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Sample records for point sets eyal

  1. Radically questioning the principle of the least restrictive alternative: a reply to Nir Eyal: Comment on "Nudging by Shaming, Shaming by Nudging".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saghai, Yashar

    2014-11-01

    In his insightful editorial, Nir Eyal explores the connections between nudging and shaming. One upshot of his argument is that we should question the principle of the least restrictive alternative in public health and health policy. In this commentary, I maintain that Eyal's argument undermines only a rather implausible version of the principle of the least restrictive alternative and I sketch two reasons for rejecting the mainstream and more plausible version of this principle.

  2. Radically Questioning the Principle of the Least Restrictive Alternative: A Reply to Nir Eyal; Comment on: “Nudging by Shaming, Shaming by Nudging”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yashar Saghai

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available In his insightful editorial, Nir Eyal explores the connections between nudging and shaming. One upshot of his argument is that we should question the principle of the least restrictive alternative in public health and health policy. In this commentary, I maintain that Eyal’s argument undermines only a rather implausible version of the principle of the least restrictive alternative and I sketch two reasons for rejecting the mainstream and more plausible version of this principle.

  3. Implementation of Steiner point of fuzzy set.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liang, Jiuzhen; Wang, Dejiang

    2014-01-01

    This paper deals with the implementation of Steiner point of fuzzy set. Some definitions and properties of Steiner point are investigated and extended to fuzzy set. This paper focuses on establishing efficient methods to compute Steiner point of fuzzy set. Two strategies of computing Steiner point of fuzzy set are proposed. One is called linear combination of Steiner points computed by a series of crisp α-cut sets of the fuzzy set. The other is an approximate method, which is trying to find the optimal α-cut set approaching the fuzzy set. Stability analysis of Steiner point of fuzzy set is also studied. Some experiments on image processing are given, in which the two methods are applied for implementing Steiner point of fuzzy image, and both strategies show their own advantages in computing Steiner point of fuzzy set.

  4. On the structure of the set of coincidence points

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Arutyunov, A V [Peoples Friendship University of Russia, Moscow (Russian Federation); Gel' man, B D [Voronezh State University (Russian Federation)

    2015-03-31

    We consider the set of coincidence points for two maps between metric spaces. Cardinality, metric and topological properties of the coincidence set are studied. We obtain conditions which guarantee that this set (a) consists of at least two points; (b) consists of at least n points; (c) contains a countable subset; (d) is uncountable. The results are applied to study the structure of the double point set and the fixed point set for multivalued contractions. Bibliography: 12 titles.

  5. Sequential function approximation on arbitrarily distributed point sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Kailiang; Xiu, Dongbin

    2018-02-01

    We present a randomized iterative method for approximating unknown function sequentially on arbitrary point set. The method is based on a recently developed sequential approximation (SA) method, which approximates a target function using one data point at each step and avoids matrix operations. The focus of this paper is on data sets with highly irregular distribution of the points. We present a nearest neighbor replacement (NNR) algorithm, which allows one to sample the irregular data sets in a near optimal manner. We provide mathematical justification and error estimates for the NNR algorithm. Extensive numerical examples are also presented to demonstrate that the NNR algorithm can deliver satisfactory convergence for the SA method on data sets with high irregularity in their point distributions.

  6. Analysing Music with Point-Set Compression Algorithms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meredith, David

    2016-01-01

    Several point-set pattern-discovery and compression algorithms designed for analysing music are reviewed and evaluated. Each algorithm takes as input a point-set representation of a score in which each note is represented as a point in pitch-time space. Each algorithm computes the maximal...... and sections in pieces of classical music. On the first task, the best-performing algorithms achieved success rates of around 84%. In the second task, the best algorithms achieved mean F1 scores of around 0.49, with scores for individual pieces rising as high as 0.71....

  7. Music analysis and point-set compression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meredith, David

    2015-01-01

    COSIATEC, SIATECCompress and Forth’s algorithm are point-set compression algorithms developed for discovering repeated patterns in music, such as themes and motives that would be of interest to a music analyst. To investigate their effectiveness and versatility, these algorithms were evaluated...... on three analytical tasks that depend on the discovery of repeated patterns: classifying folk song melodies into tune families, discovering themes and sections in polyphonic music, and discovering subject and countersubject entries in fugues. Each algorithm computes a compressed encoding of a point......-set representation of a musical object in the form of a list of compact patterns, each pattern being given with a set of vectors indicating its occurrences. However, the algorithms adopt different strategies in their attempts to discover encodings that maximize compression.The best-performing algorithm on the folk...

  8. Point Set Denoising Using Bootstrap-Based Radial Basis Function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liew, Khang Jie; Ramli, Ahmad; Abd Majid, Ahmad

    2016-01-01

    This paper examines the application of a bootstrap test error estimation of radial basis functions, specifically thin-plate spline fitting, in surface smoothing. The presence of noisy data is a common issue of the point set model that is generated from 3D scanning devices, and hence, point set denoising is one of the main concerns in point set modelling. Bootstrap test error estimation, which is applied when searching for the smoothing parameters of radial basis functions, is revisited. The main contribution of this paper is a smoothing algorithm that relies on a bootstrap-based radial basis function. The proposed method incorporates a k-nearest neighbour search and then projects the point set to the approximated thin-plate spline surface. Therefore, the denoising process is achieved, and the features are well preserved. A comparison of the proposed method with other smoothing methods is also carried out in this study.

  9. Efficient triangulation of Poisson-disk sampled point sets

    KAUST Repository

    Guo, Jianwei

    2014-05-06

    In this paper, we present a simple yet efficient algorithm for triangulating a 2D input domain containing a Poisson-disk sampled point set. The proposed algorithm combines a regular grid and a discrete clustering approach to speedup the triangulation. Moreover, our triangulation algorithm is flexible and performs well on more general point sets such as adaptive, non-maximal Poisson-disk sets. The experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm is robust for a wide range of input domains and achieves significant performance improvement compared to the current state-of-the-art approaches. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

  10. Point Set Denoising Using Bootstrap-Based Radial Basis Function.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khang Jie Liew

    Full Text Available This paper examines the application of a bootstrap test error estimation of radial basis functions, specifically thin-plate spline fitting, in surface smoothing. The presence of noisy data is a common issue of the point set model that is generated from 3D scanning devices, and hence, point set denoising is one of the main concerns in point set modelling. Bootstrap test error estimation, which is applied when searching for the smoothing parameters of radial basis functions, is revisited. The main contribution of this paper is a smoothing algorithm that relies on a bootstrap-based radial basis function. The proposed method incorporates a k-nearest neighbour search and then projects the point set to the approximated thin-plate spline surface. Therefore, the denoising process is achieved, and the features are well preserved. A comparison of the proposed method with other smoothing methods is also carried out in this study.

  11. Extreme simplification and rendering of point sets using algebraic multigrid

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Reniers, D.; Telea, A.C.

    2009-01-01

    We present a novel approach for extreme simplification of point set models, in the context of real-time rendering. Point sets are often rendered using simple point primitives, such as oriented discs. However, this requires using many primitives to render even moderately simple shapes. Often, one

  12. Extreme Simplification and Rendering of Point Sets using Algebraic Multigrid

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Reniers, Dennie; Telea, Alexandru

    2005-01-01

    We present a novel approach for extreme simplification of point set models in the context of real-time rendering. Point sets are often rendered using simple point primitives, such as oriented discs. However efficient, simple primitives are less effective in approximating large surface areas. A large

  13. Geometric fit of a point set by generalized circles

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Körner, Mark-Christopher; Brimberg, Jack; Juel, Henrik

    2010-01-01

    In our paper we approximate a set of given points by a general circle. More precisely, given two norms k 1 and k 2 and a set of points in the plane, we consider the problem of locating and scaling the unit circle of norm k 1 such that the sum of weighted distances between the circumference...... of the circle and the given points is minimized, where the distance is measured by a norm k 2. We present results for the general case. In the case that k 1 and k 2 are both polyhedral norms, we are able to solve the problem by investigating a finite candidate set....

  14. Kelp diagrams : Point set membership visualization

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dinkla, K.; Kreveld, van M.J.; Speckmann, B.; Westenberg, M.A.

    2012-01-01

    We present Kelp Diagrams, a novel method to depict set relations over points, i.e., elements with predefined positions. Our method creates schematic drawings and has been designed to take aesthetic quality, efficiency, and effectiveness into account. This is achieved by a routing algorithm, which

  15. Robust non-rigid point set registration using student's-t mixture model.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhiyong Zhou

    Full Text Available The Student's-t mixture model, which is heavily tailed and more robust than the Gaussian mixture model, has recently received great attention on image processing. In this paper, we propose a robust non-rigid point set registration algorithm using the Student's-t mixture model. Specifically, first, we consider the alignment of two point sets as a probability density estimation problem and treat one point set as Student's-t mixture model centroids. Then, we fit the Student's-t mixture model centroids to the other point set which is treated as data. Finally, we get the closed-form solutions of registration parameters, leading to a computationally efficient registration algorithm. The proposed algorithm is especially effective for addressing the non-rigid point set registration problem when significant amounts of noise and outliers are present. Moreover, less registration parameters have to be set manually for our algorithm compared to the popular coherent points drift (CPD algorithm. We have compared our algorithm with other state-of-the-art registration algorithms on both 2D and 3D data with noise and outliers, where our non-rigid registration algorithm showed accurate results and outperformed the other algorithms.

  16. Optimal Set-Point Synthesis in HVAC Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Komareji, Mohammad; Stoustrup, Jakob; Rasmussen, Henrik

    2007-01-01

    This paper presents optimal set-point synthesis for a heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. This HVAC system is made of two heat exchangers: an air-to-air heat exchanger and a water-to-air heat exchanger. The objective function is composed of the electrical power for different...... components, encompassing fans, primary/secondary pump, tertiary pump, and air-to-air heat exchanger wheel; and a fraction of thermal power used by the HVAC system. The goals that have to be achieved by the HVAC system appear as constraints in the optimization problem. To solve the optimization problem......, a steady state model of the HVAC system is derived while different supplying hydronic circuits are studied for the water-to-air heat exchanger. Finally, the optimal set-points and the optimal supplying hydronic circuit are resulted....

  17. Geometric Spanners for Weighted Point Sets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Abam, Mohammad; de Berg, Mark; Farshi, Mohammad

    2009-01-01

    Let (S,d) be a finite metric space, where each element p ∈ S has a non-negative weight w(p). We study spanners for the set S with respect to weighted distance function d w , where d w (p,q) is w(p) + d(p,q) + wq if p ≠ q and 0 otherwise. We present a general method for turning spanners with respect...... to the d-metric into spanners with respect to the d w -metric. For any given ε> 0, we can apply our method to obtain (5 + ε)-spanners with a linear number of edges for three cases: points in Euclidean space ℝ d , points in spaces of bounded doubling dimension, and points on the boundary of a convex body...... in ℝ d where d is the geodesic distance function. We also describe an alternative method that leads to (2 + ε)-spanners for points in ℝ d and for points on the boundary of a convex body in ℝ d . The number of edges in these spanners is O(nlogn). This bound on the stretch factor is nearly optimal...

  18. Multi-Agent Rendezvousing with a Finite Set of Candidate Rendezvous Points

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fang, J.; Morse, A. S.; Cao, M.

    2008-01-01

    The discrete multi-agent rendezvous problem we consider in this paper is concerned with a specified set of points in the plane, called “dwell-points,” and a set of mobile autonomous agents with limited sensing range. Each agent is initially positioned at some dwell-point, and is able to determine

  19. Modelling occupants’ heating set-point prefferences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Rune Vinther; Olesen, Bjarne W.; Toftum, Jørn

    2011-01-01

    consumption. Simultaneous measurement of the set-point of thermostatic radiator valves (trv), and indoor and outdoor environment characteristics was carried out in 15 dwellings in Denmark in 2008. Linear regression was used to infer a model of occupants’ interactions with trvs. This model could easily...... be implemented in most simulation software packages to increase the validity of the simulation outcomes....

  20. Power Trip Set-points of Reactor Protection System for New Research Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Byeonghee; Yang, Soohyung

    2013-01-01

    This paper deals with the trip set-point related to the reactor power considering the reactivity induced accident (RIA) of new research reactor. The possible scenarios of reactivity induced accidents were simulated and the effects of trip set-point on the critical heat flux ratio (CHFR) were calculated. The proper trip set-points which meet the acceptance criterion and guarantee sufficient margins from normal operation were then determined. The three different trip set-points related to the reactor power are determined based on the RIA of new research reactor during FP condition, over 0.1%FP and under 0.1%FP. Under various reactivity insertion rates, the CHFR are calculated and checked whether they meet the acceptance criterion. For RIA at FP condition, the acceptance criterion can be satisfied even if high power set-point is only used for reactor trip. Since the design of the reactor is still progressing and need a safety margin for possible design changes, 18 MW is recommended as a high power set-point. For RIA at 0.1%FP, high power setpoint of 18 MW and high log rate of 10%pp/s works well and acceptance criterion is satisfied. For under 0.1% FP operations, the application of high log rate is necessary for satisfying the acceptance criterion. Considering possible decrease of CHFR margin due to design changes, the high log rate is suggested to be 8%pp/s. Suggested trip set-points have been identified based on preliminary design data for new research reactor; therefore, these trip set-points will be re-established by considering design progress of the reactor. The reactor protection system (RPS) of new research reactor is designed for safe shutdown of the reactor and preventing the release of radioactive material to environment. The trip set point of RPS is essential for reactor safety, therefore should be determined to mitigate the consequences from accidents. At the same time, the trip set-point should secure margins from normal operational condition to avoid

  1. Assessment of Thailand indoor set-point impact on energy consumption and environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamtraipat, N.; Khedari, J.; Hirunlabh, J.; Kunchornrat, J.

    2006-01-01

    The paper presents an investigation of indoor set-point standard of air-conditioned spaces as a tool to control electrical energy consumption of air-conditioners in Thailand office buildings and to reduce air pollutants. One hundred and forty-seven air-conditioned rooms in 13 buildings nationwide were used as models to analyze the electricity consumption of air-conditioning systems according to their set indoor temperatures, which were below the standard set-point and were accounted into a large scale. Then, the electrical energy and environmental saving potentials in the country were assessed by the assumption that adaptation of indoor set-point temperature is increased up to the standard set-point of 26 o C. It was concluded that the impacts of indoor set-point of air-conditioned rooms, set at 26 o C, on energy saving and on environment are as follows: The overall electricity consumption saving would be 804.60 GWh/year, which would reduce the corresponding GHGs emissions (mainly CO 2 ) from power plant by 579.31x10 3 tons/year

  2. Robust surface registration using N-points approximate congruent sets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yao Jian

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Scans acquired by 3D sensors are typically represented in a local coordinate system. When multiple scans, taken from different locations, represent the same scene these must be registered to a common reference frame. We propose a fast and robust registration approach to automatically align two scans by finding two sets of N-points, that are approximately congruent under rigid transformation and leading to a good estimate of the transformation between their corresponding point clouds. Given two scans, our algorithm randomly searches for the best sets of congruent groups of points using a RANSAC-based approach. To successfully and reliably align two scans when there is only a small overlap, we improve the basic RANSAC random selection step by employing a weight function that approximates the probability of each pair of points in one scan to match one pair in the other. The search time to find pairs of congruent sets of N-points is greatly reduced by employing a fast search codebook based on both binary and multi-dimensional lookup tables. Moreover, we introduce a novel indicator of the overlapping region quality which is used to verify the estimated rigid transformation and to improve the alignment robustness. Our framework is general enough to incorporate and efficiently combine different point descriptors derived from geometric and texture-based feature points or scene geometrical characteristics. We also present a method to improve the matching effectiveness of texture feature descriptors by extracting them from an atlas of rectified images recovered from the scan reflectance image. Our algorithm is robust with respect to different sampling densities and also resilient to noise and outliers. We demonstrate its robustness and efficiency on several challenging scan datasets with varying degree of noise, outliers, extent of overlap, acquired from indoor and outdoor scenarios.

  3. Reevaluation of the PMS alarm set-points in OPR1000

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roh, Kyung Ho; Yang, Sung Tae; Jung, Sung In

    2011-01-01

    In Optimized Power Reactor 1000 (OPR1000), the common alarm of the plant monitoring system (PMS), which is related to the channel-to-channel core protection calculator (CPC), experiences frequent deviations in the departure from nucleate boiling ratio (DNBR) and the local power density (LPD) between the middle of the cycle and the end of the cycle. Because the channel-to-channel CPC causes deviations in the values of the DNBR and LPD, the increase in the CPC input variables exceeds the alarm set-points. The CPC DNBR and LPD are defined as follows: Deviation = the average of four CPC channels of the LPD and DNBR minus the value of each CPC channel LPD and DNBR. In this paper, we report on a review by the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. (KHNP) regarding the suitability of the alarm set-points for the channel-tochannel deviations of the CPC DNBR and LPD. The set-points were revaluated in light of operational experience and the case of Palo Verde (which is the reference model of OPR1000). The KHNP consequently revised the relevant procedures, as well as and the PMS alarm set-points, as part of its follow-up action

  4. Joint Clustering and Component Analysis of Correspondenceless Point Sets: Application to Cardiac Statistical Modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gooya, Ali; Lekadir, Karim; Alba, Xenia; Swift, Andrew J; Wild, Jim M; Frangi, Alejandro F

    2015-01-01

    Construction of Statistical Shape Models (SSMs) from arbitrary point sets is a challenging problem due to significant shape variation and lack of explicit point correspondence across the training data set. In medical imaging, point sets can generally represent different shape classes that span healthy and pathological exemplars. In such cases, the constructed SSM may not generalize well, largely because the probability density function (pdf) of the point sets deviates from the underlying assumption of Gaussian statistics. To this end, we propose a generative model for unsupervised learning of the pdf of point sets as a mixture of distinctive classes. A Variational Bayesian (VB) method is proposed for making joint inferences on the labels of point sets, and the principal modes of variations in each cluster. The method provides a flexible framework to handle point sets with no explicit point-to-point correspondences. We also show that by maximizing the marginalized likelihood of the model, the optimal number of clusters of point sets can be determined. We illustrate this work in the context of understanding the anatomical phenotype of the left and right ventricles in heart. To this end, we use a database containing hearts of healthy subjects, patients with Pulmonary Hypertension (PH), and patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). We demonstrate that our method can outperform traditional PCA in both generalization and specificity measures.

  5. Inverse consistent non-rigid image registration based on robust point set matching

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background Robust point matching (RPM) has been extensively used in non-rigid registration of images to robustly register two sets of image points. However, except for the location at control points, RPM cannot estimate the consistent correspondence between two images because RPM is a unidirectional image matching approach. Therefore, it is an important issue to make an improvement in image registration based on RPM. Methods In our work, a consistent image registration approach based on the point sets matching is proposed to incorporate the property of inverse consistency and improve registration accuracy. Instead of only estimating the forward transformation between the source point sets and the target point sets in state-of-the-art RPM algorithms, the forward and backward transformations between two point sets are estimated concurrently in our algorithm. The inverse consistency constraints are introduced to the cost function of RPM and the fuzzy correspondences between two point sets are estimated based on both the forward and backward transformations simultaneously. A modified consistent landmark thin-plate spline registration is discussed in detail to find the forward and backward transformations during the optimization of RPM. The similarity of image content is also incorporated into point matching in order to improve image matching. Results Synthetic data sets, medical images are employed to demonstrate and validate the performance of our approach. The inverse consistent errors of our algorithm are smaller than RPM. Especially, the topology of transformations is preserved well for our algorithm for the large deformation between point sets. Moreover, the distance errors of our algorithm are similar to that of RPM, and they maintain a downward trend as whole, which demonstrates the convergence of our algorithm. The registration errors for image registrations are evaluated also. Again, our algorithm achieves the lower registration errors in same iteration number

  6. Life satisfaction set point: stability and change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujita, Frank; Diener, Ed

    2005-01-01

    Using data from 17 years of a large and nationally representative panel study from Germany, the authors examined whether there is a set point for life satisfaction (LS)--stability across time, even though it can be perturbed for short periods by life events. The authors found that 24% of respondents changed significantly in LS from the first 5 years to the last 5 years and that stability declined as the period between measurements increased. Average LS in the first 5 years correlated .51 with the 5-year average of LS during the last 5 years. Height, weight, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and personality traits were all more stable than LS, whereas income was about as stable as LS. Almost 9% of the sample changed an average of 3 or more points on a 10-point scale from the first 5 to last 5 years of the study.

  7. Counting convex polygons in planar point sets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mitchell, J.S.B.; Rote, G.; Sundaram, Gopalakrishnan; Woeginger, G.J.

    1995-01-01

    Given a set S of n points in the plane, we compute in time O(n3) the total number of convex polygons whose vertices are a subset of S. We give an O(m · n3) algorithm for computing the number of convex k-gons with vertices in S, for all values k = 3,…, m; previously known bounds were exponential

  8. Method of nuclear reactor control using a variable temperature load dependent set point

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kelly, J.J.; Rambo, G.E.

    1982-01-01

    A method and apparatus for controlling a nuclear reactor in response to a variable average reactor coolant temperature set point is disclosed. The set point is dependent upon percent of full power load demand. A manually-actuated ''droop mode'' of control is provided whereby the reactor coolant temperature is allowed to drop below the set point temperature a predetermined amount wherein the control is switched from reactor control rods exclusively to feedwater flow

  9. Computing half-plane and strip discrepancy of planar point sets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berg, de M.

    1996-01-01

    We present efficient algorithms for two problems concerning the discrepancy of a set S of n points in the unit square in the plane. First, we describe an algorithm for maintaining the half-plane discrepancy of S under insertions and deletions of points. The algorithm runs in O(nlogn) worst-case time

  10. HIV-1 transmitting couples have similar viral load set-points in Rakai, Uganda.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T Déirdre Hollingsworth

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available It has been hypothesized that HIV-1 viral load set-point is a surrogate measure of HIV-1 viral virulence, and that it may be subject to natural selection in the human host population. A key test of this hypothesis is whether viral load set-points are correlated between transmitting individuals and those acquiring infection. We retrospectively identified 112 heterosexual HIV-discordant couples enrolled in a cohort in Rakai, Uganda, in which HIV transmission was suspected and viral load set-point was established. In addition, sequence data was available to establish transmission by genetic linkage for 57 of these couples. Sex, age, viral subtype, index partner, and self-reported genital ulcer disease status (GUD were known. Using ANOVA, we estimated the proportion of variance in viral load set-points which was explained by the similarity within couples (the 'couple effect'. Individuals with suspected intra-couple transmission (97 couples had similar viral load set-points (p = 0.054 single factor model, p = 0.0057 adjusted and the couple effect explained 16% of variance in viral loads (23% adjusted. The analysis was repeated for a subset of 29 couples with strong genetic support for transmission. The couple effect was the major determinant of viral load set-point (p = 0.067 single factor, and p = 0.036 adjusted and the size of the effect was 27% (37% adjusted. Individuals within epidemiologically linked couples with genetic support for transmission had similar viral load set-points. The most parsimonious explanation is that this is due to shared characteristics of the transmitted virus, a finding which sheds light on both the role of viral factors in HIV-1 pathogenesis and on the evolution of the virus.

  11. Reevaluation of steam generator level trip set point

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shim, Yoon Sub; Soh, Dong Sub; Kim, Sung Oh; Jung, Se Won; Sung, Kang Sik; Lee, Joon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

    1994-06-01

    The reactor trip by the low level of steam generator water accounts for a substantial portion of reactor scrams in a nuclear plant and the feasibility of modification of the steam generator water level trip system of YGN 1/2 was evaluated in this study. The study revealed removal of the reactor trip function from the SG water level trip system is not possible because of plant safety but relaxation of the trip set point by 9 % is feasible. The set point relaxation requires drilling of new holes for level measurement to operating steam generators. Characteristics of negative neutron flux rate trip and reactor trip were also reviewed as an additional work. Since the purpose of the trip system modification for reduction of a reactor scram frequency is not to satisfy legal requirements but to improve plant performance and the modification yields positive and negative aspects, the decision of actual modification needs to be made based on the results of this study and also the policy of a plant owner. 37 figs, 6 tabs, 14 refs. (Author).

  12. CD-Based Microfluidics for Primary Care in Extreme Point-of-Care Settings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suzanne Smith

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available We review the utility of centrifugal microfluidic technologies applied to point-of-care diagnosis in extremely under-resourced environments. The various challenges faced in these settings are showcased, using areas in India and Africa as examples. Measures for the ability of integrated devices to effectively address point-of-care challenges are highlighted, and centrifugal, often termed CD-based microfluidic technologies, technologies are presented as a promising platform to address these challenges. We describe the advantages of centrifugal liquid handling, as well as the ability of a standard CD player to perform a number of common laboratory tests, fulfilling the role of an integrated lab-on-a-CD. Innovative centrifugal approaches for point-of-care in extremely resource-poor settings are highlighted, including sensing and detection strategies, smart power sources and biomimetic inspiration for environmental control. The evolution of centrifugal microfluidics, along with examples of commercial and advanced prototype centrifugal microfluidic systems, is presented, illustrating the success of deployment at the point-of-care. A close fit of emerging centrifugal systems to address a critical panel of tests for under-resourced clinic settings, formulated by medical experts, is demonstrated. This emphasizes the potential of centrifugal microfluidic technologies to be applied effectively to extremely challenging point-of-care scenarios and in playing a role in improving primary care in resource-limited settings across the developing world.

  13. Psychological distance boosts value-behavior correspondence in ultimatum bargaining and integrative negotiation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Giacomantonio, M.; de Dreu, C.K.W.; Shalvi, S.; Sligte, D.; Leder, S.

    2010-01-01

    The present research examined how construal level and social motivation interact in influencing individuals’ behavior in social decision making settings. Consistent with recent work on psychological distance and value-behavior correspondence (Eyal, Sagristano, Trope, Liberman, & Chaiken, 2009), it

  14. Some fixed point theorems on non-convex sets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohanasundaram Radhakrishnan

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we prove that if $K$ is a nonempty weakly compact set in a Banach space $X$, $T:K\\to K$ is a nonexpansive map satisfying $\\frac{x+Tx}{2}\\in K$ for all $x\\in K$ and if $X$ is $3-$uniformly convex or $X$ has the Opial property, then $T$ has a fixed point in $K.$

  15. A Survey on Methods for Reconstructing Surfaces from Unorganized Point Sets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vilius Matiukas

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper addresses the issue of reconstructing and visualizing surfaces from unorganized point sets. These can be acquired using different techniques, such as 3D-laser scanning, computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and multi-camera imaging. The problem of reconstructing surfaces from their unorganized point sets is common for many diverse areas, including computer graphics, computer vision, computational geometry or reverse engineering. The paper presents three alternative methods that all use variations in complementary cones to triangulate and reconstruct the tested 3D surfaces. The article evaluates and contrasts three alternatives.Article in English

  16. A deterministic algorithm for fitting a step function to a weighted point-set

    KAUST Repository

    Fournier, Hervé

    2013-02-01

    Given a set of n points in the plane, each point having a positive weight, and an integer k>0, we present an optimal O(nlogn)-time deterministic algorithm to compute a step function with k steps that minimizes the maximum weighted vertical distance to the input points. It matches the expected time bound of the best known randomized algorithm for this problem. Our approach relies on Coles improved parametric searching technique. As a direct application, our result yields the first O(nlogn)-time algorithm for computing a k-center of a set of n weighted points on the real line. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

  17. Arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay sets of points in P^1 x P^1

    CERN Document Server

    Guardo, Elena

    2015-01-01

    This brief presents a solution to the interpolation problem for arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay (ACM) sets of points in the multiprojective space P^1 x P^1.  It collects the various current threads in the literature on this topic with the aim of providing a self-contained, unified introduction while also advancing some new ideas.  The relevant constructions related to multiprojective spaces are reviewed first, followed by the basic properties of points in P^1 x P^1, the bigraded Hilbert function, and ACM sets of points.  The authors then show how, using a combinatorial description of ACM points in P^1 x P^1, the bigraded Hilbert function can be computed and, as a result, solve the interpolation problem.  In subsequent chapters, they consider fat points and double points in P^1 x P^1 and demonstrate how to use their results to answer questions and problems of interest in commutative algebra.  Throughout the book, chapters end with a brief historical overview, citations of related results, and, where relevan...

  18. The descriptive set-theoretic complexity of the set of points of continuity of a multi-valued function (Extended Abstract

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vassilios Gregoriades

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available In this article we treat a notion of continuity for a multi-valued function F and we compute the descriptive set-theoretic complexity of the set of all x for which F is continuous at x. We give conditions under which the latter set is either a G_delta set or the countable union of G_delta sets. Also we provide a counterexample which shows that the latter result is optimum under the same conditions. Moreover we prove that those conditions are necessary in order to obtain that the set of points of continuity of F is Borel i.e., we show that if we drop some of the previous conditions then there is a multi-valued function F whose graph is a Borel set and the set of points of continuity of F is not a Borel set. Finally we give some analogue results regarding a stronger notion of continuity for a multi-valued function. This article is motivated by a question of M. Ziegler in "Real Computation with Least Discrete Advice: A Complexity Theory of Nonuniform Computability with Applications to Linear Algebra", (submitted.

  19. Floating point only SIMD instruction set architecture including compare, select, Boolean, and alignment operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gschwind, Michael K [Chappaqua, NY

    2011-03-01

    Mechanisms for implementing a floating point only single instruction multiple data instruction set architecture are provided. A processor is provided that comprises an issue unit, an execution unit coupled to the issue unit, and a vector register file coupled to the execution unit. The execution unit has logic that implements a floating point (FP) only single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instruction set architecture (ISA). The floating point vector registers of the vector register file store both scalar and floating point values as vectors having a plurality of vector elements. The processor may be part of a data processing system.

  20. Set-Point Theory and personality development : Reconciliation of a paradox

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ormel, Johan; Von Korff, Michael; Jeronimus, Bertus F.; Riese, Harriette; Specht, Jule

    Set-point trait theories presume homeostasis at a specified level (stability/trait) and a surrounding “bandwidth” (change/state). The theory has been productively applied in studies on subjective well-being (SWB) but hardly in research on stability and change in personality (e.g. neuroticism,

  1. Colouring the triangles determined by a point set

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruy Fabila-Monroy

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Let P be a set of n points in general position in the plane. We study the chromatic number of the intersection graph of the open triangles determined by P. It is known that this chromatic number is at least n3/27+O(n2 and, if P is in convex position, the answer is n3/24+O(n2. We prove that for arbitrary P, the chromatic number is at most n3/19.259+O(n2.

  2. On the Level Set of a Function with Degenerate Minimum Point

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasuhiko Kamiyama

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available For n≥2, let M be an n-dimensional smooth closed manifold and f:M→R a smooth function. We set minf(M=m and assume that m is attained by unique point p∈M such that p is a nondegenerate critical point. Then the Morse lemma tells us that if a is slightly bigger than m, f-1(a is diffeomorphic to Sn-1. In this paper, we relax the condition on p from being nondegenerate to being an isolated critical point and obtain the same consequence. Some application to the topology of polygon spaces is also included.

  3. Music analysis and point-set compression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meredith, David

    A musical analysis represents a particular way of understanding certain aspects of the structure of a piece of music. The quality of an analysis can be evaluated to some extent by the degree to which knowledge of it improves performance on tasks such as mistake spotting, memorising a piece...... as the minimum description length principle and relates closely to certain ideas in the theory of Kolmogorov complexity. Inspired by this general principle, the hypothesis explored in this paper is that the best ways of understanding (or explanations for) a piece of music are those that are represented...... by the shortest possible descriptions of the piece. With this in mind, two compression algorithms are presented, COSIATEC and SIATECCompress. Each of these algorithms takes as input an in extenso description of a piece of music as a set of points in pitch-time space representing notes. Each algorithm...

  4. 78 FR 24816 - Pricing for the 2013 American Eagle West Point Two-Coin Silver Set

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-26

    ... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY United States Mint Pricing for the 2013 American Eagle West Point Two-Coin Silver Set AGENCY: United States Mint, Department of the Treasury. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The United States Mint is announcing the price of the 2013 American Eagle West Point Two-Coin Silver Set. The...

  5. Robust set-point regulation for ecological models with multiple management goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guiver, Chris; Mueller, Markus; Hodgson, Dave; Townley, Stuart

    2016-05-01

    Population managers will often have to deal with problems of meeting multiple goals, for example, keeping at specific levels both the total population and population abundances in given stage-classes of a stratified population. In control engineering, such set-point regulation problems are commonly tackled using multi-input, multi-output proportional and integral (PI) feedback controllers. Building on our recent results for population management with single goals, we develop a PI control approach in a context of multi-objective population management. We show that robust set-point regulation is achieved by using a modified PI controller with saturation and anti-windup elements, both described in the paper, and illustrate the theory with examples. Our results apply more generally to linear control systems with positive state variables, including a class of infinite-dimensional systems, and thus have broader appeal.

  6. A deterministic algorithm for fitting a step function to a weighted point-set

    KAUST Repository

    Fournier, Hervé ; Vigneron, Antoine E.

    2013-01-01

    Given a set of n points in the plane, each point having a positive weight, and an integer k>0, we present an optimal O(nlogn)-time deterministic algorithm to compute a step function with k steps that minimizes the maximum weighted vertical distance

  7. Eigenstrain as a mechanical set-point of cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Shengmao; Lampi, Marsha C; Reinhart-King, Cynthia A; Tsui, Gary; Wang, Jian; Nelson, Carl A; Gu, Linxia

    2018-02-05

    Cell contraction regulates how cells sense their mechanical environment. We sought to identify the set-point of cell contraction, also referred to as tensional homeostasis. In this work, bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs), cultured on substrates with different stiffness, were characterized using traction force microscopy (TFM). Numerical models were developed to provide insights into the mechanics of cell-substrate interactions. Cell contraction was modeled as eigenstrain which could induce isometric cell contraction without external forces. The predicted traction stresses matched well with TFM measurements. Furthermore, our numerical model provided cell stress and displacement maps for inspecting the fundamental regulating mechanism of cell mechanosensing. We showed that cell spread area, traction force on a substrate, as well as the average stress of a cell were increased in response to a stiffer substrate. However, the cell average strain, which is cell type-specific, was kept at the same level regardless of the substrate stiffness. This indicated that the cell average strain is the tensional homeostasis that each type of cell tries to maintain. Furthermore, cell contraction in terms of eigenstrain was found to be the same for both BAECs and fibroblast cells in different mechanical environments. This implied a potential mechanical set-point across different cell types. Our results suggest that additional measurements of contractility might be useful for monitoring cell mechanosensing as well as dynamic remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM). This work could help to advance the understanding of the cell-ECM relationship, leading to better regenerative strategies.

  8. A REST Service for Triangulation of Point Sets Using Oriented Matroids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Antonio Valero Medina

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the implementation of a prototype REST service for triangulation of point sets collected by mobile GPS receivers. The first objective of this paper is to test functionalities of an application, which exploits mobile devices’ capabilities to get data associated with their spatial location. A triangulation of a set of points provides a mechanism through which it is possible to produce an accurate representation of spatial data. Such triangulation may be used for representing surfaces by Triangulated Irregular Networks (TINs, and for decomposing complex two-dimensional spatial objects into simpler geometries. The second objective of this paper is to promote the use of oriented matroids for finding alternative solutions to spatial data processing and analysis tasks. This study focused on the particular case of the calculation of triangulations based on oriented matroids. The prototype described in this paper used a wrapper to integrate and expose several tools previously implemented in C++.

  9. Validation of non-rigid point-set registration methods using a porcine bladder pelvic phantom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zakariaee, Roja; Hamarneh, Ghassan; Brown, Colin J.; Spadinger, Ingrid

    2016-01-01

    The problem of accurate dose accumulation in fractionated radiotherapy treatment for highly deformable organs, such as bladder, has garnered increasing interest over the past few years. However, more research is required in order to find a robust and efficient solution and to increase the accuracy over the current methods. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of utilizing non-rigid (affine or deformable) point-set registration in accumulating dose in bladder of different sizes and shapes. A pelvic phantom was built to house an ex vivo porcine bladder with fiducial landmarks adhered onto its surface. Four different volume fillings of the bladder were used (90, 180, 360 and 480 cc). The performance of MATLAB implementations of five different methods were compared, in aligning the bladder contour point-sets. The approaches evaluated were coherent point drift (CPD), gaussian mixture model, shape context, thin-plate spline robust point matching (TPS-RPM) and finite iterative closest point (ICP-finite). The evaluation metrics included registration runtime, target registration error (TRE), root-mean-square error (RMS) and Hausdorff distance (HD). The reference (source) dataset was alternated through all four points-sets, in order to study the effect of reference volume on the registration outcomes. While all deformable algorithms provided reasonable registration results, CPD provided the best TRE values (6.4 mm), and TPS-RPM yielded the best mean RMS and HD values (1.4 and 6.8 mm, respectively). ICP-finite was the fastest technique and TPS-RPM, the slowest.

  10. Validation of non-rigid point-set registration methods using a porcine bladder pelvic phantom

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zakariaee, Roja; Hamarneh, Ghassan; Brown, Colin J; Spadinger, Ingrid

    2016-01-01

    The problem of accurate dose accumulation in fractionated radiotherapy treatment for highly deformable organs, such as bladder, has garnered increasing interest over the past few years. However, more research is required in order to find a robust and efficient solution and to increase the accuracy over the current methods. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of utilizing non-rigid (affine or deformable) point-set registration in accumulating dose in bladder of different sizes and shapes. A pelvic phantom was built to house an ex vivo porcine bladder with fiducial landmarks adhered onto its surface. Four different volume fillings of the bladder were used (90, 180, 360 and 480 cc). The performance of MATLAB implementations of five different methods were compared, in aligning the bladder contour point-sets. The approaches evaluated were coherent point drift (CPD), gaussian mixture model, shape context, thin-plate spline robust point matching (TPS-RPM) and finite iterative closest point (ICP-finite). The evaluation metrics included registration runtime, target registration error (TRE), root-mean-square error (RMS) and Hausdorff distance (HD). The reference (source) dataset was alternated through all four points-sets, in order to study the effect of reference volume on the registration outcomes. While all deformable algorithms provided reasonable registration results, CPD provided the best TRE values (6.4 mm), and TPS-RPM yielded the best mean RMS and HD values (1.4 and 6.8 mm, respectively). ICP-finite was the fastest technique and TPS-RPM, the slowest. (paper)

  11. Keypoint-based 4-Points Congruent Sets - Automated marker-less registration of laser scans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theiler, Pascal Willy; Wegner, Jan Dirk; Schindler, Konrad

    2014-10-01

    We propose a method to automatically register two point clouds acquired with a terrestrial laser scanner without placing any markers in the scene. What makes this task challenging are the strongly varying point densities caused by the line-of-sight measurement principle, and the huge amount of data. The first property leads to low point densities in potential overlap areas with scans taken from different viewpoints while the latter calls for highly efficient methods in terms of runtime and memory requirements. A crucial yet largely unsolved step is the initial coarse alignment of two scans without any simplifying assumptions, that is, point clouds are given in arbitrary local coordinates and no knowledge about their relative orientation is available. Once coarse alignment has been solved, scans can easily be fine-registered with standard methods like least-squares surface or Iterative Closest Point matching. In order to drastically thin out the original point clouds while retaining characteristic features, we resort to extracting 3D keypoints. Such clouds of keypoints, which can be viewed as a sparse but nevertheless discriminative representation of the original scans, are then used as input to a very efficient matching method originally developed in computer graphics, called 4-Points Congruent Sets (4PCS) algorithm. We adapt the 4PCS matching approach to better suit the characteristics of laser scans. The resulting Keypoint-based 4-Points Congruent Sets (K-4PCS) method is extensively evaluated on challenging indoor and outdoor scans. Beyond the evaluation on real terrestrial laser scans, we also perform experiments with simulated indoor scenes, paying particular attention to the sensitivity of the approach with respect to highly symmetric scenes.

  12. Influence of occupant's heating set-point preferences on indoor environmental quality and heating demand in residential buildings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fabi, Valentina; Corgnati, Stefano Paolo; Andersen, Rune Korsholm

    2013-01-01

    of energy consumption. The aim was to compare the obtained results with a traditional deterministic use of the simulation program. Based on heating set-point behavior of 13 Danish dwellings, logistic regression was used to infer the probability of adjusting the set-point of thermostatic radiator valves...

  13. Set points, settling points and some alternative models: theoretical options to understand how genes and environments combine to regulate body adiposity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John R. Speakman

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available The close correspondence between energy intake and expenditure over prolonged time periods, coupled with an apparent protection of the level of body adiposity in the face of perturbations of energy balance, has led to the idea that body fatness is regulated via mechanisms that control intake and energy expenditure. Two models have dominated the discussion of how this regulation might take place. The set point model is rooted in physiology, genetics and molecular biology, and suggests that there is an active feedback mechanism linking adipose tissue (stored energy to intake and expenditure via a set point, presumably encoded in the brain. This model is consistent with many of the biological aspects of energy balance, but struggles to explain the many significant environmental and social influences on obesity, food intake and physical activity. More importantly, the set point model does not effectively explain the ‘obesity epidemic’ – the large increase in body weight and adiposity of a large proportion of individuals in many countries since the 1980s. An alternative model, called the settling point model, is based on the idea that there is passive feedback between the size of the body stores and aspects of expenditure. This model accommodates many of the social and environmental characteristics of energy balance, but struggles to explain some of the biological and genetic aspects. The shortcomings of these two models reflect their failure to address the gene-by-environment interactions that dominate the regulation of body weight. We discuss two additional models – the general intake model and the dual intervention point model – that address this issue and might offer better ways to understand how body fatness is controlled.

  14. A point cloud based pipeline for depth reconstruction from autostereoscopic sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niquin, Cédric; Prévost, Stéphanie; Remion, Yannick

    2010-02-01

    This is a three step pipeline to construct a 3D mesh of a scene from a set of N images, destined to be viewed on auto-stereoscopic displays. The first step matches the pixels to create a point cloud using a new algorithm based on graph-cuts. It exploits the data redundancy of the N images to ensure the geometric consistency of the scene and to reduce the graph complexity, in order to speed up the computation. It performs an accurate detection of occlusions and its results can then be used in applications like view synthesis. The second step slightly moves the points along the Z-axis to refine the point cloud. It uses a new cost including both occlusion positions and light variations deduced from the matching. The Z values are selected using a dynamic programming algorithm. This step finally generates a point cloud, which is fine enough for applications like augmented reality. From any of the two previously defined point clouds, the last step creates a colored mesh, which is a convenient data structure to be used in graphics APIs. It also generates N depth maps, allowing a comparison between the results of our method with those of other methods.

  15. A comparison of Landsat point and rectangular field training sets for land-use classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tom, C. H.; Miller, L. D.

    1984-01-01

    Rectangular training fields of homogeneous spectroreflectance are commonly used in supervised pattern recognition efforts. Trial image classification with manually selected training sets gives irregular and misleading results due to statistical bias. A self-verifying, grid-sampled training point approach is proposed as a more statistically valid feature extraction technique. A systematic pixel sampling network of every ninth row and ninth column efficiently replaced the full image scene with smaller statistical vectors which preserved the necessary characteristics for classification. The composite second- and third-order average classification accuracy of 50.1 percent for 331,776 pixels in the full image substantially agreed with the 51 percent value predicted by the grid-sampled, 4,100-point training set.

  16. Generating and executing programs for a floating point single instruction multiple data instruction set architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gschwind, Michael K

    2013-04-16

    Mechanisms for generating and executing programs for a floating point (FP) only single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instruction set architecture (ISA) are provided. A computer program product comprising a computer recordable medium having a computer readable program recorded thereon is provided. The computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to receive one or more instructions and execute the one or more instructions using logic in an execution unit of the computing device. The logic implements a floating point (FP) only single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instruction set architecture (ISA), based on data stored in a vector register file of the computing device. The vector register file is configured to store both scalar and floating point values as vectors having a plurality of vector elements.

  17. Using point-set compression to classify folk songs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meredith, David

    2014-01-01

    -neighbour algorithm and leave-one-out cross-validation to classify the 360 melodies into tune families. The classifications produced by the algorithms were compared with a ground-truth classification prepared by expert musicologists. Twelve of the thirteen compressors used in the experiment were based...... compared. The highest classification success rate of 77–84% was achieved by COSIATEC, followed by 60–64% for Forth’s algorithm and then 52–58% for SIATECCompress. When the NCDs were calculated using bzip2, the success rate was only 12.5%. The results demonstrate that the effectiveness of NCD for measuring...... similarity between folk-songs for classification purposes is highly dependent upon the actual compressor chosen. Furthermore, it seems that compressors based on finding maximal repeated patterns in point-set representations of music show more promise for NCD-based music classification than general...

  18. R Implementation of a Polyhedral Approximation to a 3D Set of Points Using the ?-Shape

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Lafarge

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This work presents the implementation in R of the ?-shape of a finite set of points in the three-dimensional space R3. This geometric structure generalizes the convex hull and allows to recover the shape of non-convex and even non-connected sets in 3D, given a ran- dom sample of points taken into it. Besides the computation of the ?-shape, the R package alphashape3d provides users with tools to facilitate the three-dimensional graphical visu- alization of the estimated set as well as the computation of important characteristics such as the connected components or the volume, among others.

  19. Does gastric bypass surgery change body weight set point?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Z; Mumphrey, M B; Morrison, C D; Münzberg, H; Ye, J; Berthoud, H R

    2016-12-01

    The relatively stable body weight during adulthood is attributed to a homeostatic regulatory mechanism residing in the brain which uses feedback from the body to control energy intake and expenditure. This mechanism guarantees that if perturbed up or down by design, body weight will return to pre-perturbation levels, defined as the defended level or set point. The fact that weight re-gain is common after dieting suggests that obese subjects defend a higher level of body weight. Thus, the set point for body weight is flexible and likely determined by the complex interaction of genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors. Unlike dieting, bariatric surgery does a much better job in producing sustained suppression of food intake and body weight, and an intensive search for the underlying mechanisms has started. Although one explanation for this lasting effect of particularly Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) is simple physical restriction due to the invasive surgery, a more exciting explanation is that the surgery physiologically reprograms the body weight defense mechanism. In this non-systematic review, we present behavioral evidence from our own and other studies that defended body weight is lowered after RYGB and sleeve gastrectomy. After these surgeries, rodents return to their preferred lower body weight if over- or underfed for a period of time, and the ability to drastically increase food intake during the anabolic phase strongly argues against the physical restriction hypothesis. However, the underlying mechanisms remain obscure. Although the mechanism involves central leptin and melanocortin signaling pathways, other peripheral signals such as gut hormones and their neural effector pathways likely contribute. Future research using both targeted and non-targeted 'omics' techniques in both humans and rodents as well as modern, genetically targeted, neuronal manipulation techniques in rodents will be necessary.

  20. Approximation of a Common Element of the Fixed Point Sets of Multivalued Strictly Pseudocontractive-Type Mappings and the Set of Solutions of an Equilibrium Problem in Hilbert Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. O. Isiogugu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The strong convergence of a hybrid algorithm to a common element of the fixed point sets of multivalued strictly pseudocontractive-type mappings and the set of solutions of an equilibrium problem in Hilbert spaces is obtained using a strict fixed point set condition. The obtained results improve, complement, and extend the results on multivalued and single-valued mappings in the contemporary literature.

  1. Point process analyses of variations in smoking rate by setting, mood, gender, and dependence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shiffman, Saul; Rathbun, Stephen L.

    2010-01-01

    The immediate emotional and situational antecedents of ad libitum smoking are still not well understood. We re-analyzed data from Ecological Momentary Assessment using novel point-process analyses, to assess how craving, mood, and social setting influence smoking rate, as well as assessing the moderating effects of gender and nicotine dependence. 304 smokers recorded craving, mood, and social setting using electronic diaries when smoking and at random nonsmoking times over 16 days of smoking. Point-process analysis, which makes use of the known random sampling scheme for momentary variables, examined main effects of setting and interactions with gender and dependence. Increased craving was associated with higher rates of smoking, particularly among women. Negative affect was not associated with smoking rate, even in interaction with arousal, but restlessness was associated with substantially higher smoking rates. Women's smoking tended to be less affected by negative affect. Nicotine dependence had little moderating effect on situational influences. Smoking rates were higher when smokers were alone or with others smoking, and smoking restrictions reduced smoking rates. However, the presence of others smoking undermined the effects of restrictions. The more sensitive point-process analyses confirmed earlier findings, including the surprising conclusion that negative affect by itself was not related to smoking rates. Contrary to hypothesis, men's and not women's smoking was influenced by negative affect. Both smoking restrictions and the presence of others who are not smoking suppress smoking, but others’ smoking undermines the effects of restrictions. Point-process analyses of EMA data can bring out even small influences on smoking rate. PMID:21480683

  2. An energy-saving set-point optimizer with a sliding mode controller for automotive air-conditioning/refrigeration systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang, Yanjun; Khajepour, Amir; Ding, Haitao; Bagheri, Farshid; Bahrami, Majid

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • A novel two-layer energy-saving controller for automotive A/C-R system is developed. • A set-point optimizer at the outer loop is designed based on the steady state model. • A sliding mode controller in the inner loop is built. • Extensively experiments studies show that about 9% energy can be saving by this controller. - Abstract: This paper presents an energy-saving controller for automotive air-conditioning/refrigeration (A/C-R) systems. With their extensive application in homes, industry, and vehicles, A/C-R systems are consuming considerable amounts of energy. The proposed controller consists of two different time-scale layers. The outer or the slow time-scale layer called a set-point optimizer is used to find the set points related to energy efficiency by using the steady state model; whereas, the inner or the fast time-scale layer is used to track the obtained set points. In the inner loop, thanks to its robustness, a sliding mode controller (SMC) is utilized to track the set point of the cargo temperature. The currently used on/off controller is presented and employed as a basis for comparison to the proposed controller. More importantly, the real experimental results under several disturbed scenarios are analysed to demonstrate how the proposed controller can improve performance while reducing the energy consumption by 9% comparing with the on/off controller. The controller is suitable for any type of A/C-R system even though it is applied to an automotive A/C-R system in this paper.

