonesia)

    2014-09-30

    The Energy Spectra and Wave Function of Schrodinger equation in D-Dimensions for trigonometric Rosen-Morse potential were investigated analytically using Nikiforov-Uvarov method. This potential captures the essential traits of the quark-gluon dynamics of Quantum Chromodynamics. The approximate energy spectra are given in the close form and the corresponding approximate wave function for arbitrary l-state (l ≠ 0) in D-dimensions are formulated in the form of differential polynomials. The wave function of this potential unnormalizable for general case. The wave function of this potential unnormalizable for general case. The existence of extra dimensions (centrifugal factor) and this potential increase the energy spectra of system.

  19. Dialects in Animals: Evidence, Development and Potential Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laurence Henry

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Dialects are one of the parallels that have long been established between human language and animal communication. We discuss the potential functional parallels between human and animal dialects, arguing that in both cases different mechanisms and functions may be at stake where large geographical versus very localized (e.g. social variations are concerned. Birdsong studies in particular, but also recent studies of mammal vocalizations, show that the use of the term “dialect” to refer to within-species vocal variations in animal species is more than a metaphor and that animal dialects offer a possibility to explore the causes and functions of linguistic variation and change, one of the challenges in exploring the origin of diversity of language families. We present here an original view, as our approach was not “primate-centered,” and take into consideration “homoplasy” (analogy as a potential mechanism to explain that different taxa have evolved the same functional response to social constraints.

  20. Near transferable phenomenological n-body potentials for noble metals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pontikis, Vassilis; Baldinozzi, Gianguido; Luneville, Laurence; Simeone, David

    2017-09-06

    We present a semi-empirical model of cohesion in noble metals with suitable parameters reproducing a selected set of experimental properties of perfect and defective lattices in noble metals. It consists of two short-range, n-body terms accounting respectively for attractive and repulsive interactions, the former deriving from the second moment approximation of the tight-binding scheme and the latter from the gas approximation of the kinetic energy of electrons. The stability of the face centred cubic versus the hexagonal compact stacking is obtained via a long-range, pairwise function of customary use with ionic pseudo-potentials. Lattice dynamics, molecular statics, molecular dynamics and nudged elastic band calculations show that, unlike previous potentials, this cohesion model reproduces and predicts quite accurately thermodynamic properties in noble metals. In particular, computed surface energies, largely underestimated by existing empirical cohesion models, compare favourably with measured values, whereas predicted unstable stacking-fault energy profiles fit almost perfectly ab initio evaluations from the literature. All together the results suggest that this semi-empirical model is nearly transferable.

  1. Physico-empirical approach for mapping soil hydraulic behaviour

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. D'Urso

    1997-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: Pedo-transfer functions are largely used in soil hydraulic characterisation of large areas. The use of physico-empirical approaches for the derivation of soil hydraulic parameters from disturbed samples data can be greatly enhanced if a characterisation performed on undisturbed cores of the same type of soil is available. In this study, an experimental procedure for deriving maps of soil hydraulic behaviour is discussed with reference to its application in an irrigation district (30 km2 in southern Italy. The main steps of the proposed procedure are: i the precise identification of soil hydraulic functions from undisturbed sampling of main horizons in representative profiles for each soil map unit; ii the determination of pore-size distribution curves from larger disturbed sampling data sets within the same soil map unit. iii the calibration of physical-empirical methods for retrieving soil hydraulic parameters from particle-size data and undisturbed soil sample analysis; iv the definition of functional hydraulic properties from water balance output; and v the delimitation of soil hydraulic map units based on functional properties.

  2. The potential-free approach to the construction of the NN-wave functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Troitsky, V.E.

    1984-01-01

    The traditional approaches to the nonrelativistic NN-interaction use local and nonlocal potentials of the kind defined by different dynamical speculations. The wave functions are obtained then from the Schroedinger equation with the chosen potential. Here the author obtains the wave functions (scattering wave function and bound state wave function) directly from the scattering phases in the frame of a dispersion approach without use of potential. (Auth.)

  3. Empirical psychology, common sense, and Kant's empirical markers for moral responsibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frierson, Patrick

    2008-12-01

    This paper explains the empirical markers by which Kant thinks that one can identify moral responsibility. After explaining the problem of discerning such markers within a Kantian framework I briefly explain Kant's empirical psychology. I then argue that Kant's empirical markers for moral responsibility--linked to higher faculties of cognition--are not sufficient conditions for moral responsibility, primarily because they are empirical characteristics subject to natural laws. Next. I argue that these markers are not necessary conditions of moral responsibility. Given Kant's transcendental idealism, even an entity that lacks these markers could be free and morally responsible, although as a matter of fact Kant thinks that none are. Given that they are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions, I discuss the status of Kant's claim that higher faculties are empirical markers of moral responsibility. Drawing on connections between Kant's ethical theory and 'common rational cognition' (4:393), I suggest that Kant's theory of empirical markers can be traced to ordinary common sense beliefs about responsibility. This suggestion helps explain both why empirical markers are important and what the limits of empirical psychology are within Kant's account of moral responsibility.

  4. Alternative Approaches to Evaluation in Empirical Microeconomics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blundell, Richard; Dias, Monica Costa

    2009-01-01

    This paper reviews some of the most popular policy evaluation methods in empirical microeconomics: social experiments, natural experiments, matching, instrumental variables, discontinuity design, and control functions. It discusses identification of traditionally used average parameters and more complex distributional parameters. The adequacy,…

  5. On the analysis of protein-protein interactions via knowledge-based potentials for the prediction of protein-protein docking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Feliu, Elisenda; Aloy, Patrick; Oliva, Baldo

    2011-01-01

    Development of effective methods to screen binary interactions obtained by rigid-body protein-protein docking is key for structure prediction of complexes and for elucidating physicochemical principles of protein-protein binding. We have derived empirical knowledge-based potential functions for s...... and with independence of the partner. This information is encoded at the residue level and could be easily incorporated in the initial grid scoring for Fast Fourier Transform rigid-body docking methods.......Development of effective methods to screen binary interactions obtained by rigid-body protein-protein docking is key for structure prediction of complexes and for elucidating physicochemical principles of protein-protein binding. We have derived empirical knowledge-based potential functions...... for selecting rigid-body docking poses. These potentials include the energetic component that provides the residues with a particular secondary structure and surface accessibility. These scoring functions have been tested on a state-of-art benchmark dataset and on a decoy dataset of permanent interactions. Our...

  6. Transnational Corporate Ties: A Synopsis of Theories and Empirical Findings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Nollert

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available In general, corporations are not isolated actors in an economic “war of all against all” but members of corporate networks of global reach. Although the literature on globalization emphasizes the increasing economic power of these networks and postulates the formation of a transnational capitalist class, there is still a lack of empirical findings. The article starts with a review of theoretical perspectives (resource dependence, social capital, coordination of markets, financial hegemony, class hegemony, inner circle, and transnational capitalist class which focuses on the functions and structures of corporate interlocks at the national and the transnational level. The subsequent section offers an outline of empirical studies concerning transnational corporate networks. These analyses of corporate ties (interlocking directorates, financial participations and policy group affiliations suggest the emergence of transnational economic elites whose members, however, have not lost their national identity. In the final section, the theoretical perspectives will be assessed and some prospects are sketched out. Finally, it will be argued that the disintegration of the world society, which is considerably driven by rent-seeking corporate networks, can only be restrained if a potential global regulatory agency will be anchored in a post-Washington consensus.

  7. Empirical Likelihood in Nonignorable Covariate-Missing Data Problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Yanmei; Zhang, Biao

    2017-04-20

    Missing covariate data occurs often in regression analysis, which frequently arises in the health and social sciences as well as in survey sampling. We study methods for the analysis of a nonignorable covariate-missing data problem in an assumed conditional mean function when some covariates are completely observed but other covariates are missing for some subjects. We adopt the semiparametric perspective of Bartlett et al. (Improving upon the efficiency of complete case analysis when covariates are MNAR. Biostatistics 2014;15:719-30) on regression analyses with nonignorable missing covariates, in which they have introduced the use of two working models, the working probability model of missingness and the working conditional score model. In this paper, we study an empirical likelihood approach to nonignorable covariate-missing data problems with the objective of effectively utilizing the two working models in the analysis of covariate-missing data. We propose a unified approach to constructing a system of unbiased estimating equations, where there are more equations than unknown parameters of interest. One useful feature of these unbiased estimating equations is that they naturally incorporate the incomplete data into the data analysis, making it possible to seek efficient estimation of the parameter of interest even when the working regression function is not specified to be the optimal regression function. We apply the general methodology of empirical likelihood to optimally combine these unbiased estimating equations. We propose three maximum empirical likelihood estimators of the underlying regression parameters and compare their efficiencies with other existing competitors. We present a simulation study to compare the finite-sample performance of various methods with respect to bias, efficiency, and robustness to model misspecification. The proposed empirical likelihood method is also illustrated by an analysis of a data set from the US National Health and

  8. Short-term memory of TiO2-based electrochemical capacitors: empirical analysis with adoption of a sliding threshold

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lim, Hyungkwang; Kim, Inho; Kim, Jin-Sang; Jeong, Doo Seok; Seong Hwang, Cheol

    2013-01-01

    Chemical synapses are important components of the large-scaled neural network in the hippocampus of the mammalian brain, and a change in their weight is thought to be in charge of learning and memory. Thus, the realization of artificial chemical synapses is of crucial importance in achieving artificial neural networks emulating the brain’s functionalities to some extent. This kind of research is often referred to as neuromorphic engineering. In this study, we report short-term memory behaviours of electrochemical capacitors (ECs) utilizing TiO 2 mixed ionic–electronic conductor and various reactive electrode materials e.g. Ti, Ni, and Cr. By experiments, it turned out that the potentiation behaviours did not represent unlimited growth of synaptic weight. Instead, the behaviours exhibited limited synaptic weight growth that can be understood by means of an empirical equation similar to the Bienenstock–Cooper–Munro rule, employing a sliding threshold. The observed potentiation behaviours were analysed using the empirical equation and the differences between the different ECs were parameterized. (paper)

  9. Empirically Testing Thematic Analysis (ETTA)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gildberg, Frederik Alkier; Bradley, Stephen K.; Tingleff, Elllen B.

    2015-01-01

    Text analysis is not a question of a right or wrong way to go about it, but a question of different traditions. These tend to not only give answers to how to conduct an analysis, but also to provide the answer as to why it is conducted in the way that it is. The problem however may be that the li...... for themselves. The advantage of utilizing the presented analytic approach is argued to be the integral empirical testing, which should assure systematic development, interpretation and analysis of the source textual material....... between tradition and tool is unclear. The main objective of this article is therefore to present Empirical Testing Thematic Analysis, a step by step approach to thematic text analysis; discussing strengths and weaknesses, so that others might assess its potential as an approach that they might utilize/develop...

  10. Analytical potential energy function for the Br + H{sub 2} system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurosaki, Yuzuru [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Kizu, Kyoto (Japan). Kansai Research Establishment

    2001-10-01

    Analytical functions with a many-body expansion for the ground and first-excited-state potential energy surfaces for the Br+H{sub 2} system are newly presented in this work. These functions describe the abstraction and exchange reactions qualitatively well, although it has been found that the function for the ground-state potential surface is still quantitatively unsatisfactory. (author)

  11. An empirical investigation of Australian Stock Exchange data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertram, William K.

    2004-10-01

    We present an empirical study of high frequency Australian equity data examining the behaviour of distribution tails and the existence of long memory. A method is presented allowing us to deal with Australian Stock Exchange data by splitting it into two separate data series representing an intraday and overnight component. Power-law exponents for the empirical density functions are estimated and compared with results from other studies. Using the autocorrelation and variance plots we find there to be a strong indication of long-memory type behaviour in the absolute return, volume and transaction frequency.

  12. Structure and potential energy function for Pu22+ ion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Quan; Huang Hui; Li Daohua

    2003-01-01

    The theoretical study on Pu 2 2+ using density functional method shows that the molecular ion is metastable. Ground electronic state is 13 Σ g for Pu 2 2+ , the analytic potential energy function is in well agreement with the Z-W function, and the force constants and spectroscopic data have been worked out for the first time

  13. Research potential and cognitive features of students.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bordovskaia N.V.

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This article examines the theoretical and methodological justifications for studying students’ research potential. It presents proof of the isomorphic nature of human research activity and research potential as well as of the fluid nature of its development: from research-like behavior to science-based research activity. It defines three functional components (motivational, cognitive, and behavioral that form the structure of research potential. It further presents the results of empirically studying the cognitive features of master’s students possessing different levels of research potential. It provides data on the dynamics of research-potential components at different educational levels (bachelor’s and master’s programs. Special attention is given to a comparative analysis of evaluations by research tutors regarding their students’ research potential and of the indicators obtained using psychodiagnostic methods.

  14. Non-empirical exchange-correlation parameterizations based on exact conditions from correlated orbital theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haiduke, Roberto Luiz A; Bartlett, Rodney J

    2018-05-14

    Some of the exact conditions provided by the correlated orbital theory are employed to propose new non-empirical parameterizations for exchange-correlation functionals from Density Functional Theory (DFT). This reparameterization process is based on range-separated functionals with 100% exact exchange for long-range interelectronic interactions. The functionals developed here, CAM-QTP-02 and LC-QTP, show mitigated self-interaction error, correctly predict vertical ionization potentials as the negative of eigenvalues for occupied orbitals, and provide nice excitation energies, even for challenging charge-transfer excited states. Moreover, some improvements are observed for reaction barrier heights with respect to the other functionals belonging to the quantum theory project (QTP) family. Finally, the most important achievement of these new functionals is an excellent description of vertical electron affinities (EAs) of atoms and molecules as the negative of appropriate virtual orbital eigenvalues. In this case, the mean absolute deviations for EAs in molecules are smaller than 0.10 eV, showing that physical interpretation can indeed be ascribed to some unoccupied orbitals from DFT.

  15. Non-empirical exchange-correlation parameterizations based on exact conditions from correlated orbital theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haiduke, Roberto Luiz A.; Bartlett, Rodney J.

    2018-05-01

    Some of the exact conditions provided by the correlated orbital theory are employed to propose new non-empirical parameterizations for exchange-correlation functionals from Density Functional Theory (DFT). This reparameterization process is based on range-separated functionals with 100% exact exchange for long-range interelectronic interactions. The functionals developed here, CAM-QTP-02 and LC-QTP, show mitigated self-interaction error, correctly predict vertical ionization potentials as the negative of eigenvalues for occupied orbitals, and provide nice excitation energies, even for challenging charge-transfer excited states. Moreover, some improvements are observed for reaction barrier heights with respect to the other functionals belonging to the quantum theory project (QTP) family. Finally, the most important achievement of these new functionals is an excellent description of vertical electron affinities (EAs) of atoms and molecules as the negative of appropriate virtual orbital eigenvalues. In this case, the mean absolute deviations for EAs in molecules are smaller than 0.10 eV, showing that physical interpretation can indeed be ascribed to some unoccupied orbitals from DFT.

  16. Windfall profit in portfolio diversification? An empirical analysis of the potential benefits of renewable energy investments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bruns, Frederik

    2013-05-01

    Modern Portfolio Theory is a theory which was introduced by Markowitz, and which suggests the building of a portfolio with assets that have low or, in the best case, negative correlation. In times of financial crises, however, the positive diversification effect of a portfolio can fail when Traditional Assets are highly correlated. Therefore, many investors search for Alternative Asset classes, such as Renewable Energies, that tend to perform independently from capital market performance. 'Windfall Profit in Portfolio Diversification?' discusses the potential role of Renewable Energy investments in an institutional investor's portfolio by applying the main concepts from Modern Portfolio Theory. Thereby, the empirical analysis uses a unique data set from one of the largest institutional investors in the field of Renewable Energies, including several wind and solar parks. The study received the Science Award 2012 of the German Alternative Investments Association ('Bundesverband Alternative Investments e.V.').

  17. Approximate Treatment of the Dirac Equation with Hyperbolic Potential Function

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durmus, Aysen

    2018-03-01

    The time independent Dirac equation is solved analytically for equal scalar and vector hyperbolic potential function in the presence of Greene and Aldrich approximation scheme. The bound state energy equation and spinor wave functions expressed by the hypergeometric function have been obtained in detail with asymptotic iteration approach. In order to indicate the accuracy of this different approach proposed to solve second order linear differential equations, we present that in the non-relativistic limit, analytical solutions of the Dirac equation converge to those of the Schrödinger one. We introduce numerical results of the theoretical analysis for hyperbolic potential function. Bound states corresponding to arbitrary values of n and l are reported for potential parameters covering a wide range of interaction. Also, we investigate relativistic vibrational energy spectra of alkali metal diatomic molecules in the different electronic states. It is observed that theoretical vibrational energy values are consistent with experimental Rydberg-Klein-Rees (RKR) results and vibrational energies of NaK, K_2 and KRb diatomic molecules interacting with hyperbolic potential smoothly converge to the experimental dissociation limit D_e=2508cm^{-1}, 254cm^{-1} and 4221cm^{-1}, respectively.

  18. Combining emperical and theory-based land use modelling approaches to assess future availability of land and economic potential for sustainable biofuel production: Argentina as a case study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Diogo, V.; van der Hilst, Floortje; van Eijck, Janske; Faaij, André; Verstegen, Judith; Hilbert, J.; Carballo, S.; Volante, J.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, a land-use modelling framework is presented combining empirical and theory-based modelling approaches to determine economic potential of biofuel production avoiding indirect land-use changes (iLUC) resulting from land competition with other functions. The empirical approach explores

  19. Prediction of Physicochemical Properties of Organic Molecules Using Semi-Empirical Methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Chan Kyung; Kim, Chang Kon; Kim, Miri; Lee, Hai Whang; Cho, Soo Gyeong

    2013-01-01

    Prediction of physicochemical properties of organic molecules is an important process in chemistry and chemical engineering. The MSEP approach developed in our lab calculates the molecular surface electrostatic potential (ESP) on van der Waals (vdW) surfaces of molecules. This approach includes geometry optimization and frequency calculation using hybrid density functional theory, B3LYP, at the 6-31G(d) basis set to find minima on the potential energy surface, and is known to give satisfactory QSPR results for various properties of organic molecules. However, this MSEP method is not applicable to screen large database because geometry optimization and frequency calculation require considerable computing time. To develop a fast but yet reliable approach, we have re-examined our previous work on organic molecules using two semi-empirical methods, AM1 and PM3. This new approach can be an efficient protocol in designing new molecules with improved properties

  20. Critical Realism and Empirical Bioethics: A Methodological Exposition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKeown, Alex

    2017-09-01

    This paper shows how critical realism can be used to integrate empirical data and philosophical analysis within 'empirical bioethics'. The term empirical bioethics, whilst appearing oxymoronic, simply refers to an interdisciplinary approach to the resolution of practical ethical issues within the biological and life sciences, integrating social scientific, empirical data with philosophical analysis. It seeks to achieve a balanced form of ethical deliberation that is both logically rigorous and sensitive to context, to generate normative conclusions that are practically applicable to the problem, challenge, or dilemma. Since it incorporates both philosophical and social scientific components, empirical bioethics is a field that is consistent with the use of critical realism as a research methodology. The integration of philosophical and social scientific approaches to ethics has been beset with difficulties, not least because of the irreducibly normative, rather than descriptive, nature of ethical analysis and the contested relation between fact and value. However, given that facts about states of affairs inform potential courses of action and their consequences, there is a need to overcome these difficulties and successfully integrate data with theory. Previous approaches have been formulated to overcome obstacles in combining philosophical and social scientific perspectives in bioethical analysis; however each has shortcomings. As a mature interdisciplinary approach critical realism is well suited to empirical bioethics, although it has hitherto not been widely used. Here I show how it can be applied to this kind of research and explain how it represents an improvement on previous approaches.

  1. Benefits of Applying Hierarchical Models to the Empirical Green's Function Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denolle, M.; Van Houtte, C.

    2017-12-01

    Stress drops calculated from source spectral studies currently show larger variability than what is implied by empirical ground motion models. One of the potential origins of the inflated variability is the simplified model-fitting techniques used in most source spectral studies. This study improves upon these existing methods, and shows that the fitting method may explain some of the discrepancy. In particular, Bayesian hierarchical modelling is shown to be a method that can reduce bias, better quantify uncertainties and allow additional effects to be resolved. The method is applied to the Mw7.1 Kumamoto, Japan earthquake, and other global, moderate-magnitude, strike-slip earthquakes between Mw5 and Mw7.5. It is shown that the variation of the corner frequency, fc, and the falloff rate, n, across the focal sphere can be reliably retrieved without overfitting the data. Additionally, it is shown that methods commonly used to calculate corner frequencies can give substantial biases. In particular, if fc were calculated for the Kumamoto earthquake using a model with a falloff rate fixed at 2 instead of the best fit 1.6, the obtained fc would be as large as twice its realistic value. The reliable retrieval of the falloff rate allows deeper examination of this parameter for a suite of global, strike-slip earthquakes, and its scaling with magnitude. The earthquake sequences considered in this study are from Japan, New Zealand, Haiti and California.

  2. Inglorious Empire

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Khair, Tabish

    2017-01-01

    Review of 'Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India' by Shashi Tharoor, London, Hurst Publishers, 2017, 296 pp., £20.00......Review of 'Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India' by Shashi Tharoor, London, Hurst Publishers, 2017, 296 pp., £20.00...

  3. Design and experimentation of an empirical multistructure framework for accurate, sharp and reliable hydrological ensembles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seiller, G.; Anctil, F.; Roy, R.

    2017-09-01

    This paper outlines the design and experimentation of an Empirical Multistructure Framework (EMF) for lumped conceptual hydrological modeling. This concept is inspired from modular frameworks, empirical model development, and multimodel applications, and encompasses the overproduce and select paradigm. The EMF concept aims to reduce subjectivity in conceptual hydrological modeling practice and includes model selection in the optimisation steps, reducing initial assumptions on the prior perception of the dominant rainfall-runoff transformation processes. EMF generates thousands of new modeling options from, for now, twelve parent models that share their functional components and parameters. Optimisation resorts to ensemble calibration, ranking and selection of individual child time series based on optimal bias and reliability trade-offs, as well as accuracy and sharpness improvement of the ensemble. Results on 37 snow-dominated Canadian catchments and 20 climatically-diversified American catchments reveal the excellent potential of the EMF in generating new individual model alternatives, with high respective performance values, that may be pooled efficiently into ensembles of seven to sixty constitutive members, with low bias and high accuracy, sharpness, and reliability. A group of 1446 new models is highlighted to offer good potential on other catchments or applications, based on their individual and collective interests. An analysis of the preferred functional components reveals the importance of the production and total flow elements. Overall, results from this research confirm the added value of ensemble and flexible approaches for hydrological applications, especially in uncertain contexts, and open up new modeling possibilities.

  4. Indicial lift response function: an empirical relation for finite‐thickness airfoils, and effects on aeroelastic simulations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bergami, Leonardo; Gaunaa, Mac; Heinz, Joachim Christian

    2013-01-01

    The aeroelastic response of wind turbines is often simulated in the time domain by using indicial response techniques. Unsteady aerodynamics in attached flow are usually based on Jones's approximation of the flat plate indicial response, although the response for finite‐thickness airfoils differs...... from the flat plate one. The indicial lift response of finite‐thickness airfoils is simulated with a panel code, and an empirical relation is outlined connecting the airfoil indicial response to its geometric characteristics. The effects of different indicial approximations are evaluated on a 2D...... of equivalent fatigue loads, ultimate loads, and stability limits. The agreement with CFD computations of a 2D profile in harmonic motion is improved by the indicial function accounting for the finite‐thickness of the airfoil. Concerning the full wind turbine aeroelastic behavior, the differences between...

  5. A CALCULATION OF SEMI-EMPIRICAL ONE-ELECTRON WAVE FUNCTIONS FOR MULTI-ELECTRON ATOMS USED FOR ELEMENTARY PROCESS SIMULATION IN NONLOCAL PLASMA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. V. Tchernycheva

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Subject of Research. The paper deals with development outcomes for creation method of one-electron wave functions of complex atoms, relatively simple, symmetrical for all atom electrons and free from hard computations. The accuracy and resource intensity of the approach are focused on systematic calculations of cross sections and rate constants of elementary processes of inelastic collisions of atoms or molecules with electrons (ionization, excitation, excitation transfer, and others. Method. The method is based on a set of two iterative processes. At the first iteration step the Schrödinger equation was solved numerically for the radial parts of the electron wave functions in the potential of the atomic core self-consistent field. At the second iteration step the new approximationfor the atomic core field is created that uses found solutions for all one-electron wave functions. The solution optimization for described multiparameter problem is achieved by the use of genetic algorithm. The suitability of the developed method was verified by comparing the calculation results with numerous data on the energies of atoms in the ground and excited states. Main Results. We have created the run-time version of the program for creation of sets of one-electron wave functions and calculation of the cross sections and constants of collisional transition rates in the first Born approximation. The priori available information about binding energies of the electrons for any many-particle system for creation of semi-empirical refined solutions for the one-electron wave functions can be considered at any step of this procedure. Practical Relevance. The proposed solution enables a simple and rapid preparation of input data for the numerical simulation of nonlocal gas discharge plasma. The approach is focused on the calculation of discharges in complex gas mixtures requiring inclusion in the model of a large number of elementary collisional and radiation

  6. Empirical Estimates in Economic and Financial Optimization Problems

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Houda, Michal; Kaňková, Vlasta

    2012-01-01

    Roč. 19, č. 29 (2012), s. 50-69 ISSN 1212-074X R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP402/10/1610; GA ČR GAP402/11/0150; GA ČR GAP402/10/0956 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : stochastic programming * empirical estimates * moment generating functions * stability * Wasserstein metric * L1-norm * Lipschitz property * consistence * convergence rate * normal distribution * Pareto distribution * Weibull distribution * distribution tails * simulation Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2012/E/houda-empirical estimates in economic and financial optimization problems.pdf

  7. Trade costs in empirical New Economic Geography

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bosker, E.M.; Garretsen, J.H.

    Trade costs are a crucial element of New Economic Geography (NEG) models. Without trade costs there is no role for geography. In empirical NEG studies the unavailability of direct trade cost data calls for the need to approximate these trade costs by introducing a trade cost function. In doing so,

  8. Uncertainty in Measurement: A Review of Monte Carlo Simulation Using Microsoft Excel for the Calculation of Uncertainties Through Functional Relationships, Including Uncertainties in Empirically Derived Constants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrance, Ian; Frenkel, Robert

    2014-01-01

    The Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (usually referred to as the GUM) provides the basic framework for evaluating uncertainty in measurement. The GUM however does not always provide clearly identifiable procedures suitable for medical laboratory applications, particularly when internal quality control (IQC) is used to derive most of the uncertainty estimates. The GUM modelling approach requires advanced mathematical skills for many of its procedures, but Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be used as an alternative for many medical laboratory applications. In particular, calculations for determining how uncertainties in the input quantities to a functional relationship propagate through to the output can be accomplished using a readily available spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. The MCS procedure uses algorithmically generated pseudo-random numbers which are then forced to follow a prescribed probability distribution. When IQC data provide the uncertainty estimates the normal (Gaussian) distribution is generally considered appropriate, but MCS is by no means restricted to this particular case. With input variations simulated by random numbers, the functional relationship then provides the corresponding variations in the output in a manner which also provides its probability distribution. The MCS procedure thus provides output uncertainty estimates without the need for the differential equations associated with GUM modelling. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the ease with which Microsoft Excel (or a similar spreadsheet) can be used to provide an uncertainty estimate for measurands derived through a functional relationship. In addition, we also consider the relatively common situation where an empirically derived formula includes one or more ‘constants’, each of which has an empirically derived numerical value. Such empirically derived ‘constants’ must also have associated uncertainties which propagate through the functional

  9. Uncertainty in measurement: a review of monte carlo simulation using microsoft excel for the calculation of uncertainties through functional relationships, including uncertainties in empirically derived constants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrance, Ian; Frenkel, Robert

    2014-02-01

    The Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (usually referred to as the GUM) provides the basic framework for evaluating uncertainty in measurement. The GUM however does not always provide clearly identifiable procedures suitable for medical laboratory applications, particularly when internal quality control (IQC) is used to derive most of the uncertainty estimates. The GUM modelling approach requires advanced mathematical skills for many of its procedures, but Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be used as an alternative for many medical laboratory applications. In particular, calculations for determining how uncertainties in the input quantities to a functional relationship propagate through to the output can be accomplished using a readily available spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. The MCS procedure uses algorithmically generated pseudo-random numbers which are then forced to follow a prescribed probability distribution. When IQC data provide the uncertainty estimates the normal (Gaussian) distribution is generally considered appropriate, but MCS is by no means restricted to this particular case. With input variations simulated by random numbers, the functional relationship then provides the corresponding variations in the output in a manner which also provides its probability distribution. The MCS procedure thus provides output uncertainty estimates without the need for the differential equations associated with GUM modelling. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the ease with which Microsoft Excel (or a similar spreadsheet) can be used to provide an uncertainty estimate for measurands derived through a functional relationship. In addition, we also consider the relatively common situation where an empirically derived formula includes one or more 'constants', each of which has an empirically derived numerical value. Such empirically derived 'constants' must also have associated uncertainties which propagate through the functional relationship

  10. The detailed balance requirement and general empirical formalisms for continuum absorption

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Q.; Tipping, R. H.

    1994-01-01

    Two general empirical formalisms are presented for the spectral density which take into account the deviations from the Lorentz line shape in the wing regions of resonance lines. These formalisms satisfy the detailed balance requirement. Empirical line shape functions, which are essential to provide the continuum absorption at different temperatures in various frequency regions for atmospheric transmission codes, can be obtained by fitting to experimental data.

  11. Marketing-oriented strategy concept and its empirical testing with large sawmills.

    OpenAIRE

    Niemelä, Juha S.

    1993-01-01

    The objectives of this study are both theoretical and empirical. On the theoretical level strategy concept, its operationalization and measurement are analyzed and clarified. On the empirical level marketing strategies and competitive strategies are described by country, and the study also identifies the strategic marketing decisions characterizing different countries or competitive strategies. Furthermore, the relationships between strategies and marketing structures and functions are analyz...

  12. Neural network consistent empirical physical formula construction for neutron–gamma discrimination in gamma ray tracking

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yildiz, Nihat; Akkoyun, Serkan

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: ► Detector responses in neutron–gamma discrimination were estimated by neural networks. ► Novel consistent neural network empirical physical formulas (EPFs) were constructed for detector responses. ► The EPFs are of explicit mathematical functional form. ► The EPFs can be used to derive various physical functions relevant to neutron–gamma discrimination in gamma ray tracking. -- Abstract: Gamma ray tracking is an efficient detection technique in studying exotic nuclei which lies far from beta stability line. To achieve very powerful and extraordinary resolution ability, new detectors based on gamma ray tracking are currently being developed. To reach this achievement, the neutron–gamma discrimination in these detectors is also an important task. In this paper, by suitable layered feedforward neural networks (LFNNs), we have constructed novel and consistent empirical physical formulas (EPFs) for some highly nonlinear detector counts measured in neutron–gamma discrimination. The detector counts data used in the discrimination was actually borrowed from our previous paper. The counts used here had been originally measured versus the following parameters: energy deposited in the first interaction points, difference in the incoming direction of initial gamma rays, and finally figure of merit values of the clusters determined by tracking. The LFNN–EPFs are of explicit mathematical functional form. Therefore, by various suitable operations of mathematical analysis, these LFNN–EPFs can be used to derivate further physical functions which might be potentially relevant to neutron–gamma discrimination performance of gamma ray tracking.

  13. Lessons from empirical studies in product and service variety management.

    OpenAIRE

    Lyons, Andrew C.L.

    2013-01-01

    [EN] For many years, a trend for businesses has been to increase market segmentation and extend product and service-variety offerings in order to provid more choice for customers and gain a competitive advantags. However, there have been relatively few variety-related, empirical studies that have been undertaken. In this research, two empirical studies are presented that address the impact of product and service variety on business and business function performance. In the first (service-vari...

  14. Empirical temperature-dependent intermolecular potentials determined by data mining from crystal data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofmann, D. W. M.; Kuleshova, L. N.

    2018-05-01

    Modern force fields are accurate enough to describe thermal effects in molecular crystals. Here, we have extended our earlier approach to discrete force fields for various temperatures to a force field with a continuous function. For the parametrisation of the force field, we used data mining on experimental structures with the temperature as an additional descriptor. The obtained force field can be used to minimise energy at a finite temperature and for molecular dynamics with zero-K potentials. The applicability of the method has been demonstrated for the prediction of crystal density, temperature density gradients and transition temperature.

  15. Folding pathways explored with artificial potential functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ulutaş, B; Bozma, I; Haliloglu, T

    2009-01-01

    This paper considers the generation of trajectories to a given protein conformation and presents a novel approach based on artificial potential functions—originally proposed for multi-robot navigation. The artificial potential function corresponds to a simplified energy model, but with the novelty that—motivated by work on robotic navigation—a nonlinear compositional scheme of constructing the energy model is adapted instead of an additive formulation. The artificial potential naturally gives rise to a dynamic system for the protein structure that ensures collision-free motion to an equilibrium point. In cases where the equilibrium point is the native conformation, the motion trajectory corresponds to the folding pathway. This framework is used to investigate folding in a variety of protein structures, and the results are compared with those of other approaches including experimental studies

  16. An ACE-based Nonlinear Extension to Traditional Empirical Orthogonal Function Analysis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hilger, Klaus Baggesen; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Andersen, Ole

    2001-01-01

    This paper shows the application of the empirical orthogonal unctions/principal component transformation on global sea surface height and temperature data from 1996 and 1997. A nonlinear correlation analysis of the transformed data is proposed and performed by applying the alternating conditional...... expectations algorithm. New canonical variates are found that indicate that the highest correlation between ocean temperature and height is associated with the build-up of the El Niño during the last half of 1997....

  17. Empirical Estimates in Stochastic Optimization via Distribution Tails

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Kaňková, Vlasta

    2010-01-01

    Roč. 46, č. 3 (2010), s. 459-471 ISSN 0023-5954. [International Conference on Mathematical Methods in Economy and Industry. České Budějovice, 15.06.2009-18.06.2009] R&D Projects: GA ČR GA402/07/1113; GA ČR(CZ) GA402/08/0107; GA MŠk(CZ) LC06075 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : Stochastic programming problems * Stability * Wasserstein metric * L_1 norm * Lipschitz property * Empirical estimates * Convergence rate * Exponential tails * Heavy tails * Pareto distribution * Risk functional * Empirical quantiles Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research Impact factor: 0.461, year: 2010

  18. A DSM-based framework for integrated function modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Eisenbart, Boris; Gericke, Kilian; Blessing, Lucienne T. M.

    2017-01-01

    an integrated function modelling framework, which specifically aims at relating between the different function modelling perspectives prominently addressed in different disciplines. It uses interlinked matrices based on the concept of DSM and MDM in order to facilitate cross-disciplinary modelling and analysis...... of the functionality of a system. The article further presents the application of the framework based on a product example. Finally, an empirical study in industry is presented. Therein, feedback on the potential of the proposed framework to support interdisciplinary design practice as well as on areas of further...

  19. Improving the Remote Sensing Retrieval of Phytoplankton Functional Types (PFT Using Empirical Orthogonal Functions: A Case Study in a Coastal Upwelling Region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Correa-Ramirez

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available An approach that improves the spectral-based PHYSAT method for identifying phytoplankton functional types (PFT in satellite ocean-color imagery is developed and applied to one study case. This new approach, called PHYSTWO, relies on the assumption that the dominant effect of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a in the normalized water-leaving radiance (nLw spectrum can be effectively isolated from the signal of accessory pigment biomarkers of different PFT by using Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF decomposition. PHYSTWO operates in the dimensionless plane composed by the first two EOF modes generated through the decomposition of a space–nLw matrix at seven wavelengths (412, 443, 469, 488, 531, 547, and 555 nm. PFT determination is performed using orthogonal models derived from the acceptable ranges of anomalies proposed by PHYSAT but adjusted with the available regional and global data. In applying PHYSTWO to study phytoplankton community structures in the coastal upwelling system off central Chile, we find that this method increases the accuracy of PFT identification, extends the application of this tool to waters with high Chl-a concentration, and significantly decreases (~60% the undetermined retrievals when compared with PHYSAT. The improved accuracy of PHYSTWO and its applicability for the identification of new PFT are discussed.

  20. Quantization function for attractive, singular potential tails; Die Quantisierungsfunktion fuer attraktive, singulaere Potentialschwaenze

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Raab, Patrick N.

    2010-02-04

    The interaction between atoms and molecules with each other are deep potential wells with attractive, singular tails. Bound state energies are determined by a quantization function according to a simple quantization rule. This function is dominantly determined by the singular potential tail for near-threshold states. General expressions for the low- and high-energy contributions of the singular potential tail to the quantization function, as well as the connection to the scattering length are presented in two and three dimensions. Precise analytical expressions for the quantization function are determined for the case of potential tails proportional to -1/r{sup 4} and -1/r{sup 6} for three dimensions. (orig.)

  1. Reflective equilibrium and empirical data: third person moral experiences in empirical medical ethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Vries, Martine; Van Leeuwen, Evert

    2010-11-01

    In ethics, the use of empirical data has become more and more popular, leading to a distinct form of applied ethics, namely empirical ethics. This 'empirical turn' is especially visible in bioethics. There are various ways of combining empirical research and ethical reflection. In this paper we discuss the use of empirical data in a special form of Reflective Equilibrium (RE), namely the Network Model with Third Person Moral Experiences. In this model, the empirical data consist of the moral experiences of people in a practice. Although inclusion of these moral experiences in this specific model of RE can be well defended, their use in the application of the model still raises important questions. What precisely are moral experiences? How to determine relevance of experiences, in other words: should there be a selection of the moral experiences that are eventually used in the RE? How much weight should the empirical data have in the RE? And the key question: can the use of RE by empirical ethicists really produce answers to practical moral questions? In this paper we start to answer the above questions by giving examples taken from our research project on understanding the norm of informed consent in the field of pediatric oncology. We especially emphasize that incorporation of empirical data in a network model can reduce the risk of self-justification and bias and can increase the credibility of the RE reached. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  2. Empirical research in medical ethics: How conceptual accounts on normative-empirical collaboration may improve research practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background The methodology of medical ethics during the last few decades has shifted from a predominant use of normative-philosophical analyses to an increasing involvement of empirical methods. The articles which have been published in the course of this so-called 'empirical turn' can be divided into conceptual accounts of empirical-normative collaboration and studies which use socio-empirical methods to investigate ethically relevant issues in concrete social contexts. Discussion A considered reference to normative research questions can be expected from good quality empirical research in medical ethics. However, a significant proportion of empirical studies currently published in medical ethics lacks such linkage between the empirical research and the normative analysis. In the first part of this paper, we will outline two typical shortcomings of empirical studies in medical ethics with regard to a link between normative questions and empirical data: (1) The complete lack of normative analysis, and (2) cryptonormativity and a missing account with regard to the relationship between 'is' and 'ought' statements. Subsequently, two selected concepts of empirical-normative collaboration will be presented and how these concepts may contribute to improve the linkage between normative and empirical aspects of empirical research in medical ethics will be demonstrated. Based on our analysis, as well as our own practical experience with empirical research in medical ethics, we conclude with a sketch of concrete suggestions for the conduct of empirical research in medical ethics. Summary High quality empirical research in medical ethics is in need of a considered reference to normative analysis. In this paper, we demonstrate how conceptual approaches of empirical-normative collaboration can enhance empirical research in medical ethics with regard to the link between empirical research and normative analysis. PMID:22500496

  3. Functionality of empirical model-based predictive analytics for the early detection of hemodynamic instabilty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Summers, Richard L; Pipke, Matt; Wegerich, Stephan; Conkright, Gary; Isom, Kristen C

    2014-01-01

    Background. Monitoring cardiovascular hemodynamics in the modern clinical setting is a major challenge. Increasing amounts of physiologic data must be analyzed and interpreted in the context of the individual patient’s pathology and inherent biologic variability. Certain data-driven analytical methods are currently being explored for smart monitoring of data streams from patients as a first tier automated detection system for clinical deterioration. As a prelude to human clinical trials, an empirical multivariate machine learning method called Similarity-Based Modeling (“SBM”), was tested in an In Silico experiment using data generated with the aid of a detailed computer simulator of human physiology (Quantitative Circulatory Physiology or “QCP”) which contains complex control systems with realistic integrated feedback loops. Methods. SBM is a kernel-based, multivariate machine learning method that that uses monitored clinical information to generate an empirical model of a patient’s physiologic state. This platform allows for the use of predictive analytic techniques to identify early changes in a patient’s condition that are indicative of a state of deterioration or instability. The integrity of the technique was tested through an In Silico experiment using QCP in which the output of computer simulations of a slowly evolving cardiac tamponade resulted in progressive state of cardiovascular decompensation. Simulator outputs for the variables under consideration were generated at a 2-min data rate (0.083Hz) with the tamponade introduced at a point 420 minutes into the simulation sequence. The functionality of the SBM predictive analytics methodology to identify clinical deterioration was compared to the thresholds used by conventional monitoring methods. Results. The SBM modeling method was found to closely track the normal physiologic variation as simulated by QCP. With the slow development of the tamponade, the SBM model are seen to disagree while the

  4. Geostationary Satellite Observation of Precipitable Water Vapor Using an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF based Reconstruction Technique over Eastern China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Man Sing Wong

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Water vapor, as one of the most important greenhouse gases, is crucial for both climate and atmospheric studies. Considering the high spatial and temporal variations of water vapor, a timely and accurate retrieval of precipitable water vapor (PWV is urgently needed, but has long been constrained by data availability. Our study derived the vertically integrated precipitable water vapor over eastern China using Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT data, which is in geostationary orbit with high temporal resolution. The missing pixels caused by cloud contamination were reconstructed using an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF decomposition method over both spatial and temporal dimensions. GPS meteorology data were used to validate the retrieval and the reconstructed results. The diurnal variation of PWV over eastern China was analyzed using harmonic analysis, which indicates that the reconstructed PWV data can depict the diurnal cycle of PWV caused by evapotranspiration and local thermal circulation.

  5. Increasing the applicability of density functional theory. IV. Consequences of ionization-potential improved exchange-correlation potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verma, Prakash; Bartlett, Rodney J

    2014-05-14

    This paper's objective is to create a "consistent" mean-field based Kohn-Sham (KS) density functional theory (DFT) meaning the functional should not only provide good total energy properties, but also the corresponding KS eigenvalues should be accurate approximations to the vertical ionization potentials (VIPs) of the molecule, as the latter condition attests to the viability of the exchange-correlation potential (VXC). None of the prominently used DFT approaches show these properties: the optimized effective potential VXC based ab initio dft does. A local, range-separated hybrid potential cam-QTP-00 is introduced as the basis for a "consistent" KS DFT approach. The computed VIPs as the negative of KS eigenvalue have a mean absolute error of 0.8 eV for an extensive set of molecule's electron ionizations, including the core. Barrier heights, equilibrium geometries, and magnetic properties obtained from the potential are in good agreement with experiment. A similar accuracy with less computational efforts can be achieved by using a non-variational global hybrid variant of the QTP-00 approach.

  6. Hierarchy of model Kohn–Sham potentials for orbital-dependent functionals: A practical alternative to the optimized effective potential method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kohut, Sviataslau V.; Staroverov, Viktor N.; Ryabinkin, Ilya G.

