Application of random effects to the study of resource selection by animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillies, Cameron S; Hebblewhite, Mark; Nielsen, Scott E; Krawchuk, Meg A; Aldridge, Cameron L; Frair, Jacqueline L; Saher, D Joanne; Stevens, Cameron E; Jerde, Christopher L

2006-07-01

1. Resource selection estimated by logistic regression is used increasingly in studies to identify critical resources for animal populations and to predict species occurrence. 2. Most frequently, individual animals are monitored and pooled to estimate population-level effects without regard to group or individual-level variation. Pooling assumes that both observations and their errors are independent, and resource selection is constant given individual variation in resource availability. 3. Although researchers have identified ways to minimize autocorrelation, variation between individuals caused by differences in selection or available resources, including functional responses in resource selection, have not been well addressed. 4. Here we review random-effects models and their application to resource selection modelling to overcome these common limitations. We present a simple case study of an analysis of resource selection by grizzly bears in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains with and without random effects. 5. Both categorical and continuous variables in the grizzly bear model differed in interpretation, both in statistical significance and coefficient sign, depending on how a random effect was included. We used a simulation approach to clarify the application of random effects under three common situations for telemetry studies: (a) discrepancies in sample sizes among individuals; (b) differences among individuals in selection where availability is constant; and (c) differences in availability with and without a functional response in resource selection. 6. We found that random intercepts accounted for unbalanced sample designs, and models with random intercepts and coefficients improved model fit given the variation in selection among individuals and functional responses in selection. Our empirical example and simulations demonstrate how including random effects in resource selection models can aid interpretation and address difficult assumptions

Local randomization in neighbor selection improves PRM roadmap quality

KAUST Repository

McMahon, Troy; Jacobs, Sam; Boyd, Bryan; Tapia, Lydia; Amato, Nancy M.

2012-01-01

Probabilistic Roadmap Methods (PRMs) are one of the most used classes of motion planning methods. These sampling-based methods generate robot configurations (nodes) and then connect them to form a graph (roadmap) containing representative feasible pathways. A key step in PRM roadmap construction involves identifying a set of candidate neighbors for each node. Traditionally, these candidates are chosen to be the k-closest nodes based on a given distance metric. In this paper, we propose a new neighbor selection policy called LocalRand(k,K'), that first computes the K' closest nodes to a specified node and then selects k of those nodes at random. Intuitively, LocalRand attempts to benefit from random sampling while maintaining the higher levels of local planner success inherent to selecting more local neighbors. We provide a methodology for selecting the parameters k and K'. We perform an experimental comparison which shows that for both rigid and articulated robots, LocalRand results in roadmaps that are better connected than the traditional k-closest policy or a purely random neighbor selection policy. The cost required to achieve these results is shown to be comparable to k-closest. © 2012 IEEE.

Local randomization in neighbor selection improves PRM roadmap quality

KAUST Repository

McMahon, Troy

2012-10-01

Probabilistic Roadmap Methods (PRMs) are one of the most used classes of motion planning methods. These sampling-based methods generate robot configurations (nodes) and then connect them to form a graph (roadmap) containing representative feasible pathways. A key step in PRM roadmap construction involves identifying a set of candidate neighbors for each node. Traditionally, these candidates are chosen to be the k-closest nodes based on a given distance metric. In this paper, we propose a new neighbor selection policy called LocalRand(k,K\\'), that first computes the K\\' closest nodes to a specified node and then selects k of those nodes at random. Intuitively, LocalRand attempts to benefit from random sampling while maintaining the higher levels of local planner success inherent to selecting more local neighbors. We provide a methodology for selecting the parameters k and K\\'. We perform an experimental comparison which shows that for both rigid and articulated robots, LocalRand results in roadmaps that are better connected than the traditional k-closest policy or a purely random neighbor selection policy. The cost required to achieve these results is shown to be comparable to k-closest. © 2012 IEEE.

"Learn Young, Learn Fair", a Stress Management Program for Fifth and Sixth Graders: Longitudinal Results from an Experimental Study

Science.gov (United States)

Kraag, Gerda; Van Breukelen, Gerard J. P.; Kok, Gerjo; Hosman, Clemens

2009-01-01

Background: This study examined the effects of a universal stress management program (Learn Young, Learn Fair) on stress, coping, anxiety and depression in fifth and sixth grade children. Methods: Fifty-two schools (1467 children) participated in a clustered randomized controlled trial. Data was collected in the fall of 2002, the spring of 2003,…

Reaching with the sixth sense

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reichenbach, Alexandra; Bresciani, Jean-Pierre; Bulthoff, Heinrich H.

2016-01-01

The vestibular system constitutes the silent sixth sense: It automatically triggers a variety of vital reflexes to maintain postural and visual stability. Beyond their role in reflexive behavior, vestibular afferents contribute to several perceptual and cognitive functions and also support volunt...

Cognitive Processing and Mathematical Achievement: A Study with Schoolchildren between Fourth and Sixth Grade of Primary Education

Science.gov (United States)

Iglesias-Sarmiento, Valentin; Deano, Manuel

2011-01-01

This investigation analyzed the relation between cognitive functioning and mathematical achievement in 114 students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Differences in cognitive performance were studied concurrently in three selected achievement groups: mathematical learning disability group (MLD), low achieving group (LA), and typically achieving…

Sixth International Symposium on Bifurcations and Instabilities in Fluid Dynamics (BIFD2015)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bar-Yoseph, P. Z.; Brøns, Morten; Gelfgat, A.

2016-01-01

dynamics and remain a challenge for experimental, theoretical and computational studies. Examples of prototypical hydrodynamic instabilities are the Rayleigh–Bénard, Taylor–Couette, Bénard–Marangoni, Rayleigh–Taylor, and Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities. A fundamental understanding of bifurcation patterns...... diseases, such as atherosclerotic and vulnerable plaques, abdominal aortic aneurisms, carotid artery disease, and pulmonary embolisms and implications for vascular interventions such as grafting and stenting. The collection of papers in this issue is a selection of the presentations given at the Sixth...

New exact solutions of sixth-order thin-film equation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wafaa M. Taha

2014-01-01

Full Text Available TheG′G-expansion method is used for the first time to find traveling-wave solutions for the sixth-order thin-film equation, where related balance numbers are not the usual positive integers. New types of exact traveling-wave solutions, such as – solitary wave solutions, are obtained the sixth-order thin-film equation, when parameters are taken at special values.

Newspapers in Science Education: A Study Involving Sixth Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Ching-San; Wang, Yun-Fei

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the learning performance of sixth grade elementary school students using newspapers in science teaching. A quasi-experimental design with a single group was used in this study. Thirty-three sixth grade elementary school students participated in this study. The research instruments consisted of three…

Dazzling Sixth Ethnic Games

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2000-01-01

WITH its first round in Lhasa, Tibet, the Beijing leg of the Sixth National Games for Traditional Sports of Minority Nationalities was China's largest sports ceremony at the end of this century. The reason for holding the games in two places for the first time is that the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 40th anniversary of democratic reform in the

Acute sixth nerve palsy in a young man, beware of the 'red herring'.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

O'Neill, E C

2012-02-01

BACKGROUND: Cranial nerve palsies has several etiologies including vascular insufficiency, neoplasm, trauma and inflammation. Isolated sixth nerve palsy is an extremely rare presenting feature of leukemia. AIM: We describe an unusual ocular presentation of a bilateral progressive sixth nerve palsy in a young male with a preceding head injury. CONCLUSION: Acquired sixth nerve palsies in young adults may be due to trauma but in the absence of a definitive history other systemic processes must be outruled. We describe a case of bilateral sixth nerve palsy in a patient with ALL with no obvious CNS involvement. Potential etiological mechanisms are discussed.

Pre-Service Elementary Teachers' Mathematics Content Knowledge: A Predictor of Sixth Graders' Mathematics Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Shirvani, Hosin

2015-01-01

This study examined the knowledge of mathematics content of elementary pre-service teachers at a sixth grade level. The researcher administered a mathematics test for sixth graders mandated by the Texas Education Agency to pre-service teachers; the same test was given to sixth graders in Texas. The study found that pre-service teachers performed…

The Sixth Great Mass Extinction

Science.gov (United States)

Wagler, Ron

2012-01-01

Five past great mass extinctions have occurred during Earth's history. Humanity is currently in the midst of a sixth, human-induced great mass extinction of plant and animal life (e.g., Alroy 2008; Jackson 2008; Lewis 2006; McDaniel and Borton 2002; Rockstrom et al. 2009; Rohr et al. 2008; Steffen, Crutzen, and McNeill 2007; Thomas et al. 2004;…

Sixth International Symposium on Recent Advances in Environmental Health Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul B. Tchounwou

2010-05-01

Full Text Available This special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health highlights selected papers presented at the Sixth International Symposium on Recent Advances in Environmental Health Research organized by Jackson State University (JSU from September 13−16, 2009 at the Marriott Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. The Symposium was built upon the overwhelming success of previous symposia hosted by JSU and co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH RCMI-Center for Environmental Health, the U.S. Department of Education Title III Graduate Education Program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the JSU Office of Academic Affairs, and the JSU Office of Research and Federal Relations. [...

Development of Selective Attention in Reflective and Impulsive Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Weiner, Alan S.; Berzonsky, Michael D.

Selective attention was assessed in second, fourth, and sixth grade reflective and impulsive children with an incidental learning task using pictures (animal-household object pairs) or shapes (colored forms) as stimuli. By the sixth grade, reflective children displayed less incidental learning and greater central learning than impulsive children…

Sixth underground coal-conversion symposium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1980-01-01

The sixth annual underground coal conversion symposium was held at Shangri-la near Afton, Oklahoma, July 13 to 17, 1980. Sessions were developed to: Doe Field Programs, Major Industry Activity, Mathematical Modeling, Laboratory Studies, Environmental Studies, Economics, Instruments and Controls, and General Topics. Fifty-two papers from the proceedings have been entered individually into EDB and ERA. Thirteen papers had been entered previously from other sources. (LTN)

A longitudinal study of school connectedness and academic outcomes across sixth grade.

Science.gov (United States)

Niehaus, Kate; Rudasill, Kathleen Moritz; Rakes, Christopher R

2012-08-01

The current longitudinal study examines the extent to which school connectedness (i.e., students' perceptions of school support and the number of adults with whom they have a positive relationship) is associated with academic outcomes across sixth grade for students from high poverty neighborhoods. Data were collected from 330 sixth-grade students attending two middle schools in a large public school district. Specifically, students completed a survey to assess their perceived connection to the school environment, and academic information regarding students' grades, attendance, and discipline referrals was obtained from school records. Results from latent growth curve modeling showed that, on average, students' perceptions of school support declined significantly across the sixth-grade year. However, students who reported less decline, or growth, in school support across sixth grade had higher academic achievement at the end of the year than students who reported more decline in school support. Sixth-grade boys were at a greater risk for negative outcomes (i.e., lower school support, lower GPAs, and more discipline referrals) across the school year than girls. Results point to the importance of perceived connectedness to school in helping economically disadvantaged students experience a safe and successful transition to middle school. Copyright © 2012 Society for the Study of School Psychology. All rights reserved.

Prospective Mathematics Teachers' Ability to Identify Mistakes Related to Angle Concept of Sixth Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Arslan, Cigdem; Erbay, Hatice Nur; Guner, Pinar

2017-01-01

In the present study we try to highlight prospective mathematics teachers' ability to identify mistakes of sixth grade students related to angle concept. And also we examined prospective mathematics teachers' knowledge of angle concept. Study was carried out with 30 sixth-grade students and 38 prospective mathematics teachers. Sixth grade students…

40 CFR 761.308 - Sample selection by random number generation on any two-dimensional square grid.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Sample selection by random number... § 761.79(b)(3) § 761.308 Sample selection by random number generation on any two-dimensional square... area created in accordance with paragraph (a) of this section, select two random numbers: one each for...

Hybrid layer difference between sixth and seventh generation bonding agent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grace Syavira Suryabrata

2006-03-01

Full Text Available Since etching is completed at the same stage as priming and bonding, when applying the sixth and seventh generation bonding, the exposed smear layers are constantly surrounded by primer and bonding and cannot collapse. The smear layer and the depth of penetration of resin bonding in dentinal tubules are completely integrated into hybrid layer. The purpose of this laboratory research was to study the penetration depth of two self etching adhesive. Fourteen samples of human extracted teeth were divided into two groups. Each groups consisted of seven samples, each of them was treated with sixth generation bonding agent and the other was treated with seventh generation bonding agent. The results disclosed that the penetration into dentinal tubules of seventh generation bonding agent was deeper than sixth generation bonding agent. Conclusion: bond strength will improve due to the increasing of penetration depth of resin bonding in dentinal tubules.

Applications of random forest feature selection for fine-scale genetic population assignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Sylvester, Emma V A; Bentzen, Paul; Bradbury, Ian R; Clément, Marie; Pearce, Jon; Horne, John; Beiko, Robert G

2018-02-01

Genetic population assignment used to inform wildlife management and conservation efforts requires panels of highly informative genetic markers and sensitive assignment tests. We explored the utility of machine-learning algorithms (random forest, regularized random forest and guided regularized random forest) compared with F ST ranking for selection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) for fine-scale population assignment. We applied these methods to an unpublished SNP data set for Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) and a published SNP data set for Alaskan Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ). In each species, we identified the minimum panel size required to obtain a self-assignment accuracy of at least 90% using each method to create panels of 50-700 markers Panels of SNPs identified using random forest-based methods performed up to 7.8 and 11.2 percentage points better than F ST -selected panels of similar size for the Atlantic salmon and Chinook salmon data, respectively. Self-assignment accuracy ≥90% was obtained with panels of 670 and 384 SNPs for each data set, respectively, a level of accuracy never reached for these species using F ST -selected panels. Our results demonstrate a role for machine-learning approaches in marker selection across large genomic data sets to improve assignment for management and conservation of exploited populations.

Interference-aware random beam selection for spectrum sharing systems

KAUST Repository

Abdallah, Mohamed M.

2012-09-01

Spectrum sharing systems have been introduced to alleviate the problem of spectrum scarcity by allowing secondary unlicensed networks to share the spectrum with primary licensed networks under acceptable interference levels to the primary users. In this paper, we develop interference-aware random beam selection schemes that provide enhanced throughput for the secondary link under the condition that the interference observed at the primary link is within a predetermined acceptable value. For a secondary transmitter equipped with multiple antennas, our schemes select a random beam, among a set of power- optimized orthogonal random beams, that maximizes the capacity of the secondary link while satisfying the interference constraint at the primary receiver for different levels of feedback information describing the interference level at the primary receiver. For the proposed schemes, we develop a statistical analysis for the signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SINR) statistics as well as the capacity of the secondary link. Finally, we present numerical results that study the effect of system parameters including number of beams and the maximum transmission power on the capacity of the secondary link attained using the proposed schemes. © 2012 IEEE.

Bilateral sixth cranial nerve palsy in infectious mononucleosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Neuberger, J.; Bone, I.

1979-01-01

A 15-year-old girl who presented with a bilateral sixth nerve palsy caused by infectious mononucleosis is described. The neurological presentation of infectious mononucleosis is discussed. PMID:225738

Interference-aware random beam selection for spectrum sharing systems

KAUST Repository

Abdallah, Mohamed M.; Sayed, Mostafa M.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Qaraqe, Khalid A.

2012-01-01

. In this paper, we develop interference-aware random beam selection schemes that provide enhanced throughput for the secondary link under the condition that the interference observed at the primary link is within a predetermined acceptable value. For a secondary

DEVELOPING VALUES OF PANCASILA’S SECOND PRINCIPLE FOR SIXTH GRADER STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Abduh

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The research objective was to determine (1 the development of values from the second principle of Pancasila for sixth graders; (2 what are the constraints of sixth grade teachers in developing the values of the second principle of Pancasila; (3 the solution from teachers to overcome the obstacles in developing the values to the learners. Data were collected using an open questionnaire. Informants were the teachers of sixth graders. Data were analyzed using data reduction, data display, and conclusion/ verification. To develop the values of the second principle of Pancasila: (a students needed the examples from various stakeholders such as teachers, parents and community leaders; (b the problem is the selfish attitude of learners who did not cooperate with their  friends; (c the solution suggested were having patience and diligence.

The diagnostic yield of neuroimaging in sixth nerve palsy - Sankara Nethralaya Abducens Palsy Study (SNAPS: Report 1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Akshay Gopinathan Nair

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Aims: The aim was to assess the etiology of sixth nerve palsy and on the basis of our data, to formulate a diagnostic algorithm for the management in sixth nerve palsy. Design: Retrospective chart review. Results: Of the 104 neurologically isolated cases, 9 cases were attributable to trauma, and 95 (86.36% cases were classified as nontraumatic, neurologically isolated cases. Of the 95 nontraumatic, isolated cases of sixth nerve palsy, 52 cases were associated with vasculopathic risk factors, namely diabetes and hypertension and were classified as vasculopathic sixth nerve palsy (54.7%, and those with a history of sixth nerve palsy from birth (6 cases were classified as congenital sixth nerve palsy (6.3%. Of the rest, neuroimaging alone yielded a cause in 18 of the 37 cases (48.64%. Of the other 19 cases where neuroimaging did not yield a cause, 6 cases were attributed to preceding history of infection (3 upper respiratory tract infection and 3 viral illnesses, 2 cases of sixth nerve palsy were found to be a false localizing sign in idiopathic intracranial hypertension and in 11 cases, the cause was undetermined. In these idiopathic cases of isolated sixth nerve palsy, neuroimaging yielded no positive findings. Conclusions: In the absence of risk factors, a suggestive history, or positive laboratory and clinical findings, neuroimaging can serve as a useful diagnostic tool in identifying the exact cause of sixth nerve palsy. Furthermore, we recommend an algorithm to assess the need for neuroimaging in sixth nerve palsy.