  3. Non-rigid point set registration of curves: registration of the superficial vessel centerlines of the brain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marreiros, Filipe M. M.; Wang, Chunliang; Rossitti, Sandro; Smedby, Örjan

    2016-03-01

    In this study we present a non-rigid point set registration for 3D curves (composed by 3D set of points). The method was evaluated in the task of registration of 3D superficial vessels of the brain where it was used to match vessel centerline points. It consists of a combination of the Coherent Point Drift (CPD) and the Thin-Plate Spline (TPS) semilandmarks. The CPD is used to perform the initial matching of centerline 3D points, while the semilandmark method iteratively relaxes/slides the points. For the evaluation, a Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) dataset was used. Deformations were applied to the extracted vessels centerlines to simulate brain bulging and sinking, using a TPS deformation where a few control points were manipulated to obtain the desired transformation (T1). Once the correspondences are known, the corresponding points are used to define a new TPS deformation(T2). The errors are measured in the deformed space, by transforming the original points using T1 and T2 and measuring the distance between them. To simulate cases where the deformed vessel data is incomplete, parts of the reference vessels were cut and then deformed. Furthermore, anisotropic normally distributed noise was added. The results show that the error estimates (root mean square error and mean error) are below 1 mm, even in the presence of noise and incomplete data.

  4. Evaluating Diagnostic Point-of-Care Tests in Resource-Limited Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drain, Paul K; Hyle, Emily P; Noubary, Farzad; Freedberg, Kenneth A; Wilson, Douglas; Bishai, William; Rodriguez, William; Bassett, Ingrid V

    2014-01-01

    Diagnostic point-of-care (POC) testing is intended to minimize the time to obtain a test result, thereby allowing clinicians and patients to make an expeditious clinical decision. As POC tests expand into resource-limited settings (RLS), the benefits must outweigh the costs. To optimize POC testing in RLS, diagnostic POC tests need rigorous evaluations focused on relevant clinical outcomes and operational costs, which differ from evaluations of conventional diagnostic tests. Here, we reviewed published studies on POC testing in RLS, and found no clearly defined metric for the clinical utility of POC testing. Therefore, we propose a framework for evaluating POC tests, and suggest and define the term “test efficacy” to describe a diagnostic test’s capacity to support a clinical decision within its operational context. We also proposed revised criteria for an ideal diagnostic POC test in resource-limited settings. Through systematic evaluations, comparisons between centralized diagnostic testing and novel POC technologies can be more formalized, and health officials can better determine which POC technologies represent valuable additions to their clinical programs. PMID:24332389

  5. Thermodynamic-behaviour model for air-cooled screw chillers with a variable set-point condensing temperature

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chan, K.T.; Yu, F.W.

    2006-01-01

    This paper presents a thermodynamic model to evaluate the coefficient of performance (COP) of an air-cooled screw chiller under various operating conditions. The model accounts for the real process phenomena, including the capacity control of screw compressors and variations in the heat-transfer coefficients of an evaporator and a condenser at part load. It also contains an algorithm to determine how the condenser fans are staged in response to a set-point condensing temperature. The model parameters are identified, based on the performance data of chiller specifications. The chiller model is validated using a wide range of operating data of an air-cooled screw chiller. The difference between the measured and modelled COPs is within ±10% for 86% of the data points. The chiller's COP can increase by up to 115% when the set-point condensing temperature is adjusted, based on any given outdoor temperature. Having identified the variation in the chiller's COP, a suitable strategy is proposed for air-cooled screw chillers to operate at maximum efficiency as much as possible when they have to satisfy a building's cooling-load

  6. Protection set-points lines for the reactor core and considerations about power distribution and peak factors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Furieri, E.B.

    1981-01-01

    In order to assure the reactor core integrity during the slow operational transients (power excursion above the nominal value and the high coolant temperature), the formation of a steam film (DNB-Departure from Nucleate Boiling) in the control rods must be avoided. The protection set points lines presents the points where DNBR (relation between critical heat flux-q sub(DNB) and the local heat flux-q' sub(local) is equal to 1.30, corrected by peak factors and uncertainty in function of ΔTr and T sub(R), respectively coolant elevation and medium coolant temperature in reactor pressure vessel. The curve set-points were determined using a new version of COBRA-IIIF (CUPRO) computer code, implemented with new subroutines and linearized convergence scheme. Pratical results for Angra-1 core were obtained and its were compared with the results from the fabricator. (E.G.) [pt

  7. Estimation of influential points in any data set from coefficient of determination and its leave-one-out cross-validated counterpart.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tóth, Gergely; Bodai, Zsolt; Héberger, Károly

    2013-10-01

    Coefficient of determination (R (2)) and its leave-one-out cross-validated analogue (denoted by Q (2) or R cv (2) ) are the most frequantly published values to characterize the predictive performance of models. In this article we use R (2) and Q (2) in a reversed aspect to determine uncommon points, i.e. influential points in any data sets. The term (1 - Q (2))/(1 - R (2)) corresponds to the ratio of predictive residual sum of squares and the residual sum of squares. The ratio correlates to the number of influential points in experimental and random data sets. We propose an (approximate) F test on (1 - Q (2))/(1 - R (2)) term to quickly pre-estimate the presence of influential points in training sets of models. The test is founded upon the routinely calculated Q (2) and R (2) values and warns the model builders to verify the training set, to perform influence analysis or even to change to robust modeling.

  8. Construal levels and moral judgment: Some complications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Han Gong

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Eyal, T., Liberman, N., and Trope, Y., (2008. Judging near and distant virtue and vice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1204-1209, explored how psychological distance influences moral judgment and found that more extreme moral appraisals were given to distal behaviors rather than proximal behaviors. Contrary to Eyal et al., the current paper presents converging evidence showing that moral judgments become more extreme at lower-level construals compared to higher-level construals. In four experiments using two different priming techniques, we manipulated construal levels and assessed their effects on moral judgment. High-level consturals elicited less moral outrage toward transgressions and less positive ratings of virtuous behaviors than low-level construals. A replication study was also conducted to reconcile the inconsistencies between the current results and those of Eyal et al. Possible explanations for the different results between two studies are discussed.

  9. Amorphous topological insulators constructed from random point sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitchell, Noah P.; Nash, Lisa M.; Hexner, Daniel; Turner, Ari M.; Irvine, William T. M.

    2018-04-01

    The discovery that the band structure of electronic insulators may be topologically non-trivial has revealed distinct phases of electronic matter with novel properties1,2. Recently, mechanical lattices have been found to have similarly rich structure in their phononic excitations3,4, giving rise to protected unidirectional edge modes5-7. In all of these cases, however, as well as in other topological metamaterials3,8, the underlying structure was finely tuned, be it through periodicity, quasi-periodicity or isostaticity. Here we show that amorphous Chern insulators can be readily constructed from arbitrary underlying structures, including hyperuniform, jammed, quasi-crystalline and uniformly random point sets. While our findings apply to mechanical and electronic systems alike, we focus on networks of interacting gyroscopes as a model system. Local decorations control the topology of the vibrational spectrum, endowing amorphous structures with protected edge modes—with a chirality of choice. Using a real-space generalization of the Chern number, we investigate the topology of our structures numerically, analytically and experimentally. The robustness of our approach enables the topological design and self-assembly of non-crystalline topological metamaterials on the micro and macro scale.

  10. Determination of the protection set-points lines for the Angra-1 reactor core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Furieri, E.B.

    1980-03-01

    In this work several thermo-hidraulic calculation were performed to obtain Protection set-points lines for the Angra-1 reactor core in order to compare with the values presented by the vendor in the FSAR. These lines are the locus of points where DNBR min = 1,3 and power = 1,18 x P nominal as a function of ΔT m and T m , the temperature difference and the average coolant temperature between hot and cold legs. A computation scheme was developed using COBRA-IIIF as a subroutine of a new main program and adding new subroutines in order to obtain the desired DNBR. The solution is obtained through a convergentce procedure using parameters estimated in a sensivity study. (author) [pt

  11. ON THE ESTIMATION OF DISTANCE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS FOR POINT PROCESSES AND RANDOM SETS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dietrich Stoyan

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses various estimators for the nearest neighbour distance distribution function D of a stationary point process and for the quadratic contact distribution function Hq of a stationary random closed set. It recommends the use of Hanisch's estimator of D, which is of Horvitz-Thompson type, and the minussampling estimator of Hq. This recommendation is based on simulations for Poisson processes and Boolean models.

  12. Common Fixed Points of Mappings and Set-Valued Mappings in Symmetric Spaces with Application to Probabilistic Spaces

    OpenAIRE

    M. Aamri; A. Bassou; S. Bennani; D. El Moutawakil

    2007-01-01

    The main purpose of this paper is to give some common fixed point theorems of mappings and set-valued mappings of a symmetric space with some applications to probabilistic spaces. In order to get these results, we define the concept of E-weak compatibility between set-valued and single-valued mappings of a symmetric space.

  13. Automatic markerless registration of point clouds with semantic-keypoint-based 4-points congruent sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ge, Xuming

    2017-08-01

    The coarse registration of point clouds from urban building scenes has become a key topic in applications of terrestrial laser scanning technology. Sampling-based algorithms in the random sample consensus (RANSAC) model have emerged as mainstream solutions to address coarse registration problems. In this paper, we propose a novel combined solution to automatically align two markerless point clouds from building scenes. Firstly, the method segments non-ground points from ground points. Secondly, the proposed method detects feature points from each cross section and then obtains semantic keypoints by connecting feature points with specific rules. Finally, the detected semantic keypoints from two point clouds act as inputs to a modified 4PCS algorithm. Examples are presented and the results compared with those of K-4PCS to demonstrate the main contributions of the proposed method, which are the extension of the original 4PCS to handle heavy datasets and the use of semantic keypoints to improve K-4PCS in relation to registration accuracy and computational efficiency.

  14. Solving the multiple-set split equality common fixed-point problem of firmly quasi-nonexpansive operators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jing; Zong, Haili

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, we propose parallel and cyclic iterative algorithms for solving the multiple-set split equality common fixed-point problem of firmly quasi-nonexpansive operators. We also combine the process of cyclic and parallel iterative methods and propose two mixed iterative algorithms. Our several algorithms do not need any prior information about the operator norms. Under mild assumptions, we prove weak convergence of the proposed iterative sequences in Hilbert spaces. As applications, we obtain several iterative algorithms to solve the multiple-set split equality problem.

  15. Emerging technologies in point-of-care molecular diagnostics for resource-limited settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peeling, Rosanna W; McNerney, Ruth

    2014-06-01

    Emerging molecular technologies to diagnose infectious diseases at the point at which care is delivered have the potential to save many lives in developing countries where access to laboratories is poor. Molecular tests are needed to improve the specificity of syndromic management, monitor progress towards disease elimination and screen for asymptomatic infections with the goal of interrupting disease transmission and preventing long-term sequelae. In simplifying laboratory-based molecular assays for use at point-of-care, there are inevitable compromises between cost, ease of use and test performance. Despite significant technological advances, many challenges remain for the development of molecular diagnostics for resource-limited settings. There needs to be more advocacy for these technologies to be applied to infectious diseases, increased efforts to lower the barriers to market entry through streamlined and harmonized regulatory approaches, faster policy development for adoption of new technologies and novel financing mechanisms to enable countries to scale up implementation.

  16. The Evolution of the Physician Role in the Setting of Increased Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Insistence on Timing and Culturally-Sensitive, Purposefully Selected Skill Development; Comment on “Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agnes Binagwaho

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available As Eyal et al put forth in their piece, Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians, task-shifting across sub-Saharan Africa through non-physician clinicians (NPCs has led to an improvement in access to health services in the context of physician-shortages. Here, we offer a commentary to the piece by Eyal et al, concurring that physician’s roles should evolve into specialized medicine and that skills in mentorship, research, management, and leadership may create more holistic physicians clinical services. We believe that learning such non-clinical skills will allow physicians to improve the outcome of their clinical services. However, at the risk of a local, clinical brain drain as physicians shift to explore beyond the clinical sphere, we advocate strongly for increased caution to be exercised by leadership over the encouragement of this evolution. In the context of still-present physician shortages across many developing countries, we advocate to analyze this changing role and to purposefully select each new skill according to the context, giving careful consideration to the timing and degree of its evolution.

  17. LiveWire interactive boundary extraction algorithm based on Haar wavelet transform and control point set direction search

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Jun; Zhang, Jun; Tian, Jinwen

    2015-12-01

    Based on deep analysis of the LiveWire interactive boundary extraction algorithm, a new algorithm focusing on improving the speed of LiveWire algorithm is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the Haar wavelet transform is carried on the input image, and the boundary is extracted on the low resolution image obtained by the wavelet transform of the input image. Secondly, calculating LiveWire shortest path is based on the control point set direction search by utilizing the spatial relationship between the two control points users provide in real time. Thirdly, the search order of the adjacent points of the starting node is set in advance. An ordinary queue instead of a priority queue is taken as the storage pool of the points when optimizing their shortest path value, thus reducing the complexity of the algorithm from O[n2] to O[n]. Finally, A region iterative backward projection method based on neighborhood pixel polling has been used to convert dual-pixel boundary of the reconstructed image to single-pixel boundary after Haar wavelet inverse transform. The algorithm proposed in this paper combines the advantage of the Haar wavelet transform and the advantage of the optimal path searching method based on control point set direction search. The former has fast speed of image decomposition and reconstruction and is more consistent with the texture features of the image and the latter can reduce the time complexity of the original algorithm. So that the algorithm can improve the speed in interactive boundary extraction as well as reflect the boundary information of the image more comprehensively. All methods mentioned above have a big role in improving the execution efficiency and the robustness of the algorithm.

  18. Effect of Set-point Variation on Thermal Comfort and Energy Use in a Plus-energy Dwelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Toftum, Jørn; Kazanci, Ongun Berk; Olesen, Bjarne W.

    2016-01-01

    When designing buildings and space conditioning systems, the occupant thermal comfort, health, and productivity are the main criteria to satisfy. However, this should be achieved with the most energy-efficient space conditioning systems (heating, cooling, and ventilation). Control strategy, set......-points, and control dead-bands have a direct effect on the thermal environment in and the energy use of a building. The thermal environment in and the energy use of a building are associated with the thermal mass of the building and the control strategy, including set-points and control dead-bands. With thermally...... active building systems (TABS), temperatures are allowed to drift within the comfort zone, while in spaces with air-conditioning, temperatures in a narrower interval typically are aimed at. This behavior of radiant systems provides certain advantages regarding energy use, since the temperatures...

  19. Automatic sets and Delone sets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barbe, A; Haeseler, F von

    2004-01-01

    Automatic sets D part of Z m are characterized by having a finite number of decimations. They are equivalently generated by fixed points of certain substitution systems, or by certain finite automata. As examples, two-dimensional versions of the Thue-Morse, Baum-Sweet, Rudin-Shapiro and paperfolding sequences are presented. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for an automatic set D part of Z m to be a Delone set in R m . The result is then extended to automatic sets that are defined as fixed points of certain substitutions. The morphology of automatic sets is discussed by means of examples

  20. Search for outlying data points in multivariate solar activity data sets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bartkowiak, A.; Jakimiec, M.

    1989-01-01

    The aim of this paper is the investigation of outlying data points in the solar activity data sets. Two statistical methods for identifying of multivariate outliers are presented: the chi2-plot method based on the analysis of Mahalanobis distances and the method based on principal component analysis, i.e. on scatterdiagrams constructed from the first two or last two eigenvectors. We demonstrate the usefullness of these methods applying them to same data of solar activity. The methods allow to reveal quite precisely the data vectors containing some errors and also some untypical vectors, i.e. vectors with unusually large values or with values revealing untypical relations as compared with the common relations between the appropriate variables. 12 refs., 7 figs., 8 tabs. (author)

  1. Protection coordination: Determination of break point set

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Madani, S.M.; Rijanto, H.

    1998-01-01

    Modern power system networks are often multiloop structured. The co-ordinated setting of overcurrent and distance protective relays in such networks is tedious and time consuming. The complicated part of this problem is the determination of a proper minimum set of relays, the so-called minimum

  2. Observer-based design of set-point tracking adaptive controllers for nonlinear chaotic systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khaki-Sedigh, A.; Yazdanpanah-Goharrizi, A.

    2006-01-01

    A gradient based approach for the design of set-point tracking adaptive controllers for nonlinear chaotic systems is presented. In this approach, Lyapunov exponents are used to select the controller gain. In the case of unknown or time varying chaotic plants, the Lyapunov exponents may vary during the plant operation. In this paper, an effective adaptive strategy is used for online identification of Lyapunov exponents and adaptive control of nonlinear chaotic plants. Also, a nonlinear observer for estimation of the states is proposed. Simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology

  3. Observer-based design of set-point tracking adaptive controllers for nonlinear chaotic systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Khaki-Sedigh, A. [Department of Electrical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Sayyed Khandan Bridge, Shariati Street, Tehran 16314 (Iran, Islamic Republic of)]. E-mail: sedigh@kntu.ac.ir; Yazdanpanah-Goharrizi, A. [Department of Electrical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Sayyed Khandan Bridge, Shariati Street, Tehran 16314 (Iran, Islamic Republic of)]. E-mail: yazdanpanah@ee.kntu.ac.ir

    2006-09-15

    A gradient based approach for the design of set-point tracking adaptive controllers for nonlinear chaotic systems is presented. In this approach, Lyapunov exponents are used to select the controller gain. In the case of unknown or time varying chaotic plants, the Lyapunov exponents may vary during the plant operation. In this paper, an effective adaptive strategy is used for online identification of Lyapunov exponents and adaptive control of nonlinear chaotic plants. Also, a nonlinear observer for estimation of the states is proposed. Simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

  4. Generation of the covariance matrix for a set of nuclear data produced by collapsing a larger parent set through the weighted averaging of equivalent data points

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, D.L.

    1987-01-01

    A method is described for generating the covariance matrix of a set of experimental nuclear data which has been collapsed in size by the averaging of equivalent data points belonging to a larger parent data set. It is assumed that the data values and covariance matrix for the parent set are provided. The collapsed set is obtained by a proper weighted-averaging procedure based on the method of least squares. It is then shown by means of the law of error propagation that the elements of the covariance matrix for the collapsed set are linear combinations of elements from the parent set covariance matrix. The coefficients appearing in these combinations are binary products of the same coefficients which appear as weighting factors in the data collapsing procedure. As an example, the procedure is applied to a collection of recently-measured integral neutron-fission cross-section ratios. (orig.)

  5. Set point calculations for RAPID project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    HICKMAN, G.L.

    1999-01-01

    This change modifies accuracies of the water skid temperature indicators and controllers TIC-410. TI-412, TI-413, TIC-413, TIC-414, TIC-415. Acknowledges ability to calibrate PQIT-367 and modifies the accuracy of that instrument loop. Adjusts the allowable dilution dater temperature from 110-130F to 102-130F based on PCP Rev.2 and adjusts alarm and other points to reflect that change. Removes revision numbers for all references. Numerous additional changes (fixing typos, more detailed explanations etc.) throughout

  6. Reprogramming the body weight set point by a reciprocal interaction of hypothalamic leptin sensitivity and Pomc gene expression reverts extreme obesity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kavaljit H. Chhabra

    2016-10-01

    Conclusions: Pomc reactivation in previously obese, calorie-restricted ArcPomc−/− mice normalized energy homeostasis, suggesting that their body weight set point was restored to control levels. In contrast, massively obese and hyperleptinemic ArcPomc−/− mice or those weight-matched and treated with PASylated leptin to maintain extreme hyperleptinemia prior to Pomc reactivation converged to an intermediate set point relative to lean control and obese ArcPomc−/− mice. We conclude that restoration of hypothalamic leptin sensitivity and Pomc expression is necessary for obese ArcPomc−/− mice to achieve and sustain normal metabolic homeostasis; whereas deficits in either parameter set a maladaptive allostatic balance that defends increased adiposity and body weight.

  7. May 2002 Lidar Point Data of Southern California Coastline: Dana Point to Point La Jolla

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains lidar point data from a strip of Southern California coastline (including water, beach, cliffs, and top of cliffs) from Dana Point to Point La...

  8. September 2002 Lidar Point Data of Southern California Coastline: Dana Point to Point La Jolla

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains lidar point data from a strip of Southern California coastline (including water, beach, cliffs, and top of cliffs) from Dana Point to Point La...

  9. A Comparative Study of Applying Active-Set and Interior Point Methods in MPC for Controlling Nonlinear pH Process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Syam Syafiie

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available A comparative study of Model Predictive Control (MPC using active-set method and interior point methods is proposed as a control technique for highly non-linear pH process. The process is a strong acid-strong base system. A strong acid of hydrochloric acid (HCl and a strong base of sodium hydroxide (NaOH with the presence of buffer solution sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3 are used in a neutralization process flowing into reactor. The non-linear pH neutralization model governed in this process is presented by multi-linear models. Performance of both controllers is studied by evaluating its ability of set-point tracking and disturbance-rejection. Besides, the optimization time is compared between these two methods; both MPC shows the similar performance with no overshoot, offset, and oscillation. However, the conventional active-set method gives a shorter control action time for small scale optimization problem compared to MPC using IPM method for pH control.

  10. Cross-site comparisons of concentration-discharge relationships reveal climate-driven chemostatic set points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Godsey, S.; Kirchner, J. W.

    2017-12-01

    Streamflow solute concentrations often vary predictably with flows, providing insight into processes controlling solute generation and export. Previous work by the authors showed that log-transformed concentration-discharge relationships of weathering-derived solutes in 59 headwater catchments had relatively low slopes, implying that these watersheds behaved almost like chemostats. That is, their rates of solute production and/or mobilization were nearly proportional to water fluxes, on both event and inter-annual time scales. Here we re-examine these findings using data from roughly 1000 catchments, ranging from ˜10 to >1,000,000 sq. km in drainage area, and spanning a wide range of lithologic and climatic settings.Concentration-discharge relationships among this much larger set of much larger catchments are broadly consistent with the chemostatic behavior described above. However, site-to-site variations in mean concentrations among these catchments are negatively correlated with long-term average precipitation and discharge, suggesting dilution of stream concentrations under long-term leaching of the critical zone. Thus, on event and inter-annual time scales, stream solute concentrations are chemostatically buffered by groundwater storage and fast chemical reactions (such as ion exchange), but on much longer time scales, the catchment's chemostatic "set point" is determined by climatically driven critical zone evolution. We present examples illustrating short-term and long-term controls on water quality consistent with variations in weather and climate, and discuss their implications.

  11. Neural set point for the control of arterial pressure: role of the nucleus tractus solitarius

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valentinuzzi Max E

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Physiological experiments have shown that the mean arterial blood pressure (MAP can not be regulated after chemo and cardiopulmonary receptor denervation. Neuro-physiological information suggests that the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS is the only structure that receives information from its rostral neural nuclei and from the cardiovascular receptors and projects to nuclei that regulate the circulatory variables. Methods From a control theory perspective, to answer if the cardiovascular regulation has a set point, we should find out whether in the cardiovascular control there is something equivalent to a comparator evaluating the error signal (between the rostral projections to the NTS and the feedback inputs. The NTS would function as a comparator if: a its lesion suppresses cardiovascular regulation; b the negative feedback loop still responds normally to perturbations (such as mechanical or electrical after cutting the rostral afferent fibers to the NTS; c perturbation of rostral neural structures (RNS to the NTS modifies the set point without changing the dynamics of the elicited response; and d cardiovascular responses to perturbations on neural structures within the negative feedback loop compensate for much faster than perturbations on the NTS rostral structures. Results From the control theory framework, experimental evidence found currently in the literature plus experimental results from our group was put together showing that the above-mentioned conditions (to show that the NTS functions as a comparator are satisfied. Conclusions Physiological experiments suggest that long-term blood pressure is regulated by the nervous system. The NTS functions as a comparator (evaluating the error signal between its RNS and the cardiovascular receptor afferents and projects to nuclei that regulate the circulatory variables. The mean arterial pressure (MAP is regulated by the feedback of chemo and cardiopulmonary receptors and

  12. Fuzzy Logic Based Set-Point Weighting Controller Tuning for an Internal Model Control Based PID Controller

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maruthai Suresh

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Controller tuning is the process of adjusting the parameters of the selected controller to achieve optimum response for the controlled process. For many of the control problems, a satisfactory performance is obtained by using PID controllers. One of the main problems with mathematical models of physical systems is that the parameters used in the models cannot be determined with absolute accuracy. The values of the parameters may change with time or various effects. In these cases, conventional controller tuning methods suffer when trying a lot to produce optimum response. In order to overcome these difficulties a fuzzy logic based Set- Point weighting controller tuning method is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is analyzed through computer simulation using SIMULINK software and the results are presented. The fuzzy logic based simulation results are compared with Cohen-Coon (CC, Ziegler- Nichols (ZN, Ziegler – Nichols with Set- Point weighting (ZN-SPW, Internal Model Control (IMC and Internal model based PID controller responses (IMC-PID. The effects of process modeling errors and the importance of controller tuning have been brought out using the proposed control scheme.

  13. Atmospheric bromoform at Cape Point, South Africa: an initial fixed-point data set on the African continent

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. Kuyper

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Bromoform mixing ratios in marine air were measured at Cape Point Global Atmospheric Watch Station, South Africa. This represents the first such bromoform data set recorded at this location. Manual daily measurements were made during a month-long field campaign (austral spring 2011 using a gas chromatograph-electron capture detector (GC-ECD with a custom-built front end thermal desorption trap. The measured concentrations ranged between 4.4 and 64.6 (± 22.2 % ppt with a mean of 24.8 ± 14.8 ppt. The highest mixing ratios recorded here occurred at, or shortly after, low tide. The diurnal cycle exhibited a morning and evening maximum with lower concentrations throughout the rest of the day. Initial analysis of the data presented indicates that the local kelp beds were the dominant source of the bromoform reported. A concentration-weighted trajectory analysis of the bromoform measurements suggests that two offshore source areas may exist. These source areas appear to be centred on the Agulhas retroflection and extend from St Helena Bay to the southwest.

  14. Atmospheric bromoform at Cape Point, South Africa: an initial fixed-point data set on the African continent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuyper, Brett; Palmer, Carl J.; Labuschagne, Casper; Reason, Chris J. C.

    2018-04-01

    Bromoform mixing ratios in marine air were measured at Cape Point Global Atmospheric Watch Station, South Africa. This represents the first such bromoform data set recorded at this location. Manual daily measurements were made during a month-long field campaign (austral spring 2011) using a gas chromatograph-electron capture detector (GC-ECD) with a custom-built front end thermal desorption trap. The measured concentrations ranged between 4.4 and 64.6 (± 22.2 %) ppt with a mean of 24.8 ± 14.8 ppt. The highest mixing ratios recorded here occurred at, or shortly after, low tide. The diurnal cycle exhibited a morning and evening maximum with lower concentrations throughout the rest of the day. Initial analysis of the data presented indicates that the local kelp beds were the dominant source of the bromoform reported. A concentration-weighted trajectory analysis of the bromoform measurements suggests that two offshore source areas may exist. These source areas appear to be centred on the Agulhas retroflection and extend from St Helena Bay to the southwest.

  15. An updated global grid point surface air temperature anomaly data set: 1851--1990

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sepanski, R.J.; Boden, T.A.; Daniels, R.C.

    1991-10-01

    This document presents land-based monthly surface air temperature anomalies (departures from a 1951--1970 reference period mean) on a 5{degree} latitude by 10{degree} longitude global grid. Monthly surface air temperature anomalies (departures from a 1957--1975 reference period mean) for the Antarctic (grid points from 65{degree}S to 85{degree}S) are presented in a similar way as a separate data set. The data were derived primarily from the World Weather Records and the archives of the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. This long-term record of temperature anomalies may be used in studies addressing possible greenhouse-gas-induced climate changes. To date, the data have been employed in generating regional, hemispheric, and global time series for determining whether recent (i.e., post-1900) warming trends have taken place. This document also presents the monthly mean temperature records for the individual stations that were used to generate the set of gridded anomalies. The periods of record vary by station. Northern Hemisphere station data have been corrected for inhomogeneities, while Southern Hemisphere data are presented in uncorrected form. 14 refs., 11 figs., 10 tabs.

  16. Developing Common Set of Weights with Considering Nondiscretionary Inputs and Using Ideal Point Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reza Kiani Mavi

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Data envelopment analysis (DEA is used to evaluate the performance of decision making units (DMUs with multiple inputs and outputs in a homogeneous group. In this way, the acquired relative efficiency score for each decision making unit lies between zero and one where a number of them may have an equal efficiency score of one. DEA successfully divides them into two categories of efficient DMUs and inefficient DMUs. A ranking for inefficient DMUs is given but DEA does not provide further information about the efficient DMUs. One of the popular methods for evaluating and ranking DMUs is the common set of weights (CSW method. We generate a CSW model with considering nondiscretionary inputs that are beyond the control of DMUs and using ideal point method. The main idea of this approach is to minimize the distance between the evaluated decision making unit and the ideal decision making unit (ideal point. Using an empirical example we put our proposed model to test by applying it to the data of some 20 bank branches and rank their efficient units.

  17. Computer program to fit a hyperellipse to a set of phase-space points in as many as six dimensions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wadlinger, E.A.

    1980-03-01

    A computer program that will fit a hyperellipse to a set of phase-space points in as many as 6 dimensions was written and tested. The weight assigned to the phase-space points can be varied as a function of their distance from the centroid of the distribution. Varying the weight enables determination of whether there is a difference in ellipse orientation between inner and outer particles. This program should be useful in studying the effects of longitudinal and transverse phase-space couplings

  18. Barriers to Point-of-Care Testing in India: Results from Qualitative Research across Different Settings, Users and Major Diseases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engel, Nora; Ganesh, Gayatri; Patil, Mamata; Yellappa, Vijayashree; Pant Pai, Nitika; Vadnais, Caroline; Pai, Madhukar

    2015-01-01

    Background Successful point-of-care testing, namely ensuring the completion of the test and treat cycle in the same encounter, has immense potential to reduce diagnostic and treatment delays, and impact patient outcomes. However, having rapid tests is not enough, as many barriers may prevent their successful implementation in point-of-care testing programs. Qualitative research on diagnostic practices may help identify such barriers across different points of care in health systems. Methods In this exploratory qualitative study, we conducted 78 semi-structured interviews and 13 focus group discussions in an urban and rural area of Karnataka, India, with healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, specialists, traditional healers, and informal providers), patients, community health workers, test manufacturers, laboratory technicians, program managers and policy-makers. Participants were purposively sampled to represent settings of hospitals, peripheral labs, clinics, communities and homes, in both the public and private sectors. Results In the Indian context, the onus is on the patient to ensure successful point-of-care testing across homes, clinics, labs and hospitals, amidst uncoordinated providers with divergent and often competing practices, in settings lacking material, money and human resources. We identified three overarching themes affecting point-of-care testing: the main theme is ‘relationships’ among providers and between providers and patients, influenced by the cross-cutting theme of ‘infrastructure’. Challenges with both result in ‘modified practices’ often favouring empirical (symptomatic) treatment over treatment guided by testing. Conclusions Even if tests can be conducted on the spot and infrastructure challenges have been resolved, relationships among providers and between patients and providers are crucial for successful point-of-care testing. Furthermore, these barriers do not act in isolation, but are interlinked and need to be examined

  19. Barriers to Point-of-Care Testing in India: Results from Qualitative Research across Different Settings, Users and Major Diseases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nora Engel

    Full Text Available Successful point-of-care testing, namely ensuring the completion of the test and treat cycle in the same encounter, has immense potential to reduce diagnostic and treatment delays, and impact patient outcomes. However, having rapid tests is not enough, as many barriers may prevent their successful implementation in point-of-care testing programs. Qualitative research on diagnostic practices may help identify such barriers across different points of care in health systems.In this exploratory qualitative study, we conducted 78 semi-structured interviews and 13 focus group discussions in an urban and rural area of Karnataka, India, with healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, specialists, traditional healers, and informal providers, patients, community health workers, test manufacturers, laboratory technicians, program managers and policy-makers. Participants were purposively sampled to represent settings of hospitals, peripheral labs, clinics, communities and homes, in both the public and private sectors.In the Indian context, the onus is on the patient to ensure successful point-of-care testing across homes, clinics, labs and hospitals, amidst uncoordinated providers with divergent and often competing practices, in settings lacking material, money and human resources. We identified three overarching themes affecting point-of-care testing: the main theme is 'relationships' among providers and between providers and patients, influenced by the cross-cutting theme of 'infrastructure'. Challenges with both result in 'modified practices' often favouring empirical (symptomatic treatment over treatment guided by testing.Even if tests can be conducted on the spot and infrastructure challenges have been resolved, relationships among providers and between patients and providers are crucial for successful point-of-care testing. Furthermore, these barriers do not act in isolation, but are interlinked and need to be examined as such. Also, a test alone has only

  20. Information processing by neuronal populations

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Hölscher, Christian; Munk, Matthias

    2009-01-01

    ... simultaneously recorded spike trains 120 Mark Laubach, Nandakumar S. Narayanan, and Eyal Y. Kimchi Part III Neuronal population information coding and plasticity in specific brain areas 149 7 F...

  1. Generation of a statistical shape model with probabilistic point correspondences and the expectation maximization- iterative closest point algorithm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hufnagel, Heike; Pennec, Xavier; Ayache, Nicholas; Ehrhardt, Jan; Handels, Heinz

    2008-01-01

    Identification of point correspondences between shapes is required for statistical analysis of organ shapes differences. Since manual identification of landmarks is not a feasible option in 3D, several methods were developed to automatically find one-to-one correspondences on shape surfaces. For unstructured point sets, however, one-to-one correspondences do not exist but correspondence probabilities can be determined. A method was developed to compute a statistical shape model based on shapes which are represented by unstructured point sets with arbitrary point numbers. A fundamental problem when computing statistical shape models is the determination of correspondences between the points of the shape observations of the training data set. In the absence of landmarks, exact correspondences can only be determined between continuous surfaces, not between unstructured point sets. To overcome this problem, we introduce correspondence probabilities instead of exact correspondences. The correspondence probabilities are found by aligning the observation shapes with the affine expectation maximization-iterative closest points (EM-ICP) registration algorithm. In a second step, the correspondence probabilities are used as input to compute a mean shape (represented once again by an unstructured point set). Both steps are unified in a single optimization criterion which depe nds on the two parameters 'registration transformation' and 'mean shape'. In a last step, a variability model which best represents the variability in the training data set is computed. Experiments on synthetic data sets and in vivo brain structure data sets (MRI) are then designed to evaluate the performance of our algorithm. The new method was applied to brain MRI data sets, and the estimated point correspondences were compared to a statistical shape model built on exact correspondences. Based on established measures of ''generalization ability'' and ''specificity'', the estimates were very satisfactory

  2. The Effects of Set-Points and Dead-Bands of the HVAC System on the Energy Consumption and Occupant Thermal Comfort

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kazanci, Ongun Berk; Olesen, Bjarne W.

    2013-01-01

    A building is a complex system where many components interact with each other therefore the control system plays a key role regarding the energy consumption and the occupant thermal comfort. This study is concerned with a detached, one-storey, single family, energy-plus house. It is equipped...... on the effects of the set-points and dead-bands of different components on the energy consumption together with the occupant thermal comfort. Evaluations are carried out with TRNSYS for Copenhagen and Madrid in order to compare climatic effects....... with a ground heat exchanger, a ground coupled heat pump, embedded pipes in the floor and in the ceiling, a ventilation system (mechanical and natural), a domestic hot water tank and photovoltaic/thermal panels on the roof. Preliminary evaluations showed that for Madrid, change of indoor set-point in cooling...

  3. Discrimination of the change point in a quantum setting

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akimoto, Daiki; Hayashi, Masahito

    2011-01-01

    In the change point problem, we determine when the observed distribution has changed to another one. We expand this problem to a quantum case where copies of an unknown pure state are being distributed. That is, we estimate when the distributed quantum pure state is changed. As the most fundamental case, we treat the problem of deciding the true change point t c between the two given candidates t 1 and t 2 . Our problem is mathematically equal to identifying a given state with one of the two unknown states when multiple copies of the states are provided. The minimum of the averaged error probability is given and the optimal positive operator-valued measure (POVM) is given to obtain it when the initial and final quantum pure states are subject to the invariant prior. We also compute the error probability for deciding the change point under the above POVM when the initial and final quantum pure states are fixed. These analytical results allow us to calculate the value in the asymptotic case.

  4. Combining different types of scale space interest points using canonical sets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kanters, F.M.W.; Denton, T.; Shokoufandeh, A.; Florack, L.M.J.; Haar Romenij, ter B.M.; Sgallari, F.; Murli, A.; Paragios, N.

    2007-01-01

    Scale space interest points capture important photometric and deep structure information of an image. The information content of such points can be made explicit using image reconstruction. In this paper we will consider the problem of combining multiple types of interest points used for image

  5. Dual-time-point Imaging and Delayed-time-point Fluorodeoxyglucose-PET/Computed Tomography Imaging in Various Clinical Settings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Houshmand, Sina; Salavati, Ali; Antonsen Segtnan, Eivind

    2016-01-01

    The techniques of dual-time-point imaging (DTPI) and delayed-time-point imaging, which are mostly being used for distinction between inflammatory and malignant diseases, has increased the specificity of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET for diagnosis and prognosis of certain diseases. A gradually incr...

  6. Hardware-accelerated Point Generation and Rendering of Point-based Impostors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bærentzen, Jakob Andreas

    2005-01-01

    This paper presents a novel scheme for generating points from triangle models. The method is fast and lends itself well to implementation using graphics hardware. The triangle to point conversion is done by rendering the models, and the rendering may be performed procedurally or by a black box API....... I describe the technique in detail and discuss how the generated point sets can easily be used as impostors for the original triangle models used to create the points. Since the points reside solely in GPU memory, these impostors are fairly efficient. Source code is available online....

  7. Salty solutions: their effects on thermal set points in behavioral repertoires of albino rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vitulli, W F; Aker, R; Howard, S W; Jones, W M; Kimball, M W; Quinn, J M

    1994-08-01

    Salt (sodium chloride) has been linked to increased blood pressure and a rise in core body temperature. The objective of this study was to investigate the role played by salt in altering behavioral thermoregulation in albino rats. Different doses of sodium chloride were administered (ip) prior to fixed-interval 2-min. schedules of microwave reinforcement in rats tested in a cold Skinner Box. Three Sprague-Dawley rats were conditioned to regulate their thermal environment with 5-sec. exposures of MW reinforcement in a repeated-measures reversal design. Friedman's non-parametric test showed significant differences among sodium chloride doses and physiologically normal saline. Post hoc sign tests showed that all doses of NaCl suppressed operant behavior for heat except 60 mg/kg. The hypothesis that sodium chloride lowers hypothalamic set point for heat was partially supported.

  8. Pseudo-set framing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barasz, Kate; John, Leslie K; Keenan, Elizabeth A; Norton, Michael I

    2017-10-01

    Pseudo-set framing-arbitrarily grouping items or tasks together as part of an apparent "set"-motivates people to reach perceived completion points. Pseudo-set framing changes gambling choices (Study 1), effort (Studies 2 and 3), giving behavior (Field Data and Study 4), and purchase decisions (Study 5). These effects persist in the absence of any reward, when a cost must be incurred, and after participants are explicitly informed of the arbitrariness of the set. Drawing on Gestalt psychology, we develop a conceptual account that predicts what will-and will not-act as a pseudo-set, and defines the psychological process through which these pseudo-sets affect behavior: over and above typical reference points, pseudo-set framing alters perceptions of (in)completeness, making intermediate progress seem less complete. In turn, these feelings of incompleteness motivate people to persist until the pseudo-set has been fulfilled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  9. Book Review: Revolutionary Keywords for A New Left by Ian Parker

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eyal Z Clyne

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Eyal Clyne reviews Ian Parker's "Revolutionary Keywords for A New Left" (Winchester and Washington: Zero books ISBN: 978-1-78535-642-1, a book that unlocks complex Left-struggle issues in short and accessible essays.

  10. Regional control of Drosophila gut stem cell proliferation: EGF establishes GSSC proliferative set point & controls emergence from quiescence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strand, Marie; Micchelli, Craig A

    2013-01-01

    Adult stem cells vary widely in their rates of proliferation. Some stem cells are constitutively active, while others divide only in response to injury. The mechanism controlling this differential proliferative set point is not well understood. The anterior-posterior (A/P) axis of the adult Drosophila midgut has a segmental organization, displaying physiological compartmentalization and region-specific epithelia. These distinct midgut regions are maintained by defined stem cell populations with unique division schedules, providing an excellent experimental model with which to investigate this question. Here, we focus on the quiescent gastric stem cells (GSSCs) of the acidic copper cell region (CCR), which exhibit the greatest period of latency between divisions of all characterized gut stem cells, to define the molecular basis of differential stem cell activity. Our molecular genetic analysis demonstrates that the mitogenic EGF signaling pathway is a limiting factor controlling GSSC proliferation. We find that under baseline conditions, when GSSCs are largely quiescent, the lowest levels of EGF ligands in the midgut are found in the CCR. However, acute epithelial injury by enteric pathogens leads to an increase in EGF ligand expression in the CCR and rapid expansion of the GSSC lineage. Thus, the unique proliferative set points for gut stem cells residing in physiologically distinct compartments are governed by regional control of niche signals along the A/P axis.

  11. Regional control of Drosophila gut stem cell proliferation: EGF establishes GSSC proliferative set point & controls emergence from quiescence.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marie Strand

    Full Text Available Adult stem cells vary widely in their rates of proliferation. Some stem cells are constitutively active, while others divide only in response to injury. The mechanism controlling this differential proliferative set point is not well understood. The anterior-posterior (A/P axis of the adult Drosophila midgut has a segmental organization, displaying physiological compartmentalization and region-specific epithelia. These distinct midgut regions are maintained by defined stem cell populations with unique division schedules, providing an excellent experimental model with which to investigate this question. Here, we focus on the quiescent gastric stem cells (GSSCs of the acidic copper cell region (CCR, which exhibit the greatest period of latency between divisions of all characterized gut stem cells, to define the molecular basis of differential stem cell activity. Our molecular genetic analysis demonstrates that the mitogenic EGF signaling pathway is a limiting factor controlling GSSC proliferation. We find that under baseline conditions, when GSSCs are largely quiescent, the lowest levels of EGF ligands in the midgut are found in the CCR. However, acute epithelial injury by enteric pathogens leads to an increase in EGF ligand expression in the CCR and rapid expansion of the GSSC lineage. Thus, the unique proliferative set points for gut stem cells residing in physiologically distinct compartments are governed by regional control of niche signals along the A/P axis.

  12. December 2002 Lidar Point Data of Southern California Coastline: Dana Point to Point La Jolla

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains lidar point data (latitude and longitude) from a strip of Southern California coastline (including water, beach, cliffs, and top of cliffs)...

  13. April 2004 Lidar Point Data of Southern California Coastline: Dana Point to Point La Jolla

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains lidar point data (Geodetic Coordinates) from a strip of Southern California coastline (including water, beach, cliffs, and top of cliffs) from...

  14. March 2003 Lidar Point Data of Southern California Coastline: Dana Point to Point La Jolla

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains lidar point data (Geodetic Coordinates) from a strip of Southern California coastline (including water, beach, cliffs, and top of cliffs) from...

  15. On the cost of shame : Comment on "Nudging by shaming, shaming by nudging".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tieffenbach, Emma

    2014-12-01

    In his editorial, Nir Eyal argues that a nudge can exploit our propensity to feel shame in order to steer us toward certain choices. We object that shame is a cost and therefore cannot figure in the apparatus of a nudge.

  16. On the cost of shame

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tieffenbach, Emma

    2014-01-01

    In his editorial, Nir Eyal argues that a nudge can exploit our propensity to feel shame in order to steer us toward certain choices. We object that shame is a cost and therefore cannot figure in the apparatus of a nudge. PMID:25489599

  17. The anisotropic network model web server at 2015 (ANM 2.0).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eyal, Eran; Lum, Gengkon; Bahar, Ivet

    2015-05-01

    The anisotropic network model (ANM) is one of the simplest yet powerful tools for exploring protein dynamics. Its main utility is to predict and visualize the collective motions of large complexes and assemblies near their equilibrium structures. The ANM server, introduced by us in 2006 helped making this tool more accessible to non-sophisticated users. We now provide a new version (ANM 2.0), which allows inclusion of nucleic acids and ligands in the network model and thus enables the investigation of the collective motions of protein-DNA/RNA and -ligand systems. The new version offers the flexibility of defining the system nodes and the interaction types and cutoffs. It also includes extensive improvements in hardware, software and graphical interfaces. ANM 2.0 is available at http://anm.csb.pitt.edu eran.eyal@sheba.health.gov.il, eyal.eran@gmail.com. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

  18. Genetic analysis of the gravitropic set-point angle in lateral roots of arabidopsis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mullen, J. L.; Hangarter, R. P.

    2003-05-01

    Research on gravity responses in plants has mostly focused on primary roots and shoots, which typically orient to a vertical orientation. However, the distribution of lateral organs and their characteristically non-vertical growth orientation are critical for the determination of plant form. For example, in Arabidopsis, when lateral roots emerge from the primary root, they grow at a nearly horizontal orientation. As they elongate, the roots slowly curve until they eventually reach a vertical orientation. The regulation of this lateral root orientation is an important component affecting overall root system architecture. We found that this change in orientation is not simply due to the onset of gravitropic competence, as non-vertical lateral roots are capable of both positive and negative gravitropism. Thus, the horizontal growth of new lateral roots appears to be determined by what is called the gravitropic set-point angle (GSA). This developmental control of the GSA of lateral roots in Arabidopsis provides a useful system for investigating the components involved in regulating gravitropic responses. Using this system, we have identified several Arabidopsis mutants that have altered lateral root orientations but maintain normal primary root orientation.

  19. Frequencies of digits, divergence points, and Schmidt games

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olsen, L.

    2009-01-01

    Sets of divergence points, i.e. numbers x (or tuples of numbers) for which the limiting frequency of a given string of N-adic digits of x fails to exist, have recently attracted huge interest in the literature. In this paper we consider sets of simultaneous divergence points, i.e. numbers x (or tuples of numbers) for which the limiting frequencies of all strings of N-adic digits of x fail to exist. We show that many natural sets of simultaneous divergence points are (α, β)-wining sets in the sense of the Schmidt game. As an application we obtain lower bounds for the Hausdorff dimension of these sets.

  20. Indexing Moving Points

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Agarwal, Pankaj K.; Arge, Lars Allan; Erickson, Jeff

    2003-01-01

    We propose three indexing schemes for storing a set S of N points in the plane, each moving along a linear trajectory, so that any query of the following form can be answered quickly: Given a rectangle R and a real value t, report all K points of S that lie inside R at time t. We first present an...

  1. Density functional theory calculations of the lowest energy quintet and triplet states of model hemes: role of functional, basis set, and zero-point energy corrections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khvostichenko, Daria; Choi, Andrew; Boulatov, Roman

    2008-04-24

    We investigated the effect of several computational variables, including the choice of the basis set, application of symmetry constraints, and zero-point energy (ZPE) corrections, on the structural parameters and predicted ground electronic state of model 5-coordinate hemes (iron(II) porphines axially coordinated by a single imidazole or 2-methylimidazole). We studied the performance of B3LYP and B3PW91 with eight Pople-style basis sets (up to 6-311+G*) and B97-1, OLYP, and TPSS functionals with 6-31G and 6-31G* basis sets. Only hybrid functionals B3LYP, B3PW91, and B97-1 reproduced the quintet ground state of the model hemes. With a given functional, the choice of the basis set caused up to 2.7 kcal/mol variation of the quintet-triplet electronic energy gap (DeltaEel), in several cases, resulting in the inversion of the sign of DeltaEel. Single-point energy calculations with triple-zeta basis sets of the Pople (up to 6-311G++(2d,2p)), Ahlrichs (TZVP and TZVPP), and Dunning (cc-pVTZ) families showed the same trend. The zero-point energy of the quintet state was approximately 1 kcal/mol lower than that of the triplet, and accounting for ZPE corrections was crucial for establishing the ground state if the electronic energy of the triplet state was approximately 1 kcal/mol less than that of the quintet. Within a given model chemistry, effects of symmetry constraints and of a "tense" structure of the iron porphine fragment coordinated to 2-methylimidazole on DeltaEel were limited to 0.3 kcal/mol. For both model hemes the best agreement with crystallographic structural data was achieved with small 6-31G and 6-31G* basis sets. Deviation of the computed frequency of the Fe-Im stretching mode from the experimental value with the basis set decreased in the order: nonaugmented basis sets, basis sets with polarization functions, and basis sets with polarization and diffuse functions. Contraction of Pople-style basis sets (double-zeta or triple-zeta) affected the results

  2. New Maximal Two-distance Sets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lisonek, Petr

    1996-01-01

    A two-distance set in E^d is a point set X inthe d-dimensional Euclidean spacesuch that the distances between distinct points in Xassume only two different non-zero values. Based on results from classical distance geometry, we developan algorithm to classify, for a given dimension, all maximal...... (largest possible)two-distance sets in E^d.Using this algorithm we have completed the full classificationfor all dimensions less than or equal to 7, andwe have found one set in E^8 whosemaximality follows from Blokhuis' upper bound on sizes of s-distance sets.While in the dimensions less than or equal to 6...

  3. On the Cost of Shame Comment on “Nudging by Shaming, Shaming by Nudging”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emma Tieffenbach

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available In his editorial, Nir Eyal argues that a nudge can exploit our propensity to feel shame in order to steer us toward certain choices. We object that shame is a cost and therefore cannot figure in the apparatus of a nudge.