    2014-01-01

    We describe a method for constructing a hierarchy of model potentials approximating the functional derivative of a given orbital-dependent exchange-correlation functional with respect to electron density. Each model is derived by assuming a particular relationship between the self-consistent solutions of Kohn–Sham (KS) and generalized Kohn–Sham (GKS) equations for the same functional. In the KS scheme, the functional is differentiated with respect to density, in the GKS scheme—with respect to orbitals. The lowest-level approximation is the orbital-averaged effective potential (OAEP) built with the GKS orbitals. The second-level approximation, termed the orbital-consistent effective potential (OCEP), is based on the assumption that the KS and GKS orbitals are the same. It has the form of the OAEP plus a correction term. The highest-level approximation is the density-consistent effective potential (DCEP), derived under the assumption that the KS and GKS electron densities are equal. The analytic expression for a DCEP is the OCEP formula augmented with kinetic-energy-density-dependent terms. In the case of exact-exchange functional, the OAEP is the Slater potential, the OCEP is roughly equivalent to the localized Hartree–Fock approximation and related models, and the DCEP is practically indistinguishable from the true optimized effective potential for exact exchange. All three levels of the proposed hierarchy require solutions of the GKS equations as input and have the same affordable computational cost

  7. An Empirical Bayes Approach to Mantel-Haenszel DIF Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zwick, Rebecca; Thayer, Dorothy T.; Lewis, Charles

    1999-01-01

    Developed an empirical Bayes enhancement to Mantel-Haenszel (MH) analysis of differential item functioning (DIF) in which it is assumed that the MH statistics are normally distributed and that the prior distribution of underlying DIF parameters is also normal. (Author/SLD)

  8. Mentoring Function and Quality of Supervisor Auditor Relationship: Organizational Justice as A Mediation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rahmawati Rahmawati

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This study empirically examines the antecedents and consequences of organization justice consisting of distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice. The hypothesis of this study are mentoring function positive effect on organization justice, organizational justice positive effect on quality of supervisor-auditor relationship, mentoring function positive effect on quality of supervisor-auditor relationship. In additional, this study also hypothesized that organization justice as mediation between mentoring functions and quality of supervisor-auditor relationship. This study is a survey of 228 government internal auditors of Financial and Development Supervisory Agency-Badan Pengawasan Keuangan dan Pembangunan (BPKP in Java-Bali Indonesia. The technique of collecting data using questionnaires. Test hypotheses using path analysis with SEM-AMOS. The results showed that mentoring function positive effect on organization justice, organizational justice positive effect on quality of supervisor-auditor relationship, mentoring function positive effect on quality of supervisor-auditor relationship. The study also provide an empirical finding that organization justice as mediation between mentoring functions and quality of supervisor-auditor relationship. The study provides recommendations to the BPKP in solving the problems faced by the government in realizing good and clean governance. This study is the first empirically examines the potential benefit of organization justice as a mediation between mentoring function and quality of supervisor-auditor relationship.

  9. Empirical dual energy calibration (EDEC) for cone-beam computed tomography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stenner, Philip; Berkus, Timo; Kachelriess, Marc

    2007-01-01

    Material-selective imaging using dual energy CT (DECT) relies heavily on well-calibrated material decomposition functions. These require the precise knowledge of the detected x-ray spectra, and even if they are exactly known the reliability of DECT will suffer from scattered radiation. We propose an empirical method to determine the proper decomposition function. In contrast to other decomposition algorithms our empirical dual energy calibration (EDEC) technique requires neither knowledge of the spectra nor of the attenuation coefficients. The desired material-selective raw data p 1 and p 2 are obtained as functions of the measured attenuation data q 1 and q 2 (one DECT scan=two raw data sets) by passing them through a polynomial function. The polynomial's coefficients are determined using a general least squares fit based on thresholded images of a calibration phantom. The calibration phantom's dimension should be of the same order of magnitude as the test object, but other than that no assumptions on its exact size or positioning are made. Once the decomposition coefficients are determined DECT raw data can be decomposed by simply passing them through the polynomial. To demonstrate EDEC simulations of an oval CTDI phantom, a lung phantom, a thorax phantom and a mouse phantom were carried out. The method was further verified by measuring a physical mouse phantom, a half-and-half-cylinder phantom and a Yin-Yang phantom with a dedicated in vivo dual source micro-CT scanner. The raw data were decomposed into their components, reconstructed, and the pixel values obtained were compared to the theoretical values. The determination of the calibration coefficients with EDEC is very robust and depends only slightly on the type of calibration phantom used. The images of the test phantoms (simulations and measurements) show a nearly perfect agreement with the theoretical μ values and density values. Since EDEC is an empirical technique it inherently compensates for scatter

  10. Empirical scaling for present ohmic heated tokamaks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daughney, C.

    1975-06-01

    Empirical scaling laws are given for the average electron temperature and electron energy confinement time as functions of plasma current, average electron density, effective ion charge, toroidal magnetic field, and major and minor plasma radius. The ohmic heating is classical, and the electron energy transport is anomalous. The present scaling indicates that ohmic-heating becomes ineffective with larger experiments. (U.S.)

  11. Empirical Philosophy of Science

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mansnerus, Erika; Wagenknecht, Susann

    2015-01-01

    knowledge takes place through the integration of the empirical or historical research into the philosophical studies, as Chang, Nersessian, Thagard and Schickore argue in their work. Building upon their contributions we will develop a blueprint for an Empirical Philosophy of Science that draws upon...... qualitative methods from the social sciences in order to advance our philosophical understanding of science in practice. We will regard the relationship between philosophical conceptualization and empirical data as an iterative dialogue between theory and data, which is guided by a particular ‘feeling with......Empirical insights are proven fruitful for the advancement of Philosophy of Science, but the integration of philosophical concepts and empirical data poses considerable methodological challenges. Debates in Integrated History and Philosophy of Science suggest that the advancement of philosophical...

  12. Multi-Scale Pixel-Based Image Fusion Using Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naveed ur Rehman

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available A novel scheme to perform the fusion of multiple images using the multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD algorithm is proposed. Standard multi-scale fusion techniques make a priori assumptions regarding input data, whereas standard univariate empirical mode decomposition (EMD-based fusion techniques suffer from inherent mode mixing and mode misalignment issues, characterized respectively by either a single intrinsic mode function (IMF containing multiple scales or the same indexed IMFs corresponding to multiple input images carrying different frequency information. We show that MEMD overcomes these problems by being fully data adaptive and by aligning common frequency scales from multiple channels, thus enabling their comparison at a pixel level and subsequent fusion at multiple data scales. We then demonstrate the potential of the proposed scheme on a large dataset of real-world multi-exposure and multi-focus images and compare the results against those obtained from standard fusion algorithms, including the principal component analysis (PCA, discrete wavelet transform (DWT and non-subsampled contourlet transform (NCT. A variety of image fusion quality measures are employed for the objective evaluation of the proposed method. We also report the results of a hypothesis testing approach on our large image dataset to identify statistically-significant performance differences.

  13. Dual-well potential field function for articulated manipulator trajectory planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmed Badawy

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available A new attractive potential field function is proposed in this paper for manipulator trajectory planning. Existing attractive potential field constructs a global minimum through which maneuvering objects move down the gradient of the potential field toward this global minimum. The proposed method constructs a potential field with two minima. The purpose of these two minima is to create a dual attraction between links rather than affecting each link by the preceding one through kinematic constraints.

  14. Generating functionals for quantum field theories with random potentials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jain, Mudit; Vanchurin, Vitaly

    2016-01-01

    We consider generating functionals for computing correlators in quantum field theories with random potentials. Examples of such theories include cosmological systems in context of the string theory landscape (e.g. cosmic inflation) or condensed matter systems with quenched disorder (e.g. spin glass). We use the so-called replica trick to define two different generating functionals for calculating correlators of the quantum fields averaged over a given distribution of random potentials. The first generating functional is appropriate for calculating averaged (in-out) amplitudes and involves a single replica of fields, but the replica limit is taken to an (unphysical) negative one number of fields outside of the path integral. When the number of replicas is doubled the generating functional can also be used for calculating averaged probabilities (squared amplitudes) using the in-in construction. The second generating functional involves an infinite number of replicas, but can be used for calculating both in-out and in-in correlators and the replica limits are taken to only a zero number of fields. We discuss the formalism in details for a single real scalar field, but the generalization to more fields or to different types of fields is straightforward. We work out three examples: one where the mass of scalar field is treated as a random variable and two where the functional form of interactions is random, one described by a Gaussian random field and the other by a Euclidean action in the field configuration space.

  15. What 'empirical turn in bioethics'?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hurst, Samia

    2010-10-01

    Uncertainty as to how we should articulate empirical data and normative reasoning seems to underlie most difficulties regarding the 'empirical turn' in bioethics. This article examines three different ways in which we could understand 'empirical turn'. Using real facts in normative reasoning is trivial and would not represent a 'turn'. Becoming an empirical discipline through a shift to the social and neurosciences would be a turn away from normative thinking, which we should not take. Conducting empirical research to inform normative reasoning is the usual meaning given to the term 'empirical turn'. In this sense, however, the turn is incomplete. Bioethics has imported methodological tools from empirical disciplines, but too often it has not imported the standards to which researchers in these disciplines are held. Integrating empirical and normative approaches also represents true added difficulties. Addressing these issues from the standpoint of debates on the fact-value distinction can cloud very real methodological concerns by displacing the debate to a level of abstraction where they need not be apparent. Ideally, empirical research in bioethics should meet standards for empirical and normative validity similar to those used in the source disciplines for these methods, and articulate these aspects clearly and appropriately. More modestly, criteria to ensure that none of these standards are completely left aside would improve the quality of empirical bioethics research and partly clear the air of critiques addressing its theoretical justification, when its rigour in the particularly difficult context of interdisciplinarity is what should be at stake.

  16. Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis as Potential Functional Starter Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jelena Cvrtila

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to identify and characterise potential autochthonous functional starter cultures in homemade horsemeat sausage. The dominant microflora in the samples of horsemeat sausage were lactic acid bacteria (LAB, followed by micrococci. Among the LAB, Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis and Lactobacillus plantarum were the dominant species, and since the first is not common in fermented sausages, we characterised it as a potential functional starter culture. Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis produced a significant amount of lactic acid, displayed good growth capability at 12, 18 and 22 °C, growth in the presence of 5 % NaCl, good viability after lyophilisation and in simulated gastric and small intestinal juice, antimicrobial activity against test pathogens, and good adhesive properties in vitro.

  17. Empirical Studies on Legitimation Strategies: A Case for International Business Research Extension

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Turcan, Romeo V.; Marinova, Svetla Trifonova; Rana, Mohammad Bakhtiar

    2012-01-01

    The paper focuses on legitimation and legitimation strategies applied by companies. Following the process of systematic review, we analyze empirical studies exploring legitimation and legitimation strategies from different theoretical perspectives. Using the key findings by reconnoitering and com...... and comparing the theoretical background, approaches, methodologies, and findings of these empirical studies, we outline potential directions for research in the legitimation strategies of firms engaged in international business operations....

  18. Potential Mechanisms and Functions of Intermittent Neural Synchronization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sungwoo Ahn

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Neural synchronization is believed to play an important role in different brain functions. Synchrony in cortical and subcortical circuits is frequently variable in time and not perfect. Few long intervals of desynchronized dynamics may be functionally different from many short desynchronized intervals although the average synchrony may be the same. Recent analysis of imperfect synchrony in different neural systems reported one common feature: neural oscillations may go out of synchrony frequently, but primarily for a short time interval. This study explores potential mechanisms and functional advantages of this short desynchronizations dynamics using computational neuroscience techniques. We show that short desynchronizations are exhibited in coupled neurons if their delayed rectifier potassium current has relatively large values of the voltage-dependent activation time-constant. The delayed activation of potassium current is associated with generation of quickly-rising action potential. This “spikiness” is a very general property of neurons. This may explain why very different neural systems exhibit short desynchronization dynamics. We also show how the distribution of desynchronization durations may be independent of the synchronization strength. Finally, we show that short desynchronization dynamics requires weaker synaptic input to reach a pre-set synchrony level. Thus, this dynamics allows for efficient regulation of synchrony and may promote efficient formation of synchronous neural assemblies.

  19. Investigation of excitation functions using new evaluated empirical and semi-empirical systematic for 14-15 MeV (n, t) reaction cross sections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tel, E.; Aydin, E. G.; Aydin, A.; Kaplan, A.

    2007-01-01

    The hybrid reactor is a combination of the fusion and fission processes. In the fusion-fission hybrid reactor, tritium self-sufficiency must be maintained for a commercial power plant. For self-sustaining (D-T) fusion driver tritium breeding ratio should be greater than 1.05. Working out the systematics of (n,t) reaction cross sections is of great importance for the definition of the excitation function character for the given reaction taking place on various nuclei at energies up to 20 MeV. In this study, we have investigated the asymmetry term effect for the (n,t) reaction cross sections at 14-15 neutron incident energy. It has been discussed the odd even effect and the pairing effect considering binding energy systematic of the nuclear shell model for the new experimental data and new cross section formulas (n,t) reactions developed by Tel et al. We have determined a different parameter groups by the classification of nuclei into even-even, even-odd and odd-even for (n,t) reactions cross sections. The obtained empirical formulas by fitting two parameter for (n,t) reactions were given. All calculated results have been compared with the experimental data. By using the new cross sections formulas (n,t) reactions the obtained results have been discussed and compared with the available experimental data

  20. Moment Conditions Selection Based on Adaptive Penalized Empirical Likelihood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunquan Song

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Empirical likelihood is a very popular method and has been widely used in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI and data mining as tablets and mobile application and social media dominate the technology landscape. This paper proposes an empirical likelihood shrinkage method to efficiently estimate unknown parameters and select correct moment conditions simultaneously, when the model is defined by moment restrictions in which some are possibly misspecified. We show that our method enjoys oracle-like properties; that is, it consistently selects the correct moment conditions and at the same time its estimator is as efficient as the empirical likelihood estimator obtained by all correct moment conditions. Moreover, unlike the GMM, our proposed method allows us to carry out confidence regions for the parameters included in the model without estimating the covariances of the estimators. For empirical implementation, we provide some data-driven procedures for selecting the tuning parameter of the penalty function. The simulation results show that the method works remarkably well in terms of correct moment selection and the finite sample properties of the estimators. Also, a real-life example is carried out to illustrate the new methodology.

  1. A density functional theory-based chemical potential equalisation

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    A chemical potential equalisation scheme is proposed for the calculation of these quantities and hence the dipole polarizability within the framework of density functional theory based linear response theory. The resulting polarizability is expressed in terms of the contributions from individual atoms in the molecule. A few ...

  2. TCA Cycle and Mitochondrial Membrane Potential Are Necessary for Diverse Biological Functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martínez-Reyes, Inmaculada; Diebold, Lauren P; Kong, Hyewon; Schieber, Michael; Huang, He; Hensley, Christopher T; Mehta, Manan M; Wang, Tianyuan; Santos, Janine H; Woychik, Richard; Dufour, Eric; Spelbrink, Johannes N; Weinberg, Samuel E; Zhao, Yingming; DeBerardinis, Ralph J; Chandel, Navdeep S

    2016-01-21

    Mitochondrial metabolism is necessary for the maintenance of oxidative TCA cycle function and mitochondrial membrane potential. Previous attempts to decipher whether mitochondria are necessary for biological outcomes have been hampered by genetic and pharmacologic methods that simultaneously disrupt multiple functions linked to mitochondrial metabolism. Here, we report that inducible depletion of mitochondrial DNA (ρ(ο) cells) diminished respiration, oxidative TCA cycle function, and the mitochondrial membrane potential, resulting in diminished cell proliferation, hypoxic activation of HIF-1, and specific histone acetylation marks. Genetic reconstitution only of the oxidative TCA cycle function specifically in these inducible ρ(ο) cells restored metabolites, resulting in re-establishment of histone acetylation. In contrast, genetic reconstitution of the mitochondrial membrane potential restored ROS, which were necessary for hypoxic activation of HIF-1 and cell proliferation. These results indicate that distinct mitochondrial functions associated with respiration are necessary for cell proliferation, epigenetics, and HIF-1 activation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Probabilistic performance estimators for computational chemistry methods: The empirical cumulative distribution function of absolute errors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pernot, Pascal; Savin, Andreas

    2018-06-01

    Benchmarking studies in computational chemistry use reference datasets to assess the accuracy of a method through error statistics. The commonly used error statistics, such as the mean signed and mean unsigned errors, do not inform end-users on the expected amplitude of prediction errors attached to these methods. We show that, the distributions of model errors being neither normal nor zero-centered, these error statistics cannot be used to infer prediction error probabilities. To overcome this limitation, we advocate for the use of more informative statistics, based on the empirical cumulative distribution function of unsigned errors, namely, (1) the probability for a new calculation to have an absolute error below a chosen threshold and (2) the maximal amplitude of errors one can expect with a chosen high confidence level. Those statistics are also shown to be well suited for benchmarking and ranking studies. Moreover, the standard error on all benchmarking statistics depends on the size of the reference dataset. Systematic publication of these standard errors would be very helpful to assess the statistical reliability of benchmarking conclusions.

  4. Pluvials, droughts, the Mongol Empire, and modern Mongolia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pederson, Neil; Hessl, Amy E.; Baatarbileg, Nachin; Anchukaitis, Kevin J.; Di Cosmo, Nicola

    2014-01-01

    Although many studies have associated the demise of complex societies with deteriorating climate, few have investigated the connection between an ameliorating environment, surplus resources, energy, and the rise of empires. The 13th-century Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Although drought has been proposed as one factor that spurred these conquests, no high-resolution moisture data are available during the rapid development of the Mongol Empire. Here we present a 1,112-y tree-ring reconstruction of warm-season water balance derived from Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica) trees in central Mongolia. Our reconstruction accounts for 56% of the variability in the regional water balance and is significantly correlated with steppe productivity across central Mongolia. In combination with a gridded temperature reconstruction, our results indicate that the regional climate during the conquests of Chinggis Khan’s (Genghis Khan’s) 13th-century Mongol Empire was warm and persistently wet. This period, characterized by 15 consecutive years of above-average moisture in central Mongolia and coinciding with the rise of Chinggis Khan, is unprecedented over the last 1,112 y. We propose that these climate conditions promoted high grassland productivity and favored the formation of Mongol political and military power. Tree-ring and meteorological data also suggest that the early 21st-century drought in central Mongolia was the hottest drought in the last 1,112 y, consistent with projections of warming over Inner Asia. Future warming may overwhelm increases in precipitation leading to similar heat droughts, with potentially severe consequences for modern Mongolia. PMID:24616521

  5. Pluvials, droughts, the Mongol Empire, and modern Mongolia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pederson, Neil; Hessl, Amy E; Baatarbileg, Nachin; Anchukaitis, Kevin J; Di Cosmo, Nicola

    2014-03-25

    Although many studies have associated the demise of complex societies with deteriorating climate, few have investigated the connection between an ameliorating environment, surplus resources, energy, and the rise of empires. The 13th-century Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Although drought has been proposed as one factor that spurred these conquests, no high-resolution moisture data are available during the rapid development of the Mongol Empire. Here we present a 1,112-y tree-ring reconstruction of warm-season water balance derived from Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica) trees in central Mongolia. Our reconstruction accounts for 56% of the variability in the regional water balance and is significantly correlated with steppe productivity across central Mongolia. In combination with a gridded temperature reconstruction, our results indicate that the regional climate during the conquests of Chinggis Khan's (Genghis Khan's) 13th-century Mongol Empire was warm and persistently wet. This period, characterized by 15 consecutive years of above-average moisture in central Mongolia and coinciding with the rise of Chinggis Khan, is unprecedented over the last 1,112 y. We propose that these climate conditions promoted high grassland productivity and favored the formation of Mongol political and military power. Tree-ring and meteorological data also suggest that the early 21st-century drought in central Mongolia was the hottest drought in the last 1,112 y, consistent with projections of warming over Inner Asia. Future warming may overwhelm increases in precipitation leading to similar heat droughts, with potentially severe consequences for modern Mongolia.

  6. Pluvials, droughts, the Mongol Empire, and modern Mongolia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pederson, Neil; Hessl, Amy E.; Baatarbileg, Nachin; Anchukaitis, Kevin J.; Di Cosmo, Nicola

    2014-03-01

    Although many studies have associated the demise of complex societies with deteriorating climate, few have investigated the connection between an ameliorating environment, surplus resources, energy, and the rise of empires. The 13th-century Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Although drought has been proposed as one factor that spurred these conquests, no high-resolution moisture data are available during the rapid development of the Mongol Empire. Here we present a 1,112-y tree-ring reconstruction of warm-season water balance derived from Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica) trees in central Mongolia. Our reconstruction accounts for 56% of the variability in the regional water balance and is significantly correlated with steppe productivity across central Mongolia. In combination with a gridded temperature reconstruction, our results indicate that the regional climate during the conquests of Chinggis Khan's (Genghis Khan's) 13th-century Mongol Empire was warm and persistently wet. This period, characterized by 15 consecutive years of above-average moisture in central Mongolia and coinciding with the rise of Chinggis Khan, is unprecedented over the last 1,112 y. We propose that these climate conditions promoted high grassland productivity and favored the formation of Mongol political and military power. Tree-ring and meteorological data also suggest that the early 21st-century drought in central Mongolia was the hottest drought in the last 1,112 y, consistent with projections of warming over Inner Asia. Future warming may overwhelm increases in precipitation leading to similar heat droughts, with potentially severe consequences for modern Mongolia.

  7. Construction of integrable model Kohn-Sham potentials by analysis of the structure of functional derivatives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaiduk, Alex P.; Staroverov, Viktor N.

    2011-01-01

    A directly approximated exchange-correlation potential should, by construction, be a functional derivative of some density functional in order to avoid unphysical results. Using generalized gradient approximations (GGAs) as an example, we show that functional derivatives of explicit density functionals have a very rigid inner structure, the knowledge of which allows one to build the entire functional derivative from a small part. Based on this analysis, we develop a method for direct construction of integrable Kohn-Sham potentials. As an illustration, we transform the model potential of van Leeuwen and Baerends (which is not a functional derivative) into a semilocal exchange potential that has a parent GGA, yields accurate energies, and is free from the artifacts inherent in existing semilocal potential approximations.

  8. Elastic-plastic potential functionals for rates and increments of stress and strain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feijoo, R.A.; Zouain, N.

    1990-03-01

    In this work attention is focused in the derivation of variational formulations of the constutive relationship in the form of conjugate potential functionals from which stress and strain rates are derived as elements of the corresponding sub-differential sets. The main result obtained is a pair of potential functionals. (A.C.A.S.) [pt

  9. Empirical molecular-dynamics study of diffusion in liquid semiconductors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, W.; Wang, Z. Q.; Stroud, D.

    1996-11-01

    We report the results of an extensive molecular-dynamics study of diffusion in liquid Si and Ge (l-Si and l-Ge) and of impurities in l-Ge, using empirical Stillinger-Weber (SW) potentials with several choices of parameters. We use a numerical algorithm in which the three-body part of the SW potential is decomposed into products of two-body potentials, thereby permitting the study of large systems. One choice of SW parameters agrees very well with the observed l-Ge structure factors. The diffusion coefficients D(T) at melting are found to be approximately 6.4×10-5 cm2/s for l-Si, in good agreement with previous calculations, and about 4.2×10-5 and 4.6×10-5 cm2/s for two models of l-Ge. In all cases, D(T) can be fitted to an activated temperature dependence, with activation energies Ed of about 0.42 eV for l-Si, and 0.32 or 0.26 eV for two models of l-Ge, as calculated from either the Einstein relation or from a Green-Kubo-type integration of the velocity autocorrelation function. D(T) for Si impurities in l-Ge is found to be very similar to the self-diffusion coefficient of l-Ge. We briefly discuss possible reasons why the SW potentials give D(T)'s substantially lower than ab initio predictions.

  10. Semi-empirical corrosion model for Zircaloy-4 cladding

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nadeem Elahi, Waseem; Atif Rana, Muhammad

    2015-01-01

    The Zircaloy-4 cladding tube in Pressurize Water Reactors (PWRs) bears corrosion due to fast neutron flux, coolant temperature, and water chemistry. The thickness of Zircaloy-4 cladding tube may be decreased due to the increase in corrosion penetration which may affect the integrity of the fuel rod. The tin content and inter-metallic particles sizes has been found significantly in the magnitude of oxide thickness. In present study we have developed a Semiempirical corrosion model by modifying the Arrhenius equation for corrosion as a function of acceleration factor for tin content and accumulative annealing. This developed model has been incorporated into fuel performance computer code. The cladding oxide thickness data obtained from the Semi-empirical corrosion model has been compared with the experimental results i.e., numerous cases of measured cladding oxide thickness from UO 2 fuel rods, irradiated in various PWRs. The results of the both studies lie within the error band of 20μm, which confirms the validity of the developed Semi-empirical corrosion model. Key words: Corrosion, Zircaloy-4, tin content, accumulative annealing factor, Semi-empirical, PWR. (author)

  11. Health Status and Health Dynamics in an Empirical Model of Expected Longevity*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benítez-Silva, Hugo; Ni, Huan

    2010-01-01

    Expected longevity is an important factor influencing older individuals’ decisions such as consumption, savings, purchase of life insurance and annuities, claiming of Social Security benefits, and labor supply. It has also been shown to be a good predictor of actual longevity, which in turn is highly correlated with health status. A relatively new literature on health investments under uncertainty, which builds upon the seminal work by Grossman (1972), has directly linked longevity with characteristics, behaviors, and decisions by utility maximizing agents. Our empirical model can be understood within that theoretical framework as estimating a production function of longevity. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, we directly incorporate health dynamics in explaining the variation in expected longevities, and compare two alternative measures of health dynamics: the self-reported health change, and the computed health change based on self-reports of health status. In 38% of the reports in our sample, computed health changes are inconsistent with the direct report on health changes over time. And another 15% of the sample can suffer from information losses if computed changes are used to assess changes in actual health. These potentially serious problems raise doubts regarding the use and interpretation of the computed health changes and even the lagged measures of self-reported health as controls for health dynamics in a variety of empirical settings. Our empirical results, controlling for both subjective and objective measures of health status and unobserved heterogeneity in reporting, suggest that self-reported health changes are a preferred measure of health dynamics. PMID:18187217

  12. Functional Potential of Bacterial Communities using Gene Context Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anwesha Mohapatra

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Estimation of the functional potential of a bacterial genome can be determined by accurate annotation of its metabolic pathways. Existing homology based methods for pathway annotation fail to account for homologous genes that participate in multiple pathways, causing overestimation of gene copy number. Mere presence of constituent genes of a candidate pathway which are dispersed on a genome often results in incorrect annotation, thereby leading to erroneous gene abundance and pathway estimation. Clusters of evolutionarily conserved coregulated genes are characteristic features in bacterial genomes and their spatial arrangement in the genome is constrained by the pathway encoded by them. Thus, in order to improve the accuracy of pathway prediction, it is important to augment homology based annotation with gene organization information. In this communication, we present a methodology considering prioritization of gene context for improved pathway annotation. Extensive literature mining was performed to confirm conserved juxtaposed arrangement of gene components of various pathways. Our method was utilized to identify and analyse the functional potential of all available completely sequenced bacterial genomes. The accuracy of the predicted gene clusters and their importance in metabolic pathways will be demonstrated using a few case studies. One of such case study corresponds to butyrate production pathways in gut bacteria where it was observed that gut pathogens and commensals possess a distinct set of pathway components. In another example, we will demonstrate how our methodology improves the prediction accuracy of carbohydrate metabolic potential in human microbial communities. Applicability of our method for estimation of functional potential in bacterial communities present in diverse environments will also be illustrated.

  13. An update on the "empirical turn" in bioethics: analysis of empirical research in nine bioethics journals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wangmo, Tenzin; Hauri, Sirin; Gennet, Eloise; Anane-Sarpong, Evelyn; Provoost, Veerle; Elger, Bernice S

    2018-02-07

    A review of literature published a decade ago noted a significant increase in empirical papers across nine bioethics journals. This study provides an update on the presence of empirical papers in the same nine journals. It first evaluates whether the empirical trend is continuing as noted in the previous study, and second, how it is changing, that is, what are the characteristics of the empirical works published in these nine bioethics journals. A review of the same nine journals (Bioethics; Journal of Medical Ethics; Journal of Clinical Ethics; Nursing Ethics; Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics; Hastings Center Report; Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics; Christian Bioethics; and Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal) was conducted for a 12-year period from 2004 to 2015. Data obtained was analysed descriptively and using a non-parametric Chi-square test. Of the total number of original papers (N = 5567) published in the nine bioethics journals, 18.1% (n = 1007) collected and analysed empirical data. Journal of Medical Ethics and Nursing Ethics led the empirical publications, accounting for 89.4% of all empirical papers. The former published significantly more quantitative papers than qualitative, whereas the latter published more qualitative papers. Our analysis reveals no significant difference (χ2 = 2.857; p = 0.091) between the proportion of empirical papers published in 2004-2009 and 2010-2015. However, the increasing empirical trend has continued in these journals with the proportion of empirical papers increasing from 14.9% in 2004 to 17.8% in 2015. This study presents the current state of affairs regarding empirical research published nine bioethics journals. In the quarter century of data that is available about the nine bioethics journals studied in two reviews, the proportion of empirical publications continues to increase, signifying a trend towards empirical research in bioethics. The growing volume is mainly attributable to two

  14. Converging Paradigms: A Reflection on Parallel Theoretical Developments in Psychoanalytic Metapsychology and Empirical Dream Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmelowszky, Ágoston

    2016-08-01

    In the last decades one can perceive a striking parallelism between the shifting perspective of leading representatives of empirical dream research concerning their conceptualization of dreaming and the paradigm shift within clinically based psychoanalytic metapsychology with respect to its theory on the significance of dreaming. In metapsychology, dreaming becomes more and more a central metaphor of mental functioning in general. The theories of Klein, Bion, and Matte-Blanco can be considered as milestones of this paradigm shift. In empirical dream research, the competing theories of Hobson and of Solms respectively argued for and against the meaningfulness of the dream-work in the functioning of the mind. In the meantime, empirical data coming from various sources seemed to prove the significance of dream consciousness for the development and maintenance of adaptive waking consciousness. Metapsychological speculations and hypotheses based on empirical research data seem to point in the same direction, promising for contemporary psychoanalytic practice a more secure theoretical base. In this paper the author brings together these diverse theoretical developments and presents conclusions regarding psychoanalytic theory and technique, as well as proposing an outline of an empirical research plan for testing the specificity of psychoanalysis in developing dream formation.

  15. Evaluation of the existing triple point path models with new experimental data: proposal of an original empirical formulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boutillier, J.; Ehrhardt, L.; De Mezzo, S.; Deck, C.; Magnan, P.; Naz, P.; Willinger, R.

    2018-03-01

    With the increasing use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the need for better mitigation, either for building integrity or for personal security, increases in importance. Before focusing on the interaction of the shock wave with a target and the potential associated damage, knowledge must be acquired regarding the nature of the blast threat, i.e., the pressure-time history. This requirement motivates gaining further insight into the triple point (TP) path, in order to know precisely which regime the target will encounter (simple reflection or Mach reflection). Within this context, the purpose of this study is to evaluate three existing TP path empirical models, which in turn are used in other empirical models for the determination of the pressure profile. These three TP models are the empirical function of Kinney, the Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) curves, and the model of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). As discrepancies are observed between these models, new experimental data were obtained to test their reliability and a new promising formulation is proposed for scaled heights of burst ranging from 24.6-172.9 cm/kg^{1/3}.

  16. Improved estimation of subject-level functional connectivity using full and partial correlation with empirical Bayes shrinkage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mejia, Amanda F; Nebel, Mary Beth; Barber, Anita D; Choe, Ann S; Pekar, James J; Caffo, Brian S; Lindquist, Martin A

    2018-05-15

    Reliability of subject-level resting-state functional connectivity (FC) is determined in part by the statistical techniques employed in its estimation. Methods that pool information across subjects to inform estimation of subject-level effects (e.g., Bayesian approaches) have been shown to enhance reliability of subject-level FC. However, fully Bayesian approaches are computationally demanding, while empirical Bayesian approaches typically rely on using repeated measures to estimate the variance components in the model. Here, we avoid the need for repeated measures by proposing a novel measurement error model for FC describing the different sources of variance and error, which we use to perform empirical Bayes shrinkage of subject-level FC towards the group average. In addition, since the traditional intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) is inappropriate for biased estimates, we propose a new reliability measure denoted the mean squared error intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC MSE ) to properly assess the reliability of the resulting (biased) estimates. We apply the proposed techniques to test-retest resting-state fMRI data on 461 subjects from the Human Connectome Project to estimate connectivity between 100 regions identified through independent components analysis (ICA). We consider both correlation and partial correlation as the measure of FC and assess the benefit of shrinkage for each measure, as well as the effects of scan duration. We find that shrinkage estimates of subject-level FC exhibit substantially greater reliability than traditional estimates across various scan durations, even for the most reliable connections and regardless of connectivity measure. Additionally, we find partial correlation reliability to be highly sensitive to the choice of penalty term, and to be generally worse than that of full correlations except for certain connections and a narrow range of penalty values. This suggests that the penalty needs to be chosen carefully

  17. Full energy peak efficiency of NaI(Tl) gamma detectors and its analytical and semi-empirical representations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sudarshan, M.; Joseph, J.; Singh, R.

    1992-01-01

    The validity of various analytical functions and semi-empirical formulae proposed for representing the full energy peak efficiency (FEPE) curves of Ge(Li) and HPGe detectors has been tested for the FEPE of 7.6 cm x 7.6 cm and 5 cm x 5 cm Nal(Tl) detectors in the gamma energy range from 59.5 to 1408.03 keV. The functions proposed by East, and McNelles and Campbell provide by far the best representations of the present data. The semi-empirical formula of Mowatt describes the present data very well. The present investigation shows that some of the analytical functions and semi-empirical formulae, which represent the FEPE of the Ge(Li) and HPGe detectors very well, can be quite fruitfully used for Nal(Tl) detectors. (Author)

  18. The linear potential propagator via wave function expansion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nassar, Antonio B.; Cattani, Mauro S.D.

    2002-01-01

    We evaluate the quantum propagator for the motion of a particle in a linear potential via a recently developed formalism [A.B. Nassar et al., Phys. Rev. E56, 1230, (1997)]. In this formalism, the propagator comes about as a type of expansion of the wave function over the space of the initial velocities. (author)

  19. Surface effects on mean inner potentials studied using density functional theory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pennington, Robert S., E-mail: robert.pennington@uni-ulm.de [Institute for Experimental Physics, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081 Ulm (Germany); Boothroyd, Chris B.; Dunin-Borkowski, Rafal E. [Ernst Ruska-Centre and Peter Grüneberg Institute, Forschungzentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich (Germany)

    2015-12-15

    Quantitative materials characterization using electron holography frequently requires knowledge of the mean inner potential, but reported experimental mean inner potential measurements can vary widely. Using density functional theory, we have simulated the mean inner potential for materials with a range of different surface conditions and geometries. We use both “thin-film” and “nanowire” specimen geometries. We consider clean bulk-terminated surfaces with different facets and surface reconstructions using atom positions from both structural optimization and experimental data and we also consider surfaces both with and without adsorbates. We find that the mean inner potential is surface-dependent, with the strongest dependency on surface adsorbates. We discuss the outlook and perspective for future mean inner potential measurements. - Highlights: • Density functional theory (DFT) is used to simulate mean inner potentials (MIP). • Applications for MIP electron holography measurements are considered. • MIPs are found to be surface-dependent, for thin-film and nanowire geometries. • The DFT simulation precision is extensively tested for multiple materials. • Surface adsorbates can create a strong positive or negative effect.

  20. Music and Memory in Alzheimer's Disease and The Potential Underlying Mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peck, Katlyn J; Girard, Todd A; Russo, Frank A; Fiocco, Alexandra J

    2016-01-01

    With population aging and a projected exponential expansion of persons diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the development of treatment and prevention programs has become a fervent area of research and discovery. A growing body of evidence suggests that music exposure can enhance memory and emotional function in persons with AD. However, there is a paucity of research that aims to identify specific underlying neural mechanisms associated with music's beneficial effects in this particular population. As such, this paper reviews existing anecdotal and empirical evidence related to the enhancing effects of music exposure on cognitive function and further provides a discussion on the potential underlying mechanisms that may explain music's beneficial effect. Specifically, this paper will outline the potential role of the dopaminergic system, the autonomic nervous system, and the default network in explaining how music may enhance memory function in persons with AD.

  1. Compassion: An Evolutionary Analysis and Empirical Review

    OpenAIRE

    Goetz, Jennifer L.; Keltner, Dacher; Simon-Thomas, Emiliana

    2010-01-01

    What is compassion? And how did it evolve? In this review, we integrate three evolutionary arguments that converge on the hypothesis that compassion evolved as a distinct affective experience whose primary function is to facilitate cooperation and protection of the weak and those who suffer. Our empirical review reveals compassion to have distinct appraisal processes attuned to undeserved suffering, distinct signaling behavior related to caregiving patterns of touch, posture, and vocalization...

  2. Empirical Test Case Specification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kalyanova, Olena; Heiselberg, Per

    This document includes the empirical specification on the IEA task of evaluation building energy simulation computer programs for the Double Skin Facades (DSF) constructions. There are two approaches involved into this procedure, one is the comparative approach and another is the empirical one. I....... In the comparative approach the outcomes of different software tools are compared, while in the empirical approach the modelling results are compared with the results of experimental test cases....

  3. Empirical projection-based basis-component decomposition method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brendel, Bernhard; Roessl, Ewald; Schlomka, Jens-Peter; Proksa, Roland

    2009-02-01

    Advances in the development of semiconductor based, photon-counting x-ray detectors stimulate research in the domain of energy-resolving pre-clinical and clinical computed tomography (CT). For counting detectors acquiring x-ray attenuation in at least three different energy windows, an extended basis component decomposition can be performed in which in addition to the conventional approach of Alvarez and Macovski a third basis component is introduced, e.g., a gadolinium based CT contrast material. After the decomposition of the measured projection data into the basis component projections, conventional filtered-backprojection reconstruction is performed to obtain the basis-component images. In recent work, this basis component decomposition was obtained by maximizing the likelihood-function of the measurements. This procedure is time consuming and often unstable for excessively noisy data or low intrinsic energy resolution of the detector. Therefore, alternative procedures are of interest. Here, we introduce a generalization of the idea of empirical dual-energy processing published by Stenner et al. to multi-energy, photon-counting CT raw data. Instead of working in the image-domain, we use prior spectral knowledge about the acquisition system (tube spectra, bin sensitivities) to parameterize the line-integrals of the basis component decomposition directly in the projection domain. We compare this empirical approach with the maximum-likelihood (ML) approach considering image noise and image bias (artifacts) and see that only moderate noise increase is to be expected for small bias in the empirical approach. Given the drastic reduction of pre-processing time, the empirical approach is considered a viable alternative to the ML approach.

  4. Theoretical and Empirical Descriptions of Thermospheric Density

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solomon, S. C.; Qian, L.

    2004-12-01

    The longest-term and most accurate overall description the density of the upper thermosphere is provided by analysis of change in the ephemeris of Earth-orbiting satellites. Empirical models of the thermosphere developed in part from these measurements can do a reasonable job of describing thermospheric properties on a climatological basis, but the promise of first-principles global general circulation models of the coupled thermosphere/ionosphere system is that a true high-resolution, predictive capability may ultimately be developed for thermospheric density. However, several issues are encountered when attempting to tune such models so that they accurately represent absolute densities as a function of altitude, and their changes on solar-rotational and solar-cycle time scales. Among these are the crucial ones of getting the heating rates (from both solar and auroral sources) right, getting the cooling rates right, and establishing the appropriate boundary conditions. However, there are several ancillary issues as well, such as the problem of registering a pressure-coordinate model onto an altitude scale, and dealing with possible departures from hydrostatic equilibrium in empirical models. Thus, tuning a theoretical model to match empirical climatology may be difficult, even in the absence of high temporal or spatial variation of the energy sources. We will discuss some of the challenges involved, and show comparisons of simulations using the NCAR Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIE-GCM) to empirical model estimates of neutral thermosphere density and temperature. We will also show some recent simulations using measured solar irradiance from the TIMED/SEE instrument as input to the TIE-GCM.

  5. Effects of climate oscillations on wildland fire potential in the continental United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shelby A. Mason; Peter E. Hamlington; Benjamin D. Hamlington; W. Matt Jolly; Chad M. Hoffman

    2017-01-01

    The effects of climate oscillations on spatial and temporal variations in wildland fire potential in the continental U.S. are examined from 1979 to 2015 using cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions (CSEOFs). The CSEOF analysis isolates effects associated with the modulated annual cycle and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The results show that, in early...

  6. Evaluation of theoretical and empirical water vapor sorption isotherm models for soils

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arthur, Emmanuel; Tuller, Markus; Moldrup, Per; de Jonge, Lis W.

    2016-01-01

    The mathematical characterization of water vapor sorption isotherms of soils is crucial for modeling processes such as volatilization of pesticides and diffusive and convective water vapor transport. Although numerous physically based and empirical models were previously proposed to describe sorption isotherms of building materials, food, and other industrial products, knowledge about the applicability of these functions for soils is noticeably lacking. We present an evaluation of nine models for characterizing adsorption/desorption isotherms for a water activity range from 0.03 to 0.93 based on measured data of 207 soils with widely varying textures, organic carbon contents, and clay mineralogy. In addition, the potential applicability of the models for prediction of sorption isotherms from known clay content was investigated. While in general, all investigated models described measured adsorption and desorption isotherms reasonably well, distinct differences were observed between physical and empirical models and due to the different degrees of freedom of the model equations. There were also considerable differences in model performance for adsorption and desorption data. While regression analysis relating model parameters and clay content and subsequent model application for prediction of measured isotherms showed promise for the majority of investigated soils, for soils with distinct kaolinitic and smectitic clay mineralogy predicted isotherms did not closely match the measurements.

  7. Newer Approaches to Identify Potential Untoward Effects in Functional Foods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marone, Palma Ann; Birkenbach, Victoria L; Hayes, A Wallace

    2016-01-01

    Globalization has greatly accelerated the numbers and variety of food and beverage products available worldwide. The exchange among greater numbers of countries, manufacturers, and products in the United States and worldwide has necessitated enhanced quality measures for nutritional products for larger populations increasingly reliant on functionality. These functional foods, those that provide benefit beyond basic nutrition, are increasingly being used for their potential to alleviate food insufficiency while enhancing quality and longevity of life. In the United States alone, a steady import increase of greater than 15% per year or 24 million shipments, over 70% products of which are food related, is regulated under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This unparalleled growth has resulted in the need for faster, cheaper, and better safety and efficacy screening methods in the form of harmonized guidelines and recommendations for product standardization. In an effort to meet this need, the in vitro toxicology testing market has similarly grown with an anticipatory 15% increase between 2010 and 2015 of US$1.3 to US$2.7 billion. Although traditionally occupying a small fraction of the market behind pharmaceuticals and cosmetic/household products, the scope of functional food testing, including additives/supplements, ingredients, residues, contact/processing, and contaminants, is potentially expansive. Similarly, as functional food testing has progressed, so has the need to identify potential adverse factors that threaten the safety and quality of these products. © The Author(s) 2015.

  8. Empirical Support for Perceptual Conceptualism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolás Alejandro Serrano

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of this paper is to show that perceptual conceptualism can be understood as an empirically meaningful position and, furthermore, that there is some degree of empirical support for its main theses. In order to do this, I will start by offering an empirical reading of the conceptualist position, and making three predictions from it. Then, I will consider recent experimental results from cognitive sciences that seem to point towards those predictions. I will conclude that, while the evidence offered by those experiments is far from decisive, it is enough not only to show that conceptualism is an empirically meaningful position but also that there is empirical support for it.