Isolated unilateral sixth cranial nerve palsy: A rare presentation of dengue fever

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Liang Boo

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Dengue fever is a common mosquito-borne viral infection endemic in tropical and subtropical countries. Neurological manifestations in dengue infection are relatively uncommon, and include encephalitis, encephalopathy, neuromuscular disorders and neuro-ocular disorders. Cranial mononeuropathy is a rare manifestation of dengue infection. A 40-year-old man was diagnosed with isolated, unilateral sixth cranial nerve palsy complicating dengue infection. The patient was managed accordingly, and full ocular recovery was observed. This was the first reported case of isolated sixth cranial nerve palsy associated with dengue fever in Malaysia. It is important for clinicians to consider dengue as a differential diagnosis in patients presenting with fever and sixth cranial nerve palsy.

The signature of positive selection at randomly chosen loci.

OpenAIRE

Przeworski, Molly

2002-01-01

In Drosophila and humans, there are accumulating examples of loci with a significant excess of high-frequency-derived alleles or high levels of linkage disequilibrium, relative to a neutral model of a random-mating population of constant size. These are features expected after a recent selective sweep. Their prevalence suggests that positive directional selection may be widespread in both species. However, as I show here, these features do not persist long after the sweep ends: The high-frequ...

Simulated Performance Evaluation of a Selective Tracker Through Random Scenario Generation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hussain, Dil Muhammad Akbar

2006-01-01

performance assessment. Therefore, a random target motion scenario is adopted. Its implementation in particular for testing the proposed selective track splitting algorithm using Kalman filters is investigated through a number of performance parameters which gives the activity profile of the tracking scenario......  The paper presents a simulation study on the performance of a target tracker using selective track splitting filter algorithm through a random scenario implemented on a digital signal processor.  In a typical track splitting filter all the observation which fall inside a likelihood ellipse...... are used for update, however, in our proposed selective track splitting filter less number of observations are used for track update.  Much of the previous performance work [1] has been done on specific (deterministic) scenarios. One of the reasons for considering the specific scenarios, which were...

Minimization over randomly selected lines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ismet Sahin

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a population-based evolutionary optimization method for minimizing a given cost function. The mutation operator of this method selects randomly oriented lines in the cost function domain, constructs quadratic functions interpolating the cost function at three different points over each line, and uses extrema of the quadratics as mutated points. The crossover operator modifies each mutated point based on components of two points in population, instead of one point as is usually performed in other evolutionary algorithms. The stopping criterion of this method depends on the number of almost degenerate quadratics. We demonstrate that the proposed method with these mutation and crossover operations achieves faster and more robust convergence than the well-known Differential Evolution and Particle Swarm algorithms.

Selection for altruism through random drift in variable size populations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Houchmandzadeh Bahram

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Altruistic behavior is defined as helping others at a cost to oneself and a lowered fitness. The lower fitness implies that altruists should be selected against, which is in contradiction with their widespread presence is nature. Present models of selection for altruism (kin or multilevel show that altruistic behaviors can have ‘hidden’ advantages if the ‘common good’ produced by altruists is restricted to some related or unrelated groups. These models are mostly deterministic, or assume a frequency dependent fitness. Results Evolutionary dynamics is a competition between deterministic selection pressure and stochastic events due to random sampling from one generation to the next. We show here that an altruistic allele extending the carrying capacity of the habitat can win by increasing the random drift of “selfish” alleles. In other terms, the fixation probability of altruistic genes can be higher than those of a selfish ones, even though altruists have a smaller fitness. Moreover when populations are geographically structured, the altruists advantage can be highly amplified and the fixation probability of selfish genes can tend toward zero. The above results are obtained both by numerical and analytical calculations. Analytical results are obtained in the limit of large populations. Conclusions The theory we present does not involve kin or multilevel selection, but is based on the existence of random drift in variable size populations. The model is a generalization of the original Fisher-Wright and Moran models where the carrying capacity depends on the number of altruists.

Selection bias and subject refusal in a cluster-randomized controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rochelle Yang

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Selection bias and non-participation bias are major methodological concerns which impact external validity. Cluster-randomized controlled trials are especially prone to selection bias as it is impractical to blind clusters to their allocation into intervention or control. This study assessed the impact of selection bias in a large cluster-randomized controlled trial. Methods The Improved Cardiovascular Risk Reduction to Enhance Rural Primary Care (ICARE study examined the impact of a remote pharmacist-led intervention in twelve medical offices. To assess eligibility, a standardized form containing patient demographics and medical information was completed for each screened patient. Eligible patients were approached by the study coordinator for recruitment. Both the study coordinator and the patient were aware of the site’s allocation prior to consent. Patients who consented or declined to participate were compared across control and intervention arms for differing characteristics. Statistical significance was determined using a two-tailed, equal variance t-test and a chi-square test with adjusted Bonferroni p-values. Results were adjusted for random cluster variation. Results There were 2749 completed screening forms returned to research staff with 461 subjects who had either consented or declined participation. Patients with poorly controlled diabetes were found to be significantly more likely to decline participation in intervention sites compared to those in control sites. A higher mean diastolic blood pressure was seen in patients with uncontrolled hypertension who declined in the control sites compared to those who declined in the intervention sites. However, these findings were no longer significant after adjustment for random variation among the sites. After this adjustment, females were now found to be significantly more likely to consent than males (odds ratio = 1.41; 95% confidence interval = 1.03, 1

Marihuana and Health. Sixth Annual Report to the U.S. Congress from the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1976.

Science.gov (United States)

National Inst. on Drug Abuse (DHEW/PHS), Rockville, MD.

This edition, the sixth in the series of annual reports, is a nontechnical summary updating developments in marihuana research with selected references from the fifth edition. Areas of discussion include: (1) nature and extent of marihuana use in the United States; (2) marihuana use among high school seniors; (3) an overview of use trends; (4)…

Interference-aware random beam selection schemes for spectrum sharing systems

KAUST Repository

Abdallah, Mohamed; Qaraqe, Khalid; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2012-01-01

users. In this work, we develop interference-aware random beam selection schemes that provide enhanced performance for the secondary network under the condition that the interference observed by the receivers of the primary network is below a

Randomized Controlled Evaluation of the "Too Good for Drugs" Prevention Program: Impact on Adolescents at Different Risk Levels for Drug Use

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Bruce W.; Bacon, Tina P.; Ferron, John M.

2013-01-01

Sixth graders participating in the "Too Good for Drugs" (TGFD) prevention program in comparison to 6th graders not participating show different results by student risk level. Sixth graders from 20 middle schools were randomly assigned to receive the intervention and those from 20 paired middle schools assigned to serve as controls (N =…

Sixth-Form Projects in Biology: A Case History.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, P. M.; Parker, R. E.

1981-01-01

Some of the problems encountered in devising sixth-form projects are discussed and a detailed account given of one project in which a study was made of the effect of onion bulb volatiles on the germination of lettuce seed. (Author)

75 FR 55764 - Dynamic Random Access Memory Semiconductors From the Republic of Korea: Preliminary Results of...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-14

... Kuhbach, Director, Office 1, ``Sixth Countervailing Duty Administrative Review: Dynamic Random Access... ``Purchases at Prices that Constitute `More than Adequate Remuneration,' '' (``Uranium from France'') (citing...

Continuous-Time Mean-Variance Portfolio Selection with Random Horizon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Zhiyong

2013-01-01

This paper examines the continuous-time mean-variance optimal portfolio selection problem with random market parameters and random time horizon. Treating this problem as a linearly constrained stochastic linear-quadratic optimal control problem, I explicitly derive the efficient portfolios and efficient frontier in closed forms based on the solutions of two backward stochastic differential equations. Some related issues such as a minimum variance portfolio and a mutual fund theorem are also addressed. All the results are markedly different from those in the problem with deterministic exit time. A key part of my analysis involves proving the global solvability of a stochastic Riccati equation, which is interesting in its own right

Continuous-Time Mean-Variance Portfolio Selection with Random Horizon

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Zhiyong, E-mail: yuzhiyong@sdu.edu.cn [Shandong University, School of Mathematics (China)

2013-12-15

This paper examines the continuous-time mean-variance optimal portfolio selection problem with random market parameters and random time horizon. Treating this problem as a linearly constrained stochastic linear-quadratic optimal control problem, I explicitly derive the efficient portfolios and efficient frontier in closed forms based on the solutions of two backward stochastic differential equations. Some related issues such as a minimum variance portfolio and a mutual fund theorem are also addressed. All the results are markedly different from those in the problem with deterministic exit time. A key part of my analysis involves proving the global solvability of a stochastic Riccati equation, which is interesting in its own right.

TEHRAN AIR POLLUTANTS PREDICTION BASED ON RANDOM FOREST FEATURE SELECTION METHOD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Shamsoddini

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Air pollution as one of the most serious forms of environmental pollutions poses huge threat to human life. Air pollution leads to environmental instability, and has harmful and undesirable effects on the environment. Modern prediction methods of the pollutant concentration are able to improve decision making and provide appropriate solutions. This study examines the performance of the Random Forest feature selection in combination with multiple-linear regression and Multilayer Perceptron Artificial Neural Networks methods, in order to achieve an efficient model to estimate carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and PM2.5 contents in the air. The results indicated that Artificial Neural Networks fed by the attributes selected by Random Forest feature selection method performed more accurate than other models for the modeling of all pollutants. The estimation accuracy of sulfur dioxide emissions was lower than the other air contaminants whereas the nitrogen dioxide was predicted more accurate than the other pollutants.

Tehran Air Pollutants Prediction Based on Random Forest Feature Selection Method

Science.gov (United States)

Shamsoddini, A.; Aboodi, M. R.; Karami, J.

2017-09-01

Air pollution as one of the most serious forms of environmental pollutions poses huge threat to human life. Air pollution leads to environmental instability, and has harmful and undesirable effects on the environment. Modern prediction methods of the pollutant concentration are able to improve decision making and provide appropriate solutions. This study examines the performance of the Random Forest feature selection in combination with multiple-linear regression and Multilayer Perceptron Artificial Neural Networks methods, in order to achieve an efficient model to estimate carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and PM2.5 contents in the air. The results indicated that Artificial Neural Networks fed by the attributes selected by Random Forest feature selection method performed more accurate than other models for the modeling of all pollutants. The estimation accuracy of sulfur dioxide emissions was lower than the other air contaminants whereas the nitrogen dioxide was predicted more accurate than the other pollutants.

Hebbian Learning in a Random Network Captures Selectivity Properties of the Prefrontal Cortex

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsay, Grace W.

2017-01-01

Complex cognitive behaviors, such as context-switching and rule-following, are thought to be supported by the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Neural activity in the PFC must thus be specialized to specific tasks while retaining flexibility. Nonlinear “mixed” selectivity is an important neurophysiological trait for enabling complex and context-dependent behaviors. Here we investigate (1) the extent to which the PFC exhibits computationally relevant properties, such as mixed selectivity, and (2) how such properties could arise via circuit mechanisms. We show that PFC cells recorded from male and female rhesus macaques during a complex task show a moderate level of specialization and structure that is not replicated by a model wherein cells receive random feedforward inputs. While random connectivity can be effective at generating mixed selectivity, the data show significantly more mixed selectivity than predicted by a model with otherwise matched parameters. A simple Hebbian learning rule applied to the random connectivity, however, increases mixed selectivity and enables the model to match the data more accurately. To explain how learning achieves this, we provide analysis along with a clear geometric interpretation of the impact of learning on selectivity. After learning, the model also matches the data on measures of noise, response density, clustering, and the distribution of selectivities. Of two styles of Hebbian learning tested, the simpler and more biologically plausible option better matches the data. These modeling results provide clues about how neural properties important for cognition can arise in a circuit and make clear experimental predictions regarding how various measures of selectivity would evolve during animal training. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The prefrontal cortex is a brain region believed to support the ability of animals to engage in complex behavior. How neurons in this area respond to stimuli—and in particular, to combinations of stimuli (�

Multi-skyrmion solutions of a sixth order Skyrme model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Floratos, I.

2001-08-01

In this thesis, we study some of the classical properties of an extension of the Skyrme model defined by adding a sixth order derivative term to the Lagrangian. In chapter 1, we review the physical as well as the mathematical motivation behind the study of the Skyrme model and in chapter 2, we give a brief summary of various extended Skyrme models that have been proposed over the last few years. We then define a new sixth order Skyrme model by introducing a dimensionless parameter λ that denotes the mixing between the two higher order terms, the Skyrme term and the sixth order term. In chapter 3 we compute numerically the multi-skyrmion solutions of this extended model and show that they have the same symmetries with the usual skyrmion solutions. In addition, we analyse the dependence of the energy and radius of these classical solutions with respect to the coupling constant λ. We compare our results with experimental data and determine whether this modified model can provide us with better theoretical predictions than the original one. In chapter 4, we use the rational map ansatz, introduced by Houghton, Manton and Sutcliffe, to approximate minimum energy multi-skyrmion solutions with B ≤ 9 of the SU(2) model and with B ≤ 6 of the SU(3) model. We compare our results with the ones obtained numerically and show that the rational map ansatz works just as well for the generalised model as for the pure Skyrme model, at least for B ≤ 5. In chapter 5, we use a generalisation of the rational map ansatz, introduced by loannidou, Piette and Zakrzewski, to construct analytically some topologically non-trivial solutions of the extended model in SU(3). These solutions are spherically symmetric and some of them can be interpreted as bound states of skyrmions. Finally, we use the same ansatz to construct low energy configurations of the SU(N) sixth order Skyrme model. (author)

Performance Evaluation of User Selection Protocols in Random Networks with Energy Harvesting and Hardware Impairments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tan Nhat Nguyen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we evaluate performances of various user selection protocols under impact of hardware impairments. In the considered protocols, a Base Station (BS selects one of available Users (US to serve, while the remaining USs harvest the energy from the Radio Frequency (RF transmitted by the BS. We assume that all of the US randomly appear around the BS. In the Random Selection Protocol (RAN, the BS randomly selects a US to transmit the data. In the second proposed protocol, named Minimum Distance Protocol (MIND, the US that is nearest to the BS will be chosen. In the Optimal Selection Protocol (OPT, the US providing the highest channel gain between itself and the BS will be served. For performance evaluation, we derive exact and asymptotic closed-form expressions of average Outage Probability (OP over Rayleigh fading channels. We also consider average harvested energy per a US. Finally, Monte-Carlo simulations are then performed to verify the theoretical results.

Sixth annual report of RADMIL 1990/91

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

This sixth annual report of RADMIL draws together all parts of the programme of monitoring of radiation and radioactivity in Lancashire from April 1990 to March 1991, including work on radon and intertidal areas, which in previous years has been published separately, and measurements relating to internal exposure from airborne particulates and foodstuffs, i.e. milk, meat, aquatic foods, vegetables etc. (UK)

A Survey of English Sixth Formers' Knowledge of Early Brain Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Nolan, Mary

2017-10-01

Objectives To ascertain the knowledge of young people aged 16 to 19 of early brain development and their attitudes towards the care of babies and preschool children. Design Cross-sectional, school- and college-based survey including all sixth form students present on the days of data collection. The survey instrument comprised forced-choice questions in four sections: Demographics, Perceptions and Understanding of Early Childhood Development, Parental Behaviors to Support Early Brain development, and Resource Needs and Usage. Setting Two sixth form schools and one sixth form college in three towns of varying affluence in the West Midlands of the United Kingdom. Method The survey was mounted online and completed by 905 students who returned it directly to the researcher. Results Most students knew that tobacco, alcohol, and drugs are hazardous in pregnancy, and many recognized the impact of maternal stress on fetal brain development. Many believed that babies can be "spoiled" and did not appreciate the importance of reading to babies and of the relationship between play and early brain development. A significant minority thought that physical activity and a healthy diet have little impact on young children's development. Respondents said they would turn firstly to their parents for advice on baby care rather than professionals. Conclusion Young people need educating about parenting activities that support the all-round healthy development of infants. The importance of a healthy diet, physical activity, reading, and play should be included in sixth form curricula and antenatal classes. Consideration should be given to educating grandparents because of their influence on new parents.

The reliability of randomly selected final year pharmacy students in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Employing ANOVA, factorial experimental analysis, and the theory of error, reliability studies were conducted on the assessment of the drug product chloroquine phosphate tablets. The G–Study employed equal numbers of the factors for uniform control, and involved three analysts (randomly selected final year Pharmacy ...