  4. Characterizing fixed points

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanjo Zlobec

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available A set of sufficient conditions which guarantee the existence of a point x⋆ such that f(x⋆ = x⋆ is called a "fixed point theorem". Many such theorems are named after well-known mathematicians and economists. Fixed point theorems are among most useful ones in applied mathematics, especially in economics and game theory. Particularly important theorem in these areas is Kakutani's fixed point theorem which ensures existence of fixed point for point-to-set mappings, e.g., [2, 3, 4]. John Nash developed and applied Kakutani's ideas to prove the existence of (what became known as "Nash equilibrium" for finite games with mixed strategies for any number of players. This work earned him a Nobel Prize in Economics that he shared with two mathematicians. Nash's life was dramatized in the movie "Beautiful Mind" in 2001. In this paper, we approach the system f(x = x differently. Instead of studying existence of its solutions our objective is to determine conditions which are both necessary and sufficient that an arbitrary point x⋆ is a fixed point, i.e., that it satisfies f(x⋆ = x⋆. The existence of solutions for continuous function f of the single variable is easy to establish using the Intermediate Value Theorem of Calculus. However, characterizing fixed points x⋆, i.e., providing answers to the question of finding both necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary given x⋆ to satisfy f(x⋆ = x⋆, is not simple even for functions of the single variable. It is possible that constructive answers do not exist. Our objective is to find them. Our work may require some less familiar tools. One of these might be the "quadratic envelope characterization of zero-derivative point" recalled in the next section. The results are taken from the author's current research project "Studying the Essence of Fixed Points". They are believed to be original. The author has received several feedbacks on the preliminary report and on parts of the project

  5. Hawaii ESI: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for seabird nesting colonies in coastal Hawaii. Vector points in this data set represent locations of...

  6. Maryland ESI: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for raptors in Maryland. Vector points in this data set represent bird nesting sites. Species-specific...

  7. Virginia ESI: REPTPT (Reptile Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for sea turtles in Virginia. Vector points in this data set represent nesting sites. Species-specific...

  8. Interesting Interest Points

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aanæs, Henrik; Dahl, Anders Lindbjerg; Pedersen, Kim Steenstrup

    2012-01-01

    on spatial invariance of interest points under changing acquisition parameters by measuring the spatial recall rate. The scope of this paper is to investigate the performance of a number of existing well-established interest point detection methods. Automatic performance evaluation of interest points is hard......Not all interest points are equally interesting. The most valuable interest points lead to optimal performance of the computer vision method in which they are employed. But a measure of this kind will be dependent on the chosen vision application. We propose a more general performance measure based...... position. The LED illumination provides the option for artificially relighting the scene from a range of light directions. This data set has given us the ability to systematically evaluate the performance of a number of interest point detectors. The highlights of the conclusions are that the fixed scale...

  9. Louisiana ESI: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for seabird and wading bird nesting colonies in coastal Louisiana. Vector points in this data set represent...

  10. The introduction of syphilis point of care tests in resource limited settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marks, Michael; Mabey, David Cw

    2017-04-01

    Syphilis remains an important and preventable cause of stillbirth and neonatal mortality. About 1 million women with active syphilis become pregnant each year. Without treatment, 25% of them will deliver a stillborn baby and 33% a low birth weight baby with an increased chance of dying in the first month of life. Adverse pregnancy outcomes due to syphilis can be prevented by screening pregnant women, and treating those who test positive with a single dose of penicillin before 28 weeks' gestation. Areas covered: This manuscript covers the impact of syphilis on pregnancy outcome, the diagnosis of syphilis, with a special focus on point of care (POC) tests, and challenges to the introduction of POC tests, and their potential impact on the control and prevention of syphilis in resource limited settings. Expert commentary: POC tests for syphilis are available which meet the ASSURED criteria, and could make syphilis screening accessible to all women anywhere in the world who attend an antenatal clinic. High quality dual POC tests for HIV and syphilis could ensure that well-funded programmes for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV can contribute towards increased coverage of antenatal syphilis screening, and prevent more than 300,000 adverse pregnancy outcomes due to syphilis annually. Alongside investment to increase availability of syphilis POC tests, operational research is needed to understand how best to improve screening of pregnant women and to translate test availability into improved pregnancy outcomes.

  11. Lambda based control O{sub 2} set point optimisation and evaluation; Lambdabaserad reglering. Boervaerdesoptimering av O{sub 2} och utvaerdering

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Svensson, Mikael; Brodin, Peter [Vattenfall Utveckling, Aelvkarleby (Sweden)

    2004-10-01

    During winter and spring 2003, the project 'Lambda based control' was carried out at Vattenfall Utveckling AB in Aelvkarleby, Sweden. The main purpose of the project was to explore if conventional lambda sensors could be used to control the fuel/air-ratio in small boilers. The conclusion was that this is possible. To be able to make use of the result, the question of what the numerical set value for O{sub 2} should be, has to be answered. Several parameters have impact on the oxygen level in combustion gas. The main purpose of this project is to explore if there is a cost efficient way of controlling fuel/air-ratio by using lambda sensors. The scope of the project is achieve the following, by using the experience from project P4-209: find out which parameters that correlate most strongly with lambda; develop a method to decide which and how many parameters to use, in order to optimize cost efficiency; calculate optimal set value for O{sub 2} in one of the boilers used for experiments in the project; and evaluate the method and compare important parameters of operation, such as efficiency and emissions. The method developed in the project uses initial measurements to find out the relation between O{sub 2} and emissions at different power levels. Then a set point curve is calculated where set point for O{sub 2} is expressed as a function of power level in the current boiler. The method has been implemented and evaluated at a 400 kW boiler in Aelvkarleby, Sweden. The results are improvements in efficiency (6 %) and emissions, CO decreased 40 %, NO decreased by 20 %. The conclusion is that lambda based control according to this method could be a profitable investment under the right circumstances, where stability in characteristics is the most important property. What makes the method uncertain is its inability to handle changes in characteristics of a boiler.

  12. Visibility of noisy point cloud data

    KAUST Repository

    Mehra, Ravish

    2010-06-01

    We present a robust algorithm for estimating visibility from a given viewpoint for a point set containing concavities, non-uniformly spaced samples, and possibly corrupted with noise. Instead of performing an explicit surface reconstruction for the points set, visibility is computed based on a construction involving convex hull in a dual space, an idea inspired by the work of Katz et al. [26]. We derive theoretical bounds on the behavior of the method in the presence of noise and concavities, and use the derivations to develop a robust visibility estimation algorithm. In addition, computing visibility from a set of adaptively placed viewpoints allows us to generate locally consistent partial reconstructions. Using a graph based approximation algorithm we couple such reconstructions to extract globally consistent reconstructions. We test our method on a variety of 2D and 3D point sets of varying complexity and noise content. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. On Motivating Operations at the Point of Online Purchase Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fagerstrom, Asle; Arntzen, Erik

    2013-01-01

    Consumer behavior analysis can be applied over a wide range of economic topics in which the main focus is the contingencies that influence the behavior of the economic agent. This paper provides an overview on the work that has been done on the impact from motivating operations at the point of online purchase situation. Motivating operations, a…

  14. Pro SharePoint 2013 administration

    CERN Document Server

    Garrett, Robert

    2013-01-01

    Pro SharePoint 2013 Administration is a practical guide to SharePoint 2013 for intermediate to advanced SharePoint administrators and power users, covering the out-of-the-box feature set and capabilities of Microsoft's collaboration and business productivity platform. SharePoint 2013 is an incredibly complex product, with many moving parts, new features, best practices, and 'gotchas.' Author Rob Garrett distills SharePoint's portfolio of features, capabilities, and utilities into an in-depth professional guide-with no fluff and copious advice-that is designed from scratch to be the manual Micr

  15. Hybrid fixed point in CAT(0 spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hemant Kumar Pathak

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we introduce an ultrapower approach to prove fixed point theorems for $H^{+}$-nonexpansive multi-valued mappings in the setting of CAT(0 spaces and prove several hybrid fixed point results in CAT(0 spaces for families of single-valued nonexpansive or quasinonexpansive mappings and multi-valued upper semicontinuous, almost lower semicontinuous or $H^{+}$-nonexpansive mappings which are weakly commuting. We also establish a result about structure of the set of fixed points of $H^{+}$-quasinonexpansive mapping on a CAT(0 space.

  16. Continuation of Sets of Constrained Orbit Segments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schilder, Frank; Brøns, Morten; Chamoun, George Chaouki

    Sets of constrained orbit segments of time continuous flows are collections of trajectories that represent a whole or parts of an invariant set. A non-trivial but simple example is a homoclinic orbit. A typical representation of this set consists of an equilibrium point of the flow and a trajectory...... that starts close and returns close to this fixed point within finite time. More complicated examples are hybrid periodic orbits of piecewise smooth systems or quasi-periodic invariant tori. Even though it is possible to define generalised two-point boundary value problems for computing sets of constrained...... orbit segments, this is very disadvantageous in practice. In this talk we will present an algorithm that allows the efficient continuation of sets of constrained orbit segments together with the solution of the full variational problem....

  17. Some notes on tetrahedrally closed spherical sets in Euclidean spaces

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    47

    is a relation between these sets. P is called the point set, L the line set and I the incidence relation. A point-line geometry S = (P,L,I) is called a near polygon if every two distinct points are incident with at most one line and if for every point x and every line L, there exists a unique point on L that is nearest to x with respect to ...

  18. Columbia River ESI: SOCECON (Socioeconomic Resource Points and Lines)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains vector points and lines representing human-use resource data for Columbia River. In the data set, vector points represent aquaculture sites,...

  19. Point-of-care blood eosinophil count in a severe asthma clinic setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heffler, Enrico; Terranova, Giovanni; Chessari, Carlo; Frazzetto, Valentina; Crimi, Claudia; Fichera, Silvia; Picardi, Giuseppe; Nicolosi, Giuliana; Porto, Morena; Intravaia, Rossella; Crimi, Nunzio

    2017-07-01

    One of the main severe asthma phenotypes is severe eosinophilic or eosinophilic refractory asthma for which novel biologic agents are emerging as therapeutic options. In this context, blood eosinophil counts are one of the most reliable biomarkers. To evaluate the performance of a point-of-care peripheral blood counter in a patients with severe asthma. The blood eosinophil counts of 76 patients with severe asthma were evaluated by point-of-care and standard analyzers. A significant correlation between blood eosinophils assessed by the 2 devices was found (R 2  = 0.854, P asthma and the ELEN index, a composite score useful to predict sputum eosinophilia. The results of our study contribute to the validation of a point-of-care device to assess blood eosinophils and open the possibility of using this device for the management of severe asthma management. Copyright © 2017 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Quantitative structure-property relationships for prediction of boiling point, vapor pressure, and melting point.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dearden, John C

    2003-08-01

    Boiling point, vapor pressure, and melting point are important physicochemical properties in the modeling of the distribution and fate of chemicals in the environment. However, such data often are not available, and therefore must be estimated. Over the years, many attempts have been made to calculate boiling points, vapor pressures, and melting points by using quantitative structure-property relationships, and this review examines and discusses the work published in this area, and concentrates particularly on recent studies. A number of software programs are commercially available for the calculation of boiling point, vapor pressure, and melting point, and these have been tested for their predictive ability with a test set of 100 organic chemicals.

  1. Forensisk Litteratur

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bøndergaard, Johanne Helbo

    2012-01-01

    This article considers a shift in contemporary culture from an Era of Testimony to one of forensics. Based on Eyal Weizman’s concept of forensic aesthetics a mode in contemporary literature on memory and the past is suggested. Works that include traces of the past in the form of photographs...

  2. Southeast Alaska ESI: FISHPT (Fish Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains biological resource data for anadromous fish streams in Southeast Alaska. Vector points in this data set represent locations of fish streams....

  3. Columbia River ESI: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for bird nesting sites in the Columbia River area. Vector points in this data set represent locations of...

  4. Louisiana ESI: SOCECON (Socioeconomic Resource Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains human-use resource data for airport, heliport, marina, and boat ramp locations in Louisiana. Vector points in this data set represent the...

  5. Geodetic Control Points - MO 2014 Springfield Benchmarks (SHP)

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC State | GIS Inventory — Points that show set benchmark or survey control locations in the City of Springfield. Many of these points are PLS section corners and quarter corners. These points...

  6. Utility of the point of care CD4 analyzer, PIMA, to enumerate CD4 counts in the field settings in India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thakar Madhuri

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In resource limited settings non-availability of CD4 count facility at the site could adversely affect the ART roll out programme. Point of care CD4 enumerating equipments can make the CD4 count available at the site of care and improve the patients’ management considerably. This study is aimed at determining the utility of a Point of Care PIMA CD4 analyzer (Alere, Germany in the field settings in India. Method The blood samples were collected from 1790 participants at 21 ART centers from different parts of the country and tested using PIMA and the reference methods (FACSCalibur, FACSCount and CyFlow SL3. The paired finger prick and venous blood samples from 175 participants were tested by the PIMA CD4 Analyzer and then by FACSCalibur. Result The CD4 counts obtained by PIMA CD4 analyzer showed excellent correlation with the counts obtained by the reference methods; for venous blood the Pearson’s r was 0.921, p 500 cells/mm3, the differences in the median CD4 counts obtained by the reference method and the PIMA analyzer were not significant (P > 0.05 and the relative bias were low (−7 to 5.1%. The Intermachine comparison showed variation within the acceptable limit of%CV of 10%. Conclusion In the field settings, the POC PIMA CD4 analyzer gave CD4 counts comparable to the reference methods for all CD4 ranges. The POC equipment could identify the patients eligible for ART in 91% cases. Adequate training is necessary for finger prick sample collection for optimum results. Decentralization of CD4 testing by making the CD4 counts available at primary health centers, especially in remote areas with minimum or no infrastructure would reduce the missed visits and improve adherence of the patients.

  7. Method and basis set dependence of anharmonic ground state nuclear wave functions and zero-point energies: Application to SSSH

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolmann, Stephen J.; Jordan, Meredith J. T.

    2010-02-01

    One of the largest remaining errors in thermochemical calculations is the determination of the zero-point energy (ZPE). The fully coupled, anharmonic ZPE and ground state nuclear wave function of the SSSH radical are calculated using quantum diffusion Monte Carlo on interpolated potential energy surfaces (PESs) constructed using a variety of method and basis set combinations. The ZPE of SSSH, which is approximately 29 kJ mol-1 at the CCSD(T)/6-31G∗ level of theory, has a 4 kJ mol-1 dependence on the treatment of electron correlation. The anharmonic ZPEs are consistently 0.3 kJ mol-1 lower in energy than the harmonic ZPEs calculated at the Hartree-Fock and MP2 levels of theory, and 0.7 kJ mol-1 lower in energy at the CCSD(T)/6-31G∗ level of theory. Ideally, for sub-kJ mol-1 thermochemical accuracy, ZPEs should be calculated using correlated methods with as big a basis set as practicable. The ground state nuclear wave function of SSSH also has significant method and basis set dependence. The analysis of the nuclear wave function indicates that SSSH is localized to a single symmetry equivalent global minimum, despite having sufficient ZPE to be delocalized over both minima. As part of this work, modifications to the interpolated PES construction scheme of Collins and co-workers are presented.

  8. Method and basis set dependence of anharmonic ground state nuclear wave functions and zero-point energies: application to SSSH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolmann, Stephen J; Jordan, Meredith J T

    2010-02-07

    One of the largest remaining errors in thermochemical calculations is the determination of the zero-point energy (ZPE). The fully coupled, anharmonic ZPE and ground state nuclear wave function of the SSSH radical are calculated using quantum diffusion Monte Carlo on interpolated potential energy surfaces (PESs) constructed using a variety of method and basis set combinations. The ZPE of SSSH, which is approximately 29 kJ mol(-1) at the CCSD(T)/6-31G* level of theory, has a 4 kJ mol(-1) dependence on the treatment of electron correlation. The anharmonic ZPEs are consistently 0.3 kJ mol(-1) lower in energy than the harmonic ZPEs calculated at the Hartree-Fock and MP2 levels of theory, and 0.7 kJ mol(-1) lower in energy at the CCSD(T)/6-31G* level of theory. Ideally, for sub-kJ mol(-1) thermochemical accuracy, ZPEs should be calculated using correlated methods with as big a basis set as practicable. The ground state nuclear wave function of SSSH also has significant method and basis set dependence. The analysis of the nuclear wave function indicates that SSSH is localized to a single symmetry equivalent global minimum, despite having sufficient ZPE to be delocalized over both minima. As part of this work, modifications to the interpolated PES construction scheme of Collins and co-workers are presented.

  9. Maximal translational equivalence classes of musical patterns in point-set representations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Collins, Tom; Meredith, David

    2013-01-01

    Representing musical notes as points in pitch-time space causes repeated motives and themes to appear as translationally related patterns that often correspond to maximal translatable patterns (MTPs). However, an MTP is also often the union of a salient pattern with one or two temporally isolated...

  10. Data Point Averaging for Computational Fluid Dynamics Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norman, Jr., David (Inventor)

    2016-01-01

    A system and method for generating fluid flow parameter data for use in aerodynamic heating analysis. Computational fluid dynamics data is generated for a number of points in an area on a surface to be analyzed. Sub-areas corresponding to areas of the surface for which an aerodynamic heating analysis is to be performed are identified. A computer system automatically determines a sub-set of the number of points corresponding to each of the number of sub-areas and determines a value for each of the number of sub-areas using the data for the sub-set of points corresponding to each of the number of sub-areas. The value is determined as an average of the data for the sub-set of points corresponding to each of the number of sub-areas. The resulting parameter values then may be used to perform an aerodynamic heating analysis.

  11. Gravity and matter in causal set theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sverdlov, Roman; Bombelli, Luca

    2009-01-01

    The goal of this paper is to propose an approach to the formulation of dynamics for causal sets and coupled matter fields. We start from the continuum version of the action for a Klein-Gordon field coupled to gravity, and rewrite it first using quantities that have a direct correspondent in the case of a causal set, namely volumes, causal relations and timelike lengths, as variables to describe the geometry. In this step, the local Lagrangian density L(f;x) for a set of fields f is recast into a quasilocal expression L 0 (f;p,q) that depends on pairs of causally related points pprq and is a function of the values of f in the Alexandrov set defined by those points, and whose limit as p and q approach a common point x is L(f;x). We then describe how to discretize L 0 (f;p,q) and use it to define a causal-set-based action.

  12. Genetics of the gravitropic set-point angle in lateral organs of Arabidopsis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mullen, J.; Hangarter, R.

    Research on gravity responses in plants has mostly focused on primary roots and shoots, which typically orient to a vertical orientation. However, the distribution of lateral organs and their typically non-vertical growth orientation are critical for the determination of plant form. For example, in Arabidopsis, when lateral roots emerge from the primary root, they grow at a nearly horizontal orientation. As they elongate, the roots slowly curve until they eventually reach a vertical orientation. The regulation of this lateral root orientation is an important component affecting the overall root system architecture. We found that this change in orientation is not simply due to the onset of gravitropic competence, as non-vertical lateral roots are capable of both positive and negative gravitropism. Thus, the horizontal growth the new lateral roots is determined by what is called the gravitropic set-point angle (GSA). This developmental control of the GSA of lateral roots in Arabidopsis provides a useful system for investigating the components involved in regulating gravitropic responses. Using this system, we have identified several Arabidopsis mutants that have altered lateral root orientations but maintain normal primary root orientation. Two of these mutants also have altered orientation of their rosette leaves, indicating some common mechanisms in the positioning of root and shoot lateral organs. Rosette leaves and lateral roots also have in common a regulation of orientation by red light that may be due to red-light-dependent changes in the GSA. Further molecular and physiological analyses of the GSA mutants will provide insight into the basis of GSA regulation and, thus, a better understanding of how gravity controls plant architecture. [This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through grant no. NCC 2-1200.

  13. Basic set theory

    CERN Document Server

    Levy, Azriel

    2002-01-01

    An advanced-level treatment of the basics of set theory, this text offers students a firm foundation, stopping just short of the areas employing model-theoretic methods. Geared toward upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, it consists of two parts: the first covers pure set theory, including the basic motions, order and well-foundedness, cardinal numbers, the ordinals, and the axiom of choice and some of it consequences; the second deals with applications and advanced topics such as point set topology, real spaces, Boolean algebras, and infinite combinatorics and large cardinals. An

  14. Efficient Algorithms for Segmentation of Item-Set Time Series

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chundi, Parvathi; Rosenkrantz, Daniel J.

    We propose a special type of time series, which we call an item-set time series, to facilitate the temporal analysis of software version histories, email logs, stock market data, etc. In an item-set time series, each observed data value is a set of discrete items. We formalize the concept of an item-set time series and present efficient algorithms for segmenting a given item-set time series. Segmentation of a time series partitions the time series into a sequence of segments where each segment is constructed by combining consecutive time points of the time series. Each segment is associated with an item set that is computed from the item sets of the time points in that segment, using a function which we call a measure function. We then define a concept called the segment difference, which measures the difference between the item set of a segment and the item sets of the time points in that segment. The segment difference values are required to construct an optimal segmentation of the time series. We describe novel and efficient algorithms to compute segment difference values for each of the measure functions described in the paper. We outline a dynamic programming based scheme to construct an optimal segmentation of the given item-set time series. We use the item-set time series segmentation techniques to analyze the temporal content of three different data sets—Enron email, stock market data, and a synthetic data set. The experimental results show that an optimal segmentation of item-set time series data captures much more temporal content than a segmentation constructed based on the number of time points in each segment, without examining the item set data at the time points, and can be used to analyze different types of temporal data.

  15. Point cloud data management (extended abstract)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Oosterom, P.J.M.; Ravada, S.; Horhammer, M.; Martinez Rubi, O.; Ivanova, M.; Kodde, M.; Tijssen, T.P.M.

    2014-01-01

    Point cloud data are important sources for 3D geo-information. The point cloud data sets are growing in popularity and in size. Modern Big Data acquisition and processing technologies, such as laser scanning from airborne, mobile, or static platforms, dense image matching from photos, multi-beam

  16. A MARKED POINT PROCESS MODEL FOR VEHICLE DETECTION IN AERIAL LIDAR POINT CLOUDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Börcs

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we present an automated method for vehicle detection in LiDAR point clouds of crowded urban areas collected from an aerial platform. We assume that the input cloud is unordered, but it contains additional intensity and return number information which are jointly exploited by the proposed solution. Firstly, the 3-D point set is segmented into ground, vehicle, building roof, vegetation and clutter classes. Then the points with the corresponding class labels and intensity values are projected to the ground plane, where the optimal vehicle configuration is described by a Marked Point Process (MPP model of 2-D rectangles. Finally, the Multiple Birth and Death algorithm is utilized to find the configuration with the highest confidence.

  17. Hinkley Point 'C' power station public inquiry: proof of evidence on comparison of non-fossil options to Hinkley Point 'C'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goddard, S.C.

    1988-09-01

    A public inquiry has been set up to examine the planning application made by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) for the construction of a 1200 MW Pressurized Water Reactor power station at Hinkley Point (Hinkley Point ''C'') in the United Kingdom. This evidence to the Inquiry sets out and explains the non-fossil fuel options, with particular reference to renewable energy sources and other PWR locations; gives feasibility, capital cost, performance and total resource estimates for the renewable sources; and shows that no other non-fossil fuel source is to be preferred to Hinkley Point ''C''. (author)

  18. SharePoint 2007 Collaboration For Dummies

    CERN Document Server

    Harvey, Greg

    2009-01-01

    If you're looking for a way to help your teams access what they need to know, work together, and get the job done, SharePoint can do just that. SharePoint 2007 Collaboration For Dummies shows you the easiest way to set up and customize SharePoint, manage your data, interact using SharePoint blogs and wikis, integrate Office programs, and make your office more productive. You'll learn what SharePoint can do and how to make it work for your business, understand the technical terms, and enable your people to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets. You'll even discover how to get SharePoint hel

  19. Õigus sündida, nautida ja ... / Mark Soosaar

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Soosaar, Mark, 1946-

    2001-01-01

    Mark Soosaar kui žürii liige Praha rahvusvahelisel inimõiguste filmifestivalil "Üks maailm" enim muljet avaldanud dokumentaalfilmidest : grand prix saanud Agnes Varda "Järelnoppija ja mina", vene režissööri Andrei Ossipovi "Et cetera", Itaalia "Jung", prantslase Eyal Sivan'i "Spetsialist", USA ajakirjaniku Kevin McKiernan'i "Head kurdid, halvad kurdid"

  20. Hawaii ESI: M_MAMPT (Marine Mammal Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for endangered Hawaiian monk seal pupping and haul-out sites. Vector points in this data set represent...

  1. Visual Communication in PowerPoint Presentations in Applied Linguistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kmalvand, Ayad

    2014-01-01

    PowerPoint knowledge presentation as a digital genre has established itself as the main software by which the findings of theses are disseminated in the academic settings. Although the importance of PowerPoint presentations is typically realized in academic settings like lectures, conferences, and seminars, the study of the visual features of…

  2. Blue-noise remeshing with farthest point optimization

    KAUST Repository

    Yan, Dongming

    2014-08-01

    In this paper, we present a novel method for surface sampling and remeshing with good blue-noise properties. Our approach is based on the farthest point optimization (FPO), a relaxation technique that generates high quality blue-noise point sets in 2D. We propose two important generalizations of the original FPO framework: adaptive sampling and sampling on surfaces. A simple and efficient algorithm for accelerating the FPO framework is also proposed. Experimental results show that the generalized FPO generates point sets with excellent blue-noise properties for adaptive and surface sampling. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our remeshing quality is superior to the current state-of-the art approaches. © 2014 The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Blue-noise remeshing with farthest point optimization

    KAUST Repository

    Yan, Dongming; Guo, Jianwei; Jia, Xiaohong; Zhang, Xiaopeng; Wonka, Peter

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we present a novel method for surface sampling and remeshing with good blue-noise properties. Our approach is based on the farthest point optimization (FPO), a relaxation technique that generates high quality blue-noise point sets in 2D. We propose two important generalizations of the original FPO framework: adaptive sampling and sampling on surfaces. A simple and efficient algorithm for accelerating the FPO framework is also proposed. Experimental results show that the generalized FPO generates point sets with excellent blue-noise properties for adaptive and surface sampling. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our remeshing quality is superior to the current state-of-the art approaches. © 2014 The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Permitted and forbidden sets in symmetric threshold-linear networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hahnloser, Richard H R; Seung, H Sebastian; Slotine, Jean-Jacques

    2003-03-01

    The richness and complexity of recurrent cortical circuits is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for thinking about high-level biological computation. In past theoretical studies, constraints on the synaptic connection patterns of threshold-linear networks were found that guaranteed bounded network dynamics, convergence to attractive fixed points, and multistability, all fundamental aspects of cortical information processing. However, these conditions were only sufficient, and it remained unclear which were the minimal (necessary) conditions for convergence and multistability. We show that symmetric threshold-linear networks converge to a set of attractive fixed points if and only if the network matrix is copositive. Furthermore, the set of attractive fixed points is nonconnected (the network is multiattractive) if and only if the network matrix is not positive semidefinite. There are permitted sets of neurons that can be coactive at a stable steady state and forbidden sets that cannot. Permitted sets are clustered in the sense that subsets of permitted sets are permitted and supersets of forbidden sets are forbidden. By viewing permitted sets as memories stored in the synaptic connections, we provide a formulation of long-term memory that is more general than the traditional perspective of fixed-point attractor networks. There is a close correspondence between threshold-linear networks and networks defined by the generalized Lotka-Volterra equations.

  5. Bayesian analysis of Markov point processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Berthelsen, Kasper Klitgaard; Møller, Jesper

    2006-01-01

    Recently Møller, Pettitt, Berthelsen and Reeves introduced a new MCMC methodology for drawing samples from a posterior distribution when the likelihood function is only specified up to a normalising constant. We illustrate the method in the setting of Bayesian inference for Markov point processes...... a partially ordered Markov point process as the auxiliary variable. As the method requires simulation from the "unknown" likelihood, perfect simulation algorithms for spatial point processes become useful....

  6. Challenges and Opportunities of Centrifugal Microfluidics for Extreme Point-of-Care Testing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Issac J. Michael

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The advantages offered by centrifugal microfluidic systems have encouraged its rapid adaptation in the fields of in vitro diagnostics, clinical chemistry, immunoassays, and nucleic acid tests. Centrifugal microfluidic devices are currently used in both clinical and point-of-care settings. Recent studies have shown that this new diagnostic platform could be potentially used in extreme point-of-care settings like remote villages in the Indian subcontinent and in Africa. Several technological inventions have decentralized diagnostics in developing countries; however, very few microfluidic technologies have been successful in meeting the demand. By identifying the finest difference between the point-of-care testing and extreme point-of-care infrastructure, this review captures the evolving diagnostic needs of developing countries paired with infrastructural challenges with technological hurdles to healthcare delivery in extreme point-of-care settings. In particular, the requirements for making centrifugal diagnostic devices viable in developing countries are discussed based on a detailed analysis of the demands in different clinical settings including the distinctive needs of extreme point-of-care settings.

  7. North Slope, Alaska ESI: FACILITY (Facility Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains data for oil field facilities for the North Slope of Alaska. Vector points in this data set represent oil field facility locations. This data...

  8. Sequential Convex Programming for Power Set-point Optimization in a Wind Farm using Black-box Models, Simple Turbine Interactions, and Integer Variables

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hovgaard, Tobias Gybel; Larsen, Lars F. S.; Jørgensen, John Bagterp

    2012-01-01

    We consider the optimization of power set-points to a large number of wind turbines arranged within close vicinity of each other in a wind farm. The goal is to maximize the total electric power extracted from the wind, taking the wake effects that couple the individual turbines in the farm into a...... is far superior to, a more naive distribution scheme. We employ a fast convex quadratic programming solver to carry out the iterations in the range of microseconds for even large wind farms....

  9. Robust point matching via vector field consensus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiayi Ma; Ji Zhao; Jinwen Tian; Yuille, Alan L; Zhuowen Tu

    2014-04-01

    In this paper, we propose an efficient algorithm, called vector field consensus, for establishing robust point correspondences between two sets of points. Our algorithm starts by creating a set of putative correspondences which can contain a very large number of false correspondences, or outliers, in addition to a limited number of true correspondences (inliers). Next, we solve for correspondence by interpolating a vector field between the two point sets, which involves estimating a consensus of inlier points whose matching follows a nonparametric geometrical constraint. We formulate this a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation of a Bayesian model with hidden/latent variables indicating whether matches in the putative set are outliers or inliers. We impose nonparametric geometrical constraints on the correspondence, as a prior distribution, using Tikhonov regularizers in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. MAP estimation is performed by the EM algorithm which by also estimating the variance of the prior model (initialized to a large value) is able to obtain good estimates very quickly (e.g., avoiding many of the local minima inherent in this formulation). We illustrate this method on data sets in 2D and 3D and demonstrate that it is robust to a very large number of outliers (even up to 90%). We also show that in the special case where there is an underlying parametric geometrical model (e.g., the epipolar line constraint) that we obtain better results than standard alternatives like RANSAC if a large number of outliers are present. This suggests a two-stage strategy, where we use our nonparametric model to reduce the size of the putative set and then apply a parametric variant of our approach to estimate the geometric parameters. Our algorithm is computationally efficient and we provide code for others to use it. In addition, our approach is general and can be applied to other problems, such as learning with a badly corrupted training data set.

  10. Topological fixed point theory of multivalued mappings

    CERN Document Server

    Górniewicz, Lech

    1999-01-01

    This volume presents a broad introduction to the topological fixed point theory of multivalued (set-valued) mappings, treating both classical concepts as well as modern techniques. A variety of up-to-date results is described within a unified framework. Topics covered include the basic theory of set-valued mappings with both convex and nonconvex values, approximation and homological methods in the fixed point theory together with a thorough discussion of various index theories for mappings with a topologically complex structure of values, applications to many fields of mathematics, mathematical economics and related subjects, and the fixed point approach to the theory of ordinary differential inclusions. The work emphasises the topological aspect of the theory, and gives special attention to the Lefschetz and Nielsen fixed point theory for acyclic valued mappings with diverse compactness assumptions via graph approximation and the homological approach. Audience: This work will be of interest to researchers an...

  11. Las Matematicas: Lenguaje Universal. Grados Intermedios, Nivel 5a: Geometria - Conjuntos de Puntos (Mathematics: A Universal Language. Intermediate Grades, Level 5a: Geometry - Sets of Points).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dissemination and Assessment Center for Bilingual Education, Austin, TX.

    This is one of a series of student booklets designed for use in a bilingual mathematics program in grades 6-8. The general format is to present each page in both Spanish and English. The mathematical topics in the booklet include points, lines, planes, space, angles, and intersection and union of sets. (MK)

  12. Modeling fixation locations using spatial point processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barthelmé, Simon; Trukenbrod, Hans; Engbert, Ralf; Wichmann, Felix

    2013-10-01

    Whenever eye movements are measured, a central part of the analysis has to do with where subjects fixate and why they fixated where they fixated. To a first approximation, a set of fixations can be viewed as a set of points in space; this implies that fixations are spatial data and that the analysis of fixation locations can be beneficially thought of as a spatial statistics problem. We argue that thinking of fixation locations as arising from point processes is a very fruitful framework for eye-movement data, helping turn qualitative questions into quantitative ones. We provide a tutorial introduction to some of the main ideas of the field of spatial statistics, focusing especially on spatial Poisson processes. We show how point processes help relate image properties to fixation locations. In particular we show how point processes naturally express the idea that image features' predictability for fixations may vary from one image to another. We review other methods of analysis used in the literature, show how they relate to point process theory, and argue that thinking in terms of point processes substantially extends the range of analyses that can be performed and clarify their interpretation.

  13. Point-of-care testing in an organ procurement organization donor management setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baier, K A; Markham, L E; Flaigle, S P; Nelson, P W; Shield, C F; Muruve, N A; Aeder, M I; Murillo, D; Bryan, C F

    2003-01-01

    Our organ procurement organization (OPO) evaluated the clinical and financial efficacy of point-of-care testing (POCT) in management of our deceased organ donors. Before we implemented point-of care testing with the i-STAT into routine clinical donor management, we compared the i-STAT result with the result from the respective donor hospital lab (DHL) for certain analytes on 15 consecutive donors in our OPO from 26 March to 14 May 2001. The financial impact was studied by reviewing 77 donors from July 2001 to March 2002. There was a strong correlation for each analyte between the POC and DHL test results with r-values as follows: pH 0.86; PCO2 = 0.96; PO2 = 0.98; sodium = 0.98; potassium = 0.95; chloride = 0.94; BUN = 0.98; glucose = 0.92; haematocrit = 0.87 and creatinine = 0.95. Since our OPO coordinators began using i-STAT in their routine clinical management of organ donors, they can now more quickly maximize oxygenation and fluid management of the donor and make extra-renal placement calls sooner. Finally, since we are no longer being billed for the testing performed on the i-STAT, average financial savings to our OPO are US dollars 733 per case. Point-of-care testing in management of our OPO donors provides a result that is equivalent to that of the donor hospital lab, has quicker turn-around time than the donor hospital laboratory, allowing more immediate clinical management decisions to be made so that extra-renal offers may begin sooner.

  14. A Novel Approach to Study Medical Decision Making in the Clinical Setting: The "Own-point-of-view" Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelaccia, Thierry; Tardif, Jacques; Triby, Emmanuel; Charlin, Bernard

    2017-07-01

    Making diagnostic and therapeutic decisions is a critical activity among physicians. It relies on the ability of physicians to use cognitive processes and specific knowledge in the context of a clinical reasoning. This ability is a core competency in physicians, especially in the field of emergency medicine where the rate of diagnostic errors is high. Studies that explore medical decision making in an authentic setting are increasing significantly. They are based on the use of qualitative methods that are applied at two separate times: 1) a video recording of the subject's actual activity in an authentic setting and 2) an interview with the subject, supported by the video recording. Traditionally, activity is recorded from an "external perspective"; i.e., a camera is positioned in the room in which the consultation takes place. This approach has many limits, both technical and with respect to the validity of the data collected. The article aims at 1) describing how decision making is currently being studied, especially from a qualitative standpoint, and the reasons why new methods are needed, and 2) reporting how we used an original, innovative approach to study decision making in the field of emergency medicine and findings from these studies to guide further the use of this method. The method consists in recording the subject's activity from his own point of view, by fixing a microcamera on his temple or the branch of his glasses. An interview is then held on the basis of this recording, so that the subject being interviewed can relive the situation, to facilitate the explanation of his reasoning with respect to his decisions and actions. We describe how this method has been used successfully in investigating medical decision making in emergency medicine. We provide details on how to use it optimally, taking into account the constraints associated with the practice of emergency medicine and the benefits in the study of clinical reasoning. The "own-point

  15. The Evolving Role of Physicians - Don’t Forget the Generalist Primary Care Providers; Comment on “Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vincent Kalumire Cubaka

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The editorial “Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians” by Eyal et al describes non-physician clinicians’ (NPC need for mentorship and support from physicians. We emphasise the same need of support for front line generalist primary healthcare providers who carry out complex tasks yet may have an inadequate skill mix.

  16. An X-point ergodic divertor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chu, M.S.; Jensen, T.H.; La Haye, R.J.; Taylor, T.S.; Evans, T.E.

    1991-10-01

    A new ergodic divertor is proposed. It utilizes a system of external (n = 3) coils arranged to generate overlapping magnetic islands in the edge region of a diverted tokamak and connect the randomized field lines to the external (cold) divertor plate. The novel feature in the configuration is the placement of the external coils close to the X-point. A realistic design of the external coil set is studied by using the field line tracing method for a low aspect ratio (A ≅ 3) tokamak. Two types of effects are observed. First, by placing the coils close to the X-point, where the poloidal magnetic field is weak and the rational surfaces are closely packed only a moderate amount of current in the external coils is needed to ergodize the edge region. This ergodized edge enhances the edge transport in the X-point region and leads to the potential of edge profile control and the avoidance of edge localized modes (ELMs). Furthermore, the trajectories of the field lines close to the X-point are modified by the external coil set, causing the hit points on the external divertor plates to be randomized and spread out in the major radius direction. A time-dependent modulation of the currents in the external (n = 3) coils can potentially spread the heat flux more uniformly on the divertor plate avoiding high concentration of the heat flux. 10 refs., 9 figs

  17. Installation of PMV Operation Program in DDC Controller and Air Conditioning Control Using PMV Directly as Set Point

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haramoto, Ken-Ichi

    In general, air conditioning control in a building is operated mainly by indoor air temperature control. Although the operators of the machine in the building accepted a claim for indoor air temperature presented by the building inhabitants, the indoor conditions have been often too cool or warm. Therefore, in an attempt to create better thermal environments, the author paid attention to the PMV that is a thermal comfort index. And then, the possibility of air conditioning control using the PMV directly as the set point was verified by employing actual equipment in an air conditioning testing room and an office building. Prior to the execution of this control, the operation program of the PMV was installed in a DDC controller for the air conditioning control. And information from indoor sensors and so on was inputted to the controller, and the computed PMV was used as the feedback variable.

  18. On almost-periodic points of a topological Markov chain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bogatyi, Semeon A; Redkozubov, Vadim V

    2012-01-01

    We prove that a transitive topological Markov chain has almost-periodic points of all D-periods. Moreover, every D-period is realized by continuously many distinct minimal sets. We give a simple constructive proof of the result which asserts that any transitive topological Markov chain has periodic points of almost all periods, and study the structure of the finite set of positive integers that are not periods.

  19. Point Cluster Analysis Using a 3D Voronoi Diagram with Applications in Point Cloud Segmentation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shen Ying

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Three-dimensional (3D point analysis and visualization is one of the most effective methods of point cluster detection and segmentation in geospatial datasets. However, serious scattering and clotting characteristics interfere with the visual detection of 3D point clusters. To overcome this problem, this study proposes the use of 3D Voronoi diagrams to analyze and visualize 3D points instead of the original data item. The proposed algorithm computes the cluster of 3D points by applying a set of 3D Voronoi cells to describe and quantify 3D points. The decompositions of point cloud of 3D models are guided by the 3D Voronoi cell parameters. The parameter values are mapped from the Voronoi cells to 3D points to show the spatial pattern and relationships; thus, a 3D point cluster pattern can be highlighted and easily recognized. To capture different cluster patterns, continuous progressive clusters and segmentations are tested. The 3D spatial relationship is shown to facilitate cluster detection. Furthermore, the generated segmentations of real 3D data cases are exploited to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach in detecting different spatial clusters for continuous point cloud segmentation.

  20. The clinical and economic impact of point-of-care CD4 testing in mozambique and other resource-limited settings: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily P Hyle

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Point-of-care CD4 tests at HIV diagnosis could improve linkage to care in resource-limited settings. Our objective is to evaluate the clinical and economic impact of point-of-care CD4 tests compared to laboratory-based tests in Mozambique.We use a validated model of HIV testing, linkage, and treatment (CEPAC-International to examine two strategies of immunological staging in Mozambique: (1 laboratory-based CD4 testing (LAB-CD4 and (2 point-of-care CD4 testing (POC-CD4. Model outcomes include 5-y survival, life expectancy, lifetime costs, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs. Input parameters include linkage to care (LAB-CD4, 34%; POC-CD4, 61%, probability of correctly detecting antiretroviral therapy (ART eligibility (sensitivity: LAB-CD4, 100%; POC-CD4, 90% or ART ineligibility (specificity: LAB-CD4, 100%; POC-CD4, 85%, and test cost (LAB-CD4, US$10; POC-CD4, US$24. In sensitivity analyses, we vary POC-CD4-specific parameters, as well as cohort and setting parameters to reflect a range of scenarios in sub-Saharan Africa. We consider ICERs less than three times the per capita gross domestic product in Mozambique (US$570 to be cost-effective, and ICERs less than one times the per capita gross domestic product in Mozambique to be very cost-effective. Projected 5-y survival in HIV-infected persons with LAB-CD4 is 60.9% (95% CI, 60.9%-61.0%, increasing to 65.0% (95% CI, 64.9%-65.1% with POC-CD4. Discounted life expectancy and per person lifetime costs with LAB-CD4 are 9.6 y (95% CI, 9.6-9.6 y and US$2,440 (95% CI, US$2,440-US$2,450 and increase with POC-CD4 to 10.3 y (95% CI, 10.3-10.3 y and US$2,800 (95% CI, US$2,790-US$2,800; the ICER of POC-CD4 compared to LAB-CD4 is US$500/year of life saved (YLS (95% CI, US$480-US$520/YLS. POC-CD4 improves clinical outcomes and remains near the very cost-effective threshold in sensitivity analyses, even if point-of-care CD4 tests have lower sensitivity/specificity and higher cost than published

  1. Power point 2002 for successful presentation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moon, Insoo

    2002-01-01

    This book mentions power point 2002 for successful presentation, which deals with power point and presentation, all guide, the latest gear, for presentation, basic of power point 2002 such as slide, text compile, insertion of picture, figure and application of office guide, setting up new year plan using text like insertion text with various methods, compile effective text, and 200% application of tab, and addiction of pretty shape of characters, finishing of conversion of chinese character, and elimination of typographical error with spell checker.

  2. A Doubly Stochastic Change Point Detection Algorithm for Noisy Biological Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nathan Gold

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Experimentally and clinically collected time series data are often contaminated with significant confounding noise, creating short, noisy time series. This noise, due to natural variability and measurement error, poses a challenge to conventional change point detection methods. We propose a novel and robust statistical method for change point detection for noisy biological time sequences. Our method is a significant improvement over traditional change point detection methods, which only examine a potential anomaly at a single time point. In contrast, our method considers all suspected anomaly points and considers the joint probability distribution of the number of change points and the elapsed time between two consecutive anomalies. We validate our method with three simulated time series, a widely accepted benchmark data set, two geological time series, a data set of ECG recordings, and a physiological data set of heart rate variability measurements of fetal sheep model of human labor, comparing it to three existing methods. Our method demonstrates significantly improved performance over the existing point-wise detection methods.

  3. American Samoa ESI: T_MAMPT (Terrestrial Mammal Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for bats in American Samoa. Vector points in this data set represent bat roosts and caves. Species-specific...

  4. Southeast Alaska ESI: M_MAMPT (Marine Mammal Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains biological resource data for seals and sea lions in Southeast Alaska. Points in this data set represent locations of haulout and rookery...

  5. Relative Critical Points

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Debra Lewis

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Relative equilibria of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems with symmetry are critical points of appropriate scalar functions parametrized by the Lie algebra (or its dual of the symmetry group. Setting aside the structures – symplectic, Poisson, or variational – generating dynamical systems from such functions highlights the common features of their construction and analysis, and supports the construction of analogous functions in non-Hamiltonian settings. If the symmetry group is nonabelian, the functions are invariant only with respect to the isotropy subgroup of the given parameter value. Replacing the parametrized family of functions with a single function on the product manifold and extending the action using the (coadjoint action on the algebra or its dual yields a fully invariant function. An invariant map can be used to reverse the usual perspective: rather than selecting a parametrized family of functions and finding their critical points, conditions under which functions will be critical on specific orbits, typically distinguished by isotropy class, can be derived. This strategy is illustrated using several well-known mechanical systems – the Lagrange top, the double spherical pendulum, the free rigid body, and the Riemann ellipsoids – and generalizations of these systems.

  6. Computer program to fit a hyperellipse to a set of phase-space points in as many as six dimensions. [HELIPS, and COFAC to determine derivatives of determinants, in FORTRAN

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wadlinger, E.A.

    1980-03-01

    A computer program that will fit a hyperellipse to a set of phase-space points in as many as 6 dimensions was written and tested. The weight assigned to the phase-space points can be varied as a function of their distance from the centroid of the distribution. Varying the weight enables determination of whether there is a difference in ellipse orientation between inner and outer particles. This program should be useful in studying the effects of longitudinal and transverse phase-space couplings.

  7. DETECTION OF SLOPE MOVEMENT BY COMPARING POINT CLOUDS CREATED BY SFM SOFTWARE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Oda

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes movement detection method between point clouds created by SFM software, without setting any onsite georeferenced points. SfM software, like Smart3DCaputure, PhotoScan, and Pix4D, are convenient for non-professional operator of photogrammetry, because these systems require simply specification of sequence of photos and output point clouds with colour index which corresponds to the colour of original image pixel where the point is projected. SfM software can execute aerial triangulation and create dense point clouds fully automatically. This is useful when monitoring motion of unstable slopes, or loos rocks in slopes along roads or railroads. Most of existing method, however, uses mesh-based DSM for comparing point clouds before/after movement and it cannot be applied in such cases that part of slopes forms overhangs. And in some cases movement is smaller than precision of ground control points and registering two point clouds with GCP is not appropriate. Change detection method in this paper adopts CCICP (Classification and Combined ICP algorithm for registering point clouds before / after movement. The CCICP algorithm is a type of ICP (Iterative Closest Points which minimizes point-to-plane, and point-to-point distances, simultaneously, and also reject incorrect correspondences based on point classification by PCA (Principle Component Analysis. Precision test shows that CCICP method can register two point clouds up to the 1 pixel size order in original images. Ground control points set in site are useful for initial setting of two point clouds. If there are no GCPs in site of slopes, initial setting is achieved by measuring feature points as ground control points in the point clouds before movement, and creating point clouds after movement with these ground control points. When the motion is rigid transformation, in case that a loose Rock is moving in slope, motion including rotation can be analysed by executing CCICP for a

  8. Extreme points of the convex set of joint probability distributions with ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Here we address the following problem: If G is a standard ... convex set of all joint probability distributions on the product Borel space (X1 ×X2, F1 ⊗. F2) which .... cannot be identically zero when X and Y vary in A1 and u and v vary in H2. Thus.

  9. MOCUS, Minimal Cut Sets and Minimal Path Sets from Fault Tree Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fussell, J.B.; Henry, E.B.; Marshall, N.H.

    1976-01-01

    1 - Description of problem or function: From a description of the Boolean failure logic of a system, called a fault tree, and control parameters specifying the minimal cut set length to be obtained MOCUS determines the system failure modes, or minimal cut sets, and the system success modes, or minimal path sets. 2 - Method of solution: MOCUS uses direct resolution of the fault tree into the cut and path sets. The algorithm used starts with the main failure of interest, the top event, and proceeds to basic independent component failures, called primary events, to resolve the fault tree to obtain the minimal sets. A key point of the algorithm is that an and gate alone always increases the number of path sets; an or gate alone always increases the number of cut sets and increases the size of path sets. Other types of logic gates must be described in terms of and and or logic gates. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: Output from MOCUS can include minimal cut and path sets for up to 20 gates

  10. Comprehensive Interpretation of a Three-Point Gauss Quadrature with Variable Sampling Points and Its Application to Integration for Discrete Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Young-Doo Kwon

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the characteristics of a variable three-point Gauss quadrature using a variable set of weighting factors and corresponding optimal sampling points. The major findings were as follows. The one-point, two-point, and three-point Gauss quadratures that adopt the Legendre sampling points and the well-known Simpson’s 1/3 rule were found to be special cases of the variable three-point Gauss quadrature. In addition, the three-point Gauss quadrature may have out-of-domain sampling points beyond the domain end points. By applying the quadratically extrapolated integrals and nonlinearity index, the accuracy of the integration could be increased significantly for evenly acquired data, which is popular with modern sophisticated digital data acquisition systems, without using higher-order extrapolation polynomials.

  11. PRINCIPLE OF POINT MAKING OFMUTUALLY ACCEPTABLE MULTIPROJECTION DECISION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga N. Lapaeva

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The principle of point making of mutually acceptable multi-projection decision in economics is set forth in the article. The principle envisages searching for the best variant by each stakeholder and result making by crossing of individual sets.