  9. Potential use and challenges of functional connectivity mapping in intractable epilepsy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Todd Constable

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available This review focuses on the use of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data to assess functional connectivity in the human brain for surgical planning in intractable epilepsy. This approach has the potential to predict outcomes for a given surgical procedure based on the pre-surgical functional organization of the brain. Functional connectivity can also identify cortical regions that are organized differently in epilepsy patients either as a direct function of the disease or through indirect compensatory responses. Functional connectivity mapping can also potentially help identify epileptogenic tissue, whether this is a single focal location or a network of seizure-generating tissues and this information can assist in guiding the implantation of electrodes for invasive monitoring. This review covers the basics of connectivity analysis and discusses particular issues associated with analyzing such data. These issues include how to define nodes, as well as differences between connectivity analyses of individual nodes, groups of nodes, and whole-brain assessment at the voxel level. The need for arbitrary thresholds in some connectivity analyses is discussed and a solution to this problem is reviewed. Overall, functional connectivity analysis is becoming an important tool for assessing functional brain organization in surgical planning in epilepsy.

  10. Potential for circular economy in household WEEE management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Parajuly, Keshav; Wenzel, Henrik

    2017-01-01

    for reuse and recycling – the two key pathways promoted by CE – for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) management. We empirically characterize household WEEE stream in order to explore a) the remaining functionality and reuse potential of end-of-life (EoL) products based on the current market...... conditions, and b) the recycling potential of EoL products based on their material compositions and existing WEEE treatment chain. For this, a total of 4704 kg WEEE within the collection fractions of ‘small appliances’ and ‘monitors’ was collected in 16 collection cages from eight civic amenity sites...... as well as from material recovery were estimated. With 22% and 7% of fully functional products in the fractions ‘small appliances’ and ‘monitors’ respectively, our results suggest resale value up to €247 per cage of the collected household WEEE. The existing WEEE management system, which focuses only...

  11. Potentials and Influencing Factors of Dynamic Pricing in Business: Empirical Insights of European Experts

    OpenAIRE

    Christopher Reichstein; Ralf-Christian Härting; Martina Häußler

    2017-01-01

    With a continuously increasing speed of information exchange on the World Wide Web, retailers in the E-Commerce sector are faced with immense possibilities regarding different online purchase processes like dynamic price settings. By use of Dynamic Pricing, retailers are able to set short time price changes in order to optimize producer surplus. The empirical research illustrates the basics of Dynamic Pricing and identifies six influencing factors of Dynamic Pricing. The results of a structur...

  12. Interactions between Obsessional Symptoms and Interpersonal Ambivalences in Psychodynamic Therapy: An Empirical Case Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cornelis, Shana; Desmet, Mattias; Van Nieuwenhove, Kimberly L H D; Meganck, Reitske; Willemsen, Jochem; Inslegers, Ruth; Feyaerts, Jasper

    2017-01-01

    The classical symptom specificity hypothesis (Blatt, 1974) particularly associates obsessional symptoms to interpersonal behavior directed at autonomy and separation from others. Cross-sectional group research, however, has yielded inconsistent findings on this predicted association, and a previous empirical case study (Cornelis et al., in press; see Chapter 2) documented obsessional pathology to be rooted in profound ambivalences between autonomous and dependent interpersonal dynamics. Therefore, in the present empirical case study, concrete operationalizations of the classical symptom specificity hypothesis are contrasted to alternative hypotheses based on the observed complexities in Chapter 2. Dynamic associations between obsessional symptoms and interpersonal functioning is further explored, aiming at further contribution to theory building (i.e., through suggestions for potential hypothesis-refinement; Stiles, 2009). Similar to the first empirical case study (Chapter 1), Consensual Qualitative Research for Case studies is used to quantitatively and qualitatively describe the longitudinal, clinical interplay between obsessional symptoms and interpersonal dynamics throughout the process of supportive-expressive psychodynamic therapy. In line with findings from Chapter 1, findings reveal close associations between obsessions and interpersonal dynamics, and therapist interventions focusing on interpersonal conflicts are documented as related to interpersonal and symptomatic alterations. Observations predominantly accord to the ambivalence-hypothesis rather than to the classical symptom specificity hypothesis. Yet, meaningful differences are observed in concrete manifestations of interpersonal ambivalences within significant relationships. Findings are again discussed in light of conceptual and methodological considerations; and limitations and future research indications are addressed.

  13. Interactions between Obsessional Symptoms and Interpersonal Ambivalences in Psychodynamic Therapy: An Empirical Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shana Cornelis

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The classical symptom specificity hypothesis (Blatt, 1974 particularly associates obsessional symptoms to interpersonal behavior directed at autonomy and separation from others. Cross-sectional group research, however, has yielded inconsistent findings on this predicted association, and a previous empirical case study (Cornelis et al., in press; see Chapter 2 documented obsessional pathology to be rooted in profound ambivalences between autonomous and dependent interpersonal dynamics. Therefore, in the present empirical case study, concrete operationalizations of the classical symptom specificity hypothesis are contrasted to alternative hypotheses based on the observed complexities in Chapter 2. Dynamic associations between obsessional symptoms and interpersonal functioning is further explored, aiming at further contribution to theory building (i.e., through suggestions for potential hypothesis-refinement; Stiles, 2009. Similar to the first empirical case study (Chapter 1, Consensual Qualitative Research for Case studies is used to quantitatively and qualitatively describe the longitudinal, clinical interplay between obsessional symptoms and interpersonal dynamics throughout the process of supportive-expressive psychodynamic therapy. In line with findings from Chapter 1, findings reveal close associations between obsessions and interpersonal dynamics, and therapist interventions focusing on interpersonal conflicts are documented as related to interpersonal and symptomatic alterations. Observations predominantly accord to the ambivalence-hypothesis rather than to the classical symptom specificity hypothesis. Yet, meaningful differences are observed in concrete manifestations of interpersonal ambivalences within significant relationships. Findings are again discussed in light of conceptual and methodological considerations; and limitations and future research indications are addressed.

  14. Univariate and Bivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition for Postural Stability Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacques Duchêne

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper was to compare empirical mode decomposition (EMD and two new extended methods of  EMD named complex empirical mode decomposition (complex-EMD and bivariate empirical mode decomposition (bivariate-EMD. All methods were used to analyze stabilogram center of pressure (COP time series. The two new methods are suitable to be applied to complex time series to extract complex intrinsic mode functions (IMFs before the Hilbert transform is subsequently applied on the IMFs. The trace of the analytic IMF in the complex plane has a circular form, with each IMF having its own rotation frequency. The area of the circle and the average rotation frequency of IMFs represent efficient indicators of the postural stability status of subjects. Experimental results show the effectiveness of these indicators to identify differences in standing posture between groups.

  15. A global weighted mean temperature model based on empirical orthogonal function analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Qinzheng; Chen, Peng; Sun, Langlang; Ma, Xiaping

    2018-03-01

    A global empirical orthogonal function (EOF) model of the tropospheric weighted mean temperature called GEOFM_Tm was developed using high-precision Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) Atmosphere Tm data during the years 2008-2014. Due to the quick convergence of EOF decomposition, it is possible to use the first four EOF series, which consists base functions Uk and associated coefficients Pk, to represent 99.99% of the overall variance of the original data sets and its spatial-temporal variations. Results show that U1 displays a prominent latitude distribution profile with positive peaks located at low latitude region. U2 manifests an asymmetric pattern that positive values occurred over 30° in the Northern Hemisphere, and negative values were observed at other regions. U3 and U4 displayed significant anomalies in Tibet and North America, respectively. Annual variation is the major component of the first and second associated coefficients P1 and P2, whereas P3 and P4 mainly reflects both annual and semi-annual variation components. Furthermore, the performance of constructed GEOFM_Tm was validated by comparison with GTm_III and GTm_N with different kinds of data including GGOS Atmosphere Tm data in 2015 and radiosonde data from Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) in 2014. Generally speaking, GEOFM_Tm can achieve the same accuracy and reliability as GTm_III and GTm_N models in a global scale, even has improved in the Antarctic and Greenland regions. The MAE and RMS of GEOFM_Tm tend to be 2.49 K and 3.14 K with respect to GGOS Tm data, respectively; and 3.38 K and 4.23 K with respect to IGRA sounding data, respectively. In addition, those three models have higher precision at low latitude than middle and high latitude regions. The magnitude of Tm remains at the range of 220-300 K, presented a high correlation with geographic latitude. In the Northern Hemisphere, there was a significant enhancement at high latitude region reaching 270 K during summer

  16. Unique determination of the effective potential in terms of renormalization group functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chishtie, F. A.; Hanif, T.; McKeon, D. G. C.; Steele, T. G.

    2008-01-01

    The perturbative effective potential V in the massless λφ 4 model with a global O(N) symmetry is uniquely determined to all orders by the renormalization group functions alone when the Coleman-Weinberg renormalization condition (d 4 V/dφ 4 )| φ=μ =λ is used, where μ represents the renormalization scale. Systematic methods are developed to express the n-loop effective potential in the Coleman-Weinberg scheme in terms of the known n-loop minimal-subtraction (MS) renormalization group functions. Moreover, it also proves possible to sum the leading- and subsequent-to-leading-logarithm contributions to V. An essential element of this analysis is a conversion of the renormalization group functions in the Coleman-Weinberg scheme to the renormalization group functions in the MS scheme. As an example, the explicit five-loop effective potential is obtained from the known five-loop MS renormalization group functions and we explicitly sum the leading-logarithm, next-to-leading-logarithm, and further subleading-logarithm contributions to V. Extensions of these results to massless scalar QED are also presented. Because massless scalar QED has two couplings, conversion of the renormalization group functions from the MS scheme to the Coleman-Weinberg scheme requires the use of multiscale renormalization group methods.

  17. Structures and potential energy functions of Pu3 molecule

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meng Daqiao; Jiang Gang; Liu Xiaoya; Luo Deli; Zhu Zhenghe

    2001-01-01

    Density functional (B3LYP) method with relativistic effective core potential (RECP) has been used to optimize the structures of Pu 2 and Pu 3 molecules. The results show that the ground states of Pu 2 and Pu 3 molecules are of D ∞h and D 3h symmetry, and of 13 and 19 fold, respectively. The spectral constants of Pu 2 , ω e = 52.3845 cm -1 and ω e x e = 0.0201 cm -1 , and the harmonic frequencies of Pu 3 , ν 1 = 56.9007 cm -1 , ν 2 = 57.1816 cm - '1 and ν 3 = 64.0785 cm -1 , have also been obtained on the B3LYP/RECP level. The potential energy functions of Pu 2 and Pu 3 have been derived, for the first time so far as known, from normal equation fitting and the many-body expansion theory

  18. Measuring Functional Creativity: Non-Expert Raters and the Creative Solution Diagnosis Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cropley, David H.; Kaufman, James C.

    2012-01-01

    The Creative Solution Diagnosis Scale (CSDS) is a 30-item scale based on a core of four criteria: Relevance & Effectiveness, Novelty, Elegance, and Genesis. The CSDS offers potential for the consensual assessment of functional product creativity. This article describes an empirical study in which non-expert judges rated a series of mousetrap…

  19. Superaging correlation function and ergodicity breaking for Brownian motion in logarithmic potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dechant, A; Lutz, E; Kessler, D A; Barkai, E

    2012-05-01

    We consider an overdamped Brownian particle moving in a confining asymptotically logarithmic potential, which supports a normalized Boltzmann equilibrium density. We derive analytical expressions for the two-time correlation function and the fluctuations of the time-averaged position of the particle for large but finite times. We characterize the occurrence of aging and nonergodic behavior as a function of the depth of the potential, and we support our predictions with extensive Langevin simulations. While the Boltzmann measure is used to obtain stationary correlation functions, we show how the non-normalizable infinite covariant density is related to the superaging behavior.

  20. An analysis of functional communication training as an empirically supported treatment for problem behavior displayed by individuals with intellectual disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurtz, Patricia F; Boelter, Eric W; Jarmolowicz, David P; Chin, Michelle D; Hagopian, Louis P

    2011-01-01

    This paper examines the literature on the use of functional communication training (FCT) as a treatment for problem behavior displayed by individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). Criteria for empirically supported treatments developed by Divisions 12 and 16 of the American Psychological Association (Kratochwill & Stoiber, 2002; Task Force, 1995) and adapted by Jennett and Hagopian (2008) for evaluation of single-case research studies were used to examine the support for FCT. Results indicated that FCT far exceeds criteria to be designated as a well-established treatment for problem behavior exhibited by children with ID and children with autism spectrum disorder, and can be characterized as probably efficacious with adults. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. The Analytical Potential Energy Function of NH Radical Molecule in External Electric Field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Dong-Lan; Tan Bin; Wan Hui-Jun; Xie An-Dong; Ding Da-Jun

    2015-01-01

    The geometric structures of an NH radical in different external electric fields are optimized by using the density functional B3P86/cc-PV5Z method, and the bond lengths, dipole moments, vibration frequencies and IR spectrum are obtained. The potential energy curves are gained by the CCSD (T) method with the same basis set. These results indicate that the physical property parameters and potential energy curves may change with the external electric field, especially in the reverse direction electric field. The potential energy function of zero field is fitted by the Morse potential, and the fitting parameters are in good accordance with the experimental data. The potential energy functions of different external electric fields are fitted adopting the constructed potential model. The fitted critical dissociation electric parameters are shown to be consistent with the numerical calculation, and the relative errors are only 0.27% and 6.61%, hence the constructed model is reliable and accurate. The present results provide an important reference for further study of the molecular spectrum, dynamics and molecular cooling with Stark effect. (paper)

  2. Structure and potential energy function investigation on UH and UH2 molecules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luo Deli; Liu Xiaoya; Jiang Gang; Meng Daqiao; Zhu Zhenghe

    2001-01-01

    Density functional (B3LYP) method with Relativistic Effective Core Potential (RECP) have been used to optimize the structures and to calculate the potential energy function both for the ground and excited states of UH and UH 2 molecules. Results show that the ground state of UH and UH 2 molecules are X 4 II and X 3 A 2 , which belongs to C2v symmetry, and the disassociation energies are 2.886 eV and 5.249 ev respectively, and the spectral data of UH and UH 2 have also been derived both for the ground and excited state. The potential energy function of UH and UH 2 have been derived based on normal equation fitting method and the many-body expansion theory. The information is useful to mechanism analysis of the aging effect of the hydrogen storage material

  3. Chemical potential of molecules contrasted to averaged atomic electronegativities: alarming differences and their theoretical rationalization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Datta, Dipankar; Shee, Nirmal K; von Szentpály, László

    2013-01-10

    We present the first large-scale empirical examination of the relation of molecular chemical potentials, μ(0)(mol) = -½(I(0) + A(0))(mol), to the geometric mean (GM) of atomic electronegativities, (GM) = (GM), and demonstrate that μ(0)(mol) ≠ -(GM). Out of 210 molecular μ(0)(mol)values considered more than 150 are not even in the range min{μ(0)(at)} (GM). For this equation the root-mean-square of relative errors amounts to SE = 71%. Our results are at strong variance with Sanderson's electronegativity equalization principle and present a challenge to some popular practice in conceptual density functional theory (DFT). The influences of the "external" potential and charge dependent covalent and ionic binding contributions are discussed and provide the theoretical rationalization for the empirical facts. Support is given to the warnings by Hinze, Bader et al., Allen, and Politzer et al. that equating the chemical potential to the negative of electronegativity may lead to misconceptions.

  4. The use of moral deliberation in empirical research in bioethics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elma Zoboli

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The article presents an integrated empirical ethics research project that used the moral deliberation, according to the theoretical and philosophical conception, and methodical proposal of Diego Gracia, as a theoretical and methodological framework. The application showed the potential to realize the dynamics of the studied object in real life, making it possible, from the situation presented in the vignettes, for participants to include what they considered for dealing with the conflict of values. It also made the integration of philosophical and empirical approaches in bioethics research possible. The analytical category of prudence allowed the results to be assessed in a critical and comprehensive way.

  5. Application of Exp-function method to potential Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xian Daquan; Dai Zhengde

    2009-01-01

    Exact periodic kink-wave solution, periodic soliton and doubly periodic solutions for the potential Kadomtsev-Petviashvii (PKP) equation are obtained using Exp-function method with the help of Maple computation.

  6. Parametrization of the scattering wave functions of the Paris potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loiseau, B.; Mathelitsch, L.

    1996-10-01

    The neutron-proton scattering wave functions of the Paris nucleon-nucleon potential are parametrized for partial waves of total angular momenta less than 5. The inner parts of the wave functions are approximated by polynomials with a continuous transition to the outer parts, which are given by the asymptotic regime and determined by the respective phase shifts. The scattering wave functions can then be calculated at any given energy below 400 MeV. Special attention is devoted to the zero-energy limit of the low partial waves. An easy-to-use FORTRAN program, which allows the user to calculate these parametrized wave functions, is available via electronic mail. (author)

  7. The dynamics of the rise and fall of empires

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gündüz, Güngör

    2016-05-01

    The rise of empires can be elucidated by treating them as living organisms, and the celebrated Verhulst or Lotka-Volterra dynamics can be used to understand the growth mechanisms of empires. The fast growth can be expressed by an exponential function as in the case of Macedonian empire of the Alexander the Great whereas a sigmoidal growth can be expressed by power-law equation as in the case of Roman and Ottoman empires. The superpowers Russia and the USA follow somehow different mechanisms, Russia displays two different exponential growth behaviors whereas the USA follows two different power-law behaviors. They did not disturb and mobilize their social capacity much during the course of their rise. The decline and the collapse of an empire occur through a kind of fragmentation process, and the consequently formed small states become rather free in their behavior. The lands of the new states formed exhibit a hierarchical pattern, and the number of the states having an area smaller than the largest one can be given either by an exponential or power-law function. The exponential distribution pattern occurs when the states are quite free in their pursuits, but the power-law behavior occurs when they are under the pressure of an empire or a strong state in the region. The geological and geographical conditions also affect whether there occurs exponential or power-law behavior. The new unions formed such as the European Union and the Shanghai Cooperation increase the power-law exponent implying that they increase the stress in the international affairs. The viscoelastic behavior of the empires can be found from the scattering diagrams, and the storage (G‧)and loss modulus (G‧‧), and the associated work-like and heat-like terms can be determined in the sense of thermodynamics. The G‧ of Ottomans was larger than that of Romans implying that they confronted severe resistance during their expansion. The G‧ of Russia is also larger than that of the USA; in fact the

  8. Life Writing After Empire

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    A watershed moment of the twentieth century, the end of empire saw upheavals to global power structures and national identities. However, decolonisation profoundly affected individual subjectivities too. Life Writing After Empire examines how people around the globe have made sense of the post...... in order to understand how individual life writing reflects broader societal changes. From far-flung corners of the former British Empire, people have turned to life writing to manage painful or nostalgic memories, as well as to think about the past and future of the nation anew through the personal...

  9. Empirical evidence of design-related bias in studies of diagnostic tests

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lijmer, J. G.; Mol, B. W.; Heisterkamp, S.; Bonsel, G. J.; Prins, M. H.; van der Meulen, J. H.; Bossuyt, P. M.

    1999-01-01

    CONTEXT: The literature contains a large number of potential biases in the evaluation of diagnostic tests. Strict application of appropriate methodological criteria would invalidate the clinical application of most study results. OBJECTIVE: To empirically determine the quantitative effect of study

  10. The frontiers of empirical science: A Thomist-inspired critique of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The frontiers of empirical science: A Thomist-inspired critique of scientism. Callum Scott. Abstract. Scientistic conceptualisations hold to the positivistic positions that science is limitless in its potential representations of material phenomena and that it is the only sure path to knowledge. In recent popular scientific literature, ...

  11. An empirical equation for the enthalpy of vaporization of quantum liquids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuz, Victor A.; Meyra, Ariel G.; Zarragoicoechea, Guillermo J.

    2004-01-01

    An empirical equation for the enthalpy of vaporization of quantum fluids is presented. Dimensionless analysis is used to define enthalpy of vaporization as a function of temperature with a standard deviation of about 1%. Experimental data represented in these variables show two different behaviours and exhibit different maximum values of the enthalpy of vaporization, one corresponding to fluids with a triple point and the other to fluids having a lambda point. None of the existing empirical equations are able to describe this fact. Also enthalpy of vaporization of helium-3, n-deuterium and n-tritium are estimated

  12. Empirical ethics, context-sensitivity, and contextualism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musschenga, Albert W

    2005-10-01

    In medical ethics, business ethics, and some branches of political philosophy (multi-culturalism, issues of just allocation, and equitable distribution) the literature increasingly combines insights from ethics and the social sciences. Some authors in medical ethics even speak of a new phase in the history of ethics, hailing "empirical ethics" as a logical next step in the development of practical ethics after the turn to "applied ethics." The name empirical ethics is ill-chosen because of its associations with "descriptive ethics." Unlike descriptive ethics, however, empirical ethics aims to be both descriptive and normative. The first question on which I focus is what kind of empirical research is used by empirical ethics and for which purposes. I argue that the ultimate aim of all empirical ethics is to improve the context-sensitivity of ethics. The second question is whether empirical ethics is essentially connected with specific positions in meta-ethics. I show that in some kinds of meta-ethical theories, which I categorize as broad contextualist theories, there is an intrinsic need for connecting normative ethics with empirical social research. But context-sensitivity is a goal that can be aimed for from any meta-ethical position.

  13. Countertransference when working with narcissistic personality disorder: An empirical investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanzilli, Annalisa; Muzi, Laura; Ronningstam, Elsa; Lingiardi, Vittorio

    2017-06-01

    Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is one of the most challenging clinical syndromes to treat in psychotherapy, especially due to the difficulties of establishing a good enough therapist-patient relationship. Countertransference responses to NPD can be particularly intense, frustrating, and difficult to manage, as is often reported in the clinical literature though not clearly supported empirically. The aims of this study were to (a) investigate the relationship between patients' NPD and therapists' responses; (b) examine the associations between patient, clinician, therapy variables and clinicians' reactions during treatment of NPD patients; and (c) provide an empirically derived portrait of countertransference with NPD. A sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N = 67) completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire to identify patterns of countertransference, the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200, and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale to assess the personality pathology and psychosocial functioning of a patient in their care. The results showed that NPD was positively associated with hostile/angry, criticized/devalued, helpless/inadequate, and disengaged countertransference and negatively associated with therapists' positive response, regardless of patients' personality and psychosocial functioning. NPD patients with stronger traits of cluster B personality pathology tended to elicit more negative and heterogeneous countertransference reactions than NPD patients without these features. The countertransference patterns with NPD patients were not strongly influenced by the variables of clinicians and therapy, with the exception of clinical experience. Overall, the portrait of therapists' reactions to NPD provided a clinically nuanced and empirically founded description strongly resembling theoretical-clinical accounts. The therapeutic implications of these findings were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights

  14. Does appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy modify intensive care unit-acquired Enterobacteriaceae bacteraemia mortality and discharge?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pouwels, K B; Van Kleef, E; Vansteelandt, S; Batra, R; Edgeworth, J D; Smieszek, T; Robotham, J V

    2017-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Conflicting results have been found regarding outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired Enterobacteriaceae bacteraemia and the potentially modifying effect of appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy. AIM: To evaluate these associations while adjusting for potential time-varying

  15. The Analytic Solution of Schroedinger Equation with Potential Function Superposed by Six Terms with Positive-power and Inverse-power Potentials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu Xianquan; Luo Guang; Cui Lipeng; Niu Lianbin; Li Fangyu

    2009-01-01

    The analytic solution of the radial Schroedinger equation is studied by using the tight coupling condition of several positive-power and inverse-power potential functions in this article. Furthermore, the precisely analytic solutions and the conditions that decide the existence of analytic solution have been searched when the potential of the radial Schroedinger equation is V(r) = α 1 r 8 + α 2 r 3 + α 3 r 2 + β 3 r -1 + β 2 r -3 + β 1 r -4 . Generally speaking, there is only an approximate solution, but not analytic solution for Schroedinger equation with several potentials' superposition. However, the conditions that decide the existence of analytic solution have been found and the analytic solution and its energy level structure are obtained for the Schroedinger equation with the potential which is motioned above in this paper. According to the single-value, finite and continuous standard of wave function in a quantum system, the authors firstly solve the asymptotic solution through the radial coordinate r → and r → 0; secondly, they make the asymptotic solutions combining with the series solutions nearby the neighborhood of irregular singularities; and then they compare the power series coefficients, deduce a series of analytic solutions of the stationary state wave function and corresponding energy level structure by tight coupling among the coefficients of potential functions for the radial Schroedinger equation; and lastly, they discuss the solutions and make conclusions. (general)

  16. Empirical Hamiltonians

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peggs, S.; Talman, R.

    1987-01-01

    As proton accelerators get larger, and include more magnets, the conventional tracking programs which simulate them run slower. The purpose of this paper is to describe a method, still under development, in which element-by-element tracking around one turn is replaced by a single man, which can be processed far faster. It is assumed for this method that a conventional program exists which can perform faithful tracking in the lattice under study for some hundreds of turns, with all lattice parameters held constant. An empirical map is then generated by comparison with the tracking program. A procedure has been outlined for determining an empirical Hamiltonian, which can represent motion through many nonlinear kicks, by taking data from a conventional tracking program. Though derived by an approximate method this Hamiltonian is analytic in form and can be subjected to further analysis of varying degrees of mathematical rigor. Even though the empirical procedure has only been described in one transverse dimension, there is good reason to hope that it can be extended to include two transverse dimensions, so that it can become a more practical tool in realistic cases

  17. Neurobiological correlates of social functioning in autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuhaus, Emily; Beauchaine, Theodore P; Bernier, Raphael

    2010-08-01

    Although autism is defined by deficits in three areas of functioning (social, communicative, and behavioral), impairments in social interest and restricted behavioral repertoires are central to the disorder. As a result, a detailed understanding of the neurobiological systems subserving social behavior may have implications for prevention, early identification, and intervention for affected families. In this paper, we review a number of potential neurobiological mechanisms--across several levels of analysis--that subserve normative social functioning. These include neural networks, neurotransmitters, and hormone systems. After describing the typical functioning of each system, we review available empirical findings specific to autism. Among the most promising potential mechanisms of social behavioral deficits in autism are those involving neural networks including the amygdala, the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system, and the oxytocin system. Particularly compelling are explanatory models that integrate mechanisms across biological systems, such as those linking dopamine and oxytocin with brain regions critical to reward processing. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Empire as a Geopolitical Figure

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Parker, Noel

    2010-01-01

    This article analyses the ingredients of empire as a pattern of order with geopolitical effects. Noting the imperial form's proclivity for expansion from a critical reading of historical sociology, the article argues that the principal manifestation of earlier geopolitics lay not in the nation...... but in empire. That in turn has been driven by a view of the world as disorderly and open to the ordering will of empires (emanating, at the time of geopolitics' inception, from Europe). One implication is that empires are likely to figure in the geopolitical ordering of the globe at all times, in particular...... after all that has happened in the late twentieth century to undermine nationalism and the national state. Empire is indeed a probable, even for some an attractive form of regime for extending order over the disorder produced by globalisation. Geopolitics articulated in imperial expansion is likely...

  19. Chimera states in brain networks: Empirical neural vs. modular fractal connectivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chouzouris, Teresa; Omelchenko, Iryna; Zakharova, Anna; Hlinka, Jaroslav; Jiruska, Premysl; Schöll, Eckehard

    2018-04-01

    Complex spatiotemporal patterns, called chimera states, consist of coexisting coherent and incoherent domains and can be observed in networks of coupled oscillators. The interplay of synchrony and asynchrony in complex brain networks is an important aspect in studies of both the brain function and disease. We analyse the collective dynamics of FitzHugh-Nagumo neurons in complex networks motivated by its potential application to epileptology and epilepsy surgery. We compare two topologies: an empirical structural neural connectivity derived from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and a mathematically constructed network with modular fractal connectivity. We analyse the properties of chimeras and partially synchronized states and obtain regions of their stability in the parameter planes. Furthermore, we qualitatively simulate the dynamics of epileptic seizures and study the influence of the removal of nodes on the network synchronizability, which can be useful for applications to epileptic surgery.

  20. Theoretical-empirical model of the steam-water cycle of the power unit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grzegorz Szapajko

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available The diagnostics of the energy conversion systems’ operation is realised as a result of collecting, processing, evaluatingand analysing the measurement signals. The result of the analysis is the determination of the process state. It requires a usageof the thermal processes models. Construction of the analytical model with the auxiliary empirical functions built-in brings satisfyingresults. The paper presents theoretical-empirical model of the steam-water cycle. Worked out mathematical simulation model containspartial models of the turbine, the regenerative heat exchangers and the condenser. Statistical verification of the model is presented.

  1. Derivative discontinuity and exchange-correlation potential of meta-GGAs in density-functional theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eich, F G; Hellgren, Maria

    2014-12-14

    We investigate fundamental properties of meta-generalized-gradient approximations (meta-GGAs) to the exchange-correlation energy functional, which have an implicit density dependence via the Kohn-Sham kinetic-energy density. To this purpose, we construct the most simple meta-GGA by expressing the local exchange-correlation energy per particle as a function of a fictitious density, which is obtained by inverting the Thomas-Fermi kinetic-energy functional. This simple functional considerably improves the total energy of atoms as compared to the standard local density approximation. The corresponding exchange-correlation potentials are then determined exactly through a solution of the optimized effective potential equation. These potentials support an additional bound state and exhibit a derivative discontinuity at integer particle numbers. We further demonstrate that through the kinetic-energy density any meta-GGA incorporates a derivative discontinuity. However, we also find that for commonly used meta-GGAs the discontinuity is largely underestimated and in some cases even negative.

  2. Derivative discontinuity and exchange-correlation potential of meta-GGAs in density-functional theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eich, F. G.; Hellgren, Maria

    2014-01-01

    We investigate fundamental properties of meta-generalized-gradient approximations (meta-GGAs) to the exchange-correlation energy functional, which have an implicit density dependence via the Kohn-Sham kinetic-energy density. To this purpose, we construct the most simple meta-GGA by expressing the local exchange-correlation energy per particle as a function of a fictitious density, which is obtained by inverting the Thomas-Fermi kinetic-energy functional. This simple functional considerably improves the total energy of atoms as compared to the standard local density approximation. The corresponding exchange-correlation potentials are then determined exactly through a solution of the optimized effective potential equation. These potentials support an additional bound state and exhibit a derivative discontinuity at integer particle numbers. We further demonstrate that through the kinetic-energy density any meta-GGA incorporates a derivative discontinuity. However, we also find that for commonly used meta-GGAs the discontinuity is largely underestimated and in some cases even negative

  3. Phonon optimized interatomic potential for aluminum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Murali Gopal Muraleedharan

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available We address the problem of generating a phonon optimized interatomic potential (POP for aluminum. The POP methodology, which has already been shown to work for semiconductors such as silicon and germanium, uses an evolutionary strategy based on a genetic algorithm (GA to optimize the free parameters in an empirical interatomic potential (EIP. For aluminum, we used the Vashishta functional form. The training data set was generated ab initio, consisting of forces, energy vs. volume, stresses, and harmonic and cubic force constants obtained from density functional theory (DFT calculations. Existing potentials for aluminum, such as the embedded atom method (EAM and charge-optimized many-body (COMB3 potential, show larger errors when the EIP forces are compared with those predicted by DFT, and thus they are not particularly well suited for reproducing phonon properties. Using a comprehensive Vashishta functional form, which involves short and long-ranged interactions, as well as three-body terms, we were able to better capture interactions that reproduce phonon properties accurately. Furthermore, the Vashishta potential is flexible enough to be extended to Al2O3 and the interface between Al-Al2O3, which is technologically important for combustion of solid Al nano powders. The POP developed here is tested for accuracy by comparing phonon thermal conductivity accumulation plots, density of states, and dispersion relations with DFT results. It is shown to perform well in molecular dynamics (MD simulations as well, where the phonon thermal conductivity is calculated via the Green-Kubo relation. The results are within 10% of the values obtained by solving the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE, employing Fermi’s Golden Rule to predict the phonon-phonon relaxation times.

  4. Phonon optimized interatomic potential for aluminum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muraleedharan, Murali Gopal; Rohskopf, Andrew; Yang, Vigor; Henry, Asegun

    2017-12-01

    We address the problem of generating a phonon optimized interatomic potential (POP) for aluminum. The POP methodology, which has already been shown to work for semiconductors such as silicon and germanium, uses an evolutionary strategy based on a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize the free parameters in an empirical interatomic potential (EIP). For aluminum, we used the Vashishta functional form. The training data set was generated ab initio, consisting of forces, energy vs. volume, stresses, and harmonic and cubic force constants obtained from density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Existing potentials for aluminum, such as the embedded atom method (EAM) and charge-optimized many-body (COMB3) potential, show larger errors when the EIP forces are compared with those predicted by DFT, and thus they are not particularly well suited for reproducing phonon properties. Using a comprehensive Vashishta functional form, which involves short and long-ranged interactions, as well as three-body terms, we were able to better capture interactions that reproduce phonon properties accurately. Furthermore, the Vashishta potential is flexible enough to be extended to Al2O3 and the interface between Al-Al2O3, which is technologically important for combustion of solid Al nano powders. The POP developed here is tested for accuracy by comparing phonon thermal conductivity accumulation plots, density of states, and dispersion relations with DFT results. It is shown to perform well in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations as well, where the phonon thermal conductivity is calculated via the Green-Kubo relation. The results are within 10% of the values obtained by solving the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), employing Fermi's Golden Rule to predict the phonon-phonon relaxation times.

  5. Theological reflections on empire

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Allan A. Boesak

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available Since the meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Accra, Ghana (2004, and the adoption of the Accra Declaration, a debate has been raging in the churches about globalisation, socio-economic justice, ecological responsibility, political and cultural domination and globalised war. Central to this debate is the concept of empire and the way the United States is increasingly becoming its embodiment. Is the United States a global empire? This article argues that the United States has indeed become the expression of a modern empire and that this reality has considerable consequences, not just for global economics and politics but for theological refl ection as well.

  6. New One-Boson-Exchange Potential functions | Fiase | Journal of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    A new one-boson-exchange potential (OBEP) is derived by fitting the oscillator matrix elements of the sum of the OBEP functions to those of the matrix elements derived by the lowest order constrained variational (LOCV) technique. The results give a reasonable fit to the OBEP model. Journal of the Nigerian Association of ...

  7. The view from Copenhagen :Strategies of imperial control and the making of loyal middlemen in the Danish empire

    OpenAIRE

    Adler-Nissen, Rebecca

    2014-01-01

    This article seeks to understand how Copenhagen functioned as the political core ofthe Danish empire from absolutism in 1660 to the loss of Norway in 1814, thereby contributingto the debate on how empires hang together. My focus is the imperial middlemenor intermediaries who became astonishingly loyal to the core. This loyalty wasensured not through circulation of officials across the different parts of the empire, butthrough asymmetrical contracting, various strategies of control, binding an...

  8. Coulomb Green's function and image potential near a cylindrical diffuse interface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xue, Changfeng; Huang, Qiongwei; Deng, Shaozhong

    2015-12-01

    In a preceding paper [Comput. Phys. Commun. 184 (1): 51-59, 2013], we revisited the problem of calculating Coulomb Green's function and image potential near a planar diffuse interface within which the dielectric permittivity of the inhomogeneous medium changes continuously along one Cartesian direction in a transition layer between two dissimilar dielectric materials. In the present paper, we consider a cylindrical diffuse interface within which the dielectric permittivity changes continuously along the radial direction instead. First we propose a specific cylindrical diffuse interface model, termed the quasi-harmonic diffuse interface model, that can admit analytical solution for the Green's function in terms of the modified Bessel functions. Then and more importantly we develop a robust numerical method for building Green's functions for any cylindrical diffuse interface models. The main idea of the numerical method is, after dividing a diffuse interface into multiple sublayers, to approximate the dielectric permittivity profile in each one of the sublayers by one of the quasi-harmonic functional form rather than simply by a constant value as one would normally do. Next we describe how to efficiently compute well-behaved ratios, products, and logarithmic derivatives of the modified Bessel functions so as to avoid direct evaluations of individual modified Bessel functions in our formulations. Finally we conduct numerical experiments to show the effectiveness of the quasi-harmonic diffuse interface model in overcoming the divergence of the image potential, to validate the numerical method in terms of its accuracy and convergence, and to demonstrate its capability for computing Green's functions for any cylindrical diffuse interface models.

  9. The Role of Students’ Emotional Intelligence: Empirical Evidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalio Extremera Pacheco

    2004-11-01

    Full Text Available Emotional intelligence (EI has attracted great interest in the field of education as a vehicle to improve the socioemotional development of students. The first publications that appeared made a great number of claims about the positive influence of emotional intelligence in the classroom. The only problem was that not all these claims were coupled with empirical research to show, on the one hand, the predictive level of EI, and on the other hand, the actual role of EI in different areas of life. It has been only recently that the effect of a high level of EI exercises on people has been investigated. The object of this article is to examine the most relevant empirical research done within the educational setting, in order to collect the existing evidence for the influence of EI, evaluated by different instruments, in the personal, social and scholastic functioning of students.

  10. The dappled nature of causes of psychiatric illness: replacing the organic-functional/hardware-software dichotomy with empirically based pluralism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendler, K S

    2012-04-01

    Our tendency to see the world of psychiatric illness in dichotomous and opposing terms has three major sources: the philosophy of Descartes, the state of neuropathology in late nineteenth century Europe (when disorders were divided into those with and without demonstrable pathology and labeled, respectively, organic and functional), and the influential concept of computer functionalism wherein the computer is viewed as a model for the human mind-brain system (brain=hardware, mind=software). These mutually re-enforcing dichotomies, which have had a pernicious influence on our field, make a clear prediction about how 'difference-makers' (aka causal risk factors) for psychiatric disorders should be distributed in nature. In particular, are psychiatric disorders like our laptops, which when they dysfunction, can be cleanly divided into those with software versus hardware problems? I propose 11 categories of difference-makers for psychiatric illness from molecular genetics through culture and review their distribution in schizophrenia, major depression and alcohol dependence. In no case do these distributions resemble that predicted by the organic-functional/hardware-software dichotomy. Instead, the causes of psychiatric illness are dappled, distributed widely across multiple categories. We should abandon Cartesian and computer-functionalism-based dichotomies as scientifically inadequate and an impediment to our ability to integrate the diverse information about psychiatric illness our research has produced. Empirically based pluralism provides a rigorous but dappled view of the etiology of psychiatric illness. Critically, it is based not on how we wish the world to be but how the difference-makers for psychiatric illness are in fact distributed.

  11. Development of an empirical correlation for combustion durations in spark ignition engines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bayraktar, Hakan; Durgun, Orhan

    2004-01-01

    Development of an empirical correlation for combustion duration is presented. For this purpose, the effects of variations in compression ratio engine speed, fuel/air equivalence ratio and spark advance on combustion duration have been determined by means of a quasi-dimensional SI engine cycle model previously developed by the authors. Burn durations at several engine operating conditions were calculated from the turbulent combustion model. Variations of combustion duration with each operating parameter obtained from the theoretical results were expressed by second degree polynomial functions. By using these functions, a general empirical correlation for the burn duration has been developed. In this correlation, the effects of engine operating parameters on combustion duration were taken into account. Combustion durations predicted by means of this correlation are in good agreement with those obtained from experimental studies and a detailed combustion model

  12. Generalized empirical equation for the extrapolated range of electrons in elemental and compound materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lima, W. de; Poli CR, D. de

    1999-01-01

    The extrapolated range R ex of electrons is useful for various purposes in research and in the application of electrons, for example, in polymer modification, electron energy determination and estimation of effects associated with deep penetration of electrons. A number of works have used empirical equations to express the extrapolated range for some elements. In this work a generalized empirical equation, very simple and accurate, in the energy region 0.3 keV - 50 MeV is proposed. The extrapolated range for elements, in organic or inorganic molecules and compound materials, can be well expressed as a function of the atomic number Z or two empirical parameters Zm for molecules and Zc for compound materials instead of Z. (author)

  13. Lessons from empirical studies in product and service variety management.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew C.L. Lyons

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available For many years, a trend for businesses has been to increase market segmentation and extend product and service-variety offerings in order to provid more choice for customers and gain a competitive advantags. However, there have been relatively few variety-related, empirical studies that have been undertaken. In this research, two empirical studies are presented that address the impact of product and service variety on business and business function performance. In the first (service-variety study, the focus concerns the relationship between service provision offered by UK-based, third-party logistics (3PL providers and the operational and financial performance of those providers. Here, the results of a large survey identify the  most important services offered by 3PLs and the most important aspects of 3PL operational performance. Also, the research suggests that the range of service variety offered by 3PLs does not directly influence the 3PLs’ financial performance. The second (product-variety study presents the findings from an analysis of data from 163 manufacturing plants where the impact of product variety on the performance of five business functions is examined. An increase in product variety was found to influence business functions differently depending on the combination of customisation and variety offered to customers

  14. Metagenomes reveal microbial structures, functional potentials, and biofouling-related genes in a membrane bioreactor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Jinxing; Wang, Zhiwei; Li, Huan; Park, Hee-Deung; Wu, Zhichao

    2016-06-01

    Metagenomic sequencing was used to investigate the microbial structures, functional potentials, and biofouling-related genes in a membrane bioreactor (MBR). The results showed that the microbial community in the MBR was highly diverse. Notably, function analysis of the dominant genera indicated that common genes from different phylotypes were identified for important functional potentials with the observation of variation of abundances of genes in a certain taxon (e.g., Dechloromonas). Despite maintaining similar metabolic functional potentials with a parallel full-scale conventional activated sludge (CAS) system due to treating the identical wastewater, the MBR had more abundant nitrification-related bacteria and coding genes of ammonia monooxygenase, which could well explain its excellent ammonia removal in the low-temperature period. Furthermore, according to quantification of the genes involved in exopolysaccharide and extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) protein metabolism, the MBR did not show a much different potential in producing EPS compared to the CAS system, and bacteria from the membrane biofilm had lower abundances of genes associated with EPS biosynthesis and transport compared to the activated sludge in the MBR.

  15. Autonomous Vehicles Require Socio-Political Acceptance—An Empirical and Philosophical Perspective on the Problem of Moral Decision Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergmann, Lasse T.; Schlicht, Larissa; Meixner, Carmen; König, Peter; Pipa, Gordon; Boshammer, Susanne; Stephan, Achim

    2018-01-01

    Autonomous vehicles, though having enormous potential, face a number of challenges. As a computer system interacting with society on a large scale and human beings in particular, they will encounter situations, which require moral assessment. What will count as right behavior in such situations depends on which factors are considered to be both morally justified and socially acceptable. In an empirical study we investigated what factors people recognize as relevant in driving situations. The study put subjects in several “dilemma” situations, which were designed to isolate different and potentially relevant factors. Subjects showed a surprisingly high willingness to sacrifice themselves to save others, took the age of potential victims in a crash into consideration and were willing to swerve onto a sidewalk if this saved more lives. The empirical insights are intended to provide a starting point for a discussion, ultimately yielding societal agreement whereby the empirical insights should be balanced with philosophical considerations. PMID:29541023

  16. Autonomous Vehicles Require Socio-Political Acceptance—An Empirical and Philosophical Perspective on the Problem of Moral Decision Making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lasse T. Bergmann

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Autonomous vehicles, though having enormous potential, face a number of challenges. As a computer system interacting with society on a large scale and human beings in particular, they will encounter situations, which require moral assessment. What will count as right behavior in such situations depends on which factors are considered to be both morally justified and socially acceptable. In an empirical study we investigated what factors people recognize as relevant in driving situations. The study put subjects in several “dilemma” situations, which were designed to isolate different and potentially relevant factors. Subjects showed a surprisingly high willingness to sacrifice themselves to save others, took the age of potential victims in a crash into consideration and were willing to swerve onto a sidewalk if this saved more lives. The empirical insights are intended to provide a starting point for a discussion, ultimately yielding societal agreement whereby the empirical insights should be balanced with philosophical considerations.