Central pontine myelinolysis presenting as isolated sixth nerve palsy in third trimester of pregnancy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tushar Divakar Gosavi

2015-01-01

Full Text Available A 30-year-old primigravida presented with isolated left sixth nerve palsy at 38 weeks gestation. Her MRI showed a lesion consistent with central pontine myelinolysis (CPM. Extensive investigations did not reveal any secondary cause for the CPM. She recovered spontaneously in 2 weeks with complete resolution of her MRI changes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of CPM occurring in third trimester in the absence of identifiable secondary causes and of CPM presenting as an isolated sixth nerve palsy. We discuss the reported causes of CPM in pregnancy, possible pathophysiologic mechanisms involved and the anatomic basis of the unique clinical presentation of sixth nerve palsy in our case.

Theoretical mechanics for sixth forms

CERN Document Server

Plumpton, C

1971-01-01

Theoretical Mechanics for Sixth Forms, Second Edition is a 14-chapter book that begins by elucidating the nature of theoretical mechanics. The book then describes the statics of a particle in illustration of the techniques of handling vector quantities. Subsequent chapters focus on the principle of moments, parallel forces and centers of gravity; and the application of Newton's second law to the dynamics of a particle and the ideas of work and energy, impulse and momentum, and power. The concept of friction is also explained. This volume concludes with chapters concerning motion in a circle an

Random selection of items. Selection of n1 samples among N items composing a stratum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaech, J.L.; Lemaire, R.J.

1987-02-01

STR-224 provides generalized procedures to determine required sample sizes, for instance in the course of a Physical Inventory Verification at Bulk Handling Facilities. The present report describes procedures to generate random numbers and select groups of items to be verified in a given stratum through each of the measurement methods involved in the verification. (author). 3 refs

Book Review: Game Ranch Management (Sixth Edition) | Peel ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Book Title: Game Ranch Management (Sixth Edition). Book Authors: J du P Bothma & J.G. du Toit (Eds.) 2016, Van Schaik Publishers, PO Box 12681, Hatfield 0028, Pretoria, South Africa 1012 pages, hardcover, eBook and ePub. ISBN: 9780627033469, 9780627033476 (eBook), 9780627034909 (ePub). Price R949.00 ...

Numerical investigation of sixth order Boussinesq equation

Science.gov (United States)

Kolkovska, N.; Vucheva, V.

2017-10-01

We propose a family of conservative finite difference schemes for the Boussinesq equation with sixth order dispersion terms. The schemes are of second order of approximation. The method is conditionally stable with a mild restriction τ = O(h) on the step sizes. Numerical tests are performed for quadratic and cubic nonlinearities. The numerical experiments show second order of convergence of the discrete solution to the exact one.

The mathematics of random mutation and natural selection for multiple simultaneous selection pressures and the evolution of antimicrobial drug resistance.

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinman, Alan

2016-12-20

The random mutation and natural selection phenomenon act in a mathematically predictable behavior, which when understood leads to approaches to reduce and prevent the failure of the use of these selection pressures when treating infections and cancers. The underlying principle to impair the random mutation and natural selection phenomenon is to use combination therapy, which forces the population to evolve to multiple selection pressures simultaneously that invoke the multiplication rule of probabilities simultaneously as well. Recently, it has been seen that combination therapy for the treatment of malaria has failed to prevent the emergence of drug-resistant variants. Using this empirical example and the principles of probability theory, the derivation of the equations describing this treatment failure is carried out. These equations give guidance as to how to use combination therapy for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases and prevent the emergence of drug resistance. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effect of Vitamin E on Oxaliplatin-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Prevention: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Salehi, Zeinab; Roayaei, Mahnaz

2015-01-01

Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most important limitations of oxaliplatin base regimen, which is the standard for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Evidence has shown that Vitamin E may be protective in chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Vitamin E administration on prevention of oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with colorectal cancer. This was a prospective randomized, controlled clinical trial. Patients with colorectal cancer and scheduled to receive oxaliplatin-based regimens were enrolled in this study. Enrolled patients were randomized into two groups. The first group received Vitamin E at a dose of 400 mg daily and the second group observed, until after the sixth course of the oxaliplatin regimen. For oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy assessment, we used the symptom experience diary questionnaire that completed at baseline and after the sixth course of chemotherapy. Only patients with a score of zero at baseline were eligible for this study. Thirty-two patients were randomized to the Vitamin E group and 33 to the control group. There was no difference in the mean peripheral neuropathy score changes (after - before) between two groups, after sixth course of the oxaliplatin base regimen (mean difference [after - before] of Vitamin E group = 6.37 ± 2.85, control group = 6.57 ± 2.94; P = 0.78). Peripheral neuropathy scores were significantly increased after intervention compared with a base line in each group (P peripheral neuropathy.

Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Sixth Edition

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Colin; Wright, Wayne E.

2017-01-01

The sixth edition of this bestselling textbook has been substantially revised and updated to provide a comprehensive introduction to bilingualism and bilingual education in the 21st century. Written in a compact and clear style, the book covers all the crucial issues in bilingualism at individual, group and societal levels. Updates to the new…

A Bayesian random effects discrete-choice model for resource selection: Population-level selection inference

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, D.L.; Johnson, D.; Griffith, B.

2006-01-01

Modeling the probability of use of land units characterized by discrete and continuous measures, we present a Bayesian random-effects model to assess resource selection. This model provides simultaneous estimation of both individual- and population-level selection. Deviance information criterion (DIC), a Bayesian alternative to AIC that is sample-size specific, is used for model selection. Aerial radiolocation data from 76 adult female caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and calf pairs during 1 year on an Arctic coastal plain calving ground were used to illustrate models and assess population-level selection of landscape attributes, as well as individual heterogeneity of selection. Landscape attributes included elevation, NDVI (a measure of forage greenness), and land cover-type classification. Results from the first of a 2-stage model-selection procedure indicated that there is substantial heterogeneity among cow-calf pairs with respect to selection of the landscape attributes. In the second stage, selection of models with heterogeneity included indicated that at the population-level, NDVI and land cover class were significant attributes for selection of different landscapes by pairs on the calving ground. Population-level selection coefficients indicate that the pairs generally select landscapes with higher levels of NDVI, but the relationship is quadratic. The highest rate of selection occurs at values of NDVI less than the maximum observed. Results for land cover-class selections coefficients indicate that wet sedge, moist sedge, herbaceous tussock tundra, and shrub tussock tundra are selected at approximately the same rate, while alpine and sparsely vegetated landscapes are selected at a lower rate. Furthermore, the variability in selection by individual caribou for moist sedge and sparsely vegetated landscapes is large relative to the variability in selection of other land cover types. The example analysis illustrates that, while sometimes computationally intense, a

Sixth ITER technical meeting on safety and environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saji, G.; Baker, D.

1997-01-01

The article summarizes the topics of the Sixth Technical Meeting on Safety and Environment which was held to review the first draft of the Non-Site Specific Safety Report (NSSR-2) and the draft of the ITER Final Design Report Safety Assessment (FDR-Safety) during October 27 - November 4, 1997 at the ITER San Diego Joint Work Site

The signature of positive selection at randomly chosen loci.

Science.gov (United States)

Przeworski, Molly

2002-03-01

In Drosophila and humans, there are accumulating examples of loci with a significant excess of high-frequency-derived alleles or high levels of linkage disequilibrium, relative to a neutral model of a random-mating population of constant size. These are features expected after a recent selective sweep. Their prevalence suggests that positive directional selection may be widespread in both species. However, as I show here, these features do not persist long after the sweep ends: The high-frequency alleles drift to fixation and no longer contribute to polymorphism, while linkage disequilibrium is broken down by recombination. As a result, loci chosen without independent evidence of recent selection are not expected to exhibit either of these features, even if they have been affected by numerous sweeps in their genealogical history. How then can we explain the patterns in the data? One possibility is population structure, with unequal sampling from different subpopulations. Alternatively, positive selection may not operate as is commonly modeled. In particular, the rate of fixation of advantageous mutations may have increased in the recent past.

Genetic analyses of partial egg production in Japanese quail using multi-trait random regression models.

Science.gov (United States)

Karami, K; Zerehdaran, S; Barzanooni, B; Lotfi, E

2017-12-01

1. The aim of the present study was to estimate genetic parameters for average egg weight (EW) and egg number (EN) at different ages in Japanese quail using multi-trait random regression (MTRR) models. 2. A total of 8534 records from 900 quail, hatched between 2014 and 2015, were used in the study. Average weekly egg weights and egg numbers were measured from second until sixth week of egg production. 3. Nine random regression models were compared to identify the best order of the Legendre polynomials (LP). The most optimal model was identified by the Bayesian Information Criterion. A model with second order of LP for fixed effects, second order of LP for additive genetic effects and third order of LP for permanent environmental effects (MTRR23) was found to be the best. 4. According to the MTRR23 model, direct heritability for EW increased from 0.26 in the second week to 0.53 in the sixth week of egg production, whereas the ratio of permanent environment to phenotypic variance decreased from 0.48 to 0.1. Direct heritability for EN was low, whereas the ratio of permanent environment to phenotypic variance decreased from 0.57 to 0.15 during the production period. 5. For each trait, estimated genetic correlations among weeks of egg production were high (from 0.85 to 0.98). Genetic correlations between EW and EN were low and negative for the first two weeks, but they were low and positive for the rest of the egg production period. 6. In conclusion, random regression models can be used effectively for analysing egg production traits in Japanese quail. Response to selection for increased egg weight would be higher at older ages because of its higher heritability and such a breeding program would have no negative genetic impact on egg production.

The search for the sixth quark

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jauneau, M.

1995-01-01

The National Fermi Laboratory near Chicago has the world's most powerful accelerator, the Tevatron. With this instrument, researchers have found clues to the existence of the sixth quark; proof of its existence would confirm the theory of fundamental interactions which attempts to explain the origin of the universe. This theory recognizes three forces, weak, electromagnetic and strong, which are, or not, acting on the different particles. This paper retraces the history of the discovery of the elementary particles, an adventure in which the development of major research instruments has played an important part. (author)

Differential privacy-based evaporative cooling feature selection and classification with relief-F and random forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Le, Trang T; Simmons, W Kyle; Misaki, Masaya; Bodurka, Jerzy; White, Bill C; Savitz, Jonathan; McKinney, Brett A

2017-09-15

Classification of individuals into disease or clinical categories from high-dimensional biological data with low prediction error is an important challenge of statistical learning in bioinformatics. Feature selection can improve classification accuracy but must be incorporated carefully into cross-validation to avoid overfitting. Recently, feature selection methods based on differential privacy, such as differentially private random forests and reusable holdout sets, have been proposed. However, for domains such as bioinformatics, where the number of features is much larger than the number of observations p≫n , these differential privacy methods are susceptible to overfitting. We introduce private Evaporative Cooling, a stochastic privacy-preserving machine learning algorithm that uses Relief-F for feature selection and random forest for privacy preserving classification that also prevents overfitting. We relate the privacy-preserving threshold mechanism to a thermodynamic Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, where the temperature represents the privacy threshold. We use the thermal statistical physics concept of Evaporative Cooling of atomic gases to perform backward stepwise privacy-preserving feature selection. On simulated data with main effects and statistical interactions, we compare accuracies on holdout and validation sets for three privacy-preserving methods: the reusable holdout, reusable holdout with random forest, and private Evaporative Cooling, which uses Relief-F feature selection and random forest classification. In simulations where interactions exist between attributes, private Evaporative Cooling provides higher classification accuracy without overfitting based on an independent validation set. In simulations without interactions, thresholdout with random forest and private Evaporative Cooling give comparable accuracies. We also apply these privacy methods to human brain resting-state fMRI data from a study of major depressive disorder. Code

Sixth taste – starch taste?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zygmunt Zdrojewicz

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Scientists from Oregon State University, USA, came up with the newest theory of the sixth taste – starch taste that might soon join the basic five tastes. This argument is supported by studies done on both animals and humans, the results of which seem to indicate the existence of separate receptors for starch taste, others than for sweet taste. Starch is a glucose homopolymer that forms an α-glucoside chain called glucosan or glucan. This polysaccharide constitutes the most important source of carbohydrates in food. It can be found in groats, potatoes, legumes, grains, manioc and corn. Apart from its presence in food, starch is also used in textile, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and stationery industries as well as in glue production. This polysaccharide is made of an unbranched helical structure – amylose (15–20%, and a structure that forms branched chains – amylopectin (80–85%. The starch structure, degree of its crystallisation or hydration as well as its availability determine the speed of food-contained starch hydrolysis by amylase. So far, starch has been considered tasteless, but the newest report shows that for people of different origins it is associated with various aliments specific for each culture. Apart from a number of scientific experiments using sweet taste inhibitors, the existence of the sixth taste is also confirmed by molecular studies. However, in order to officially include starch taste to the basic human tastes, it must fulfil certain criteria. The aim of the study is to present contemporary views on starch.

Evaluating multiple polylogarithm values at sixth roots of unity up to weight six

Science.gov (United States)

Henn, J. M.; Smirnov, A. V.; Smirnov, V. A.

2017-06-01

We evaluate multiple polylogarithm values at sixth roots of unity up to weight six, i.e. of the form G (a1 , … ,aw ; 1) where the indices ai are equal to zero or a sixth root of unity, with a1 ≠ 1. For w ≤ 6, we construct bases of the linear spaces generated by the real and imaginary parts of G (a1 , … ,aw ; 1) and obtain a table for expressing them as linear combinations of the elements of the bases.

Political Awareness of Sixth Graders in a Rural Kentucky County.

Science.gov (United States)

Singleton, J. Allen; Conner, Mary Lou

1981-01-01

Presents charts depicting responses of rural sixth grade students to factual and opinion questions about political awareness. Concludes that students have limited knowledge and awareness of the various levels of government and of matters related to government. (Author/KC)

Interference-aware random beam selection schemes for spectrum sharing systems

KAUST Repository

Abdallah, Mohamed

2012-10-19

Spectrum sharing systems have been recently introduced to alleviate the problem of spectrum scarcity by allowing secondary unlicensed networks to share the spectrum with primary licensed networks under acceptable interference levels to the primary users. In this work, we develop interference-aware random beam selection schemes that provide enhanced performance for the secondary network under the condition that the interference observed by the receivers of the primary network is below a predetermined/acceptable value. We consider a secondary link composed of a transmitter equipped with multiple antennas and a single-antenna receiver sharing the same spectrum with a primary link composed of a single-antenna transmitter and a single-antenna receiver. The proposed schemes select a beam, among a set of power-optimized random beams, that maximizes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the secondary link while satisfying the primary interference constraint for different levels of feedback information describing the interference level at the primary receiver. For the proposed schemes, we develop a statistical analysis for the SINR statistics as well as the capacity and bit error rate (BER) of the secondary link.

Topology-selective jamming of fully-connected, code-division random-access networks

Science.gov (United States)

Polydoros, Andreas; Cheng, Unjeng

1990-01-01

The purpose is to introduce certain models of topology selective stochastic jamming and examine its impact on a class of fully-connected, spread-spectrum, slotted ALOHA-type random access networks. The theory covers dedicated as well as half-duplex units. The dominant role of the spatial duty factor is established, and connections with the dual concept of time selective jamming are discussed. The optimal choices of coding rate and link access parameters (from the users' side) and the jamming spatial fraction are numerically established for DS and FH spreading.

Proceedings of the Canadian Nuclear Society sixth annual conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

French, P.M.; Phillips, G.J.

1985-01-01

The proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society comprise 103 papers on the following subjects: fuel technology, nuclear plant safety, instrumentation, public and regulatory matters, fusion, fuel behaviour under normal and accident conditions, nuclear plant design and operations, thermal hydraulics, reactor physics, accelerators, waste management, new reactor concepts

Hilbert's sixth problem: between the foundations of geometry and the axiomatization of physics

Science.gov (United States)

Corry, Leo

2018-04-01

The sixth of Hilbert's famous 1900 list of 23 problems was a programmatic call for the axiomatization of the physical sciences. It was naturally and organically rooted at the core of Hilbert's conception of what axiomatization is all about. In fact, the axiomatic method which he applied at the turn of the twentieth century in his famous work on the foundations of geometry originated in a preoccupation with foundational questions related with empirical science in general. Indeed, far from a purely formal conception, Hilbert counted geometry among the sciences with strong empirical content, closely related to other branches of physics and deserving a treatment similar to that reserved for the latter. In this treatment, the axiomatization project was meant to play, in his view, a crucial role. Curiously, and contrary to a once-prevalent view, from all the problems in the list, the sixth is the only one that continually engaged Hilbet's efforts over a very long period of time, at least between 1894 and 1932. This article is part of the theme issue `Hilbert's sixth problem'.

Hilbert's sixth problem: between the foundations of geometry and the axiomatization of physics.

Science.gov (United States)

Corry, Leo

2018-04-28

The sixth of Hilbert's famous 1900 list of 23 problems was a programmatic call for the axiomatization of the physical sciences. It was naturally and organically rooted at the core of Hilbert's conception of what axiomatization is all about. In fact, the axiomatic method which he applied at the turn of the twentieth century in his famous work on the foundations of geometry originated in a preoccupation with foundational questions related with empirical science in general. Indeed, far from a purely formal conception, Hilbert counted geometry among the sciences with strong empirical content, closely related to other branches of physics and deserving a treatment similar to that reserved for the latter. In this treatment, the axiomatization project was meant to play, in his view, a crucial role. Curiously, and contrary to a once-prevalent view, from all the problems in the list, the sixth is the only one that continually engaged Hilbet's efforts over a very long period of time, at least between 1894 and 1932.This article is part of the theme issue 'Hilbert's sixth problem'. © 2018 The Author(s).