  12. The Evolving Role of Physicians - Don't Forget the Generalist Primary Care Providers Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cubaka, Vincent Kalumire; Schriver, Michael; Flinkenflögel, Maaike; Cotton, Philip

    2016-06-12

    The editorial "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians" by Eyal et al describes non-physician clinicians' (NPC) need for mentorship and support from physicians. We emphasise the same need of support for front line generalist primary healthcare providers who carry out complex tasks yet may have an inadequate skill mix. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

  13. Application of point-to-point matching algorithms for background correction in on-line liquid chromatography-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (LC-FTIR).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuligowski, J; Quintás, G; Garrigues, S; de la Guardia, M

    2010-03-15

    A new background correction method for the on-line coupling of gradient liquid chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry has been developed. It is based on the use of a point-to-point matching algorithm that compares the absorption spectra of the sample data set with those of a previously recorded reference data set in order to select an appropriate reference spectrum. The spectral range used for the point-to-point comparison is selected with minimal user-interaction, thus facilitating considerably the application of the whole method. The background correction method has been successfully tested on a chromatographic separation of four nitrophenols running acetonitrile (0.08%, v/v TFA):water (0.08%, v/v TFA) gradients with compositions ranging from 35 to 85% (v/v) acetonitrile, giving accurate results for both, baseline resolved and overlapped peaks. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Modelling estimation and analysis of dynamic processes from image sequences using temporal random closed sets and point processes with application to the cell exocytosis and endocytosis

    OpenAIRE

    Díaz Fernández, Ester

    2010-01-01

    In this thesis, new models and methodologies are introduced for the analysis of dynamic processes characterized by image sequences with spatial temporal overlapping. The spatial temporal overlapping exists in many natural phenomena and should be addressed properly in several Science disciplines such as Microscopy, Material Sciences, Biology, Geostatistics or Communication Networks. This work is related to the Point Process and Random Closed Set theories, within Stochastic Ge...

  15. Design of a Novel Low Cost Point of Care Tampon (POCkeT) Colposcope for Use in Resource Limited Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lam, Christopher T.; Krieger, Marlee S.; Gallagher, Jennifer E.; Asma, Betsy; Muasher, Lisa C.; Schmitt, John W.; Ramanujam, Nimmi

    2015-01-01

    Introduction Current guidelines by WHO for cervical cancer screening in low- and middle-income countries involves visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) of the cervix, followed by treatment during the same visit or a subsequent visit with cryotherapy if a suspicious lesion is found. Implementation of these guidelines is hampered by a lack of: trained health workers, reliable technology, and access to screening facilities. A low cost ultra-portable Point of Care Tampon based digital colposcope (POCkeT Colposcope) for use at the community level setting, which has the unique form factor of a tampon, can be inserted into the vagina to capture images of the cervix, which are on par with that of a state of the art colposcope, at a fraction of the cost. A repository of images to be compiled that can be used to empower front line workers to become more effective through virtual dynamic training. By task shifting to the community setting, this technology could potentially provide significantly greater cervical screening access to where the most vulnerable women live. The POCkeT Colposcope’s concentric LED ring provides comparable white and green field illumination at a fraction of the electrical power required in commercial colposcopes. Evaluation with standard optical imaging targets to assess the POCkeT Colposcope against the state of the art digital colposcope and other VIAM technologies. Results Our POCkeT Colposcope has comparable resolving power, color reproduction accuracy, minimal lens distortion, and illumination when compared to commercially available colposcopes. In vitro and pilot in vivo imaging results are promising with our POCkeT Colposcope capturing comparable quality images to commercial systems. Conclusion The POCkeT Colposcope is capable of capturing images suitable for cervical lesion analysis. Our portable low cost system could potentially increase access to cervical cancer screening in limited resource settings through task shifting to community

  16. Benchmarking and improving point cloud data management in MonetDB

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    O. Martinez-Rubi (Oscar); P. van Oosterom; R.A. Goncalves (Romulo); T. Tijssen; M.G. Ivanova (Milena); M.L. Kersten (Martin); F. Alvanaki (Foteini)

    2014-01-01

    htmlabstractThe popularity, availability and sizes of point cloud data sets are increasing, thus raising interesting data management and processing challenges. Various software solutions are available for the management of point cloud data. A benchmark for point cloud data management systems was

  17. Southeast Alaska ESI: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains biological resource data for alcids, shorebirds, waterfowl, diving birds, pelagic birds, gulls, and terns in Southeast Alaska. Points in this...

  18. On conjugate points and the Leitmann equivalent problem approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wagener, F.O.O.

    2009-01-01

    This article extends the Leitmann equivalence method to a class of problems featuring conjugate points. The class is characterised by the requirement that the set of indifference points of a given problem forms a finite stratification.

  19. Pilot points method for conditioning multiple-point statistical facies simulation on flow data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Wei; Jafarpour, Behnam

    2018-05-01

    We propose a new pilot points method for conditioning discrete multiple-point statistical (MPS) facies simulation on dynamic flow data. While conditioning MPS simulation on static hard data is straightforward, their calibration against nonlinear flow data is nontrivial. The proposed method generates conditional models from a conceptual model of geologic connectivity, known as a training image (TI), by strategically placing and estimating pilot points. To place pilot points, a score map is generated based on three sources of information: (i) the uncertainty in facies distribution, (ii) the model response sensitivity information, and (iii) the observed flow data. Once the pilot points are placed, the facies values at these points are inferred from production data and then are used, along with available hard data at well locations, to simulate a new set of conditional facies realizations. While facies estimation at the pilot points can be performed using different inversion algorithms, in this study the ensemble smoother (ES) is adopted to update permeability maps from production data, which are then used to statistically infer facies types at the pilot point locations. The developed method combines the information in the flow data and the TI by using the former to infer facies values at selected locations away from the wells and the latter to ensure consistent facies structure and connectivity where away from measurement locations. Several numerical experiments are used to evaluate the performance of the developed method and to discuss its important properties.

  20. Dissipative N-point-vortex Models in the Plane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shashikanth, Banavara N.

    2010-02-01

    A method is presented for constructing point vortex models in the plane that dissipate the Hamiltonian function at any prescribed rate and yet conserve the level sets of the invariants of the Hamiltonian model arising from the SE (2) symmetries. The method is purely geometric in that it uses the level sets of the Hamiltonian and the invariants to construct the dissipative field and is based on elementary classical geometry in ℝ3. Extension to higher-dimensional spaces, such as the point vortex phase space, is done using exterior algebra. The method is in fact general enough to apply to any smooth finite-dimensional system with conserved quantities, and, for certain special cases, the dissipative vector field constructed can be associated with an appropriately defined double Nambu-Poisson bracket. The most interesting feature of this method is that it allows for an infinite sequence of such dissipative vector fields to be constructed by repeated application of a symmetric linear operator (matrix) at each point of the intersection of the level sets.

  1. Octopuses use a human-like strategy to control precise point-to-point arm movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumbre, Germán; Fiorito, Graziano; Flash, Tamar; Hochner, Binyamin

    2006-04-18

    One of the key problems in motor control is mastering or reducing the number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) through coordination. This problem is especially prominent with hyper-redundant limbs such as the extremely flexible arm of the octopus. Several strategies for simplifying these control problems have been suggested for human point-to-point arm movements. Despite the evolutionary gap and morphological differences, humans and octopuses evolved similar strategies when fetching food to the mouth. To achieve this precise point-to-point-task, octopus arms generate a quasi-articulated structure based on three dynamic joints. A rotational movement around these joints brings the object to the mouth . Here, we describe a peripheral neural mechanism-two waves of muscle activation propagate toward each other, and their collision point sets the medial-joint location. This is a remarkably simple mechanism for adjusting the length of the segments according to where the object is grasped. Furthermore, similar to certain human arm movements, kinematic invariants were observed at the joint level rather than at the end-effector level, suggesting intrinsic control coordination. The evolutionary convergence to similar geometrical and kinematic features suggests that a kinematically constrained articulated limb controlled at the level of joint space is the optimal solution for precise point-to-point movements.

  2. Pressure Injury Progression and Factors Associated With Different End-Points in a Home Palliative Care Setting: A Retrospective Chart Review Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Artico, Marco; D'Angelo, Daniela; Piredda, Michela; Petitti, Tommasangelo; Lamarca, Luciano; De Marinis, Maria Grazia; Dante, Angelo; Lusignani, Maura; Matarese, Maria

    2018-07-01

    Patients with advanced illnesses show the highest prevalence for pressure injuries. In the palliative care setting, the ultimate goal is injury healing, but equally important is wound maintenance, wound palliation (wound-related pain and symptom management), and primary and secondary wound prevention. To describe the course of healing for pressure injuries in a home palliative care setting according to different end-points, and to explore patient and caregiver characteristics and specific care activities associated with their achievement. Four-year retrospective chart review of 669 patients cared for in a home palliative care service, of those 124 patients (18.5%) had at least one pressure injury with a survival rate less than or equal to six months. The proportion of healed pressure injuries was 24.4%. Of the injuries not healed, 34.0% were in a maintenance phase, whereas 63.6% were in a process of deterioration. Body mass index (P = 0.0014), artificial nutrition (P = 0.002), and age pay attention to artificial nutrition, continuous deep sedation, and the caregiver's role and gender. Copyright © 2018 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Homeless Point-In-Time (2007-2016)

    Data.gov (United States)

    City and County of Durham, North Carolina — These raw data sets contain Point-in-Time (PIT) estimates and national PIT estimates of homelessness as well as national estimates of homelessness by state and...

  4. Benchmarking and improving point cloud data management in MonetDB

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Martinez-Rubi, O.; Van Oosterom, P.J.M.; Goncalves, R.; Tijssen, T.P.M.; Ivanova, M.; Kersten, M.L.; Alvanaki, F.

    2015-01-01

    The popularity, availability and sizes of point cloud data sets are increasing, thus raising interesting data management and processing challenges. Various software solutions are available for the management of point cloud data. A benchmark for point cloud data management systems was defined and it

  5. FPFH-based graph matching for 3D point cloud registration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jiapeng; Li, Chen; Tian, Lihua; Zhu, Jihua

    2018-04-01

    Correspondence detection is a vital step in point cloud registration and it can help getting a reliable initial alignment. In this paper, we put forward an advanced point feature-based graph matching algorithm to solve the initial alignment problem of rigid 3D point cloud registration with partial overlap. Specifically, Fast Point Feature Histograms are used to determine the initial possible correspondences firstly. Next, a new objective function is provided to make the graph matching more suitable for partially overlapping point cloud. The objective function is optimized by the simulated annealing algorithm for final group of correct correspondences. Finally, we present a novel set partitioning method which can transform the NP-hard optimization problem into a O(n3)-solvable one. Experiments on the Stanford and UWA public data sets indicates that our method can obtain better result in terms of both accuracy and time cost compared with other point cloud registration methods.

  6. Determine point-to-point networking interactions using regular expressions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Konstantin S. Deev

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available As Internet growth and becoming more popular, the number of concurrent data flows start to increasing, which makes sense in bandwidth requested. Providers and corporate customers need ability to identify point-to-point interactions. The best is to use special software and hardware implementations that distribute the load in the internals of the complex, using the principles and approaches, in particular, described in this paper. This paper represent the principles of building system, which searches for a regular expression match using computing on graphics adapter in server station. A significant computing power and capability to parallel execution on modern graphic processor allows inspection of large amounts of data through sets of rules. Using the specified characteristics can lead to increased computing power in 30…40 times compared to the same setups on the central processing unit. The potential increase in bandwidth capacity could be used in systems that provide packet analysis, firewalls and network anomaly detectors.

  7. Optimizing Probability of Detection Point Estimate Demonstration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koshti, Ajay M.

    2017-01-01

    Probability of detection (POD) analysis is used in assessing reliably detectable flaw size in nondestructive evaluation (NDE). MIL-HDBK-18231and associated mh18232POD software gives most common methods of POD analysis. Real flaws such as cracks and crack-like flaws are desired to be detected using these NDE methods. A reliably detectable crack size is required for safe life analysis of fracture critical parts. The paper provides discussion on optimizing probability of detection (POD) demonstration experiments using Point Estimate Method. POD Point estimate method is used by NASA for qualifying special NDE procedures. The point estimate method uses binomial distribution for probability density. Normally, a set of 29 flaws of same size within some tolerance are used in the demonstration. The optimization is performed to provide acceptable value for probability of passing demonstration (PPD) and achieving acceptable value for probability of false (POF) calls while keeping the flaw sizes in the set as small as possible.

  8. The effect of drive frequency and set point amplitude on tapping forces in atomic force microscopy: simulation and experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Legleiter, Justin

    2009-01-01

    In tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM), a sharp probe tip attached to an oscillating cantilever is allowed to intermittently strike a surface. By raster scanning the probe while monitoring the oscillation amplitude of the cantilever via a feedback loop, topographical maps of surfaces with nanoscale resolution can be acquired. While numerous studies have employed numerical simulations to elucidate the time-resolved tapping force between the probe tip and surface, until recent technique developments, specific read-outs from such models could not be experimentally verified. In this study, we explore, via numerical simulation, the impact of imaging parameters, i.e. set point ratio and drive frequency as a function of resonance, on time-varying tip-sample force interactions, which are directly compared to reconstructed tapping forces from real AFM experiments. As the AFM model contains a feedback loop allowing for the simulation of the entire scanning process, we further explore the impact that various tip-sample force have on the entire imaging process.

  9. Clowning in Health Care Settings: The Point of View of Adults

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alberto Dionigi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Within the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in investigating the effects of clown intervention in a large variety of clinical settings. Many studies have focused on the effects of clown intervention on children. However, few studies have investigated clowning effects on adults. This paper presents an overview of the concept of medical clowning followed by a literature review conducted on the empirical studies drawn from three data bases (PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar, with the aim of mapping and discussing the evidence of clowning effects on non-children, namely adults. The following areas were investigated: Adult and elderly patients (mainly those with dementia, observers of clowning, namely non-hospitalized adults who are at the hospital as relatives of patients or health-care staff, and finally clowns themselves. The main results are that 1 clown intervention induces positive emotions, thereby enhancing the patient’s well-being, reduces psychological symptoms and emotional reactivity, and prompts a decrease in negative emotions, such as anxiety and stress; 2 clown doctors are also well-perceived by relatives and healthcare staff and their presence appears to be useful in creating a lighter atmosphere in the health setting; 3 few pilot studies have been conducted on clown doctors and this lacuna represents a subject for future research.

  10. Platform for High-Assurance Cloud Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-06-01

    821715). Santa Clara, CA. February 2015. 36. Zhiyuan Teo, Vera Kutsenko, Ken Birman, and Robbert van Renesse. IronStack: performance, stability and...1988. 51. Douglas E . Comer and David L. Stevens. Internetworking with TCP/IP, Vol. III: Client- Server Programming and Applications, Linux/Posix...pp635-671, February 2012. E +16 Ittay Eyal, Adam Efe Gencer, Emin Gun Sirer, and Robbert van Renesse. Bitcoin-NG: A Scalable Blockchain Protocol

  11. Nudging, shaming and stigmatising to improve population health: Comment on "Nudging by shaming, shaming by nudging".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voigt, Kristin

    2014-11-01

    Nudges are small, often imperceptible changes to how particular decisions present themselves to individuals that are meant to influence those decisions. In his editorial, 'Nudging by shaming, shaming by nudging', Eyal highlights links between nudges and feelings of shame on the part of the 'chooser'. In this commentary, I suggest two further distinctions between different types of shame-based nudges that should affect our assessment of such nudges.

  12. Mahalanobis Distance Based Iterative Closest Point

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Mads Fogtmann; Blas, Morten Rufus; Larsen, Rasmus

    2007-01-01

    the notion of a mahalanobis distance map upon a point set with associated covariance matrices which in addition to providing correlation weighted distance implicitly provides a method for assigning correspondence during alignment. This distance map provides an easy formulation of the ICP problem that permits...... a fast optimization. Initially, the covariance matrices are set to the identity matrix, and all shapes are aligned to a randomly selected shape (equivalent to standard ICP). From this point the algorithm iterates between the steps: (a) obtain mean shape and new estimates of the covariance matrices from...... the aligned shapes, (b) align shapes to the mean shape. Three different methods for estimating the mean shape with associated covariance matrices are explored in the paper. The proposed methods are validated experimentally on two separate datasets (IMM face dataset and femur-bones). The superiority of ICP...

  13. Joint classification and contour extraction of large 3D point clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hackel, Timo; Wegner, Jan D.; Schindler, Konrad

    2017-08-01

    We present an effective and efficient method for point-wise semantic classification and extraction of object contours of large-scale 3D point clouds. What makes point cloud interpretation challenging is the sheer size of several millions of points per scan and the non-grid, sparse, and uneven distribution of points. Standard image processing tools like texture filters, for example, cannot handle such data efficiently, which calls for dedicated point cloud labeling methods. It turns out that one of the major drivers for efficient computation and handling of strong variations in point density, is a careful formulation of per-point neighborhoods at multiple scales. This allows, both, to define an expressive feature set and to extract topologically meaningful object contours. Semantic classification and contour extraction are interlaced problems. Point-wise semantic classification enables extracting a meaningful candidate set of contour points while contours help generating a rich feature representation that benefits point-wise classification. These methods are tailored to have fast run time and small memory footprint for processing large-scale, unstructured, and inhomogeneous point clouds, while still achieving high classification accuracy. We evaluate our methods on the semantic3d.net benchmark for terrestrial laser scans with >109 points.

  14. Hilbert schemes of points on some classes surface singularities

    OpenAIRE

    Gyenge, Ádám

    2016-01-01

    We study the geometry and topology of Hilbert schemes of points on the orbifold surface [C^2/G], respectively the singular quotient surface C^2/G, where G is a finite subgroup of SL(2,C) of type A or D. We give a decomposition of the (equivariant) Hilbert scheme of the orbifold into affine space strata indexed by a certain combinatorial set, the set of Young walls. The generating series of Euler characteristics of Hilbert schemes of points of the singular surface of type A or D is computed in...

  15. Fuzzy-Set Case Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikkelsen, Kim Sass

    2017-01-01

    Contemporary case studies rely on verbal arguments and set theory to build or evaluate theoretical claims. While existing procedures excel in the use of qualitative information (information about kind), they ignore quantitative information (information about degree) at central points of the analysis. Effectively, contemporary case studies rely on…

  16. Fast Semantic Segmentation of 3d Point Clouds with Strongly Varying Density

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hackel, Timo; Wegner, Jan D.; Schindler, Konrad

    2016-06-01

    We describe an effective and efficient method for point-wise semantic classification of 3D point clouds. The method can handle unstructured and inhomogeneous point clouds such as those derived from static terrestrial LiDAR or photogammetric reconstruction; and it is computationally efficient, making it possible to process point clouds with many millions of points in a matter of minutes. The key issue, both to cope with strong variations in point density and to bring down computation time, turns out to be careful handling of neighborhood relations. By choosing appropriate definitions of a point's (multi-scale) neighborhood, we obtain a feature set that is both expressive and fast to compute. We evaluate our classification method both on benchmark data from a mobile mapping platform and on a variety of large, terrestrial laser scans with greatly varying point density. The proposed feature set outperforms the state of the art with respect to per-point classification accuracy, while at the same time being much faster to compute.

  17. Groebner basis, resultants and the generalized Mandelbrot set

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Geum, Young Hee [Centre of Research for Computational Sciences and Informatics in Biology, Bioindustry, Environment, Agriculture and Healthcare, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)], E-mail: conpana@empal.com; Hare, Kevin G. [Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont., N2L 3G1 (Canada)], E-mail: kghare@math.uwaterloo.ca

    2009-10-30

    This paper demonstrates how the Groebner basis algorithm can be used for finding the bifurcation points in the generalized Mandelbrot set. It also shows how resultants can be used to find components of the generalized Mandelbrot set.

  18. Groebner basis, resultants and the generalized Mandelbrot set

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geum, Young Hee; Hare, Kevin G.

    2009-01-01

    This paper demonstrates how the Groebner basis algorithm can be used for finding the bifurcation points in the generalized Mandelbrot set. It also shows how resultants can be used to find components of the generalized Mandelbrot set.

  19. Apparatus and method for implementing power saving techniques when processing floating point values

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Young Moon; Park, Sang Phill

    2017-10-03

    An apparatus and method are described for reducing power when reading and writing graphics data. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a graphics processor unit (GPU) to process graphics data including floating point data; a set of registers, at least one of the registers of the set partitioned to store the floating point data; and encode/decode logic to reduce a number of binary 1 values being read from the at least one register by causing a specified set of bit positions within the floating point data to be read out as 0s rather than 1s.

  20. SHORT COMMUNICATION: Correlation between the Resistance Ratios of Platinum Resistance Thermometers at the Melting Point of Gallium and the Triple Point of Mercury

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Y. P.; Maas, H.; Edler, F.; Zaidi, Z. H.

    1994-01-01

    A set of resistance ratios (W) for platinum resistance thermometers was obtained at the triple point of Hg and the melting point of Ga in order to study their relationship. It was found that using measured values for one of the fixed points, a linear equation will predict the value of the other. These measurements also indicate that the fixed points of Hg and of Ga are inconsistent by about 1,5 mK in the sense that either the melting point of Ga or the triple point of Hg was assigned too high a value on the ITS-90.

  1. Nonmeasurable sets and functions

    CERN Document Server

    Kharazishvili, Alexander

    2004-01-01

    The book is devoted to various constructions of sets which are nonmeasurable with respect to invariant (more generally, quasi-invariant) measures. Our starting point is the classical Vitali theorem stating the existence of subsets of the real line which are not measurable in the Lebesgue sense. This theorem stimulated the development of the following interesting topics in mathematics:1. Paradoxical decompositions of sets in finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces;2. The theory of non-real-valued-measurable cardinals;3. The theory of invariant (quasi-invariant)extensions of invariant (quasi-invaria

  2. Estimating the CCSD basis-set limit energy from small basis sets: basis-set extrapolations vs additivity schemes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Spackman, Peter R.; Karton, Amir, E-mail: amir.karton@uwa.edu.au [School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009 (Australia)

    2015-05-15

    Coupled cluster calculations with all single and double excitations (CCSD) converge exceedingly slowly with the size of the one-particle basis set. We assess the performance of a number of approaches for obtaining CCSD correlation energies close to the complete basis-set limit in conjunction with relatively small DZ and TZ basis sets. These include global and system-dependent extrapolations based on the A + B/L{sup α} two-point extrapolation formula, and the well-known additivity approach that uses an MP2-based basis-set-correction term. We show that the basis set convergence rate can change dramatically between different systems(e.g.it is slower for molecules with polar bonds and/or second-row elements). The system-dependent basis-set extrapolation scheme, in which unique basis-set extrapolation exponents for each system are obtained from lower-cost MP2 calculations, significantly accelerates the basis-set convergence relative to the global extrapolations. Nevertheless, we find that the simple MP2-based basis-set additivity scheme outperforms the extrapolation approaches. For example, the following root-mean-squared deviations are obtained for the 140 basis-set limit CCSD atomization energies in the W4-11 database: 9.1 (global extrapolation), 3.7 (system-dependent extrapolation), and 2.4 (additivity scheme) kJ mol{sup –1}. The CCSD energy in these approximations is obtained from basis sets of up to TZ quality and the latter two approaches require additional MP2 calculations with basis sets of up to QZ quality. We also assess the performance of the basis-set extrapolations and additivity schemes for a set of 20 basis-set limit CCSD atomization energies of larger molecules including amino acids, DNA/RNA bases, aromatic compounds, and platonic hydrocarbon cages. We obtain the following RMSDs for the above methods: 10.2 (global extrapolation), 5.7 (system-dependent extrapolation), and 2.9 (additivity scheme) kJ mol{sup –1}.

  3. Estimating the CCSD basis-set limit energy from small basis sets: basis-set extrapolations vs additivity schemes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spackman, Peter R.; Karton, Amir

    2015-01-01

    Coupled cluster calculations with all single and double excitations (CCSD) converge exceedingly slowly with the size of the one-particle basis set. We assess the performance of a number of approaches for obtaining CCSD correlation energies close to the complete basis-set limit in conjunction with relatively small DZ and TZ basis sets. These include global and system-dependent extrapolations based on the A + B/L α two-point extrapolation formula, and the well-known additivity approach that uses an MP2-based basis-set-correction term. We show that the basis set convergence rate can change dramatically between different systems(e.g.it is slower for molecules with polar bonds and/or second-row elements). The system-dependent basis-set extrapolation scheme, in which unique basis-set extrapolation exponents for each system are obtained from lower-cost MP2 calculations, significantly accelerates the basis-set convergence relative to the global extrapolations. Nevertheless, we find that the simple MP2-based basis-set additivity scheme outperforms the extrapolation approaches. For example, the following root-mean-squared deviations are obtained for the 140 basis-set limit CCSD atomization energies in the W4-11 database: 9.1 (global extrapolation), 3.7 (system-dependent extrapolation), and 2.4 (additivity scheme) kJ mol –1 . The CCSD energy in these approximations is obtained from basis sets of up to TZ quality and the latter two approaches require additional MP2 calculations with basis sets of up to QZ quality. We also assess the performance of the basis-set extrapolations and additivity schemes for a set of 20 basis-set limit CCSD atomization energies of larger molecules including amino acids, DNA/RNA bases, aromatic compounds, and platonic hydrocarbon cages. We obtain the following RMSDs for the above methods: 10.2 (global extrapolation), 5.7 (system-dependent extrapolation), and 2.9 (additivity scheme) kJ mol –1

  4. Set theoretical aspects of real analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Kharazishvili, Alexander B

    2014-01-01

    This book addresses a number of questions in real analysis and classical measure theory that are of a set-theoretic flavor. Accessible to graduate students, the beginning of the book presents introductory topics on real analysis and Lebesque measure theory. These topics highlight the boundary between fundamental concepts of measurability and non-measurability for point sets and functions. The remainder of the book deals with more specialized material on set-theoretical real analysis. Problems are included at the end of each chapter.

  5. Large-scale urban point cloud labeling and reconstruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Liqiang; Li, Zhuqiang; Li, Anjian; Liu, Fangyu

    2018-04-01

    The large number of object categories and many overlapping or closely neighboring objects in large-scale urban scenes pose great challenges in point cloud classification. In this paper, a novel framework is proposed for classification and reconstruction of airborne laser scanning point cloud data. To label point clouds, we present a rectified linear units neural network named ReLu-NN where the rectified linear units (ReLu) instead of the traditional sigmoid are taken as the activation function in order to speed up the convergence. Since the features of the point cloud are sparse, we reduce the number of neurons by the dropout to avoid over-fitting of the training process. The set of feature descriptors for each 3D point is encoded through self-taught learning, and forms a discriminative feature representation which is taken as the input of the ReLu-NN. The segmented building points are consolidated through an edge-aware point set resampling algorithm, and then they are reconstructed into 3D lightweight models using the 2.5D contouring method (Zhou and Neumann, 2010). Compared with deep learning approaches, the ReLu-NN introduced can easily classify unorganized point clouds without rasterizing the data, and it does not need a large number of training samples. Most of the parameters in the network are learned, and thus the intensive parameter tuning cost is significantly reduced. Experimental results on various datasets demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves better performance than other related algorithms in terms of classification accuracy and reconstruction quality.

  6. Implementation of antimicrobial peptides for sample preparation prior to nucleic acid amplification in point-of-care settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krõlov, Katrin; Uusna, Julia; Grellier, Tiia; Andresen, Liis; Jevtuševskaja, Jekaterina; Tulp, Indrek; Langel, Ülo

    2017-12-01

    A variety of sample preparation techniques are used prior to nucleic acid amplification. However, their efficiency is not always sufficient and nucleic acid purification remains the preferred method for template preparation. Purification is difficult and costly to apply in point-of-care (POC) settings and there is a strong need for more robust, rapid, and efficient biological sample preparation techniques in molecular diagnostics. Here, the authors applied antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) for urine sample preparation prior to isothermal loop-mediated amplification (LAMP). AMPs bind to many microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses causing disruption of their membrane integrity and facilitate nucleic acid release. The authors show that incubation of E. coli with antimicrobial peptide cecropin P1 for 5 min had a significant effect on the availability of template DNA compared with untreated or even heat treated samples resulting in up to six times increase of the amplification efficiency. These results show that AMPs treatment is a very efficient sample preparation technique that is suitable for application prior to nucleic acid amplification directly within biological samples. Furthermore, the entire process of AMPs treatment was performed at room temperature for 5 min thereby making it a good candidate for use in POC applications.

  7. Renorming c0 and closed, bounded, convex sets with fixed point property for affine nonexpansive mappings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nezir, Veysel; Mustafa, Nizami

    2017-04-01

    In 2008, P.K. Lin provided the first example of a nonreflexive space that can be renormed to have fixed point property for nonexpansive mappings. This space was the Banach space of absolutely summable sequences l1 and researchers aim to generalize this to c0, Banach space of null sequences. Before P.K. Lin's intriguing result, in 1979, Goebel and Kuczumow showed that there is a large class of non-weak* compact closed, bounded, convex subsets of l1 with fixed point property for nonexpansive mappings. Then, P.K. Lin inspired by Goebel and Kuczumow's ideas to give his result. Similarly to P.K. Lin's study, Hernández-Linares worked on L1 and in his Ph.D. thesis, supervisored under Maria Japón, showed that L1 can be renormed to have fixed point property for affine nonexpansive mappings. Then, related questions for c0 have been considered by researchers. Recently, Nezir constructed several equivalent norms on c0 and showed that there are non-weakly compact closed, bounded, convex subsets of c0 with fixed point property for affine nonexpansive mappings. In this study, we construct a family of equivalent norms containing those developed by Nezir as well and show that there exists a large class of non-weakly compact closed, bounded, convex subsets of c0 with fixed point property for affine nonexpansive mappings.

  8. Influencing Food Selection with Point-of-Choice Nutrition Information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis-Chervin, Doryn; And Others

    1985-01-01

    Evaluated the effectiveness of a point-of-choice nutrition information program that used a comprehensive set of communication functions in its design. Results indicate that point-of-choice information without direct tangible rewards can (to a moderate degree) modify food-selection behavior of cafeteria patrons. (JN)

  9. Architecture of chaotic attractors for flows in the absence of any singular point

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Letellier, Christophe [CORIA-UMR 6614 Normandie Université, CNRS-Université et INSA de Rouen, Campus Universitaire du Madrillet, F-76800 Saint-Etienne du Rouvray (France); Malasoma, Jean-Marc [Université de Lyon, ENTPE, Laboratoire Génie Civil et Bâtiment, 3 Rue Maurice Audin, F-69518 Vaulx-en-Velin Cedex (France)

    2016-06-15

    Some chaotic attractors produced by three-dimensional dynamical systems without any singular point have now been identified, but explaining how they are structured in the state space remains an open question. We here want to explain—in the particular case of the Wei system—such a structure, using one-dimensional sets obtained by vanishing two of the three derivatives of the flow. The neighborhoods of these sets are made of points which are characterized by the eigenvalues of a 2 × 2 matrix describing the stability of flow in a subspace transverse to it. We will show that the attractor is spiralling and twisted in the neighborhood of one-dimensional sets where points are characterized by a pair of complex conjugated eigenvalues. We then show that such one-dimensional sets are also useful in explaining the structure of attractors produced by systems with singular points, by considering the case of the Lorenz system.

  10. Entropy Based Test Point Evaluation and Selection Method for Analog Circuit Fault Diagnosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuan Gao

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available By simplifying tolerance problem and treating faulty voltages on different test points as independent variables, integer-coded table technique is proposed to simplify the test point selection process. Usually, simplifying tolerance problem may induce a wrong solution while the independence assumption will result in over conservative result. To address these problems, the tolerance problem is thoroughly considered in this paper, and dependency relationship between different test points is considered at the same time. A heuristic graph search method is proposed to facilitate the test point selection process. First, the information theoretic concept of entropy is used to evaluate the optimality of test point. The entropy is calculated by using the ambiguous sets and faulty voltage distribution, determined by component tolerance. Second, the selected optimal test point is used to expand current graph node by using dependence relationship between the test point and graph node. Simulated results indicate that the proposed method more accurately finds the optimal set of test points than other methods; therefore, it is a good solution to minimize the size of the test point set. To simplify and clarify the proposed method, only catastrophic and some specific parametric faults are discussed in this paper.

  11. A landing theorem for entire functions with bounded post-singular sets

    OpenAIRE

    Benini, Anna Miriam; Rempe-Gillen, Lasse

    2017-01-01

    The Douady-Hubbard landing theorem for periodic external rays is one of the cornerstones of the study of polynomial dynamics. It states that, for a complex polynomial with bounded postcritical set, every periodic external ray lands at a repelling or parabolic periodic point, and conversely every repelling or parabolic point is the landing point of at least one periodic external ray. We prove an analogue of this theorem for an entire function with bounded postsingular set: every periodic dread...

  12. Pointing Device Performance in Steering Tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Senanayake, Ransalu; Goonetilleke, Ravindra S

    2016-06-01

    Use of touch-screen-based interactions is growing rapidly. Hence, knowing the maneuvering efficacy of touch screens relative to other pointing devices is of great importance in the context of graphical user interfaces. Movement time, accuracy, and user preferences of four pointing device settings were evaluated on a computer with 14 participants aged 20.1 ± 3.13 years. It was found that, depending on the difficulty of the task, the optimal settings differ for ballistic and visual control tasks. With a touch screen, resting the arm increased movement time for steering tasks. When both performance and comfort are considered, whether to use a mouse or a touch screen for person-computer interaction depends on the steering difficulty. Hence, a input device should be chosen based on the application, and should be optimized to match the graphical user interface. © The Author(s) 2016.

  13. Post-Processing in the Material-Point Method

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Søren; Andersen, Lars Vabbersgaard

    The material-point method (MPM) is a numerical method for dynamic or static analysis of solids using a discretization in time and space. The method has shown to be successful in modelling physical problems involving large deformations, which are difficult to model with traditional numerical tools...... such as the finite element method. In the material-point method, a set of material points is utilized to track the problem in time and space, while a computational background grid is utilized to obtain spatial derivatives relevant to the physical problem. Currently, the research within the material-point method......-point method. The first idea involves associating a volume with each material point and displaying the deformation of this volume. In the discretization process, the physical domain is divided into a number of smaller volumes each represented by a simple shape; here quadrilaterals are chosen for the presented...

  14. Dynamics and mission design near libration points

    CERN Document Server

    Gómez, G; Llibre, J; Martínez, R

    2001-01-01

    It is well known that the restricted three-body problem has triangular equilibrium points. These points are linearly stable for values of the mass parameter, µ , below Routh's critical value, µ 1 . It is also known that in the spatial case they are nonlinearly stable, not for all the initial conditions in a neighborhood of the equilibrium points L 4 , L 5 but for a set of relatively large measures. This follows from the celebrated Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theorem. In fact there are neighborhoods of computable size for which one obtains "practical stability" in the sense that the massless partic

  15. Fixed point theorems in spaces and -trees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kirk WA

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available We show that if is a bounded open set in a complete space , and if is nonexpansive, then always has a fixed point if there exists such that for all . It is also shown that if is a geodesically bounded closed convex subset of a complete -tree with , and if is a continuous mapping for which for some and all , then has a fixed point. It is also noted that a geodesically bounded complete -tree has the fixed point property for continuous mappings. These latter results are used to obtain variants of the classical fixed edge theorem in graph theory.

  16. Starting point anchoring effects in choice experiments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ladenburg, Jacob; Olsen, Søren Bøye

    of preferences in Choice Experiments resembles the Dichotomous Choice format, there is reason to suspect that Choice Experiments are equally vulnerable to anchoring bias. Employing different sets of price levels in a so-called Instruction Choice Set presented prior to the actual choice sets, the present study...... subjectivity in the present study is gender dependent, pointing towards, that female respondents are prone to be affected by the price levels employed. Male respondents, on the other hand, are not sensitive towards these prices levels. Overall, this implicates that female respondents, when employing a low......-priced Instruction Choice Set, tend to express lower willingness-to-pay than when higher prices are employed....

  17. Equations for arithmetic pointed tori

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sijsling, J.R.

    2010-01-01

    In 1983, Kisao Takeuchi enumerated all 71 arithmetic (1;e)-groups. This is a special set of discrete subgroups of SL(2,R) of finite covolume and signature (1;e). The corresponding quotients of the upper half plane (called (1;e)-curves) have genus equal to 1 and a single elliptic point of order e.

  18. On the regularization of extremal three-point functions involving giant gravitons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charlotte Kristjansen

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available In the AdS5/CFT4 set-up, extremal three-point functions involving two giant 1/2 BPS gravitons and one point-like 1/2 BPS graviton, when calculated using semi-classical string theory methods, match the corresponding three-point functions obtained in the tree-level gauge theory. The string theory computation relies on a certain regularization procedure whose justification is based on the match between gauge and string theory. We revisit the regularization procedure and reformulate it in a way which allows a generalization to the ABJM set-up where three-point functions of 1/2 BPS operators are not protected and where a match between tree-level gauge theory and semi-classical string theory is hence not expected.

  19. PASS-GP: Predictive active set selection for Gaussian processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henao, Ricardo; Winther, Ole

    2010-01-01

    available in GPs to make a common ranking for both active and inactive points, allowing points to be removed again from the active set. This is important for keeping the complexity down and at the same time focusing on points close to the decision boundary. We lend both theoretical and empirical support...

  20. Point-source inversion techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langston, Charles A.; Barker, Jeffrey S.; Pavlin, Gregory B.

    1982-11-01

    A variety of approaches for obtaining source parameters from waveform data using moment-tensor or dislocation point source models have been investigated and applied to long-period body and surface waves from several earthquakes. Generalized inversion techniques have been applied to data for long-period teleseismic body waves to obtain the orientation, time function and depth of the 1978 Thessaloniki, Greece, event, of the 1971 San Fernando event, and of several events associated with the 1963 induced seismicity sequence at Kariba, Africa. The generalized inversion technique and a systematic grid testing technique have also been used to place meaningful constraints on mechanisms determined from very sparse data sets; a single station with high-quality three-component waveform data is often sufficient to discriminate faulting type (e.g., strike-slip, etc.). Sparse data sets for several recent California earthquakes, for a small regional event associated with the Koyna, India, reservoir, and for several events at the Kariba reservoir have been investigated in this way. Although linearized inversion techniques using the moment-tensor model are often robust, even for sparse data sets, there are instances where the simplifying assumption of a single point source is inadequate to model the data successfully. Numerical experiments utilizing synthetic data and actual data for the 1971 San Fernando earthquake graphically demonstrate that severe problems may be encountered if source finiteness effects are ignored. These techniques are generally applicable to on-line processing of high-quality digital data, but source complexity and inadequacy of the assumed Green's functions are major problems which are yet to be fully addressed.

  1. Lorentz invariance and the zero-point stress-energy tensor

    OpenAIRE

    Visser, Matt

    2016-01-01

    Some 65 years ago (1951) Wolfgang Pauli noted that the net zero-point energy density could be set to zero by a carefully fine-tuned cancellation between bosons and fermions. In the current article I will argue in a slightly different direction: The zero-point energy density is only one component of the zero-point stress energy tensor, and it is this tensor quantity that is in many ways the more fundamental object of interest. I shall demonstrate that Lorentz invariance of the zero-point stres...

  2. Cook Inlet and Kenai Peninsula, Alaska ESI: VOLCANOS (Volcano Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains the locations of volcanos in Cook Inlet and Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Vector points in the data set represent the location of the volcanos....

  3. Testing the statistical compatibility of independent data sets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maltoni, M.; Schwetz, T.

    2003-01-01

    We discuss a goodness-of-fit method which tests the compatibility between statistically independent data sets. The method gives sensible results even in cases where the χ 2 minima of the individual data sets are very low or when several parameters are fitted to a large number of data points. In particular, it avoids the problem that a possible disagreement between data sets becomes diluted by data points which are insensitive to the crucial parameters. A formal derivation of the probability distribution function for the proposed test statistics is given, based on standard theorems of statistics. The application of the method is illustrated on data from neutrino oscillation experiments, and its complementarity to the standard goodness-of-fit is discussed

  4. The Mean as Balance Point

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Dell, Robin S.

    2012-01-01

    There are two primary interpretations of the mean: as a leveler of data (Uccellini 1996, pp. 113-114) and as a balance point of a data set. Typically, both interpretations of the mean are ignored in elementary school and middle school curricula. They are replaced with a rote emphasis on calculation using the standard algorithm. When students are…

  5. Nudging, Shaming and Stigmatising to Improve Population Health; Comment on: “Nudging by Shaming, Shaming by Nudging”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristin Voigt

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Nudges are small, often imperceptible changes to how particular decisions present themselves to individuals that are meant to influence those decisions. In his editorial, ‘Nudging by shaming, shaming by nudging’, Eyal highlights links between nudges and feelings of shame on the part of the ‘chooser’. In this commentary, I suggest two further distinctions between different types of shame-based nudges that should affect our assessment of such nudges.

  6. Nudging, shaming and stigmatising to improve population health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voigt, Kristin

    2014-01-01

    Nudges are small, often imperceptible changes to how particular decisions present themselves to individuals that are meant to influence those decisions. In his editorial, ‘Nudging by shaming, shaming by nudging’, Eyal highlights links between nudges and feelings of shame on the part of the ‘chooser’. In this commentary, I suggest two further distinctions between different types of shame-based nudges that should affect our assessment of such nudges. PMID:25396213

  7. A threshold auto-adjustment algorithm of feature points extraction based on grid

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Zili; Li, Jun; Dong, Gaojie

    2018-02-01

    When dealing with high-resolution digital images, detection of feature points is usually the very first important step. Valid feature points depend on the threshold. If the threshold is too low, plenty of feature points will be detected, and they may be aggregated in the rich texture regions, which consequently not only affects the speed of feature description, but also aggravates the burden of following processing; if the threshold is set high, the feature points in poor texture area will lack. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a threshold auto-adjustment method of feature extraction based on grid. By dividing the image into numbers of grid, threshold is set in every local grid for extracting the feature points. When the number of feature points does not meet the threshold requirement, the threshold will be adjusted automatically to change the final number of feature points The experimental results show that feature points produced by our method is more uniform and representative, which avoids the aggregation of feature points and greatly reduces the complexity of following work.

  8. Representation and display of vector field topology in fluid flow data sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helman, James; Hesselink, Lambertus

    1989-01-01

    The visualization of physical processes in general and of vector fields in particular is discussed. An approach to visualizing flow topology that is based on the physics and mathematics underlying the physical phenomenon is presented. It involves determining critical points in the flow where the velocity vector vanishes. The critical points, connected by principal lines or planes, determine the topology of the flow. The complexity of the data is reduced without sacrificing the quantitative nature of the data set. By reducing the original vector field to a set of critical points and their connections, a representation of the topology of a two-dimensional vector field that is much smaller than the original data set but retains with full precision the information pertinent to the flow topology is obtained. This representation can be displayed as a set of points and tangent curves or as a graph. Analysis (including algorithms), display, interaction, and implementation aspects are discussed.

  9. Setting standards to determine core clerkship grades in pediatrics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudas, Robert A; Barone, Michael A

    2014-01-01

    One of the greatest challenges for clerkship directors is assigning a final grade and determining the precise point at which a student either passes or fails a clinical clerkship. The process of incorporating both subjective and objective assessment data to provide a final summative grade can be challenging. We describe our experience conducting a standard-setting exercise to set defensible cut points in a 4-tiered grading system in our pediatric clerkship. Using the Hofstee standard-setting approach, 8 faculty members participated in an exercise to establish grade cut points. These faculty members were subsequently surveyed to assess their attitudes toward the standard-setting process as well as their reactions to these newly proposed standards. We applied the new cut points to a historic cohort of 116 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine students from the academic year 2012-2013 to assess the potential impact on grade distributions. The resultant grading schema would lead to a significant increase in the number of students receiving a failing grade and a decrease in the number of students receiving a grade of honors in a historical cohort. Faculty reported that the Hofstee method was easy to understand and fair. All faculty members thought that grade inflation presently exists within the pediatric clerkship. This study demonstrates that practical standards using the Hofstee method can be set for medical students in a pediatric clerkship in which multiple performance measures are used. Copyright © 2014 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Analysis of Stress Updates in the Material-point Method

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Søren; Andersen, Lars

    2009-01-01

    The material-point method (MPM) is a new numerical method for analysis of large strain engineering problems. The MPM applies a dual formulation, where the state of the problem (mass, stress, strain, velocity etc.) is tracked using a finite set of material points while the governing equations...... are solved on a background computational grid. Several references state, that one of the main advantages of the material-point method is the easy application of complicated material behaviour as the constitutive response is updated individually for each material point. However, as discussed here, the MPM way...

  11. Describing chaotic attractors: Regular and perpetual points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudkowski, Dawid; Prasad, Awadhesh; Kapitaniak, Tomasz

    2018-03-01

    We study the concepts of regular and perpetual points for describing the behavior of chaotic attractors in dynamical systems. The idea of these points, which have been recently introduced to theoretical investigations, is thoroughly discussed and extended into new types of models. We analyze the correlation between regular and perpetual points, as well as their relation with phase space, showing the potential usefulness of both types of points in the qualitative description of co-existing states. The ability of perpetual points in finding attractors is indicated, along with its potential cause. The location of chaotic trajectories and sets of considered points is investigated and the study on the stability of systems is shown. The statistical analysis of the observing desired states is performed. We focus on various types of dynamical systems, i.e., chaotic flows with self-excited and hidden attractors, forced mechanical models, and semiconductor superlattices, exhibiting the universality of appearance of the observed patterns and relations.

  12. Visibility of noisy point cloud data

    KAUST Repository

    Mehra, Ravish; Tripathi, Pushkar; Sheffer, Alla; Mitra, Niloy J.

    2010-01-01

    for the points set, visibility is computed based on a construction involving convex hull in a dual space, an idea inspired by the work of Katz et al. [26]. We derive theoretical bounds on the behavior of the method in the presence of noise and concavities

  13. Super-Relaxed ( -Proximal Point Algorithms, Relaxed ( -Proximal Point Algorithms, Linear Convergence Analysis, and Nonlinear Variational Inclusions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agarwal RaviP

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available We glance at recent advances to the general theory of maximal (set-valued monotone mappings and their role demonstrated to examine the convex programming and closely related field of nonlinear variational inequalities. We focus mostly on applications of the super-relaxed ( -proximal point algorithm to the context of solving a class of nonlinear variational inclusion problems, based on the notion of maximal ( -monotonicity. Investigations highlighted in this communication are greatly influenced by the celebrated work of Rockafellar (1976, while others have played a significant part as well in generalizing the proximal point algorithm considered by Rockafellar (1976 to the case of the relaxed proximal point algorithm by Eckstein and Bertsekas (1992. Even for the linear convergence analysis for the overrelaxed (or super-relaxed ( -proximal point algorithm, the fundamental model for Rockafellar's case does the job. Furthermore, we attempt to explore possibilities of generalizing the Yosida regularization/approximation in light of maximal ( -monotonicity, and then applying to first-order evolution equations/inclusions.

  14. Reliability and Validity of 10 Different Standard Setting Procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halpin, Glennelle; Halpin, Gerald

    Research indicating that different cut-off points result from the use of different standard-setting techniques leaves decision makers with a disturbing dilemma: Which standard-setting method is best? This investigation of the reliability and validity of 10 different standard-setting approaches was designed to provide information that might help…

  15. Geographic Response Plan (GRP) Sensitive Site Points (Editable), Guam, 2016, US EPA Region 9

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This is an editable point feature data set with points over Apra Harbor in Guam. These points represent sensitive sites such as access points for public use and...

  16. Cardinal and anti-cardinal points, equalities and chromatic dependence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Tanya; Harris, William F

    2017-05-01

    Cardinal points are used for ray tracing through Gaussian systems. Anti-principal and anti-nodal points (which we shall refer to as the anti-cardinal points), along with the six familiar cardinal points, belong to a much larger set of special points. The purpose of this paper is to obtain a set of relationships and resulting equalities among the cardinal and anti-cardinal points and to illustrate them using Pascal's ring. The methodology used relies on Gaussian optics and the transference T. We make use of two equations, obtained via the transference, which give the locations of the six cardinal and four anti-cardinal points with respect to the system. We obtain equalities among the cardinal and anti-cardinal points. We utilise Pascal's ring to illustrate which points depend on frequency and their displacement with change in frequency. Pascal described a memory schema in the shape of a hexagon for remembering equalities among the points and illustrating shifts in these points when an aspect of the system changes. We modify and extend Pascal's ring to include the anti-cardinal points. We make use of Pascal's ring extended to illustrate which points are dependent on the frequency of light and the direction of shift of the equalities with change in frequency. For the reduced eye the principal and nodal points are independent of frequency, but the focal points and the anti-cardinal points depend on frequency. For Le Grand's four-surface model eye all six cardinal and four anti-cardinal points depend on frequency. This has implications for definitions, particularly of chromatic aberrations of the eye, that make use of cardinal points and that themselves depend on frequency. Pascal's ring and Pascal's ring extended are novel memory schema for remembering the equalities among the cardinal and anti-cardinal points. The rings are useful for illustrating changes among the equalities and direction of shift of points when an aspect of a system changes. Care should be taken

  17. SEMANTIC3D.NET: a New Large-Scale Point Cloud Classification Benchmark

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hackel, T.; Savinov, N.; Ladicky, L.; Wegner, J. D.; Schindler, K.; Pollefeys, M.