  17. Autonomous Vehicles Require Socio-Political Acceptance-An Empirical and Philosophical Perspective on the Problem of Moral Decision Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergmann, Lasse T; Schlicht, Larissa; Meixner, Carmen; König, Peter; Pipa, Gordon; Boshammer, Susanne; Stephan, Achim

    2018-01-01

    Autonomous vehicles, though having enormous potential, face a number of challenges. As a computer system interacting with society on a large scale and human beings in particular, they will encounter situations, which require moral assessment. What will count as right behavior in such situations depends on which factors are considered to be both morally justified and socially acceptable. In an empirical study we investigated what factors people recognize as relevant in driving situations. The study put subjects in several "dilemma" situations, which were designed to isolate different and potentially relevant factors. Subjects showed a surprisingly high willingness to sacrifice themselves to save others, took the age of potential victims in a crash into consideration and were willing to swerve onto a sidewalk if this saved more lives. The empirical insights are intended to provide a starting point for a discussion, ultimately yielding societal agreement whereby the empirical insights should be balanced with philosophical considerations.

  18. Birds of the Mongol Empire

    OpenAIRE

    Eugene N. Anderson

    2016-01-01

    The Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire the world has ever known, had, among other things, a goodly number of falconers, poultry raisers, birdcatchers, cooks, and other experts on various aspects of birding. We have records of this, largely in the Yinshan Zhengyao, the court nutrition manual of the Mongol empire in China (the Yuan Dynasty). It discusses in some detail 22 bird taxa, from swans to chickens. The Huihui Yaofang, a medical encyclopedia, lists ten taxa used medicinally. Ma...

  19. First non-zero terms for the Taylor expansion at 1 of the Conway potential function

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Buryak, A.Y.

    2011-01-01

    The Conway potential function ∇ L (t 1,...,t l ) of an ordered oriented link L = L 1 ∪ L 2 ∪ ... ∪ L l ⊂ S 3 is considered. In general, this function is not determined by the linking numbers and the Conway potential functions of the components. However, the first two nonzero terms of the Taylor

  20. Wireless and empire geopolitics radio industry and ionosphere in the British Empire 1918-1939

    CERN Document Server

    Anduaga, Aitor

    2009-01-01

    Although the product of consensus politics, the British Empire was based on communications supremacy and the knowledge of the atmosphere. Focusing on science, industry, government, the military, and education, this book studies the relationship between wireless and Empire throughout the interwar period.

  1. The propagator for the step potential and delta function potential using the path decomposition expansion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yearsley, James M [Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BZ (United Kingdom)

    2008-07-18

    We present a derivation of the propagator for a particle in the presence of the step and delta function potentials. These propagators are known, but we present a direct path integral derivation, based on the path decomposition expansion and the Brownian motion definition of the path integral. The derivation exploits properties of the Catalan numbers, which enumerate certain classes of lattice paths.

  2. Coupling of ab initio density functional theory and molecular dynamics for the multiscale modeling of carbon nanotubes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ng, T Y; Yeak, S H; Liew, K M

    2008-01-01

    A multiscale technique is developed that couples empirical molecular dynamics (MD) and ab initio density functional theory (DFT). An overlap handshaking region between the empirical MD and ab initio DFT regions is formulated and the interaction forces between the carbon atoms are calculated based on the second-generation reactive empirical bond order potential, the long-range Lennard-Jones potential as well as the quantum-mechanical DFT derived forces. A density of point algorithm is also developed to track all interatomic distances in the system, and to activate and establish the DFT and handshaking regions. Through parallel computing, this multiscale method is used here to study the dynamic behavior of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) under asymmetrical axial compression. The detection of sideways buckling due to the asymmetrical axial compression is reported and discussed. It is noted from this study on SWCNTs that the MD results may be stiffer compared to those with electron density considerations, i.e. first-principle ab initio methods

  3. Empirical Music Aesthetics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grund, Cynthia M.

    The toolbox for empirically exploring the ways that artistic endeavors convey and activate meaning on the part of performers and audiences continues to expand. Current work employing methods at the intersection of performance studies, philosophy, motion capture and neuroscience to better understand...... musical performance and reception is inspired by traditional approaches within aesthetics, but it also challenges some of the presuppositions inherent in them. As an example of such work I present a research project in empirical music aesthetics begun last year and of which I am a team member....

  4. Empirical pillar design methods review report: Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-02-01

    This report summarizes and evaluates empirical pillar design methods that may be of use during the conceptual design of a high-level nuclear waste repository in salt. The methods are discussed according to category (i.e, main, submain, and panel pillars; barrier pillars; and shaft pillars). Of the 21 identified for main, submain, and panel pillars, one method, the Confined Core Method, is evaluated as being most appropriate for conceptual design. Five methods are considered potentially applicable. Of six methods identified for barrier pillars, one method based on the Load Transfer Distance concept is considered most appropriate for design. Based on the evaluation of 25 methods identified for shaft pillars, an approximate sizing criterion is proposed for use in conceptual design. Aspects of pillar performance relating to creep, ground deformation, interaction with roof and floor rock, and response to high temperature environments are not adequately addressed by existing empirical design methods. 152 refs., 22 figs., 14 tabs

  5. B-Spline potential function for maximum a-posteriori image reconstruction in fluorescence microscopy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shilpa Dilipkumar

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available An iterative image reconstruction technique employing B-Spline potential function in a Bayesian framework is proposed for fluorescence microscopy images. B-splines are piecewise polynomials with smooth transition, compact support and are the shortest polynomial splines. Incorporation of the B-spline potential function in the maximum-a-posteriori reconstruction technique resulted in improved contrast, enhanced resolution and substantial background reduction. The proposed technique is validated on simulated data as well as on the images acquired from fluorescence microscopes (widefield, confocal laser scanning fluorescence and super-resolution 4Pi microscopy. A comparative study of the proposed technique with the state-of-art maximum likelihood (ML and maximum-a-posteriori (MAP with quadratic potential function shows its superiority over the others. B-Spline MAP technique can find applications in several imaging modalities of fluorescence microscopy like selective plane illumination microscopy, localization microscopy and STED.

  6. Continuity Conditions on Schrodinger Wave Functions at Discontinuities of the Potential.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Branson, David

    1979-01-01

    Several standard arguments which attempt to show that the wave function and its derivative must be continuous across jump discontinuities of the potential are reviewed and their defects discussed. (Author/HM)

  7. Empirical philosophy of science

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wagenknecht, Susann; Nersessian, Nancy J.; Andersen, Hanne

    2015-01-01

    A growing number of philosophers of science make use of qualitative empirical data, a development that may reconfigure the relations between philosophy and sociology of science and that is reminiscent of efforts to integrate history and philosophy of science. Therefore, the first part...... of this introduction to the volume Empirical Philosophy of Science outlines the history of relations between philosophy and sociology of science on the one hand, and philosophy and history of science on the other. The second part of this introduction offers an overview of the papers in the volume, each of which...... is giving its own answer to questions such as: Why does the use of qualitative empirical methods benefit philosophical accounts of science? And how should these methods be used by the philosopher?...

  8. A Balanced Theoretical and Empirical Approach for the Development of a Design Support Tool

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Thomas Aakjær; Hansen, Claus Thorp

    1996-01-01

    The introduction of a new design support system may change the engineering designer's work situation. Therefore, it may not be possible to derive all the functionalities for a design support system from solely empirical studies of manual design work. Alternatively the design support system could ...... system, indicating a proposal for how to balance a theoretical and empirical approach. The result of this research will be utilized in the development of a Designer's Workbench to support the synthesis activity in mechanical design....

  9. Incorporating "motivation" into the functional analysis of challenging behavior: on the interactive and integrative potential of the motivating operation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langthorne, Paul; McGill, Peter; O'Reilly, Mark

    2007-07-01

    Sensitivity theory attempts to account for the variability often observed in challenging behavior by recourse to the "aberrant motivation" of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In this article, we suggest that a functional analysis based on environmental (challenging environments) and biological (challenging needs) motivating operations provides a more parsimonious and empirically grounded account of challenging behavior than that proposed by sensitivity theory. It is argued that the concept of the motivating operation provides a means of integrating diverse strands of research without the undue inference of mentalistic constructs. An integrated model of challenging behavior is proposed, one that remains compatible with the central tenets of functional analysis.

  10. The Use of Asymptotic Functions for Determining Empirical Values of CN Parameter in Selected Catchments of Variable Land Cover

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wałęga, Andrzej; Młyński, Dariusz; Wachulec, Katarzyna

    2017-12-01

    The aim of the study was to assess the applicability of asymptotic functions for determining the value of CN parameter as a function of precipitation depth in mountain and upland catchments. The analyses were carried out in two catchments: the Rudawa, left tributary of the Vistula, and the Kamienica, right tributary of the Dunajec. The input material included data on precipitation and flows for a multi-year period 1980-2012, obtained from IMGW PIB in Warsaw. Two models were used to determine empirical values of CNobs parameter as a function of precipitation depth: standard Hawkins model and 2-CN model allowing for a heterogeneous nature of a catchment area. The study analyses confirmed that asymptotic functions properly described P-CNobs relationship for the entire range of precipitation variability. In the case of high rainfalls, CNobs remained above or below the commonly accepted average antecedent moisture conditions AMCII. The study calculations indicated that the runoff amount calculated according to the original SCS-CN method might be underestimated, and this could adversely affect the values of design flows required for the design of hydraulic engineering projects. In catchments with heterogeneous land cover, the results of CNobs were more accurate when 2-CN model was used instead of the standard Hawkins model. 2-CN model is more precise in accounting for differences in runoff formation depending on retention capacity of the substrate. It was also demonstrated that the commonly accepted initial abstraction coefficient λ = 0.20 yielded too big initial loss of precipitation in the analyzed catchments and, therefore, the computed direct runoff was underestimated. The best results were obtained for λ = 0.05.

  11. On the divergence of gradient expansions for kinetic energy functionals in the potential functional theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sergeev, Alexey; Jovanovic, Raka; Kais, Sabre; Alharbi, Fahhad H

    2016-01-01

    We consider the density of a fermionic system as a functional of the potential, in one-dimensional case, where it is approximated by the Thomas–Fermi term plus semiclassical corrections through the gradient expansion. We compare this asymptotic series with the exact answer for the case of the harmonic oscillator and the Morse potential. It is found that the leading (Thomas–Fermi) term is in agreement with the exact density, but the subdominant term does not agree in terms of the asymptotic behavior because of the presence of oscillations in the exact density, but their absence in the gradient expansion. However, after regularization of the density by convolution with a Gaussian, the agreement can be established even in the subdominant term. Moreover, it is found that the expansion is always divergent, and its terms grow proportionally to the factorial function of the order, similar to the well-known divergence of perturbation series in field theory and the quantum anharmonic oscillator. Padé–Hermite approximants allow summation of the series, and one of the branches of the approximants agrees with the density. (paper)

  12. Correlation energy generating potentials for molecular hydrogen

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sharma, B.S.; Thakkar, A.J.

    1985-01-01

    A variety of local correlation energy functionals are currently in use. All of them depend, to some extent, on modeling the correlation energy of a homogeneous electron fluid. Since atomic and molecular charge densities are neither uniform nor slowly varying, it is important to attempt to use known high accuracy wave functions to learn about correlation energy functionals appropriate to such systems. We have extended the definition of the correlation energy generating potentials V/sub c/ introduced by Ros. A charge density response to correlation has been allowed for by inclusion of an electron--nuclear component V/sup e/n/sub c/ in addition to the electron--electron component V/sup e/e/sub c/. Two different definitions of V/sup e/n/sub c/ are given. We present the first calculations of V/sub c/ for a molecular system: H 2 . The results show that V/sup e/n/sub c/, in either definition, is by no means negligible. Moreover, V/sup e/e/sub c/ and both forms of V/sup e/n/sub c/ show significant nonlocal dependence on the charge density. Calculations with ten different model correlation energy functionals show that none of them is particularly sensitive to the charge density. However, they are quite sensitive to the parametrization of the electron fluid correlation energy. The schemes which include self-interaction corrections (SIC) are found to be superior to those of Kohn--Sham type. The correlation energy generating potentials implied by the SIC type and empirical correlation energy functionals are found to correspond roughly to averages of one of the accurate potentials

  13. Repetitive thinking, executive functioning, and depressive mood in the elderly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Philippot, Pierre; Agrigoroaei, Stefan

    2017-11-01

    Previous findings and the depressive-executive dysfunction hypothesis suggest that the established association between executive functioning and depression is accounted for by repetitive thinking. Investigating the association between executive functioning, repetitive thinking, and depressive mood, the present study empirically tested this mediational model in a sample of older adults, while focusing on both concrete and abstract repetitive thinking. This latter distinction is important given the potential protective role of concrete repetitive thinking, in contrast to the depletive effect of abstract repetitive thinking. A sample of 43 elderly volunteers, between 75 and 95 years of age, completed tests of executive functioning (the Stroop test, the Trail Making test, and the Fluency test), and questionnaires of repetitive thinking and depression. Positive correlations were observed between abstract repetitive thinking and depressive mood, and between concrete repetitive thinking and executive functioning; a negative correlation was observed between depressive mood and executive functioning. Further, mediational analysis evidenced that the relation between executive functioning and depressive mood was mediated by abstract repetitive thinking. The present data provide, for the first time, empirical support to the depressive-executive dysfunction hypothesis: the lack of executive resources would favor a mode of abstract repetitive thinking, which in turn would deplete mood. It suggests that clinical intervention targeting depression in the elderly should take into consideration repetitive thinking modes and the executive resources needed to disengage from rumination.

  14. Beta Function Quintessence Cosmological Parameters and Fundamental Constants I: Power and Inverse Power Law Dark Energy Potentials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Rodger I.

    2018-04-01

    This investigation explores using the beta function formalism to calculate analytic solutions for the observable parameters in rolling scalar field cosmologies. The beta function in this case is the derivative of the scalar ϕ with respect to the natural log of the scale factor a, β (φ )=d φ /d ln (a). Once the beta function is specified, modulo a boundary condition, the evolution of the scalar ϕ as a function of the scale factor is completely determined. A rolling scalar field cosmology is defined by its action which can contain a range of physically motivated dark energy potentials. The beta function is chosen so that the associated "beta potential" is an accurate, but not exact, representation of the appropriate dark energy model potential. The basic concept is that the action with the beta potential is so similar to the action with the model potential that solutions using the beta action are accurate representations of solutions using the model action. The beta function provides an extra equation to calculate analytic functions of the cosmologies parameters as a function of the scale factor that are that are not calculable using only the model action. As an example this investigation uses a quintessence cosmology to demonstrate the method for power and inverse power law dark energy potentials. An interesting result of the investigation is that the Hubble parameter H is almost completely insensitive to the power of the potentials and that ΛCDM is part of the family of quintessence cosmology power law potentials with a power of zero.

  15. Automatic annotation of protein motif function with Gene Ontology terms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gopalakrishnan Vanathi

    2004-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Conserved protein sequence motifs are short stretches of amino acid sequence patterns that potentially encode the function of proteins. Several sequence pattern searching algorithms and programs exist foridentifying candidate protein motifs at the whole genome level. However, amuch needed and importanttask is to determine the functions of the newly identified protein motifs. The Gene Ontology (GO project is an endeavor to annotate the function of genes or protein sequences with terms from a dynamic, controlled vocabulary and these annotations serve well as a knowledge base. Results This paperpresents methods to mine the GO knowledge base and use the association between the GO terms assigned to a sequence and the motifs matched by the same sequence as evidence for predicting the functions of novel protein motifs automatically. The task of assigning GO terms to protein motifsis viewed as both a binary classification and information retrieval problem, where PROSITE motifs are used as samples for mode training and functional prediction. The mutual information of a motif and aGO term association isfound to be a very useful feature. We take advantageof the known motifs to train a logistic regression classifier, which allows us to combine mutual information with other frequency-based features and obtain a probability of correctassociation. The trained logistic regression model has intuitively meaningful and logically plausible parameter values, and performs very well empirically according to our evaluation criteria. Conclusions In this research, different methods for automatic annotation of protein motifs have been investigated. Empirical result demonstrated that the methods have a great potential for detecting and augmenting information about thefunctions of newly discovered candidate protein motifs.

  16. Liver-resident NK cells and their potential functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Hui; Sun, Rui

    2017-09-18

    Natural killer (NK) cells represent a heterogeneous population of innate lymphocytes with phenotypically and functionally distinct subsets. In particular, recent studies have identified a unique subset of NK cells residing within the liver that are maintained as tissue-resident cells, confer antigen-specific memory responses and exhibit different phenotypical and developmental characteristics compared with conventional NK (cNK) cells. These findings have encouraged researchers to uncover tissue-resident NK cells at other sites, and detailed analyses have revealed that these tissue-resident NK cells share many similarities with liver-resident NK cells and tissue-resident memory T cells. Here, we present a brief historical perspective on the discovery of liver-resident NK cells and discuss their relationship to cNK cells and other emerging NK cell subsets and their potential functions.Cellular &Molecular Immunology advance online publication, 18 September 2017; doi:10.1038/cmi.2017.72.

  17. Single-site Green function of the Dirac equation for full-potential electron scattering

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kordt, Pascal

    2012-05-30

    I present an elaborated analytical examination of the Green function of an electron scattered at a single-site potential, for both the Schroedinger and the Dirac equation, followed by an efficient numerical solution, in both cases for potentials of arbitrary shape without an atomic sphere approximation. A numerically stable way to calculate the corresponding regular and irregular wave functions and the Green function is via the angular Lippmann-Schwinger integral equations. These are solved based on an expansion in Chebyshev polynomials and their recursion relations, allowing to rewrite the Lippmann-Schwinger equations into a system of algebraic linear equations. Gonzales et al. developed this method for the Schroedinger equation, where it gives a much higher accuracy compared to previous perturbation methods, with only modest increase in computational effort. In order to apply it to the Dirac equation, I developed relativistic Lippmann-Schwinger equations, based on a decomposition of the potential matrix into spin spherical harmonics, exploiting certain properties of this matrix. The resulting method was embedded into a Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker code for density functional calculations. As an example, the method is applied by calculating phase shifts and the Mott scattering of a tungsten impurity. (orig.)

  18. Single-site Green function of the Dirac equation for full-potential electron scattering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kordt, Pascal

    2012-01-01

    I present an elaborated analytical examination of the Green function of an electron scattered at a single-site potential, for both the Schroedinger and the Dirac equation, followed by an efficient numerical solution, in both cases for potentials of arbitrary shape without an atomic sphere approximation. A numerically stable way to calculate the corresponding regular and irregular wave functions and the Green function is via the angular Lippmann-Schwinger integral equations. These are solved based on an expansion in Chebyshev polynomials and their recursion relations, allowing to rewrite the Lippmann-Schwinger equations into a system of algebraic linear equations. Gonzales et al. developed this method for the Schroedinger equation, where it gives a much higher accuracy compared to previous perturbation methods, with only modest increase in computational effort. In order to apply it to the Dirac equation, I developed relativistic Lippmann-Schwinger equations, based on a decomposition of the potential matrix into spin spherical harmonics, exploiting certain properties of this matrix. The resulting method was embedded into a Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker code for density functional calculations. As an example, the method is applied by calculating phase shifts and the Mott scattering of a tungsten impurity. (orig.)

  19. Pluvials, Droughts, the Mongol Empire, and Modern Mongolia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hessl, A. E.; Pederson, N.; Baatarbileg, N.; Anchukaitis, K. J.

    2013-12-01

    , in combination with a gridded temperature reconstruction, shows that the climate during the conquests of Chinggis Khaan's (Ghengis Khan) 13th century Mongol Empire was warm and persistently wet. Tree-ring and meteorological data combined suggest that the early 21st century drought was the hottest drought in the last 1000 years, consistent with model projections of warming in Inner Asia. Future warming may overwhelm increases in precipitation leading to similar 'heat droughts', with potentially severe consequences for modern Mongolia.

  20. Final Empirical Test Case Specification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kalyanova, Olena; Heiselberg, Per

    This document includes the empirical specification on the IEA task of evaluation building energy simulation computer programs for the Double Skin Facades (DSF) constructions. There are two approaches involved into this procedure, one is the comparative approach and another is the empirical one....

  1. Empire vs. Federation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gravier, Magali

    2011-01-01

    The article discusses the concepts of federation and empire in the context of the European Union (EU). Even if these two concepts are not usually contrasted to one another, the article shows that they refer to related type of polities. Furthermore, they can be used at a time because they shed light...... on different and complementary aspects of the European integration process. The article concludes that the EU is at the crossroads between federation and empire and may remain an ‘imperial federation’ for several decades. This could mean that the EU is on the verge of transforming itself to another type...

  2. How do Companies Invest in Corporate Social Responsibility? An Ordonomic Contribution for Empirical CSR Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matthias Georg Will

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper takes both a conceptual and an empirical approach to answer the question as to how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR can be connected to the company’s role as an agent of social value creation when it operates within an imperfect institutional framework of market competition. To develop a functional design for an empirical study, we draw on the concept of ordonomics, which provides a heuristics for responsible business activities in society. Drawing on ordonomics, we devise three questions: Referring to action responsibility we ask in which CSR activities companies do invest in their day-to-day business. Referring to governance responsibility we ask as to how companies realize win-win solutions through strategic commitments. In addition, with regard to discourse responsibility we ask in which stakeholder dialogues companies engage in order to discuss and find functional rules for organizing win-win solutions. In our empirical study, we reveal insights into the micro-level analysis of the CSP-CFP link and generate several new questions to be the subject of future research.

  3. The Apocalyptic Empire of America L’Empire apocalyptique américain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Akça Ataç

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available En général, les études traitant de « l’Empire » américain tendent à chercher à comprendre celui-ci à partir de termes concrets tels que la frontière, l’intervention militaire, le commerce international. Néanmoins, les Empires sont d’abord le résultat de profondes traditions intellectuelles intangibles qui encouragent et justifient les actions entreprises dans le cadre de politiques impériales. Dans le cas de l’Amérique, les fondements intellectuels du nouvel idéal impérial sont ancrés dans la vision apocalyptique transportée dans les bagages des premiers colons puritains. Si l’on ne prend pas en compte cet ancrage apocalyptique, on ne peut saisir, dans leur totalité, les principes fondamentaux de « l’Empire » américain. On devrait examiner des termes qui entrent en résonance avec le discours impérial tels que « mission » et « destinée » ainsi que de l’engagement explicite dans la rhétorique présidentielle en faveur de « l’amélioration » du monde à n’importe quel prix du point de vue de cette croyance apocalyptique éternelle. Cet article essaie d’élucider l’origine et l’essence de la vision apocalyptique américaine en portant une attention particulière sur son influence dans la genèse du concept d’Empire américain.

  4. THE MARKET ORIENTATION AND PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIP: THE EMPIRICAL LINK IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sefnedi Sefnedi

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the empirical link between three dimensions of market orientation, namely, stu­dent orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination, and overall private uni­ver­sity per­formance in Kopertis X. It was based on an empirical investigation of private universities located in In­do­nesia’s provinces of West Sumatera, Riau, Jambi, and Kepulauan Riau. The primary data for the study were collected from a self-administered mail survey of 237 questionnaires from the private university re­sul­­ting in a sample of 114 usable responses being returned. From the application of the multiple re­gres­sion ana­lysis it was concluded that all three dimensions of market orientation had a significant impact on private un­iversity performance. Student orientation as a predictor variable is the strongest predictor of pri­vate uni­ver­­sity performance and followed by competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination.

  5. Trends of Empirical Research in South Korean Mental Health Social Work

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, In Han; Lee, Eun Jung

    2017-01-01

    Since the introduction of evidence-based practice in South Korea, it has gained significant attention for its potential to promote the efficacy of social work services and to integrate knowledge and practice in mental health social work. In order to see how empirical research in South Korean mental health social work has changed, we examined…

  6. Obtaining the Varshni potential function using the 2-body Kaxiras–Pandey parameters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    TEIK-CHENG LIM

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available A generalized version of the Varshni potential function was adopted by Kaxiras and Pandey for describing the 2-body energy portion of multi-body condensed matter. The former’s simplicity and resemblance to a Morse potential allows faster computation while the latter’s greater number of parameters allows better curve-fitting of spectroscopic data. This paper shows one set of parameter conversion from the Varshni function to the 2-body portion of the Kaxiras–Pandey function, and vice versa two sets of parameter conversion. The latter two sets reveal good correlation between plotted curves, and were verified by the imposition of equal energy curvatures at equilibrium and equal energy integral from equilibrium to dissociation. These parameter conversions can also be attained more easily by equating the product of indices (for short range and the summation of index reciprocals (for long range.

  7. Empirical Investigation into the Determinants of Compliance with IFRS 7 Disclosure Requirements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Atanasko Atanasovski

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to assess the quality of disclosures related to financial instruments provided in annual financial statements of Macedonian listed companies and empirically investigate factors that have the potential to influence the quality of these disclosures in accordance with IFRS 7 requirements. Based on the postulates and the results of the empirical investigations of prior IAS compliance studies I have constructed a disclosure index for each listed company and performed regression analysis with independent variables representing some characteristics of listed companies investigated, such as their size, industry, type of auditor engaged, ownership concentration, profitability and leverage. My regression analysis results supported the conclusion that the level of compliance with IFRS 7 requirements is related to the type of auditor engaged and ownership concentration in investigated companies. The results of my research will contribute the large body of empirical studies on IFRS disclosure and compliance, providing evidence from South- East European Transitional Economy that adopted IFRS as national financial reporting framework.

  8. An Empirical Assessment of the Form of Utility Functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirby, Kris N.

    2011-01-01

    Utility functions, which relate subjective value to physical attributes of experience, are fundamental to most decision theories. Seven experiments were conducted to test predictions of the most widely assumed mathematical forms of utility (power, log, and negative exponential), and a function proposed by Rachlin (1992). For pairs of gambles for…

  9. Project size and common pool size: An empirical test using Danish municipal mergers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Sune Welling

    The paper examines the proposition that project size tends to increase with common pool size from the law of 1 over n (Weingast et al, 1981). This remains under-investigated and a recent study conducted by Primo & Snyder (2008) argues, and empirically substantiates, a reverse law of 1 over n...... across two research designs, two outcome variables, two subsamples, and several model specifications The implications of the findings, combined with the limited potential for empirically testing Primo & Snyder’s alternative model, suggest a re-appreciation of the law of 1 over n as it was originally...

  10. Comparison of two interpolation methods for empirical mode decomposition based evaluation of radiographic femur bone images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Udhayakumar, Ganesan; Sujatha, Chinnaswamy Manoharan; Ramakrishnan, Swaminathan

    2013-01-01

    Analysis of bone strength in radiographic images is an important component of estimation of bone quality in diseases such as osteoporosis. Conventional radiographic femur bone images are used to analyze its architecture using bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition method. Surface interpolation of local maxima and minima points of an image is a crucial part of bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition method and the choice of appropriate interpolation depends on specific structure of the problem. In this work, two interpolation methods of bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition are analyzed to characterize the trabecular femur bone architecture of radiographic images. The trabecular bone regions of normal and osteoporotic femur bone images (N = 40) recorded under standard condition are used for this study. The compressive and tensile strength regions of the images are delineated using pre-processing procedures. The delineated images are decomposed into their corresponding intrinsic mode functions using interpolation methods such as Radial basis function multiquadratic and hierarchical b-spline techniques. Results show that bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition analyses using both interpolations are able to represent architectural variations of femur bone radiographic images. As the strength of the bone depends on architectural variation in addition to bone mass, this study seems to be clinically useful.

  11. Computing wave functions in multichannel collisions with non-local potentials using the R-matrix method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonitati, Joey; Slimmer, Ben; Li, Weichuan; Potel, Gregory; Nunes, Filomena

    2017-09-01

    The calculable form of the R-matrix method has been previously shown to be a useful tool in approximately solving the Schrodinger equation in nuclear scattering problems. We use this technique combined with the Gauss quadrature for the Lagrange-mesh method to efficiently solve for the wave functions of projectile nuclei in low energy collisions (1-100 MeV) involving an arbitrary number of channels. We include the local Woods-Saxon potential, the non-local potential of Perey and Buck, a Coulomb potential, and a coupling potential to computationally solve for the wave function of two nuclei at short distances. Object oriented programming is used to increase modularity, and parallel programming techniques are introduced to reduce computation time. We conclude that the R-matrix method is an effective method to predict the wave functions of nuclei in scattering problems involving both multiple channels and non-local potentials. Michigan State University iCER ACRES REU.

  12. Formation of Schrödinger-cat states in the Morse potential: Wigner function picture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foldi, Peter; Czirjak, Attila; Molnar, Balazs; Benedict, Mihaly

    2002-04-22

    We investigate the time evolution of Morse coherent states in the potential of the NO molecule. We present animated wave functions and Wigner functions of the system exhibiting spontaneous formation of Schrödinger-cat states at certain stages of the time evolution. These nonclassical states are coherent superpositions of two localized states corresponding to two di.erent positions of the center of mass. We analyze the degree of nonclassicality as the function of the expectation value of the position in the initial state. Our numerical calculations are based on a novel, essentially algebraic treatment of the Morse potential.

  13. Computational optogenetics: empirically-derived voltage- and light-sensitive channelrhodopsin-2 model.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John C Williams

    Full Text Available Channelrhodospin-2 (ChR2, a light-sensitive ion channel, and its variants have emerged as new excitatory optogenetic tools not only in neuroscience, but also in other areas, including cardiac electrophysiology. An accurate quantitative model of ChR2 is necessary for in silico prediction of the response to optical stimulation in realistic tissue/organ settings. Such a model can guide the rational design of new ion channel functionality tailored to different cell types/tissues. Focusing on one of the most widely used ChR2 mutants (H134R with enhanced current, we collected a comprehensive experimental data set of the response of this ion channel to different irradiances and voltages, and used these data to develop a model of ChR2 with empirically-derived voltage- and irradiance- dependence, where parameters were fine-tuned via simulated annealing optimization. This ChR2 model offers: 1 accurate inward rectification in the current-voltage response across irradiances; 2 empirically-derived voltage- and light-dependent kinetics (activation, deactivation and recovery from inactivation; and 3 accurate amplitude and morphology of the response across voltage and irradiance settings. Temperature-scaling factors (Q10 were derived and model kinetics was adjusted to physiological temperatures. Using optical action potential clamp, we experimentally validated model-predicted ChR2 behavior in guinea pig ventricular myocytes. The model was then incorporated in a variety of cardiac myocytes, including human ventricular, atrial and Purkinje cell models. We demonstrate the ability of ChR2 to trigger action potentials in human cardiomyocytes at relatively low light levels, as well as the differential response of these cells to light, with the Purkinje cells being most easily excitable and ventricular cells requiring the highest irradiance at all pulse durations. This new experimentally-validated ChR2 model will facilitate virtual experimentation in neural and

  14. Review essay: empires, ancient and modern.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, John A

    2011-09-01

    This essay drews attention to two books on empires by historians which deserve the attention of sociologists. Bang's model of the workings of the Roman economy powerfully demonstrates the tributary nature of per-industrial tributary empires. Darwin's analysis concentrates on modern overseas empires, wholly different in character as they involved the transportation of consumption items for the many rather than luxury goods for the few. Darwin is especially good at describing the conditions of existence of late nineteenth century empires, noting that their demise was caused most of all by the failure of balance of power politics in Europe. Concluding thoughts are offered about the USA. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2011.

  15. Use of empirically based corrosion model to aid steam generator life management

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Angell, P.; Balakrishnan, P.V.; Turner, C.W

    2000-07-01

    Alloy 800 (N08800) tubes used in CANDU 6 steam generators have shown a low incidence of corrosion damage because of the good corrosion resistance of N08800 and successful water chemistry control strategies. However, N08800 is not immune to corrosion, especially pitting, under plausible SG conditions. Electrochemical potentials are critical in determining both susceptibility and rates of corrosion and are known to be a function of water-chemistry. Using laboratory data an empirical model for pitting and crevice corrosion has been developed for N08800. Combination of such a model with chemistry monitoring and diagnostic software makes it possible to arm the impact of plant operating conditions on SG tube corrosion for plant life management (PLIM). Possible transient chemistry regimes that could significantly shorten expected tube lifetimes have been identified and predictions continue to support the position dud under normal, low dissolved oxygen conditions, pitting of N08800 will not initiate. (author)

  16. Use of empirically based corrosion model to aid steam generator life management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Angell, P.; Balakrishnan, P.V.; Turner, C.W.

    2000-01-01

    Alloy 800 (N08800) tubes used in CANDU 6 steam generators have shown a low incidence of corrosion damage because of the good corrosion resistance of N08800 and successful water chemistry control strategies. However, N08800 is not immune to corrosion, especially pitting, under plausible SG conditions. Electrochemical potentials are critical in determining both susceptibility and rates of corrosion and are known to be a function of water-chemistry. Using laboratory data an empirical model for pitting and crevice corrosion has been developed for N08800. Combination of such a model with chemistry monitoring and diagnostic software makes it possible to arm the impact of plant operating conditions on SG tube corrosion for plant life management (PLIM). Possible transient chemistry regimes that could significantly shorten expected tube lifetimes have been identified and predictions continue to support the position dud under normal, low dissolved oxygen conditions, pitting of N08800 will not initiate. (author)

  17. Changes in event-related potential functional networks predict traumatic brain injury in piglets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atlan, Lorre S; Lan, Ingrid S; Smith, Colin; Margulies, Susan S

    2018-06-01

    Traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of cognitive and behavioral deficits in children in the US each year. None of the current diagnostic tools, such as quantitative cognitive and balance tests, have been validated to identify mild traumatic brain injury in infants, adults and animals. In this preliminary study, we report a novel, quantitative tool that has the potential to quickly and reliably diagnose traumatic brain injury and which can track the state of the brain during recovery across multiple ages and species. Using 32 scalp electrodes, we recorded involuntary auditory event-related potentials from 22 awake four-week-old piglets one day before and one, four, and seven days after two different injury types (diffuse and focal) or sham. From these recordings, we generated event-related potential functional networks and assessed whether the patterns of the observed changes in these networks could distinguish brain-injured piglets from non-injured. Piglet brains exhibited significant changes after injury, as evaluated by five network metrics. The injury prediction algorithm developed from our analysis of the changes in the event-related potentials functional networks ultimately produced a tool with 82% predictive accuracy. This novel approach is the first application of auditory event-related potential functional networks to the prediction of traumatic brain injury. The resulting tool is a robust, objective and predictive method that offers promise for detecting mild traumatic brain injury, in particular because collecting event-related potentials data is noninvasive and inexpensive. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  18. PROBLEMS WITH WIREDU'S EMPIRICALISM Martin Odei Ajei1 ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In his “Empiricalism: The Empirical Character of an African Philosophy”,. Kwasi Wiredu sets out ... others, that an empirical metaphysical system contains both empirical ..... realms which multiple categories of existents inhabit and conduct their being in .... to a mode of reasoning that conceives categories polarized by formal.

  19. An Empirical Model for Estimating the Probability of Electrical Short Circuits from Tin Whiskers. Part 2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Courey, Karim; Wright, Clara; Asfour, Shihab; Onar, Arzu; Bayliss, Jon; Ludwig, Larry

    2009-01-01

    In this experiment, an empirical model to quantify the probability of occurrence of an electrical short circuit from tin whiskers as a function of voltage was developed. This empirical model can be used to improve existing risk simulation models. FIB and TEM images of a tin whisker confirm the rare polycrystalline structure on one of the three whiskers studied. FIB cross-section of the card guides verified that the tin finish was bright tin.

  20. β-empirical Bayes inference and model diagnosis of microarray data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hossain Mollah Mohammad

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray data enables the high-throughput survey of mRNA expression profiles at the genomic level; however, the data presents a challenging statistical problem because of the large number of transcripts with small sample sizes that are obtained. To reduce the dimensionality, various Bayesian or empirical Bayes hierarchical models have been developed. However, because of the complexity of the microarray data, no model can explain the data fully. It is generally difficult to scrutinize the irregular patterns of expression that are not expected by the usual statistical gene by gene models. Results As an extension of empirical Bayes (EB procedures, we have developed the β-empirical Bayes (β-EB approach based on a β-likelihood measure which can be regarded as an ’evidence-based’ weighted (quasi- likelihood inference. The weight of a transcript t is described as a power function of its likelihood, fβ(yt|θ. Genes with low likelihoods have unexpected expression patterns and low weights. By assigning low weights to outliers, the inference becomes robust. The value of β, which controls the balance between the robustness and efficiency, is selected by maximizing the predictive β0-likelihood by cross-validation. The proposed β-EB approach identified six significant (p−5 contaminated transcripts as differentially expressed (DE in normal/tumor tissues from the head and neck of cancer patients. These six genes were all confirmed to be related to cancer; they were not identified as DE genes by the classical EB approach. When applied to the eQTL analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana, the proposed β-EB approach identified some potential master regulators that were missed by the EB approach. Conclusions The simulation data and real gene expression data showed that the proposed β-EB method was robust against outliers. The distribution of the weights was used to scrutinize the irregular patterns of expression and diagnose the model

  1. Conditioned empirical orthogonal functions for interpolation of runoff time series along rivers: Application to reconstruction of missing monthly records

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Lingqi; Gottschalk, Lars; Krasovskaia, Irina; Xiong, Lihua

    2018-01-01

    Reconstruction of missing runoff data is of important significance to solve contradictions between the common situation of gaps and the fundamental necessity of complete time series for reliable hydrological research. The conventional empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) approach has been documented to be useful for interpolating hydrological series based upon spatiotemporal decomposition of runoff variation patterns, without additional measurements (e.g., precipitation, land cover). This study develops a new EOF-based approach (abbreviated as CEOF) that conditions EOF expansion on the oscillations at outlet (or any other reference station) of a target basin and creates a set of residual series by removing the dependence on this reference series, in order to redefine the amplitude functions (components). This development allows a transparent hydrological interpretation of the dimensionless components and thereby strengthens their capacities to explain various runoff regimes in a basin. The two approaches are demonstrated on an application of discharge observations from the Ganjiang basin, China. Two alternatives for determining amplitude functions based on centred and standardised series, respectively, are tested. The convergence in the reconstruction of observations at different sites as a function of the number of components and its relation to the characteristics of the site are analysed. Results indicate that the CEOF approach offers an efficient way to restore runoff records with only one to four components; it shows more superiority in nested large basins than at headwater sites and often performs better than the EOF approach when using standardised series, especially in improving infilling accuracy for low flows. Comparisons against other interpolation methods (i.e., nearest neighbour, linear regression, inverse distance weighting) further confirm the advantage of the EOF-based approaches in avoiding spatial and temporal inconsistencies in estimated series.

  2. Practice management: observations, issues, and empirical evidence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, H M; Braithwaite, J

    2001-02-01

    The primary objective of this study is to provide objective, empirical, evidence-based practice management information. This is a hitherto under-researched area of considerable interest for both the practitioner and educator. A questionnaire eliciting a mix of structured and free text responses was administered to a random sample of 480 practitioners who are members of the American Academy of Periodontology. Potential respondents not in private practice were excluded and the next listed person substituted. The results provide demographic and descriptive information about some of the main issues and problems facing practice managers, central to which are information technology (IT), financial, people management, and marketing. Human resource and marketing management appear to represent the biggest challenges. Periodontists running practices would prefer more information, development, and support in dealing with IT, finance, marketing, and people management. The empirical evidence reported here suggests that although tailored educational programs on key management issues at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels have become ubiquitous, nevertheless some respondents seek further training opportunities. Evidence-based practice management information will be invaluable to the clinician considering strategic and marketing planning, and also for those responsible for the design and conduct of predoctoral and postdoctoral programs.

  3. How to measure the impacts of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic development on empiric therapy: new composite indices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hughes, Josie S; Hurford, Amy; Finley, Rita L; Patrick, David M; Wu, Jianhong; Morris, Andrew M

    2016-12-16

    We aimed to construct widely useable summary measures of the net impact of antibiotic resistance on empiric therapy. Summary measures are needed to communicate the importance of resistance, plan and evaluate interventions, and direct policy and investment. As an example, we retrospectively summarised the 2011 cumulative antibiogram from a Toronto academic intensive care unit. We developed two complementary indices to summarise the clinical impact of antibiotic resistance and drug availability on empiric therapy. The Empiric Coverage Index (ECI) measures susceptibility of common bacterial infections to available empiric antibiotics as a percentage. The Empiric Options Index (EOI) varies from 0 to 'the number of treatment options available', and measures the empiric value of the current stock of antibiotics as a depletable resource. The indices account for drug availability and the relative clinical importance of pathogens. We demonstrate meaning and use by examining the potential impact of new drugs and threatening bacterial strains. In our intensive care unit coverage of device-associated infections measured by the ECI remains high (98%), but 37-44% of treatment potential measured by the EOI has been lost. Without reserved drugs, the ECI is 86-88%. New cephalosporin/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations could increase the EOI, but no single drug can compensate for losses. Increasing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevalence would have little overall impact (ECI=98%, EOI=4.8-5.2) because many Gram-positives are already resistant to β-lactams. Aminoglycoside resistance, however, could have substantial clinical impact because they are among the few drugs that provide coverage of Gram-negative infections (ECI=97%, EOI=3.8-4.5). Our proposed indices summarise the local impact of antibiotic resistance on empiric coverage (ECI) and available empiric treatment options (EOI) using readily available data. Policymakers and drug developers can use the

  4. An Empirical Fitting Method for Type Ia Supernova Light Curves: A Case Study of SN 2011fe

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zheng, WeiKang; Filippenko, Alexei V., E-mail: zwk@astro.berkeley.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)

    2017-03-20

    We present a new empirical fitting method for the optical light curves of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). We find that a variant broken-power-law function provides a good fit, with the simple assumption that the optical emission is approximately the blackbody emission of the expanding fireball. This function is mathematically analytic and is derived directly from the photospheric velocity evolution. When deriving the function, we assume that both the blackbody temperature and photospheric velocity are constant, but the final function is able to accommodate these changes during the fitting procedure. Applying it to the case study of SN 2011fe gives a surprisingly good fit that can describe the light curves from the first-light time to a few weeks after peak brightness, as well as over a large range of fluxes (∼5 mag, and even ∼7 mag in the g band). Since SNe Ia share similar light-curve shapes, this fitting method has the potential to fit most other SNe Ia and characterize their properties in large statistical samples such as those already gathered and in the near future as new facilities become available.

  5. Optimizing empiric therapy for Gram-negative bloodstream infections in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chao, Y; Reuter, C; Kociolek, L K; Patel, R; Zheng, X; Patel, S J

    2018-06-01

    Antimicrobial stewardship can be challenging in children with bloodstream infections (BSIs) caused by Gram-negative bacilli (GNB). This retrospective cohort study explored how data elements in the electronic health record could potentially optimize empiric antibiotic therapy for BSIs caused by GNB, via the construction of customized antibiograms for categorical GNB infections and identification of opportunities to minimize organism-drug mismatch and decrease time to effective therapy. Our results suggest potential strategies that could be implemented at key decision points in prescribing at initiation, modification, and targeting of therapy. Copyright © 2017 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Land of Addicts? An Empirical Investigation of Habit-Based Asset Pricing Behavior

    OpenAIRE

    Xiaohong Chen; Sydney C. Ludvigson

    2004-01-01

    This paper studies the ability of a general class of habit-based asset pricing models to match the conditional moment restrictions implied by asset pricing theory. We treat the functional form of the habit as unknown, and to estimate it along with the rest of the model's finite dimensional parameters. Using quarterly data on consumption growth, assets returns and instruments, our empirical results indicate that the estimated habit function is nonlinear, the habit formation is better described...

  7. TRENDS IN THE FUNCTIONING OF THE BORDER BRIDGES OF THE KINGDOM OF POLISH FROM RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE NINETEENTH FIRST HALF CENTURY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marek RUTKOWSKI

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This article deals with the issues of borde bridges connecting till the mid of 19th century Kingdom of Poland and tzarist Russian Empire in three main points: Aleksota, Terespol and Źółtki towns. The different aspects of functioning of these bridges were analyzed, including a chronological view of the phenomenon; as well one drew attention to visible and clear tendency in their management. A repeated idea tended to occcur as - especially since the period of “Spring of Nations” - one could observe among Russian authorities kind of steady desire to take full controll over Polish- Russian border bridges from Polish hands and make them subject to the imperial rule of military or civilian origin only.