THE SIXTH SEAL IN REVELATION 6:12-17 1. INTRODUCTION

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Before attention is given to the sixth seal, some general remarks on form must be ..... the listeners had images from the seven letters fresh in memory. They ... coherence with the rest of the book, providing more information about what was said ...

Peculiarities of the statistics of spectrally selected fluorescence radiation in laser-pumped dye-doped random media

Science.gov (United States)

Yuvchenko, S. A.; Ushakova, E. V.; Pavlova, M. V.; Alonova, M. V.; Zimnyakov, D. A.

2018-04-01

We consider the practical realization of a new optical probe method of the random media which is defined as the reference-free path length interferometry with the intensity moments analysis. A peculiarity in the statistics of the spectrally selected fluorescence radiation in laser-pumped dye-doped random medium is discussed. Previously established correlations between the second- and the third-order moments of the intensity fluctuations in the random interference patterns, the coherence function of the probe radiation, and the path difference probability density for the interfering partial waves in the medium are confirmed. The correlations were verified using the statistical analysis of the spectrally selected fluorescence radiation emitted by a laser-pumped dye-doped random medium. Water solution of Rhodamine 6G was applied as the doping fluorescent agent for the ensembles of the densely packed silica grains, which were pumped by the 532 nm radiation of a solid state laser. The spectrum of the mean path length for a random medium was reconstructed.

8 CFR 212.9 - Applicability of section 212(a)(32) to certain derivative third and sixth preference and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... certain derivative third and sixth preference and nonpreference immigrants. 212.9 Section 212.9 Aliens and Nationality DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS DOCUMENTARY REQUIREMENTS: NONIMMIGRANTS... certain derivative third and sixth preference and nonpreference immigrants. A derivative beneficiary who...

christian prisoners: fifth and sixth century inscriptions from corinth1

African Journals Online (AJOL)

instances, there is material from the fifth or sixth centuries. By this time, the majority of ... as Christian on the basis of crosses as well as specific Christian names ... Even when a petition to be rescued or ransomed is not expressed directly, it is ...

A digital input class-D audio amplifier with sixth-order PWM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo Shumeng; Li Dongmei

2013-01-01

A digital input class-D audio amplifier with a sixth-order pulse-width modulation (PWM) modulator is presented. This modulator moves the PWM generator into the closed sigma—delta modulator loop. The noise and distortions generated at the PWM generator module are suppressed by the high gain of the forward loop of the sigma—delta modulator. Therefore, at the output of the modulator, a very clean PWM signal is acquired for driving the power stage of the class-D amplifier. A sixth-order modulator is designed to balance the performance and the system clock speed. Fabricated in standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology, this class-D amplifier achieves 110 dB dynamic range, 100 dB signal-to-noise rate, and 0.0056% total harmonic distortion plus noise. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

Proceedings of Sixth National Seminar of Waste Management Technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sucipta; Zainus Salimin; Lubis, Erwansyah; Herlan Martono; Aisyah; Syahrir; Erini Yuwatini; Thamzil Las; Kusnanto

2008-06-01

The sixth proceedings of the seminar on technology of waste management held by National Nuclear Energy Agency on June 24, 2007. The aim of seminar is to increase strengthening of radioactive waste management infrastructure to support a success in nuclear energy program in Indonesia. The proceedings consist of 32 articles from researcher of BATAN and outside BATAN. (PPIKSN)

An overview of the third, fourth and sixth cranial nerve palsies

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Palsies of the third, fourth and sixth cranial nerves have ophthalmological consequences. W Marais, MB .... dorsal aspect of the brain (Fig. 4). • crossed ... right hypertropia in left gaze and left .... Clinical Science Course, section 5. American.

A random regression model in analysis of litter size in pigs | Lukovi& ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Dispersion parameters for number of piglets born alive (NBA) were estimated using a random regression model (RRM). Two data sets of litter records from the Nemščak farm in Slovenia were used for analyses. The first dataset (DS1) included records from the first to the sixth parity. The second dataset (DS2) was extended ...

Blind Measurement Selection: A Random Matrix Theory Approach

KAUST Repository

Elkhalil, Khalil

2016-12-14

This paper considers the problem of selecting a set of $k$ measurements from $n$ available sensor observations. The selected measurements should minimize a certain error function assessing the error in estimating a certain $m$ dimensional parameter vector. The exhaustive search inspecting each of the $n\\\\choose k$ possible choices would require a very high computational complexity and as such is not practical for large $n$ and $k$. Alternative methods with low complexity have recently been investigated but their main drawbacks are that 1) they require perfect knowledge of the measurement matrix and 2) they need to be applied at the pace of change of the measurement matrix. To overcome these issues, we consider the asymptotic regime in which $k$, $n$ and $m$ grow large at the same pace. Tools from random matrix theory are then used to approximate in closed-form the most important error measures that are commonly used. The asymptotic approximations are then leveraged to select properly $k$ measurements exhibiting low values for the asymptotic error measures. Two heuristic algorithms are proposed: the first one merely consists in applying the convex optimization artifice to the asymptotic error measure. The second algorithm is a low-complexity greedy algorithm that attempts to look for a sufficiently good solution for the original minimization problem. The greedy algorithm can be applied to both the exact and the asymptotic error measures and can be thus implemented in blind and channel-aware fashions. We present two potential applications where the proposed algorithms can be used, namely antenna selection for uplink transmissions in large scale multi-user systems and sensor selection for wireless sensor networks. Numerical results are also presented and sustain the efficiency of the proposed blind methods in reaching the performances of channel-aware algorithms.

Complexity in Coalition Operations: The Campaign of the Sixth Coalition Against Napoleon

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Turner, Kenneth

2003-01-01

The Campaign of the Sixth Coalition, from the Summer of 1813 until the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, offers some important and valid insights into the successful execution of coalition warfare...

Supporting students' strategic competence: a case of a sixth-grade mathematics classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Özdemir, İ. Elif Yetkin; Pape, Stephen J.

2012-06-01

Mathematics education research has documented several classroom practices that might influence student self-regulation. We know little, however, about the ways these classroom practices could be structured in real classroom settings. In this exploratory case study, we purposefully selected a sixth-grade mathematics teacher who had participated in a professional development program focussed on NCTM standards and SRL in the mathematics classroom for extensive classroom observation. The purpose was to explore how and to what extend she structured classroom practices to support strategic competence in her students. Four features of classroom practices were found as evidence for how strategic competence was potentially supported in this classroom: (a) allowing autonomy and shared responsibility during the early stages of learning, (b) focusing on student understanding, (c) creating contexts for students to learn about strategic learning and to exercise strategic behaviour, and (d) helping students to personalise strategies by recognising their ideas and strategic behaviours.

Raising voices: How sixth graders construct authority and knowledge in argumentative essays

Science.gov (United States)

Monahan, Mary Elizabeth

This qualitative classroom-based study documents one teacher-researcher's response to the "voice" debate in composition studies and to the opposing views expressed by Elbow and Bartholomae. The author uses Bakhtin's principle of dialogism, Hymes's theory of communicative competence, as well as Ivanic's discussion of discoursally constructed identities to reconceptualize voice and to redesign writing instruction in her sixth grade classroom. This study shows how students, by redefining and then acting on that voice pedagogy in terms that made sense to them, shaped the author's understanding of what counts as "voiced" writing in non-narrative discourse. Based on a grounded-theory analysis of the twenty-six sixth graders' argumentative essays in science, the author explains voice, not as a property of writers or of texts, but as a process of "knowing together"---a collaborative, but not entirely congenial, exercise of establishing one's authority by talking with, against, and through other voices on the issue. As the results of this study show, the students' "I-Ness" or authorial presence within their texts, was born in a nexus of relationships with "rivals," "allies" and "readers." Given their teacher's injunctions to project confidence and authority in argumentative writing, the students assumed fairly adversarial stances toward these conversational partners throughout their essays. Exaggerating the terms for voiced writing built into the curriculum, the sixth graders produced essays that read more like caricatures than examples of argumentation. Their displays of rhetorical bravado and intellectual aggressiveness, however offsetting to the reader, still enabled these sixth graders to composed voiced essays. This study raises doubts about the value of urging students to sound like their "true selves" or to adopt the formal registers of academe. Students, it seems clear, stand to gain by experimenting with a range of textual identities. The author suggests that voice

Using ArcMap, Google Earth, and Global Positioning Systems to select and locate random households in rural Haiti.

Science.gov (United States)

Wampler, Peter J; Rediske, Richard R; Molla, Azizur R

2013-01-18

A remote sensing technique was developed which combines a Geographic Information System (GIS); Google Earth, and Microsoft Excel to identify home locations for a random sample of households in rural Haiti. The method was used to select homes for ethnographic and water quality research in a region of rural Haiti located within 9 km of a local hospital and source of health education in Deschapelles, Haiti. The technique does not require access to governmental records or ground based surveys to collect household location data and can be performed in a rapid, cost-effective manner. The random selection of households and the location of these households during field surveys were accomplished using GIS, Google Earth, Microsoft Excel, and handheld Garmin GPSmap 76CSx GPS units. Homes were identified and mapped in Google Earth, exported to ArcMap 10.0, and a random list of homes was generated using Microsoft Excel which was then loaded onto handheld GPS units for field location. The development and use of a remote sensing method was essential to the selection and location of random households. A total of 537 homes initially were mapped and a randomized subset of 96 was identified as potential survey locations. Over 96% of the homes mapped using Google Earth imagery were correctly identified as occupied dwellings. Only 3.6% of the occupants of mapped homes visited declined to be interviewed. 16.4% of the homes visited were not occupied at the time of the visit due to work away from the home or market days. A total of 55 households were located using this method during the 10 days of fieldwork in May and June of 2012. The method used to generate and field locate random homes for surveys and water sampling was an effective means of selecting random households in a rural environment lacking geolocation infrastructure. The success rate for locating households using a handheld GPS was excellent and only rarely was local knowledge required to identify and locate households. This

Using ArcMap, Google Earth, and Global Positioning Systems to select and locate random households in rural Haiti

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wampler Peter J

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A remote sensing technique was developed which combines a Geographic Information System (GIS; Google Earth, and Microsoft Excel to identify home locations for a random sample of households in rural Haiti. The method was used to select homes for ethnographic and water quality research in a region of rural Haiti located within 9 km of a local hospital and source of health education in Deschapelles, Haiti. The technique does not require access to governmental records or ground based surveys to collect household location data and can be performed in a rapid, cost-effective manner. Methods The random selection of households and the location of these households during field surveys were accomplished using GIS, Google Earth, Microsoft Excel, and handheld Garmin GPSmap 76CSx GPS units. Homes were identified and mapped in Google Earth, exported to ArcMap 10.0, and a random list of homes was generated using Microsoft Excel which was then loaded onto handheld GPS units for field location. The development and use of a remote sensing method was essential to the selection and location of random households. Results A total of 537 homes initially were mapped and a randomized subset of 96 was identified as potential survey locations. Over 96% of the homes mapped using Google Earth imagery were correctly identified as occupied dwellings. Only 3.6% of the occupants of mapped homes visited declined to be interviewed. 16.4% of the homes visited were not occupied at the time of the visit due to work away from the home or market days. A total of 55 households were located using this method during the 10 days of fieldwork in May and June of 2012. Conclusions The method used to generate and field locate random homes for surveys and water sampling was an effective means of selecting random households in a rural environment lacking geolocation infrastructure. The success rate for locating households using a handheld GPS was excellent and only

Sixth international workshop on linear colliders. Proceedings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Urakawa, Junji [ed.

1995-08-01

The sixth international workshop on linear colliders (LC95) was held by KEK at Tsukuba Center for Institute. In the workshop 8 parallel working group were organized: WG1 (beam sources and injection linacs), WG2 (damping rings and bunch compressors), WG3 (a: RF sources and structures, b: superconducting cavities, c: two beam accelerators), WG4 (beam dynamics in main linacs), WG5 (final focus and integration regions), WG6 (beam instrumentation), WG7 (overall parameters and construction techniques), WG8 (gamma-gamma collider and miscellaneous). This issue compiles materials which were used in the workshop. (J.P.N.).

Sixth international workshop on linear colliders. Proceedings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Urakawa, Junji

1995-08-01

The sixth international workshop on linear colliders (LC95) was held by KEK at Tsukuba Center for Institute. In the workshop 8 parallel working group were organized: WG1 (beam sources and injection linacs), WG2 (damping rings and bunch compressors), WG3 (a: RF sources and structures, b: superconducting cavities, c: two beam accelerators), WG4 (beam dynamics in main linacs), WG5 (final focus and integration regions), WG6 (beam instrumentation), WG7 (overall parameters and construction techniques), WG8 (gamma-gamma collider and miscellaneous). This issue compiles materials which were used in the workshop. (J.P.N.)

Sixth- and eighth-order Hermite integrator for N-body simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Nitadori, Keigo; Makino, Junichiro

2008-10-01

We present sixth- and eighth-order Hermite integrators for astrophysical N-body simulations, which use the derivatives of accelerations up to second-order ( snap) and third-order ( crackle). These schemes do not require previous values for the corrector, and require only one previous value to construct the predictor. Thus, they are fairly easy to implement. The additional cost of the calculation of the higher-order derivatives is not very high. Even for the eighth-order scheme, the number of floating-point operations for force calculation is only about two times larger than that for traditional fourth-order Hermite scheme. The sixth-order scheme is better than the traditional fourth-order scheme for most cases. When the required accuracy is very high, the eighth-order one is the best. These high-order schemes have several practical advantages. For example, they allow a larger number of particles to be integrated in parallel than the fourth-order scheme does, resulting in higher execution efficiency in both general-purpose parallel computers and GRAPE systems.

Optimizing Event Selection with the Random Grid Search

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bhat, Pushpalatha C. [Fermilab; Prosper, Harrison B. [Florida State U.; Sekmen, Sezen [Kyungpook Natl. U.; Stewart, Chip [Broad Inst., Cambridge

2017-06-29

The random grid search (RGS) is a simple, but efficient, stochastic algorithm to find optimal cuts that was developed in the context of the search for the top quark at Fermilab in the mid-1990s. The algorithm, and associated code, have been enhanced recently with the introduction of two new cut types, one of which has been successfully used in searches for supersymmetry at the Large Hadron Collider. The RGS optimization algorithm is described along with the recent developments, which are illustrated with two examples from particle physics. One explores the optimization of the selection of vector boson fusion events in the four-lepton decay mode of the Higgs boson and the other optimizes SUSY searches using boosted objects and the razor variables.

Non-random mating for selection with restricted rates of inbreeding and overlapping generations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sonesson, A.K.; Meuwissen, T.H.E.

2002-01-01

Minimum coancestry mating with a maximum of one offspring per mating pair (MC1) is compared with random mating schemes for populations with overlapping generations. Optimum contribution selection is used, whereby $\\\\\\\\Delta F$ is restricted. For schemes with $\\\\\\\\Delta F$ restricted to 0.25% per

Self-Concept and Sport Participation in Sixth Grade Basic School Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Špela Virag

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the study was to examine self-concept in relation to sport participation among basic school children. The sample included 109 sixth grade students of different Slovenian basic schools. The participants completed the Slovenian version of the SelfPerception Profile for Children – SPPC. The results show significant gender differences in some specific components of self-concept. Boys exhibited higher scores in perceived physical appearance and athletic competence, whereas girls exhibited higher levels in perceived behavioural conduct. Mean values show that students, engaged in organized sport practice, reported higher scores in all self-concept subscales than their inactive peers, although significant differences between these two groups were found in perceived scholastic competence and athletic competence. The study offers a detailed insight into the multidimensional self-perceptions of sixth grade basic school students. The results highlight the importance of physical/sports activity in the self-concept development and can be useful in promoting an active lifestyle among youth.

Sixth Computational Biomechanics for Medicine Workshop

CERN Document Server

Nielsen, Poul MF; Miller, Karol; Computational Biomechanics for Medicine : Deformation and Flow

2012-01-01

One of the greatest challenges for mechanical engineers is to extend the success of computational mechanics to fields outside traditional engineering, in particular to biology, biomedical sciences, and medicine. This book is an opportunity for computational biomechanics specialists to present and exchange opinions on the opportunities of applying their techniques to computer-integrated medicine. Computational Biomechanics for Medicine: Deformation and Flow collects the papers from the Sixth Computational Biomechanics for Medicine Workshop held in Toronto in conjunction with the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention conference. The topics covered include: medical image analysis, image-guided surgery, surgical simulation, surgical intervention planning, disease prognosis and diagnostics, injury mechanism analysis, implant and prostheses design, and medical robotics.