    2017-05-01

    This paper presents a new 3D point cloud classification benchmark data set with over four billion manually labelled points, meant as input for data-hungry (deep) learning methods. We also discuss first submissions to the benchmark that use deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) as a work horse, which already show remarkable performance improvements over state-of-the-art. CNNs have become the de-facto standard for many tasks in computer vision and machine learning like semantic segmentation or object detection in images, but have no yet led to a true breakthrough for 3D point cloud labelling tasks due to lack of training data. With the massive data set presented in this paper, we aim at closing this data gap to help unleash the full potential of deep learning methods for 3D labelling tasks. Our semantic3D.net data set consists of dense point clouds acquired with static terrestrial laser scanners. It contains 8 semantic classes and covers a wide range of urban outdoor scenes: churches, streets, railroad tracks, squares, villages, soccer fields and castles. We describe our labelling interface and show that our data set provides more dense and complete point clouds with much higher overall number of labelled points compared to those already available to the research community. We further provide baseline method descriptions and comparison between methods submitted to our online system. We hope semantic3D.net will pave the way for deep learning methods in 3D point cloud labelling to learn richer, more general 3D representations, and first submissions after only a few months indicate that this might indeed be the case.

  18. A novel point-of-care testing strategy for sexually transmitted infections among pregnant women in high-burden settings: results of a feasibility study in Papua New Guinea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badman, Steven G; Vallely, Lisa M; Toliman, Pamela; Kariwiga, Grace; Lote, Bomesina; Pomat, William; Holmer, Caroline; Guy, Rebecca; Luchters, Stanley; Morgan, Chris; Garland, Suzanne M; Tabrizi, Sepehr; Whiley, David; Rogerson, Stephen J; Mola, Glen; Wand, Handan; Donovan, Basil; Causer, Louise; Kaldor, John; Vallely, Andrew

    2016-06-06

    Sexually transmitted and genital infections in pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes. High prevalences of sexually transmitted infections have been identified among antenatal attenders in Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea has amongst the highest neonatal mortality rates worldwide, with preterm birth and low birth weight major contributors to neonatal mortality. The overall aim of our study was to determine if a novel point-of-care testing and treatment strategy for the sexually transmitted and genital infections Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) and Bacterial vaginosis (BV) in pregnancy is feasible in the high-burden, low-income setting of Papua New Guinea. Women attending their first antenatal clinic visit were invited to participate. CT/NG and TV were tested using the GeneXpert platform (Cepheid, USA), and BV tested using BVBlue (Gryphus Diagnostics, USA). Participants received same-day test results and antibiotic treatment as indicated. Routine antenatal care including HIV and syphilis screening were provided. Point-of-care testing was provided to 125/222 (56 %) of women attending routine antenatal care during the three-month study period. Among the 125 women enrolled, the prevalence of CT was 20.0 %; NG, 11.2 %; TV, 37.6 %; and BV, 17.6 %. Over half (67/125, 53.6 %) of women had one or more of these infections. Most women were asymptomatic (71.6 %; 47/67). Women aged 24 years and under were more likely to have one or more STI compared with older women (odds ratio 2.38; 95 % CI: 1.09, 5.21). Most women with an STI received treatment on the same day (83.6 %; 56/67). HIV prevalence was 1.6 % and active syphilis 4.0 %. Point-of-care STI testing and treatment using a combination of novel, newly-available assays was feasible during routine antenatal care in this setting. This strategy has not previously been evaluated in any setting and offers the

  19. Self-Similarity Based Corresponding-Point Extraction from Weakly Textured Stereo Pairs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Min Mao

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available For the areas of low textured in image pairs, there is nearly no point that can be detected by traditional methods. The information in these areas will not be extracted by classical interest-point detectors. In this paper, a novel weakly textured point detection method is presented. The points with weakly textured characteristic are detected by the symmetry concept. The proposed approach considers the gray variability of the weakly textured local regions. The detection mechanism can be separated into three steps: region-similarity computation, candidate point searching, and refinement of weakly textured point set. The mechanism of radius scale selection and texture strength conception are used in the second step and the third step, respectively. The matching algorithm based on sparse representation (SRM is used for matching the detected points in different images. The results obtained on image sets with different objects show high robustness of the method to background and intraclass variations as well as to different photometric and geometric transformations; the points detected by this method are also the complement of points detected by classical detectors from the literature. And we also verify the efficacy of SRM by comparing with classical algorithms under the occlusion and corruption situations for matching the weakly textured points. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed weakly textured point detection algorithm.

  20. Comparison of sparse point distribution models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Erbou, Søren Gylling Hemmingsen; Vester-Christensen, Martin; Larsen, Rasmus

    2010-01-01

    This paper compares several methods for obtaining sparse and compact point distribution models suited for data sets containing many variables. These are evaluated on a database consisting of 3D surfaces of a section of the pelvic bone obtained from CT scans of 33 porcine carcasses. The superior m...

  1. Visualization and labeling of point clouds in virtual reality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stets, Jonathan Dyssel; Sun, Yongbin; Greenwald, Scott W.

    2017-01-01

    We present a Virtual Reality (VR) application for labeling and handling point cloud data sets. A series of room-scale point clouds are recorded as a video sequence using a Microsoft Kinect. The data can be played and paused, and frames can be skipped just like in a video player. The user can walk...

  2. On some classical problems of descriptive set theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kanovei, Vladimir G; Lyubetskii, Vasilii A

    2003-01-01

    The centenary of P.S. Novikov's birth provides an inspiring motivation to present, with full proofs and from a modern standpoint, the presumably definitive solutions of some classical problems in descriptive set theory which were formulated by Luzin [Lusin] and, to some extent, even earlier by Hadamard, Borel, and Lebesgue and relate to regularity properties of point sets. The solutions of these problems began in the pioneering works of Aleksandrov [Alexandroff], Suslin [Souslin], and Luzin (1916-17) and evolved in the fundamental studies of Goedel, Novikov, Cohen, and their successors. Main features of this branch of mathematics are that, on the one hand, it is an ordinary mathematical theory studying natural properties of point sets and functions and rather distant from general set theory or intrinsic problems of mathematical logic like consistency or Goedel's theorems, and on the other hand, it has become a subject of applications of the most subtle tools of modern mathematical logic

  3. Dataset reporting the perceiver identification rates of basic emotions expressed by male, female and ambiguous gendered walkers in full-light, point-light and synthetically modelled point-light walkers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halovic, Shaun; Kroos, Christian

    2017-12-01

    This data set describes the experimental data collected and reported in the research article "Walking my way? Walker gender and display format confounds the perception of specific emotions" (Halovic and Kroos, in press) [1]. The data set represent perceiver identification rates for different emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear and neutral), as displayed by full-light, point-light and synthetic point-light walkers. The perceiver identification scores have been transformed into H t rates, which represent proportions/percentages of correct identifications above what would be expected by chance. This data set also provides H t rates separately for male, female and ambiguously gendered walkers.

  4. A characterization of linearly repetitive cut and project sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haynes, Alan; Koivusalo, Henna; Walton, James

    2018-02-01

    For the development of a mathematical theory which can be used to rigorously investigate physical properties of quasicrystals, it is necessary to understand regularity of patterns in special classes of aperiodic point sets in Euclidean space. In one dimension, prototypical mathematical models for quasicrystals are provided by Sturmian sequences and by point sets generated by substitution rules. Regularity properties of such sets are well understood, thanks mostly to well known results by Morse and Hedlund, and physicists have used this understanding to study one dimensional random Schrödinger operators and lattice gas models. A key fact which plays an important role in these problems is the existence of a subadditive ergodic theorem, which is guaranteed when the corresponding point set is linearly repetitive. In this paper we extend the one-dimensional model to cut and project sets, which generalize Sturmian sequences in higher dimensions, and which are frequently used in mathematical and physical literature as models for higher dimensional quasicrystals. By using a combination of algebraic, geometric, and dynamical techniques, together with input from higher dimensional Diophantine approximation, we give a complete characterization of all linearly repetitive cut and project sets with cubical windows. We also prove that these are precisely the collection of such sets which satisfy subadditive ergodic theorems. The results are explicit enough to allow us to apply them to known classical models, and to construct linearly repetitive cut and project sets in all pairs of dimensions and codimensions in which they exist. Research supported by EPSRC grants EP/L001462, EP/J00149X, EP/M023540. HK also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Osk. Huttunen foundation.

  5. Determination system for solar cell layout in traffic light network using dominating set

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eka Yulia Retnani, Windi; Fambudi, Brelyanes Z.; Slamin

    2018-04-01

    Graph Theory is one of the fields in Mathematics that solves discrete problems. In daily life, the applications of Graph Theory are used to solve various problems. One of the topics in the Graph Theory that is used to solve the problem is the dominating set. The concept of dominating set is used, for example, to locate some objects systematically. In this study, the dominating set are used to determine the dominating points for solar panels, where the vertex represents the traffic light point and the edge represents the connection between the points of the traffic light. To search the dominating points for solar panels using the greedy algorithm. This algorithm is used to determine the location of solar panel. This research produced applications that can determine the location of solar panels with optimal results, that is, the minimum dominating points.

  6. Towards better segmentation of large floating point 3D astronomical data sets : first results

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Moschini, Ugo; Teeninga, Paul; Wilkinson, Michael; Giese, Nadine; Punzo, Davide; van der Hulst, Jan M.; Trager, Scott

    2014-01-01

    In any image segmentation task, noise must be separated from the actual information and the relevant pixels grouped into objects of interest, on which measures can later be applied. This should be done efficiently on large astronomical surveys with floating point datasets with resolution of the

  7. Ifcwall Reconstruction from Unstructured Point Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bassier, M.; Klein, R.; Van Genechten, B.; Vergauwen, M.

    2018-05-01

    The automated reconstruction of Building Information Modeling (BIM) objects from point cloud data is still ongoing research. A key aspect is the creation of accurate wall geometry as it forms the basis for further reconstruction of objects in a BIM. After segmenting and classifying the initial point cloud, the labelled segments are processed and the wall topology is reconstructed. However, the preocedure is challenging due to noise, occlusions and the complexity of the input data.In this work, a method is presented to automatically reconstruct consistent wall geometry from point clouds. More specifically, the use of room information is proposed to aid the wall topology creation. First, a set of partial walls is constructed based on classified planar primitives. Next, the rooms are identified using the retrieved wall information along with the floors and ceilings. The wall topology is computed by the intersection of the partial walls conditioned on the room information. The final wall geometry is defined by creating IfcWallStandardCase objects conform the IFC4 standard. The result is a set of walls according to the as-built conditions of a building. The experiments prove that the used method is a reliable framework for wall reconstruction from unstructured point cloud data. Also, the implementation of room information reduces the rate of false positives for the wall topology. Given the walls, ceilings and floors, 94% of the rooms is correctly identified. A key advantage of the proposed method is that it deals with complex rooms and is not bound to single storeys.

  8. A General Schema for Constructing One-Point Bases in the Lambda Calculus

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Goldberg, Mayer

    2001-01-01

    In this paper, we present a schema for constructing one-point bases for recursively enumerable sets of lambda terms. The novelty of the approach is that we make no assumptions about the terms for which the one-point basis is constructed: They need not be combinators and they may contain constants...... and free variables. The significance of the construction is twofold: In the context of the lambda calculus, it characterises one-point bases as ways of ``packaging'' sets of terms into a single term; And in the context of realistic programming languages, it implies that we can define a single procedure...

  9. Matching fields and lattice points of simplices

    OpenAIRE

    Loho, Georg; Smith, Ben

    2018-01-01

    We show that the Chow covectors of a linkage matching field define a bijection of lattice points and we demonstrate how one can recover the linkage matching field from this bijection. This resolves two open questions from Sturmfels & Zelevinsky (1993) on linkage matching fields. For this, we give an explicit construction that associates a bipartite incidence graph of an ordered partition of a common set to all lattice points in a dilated simplex. Given a triangulation of a product of two simp...

  10. Optimal Load-Tracking Operation of Grid-Connected Solid Oxide Fuel Cells through Set Point Scheduling and Combined L1-MPC Control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siwei Han

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available An optimal load-tracking operation strategy for a grid-connected tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC is studied based on the steady-state analysis of the system thermodynamics and electrochemistry. Control of the SOFC is achieved by a two-level hierarchical control system. In the upper level, optimal setpoints of output voltage and the current corresponding to unit load demand is obtained through a nonlinear optimization by minimizing the SOFC’s internal power waste. In the lower level, a combined L1-MPC control strategy is designed to achieve fast set point tracking under system nonlinearities, while maintaining a constant fuel utilization factor. To prevent fuel starvation during the transient state resulting from the output power surging, a fuel flow constraint is imposed on the MPC with direct electron balance calculation. The proposed control schemes are testified on the grid-connected SOFC model.

  11. Guided Discovery of the Nine-Point Circle Theorem and Its Proof

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchbinder, Orly

    2018-01-01

    The nine-point circle theorem is one of the most beautiful and surprising theorems in Euclidean geometry. It establishes an existence of a circle passing through nine points, all of which are related to a single triangle. This paper describes a set of instructional activities that can help students discover the nine-point circle theorem through…

  12. A Calibrated Test-Set for Measurement of Access-Point Time Specifications in Hybrid Wired/Wireless Industrial Communication †

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Federico Tramarin

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available In factory automation and process control systems, hybrid wired/wireless networks are often deployed to connect devices of difficult reachability such as those mounted on mobile equipment. A widespread implementation of these networks makes use of Access Points (APs to implement wireless extensions of Real-Time Ethernet (RTE networks via the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN (WLAN. Unfortunately, APs may introduce random delays in frame forwarding, mainly related to their internal behavior (e.g., queue management, processing times, that clearly impact the overall worst case execution time of real-time tasks involved in industrial process control systems. As a consequence, the knowledge of such delays becomes a crucial design parameter, and their estimation is definitely of utter importance. In this scenario, the paper presents an original and effective method to measure the aforementioned delays introduced by APs, exploiting a hybrid loop-back link and a simple, yet accurate set-up with moderate instrumentation requirements. The proposed method, which requires an initial calibration phase by means of a reference AP, has been successfully tested on some commercial APs to prove its effectiveness. The proposed measurement procedure is proven to be general and, as such, can be profitably adopted in even different scenarios.

  13. SharePoint 2010 at Work Tricks, Traps, and Bold Opinions

    CERN Document Server

    Miller, Mark; Anderson, Marc; Rogers, Laura; Abraham, Kerri; Buren, Sadalit; Mastykarz, Waldek; Alexander, Eric; Bautz, Alexander; Howard, Jim; Allen, Peter

    2012-01-01

    If you're a SharePoint site manager or administrator, you finally have a handy single-source reference to help you through the tough SharePoint learning curve. Written by Mark Miller and his stable of well-known contributors at EndUserSharePoint.com, this book contains the most helpful articles from this popular site-fully updated for SharePoint 2010. Each chapter focuses on core issues that vex SharePoint administrators when it comes to setting up and managing sites. You'll learn tried-and-true solutions for creating charts and graphs, joining views in SharePoint lists, building a SharePoin

  14. On nuclei and blocking sets in Desarguesian spaces

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ball, S.M.

    1999-01-01

    A generalisation is given to recent results concerning the possible number of nuclei to a set of points inPG(n, q). As an application of this we obtain new lower bounds on the size of at-fold blocking set ofAG(n, q) in the case (t, q)>1.

  15. Viviani Polytopes and Fermat Points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Li

    2012-01-01

    Given a set of oriented hyperplanes P = {p1, . . . , pk} in R[superscript n], define v : R[superscript n] [right arrow] R by v(X) = the sum of the signed distances from X to p[subscript 1], . . . , p[subscript k], for any point X [is a member of] R[superscript n]. We give a simple geometric characterization of P for which v is constant, leading to…

  16. Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?; Comment on “Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians”

    OpenAIRE

    Mohsin M. Sidat

    2016-01-01

    Health workforce shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa are widely recognized, particularly of physicians, leading the training and deployment of Non-physician clinicians (NPCs). The paper by Eyal et al provides interesting and legitimate viewpoints on evolving role of physicians in context of decisive increase of NPCss in Sub-Saharan Africa. Certainly, in short or mid-term, NPCs will continue to be a proxy solution and a valuable alternative to overcome physicians’ shortages in sub-Saharan Africa. ...

  17. The computation of fixed points and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Todd, Michael J

    1976-01-01

    Fixed-point algorithms have diverse applications in economics, optimization, game theory and the numerical solution of boundary-value problems. Since Scarf's pioneering work [56,57] on obtaining approximate fixed points of continuous mappings, a great deal of research has been done in extending the applicability and improving the efficiency of fixed-point methods. Much of this work is available only in research papers, although Scarf's book [58] gives a remarkably clear exposition of the power of fixed-point methods. However, the algorithms described by Scarf have been super~eded by the more sophisticated restart and homotopy techniques of Merrill [~8,~9] and Eaves and Saigal [1~,16]. To understand the more efficient algorithms one must become familiar with the notions of triangulation and simplicial approxi- tion, whereas Scarf stresses the concept of primitive set. These notes are intended to introduce to a wider audience the most recent fixed-point methods and their applications. Our approach is therefore ...

  18. Fixed point theory in metric type spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Agarwal, Ravi P; O’Regan, Donal; Roldán-López-de-Hierro, Antonio Francisco

    2015-01-01

    Written by a team of leading experts in the field, this volume presents a self-contained account of the theory, techniques and results in metric type spaces (in particular in G-metric spaces); that is, the text approaches this important area of fixed point analysis beginning from the basic ideas of metric space topology. The text is structured so that it leads the reader from preliminaries and historical notes on metric spaces (in particular G-metric spaces) and on mappings, to Banach type contraction theorems in metric type spaces, fixed point theory in partially ordered G-metric spaces, fixed point theory for expansive mappings in metric type spaces, generalizations, present results and techniques in a very general abstract setting and framework. Fixed point theory is one of the major research areas in nonlinear analysis. This is partly due to the fact that in many real world problems fixed point theory is the basic mathematical tool used to establish the existence of solutions to problems which arise natur...

  19. 47 CFR 25.276 - Points of communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Points of communication. 25.276 Section 25.276 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS... International Telecommunications Satellite Organization and Inmarsat, are subject to the policies set forth in...

  20. Smartphone Use by Nurses in Acute Care Settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flynn, Greir Ander Huck; Polivka, Barbara; Behr, Jodi Herron

    2018-03-01

    The use of smartphones in acute care settings remains controversial due to security concerns and personal use. The purposes of this study were to determine (1) the current rates of personal smartphone use by nurses in acute care settings, (2) nurses' preferences regarding the use of smartphone functionality at work, and (3) nurse perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of smartphone use at work. An online survey of nurses from six acute care facilities within one healthcare system assessed the use of personal smartphones in acute care settings and perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of smartphone use at work. Participants (N = 735) were primarily point-of-care nurses older than 31 years. Most participants (98%) used a smartphone in the acute care setting. Respondents perceived the most common useful and beneficial smartphone functions in acute care settings as allowing them to access information on medications, procedures, and diseases. Participants older than 50 years were less likely to use a smartphone in acute care settings and to agree with the benefits of smartphones. There is a critical need for recognition that smartphones are used by point-of-care nurses for a variety of functions and that realistic policies for smartphone use are needed to enhance patient care and minimize distractions.

  1. Some further remarks on good sets

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Introduction and preliminaries. The purpose of this note is to answer two questions about good sets raised in [4] and [5]. Let X1,X2,...,Xn be nonempty sets and let. = X1 ×X2 ×···×Xn be their cartesian product. We will write x to denote a point (x1,x2,...,xn) ∈ . For each 1 ≤ i ≤ n, i denotes the canonical projection of onto Xi.

  2. Estimating the physicochemical properties of polyhalogenated aromatic and aliphatic compounds using UPPER: part 1. Boiling point and melting point.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Admire, Brittany; Lian, Bo; Yalkowsky, Samuel H

    2015-01-01

    The UPPER (Unified Physicochemical Property Estimation Relationships) model uses enthalpic and entropic parameters to estimate 20 biologically relevant properties of organic compounds. The model has been validated by Lian and Yalkowsky on a data set of 700 hydrocarbons. The aim of this work is to expand the UPPER model to estimate the boiling and melting points of polyhalogenated compounds. In this work, 19 new group descriptors are defined and used to predict the transition temperatures of an additional 1288 compounds. The boiling points of 808 and the melting points of 742 polyhalogenated compounds are predicted with average absolute errors of 13.56 K and 25.85 K, respectively. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Self-regulation through Goal Setting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koch, Alexander; Nafziger, Julia

    2011-01-01

    Goals are an important motivator. But little is known about why and how people set them. We address this issue in a model based on two stylized facts. i) Goals serve as reference points for performance. ii) Present-biased preferences create self-control problems. We show the power and limits...... of self-regulation through goals. Goals increase an individual's motivation - but only up to a certain point. And they are painful self-disciplining devices. Greater self-control problems may result in tougher goals; but for a severe present bias goals either lack motivating force, or are too painful...

  4. Efficient point cloud data processing in shipbuilding: Reformative component extraction method and registration method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jingyu Sun

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available To survive in the current shipbuilding industry, it is of vital importance for shipyards to have the ship components’ accuracy evaluated efficiently during most of the manufacturing steps. Evaluating components’ accuracy by comparing each component’s point cloud data scanned by laser scanners and the ship’s design data formatted in CAD cannot be processed efficiently when (1 extract components from point cloud data include irregular obstacles endogenously, or when (2 registration of the two data sets have no clear direction setting. This paper presents reformative point cloud data processing methods to solve these problems. K-d tree construction of the point cloud data fastens a neighbor searching of each point. Region growing method performed on the neighbor points of the seed point extracts the continuous part of the component, while curved surface fitting and B-spline curved line fitting at the edge of the continuous part recognize the neighbor domains of the same component divided by obstacles’ shadows. The ICP (Iterative Closest Point algorithm conducts a registration of the two sets of data after the proper registration’s direction is decided by principal component analysis. By experiments conducted at the shipyard, 200 curved shell plates are extracted from the scanned point cloud data, and registrations are conducted between them and the designed CAD data using the proposed methods for an accuracy evaluation. Results show that the methods proposed in this paper support the accuracy evaluation targeted point cloud data processing efficiently in practice.

  5. PLOTTAB, Curve and Point Plotting with Error Bars

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-01-01

    1 - Description of program or function: PLOTTAB is designed to plot any combination of continuous curves and/or discrete points (with associated error bars) using user supplied titles and X and Y axis labels and units. If curves are plotted, the first curve may be used as a standard; the data and the ratio of the data to the standard will be plotted. 2 - Method of solution: PLOTTAB: The program has no idea of what data is being plotted and yet by supplying titles, X and Y axis labels and units the user can produce any number of plots with each plot containing almost any combination of curves and points with each plot properly identified. In order to define a continuous curve between tabulated points, this program must know how to interpolate between points. By input the user may specify either the default option of linear x versus linear y interpolation or alternatively log x and/or log Y interpolation. In all cases, regardless of the interpolation specified, the program will always interpolate the data to the plane of the plot (linear or log x and y plane) in order to present the true variation of the data between tabulated points, based on the user specified interpolation law. Tabulated points should be tabulated at a sufficient number of x values to insure that the difference between the specified interpolation and the 'true' variation of a curve between tabulated values is relatively small. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: A combination of up to 30 curves and sets of discrete points may appear on each plot. If the user wishes to use this program to compare different sets of data, all of the data must be in the same units

  6. PIMA Point of Care CD4+ Cell Count Machines in Remote MNCH Settings: Lessons Learned from Seven Districts in Zimbabwe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mtapuri-Zinyowera, Sekesai; Chiyaka, Edward T.; Mushayi, Wellington; Musuka, Godfrey; Naluyinda-Kitabire, Florence; Mushavi, Angella; Chikwasha, Vasco

    2013-01-01

    An evaluation was commissioned to generate evidence on the impact of PIMA point-of-care CD4+ count machines in maternal and new-born child health settings in Zimbabwe; document best practices, lessons learned, challenges, and recommendations related to scale up of this new technology. A mixed methodology approach that included 31 in-depth interviews with stakeholders involved in procurement, distribution, and use of the POC machines was employed. Additionally, data was also abstracted from 207 patient records from 35 sites with the PIMA POC CD4+ count machines and 10 other comparative sites without the machine. A clearer training strategy was found to be necessary. The average time taken to initiate clients on antiretroviral treatment (ART) was substantially less, 15 days (IQR-1-149) for sites with a PIMA POC machine as compared to 32.7 days (IQR-1-192) at sites with no PIMA POC machine. There was general satisfaction because of the presence of the PIMA POC CD4+ count machine at sites that also initiated ART. PMID:24847177

  7. Multivariate Hermite interpolation on scattered point sets using tensor-product expo-rational B-splines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dechevsky, Lubomir T.; Bang, Børre; Laksa˚, Arne; Zanaty, Peter

    2011-12-01

    At the Seventh International Conference on Mathematical Methods for Curves and Surfaces, To/nsberg, Norway, in 2008, several new constructions for Hermite interpolation on scattered point sets in domains in Rn,n∈N, combined with smooth convex partition of unity for several general types of partitions of these domains were proposed in [1]. All of these constructions were based on a new type of B-splines, proposed by some of the authors several years earlier: expo-rational B-splines (ERBS) [3]. In the present communication we shall provide more details about one of these constructions: the one for the most general class of domain partitions considered. This construction is based on the use of two separate families of basis functions: one which has all the necessary Hermite interpolation properties, and another which has the necessary properties of a smooth convex partition of unity. The constructions of both of these two bases are well-known; the new part of the construction is the combined use of these bases for the derivation of a new basis which enjoys having all above-said interpolation and unity partition properties simultaneously. In [1] the emphasis was put on the use of radial basis functions in the definitions of the two initial bases in the construction; now we shall put the main emphasis on the case when these bases consist of tensor-product B-splines. This selection provides two useful advantages: (A) it is easier to compute higher-order derivatives while working in Cartesian coordinates; (B) it becomes clear that this construction becomes a far-going extension of tensor-product constructions. We shall provide 3-dimensional visualization of the resulting bivariate bases, using tensor-product ERBS. In the main tensor-product variant, we shall consider also replacement of ERBS with simpler generalized ERBS (GERBS) [2], namely, their simplified polynomial modifications: the Euler Beta-function B-splines (BFBS). One advantage of using BFBS instead of ERBS

  8. Interest point detection for hyperspectral imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dorado-Muñoz, Leidy P.; Vélez-Reyes, Miguel; Roysam, Badrinath; Mukherjee, Amit

    2009-05-01

    This paper presents an algorithm for automated extraction of interest points (IPs)in multispectral and hyperspectral images. Interest points are features of the image that capture information from its neighbours and they are distinctive and stable under transformations such as translation and rotation. Interest-point operators for monochromatic images were proposed more than a decade ago and have since been studied extensively. IPs have been applied to diverse problems in computer vision, including image matching, recognition, registration, 3D reconstruction, change detection, and content-based image retrieval. Interest points are helpful in data reduction, and reduce the computational burden of various algorithms (like registration, object detection, 3D reconstruction etc) by replacing an exhaustive search over the entire image domain by a probe into a concise set of highly informative points. An interest operator seeks out points in an image that are structurally distinct, invariant to imaging conditions, stable under geometric transformation, and interpretable which are good candidates for interest points. Our approach extends ideas from Lowe's keypoint operator that uses local extrema of Difference of Gaussian (DoG) operator at multiple scales to detect interest point in gray level images. The proposed approach extends Lowe's method by direct conversion of scalar operations such as scale-space generation, and extreme point detection into operations that take the vector nature of the image into consideration. Experimental results with RGB and hyperspectral images which demonstrate the potential of the method for this application and the potential improvements of a fully vectorial approach over band-by-band approaches described in the literature.

  9. Strong Convergence Iterative Algorithms for Equilibrium Problems and Fixed Point Problems in Banach Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shenghua Wang

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available We first introduce the concept of Bregman asymptotically quasinonexpansive mappings and prove that the fixed point set of this kind of mappings is closed and convex. Then we construct an iterative scheme to find a common element of the set of solutions of an equilibrium problem and the set of common fixed points of a countable family of Bregman asymptotically quasinonexpansive mappings in reflexive Banach spaces and prove strong convergence theorems. Our results extend the recent ones of some others.

  10. Microsoft SharePoint 2010 development cookbook

    CERN Document Server

    Musters, Ed

    2011-01-01

    The plan of the book is to build a relationship with the Author as your personal guide through the most common "pattern" of SharePoint development. In cookbook style, you will be led carefully step by step through a comprehensive set of recipes. The practical example starts quickly and builds logically throughout the chapters to create a common theme. You will be developing coding techniques that you will be able to apply to the real world. In fact, this book will train you for the first SharePoint development project you will join. This book is written for the ASP.NET developer who wants to g

  11. Schroedinger operators with point interactions and short range expansions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Albeverio, S.; Hoeegh-Krohn, R.; Oslo Univ.

    1984-01-01

    We give a survey of recent results concerning Schroedinger operators with point interactions in R 3 . In the case where the point interactions are located at a discrete set of points we discuss results about the resolvent, the spectrum, the resonances and the scattering quantities. We also discuss the approximation of point interactions by short range local potentials (short range or low energy expansions) and the one electron model of a 3-dimensional crystal. Moreover we discuss Schroedinger operators with Coulomb plus point interactions, with applications to the determination of scattering lengths and of level shifts in mesic atoms. Further applications to the multiple well problem, to multiparticle systems, to crystals with random impurities, to polymers and quantum fields are also briefly discussed. (orig.)

  12. Csf Based Non-Ground Points Extraction from LIDAR Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, A.; Zhang, W.; Shi, H.

    2017-09-01

    Region growing is a classical method of point cloud segmentation. Based on the idea of collecting the pixels with similar properties to form regions, region growing is widely used in many fields such as medicine, forestry and remote sensing. In this algorithm, there are two core problems. One is the selection of seed points, the other is the setting of the growth constraints, in which the selection of the seed points is the foundation. In this paper, we propose a CSF (Cloth Simulation Filtering) based method to extract the non-ground seed points effectively. The experiments have shown that this method can obtain a group of seed spots compared with the traditional methods. It is a new attempt to extract seed points

  13. Microfluidic point-of-care diagnostics for resource-poor environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laksanasopin, Tassaneewan; Chin, Curtis D.; Moore, Hannah; Wang, Jennifer; Cheung, Yuk Kee; Sia, Samuel K.

    2009-05-01

    Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics have tremendous potential to improve human health in remote and resource-poor settings. However, the design criteria for diagnostic tests appropriate in settings with limited infrastructure are unique and challenging. Here we present a custom optical reader which quantifies silver absorbance from heterogeneous immunoassays. The reader is simple and low-cost and suited for POC diagnostics.

  14. Optimal Power Flow by Interior Point and Non Interior Point Modern Optimization Algorithms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcin Połomski

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available The idea of optimal power flow (OPF is to determine the optimal settings for control variables while respecting various constraints, and in general it is related to power system operational and planning optimization problems. A vast number of optimization methods have been applied to solve the OPF problem, but their performance is highly dependent on the size of a power system being optimized. The development of the OPF recently has tracked significant progress both in numerical optimization techniques and computer techniques application. In recent years, application of interior point methods to solve OPF problem has been paid great attention. This is due to the fact that IP methods are among the fastest algorithms, well suited to solve large-scale nonlinear optimization problems. This paper presents the primal-dual interior point method based optimal power flow algorithm and new variant of the non interior point method algorithm with application to optimal power flow problem. Described algorithms were implemented in custom software. The experiments show the usefulness of computational software and implemented algorithms for solving the optimal power flow problem, including the system model sizes comparable to the size of the National Power System.

  15. Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?; Comment on “Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohsin M. Sidat

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Health workforce shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa are widely recognized, particularly of physicians, leading the training and deployment of Non-physician clinicians (NPCs. The paper by Eyal et al provides interesting and legitimate viewpoints on evolving role of physicians in context of decisive increase of NPCss in Sub-Saharan Africa. Certainly, in short or mid-term, NPCs will continue to be a proxy solution and a valuable alternative to overcome physicians’ shortages in sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, NPCs have an important role at primary healthcare (PHC level. Physicians at PHC level can certainly have all different roles that were suggested by Eyal et al, including those not directly related to healthcare provision. However, at secondary and higher levels of healthcare, physicians would assume other roles that are mainly related to patient clinical care. Thus, attempting to generalize the role of physicians without taking into account the context where they will work would be not entirely appropriate. It is true that often physicians start the professional carriers at PHC level and progress to other levels of healthcare particularly after clinical post-graduation training. Nevertheless, the training programs offered by medical institutions in sub-Saharan Africa need to be periodically reviewed and take into account professional and occupational roles physicians would take in context of evolving health systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

  16. Setting to earth for computer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gallego V, Luis Eduardo; Montana Ch, Johny Hernan; Tovar P, Andres Fernando; Amortegui, Francisco

    2000-01-01

    The program GMT allows the analysis of setting to earth for tensions DC and AC (of low frequency) of diverse configurations composed by cylindrical electrodes interconnected, in a homogeneous land or stratified (two layers). This analysis understands among other aspects: calculation of the setting resistance to earth, elevation of potential of the system (GPR), calculation of current densities in the conductors, potentials calculation in which point on the land surface (profile and surfaces), tensions calculation in passing and of contact, also, it carries out the interpretation of resistivity measures for Wenner and Schlumberger methods, finding a model of two layers

  17. Extracting Corresponding Point Based on Texture Synthesis for Nearly Flat Textureless Object Surface

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Min Mao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Since the image feature points are always gathered at the range with significant intensity change, such as textured portions or edges of an image, which can be detected by the state-of-the-art intensity based point-detectors, there is nearly no point in the areas of low textured detected by classical interest-point detectors. In this paper we describe a novel algorithm based on affine transform and graph cut for interest point detecting and matching from wide baseline image pairs with weakly textured object. The detection and matching mechanism can be separated into three steps: firstly, the information on the large textureless areas will be enhanced by adding textures through the proposed texture synthesis algorithm TSIQ. Secondly, the initial interest-point set is detected by classical interest-point detectors. Finally, graph cuts are used to find the globally optimal set of matching points on stereo pairs. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm is verified by three kinds of experiments, that is, the influence of point detecting from synthetic texture with different texture sample, the stability under the different geometric transformations, and the performance to improve the quasi-dense matching algorithm, respectively.

  18. Exceptional points in open quantum systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mueller, Markus; Rotter, Ingrid

    2008-01-01

    Open quantum systems are embedded in the continuum of scattering wavefunctions and are naturally described by non-Hermitian Hamilton operators. In the complex energy plane, exceptional points appear at which two (or more) eigenvalues of the Hamilton operator coalesce. Although they are a countable set of single points in the complex energy plane and therefore of measure zero, they determine decisively the dynamics of open quantum systems. A powerful method for the description of open quantum systems is the Feshbach projection operator formalism. It is used in the present paper as a basic tool for the study of exceptional points and of the role they play for the dynamics of open quantum systems. Among others, the topological structure of the exceptional points, the rigidity of the phases of the eigenfunctions in their vicinity, the enhancement of observable values due to the reduced phase rigidity and the appearance of phase transitions are considered. The results are compared with existing experimental data on microwave cavities. In the last section, some questions being still unsolved, are considered

  19. Uncertainty representation of grey numbers and grey sets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Yingjie; Liu, Sifeng; John, Robert

    2014-09-01

    In the literature, there is a presumption that a grey set and an interval-valued fuzzy set are equivalent. This presumption ignores the existence of discrete components in a grey number. In this paper, new measurements of uncertainties of grey numbers and grey sets, consisting of both absolute and relative uncertainties, are defined to give a comprehensive representation of uncertainties in a grey number and a grey set. Some simple examples are provided to illustrate that the proposed uncertainty measurement can give an effective representation of both absolute and relative uncertainties in a grey number and a grey set. The relationships between grey sets and interval-valued fuzzy sets are also analyzed from the point of view of the proposed uncertainty representation. The analysis demonstrates that grey sets and interval-valued fuzzy sets provide different but overlapping models for uncertainty representation in sets.

  20. Describing Quadratic Cremer Point Polynomials by Parabolic Perturbations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Dan Erik Krarup

    1996-01-01

    We describe two infinite order parabolic perturbation proceduresyielding quadratic polynomials having a Cremer fixed point. The main ideais to obtain the polynomial as the limit of repeated parabolic perturbations.The basic tool at each step is to control the behaviour of certain externalrays.......Polynomials of the Cremer type correspond to parameters at the boundary of ahyperbolic component of the Mandelbrot set. In this paper we concentrate onthe main cardioid component. We investigate the differences between two-sided(i.e. alternating) and one-sided parabolic perturbations.In the two-sided case, we prove...... the existence of polynomials having an explicitlygiven external ray accumulating both at the Cremer point and at its non-periodicpreimage. We think of the Julia set as containing a "topologists double comb".In the one-sided case we prove a weaker result: the existence of polynomials havingan explicitly given...

  1. A suitable model plant for control of the set fuel cell-DC/DC converter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Andujar, J.M.; Segura, F.; Vasallo, M.J. [Departamento de Ingenieria Electronica, Sistemas Informaticos y Automatica, E.P.S. La Rabida, Universidad de Huelva, Ctra. Huelva - Palos de la Frontera, S/N, 21819 La Rabida - Palos de la Frontera Huelva (Spain)

    2008-04-15

    In this work a state and transfer function model of the set made up of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell and a DC/DC converter is developed. The set is modelled as a plant controlled by the converter duty cycle. In addition to allow setting the plant operating point at any point of its characteristic curve (two interesting points are maximum efficiency and maximum power points), this approach also allows the connection of the fuel cell to other energy generation and storage devices, given that, as they all usually share a single DC bus, a thorough control of the interconnected devices is required. First, the state and transfer function models of the fuel cell and the converter are obtained. Then, both models are related in order to achieve the fuel cell+DC/DC converter set (plant) model. The results of the theoretical developments are validated by simulation on a real fuel cell model. (author)

  2. Analysis of the effective point of measurement of a thimble chamber dosimeter set parallel to the X-ray beam axis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shimono, Tetsunori; Nanbu, Hidekazu; Koshida, Kichiro; Kikuchi, Yuzo

    2007-01-01

    To measure the narrow beam used in stereotactic irradiation, installation of the ionization chamber parallel to the X-ray beam axis has been used instead of perpendicular installation. However, the definition of the effective point is a major problem in the parallel installation. In this study, we analyzed the effective point in parallel installation, and considered the prediction and evaluation of measurement point displacement. Relative dosimetry was carried out by installing the thimble ionization chamber in both perpendicular and parallel configurations. We then searched for the measurement point that coincided with the percentage depth dose (PDD) of the perpendicular installation by using the displacement of the measurement point of the parallel installation. We found that the effective point of measurement for relative photon beam dosimetry depends on every detail of the chamber design, including the cavity length and the cavity radius. Moreover, the effective point of measurement also depends on the beam quality and the field size. The amount of effective point displacement for the parallel installation was quantified with the linear expression of tissue peak ratio (TPR) 20, 10 . Our results showed that the amount of effective point displacement can be estimated by the ionization volume of the dosimeter and the energy used. (author)

  3. A New Approximation Method for Solving Variational Inequalities and Fixed Points of Nonexpansive Mappings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klin-eam Chakkrid

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract A new approximation method for solving variational inequalities and fixed points of nonexpansive mappings is introduced and studied. We prove strong convergence theorem of the new iterative scheme to a common element of the set of fixed points of nonexpansive mapping and the set of solutions of the variational inequality for the inverse-strongly monotone mapping which solves some variational inequalities. Moreover, we apply our main result to obtain strong convergence to a common fixed point of nonexpansive mapping and strictly pseudocontractive mapping in a Hilbert space.

  4. Cook Inlet and Kenai Peninsula, Alaska ESI: M_MAMPT (Marine Mammal Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains biological resource data for seals and sea lions in Cook Inlet and Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Vector points in this data set represent locations...

  5. Apps ændrer din hverdag: Apps to change your life

    OpenAIRE

    Thorsen, Kasper Emil; Jensen, Anders Mandrup; Andersen, Kristian Coff Schang

    2014-01-01

    This paper examines the problem that apps that intend to improve our health, are not effective in regards to making people exercise, whereas games and other entertainment apps made primarily for pastime easily catches the attention of most. To investigate the cause of this issue, we made use of material presented by Nir Eyal, Charles Duhigg, B. J. Fogg, Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler. Based on the knowledge obtained through the theories of the aforementioned theorists, we have selecte...

  6. Israel: New history and post zionist cinema

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sheila Schvarzman

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses a cultural and political movement that seeks, by reviewing the history of the creation of Israel, to replace recognition of the Palestinians as well as the responsibility for their exile/deportation. Duty of memory and duty of recognition in which Israeli cinema is engaged, and to which filmmaker Eyal Sivan proposes constitute an archive with testimony of the perpetrators. Not only Palestinian victims, but especially Israeli perpetrators, questioning, too, the forms of documentary. 

  7. Shot-noise-weighted processes : a new family of spatial point processes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    M.N.M. van Lieshout (Marie-Colette); I.S. Molchanov (Ilya)

    1995-01-01

    textabstractThe paper suggests a new family of of spatial point processes distributions. They are defined by means of densities with respect to the Poisson point process within a bounded set. These densities are given in terms of a functional of the shot-noise process with a given influence

  8. New drugs and patient-centred end-points in old age: setting the wheels in motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mangoni, Arduino A; Pilotto, Alberto

    2016-01-01

    Older patients with various degrees of frailty and disability, a key population target of pharmacological interventions in acute and chronic disease states, are virtually neglected in pre-marketing studies assessing the efficacy and safety of investigational drugs. Moreover, aggressively pursuing established therapeutic targets in old age, e.g. blood pressure, serum glucose or cholesterol concentrations, is not necessarily associated with the beneficial effects, and the acceptable safety, reported in younger patient cohorts. Measures of self-reported health and functional status might represent additional, more meaningful, therapeutic end-points in the older population, particularly in patients with significant frailty and relatively short life expectancy, e.g. in the presence of cancer and/or neurodegenerative disease conditions. Strategies enhancing early knowledge about key pharmacological characteristics of investigational drugs targeting older adults are discussed, together with the rationale for incorporating non-traditional, patient-centred, end-points in this ever-increasing group.

  9. Extreme boundary of space semi-additive functionals on finite set

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gayratbay F. Djabbarov

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The present paper is devoted to study of the extreme boundary of the convexcompact set of all semi-additive functionals on a finite-point compactum. We shall find some classes of extreme points of the space semi-additive functionals OS (n .

  10. Determination of melting point of mixed-oxide fuel irradiated in a fast breeder reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tachibana, Toshimichi

    1985-01-01

    The melting point of fuel is important to set its in-reactor maximum temperature in fuel design. The fuel melting point measuring methods are broadly the filament method and the capsule sealing method. The only instance of measuring the melting point of irradiated mixed oxide (U, Pu)O 2 fuel by the filament method is by GE in the United States. The capsule sealing method, while the excellent means, is difficult in weld sealing the irradiated fuel in a capsule within the cell. In the fast reactor development program, the remotely operated melting point measuring apparatus in capsule sealing the mixed (U, Pu)O 2 fuel irradiated in the experimental FBR Joyo was set in the cell and the melting point was measured, for the first time in the world. (Mori, K.)

  11. Integrating mHealth at point of care in low- and middle-income settings: the system perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wallis, Lee; Blessing, Paul; Dalwai, Mohammed; Shin, Sang Do

    2017-06-01

    While the field represents a wide spectrum of products and services, many aspects of mHealth have great promise within resource-poor settings: there is an extensive range of cheap, widely available tools which can be used at the point of care delivery. However, there are a number of conditions which need to be met if such solutions are to be adequately integrated into existing health systems; we consider these from regulatory, technological and user perspectives. We explore the need for an appropriate legislative and regulatory framework, to avoid 'work around' solutions, which threaten patient confidentiality (such as the extensive use of instant messaging services to deliver sensitive clinical information and seek diagnostic and management advice). In addition, we will look at other confidentiality issues such as the need for applications to remove identifiable information (such as photos) from users' devices. Integration is dependent upon multiple technological factors, and we illustrate these using examples such as products made available specifically for adoption in low- and middle-income countries. Issues such as usability of the application, signal loss, data volume utilization, need to enter passwords, and the availability of automated or in-app context-relevant clinical advice will be discussed. From a user perspective, there are three groups to consider: experts, front-line clinicians, and patients. Each will accept, to different degrees, the use of technology in care - often with cultural or regional variation - and this is central to integration and uptake. For clinicians, ease of integration into daily work flow is critical, as are familiarity and acceptability of other technology in the workplace. Front-line staff tend to work in areas with more challenges around cell phone signal coverage and data availability than 'back-end' experts, and the effect of this is discussed.

  12. Manhattan-World Urban Reconstruction from Point Clouds

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Minglei; Wonka, Peter; Nan, Liangliang

    2016-01-01

    Manhattan-world urban scenes are common in the real world. We propose a fully automatic approach for reconstructing such scenes from 3D point samples. Our key idea is to represent the geometry of the buildings in the scene using a set of well-aligned boxes. We first extract plane hypothesis from the points followed by an iterative refinement step. Then, candidate boxes are obtained by partitioning the space of the point cloud into a non-uniform grid. After that, we choose an optimal subset of the candidate boxes to approximate the geometry of the buildings. The contribution of our work is that we transform scene reconstruction into a labeling problem that is solved based on a novel Markov Random Field formulation. Unlike previous methods designed for particular types of input point clouds, our method can obtain faithful reconstructions from a variety of data sources. Experiments demonstrate that our method is superior to state-of-the-art methods. © Springer International Publishing AG 2016.

  13. On Recall Rate of Interest Point Detectors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aanæs, Henrik; Dahl, Anders Lindbjerg; Pedersen, Kim Steenstrup

    2010-01-01

    in relation to the number of interest points, the recall rate as a function of camera position and light variation, and the sensitivity relative to model parameter change. The overall conclusion is that the Harris corner detector has a very high recall rate, but is sensitive to change in scale. The Hessian......In this paper we provide a method for evaluating interest point detectors independently of image descriptors. This is possible because we have compiled a unique data set enabling us to determine if common interest points are found. The data contains 60 scenes of a wide range of object types......, and for each scene we have 119 precisely located camera positions obtained from a camera mounted on an industrial robot arm. The scene surfaces have been scanned using structured light, providing precise 3D ground truth. We have investigated a number of the most popular interest point detectors. This is done...

  14. Manhattan-World Urban Reconstruction from Point Clouds

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Minglei

    2016-09-16

    Manhattan-world urban scenes are common in the real world. We propose a fully automatic approach for reconstructing such scenes from 3D point samples. Our key idea is to represent the geometry of the buildings in the scene using a set of well-aligned boxes. We first extract plane hypothesis from the points followed by an iterative refinement step. Then, candidate boxes are obtained by partitioning the space of the point cloud into a non-uniform grid. After that, we choose an optimal subset of the candidate boxes to approximate the geometry of the buildings. The contribution of our work is that we transform scene reconstruction into a labeling problem that is solved based on a novel Markov Random Field formulation. Unlike previous methods designed for particular types of input point clouds, our method can obtain faithful reconstructions from a variety of data sources. Experiments demonstrate that our method is superior to state-of-the-art methods. © Springer International Publishing AG 2016.

  15. The Extraction of Vegetation Points from LiDAR Using 3D Fractal Dimension Analyses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haiquan Yang

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR, a high-precision technique used for acquiring three-dimensional (3D surface information, is widely used to study surface vegetation information. Moreover, the extraction of a vegetation point set from the LiDAR point cloud is a basic starting-point for vegetation information analysis, and an important part of its further processing. To extract the vegetation point set completely and to describe the different spatial morphological characteristics of various features in a LiDAR point cloud, we have used 3D fractal dimensions. We discovered that every feature has its own distinctive 3D fractal dimension interval. Based on the 3D fractal dimensions of tall trees, we propose a new method for the extraction of vegetation using airborne LiDAR. According to this method, target features can be distinguished based on their morphological characteristics. The non-ground points acquired by filtering are processed by region growing segmentation and the morphological characteristics are evaluated by 3D fractal dimensions to determine the features required for the determination of the point set for tall trees. Avon, New York, USA was selected as the study area to test the method and the result proves the method’s efficiency. Thus, this approach is feasible. Additionally, the method uses the 3D coordinate properties of the LiDAR point cloud and does not require additional information, such as return intensity, giving it a larger scope of application.

  16. On the Cut-off Point for Combinatorial Group Testing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fischer, Paul; Klasner, N.; Wegener, I.

    1999-01-01

    is answered by 1 if Q contains at least one essential object and by 0 otherwise. In the statistical setting the objects are essential, independently of each other, with a given probability p combinatorial setting the number k ... group testing is equal to p* = 12(3 - 5), i.e., the strategy of testing each object individually minimizes the average number of queries iff p >= p* or n = 1. In the combinatorial setting the worst case number of queries is of interest. It has been conjectured that the cut-off point of combinatorial...

  17. Maximum power point tracker for photovoltaic power plants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arcidiacono, V.; Corsi, S.; Lambri, L.

    The paper describes two different closed-loop control criteria for the maximum power point tracking of the voltage-current characteristic of a photovoltaic generator. The two criteria are discussed and compared, inter alia, with regard to the setting-up problems that they pose. Although a detailed analysis is not embarked upon, the paper also provides some quantitative information on the energy advantages obtained by using electronic maximum power point tracking systems, as compared with the situation in which the point of operation of the photovoltaic generator is not controlled at all. Lastly, the paper presents two high-efficiency MPPT converters for experimental photovoltaic plants of the stand-alone and the grid-interconnected type.

  18. Computing fixed points of nonexpansive mappings by $\\alpha$-dense curves

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. García

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Given a multivalued nonexpansive mapping defined on a convex and compact set of a Banach space, with values in the class of convex and compact subsets of its domain, we present an iteration scheme which (under suitable conditions converges to a fixed point of such mapping. This new iteration provides us another method to approximate the fixed points of a singlevalued nonexpansive mapping, defined on a compact and convex set into itself. Moreover, the conditions for the singlevalued case are less restrictive than for the multivalued case. Our main tool will be the so called $\\alpha$-dense curves, which will allow us to construct such iterations. Some numerical examples are provided to illustrate our results.