  8. Gathering Empirical Evidence Concerning Links between Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Creativity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musta'amal, Aede Hatib; Norman, Eddie; Hodgson, Tony

    2009-01-01

    Discussion is often reported concerning potential links between computer-aided designing and creativity, but there is a lack of systematic enquiry to gather empirical evidence concerning such links. This paper reports an indication of findings from other research studies carried out in contexts beyond general education that have sought evidence…

  9. Parametric potential determination by the canonical function method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tannous, C.; Fakhreddine, K.; Langlois, J.

    1999-01-01

    The canonical function method (CFM) is a powerful means for solving the radial Schroedinger equation (RSE). The mathematical difficulty of the RSE lies in the fact it is a singular boundary value problem. The CFM turns it into a regular initial value problem and allows the full determination of the spectrum of the Schroedinger operator without calculating the eigenfunctions. Following the parametrisation suggested by Klapisch and Green-Sellin-Zachor we develop a CFM to optimise the potential parameters in order to reproduce the experimental quantum defect results for various Rydberg series of He, Ne and Ar as evaluated from Moore's data. (orig.)

  10. Modeling Lolium perenne L. roots in the presence of empirical black holes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plant root models are designed for understanding structural or functional aspects of root systems. When a process is not thoroughly understood, a black box object is used. However, when a process exists but empirical data do not indicate its existence, you have a black hole. The object of this re...

  11. The Role of Empirical Research in Bioethics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kon, Alexander A.

    2010-01-01

    There has long been tension between bioethicists whose work focuses on classical philosophical inquiry and those who perform empirical studies on bioethical issues. While many have argued that empirical research merely illuminates current practices and cannot inform normative ethics, others assert that research-based work has significant implications for refining our ethical norms. In this essay, I present a novel construct for classifying empirical research in bioethics into four hierarchical categories: Lay of the Land, Ideal Versus Reality, Improving Care, and Changing Ethical Norms. Through explaining these four categories and providing examples of publications in each stratum, I define how empirical research informs normative ethics. I conclude by demonstrating how philosophical inquiry and empirical research can work cooperatively to further normative ethics. PMID:19998120

  12. Burst and inter-burst duration statistics as empirical test of long-range memory in the financial markets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gontis, V.; Kononovicius, A.

    2017-10-01

    We address the problem of long-range memory in the financial markets. There are two conceptually different ways to reproduce power-law decay of auto-correlation function: using fractional Brownian motion as well as non-linear stochastic differential equations. In this contribution we address this problem by analyzing empirical return and trading activity time series from the Forex. From the empirical time series we obtain probability density functions of burst and inter-burst duration. Our analysis reveals that the power-law exponents of the obtained probability density functions are close to 3 / 2, which is a characteristic feature of the one-dimensional stochastic processes. This is in a good agreement with earlier proposed model of absolute return based on the non-linear stochastic differential equations derived from the agent-based herding model.

  13. Why Does Emissions Trading under the EU ETS Not Affect Firms' Competitiveness? Empirical Findings from the Literature

    OpenAIRE

    Joltreau, Eugénie; Sommerfeld, Katrin

    2017-01-01

    Environmental policies may have important consequences for firms’ competitiveness or profitability. However, the empirical literature shows that hardly any statistically significant effects on firms can be detected for the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). On the basis of existing literature, we focus on potential explanations for why the empirical literature finds hardly any significant competitiveness effects on firms, least not during the first two phases of the scheme (...

  14. Molecular dynamics simulation study of the influence of the lattice atom potential function upon atom ejection processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harrison, D.E. Jr.; Webb, R.P.

    1982-01-01

    A molecular dynamics simulation has been used to investigate the sensitivity of atom ejection processes from a single-crystal target to changes in the atom-atom potential function. Four functions, three constructed from the Gibson potentials with Anderman's attractive well, and a fouth specifically developed for this investigation, were investigated in the Cu/Ar/sup +/ system over a range of ion energies from 1.0 to 10.0 kev with the KSE-B ion-atom potential. Well depths and widths also were varied. The calculations were done at normal incidence on the fcc (111) crystal orientation. Computed values were compared with experimental data where they exist. Sputtering yields, multimer yield ratios, layer yield ratios, and the ejected atom energy distribution vary systematically with the parameters of the atom-atom potential function. Calculations also were done with the modified Moliere function. Yields and other properties fall exactly into the positions predicted from the Born-Mayer function analysis. Simultaneous analysis of the ejected atom energy distribution and the ion energy dependence of the sputtering yield curve provides information about the parameters of both the wall and well portions of the atom-atom potential function

  15. The Role of Ethnographic Studies in Empirical Software Engineering

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sharp, Helen; Dittrich, Yvonne; Souza, Cleidson R. B. de

    2016-01-01

    Ethnography is a qualitative research method used to study people and cultures. It is largely adopted in disciplines outside software engineering, including different areas of computer science. Ethnography can provide an in-depth understanding of the socio-technological realities surrounding ever...... as a useful and usable approach to empirical software engineering research. Throughout the paper, relevant examples of ethnographic studies of software practice are used to illustrate the points being made.......Ethnography is a qualitative research method used to study people and cultures. It is largely adopted in disciplines outside software engineering, including different areas of computer science. Ethnography can provide an in-depth understanding of the socio-technological realities surrounding...... everyday software development practice, i.e., it can help to uncover not only what practitioners do, but also why they do it. Despite its potential, ethnography has not been widely adopted by empirical software engineering researchers, and receives little attention in the related literature. The main goal...

  16. Qualities of Wigner function and its applications to one-dimensional infinite potential and one-dimensional harmonic oscillator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu Hao; Shi Tianjun

    2011-01-01

    In this article,the qualities of Wigner function and the corresponding stationary perturbation theory are introduced and applied to one-dimensional infinite potential well and one-dimensional harmonic oscillator, and then the particular Wigner function of one-dimensional infinite potential well is specified and a special constriction effect in its pure state Wigner function is discovered, to which,simultaneously, a detailed and reasonable explanation is elaborated from the perspective of uncertainty principle. Ultimately, the amendment of Wigner function and energy of one-dimensional infinite potential well and one-dimensional harmonic oscillator under perturbation are calculated according to stationary phase space perturbation theory. (authors)

  17. The Opioid System in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: Functional Role and Therapeutic Potential

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johannes Burtscher

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Temporal lobe epilepsy is considered to be one of the most common and severe forms of focal epilepsies. Patients often develop cognitive deficits and emotional blunting along the progression of the disease. The high incidence of resistance to antiepileptic drugs and a frequent lack of admissibility to surgery poses an unmet medical challenge. In the urgent quest of novel treatment strategies, neuropeptides are interesting candidates, however, their therapeutic potential has not yet been exploited. This review focuses on the functional role of the endogenous opioid system with respect to temporal lobe epilepsy, specifically in the hippocampus. The role of dynorphins and kappa opioid receptors (KOPr as modulators of neuronal excitability is well understood: both the reduced release of glutamate as well of postsynaptic hyperpolarization were shown in glutamatergic neurons. In line with this, low levels of dynorphin in humans and mice increase the risk of epilepsy development. The role of enkephalins is not understood so well. On one hand, some agonists of the delta opioid receptors (DOPr display pro-convulsant properties probably through inhibition of GABAergic interneurons. On the other hand, enkephalins play a neuro-protective role under hypoxic or anoxic conditions, most probably through positive effects on mitochondrial function. Despite the supposed absence of endorphins in the hippocampus, exogenous activation of the mu opioid receptors (MOPr induces pro-convulsant effects. Recently-expanded knowledge of the complex ways opioid receptors ligands elicit their effects (including biased agonism, mixed binding, and opioid receptor heteromers, opens up exciting new therapeutic potentials with regards to seizures and epilepsy. Potential adverse side effects of KOPr agonists may be minimized through functional selectivity. Preclinical data suggest a high potential of such compounds to control seizures, with a strong predictive validity toward human

  18. Atomistic simulations of TeO₂-based glasses: interatomic potentials and molecular dynamics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gulenko, Anastasia; Masson, Olivier; Berghout, Abid; Hamani, David; Thomas, Philippe

    2014-07-21

    In this work we present for the first time empirical interatomic potentials that are able to reproduce TeO2-based systems. Using these potentials in classical molecular dynamics simulations, we obtained first results for the pure TeO2 glass structure model. The calculated pair distribution function is in good agreement with the experimental one, which indicates a realistic glass structure model. We investigated the short- and medium-range TeO2 glass structures. The local environment of the Te atom strongly varies, so that the glass structure model has a broad Q polyhedral distribution. The glass network is described as weakly connected with a large number of terminal oxygen atoms.

  19. Birds of the Mongol Empire

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eugene N. Anderson

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire the world has ever known, had, among other things, a goodly number of falconers, poultry raisers, birdcatchers, cooks, and other experts on various aspects of birding. We have records of this, largely in the Yinshan Zhengyao, the court nutrition manual of the Mongol empire in China (the Yuan Dynasty. It discusses in some detail 22 bird taxa, from swans to chickens. The Huihui Yaofang, a medical encyclopedia, lists ten taxa used medicinally. Marco Polo also made notes on Mongol bird use. There are a few other records. This allows us to draw conclusions about Mongol ornithology, which apparently was sophisticated and detailed.

  20. Isgur-Wise function for heavy-light mesons in the D-dimensional potential model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roy, Sabyasachi; Choudhury, D K; Hazarika, B J

    2012-01-01

    We report the results of a wave function for mesons in D space-time dimension developed by considering the quark-antiquark potential of Nambu-Goto strings. With this wave function, we have studied the Isgur-Wise function for heavy-light mesons and its derivatives such as slope and curvature. The dimensional dependence of our results and a comparative study with the results of three-dimensional QCD are also reported.

  1. Searching for globally optimal functional forms for interatomic potentials using genetic programming with parallel tempering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slepoy, A; Peters, M D; Thompson, A P

    2007-11-30

    Molecular dynamics and other molecular simulation methods rely on a potential energy function, based only on the relative coordinates of the atomic nuclei. Such a function, called a force field, approximately represents the electronic structure interactions of a condensed matter system. Developing such approximate functions and fitting their parameters remains an arduous, time-consuming process, relying on expert physical intuition. To address this problem, a functional programming methodology was developed that may enable automated discovery of entirely new force-field functional forms, while simultaneously fitting parameter values. The method uses a combination of genetic programming, Metropolis Monte Carlo importance sampling and parallel tempering, to efficiently search a large space of candidate functional forms and parameters. The methodology was tested using a nontrivial problem with a well-defined globally optimal solution: a small set of atomic configurations was generated and the energy of each configuration was calculated using the Lennard-Jones pair potential. Starting with a population of random functions, our fully automated, massively parallel implementation of the method reproducibly discovered the original Lennard-Jones pair potential by searching for several hours on 100 processors, sampling only a minuscule portion of the total search space. This result indicates that, with further improvement, the method may be suitable for unsupervised development of more accurate force fields with completely new functional forms. Copyright (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Generalised analysis of the potential of an enterprise as a function of environmental parameters (theoretical approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karapeychik Igor M.

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Within the frameworks of the author’s concept of the potential of an enterprise as the ability to conduct its immanently appropriate activity and also the idea of presentation of the size of the potential in the form of potential function from parameters of the state of an enterprise and foreign economic environment the article develops a scientific and methodical approach to construction and analysis of the potential function of an enterprise. The offered approach envisages building an economic and mathematical model of an enterprise of the optimisation type with consideration of environmental factors, determination of the size of economic potential as a maximum possible (optimal with the set condition of an enterprise and external environment of net income, statistical test of the model with possible values of external parameters (formation of statistical sampling of the graph of the potential function of an enterprise and application of statistical methods including methods of correlation, factor and regression analysis, for the study of its properties. Operability of this approach is shown on the example of the study of properties of the potential function of a model enterprise. In the course of approbation the article demonstrates its ability to reveal specific features of impact of external factors on economic potential of an enterprise; establishes, as a common regularity, differential influence of various environmental factors, caused not only by the nature of these factors, but also production and economic specific features and specific state of an enterprise. The article shows that the quantitative values of the force of influence of the said factors upon the value of economic potential, obtained during statistical analysis of the potential function of an enterprise, could serve as an instrument of ranking these factors by the priority level in the goal setting tasks at the stage of formation of the strategy of enterprise development

  3. Generalized coherent states related to the associated Bessel functions and Morse potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mojaveri, B; Amiri Faseghandis, S

    2014-01-01

    Using the associated Bessel functions, a shape-invariant Lie algebra spanned by ladder operators plus the identity operator, is realized. The Hilbert space of the associated Bessel functions, representing the Lie algebra, are established and two kinds of generalized coherent states as an appropriate superposition of these functions are constructed. By implying appropriate similarity transformation on the constructed coherent states, the generalized coherent states for the Morse potential are obtained. By considering some statistical characteristics, it is revealed that the constructed coherent states indeed possess nonclassical features, such as squeezing and sub-Poissonian statistics. (paper)

  4. A note on the uniqueness of 2D elastostatic problems formulated by different types of potential functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerrero, José Luis Morales; Vidal, Manuel Cánovas; Nicolás, José Andrés Moreno; López, Francisco Alhama

    2018-05-01

    New additional conditions required for the uniqueness of the 2D elastostatic problems formulated in terms of potential functions for the derived Papkovich-Neuber representations, are studied. Two cases are considered, each of them formulated by the scalar potential function plus one of the rectangular non-zero components of the vector potential function. For these formulations, in addition to the original (physical) boundary conditions, two new additional conditions are required. In addition, for the complete Papkovich-Neuber formulation, expressed by the scalar potential plus two components of the vector potential, the additional conditions established previously for the three-dimensional case in z-convex domain can be applied. To show the usefulness of these new conditions in a numerical scheme two applications are numerically solved by the network method for the three cases of potential formulations.

  5. Gravitation theory - Empirical status from solar system experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nordtvedt, K. L., Jr.

    1972-01-01

    Review of historical and recent experiments which speak in favor of a post-Newtonian relativistic gravitational theory. The topics include the foundational experiments, metric theories of gravity, experiments designed to differentiate among the metric theories, and tests of Machian concepts of gravity. It is shown that the metric field for any metric theory can be specified by a series of potential terms with several parameters. It is pointed out that empirical results available up to date yield values of the parameters which are consistent with the prediction of Einstein's general relativity.

  6. An improved empirical model for diversity gain on Earth-space propagation paths

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hodge, D. B.

    1981-01-01

    An empirical model was generated to estimate diversity gain on Earth-space propagation paths as a function of Earth terminal separation distance, link frequency, elevation angle, and angle between the baseline and the path azimuth. The resulting model reproduces the entire experimental data set with an RMS error of 0.73 dB.

  7. Electrocardiogram signal denoising based on empirical mode decomposition technique: an overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han, G.; Lin, B.; Xu, Z.

    2017-01-01

    Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is nonlinear and non-stationary weak signal which reflects whether the heart is functioning normally or abnormally. ECG signal is susceptible to various kinds of noises such as high/low frequency noises, powerline interference and baseline wander. Hence, the removal of noises from ECG signal becomes a vital link in the ECG signal processing and plays a significant role in the detection and diagnosis of heart diseases. The review will describe the recent developments of ECG signal denoising based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) technique including high frequency noise removal, powerline interference separation, baseline wander correction, the combining of EMD and Other Methods, EEMD technique. EMD technique is a quite potential and prospective but not perfect method in the application of processing nonlinear and non-stationary signal like ECG signal. The EMD combined with other algorithms is a good solution to improve the performance of noise cancellation. The pros and cons of EMD technique in ECG signal denoising are discussed in detail. Finally, the future work and challenges in ECG signal denoising based on EMD technique are clarified.

  8. Electrocardiogram signal denoising based on empirical mode decomposition technique: an overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, G.; Lin, B.; Xu, Z.

    2017-03-01

    Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is nonlinear and non-stationary weak signal which reflects whether the heart is functioning normally or abnormally. ECG signal is susceptible to various kinds of noises such as high/low frequency noises, powerline interference and baseline wander. Hence, the removal of noises from ECG signal becomes a vital link in the ECG signal processing and plays a significant role in the detection and diagnosis of heart diseases. The review will describe the recent developments of ECG signal denoising based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) technique including high frequency noise removal, powerline interference separation, baseline wander correction, the combining of EMD and Other Methods, EEMD technique. EMD technique is a quite potential and prospective but not perfect method in the application of processing nonlinear and non-stationary signal like ECG signal. The EMD combined with other algorithms is a good solution to improve the performance of noise cancellation. The pros and cons of EMD technique in ECG signal denoising are discussed in detail. Finally, the future work and challenges in ECG signal denoising based on EMD technique are clarified.

  9. Evaluation of functional potentiality of selected commonly consumed foods of Bangladesh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nazma Shaheen

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Background: Rising tide of chronic nutrition related non-communicable diseases yoked with extant under nutrition problems makes it imperative to carry out scientific research towards the discovery of functional foods. Although the emergence of these diseases are believed to be related to a constellation of dietary, socio-economic and lifestyle related risk factors, central to the pathogenesis of these diseases (or disease states are free radicals, oxidative stress, and inflammatory processes typically accompanied by pain. Therefore, functional whole foods with physiologically active antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic compounds seem to be the most promising option to deal with the pathogenesis of existing and emerging chronic diseases burden of Bangladesh. Methods: Edible portions of 70 commonly consumed Bangladeshi foods – including one cereal, five legumes, fourteen vegetables, four tea varieties, five oil seeds, twenty spices, and twenty one fruits – were evaluated for total phenol content (TPC by Folin-Ciocalteau assay. To evaluate functional potentiality, in vitro antioxidant capacity (AC of selected food items were evaluated by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl- 1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assays, in vitro anti-inflammatory potential by observing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α using J774A.1 cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, in vivo anti-inflammatory potential by measuring carrageenan induced rat paw edema reduction, and in vivo analgesic potential by acetic acid induced writhing test in mice. Results: Spices, oilseeds, and teas showed high concentration of TPC among the analyzed foods, while spices and teas exhibited notable AC. Green tea showed highest concentrations of TPC (2349 mg Gallic Acid Equivalent / g and AC (2432 µmole Trolox Equivalent/g. Fourteen food items showed potential in vitro anti-inflammatory activity with confirmatory dose response effect shown by 8 items. In vivo, black sesame

  10. 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.

  11. Uncertainty plus prior equals rational bias: an intuitive Bayesian probability weighting function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fennell, John; Baddeley, Roland

    2012-10-01

    Empirical research has shown that when making choices based on probabilistic options, people behave as if they overestimate small probabilities, underestimate large probabilities, and treat positive and negative outcomes differently. These distortions have been modeled using a nonlinear probability weighting function, which is found in several nonexpected utility theories, including rank-dependent models and prospect theory; here, we propose a Bayesian approach to the probability weighting function and, with it, a psychological rationale. In the real world, uncertainty is ubiquitous and, accordingly, the optimal strategy is to combine probability statements with prior information using Bayes' rule. First, we show that any reasonable prior on probabilities leads to 2 of the observed effects; overweighting of low probabilities and underweighting of high probabilities. We then investigate 2 plausible kinds of priors: informative priors based on previous experience and uninformative priors of ignorance. Individually, these priors potentially lead to large problems of bias and inefficiency, respectively; however, when combined using Bayesian model comparison methods, both forms of prior can be applied adaptively, gaining the efficiency of empirical priors and the robustness of ignorance priors. We illustrate this for the simple case of generic good and bad options, using Internet blogs to estimate the relevant priors of inference. Given this combined ignorant/informative prior, the Bayesian probability weighting function is not only robust and efficient but also matches all of the major characteristics of the distortions found in empirical research. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

  12. Bound and scattering wave functions for a velocity-dependent Kisslinger potential for l>0

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jaghoub, M.I.

    2002-01-01

    Using formal scattering theory, the scattering wave functions are extrapolated to negative energies corresponding to bound-state poles. It is shown that the ratio of the normalized scattering and the corresponding bound-state wave functions, at a bound-state pole, is uniquely determined by the bound-state binding energy. This simple relation is proved analytically for an arbitrary angular momentum quantum number l>0, in the presence of a velocity-dependent Kisslinger potential. The extrapolation relation is tested analytically by solving the Schroedinger equation in the p-wave case exactly for the scattering and the corresponding bound-state wave functions when the Kisslinger potential has the form of a square well. A numerical resolution of the Schroedinger equation in the p-wave case and of a square-well Kisslinger potential is carried out to investigate the range of validity of the extrapolated connection. It is found that the derived relation is satisfied best at low energies and short distances. (orig.)

  13. Current-current correlation function in presence of chemical potential and external magnetic field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Apresyan, E.A.

    2017-01-01

    The (2+1)-dimensional electron system was observed, where relation between the Green functions and conductivity was used. The current-current correlation function Π_μ_ν(B) for the fermion system was calculated in presence of non-quantizing magnetic field B, chemical potential η and gap m. From this function it is possible to obtain the equation for polarization operator calculated without the magnetic field. The result is also applicable for graphene

  14. Research on Take an Examination of Oneself Potential Candidates Intend Empirical

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bo, Zhou Lin; Dong, Chen

    2012-01-01

    Through the metrological analysis to Sichuan Province of potential candidates in willingness to take the self-study exam, we find the potential candidates attendance of self-study exam mainly determined by the marital status, family supporting degree, mathematics course, English courses, and the willingness to improve academic degree. Knowing…

  15. Pay-What-You-Want pricing: An integrative review of the empirical research literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Torsten J.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In a Pay What You Want (PWYW setting companies empower their customers to fix the prices buyers voluntarily pay for a delivered product or service. The seller agrees to any price (includ-ing zero customers are paying. For about ten years researchers empirically investigate customer reactions to and economic outcomes of this pricing method. The present paper distinguishes PWYW from other voluntary payment mechanisms and reviews 72 English- or German-speaking PWYW publications, which appeared between January 2006 and September 2016 and contain 97 independent empirical data sets. Prior PWYW research is structured with the help of a conceptual framework which incorporates payment procedure design, buyer, seller, focal sales object and market context characteristics as factors potentially influencing customer perceptions of the PWYW scheme and their behavioral reactions to PWYW offers. The review discusses both consistent key findings as well as contradictory results and derives recommendations for future empirical PWYW research efforts.

  16. A review of the empirical literature on Pay-What-You-Want price setting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gerpott Torsten J.

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available In a Pay What You Want (PWYW setting companies empower their customers to fix the prices buyers voluntarily pay for a delivered product or service. The seller agrees to any price (including zero customers are paying. For about ten years researchers empirically investigate customer reactions to and economic outcomes of this pricing method. The present paper distinguishes PWYW from other voluntary payment mechanisms and reviews 72 English- or German-speaking PWYW publications, which appeared between January 2006 and September 2016 and contain 97 independent empirical data sets. Prior PWYW research is structured with the help of a conceptual framework which incorporates payment procedure design, buyer, seller, focal sales object and market context characteristics as factors potentially influencing customer perceptions of the PWYW scheme and their behavioral reactions to PWYW offers. The review discusses both consistent key findings as well as contradictory results and derives recommendations for future empirical PWYW research efforts.

  17. Determining the parameters of Weibull function to estimate the wind power potential in conditions of limited source meteorological data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fetisova, Yu. A.; Ermolenko, B. V.; Ermolenko, G. V.; Kiseleva, S. V.

    2017-04-01

    We studied the information basis for the assessment of wind power potential on the territory of Russia. We described the methodology to determine the parameters of the Weibull function, which reflects the density of distribution of probabilities of wind flow speeds at a defined basic height above the surface of the earth using the available data on the average speed at this height and its repetition by gradations. The application of the least square method for determining these parameters, unlike the use of graphical methods, allows performing a statistical assessment of the results of approximation of empirical histograms by the Weibull formula. On the basis of the computer-aided analysis of the statistical data, it was shown that, at a fixed point where the wind speed changes at different heights, the range of parameter variation of the Weibull distribution curve is relatively small, the sensitivity of the function to parameter changes is quite low, and the influence of changes on the shape of speed distribution curves is negligible. Taking this into consideration, we proposed and mathematically verified the methodology of determining the speed parameters of the Weibull function at other heights using the parameter computations for this function at a basic height, which is known or defined by the average speed of wind flow, or the roughness coefficient of the geological substrate. We gave examples of practical application of the suggested methodology in the development of the Atlas of Renewable Energy Resources in Russia in conditions of deficiency of source meteorological data. The proposed methodology, to some extent, may solve the problem related to the lack of information on the vertical profile of repeatability of the wind flow speeds in the presence of a wide assortment of wind turbines with different ranges of wind-wheel axis heights and various performance characteristics in the global market; as a result, this methodology can become a powerful tool for

  18. Empirical scaling for present Ohmically heated tokamaks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daughney, C.

    1975-01-01

    Experimental results from the Adiabatic Toroidal Compressor (ATC) tokamak are used to obtain empirical scaling laws for the average electron temperature and electron energy confinement time as functions of the average electron density, the effective ion charge, and the plasma current. These scaling laws are extended to include dependence upon minor and major plasma radius and toroidal field strength through a comparison of the various tokamaks described in the literature. Electron thermal conductivity is the dominant loss process for the ATC tokamak. The parametric dependences of the observed electron thermal conductivity are not explained by present theoretical considerations. The electron temperature obtained with Ohmic heating is shown to be a function of current density - which will not be increased in the next generation of large tokamaks. However, the temperature dependence of the electron energy confinement time suggests that significant improvement in confinement time will be obtained with supplementary electron heating. (author)

  19. Task-based factors influencing the successful functioning of copreneurial businesses in South Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shelley Farrington

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Globally, evidence exists to suggest that the number of copreneurial businesses or spousal partnerships are on the increase. The primary objectives of this study are to identify the task-based factors influencing the effectiveness of a copreneurial business, to propose a conceptual model based on these factors and to subject the model to empirical testing. The model is empirically tested among copreneurial businesses to assess potential relationships between selected independent variables (shared dream, leadership, personal needs alignment, division of labour, complementary skills, supportive employees, competencies and adequate resources and measures of copreneurial success (perceived success and financial performance. In order to address the primary objective of this study, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1548 respondents (spouses in business together of which 380 questionnaires were useable for statistical analysis. The empirical results revealed that apart from division of labour all the other factors investigated exert a significant influence on the successful functioning of copreneurial businesses.

  20. Physical Limitations of Empirical Field Models: Force Balance and Plasma Pressure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sorin Zaharia; Cheng, C.Z.

    2002-01-01

    In this paper, we study whether the magnetic field of the T96 empirical model can be in force balance with an isotropic plasma pressure distribution. Using the field of T96, we obtain values for the pressure P by solving a Poisson-type equation (gradient) 2 P = (gradient) · (J x B) in the equatorial plane, and 1-D profiles on the Sun-Earth axis by integrating (gradient)P = J x B. We work in a flux coordinate system in which the magnetic field is expressed in terms of Euler potentials. Our results lead to the conclusion that the T96 model field cannot be in equilibrium with an isotropic pressure. We also analyze in detail the computation of Birkeland currents using the Vasyliunas relation and the T96 field, which yields unphysical results, again indicating the lack of force balance in the empirical model. The underlying reason for the force imbalance is likely the fact that the derivatives of the least-square fitted model B are not accurate predictions of the actual magnetospheric field derivatives. Finally, we discuss a possible solution to the problem of lack of force balance in empirical field models

  1. Measuring health lifestyles in a comparative analysis: theoretical issues and empirical findings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abel, T

    1991-01-01

    The concept of lifestyle bears great potential for research in medical sociology. Yet, weaknesses in current methods have restrained lifestyle research from realizing its full potentials. The present focus is on the links between theoretical conceptions and their empirical application. The paper divides into two parts. The first part provides a discussion of basic theoretical and methodological issues. In particular selected lines of thought from Max Weber are presented and their usefulness in providing a theoretical frame of reference for health lifestyle research is outlined. Next, a theory guided definition of the subject matter is introduced and basic problems in empirical applications of theoretical lifestyle concepts are discussed. In its second part the paper presents findings from comparative lifestyle analyses. Data from the U.S. and West Germany are utilized to explore issues of measurement equivalence and theoretical validity. Factor analyses indicate high conceptual equivalence for new measures of health lifestyle dimensions in both the U.S. and West Germany. Divisive cluster analyses detect three distinct lifestyle groups in both nations. Implications for future lifestyle research are discussed.

  2. CHRONIC UNSTABILITY AND POTENTIAL GROWTH RATE: TURKISH EXPERIENCE, 1960-2006

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MUSTAFA İSMİHAN

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the role of macroeconomic instability on potential growth rate of output in Turkey over the period 1960-2006. In doing so, it also attempts to estimate the potential growth rate of Turkish economy over the sample period by using Hodrick-Prescott filter and model based on production function approach. Descriptive and empirical results suggest that Turkish economy suffered from a significant output loss during the chronic instability episodes, between the mid-1970s and 2001. A significant fall in macroeconomic instability has provided the main contribution to the achievement of the recent high growth episode (2002-2006 of Turkish economy. However, in order to continue the desired high growth performance in near future it is necessary to accelerate both human and physical capital formation while preserving stability.

  3. Developing empirical collapse fragility functions for global building types

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaiswal, K.; Wald, D.; D'Ayala, D.

    2011-01-01

    Building collapse is the dominant cause of casualties during earthquakes. In order to better predict human fatalities, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) program requires collapse fragility functions for global building types. The collapse fragility is expressed as the probability of collapse at discrete levels of the input hazard defined in terms of macroseismic intensity. This article provides a simple procedure for quantifying collapse fragility using vulnerability criteria based on the European Macroseismic Scale (1998) for selected European building types. In addition, the collapse fragility functions are developed for global building types by fitting the beta distribution to the multiple experts’ estimates for the same building type (obtained from EERI’s World Housing Encyclopedia (WHE)-PAGER survey). Finally, using the collapse probability distributions at each shaking intensity level as a prior and field-based collapse-rate observations as likelihood, it is possible to update the collapse fragility functions for global building types using the Bayesian procedure.

  4. New statistical potential for quality assessment of protein models and a survey of energy functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rykunov Dmitry

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Scoring functions, such as molecular mechanic forcefields and statistical potentials are fundamentally important tools in protein structure modeling and quality assessment. Results The performances of a number of publicly available scoring functions are compared with a statistical rigor, with an emphasis on knowledge-based potentials. We explored the effect on accuracy of alternative choices for representing interaction center types and other features of scoring functions, such as using information on solvent accessibility, on torsion angles, accounting for secondary structure preferences and side chain orientation. Partially based on the observations made, we present a novel residue based statistical potential, which employs a shuffled reference state definition and takes into account the mutual orientation of residue side chains. Atom- and residue-level statistical potentials and Linux executables to calculate the energy of a given protein proposed in this work can be downloaded from http://www.fiserlab.org/potentials. Conclusions Among the most influential terms we observed a critical role of a proper reference state definition and the benefits of including information about the microenvironment of interaction centers. Molecular mechanical potentials were also tested and found to be over-sensitive to small local imperfections in a structure, requiring unfeasible long energy relaxation before energy scores started to correlate with model quality.

  5. Empirical PPGIS/PGIS mapping of ecosystem services

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brown, Gregory G; Fagerholm, Nora

    2015-01-01

    demonstrate high potential for the identification of ecosystem services, especially cultural services, there has been no review to evaluate the methods to identify best practice. Through examination of peer-reviewed, empirical PPGIS/PGIS studies, we describe the types of ecosystem services mapped, the spatial...... of experimental design and long-term case studies where the influence of mapped ecosystem services on land use decisions can be assessed....... mapping methods, the sampling approaches and range of participants, the types of spatial analyses performed, and the methodological trade-offs associated with each PPGIS/PGIS mapping approach. We found that multiple methods were implemented in nearly 30 case studies worldwide with the mapping of cultural...

  6. Optimised cut-off function for Tersoff-like potentials for a BN nanosheet: a molecular dynamics study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumar, Rajesh; Rajasekaran, G; Parashar, Avinash

    2016-01-01

    In this article, molecular dynamics based simulations were carried out to study the tensile behaviour of boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs). Four different sets of Tersoff potential parameters were used in the simulations for estimating the interatomic interactions between boron and nitrogen atoms. Modifications were incorporated in the Tersoff cut-off function to improve the accuracy of results with respect to fracture stress, fracture strain and Young’s modulus. In this study, the original cut-off function was optimised in such a way that small and large cut-off distances were made equal, and hence a single cut-off distance was used with all sets of Tersoff potential parameters. The single value of cut-off distance for the Tersoff potential was chosen after analysing the potential energy and bond forces experienced by boron and nitrogen atoms subjected to bond stretching. The simulations performed with the optimised cut-off function help in identifying the Tersoff potential parameters that reproduce the experimentally evaluated mechanical behaviour of BNNSs. (paper)

  7. Aggregate Production Function and Income Identity - Empirical Analysis

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Čadil, J.; Vltavská, K.; Krejčí, I.; Hartman, David; Brabec, Marek

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 6, č. 1 (2017), s. 1-17 ISSN 1804-9796 Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : aggregate production function * income identity * capital services * labour services Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research OBOR OECD: Statistics and probability http://www.iises.net/international-journal-of- economic -sciences/publication-detail-1223

  8. Quantifying multi-dimensional functional trait spaces of trees: empirical versus theoretical approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ogle, K.; Fell, M.; Barber, J. J.

    2016-12-01

    Empirical, field studies of plant functional traits have revealed important trade-offs among pairs or triplets of traits, such as the leaf (LES) and wood (WES) economics spectra. Trade-offs include correlations between leaf longevity (LL) vs specific leaf area (SLA), LL vs mass-specific leaf respiration rate (RmL), SLA vs RmL, and resistance to breakage vs wood density. Ordination analyses (e.g., PCA) show groupings of traits that tend to align with different life-history strategies or taxonomic groups. It is unclear, however, what underlies such trade-offs and emergent spectra. Do they arise from inherent physiological constraints on growth, or are they more reflective of environmental filtering? The relative importance of these mechanisms has implications for predicting biogeochemical cycling, which is influenced by trait distributions of the plant community. We address this question using an individual-based model of tree growth (ACGCA) to quantify the theoretical trait space of trees that emerges from physiological constraints. ACGCA's inputs include 32 physiological, anatomical, and allometric traits, many of which are related to the LES and WES. We fit ACGCA to 1.6 million USFS FIA observations of tree diameters and heights to obtain vectors of trait values that produce realistic growth, and we explored the structure of this trait space. No notable correlations emerged among the 496 trait pairs, but stepwise regressions revealed complicated multi-variate structure: e.g., relationships between pairs of traits (e.g., RmL and SLA) are governed by other traits (e.g., LL, radiation-use efficiency [RUE]). We also simulated growth under various canopy gap scenarios that impose varying degrees of environmental filtering to explore the multi-dimensional trait space (hypervolume) of trees that died vs survived. The centroid and volume of the hypervolumes differed among dead and live trees, especially under gap conditions leading to low mortality. Traits most predictive

  9. Development of an empirical model of turbine efficiency using the Taylor expansion and regression analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fang, Xiande; Xu, Yu

    2011-01-01

    The empirical model of turbine efficiency is necessary for the control- and/or diagnosis-oriented simulation and useful for the simulation and analysis of dynamic performances of the turbine equipment and systems, such as air cycle refrigeration systems, power plants, turbine engines, and turbochargers. Existing empirical models of turbine efficiency are insufficient because there is no suitable form available for air cycle refrigeration turbines. This work performs a critical review of empirical models (called mean value models in some literature) of turbine efficiency and develops an empirical model in the desired form for air cycle refrigeration, the dominant cooling approach in aircraft environmental control systems. The Taylor series and regression analysis are used to build the model, with the Taylor series being used to expand functions with the polytropic exponent and the regression analysis to finalize the model. The measured data of a turbocharger turbine and two air cycle refrigeration turbines are used for the regression analysis. The proposed model is compact and able to present the turbine efficiency map. Its predictions agree with the measured data very well, with the corrected coefficient of determination R c 2 ≥ 0.96 and the mean absolute percentage deviation = 1.19% for the three turbines. -- Highlights: → Performed a critical review of empirical models of turbine efficiency. → Developed an empirical model in the desired form for air cycle refrigeration, using the Taylor expansion and regression analysis. → Verified the method for developing the empirical model. → Verified the model.

  10. Collective animal navigation and migratory culture: from theoretical models to empirical evidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dell, Anthony I.

    2018-01-01

    Animals often travel in groups, and their navigational decisions can be influenced by social interactions. Both theory and empirical observations suggest that such collective navigation can result in individuals improving their ability to find their way and could be one of the key benefits of sociality for these species. Here, we provide an overview of the potential mechanisms underlying collective navigation, review the known, and supposed, empirical evidence for such behaviour and highlight interesting directions for future research. We further explore how both social and collective learning during group navigation could lead to the accumulation of knowledge at the population level, resulting in the emergence of migratory culture. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Collective movement ecology’. PMID:29581394

  11. A Review on Empirical Correlations for Jet/Spray Trajectory of Liquid Jet in Uniform Cross Flow

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soo-Young No

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The empirical correlations for the prediction of jet/spray penetration of liquid jet in subsonic uniform crossflow are reviewed in this study. Considerable number of empirical correlations had been proposed by many investigators. It has generally known that the jet/spray trajectory of a liquid jet in a cross-flow is a function of the liquid to air momentum flux ratio and the normalized distance in the airstream direction from the injector. However, several researchers incorporated the Weber number, liquid-to-water or air viscosity ratio, pressure ratio or Reynolds number, temperature ratio in the empirical correlations. Two different classification methods of correlations, i.e. classification based on mathematic functional form and classification based on flow regime, are introduced in this study. The one classification of existing correlations based on functional form includes correlations in a power-law, logarithmic, and exponential forms, respectively. The other classification of previous correlations based on flow regime includes one, two and three regime, correlations. Correlations in a power-law functional form can be further divided into three groups such as momentum flux ratio, Weber number and other parameters forms. Correlations in logarithmic functional form can be also grouped as momentum flux ratio and Weber number forms. Most of the evaluation studies reported the significant discrepancies of predicted values by the existing correlations. The possible reasons for discrepancies will be summarized as measurement technique, assumptions made in defining terms in the liquid to air momentum flux ratio, difficulties in defining the boundaries of the liquid jets, turbulence level in the core and boundary layer of incoming jet and gas flows, nozzle/injector geometry and its position in the crossflow. However, it can be found from the several evaluation studies that the power-law functional form with momentum flux ratio and two regimes

  12. Instantaneous Respiratory Estimation from Thoracic Impedance by Empirical Mode Decomposition

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Fu-Tai; Chan, Hsiao-Lung; Wang, Chun-Li; Jian, Hung-Ming; Lin, Sheng-Hsiung

    2015-01-01

    Impedance plethysmography provides a way to measure respiratory activity by sensing the change of thoracic impedance caused by inspiration and expiration. This measurement imposes little pressure on the body and uses the human body as the sensor, thereby reducing the need for adjustments as body position changes and making it suitable for long-term or ambulatory monitoring. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) can decompose a signal into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) that disclos...

  13. Essays on empirical likelihood in economics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gao, Z.

    2012-01-01

    This thesis intends to exploit the roots of empirical likelihood and its related methods in mathematical programming and computation. The roots will be connected and the connections will induce new solutions for the problems of estimation, computation, and generalization of empirical likelihood.

  14. The potential lipolysis function of musclin and its mRNA expression ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Musclin is a newly discovered factor and its functions remain to be defined. This study investigated the tissue expression pattern of musclin gene and its potential effect on lipid metabolism. Musclin mRNA levels in adipose, muscle tissues and primary adipocytes were examined by quantitative PCR. The musclin gene ...

  15. HEDL empirical correlation of fuel pin top failure thresholds, status 1976

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baars, R.E.

    1976-01-01

    The Damage Parameter (DP) empirical correlation of fuel pin cladding failure thresholds for TOP events has been revised and recorrelated to the results of twelve TREAT tests. The revised correlation, called the Failure Potential (FP) correlation, predicts failure times for the tests in the data base with an average error of 35 ms for $3/s tests and of 150 ms for 50 cents/s tests

  16. Correcting orbital drift signal in the time series of AVHRR derived convective cloud fraction using rotated empirical orthogonal function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Devasthale

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR instruments onboard the series of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA satellites offer the longest available meteorological data records from space. These satellites have drifted in orbit resulting in shifts in the local time sampling during the life span of the sensors onboard. Depending upon the amplitude of the diurnal cycle of the geophysical parameters derived, orbital drift may cause spurious trends in their time series. We investigate tropical deep convective clouds, which show pronounced diurnal cycle amplitude, to estimate an upper bound of the impact of orbital drift on their time series. We carry out a rotated empirical orthogonal function analysis (REOF and show that the REOFs are useful in delineating orbital drift signal and, more importantly, in subtracting this signal in the time series of convective cloud amount. These results will help facilitate the derivation of homogenized data series of cloud amount from NOAA satellite sensors and ultimately analyzing trends from them. However, we suggest detailed comparison of various methods and rigorous testing thereof applying final orbital drift corrections.

  17. An Empirical Orthogonal Function-Based Algorithm for Estimating Terrestrial Latent Heat Flux from Eddy Covariance, Meteorological and Satellite Observations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Fei; Li, Xianglan; Yao, Yunjun; Liang, Shunlin; Chen, Jiquan; Zhao, Xiang; Jia, Kun; Pintér, Krisztina; McCaughey, J Harry

    2016-01-01

    Accurate estimation of latent heat flux (LE) based on remote sensing data is critical in characterizing terrestrial ecosystems and modeling land surface processes. Many LE products were released during the past few decades, but their quality might not meet the requirements in terms of data consistency and estimation accuracy. Merging multiple algorithms could be an effective way to improve the quality of existing LE products. In this paper, we present a data integration method based on modified empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis to integrate the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LE product (MOD16) and the Priestley-Taylor LE algorithm of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL) estimate. Twenty-two eddy covariance (EC) sites with LE observation were chosen to evaluate our algorithm, showing that the proposed EOF fusion method was capable of integrating the two satellite data sets with improved consistency and reduced uncertainties. Further efforts were needed to evaluate and improve the proposed algorithm at larger spatial scales and time periods, and over different land cover types.

  18. Potential Functional Embedding Theory at the Correlated Wave Function Level. 2. Error Sources and Performance Tests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Jin; Yu, Kuang; Libisch, Florian; Dieterich, Johannes M; Carter, Emily A

    2017-03-14

    Quantum mechanical embedding theories partition a complex system into multiple spatial regions that can use different electronic structure methods within each, to optimize trade-offs between accuracy and cost. The present work incorporates accurate but expensive correlated wave function (CW) methods for a subsystem containing the phenomenon or feature of greatest interest, while self-consistently capturing quantum effects of the surroundings using fast but less accurate density functional theory (DFT) approximations. We recently proposed two embedding methods [for a review, see: Acc. Chem. Res. 2014 , 47 , 2768 ]: density functional embedding theory (DFET) and potential functional embedding theory (PFET). DFET provides a fast but non-self-consistent density-based embedding scheme, whereas PFET offers a more rigorous theoretical framework to perform fully self-consistent, variational CW/DFT calculations [as defined in part 1, CW/DFT means subsystem 1(2) is treated with CW(DFT) methods]. When originally presented, PFET was only tested at the DFT/DFT level of theory as a proof of principle within a planewave (PW) basis. Part 1 of this two-part series demonstrated that PFET can be made to work well with mixed Gaussian type orbital (GTO)/PW bases, as long as optimized GTO bases and consistent electron-ion potentials are employed throughout. Here in part 2 we conduct the first PFET calculations at the CW/DFT level and compare them to DFET and full CW benchmarks. We test the performance of PFET at the CW/DFT level for a variety of types of interactions (hydrogen bonding, metallic, and ionic). By introducing an intermediate CW/DFT embedding scheme denoted DFET/PFET, we show how PFET remedies different types of errors in DFET, serving as a more robust type of embedding theory.