Sixth international conference on electrical machines and drives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-01-01

This volume contains 111 papers presented at the Sixth International Conference on Electrical Machines and Drives. The topics covered include: miniature and micro motors; induction motors; DC machines; reluctance motors; condition monitoring; synchronous machines and drives; induction machines; induction generators; simulation; design; and operating experience; linear machines; noise and vibration; special machines. Separate abstracts have been prepared for a paper on linear step motors for control rod drives and for a paper on a motor drive for gas filtration in gas-cooled reactors. (UK)

Comparative Evaluations of Randomly Selected Four Point-of-Care Glucometer Devices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolde, Mistire; Tarekegn, Getahun; Kebede, Tedla

2018-05-01

Point-of-care glucometer (PoCG) devices play a significant role in self-monitoring of the blood sugar level, particularly in the follow-up of high blood sugar therapeutic response. The aim of this study was to evaluate blood glucose test results performed with four randomly selected glucometers on diabetes and control subjects versus standard wet chemistry (hexokinase) methods in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected 200 study participants (100 participants with diabetes and 100 healthy controls). Four randomly selected PoCG devices (CareSens N, DIAVUE Prudential, On Call Extra, i-QARE DS-W) were evaluated against hexokinase method and ISO 15197:2003 and ISO 15197:2013 standards. The minimum and maximum blood sugar values were recorded by CareSens N (21 mg/dl) and hexokinase method (498.8 mg/dl), respectively. The mean sugar values of all PoCG devices except On Call Extra showed significant differences compared with the reference hexokinase method. Meanwhile, all four PoCG devices had strong positive relationship (>80%) with the reference method (hexokinase). On the other hand, none of the four PoCG devices fulfilled the minimum accuracy measurement set by ISO 15197:2003 and ISO 15197:2013 standards. In addition, the linear regression analysis revealed that all four selected PoCG overestimated the glucose concentrations. The overall evaluation of the selected four PoCG measurements were poorly correlated with standard reference method. Therefore, before introducing PoCG devices to the market, there should be a standardized evaluation platform for validation. Further similar large-scale studies on other PoCG devices also need to be undertaken.

Geography and genography: prediction of continental origin using randomly selected single nucleotide polymorphisms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramoni Marco F

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Recent studies have shown that when individuals are grouped on the basis of genetic similarity, group membership corresponds closely to continental origin. There has been considerable debate about the implications of these findings in the context of larger debates about race and the extent of genetic variation between groups. Some have argued that clustering according to continental origin demonstrates the existence of significant genetic differences between groups and that these differences may have important implications for differences in health and disease. Others argue that clustering according to continental origin requires the use of large amounts of genetic data or specifically chosen markers and is indicative only of very subtle genetic differences that are unlikely to have biomedical significance. Results We used small numbers of randomly selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs from the International HapMap Project to train naïve Bayes classifiers for prediction of ancestral continent of origin. Predictive accuracy was tested on two independent data sets. Genetically similar groups should be difficult to distinguish, especially if only a small number of genetic markers are used. The genetic differences between continentally defined groups are sufficiently large that one can accurately predict ancestral continent of origin using only a minute, randomly selected fraction of the genetic variation present in the human genome. Genotype data from only 50 random SNPs was sufficient to predict ancestral continent of origin in our primary test data set with an average accuracy of 95%. Genetic variations informative about ancestry were common and widely distributed throughout the genome. Conclusion Accurate characterization of ancestry is possible using small numbers of randomly selected SNPs. The results presented here show how investigators conducting genetic association studies can use small numbers of arbitrarily

Recreation Sports to host Sixth Annual Bench Press Competition March 17

OpenAIRE

Kropff, Catherine L.

2007-01-01

Music will blare, red and white lights will flash, and fans will cheer at the Sixth Annual Bench Press Competition to be held Saturday, March 17 at Virginia Tech. Participants will go to the bench to show their lifting skills beginning at 10 a.m. in War Memorial Gym.

A High-Coverage Yersinia pestis Genome from a Sixth-Century Justinianic Plague Victim.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldman, Michal; Harbeck, Michaela; Keller, Marcel; Spyrou, Maria A; Rott, Andreas; Trautmann, Bernd; Scholz, Holger C; Päffgen, Bernd; Peters, Joris; McCormick, Michael; Bos, Kirsten; Herbig, Alexander; Krause, Johannes

2016-11-01

The Justinianic Plague, which started in the sixth century and lasted to the mid eighth century, is thought to be the first of three historically documented plague pandemics causing massive casualties. Historical accounts and molecular data suggest the bacterium Yersinia pestis as its etiological agent. Here we present a new high-coverage (17.9-fold) Y. pestis genome obtained from a sixth-century skeleton recovered from a southern German burial site close to Munich. The reconstructed genome enabled the detection of 30 unique substitutions as well as structural differences that have not been previously described. We report indels affecting a lacl family transcription regulator gene as well as nonsynonymous substitutions in the nrdE, fadJ, and pcp genes, that have been suggested as plague virulence determinants or have been shown to be upregulated in different models of plague infection. In addition, we identify 19 false positive substitutions in a previously published lower-coverage Y. pestis genome from another archaeological site of the same time period and geographical region that is otherwise genetically identical to the high-coverage genome sequence reported here, suggesting low-genetic diversity of the plague during the sixth century in rural southern Germany. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Fuzzy Random λ-Mean SAD Portfolio Selection Problem: An Ant Colony Optimization Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Thakur, Gour Sundar Mitra; Bhattacharyya, Rupak; Mitra, Swapan Kumar

2010-10-01

To reach the investment goal, one has to select a combination of securities among different portfolios containing large number of securities. Only the past records of each security do not guarantee the future return. As there are many uncertain factors which directly or indirectly influence the stock market and there are also some newer stock markets which do not have enough historical data, experts' expectation and experience must be combined with the past records to generate an effective portfolio selection model. In this paper the return of security is assumed to be Fuzzy Random Variable Set (FRVS), where returns are set of random numbers which are in turn fuzzy numbers. A new λ-Mean Semi Absolute Deviation (λ-MSAD) portfolio selection model is developed. The subjective opinions of the investors to the rate of returns of each security are taken into consideration by introducing a pessimistic-optimistic parameter vector λ. λ-Mean Semi Absolute Deviation (λ-MSAD) model is preferred as it follows absolute deviation of the rate of returns of a portfolio instead of the variance as the measure of the risk. As this model can be reduced to Linear Programming Problem (LPP) it can be solved much faster than quadratic programming problems. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is used for solving the portfolio selection problem. ACO is a paradigm for designing meta-heuristic algorithms for combinatorial optimization problem. Data from BSE is used for illustration.

Pediatric selective mutism therapy: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Esposito, Maria; Gimigliano, Francesca; Barillari, Maria R; Precenzano, Francesco; Ruberto, Maria; Sepe, Joseph; Barillari, Umberto; Gimigliano, Raffaele; Militerni, Roberto; Messina, Giovanni; Carotenuto, Marco

2017-10-01

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare disease in children coded by DSM-5 as an anxiety disorder. Despite the disabling nature of the disease, there is still no specific treatment. The aims of this study were to verify the efficacy of six-month standard psychomotor treatment and the positive changes in lifestyle, in a population of children affected by SM. Randomized controlled trial registered in the European Clinical Trials Registry (EuDract 2015-001161-36). University third level Centre (Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Clinic). Study population was composed by 67 children in group A (psychomotricity treatment) (35 M, mean age 7.84±1.15) and 71 children in group B (behavioral and educational counseling) (37 M, mean age 7.75±1.36). Psychomotor treatment was administered by trained child therapists in residential settings three times per week. Each child was treated for the whole period by the same therapist and all the therapists shared the same protocol. The standard psychomotor session length is of 45 minutes. At T0 and after 6 months (T1) of treatments, patients underwent a behavioral and SM severity assessment. To verify the effects of the psychomotor management, the Child Behavior Checklist questionnaire (CBCL) and Selective Mutism Questionnaire (SMQ) were administered to the parents. After 6 months of psychomotor treatment SM children showed a significant reduction among CBCL scores such as in social relations, anxious/depressed, social problems and total problems (Pselective mutism, even if further studies are needed. The present study identifies in psychomotricity a safe and efficacy therapy for pediatric selective mutism.

Cusp-Gun Sixth-Harmonic Slotted Gyrotron

Science.gov (United States)

Stutzman, R. C.; McDermott, D. B.; Hirata Luhmann, Y., Jr.; Gallagher, D. A.; Spencer, T. A.

2000-10-01

A high-harmonic slotted gyrotron has been constructed at UC Davis to be driven by a 70 kV, 3.5 A, axis-encircling electron beam from a Northrop Grumman Cusp gun. The 94 GHz, slotted sixth-harmonic gyrotron is predicted to generate 50 kW with an efficiency of 20%. Using the profile of the adiabatic field reversal from the UC Davis superconducting test-magnet, EGUN simulations predict that an axis-encircling electron beam will be generated with an axial velocity spread of Δ v_z/v_z=10% for the desired velocity ratio of α =v_z/v_z=1.5. The design will also be presented for an 8th-harmonic W-band gyrotron whose magnetic field can be supplied by a lightweight permanent magnet.

The sixth sense : synaesthesia and British aestheticism, 1860-1900

OpenAIRE

Poueymirou, Margaux Lynn Rosa

2009-01-01

“The Sixth Sense: Synaesthesia and British Aestheticism 1860-1900” is an interdisciplinary examination of the emergence of synaesthesia conceptually and rhetorically within the ‘art for art’s sake’ movement in mid-to-late Victorian Britain. Chapter One investigates Swinburne’s focal role as both theorist and literary spokesman for the nascent British Aesthetic movement. I argue that Swinburne was the first to practice what Pater meant by ‘aesthetic criticism’ and that synaesthe...

Exact periodic solutions of the sixth-order generalized Boussinesq equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamenov, O Y

2009-01-01

This paper examines a class of nonlinear sixth-order generalized Boussinesq-like equations (SGBE): u tt = u xx + 3(u 2 ) xx + u xxxx + αu xxxxxx , α in R, depending on the positive parameter α. Hirota's bilinear transformation method is applied to the above class of non-integrable equations and exact periodic solutions have been obtained. The results confirmed the well-known nonlinear superposition principle.

Symmetries and conservation laws for a sixth-order Boussinesq equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Recio, E.; Gandarias, M.L.; Bruzón, M.S.

2016-01-01

This paper considers a generalization depending on an arbitrary function f(u) of a sixth-order Boussinesq equation which arises in shallow water waves theory. Interestingly, this equation admits a Hamiltonian formulation when written as a system. A classification of point symmetries and conservation laws in terms of the function f(u) is presented for both, the generalized Boussinesq equation and the equivalent Hamiltonian system.

Primitive polynomials selection method for pseudo-random number generator

Science.gov (United States)

Anikin, I. V.; Alnajjar, Kh

2018-01-01

In this paper we suggested the method for primitive polynomials selection of special type. This kind of polynomials can be efficiently used as a characteristic polynomials for linear feedback shift registers in pseudo-random number generators. The proposed method consists of two basic steps: finding minimum-cost irreducible polynomials of the desired degree and applying primitivity tests to get the primitive ones. Finally two primitive polynomials, which was found by the proposed method, used in pseudorandom number generator based on fuzzy logic (FRNG) which had been suggested before by the authors. The sequences generated by new version of FRNG have low correlation magnitude, high linear complexity, less power consumption, is more balanced and have better statistical properties.

A Quantitative Study on the Correlation between Grade Span Configuration of Sixth Grade Students in Private Florida Schools and Academic Achievement on Standardized Achievement Scores

Science.gov (United States)

Rantin, Deborah

2017-01-01

The applied dissertation was designed to investigate the three models of grade span configurations of sixth grade and the effects grade span configuration has on results of the standardized achievement scores of sixth grade students in private, Florida schools. Studies that have been conducted on sixth grade students and grade span configuration…

Foundations of Intelligent Systems : Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Knowledge Engineering

CERN Document Server

Li, Tianrui

2012-01-01

Proceedings of The Sixth International Conference on Intelligent System and Knowledge Engineering presents selected papers from the conference ISKE 2011, held December 15-17 in Shanghai, China. This proceedings doesn’t only examine original research and approaches in the broad areas of intelligent systems and knowledge engineering, but also present new methodologies and practices in intelligent computing paradigms. The book introduces the current scientific and technical advances in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, pattern recognition, data mining, information retrieval, knowledge-based systems, knowledge representation and reasoning, multi-agent systems, natural-language processing, etc. Furthermore, new computing methodologies are presented, including cloud computing, service computing and pervasive computing with traditional intelligent methods. The proceedings will be beneficial for both researchers and practitioners who want to utilize intelligent methods in their specific resea...

An Evaluation of the Cooperative Learning Process by Sixth-Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Genç, Murat

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of cooperative learning on the science lessons achievement of primary school students and to designate their views on cooperative learning process. 135 sixth-grade students attending the same school took part in the study. The model of this study was the Solomon four-group model. In the…

Sixth international symposium on mycotoxins and phycotoxins: book of abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1985-01-01

This book contains only the abstracts of seminars that were delivered on the sixth international symposium on mycotoxins and phycotoxins on 22-25 July 1985 in Pretoria under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Subject-coverage includes biosynthesis, metabolism, structure and chemical properties, analysis, biochemical mechanisms, toxicity, and pathology of mycotoxins and phycotoxins

Propagation of perturbations for a sixth-order thin film equation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhenbang Li

2012-07-01

Full Text Available We consider an initial-boundary problem for a sixth-order thin film equation, which arises in the industrial application of the isolation oxidation of silicon. Relying on some necessary uniform estimates of the approximate solutions, we prove the existence of radial symmetric solutions to this problem in the two-dimensional space. The nonnegativity and the finite speed of propagation of perturbations of solutions are also discussed.

Randomizing Roaches: Exploring the "Bugs" of Randomization in Experimental Design

Science.gov (United States)

Wagler, Amy; Wagler, Ron

2014-01-01

Understanding the roles of random selection and random assignment in experimental design is a central learning objective in most introductory statistics courses. This article describes an activity, appropriate for a high school or introductory statistics course, designed to teach the concepts, values and pitfalls of random selection and assignment…

Materials selection for oxide-based resistive random access memories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo, Yuzheng; Robertson, John

2014-01-01

The energies of atomic processes in resistive random access memories (RRAMs) are calculated for four typical oxides, HfO 2 , TiO 2 , Ta 2 O 5 , and Al 2 O 3 , to define a materials selection process. O vacancies have the lowest defect formation energy in the O-poor limit and dominate the processes. A band diagram defines the operating Fermi energy and O chemical potential range. It is shown how the scavenger metal can be used to vary the O vacancy formation energy, via controlling the O chemical potential, and the mean Fermi energy. The high endurance of Ta 2 O 5 RRAM is related to its more stable amorphous phase and the adaptive lattice rearrangements of its O vacancy

Sexuality education in fifth and sixth grades in U.S. public schools, 1999.

Science.gov (United States)

Landry, D J; Singh, S; Darroch, J E

2000-01-01

While policymakers, educators and parents recognize the need for family life and sexuality education during children's formative years and before adolescence, there is little nationally representative information on the timing and content of such instruction in elementary schools. In 1999, data were gathered from 1, 789 fifth- and sixth-grade teachers as part of a nationally representative survey of 5,543 public school teachers in grades 5-12. Based on the responses of 617 fifth- and sixth-grade teachers who said they teach sexuality education, analyses were carried out on the topics and skills sexuality education teachers taught, the grades in which they taught them, their teaching approaches, the pressures they experienced, whether they received support from parents, the community and school administrators, and their needs. Seventy-two percent of fifth- and sixth-grade teachers report that sexuality education is taught in their schools at one or both grades. Fifty-six percent of teachers say that the subject is taught in grade five and 64% in grade six. More than 75% of teachers who teach sexuality education in these grades cover puberty, HIV and AIDS transmission and issues such as how alcohol and drugs affect behavior and how to stick with a decision. However, when schools that do not provide sexuality education are taken into account, even most of these topics are taught in only a little more than half of fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. All other topics are much less likely to be covered. Teaching of all topics is less prevalent at these grades than teachers think it should be. Gaps between what teachers say they are teaching and teachers' recommendations for what should be taught and by what grade are especially large for such topics as sexual abuse, sexual orientation, abortion, birth control and condom use for STD prevention. A substantial proportion of teachers recommend that these topics be taught at grade six or earlier. More than half (57%) of fifth

Emergence of multilevel selection in the prisoner's dilemma game on coevolving random networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szolnoki, Attila; Perc, Matjaz

2009-01-01

We study the evolution of cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game, whereby a coevolutionary rule is introduced that molds the random topology of the interaction network in two ways. First, existing links are deleted whenever a player adopts a new strategy or its degree exceeds a threshold value; second, new links are added randomly after a given number of game iterations. These coevolutionary processes correspond to the generic formation of new links and deletion of existing links that, especially in human societies, appear frequently as a consequence of ongoing socialization, change of lifestyle or death. Due to the counteraction of deletions and additions of links the initial heterogeneity of the interaction network is qualitatively preserved, and thus cannot be held responsible for the observed promotion of cooperation. Indeed, the coevolutionary rule evokes the spontaneous emergence of a powerful multilevel selection mechanism, which despite the sustained random topology of the evolving network, maintains cooperation across the whole span of defection temptation values.