  19. Collimator settings and performance in 2011 and 2012

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bruce, R.; Assmann, R.W.; Burkart, F.; Cauchi, M.; Deboy, D.; Lari, L.; Redaelli, S; Rossi, A.; Salvachua, B.; Valentino, G.; Wollmann, D.

    2012-01-01

    Collimator settings and performance are key parameters for deciding the reach in intensity and β* in order to conclude on possible limits for the 2012 run, a summary is first given of the relevant running experience in 2011 and the collimation-related MDs. These include among others tight collimator settings, a quench test, and aperture measurements. Based on the 2011 experience, we conclude on possible running scenarios for 2012 in terms of collimator settings, intensity and β* from the collimation point of view. (authors)

  20. Collimation settings and performance in 2011 and 2012

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bruce, R; Assmann, R W; Burkart, F; Cauchi, M; Deboy, D; Lari, L; Redaelli, S; Rossi, A; Salvachua, B; Valentino, G; Wollmann, D [European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva (Switzerland)

    2012-07-01

    Collimator settings and available aperture are key parameters for deciding the reach in intensity and β*. In order to conclude on possible limits for the 2012 run, a summary is first given of the relevant running experience in 2011 and the collimation-related MDs. These include among others tight collimator settings, a quench test, and aperture measurements. Based on the 2011 experience, we conclude on possible running scenarios for 2012 in terms of collimator settings, intensity and β* from the collimation point of view.

  1. Collimation settings and performance in 2011 and 2012

    CERN Document Server

    Bruce, R; Burkart, F; Cauchi, M; Deboy, D; Lari, L; Redaelli, S; Rossi, A; Salvachua, B; Valentino, G; Wollmann, D

    2012-01-01

    Collimator settings and available aperture are key parameters for deciding the reach in intensity and β*. In order to conclude on possible limits for the 2012 run, a summary is first given of the relevant running experience in 2011 and the collimation-related MDs. These include among others tight collimator settings, a quench test, and aperture measurements. Based on the 2011 experience, we conclude on possible running scenarios for 2012 in terms of collimator settings, intensity and β* from the collimation point of view.

  2. International urodynamic basic spinal cord injury data set

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Craggs, M.; Kennelly, M.; Schick, E.

    2008-01-01

    of the data set was developed after review and comments by members of the Executive Committee of the International SCI Standards and Data Sets, the ISCoS Scientific Committee, ASIA Board, relevant and interested (international) organizations and societies (around 40) and persons and the ISCoS Council......: Variables included in the International Urodynamic Basic SCI Data Set are date of data collection, bladder sensation during filling cystometry, detrusor function, compliance during filing cystometry, function during voiding, detrusor leak point pressure, maximum detrusor pressure, cystometric bladder...

  3. Self-similar motion of three point vortices

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aref, Hassan

    2010-01-01

    One of the counter-intuitive results in the three-vortex problem is that the vortices can converge on and meet at a point in a finite time for certain sets of vortex circulations and for certain initial conditions. This result was already included in Groumlbli's thesis of 1877 and has since been ...

  4. Searching for fixed point combinators by using automated theorem proving: A preliminary report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wos, L.; McCune, W.

    1988-09-01

    In this report, we establish that the use of an automated theorem- proving program to study deep questions from mathematics and logic is indeed an excellent move. Among such problems, we focus mainly on that concerning the construction of fixed point combinators---a problem considered by logicians to be significant and difficult to solve, and often computationally intensive and arduous. To be a fixed point combinator, Θ must satisfy the equation Θx = x(Θx) for all combinators x. The specific questions on which we focus most heavily ask, for each chosen set of combinators, whether a fixed point combinator can be constructed from the members of that set. For answering questions of this type, we present a new, sound, and efficient method, called the kernel method, which can be applied quite easily by hand and very easily by an automated theorem-proving program. For the application of the kernel method by a theorem-proving program, we illustrate the vital role that is played by both paramodulation and demodulation---two of the powerful features frequently offered by an automated theorem-proving program for treating equality as if it is ''understood.'' We also state a conjecture that, if proved, establishes the completeness of the kernel method. From what we can ascertain, this method---which relies on the introduced concepts of kernel and superkernel---offers the first systematic approach for searching for fixed point combinators. We successfully apply the new kernel method to various sets of combinators and, for the set consisting of the combinators B and W, construct an infinite set of fixed point combinators such that no two of the combinators are equal even in the presence of extensionality---a law that asserts that two combinators are equal if they behave the same. 18 refs

  5. Searching for fixed point combinators by using automated theorem proving: A preliminary report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wos, L.; McCune, W.

    1988-09-01

    In this report, we establish that the use of an automated theorem- proving program to study deep questions from mathematics and logic is indeed an excellent move. Among such problems, we focus mainly on that concerning the construction of fixed point combinators---a problem considered by logicians to be significant and difficult to solve, and often computationally intensive and arduous. To be a fixed point combinator, THETA must satisfy the equation THETAx = x(THETAx) for all combinators x. The specific questions on which we focus most heavily ask, for each chosen set of combinators, whether a fixed point combinator can be constructed from the members of that set. For answering questions of this type, we present a new, sound, and efficient method, called the kernel method, which can be applied quite easily by hand and very easily by an automated theorem-proving program. For the application of the kernel method by a theorem-proving program, we illustrate the vital role that is played by both paramodulation and demodulation---two of the powerful features frequently offered by an automated theorem-proving program for treating equality as if it is ''understood.'' We also state a conjecture that, if proved, establishes the completeness of the kernel method. From what we can ascertain, this method---which relies on the introduced concepts of kernel and superkernel---offers the first systematic approach for searching for fixed point combinators. We successfully apply the new kernel method to various sets of combinators and, for the set consisting of the combinators B and W, construct an infinite set of fixed point combinators such that no two of the combinators are equal even in the presence of extensionality---a law that asserts that two combinators are equal if they behave the same. 18 refs.

  6. Some remarks on good sets

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    R. Narasimhan (Krishtel eMaging) 1461 1996 Oct 15 13:05:22

    A subset S of is said to be full, if S is a maximal good set in 1S × 2S ืทททื nS. ([3], p. 183). Two points .... assume there is a p for which |np|= |mp|. Then. ∑k j=1 nj xj = 0 ..... M G Nadkarni for suggesting the problems and for encouragement and ...

  7. FINDING CUBOID-BASED BUILDING MODELS IN POINT CLOUDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Nguatem

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we present an automatic approach for the derivation of 3D building models of level-of-detail 1 (LOD 1 from point clouds obtained from (dense image matching or, for comparison only, from LIDAR. Our approach makes use of the predominance of vertical structures and orthogonal intersections in architectural scenes. After robustly determining the scene's vertical direction based on the 3D points we use it as constraint for a RANSAC-based search for vertical planes in the point cloud. The planes are further analyzed to segment reliable outlines for rectangular surface within these planes, which are connected to construct cuboid-based building models. We demonstrate that our approach is robust and effective over a range of real-world input data sets with varying point density, amount of noise, and outliers.

  8. A new approach for determination of break points for protection co-ordination

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Askarian Abyaneh, H.; Razavi, F.; Al-Dabbagh, M.; Kazemi; Kargar, H.; Jannatian, M.

    2003-01-01

    Interconnected power system networks are multi lop structured. Settings determination of all overcurrent and distance relays in such networks can be in different forms and complicated. The main problem is the determination of starting points i. e. the location of starting relays in the producer for settings, which is referred to as break points. In this paper, a new approach based on graph theory is introduced in which the relevant matrices dimensions are reduced. The method is flexible and achievement of the desired solution can obtained in a relatively short time

  9. Modeling spatial variability of sand-lenses in clay till settings using transition probability and multiple-point geostatistics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kessler, Timo Christian; Nilsson, Bertel; Klint, Knud Erik

    2010-01-01

    (TPROGS) of alternating geological facies. The second method, multiple-point statistics, uses training images to estimate the conditional probability of sand-lenses at a certain location. Both methods respect field observations such as local stratigraphy, however, only the multiple-point statistics can...... of sand-lenses in clay till. Sand-lenses mainly account for horizontal transport and are prioritised in this study. Based on field observations, the distribution has been modeled using two different geostatistical approaches. One method uses a Markov chain model calculating the transition probabilities...

  10. Global Dynamical Systems Involving Generalized -Projection Operators and Set-Valued Perturbation in Banach Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yun-zhi Zou

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available A new class of generalized dynamical systems involving generalized f-projection operators is introduced and studied in Banach spaces. By using the fixed-point theorem due to Nadler, the equilibrium points set of this class of generalized global dynamical systems is proved to be nonempty and closed under some suitable conditions. Moreover, the solutions set of the systems with set-valued perturbation is showed to be continuous with respect to the initial value.

  11. Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil: Mississippi: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for gulls and terns in Mississippi. Vector points in this data set represent bird nesting sites. Species...

  12. On the Computational Content of the Krasnoselski and Ishikawa Fixed Point Theorems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kohlenbach, Ulrich

    2001-01-01

    This paper is part of a case study in proof mining applied to non-effective proofs in nonlinear functional analysis. More specifically, we are concerned with the fixed point theory of nonexpansive selfmappings f of convex sets C in normed spaces. We study Krasnoselski and more general so-called K......This paper is part of a case study in proof mining applied to non-effective proofs in nonlinear functional analysis. More specifically, we are concerned with the fixed point theory of nonexpansive selfmappings f of convex sets C in normed spaces. We study Krasnoselski and more general so...... and Shafrir (1992) to unbounded sets C. Our explicit bounds also imply new qualitative results concerning the independence of the rate of asymptotic regularity from various data....

  13. Western Alaska ESI: SOCECON (Socioeconomic Resource Points and Lines)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains human-use resource data for airports, mining sites, area boundaries, and scenic rivers in Western Alaska. Vector points and lines in this data...

  14. Natural Preconditioning and Iterative Methods for Saddle Point Systems

    KAUST Repository

    Pestana, Jennifer; Wathen, Andrew J.

    2015-01-01

    or the discrete setting, so saddle point systems arising from the discretization of partial differential equation problems, such as those describing electromagnetic problems or incompressible flow, lead to equations with this structure, as do, for example

  15. Finding a single point of truth

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sokolov, S.; Thijssen, H. [Autodesk Inc, Toronto, ON (Canada); Laslo, D.; Martin, J. [Autodesk Inc., San Rafael, CA (United States)

    2010-07-01

    Electric utilities collect large volumes of data at every level of their business, including SCADA, Smart Metering and Smart Grid initiatives, LIDAR and other 3D imagery surveys. Different types of database systems are used to store the information, rendering data flow within the utility business process extremely complicated. The industry trend has been to endure redundancy of data input and maintenance of multiple copies of the same data across different solution data sets. Efforts have been made to improve the situation with point to point interfaces, but with the tools and solutions available today, a single point of truth can be achieved. Consolidated and validated data can be published into a data warehouse at the right point in the process, making the information available to all other enterprise systems and solutions. This paper explained how the single point of truth spatial data warehouse and process automation services can be configured to streamline the flow of data within the utility business process using the initiate-plan-execute-close (IPEC) utility workflow model. The paper first discussed geospatial challenges faced by utilities and then presented the approach and technology aspects. It was concluded that adoption of systems and solutions that can function with and be controlled by the IPEC workflow can provide significant improvement for utility operations, particularly if those systems are coupled with the spatial data warehouse that reflects a single point of truth. 6 refs., 3 figs.

  16. On the sighting of unicorns: A variational approach to computing invariant sets in dynamical systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Junge, Oliver; Kevrekidis, Ioannis G.

    2017-06-01

    We propose to compute approximations to invariant sets in dynamical systems by minimizing an appropriate distance between a suitably selected finite set of points and its image under the dynamics. We demonstrate, through computational experiments, that this approach can successfully converge to approximations of (maximal) invariant sets of arbitrary topology, dimension, and stability, such as, e.g., saddle type invariant sets with complicated dynamics. We further propose to extend this approach by adding a Lennard-Jones type potential term to the objective function, which yields more evenly distributed approximating finite point sets, and illustrate the procedure through corresponding numerical experiments.

  17. Exploring the reference point in prospect theory: gambles for length of life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Osch, Sylvie M C; van den Hout, Wilbert B; Stiggelbout, Anne M

    2006-01-01

    Attitude toward risk is an important factor determining patient preferences. Risk behavior has been shown to be strongly dependent on the perception of the outcome as either a gain or a loss. According to prospect theory, the reference point determines how an outcome is perceived. However, no theory on the location of the reference point exists, and for the health domain, there is no direct evidence for the location of the reference point. This article combines qualitative with quantitative data to provide evidence of the reference point in life-year certainty equivalent (CE) gambles and to explore the psychology behind the reference point. The authors argue that goals (aspirations) in life influence the reference point. While thinking aloud, 45 healthy respondents gave certainty equivalents for life-year CE gambles with long and short durations of survival. Contrary to suggestions from the literature, qualitative data argued that the offered certainty equivalent most frequently served as the reference point. Thus, respondents perceived life-year CE gambles as mixed. Framing of the question and goals set in life appeared to be important factors behind the psychology of the reference point. On the basis of the authors' quantitative and qualitative data, they argue that goals alter the perception of outcomes as described by prospect theory by influencing the reference point. This relationship is more apparent for the near future as opposed to the remote future, as goals are mostly set for the near future.

  18. A mixture model for robust point matching under multi-layer motion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiayi Ma

    Full Text Available This paper proposes an efficient mixture model for establishing robust point correspondences between two sets of points under multi-layer motion. Our algorithm starts by creating a set of putative correspondences which can contain a number of false correspondences, or outliers, in addition to the true correspondences (inliers. Next we solve for correspondence by interpolating a set of spatial transformations on the putative correspondence set based on a mixture model, which involves estimating a consensus of inlier points whose matching follows a non-parametric geometrical constraint. We formulate this as a maximum a posteriori (MAP estimation of a Bayesian model with hidden/latent variables indicating whether matches in the putative set are outliers or inliers. We impose non-parametric geometrical constraints on the correspondence, as a prior distribution, in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS. MAP estimation is performed by the EM algorithm which by also estimating the variance of the prior model (initialized to a large value is able to obtain good estimates very quickly (e.g., avoiding many of the local minima inherent in this formulation. We further provide a fast implementation based on sparse approximation which can achieve a significant speed-up without much performance degradation. We illustrate the proposed method on 2D and 3D real images for sparse feature correspondence, as well as a public available dataset for shape matching. The quantitative results demonstrate that our method is robust to non-rigid deformation and multi-layer/large discontinuous motion.

  19. Managing distance and covariate information with point-based clustering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter A. Whigham

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Geographic perspectives of disease and the human condition often involve point-based observations and questions of clustering or dispersion within a spatial context. These problems involve a finite set of point observations and are constrained by a larger, but finite, set of locations where the observations could occur. Developing a rigorous method for pattern analysis in this context requires handling spatial covariates, a method for constrained finite spatial clustering, and addressing bias in geographic distance measures. An approach, based on Ripley’s K and applied to the problem of clustering with deliberate self-harm (DSH, is presented. Methods Point-based Monte-Carlo simulation of Ripley’s K, accounting for socio-economic deprivation and sources of distance measurement bias, was developed to estimate clustering of DSH at a range of spatial scales. A rotated Minkowski L1 distance metric allowed variation in physical distance and clustering to be assessed. Self-harm data was derived from an audit of 2 years’ emergency hospital presentations (n = 136 in a New Zealand town (population ~50,000. Study area was defined by residential (housing land parcels representing a finite set of possible point addresses. Results Area-based deprivation was spatially correlated. Accounting for deprivation and distance bias showed evidence for clustering of DSH for spatial scales up to 500 m with a one-sided 95 % CI, suggesting that social contagion may be present for this urban cohort. Conclusions Many problems involve finite locations in geographic space that require estimates of distance-based clustering at many scales. A Monte-Carlo approach to Ripley’s K, incorporating covariates and models for distance bias, are crucial when assessing health-related clustering. The case study showed that social network structure defined at the neighbourhood level may account for aspects of neighbourhood clustering of DSH. Accounting for

  20. Nearshore bars and the break-point hypothesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sallenger, A.H.; Howd, P.A.

    1989-01-01

    The set of hypotheses calling for bar formation at the break point was tested with field data. During two different experiments, waves were measured across the surf zone coincident with the development of a nearshore bar. We use a criterion, based on the wave height to depth ratio, to determine the offshore limit of the inner surf zone. During the first experiment, the bar became better developed and migrated offshore while remaining well within the inner surf zone. During the second experiment, the surf zone was narrower and we cannot rule out the possibility of break point processes contributing to bar development. We conclude that bars are not necessarily coupled with the break point and can become better developed and migrate offshore while being in the inner surf zone landward from initial wave breaking in the outer surf zone. ?? 1989.

  1. Application of point system in the project control of Ling'ao Nuclear Power Station

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie ahai

    2005-01-01

    Schedule control and cost control are very complicated issues even we set up the detail schedules and engineering measurements requirements for erection of a nuclear power project. In order to solve these problems, a Point System is used in Ling Ao (LA) Nuclear Power Project. This paper introduces the method. The Point System is a measurement system of workload. The measurement unit of any erection works is a Point only. A Point of workload is defined as the equivalent measurement quantities, which could be completed by a relevant skill worker within an hour. A set of procedure manuals for different installations has been set up. The calculation models of equipment installation, piping, cabling are addressed for example in the paper. The application of the Point System in the schedule control is shown in the paper. The following issues are highlighted: to define the duration of a piping activity in the Project Level 2 Schedule, to draught the curves of Point Schedules for different erection fields, to analyze the productive efficiency, to define erection quota of each month for different erection teams, to follow up the erection progress on site. The application of the Point System in the payment of erection contract is outlined. The calculation formula of a monthly payment is given. The advantage of the payment calculation method is discussed, for example, more accurate, very easy and clearly to check the measurement quantities completed on site, to control lump-sum cost. (authors)

  2. Measures of Noncircularity and Fixed Points of Contractive Multifunctions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marrero Isabel

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available In analogy to the Eisenfeld-Lakshmikantham measure of nonconvexity and the Hausdorff measure of noncompactness, we introduce two mutually equivalent measures of noncircularity for Banach spaces satisfying a Cantor type property, and apply them to establish a fixed point theorem of Darbo type for multifunctions. Namely, we prove that every multifunction with closed values, defined on a closed set and contractive with respect to any one of these measures, has the origin as a fixed point.

  3. The Effect of Distributed Practice in Undergraduate Statistics Homework Sets: A Randomized Trial

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crissinger, Bryan R.

    2015-01-01

    Most homework sets in statistics courses are constructed so that students concentrate or "mass" their practice on a certain topic in one problem set. Distributed practice homework sets include review problems in each set so that practice on a topic is distributed across problem sets. There is a body of research that points to the…

  4. Architectural Knitted Surfaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mossé, Aurélie

    2010-01-01

    WGSN reports from the Architectural Knitted Surfaces workshop recently held at ShenkarCollege of Engineering and Design, Tel Aviv, which offered a cutting-edge insight into interactive knitted surfaces. With the increasing role of smart textiles in architecture, the Architectural Knitted Surfaces...... workshop brought together architects and interior and textile designers to highlight recent developments in intelligent knitting. The five-day workshop was led by architects Ayelet Karmon and Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, together with Amir Cang and Eyal Sheffer from the Knitting Laboratory, in collaboration...

  5. Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil: Hudson River: SENSITIV (Sensitive Area Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains human-use resource data for sensitive areas along the Hudson River. Vector points in this data set represent sensitive areas. This data set...

  6. The Purification Method of Matching Points Based on Principal Component Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DONG Yang

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The traditional purification method of matching points usually uses a small number of the points as initial input. Though it can meet most of the requirements of point constraints, the iterative purification solution is easy to fall into local extreme, which results in the missing of correct matching points. To solve this problem, we introduce the principal component analysis method to use the whole point set as initial input. And thorough mismatching points step eliminating and robust solving, more accurate global optimal solution, which intends to reduce the omission rate of correct matching points and thus reaches better purification effect, can be obtained. Experimental results show that this method can obtain the global optimal solution under a certain original false matching rate, and can decrease or avoid the omission of correct matching points.

  7. Level set method for image segmentation based on moment competition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Min, Hai; Wang, Xiao-Feng; Huang, De-Shuang; Jin, Jing; Wang, Hong-Zhi; Li, Hai

    2015-05-01

    We propose a level set method for image segmentation which introduces the moment competition and weakly supervised information into the energy functional construction. Different from the region-based level set methods which use force competition, the moment competition is adopted to drive the contour evolution. Here, a so-called three-point labeling scheme is proposed to manually label three independent points (weakly supervised information) on the image. Then the intensity differences between the three points and the unlabeled pixels are used to construct the force arms for each image pixel. The corresponding force is generated from the global statistical information of a region-based method and weighted by the force arm. As a result, the moment can be constructed and incorporated into the energy functional to drive the evolving contour to approach the object boundary. In our method, the force arm can take full advantage of the three-point labeling scheme to constrain the moment competition. Additionally, the global statistical information and weakly supervised information are successfully integrated, which makes the proposed method more robust than traditional methods for initial contour placement and parameter setting. Experimental results with performance analysis also show the superiority of the proposed method on segmenting different types of complicated images, such as noisy images, three-phase images, images with intensity inhomogeneity, and texture images.

  8. Markov Random Field Restoration of Point Correspondences for Active Shape Modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hilger, Klaus Baggesen; Paulsen, Rasmus Reinhold; Larsen, Rasmus

    2004-01-01

    In this paper it is described how to build a statistical shape model using a training set with a sparse of landmarks. A well defined model mesh is selected and fitted to all shapes in the training set using thin plate spline warping. This is followed by a projection of the points of the warped...

  9. Coverage of space by random sets

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Consider the non-negative integer line. For each integer point we toss a coin. If the toss at location i is a. Heads we place an interval (of random length) there and move to location i + 1,. Tails we move to location i + 1. Coverage of space by random sets – p. 2/29 ...

  10. Projections onto Convex Sets Super-Resolution Reconstruction Based on Point Spread Function Estimation of Low-Resolution Remote Sensing Images

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chong Fan

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available To solve the problem on inaccuracy when estimating the point spread function (PSF of the ideal original image in traditional projection onto convex set (POCS super-resolution (SR reconstruction, this paper presents an improved POCS SR algorithm based on PSF estimation of low-resolution (LR remote sensing images. The proposed algorithm can improve the spatial resolution of the image and benefit agricultural crop visual interpolation. The PSF of the highresolution (HR image is unknown in reality. Therefore, analysis of the relationship between the PSF of the HR image and the PSF of the LR image is important to estimate the PSF of the HR image by using multiple LR images. In this study, the linear relationship between the PSFs of the HR and LR images can be proven. In addition, the novel slant knife-edge method is employed, which can improve the accuracy of the PSF estimation of LR images. Finally, the proposed method is applied to reconstruct airborne digital sensor 40 (ADS40 three-line array images and the overlapped areas of two adjacent GF-2 images by embedding the estimated PSF of the HR image to the original POCS SR algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed method yields higher quality of reconstructed images than that produced by the blind SR method and the bicubic interpolation method.

  11. Optimality Conditions in Differentiable Vector Optimization via Second-Order Tangent Sets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jimenez, Bienvenido; Novo, Vicente

    2004-01-01

    We provide second-order necessary and sufficient conditions for a point to be an efficient element of a set with respect to a cone in a normed space, so that there is only a small gap between necessary and sufficient conditions. To this aim, we use the common second-order tangent set and the asymptotic second-order cone utilized by Penot. As an application we establish second-order necessary conditions for a point to be a solution of a vector optimization problem with an arbitrary feasible set and a twice Frechet differentiable objective function between two normed spaces. We also establish second-order sufficient conditions when the initial space is finite-dimensional so that there is no gap with necessary conditions. Lagrange multiplier rules are also given

  12. Consistency of Trend Break Point Estimator with Underspecified Break Number

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jingjing Yang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the consistency of trend break point estimators when the number of breaks is underspecified. The consistency of break point estimators in a simple location model with level shifts has been well documented by researchers under various settings, including extensions such as allowing a time trend in the model. Despite the consistency of break point estimators of level shifts, there are few papers on the consistency of trend shift break point estimators in the presence of an underspecified break number. The simulation study and asymptotic analysis in this paper show that the trend shift break point estimator does not converge to the true break points when the break number is underspecified. In the case of two trend shifts, the inconsistency problem worsens if the magnitudes of the breaks are similar and the breaks are either both positive or both negative. The limiting distribution for the trend break point estimator is developed and closely approximates the finite sample performance.

  13. Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil: Florida Panhandle: INVERTPT (Invertebrate Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for threatened/endangered invertebrate species for the Florida Panhandle. Vector points in this data set...

  14. Atomic and vibrational origins of mechanical toughness in bioactive cement during setting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tian, Kun V.; Yang, Bin; Yue, Yuanzheng

    2015-01-01

    Bioactive glass ionomer cements (GICs) have been in widespread use for B40 years in dentistry and medicine. However, these composites fall short of the toughness needed for permanent implants. Significant impediment to improvement has been the requisite use of conventional destructive mechanical...... interfacial configurations. Contrary to convention, we find setting is non-monotonic, characterized by abrupt features not previously detected, including a glass–polymer coupling point, an early setting point, where decreasing toughness unexpectedly recovers, followed by stress-induced weakening of interfaces...

  15. Geometrical setting of solid mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fiala, Zdenek

    2011-01-01

    Highlights: → Solid mechanics within the Riemannian symmetric manifold GL (3, R)/O (3, R). → Generalized logarithmic strain. → Consistent linearization. → Incremental principle of virtual power. → Time-discrete approximation. - Abstract: The starting point in the geometrical setting of solid mechanics is to represent deformation process of a solid body as a trajectory in a convenient space with Riemannian geometry, and then to use the corresponding tools for its analysis. Based on virtual power of internal stresses, we show that such a configuration space is the (globally) symmetric space of symmetric positive-definite real matrices. From this unifying point of view, we shall analyse the logarithmic strain, the stress rate, as well as linearization and intrinsic integration of corresponding evolution equation.

  16. Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil: Florida Panhandle: REPTPT (Reptile Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for threatened and endangered reptiles/amphibians for the Florida Panhandle. Vector points in this data set...

  17. Goal setting as a self-regulation mechanism

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Suvorov, A.; van de Ven, J.

    2009-01-01

    We develop a theory of self-regulation based on goal setting for an agent with present-biased preferences. Preferences are assumed to be reference-dependent and exhibit loss aversion, as in prospect theory. The reference point is determined endogenously as an optimal self-sustaining goal. The

  18. Goal setting as a self-regulation mechanism

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Suvorov, A.; van de Ven, J.

    2008-01-01

    We develop a theory of self-regulation based on goal setting for an agent with present-biased preferences. Preferences are assumed to be reference-dependent and exhibit loss aversion, as in prospect theory. The reference point is determined endogenously as an optimal self-sustaining goal. The

  19. HIV Point-of-Care Testing in Canadian Settings: A Scoping Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minichiello, Alexa; Swab, Michelle; Chongo, Meck; Marshall, Zack; Gahagan, Jacqueline; Maybank, Allison; Hot, Aurélie; Schwandt, Michael; Gaudry, Sonia; Hurley, Oliver; Asghari, Shabnam

    2017-01-01

    HIV point-of-care testing (POCT) was approved for use in Canada in 2005 and provides important public health benefits by providing rapid screening results rather than sending a blood sample to a laboratory and waiting on test results. Access to test results soon after testing (or during the same visit) is believed to increase the likelihood that individuals will receive their results and improve access to confirmatory testing and linkages to care. This paper reviews the literature on the utilization of HIV POCT across Canadian provinces. We searched OVID Medline, Embase, EBM Reviews, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and 20 electronic grey literature databases. All empirical studies investigating HIV POCT programs in Canada published in French or English were included. Searches of academic databases identified a total of 6,091 records. After removing duplicates and screening for eligibility, 27 records were included. Ten studies are peer-reviewed articles, and 17 are grey literature reports. HIV POCT in Canada is both feasible and accepted by Canadians. It is preferred to conventional HIV testing (ranging from 81.1 to 97%), and users are highly satisfied with the testing process (ranging between 96 and 100%). The majority of studies demonstrate that HIV POCT is feasible, preferred, and accepted by diverse populations in Canada. Losses to follow-up and linkage rates are also good. However, more research is needed to understand how best to scale up HIV POCT in contexts that currently have very limited or no access to testing.

  20. Sewerage Collection Lines - MO 2014 Springfield Sewer Dead Points (SHP)

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC State | GIS Inventory — This data set was prepared for the City of Springfield by the GIS Section of the Information Systems Department. This is a point file that shows manholes, lampholes,...

  1. PowerPivot for Business Intelligence Using Excel and SharePoint

    CERN Document Server

    Ralston, Barry

    2011-01-01

    PowerPivot comprises a set of technologies for easy access to data mining and business intelligence analysis from Microsoft Excel and SharePoint. Power users and developers alike can create sophisticated, online analytic processing (OLAP) solutions using PowerPivot for Excel, and then share those solutions with other users via PowerPivot for SharePoint. Data can be pulled in from any of the leading database platforms, as well as from spreadsheets and flat files. PowerPivot for Business Intelligence Using Excel and SharePoint is your key to mastering PowerPivot. The book takes a scenario-based

  2. Maximum power point tracker based on fuzzy logic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daoud, A.; Midoun, A.

    2006-01-01

    The solar energy is used as power source in photovoltaic power systems and the need for an intelligent power management system is important to obtain the maximum power from the limited solar panels. With the changing of the sun illumination due to variation of angle of incidence of sun radiation and of the temperature of the panels, Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) enables optimization of solar power generation. The MPPT is a sub-system designed to extract the maximum power from a power source. In the case of solar panels power source. the maximum power point varies as a result of changes in its electrical characteristics which in turn are functions of radiation dose, temperature, ageing and other effects. The MPPT maximum the power output from panels for a given set of conditions by detecting the best working point of the power characteristic and then controls the current through the panels or the voltage across them. Many MPPT methods have been reported in literature. These techniques of MPPT can be classified into three main categories that include: lookup table methods, hill climbing methods and computational methods. The techniques vary according to the degree of sophistication, processing time and memory requirements. The perturbation and observation algorithm (hill climbing technique) is commonly used due to its ease of implementation, and relative tracking efficiency. However, it has been shown that when the insolation changes rapidly, the perturbation and observation method is slow to track the maximum power point. In recent years, the fuzzy controllers are used for maximum power point tracking. This method only requires the linguistic control rules for maximum power point, the mathematical model is not required and therefore the implementation of this control method is easy to real control system. In this paper, we we present a simple robust MPPT using fuzzy set theory where the hardware consists of the microchip's microcontroller unit control card and

  3. Point efficiency of the notion in multi objective programming

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kampempe, B.J.D.; Manya, N.L.

    2010-01-01

    The approaches to the problem of multi-objective linear programming stochastic (PLMS) which have been proposed so far in the literature are not really satisfactory (9,11), so we want, in this article, to approach the problem of PLMS using the concept of efficiency point. It is also necessary to define what is meant by efficiency point in the context of PLMS. This is precisely the purpose of this article. In fact, it seeks to provide specific definitions of effective solutions that are not only mathematically consistent, but also have significance to a decision maker faced with such a decision problem. As a result, we have to use the concept of dominance in the time of PLMS, in the context where one has ordinal preference but no utility functions. In this paper, we propose to further explore the concepts of dominance and efficiency point. Indeed, the whole point P effective solutions are usually very broad and as we shall see, it can be identical to X. Accordingly, we will try to relax the definition of dominance relation >p in order to obtain other types of dominance point less demanding and generating subsets may be more effective especially interesting for a decision maker. We shall have to distinguish two other families of dominance relations point : the dominance and dominance scenario test, and within sets of efficient solutions proposed by these last two relations, we will focus on subsets of efficient solutions called sponsored and unanimous. We will study the properties of these various relationships and the possible links between the different effective resulting sets in order to find them and to calculate them explicitly. Finally we will establish some connections between different notions of efficiency and timely concept of Pareto-efficient solution on the deterministic case (PLMD)

  4. Freeze-dried plasma at the point of injury: from concept to doctrine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glassberg, Elon; Nadler, Roy; Gendler, Sami; Abramovich, Amir; Spinella, Philip C; Gerhardt, Robert T; Holcomb, John B; Kreiss, Yitshak

    2013-12-01

    While early plasma transfusion for the treatment of patients with ongoing major hemorrhage is widely accepted as part of the standard of care in the hospital setting, logistic constraints have limited its use in the out-of-hospital setting. Freeze-dried plasma (FDP), which can be stored at ambient temperatures, enables early treatment in the out-of-hospital setting. Point-of-injury plasma transfusion entails several significant advantages over currently used resuscitation fluids, including the avoidance of dilutional coagulopathy, by minimizing the need for crystalloid infusion, beneficial effects on endothelial function, physiological pH level, and better maintenance of intravascular volume compared with crystalloid-based solutions. The Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps policy is that plasma is the resuscitation fluid of choice for selected, severely wounded patients and has thus included FDP as part of its armamentarium for use at the point of injury by advanced life savers, across the entire military. We describe the clinical rationale behind the use of FDP at the point-of-injury, the drafting of the administration protocol now being used by Israel Defense Forces advanced life support providers, the process of procurement and distribution, and preliminary data describing the first casualties treated with FDP at the point of injury. It is our hope that others will be able to learn from our experience, thus improving trauma casualty care around the world.

  5. Thermal conductivity at a disordered quantum critical point

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hartnoll, Sean A.; Ramirez, David M.; Santos, Jorge E.

    2016-01-01

    Strongly disordered and strongly interacting quantum critical points are difficult to access with conventional field theoretic methods. They are, however, both experimentally important and theoretically interesting. In particular, they are expected to realize universal incoherent transport. Such disordered quantum critical theories have recently been constructed holographically by deforming a CFT by marginally relevant disorder. In this paper we find additional disordered fixed points via relevant disordered deformations of a holographic CFT. Using recently developed methods in holographic transport, we characterize the thermal conductivity in both sets of theories in 1+1 dimensions. The thermal conductivity is found to tend to a constant at low temperatures in one class of fixed points, and to scale as T"0"."3 in the other. Furthermore, in all cases the thermal conductivity exhibits discrete scale invariance, with logarithmic in temperature oscillations superimposed on the low temperature scaling behavior. At no point do we use the replica trick.

  6. Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil: New Hampshire: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for nesting birds in New Hampshire. Vector points in this data set represent locations of nesting osprey...

  7. Speeding up Coarse Point Cloud Registration by Threshold-Independent Baysac Match Selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Z.; Lindenbergh, R.; Pu, S.

    2016-06-01

    This paper presents an algorithm for the automatic registration of terrestrial point clouds by match selection using an efficiently conditional sampling method -- threshold-independent BaySAC (BAYes SAmpling Consensus) and employs the error metric of average point-to-surface residual to reduce the random measurement error and then approach the real registration error. BaySAC and other basic sampling algorithms usually need to artificially determine a threshold by which inlier points are identified, which leads to a threshold-dependent verification process. Therefore, we applied the LMedS method to construct the cost function that is used to determine the optimum model to reduce the influence of human factors and improve the robustness of the model estimate. Point-to-point and point-to-surface error metrics are most commonly used. However, point-to-point error in general consists of at least two components, random measurement error and systematic error as a result of a remaining error in the found rigid body transformation. Thus we employ the measure of the average point-to-surface residual to evaluate the registration accuracy. The proposed approaches, together with a traditional RANSAC approach, are tested on four data sets acquired by three different scanners in terms of their computational efficiency and quality of the final registration. The registration results show the st.dev of the average point-to-surface residuals is reduced from 1.4 cm (plain RANSAC) to 0.5 cm (threshold-independent BaySAC). The results also show that, compared to the performance of RANSAC, our BaySAC strategies lead to less iterations and cheaper computational cost when the hypothesis set is contaminated with more outliers.

  8. Learning Agent for a Heat-Pump Thermostat with a Set-Back Strategy Using Model-Free Reinforcement Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frederik Ruelens

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The conventional control paradigm for a heat pump with a less efficient auxiliary heating element is to keep its temperature set point constant during the day. This constant temperature set point ensures that the heat pump operates in its more efficient heat-pump mode and minimizes the risk of activating the less efficient auxiliary heating element. As an alternative to a constant set-point strategy, this paper proposes a learning agent for a thermostat with a set-back strategy. This set-back strategy relaxes the set-point temperature during convenient moments, e.g., when the occupants are not at home. Finding an optimal set-back strategy requires solving a sequential decision-making process under uncertainty, which presents two challenges. The first challenge is that for most residential buildings, a description of the thermal characteristics of the building is unavailable and challenging to obtain. The second challenge is that the relevant information on the state, i.e., the building envelope, cannot be measured by the learning agent. In order to overcome these two challenges, our paper proposes an auto-encoder coupled with a batch reinforcement learning technique. The proposed approach is validated for two building types with different thermal characteristics for heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. The simulation results indicate that the proposed learning agent can reduce the energy consumption by 4%–9% during 100 winter days and by 9%–11% during 80 summer days compared to the conventional constant set-point strategy.

  9. Optimization of the Phase Advance Between RHIC Interaction Points

    CERN Document Server

    Tomas, Rogelio

    2005-01-01

    We consider the scenario of having two identical Interaction Points (IPs) in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The strengths of beam-beam resonances strongly depend on the phase advance between these two IPs and therefore certain phase advances could improve beam lifetime and luminosity. We compute the dynamic aperture as function of the phase advance between these IPs to find the optimum settings. The beam-beam interaction is treated in the weak-strong approximation and a complete non-linear model of the lattice is used. For the current RHIC proton working point (0.69,0.685) the design lattice is found to have the optimum phase advance. However this is not the case for other working points.

  10. A New Approach for the Approximations of Solutions to a Common Fixed Point Problem in Metric Fixed Point Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ishak Altun

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available We provide sufficient conditions for the existence of a unique common fixed point for a pair of mappings T,S:X→X, where X is a nonempty set endowed with a certain metric. Moreover, a numerical algorithm is presented in order to approximate such solution. Our approach is different to the usual used methods in the literature.

  11. Distribution of some sequences of points on elliptic curves

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lange, Tanja; Shparlinski, Igor

    2007-01-01

    We estimate character sums over points on elliptic curves over a finite field of q elements. Pseudorandom sequences can be constructed by taking linear combinations with small coefficients (for example, from the set {−1, 0, 1}) of a fixed vector of points, which forms the seed of the generator. We...... consider several particular cases of this general approach which are of special practical interest and have occurred in the literature. For each of them we show that the resulting sequence has good uniformity of distribution properties....

  12. CLASSIFICATION BY USING MULTISPECTRAL POINT CLOUD DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. T. Liao

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Remote sensing images are generally recorded in two-dimensional format containing multispectral information. Also, the semantic information is clearly visualized, which ground features can be better recognized and classified via supervised or unsupervised classification methods easily. Nevertheless, the shortcomings of multispectral images are highly depending on light conditions, and classification results lack of three-dimensional semantic information. On the other hand, LiDAR has become a main technology for acquiring high accuracy point cloud data. The advantages of LiDAR are high data acquisition rate, independent of light conditions and can directly produce three-dimensional coordinates. However, comparing with multispectral images, the disadvantage is multispectral information shortage, which remains a challenge in ground feature classification through massive point cloud data. Consequently, by combining the advantages of both LiDAR and multispectral images, point cloud data with three-dimensional coordinates and multispectral information can produce a integrate solution for point cloud classification. Therefore, this research acquires visible light and near infrared images, via close range photogrammetry, by matching images automatically through free online service for multispectral point cloud generation. Then, one can use three-dimensional affine coordinate transformation to compare the data increment. At last, the given threshold of height and color information is set as threshold in classification.

  13. Classification by Using Multispectral Point Cloud Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liao, C. T.; Huang, H. H.

    2012-07-01

    Remote sensing images are generally recorded in two-dimensional format containing multispectral information. Also, the semantic information is clearly visualized, which ground features can be better recognized and classified via supervised or unsupervised classification methods easily. Nevertheless, the shortcomings of multispectral images are highly depending on light conditions, and classification results lack of three-dimensional semantic information. On the other hand, LiDAR has become a main technology for acquiring high accuracy point cloud data. The advantages of LiDAR are high data acquisition rate, independent of light conditions and can directly produce three-dimensional coordinates. However, comparing with multispectral images, the disadvantage is multispectral information shortage, which remains a challenge in ground feature classification through massive point cloud data. Consequently, by combining the advantages of both LiDAR and multispectral images, point cloud data with three-dimensional coordinates and multispectral information can produce a integrate solution for point cloud classification. Therefore, this research acquires visible light and near infrared images, via close range photogrammetry, by matching images automatically through free online service for multispectral point cloud generation. Then, one can use three-dimensional affine coordinate transformation to compare the data increment. At last, the given threshold of height and color information is set as threshold in classification.

  14. XZP + 1d and XZP + 1d-DKH basis sets for second-row elements: application to CCSD(T) zero-point vibrational energy and atomization energy calculations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campos, Cesar T; Jorge, Francisco E; Alves, Júlia M A

    2012-09-01

    Recently, segmented all-electron contracted double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, and sextuple zeta valence plus polarization function (XZP, X = D, T, Q, 5, and 6) basis sets for the elements from H to Ar were constructed for use in conjunction with nonrelativistic and Douglas-Kroll-Hess Hamiltonians. In this work, in order to obtain a better description of some molecular properties, the XZP sets for the second-row elements were augmented with high-exponent d "inner polarization functions," which were optimized in the molecular environment at the second-order Møller-Plesset level. At the coupled cluster level of theory, the inclusion of tight d functions for these elements was found to be essential to improve the agreement between theoretical and experimental zero-point vibrational energies (ZPVEs) and atomization energies. For all of the molecules studied, the ZPVE errors were always smaller than 0.5 %. The atomization energies were also improved by applying corrections due to core/valence correlation and atomic spin-orbit effects. This led to estimates for the atomization energies of various compounds in the gaseous phase. The largest error (1.2 kcal mol(-1)) was found for SiH(4).

  15. Comparison of apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) between two-point and multi-point analyses using high-B-value diffusion MR imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kubo, Hitoshi; Maeda, Masayuki; Araki, Akinobu

    2001-01-01

    We evaluated the accuracy of calculating apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) using high-B-value diffusion images. Echo planar diffusion-weighted MR images were obtained at 1.5 tesla in five standard locations in six subjects using gradient strengths corresponding to B values from 0 to 3000 s/mm 2 . Estimation of ADCs was made using two methods: a nonlinear regression model using measurements from a full set of B values (multi-point method) and linear estimation using B values of 0 and max only (two-point method). A high correlation between the two methods was noted (r=0.99), and the mean percentage differences were -0.53% and 0.53% in phantom and human brain, respectively. These results suggest there is little error in estimating ADCs calculated by the two-point technique using high-B-value diffusion MR images. (author)

  16. On the reflection point where light reflects to a known destination on quadratic surfaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonçalves, Nuno

    2010-01-15

    We address the problem of determining the reflection point on a specular surface where a light ray that travels from a source to a target is reflected. The specular surfaces considered are those expressed by a quadratic equation. So far, there is no closed form explicit equation for the general solution of this determination of the reflection point, and the usual approach is to use the Snell law or the Fermat principle whose equations are derived in multidimensional nonlinear minimizations. We prove in this Letter that one can impose a set of three restrictions to the reflection point that can impose a set of three restrictions that culminates in a very elegant formalism of searching the reflection point in a unidimensional curve in space. This curve is the intersection of two quadratic equations. Some applications of this framework are also discussed.

  17. Automated realization of the gallium melting and triple points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, X.; Duan, Y.; Zhang, J. T.; Wang, W.

    2013-09-01

    In order to improve the automation and convenience of the process involved in realizing the gallium fixed points, an automated apparatus, based on thermoelectric and heat pipe technologies, was designed and developed. This paper describes the apparatus design and procedures for freezing gallium mantles and realizing gallium melting and triple points. Also, investigations on the melting behavior of a gallium melting point cell and of gallium triple point cells were carried out while controlling the temperature outside the gallium point cells at 30 °C, 30.5 °C, 31 °C, and 31.5 °C. The obtained melting plateau curves show dentate temperature oscillations on the melting plateaus for the gallium point cells when thermal couplings occurred between the outer and inner liquid-solid interfaces. The maximum amplitude of the temperature fluctuations was about 1.5 mK. Therefore, the temperature oscillations can be used to indicate the ending of the equilibrium phase transitions. The duration and amplitude of such temperature oscillations depend on the temperature difference between the setting temperature and the gallium point temperature; the smaller the temperature difference, the longer the duration of both the melting plateaus and the temperature fluctuations.

  18. Refining Game Addiction Questionnairs: Evidence for a natural cut-off point?

    OpenAIRE

    Nielsen, Rune Kristian

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents data from a pilot study, which was designed to illuminate critical flaws in the currently used instruments used to measure the prevalence of ‘computer game addiction’. The study found that the prevalence rate could be set anywhere between 23% and 0,6% depending on how the data set is scored. Thus demonstrating how an arbitrarily set of cut-off point in prevalence studies can yield wildly varying prevalence rates. The data further show that making implicit assumptions about...

  19. Aleutian Islands Coastal Resources Inventory and Environmental Sensitivity Maps: M_MAMPT (Marine Mammal Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains biological resource data for seals and sea lions in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Points in this data set represent locations of haulout and...

  20. Balanced partitions of 3-colored geometric sets in the plane

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bereg, S.; Hurtado, F.; Kano, M.; Korman, M.; Lara, D.; Seara, C.; Silveira, R.I.; Urrutia, J.; Verbeek, K.A.B.

    2015-01-01

    Let SS be a finite set of geometric objects partitioned into classes or colors . A subset S'¿SS'¿S is said to be balanced if S'S' contains the same amount of elements of SS from each of the colors. We study several problems on partitioning 33-colored sets of points and lines in the plane into two

  1. Multidimensional scaling for large genomic data sets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Henry

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS is aimed to represent high dimensional data in a low dimensional space with preservation of the similarities between data points. This reduction in dimensionality is crucial for analyzing and revealing the genuine structure hidden in the data. For noisy data, dimension reduction can effectively reduce the effect of noise on the embedded structure. For large data set, dimension reduction can effectively reduce information retrieval complexity. Thus, MDS techniques are used in many applications of data mining and gene network research. However, although there have been a number of studies that applied MDS techniques to genomics research, the number of analyzed data points was restricted by the high computational complexity of MDS. In general, a non-metric MDS method is faster than a metric MDS, but it does not preserve the true relationships. The computational complexity of most metric MDS methods is over O(N2, so that it is difficult to process a data set of a large number of genes N, such as in the case of whole genome microarray data. Results We developed a new rapid metric MDS method with a low computational complexity, making metric MDS applicable for large data sets. Computer simulation showed that the new method of split-and-combine MDS (SC-MDS is fast, accurate and efficient. Our empirical studies using microarray data on the yeast cell cycle showed that the performance of K-means in the reduced dimensional space is similar to or slightly better than that of K-means in the original space, but about three times faster to obtain the clustering results. Our clustering results using SC-MDS are more stable than those in the original space. Hence, the proposed SC-MDS is useful for analyzing whole genome data. Conclusion Our new method reduces the computational complexity from O(N3 to O(N when the dimension of the feature space is far less than the number of genes N, and it successfully

  2. Turning points in the history of mathematics

    CERN Document Server

    Grant, Hardy

    2015-01-01

    This book explores some of the major turning points in the history of mathematics, ranging from ancient Greece to the present, demonstrating the drama that has often been a part of its evolution. Studying these breakthroughs, transitions, and revolutions, their stumbling-blocks and their triumphs, can help illuminate the importance of the history of mathematics for its teaching, learning, and appreciation. Some of the turning points considered are the rise of the axiomatic method (most famously in Euclid), and the subsequent major changes in it (for example, by David Hilbert); the “wedding,” via analytic geometry, of algebra and geometry; the “taming” of the infinitely small and the infinitely large; the passages from algebra to algebras, from geometry to geometries, and from arithmetic to arithmetics; and the revolutions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that resulted from Georg Cantor’s creation of transfinite set theory. The origin of each turning point is discussed, along with...

  3. A density based algorithm to detect cavities and holes from planar points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Jie; Sun, Yizhong; Pang, Yueyong

    2017-12-01

    Delaunay-based shape reconstruction algorithms are widely used in approximating the shape from planar points. However, these algorithms cannot ensure the optimality of varied reconstructed cavity boundaries and hole boundaries. This inadequate reconstruction can be primarily attributed to the lack of efficient mathematic formulation for the two structures (hole and cavity). In this paper, we develop an efficient algorithm for generating cavities and holes from planar points. The algorithm yields the final boundary based on an iterative removal of the Delaunay triangulation. Our algorithm is mainly divided into two steps, namely, rough and refined shape reconstructions. The rough shape reconstruction performed by the algorithm is controlled by a relative parameter. Based on the rough result, the refined shape reconstruction mainly aims to detect holes and pure cavities. Cavity and hole are conceptualized as a structure with a low-density region surrounded by the high-density region. With this structure, cavity and hole are characterized by a mathematic formulation called as compactness of point formed by the length variation of the edges incident to point in Delaunay triangulation. The boundaries of cavity and hole are then found by locating a shape gradient change in compactness of point set. The experimental comparison with other shape reconstruction approaches shows that the proposed algorithm is able to accurately yield the boundaries of cavity and hole with varying point set densities and distributions.