  19. Pluvials, Droughts, Energetics, and the Mongol Empire

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hessl, A. E.; Pederson, N.; Baatarbileg, N.

    2012-12-01

    The success of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known, is a historical enigma. At its peak in the late 13th century, the empire influenced areas from the Hungary to southern Asia and Persia. Powered by domesticated herbivores, the Mongol Empire grew at the expense of agriculturalists in Eastern Europe, Persia, and China. What environmental factors contributed to the rise of the Mongols? What factors influenced the disintegration of the empire by 1300 CE? Until now, little high resolution environmental data have been available to address these questions. We use tree-ring records of past temperature and water to illuminate the role of energy and water in the evolution of the Mongol Empire. The study of energetics has long been applied to biological and ecological systems but has only recently become a theme in understanding modern coupled natural and human systems (CNH). Because water and energy are tightly linked in human and natural systems, studying their synergies and interactions make it possible to integrate knowledge across disciplines and human history, yielding important lessons for modern societies. We focus on the role of energy and water in the trajectory of an empire, including its rise, development, and demise. Our research is focused on the Orkhon Valley, seat of the Mongol Empire, where recent paleoenvironmental and archeological discoveries allow high resolution reconstructions of past human and environmental conditions for the first time. Our preliminary records indicate that the period 1210-1230 CE, the height of Chinggis Khan's reign is one of the longest and most consistent pluvials in our tree ring reconstruction of interannual drought. Reconstructed temperature derived from five millennium-long records from subalpine forests in Mongolia document warm temperatures beginning in the early 1200's and ending with a plunge into cold temperatures in 1260. Abrupt cooling in central Mongolia at this time is

  20. Factors Influencing Mean Inner Potentials As Studied Using Electron Holography and Density Functional Theory

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pennington, Robert S.

    reflect properties of the specimen. The phase can yield quantitative measurements of nanoscale electric and magnetic potentials. One such electrostatic potential is called the mean inner potential. The mean inner potential is the average electrostatic potential measured between the bulk of a material...... to analyze diffraction effects on the amplitude and the phase. There is relatively good comparison between image simulation and experimental data, but the experimental absorption parameter is found to differ between strongly and weakly diffracting conditions. Density functional theory simulations of the mean...

  1. Understanding users’ motivations to engage in virtual worlds: A multipurpose model and empirical testing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verhagen, T.; Feldberg, J.F.M.; van den Hooff, B.J.; Meents, S.; Merikivi, J.

    2012-01-01

    Despite the growth and commercial potential of virtual worlds, relatively little is known about what drives users' motivations to engage in virtual worlds. This paper proposes and empirically tests a conceptual model aimed at filling this research gap. Given the multipurpose nature of virtual words

  2. Microbial Dark Matter Investigations: How Microbial Studies Transform Biological Knowledge and Empirically Sketch a Logic of Scientific Discovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernard, Guillaume; Pathmanathan, Jananan S; Lannes, Romain; Lopez, Philippe; Bapteste, Eric

    2018-01-01

    Abstract Microbes are the oldest and most widespread, phylogenetically and metabolically diverse life forms on Earth. However, they have been discovered only 334 years ago, and their diversity started to become seriously investigated even later. For these reasons, microbial studies that unveil novel microbial lineages and processes affecting or involving microbes deeply (and repeatedly) transform knowledge in biology. Considering the quantitative prevalence of taxonomically and functionally unassigned sequences in environmental genomics data sets, and that of uncultured microbes on the planet, we propose that unraveling the microbial dark matter should be identified as a central priority for biologists. Based on former empirical findings of microbial studies, we sketch a logic of discovery with the potential to further highlight the microbial unknowns. PMID:29420719

  3. Integrated empirical ethics: loss of normativity?

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Scheer, Lieke; Widdershoven, Guy

    2004-01-01

    An important discussion in contemporary ethics concerns the relevance of empirical research for ethics. Specifically, two crucial questions pertain, respectively, to the possibility of inferring normative statements from descriptive statements, and to the danger of a loss of normativity if normative statements should be based on empirical research. Here we take part in the debate and defend integrated empirical ethical research: research in which normative guidelines are established on the basis of empirical research and in which the guidelines are empirically evaluated by focusing on observable consequences. We argue that in our concrete example normative statements are not derived from descriptive statements, but are developed within a process of reflection and dialogue that goes on within a specific praxis. Moreover, we show that the distinction in experience between the desirable and the undesirable precludes relativism. The normative guidelines so developed are both critical and normative: they help in choosing the right action and in evaluating that action. Finally, following Aristotle, we plead for a return to the view that morality and ethics are inherently related to one another, and for an acknowledgment of the fact that moral judgments have their origin in experience which is always related to historical and cultural circumstances.

  4. Empirical agent-based modelling challenges and solutions

    CERN Document Server

    Barreteau, Olivier

    2014-01-01

    This instructional book showcases techniques to parameterise human agents in empirical agent-based models (ABM). In doing so, it provides a timely overview of key ABM methodologies and the most innovative approaches through a variety of empirical applications.  It features cutting-edge research from leading academics and practitioners, and will provide a guide for characterising and parameterising human agents in empirical ABM.  In order to facilitate learning, this text shares the valuable experiences of other modellers in particular modelling situations. Very little has been published in the area of empirical ABM, and this contributed volume will appeal to graduate-level students and researchers studying simulation modeling in economics, sociology, ecology, and trans-disciplinary studies, such as topics related to sustainability. In a similar vein to the instruction found in a cookbook, this text provides the empirical modeller with a set of 'recipes'  ready to be implemented. Agent-based modeling (AB...

  5. Empirical Legality and Effective Reality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hernán Pringe

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The conditions that Kant’s doctrine establishes are examined for the predication of the effective reality of certain empirical objects. It is maintained that a for such a predication, it is necessary to have not only perception but also a certain homogeneity of sensible data, and b the knowledge of the existence of certain empirical objects depends on the application of regulative principles of experience.

  6. Analysis of surface soil moisture patterns in agricultural landscapes using Empirical Orthogonal Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Korres

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Soil moisture is one of the fundamental variables in hydrology, meteorology and agriculture. Nevertheless, its spatio-temporal patterns in agriculturally used landscapes that are affected by multiple natural (rainfall, soil, topography etc. and agronomic (fertilisation, soil management etc. factors are often not well known. The aim of this study is to determine the dominant factors governing the spatio-temporal patterns of surface soil moisture in a grassland and an arable test site that are located within the Rur catchment in Western Germany. Surface soil moisture (0–6 cm was measured in an approx. 50×50 m grid during 14 and 17 measurement campaigns (May 2007 to November 2008 in both test sites. To analyse the spatio-temporal patterns of surface soil moisture, an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF analysis was applied and the results were correlated with parameters derived from topography, soil, vegetation and land management to link the patterns to related factors and processes. For the grassland test site, the analysis resulted in one significant spatial structure (first EOF, which explained 57.5% of the spatial variability connected to soil properties and topography. The statistical weight of the first spatial EOF is stronger on wet days. The highest temporal variability can be found in locations with a high percentage of soil organic carbon (SOC. For the arable test site, the analysis resulted in two significant spatial structures, the first EOF, which explained 38.4% of the spatial variability, and showed a highly significant correlation to soil properties, namely soil texture and soil stone content. The second EOF, which explained 28.3% of the spatial variability, is linked to differences in land management. The soil moisture in the arable test site varied more strongly during dry and wet periods at locations with low porosity. The method applied is capable of identifying the dominant parameters controlling spatio-temporal patterns of

  7. Permeability-driven selection in a semi-empirical protocell model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Piedrafita, Gabriel; Monnard, Pierre-Alain; Mavelli, Fabio

    2017-01-01

    to prebiotic systems evolution more intricate, but were surely essential for sustaining far-from-equilibrium chemical dynamics, given their functional relevance in all modern cells. Here we explore a protocellular scenario in which some of those additional constraints/mechanisms are addressed, demonstrating...... their 'system-level' implications. In particular, an experimental study on the permeability of prebiotic vesicle membranes composed of binary lipid mixtures allows us to construct a semi-empirical model where protocells are able to reproduce and undergo an evolutionary process based on their coupling...

  8. Empirical comparison of theories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Opp, K.D.; Wippler, R.

    1990-01-01

    The book represents the first, comprehensive attempt to take an empirical approach for comparative assessment of theories in sociology. The aims, problems, and advantages of the empirical approach are discussed in detail, and the three theories selected for the purpose of this work are explained. Their comparative assessment is performed within the framework of several research projects, which among other subjects also investigate the social aspects of the protest against nuclear power plants. The theories analysed in this context are the theory of mental incongruities and that of the benefit, and their efficiency in explaining protest behaviour is compared. (orig./HSCH) [de

  9. Teaching Empirical Software Engineering Using Expert Teams

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kuhrmann, Marco

    2017-01-01

    Empirical software engineering aims at making software engineering claims measurable, i.e., to analyze and understand phenomena in software engineering and to evaluate software engineering approaches and solutions. Due to the involvement of humans and the multitude of fields for which software...... is crucial, software engineering is considered hard to teach. Yet, empirical software engineering increases this difficulty by adding the scientific method as extra dimension. In this paper, we present a Master-level course on empirical software engineering in which different empirical instruments...... an extra specific expertise that they offer as service to other teams, thus, fostering cross-team collaboration. The paper outlines the general course setup, topics addressed, and it provides initial lessons learned....

  10. Heuristic lipophilicity potential for computer-aided rational drug design: Optimizations of screening functions and parameters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Qishi; Mezey, Paul G.

    1998-09-01

    In this research we test and compare three possible atom-basedscreening functions used in the heuristic molecular lipophilicity potential(HMLP). Screening function 1 is a power distance-dependent function, b_{{i}} /| {R_{{i}}- r} |^γ, screening function 2is an exponential distance-dependent function, biexp(-| {R_i- r} |/d_0 , and screening function 3 is aweighted distance-dependent function, {{sign}}( {b_i } ){{exp}}ξ ( {| {R_i- r} |/| {b_i } |} )For every screening function, the parameters (γ ,d0, and ξ are optimized using 41 common organic molecules of 4 types of compounds:aliphatic alcohols, aliphatic carboxylic acids, aliphatic amines, andaliphatic alkanes. The results of calculations show that screening function3 cannot give chemically reasonable results, however, both the powerscreening function and the exponential screening function give chemicallysatisfactory results. There are two notable differences between screeningfunctions 1 and 2. First, the exponential screening function has largervalues in the short distance than the power screening function, thereforemore influence from the nearest neighbors is involved using screeningfunction 2 than screening function 1. Second, the power screening functionhas larger values in the long distance than the exponential screeningfunction, therefore screening function 1 is effected by atoms at longdistance more than screening function 2. For screening function 1, thesuitable range of parameter d0 is 1.5 < d0 < 3.0, and d0 = 2.0 is recommended. HMLP developed in this researchprovides a potential tool for computer-aided three-dimensional drugdesign.

  11. Water coning. An empirical formula for the critical oil-production rate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schols, R S

    1972-01-01

    The production of oil through a well that partly penetrates an oil layer underlain by water causes the oil/water interface to deform into a bell shape, usually referred to as water coning. To prevent water- breakthrough as a result of water coning, a knowledge of critical rates is necessary. Experiments are described in which critical rates were measured as a function of the relevant parameters. The experiments were conducted in Hele Shaw models, suitable for radial flow. From the experimental data, an empirical formula for critical rates was derived in dimensionless form. Approximate theoretical solutions for the critical rate appear in literature. A comparison of critical rates calculated according to these solutions with those from the empirical formula shows that these literature data give either too high or too low values for the critical rates.

  12. THERMODYNAMIC DEPRESSION OF IONIZATION POTENTIALS IN NONIDEAL PLASMAS: GENERALIZED SELF-CONSISTENCY CRITERION AND A BACKWARD SCHEME FOR DERIVING THE EXCESS FREE ENERGY

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaghloul, Mofreh R.

    2009-01-01

    Accurate and consistent prediction of thermodynamic properties is of great importance in high-energy density physics and in modeling stellar atmospheres and interiors as well. Modern descriptions of thermodynamic properties of such nonideal plasma systems are sophisticated and/or full of pitfalls that make it difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce. The use of the Saha equation modified at high densities by incorporating simple expressions for depression of ionization potentials is very convenient in that context. However, as it is commonly known, the incorporation of ad hoc or empirical expressions for the depression of ionization potentials in the Saha equation leads to thermodynamic inconsistencies. The problem of thermodynamic consistency of ionization potentials depression in nonideal plasmas is investigated and a criterion is derived, which shows immediately, whether a particular model for the ionization potential depression is self-consistent, that is, whether it can be directly related to a modification of the free-energy function, or not. A backward scheme is introduced which can be utilized to derive nonideality corrections to the free-energy function from formulas of ionization potentials depression derived from plasma microfields or in ad hoc or empirical fashion provided that the aforementioned self-consistency criterion is satisfied. The value and usefulness of such a backward method are pointed out and discussed. The above-mentioned criterion is applied to investigate the thermodynamic consistency of some historic models in the literature and an optional routine is introduced to recover their thermodynamic consistencies while maintaining the same functional dependence on the species densities as in the original models. Sample computational problems showing the effect of the proposed modifications on the computed plasma composition are worked out and presented.

  13. Improved Wind Speed Prediction Using Empirical Mode Decomposition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZHANG, Y.

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Wind power industry plays an important role in promoting the development of low-carbon economic and energy transformation in the world. However, the randomness and volatility of wind speed series restrict the healthy development of the wind power industry. Accurate wind speed prediction is the key to realize the stability of wind power integration and to guarantee the safe operation of the power system. In this paper, combined with the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD, the Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBF and the Least Square Support Vector Machine (SVM, an improved wind speed prediction model based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD-RBF-LS-SVM is proposed. The prediction result indicates that compared with the traditional prediction model (RBF, LS-SVM, the EMD-RBF-LS-SVM model can weaken the random fluctuation to a certain extent and improve the short-term accuracy of wind speed prediction significantly. In a word, this research will significantly reduce the impact of wind power instability on the power grid, ensure the power grid supply and demand balance, reduce the operating costs in the grid-connected systems, and enhance the market competitiveness of the wind power.

  14. Does appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy modify intensive care unit-acquired Enterobacteriaceae bacteraemia mortality and discharge?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pouwels, K B; Van Kleef, E; Vansteelandt, S; Batra, R; Edgeworth, J D; Smieszek, T; Robotham, J V

    2017-05-01

    Conflicting results have been found regarding outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired Enterobacteriaceae bacteraemia and the potentially modifying effect of appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy. To evaluate these associations while adjusting for potential time-varying confounding using methods from the causal inference literature. Patients who stayed more than two days in two general ICUs in England between 2002 and 2006 were included in this cohort study. Marginal structural models with inverse probability weighting were used to estimate the mortality and discharge associated with Enterobacteriaceae bacteraemia and the impact of appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy on these outcomes. Among 3411 ICU admissions, 195 (5.7%) ICU-acquired Enterobacteriaceae bacteraemia cases occurred. Enterobacteriaceae bacteraemia was associated with an increased daily risk of ICU death [cause-specific hazard ratio (HR): 1.48; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10-1.99] and a reduced daily risk of ICU discharge (HR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.54-0.80). Appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy did not significantly modify ICU mortality (HR: 1.08; 95% CI: 0.59-1.97) or discharge (HR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.63-1.32). ICU-acquired Enterobacteriaceae bacteraemia was associated with an increased daily risk of ICU mortality. Furthermore, the daily discharge rate was also lower after acquiring infection, even when adjusting for time-varying confounding using appropriate methodology. No evidence was found for a beneficial modifying effect of appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy on ICU mortality and discharge. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Functional Gene Diversity and Metabolic Potential of the Microbial Community in an Estuary-Shelf Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Wang

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Microbes play crucial roles in various biogeochemical processes in the ocean, including carbon (C, nitrogen (N, and phosphorus (P cycling. Functional gene diversity and the structure of the microbial community determines its metabolic potential and therefore its ecological function in the marine ecosystem. However, little is known about the functional gene composition and metabolic potential of bacterioplankton in estuary areas. The East China Sea (ECS is a dynamic marginal ecosystem in the western Pacific Ocean that is mainly affected by input from the Changjiang River and the Kuroshio Current. Here, using a high-throughput functional gene microarray (GeoChip, we analyzed the functional gene diversity, composition, structure, and metabolic potential of microbial assemblages in different ECS water masses. Four water masses determined by temperature and salinity relationship showed different patterns of functional gene diversity and composition. Generally, functional gene diversity [Shannon–Weaner’s H and reciprocal of Simpson’s 1/(1-D] in the surface water masses was higher than that in the bottom water masses. The different presence and proportion of functional genes involved in C, N, and P cycling among the bacteria of the different water masses showed different metabolic preferences of the microbial populations in the ECS. Genes involved in starch metabolism (amyA and nplT showed higher proportion in microbial communities of the surface water masses than of the bottom water masses. In contrast, a higher proportion of genes involved in chitin degradation was observed in microorganisms of the bottom water masses. Moreover, we found a higher proportion of nitrogen fixation (nifH, transformation of hydroxylamine to nitrite (hao and ammonification (gdh genes in the microbial communities of the bottom water masses compared with those of the surface water masses. The spatial variation of microbial functional genes was significantly correlated

  16. Environmental conditions influence the plant functional diversity effect on potential denitrification.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ariana E Sutton-Grier

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Global biodiversity loss has prompted research on the relationship between species diversity and ecosystem functioning. Few studies have examined how plant diversity impacts belowground processes; even fewer have examined how varying resource levels can influence the effect of plant diversity on microbial activity. In a field experiment in a restored wetland, we examined the role of plant trait diversity (or functional diversity, (FD and its interactions with natural levels of variability of soil properties, on a microbial process, denitrification potential (DNP. We demonstrated that FD significantly affected microbial DNP through its interactions with soil conditions; increasing FD led to increased DNP but mainly at higher levels of soil resources. Our results suggest that the effect of species diversity on ecosystem functioning may depend on environmental factors such as resource availability. Future biodiversity experiments should examine how natural levels of environmental variability impact the importance of biodiversity to ecosystem functioning.

  17. A Systematic Literature Review of Empirical Evidence on Computer Games and Serious Games

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connolly, Thomas M.; Boyle, Elizabeth A.; MacArthur, Ewan; Hainey, Thomas; Boyle, James M.

    2012-01-01

    This paper examines the literature on computer games and serious games in regard to the potential positive impacts of gaming on users aged 14 years or above, especially with respect to learning, skill enhancement and engagement. Search terms identified 129 papers reporting empirical evidence about the impacts and outcomes of computer games and…

  18. Characterization of OAZ1 and its potential functions in goose follicular development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bo Kang

    2017-03-01

    Conclusions: The goose OAZ1 structure confirms that OAZ1 plays an important role in ornithine decarboxylase-mediated regulation of polyamine homeostasis. Our findings provide an evidence for a potential function of OAZ1 in follicular development, ovulation and regression.

  19. Isgur–Wise function in a QCD-inspired potential model with WKB ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    2017-02-28

    Feb 28, 2017 ... DOI 10.1007/s12043-016-1357-9. Isgur–Wise function in a QCD-inspired potential model with WKB approximation. BHASKAR JYOTI HAZARIKA1,∗ and D K CHOUDHURY1,2. 1Centre for Theoretical Studies, Pandu College, Guwahati 781 012, India. 2Physics Academy of North East, Gauhati University, ...

  20. Size-dependent error of the density functional theory ionization potential in vacuum and solution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sosa Vazquez, Xochitl A; Isborn, Christine M

    2015-12-28

    Density functional theory is often the method of choice for modeling the energetics of large molecules and including explicit solvation effects. It is preferable to use a method that treats systems of different sizes and with different amounts of explicit solvent on equal footing. However, recent work suggests that approximate density functional theory has a size-dependent error in the computation of the ionization potential. We here investigate the lack of size-intensivity of the ionization potential computed with approximate density functionals in vacuum and solution. We show that local and semi-local approximations to exchange do not yield a constant ionization potential for an increasing number of identical isolated molecules in vacuum. Instead, as the number of molecules increases, the total energy required to ionize the system decreases. Rather surprisingly, we find that this is still the case in solution, whether using a polarizable continuum model or with explicit solvent that breaks the degeneracy of each solute, and we find that explicit solvent in the calculation can exacerbate the size-dependent delocalization error. We demonstrate that increasing the amount of exact exchange changes the character of the polarization of the solvent molecules; for small amounts of exact exchange the solvent molecules contribute a fraction of their electron density to the ionized electron, but for larger amounts of exact exchange they properly polarize in response to the cationic solute. In vacuum and explicit solvent, the ionization potential can be made size-intensive by optimally tuning a long-range corrected hybrid functional.

  1. Umayyad Relations with Byzantium Empire

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mansoor Haidari

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This research investigates the political and military relations between Umayyad caliphates with the Byzantine Empire. The aim of this research is to clarify Umayyad caliphate’s relations with the Byzantine Empire. We know that these relations were mostly about war and fight. Because there were always intense conflicts between Muslims and the Byzantine Empire, they had to have an active continuous diplomacy to call truce and settle the disputes. Thus, based on the general policy of the Umayyad caliphs, Christians were severely ignored and segregated within Islamic territories. This segregation of the Christians was highly affected by political relationships. It is worthy of mentioning that Umayyad caliphs brought the governing style of the Sassanid kings and Roman Caesar into the Islamic Caliphate system but they didn’t establish civil institutions and administrative organizations.

  2. Academic Advising Systems: A Systematic Literature Review of Empirical Evidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Omiros Iatrellis

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive background for understanding current knowledge on Academic Advising Systems (AAS and its impact on learning. It constitutes an overview of empirical evidence behind key objectives of the potential adoption of AAS in generic educational strategic planning. The researchers examined the literature on experimental case studies conducted in the domain during the past ten years (2008–2017. Search terms identified 98 mature pieces of research work, but inclusion criteria limited the key studies to 43. The authors analyzed the research questions, methodology, and findings of these published papers and categorized them accordingly. The results have highlighted three distinct major directions of the AAS empirical research. This paper discusses the emerged added value of AAS research and highlights the significance of further implications. Finally, the authors set their thoughts on possible uncharted key questions to investigate both from pedagogical and technical considerations.

  3. Empirical training for conditional random fields

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhu, Zhemin; Hiemstra, Djoerd; Apers, Peter M.G.; Wombacher, Andreas

    2013-01-01

    In this paper (Zhu et al., 2013), we present a practi- cally scalable training method for CRFs called Empir- ical Training (EP). We show that the standard train- ing with unregularized log likelihood can have many maximum likelihood estimations (MLEs). Empirical training has a unique closed form MLE

  4. Transformation of an empirical distribution to normal distribution by the use of Johnson system of translation and symmetrical quantile method

    OpenAIRE

    Ludvík Friebel; Jana Friebelová

    2006-01-01

    This article deals with approximation of empirical distribution to standard normal distribution using Johnson transformation. This transformation enables us to approximate wide spectrum of continuous distributions with a normal distribution. The estimation of parameters of transformation formulas is based on percentiles of empirical distribution. There are derived theoretical probability distribution functions of random variable obtained on the base of backward transformation standard normal ...

  5. Development of an empirical interatomic potential for the Ag–Ti system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhou, Ying, E-mail: y.zhou3@lboro.ac.uk [Department of Mathematical Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU (United Kingdom); Smith, Roger [Department of Mathematical Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU (United Kingdom); Kenny, Steven D. [Department of Materials, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU (United Kingdom); Lloyd, Adam L. [Department of Mathematical Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU (United Kingdom)

    2017-02-15

    Highlights: • A new modified embedded-atom method interatomic potential for Ag and Ti was developed. • Binding energies for various configurations were calculated using SIESTA and were used as the fitting target. • Two mixing rules for the embedded-atom method based on the same elemental potentials were also investigated. • The results showed that the MEAM with the optimised parameters gives the best agreement to the DFT results. - Abstract: Two interatomic potential mixing rules for the Ti–Ag system were investigated based on the embedded-atom method (EAM) elemental potentials. First principles calculations were performed using SIESTA for various configurations of the Ti–Ag system to see which model best fitted the ab initio results. The results showed that the surface energies, especially that of Ti, were not well fitted by either model and the surface binding energies differed from the ab initio calculations. As a result, the modified embedded-atom method (MEAM) was investigated. In contrast to the other models, surface energies for pure Ti calculated by MEAM were in good agreement with the experimental data and the ab initio results. The MEAM mixing rule was used to investigate Ag ad-atoms on Ti and Ti ad-atoms on Ag. The results showed good agreement with SIESTA after parameter optimisation.

  6. Palm vein recognition based on directional empirical mode decomposition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jen-Chun; Chang, Chien-Ping; Chen, Wei-Kuei

    2014-04-01

    Directional empirical mode decomposition (DEMD) has recently been proposed to make empirical mode decomposition suitable for the processing of texture analysis. Using DEMD, samples are decomposed into a series of images, referred to as two-dimensional intrinsic mode functions (2-D IMFs), from finer to large scale. A DEMD-based 2 linear discriminant analysis (LDA) for palm vein recognition is proposed. The proposed method progresses through three steps: (i) a set of 2-D IMF features of various scale and orientation are extracted using DEMD, (ii) the 2LDA method is then applied to reduce the dimensionality of the feature space in both the row and column directions, and (iii) the nearest neighbor classifier is used for classification. We also propose two strategies for using the set of 2-D IMF features: ensemble DEMD vein representation (EDVR) and multichannel DEMD vein representation (MDVR). In experiments using palm vein databases, the proposed MDVR-based 2LDA method achieved recognition accuracy of 99.73%, thereby demonstrating its feasibility for palm vein recognition.

  7. Empirical Phenomenology: A Qualitative Research Approach (The ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Empirical Phenomenology: A Qualitative Research Approach (The Cologne Seminars) ... and practical application of empirical phenomenology in social research. ... and considers its implications for qualitative methods such as interviewing ...

  8. Empirical logic and quantum mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Foulis, D.J.; Randall, C.H.

    1976-01-01

    This article discusses some of the basic notions of quantum physics within the more general framework of operational statistics and empirical logic (as developed in Foulis and Randall, 1972, and Randall and Foulis, 1973). Empirical logic is a formal mathematical system in which the notion of an operation is primitive and undefined; all other concepts are rigorously defined in terms of such operations (which are presumed to correspond to actual physical procedures). (Auth.)

  9. ANALYSIS OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC POTENTIAL IN FUNCTION OF TOURISM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mijalce Gjorgievski

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Man is the prime mover of the overall social economic and political life of the entire globe and therefore he is studied from various aspects depending on the needs of what we want to obtain information on the demographic potential and its features.In this paper, the subject of study will be processing potential through its demographic characteristics (number condition, age structure, natural increase, economic activity, religious composition, etc. for the tourism economy. We know that the basic elements of tourism are the natural and cultural wealth that detect, evaluate and put into operation in tourism. However, it has its function, the basic factor are the people who need to visit those places, so it is very important to understand the demographic characteristics of people in every region of the globe in order to come to some understanding of the habits, needs and affinities of people depending on age, nationality and religious affiliation, etc. when choosing their travel destination.

  10. Empirical Moral Philosophy and Teacher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schjetne, Espen; Afdal, Hilde Wågsås; Anker, Trine; Johannesen, Nina; Afdal, Geir

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we explore the possible contributions of empirical moral philosophy to professional ethics in teacher education. We argue that it is both possible and desirable to connect knowledge of how teachers empirically do and understand professional ethics with normative theories of teachers' professional ethics. Our argument is made in…

  11. Functional characterisation of the human alpha1 glycine receptor in a fluorescence-based membrane potential assay

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Anders A.; Kristiansen, Uffe

    2004-01-01

    In the present study, we have created a stable HEK293 cell line expressing the human homomeric alpha1 glycine receptor (GlyR) and characterised its functional pharmacology in a conventional patch-clamp assay and in the FLIPR Membrane Potential (FMP) assay, a fluorescence-based high throughput scr...... not be suited for sophisticated studies of GlyR pharmacology and kinetics. However, the assay offers several advantages in studies of ligand-receptor interactions. Furthermore, the assay could be highly useful in the search for structurally novel ligands acting at GlyRs.......In the present study, we have created a stable HEK293 cell line expressing the human homomeric alpha1 glycine receptor (GlyR) and characterised its functional pharmacology in a conventional patch-clamp assay and in the FLIPR Membrane Potential (FMP) assay, a fluorescence-based high throughput...... ion did not appear to potentiate GlyR function at lower concentrations. Analogously, whereas pregnenolone sulphate inhibited alpha1 GlyR function, the potentiation of alpha1 GlyR by pregnenolone in electrophysiological studies could not be reproduced in the assay. In conclusion, the FMP assay may...

  12. Autobiography After Empire

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasch, Astrid

    of the collective, but insufficient attention has been paid to how individuals respond to such narrative changes. This dissertation examines the relationship between individual and collective memory at the end of empire through analysis of 13 end of empire autobiographies by public intellectuals from Australia......Decolonisation was a major event of the twentieth century, redrawing maps and impacting on identity narratives around the globe. As new nations defined their place in the world, the national and imperial past was retold in new cultural memories. These developments have been studied at the level......, the Anglophone Caribbean and Zimbabwe. I conceive of memory as reconstructive and social, with individual memory striving to make sense of the past in the present in dialogue with surrounding narratives. By examining recurring tropes in the autobiographies, like colonial education, journeys to the imperial...

  13. MEIS1 functions as a potential AR negative regulator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cui, Liang [Department of Urology, Chinese PLA Medical School/Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853 (China); Department of Urology, Civil Aviation General Hospital/Civil Aviation Medical College of Peking University, Beijing 100123 (China); Li, Mingyang [Department of Gastroenterology, Nan Lou Division, Chinese PLA Medical School/Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853 (China); Feng, Fan [Department of Pharmacy, General Hospital of Shenyang Military Command, Shenyang 110016 (China); Yang, Yutao [Beijing Institute for Neuroscience, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069 (China); Hang, Xingyi [National Scientific Data Sharing Platform for Population and Health, Beijing 100730 (China); Cui, Jiajun, E-mail: cuijn@ucmail.uc.edu [Department of Cancer and Cell Biology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45267 (United States); Gao, Jiangping, E-mail: jpgao@163.com [Department of Urology, Chinese PLA Medical School/Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853 (China)

    2014-10-15

    The androgen receptor (AR) plays critical roles in human prostate carcinoma progression and transformation. However, the activation of AR is regulated by co-regulators. MEIS1 protein, the homeodomain transcription factor, exhibited a decreased level in poor-prognosis prostate tumors. In this study, we investigated a potential interaction between MEIS1 and AR. We found that overexpression of MEIS1 inhibited the AR transcriptional activity and reduced the expression of AR target gene. A potential protein–protein interaction between AR and MEIS1 was identified by the immunoprecipitation and GST pull-down assays. Furthermore, MEIS1 modulated AR cytoplasm/nucleus translocation and the recruitment to androgen response element in prostate specific antigen (PSA) gene promoter sequences. In addition, MEIS1 promoted the recruitment of NCoR and SMRT in the presence of R1881. Finally, MEIS1 inhibited the proliferation and anchor-independent growth of LNCaP cells. Taken together, our data suggests that MEIS1 functions as a novel AR co-repressor. - Highlights: • A potential interaction was identified between MEIS1 and AR signaling. • Overexpression of MEIS1 reduced the expression of AR target gene. • MEIS1 modulated AR cytoplasm/nucleus translocation. • MEIS1 inhibited the proliferation and anchor-independent growth of LNCaP cells.

  14. MEIS1 functions as a potential AR negative regulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cui, Liang; Li, Mingyang; Feng, Fan; Yang, Yutao; Hang, Xingyi; Cui, Jiajun; Gao, Jiangping

    2014-01-01

    The androgen receptor (AR) plays critical roles in human prostate carcinoma progression and transformation. However, the activation of AR is regulated by co-regulators. MEIS1 protein, the homeodomain transcription factor, exhibited a decreased level in poor-prognosis prostate tumors. In this study, we investigated a potential interaction between MEIS1 and AR. We found that overexpression of MEIS1 inhibited the AR transcriptional activity and reduced the expression of AR target gene. A potential protein–protein interaction between AR and MEIS1 was identified by the immunoprecipitation and GST pull-down assays. Furthermore, MEIS1 modulated AR cytoplasm/nucleus translocation and the recruitment to androgen response element in prostate specific antigen (PSA) gene promoter sequences. In addition, MEIS1 promoted the recruitment of NCoR and SMRT in the presence of R1881. Finally, MEIS1 inhibited the proliferation and anchor-independent growth of LNCaP cells. Taken together, our data suggests that MEIS1 functions as a novel AR co-repressor. - Highlights: • A potential interaction was identified between MEIS1 and AR signaling. • Overexpression of MEIS1 reduced the expression of AR target gene. • MEIS1 modulated AR cytoplasm/nucleus translocation. • MEIS1 inhibited the proliferation and anchor-independent growth of LNCaP cells

  15. Oxidative stress markers, cognitive functions, and psychosocial functioning in bipolar disorder: an empirical cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aydemir, Ömer; Çubukçuoğlu, Zeynep; Erdin, Soner; Taş, Cumhur; Onur, Ece; Berk, Michael

    2014-01-01

    This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between oxidative stress markers and cognitive functions and domains of psychosocial functioning in bipolar disorder. Oxidative stress markers, cognitive functions, and domains of psychosocial functioning were evaluated in 51 patients with bipolar disorder who were in remission. Correlation analyses between these parameters were calculated with data controlled for duration of illness and number of episodes. There was no statistically significant correlation between oxidative stress markers and cognitive functions. In terms of psychosocial functioning, significant correlations were found between malondialdehyde and sense of stigmatization (r = -0.502); household activities and superoxide dismutase (r = 0.501); participation in social activities and nitric oxide (r = 0.414); hobbies and leisure time activities and total glutathione (r = -0.567), superoxide dismutase (r = 0.667), and neurotrophin 4 (r = 0.450); and taking initiative and self-sufficiency and superoxide dismutase (r = 0.597). There was no correlation between other domains of psychosocial functioning and oxidative stress markers. These results imply that oxidative stress markers do not appear to correlate clearly with cognitive impairment and reduced psychosocial functioning. However, there were some associations between selected oxidative markers and activity-oriented functional markers. This may represent a true negative association, or may be an artifact of oxidative stress being a state rather than a trait marker.

  16. Oxidative stress markers, cognitive functions, and psychosocial functioning in bipolar disorder: an empirical cross-sectional study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ömer Aydemir

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between oxidative stress markers and cognitive functions and domains of psychosocial functioning in bipolar disorder. Methods: Oxidative stress markers, cognitive functions, and domains of psychosocial functioning were evaluated in 51 patients with bipolar disorder who were in remission. Correlation analyses between these parameters were calculated with data controlled for duration of illness and number of episodes. Results: There was no statistically significant correlation between oxidative stress markers and cognitive functions. In terms of psychosocial functioning, significant correlations were found between malondialdehyde and sense of stigmatization (r = -0.502; household activities and superoxide dismutase (r = 0.501; participation in social activities and nitric oxide (r = 0.414; hobbies and leisure time activities and total glutathione (r = -0.567, superoxide dismutase (r = 0.667, and neurotrophin 4 (r = 0.450; and taking initiative and self-sufficiency and superoxide dismutase (r = 0.597. There was no correlation between other domains of psychosocial functioning and oxidative stress markers. Conclusion: These results imply that oxidative stress markers do not appear to correlate clearly with cognitive impairment and reduced psychosocial functioning. However, there were some associations between selected oxidative markers and activity-oriented functional markers. This may represent a true negative association, or may be an artifact of oxidative stress being a state rather than a trait marker.

  17. Agricultural rent-seeking in developing countries: an empirical investigation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvid, Anna

    2014-01-01

    or rural development? This article finds empirical support for a proposed theory which suggests that the extent of agricultural rent-seeking, in the form of large-scale land acquisitions, is determined by the relative political power of an elite and a farmer group. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.......Recent increases in demand for agricultural land has fuelled academic, as well as public, interest in the potential effects of high value agricultural land, particularly in developing countries. The dominating question seems to be: will increasing demand for agricultural land imply land grabbing...

  18. Empirical Mode Decomposition of the atmospheric wave field

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. J. McDonald

    2007-03-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the utility of the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD time-series analysis technique to separate the horizontal wind field observed by the Scott Base MF radar (78° S, 167° E into its constituent parts made up of the mean wind, gravity waves, tides, planetary waves and instrumental noise. Analysis suggests that EMD effectively separates the wind field into a set of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs which can be related to atmospheric waves with different temporal scales. The Intrinsic Mode Functions resultant from application of the EMD technique to Monte-Carlo simulations of white- and red-noise processes are compared to those obtained from the measurements and are shown to be significantly different statistically. Thus, application of the EMD technique to the MF radar horizontal wind data can be used to prove that this data contains information on internal gravity waves, tides and planetary wave motions.

    Examination also suggests that the EMD technique has the ability to highlight amplitude and frequency modulations in these signals. Closer examination of one of these regions of amplitude modulation associated with dominant periods close to 12 h is suggested to be related to a wave-wave interaction between the semi-diurnal tide and a planetary wave. Application of the Hilbert transform to the IMFs forms a Hilbert-Huang spectrum which provides a way of viewing the data in a similar manner to the analysis from a continuous wavelet transform. However, the fact that the basis function of EMD is data-driven and does not need to be selected a priori is a major advantage. In addition, the skeleton diagrams, produced from the results of the Hilbert-Huang spectrum, provide a method of presentation which allows quantitative information on the instantaneous period and amplitude squared to be displayed as a function of time. Thus, it provides a novel way to view frequency and amplitude-modulated wave phenomena and potentially non

  19. The borderline of 'empire': Japanese maritime quarantine in Busan c.1876-1910.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jeong-Ran

    2013-04-01

    This paper seeks to balance the regional and thematic focus of cholera historiography by examining maritime quarantine in Busan, as it was devised and implemented by Japanese officials and doctors during the pre-colonial period. It also places the relationship between Korea and Japan in the context of relations with China, Russia and Britain. This paper shows that quarantine measures in Busan and other Korean ports reflected the rise of Japanese imperial power and the increasing desire on the part of the Japanese to establish an effective borderline for their regional empire. From 1879 Japan began to impose maritime quarantine in Busan, where Japanese influence was very strong even before the colonial period, though at that time Japan was unable to perform quarantine in its own ports independently due to the objections of Western powers, particularly Britain. Victories in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars established Japan as a regional power on equal terms with the West, and as the dominant power in Korea and Eastern Asia. With the acquisition of the right to impose quarantine in its homeland, Japan strengthened and extended the range of quarantine from Japan to Korea, China and Russia. Now quarantine screened Japan from potentially harmful agents – pathogenic and political – and its functions diversified further as modernisation and imperial expansion gathered pace. The reliance which Japan placed upon quarantine in maintaining its empire explains why it was increasingly out of step with other powers regarding international sanitary precautions. The Japanese maritime quarantine in Busan during this period therefore shows many aspects of Japan’s ‘national empire’.

  20. Strategic Management Tools and Techniques: A Comparative Analysis of Empirical Studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Albana Berisha Qehaja

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available There is no doubt that strategic management tools and techniques are important parts of the strategic management process. Their use in organizations should be observed in a practice-based context. This paper analyzes the empirical studies on the usage of strategic management tools and techniques. Hence, the main aim of this study is to investigate and analyze which enterprises, according to their country development level, use more strategic management tools and techniques and which of these are used the most. Also, this paper investigates which strategic management tools and techniques are used globally according to the results of empirical studies. The study presents a summary of empirical studies for the period 1990–2015. The research results indicate that more strategic tools and techniques are used in developed countries, followed by developing countries and fewest in countries in transition. This study is likely to contribute to the field of strategic management because it summarizes the most used strategic tools and techniques at the global level according to varying stages of countries’ economic development. Also, the findings from this study may be utilized to maximize the full potential of enterprises and reduce the cases of entrepreneurship failures, through creating awareness of the importance of using strategic management tools and techniques.

  1. Chimeras taking shape: Potential functions of proteins encoded by chimeric RNA transcripts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frenkel-Morgenstern, Milana; Lacroix, Vincent; Ezkurdia, Iakes; Levin, Yishai; Gabashvili, Alexandra; Prilusky, Jaime; del Pozo, Angela; Tress, Michael; Johnson, Rory; Guigo, Roderic; Valencia, Alfonso

    2012-01-01

    Chimeric RNAs comprise exons from two or more different genes and have the potential to encode novel proteins that alter cellular phenotypes. To date, numerous putative chimeric transcripts have been identified among the ESTs isolated from several organisms and using high throughput RNA sequencing. The few corresponding protein products that have been characterized mostly result from chromosomal translocations and are associated with cancer. Here, we systematically establish that some of the putative chimeric transcripts are genuinely expressed in human cells. Using high throughput RNA sequencing, mass spectrometry experimental data, and functional annotation, we studied 7424 putative human chimeric RNAs. We confirmed the expression of 175 chimeric RNAs in 16 human tissues, with an abundance varying from 0.06 to 17 RPKM (Reads Per Kilobase per Million mapped reads). We show that these chimeric RNAs are significantly more tissue-specific than non-chimeric transcripts. Moreover, we present evidence that chimeras tend to incorporate highly expressed genes. Despite the low expression level of most chimeric RNAs, we show that 12 novel chimeras are translated into proteins detectable in multiple shotgun mass spectrometry experiments. Furthermore, we confirm the expression of three novel chimeric proteins using targeted mass spectrometry. Finally, based on our functional annotation of exon organization and preserved domains, we discuss the potential features of chimeric proteins with illustrative examples and suggest that chimeras significantly exploit signal peptides and transmembrane domains, which can alter the cellular localization of cognate proteins. Taken together, these findings establish that some chimeric RNAs are translated into potentially functional proteins in humans. PMID:22588898

  2. Functional dyspepsia

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kleibeuker, JH; Thijs, JC

    2004-01-01

    Purpose of review Functional dyspepsia is a common disorder, most of the time of unknown etiology and with variable pathophysiology. Therapy has been and still is largely empirical. Data from recent studies provide new clues for targeted therapy based on knowledge of etiology and pathophysiologic

  3. An anthology of theories and models of design philosophy, approaches and empirical explorations

    CERN Document Server

    Blessing, Lucienne

    2014-01-01

    While investigations into both theories and models has remained a major strand of engineering design research, current literature sorely lacks a reference book that provides a comprehensive and up-to-date anthology of theories and models, and their philosophical and empirical underpinnings; An Anthology of Theories and Models of Design fills this gap. The text collects the expert views of an international authorship, covering: ·         significant theories in engineering design, including CK theory, domain theory, and the theory of technical systems; ·         current models of design, from a function behavior structure model to an integrated model; ·         important empirical research findings from studies into design; and ·         philosophical underpinnings of design itself. For educators and researchers in engineering design, An Anthology of Theories and Models of Design gives access to in-depth coverage of theoretical and empirical developments in this area; for pr...

  4. Corrosion-induced bond strength degradation in reinforced concrete-Analytical and empirical models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhargava, Kapilesh; Ghosh, A.K.; Mori, Yasuhiro; Ramanujam, S.