Genetic evaluation of European quails by random regression models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Flaviana Miranda Gonçalves

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to compare different random regression models, defined from different classes of heterogeneity of variance combined with different Legendre polynomial orders for the estimate of (covariance of quails. The data came from 28,076 observations of 4,507 female meat quails of the LF1 lineage. Quail body weights were determined at birth and 1, 14, 21, 28, 35 and 42 days of age. Six different classes of residual variance were fitted to Legendre polynomial functions (orders ranging from 2 to 6 to determine which model had the best fit to describe the (covariance structures as a function of time. According to the evaluated criteria (AIC, BIC and LRT, the model with six classes of residual variances and of sixth-order Legendre polynomial was the best fit. The estimated additive genetic variance increased from birth to 28 days of age, and dropped slightly from 35 to 42 days. The heritability estimates decreased along the growth curve and changed from 0.51 (1 day to 0.16 (42 days. Animal genetic and permanent environmental correlation estimates between weights and age classes were always high and positive, except for birth weight. The sixth order Legendre polynomial, along with the residual variance divided into six classes was the best fit for the growth rate curve of meat quails; therefore, they should be considered for breeding evaluation processes by random regression models.

Servant Leadership in English Sixth Form Colleges: What Do Teachers Tell Us?

Science.gov (United States)

Stoten, David William

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether servant leadership can be applied to college management. The research methodology involved questionnaire and co-constructed discussion eliciting the views of teachers on how they interpret leadership in a sixth form college. Three other models of leadership were discussed along with…

Assessing the accuracy and stability of variable selection methods for random forest modeling in ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Random forest (RF) modeling has emerged as an important statistical learning method in ecology due to its exceptional predictive performance. However, for large and complex ecological datasets there is limited guidance on variable selection methods for RF modeling. Typically, e...

Exact periodic solutions of the sixth-order generalized Boussinesq equation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kamenov, O Y [Department of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, Technical University of Sofia, PO Box 384, 1000 Sofia (Bulgaria)], E-mail: okam@abv.bg

2009-09-18

This paper examines a class of nonlinear sixth-order generalized Boussinesq-like equations (SGBE): u{sub tt} = u{sub xx} + 3(u{sup 2}){sub xx} + u{sub xxxx} + {alpha}u{sub xxxxxx}, {alpha} in R, depending on the positive parameter {alpha}. Hirota's bilinear transformation method is applied to the above class of non-integrable equations and exact periodic solutions have been obtained. The results confirmed the well-known nonlinear superposition principle.

Equation of state at finite net-baryon density using Taylor coefficients up to sixth order

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huovinen, Pasi; Petreczky, Péter; Schmidt, Christian

2014-01-01

We employ the lattice QCD data on Taylor expansion coefficients up to sixth order to construct an equation of state at finite net-baryon density. When we take into account how hadron masses depend on lattice spacing and quark mass, the coefficients evaluated using the p4 action are equal to those of hadron resonance gas at low temperature. Thus the parametrised equation of state can be smoothly connected to the hadron resonance gas equation of state. We see that the equation of state using Taylor coefficients up to second order is realistic only at low densities, and that at densities corresponding to s/n B ≳40, the expansion converges by the sixth order term

Optimization of the Dutch Matrix Test by Random Selection of Sentences From a Preselected Subset

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rolph Houben

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Matrix tests are available for speech recognition testing in many languages. For an accurate measurement, a steep psychometric function of the speech materials is required. For existing tests, it would be beneficial if it were possible to further optimize the available materials by increasing the function’s steepness. The objective is to show if the steepness of the psychometric function of an existing matrix test can be increased by selecting a homogeneous subset of recordings with the steepest sentence-based psychometric functions. We took data from a previous multicenter evaluation of the Dutch matrix test (45 normal-hearing listeners. Based on half of the data set, first the sentences (140 out of 311 with a similar speech reception threshold and with the steepest psychometric function (≥9.7%/dB were selected. Subsequently, the steepness of the psychometric function for this selection was calculated from the remaining (unused second half of the data set. The calculation showed that the slope increased from 10.2%/dB to 13.7%/dB. The resulting subset did not allow the construction of enough balanced test lists. Therefore, the measurement procedure was changed to randomly select the sentences during testing. Random selection may interfere with a representative occurrence of phonemes. However, in our material, the median phonemic occurrence remained close to that of the original test. This finding indicates that phonemic occurrence is not a critical factor. The work highlights the possibility that existing speech tests might be improved by selecting sentences with a steep psychometric function.

Chinese and Singaporean Sixth-Grade Students' Strategies for Solving Problems about Speed

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Chunlian; Hwang, Stephen; Cai, Jinfa

2014-01-01

This study examined 361 Chinese and 345 Singaporean sixth-grade students' performance and problem-solving strategies for solving 14 problems about speed. By focusing on students from two distinct high-performing countries in East Asia, we provide a useful perspective on the differences that exist in the preparation and problem-solving strategies…

A Summary of an Assessment of Fourth and Sixth Grade Basic Skills.

Science.gov (United States)

CTB / McGraw-Hill, Monterey, CA.

A comprehensive assessment was made of the status of elementary education in Missouri in reading, mathematics, language, and study skills. The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) and the Short Form Test of Academic Aptitude (SFTAA) were administered to a sample of Missouri fourth and sixth graders. For each curricular area, Missouri…

Sixth workshop on geothermal reservoir engineering: Proceedings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ramey, H.J. Jr.; Kruger, P. (eds.)

1980-12-18

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTH GEOTHERMAL RESERVOIR ENGINEERING WORKSHOP, STANFORD GEOTHERMAL PROGRAM Henry J. Ramey, Jr., and Paul Kruger Co-Principal Investigators Ian G. Donaldson Program Manager Stanford Geothermal Program The Sixth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering convened at Stanford University on December 16, 1980. As with previous Workshops the attendance was around 100 with a significant participation from countries other than the United States (18 attendees from 6 countries). In addition, there were a number of papers from foreign contributors not able to attend. Because of the success of all the earlier workshops there was only one format change, a new scheduling of Tuesday to Thursday rather than the earlier Wednesday through Friday. This change was in general considered for the better and will be retained for the Seventh Workshop. Papers were presented on two and a half of the three days, the panel session, this year on the numerical modeling intercomparison study sponsored by the Department of Energy, being held on the second afternoon. This panel discussion is described in a separate Stanford Geothermal Program Report (SGP-TR42). This year there was a shift in subject of the papers. There was a reduction in the number of papers offered on pressure transients and well testing and an introduction of several new subjects. After overviews by Bob Gray of the Department of Energy and Jack Howard of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, we had papers on field development, geopressured systems, production engineering, well testing, modeling, reservoir physics, reservoir chemistry, and risk analysis. A total of 51 papers were contributed and are printed in these Proceedings. It was, however, necessary to restrict the presentations and not all papers printed were presented. Although the content of the Workshop has changed over the years, the format to date has proved to be satisfactory. The objectives of the Workshop, the bringing together of

Practical Applications of Intelligent Systems : Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Knowledge Engineering

CERN Document Server

Li, Tianrui

2012-01-01

Proceedings of The Sixth International Conference on Intelligent System and Knowledge Engineering presents selected papers from the conference ISKE 2011, held December 15-17 in Shanghai, China. This proceedings doesn’t only examine original research and approaches in the broad areas of intelligent systems and knowledge engineering, but also present new methodologies and practices in intelligent computing paradigms. The book introduces the current scientific and technical advances in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, pattern recognition, data mining, information retrieval, knowledge-based systems, knowledge representation and reasoning, multi-agent systems, natural-language processing, etc. Furthermore, new computing methodologies are presented, including cloud computing, service computing and pervasive computing with traditional intelligent methods. The proceedings will be beneficial for both researchers and practitioners who want to utilize intelligent methods in their specific res...

Random drift versus selection in academic vocabulary: an evolutionary analysis of published keywords.

Science.gov (United States)

Bentley, R Alexander

2008-08-27

The evolution of vocabulary in academic publishing is characterized via keyword frequencies recorded in the ISI Web of Science citations database. In four distinct case-studies, evolutionary analysis of keyword frequency change through time is compared to a model of random copying used as the null hypothesis, such that selection may be identified against it. The case studies from the physical sciences indicate greater selection in keyword choice than in the social sciences. Similar evolutionary analyses can be applied to a wide range of phenomena; wherever the popularity of multiple items through time has been recorded, as with web searches, or sales of popular music and books, for example.

IAEA research contracts. Sixth annual report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1966-04-01

This volume is the sixth annual report and presents full summaries of 37 final reports from contracts, sponsored under the Agency's Research Contract Programme, which were completed during 1965. Including these, a total of 136 summaries have been published in the various fields in which support is provided under the IAEA Research contract program. In every case the summary of the contractor's final report has been prepared by that member of the Agency's scientific staff who has been most closely connected with the particular branch of research concerned. The scientific data are the responsibility of the contractor, though the Agency is responsible for any additional observations. The reports presented are related to research in the field of radioactive waste management and environmental sciences; health physics and radiation protection; radiobiology; safeguards methods; nuclear reactors physics and nuclear fuels; radioisotope applications in agriculture, medicine and hydrology.

IAEA research contracts. Sixth annual report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1966-01-01

This volume is the sixth annual report and presents full summaries of 37 final reports from contracts, sponsored under the Agency's Research Contract Programme, which were completed during 1965. Including these, a total of 136 summaries have been published in the various fields in which support is provided under the IAEA Research contract program. In every case the summary of the contractor's final report has been prepared by that member of the Agency's scientific staff who has been most closely connected with the particular branch of research concerned. The scientific data are the responsibility of the contractor, though the Agency is responsible for any additional observations. The reports presented are related to research in the field of radioactive waste management and environmental sciences; health physics and radiation protection; radiobiology; safeguards methods; nuclear reactors physics and nuclear fuels; radioisotope applications in agriculture, medicine and hydrology

Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived?

Science.gov (United States)

Barnosky, Anthony D; Matzke, Nicholas; Tomiya, Susumu; Wogan, Guinevere O U; Swartz, Brian; Quental, Tiago B; Marshall, Charles; McGuire, Jenny L; Lindsey, Emily L; Maguire, Kaitlin C; Mersey, Ben; Ferrer, Elizabeth A

2011-03-03

Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short interval, as has happened only five times in the past 540 million years or so. Biologists now suggest that a sixth mass extinction may be under way, given the known species losses over the past few centuries and millennia. Here we review how differences between fossil and modern data and the addition of recently available palaeontological information influence our understanding of the current extinction crisis. Our results confirm that current extinction rates are higher than would be expected from the fossil record, highlighting the need for effective conservation measures.

Materials selection for oxide-based resistive random access memories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guo, Yuzheng; Robertson, John [Engineering Department, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 1PZ (United Kingdom)

2014-12-01

The energies of atomic processes in resistive random access memories (RRAMs) are calculated for four typical oxides, HfO{sub 2}, TiO{sub 2}, Ta{sub 2}O{sub 5}, and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, to define a materials selection process. O vacancies have the lowest defect formation energy in the O-poor limit and dominate the processes. A band diagram defines the operating Fermi energy and O chemical potential range. It is shown how the scavenger metal can be used to vary the O vacancy formation energy, via controlling the O chemical potential, and the mean Fermi energy. The high endurance of Ta{sub 2}O{sub 5} RRAM is related to its more stable amorphous phase and the adaptive lattice rearrangements of its O vacancy.

An Analysis of the Role and Responsibilities of Chairs of Further Education College and Sixth-Form College Governing Bodies in England

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Ron; James, Chris

2017-01-01

This article reports research into the role and responsibilities of the chairs of governing bodies of further education colleges and sixth-form colleges in England. Further education colleges and sixth-form colleges represent a significant part of post-16 educational provision in England. Every college in the sector has a governing body, which has…

Proceedings Sixth Workshop on Trends in Functional Programming in Education

OpenAIRE

Thompson, Simon

2018-01-01

The Sixth International Workshops on Trends in Functional Programming in Education, TFPIE 2017, was held on 22 June 2017 at the University of Kent, in Canterbury, UK, and was co-located with TFP, the Symposium on Trends in Functional Programming. The goal of TFPIE is to gather researchers, professors, teachers, and all professionals interested in functional programming in education. This includes the teaching of functional programming, but also the application of functional programming as a t...

Tensor renormalization group with randomized singular value decomposition

Science.gov (United States)

Morita, Satoshi; Igarashi, Ryo; Zhao, Hui-Hai; Kawashima, Naoki

2018-03-01

An algorithm of the tensor renormalization group is proposed based on a randomized algorithm for singular value decomposition. Our algorithm is applicable to a broad range of two-dimensional classical models. In the case of a square lattice, its computational complexity and memory usage are proportional to the fifth and the third power of the bond dimension, respectively, whereas those of the conventional implementation are of the sixth and the fourth power. The oversampling parameter larger than the bond dimension is sufficient to reproduce the same result as full singular value decomposition even at the critical point of the two-dimensional Ising model.

Compensating Hand Function in Chronic Stroke Patients Through the Robotic Sixth Finger.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvietti, Gionata; Hussain, Irfan; Cioncoloni, David; Taddei, Sabrina; Rossi, Simone; Prattichizzo, Domenico

2017-02-01

A novel solution to compensate hand grasping abilities is proposed for chronic stroke patients. The goal is to provide the patients with a wearable robotic extra-finger that can be worn on the paretic forearm by means of an elastic band. The proposed prototype, the Robotic Sixth Finger, is a modular articulated device that can adapt its structure to the grasped object shape. The extra-finger and the paretic hand act like the two parts of a gripper cooperatively holding an object. We evaluated the feasibility of the approach with four chronic stroke patients performing a qualitative test, the Frenchay Arm Test. In this proof of concept study, the use of the Robotic Sixth Finger has increased the total score of the patients by two points in a five points scale. The subjects were able to perform the two grasping tasks included in the test that were not possible without the robotic extra-finger. Adding a robotic opposing finger is a very promising approach that can significantly improve the functional compensation of the chronic stroke patient during everyday life activities.

Proceedings of the Sixth General Meeting of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry

Science.gov (United States)

Behrend, Dirk (Editor); Baver, Karen D. (Editor)

2010-01-01

This volume is the proceedings of the sixth General Meeting of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS), held in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, February 7-13, 2010. The contents of this volume also appear on the IVS Web site at http://ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications/gm2010. The keynote of the sixth GM was the new perspectives of the next generation VLBI system under the theme "VLBI2010: From Vision to Reality". The goal of the meeting was to provide an interesting and informative program for a wide cross-section of IVS members, including station operators, program managers, and analysts. This volume contains 88 papers. All papers were edited by the editors for usage of the English language, form, and minor content-related issues.

A sixth-order continuous-time bandpass sigma-delta modulator for digital radio IF

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Engelen, van J.A.E.P.; Plassche, van de R.J.; Stikvoort, E.F.; Venes, A.G.W.

1999-01-01

This paper presents a sixth-order continuous-time bandpass sigma-delta modulator (SDM) for analog-to-digital conversion of intermediate-frequency signals. An important aspect in the design of this SDM is the stability analysis using the describing function method. The key to the analysis is the

Leaping from Discrete to Continuous Independent Variables: Sixth Graders' Science Line Graph Interpretations

Science.gov (United States)

Boote, Stacy K.; Boote, David N.

2017-01-01

Students often struggle to interpret graphs correctly, despite emphasis on graphic literacy in U.S. education standards documents. The purpose of this study was to describe challenges sixth graders with varying levels of science and mathematics achievement encounter when transitioning from interpreting graphs having discrete independent variables…

An Exploratory Study of Face-to-Face and Cyberbullying in Sixth Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Accordino, Denise B.; Accordino, Michael P.

2011-01-01

In a pilot study, sixth grade students (N = 124) completed a questionnaire assessing students' experience with bullying and cyberbullying, demographic information, quality of parent-child relationship, and ways they have dealt with bullying/cyberbullying in the past. Two multiple regression analyses were conducted. The multiple regression analysis…

UCSF partnership to enrich science teaching for sixth graders in San Francisco's schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Doyle, H J

1999-04-01

Increasing the diversity of students entering the health professions is a challenging goal for medical schools. One approach to this goal is to share the enthusiasm and energy of medical students with younger students, who may pursue medical education in the future. The MedTeach program, established in 1989 and coordinated by the Science & Health Education Partnership of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), does so by partnering volunteer medical students from UCSF with sixth-grade classes studying the human body. In 1997-98, around 350 sixth-graders in the San Francisco Schools benefitted from the program. Each team of medical student's visits its class ten to 12 times a year to present engaging, hands-on lessons on body systems and health. The medical students are also role models for the middle-school students. In addition, the diverse student population of San Francisco public schools provides a rich environment for the medical students to improve their communication and teaching skills.

The sixth Nordic conference on the application of scientific methods in archaeology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-01-01

The Sixth Nordic Conference on the Application of Scientific Methods in Archaeology with 73 participants was convened in Esbjerg (Denmark), 19-23 September 1993. Isotope dating of archaeological, paleoecological and geochronological objects, neutron activation and XRF analytical methods, magnetometry, thermoluminescence etc. have been discussed. The program included excursions to archaeological sites and a poster session with 12 posters. (EG)

40 CFR 761.306 - Sampling 1 meter square surfaces by random selection of halves.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Sampling 1 meter square surfaces by...(b)(3) § 761.306 Sampling 1 meter square surfaces by random selection of halves. (a) Divide each 1 meter square portion where it is necessary to collect a surface wipe test sample into two equal (or as...