  4. Probabilistic Open Set Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jain, Lalit Prithviraj

    Real-world tasks in computer vision, pattern recognition and machine learning often touch upon the open set recognition problem: multi-class recognition with incomplete knowledge of the world and many unknown inputs. An obvious way to approach such problems is to develop a recognition system that thresholds probabilities to reject unknown classes. Traditional rejection techniques are not about the unknown; they are about the uncertain boundary and rejection around that boundary. Thus traditional techniques only represent the "known unknowns". However, a proper open set recognition algorithm is needed to reduce the risk from the "unknown unknowns". This dissertation examines this concept and finds existing probabilistic multi-class recognition approaches are ineffective for true open set recognition. We hypothesize the cause is due to weak adhoc assumptions combined with closed-world assumptions made by existing calibration techniques. Intuitively, if we could accurately model just the positive data for any known class without overfitting, we could reject the large set of unknown classes even under this assumption of incomplete class knowledge. For this, we formulate the problem as one of modeling positive training data by invoking statistical extreme value theory (EVT) near the decision boundary of positive data with respect to negative data. We provide a new algorithm called the PI-SVM for estimating the unnormalized posterior probability of class inclusion. This dissertation also introduces a new open set recognition model called Compact Abating Probability (CAP), where the probability of class membership decreases in value (abates) as points move from known data toward open space. We show that CAP models improve open set recognition for multiple algorithms. Leveraging the CAP formulation, we go on to describe the novel Weibull-calibrated SVM (W-SVM) algorithm, which combines the useful properties of statistical EVT for score calibration with one-class and binary

  5. Road and Street Centerlines, StreetLabels-The data set is a text feature consisting of 6329 label points representing street names. It was created to show the names of city and county based streets., Published in 1989, Davis County Government.

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — Road and Street Centerlines dataset current as of 1989. StreetLabels-The data set is a text feature consisting of 6329 label points representing street names. It was...

  6. QSPR using MOLGEN-QSPR: the challenge of fluoroalkane boiling points.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rücker, Christoph; Meringer, Markus; Kerber, Adalbert

    2005-01-01

    By means of the new software MOLGEN-QSPR, a multilinear regression model for the boiling points of lower fluoroalkanes is established. The model is based exclusively on simple descriptors derived directly from molecular structure and nevertheless describes a broader set of data more precisely than previous attempts that used either more demanding (quantum chemical) descriptors or more demanding (nonlinear) statistical methods such as neural networks. The model's internal consistency was confirmed by leave-one-out cross-validation. The model was used to predict all unknown boiling points of fluorobutanes, and the quality of predictions was estimated by means of comparison with boiling point predictions for fluoropentanes.

  7. Planar simplification and texturing of dense point cloud maps

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ma, L.; Whelan, T.; Bondarau, Y.; With, de P.H.N.; McDonald, J.

    2013-01-01

    Dense RGB-D based SLAM techniques and highfidelity LIDAR scanners are examples from an abundant set of systems capable of providing multi-million point datasets. These large datasets quickly become difficult to process and work with due to the sheer volume of data, which typically contains

  8. Point-of-admission neonatal hypoglycaemia in a Nigerian tertiary ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Background: Neonatal hypoglycaemia is a major metabolic problem. It may result in mortality or severe handicap among survivors. Many babies admitted for neonatal care are at high risk for hypoglycaemia. The present study set out to determine its point-of-admission prevalence, clinical presentation and outcome.

  9. Evaluation of a 3D point cloud tetrahedral tomographic reconstruction method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pereira, N. F.; Sitek, A.

    2010-09-01

    Tomographic reconstruction on an irregular grid may be superior to reconstruction on a regular grid. This is achieved through an appropriate choice of the image space model, the selection of an optimal set of points and the use of any available prior information during the reconstruction process. Accordingly, a number of reconstruction-related parameters must be optimized for best performance. In this work, a 3D point cloud tetrahedral mesh reconstruction method is evaluated for quantitative tasks. A linear image model is employed to obtain the reconstruction system matrix and five point generation strategies are studied. The evaluation is performed using the recovery coefficient, as well as voxel- and template-based estimates of bias and variance measures, computed over specific regions in the reconstructed image. A similar analysis is performed for regular grid reconstructions that use voxel basis functions. The maximum likelihood expectation maximization reconstruction algorithm is used. For the tetrahedral reconstructions, of the five point generation methods that are evaluated, three use image priors. For evaluation purposes, an object consisting of overlapping spheres with varying activity is simulated. The exact parallel projection data of this object are obtained analytically using a parallel projector, and multiple Poisson noise realizations of these exact data are generated and reconstructed using the different point generation strategies. The unconstrained nature of point placement in some of the irregular mesh-based reconstruction strategies has superior activity recovery for small, low-contrast image regions. The results show that, with an appropriately generated set of mesh points, the irregular grid reconstruction methods can out-perform reconstructions on a regular grid for mathematical phantoms, in terms of the performance measures evaluated.

  10. Evaluation of a 3D point cloud tetrahedral tomographic reconstruction method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pereira, N F; Sitek, A

    2010-01-01

    Tomographic reconstruction on an irregular grid may be superior to reconstruction on a regular grid. This is achieved through an appropriate choice of the image space model, the selection of an optimal set of points and the use of any available prior information during the reconstruction process. Accordingly, a number of reconstruction-related parameters must be optimized for best performance. In this work, a 3D point cloud tetrahedral mesh reconstruction method is evaluated for quantitative tasks. A linear image model is employed to obtain the reconstruction system matrix and five point generation strategies are studied. The evaluation is performed using the recovery coefficient, as well as voxel- and template-based estimates of bias and variance measures, computed over specific regions in the reconstructed image. A similar analysis is performed for regular grid reconstructions that use voxel basis functions. The maximum likelihood expectation maximization reconstruction algorithm is used. For the tetrahedral reconstructions, of the five point generation methods that are evaluated, three use image priors. For evaluation purposes, an object consisting of overlapping spheres with varying activity is simulated. The exact parallel projection data of this object are obtained analytically using a parallel projector, and multiple Poisson noise realizations of these exact data are generated and reconstructed using the different point generation strategies. The unconstrained nature of point placement in some of the irregular mesh-based reconstruction strategies has superior activity recovery for small, low-contrast image regions. The results show that, with an appropriately generated set of mesh points, the irregular grid reconstruction methods can out-perform reconstructions on a regular grid for mathematical phantoms, in terms of the performance measures evaluated.

  11. Evaluation of a 3D point cloud tetrahedral tomographic reconstruction method

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pereira, N F; Sitek, A, E-mail: nfp4@bwh.harvard.ed, E-mail: asitek@bwh.harvard.ed [Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women' s Hospital-Harvard Medical School Boston, MA (United States)

    2010-09-21

    Tomographic reconstruction on an irregular grid may be superior to reconstruction on a regular grid. This is achieved through an appropriate choice of the image space model, the selection of an optimal set of points and the use of any available prior information during the reconstruction process. Accordingly, a number of reconstruction-related parameters must be optimized for best performance. In this work, a 3D point cloud tetrahedral mesh reconstruction method is evaluated for quantitative tasks. A linear image model is employed to obtain the reconstruction system matrix and five point generation strategies are studied. The evaluation is performed using the recovery coefficient, as well as voxel- and template-based estimates of bias and variance measures, computed over specific regions in the reconstructed image. A similar analysis is performed for regular grid reconstructions that use voxel basis functions. The maximum likelihood expectation maximization reconstruction algorithm is used. For the tetrahedral reconstructions, of the five point generation methods that are evaluated, three use image priors. For evaluation purposes, an object consisting of overlapping spheres with varying activity is simulated. The exact parallel projection data of this object are obtained analytically using a parallel projector, and multiple Poisson noise realizations of these exact data are generated and reconstructed using the different point generation strategies. The unconstrained nature of point placement in some of the irregular mesh-based reconstruction strategies has superior activity recovery for small, low-contrast image regions. The results show that, with an appropriately generated set of mesh points, the irregular grid reconstruction methods can out-perform reconstructions on a regular grid for mathematical phantoms, in terms of the performance measures evaluated.

  12. Tobacco point-of-purchase promotion: examining tobacco industry documents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lavack, Anne M; Toth, Graham

    2006-10-01

    In the face of increasing media restrictions around the world, point-of-purchase promotion (also called point-of-sale merchandising, and frequently abbreviated as POP or POS) is now one of the most important tools that tobacco companies have for promoting tobacco products. Using tobacco industry documents, this paper demonstrates that tobacco companies have used point-of-purchase promotion in response to real or anticipated advertising restrictions. Their goal was to secure dominance in the retail setting, and this was achieved through well-trained sales representatives who offered contracts for promotional incentive programmes to retailers, which included the use of point-of-sale displays and merchandising fixtures. Audit programmes played an important role in ensuring contract enforcement and compliance with a variety of tobacco company incentive programmes. Tobacco companies celebrated their merchandising successes, in recognition of the stiff competition that existed among tobacco companies for valuable retail display space.

  13. Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil: Northwest Arctic, Alaska: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for nesting birds in Northwest Arctic, Alaska. Vector points in this data set represent locations of...

  14. Automated Experiments on Ad Privacy Settings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Datta Amit

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available To partly address people’s concerns over web tracking, Google has created the Ad Settings webpage to provide information about and some choice over the profiles Google creates on users. We present AdFisher, an automated tool that explores how user behaviors, Google’s ads, and Ad Settings interact. AdFisher can run browser-based experiments and analyze data using machine learning and significance tests. Our tool uses a rigorous experimental design and statistical analysis to ensure the statistical soundness of our results. We use AdFisher to find that the Ad Settings was opaque about some features of a user’s profile, that it does provide some choice on ads, and that these choices can lead to seemingly discriminatory ads. In particular, we found that visiting webpages associated with substance abuse changed the ads shown but not the settings page. We also found that setting the gender to female resulted in getting fewer instances of an ad related to high paying jobs than setting it to male. We cannot determine who caused these findings due to our limited visibility into the ad ecosystem, which includes Google, advertisers, websites, and users. Nevertheless, these results can form the starting point for deeper investigations by either the companies themselves or by regulatory bodies.

  15. Intersections of homogeneous Cantor sets and beta-expansions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kong, Derong; Li, Wenxia; Dekking, F Michel

    2010-01-01

    Let Γ β,N be the N-part homogeneous Cantor set with β in (1/(2N − 1), 1/N). Any string (j l ) l=1 ∞ with j l in {0, ±1, ..., ±(N − 1)} such that t=Σ l=1 ∞ j l β l-1 (1-β)/(N-1) is called a code of t. Let U β,±N be the set of t in [−1, 1] having a unique code, and let S β,±N be the set of t element of U β,±N which makes the intersection Γ β,N intersection (Γ β,N + t) a self-similar set. We characterize the set U β,±N in a geometrical and algebraical way, and give a sufficient and necessary condition for t element of S β,±N . Using techniques from beta-expansions, we show that there is a critical point β c in (1/(2N − 1), 1/N), which is a transcendental number, such that U β,±N has positive Hausdorff dimension if β in (1/(2N − 1), β c ), and contains countably infinite many elements if β in (β c , 1/N). Moreover, there exists a second critical point α c =[N+1-√((N-1)(N+3))]/2 element of (1/(2N-1),β c ) such that S β,±N has positive Hausdorff dimension if β in (1/(2N − 1), α c ), and contains countably infinite many elements if β in [α c , 1/N)

  16. Site management plan: Douglas Point Ecological Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jensen, B.L.; Miles, K.J.; Strass, P.K.; McDonald, B.

    1979-01-01

    A portion of the Douglas Point Site has been set aside for use as an ecological monitoring facility (DPEL). Plans call for it to provide for long-term scientific study and analysis of specific terrestrial and aquatic ecological systems representative of the coastal plain region of the mid-Atlantic United States. Discussion of the program is presented under the following section headings: goals and objectives; management and organization of DPEL; laboratory director; site manager; monitoring manager; research manager; and, organizational chart. The seven appendixes are entitled: detailed site description; supplemental land use plan; contract between Potomac Electric Power Company and Charles County Community Collge (CCCC); research and monitoring projects initiated at the Douglas Point Power Plant site; advisory committees; facilities and equipment; and CCCC personnel resumes

  17. Determination of the Number of Fixture Locating Points for Sheet Metal By Grey Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Bo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In the process of the traditional fixture design for sheet metal part based on the "N-2-1" locating principle, the number of fixture locating points is determined by trial and error or the experience of the designer. To that end, a new design method based on grey theory is proposed to determine the number of sheet metal fixture locating points in this paper. Firstly, the training sample set is generated by Latin hypercube sampling (LHS and finite element analysis (FEA. Secondly, the GM(1, 1 grey model is constructed based on the established training sample set to approximate the mapping relationship between the number of fixture locating points and the concerned sheet metal maximum deformation. Thirdly, the final number of fixture locating points for sheet metal can be inversely calculated under the allowable maximum deformation. Finally, a sheet metal case is conducted and the results indicate that the proposed approach is effective and efficient in determining the number of fixture locating points for sheet metal.

  18. Existence of positive solutions for a multi-point four-order boundary-value problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Le Xuan Truong

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available The article shows sufficient conditions for the existence of positive solutions to a multi-point boundary-value problem for a fourth-order differential equation. Our main tools are the Guo-Krasnoselskii fixed point theorem and the monotone iterative technique. We also show that the set of positive solutions is compact.

  19. Microfluidic cartridges for automated, point-of-care blood cell counting

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Smith, Suzanne

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Disposable, low-cost microfluidic cartridges for automated blood cell counting applications are presented in this article. The need for point-of-care medical diagnostic tools is evident, particularly in low-resource and rural settings, and a full...

  20. Computational Analysis of Distance Operators for the Iterative Closest Point Algorithm.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Higinio Mora

    Full Text Available The Iterative Closest Point (ICP algorithm is currently one of the most popular methods for rigid registration so that it has become the standard in the Robotics and Computer Vision communities. Many applications take advantage of it to align 2D/3D surfaces due to its popularity and simplicity. Nevertheless, some of its phases present a high computational cost thus rendering impossible some of its applications. In this work, it is proposed an efficient approach for the matching phase of the Iterative Closest Point algorithm. This stage is the main bottleneck of that method so that any efficiency improvement has a great positive impact on the performance of the algorithm. The proposal consists in using low computational cost point-to-point distance metrics instead of classic Euclidean one. The candidates analysed are the Chebyshev and Manhattan distance metrics due to their simpler formulation. The experiments carried out have validated the performance, robustness and quality of the proposal. Different experimental cases and configurations have been set up including a heterogeneous set of 3D figures, several scenarios with partial data and random noise. The results prove that an average speed up of 14% can be obtained while preserving the convergence properties of the algorithm and the quality of the final results.

  1. Magic, science and masculinity: marketing toy chemistry sets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Gailani, Salim

    2009-12-01

    At least since the late nineteenth century, toy chemistry sets have featured in standard scripts of the achievement of eminence in science, and they remain important in constructions of scientific identity. Using a selection of these toys manufactured in Britain and the United States, and with particular reference to the two dominant American brands, Gilbert and Chemcraft, this paper suggests that early twentieth-century chemistry sets were rooted in overlapping Victorian traditions of entertainment magic and scientific recreations. As chemistry set marketing copy gradually reoriented towards emphasising scientific modernity, citizenship, discipline and educational value, pre-twentieth-century traditions were subsumed within domestic-and specifically masculine-tropes. These developments in branding strategies point to transformations in both users' engagement with their chemistry sets and the role of scientific toys in domestic play. The chemistry set serves here as a useful tool for measuring cultural change and lay engagement with chemistry.

  2. Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil: Hudson River: STAGING (Staging Site Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains human-use resource data for staging sites along the Hudson River. Vector points in this data set represent locations of possible staging areas...

  3. Hierarchical Threshold Adaptive for Point Cloud Filter Algorithm of Moving Surface Fitting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZHU Xiaoxiao

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In order to improve the accuracy,efficiency and adaptability of point cloud filtering algorithm,a hierarchical threshold adaptive for point cloud filter algorithm of moving surface fitting was proposed.Firstly,the noisy points are removed by using a statistic histogram method.Secondly,the grid index is established by grid segmentation,and the surface equation is set up through the lowest point among the neighborhood grids.The real height and fit are calculated.The difference between the elevation and the threshold can be determined.Finally,in order to improve the filtering accuracy,hierarchical filtering is used to change the grid size and automatically set the neighborhood size and threshold until the filtering result reaches the accuracy requirement.The test data provided by the International Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Society (ISPRS is used to verify the algorithm.The first and second error and the total error are 7.33%,10.64% and 6.34% respectively.The algorithm is compared with the eight classical filtering algorithms published by ISPRS.The experiment results show that the method has well-adapted and it has high accurate filtering result.

  4. Li and Yorke chaos with respect to the cardinality of the scrambled sets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garcia Guirao, Juan Luis [Department of Mathematics, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 16071-Cuenca (Castilla-La Mancha) (Spain)]. E-mail: jlguirao@tel-cu.uclm.es; Lampart, Marek [Mathematical Institute, Silesian University at Opava, Na Rybnicku 1, 746 01 Opava (Czech Republic)]. E-mail: marek.lampart@math.slu.cz

    2005-06-01

    In the present paper we study Li and Yorke chaos on several spaces in connection with the cardinality of its scrambled sets. We prove that there is a map on a Cantor set and a map on a two-dimensional arcwise connected continuum (with empty interior) such that each scrambled set contains exactly two points.

  5. quasi hyperrigidity and weak peak points for non-commutative ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    7

    Abstract. In this article, we introduce the notions of weak boundary repre- sentation, quasi hyperrigidity and weak peak points in the non-commutative setting for operator systems in C∗-algebras. An analogue of Saskin's theorem relating quasi hyperrigidity and weak Choquet boundary for particular classes of C∗-algebras is ...

  6. Compact invariant sets of the static spherically symmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Starkov, Konstantin E.

    2010-01-01

    In this Letter we obtain results concerning compact invariant sets of the static spherically symmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) equations with help of studies of its localization. Let a be a cosmological constant and s be another parameter entering into these equations which is used for considering the physical time as a temporal variable, with s=1, while s=-1 is used for considering the physical time as a spatial variable. We show that in case s=1; a 0 the set of all compact invariant sets consists of two equilibrium points only. Further, we state that in cases s=-1; a 0 there are only two equilibrium points and there are no periodic orbits. In addition, we prove that in the last two cases there are neither homoclinic orbits nor heteroclinic orbits as well.

  7. Natural Preconditioning and Iterative Methods for Saddle Point Systems

    KAUST Repository

    Pestana, Jennifer

    2015-01-01

    © 2015 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The solution of quadratic or locally quadratic extremum problems subject to linear(ized) constraints gives rise to linear systems in saddle point form. This is true whether in the continuous or the discrete setting, so saddle point systems arising from the discretization of partial differential equation problems, such as those describing electromagnetic problems or incompressible flow, lead to equations with this structure, as do, for example, interior point methods and the sequential quadratic programming approach to nonlinear optimization. This survey concerns iterative solution methods for these problems and, in particular, shows how the problem formulation leads to natural preconditioners which guarantee a fast rate of convergence of the relevant iterative methods. These preconditioners are related to the original extremum problem and their effectiveness - in terms of rapidity of convergence - is established here via a proof of general bounds on the eigenvalues of the preconditioned saddle point matrix on which iteration convergence depends.

  8. Compact invariant sets of the static spherically symmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills equations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Starkov, Konstantin E., E-mail: konst@citedi.m [CITEDI-IPN, Av. del Parque 1310, Mesa de Otay, Tijuana, BC (Mexico)

    2010-04-05

    In this Letter we obtain results concerning compact invariant sets of the static spherically symmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) equations with help of studies of its localization. Let a be a cosmological constant and s be another parameter entering into these equations which is used for considering the physical time as a temporal variable, with s=1, while s=-1 is used for considering the physical time as a spatial variable. We show that in case s=1; a<0 the location of any compact invariant set is described by some system of linear inequalities. Then we prove that in case s=1; a>0 the set of all compact invariant sets consists of two equilibrium points only. Further, we state that in cases s=-1; a<0 and s=-1; a>0 there are only two equilibrium points and there are no periodic orbits. In addition, we prove that in the last two cases there are neither homoclinic orbits nor heteroclinic orbits as well.

  9. The Geological Grading Scale: Every million Points Counts!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stegman, D. R.; Cooper, C. M.

    2006-12-01

    The concept of geological time, ranging from thousands to billions of years, is naturally quite difficult for students to grasp initially, as it is much longer than the timescales over which they experience everyday life. Moreover, universities operate on a few key timescales (hourly lectures, weekly assignments, mid-term examinations) to which students' maximum attention is focused, largely driven by graded assessment. The geological grading scale exploits the overwhelming interest students have in grades as an opportunity to instill familiarity with geological time. With the geological grading scale, the number of possible points/marks/grades available in the course is scaled to 4.5 billion points --- collapsing the entirety of Earth history into one semester. Alternatively, geological time can be compressed into each assignment, with scores for weekly homeworks not worth 100 points each, but 4.5 billion! Homeworks left incomplete with questions unanswered lose 100's of millions of points - equivalent to missing the Paleozoic era. The expected quality of presentation for problem sets can be established with great impact in the first week by docking assignments an insignificant amount points for handing in messy work; though likely more points than they've lost in their entire schooling history combined. Use this grading scale and your students will gradually begin to appreciate exactly how much time represents a geological blink of the eye.

  10. Torsades de Pointes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard J Chen, MD

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available History of present illness: 70-year-old male with a history ventricular arrhythmia, AICD (automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator, coronary artery disease and cardiac stents presented to the Emergency Department after three AICD discharges with dyspnea but no chest pain. During triage, he was found to have an irregular radial pulse and was placed on a cardiac monitor. Significant findings: The patient was found to be in a polymorphic ventricular tachycardia; he was alert, awake and asymptomatic. A rhythm strip showed a wide complex tachycardia with the QRS complex varying in amplitude around the isoelectric line consistent with Torsades de Pointes. Discussion: Torsades de Pointes (TdP is a specific type of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. The arrhythmia’s characteristic morphology consists of the QRS complex “twisting” around the isoelectric line with gradual variation of the amplitude, reflecting its literal translation of “twisting of the points.”1 This arrhythmia occurs in the context of prolonged QT. The most common form of acquired QT prolongation is medication induced. Common causes include antiarrhythmics, antipsychotics, antiemetics, and antibiotics.2 Patient specific risk factors include female sex, bradycardia, hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, hypocalcemia, hypothermia and heart disease.3 In the setting of prolonged QT, the repolarization phase is extended. TdP is initiated when a PVC (premature ventricular contraction occurs during this repolarization, known as an ‘R on T’ phenomenon. TdP is often asymptomatic and self-limited. The danger in TdP is its potential to deteriorate into ventricular fibrillation. A mainstay of management of TdP is prevention of risk factors when possible.4 Unstable patients should be treated with synchronized cardioversion. Magnesium sulfate should be administered in all cases of TdP.1 If a patient is not responsive to magnesium, consider isoproterenol, amiodarone, and overdrive

  11. Point-of-care and point-of-procedure optical imaging technologies for primary care and global health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boppart, Stephen A; Richards-Kortum, Rebecca

    2014-09-10

    Leveraging advances in consumer electronics and wireless telecommunications, low-cost, portable optical imaging devices have the potential to improve screening and detection of disease at the point of care in primary health care settings in both low- and high-resource countries. Similarly, real-time optical imaging technologies can improve diagnosis and treatment at the point of procedure by circumventing the need for biopsy and analysis by expert pathologists, who are scarce in developing countries. Although many optical imaging technologies have been translated from bench to bedside, industry support is needed to commercialize and broadly disseminate these from the patient level to the population level to transform the standard of care. This review provides an overview of promising optical imaging technologies, the infrastructure needed to integrate them into widespread clinical use, and the challenges that must be addressed to harness the potential of these technologies to improve health care systems around the world. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  12. Accuracy of Setting Work-pieces on Automatic Lines with Pallet-fixtures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. A. Kolesnikov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The accuracy of positioning surfaces to be processed on automatic lines with pallet-fixtures essentially depends on the setting error of the pallet-fixtures with work-pieces in ready-to-work position.The applied methods for calculating the setting error do not give a complete picture of the possible coordinates of the point when in the pallet is displaced in different directions.The aim of the work was to determine an accuracy of the setting work-pieces on automatic lines with pallets-fixtures, using a computational and analytical method, to improve a manufacturing precision of parts.The currently used methods to calculate the setting error do not give a complete picture of the possible coordinates of the point of the pallet displacement in different directions. The paper offers a method of equivalent mechanism to determine all the variety of options for displacements in the horizontal plane with a diverse combination of angular and plane-parallel displacements.Using a four-bar linkage, as an equivalent mechanism, allows us to define a zone of the possible positions of any point of the work-piece pallet platform, as the zone bounded by the coupler curve. In case the gaps in the nodes of the two fixtures are equal the zone of possible positions of the point in the parallel displacement of the platform is determined by the circumference and at an angular displacement by the ellipse.The obtained analytical dependences allow us to determine the error at the stage of design with the certain gaps in the fixture nodes.The above method of calculation makes it possible to define a zone of the appropriate placement of the work-piece on its platform for the specified parameters of the pallet to meet conditions for ensuring the coordinate accuracy of the processed axes of holes.

  13. Are Treponema pallidum specific rapid and point-of-care tests for syphilis accurate enough for screening in resource limited settings? Evidence from a meta-analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yalda Jafari

    Full Text Available Rapid and point-of-care (POC tests for syphilis are an invaluable screening tool, yet inadequate evaluation of their diagnostic accuracy against best reference standards limits their widespread global uptake. To fill this gap, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of rapid and POC tests in blood and serum samples against Treponema pallidum (TP specific reference standards.Five electronic databases (1980-2012 were searched, data was extracted from 33 articles, and Bayesian hierarchical models were fit.In serum samples, against a TP specific reference standard point estimates with 95% credible intervals (CrI for the sensitivities of popular tests were: i Determine, 90.04% (80.45, 95.21, ii SD Bioline, 87.06% (75.67, 94.50, iii VisiTect, 85.13% (72.83, 92.57, and iv Syphicheck, 74.48% (56.85, 88.44, while specificities were: i Syphicheck, 99.14% (96.37, 100, ii Visitect, 96.45% (91.92, 99.29, iii SD Bioline, 95.85% (89.89, 99.53, and iv Determine, 94.15% (89.26, 97.66. In whole blood samples, sensitivities were: i Determine, 86.32% (77.26, 91.70, ii SD Bioline, 84.50% (78.81, 92.61, iii Syphicheck, 74.47% (63.94, 82.13, and iv VisiTect, 74.26% (53.62, 83.68, while specificities were: i Syphicheck, 99.58% (98.91, 99.96, ii VisiTect, 99.43% (98.22, 99.98, iii SD Bioline, 97.95%(92.54, 99.33, and iv Determine, 95.85% (92.42, 97.74.Rapid and POC treponemal tests reported sensitivity and specificity estimates comparable to laboratory-based treponemal tests. In resource limited settings, where access to screening is limited and where risk of patients lost to follow up is high, the introduction of these tests has already been shown to improve access to screening and treatment to prevent stillbirths and neonatal mortality due to congenital syphilis. Based on the evidence, it is concluded that rapid and POC tests are useful in resource limited settings with poor access to laboratories or screening

  14. Precision of the eutectic points determination by the isopleths

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lutsyk, V I; Sumkina, O G; Savinov, V V; Zelenaya, A E, E-mail: vluts@pres.bscnet.ru [Physical Problems Department, Buryat Scientific Center of RAS (Siberian Branch), 8 Sakhyanova st., Ulan-Ude, 670047 (Russian Federation)

    2011-10-29

    An imitation of quaternary eutectic point searching techniques by means of two-dimensional sections set construction (tie-lines method) was made, using the model of T-x-y-z diagram of eutectic type without solid-phases solubility as an example. The errors, appearing in sections graphics of experimentally studied systems, are analyzed.

  15. PROCESSING UAV AND LIDAR POINT CLOUDS IN GRASS GIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. Petras

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Today’s methods of acquiring Earth surface data, namely lidar and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV imagery, non-selectively collect or generate large amounts of points. Point clouds from different sources vary in their properties such as number of returns, density, or quality. We present a set of tools with applications for different types of points clouds obtained by a lidar scanner, structure from motion technique (SfM, and a low-cost 3D scanner. To take advantage of the vertical structure of multiple return lidar point clouds, we demonstrate tools to process them using 3D raster techniques which allow, for example, the development of custom vegetation classification methods. Dense point clouds obtained from UAV imagery, often containing redundant points, can be decimated using various techniques before further processing. We implemented and compared several decimation techniques in regard to their performance and the final digital surface model (DSM. Finally, we will describe the processing of a point cloud from a low-cost 3D scanner, namely Microsoft Kinect, and its application for interaction with physical models. All the presented tools are open source and integrated in GRASS GIS, a multi-purpose open source GIS with remote sensing capabilities. The tools integrate with other open source projects, specifically Point Data Abstraction Library (PDAL, Point Cloud Library (PCL, and OpenKinect libfreenect2 library to benefit from the open source point cloud ecosystem. The implementation in GRASS GIS ensures long term maintenance and reproducibility by the scientific community but also by the original authors themselves.

  16. Branching points for transition pathways: assessing responses of actors to challenges on pathways to a low carbon future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Foxon, Timothy J.; Pearson, Peter J.G.; Arapostathis, Stathis; Carlsson-Hyslop, Anna; Thornton, Judith

    2013-01-01

    This paper describes initial analysis of branching points on a set of transition pathways to a UK low carbon electricity future by 2050. As described in other papers in this special issue, we are exploring and analysing a set of core transition pathways, based on alternative governance patterns in which the ‘logics’ of market actors, government actors and civil society actors, respectively dominate. This core pathway analysis is enhanced by analyses of branching points within and across the pathways, which informs how competition between different logics plays out at key decision points. Branching points are defined as key decision points at which choices made by actors, in response to internal or external stresses or triggers, determine whether and in what ways the pathway is followed. A set of initial branching points for our three core transition pathways is identified through project and stakeholder workshops, and drawing on analysis of actors’ choices and responses at past branching points in energy system transitions. The potential responses of the actors are identified at these branching points, and risk mitigation strategies are formulated for the dominant actors to reinforce that pathway, as well as opportunities for actors to move away from the pathway. - Highlights: Transition Pathways is analysing three potential pathways to a low carbon future. ► Stresses lead to branching points, where actors make choices, creating pathways. ► These choices may lead to path-dependency. ► Differences in governance logics within transition pathways are also analysed. ► Studying branching points adds theoretical understanding and policy relevance to TP.

  17. Incremental and batch planar simplification of dense point cloud maps

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Whelan, T.; Ma, L.; Bondarev, E.; With, de P.H.N.; McDonald, J.

    2015-01-01

    Dense RGB-D SLAM techniques and high-fidelity LIDAR scanners are examples from an abundant set of systems capable of providing multi-million point datasets. These datasets quickly become difficult to process due to the sheer volume of data, typically containing significant redundant information,

  18. Point-of-purchase displays in the FMCG sector: A retailer perspective

    OpenAIRE

    Jeevarathnam P Govender

    2015-01-01

    Intense competition in the (fast-moving consumer goods) FMCG sector has prompted manufacturers and marketers to rely more heavily on point-of-purchase displays, an antecedent manipulation of the retail setting, to stimulate sales. Retailers, on the other hand, have become more discerning about the number and types of displays they will allow in their stores. There has been limited research on point-of-purchase displays in South Africa. This paper therefore examines retailers’ perceptions of p...

  19. Process and results of analytical framework and typology development for POINT

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gudmundsson, Henrik; Lehtonen, Markku; Bauler, Tom

    2009-01-01

    POINT is a project about how indicators are used in practice; to what extent and in what way indicators actually influence, support, or hinder policy and decision making processes, and what could be done to enhance the positive role of indicators in such processes. The project needs an analytical......, a set of core concepts and associated typologies, a series of analytic schemes proposed, and a number of research propositions and questions for the subsequent empirical work in POINT....

  20. Multiple blocking sets in PG(n,q), n>=3

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Barat, Janos

    2004-01-01

    This article discusses minimal s-fold blocking sets B in PG (n, q), q = ph, p prime, q > 661, n > 3, of size |B| > sq + cp q2/3 - (s - 1) (s - 2)/2 (s > min (cp q1/6, q1/4/2)). It is shown that these s-fold blocking sets contain the disjoint union of a collection of s lines and/or Baer subplanes....... To obtain these results, we extend results of Blokhuis–Storme–Szönyi on s-fold blocking sets in PG(2, q) to s-fold blocking sets having points to which a multiplicity is given. Then the results in PG(n, q), n ≥ 3, are obtained using projection arguments. The results of this article also improve results...

  1. Field data sets for seagrass biophysical properties for the Eastern Banks, Moreton Bay, Australia, 2004-2014

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roelfsema, Chris M.; Kovacs, Eva M.; Phinn, Stuart R.

    2015-08-01

    This paper describes seagrass species and percentage cover point-based field data sets derived from georeferenced photo transects. Annually or biannually over a ten year period (2004-2014) data sets were collected using 30-50 transects, 500-800 m in length distributed across a 142 km2 shallow, clear water seagrass habitat, the Eastern Banks, Moreton Bay, Australia. Each of the eight data sets include seagrass property information derived from approximately 3000 georeferenced, downward looking photographs captured at 2-4 m intervals along the transects. Photographs were manually interpreted to estimate seagrass species composition and percentage cover (Coral Point Count excel; CPCe). Understanding seagrass biology, ecology and dynamics for scientific and management purposes requires point-based data on species composition and cover. This data set, and the methods used to derive it are a globally unique example for seagrass ecological applications. It provides the basis for multiple further studies at this site, regional to global comparative studies, and, for the design of similar monitoring programs elsewhere.

  2. Counting SET-free sets

    OpenAIRE

    Harman, Nate

    2016-01-01

    We consider the following counting problem related to the card game SET: How many $k$-element SET-free sets are there in an $n$-dimensional SET deck? Through a series of algebraic reformulations and reinterpretations, we show the answer to this question satisfies two polynomiality conditions.

  3. COMPROMISE, OPTIMAL AND TRACTIONAL ACCOUNTS ON PARETO SET

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. V. Lahuta

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available The problem of optimum traction calculations is considered as a problem about optimum distribution of a resource. The dynamic programming solution is based on a step-by-step calculation of set of points of Pareto-optimum values of a criterion function (energy expenses and a resource (time.

  4. What's in a ray set: moving towards a unified ray set format

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muschaweck, Julius

    2011-10-01

    For the purpose of optical simulation, a plethora of formats exist to describe the properties of a light source. Except for the EULUMDAT and IES formats which describe sources in terms of aperture area and far field intensity, all these formats are vendor specific, and no generally accepted standard exists. Most illumination simulation software vendors use their own format for ray sets, which describe sources in terms of many rays. Some of them keep their format definition proprietary. Thus, software packages typically can read or write only their own specific format, although the actual data content is not so different. Typically, they describe origin and direction of each ray in 3D vectors, and use one more single number for magnitude, where magnitude may denote radiant flux, luminous flux (equivalently tristimulus Y), or tristimulus X and Z. Sometimes each ray also carries its wavelength, while other formats allow to specify an overall spectrum for the whole source. In addition, in at least one format, polarization properties are also included for each ray. This situation makes it inefficient and potentially error prone for light source manufacturers to provide ray data sets for their sources in many different formats. Furthermore, near field goniometer vendors again use their proprietary formats to store the source description in terms of luminance data, and offer their proprietary software to generate ray sets from this data base. Again, the plethora of ray sets make the ray set production inefficient and potentially error prone. In this paper, we propose to describe ray data sets in terms of phase space, as a step towards a standardized ray set format. It is well known that luminance and radiance can be defined as flux density in phase space: luminance is flux divided by etendue. Therefore, single rays can be thought of as center points of phase space cells, where each cell possesses its volume (i.e. etendue), its flux, and therefore its luminance. In

  5. Performance testing of 3D point cloud software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varela-González, M.; González-Jorge, H.; Riveiro, B.; Arias, P.

    2013-10-01

    LiDAR systems are being used widely in recent years for many applications in the engineering field: civil engineering, cultural heritage, mining, industry and environmental engineering. One of the most important limitations of this technology is the large computational requirements involved in data processing, especially for large mobile LiDAR datasets. Several software solutions for data managing are available in the market, including open source suites, however, users often unknown methodologies to verify their performance properly. In this work a methodology for LiDAR software performance testing is presented and four different suites are studied: QT Modeler, VR Mesh, AutoCAD 3D Civil and the Point Cloud Library running in software developed at the University of Vigo (SITEGI). The software based on the Point Cloud Library shows better results in the loading time of the point clouds and CPU usage. However, it is not as strong as commercial suites in working set and commit size tests.

  6. Performance testing of 3D point cloud software

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Varela-González

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available LiDAR systems are being used widely in recent years for many applications in the engineering field: civil engineering, cultural heritage, mining, industry and environmental engineering. One of the most important limitations of this technology is the large computational requirements involved in data processing, especially for large mobile LiDAR datasets. Several software solutions for data managing are available in the market, including open source suites, however, users often unknown methodologies to verify their performance properly. In this work a methodology for LiDAR software performance testing is presented and four different suites are studied: QT Modeler, VR Mesh, AutoCAD 3D Civil and the Point Cloud Library running in software developed at the University of Vigo (SITEGI. The software based on the Point Cloud Library shows better results in the loading time of the point clouds and CPU usage. However, it is not as strong as commercial suites in working set and commit size tests.

  7. Hybrid Proximal-Point Methods for Zeros of Maximal Monotone Operators, Variational Inequalities and Mixed Equilibrium Problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kriengsak Wattanawitoon

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available We prove strong and weak convergence theorems of modified hybrid proximal-point algorithms for finding a common element of the zero point of a maximal monotone operator, the set of solutions of equilibrium problems, and the set of solution of the variational inequality operators of an inverse strongly monotone in a Banach space under different conditions. Moreover, applications to complementarity problems are given. Our results modify and improve the recently announced ones by Li and Song (2008 and many authors.

  8. Uniqueness of the joint measurement and the structure of the set of compatible quantum measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerini, Leonardo; Terra Cunha, Marcelo

    2018-04-01

    We address the problem of characterising the compatible tuples of measurements that admit a unique joint measurement. We derive a uniqueness criterion based on the method of perturbations and apply it to show that extremal points of the set of compatible tuples admit a unique joint measurement, while all tuples that admit a unique joint measurement lie in the boundary of such a set. We also provide counter-examples showing that none of these properties are both necessary and sufficient, thus completely describing the relation between the joint measurement uniqueness and the structure of the compatible set. As a by-product of our investigations, we completely characterise the extremal and boundary points of the set of general tuples of measurements and of the subset of compatible tuples.

  9. Iterative closest normal point for 3D face recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammadzade, Hoda; Hatzinakos, Dimitrios

    2013-02-01

    The common approach for 3D face recognition is to register a probe face to each of the gallery faces and then calculate the sum of the distances between their points. This approach is computationally expensive and sensitive to facial expression variation. In this paper, we introduce the iterative closest normal point method for finding the corresponding points between a generic reference face and every input face. The proposed correspondence finding method samples a set of points for each face, denoted as the closest normal points. These points are effectively aligned across all faces, enabling effective application of discriminant analysis methods for 3D face recognition. As a result, the expression variation problem is addressed by minimizing the within-class variability of the face samples while maximizing the between-class variability. As an important conclusion, we show that the surface normal vectors of the face at the sampled points contain more discriminatory information than the coordinates of the points. We have performed comprehensive experiments on the Face Recognition Grand Challenge database, which is presently the largest available 3D face database. We have achieved verification rates of 99.6 and 99.2 percent at a false acceptance rate of 0.1 percent for the all versus all and ROC III experiments, respectively, which, to the best of our knowledge, have seven and four times less error rates, respectively, compared to the best existing methods on this database.

  10. Shape Modelling Using Markov Random Field Restoration of Point Correspondences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Paulsen, Rasmus Reinhold; Hilger, Klaus Baggesen

    2003-01-01

    A method for building statistical point distribution models is proposed. The novelty in this paper is the adaption of Markov random field regularization of the correspondence field over the set of shapes. The new approach leads to a generative model that produces highly homogeneous polygonized sh...

  11. Revisiting the dilatation operator of the Wilson-Fisher fixed point

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liendo, Pedro [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany). Theory Group

    2017-01-15

    We revisit the order ε dilatation operator of the Wilson-Fisher fixed point obtained by Kehrein, Pismak, and Wegner in light of recent results in conformal field theory. Our approach is algebraic and based only on symmetry principles. The starting point of our analysis is that the first correction to the dilatation operator is a conformal invariant, which implies that its form is fixed up to an infinite set of coefficients associated with the scaling dimensions of higher-spin currents. These coefficients can be fixed using well-known perturbative results, however, they were recently re-obtained using CFT arguments without relying on perturbation theory. Our analysis then implies that all order-ε scaling dimensions of the Wilson-Fisher fixed point can be fixed by symmetry.

  12. Automated 3D-Objectdocumentation on the Base of an Image Set

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sebastian Vetter

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Digital stereo-photogrammetry allows users an automatic evaluation of the spatial dimension and the surface texture of objects. The integration of image analysis techniques simplifies the automation of evaluation of large image sets and offers a high accuracy [1]. Due to the substantial similarities of stereoscopic image pairs, correlation techniques provide measurements of subpixel precision for corresponding image points. With the help of an automated point search algorithm in image sets identical points are used to associate pairs of images to stereo models and group them. The found identical points in all images are basis for calculation of the relative orientation of each stereo model as well as defining the relation of neighboured stereo models. By using proper filter strategies incorrect points are removed and the relative orientation of the stereo model can be made automatically. With the help of 3D-reference points or distances at the object or a defined distance of camera basis the stereo model is orientated absolute. An adapted expansion- and matching algorithm offers the possibility to scan the object surface automatically. The result is a three dimensional point cloud; the scan resolution depends on image quality. With the integration of the iterative closest point- algorithm (ICP these partial point clouds are fitted to a total point cloud. In this way, 3D-reference points are not necessary. With the help of the implemented triangulation algorithm a digital surface models (DSM can be created. The texturing can be made automatically by the usage of the images that were used for scanning the object surface. It is possible to texture the surface model directly or to generate orthophotos automatically. By using of calibrated digital SLR cameras with full frame sensor a high accuracy can be reached. A big advantage is the possibility to control the accuracy and quality of the 3d-objectdocumentation with the resolution of the images. The

  13. A full ranking for decision making units using ideal and anti-ideal points in DEA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barzegarinegad, A; Jahanshahloo, G; Rostamy-Malkhalifeh, M

    2014-01-01

    We propose a procedure for ranking decision making units in data envelopment analysis, based on ideal and anti-ideal points in the production possibility set. Moreover, a model has been introduced to compute the performance of a decision making unit for these two points through using common set of weights. One of the best privileges of this method is that we can make ranking for all decision making units by solving only three programs, and also solving these programs is not related to numbers of decision making units. One of the other advantages of this procedure is to rank all the extreme and nonextreme efficient decision making units. In other words, the suggested ranking method tends to seek a set of common weights for all units to make them fully ranked. Finally, it was applied for different sets holding real data, and then it can be compared with other procedures.

  14. Prediction of boiling points of some organic compounds to be used in volume reduction of liquid radioactive wastes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Helal, N.L.; Ezz el-Din, M.R.

    2004-01-01

    Boiling points determination may help in the evaporation process used to solidify high-level liquid wastes and to reduce the volume of wastes that require disposal. The problem that always encountered is how to choose an appropriate method to determine the boiling points of the liquid wastes which will be able to solve. We introduce this work with the aim to use mathematical descriptors and their applications in predicting boiling points essential for the evaporation process. This work was applied for diverse database of two sets of chemicals that may exist in radioactive wastes. The first set was 59 alcohols and amines (group a) and the second was 11 aniline compounds (group b). The results show that the used mathematical descriptors give a reasonable predictive model for the diverse sets of molecules

  15. Fixed Points in Grassmannians with Applications to Economic Equilibrium

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Keiding, Hans

    2017-01-01

    In some applications of equilibrium theory, the fixed point involves not only a state and a value of a parameter in the dual of the state space, but also a particular subspace of the state space. Since the set of all subspaces of a finite-dimensional Euclidean space has a structure which does...... not allow immediate application of fixed point theorems, the problem must be reformulated using a suitable parametrization of subspaces. One such parametrization, the Plücker coordinates, is used here to prove a general equilibrium existence theorem. Applications to economic problems involving hierarchies...... of consumers or incomplete markets with real assets are outlined....

  16. Wrox SharePoint 2010 SharePoint911 three-pack

    CERN Document Server

    Klindt, Todd; Mason, Jennifer; Rogers, Laura; Drisgill, Randy; Ross, John; Riemann, Larry; Perran, Amanda; Perran, Shane; Sanford, Jacob J; Stubbs, Paul; Caravajal, Steve

    2012-01-01

    The Wrox SharePoint 2010 SharePoint911 Three-Pack combines the contents of three full e-books written by the experts from SharePoint911.  That's over 1800 pages of hands-on advice from Todd Klindt, Shane Young, Laura Rogers, Randy Drisgill, Jennifer Mason, John Ross, and Larry Riemann, among others. In Beginning SharePoint 2010: Building Business Solutions with SharePoint (ISBN 978-0-470-61789-2) by Amanda Perran, Shane Perran, Jennifer Mason, and Laura Rogers, readers learn the core concepts, terminology, and features of SharePoint 2010. In Professiona

  17. Explore Stochastic Instabilities of Periodic Points by Transition Path Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Yu; Lin, Ling; Zhou, Xiang

    2016-06-01

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

  18. Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey ESI: NESTS (Nest Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for nesting birds in coastal Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. Vector points in this...

  19. Laser-induced single point nanowelding of silver nanowires

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dai, Shuowei; Li, Qiang, E-mail: qiangli@zju.edu.cn; Liu, Guoping; Yang, Hangbo; Yang, Yuanqing; Zhao, Ding; Wang, Wei; Qiu, Min, E-mail: minqiu@zju.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 (China)

    2016-03-21

    Nanowelding of nanomaterials opens up an emerging set of applications in transparent conductors, thin-film solar cells, nanocatalysis, cancer therapy, and nanoscale patterning. Single point nanowelding (SPNW) is highly demanded for building complex nanostructures. In this letter, the precise control of SPNW of silver nanowires is explored in depth, where the nanowelding is laser-induced through the plasmonic resonance enhanced photothermal effect. It is shown that the illumination position is a critical factor for the nanowelding process. As an example of performance enhancement, output at wire end can be increased by 65% after welding for a plasmonic nanocoupler. Thus, single point nanowelding technique shows great potentials for high-performance electronic and photonic devices based on nanowires, such as nanoelectronic circuits and plasmonic nanodevices.

  20. Laser-induced single point nanowelding of silver nanowires

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dai, Shuowei; Li, Qiang; Liu, Guoping; Yang, Hangbo; Yang, Yuanqing; Zhao, Ding; Wang, Wei; Qiu, Min

    2016-01-01

    Nanowelding of nanomaterials opens up an emerging set of applications in transparent conductors, thin-film solar cells, nanocatalysis, cancer therapy, and nanoscale patterning. Single point nanowelding (SPNW) is highly demanded for building complex nanostructures. In this letter, the precise control of SPNW of silver nanowires is explored in depth, where the nanowelding is laser-induced through the plasmonic resonance enhanced photothermal effect. It is shown that the illumination position is a critical factor for the nanowelding process. As an example of performance enhancement, output at wire end can be increased by 65% after welding for a plasmonic nanocoupler. Thus, single point nanowelding technique shows great potentials for high-performance electronic and photonic devices based on nanowires, such as nanoelectronic circuits and plasmonic nanodevices.

  1. Bifurcation sets of the motion of a heavy rigid body around a fixed point in Goryatchev-Tchaplygin case

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quazzani, T.H.A.; Dekkaki, S.; Kharbach, J.; Quazzani-Ja, M.

    2000-01-01

    In this paper, the topology of Hamiltonian flows is described on the real phase space for the Goryatchev-Tchaplygin top. By making use of Fomenko's theory of surgery on Liouville tori, it is given a complete description of the generic bifurcations of the common level sets of the first integrals. It is also given a numerical investigation of these bifurcations. Explicit periodic solutions for singular common level sets of the first integrals were determined

  2. An Investigation of the High Efficiency Estimation Approach of the Large-Scale Scattered Point Cloud Normal Vector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xianglin Meng

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The normal vector estimation of the large-scale scattered point cloud (LSSPC plays an important role in point-based shape editing. However, the normal vector estimation for LSSPC cannot meet the great challenge of the sharp increase of the point cloud that is mainly attributed to its low computational efficiency. In this paper, a novel, fast method-based on bi-linear interpolation is reported on the normal vector estimation for LSSPC. We divide the point sets into many small cubes to speed up the local point search and construct interpolation nodes on the isosurface expressed by the point cloud. On the premise of calculating the normal vectors of these interpolated nodes, a normal vector bi-linear interpolation of the points in the cube is realized. The proposed approach has the merits of accurate, simple, and high efficiency, because the algorithm only needs to search neighbor and calculates normal vectors for interpolation nodes that are usually far less than the point cloud. The experimental results of several real and simulated point sets show that our method is over three times faster than the Elliptic Gabriel Graph-based method, and the average deviation is less than 0.01 mm.

  3. BEAMLINE-CONTROLLED STEERING OF SOURCE-POINT ANGLE AT THE ADVANCED PHOTON SOURCE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Emery, L.; Fystro, G.; Shang, H.; Smith, M.

    2017-06-25

    An EPICS-based steering software system has been implemented for beamline personnel to directly steer the angle of the synchrotron radiation sources at the Advanced Photon Source. A script running on a workstation monitors "start steering" beamline EPICS records, and effects a steering given by the value of the "angle request" EPICS record. The new system makes the steering process much faster than before, although the older steering protocols can still be used. The robustness features of the original steering remain. Feedback messages are provided to the beamlines and the accelerator operators. Underpinning this new steering protocol is the recent refinement of the global orbit feedback process whereby feedforward of dipole corrector set points and orbit set points are used to create a local steering bump in a rapid and seamless way.