    2007-01-01

    The present paper aims to investigate the relationship between the bond strength and the reinforcement corrosion in reinforced concrete (RC). Analytical and empirical models are proposed for the bond strength of corroded reinforcing bars. Analytical model proposed by Cairns.and Abdullah [Cairns, J., Abdullah, R.B., 1996. Bond strength of black and epoxy-coated reinforcement-a theoretical approach. ACI Mater. J. 93 (4), 362-369] for splitting bond failure and later modified by Coronelli [Coronelli, D. 2002. Corrosion cracking and bond strength modeling for corroded bars in reinforced concrete. ACI Struct. J. 99 (3), 267-276] to consider the corroded bars, has been adopted. Estimation of the various parameters in the earlier analytical model has been proposed by the present authors. These parameters include corrosion pressure due to expansive action of corrosion products, modeling of tensile behaviour of cracked concrete and adhesion and friction coefficient between the corroded bar and cracked concrete. Simple empirical models are also proposed to evaluate the reduction in bond strength as a function of reinforcement corrosion in RC specimens. These empirical models are proposed by considering a wide range of published experimental investigations related to the bond degradation in RC specimens due to reinforcement corrosion. It has been found that the proposed analytical and empirical bond models are capable of providing the estimates of predicted bond strength of corroded reinforcement that are in reasonably good agreement with the experimentally observed values and with those of the other reported published data on analytical and empirical predictions. An attempt has also been made to evaluate the flexural strength of RC beams with corroded reinforcement failing in bond. It has also been found that the analytical predictions for the flexural strength of RC beams based on the proposed bond degradation models are in agreement with those of the experimentally

  5. Single-Trial Classification of Bistable Perception by Integrating Empirical Mode Decomposition, Clustering, and Support Vector Machine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hualou Liang

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available We propose an empirical mode decomposition (EMD- based method to extract features from the multichannel recordings of local field potential (LFP, collected from the middle temporal (MT visual cortex in a macaque monkey, for decoding its bistable structure-from-motion (SFM perception. The feature extraction approach consists of three stages. First, we employ EMD to decompose nonstationary single-trial time series into narrowband components called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs with time scales dependent on the data. Second, we adopt unsupervised K-means clustering to group the IMFs and residues into several clusters across all trials and channels. Third, we use the supervised common spatial patterns (CSP approach to design spatial filters for the clustered spatiotemporal signals. We exploit the support vector machine (SVM classifier on the extracted features to decode the reported perception on a single-trial basis. We demonstrate that the CSP feature of the cluster in the gamma frequency band outperforms the features in other frequency bands and leads to the best decoding performance. We also show that the EMD-based feature extraction can be useful for evoked potential estimation. Our proposed feature extraction approach may have potential for many applications involving nonstationary multivariable time series such as brain-computer interfaces (BCI.

  6. Adapting the SERVQUAL scale to hospital services: an empirical investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babakus, E; Mangold, W G

    1992-02-01

    Defining and measuring the quality of service has been a major challenge for health care marketers. A comprehensive service quality measurement scale (SERVQUAL) is empirically evaluated for its potential usefulness in a hospital service environment. Active participation by hospital management helped to address practical and user-related aspects of the assessment. The completed expectations and perceptions scales met various criteria for reliability and validity. Suggestions are provided for the managerial use of the scale, and a number of future research issues are identified.

  7. Empirical Research In Engineering Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ahmed, Saeema

    2007-01-01

    Increasingly engineering design research involves the use of empirical studies that are conducted within an industrial environment [Ahmed, 2001; Court 1995; Hales 1987]. Research into the use of information by designers or understanding how engineers build up experience are examples of research...... of research issues. This paper describes case studies of empirical research carried out within industry in engineering design focusing upon information, knowledge and experience in engineering design. The paper describes the research methods employed, their suitability for the particular research aims...

  8. Metagenomic Functional Potential Predicts Degradation Rates of a Model Organophosphorus Xenobiotic in Pesticide Contaminated Soils

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas C. Jeffries

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Chemical contamination of natural and agricultural habitats is an increasing global problem and a major threat to sustainability and human health. Organophosphorus (OP compounds are one major class of contaminant and can undergo microbial degradation, however, no studies have applied system-wide ecogenomic tools to investigate OP degradation or use metagenomics to understand the underlying mechanisms of biodegradation in situ and predict degradation potential. Thus, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the functional genes and genomic potential underpinning degradation and community responses to contamination. Here we address this knowledge gap by performing shotgun sequencing of community DNA from agricultural soils with a history of pesticide usage and profiling shifts in functional genes and microbial taxa abundance. Our results showed two distinct groups of soils defined by differing functional and taxonomic profiles. Degradation assays suggested that these groups corresponded to the organophosphorus degradation potential of soils, with the fastest degrading community being defined by increases in transport and nutrient cycling pathways and enzymes potentially involved in phosphorus metabolism. This was against a backdrop of taxonomic community shifts potentially related to contamination adaptation and reflecting the legacy of exposure. Overall our results highlight the value of using holistic system-wide metagenomic approaches as a tool to predict microbial degradation in the context of the ecology of contaminated habitats.

  9. On the Sophistication of Naïve Empirical Reasoning: Factors Influencing Mathematicians' Persuasion Ratings of Empirical Arguments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weber, Keith

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents the results of an experiment in which mathematicians were asked to rate how persuasive they found two empirical arguments. There were three key results from this study: (a) Participants judged an empirical argument as more persuasive if it verified that integers possessed an infrequent property than if it verified that integers…

  10. Automatic fringe enhancement with novel bidimensional sinusoids-assisted empirical mode decomposition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Chenxing; Kemao, Qian; Da, Feipeng

    2017-10-02

    Fringe-based optical measurement techniques require reliable fringe analysis methods, where empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is an outstanding one due to its ability of analyzing complex signals and the merit of being data-driven. However, two challenging issues hinder the application of EMD in practical measurement. One is the tricky mode mixing problem (MMP), making the decomposed intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) have equivocal physical meaning; the other is the automatic and accurate extraction of the sinusoidal fringe from the IMFs when unpredictable and unavoidable background and noise exist in real measurements. Accordingly, in this paper, a novel bidimensional sinusoids-assisted EMD (BSEMD) is proposed to decompose a fringe pattern into mono-component bidimensional IMFs (BIMFs), with the MMP solved; properties of the resulted BIMFs are then analyzed to recognize and enhance the useful fringe component. The decomposition and the fringe recognition are integrated and the latter provides a feedback to the former, helping to automatically stop the decomposition to make the algorithm simpler and more reliable. A series of experiments show that the proposed method is accurate, efficient and robust to various fringe patterns even with poor quality, rendering it a potential tool for practical use.

  11. Hypnosis Treatment of Gastrointestinal Disorders: A Comprehensive Review of the Empirical Evidence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palsson, Olafur S

    2015-10-01

    Hypnotherapy has been investigated for 30 years as a treatment for gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. There are presently 35 studies in the published empirical literature, including 17 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have assessed clinical outcomes of such treatment. This body of research is reviewed comprehensively in this article. Twenty-four of the studies have tested hypnotherapy for adult irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and 5 have focused on IBS or abdominal pain in children. All IBS hypnotherapy studies have reported significant improvement in gastrointestinal symptoms, and 7 out of 10 RCTs in adults and all 3 RCTs in pediatric patient samples found superior outcomes for hypnosis compared to control groups. Collectively this body of research shows unequivocally that for both adults and children with IBS, hypnosis treatment is highly efficacious in reducing bowel symptoms and can offer lasting and substantial symptom relief for a large proportion of patients who do not respond adequately to usual medical treatment approaches. For other GI disorders the evidence is more limited, but preliminary indications of therapeutic potential can be seen in the single randomized controlled trials published to date on hypnotherapy for functional dyspepsia, functional chest pain, and ulcerative colitis. Further controlled hypnotherapy trials in those three disorders should be a high priority. The mechanisms underlying the impact of hypnosis on GI problems are still unclear, but findings from a number of studies suggest that they involve both modulation of gut functioning and changes in the brain's handling of sensory signals from the GI tract.

  12. In search of risk and safety cultures : empirical and theoretical considerations in the settings of northern and western Europe

    OpenAIRE

    Melinder, Karin

    2000-01-01

    Abstract There has been an increasing interest in determinants of public health at societal level. These factors have often been of a socio-economic nature, whereas culture has attracted less attention. The aim of this dissertation is to analyze, operationalize, and empirically explore the potentials of the concept of culture in macro- level injury research. The dissertation is built upon five different papers. The empirical papers investigate the scope available for emp...

  13. Ambiguities in strong absorption S-functions and corresponding potentials for heavy ion collisions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steward, C.; Fiedeldey, H.; Amos, K.; Allen, L.J.

    1994-01-01

    A semiclassical (WKB) method within fixed energy inverse scattering theory has been used to analyse the differential cross section from the elastic scattering of 1449 MeV 12 C ions off of 208 Pb. Excellent, statistically significant, fits to the experimental data have been found using a McIntyre form for the scattering function but with diverse sets of parameter values. Inversion of those scattering functions resulted in interaction potentials for this system that are also quite diverse. In addition, conventional optical model potentials have been obtained with which direct solution of the Schroedinger equations result in similar excellent fits to the data. It is shown that these large ambiguities in the potentials are due, in the main, to the limited angular range of the cross-section data and although the corresponding cross-section shapes beyond the measured scattering angle range vary over many orders of magnitude, it is unlikely that experiments can be made sensitive enough to select from among them because those cross sections are so small. 23 refs., 3 tabs., 6 figs

  14. Cholinergic Potentiation of Restoration of Visual Function after Optic Nerve Damage in Rats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mira Chamoun

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Enhancing cortical plasticity and brain connectivity may improve residual vision following a visual impairment. Since acetylcholine plays an important role in attention and neuronal plasticity, we explored whether potentiation of the cholinergic transmission has an effect on the visual function restoration. To this end, we evaluated for 4 weeks the effect of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor donepezil on brightness discrimination, visually evoked potentials, and visual cortex reactivity after a bilateral and partial optic nerve crush in adult rats. Donepezil administration enhanced brightness discrimination capacity after optic nerve crush compared to nontreated animals. The visually evoked activation of the primary visual cortex was not restored, as measured by evoked potentials, but the cortical neuronal activity measured by thallium autometallography was not significantly affected four weeks after the optic nerve crush. Altogether, the results suggest a role of the cholinergic system in postlesion cortical plasticity. This finding agrees with the view that restoration of visual function may involve mechanisms beyond the area of primary damage and opens a new perspective for improving visual rehabilitation in humans.

  15. Two concepts of empirical ethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Malcolm

    2009-05-01

    The turn to empirical ethics answers two calls. The first is for a richer account of morality than that afforded by bioethical principlism, which is cast as excessively abstract and thin on the facts. The second is for the facts in question to be those of human experience and not some other, unworldly realm. Empirical ethics therefore promises a richer naturalistic ethics, but in fulfilling the second call it often fails to heed the metaethical requirements related to the first. Empirical ethics risks losing the normative edge which necessarily characterizes the ethical, by failing to account for the nature and the logic of moral norms. I sketch a naturalistic theory, teleological expressivism (TE), which negotiates the naturalistic fallacy by providing a more satisfactory means of taking into account facts and research data with ethical implications. The examples of informed consent and the euthanasia debate are used to illustrate the superiority of this approach, and the problems consequent on including the facts in the wrong kind of way.

  16. Self-consistent density functional calculation of the image potential at a metal surface

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jung, J; Alvarellos, J E; Chacon, E; GarcIa-Gonzalez, P

    2007-01-01

    It is well known that the exchange-correlation (XC) potential at a metal surface has an image-like asymptotic behaviour given by -1/4(z-z 0 ), where z is the coordinate perpendicular to the surface. Using a suitable fully non-local functional prescription, we evaluate self-consistently the XC potential with the correct image behaviour for simple jellium surfaces in the range of metallic densities. This allows a proper comparison between the corresponding image-plane position, z 0 , and other related quantities such as the centroid of an induced charge by an external perturbation. As a by-product, we assess the routinely used local density approximation when evaluating electron density profiles, work functions, and surface energies by focusing on the XC effects included in the fully non-local description

  17. Self-consistent density functional calculation of the image potential at a metal surface

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jung, J [Departamento de Fisica Fundamental, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Apartado 60141, 28080 Madrid (Spain); Alvarellos, J E [Departamento de Fisica Fundamental, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Apartado 60141, 28080 Madrid (Spain); Chacon, E [Instituto de Ciencias de Materiales de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientIficas, E-28049 Madrid (Spain); GarcIa-Gonzalez, P [Departamento de Fisica Fundamental, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Apartado 60141, 28080 Madrid (Spain)

    2007-07-04

    It is well known that the exchange-correlation (XC) potential at a metal surface has an image-like asymptotic behaviour given by -1/4(z-z{sub 0}), where z is the coordinate perpendicular to the surface. Using a suitable fully non-local functional prescription, we evaluate self-consistently the XC potential with the correct image behaviour for simple jellium surfaces in the range of metallic densities. This allows a proper comparison between the corresponding image-plane position, z{sub 0}, and other related quantities such as the centroid of an induced charge by an external perturbation. As a by-product, we assess the routinely used local density approximation when evaluating electron density profiles, work functions, and surface energies by focusing on the XC effects included in the fully non-local description.

  18. Empirical Method to Estimate Hydrogen Embrittlement of Metals as a Function of Hydrogen Gas Pressure at Constant Temperature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jonathan A.

    2010-01-01

    High pressure Hydrogen (H) gas has been known to have a deleterious effect on the mechanical properties of certain metals, particularly, the notched tensile strength, fracture toughness and ductility. The ratio of these properties in Hydrogen as compared to Helium or Air is called the Hydrogen Environment Embrittlement (HEE) Index, which is a useful method to classify the severity of H embrittlement and to aid in the material screening and selection for safety usage H gas environment. A comprehensive world-wide database compilation, in the past 50 years, has shown that the HEE index is mostly collected at two conveniently high H pressure points of 5 ksi and 10 ksi near room temperature. Since H embrittlement is directly related to pressure, the lack of HEE index at other pressure points has posed a technical problem for the designers to select appropriate materials at a specific H pressure for various applications in aerospace, alternate and renewable energy sectors for an emerging hydrogen economy. Based on the Power-Law mathematical relationship, an empirical method to accurately predict the HEE index, as a function of H pressure at constant temperature, is presented with a brief review on Sievert's law for gas-metal absorption.

  19. Enhancement, ethics and society: towards an empirical research agenda for the medical humanities and social sciences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pickersgill, Martyn; Hogle, Linda

    2015-12-01

    For some time now, bioethicists have paid close attention to issues associated with 'enhancement'; specifically, the appropriate use and regulation of substances and artefacts understood by some to improve the functioning of human bodies beyond that associated with 'normal' function. Medical humanities scholars (aside from philosophers and lawyers) and social scientists have not been frequent participants in debates around enhancement, but could shine a bright light on the range of dilemmas and opportunities techniques of enhancement are purported to introduce. In this paper, we argue that empirical research into the notion and practice of enhancement is necessary and timely. Such work could fruitfully engage with-and further develop-existing conceptual repertoires within the medical humanities and social sciences in ways that would afford benefit to scholars in those disciplines. We maintain that empirical engagements could also provide important resources to bioethicists seeking to regulate new enhancements in ways that are sensitive to societal context and cultural difference. To this end, we outline an empirical agenda for the medical humanities and social sciences around enhancement, emphasising especially how science and technology studies could bring benefits to-and be benefitted by-research in this area. We also use the example of (pharmaceutical) cognitive enhancement to show how empirical studies of actual and likely enhancement practices can nuance resonant bioethical debates. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  20. An efficient and accurate method to obtain the energy-dependent Green function for general potentials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kramer, T; Heller, E J; Parrott, R E

    2008-01-01

    Time-dependent quantum mechanics provides an intuitive picture of particle propagation in external fields. Semiclassical methods link the classical trajectories of particles with their quantum mechanical propagation. Many analytical results and a variety of numerical methods have been developed to solve the time-dependent Schroedinger equation. The time-dependent methods work for nearly arbitrarily shaped potentials, including sources and sinks via complex-valued potentials. Many quantities are measured at fixed energy, which is seemingly not well suited for a time-dependent formulation. Very few methods exist to obtain the energy-dependent Green function for complicated potentials without resorting to ensemble averages or using certain lead-in arrangements. Here, we demonstrate in detail a time-dependent approach, which can accurately and effectively construct the energy-dependent Green function for very general potentials. The applications of the method are numerous, including chemical, mesoscopic, and atomic physics

  1. Structural and functional hyperconnectivity within the sensorimotor system in xenomelia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hänggi, Jürgen; Vitacco, Deborah A; Hilti, Leonie M; Luechinger, Roger; Kraemer, Bernd; Brugger, Peter

    2017-03-01

    Xenomelia is a rare condition characterized by the persistent and compulsive desire for the amputation of one or more physically healthy limbs. We highlight the neurological underpinnings of xenomelia by assessing structural and functional connectivity by means of whole-brain connectome and network analyses of regions previously implicated in empirical research in this condition. We compared structural and functional connectivity between 13 xenomelic men with matched controls using diffusion tensor imaging combined with fiber tractography and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Altered connectivity in xenomelia within the sensorimotor system has been predicted. We found subnetworks showing structural and functional hyperconnectivity in xenomelia compared with controls. These subnetworks were lateralized to the right hemisphere and mainly comprised by nodes belonging to the sensorimotor system. In the connectome analyses, the paracentral lobule, supplementary motor area, postcentral gyrus, basal ganglia, and the cerebellum were hyperconnected to each other, whereas in the xenomelia-specific network analyses, hyperconnected nodes have been found in the superior parietal lobule, primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, premotor cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus, and insula. Our study provides empirical evidence of structural and functional hyperconnectivity within the sensorimotor system including those regions that are core for the reconstruction of a coherent body image. Aberrant connectivity is a common response to focal neurological damage. As exemplified here, it may affect different brain regions differentially. Due to the small sample size, our findings must be interpreted cautiously and future studies are needed to elucidate potential associations between hyperconnectivity and limb disownership reported in xenomelia.

  2. Environmental regulation of households. An empirical review of economic and psychological factors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M.

    2008-01-01

    The literature on sustainable consumption and environmental regulation of household behavior is dominated by conceptual and normative approaches. As a result, many suggestions lack a firm empirical basis. To overcome this deficiency, econometric studies in three areas of environmentally relevant activities of households are reviewed: residential use of energy, generation of solid waste and recycling, and residential use of water. Next to price and income elasticities, attention is devoted to individual socio-economic features and psychological factors, such as attitudes, knowledge, perceptions and values. Potential psychological determinants and related insights are further examined by discussing a range of representative and illustrative statistical-psychological studies of environmental behavior. One important general finding is that there are very few empirical studies that systematically combine socio-economic and psychological determinants. A range of insights for environmental policy is derived, and research recommendations are offered. (author)

  3. Comment on the electric potentials of the nucleon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wolters, G.F.

    1984-04-01

    The electric potential is considered which corresponds to the empirical dipole charge form factor of the proton. This potential is in support of the charge symmetric quark model approach to nucleon form factors. The corresponding potentials for proton and neutron are obtained in that model. The neutron potential has a range less than the hardronic size. It shows, like the proton potential, little variation deep inside, where V=0.3 and 3 MV respectively. (orig.)

  4. Trophic interaction modifications: an empirical and theoretical framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terry, J Christopher D; Morris, Rebecca J; Bonsall, Michael B

    2017-10-01

    Consumer-resource interactions are often influenced by other species in the community. At present these 'trophic interaction modifications' are rarely included in ecological models despite demonstrations that they can drive system dynamics. Here, we advocate and extend an approach that has the potential to unite and represent this key group of non-trophic interactions by emphasising the change to trophic interactions induced by modifying species. We highlight the opportunities this approach brings in comparison to frameworks that coerce trophic interaction modifications into pairwise relationships. To establish common frames of reference and explore the value of the approach, we set out a range of metrics for the 'strength' of an interaction modification which incorporate increasing levels of contextual information about the system. Through demonstrations in three-species model systems, we establish that these metrics capture complimentary aspects of interaction modifications. We show how the approach can be used in a range of empirical contexts; we identify as specific gaps in current understanding experiments with multiple levels of modifier species and the distributions of modifications in networks. The trophic interaction modification approach we propose can motivate and unite empirical and theoretical studies of system dynamics, providing a route to confront ecological complexity. © 2017 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  5. The imaginary part of the local potential equivalent to the non-local α-nucleus optical potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lassaut, M.; Vinh Mau, N.

    1982-01-01

    A simple expression of the α-nucleus optical potential has been derived from the Feshbach formula by using a closure approximation for summing over the excited states of the target nucleus. It has been shown that the correction to the real folding model potential is small. The imaginary local potential equivalent to the non-local Feshbach potential has been studied in detail for Ca nuclei and shown to reproduce quite well the gross properties of empirical potentials above 100 MeV with, however, a lack of absorption in the surface region. The A-dependence of the imaginary potential volume integral has also been investigated. (orig.)

  6. Trade and Empire

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bang, Peter Fibiger

    2007-01-01

    This articles seeks to establish a new set of organizing concepts for the analysis of the Roman imperial economy from Republic to late antiquity: tributary empire, port-folio capitalism and protection costs. Together these concepts explain better economic developments in the Roman world than the...

  7. Quantitative analyses of empirical fitness landscapes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szendro, Ivan G; Franke, Jasper; Krug, Joachim; Schenk, Martijn F; De Visser, J Arjan G M

    2013-01-01

    The concept of a fitness landscape is a powerful metaphor that offers insight into various aspects of evolutionary processes and guidance for the study of evolution. Until recently, empirical evidence on the ruggedness of these landscapes was lacking, but since it became feasible to construct all possible genotypes containing combinations of a limited set of mutations, the number of studies has grown to a point where a classification of landscapes becomes possible. The aim of this review is to identify measures of epistasis that allow a meaningful comparison of fitness landscapes and then apply them to the empirical landscapes in order to discern factors that affect ruggedness. The various measures of epistasis that have been proposed in the literature appear to be equivalent. Our comparison shows that the ruggedness of the empirical landscape is affected by whether the included mutations are beneficial or deleterious and by whether intragenic or intergenic epistasis is involved. Finally, the empirical landscapes are compared to landscapes generated with the rough Mt Fuji model. Despite the simplicity of this model, it captures the features of the experimental landscapes remarkably well. (paper)

  8. Probability distribution functions for intermittent scrape-off layer plasma fluctuations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theodorsen, A.; Garcia, O. E.

    2018-03-01

    A stochastic model for intermittent fluctuations in the scrape-off layer of magnetically confined plasmas has been constructed based on a super-position of uncorrelated pulses arriving according to a Poisson process. In the most common applications of the model, the pulse amplitudes are assumed exponentially distributed, supported by conditional averaging of large-amplitude fluctuations in experimental measurement data. This basic assumption has two potential limitations. First, statistical analysis of measurement data using conditional averaging only reveals the tail of the amplitude distribution to be exponentially distributed. Second, exponentially distributed amplitudes leads to a positive definite signal which cannot capture fluctuations in for example electric potential and radial velocity. Assuming pulse amplitudes which are not positive definite often make finding a closed form for the probability density function (PDF) difficult, even if the characteristic function remains relatively simple. Thus estimating model parameters requires an approach based on the characteristic function, not the PDF. In this contribution, the effect of changing the amplitude distribution on the moments, PDF and characteristic function of the process is investigated and a parameter estimation method using the empirical characteristic function is presented and tested on synthetically generated data. This proves valuable for describing intermittent fluctuations of all plasma parameters in the boundary region of magnetized plasmas.

  9. Mechanisms and potential treatments for declining olfactory function and neurogenesis in the ageing brain

    OpenAIRE

    Broad, K. D.

    2017-01-01

    The role of olfactory function in maintaining quality of life and as a potential surrogate marker of neurogenic activity in the elderly brain is an underappreciated topic. The olfactory system is complex and is unusual in that its function is maintained by neurogenesis at multiple sites throughout the lifetime of an organism, which in humans may be over 80 years in length. Declines in olfactory function are common with advancing age and this is associated with reductions in the qu...

  10. Identification of potentially hazardous human gene products in GMO risk assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergmans, Hans; Logie, Colin; Van Maanen, Kees; Hermsen, Harm; Meredyth, Michelle; Van Der Vlugt, Cécile

    2008-01-01

    Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), e.g. viral vectors, could threaten the environment if by their release they spread hazardous gene products. Even in contained use, to prevent adverse consequences, viral vectors carrying genes from mammals or humans should be especially scrutinized as to whether gene products that they synthesize could be hazardous in their new context. Examples of such potentially hazardous gene products (PHGPs) are: protein toxins, products of dominant alleles that have a role in hereditary diseases, gene products and sequences involved in genome rearrangements, gene products involved in immunomodulation or with an endocrine function, gene products involved in apoptosis, activated proto-oncogenes. For contained use of a GMO that carries a construct encoding a PHGP, the precautionary principle dictates that safety measures should be applied on a "worst case" basis, until the risks of the specific case have been assessed. The potential hazard of cloned genes can be estimated before empirical data on the actual GMO become available. Preliminary data may be used to focus hazard identification and risk assessment. Both predictive and empirical data may also help to identify what further information is needed to assess the risk of the GMO. A two-step approach, whereby a PHGP is evaluated for its conceptual dangers, then checked by data bank searches, is delineated here.

  11. Decoding Pigeon Behavior Outcomes Using Functional Connections among Local Field Potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yan; Liu, Xinyu; Li, Shan; Wan, Hong

    2018-01-01

    Recent studies indicate that the local field potential (LFP) carries information about an animal's behavior, but issues regarding whether there are any relationships between the LFP functional networks and behavior tasks as well as whether it is possible to employ LFP network features to decode the behavioral outcome in a single trial remain unresolved. In this study, we developed a network-based method to decode the behavioral outcomes in pigeons by using the functional connectivity strength values among LFPs recorded from the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL). In our method, the functional connectivity strengths were first computed based on the synchronization likelihood. Second, the strength values were unwrapped into row vectors and their dimensions were then reduced by principal component analysis. Finally, the behavioral outcomes in single trials were decoded using leave-one-out combined with the k -nearest neighbor method. The results showed that the LFP functional network based on the gamma-band was related to the goal-directed behavior of pigeons. Moreover, the accuracy of the network features (74 ± 8%) was significantly higher than that of the power features (61 ± 12%). The proposed method provides a powerful tool for decoding animal behavior outcomes using a neural functional network.

  12. Improving the spatial and temporal resolution with quantification of uncertainty and errors in earth observation data sets using Data Interpolating Empirical Orthogonal Functions methodology

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Serafy, Ghada; Gaytan Aguilar, Sandra; Ziemba, Alexander

    2016-04-01

    There is an increasing use of process-based models in the investigation of ecological systems and scenario predictions. The accuracy and quality of these models are improved when run with high spatial and temporal resolution data sets. However, ecological data can often be difficult to collect which manifests itself through irregularities in the spatial and temporal domain of these data sets. Through the use of Data INterpolating Empirical Orthogonal Functions(DINEOF) methodology, earth observation products can be improved to have full spatial coverage within the desired domain as well as increased temporal resolution to daily and weekly time step, those frequently required by process-based models[1]. The DINEOF methodology results in a degree of error being affixed to the refined data product. In order to determine the degree of error introduced through this process, the suspended particulate matter and chlorophyll-a data from MERIS is used with DINEOF to produce high resolution products for the Wadden Sea. These new data sets are then compared with in-situ and other data sources to determine the error. Also, artificial cloud cover scenarios are conducted in order to substantiate the findings from MERIS data experiments. Secondly, the accuracy of DINEOF is explored to evaluate the variance of the methodology. The degree of accuracy is combined with the overall error produced by the methodology and reported in an assessment of the quality of DINEOF when applied to resolution refinement of chlorophyll-a and suspended particulate matter in the Wadden Sea. References [1] Sirjacobs, D.; Alvera-Azcárate, A.; Barth, A.; Lacroix, G.; Park, Y.; Nechad, B.; Ruddick, K.G.; Beckers, J.-M. (2011). Cloud filling of ocean colour and sea surface temperature remote sensing products over the Southern North Sea by the Data Interpolating Empirical Orthogonal Functions methodology. J. Sea Res. 65(1): 114-130. Dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seares.2010.08.002

  13. Determination of the interatomic potential from elastic differential cross sections at fixed energy: Functional sensitivity analysis approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ho, T.; Rabitz, H.

    1989-01-01

    Elastic differential cross sections in atomic crossed beam experiments contain detailed information about the underlying interatomic potentials. The functional sensitivity density of the cross sections with respect to the potential δσ(θ)/δV(R) reveals such information and has been implemented in an iterative inversion procedure, analogous to that of the Newton--Raphson technique. The stability of the inversion is achieved with the use of the regularization method of Tikhonov and Miller. It is shown that given a set of well resolved and noise-free differential cross section data within a limited angular range and given a reasonable starting reference potential, the recovered potential accurately resembles the desired one in the important region, i.e., the region to which the scattering data are sensitive. The region of importance depends upon the collision energy relative to the well depth of the potential under study; usually a higher collision energy penetrates deeper into the repulsive part of the potential and thus accordingly yields a more accurate potential in that part. The inversion procedure produces also a quality function indicating the well determined radial region. Moreover, the extracted potential is quite independent of the functional form of the reference potential in contrast to curve fitting approaches. As illustrations, the model inert gas systems He--Ne and Ne--Ar have been considered. For collision energies within an order of magnitude of the associated potential well depth, the attractive part of the potential can be determined to high precision provided that scattering data at small enough angles are available

  14. An Empirical Taxonomy of Crowdfunding Intermediaries

    OpenAIRE

    Haas, Philipp; Blohm, Ivo; Leimeister, Jan Marco

    2014-01-01

    Due to the recent popularity of crowdfunding, a broad magnitude of crowdfunding intermediaries has emerged, while research on crowdfunding intermediaries has been largely neglected. As a consequence, existing classifications of crowdfunding intermediaries are conceptual, lack theoretical grounding, and are not empirically validated. Thus, we develop an empirical taxonomy of crowdfunding intermediaries, which is grounded in the theories of two-sided markets and financial intermediation. Integr...

  15. A sensitivity analysis of centrifugal compressors' empirical models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoon, Sung Ho; Baek, Je Hyun

    2001-01-01

    The mean-line method using empirical models is the most practical method of predicting off-design performance. To gain insight into the empirical models, the influence of empirical models on the performance prediction results is investigated. We found that, in the two-zone model, the secondary flow mass fraction has a considerable effect at high mass flow-rates on the performance prediction curves. In the TEIS model, the first element changes the slope of the performance curves as well as the stable operating range. The second element makes the performance curves move up and down as it increases or decreases. It is also discovered that the slip factor affects pressure ratio, but it has little effect on efficiency. Finally, this study reveals that the skin friction coefficient has significant effect on both the pressure ratio curve and the efficiency curve. These results show the limitations of the present empirical models, and more reasonable empirical models are reeded

  16. The electronic work function of the different faces of tungsten

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Modinos, A.

    1978-01-01

    A semi-empirical theory of the electronic work function of the different faces of tungsten is presented. All the parameters entering the theory, except one, are estimated independently. The one adjustable parameter relates to the isotropic contribution to the work function, and, can, in principle, be determined from a self-consistent calculation of the band-structure of the energy levels in the bulk of the metal. The calculated values for the work function are in reasonably good agreement with available experimental data for practically all of the crystallographic planes with the exception of the (100) plane. For the latter, the calculated value is 0.3 eV above the experimental value. It is suggested that a negative contribution to the surface dipole potential from surface states, that exist on this plane, may be the reason of this discrepancy. (Auth.)

  17. About motives behind Securitization and its Implications: An Overview of Empirical Findings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krzysztof Jackowicz

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available This article reviews empirical findings concerning motives behind securitization and its implications. It turns out that the main reasons for securitization are: earnings management, regulatory capital arbitrage, liquidity management and funding problems. Securitization favours risk taking by entities in bad financial conditions and weakens, in some cases, incentives for careful screening of potential borrowers. On the macroeconomic level securitization lowers credit interest rates in the long term.

  18. When can Empirical Green Functions be computed from Noise Cross-Correlations? Hints from different Geographical and Tectonic environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matos, Catarina; Silveira, Graça; Custódio, Susana; Domingues, Ana; Dias, Nuno; Fonseca, João F. B.; Matias, Luís; Krueger, Frank; Carrilho, Fernando

    2014-05-01

    Noise cross-correlations are now widely used to extract Green functions between station pairs. But, do all the cross-correlations routinely computed produce successful Green Functions? What is the relationship between noise recorded in a couple of stations and the cross-correlation between them? During the last decade, we have been involved in the deployment of several temporary dense broadband (BB) networks within the scope of both national projects and international collaborations. From 2000 to 2002, a pool of 8 BB stations continuously operated in the Azores in the scope of the Memorandum of Understanding COSEA (COordinated Seismic Experiment in the Azores). Thanks to the Project WILAS (West Iberia Lithosphere and Astenosphere Structure, PTDC/CTE-GIX/097946/2008) we temporarily increased the number of BB deployed in mainland Portugal to more than 50 (permanent + temporary) during the period 2010 - 2012. In 2011/12 a temporary pool of 12 seismometers continuously recorded BB data in the Madeira archipelago, as part of the DOCTAR (Deep Ocean Test Array Experiment) project. Project CV-PLUME (Investigation on the geometry and deep signature of the Cape Verde mantle plume, PTDC/CTE-GIN/64330/2006) covered the archipelago of Cape Verde, North Atlantic, with 40 temporary BB stations in 2007/08. Project MOZART (Mozambique African Rift Tomography, PTDC/CTE-GIX/103249/2008), covered Mozambique, East Africa, with 30 temporary BB stations in the period 2011 - 2013. These networks, located in very distinct geographical and tectonic environments, offer an interesting opportunity to study seasonal and spatial variations of noise sources and their impact on Empirical Green functions computed from noise cross-correlation. Seismic noise recorded at different seismic stations is evaluated by computation of the probability density functions of power spectral density (PSD) of continuous data. To assess seasonal variations of ambient noise sources in frequency content, time-series of

  19. Function-blocking antibodies to human vascular adhesion protein-1: a potential anti-inflammatory therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirton, Christopher M; Laukkanen, Marja-Leena; Nieminen, Antti; Merinen, Marika; Stolen, Craig M; Armour, Kathryn; Smith, David J; Salmi, Marko; Jalkanen, Sirpa; Clark, Michael R

    2005-11-01

    Human vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) is a homodimeric 170-kDa sialoglycoprotein that is expressed on the surface of endothelial cells and functions as a semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase and as an adhesion molecule. Blockade of VAP-1 has been shown to reduce leukocyte adhesion and transmigration in in vivo and in vitro models, suggesting that VAP-1 is a potential target for anti-inflammatory therapy. In this study we have constructed mouse-human chimeric antibodies by genetic engineering in order to circumvent the potential problems involved in using murine antibodies in man. Our chimeric anti-VAP-1 antibodies, which were designed to lack Fc-dependent effector functions, bound specifically to cell surface-expressed recombinant human VAP-1 and recognized VAP-1 in different cell types in tonsil. Furthermore, the chimeric antibodies prevented leukocyte adhesion and transmigration in vitro and in vivo. Hence, these chimeric antibodies have the potential to be used as a new anti-inflammatory therapy.

  20. Understanding Adoptive Families: An Integrative Review of Empirical Research and Future Directions for Counseling Psychology

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, Karen M.; Zamostny, Kathy P.

    2003-01-01

    Contrary to societal stereotypes about adoption, this integrative review of published empirical research on adoptive families noted several positive and few negative out-comes with regard to satisfaction with the adoption, familial functioning, and parent-child communication. The critical analysis of 38 studies on adoptive families revealed a…

  1. Bacterial clonal diagnostics as a tool for evidence-based empiric antibiotic selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tchesnokova, Veronika; Avagyan, Hovhannes; Rechkina, Elena; Chan, Diana; Muradova, Mariya; Haile, Helen Ghirmai; Radey, Matthew; Weissman, Scott; Riddell, Kim; Scholes, Delia; Johnson, James R; Sokurenko, Evgeni V

    2017-01-01

    Despite the known clonal distribution of antibiotic resistance in many bacteria, empiric (pre-culture) antibiotic selection still relies heavily on species-level cumulative antibiograms, resulting in overuse of broad-spectrum agents and excessive antibiotic/pathogen mismatch. Urinary tract infections (UTIs), which account for a large share of antibiotic use, are caused predominantly by Escherichia coli, a highly clonal pathogen. In an observational clinical cohort study of urgent care patients with suspected UTI, we assessed the potential for E. coli clonal-level antibiograms to improve empiric antibiotic selection. A novel PCR-based clonotyping assay was applied to fresh urine samples to rapidly detect E. coli and the urine strain's clonotype. Based on a database of clonotype-specific antibiograms, the acceptability of various antibiotics for empiric therapy was inferred using a 20%, 10%, and 30% allowed resistance threshold. The test's performance characteristics and possible effects on prescribing were assessed. The rapid test identified E. coli clonotypes directly in patients' urine within 25-35 minutes, with high specificity and sensitivity compared to culture. Antibiotic selection based on a clonotype-specific antibiogram could reduce the relative likelihood of antibiotic/pathogen mismatch by ≥ 60%. Compared to observed prescribing patterns, clonal diagnostics-guided antibiotic selection could safely double the use of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and minimize fluoroquinolone use. In summary, a rapid clonotyping test showed promise for improving empiric antibiotic prescribing for E. coli UTI, including reversing preferential use of fluoroquinolones over trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. The clonal diagnostics approach merges epidemiologic surveillance, antimicrobial stewardship, and molecular diagnostics to bring evidence-based medicine directly to the point of care.

  2. Gazprom: the new empire

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guillemoles, A.; Lazareva, A.

    2008-01-01

    Gazprom is conquering the world. The Russian industrial giant owns the hugest gas reserves and enjoys the privilege of a considerable power. Gazprom edits journals, owns hospitals, airplanes and has even built cities where most of the habitants work for him. With 400000 workers, Gazprom represents 8% of Russia's GDP. This inquiry describes the history and operation of this empire and show how its has become a masterpiece of the government's strategy of russian influence reconquest at the world scale. Is it going to be a winning game? Are the corruption affairs and the expected depletion of resources going to weaken the empire? The authors shade light on the political and diplomatic strategies that are played around the crucial dossier of the energy supply. (J.S.)

  3. Experimental and Empirical Time to Corrosion of Reinforced Concrete Structures under Different Curing Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmed A. Abouhussien

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Reinforced concrete structures, especially those in marine environments, are commonly subjected to high concentrations of chlorides, which eventually leads to corrosion of the embedded reinforcing steel. The total time to corrosion of such structures may be divided into three stages: corrosion initiation, cracking, and damage periods. This paper evaluates, both empirically and experimentally, the expected time to corrosion of reinforced concrete structures. The tested reinforced concrete samples were subjected to ten alternative curing techniques, including hot, cold, and normal temperatures, prior to testing. The corrosion initiation, cracking, and damage periods in this investigation were experimentally monitored by an accelerated corrosion test performed on reinforced concrete samples. Alternatively, the corrosion initiation time for counterpart samples was empirically predicted using Fick’s second law of diffusion for comparison. The results showed that the corrosion initiation periods obtained experimentally were comparable to those obtained empirically. The corrosion initiation was found to occur at the first jump of the current measurement in the accelerated corrosion test which matched the half-cell potential reading of around −350 mV.

  4. Molecular wave function and effective adiabatic potentials calculated by extended multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree-Fock method

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kato, Tsuyoshi; Ide, Yoshihiro; Yamanouchi, Kaoru [Department of Chemistry, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033 (Japan)

    2015-12-31

    We first calculate the ground-state molecular wave function of 1D model H{sub 2} molecule by solving the coupled equations of motion formulated in the extended multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree-Fock (MCTDHF) method by the imaginary time propagation. From the comparisons with the results obtained by the Born-Huang (BH) expansion method as well as with the exact wave function, we observe that the memory size required in the extended MCTDHF method is about two orders of magnitude smaller than in the BH expansion method to achieve the same accuracy for the total energy. Second, in order to provide a theoretical means to understand dynamical behavior of the wave function, we propose to define effective adiabatic potential functions and compare them with the conventional adiabatic electronic potentials, although the notion of the adiabatic potentials is not used in the extended MCTDHF approach. From the comparison, we conclude that by calculating the effective potentials we may be able to predict the energy differences among electronic states even for a time-dependent system, e.g., time-dependent excitation energies, which would be difficult to be estimated within the BH expansion approach.

  5. Influence of chronic x-ray exposure on adrenal glucocorticoid function and adrenocorticocyte membrane potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gorban', Je.M.; Topol'nikova, N.V.

    1998-01-01

    The peculiarities of adrenal glucocorticoid function and membrane potential (MP) of zona fasciculata adrenocorticocyte (ACC) in rats after chronic x-ray exposure was studied. The changes of adrenal glucocorticoid function caused by chronic x-ray exposure within a relatively small period of irradiation (1.5 months) are obscure and manifest themselves only at physiological load. With the prolongation of the period (8 and 15 months), more considerable inhibition of the adrenal glucocorticoid function and disturbances in the membrane mechanisms of ACC MP level regulation are revealed

  6. Intermodal connectivity in Europe, an empirical exploration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Langen, P.W.; Lases Figueroa, D.M.; van Donselaar, K.H.; Bozuwa, J.

    2017-01-01

    In this paper we analyse the intermodal connectivity in Europe. The empirical analysis is to our knowledge the first empirical analysis of intermodal connections, and is based on a comprehensive database of intermodal connections in Europe. The paper focuses on rail and barge services, as they are

  7. The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boschma, R.A.; Frenken, K.

    2011-01-01

    Following last decade’s programmatic papers on Evolutionary Economic Geography, we report on recent empirical advances and how this empirical work can be positioned vis-a`-vis other strands of research in economic geography. First, we review studies on the path dependent nature of clustering, and

  8. The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boschma, R.A.; Frenken, K.

    2010-01-01

    Following last decade’s programmatic papers on Evolutionary Economic Geography, we report on recent empirical advances and how this empirical work can be positioned vis-à-vis other strands of research in economic geography. First, we review studies on the path dependent nature of clustering, and how

  9. The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boschma, R.A.; Frenken, K.

    2011-01-01

    Following last decade’s programmatic papers on Evolutionary Economic Geography, we report on recent empirical advances and how this empirical work can be positioned vis-a`-vis other strands of research in economic geography. First, we review studies on the path dependent nature of clustering, and

  10. Factors influencing the potential for strong brand relationships with consumer product brands: An overview and research agenda

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bech-Larsen, Tino; Bergkvist, Lars; Francis, Julie

    Based on the premise that consumer product brands are different with respect to their potential to form strong long-term relationships with consumers, this paper aims to identify factors that influence brands' potential for strong long-term relationships and to suggest how these can be empirically...... investigated. The paper reviews brand-centric and consumer-centric research and identifies twelve brand variables that may influence the relationship potential of consumer product brands. A research agenda is suggested and a number of issues that needs to be resolved before empirical research can be carried...... out are discussed. The paper concludes by speculating on possible outcomes in future empirical studies and it is suggested that multiple brand variables will have to be employed to evaluate the relationship potential of brands....

  11. Modeling the Clarification Potential of Instructions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Benotti, Luciana; Blackburn, Patrick

    2017-01-01

    We hypothesize that conversational implicatures are a rich source of clarification requests, and in this paper we do two things. First, we motivate the hypothesis in theoretical, practical and empirical terms and formulate it as a concrete Clarification Potential Principle: implicatures may becom...

  12. Potential functional bakery products as delivery systems for prebiotics and probiotics health enhancers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Longoria-García, S; Cruz-Hernández, M A; Flores-Verástegui, M I M; Contreras-Esquivel, J C; Montañez-Sáenz, J C; Belmares-Cerda, R E

    2018-03-01

    Several health benefits have been associated to probiotics and prebiotics, most of these are involved in the regulation of the host's gut microbiome. Their incorporation to diverse food products has been done to develop potential functional foods. In the case of bakery products, their incorporation has been seen to improve several technological parameters such as volume, specific volume, texture along with sensorial parameters such as flavor and aroma. Scientific literature in this topic has been divided in three main research branches: nutrition, physical quality and sensory analyzes, however, studies rarely cover all of them. Due to the harsh thermal stress during baking, sourdough technology along with microencapsulation of probiotics, has been studied as an alternative to enhance its nutritional values and increase cell viability, though in few occasions. The potential functional baked goods have maintained acceptable physical characteristics and sensorial acceptability, while in some cases an improvement is seen due to the effect of probiotics and prebiotics. The results obtained from several studies done, have shown the viability of developing functional bakery products by applying prebiotics or probiotics. This could be used as an encouragement for more research to be done in this topic.