From Protocols to Publications: A Study in Selective Reporting of Outcomes in Randomized Trials in Oncology

Science.gov (United States)

Raghav, Kanwal Pratap Singh; Mahajan, Sminil; Yao, James C.; Hobbs, Brian P.; Berry, Donald A.; Pentz, Rebecca D.; Tam, Alda; Hong, Waun K.; Ellis, Lee M.; Abbruzzese, James; Overman, Michael J.

2015-01-01

Purpose The decision by journals to append protocols to published reports of randomized trials was a landmark event in clinical trial reporting. However, limited information is available on how this initiative effected transparency and selective reporting of clinical trial data. Methods We analyzed 74 oncology-based randomized trials published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, the New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet in 2012. To ascertain integrity of reporting, we compared published reports with their respective appended protocols with regard to primary end points, nonprimary end points, unplanned end points, and unplanned analyses. Results A total of 86 primary end points were reported in 74 randomized trials; nine trials had greater than one primary end point. Nine trials (12.2%) had some discrepancy between their planned and published primary end points. A total of 579 nonprimary end points (median, seven per trial) were planned, of which 373 (64.4%; median, five per trial) were reported. A significant positive correlation was found between the number of planned and nonreported nonprimary end points (Spearman r = 0.66; P < .001). Twenty-eight studies (37.8%) reported a total of 65 unplanned end points; 52 (80.0%) of which were not identified as unplanned. Thirty-one (41.9%) and 19 (25.7%) of 74 trials reported a total of 52 unplanned analyses involving primary end points and 33 unplanned analyses involving nonprimary end points, respectively. Studies reported positive unplanned end points and unplanned analyses more frequently than negative outcomes in abstracts (unplanned end points odds ratio, 6.8; P = .002; unplanned analyses odd ratio, 8.4; P = .007). Conclusion Despite public and reviewer access to protocols, selective outcome reporting persists and is a major concern in the reporting of randomized clinical trials. To foster credible evidence-based medicine, additional initiatives are needed to minimize selective reporting. PMID:26304898

Joint random beam and spectrum selection for spectrum sharing systems with partial channel state information

KAUST Repository

Abdallah, Mohamed M.

2013-11-01

In this work, we develop joint interference-aware random beam and spectrum selection scheme that provide enhanced performance for the secondary network under the condition that the interference observed at the primary receiver is below a predetermined acceptable value. We consider a secondary link composed of a transmitter equipped with multiple antennas and a single-antenna receiver sharing the same spectrum with a set of primary links composed of a single-antenna transmitter and a single-antenna receiver. The proposed schemes jointly select a beam, among a set of power-optimized random beams, as well as the primary spectrum that maximizes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the secondary link while satisfying the primary interference constraint. In particular, we consider the case where the interference level is described by a q-bit description of its magnitude, whereby we propose a technique to find the optimal quantizer thresholds in a mean square error (MSE) sense. © 2013 IEEE.

Joint random beam and spectrum selection for spectrum sharing systems with partial channel state information

KAUST Repository

Abdallah, Mohamed M.; Sayed, Mostafa M.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Qaraqe, Khalid A.

2013-01-01

In this work, we develop joint interference-aware random beam and spectrum selection scheme that provide enhanced performance for the secondary network under the condition that the interference observed at the primary receiver is below a predetermined acceptable value. We consider a secondary link composed of a transmitter equipped with multiple antennas and a single-antenna receiver sharing the same spectrum with a set of primary links composed of a single-antenna transmitter and a single-antenna receiver. The proposed schemes jointly select a beam, among a set of power-optimized random beams, as well as the primary spectrum that maximizes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the secondary link while satisfying the primary interference constraint. In particular, we consider the case where the interference level is described by a q-bit description of its magnitude, whereby we propose a technique to find the optimal quantizer thresholds in a mean square error (MSE) sense. © 2013 IEEE.

The RANDOM computer program: A linear congruential random number generator

Science.gov (United States)

Miles, R. F., Jr.

1986-01-01

The RANDOM Computer Program is a FORTRAN program for generating random number sequences and testing linear congruential random number generators (LCGs). The linear congruential form of random number generator is discussed, and the selection of parameters of an LCG for a microcomputer described. This document describes the following: (1) The RANDOM Computer Program; (2) RANDOM.MOD, the computer code needed to implement an LCG in a FORTRAN program; and (3) The RANCYCLE and the ARITH Computer Programs that provide computational assistance in the selection of parameters for an LCG. The RANDOM, RANCYCLE, and ARITH Computer Programs are written in Microsoft FORTRAN for the IBM PC microcomputer and its compatibles. With only minor modifications, the RANDOM Computer Program and its LCG can be run on most micromputers or mainframe computers.

Analysis and applications of a frequency selective surface via a random distribution method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie Shao-Yi; Huang Jing-Jian; Yuan Nai-Chang; Liu Li-Guo

2014-01-01

A novel frequency selective surface (FSS) for reducing radar cross section (RCS) is proposed in this paper. This FSS is based on the random distribution method, so it can be called random surface. In this paper, the stacked patches serving as periodic elements are employed for RCS reduction. Previous work has demonstrated the efficiency by utilizing the microstrip patches, especially for the reflectarray. First, the relevant theory of the method is described. Then a sample of a three-layer variable-sized stacked patch random surface with a dimension of 260 mm×260 mm is simulated, fabricated, and measured in order to demonstrate the validity of the proposed design. For the normal incidence, the 8-dB RCS reduction can be achieved both by the simulation and the measurement in 8 GHz–13 GHz. The oblique incidence of 30° is also investigated, in which the 7-dB RCS reduction can be obtained in a frequency range of 8 GHz–14 GHz. (condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties)

Random drift versus selection in academic vocabulary: an evolutionary analysis of published keywords.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R Alexander Bentley

Full Text Available The evolution of vocabulary in academic publishing is characterized via keyword frequencies recorded in the ISI Web of Science citations database. In four distinct case-studies, evolutionary analysis of keyword frequency change through time is compared to a model of random copying used as the null hypothesis, such that selection may be identified against it. The case studies from the physical sciences indicate greater selection in keyword choice than in the social sciences. Similar evolutionary analyses can be applied to a wide range of phenomena; wherever the popularity of multiple items through time has been recorded, as with web searches, or sales of popular music and books, for example.

Contributions to the sixth international conference on fusion reactor materials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1993-11-15

The ICFRM series has documented progress in the field of fusion reactor materials since the first conference held in Tokyo in 1984. The conference series has continually increased its coverage to the point where it now includes the comprehensive range of materials science and technology areas that enable systems designers to meet the needs of current experiments and to present innovative solutions for future energy systems. This publication contains five contributions to the sixth international conference which have each been indexed separately.

On theoretical models of gene expression evolution with random genetic drift and natural selection.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Osamu Ogasawara

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The relative contributions of natural selection and random genetic drift are a major source of debate in the study of gene expression evolution, which is hypothesized to serve as a bridge from molecular to phenotypic evolution. It has been suggested that the conflict between views is caused by the lack of a definite model of the neutral hypothesis, which can describe the long-run behavior of evolutionary change in mRNA abundance. Therefore previous studies have used inadequate analogies with the neutral prediction of other phenomena, such as amino acid or nucleotide sequence evolution, as the null hypothesis of their statistical inference.In this study, we introduced two novel theoretical models, one based on neutral drift and the other assuming natural selection, by focusing on a common property of the distribution of mRNA abundance among a variety of eukaryotic cells, which reflects the result of long-term evolution. Our results demonstrated that (1 our models can reproduce two independently found phenomena simultaneously: the time development of gene expression divergence and Zipf's law of the transcriptome; (2 cytological constraints can be explicitly formulated to describe long-term evolution; (3 the model assuming that natural selection optimized relative mRNA abundance was more consistent with previously published observations than the model of optimized absolute mRNA abundances.The models introduced in this study give a formulation of evolutionary change in the mRNA abundance of each gene as a stochastic process, on the basis of previously published observations. This model provides a foundation for interpreting observed data in studies of gene expression evolution, including identifying an adequate time scale for discriminating the effect of natural selection from that of random genetic drift of selectively neutral variations.

An Investigation of Mathematics Anxiety among Sixth through Eighth Grade Students in Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Birgin, Osman; Baloglu, Mustafa; Catlioglu, Hakan; Gurbuz, Ramazan

2010-01-01

The purpose of the present study is to investigate mathematics anxiety among 220 sixth through eighth grade Turkish students in terms of mathematics achievement levels, perceived enjoyment of the mathematics teaching method, perceived enjoyment of mathematics, and perceived help with mathematics from parents. The Mathematics Anxiety Scale for…

Accelerated modern human?induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction

OpenAIRE

Ceballos, Gerardo; Ehrlich, Paul R.; Barnosky, Anthony D.; Garc?a, Andr?s; Pringle, Robert M.; Palmer, Todd M.

2015-01-01

The oft-repeated claim that Earth?s biota is entering a sixth ?mass extinction? depends on clearly demonstrating that current extinction rates are far above the ?background? rates prevailing between the five previous mass extinctions. Earlier estimates of extinction rates have been criticized for using assumptions that might overestimate the severity of the extinction crisis. We assess, using extremely conservative assumptions, whether human activities are causing a mass extinction. First, we...

Study of mosaic glasses from the Alpha Basilica (sixth century of Nikopolis in Epirus, Greece

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cesare Fiori

2014-02-01

Full Text Available After collecting the essential historical, archaeological, and artistic information relative to the ancient town of Nikopolis in Epirus and its Alpha (or Doumetios Basilica, built in the sixth century A.D., glass tesserae belonging to degraded and lost parts of the mosaic floors of the basilica were analysed, determining their chemical composition and the possible presence of crystalline phases. As in all glasses produced in the Mediterranean area in that epoch, they are soda-lime silicate glasses, in part with lead, obtained using natron as a flux. The typology of the glass corresponds to that of Roman glasses, of the first centuries A.D., and is the same as that employed for the basilicas of Ravenna in the fifth and sixth centuries; in particular, a comparison was made with the glass tesserae of the St Vitale Basilica. The technological base for producing coloured glasses is also practically the same as that of the mosaic glasses of Ravenna. In particular, antimony was used as an opacifying element and a fusion was carried out under reducing conditions to obtain red glass with microparticles of metallic copper. Thus, it can be supposed there was a common source of production of the mosaic glasses used in Nikopolis and Ravenna in the sixth century and that this source was in the Near Orient.

Hypertension 6 weeks post partum in apparently normal women. A reappraisal and challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Piver, M S; Corson, S L; Bolognese, R J

1967-08-01

Hypertensive blood pressure readings were recorded in 282 women from a group of 1025 consecutive patients returning for their sixth-week postpartum visit. Of the 282 women, 120 were classified as toxemic; however, 162 (58%) had had no elevation of blood pressure antepartum, intrapartum, or during the immediate postpartum period. In addition, 100 women with normal sixth-week postpartum blood pressures were randomly selected as controls. A retrospective analysis of their records showed sixth-week postpartum hypertension to occur much less frequently (13%) in nulliparous women, as compared to the preeclamptic nulliparous patients (31%). With the exception of proteinuria, all of the other data studied failed to reveal any significant abnormalities in the late postpartum hypertensive group of patients.

From Protocols to Publications: A Study in Selective Reporting of Outcomes in Randomized Trials in Oncology.

Science.gov (United States)

Raghav, Kanwal Pratap Singh; Mahajan, Sminil; Yao, James C; Hobbs, Brian P; Berry, Donald A; Pentz, Rebecca D; Tam, Alda; Hong, Waun K; Ellis, Lee M; Abbruzzese, James; Overman, Michael J

2015-11-01

The decision by journals to append protocols to published reports of randomized trials was a landmark event in clinical trial reporting. However, limited information is available on how this initiative effected transparency and selective reporting of clinical trial data. We analyzed 74 oncology-based randomized trials published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, the New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet in 2012. To ascertain integrity of reporting, we compared published reports with their respective appended protocols with regard to primary end points, nonprimary end points, unplanned end points, and unplanned analyses. A total of 86 primary end points were reported in 74 randomized trials; nine trials had greater than one primary end point. Nine trials (12.2%) had some discrepancy between their planned and published primary end points. A total of 579 nonprimary end points (median, seven per trial) were planned, of which 373 (64.4%; median, five per trial) were reported. A significant positive correlation was found between the number of planned and nonreported nonprimary end points (Spearman r = 0.66; P medicine, additional initiatives are needed to minimize selective reporting. © 2015 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

May the Inferior Petrosal Sinus Recanalization During Endovascular Treatment for Carotid-Cavernous Fistulas Increase the Risk of Sixth Nerve Palsy?

Science.gov (United States)

Robert, Thomas; Valsecchi, Daniele; Sylvestre, Philippe; Blanc, Raphaël; Ciccio, Gabriele; Smajda, Stanislas; Redjem, Hocine; Piotin, Michel

2018-05-03

Sixth nerve palsy is a common complication of endovascular treatment for carotid-cavernous fistulas (CCF). Two hypotheses are evoked: the spontaneous venous congestion into the cavernous sinus and the direct compression of the nerve by the embolic agent into the cavernous sinus. Nevertheless, the evidence is still uncertain. Knowing the vicinity of the sixth nerve with the inferior petrosal sinus (IPS) in the Dorello canal, we hypothesized that the recanalization of the IPS increased the risk of nerve damage. We analyzed a prospective database of patients treated for CCFs from March 2009 to April 2016. We excluded patients who did not need treatment, cases of high-flow CCF, and patients lost to follow-up, obtaining a homogeneous population of 82 patients with indirect CCFs. This population was divided in 2 groups: patients without new-onset/worsening of sixth nerve palsy and patients with this postprocedural complication. Our main endpoints were the potential differences between patients with or without recanalization of IPS and between those who underwent or not an embolization with Onyx-18. We did not find any statistically meaningful difference between the 2 groups concerning the necessity of IPS recanalization (P > 0.999, odds ratio 0.97, 95% confidence interval 0.32-2.96) or with the use of Onyx-18 as an embolic agent (P = 0.56; odds ratio 1.41, 95% confidence interval 0.41-2.45). The recanalization of a thrombosed IPS does not increase the risk of procedural sixth nerve damage. The initial injury seems to relate with development/worsening of a sixth nerve palsy. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Scaling of coercivity in a 3d random anisotropy model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Proctor, T.C., E-mail: proctortc@gmail.com; Chudnovsky, E.M., E-mail: EUGENE.CHUDNOVSKY@lehman.cuny.edu; Garanin, D.A.

2015-06-15

The random-anisotropy Heisenberg model is numerically studied on lattices containing over ten million spins. The study is focused on hysteresis and metastability due to topological defects, and is relevant to magnetic properties of amorphous and sintered magnets. We are interested in the limit when ferromagnetic correlations extend beyond the size of the grain inside which the magnetic anisotropy axes are correlated. In that limit the coercive field computed numerically roughly scales as the fourth power of the random anisotropy strength and as the sixth power of the grain size. Theoretical arguments are presented that provide an explanation of numerical results. Our findings should be helpful for designing amorphous and nanosintered materials with desired magnetic properties. - Highlights: • We study the random-anisotropy model on lattices containing up to ten million spins. • Irreversible behavior due to topological defects (hedgehogs) is elucidated. • Hysteresis loop area scales as the fourth power of the random anisotropy strength. • In nanosintered magnets the coercivity scales as the six power of the grain size.

Sixth Finnish research seminar on solid waste management. Proceedings; Kuudes jaetehuollon tutkimusseminaari 2001

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pelkonen, M. (ed.)

2001-07-01

The sixth Finnish seminar on solid waste management includes mostly question regarding landfills. The focus has been on the quality of waste and the pre-treatment before disposal as well as on the control of landfill emissions. Other questions discussed at the seminar included organic waste treatment and waste management systems.

The solution of the sixth Hilbert problem: the ultimate Galilean revolution

Science.gov (United States)

D'Ariano, Giacomo Mauro

2018-04-01

I argue for a full mathematization of the physical theory, including its axioms, which must contain no physical primitives. In provocative words: `physics from no physics'. Although this may seem an oxymoron, it is the royal road to keep complete logical coherence, hence falsifiability of the theory. For such a purely mathematical theory the physical connotation must pertain only the interpretation of the mathematics, ranging from the axioms to the final theorems. On the contrary, the postulates of the two current major physical theories either do not have physical interpretation (as for von Neumann's axioms for quantum theory), or contain physical primitives as `clock', `rigid rod', `force', `inertial mass' (as for special relativity and mechanics). A purely mathematical theory as proposed here, though with limited (but relentlessly growing) domain of applicability, will have the eternal validity of mathematical truth. It will be a theory on which natural sciences can firmly rely. Such kind of theory is what I consider to be the solution of the sixth Hilbert problem. I argue that a prototype example of such a mathematical theory is provided by the novel algorithmic paradigm for physics, as in the recent information-theoretical derivation of quantum theory and free quantum field theory. This article is part of the theme issue `Hilbert's sixth problem'.