  4. Optimization for set-points and robust model predictive control for steam generator in nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Osgouee, Ahmad

    2010-01-01

    many advanced control methods proposed for the control of nuclear SG water level, operators are still experiencing difficulties especially at low powers. Therefore, it seems that a suitable controller to replace the manual operations is still needed. In this paper optimization of SGL set-points and designing a robust control for SGL control system using will be discussed

  5. Molecular recognition in a diverse set of protein-ligand interactions studied with molecular dynamics simulations and end-point free energy calculations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Bo; Li, Liwei; Hurley, Thomas D; Meroueh, Samy O

    2013-10-28

    End-point free energy calculations using MM-GBSA and MM-PBSA provide a detailed understanding of molecular recognition in protein-ligand interactions. The binding free energy can be used to rank-order protein-ligand structures in virtual screening for compound or target identification. Here, we carry out free energy calculations for a diverse set of 11 proteins bound to 14 small molecules using extensive explicit-solvent MD simulations. The structure of these complexes was previously solved by crystallography and their binding studied with isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) data enabling direct comparison to the MM-GBSA and MM-PBSA calculations. Four MM-GBSA and three MM-PBSA calculations reproduced the ITC free energy within 1 kcal·mol(-1) highlighting the challenges in reproducing the absolute free energy from end-point free energy calculations. MM-GBSA exhibited better rank-ordering with a Spearman ρ of 0.68 compared to 0.40 for MM-PBSA with dielectric constant (ε = 1). An increase in ε resulted in significantly better rank-ordering for MM-PBSA (ρ = 0.91 for ε = 10), but larger ε significantly reduced the contributions of electrostatics, suggesting that the improvement is due to the nonpolar and entropy components, rather than a better representation of the electrostatics. The SVRKB scoring function applied to MD snapshots resulted in excellent rank-ordering (ρ = 0.81). Calculations of the configurational entropy using normal-mode analysis led to free energies that correlated significantly better to the ITC free energy than the MD-based quasi-harmonic approach, but the computed entropies showed no correlation with the ITC entropy. When the adaptation energy is taken into consideration by running separate simulations for complex, apo, and ligand (MM-PBSAADAPT), there is less agreement with the ITC data for the individual free energies, but remarkably good rank-ordering is observed (ρ = 0.89). Interestingly, filtering MD snapshots by prescoring

  6. Accuracy limit of rigid 3-point water models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Izadi, Saeed; Onufriev, Alexey V.

    2016-08-01

    Classical 3-point rigid water models are most widely used due to their computational efficiency. Recently, we introduced a new approach to constructing classical rigid water models [S. Izadi et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 3863 (2014)], which permits a virtually exhaustive search for globally optimal model parameters in the sub-space that is most relevant to the electrostatic properties of the water molecule in liquid phase. Here we apply the approach to develop a 3-point Optimal Point Charge (OPC3) water model. OPC3 is significantly more accurate than the commonly used water models of same class (TIP3P and SPCE) in reproducing a comprehensive set of liquid bulk properties, over a wide range of temperatures. Beyond bulk properties, we show that OPC3 predicts the intrinsic charge hydration asymmetry (CHA) of water — a characteristic dependence of hydration free energy on the sign of the solute charge — in very close agreement with experiment. Two other recent 3-point rigid water models, TIP3PFB and H2ODC, each developed by its own, completely different optimization method, approach the global accuracy optimum represented by OPC3 in both the parameter space and accuracy of bulk properties. Thus, we argue that an accuracy limit of practical 3-point rigid non-polarizable models has effectively been reached; remaining accuracy issues are discussed.

  7. Beginning SharePoint 2010 Administration Windows SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

    CERN Document Server

    Husman, Göran

    2010-01-01

    Complete coverage on the latest advances in SharePoint 2010 administration. SharePoint 2010 comprises an abundance of new features, and this book shows you how to take advantage of all SharePoint 2010's many improvements. Written by a four-time SharePoint MVP, Beginning SharePoint 2010 Administration begins with a comparison of SharePoint 2010 compared to the previous version and then examines the differences between WSS 4.0 and MSS 2010. Packed with step-by-step instructions, tips and tricks, and real-world examples, this book dives into the basics of how to install, manage, and administrate

  8. Aleutian Islands Coastal Resources Inventory and Environmental Sensitivity Maps: VOLCANOS (Volcano Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains point locations of active volcanoes as compiled by Motyka et al., 1993. Eighty-nine volcanoes with eruptive phases in the Quaternary are...

  9. Characterization of microfluidic components for low-cost point-of-care devices

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Hugo

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available -of-care diagnostic systems, particularly in under-resourced settings to enable instant diagnosis and improve healthcare. Although numerous and varied advances in the field of microfluidics have enabled point-of-care systems to be realized, there is often a trade...

  10. Two fixed point theorems on quasi-metric spaces via mw- distances

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alegre, C.

    2017-07-01

    In this paper we prove a Banach-type fixed point theorem and a Kannan-type theorem in the setting of quasi-metric spaces using the notion of mw-distance. These theorems generalize some results that have recently appeared in the literature. (Author)

  11. Automated Extraction of 3D Trees from Mobile LiDAR Point Clouds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Yu

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an automated algorithm for extracting 3D trees directly from 3D mobile light detection and ranging (LiDAR data. To reduce both computational and spatial complexities, ground points are first filtered out from a raw 3D point cloud via blockbased elevation filtering. Off-ground points are then grouped into clusters representing individual objects through Euclidean distance clustering and voxel-based normalized cut segmentation. Finally, a model-driven method is proposed to achieve the extraction of 3D trees based on a pairwise 3D shape descriptor. The proposed algorithm is tested using a set of mobile LiDAR point clouds acquired by a RIEGL VMX-450 system. The results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

  12. Equilibrium points of the tilted perfect fluid Bianchi VIh state space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Apostolopoulos, Pantelis S.

    2005-05-01

    We present the full set of evolution equations for the spatially homogeneous cosmologies of type VIh filled with a tilted perfect fluid and we provide the corresponding equilibrium points of the resulting dynamical state space. It is found that only when the group parameter satisfies h > -1 a self-similar solution exists. In particular we show that for h > -{1/9} there exists a self-similar equilibrium point provided that γ ∈ ({2(3+sqrt{-h})/5+3sqrt{-h}},{3/2}) whereas for h VIh.

  13. A new diagnostic accuracy measure and cut-point selection criterion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Tuochuan; Attwood, Kristopher; Hutson, Alan; Liu, Song; Tian, Lili

    2017-12-01

    Most diagnostic accuracy measures and criteria for selecting optimal cut-points are only applicable to diseases with binary or three stages. Currently, there exist two diagnostic measures for diseases with general k stages: the hypervolume under the manifold and the generalized Youden index. While hypervolume under the manifold cannot be used for cut-points selection, generalized Youden index is only defined upon correct classification rates. This paper proposes a new measure named maximum absolute determinant for diseases with k stages ([Formula: see text]). This comprehensive new measure utilizes all the available classification information and serves as a cut-points selection criterion as well. Both the geometric and probabilistic interpretations for the new measure are examined. Power and simulation studies are carried out to investigate its performance as a measure of diagnostic accuracy as well as cut-points selection criterion. A real data set from Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative is analyzed using the proposed maximum absolute determinant.

  14. Bench press exercise: the key points.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padulo, J; Laffaye, G; Chaouachi, A; Chamari, K

    2015-06-01

    The bench press exercise (BPE) is receiving increasing interest as a field testing, training/therapeutic modality to improve neuromuscular performance or to increase bone mass density. Several studies have been performed using BPE as a standard for increasing upper-limb strength. For this purpose, the position of the bar, the loads, the sets, the number of repetitions, the recovery time in-between sets, the movement speed, the muscular work and the use of the determination of the one repetition maximum (1-RM) are the classical tools investigated in the literature that have been shown to affect the BPE effect on neuromuscular. The goal of the present short review is to make a picture of the current knowledge on the bench press exercise, which could be very helpful for a better understanding of this standard movement and its effects. Based on the related literature, several recommendations on these key points are presented here.

  15. Automated extraction and analysis of rock discontinuity characteristics from 3D point clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bianchetti, Matteo; Villa, Alberto; Agliardi, Federico; Crosta, Giovanni B.

    2016-04-01

    A reliable characterization of fractured rock masses requires an exhaustive geometrical description of discontinuities, including orientation, spacing, and size. These are required to describe discontinuum rock mass structure, perform Discrete Fracture Network and DEM modelling, or provide input for rock mass classification or equivalent continuum estimate of rock mass properties. Although several advanced methodologies have been developed in the last decades, a complete characterization of discontinuity geometry in practice is still challenging, due to scale-dependent variability of fracture patterns and difficult accessibility to large outcrops. Recent advances in remote survey techniques, such as terrestrial laser scanning and digital photogrammetry, allow a fast and accurate acquisition of dense 3D point clouds, which promoted the development of several semi-automatic approaches to extract discontinuity features. Nevertheless, these often need user supervision on algorithm parameters which can be difficult to assess. To overcome this problem, we developed an original Matlab tool, allowing fast, fully automatic extraction and analysis of discontinuity features with no requirements on point cloud accuracy, density and homogeneity. The tool consists of a set of algorithms which: (i) process raw 3D point clouds, (ii) automatically characterize discontinuity sets, (iii) identify individual discontinuity surfaces, and (iv) analyse their spacing and persistence. The tool operates in either a supervised or unsupervised mode, starting from an automatic preliminary exploration data analysis. The identification and geometrical characterization of discontinuity features is divided in steps. First, coplanar surfaces are identified in the whole point cloud using K-Nearest Neighbor and Principal Component Analysis algorithms optimized on point cloud accuracy and specified typical facet size. Then, discontinuity set orientation is calculated using Kernel Density Estimation and

  16. Setting limits on supersymmetry using simplified models

    CERN Document Server

    Gutschow, C.

    2012-01-01

    Experimental limits on supersymmetry and similar theories are difficult to set because of the enormous available parameter space and difficult to generalize because of the complexity of single points. Therefore, more phenomenological, simplified models are becoming popular for setting experimental limits, as they have clearer physical implications. The use of these simplified model limits to set a real limit on a concrete theory has not, however, been demonstrated. This paper recasts simplified model limits into limits on a specific and complete supersymmetry model, minimal supergravity. Limits obtained under various physical assumptions are comparable to those produced by directed searches. A prescription is provided for calculating conservative and aggressive limits on additional theories. Using acceptance and efficiency tables along with the expected and observed numbers of events in various signal regions, LHC experimental results can be re-cast in this manner into almost any theoretical framework, includ...

  17. Cook Inlet and Kenai Peninsula, Alaska ESI: ROAD_MRK (Road Number Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains vector points used in plotting the road numbers on the summary maps. It comprises a portion of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data...

  18. Study on Huizhou architecture of point cloud registration based on optimized ICP algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Runmei; Wu, Yulu; Zhang, Guangbin; Zhou, Wei; Tao, Yuqian

    2018-03-01

    In view of the current point cloud registration software has high hardware requirements, heavy workload and moltiple interactive definition, the source of software with better processing effect is not open, a two--step registration method based on normal vector distribution feature and coarse feature based iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm is proposed in this paper. This method combines fast point feature histogram (FPFH) algorithm, define the adjacency region of point cloud and the calculation model of the distribution of normal vectors, setting up the local coordinate system for each key point, and obtaining the transformation matrix to finish rough registration, the rough registration results of two stations are accurately registered by using the ICP algorithm. Experimental results show that, compared with the traditional ICP algorithm, the method used in this paper has obvious time and precision advantages for large amount of point clouds.

  19. Relatively Inexact Proximal Point Algorithm and Linear Convergence Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ram U. Verma

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on a notion of relatively maximal (m-relaxed monotonicity, the approximation solvability of a general class of inclusion problems is discussed, while generalizing Rockafellar's theorem (1976 on linear convergence using the proximal point algorithm in a real Hilbert space setting. Convergence analysis, based on this new model, is simpler and compact than that of the celebrated technique of Rockafellar in which the Lipschitz continuity at 0 of the inverse of the set-valued mapping is applied. Furthermore, it can be used to generalize the Yosida approximation, which, in turn, can be applied to first-order evolution equations as well as evolution inclusions.

  20. International urodynamic basic spinal cord injury data set.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biering-Sørensen, F; Craggs, M; Kennelly, M; Schick, E; Wyndaele, J-J

    2008-07-01

    To create the International Urodynamic Basic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Data Set within the framework of the International SCI Data Sets. International working group. The draft of the data set was developed by a working group consisting of members appointed by the Neurourology Committee of the International Continence Society, the European Association of Urology, the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA), the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) and a representative of the Executive Committee of the International SCI Standards and Data Sets. The final version of the data set was developed after review and comments by members of the Executive Committee of the International SCI Standards and Data Sets, the ISCoS Scientific Committee, ASIA Board, relevant and interested (international) organizations and societies (around 40) and persons and the ISCoS Council. Endorsement of the data set by relevant organizations and societies will be obtained. To make the data set uniform, each variable and each response category within each variable have been specifically defined in a way that is designed to promote the collection and reporting of comparable minimal data. Variables included in the International Urodynamic Basic SCI Data Set are date of data collection, bladder sensation during filling cystometry, detrusor function, compliance during filing cystometry, function during voiding, detrusor leak point pressure, maximum detrusor pressure, cystometric bladder capacity and post-void residual volume.

  1. Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil: Northwest Arctic, Alaska: M_MAMPT (Marine Mammal Points)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for Steller sea lions and polar bears in Northwest Arctic, Alaska. Vector points in this data set represent...

  2. Identification of noise in linear data sets by factor analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roscoe, B.A.; Hopke, Ph.K.

    1982-01-01

    A technique which has the ability to identify bad data points, after the data has been generated, is classical factor analysis. The ability of classical factor analysis to identify two different types of data errors make it ideally suited for scanning large data sets. Since the results yielded by factor analysis indicate correlations between parameters, one must know something about the nature of the data set and the analytical techniques used to obtain it to confidentially isolate errors. (author)

  3. Point group invariants in the Uqp(u(2)) quantum algebra picture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kibler, M.

    1993-07-01

    Some consequences of a qp-quantization of a point group invariant developed in the enveloping algebra of SU(2) are examined. A set of open problems concerning such invariants in the U qp (u(2)) quantum algebra picture is briefly discussed. (author) 18 refs

  4. Zero point energy of polyhedral water clusters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anick, David J

    2005-06-30

    Polyhedral water clusters (PWCs) are cage-like (H2O)n clusters where every O participates in exactly three H bonds. For a database of 83 PWCs, 8 zero point energy (ZPE) was calculated at the B3LYP/6-311++G** level. ZPE correlates negatively with electronic energy (E0): each increase of 1 kcal/mol in E0 corresponds to a decrease of about 0.11 kcal/mol in ZPE. For each n, a set of four connectivity parameters accounts for 98% or more of the variance in ZPE. Linear regression of ZPE against n and this set gives an RMS error of 0.13 kcal/mol. The contributions to ZPE from stretch modes only (ZPE(S)) and from torsional modes only (ZPE(T)) also correlate strongly with E0 and with each other.

  5. Cross-sectional comparison of point-of-care with laboratory HbA1c in detecting diabetes in real-world remote Aboriginal settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marley, Julia V; Oh, May S; Hadgraft, Nyssa; Singleton, Sally; Isaacs, Kim; Atkinson, David

    2015-01-01

    Objectives To determine if point-of-care (POC) glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) is sufficiently accurate in real-world remote settings to predict or exclude the diagnosis of diabetes based on laboratory HbA1c measurements. Design Cross-sectional study comparing POC capillary HbA1c results with corresponding venous HbA1c levels measured in a reference laboratory. Participants Aboriginal patients ≥15 years old who were due for diabetes screening at the participating clinics were invited to participate. Two hundred and fifty-five Aboriginal participants were enrolled and 241 were included in the analysis. Setting 6 primary healthcare sites in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia from September 2011 to November 2013. Main outcome measures Concordance and mean differences between POC capillary blood HbA1c measurement and laboratory measurement of venous blood HbA1c level; POC capillary blood HbA1c equivalence value for screening for diabetes or a high risk of developing diabetes; sensitivity, specificity and positive-predictive value for diagnosing and screening for diabetes; barriers to conducting POC testing. Results Concordance between POC and laboratory results was good (ρ=0.88, pHbA1c measurements ≥6.5%, 48 mmol/mol had a specificity of 98.2% and sensitivity of 73.7% for laboratory measurements ≥6.5%. The POC equivalence value for screening for diabetes or a high risk of developing diabetes was ≥5.7%, 39 mmol/mol (sensitivity, 91%; specificity, 76.7% for laboratory measurements ≥6.0%, 42 mmol/mol). Staff trained by other clinic staff ‘on the job’ performed as well as people with formal accredited training. Staff reported difficulty in maintaining formal accreditation. Conclusions POC HbA1c testing is sufficiently accurate to be a useful component in screening for, and diagnosing, diabetes in remote communities. Limited local training is adequate to produce results comparable to laboratory results and accreditation processes need to

  6. The role of point-of-care tests in antibiotic stewardship for urinary tract infections in a resource-limited setting on the Thailand-Myanmar border.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chalmers, Lauren; Cross, Jessica; Chu, Cindy S; Phyo, Aung Pyae; Trip, Margreet; Ling, Clare; Carrara, Verena; Watthanaworawit, Wanitda; Keereecharoen, Lily; Hanboonkunupakarn, Borimas; Nosten, François; McGready, Rose

    2015-10-01

    Published literature from resource-limited settings is infrequent, although urinary tract infections (UTI) are a common cause of outpatient presentation and antibiotic use. Point-of-care test (POCT) interpretation relates to antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. We aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of POCT and their role in UTI antibiotic stewardship. One-year retrospective analysis in three clinics on the Thailand-Myanmar border of non-pregnant adults presenting with urinary symptoms. POCT (urine dipstick and microscopy) were compared to culture with significant growth classified as pure growth of a single organism >10(5)  CFU/ml. In 247 patients, 82.6% female, the most common symptoms were dysuria (81.2%), suprapubic pain (67.8%) and urinary frequency (53.7%). After excluding contaminated samples, UTI was diagnosed in 52.4% (97/185); 71.1% (69/97) had a significant growth on culture, and >80% of these were Escherichia coli (20.9% produced extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)). Positive urine dipstick (leucocyte esterase ≥1 and/or nitrate positive) compared against positive microscopy (white blood cell >10/HPF, bacteria ≥1/HPF, epithelial cells sensitivity (99% vs. 57%) but a lower specificity (47% vs. 89%), respectively. Combined POCT resulted in the best sensitivity (98%) and specificity (81%). Nearly one in ten patients received an antimicrobial to which the organism was not fully sensitive. One rapid, cost-effective POCT was too inaccurate to be used alone by healthcare workers, impeding antibiotic stewardship in a high ESBL setting. Appropriate prescribing is improved with concurrent use and concordant results of urine dipstick and microscopy. © 2015 The Authors. Tropical Medicine & International Health Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. Kato's chaos in set-valued discrete systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gu Rongbao

    2007-01-01

    In this paper, we investigate the relationships between Kato's chaoticity of a dynamical system (X,f) and Kato's chaoticity of the set-valued discrete system (K(X),f-bar ) associated to (X,f), where X is a compact metric space and f:X->X is a continuous map. We show that Kato's chaoticity of (K(X),f-bar ) implies the Kato's chaoticity of (X,f) in general and (X,f) is chaotic in the sense of Kato if and only if (K(X),f-bar ) is Kato chaotic in w e -topology. We also show that Ruelle-Takens' chaoticity implies Kato's chaoticity for a continuous map with a fixed point from a complete metric space without isolated point into itself

  8. [Mobile geriatric rehabilitation in nursing homes, in short-term care facilities and private homes : Setting-specific analysis of nationwide treatment documentation (Part 2)].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pippel, Kristina; Meinck, M; Lübke, N

    2017-06-01

    Mobile geriatric rehabilitation can be provided in the setting of nursing homes, short-term care (STC) facilities and exclusively in private homes. This study analyzed the common features and differences of mobile rehabilitation interventions in various settings. Stratified by setting 1,879 anonymized mobile geriatric rehabilitation treatments between 2011 and 2014 from 11 participating institutions were analyzed with respect to patient, process and outcome-related features. Significant differences between the settings nursing home (n = 514, 27 %), STC (n = 167, 9 %) and private homes (n = 1198, 64 %) were evident for mean age (83 years, 83 years and 80 years, respectively), percentage of women (72 %, 64 % and 55 %), degree of dependency on pre-existing care (92 %, 76 % and 64 %), total treatment sessions (TS, 38 TS, 42 TS and 41 TS), treatment duration (54 days, 61 days and 58 days) as well as the Barthel index at the start of rehabilitation (34 points, 39 points and 46 points) and the gain in the Barthel index (15 points, 21 points and 18 points), whereby the gain in the capacity for self-sufficiency was significant in all settings. The setting-specific evaluation of mobile geriatric rehabilitation showed differences for relevant patient, process and outcome-related features. Compared to inpatient rehabilitation mobile rehabilitation in all settings made an above average contribution to the rehabilitation of patients with pre-existing dependency on care. The gains in the capacity for self-sufficiency achieved in all settings support the efficacy of mobile geriatric rehabilitation under the current prerequisites for applicability.

  9. Fixed point iterations for strictly hemi-contractive maps in uniformly smooth Banach spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chidume, C.E.; Osilike, M.O.

    1993-05-01

    It is proved that the Mann iteration process converges strongly to the fixed point of a strictly hemi-contractive map in real uniformly smooth Banach spaces. The class of strictly hemi-contractive maps includes all strictly pseudo-contractive maps with nonempty fixed point sets. A related result deals with the Ishikawa iteration scheme when the mapping is Lipschitzian and strictly hemi-contractive. Our theorems generalize important known results. (author). 29 refs

  10. [Role and mission of health service access points].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vinot, Anne-Laure; Rein, Lucile; Parigot, Chantal; Lambert, Fanny; Billon, Louise; Blanc, Myriam

    Part of the health and social care landscape since 1998, health service access points (in French, permanences d'accès aux soins de santé) were set up in response to a health and social care problem. The objective is to help disadvantaged people integrate the healthcare pathway. The ultimate aim is to ensure everyone has access to the appropriate care at a fair price. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  11. Point source reconstruction principle of linear inverse problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Terazono, Yasushi; Matani, Ayumu; Fujimaki, Norio; Murata, Tsutomu

    2010-01-01

    Exact point source reconstruction for underdetermined linear inverse problems with a block-wise structure was studied. In a block-wise problem, elements of a source vector are partitioned into blocks. Accordingly, a leadfield matrix, which represents the forward observation process, is also partitioned into blocks. A point source is a source having only one nonzero block. An example of such a problem is current distribution estimation in electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography, where a source vector represents a vector field and a point source represents a single current dipole. In this study, the block-wise norm, a block-wise extension of the l p -norm, was defined as the family of cost functions of the inverse method. The main result is that a set of three conditions was found to be necessary and sufficient for block-wise norm minimization to ensure exact point source reconstruction for any leadfield matrix that admit such reconstruction. The block-wise norm that satisfies the conditions is the sum of the cost of all the observations of source blocks, or in other words, the block-wisely extended leadfield-weighted l 1 -norm. Additional results are that minimization of such a norm always provides block-wisely sparse solutions and that its solutions form cones in source space

  12. Research in a dental practice setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fardal, Oystein

    2004-09-01

    There is a shortage of research from dental practice. The aim of this article is to stimulate more interest in dental research. This is done by explaining the basic principles of doing research in a dental practice setting. Examples are taken from the author's own practice. Emphasis is placed on the following points: how to develop and research ideas; factors specific to dental practice; how articles and journals are rated; making a protocol for the study; examiners' reliability and statistical analysis.

  13. Set membership experimental design for biological systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marvel Skylar W

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Experimental design approaches for biological systems are needed to help conserve the limited resources that are allocated for performing experiments. The assumptions used when assigning probability density functions to characterize uncertainty in biological systems are unwarranted when only a small number of measurements can be obtained. In these situations, the uncertainty in biological systems is more appropriately characterized in a bounded-error context. Additionally, effort must be made to improve the connection between modelers and experimentalists by relating design metrics to biologically relevant information. Bounded-error experimental design approaches that can assess the impact of additional measurements on model uncertainty are needed to identify the most appropriate balance between the collection of data and the availability of resources. Results In this work we develop a bounded-error experimental design framework for nonlinear continuous-time systems when few data measurements are available. This approach leverages many of the recent advances in bounded-error parameter and state estimation methods that use interval analysis to generate parameter sets and state bounds consistent with uncertain data measurements. We devise a novel approach using set-based uncertainty propagation to estimate measurement ranges at candidate time points. We then use these estimated measurements at the candidate time points to evaluate which candidate measurements furthest reduce model uncertainty. A method for quickly combining multiple candidate time points is presented and allows for determining the effect of adding multiple measurements. Biologically relevant metrics are developed and used to predict when new data measurements should be acquired, which system components should be measured and how many additional measurements should be obtained. Conclusions The practicability of our approach is illustrated with a case study. This

  14. PolyFit: Polygonal Surface Reconstruction from Point Clouds

    KAUST Repository

    Nan, Liangliang; Wonka, Peter

    2017-01-01

    We propose a novel framework for reconstructing lightweight polygonal surfaces from point clouds. Unlike traditional methods that focus on either extracting good geometric primitives or obtaining proper arrangements of primitives, the emphasis of this work lies in intersecting the primitives (planes only) and seeking for an appropriate combination of them to obtain a manifold polygonal surface model without boundary.,We show that reconstruction from point clouds can be cast as a binary labeling problem. Our method is based on a hypothesizing and selection strategy. We first generate a reasonably large set of face candidates by intersecting the extracted planar primitives. Then an optimal subset of the candidate faces is selected through optimization. Our optimization is based on a binary linear programming formulation under hard constraints that enforce the final polygonal surface model to be manifold and watertight. Experiments on point clouds from various sources demonstrate that our method can generate lightweight polygonal surface models of arbitrary piecewise planar objects. Besides, our method is capable of recovering sharp features and is robust to noise, outliers, and missing data.

  15. CMOS Cell Sensors for Point-of-Care Diagnostics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adiguzel, Yekbun; Kulah, Haluk

    2012-01-01

    The burden of health-care related services in a global era with continuously increasing population and inefficient dissipation of the resources requires effective solutions. From this perspective, point-of-care diagnostics is a demanded field in clinics. It is also necessary both for prompt diagnosis and for providing health services evenly throughout the population, including the rural districts. The requirements can only be fulfilled by technologies whose productivity has already been proven, such as complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS). CMOS-based products can enable clinical tests in a fast, simple, safe, and reliable manner, with improved sensitivities. Portability due to diminished sensor dimensions and compactness of the test set-ups, along with low sample and power consumption, is another vital feature. CMOS-based sensors for cell studies have the potential to become essential counterparts of point-of-care diagnostics technologies. Hence, this review attempts to inform on the sensors fabricated with CMOS technology for point-of-care diagnostic studies, with a focus on CMOS image sensors and capacitance sensors for cell studies. PMID:23112587

  16. PolyFit: Polygonal Surface Reconstruction from Point Clouds

    KAUST Repository

    Nan, Liangliang

    2017-12-25

    We propose a novel framework for reconstructing lightweight polygonal surfaces from point clouds. Unlike traditional methods that focus on either extracting good geometric primitives or obtaining proper arrangements of primitives, the emphasis of this work lies in intersecting the primitives (planes only) and seeking for an appropriate combination of them to obtain a manifold polygonal surface model without boundary.,We show that reconstruction from point clouds can be cast as a binary labeling problem. Our method is based on a hypothesizing and selection strategy. We first generate a reasonably large set of face candidates by intersecting the extracted planar primitives. Then an optimal subset of the candidate faces is selected through optimization. Our optimization is based on a binary linear programming formulation under hard constraints that enforce the final polygonal surface model to be manifold and watertight. Experiments on point clouds from various sources demonstrate that our method can generate lightweight polygonal surface models of arbitrary piecewise planar objects. Besides, our method is capable of recovering sharp features and is robust to noise, outliers, and missing data.

  17. Automated Coarse Registration of Point Clouds in 3d Urban Scenes Using Voxel Based Plane Constraint

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Y.; Boerner, R.; Yao, W.; Hoegner, L.; Stilla, U.

    2017-09-01

    For obtaining a full coverage of 3D scans in a large-scale urban area, the registration between point clouds acquired via terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is normally mandatory. However, due to the complex urban environment, the automatic registration of different scans is still a challenging problem. In this work, we propose an automatic marker free method for fast and coarse registration between point clouds using the geometric constrains of planar patches under a voxel structure. Our proposed method consists of four major steps: the voxelization of the point cloud, the approximation of planar patches, the matching of corresponding patches, and the estimation of transformation parameters. In the voxelization step, the point cloud of each scan is organized with a 3D voxel structure, by which the entire point cloud is partitioned into small individual patches. In the following step, we represent points of each voxel with the approximated plane function, and select those patches resembling planar surfaces. Afterwards, for matching the corresponding patches, a RANSAC-based strategy is applied. Among all the planar patches of a scan, we randomly select a planar patches set of three planar surfaces, in order to build a coordinate frame via their normal vectors and their intersection points. The transformation parameters between scans are calculated from these two coordinate frames. The planar patches set with its transformation parameters owning the largest number of coplanar patches are identified as the optimal candidate set for estimating the correct transformation parameters. The experimental results using TLS datasets of different scenes reveal that our proposed method can be both effective and efficient for the coarse registration task. Especially, for the fast orientation between scans, our proposed method can achieve a registration error of less than around 2 degrees using the testing datasets, and much more efficient than the classical baseline methods.

  18. CADASTER QSPR Models for Predictions of Melting and Boiling Points of Perfluorinated Chemicals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhhatarai, Barun; Teetz, Wolfram; Liu, Tao; Öberg, Tomas; Jeliazkova, Nina; Kochev, Nikolay; Pukalov, Ognyan; Tetko, Igor V; Kovarich, Simona; Papa, Ester; Gramatica, Paola

    2011-03-14

    Quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) studies on per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) on melting point (MP) and boiling point (BP) are presented. The training and prediction chemicals used for developing and validating the models were selected from Syracuse PhysProp database and literatures. The available experimental data sets were split in two different ways: a) random selection on response value, and b) structural similarity verified by self-organizing-map (SOM), in order to propose reliable predictive models, developed only on the training sets and externally verified on the prediction sets. Individual linear and non-linear approaches based models developed by different CADASTER partners on 0D-2D Dragon descriptors, E-state descriptors and fragment based descriptors as well as consensus model and their predictions are presented. In addition, the predictive performance of the developed models was verified on a blind external validation set (EV-set) prepared using PERFORCE database on 15 MP and 25 BP data respectively. This database contains only long chain perfluoro-alkylated chemicals, particularly monitored by regulatory agencies like US-EPA and EU-REACH. QSPR models with internal and external validation on two different external prediction/validation sets and study of applicability-domain highlighting the robustness and high accuracy of the models are discussed. Finally, MPs for additional 303 PFCs and BPs for 271 PFCs were predicted for which experimental measurements are unknown. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  19. Bayesian inference for multivariate point processes observed at sparsely distributed times

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Jakob Gulddahl; Møller, Jesper; Aukema, B.H.

    We consider statistical and computational aspects of simulation-based Bayesian inference for a multivariate point process which is only observed at sparsely distributed times. For specicity we consider a particular data set which has earlier been analyzed by a discrete time model involving unknown...... normalizing constants. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using continuous time processes compared to discrete time processes in the setting of the present paper as well as other spatial-temporal situations. Keywords: Bark beetle, conditional intensity, forest entomology, Markov chain Monte Carlo...

  20. Address Points - COUNTY_ADDRESS_POINTS_IDHS_IN: Address Points Maintained by County Agencies in Indiana (Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Point feature class)

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC State | GIS Inventory — COUNTY_ADDRESS_POINTS_IDHS_IN is an ESRI Geodatabase point feature class that contains address points maintained by county agencies in Indiana, provided by personnel...

  1. Patient set-up verification by infrared optical localization and body surface sensing in breast radiation therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spadea, Maria Francesca; Baroni, Guido; Riboldi, Marco; Orecchia, Roberto; Pedotti, Antonio; Tagaste, Barbara; Garibaldi, Cristina

    2006-01-01

    Background and purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the clinical application of a technique for patient set-up verification in breast cancer radiotherapy, based on the 3D localization of a hybrid configuration of surface control points. Materials and methods: An infrared optical tracker provided the 3D position of two passive markers and 10 laser spots placed around and within the irradiation field on nine patients. A fast iterative constrained minimization procedure was applied to detect and compensate patient set-up errors, through the control points registration with reference data coming from treatment plan (markers reference position, CT-based surface model). Results: The application of the corrective spatial transformation estimated by the registration procedure led to significant improvement of patient set-up. Median value of 3D errors affecting three additional verification markers within the irradiation field decreased from 5.7 to 3.5 mm. Errors variability (25-75%) decreased from 3.2 to 2.1 mm. Laser spots registration on the reference surface model was documented to contribute substantially to set-up errors compensation. Conclusions: Patient set-up verification through a hybrid set of control points and constrained surface minimization algorithm was confirmed to be feasible in clinical practice and to provide valuable information for the improvement of the quality of patient set-up, with minimal requirement of operator-dependant procedures. The technique combines conveniently the advantages of passive markers based methods and surface registration techniques, by featuring immediate and robust estimation of the set-up accuracy from a redundant dataset

  2. Standard setting and quality of assessment: A conceptual approach ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Quality performance standards and the effect of assessment outcomes are important in the educational milieu, as assessment remains the representative ... not be seen as a methodological process of setting pass/fail cut-off points only, but as a powerful catalyst for quality improvements in HPE by promoting excellence in ...

  3. Beginning SharePoint 2010 Building Business Solutions with SharePoint

    CERN Document Server

    Perran, Amanda; Mason, Jennifer; Rogers, Laura

    2010-01-01

    Two SharePoint MVPs provide the ultimate introduction to SharePoint 2010Beginning SharePoint 2010: Building Team Solutions with SharePoint provides information workers and site managers with extensive knowledge and expert advice, empowering them to become SharePoint champions within their organizations.Provides expansive coverage of SharePoint topics, as well as specialty areas such as forms, excel services, records management, and web content managementDetails realistic usage scenarios, and includes practice examples that highlight best practices for configuration and customizationIncludes de

  4. Adaptive Ridge Point Refinement for Seeds Detection in X-Ray Coronary Angiogram

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruoxiu Xiao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Seed point is prerequired condition for tracking based method for extracting centerline or vascular structures from the angiogram. In this paper, a novel seed point detection method for coronary artery segmentation is proposed. Vessels on the image are first enhanced according to the distribution of Hessian eigenvalue in multiscale space; consequently, centerlines of tubular vessels are also enhanced. Ridge point is extracted as candidate seed point, which is then refined according to its mathematical definition. The theoretical feasibility of this method is also proven. Finally, all the detected ridge points are checked using a self-adaptive threshold to improve the robustness of results. Clinical angiograms are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, and the results show that the proposed algorithm can detect a large set of true seed points located on most branches of vessels. Compared with traditional seed point detection algorithms, the proposed method can detect a larger number of seed points with higher precision. Considering that the proposed method can achieve accurate seed detection without any human interaction, it can be utilized for several clinical applications, such as vessel segmentation, centerline extraction, and topological identification.

  5. Subshifts of finite type and self-similar sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Kan; Dajani, Karma

    2017-02-01

    Let K\\subset {R} be a self-similar set generated by some iterated function system. In this paper we prove, under some assumptions, that K can be identified with a subshift of finite type. With this identification, we can calculate the Hausdorff dimension of K as well as the set of elements in K with unique codings using the machinery of Mauldin and Williams (1988 Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 309 811-29). We give three different applications of our main result. Firstly, we calculate the Hausdorff dimension of the set of points of K with multiple codings. Secondly, in the setting of β-expansions, when the set of all the unique codings is not a subshift of finite type, we can calculate in some cases the Hausdorff dimension of the univoque set. Motivated by this application, we prove that the set of all the unique codings is a subshift of finite type if and only if it is a sofic shift. This equivalent condition was not mentioned by de Vries and Komornik (2009 Adv. Math. 221 390-427, theorem 1.8). Thirdly, for the doubling map with asymmetrical holes, we give a sufficient condition such that the survivor set can be identified with a subshift of finite type. The third application partially answers a problem posed by Alcaraz Barrera (2014 PhD Thesis University of Manchester).

  6. Almost Fixed-Point-Free Automorphisms of Prime Power Order

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B.A.F. Wehrfritz

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available We study the effect under various rank restrictions of a group having an automorphism of prime power order whose fixed-point set is also finite of prime power order for the same prime. Generally our conclusions are that the group has a soluble normal subgroup of bounded derived length. Not surprisingly the bound gets larger as the rank restrictions get weaker.

  7. Gradient-free determination of isoelectric points of proteins on chip.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Łapińska, Urszula; Saar, Kadi L; Yates, Emma V; Herling, Therese W; Müller, Thomas; Challa, Pavan K; Dobson, Christopher M; Knowles, Tuomas P J

    2017-08-30

    The isoelectric point (pI) of a protein is a key characteristic that influences its overall electrostatic behaviour. The majority of conventional methods for the determination of the isoelectric point of a molecule rely on the use of spatial gradients in pH, although significant practical challenges are associated with such techniques, notably the difficulty in generating a stable and well controlled pH gradient. Here, we introduce a gradient-free approach, exploiting a microfluidic platform which allows us to perform rapid pH change on chip and probe the electrophoretic mobility of species in a controlled field. In particular, in this approach, the pH of the electrolyte solution is modulated in time rather than in space, as in the case for conventional determinations of the isoelectric point. To demonstrate the general approachability of this platform, we have measured the isoelectric points of representative set of seven proteins, bovine serum albumin, β-lactoglobulin, ribonuclease A, ovalbumin, human transferrin, ubiquitin and myoglobin in microlitre sample volumes. The ability to conduct measurements in free solution thus provides the basis for the rapid determination of isoelectric points of proteins under a wide variety of solution conditions and in small volumes.

  8. Functions of pointing by humans, and dogs’ responses, during dog-human play between familiar and unfamiliar players.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert W. Mitchell

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Although much research focuses on human index finger pointing to hidden items for dogs in experimental settings, there is little research about human pointing in naturalistic interactions. We examined human pointing to dogs during 62 dog-human play interactions, spanning 4.8 hours of videotape, to determine the functions of human pointing and dogs’ responses to that pointing. Participants were 26 humans and 27 dogs. Humans played with their own dog(s and, almost always, an unfamiliar dog. Seventeen people (16 players and one passerby pointed for 20 dogs a total of 101 times (once with a foot during 26 interactions. Most (49.5% points were toward an object (almost always a ball, to direct attention or action toward the object; 36.6% were to the ground in front of the (almost always familiar pointer, directing the dog to come, and/or drop a ball the dog held, here; 10.9% directed the dog toward the designated player and/or play area; and 3.0% directed the dog to move away from a ball the dog had dropped. Humans almost always pointed such that the dog could see the point (92.1%, and pointed more with their own than with an unfamiliar dog. Dogs responded appropriately (i.e., did what the pointer requested for only 24.7% of the visible points, more often for points to the ground than for points to objects. The proportion of dogs’ appropriate responses to visible points was similar for both familiar (30% and unfamiliar (18% humans. Six dogs who responded appropriately to some points resisted responding appropriately to others. Future research should examine non-object directed uses of pointing with dogs and their responses in naturalistic and experimental settings, and experimentally assess diverse explanations, including resistance, when dogs and other animals fail standard pointing tasks.

  9. Testing of the BipiColombo Antenna Pointing Mechanism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campo, Pablo; Barrio, Aingeru; Martin, Fernando

    2015-09-01

    BepiColombo is an ESA mission to Mercury, its planetary orbiter (MPO) has two antenna pointing mechanism, High gain antenna (HGA) pointing mechanism steers and points a large reflector which is integrated at system level by TAS-I Rome. Medium gain antenna (MGA) APM points a 1.5 m boom with a horn antenna. Both radiating elements are exposed to sun fluxes as high as 10 solar constants without protections.A previous paper [1] described the design and development process to solve the challenges of performing in harsh environment.. Current paper is focused on the testing process of the qualification units. Testing performance of antenna pointing mechanism in its specific environmental conditions has required special set-up and techniques. The process has provided valuable feedback on the design and the testing methods which have been included in the PFM design and tests.Some of the technologies and components were developed on dedicated items priort to EQM, but once integrated, test behaviour had relevant differences.Some of the major concerns for the APM testing are:- Create during the thermal vacuum testing the qualification temperature map with gradients along the APM. From of 200oC to 70oC.- Test in that conditions the radio frequency and pointing performances adding also high RF power to check the power handling and self-heating of the rotary joint.- Test in life up to 12000 equivalent APM revolutions, that is 14.3 million motor revolutions in different thermal conditions.- Measure low thermal distortion of the mechanical chain, being at the same time insulated from external environment and interfaces (55 arcsec pointing error)- Perform deployment of large items guaranteeing during the process low humidity, below 5% to protect dry lubrication- Verify stability with representative inertia of large boom or reflector 20 Kgm2.

  10. Reactor analysis support package (RASP). Volume 7. PWR set-point methodology. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Temple, S.M.; Robbins, T.R.

    1986-09-01

    This report provides an overview of the basis and methodology requirements for determining Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) technical specifications related setpoints and focuses on development of the methodology for a reload core. Additionally, the report documents the implementation and typical methods of analysis used by PWR vendors during the 1970's to develop Protection System Trip Limits (or Limiting Safety System Settings) and Limiting Conditions for Operation. The descriptions of the typical setpoint methodologies are provided for Nuclear Steam Supply Systems as designed and supplied by Babcock and Wilcox, Combustion Engineering, and Westinghouse. The description of the methods of analysis includes the discussion of the computer codes used in the setpoint methodology. Next, the report addresses the treatment of calculational and measurement uncertainties based on the extent to which such information was available for each of the three types of PWR. Finally, the major features of the setpoint methodologies are compared, and the principal effects of each particular methodology on plant operation are summarized for each of the three types of PWR

  11. Point Analysis in Java applied to histological images of the perforant pathway: a user's account.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scorcioni, Ruggero; Wright, Susan N; Patrick Card, J; Ascoli, Giorgio A; Barrionuevo, Germán

    2008-01-01

    The freeware Java tool Point Analysis in Java (PAJ), created to perform 3D point analysis, was tested in an independent laboratory setting. The input data consisted of images of the hippocampal perforant pathway from serial immunocytochemical localizations of the rat brain in multiple views at different resolutions. The low magnification set (x2 objective) comprised the entire perforant pathway, while the high magnification set (x100 objective) allowed the identification of individual fibers. A preliminary stereological study revealed a striking linear relationship between the fiber count at high magnification and the optical density at low magnification. PAJ enabled fast analysis for down-sampled data sets and a friendly interface with automated plot drawings. Noted strengths included the multi-platform support as well as the free availability of the source code, conducive to a broad user base and maximum flexibility for ad hoc requirements. PAJ has great potential to extend its usability by (a) improving its graphical user interface, (b) increasing its input size limit, (c) improving response time for large data sets, and (d) potentially being integrated with other Java graphical tools such as ImageJ.

  12. The integrable case of Adler-van Moerbeke. Discriminant set and bifurcation diagram

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryabov, Pavel E.; Oshemkov, Andrej A.; Sokolov, Sergei V.

    2016-09-01

    The Adler-van Moerbeke integrable case of the Euler equations on the Lie algebra so(4) is investigated. For the L- A pair found by Reyman and Semenov-Tian-Shansky for this system, we explicitly present a spectral curve and construct the corresponding discriminant set. The singularities of the Adler-van Moerbeke integrable case and its bifurcation diagram are discussed. We explicitly describe singular points of rank 0, determine their types, and show that the momentum mapping takes them to self-intersection points of the real part of the discriminant set. In particular, the described structure of singularities of the Adler-van Moerbeke integrable case shows that it is topologically different from the other known integrable cases on so(4).

  13. Utilization of reduced fuelling ripple set in ROP detector layout optimization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kastanya, Doddy

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► ADORE is an ROP detect layout optimization algorithm in CANDU reactors. ► The effect of using reduced set of fuelling ripples in ADORE is assessed. ► Significant speedup can be realized by adopting this approach. ► The quality of the results is comparable to results from full set of ripples. - Abstract: The ADORE (Alternative Detector layout Optimization for REgional overpower protection system) algorithm for performing the optimization of regional overpower protection (ROP) for CANDU® reactors has been recently developed. This algorithm utilizes the simulated annealing (SA) stochastic optimization technique to come up with an optimized detector layout for the ROP systems. For each history in the SA iteration where a particular detector layout is evaluated, the goodness of this detector layout is measured in terms of its trip set point value which is obtained by performing a probabilistic trip set point calculation using the ROVER-F code. Since during each optimization execution thousands of candidate detector layouts are evaluated, the overall optimization process is time consuming. Since for each ROVER-F evaluation the number of fuelling ripples controls the execution time, reducing the number of fuelling ripples will reduce the overall execution time. This approach has been investigated and the results are presented in this paper. The challenge is to construct a set of representative fuelling ripples which will significantly speedup the optimization process while guaranteeing that the resulting detector layout has similar quality to the ones produced when the complete set of fuelling ripples is employed.

  14. Using Spare Logic Resources To Create Dynamic Test Points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katz, Richard; Kleyner, Igor

    2011-01-01

    A technique has been devised to enable creation of a dynamic set of test points in an embedded digital electronic system. As a result, electronics contained in an application specific circuit [e.g., gate array, field programmable gate array (FPGA)] can be internally probed, even when contained in a closed housing during all phases of test. In the present technique, the test points are not fixed and limited to a small number; the number of test points can vastly exceed the number of buffers or pins, resulting in a compact footprint. Test points are selected by means of spare logic resources within the ASIC(s) and/or FPGA(s). A register is programmed with a command, which is used to select the signals that are sent off-chip and out of the housing for monitoring by test engineers and external test equipment. The register can be commanded by any suitable means: for example, it could be commanded through a command port that would normally be used in the operation of the system. In the original application of the technique, commanding of the register is performed via a MIL-STD-1553B communication subsystem.

  15. Critical sets in one-parametric mathematical programs with complementarity constraints

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bouza Allende, G.; Guddat, J.; Still, Georg J.

    2008-01-01

    One-parametric mathematical programs with complementarity constraints are considered. The structure of the set of generalized critical points is analysed for the generic case. It is shown how this analysis can locally be reduced to the study of appropriate standard one-parametric finite problems. By

  16. An efficient global energy optimization approach for robust 3D plane segmentation of point clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Zhen; Yang, Bisheng; Hu, Pingbo; Scherer, Sebastian

    2018-03-01

    Automatic 3D plane segmentation is necessary for many applications including point cloud registration, building information model (BIM) reconstruction, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), and point cloud compression. However, most of the existing 3D plane segmentation methods still suffer from low precision and recall, and inaccurate and incomplete boundaries, especially for low-quality point clouds collected by RGB-D sensors. To overcome these challenges, this paper formulates the plane segmentation problem as a global energy optimization because it is robust to high levels of noise and clutter. First, the proposed method divides the raw point cloud into multiscale supervoxels, and considers planar supervoxels and individual points corresponding to nonplanar supervoxels as basic units. Then, an efficient hybrid region growing algorithm is utilized to generate initial plane set by incrementally merging adjacent basic units with similar features. Next, the initial plane set is further enriched and refined in a mutually reinforcing manner under the framework of global energy optimization. Finally, the performances of the proposed method are evaluated with respect to six metrics (i.e., plane precision, plane recall, under-segmentation rate, over-segmentation rate, boundary precision, and boundary recall) on two benchmark datasets. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed method obtained good performances both in high-quality TLS point clouds (i.e., http://SEMANTIC3D.NET)

  17. Tipping Point

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... en español Blog About OnSafety CPSC Stands for Safety The Tipping Point Home > 60 Seconds of Safety (Videos) > The Tipping Point The Tipping Point by ... danger death electrical fall furniture head injury product safety television tipover tv Watch the video in Adobe ...

  18. Geometric convergence of some two-point Pade approximations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nemeth, G.

    1983-01-01

    The geometric convergences of some two-point Pade approximations are investigated on the real positive axis and on certain infinite sets of the complex plane. Some theorems concerning the geometric convergence of Pade approximations are proved, and bounds on geometric convergence rates are given. The results may be interesting considering the applications both in numerical computations and in approximation theory. As a specific case, the numerical calculations connected with the plasma dispersion function may be performed. (D.Gy.)

  19. A New Iterative Method for Equilibrium Problems and Fixed Point Problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdul Latif

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Introducing a new iterative method, we study the existence of a common element of the set of solutions of equilibrium problems for a family of monotone, Lipschitz-type continuous mappings and the sets of fixed points of two nonexpansive semigroups in a real Hilbert space. We establish strong convergence theorems of the new iterative method for the solution of the variational inequality problem which is the optimality condition for the minimization problem. Our results improve and generalize the corresponding recent results of Anh (2012, Cianciaruso et al. (2010, and many others.

  20. Fitter. The package for fitting a chosen theoretical multi-parameter function through a set of data points. Application to experimental data of the YuMO spectrometer. Version 2.1.0. Long write-up and user's guide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Solov'ev, A.G.; Stadnik, A.V.; Islamov, A.N.; Kuklin, A.I.

    2008-01-01

    Fitter is a C++ program aimed to fit a chosen theoretical multi-parameter function through a set of data points. The method of fitting is chi-square minimization. Moreover, the robust fitting method can be applied to Fitter. Fitter was designed to be used for a small-angle neutron scattering data analysis. Respective theoretical models are implemented in it. Some commonly used models (Gaussian and polynomials) are also implemented for wider applicability