  13. The Importance of Damage Potential for Avalanche Risk Assessments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keiler, M.; Fuchs, S.

    2003-04-01

    Risk is normally expressed as a function of recurrence probability of a process and its related damage potential. Various physical and empirical models describing the process aspect of the risk formula exist in the field of avalanche risk management while studies on damage potential are rare. Due to the changes of the socio-economic structures in mountain regions (urban sprawl, population growth, increased mobility and tourism) these studies are mandatory. This study focuses on different possibilities to obtain obligatory input parameters for multitemporal studies in settlement areas. A conceptual method that records the damage potential (probability of presence, evaluation of buildings) was developed and applied in Tyrol, Austria. A second approach, working with real-time insurance values for buildings and population growth, was tested in Grison, Switzerland. The different developments of the damage potential in the two alpine study areas are highlighted; their influences on the risk formula are discussed. The results of both studies show the advantages and disadvantages of each method, such as precision, amount of time needed and possibilities of implementing in a GIS. The results serve to improve risk determination and point out an unnoticed increase of damage potential and risk in apparently safe settlement areas.

  14. General Fit-Basis Functions and Specialized Coordinates in an Adaptive Density-Guided Approach to Potential Energy Surfaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Klinting, Emil Lund; Thomsen, Bo; Godtliebsen, Ian Heide

    . This results in a decreased number of single point calculations required during the potential construction. Especially the Morse-like fit-basis functions are of interest, when combined with rectilinear hybrid optimized and localized coordinates (HOLCs), which can be generated as orthogonal transformations......The overall shape of a molecular energy surface can be very different for different molecules and different vibrational coordinates. This means that the fit-basis functions used to generate an analytic representation of a potential will be met with different requirements. It is therefore worthwhile...... single point calculations when constructing the molecular potential. We therefore present a uniform framework that can handle general fit-basis functions of any type which are specified on input. This framework is implemented to suit the black-box nature of the ADGA in order to avoid arbitrary choices...

  15. State-of-the-art ab initio potential energy curve for the xenon atom pair and related spectroscopic and thermophysical properties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hellmann, Robert; Jäger, Benjamin; Bich, Eckard

    2017-07-01

    A new ab initio interatomic potential energy curve for two ground-state xenon atoms is presented. It is based on supermolecular calculations at the coupled-cluster level with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations [CCSD(T)] employing basis sets up to sextuple-zeta quality, which were developed as part of this work. In addition, corrections were determined for higher coupled-cluster levels up to CCSDTQ as well as for scalar and spin-orbit relativistic effects at the CCSD(T) level. A physically motivated analytical function was fitted to the calculated interaction energies and used to compute the vibrational spectrum of the dimer, the second virial coefficient, and the dilute gas transport properties. The agreement with the best available experimental data for the investigated properties is excellent; the new potential function is superior not only to previous ab initio potentials but also to the most popular empirical ones.

  16. State-of-the-art ab initio potential energy curve for the xenon atom pair and related spectroscopic and thermophysical properties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hellmann, Robert; Jäger, Benjamin; Bich, Eckard

    2017-07-21

    A new ab initio interatomic potential energy curve for two ground-state xenon atoms is presented. It is based on supermolecular calculations at the coupled-cluster level with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations [CCSD(T)] employing basis sets up to sextuple-zeta quality, which were developed as part of this work. In addition, corrections were determined for higher coupled-cluster levels up to CCSDTQ as well as for scalar and spin-orbit relativistic effects at the CCSD(T) level. A physically motivated analytical function was fitted to the calculated interaction energies and used to compute the vibrational spectrum of the dimer, the second virial coefficient, and the dilute gas transport properties. The agreement with the best available experimental data for the investigated properties is excellent; the new potential function is superior not only to previous ab initio potentials but also to the most popular empirical ones.

  17. Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining in Practice: A Systematic Literature Review of Empirical Evidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papamitsiou, Zacharoula; Economides, Anastasios A.

    2014-01-01

    This paper aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive background for understanding current knowledge on Learning Analytics (LA) and Educational Data Mining (EDM) and its impact on adaptive learning. It constitutes an overview of empirical evidence behind key objectives of the potential adoption of LA/EDM in generic educational strategic…

  18. An Empirical Analysis of Differences in GDP per Capita and the Role of Human Capital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sfakianakis, George; Magoutas, Anastasios I.; Georgopoulos, Demosthenes

    2010-01-01

    Using a generalized production function approach and insights from empirical research on the determinants of growth, this paper assesses the relative importance of specific factors in explaining differences in the levels of per capita GDP. Emphasis is placed on education, physical capital accumulation, the share of the public sector in economic…

  19. Analyzing Mathematics Textbooks through a Constructive-Empirical Perspective on Abstraction: The Case of Pythagoras' Theorem

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Kai-Lin

    2016-01-01

    This study aims at analyzing how Pythagoras' theorem is handled in three versions of Taiwanese textbooks using a conceptual framework of a constructive-empirical perspective on abstraction, which comprises three key attributes: the generality of the object, the connectivity of the subject and the functionality of diagrams as the focused semiotic…

  20. Online gaming addiction in children and adolescents: A review of empirical research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuss, Daria J; Griffiths, Mark D

    2012-03-01

    Research suggests that excessive online gaming may lead to symptoms commonly experienced by substance addicts. Since games are particularly appealing to children and adolescents, these individuals may be more at risk than other groups of developing gaming addiction. Given these potential concerns, a literature review was undertaken in order (i) to present the classification basis of online gaming addiction using official mental disorder frameworks, (ii) to identify empirical studies that assess online gaming addiction in children and adolescents, and (iii) to present and evaluate the findings against the background of related and established mental disorder criteria. Empirical evidence comprising 30 studies indicates that for some adolescents, gaming addiction exists and that as the addiction develops, online gaming addicts spend increasing amounts of time preparing for, organizing, and actually gaming. Evidence suggests that problematic online gaming can be conceptualized as a behavioral addiction rather than a disorder of impulse control.

  1. For a new dialogue between theoretical and empirical studies in evo-devo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giuseppe eFusco

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Despite its potentially broad scope, current evo-devo research is largely dominated by empirical developmental studies, whereas comparably little role is played by theoretical research. I argue that this represents an obstacle to a wider appreciation of evo-devo and its integration within a more comprehensive evolutionary theory, and that this situation is causally linked to a limited exchange between theoretical and experimental studies in evo-devo. I discuss some features of current theoretical work in evo-devo, highlighting some possibly concurring impediments to an effective dialogue with experimental studies. Finally, I advance two suggestions for enhancing fruitful cross-fertilization between theoretical and empirical studies in evo-devo: i to broaden the scope of evo-devo beyond its current conceptualization, teaming up with other variational approaches to the study of evolution, and ii to develop more effective forms of scientific interaction and communication.

  2. Kaon fragmentation function from NJL-jet model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matevosyan, Hrayr H.; Thomas, Anthony W.; Bentz, Wolfgang

    2010-01-01

    The NJL-jet model provides a sound framework for calculating the fragmentation functions in an effective chiral quark theory, where the momentum and isospin sum rules are satisfied without the introduction of ad hoc parameters [1]. Earlier studies of the pion fragmentation functions using the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model within this framework showed good qualitative agreement with the empirical parameterizations. Here we extend the NJL-jet model by including the strange quark. The corrections to the pion fragmentation function and corresponding kaon fragmentation functions are calculated using the elementary quark to quark-meson fragmentation functions from NJL. The results for the kaon fragmentation function exhibit a qualitative agreement with the empirical parameterizations, while the unfavored strange quark fragmentation to pions is shown to be of the same order of magnitude as the unfavored light quark's. The results of these studies are expected to provide important guidance for the analysis of a large variety of semi-inclusive data.

  3. Methods for Calculating Empires in Quasicrystals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fang Fang

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper reviews the empire problem for quasiperiodic tilings and the existing methods for generating the empires of the vertex configurations in quasicrystals, while introducing a new and more efficient method based on the cut-and-project technique. Using Penrose tiling as an example, this method finds the forced tiles with the restrictions in the high dimensional lattice (the mother lattice that can be cut-and-projected into the lower dimensional quasicrystal. We compare our method to the two existing methods, namely one method that uses the algorithm of the Fibonacci chain to force the Ammann bars in order to find the forced tiles of an empire and the method that follows the work of N.G. de Bruijn on constructing a Penrose tiling as the dual to a pentagrid. This new method is not only conceptually simple and clear, but it also allows us to calculate the empires of the vertex configurations in a defected quasicrystal by reversing the configuration of the quasicrystal to its higher dimensional lattice, where we then apply the restrictions. These advantages may provide a key guiding principle for phason dynamics and an important tool for self error-correction in quasicrystal growth.

  4. Integrating social science into empirical models of coupled human and natural systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeffrey D. Kline

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Coupled human and natural systems (CHANS research highlights reciprocal interactions (or feedbacks between biophysical and socioeconomic variables to explain system dynamics and resilience. Empirical models often are used to test hypotheses and apply theory that represent human behavior. Parameterizing reciprocal interactions presents two challenges for social scientists: (1 how to represent human behavior as influenced by biophysical factors and integrate this into CHANS empirical models; (2 how to organize and function as a multidisciplinary social science team to accomplish that task. We reflect on these challenges regarding our CHANS research that investigated human adaptation to fire-prone landscapes. Our project sought to characterize the forest management activities of land managers and landowners (or "actors" and their influence on wildfire behavior and landscape outcomes by focusing on biophysical and socioeconomic feedbacks in central Oregon (USA. We used an agent-based model (ABM to compile biophysical and social information pertaining to actor behavior, and to project future landscape conditions under alternative management scenarios. Project social scientists were tasked with identifying actors' forest management activities and biophysical and socioeconomic factors that influence them, and with developing decision rules for incorporation into the ABM to represent actor behavior. We (1 briefly summarize what we learned about actor behavior on this fire-prone landscape and how we represented it in an ABM, and (2 more significantly, report our observations about how we organized and functioned as a diverse team of social scientists to fulfill these CHANS research tasks. We highlight several challenges we experienced, involving quantitative versus qualitative data and methods, distilling complex behavior into empirical models, varying sensitivity of biophysical models to social factors, synchronization of research tasks, and the need to

  5. Flood loss modelling with FLF-IT: a new flood loss function for Italian residential structures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Hasanzadeh Nafari

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The damage triggered by different flood events costs the Italian economy millions of euros each year. This cost is likely to increase in the future due to climate variability and economic development. In order to avoid or reduce such significant financial losses, risk management requires tools which can provide a reliable estimate of potential flood impacts across the country. Flood loss functions are an internationally accepted method for estimating physical flood damage in urban areas. In this study, we derived a new flood loss function for Italian residential structures (FLF-IT, on the basis of empirical damage data collected from a recent flood event in the region of Emilia-Romagna. The function was developed based on a new Australian approach (FLFA, which represents the confidence limits that exist around the parameterized functional depth–damage relationship. After model calibration, the performance of the model was validated for the prediction of loss ratios and absolute damage values. It was also contrasted with an uncalibrated relative model with frequent usage in Europe. In this regard, a three-fold cross-validation procedure was carried out over the empirical sample to measure the range of uncertainty from the actual damage data. The predictive capability has also been studied for some sub-classes of water depth. The validation procedure shows that the newly derived function performs well (no bias and only 10 % mean absolute error, especially when the water depth is high. Results of these validation tests illustrate the importance of model calibration. The advantages of the FLF-IT model over other Italian models include calibration with empirical data, consideration of the epistemic uncertainty of data, and the ability to change parameters based on building practices across Italy.

  6. Flood loss modelling with FLF-IT: a new flood loss function for Italian residential structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hasanzadeh Nafari, Roozbeh; Amadio, Mattia; Ngo, Tuan; Mysiak, Jaroslav

    2017-07-01

    The damage triggered by different flood events costs the Italian economy millions of euros each year. This cost is likely to increase in the future due to climate variability and economic development. In order to avoid or reduce such significant financial losses, risk management requires tools which can provide a reliable estimate of potential flood impacts across the country. Flood loss functions are an internationally accepted method for estimating physical flood damage in urban areas. In this study, we derived a new flood loss function for Italian residential structures (FLF-IT), on the basis of empirical damage data collected from a recent flood event in the region of Emilia-Romagna. The function was developed based on a new Australian approach (FLFA), which represents the confidence limits that exist around the parameterized functional depth-damage relationship. After model calibration, the performance of the model was validated for the prediction of loss ratios and absolute damage values. It was also contrasted with an uncalibrated relative model with frequent usage in Europe. In this regard, a three-fold cross-validation procedure was carried out over the empirical sample to measure the range of uncertainty from the actual damage data. The predictive capability has also been studied for some sub-classes of water depth. The validation procedure shows that the newly derived function performs well (no bias and only 10 % mean absolute error), especially when the water depth is high. Results of these validation tests illustrate the importance of model calibration. The advantages of the FLF-IT model over other Italian models include calibration with empirical data, consideration of the epistemic uncertainty of data, and the ability to change parameters based on building practices across Italy.

  7. Benchmark calculations with correlated molecular wave functions. IX. The weakly bound complexes Ar - H2 and Ar - HCl

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Woon, D.E.; Peterson, K.A.; Dunning, T.H. Jr.

    1998-01-01

    The interaction of Ar with H 2 and HCl has been studied using Moeller - Plesset perturbation theory (MP2, MP3, MP4) and coupled-cluster [CCSD, CCSD(T)] methods with augmented correlation consistent basis sets. Basis sets as large as triply augmented quadruple zeta quality were used to investigate the convergence trends. Interaction energies were determined using the supermolecule approach with the counterpoise correction to account for basis set superposition error. Comparison with the available empirical potentials finds excellent agreement for both binding energies and transition state. For Ar - H 2 , the estimated complete basis set (CBS) limits for the binding energies of the two equivalent minima and the connecting transition state (TS) are, respectively, 55 and 47cm -1 at the MP4 level and 54 and 46cm -1 at the CCSD(T) level, respectively [the XC(fit) empirical potential of Bissonnette et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 105, 2639 (1996)] yields 56.6 and 47.8cm -1 for H 2 (v=0)]. The estimated CBS limits for the binding energies of the two minima and transition state of Ar - HCl are 185, 155, and 109cm -1 at the MP4 level and 176, 147, and 105cm -1 at the CCSD(T) level, respectively [the H6(4,3,0) empirical potential of Hutson [J. Phys. Chem. 96, 4237 (1992)] yields 176.0, 148.3, and 103.3cm -1 for HCl (v=0)]. Basis sets containing diffuse functions of (dfg) symmetries were found to be essential for accurately modeling these two complexes, which are largely bound by dispersion and induction forces. Highly correlated wave functions were also required for accurate results. This was found to be particularly true for ArHCl, where significant differences in calculated binding energies were observed between MP2, MP4, and CCSD(T). copyright 1998 American Institute of Physics

  8. An empirical analysis of Diaspora bonds

    OpenAIRE

    AKKOYUNLU, Şule; STERN, Max

    2018-01-01

    Abstract. This study is the first to investigate theoretically and empirically the determinants of Diaspora Bonds for eight developing countries (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri-Lanka) and one developed country - Israel for the period 1951 and 2008. Empirical results are consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model. The most robust variables are the closeness indicator and the sovereign rating, both on the demand-side. The spread is ...

  9. An empirically based model for knowledge management in health care organizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sibbald, Shannon L; Wathen, C Nadine; Kothari, Anita

    2016-01-01

    Knowledge management (KM) encompasses strategies, processes, and practices that allow an organization to capture, share, store, access, and use knowledge. Ideal KM combines different sources of knowledge to support innovation and improve performance. Despite the importance of KM in health care organizations (HCOs), there has been very little empirical research to describe KM in this context. This study explores KM in HCOs, focusing on the status of current intraorganizational KM. The intention is to provide insight for future studies and model development for effective KM implementation in HCOs. A qualitative methods approach was used to create an empirically based model of KM in HCOs. Methods included (a) qualitative interviews (n = 24) with senior leadership to identify types of knowledge important in these roles plus current information-seeking behaviors/needs and (b) in-depth case study with leaders in new executive positions (n = 2). The data were collected from 10 HCOs. Our empirically based model for KM was assessed for face and content validity. The findings highlight the paucity of formal KM in our sample HCOs. Organizational culture, leadership, and resources are instrumental in supporting KM processes. An executive's knowledge needs are extensive, but knowledge assets are often limited or difficult to acquire as much of the available information is not in a usable format. We propose an empirically based model for KM to highlight the importance of context (internal and external), and knowledge seeking, synthesis, sharing, and organization. Participants who reviewed the model supported its basic components and processes, and potential for incorporating KM into organizational processes. Our results articulate ways to improve KM, increase organizational learning, and support evidence-informed decision-making. This research has implications for how to better integrate evidence and knowledge into organizations while considering context and the role of

  10. How rational should bioethics be? The value of empirical approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alvarez, A A

    2001-10-01

    Rational justification of claims with empirical content calls for empirical and not only normative philosophical investigation. Empirical approaches to bioethics are epistemically valuable, i.e., such methods may be necessary in providing and verifying basic knowledge about cultural values and norms. Our assumptions in moral reasoning can be verified or corrected using these methods. Moral arguments can be initiated or adjudicated by data drawn from empirical investigation. One may argue that individualistic informed consent, for example, is not compatible with the Asian communitarian orientation. But this normative claim uses an empirical assumption that may be contrary to the fact that some Asians do value and argue for informed consent. Is it necessary and factual to neatly characterize some cultures as individualistic and some as communitarian? Empirical investigation can provide a reasonable way to inform such generalizations. In a multi-cultural context, such as in the Philippines, there is a need to investigate the nature of the local ethos before making any appeal to authenticity. Otherwise we may succumb to the same ethical imperialism we are trying hard to resist. Normative claims that involve empirical premises cannot be reasonable verified or evaluated without utilizing empirical methods along with philosophical reflection. The integration of empirical methods to the standard normative approach to moral reasoning should be reasonably guided by the epistemic demands of claims arising from cross-cultural discourse in bioethics.

  11. Merging expert and empirical data for rare event frequency estimation: Pool homogenisation for empirical Bayes models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quigley, John; Hardman, Gavin; Bedford, Tim; Walls, Lesley

    2011-01-01

    Empirical Bayes provides one approach to estimating the frequency of rare events as a weighted average of the frequencies of an event and a pool of events. The pool will draw upon, for example, events with similar precursors. The higher the degree of homogeneity of the pool, then the Empirical Bayes estimator will be more accurate. We propose and evaluate a new method using homogenisation factors under the assumption that events are generated from a Homogeneous Poisson Process. The homogenisation factors are scaling constants, which can be elicited through structured expert judgement and used to align the frequencies of different events, hence homogenising the pool. The estimation error relative to the homogeneity of the pool is examined theoretically indicating that reduced error is associated with larger pool homogeneity. The effects of misspecified expert assessments of the homogenisation factors are examined theoretically and through simulation experiments. Our results show that the proposed Empirical Bayes method using homogenisation factors is robust under different degrees of misspecification.

  12. Density-functional theory based on the electron distribution on the energy coordinate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takahashi, Hideaki

    2018-03-01

    We developed an electronic density functional theory utilizing a novel electron distribution n(ɛ) as a basic variable to compute ground state energy of a system. n(ɛ) is obtained by projecting the electron density n({\\boldsymbol{r}}) defined on the space coordinate {\\boldsymbol{r}} onto the energy coordinate ɛ specified with the external potential {\\upsilon }ext}({\\boldsymbol{r}}) of interest. It was demonstrated that the Kohn-Sham equation can also be formulated with the exchange-correlation functional E xc[n(ɛ)] that employs the density n(ɛ) as an argument. It turned out an exchange functional proposed in our preliminary development suffices to describe properly the potential energies of several types of chemical bonds with comparable accuracies to the corresponding functional based on local density approximation. As a remarkable feature of the distribution n(ɛ) it inherently involves the spatially non-local information of the exchange hole at the bond dissociation limit in contrast to conventional approximate functionals. By taking advantage of this property we also developed a prototype of the static correlation functional E sc including no empirical parameters, which showed marked improvements in describing the dissociations of covalent bonds in {{{H}}}2,{{{C}}}2{{{H}}}4 and {CH}}4 molecules.

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

    Science.gov (United States)

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

    2018-04-01

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

  14. Ion Channel Genes and Epilepsy: Functional Alteration, Pathogenic Potential, and Mechanism of Epilepsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Feng; Yan, Li-Min; Su, Tao; He, Na; Lin, Zhi-Jian; Wang, Jie; Shi, Yi-Wu; Yi, Yong-Hong; Liao, Wei-Ping

    2017-08-01

    Ion channels are crucial in the generation and modulation of excitability in the nervous system and have been implicated in human epilepsy. Forty-one epilepsy-associated ion channel genes and their mutations are systematically reviewed. In this paper, we analyzed the genotypes, functional alterations (funotypes), and phenotypes of these mutations. Eleven genes featured loss-of-function mutations and six had gain-of-function mutations. Nine genes displayed diversified funotypes, among which a distinct funotype-phenotype correlation was found in SCN1A. These data suggest that the funotype is an essential consideration in evaluating the pathogenicity of mutations and a distinct funotype or funotype-phenotype correlation helps to define the pathogenic potential of a gene.

  15. An empirical method for dynamic camouflage assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blitch, John G.

    2011-06-01

    As camouflage systems become increasingly sophisticated in their potential to conceal military personnel and precious cargo, evaluation methods need to evolve as well. This paper presents an overview of one such attempt to explore alternative methods for empirical evaluation of dynamic camouflage systems which aspire to keep pace with a soldier's movement through rapidly changing environments that are typical of urban terrain. Motivating factors are covered first, followed by a description of the Blitz Camouflage Assessment (BCA) process and results from an initial proof of concept experiment conducted in November 2006. The conclusion drawn from these results, related literature and the author's personal experience suggest that operational evaluation of personal camouflage needs to be expanded beyond its foundation in signal detection theory and embrace the challenges posed by high levels of cognitive processing.

  16. Tourism forecasting using modified empirical mode decomposition and group method of data handling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yahya, N. A.; Samsudin, R.; Shabri, A.

    2017-09-01

    In this study, a hybrid model using modified Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) model is proposed for tourism forecasting. This approach reconstructs intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) produced by EMD using trial and error method. The new component and the remaining IMFs is then predicted respectively using GMDH model. Finally, the forecasted results for each component are aggregated to construct an ensemble forecast. The data used in this experiment are monthly time series data of tourist arrivals from China, Thailand and India to Malaysia from year 2000 to 2016. The performance of the model is evaluated using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) where conventional GMDH model and EMD-GMDH model are used as benchmark models. Empirical results proved that the proposed model performed better forecasts than the benchmarked models.

  17. Tools for Empirical and Operational Analysis of Mobile Offloading in Loop-Based Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandru-Corneliu OLTEANU

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Offloading for mobile devices is an increasingly popular research topic, matching the popu-larity mobile devices have in the general population. Studying mobile offloading is challenging because of device and application heterogeneity. However, we believe that focusing on a specific type of application can bring advances in offloading for mobile devices, while still keeping a wide range of applicability. In this paper we focus on loop-based applications, in which most of the functionality is given by iterating an execution loop. We model the main loop of the application with a graph that consists of a cycle and propose an operational analysis to study offloading on this model. We also propose a testbed based on a real-world application to empirically evaluate offloading. We conduct performance evaluation using both tools and compare the analytical and empirical results.

  18. Increasing the applicability of density functional theory. V. X-ray absorption spectra with ionization potential corrected exchange and correlation potentials

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Verma, Prakash; Bartlett, Rodney J., E-mail: bartlett@qtp.ufl.edu [Quantum Theory Project, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 (United States)

    2016-07-21

    Core excitation energies are computed with time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) using the ionization energy corrected exchange and correlation potential QTP(0,0). QTP(0,0) provides C, N, and O K-edge spectra to about an electron volt. A mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.77 and a maximum error of 2.6 eV is observed for QTP(0,0) for many small molecules. TD-DFT based on QTP (0,0) is then used to describe the core-excitation spectra of the 22 amino acids. TD-DFT with conventional functionals greatly underestimates core excitation energies, largely due to the significant error in the Kohn-Sham occupied eigenvalues. To the contrary, the ionization energy corrected potential, QTP(0,0), provides excellent approximations (MAE of 0.53 eV) for core ionization energies as eigenvalues of the Kohn-Sham equations. As a consequence, core excitation energies are accurately described with QTP(0,0), as are the core ionization energies important in X-ray photoionization spectra or electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis.

  19. Increasing the applicability of density functional theory. V. X-ray absorption spectra with ionization potential corrected exchange and correlation potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verma, Prakash; Bartlett, Rodney J

    2016-07-21

    Core excitation energies are computed with time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) using the ionization energy corrected exchange and correlation potential QTP(0,0). QTP(0,0) provides C, N, and O K-edge spectra to about an electron volt. A mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.77 and a maximum error of 2.6 eV is observed for QTP(0,0) for many small molecules. TD-DFT based on QTP (0,0) is then used to describe the core-excitation spectra of the 22 amino acids. TD-DFT with conventional functionals greatly underestimates core excitation energies, largely due to the significant error in the Kohn-Sham occupied eigenvalues. To the contrary, the ionization energy corrected potential, QTP(0,0), provides excellent approximations (MAE of 0.53 eV) for core ionization energies as eigenvalues of the Kohn-Sham equations. As a consequence, core excitation energies are accurately described with QTP(0,0), as are the core ionization energies important in X-ray photoionization spectra or electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis.

  20. Bacterial clonal diagnostics as a tool for evidence-based empiric antibiotic selection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Veronika Tchesnokova

    Full Text Available Despite the known clonal distribution of antibiotic resistance in many bacteria, empiric (pre-culture antibiotic selection still relies heavily on species-level cumulative antibiograms, resulting in overuse of broad-spectrum agents and excessive antibiotic/pathogen mismatch. Urinary tract infections (UTIs, which account for a large share of antibiotic use, are caused predominantly by Escherichia coli, a highly clonal pathogen. In an observational clinical cohort study of urgent care patients with suspected UTI, we assessed the potential for E. coli clonal-level antibiograms to improve empiric antibiotic selection. A novel PCR-based clonotyping assay was applied to fresh urine samples to rapidly detect E. coli and the urine strain's clonotype. Based on a database of clonotype-specific antibiograms, the acceptability of various antibiotics for empiric therapy was inferred using a 20%, 10%, and 30% allowed resistance threshold. The test's performance characteristics and possible effects on prescribing were assessed. The rapid test identified E. coli clonotypes directly in patients' urine within 25-35 minutes, with high specificity and sensitivity compared to culture. Antibiotic selection based on a clonotype-specific antibiogram could reduce the relative likelihood of antibiotic/pathogen mismatch by ≥ 60%. Compared to observed prescribing patterns, clonal diagnostics-guided antibiotic selection could safely double the use of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and minimize fluoroquinolone use. In summary, a rapid clonotyping test showed promise for improving empiric antibiotic prescribing for E. coli UTI, including reversing preferential use of fluoroquinolones over trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. The clonal diagnostics approach merges epidemiologic surveillance, antimicrobial stewardship, and molecular diagnostics to bring evidence-based medicine directly to the point of care.

  1. Consistent empirical physical formula construction for recoil energy distribution in HPGe detectors by using artificial neural networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akkoyun, Serkan; Yildiz, Nihat

    2012-01-01

    The gamma-ray tracking technique is a highly efficient detection method in experimental nuclear structure physics. On the basis of this method, two gamma-ray tracking arrays, AGATA in Europe and GRETA in the USA, are currently being tested. The interactions of neutrons in these detectors lead to an unwanted background in the gamma-ray spectra. Thus, the interaction points of neutrons in these detectors have to be determined in the gamma-ray tracking process in order to improve photo-peak efficiencies and peak-to-total ratios of the gamma-ray peaks. In this paper, the recoil energy distributions of germanium nuclei due to inelastic scatterings of 1–5 MeV neutrons were first obtained by simulation experiments. Secondly, as a novel approach, for these highly nonlinear detector responses of recoiling germanium nuclei, consistent empirical physical formulas (EPFs) were constructed by appropriate feedforward neural networks (LFNNs). The LFNN-EPFs are of explicit mathematical functional form. Therefore, the LFNN-EPFs can be used to derive further physical functions which could be potentially relevant for the determination of neutron interactions in gamma-ray tracking process.

  2. Empirical Evidence from Kenya

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    FIRST LADY

    2011-01-18

    Jan 18, 2011 ... Empirical results reveal that consumption of sugar in. Kenya varies ... experiences in trade in different regions of the world. Some studies ... To assess the relationship between domestic sugar retail prices and sugar sales in ...

  3. Measurement of Spectral Functions of Ultracold Atoms in Disordered Potentials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Volchkov, Valentin V.; Pasek, Michael; Denechaud, Vincent; Mukhtar, Musawwadah; Aspect, Alain; Delande, Dominique; Josse, Vincent

    2018-02-01

    We report on the measurement of the spectral functions of noninteracting ultracold atoms in a three-dimensional disordered potential resulting from an optical speckle field. Varying the disorder strength by 2 orders of magnitude, we observe the crossover from the "quantum" perturbative regime of low disorder to the "classical" regime at higher disorder strength, and find an excellent agreement with numerical simulations. The method relies on the use of state-dependent disorder and the controlled transfer of atoms to create well-defined energy states. This opens new avenues for experimental investigations of three-dimensional Anderson localization.

  4. Empirical analysis of uranium spot prices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morman, M.R.

    1988-01-01

    The objective is to empirically test a market model of the uranium industry that incorporates the notion that, if the resource is viewed as an asset by economic agents, then its own rate of return along with the own rate of return of a competing asset would be a major factor in formulating the price of the resource. The model tested is based on a market model of supply and demand. The supply model incorporates the notion that the decision criteria used by uranium mine owners is to select that extraction rate that maximizes the net present value of their extraction receipts. The demand model uses a concept that allows for explicit recognition of the prospect of arbitrage between a natural-resource market and the market for other capital goods. The empirical approach used for estimation was a recursive or causal model. The empirical results were consistent with the theoretical models. The coefficients of the demand and supply equations had the appropriate signs. Tests for causality were conducted to validate the use of the causal model. The results obtained were favorable. The implication of the findings as related to future studies of exhaustible resources are: (1) in some cases causal models are the appropriate specification for empirical analysis; (2) supply models should incorporate a measure to capture depletion effects

  5. Thermophysical properties of krypton-helium gas mixtures from ab initio pair potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jäger, Benjamin; Bich, Eckard

    2017-06-07

    A new potential energy curve for the krypton-helium atom pair was developed using supermolecular ab initio computations for 34 interatomic distances. Values for the interaction energies at the complete basis set limit were obtained from calculations with the coupled-cluster method with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations and correlation consistent basis sets up to sextuple-zeta quality augmented with mid-bond functions. Higher-order coupled-cluster excitations up to the full quadruple level were accounted for in a scheme of successive correction terms. Core-core and core-valence correlation effects were included. Relativistic corrections were considered not only at the scalar relativistic level but also using full four-component Dirac-Coulomb and Dirac-Coulomb-Gaunt calculations. The fitted analytical pair potential function is characterized by a well depth of 31.42 K with an estimated standard uncertainty of 0.08 K. Statistical thermodynamics was applied to compute the krypton-helium cross second virial coefficients. The results show a very good agreement with the best experimental data. Kinetic theory calculations based on classical and quantum-mechanical approaches for the underlying collision dynamics were utilized to compute the transport properties of krypton-helium mixtures in the dilute-gas limit for a large temperature range. The results were analyzed with respect to the orders of approximation of kinetic theory and compared with experimental data. Especially the data for the binary diffusion coefficient confirm the predictive quality of the new potential. Furthermore, inconsistencies between two empirical pair potential functions for the krypton-helium system from the literature could be resolved.

  6. Perception of the university as an employer among young potential employees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baruk Agnieszka Izabela

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The article is theoretical-empirical in character. It presents issues associated with the external image of the university as an employer. In the theoretical part the views of various researchers presented in literature on the subject, concerning among others the employer’s image and its determinants, are analysed. It is emphasized that up till now the aspects of image (including aspects associated with the external image in case of universities as one of key service providers serving an important function in the society haven’t been analysed too much. In the empirical part of the article based on the results of primary research the manner of perception of the university as an employer by one of the segments of potential employees, namely young people entering the labour market, is identified and analysed. 4 research hypotheses were subject to empirical verification. They were formulated with regard to associations of the respondents with a university as an employer. It turned out that universities are associated mainly with an employer guaranteeing opportunities for development and self-realization. At the same time associations with an employer guaranteeing high salary, feeling of stability, or high social prestige are comparably less significant. Thus, 3 research hypotheses haven’t been confirmed and one of them can be confirmed. This constitutes an important hint for universities as employers, making it easier for them to take coherent and complex image-related action.

  7. Logarithmic correction in the deformed AdS5 model to produce the heavy quark potential and QCD beta function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    He Song; Huang Mei; Yan Qishu

    2011-01-01

    We study the holographic QCD model, which contains a quadratic term -σz 2 and a logarithmic term -c 0 log[(z IR -z)/z IR ] with an explicit infrared cutoff z IR in the deformed AdS 5 warp factor. We investigate the heavy-quark potential for three cases, i.e., with only a quadratic correction, with both quadratic and logarithmic corrections, and with only a logarithmic correction. We solve the dilaton field and dilation potential from the Einstein equation and investigate the corresponding beta function in the Guersoy-Kiritsis-Nitti framework. Our studies show that in the case with only a quadratic correction, a negative σ or the Andreev-Zakharov model is favored to fit the heavy-quark potential and to produce the QCD beta function at 2-loop level; however, the dilaton potential is unbounded in the infrared regime. One interesting observation for the case of positive σ is that the corresponding beta function exists in an infrared fixed point. In the case with only a logarithmic correction, the heavy-quark Cornell potential can be fitted very well, the corresponding beta function agrees with the QCD beta function at 2-loop level reasonably well, and the dilaton potential is bounded from below in the infrared. At the end, we propose a more compact model which has only a logarithmic correction in the deformed warp factor and has less free parameters.

  8. Fenugreek: Potential Applications as a Functional Food and Nutraceutical

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nasim Khorshidian

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Fenugreek (Trigonella  foenum graecum, native to southern Europe and Asia, is an annual herb with white flowers and hard, yellowish brown and angular seeds, known from ancient times, for nutritional value beside of its medicinal effects. Fenugreek seeds are rich source of gum, fiber, alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins and volatile content. Due to its high content of fiber, fenugreek could be used as food stabilizer, adhesive and emulsifying agent to change food texture for some special purposes. Some evidence suggests that fenugreek may also be regarded as antidiabetic, anticarcinogenic, antioxidant, antibacterial agent, antianorexia agent, and gastric stimulant, as well as remedy for hypocholesterolemia and hypoglycemia. The present article is aimed to review the potential applications of fenugreek as a functional food and nutraceutical agent.

  9. Ionization Potentials of Chemical Warfare Agents and Related Compounds Determined with Density Functional Theory

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Wright, J

    2000-01-01

    ...) agents at contaminated sites. Reported herein are theoretical ionization potentials for CW agents and their related compounds calculated using density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,p) level of theory...

  10. ORBITALES. A program for the calculation of wave functions with an analytical central potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yunta Carretero; Rodriguez Mayquez, E.

    1974-01-01

    In this paper is described the objective, basis, carrying out in FORTRAN language and use of the program ORBITALES. This program calculate atomic wave function in the case of ths analytical central potential (Author) 8 refs

  11. An empirical relationship for homogenization in single-phase binary alloy systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unnam, J.; Tenney, D. R.; Stein, B. A.

    1979-01-01

    A semiempirical formula is developed for describing the extent of interaction between constituents in single-phase binary alloy systems with planar, cylindrical, or spherical interfaces. The formula contains two parameters that are functions of mean concentration and interface geometry of the couple. The empirical solution is simple, easy to use, and does not involve sequential calculations, thereby allowing quick estimation of the extent of interactions without lengthy calculations. Results obtained with this formula are in good agreement with those from a finite-difference analysis.

  12. Empiric auto-titrating CPAP in people with suspected obstructive sleep apnea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drummond, Fitzgerald; Doelken, Peter; Ahmed, Qanta A; Gilbert, Gregory E; Strange, Charlie; Herpel, Laura; Frye, Michael D

    2010-04-15

    Efficient diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can be difficult because of time delays imposed by clinic visits and serial overnight polysomnography. In some cases, it may be desirable to initiate treatment for suspected OSA prior to polysomnography. Our objective was to compare the improvement of daytime sleepiness and sleep-related quality of life of patients with high clinical likelihood of having OSA who were randomly assigned to receive empiric auto-titrating continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) while awaiting polysomnogram versus current usual care. Serial patients referred for overnight polysomnography who had high clinical likelihood of having OSA were randomly assigned to usual care or immediate initiation of auto-titrating CPAP. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) scores and the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire (FOSQ) scores were obtained at baseline, 1 month after randomization, and again after initiation of fixed CPAP in control subjects and after the sleep study in auto-CPAP patients. One hundred nine patients were randomized. Baseline demographics, daytime sleepiness, and sleep-related quality of life scores were similar between groups. One-month ESS and FOSQ scores were improved in the group empirically treated with auto-titrating CPAP. ESS scores improved in the first month by a mean of -3.2 (confidence interval -1.6 to -4.8, p life in a cohort of patients awaiting polysomnography who had a high pretest probability of having OSA. Additional studies are needed to evaluate the applicability of empiric treatment to other populations.

  13. Empirical evaluation methods in computer vision

    CERN Document Server

    Christensen, Henrik I

    2002-01-01

    This book provides comprehensive coverage of methods for the empirical evaluation of computer vision techniques. The practical use of computer vision requires empirical evaluation to ensure that the overall system has a guaranteed performance. The book contains articles that cover the design of experiments for evaluation, range image segmentation, the evaluation of face recognition and diffusion methods, image matching using correlation methods, and the performance of medical image processing algorithms. Sample Chapter(s). Foreword (228 KB). Chapter 1: Introduction (505 KB). Contents: Automate

  14. Empirical direction in design and analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Anderson, Norman H

    2001-01-01

    The goal of Norman H. Anderson's new book is to help students develop skills of scientific inference. To accomplish this he organized the book around the ""Experimental Pyramid""--six levels that represent a hierarchy of considerations in empirical investigation--conceptual framework, phenomena, behavior, measurement, design, and statistical inference. To facilitate conceptual and empirical understanding, Anderson de-emphasizes computational formulas and null hypothesis testing. Other features include: *emphasis on visual inspection as a basic skill in experimental analysis to help student

  15. Tests of potential functional barriers for laminated multilayer food packages. Part I: Low molecular weight permeants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simal-Gándara, J; Sarria-Vidal, M; Koorevaar, A; Rijk, R

    2000-08-01

    The advent of the functional barrier concept in food packaging has brought with it a requirement for fast tests of permeation through potential barrier materials. In such tests it would be convenient for both foodstuffs and materials below the functional barrier (sub-barrier materials) to be represented by standard simulants. By means of inverse gas chromatography, liquid paraffin spiked with appropriate permeants was considered as a potential simulant of sub-barrier materials based on polypropylene (PP) or similar polyolefins. Experiments were performed to characterize the kinetics of the permeation of low molecular weight model permeants (octene, toluene and isopropanol) from liquid paraffin, through a surrogate potential functional barrier (25 microns-thick oriented PP) into the food stimulants olive oil and 3% (w/v) acetic acid. These permeation results were interpreted in terms of three permeation kinetic models regarding the solubility of a particular model permeant in the post-barrier medium (i.e. the food simulant). The results obtained justify the development and evaluation of liquid sub-barrier simulants that would allow flexible yet rigorous testing of new laminated multilayer packaging materials.

  16. Noise reduction in digital speckle pattern interferometry using bidimensional empirical mode decomposition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bernini, Maria Belen; Federico, Alejandro; Kaufmann, Guillermo H.

    2008-01-01

    We propose a bidimensional empirical mode decomposition (BEMD) method to reduce speckle noise in digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI) fringes. The BEMD method is based on a sifting process that decomposes the DSPI fringes in a finite set of subimages represented by high and low frequency oscillations, which are named modes. The sifting process assigns the high frequency information to the first modes, so that it is possible to discriminate speckle noise from fringe information, which is contained in the remaining modes. The proposed method is a fully data-driven technique, therefore neither fixed basis functions nor operator intervention are required. The performance of the BEMD method to denoise DSPI fringes is analyzed using computer-simulated data, and the results are also compared with those obtained by means of a previously developed one-dimensional empirical mode decomposition approach. An application of the proposed BEMD method to denoise experimental fringes is also presented

  17. Nutritional Ketosis and Mitohormesis: Potential Implications for Mitochondrial Function and Human Health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villamena, Frederick A.

    2018-01-01

    Impaired mitochondrial function often results in excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and is involved in the etiology of many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer. Moderate levels of mitochondrial ROS, however, can protect against chronic disease by inducing upregulation of mitochondrial capacity and endogenous antioxidant defense. This phenomenon, referred to as mitohormesis, is induced through increased reliance on mitochondrial respiration, which can occur through diet or exercise. Nutritional ketosis is a safe and physiological metabolic state induced through a ketogenic diet low in carbohydrate and moderate in protein. Such a diet increases reliance on mitochondrial respiration and may, therefore, induce mitohormesis. Furthermore, the ketone β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), which is elevated during nutritional ketosis to levels no greater than those resulting from fasting, acts as a signaling molecule in addition to its traditionally known role as an energy substrate. BHB signaling induces adaptations similar to mitohormesis, thereby expanding the potential benefit of nutritional ketosis beyond carbohydrate restriction. This review describes the evidence supporting enhancement of mitochondrial function and endogenous antioxidant defense in response to nutritional ketosis, as well as the potential mechanisms leading to these adaptations. PMID:29607218

  18. A Note on Price Risks in Swiss Crop Production – Empirical Results and Comparisons with other Countries

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Finger, R.; Benni, El N.

    2012-01-01

    The liberalization of Swiss agricultural markets will not only decrease crop price levels but is also expected to increase the volatility of prices. Even though these potential increases in price volatilities for Swiss producers are acknowledged as an important fact, no empirical estimates are

  19. Endangering of Businesses by the German Inheritance Tax? – An Empirical Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Houben, Henriette; Maiterth, Ralf

    2011-01-01

    This contribution addresses the substantial tax privilege for businesses introduced by the German Inheritance Tax Act 2009. Advocates of the vast or even entire tax exemption for businesses stress the potential damage of the inheritance tax on businesses, as those often lack liquidity to meet tax liability. This submission tackles this issue empirically based on data of the German Inheritance Tax Statistics and the SOEP. The results indicate that former German inheritance tax law has not enda...

  20. Implied adjusted volatility functions: Empirical evidence from Australian index option market

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harun, Hanani Farhah; Hafizah, Mimi

    2015-02-01

    This study aims to investigate the implied adjusted volatility functions using the different Leland option pricing models and to assess whether the use of the specified implied adjusted volatility function can lead to an improvement in option valuation accuracy. The implied adjusted volatility is investigated in the context of Standard and Poor/Australian Stock Exchange (S&P/ASX) 200 index options over the course of 2001-2010, which covers the global financial crisis in the mid-2007 until the end of 2008. Both in- and out-of-sample resulted in approximately similar pricing error along the different Leland models. Results indicate that symmetric and asymmetric models of both moneyness ratio and logarithmic transformation of moneyness provide the overall best result in both during and post-crisis periods. We find that in the different period of interval (pre-, during and post-crisis) is subject to a different implied adjusted volatility function which best explains the index options. Hence, it is tremendously important to identify the intervals beforehand in investigating the implied adjusted volatility function.