The sixth catalogue of galactic Wolf-Rayet stars, their past and present

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hucht, K.A. van der; Conti, P.S.; Lundstroem, I.; Stenholm, B.

1981-01-01

This paper presents the Sixth Catalogue of galactic Wolf-Rayet stars (Pop I), a short history on the five earlier WR catalogues, improved spectral classification, finding charts, a discussion on related objects, and a review of the current statur of Wolf-Rayet star research. The appendix presents a bibliography on most of the Wolf-Rayet literature published since 1867. (orig.)

High Entropy Random Selection Protocols

NARCIS (Netherlands)

H. Buhrman (Harry); M. Christandl (Matthias); M. Koucky (Michal); Z. Lotker (Zvi); B. Patt-Shamir; M. Charikar; K. Jansen; O. Reingold; J. Rolim

2007-01-01

textabstractIn this paper, we construct protocols for two parties that do not trust each other, to generate random variables with high Shannon entropy. We improve known bounds for the trade off between the number of rounds, length of communication and the entropy of the outcome.

Sixth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry

CERN Document Server

CPT and Lorentz Symmetry

2014-01-01

This book contains the Proceedings of the Sixth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry, held at Indiana University in Bloomington on June 17–21, 2013. The Meeting focused on tests of these fundamental symmetries and on related theoretical issues, including scenarios for possible violations. Topics covered at the meeting include searches for CPT and Lorentz violations involving: accelerator and collider experiments; atomic, nuclear, and particle decays; birefringence, dispersion, and anisotropy in cosmological sources; clock-comparison measurements; electromagnetic resonant cavities and lasers; tests of the equivalence principle; gauge and Higgs particles; high-energy astrophysical observations; laboratory tests of gravity; matter interferometry; neutrino oscillations and propagation; oscillations and decays of neutral mesons; particle–antiparticle comparisons; post-newtonian gravity in the solar system and beyond; second- and third-generation particles; space-based missions; spectroscopy of hydrogen and ant...

Integrated Behavior Therapy for Selective Mutism: a randomized controlled pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bergman, R Lindsey; Gonzalez, Araceli; Piacentini, John; Keller, Melody L

2013-10-01

To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a novel behavioral intervention for reducing symptoms of selective mutism and increasing functional speech. A total of 21 children ages 4 to 8 with primary selective mutism were randomized to 24 weeks of Integrated Behavior Therapy for Selective Mutism (IBTSM) or a 12-week Waitlist control. Clinical outcomes were assessed using blind independent evaluators, parent-, and teacher-report, and an objective behavioral measure. Treatment recipients completed a three-month follow-up to assess durability of treatment gains. Data indicated increased functional speaking behavior post-treatment as rated by parents and teachers, with a high rate of treatment responders as rated by blind independent evaluators (75%). Conversely, children in the Waitlist comparison group did not experience significant improvements in speaking behaviors. Children who received IBTSM also demonstrated significant improvements in number of words spoken at school compared to baseline, however, significant group differences did not emerge. Treatment recipients also experienced significant reductions in social anxiety per parent, but not teacher, report. Clinical gains were maintained over 3 month follow-up. IBTSM appears to be a promising new intervention that is efficacious in increasing functional speaking behaviors, feasible, and acceptable to parents and teachers. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transverse Slicing of the Sixth-Seventh Costal Cartilaginous Junction: A Novel Technique to Prevent Warping in Nasal Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Teshima, Tara Lynn; Cheng, Homan; Pakdel, Amir; Kiss, Alex; Fialkov, Jeffrey A

2016-01-01

Costal cartilage is an important reconstructive tissue for correcting nasal deformities. Warping of costal cartilage, a recognized complication, can lead to significant functional and aesthetic problems. The authors present a technique to prevent warping that involves transverse slicing of the sixth-seventh costal cartilaginous junction, that when sliced perpendicular to the long axis of the rib, provides multiple long, narrow, clinically useful grafts with balanced cross-sections. The aim was to measure differences in cartilage warp between this technique (TJS) and traditional carving techniques. Costal cartilage was obtained from human subjects and cut to clinically relevant dimensions using a custom cutting jig. The sixth-seventh costal cartilaginous junction was sliced transversely leaving the outer surface intact. The adjacent sixth rib cartilage was carved concentrically and eccentrically. The samples were incubated and standardized serial photography was performed over time up to 4 weeks. Warp was quantified by measuring nonlinearity of the grafts using least-squares regression and compared between carving techniques. TJS grafts (n = 10) resulted in significantly less warp than both eccentrically (n = 3) and concentrically carved grafts (n = 3) (P < 0.0001). Warp was significantly higher with eccentric carving compared with concentric carving (P < 0.0001). Warp increased significantly with time for both eccentric (P = 0002) and concentric (P = 0.0007) techniques while TJS warp did not (P = 0.56). The technique of transverse slicing costal cartilage from the sixth-seventh junction minimizes warp compared with traditional carving methods providing ample grafts of adequate length and versatility for reconstructive requirements.

Field-based random sampling without a sampling frame: control selection for a case-control study in rural Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Crampin, A C; Mwinuka, V; Malema, S S; Glynn, J R; Fine, P E

2001-01-01

Selection bias, particularly of controls, is common in case-control studies and may materially affect the results. Methods of control selection should be tailored both for the risk factors and disease under investigation and for the population being studied. We present here a control selection method devised for a case-control study of tuberculosis in rural Africa (Karonga, northern Malawi) that selects an age/sex frequency-matched random sample of the population, with a geographical distribution in proportion to the population density. We also present an audit of the selection process, and discuss the potential of this method in other settings.

Treatment selection in a randomized clinical trial via covariate-specific treatment effect curves.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Yunbei; Zhou, Xiao-Hua

2017-02-01

For time-to-event data in a randomized clinical trial, we proposed two new methods for selecting an optimal treatment for a patient based on the covariate-specific treatment effect curve, which is used to represent the clinical utility of a predictive biomarker. To select an optimal treatment for a patient with a specific biomarker value, we proposed pointwise confidence intervals for each covariate-specific treatment effect curve and the difference between covariate-specific treatment effect curves of two treatments. Furthermore, to select an optimal treatment for a future biomarker-defined subpopulation of patients, we proposed confidence bands for each covariate-specific treatment effect curve and the difference between each pair of covariate-specific treatment effect curve over a fixed interval of biomarker values. We constructed the confidence bands based on a resampling technique. We also conducted simulation studies to evaluate finite-sample properties of the proposed estimation methods. Finally, we illustrated the application of the proposed method in a real-world data set.

For Better or Worse? System-Justifying Beliefs in Sixth-Grade Predict Trajectories of Self-Esteem and Behavior Across Early Adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Godfrey, Erin B; Santos, Carlos E; Burson, Esther

2017-06-19

Scholars call for more attention to how marginalization influences the development of low-income and racial/ethnic minority youth and emphasize the importance of youth's subjective perceptions of contexts. This study examines how beliefs about the fairness of the American system (system justification) in sixth grade influence trajectories of self-esteem and behavior among 257 early adolescents (average age 11.4) from a diverse, low-income, middle school in an urban southwestern city. System justification was associated with higher self-esteem, less delinquent behavior, and better classroom behavior in sixth grade but worse trajectories of these outcomes from sixth to eighth grade. These findings provide novel evidence that system-justifying beliefs undermine the well-being of marginalized youth and that early adolescence is a critical developmental period for this process. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

An Analysis of Global Problems Issues in Sixth and Seventh Grade Science Textbooks.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamm, Mary; Adams, Dennis

The study examines the extent to which the global issues of population growth, world hunger, air quality and atmosphere, and water resources were treated in sixth and seventh grade science textbooks. Ten textbooks were examined by five raters to determine the amount of content presented by different textbooks on global issues, the number of pages…

Age-Related Differences of Individuals' Arithmetic Strategy Utilization with Different Level of Math Anxiety.

Science.gov (United States)

Si, Jiwei; Li, Hongxia; Sun, Yan; Xu, Yanli; Sun, Yu

2016-01-01

The present study used the choice/no-choice method to investigate the effect of math anxiety on the strategy used in computational estimation and mental arithmetic tasks and to examine age-related differences in this regard. Fifty-seven fourth graders, 56 sixth graders, and 60 adults were randomly selected to participate in the experiment. Results showed the following: (1) High-anxious individuals were more likely to use a rounding-down strategy in the computational estimation task under the best-choice condition. Additionally, sixth-grade students and adults performed faster than fourth-grade students on the strategy execution parameter. Math anxiety affected response times (RTs) and the accuracy with which strategies were executed. (2) The execution of the partial-decomposition strategy was superior to that of the full-decomposition strategy on the mental arithmetic task. Low-math-anxious persons provided more accurate answers than did high-math-anxious participants under the no-choice condition. This difference was significant for sixth graders. With regard to the strategy selection parameter, the RTs for strategy selection varied with age.

Age-Related Differences of Individuals’ Arithmetic Strategy Utilization with Different Level of Math Anxiety

Science.gov (United States)

Si, Jiwei; Li, Hongxia; Sun, Yan; Xu, Yanli; Sun, Yu

2016-01-01

The present study used the choice/no-choice method to investigate the effect of math anxiety on the strategy used in computational estimation and mental arithmetic tasks and to examine age-related differences in this regard. Fifty-seven fourth graders, 56 sixth graders, and 60 adults were randomly selected to participate in the experiment. Results showed the following: (1) High-anxious individuals were more likely to use a rounding-down strategy in the computational estimation task under the best-choice condition. Additionally, sixth-grade students and adults performed faster than fourth-grade students on the strategy execution parameter. Math anxiety affected response times (RTs) and the accuracy with which strategies were executed. (2) The execution of the partial-decomposition strategy was superior to that of the full-decomposition strategy on the mental arithmetic task. Low-math-anxious persons provided more accurate answers than did high-math-anxious participants under the no-choice condition. This difference was significant for sixth graders. With regard to the strategy selection parameter, the RTs for strategy selection varied with age. PMID:27803685

Age-related Differences of Individuals’ Arithmetic Strategy Utilization with Different Level of Math Anxiety

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiwei Si

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The present study used the choice/no-choice method to investigate the effect of math anxiety on the strategy used in computational estimation and mental arithmetic tasks and to examine age-related differences in this regard. 57 fourth graders, 56 sixth graders, and 60 adults were randomly selected to participate in the experiment. Results showed the following: (1 High-anxious individuals were more likely to use a rounding-down strategy in the computational estimation task under the best-choice condition. Additionally, sixth-grade students and adults performed faster than fourth-grade students on the strategy execution parameter. Math anxiety affected response times (RTs and the accuracy with which strategies were executed. (2 The execution of the partial-decomposition strategy was superior to that of the full-decomposition strategy on the mental arithmetic task. Low-math-anxious persons provided more accurate answers than did high-math-anxious participants under the no-choice condition. This difference was significant for sixth graders. With regard to the strategy selection parameter, the RTs for strategy selection varied with age.

Human analog tests of the sixth stage of object permanence.

Science.gov (United States)

Heishman, M; Conant, M; Pasnak, R

1995-06-01

Two adult cats were tested on multiple invisible displacement. A dowel was established as a secondary reinforcer and hidden in a manner similar to that used to assess the culmination of sensorimotor intelligence in human infants. Three other cats were tested on single invisible displacement, a simpler version of the task. For human infants, this task is used to assess the beginning of mental representation in the sixth and last stage of sensorimotor intelligence. The cats' searches on these tasks were consistent with representation of an unsensed object and fully developed sensorimotor intelligence.

Suicidal behavior on Axis VI: clinical data supporting a sixth Axis for DSM-V.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Orden, Kimberly A; Witte, Tracy K; Holm-Denoma, Jill; Gordon, Kathryn H; Joiner, Thomas E

2011-01-01

Oquendo and colleagues (Oquendo, Baca-García, Mann, & Giner, 2008; Oquendo & Currier, 2009) recommend that DSM-V emphasize suicide risk assessment on a sixth axis, thereby increasing regularity of suicide risk assessments. We propose that evidence of nonredundancy with Axis V - Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) is one piece of data that can serve as a starting point for a line of research establishing incremental predictive utility for a separate suicide risk assessment in the DSM framework. A standardized suicide risk assessment protocol, measures of depressive, anxious, and eating disordered symptomatology, as well as an index of comorbidity were administered to a sample of 412 adult outpatients. Our data indicate that data from standardized suicide risk assessments are associated with indices of symptomatology severity as well as comorbidity, controlling for GAF. These results support the nonredundancy of the assessments and suggest the utility of longitudinal investigations of the predictive utility of a sixth DSM axis in the assessment of suicide risk.

Sixth NASA Glenn Research Center Propulsion Control and Diagnostics (PCD) Workshop

Science.gov (United States)

Litt, Jonathan S. (Compiler)

2018-01-01

The Intelligent Control and Autonomy Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center hosted the Sixth Propulsion Control and Diagnostics Workshop on August 22-24, 2017. The objectives of this workshop were to disseminate information about research being performed in support of NASA Aeronautics programs; get feedback from peers on the research; and identify opportunities for collaboration. There were presentations and posters by NASA researchers, Department of Defense representatives, and engine manufacturers on aspects of turbine engine modeling, control, and diagnostics.

An unusual case of isolated sixth cranial nerve palsy in leprosy.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaishampayan, Sanjeev; Borde, Priyanka

2012-08-15

Cranial nerve involvement is not common in leprosy. The fifth and seventh cranial nerves are the most commonly affected in leprosy. Herein we present a patient with Hansen disease (BL) with type I reaction who developed isolated involvement of the sixth cranial nerve leading to lateral rectus muscle palsy. He responded to timely anti-reactional therapy and it produced a good response. Careful observation of patients with lepra reaction is needed to avoid damage to important organs.

Selective decontamination in pediatric liver transplants. A randomized prospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, S D; Jackson, R J; Hannakan, C J; Wadowsky, R M; Tzakis, A G; Rowe, M I

1993-06-01

Although it has been suggested that selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD) decreases postoperative aerobic Gram-negative and fungal infections in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), no controlled trials exist in pediatric patients. This prospective, randomized controlled study of 36 pediatric OLT patients examines the effect of short-term SDD on postoperative infection and digestive tract flora. Patients were randomized into two groups. The control group received perioperative parenteral antibiotics only. The SDD group received in addition polymyxin E, tobramycin, and amphotericin B enterally and by oropharyngeal swab postoperatively until oral intake was tolerated (6 +/- 4 days). Indications for operation, preoperative status, age, and intensive care unit and hospital length of stay were no different in SDD (n = 18) and control (n = 18) groups. A total of 14 Gram-negative infections (intraabdominal abscess 7, septicemia 5, pneumonia 1, urinary tract 1) developed in the 36 patients studied. Mortality was not significantly different in the two groups. However, there were significantly fewer patients with Gram-negative infections in the SDD group: 3/18 patients (11%) vs. 11/18 patients (50%) in the control group, P < 0.001. There was also significant reduction in aerobic Gram-negative flora in the stool and pharynx in patients receiving SDD. Gram-positive and anaerobic organisms were unaffected. We conclude that short-term postoperative SDD significantly reduces Gram-negative infections in pediatric OLT patients.

The solution of the sixth Hilbert problem: the ultimate Galilean revolution.

Science.gov (United States)

D'Ariano, Giacomo Mauro

2018-04-28

I argue for a full mathematization of the physical theory, including its axioms, which must contain no physical primitives. In provocative words: 'physics from no physics'. Although this may seem an oxymoron, it is the royal road to keep complete logical coherence, hence falsifiability of the theory. For such a purely mathematical theory the physical connotation must pertain only the interpretation of the mathematics, ranging from the axioms to the final theorems. On the contrary, the postulates of the two current major physical theories either do not have physical interpretation (as for von Neumann's axioms for quantum theory), or contain physical primitives as 'clock', 'rigid rod', 'force', 'inertial mass' (as for special relativity and mechanics). A purely mathematical theory as proposed here, though with limited (but relentlessly growing) domain of applicability, will have the eternal validity of mathematical truth. It will be a theory on which natural sciences can firmly rely. Such kind of theory is what I consider to be the solution of the sixth Hilbert problem. I argue that a prototype example of such a mathematical theory is provided by the novel algorithmic paradigm for physics, as in the recent information-theoretical derivation of quantum theory and free quantum field theory.This article is part of the theme issue 'Hilbert's sixth problem'. © 2018 The Author(s).

Day-ahead load forecast using random forest and expert input selection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lahouar, A.; Ben Hadj Slama, J.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A model based on random forests for short term load forecast is proposed. • An expert feature selection is added to refine inputs. • Special attention is paid to customers behavior, load profile and special holidays. • The model is flexible and able to handle complex load signal. • A technical comparison is performed to assess the forecast accuracy. - Abstract: The electrical load forecast is getting more and more important in recent years due to the electricity market deregulation and integration of renewable resources. To overcome the incoming challenges and ensure accurate power prediction for different time horizons, sophisticated intelligent methods are elaborated. Utilization of intelligent forecast algorithms is among main characteristics of smart grids, and is an efficient tool to face uncertainty. Several crucial tasks of power operators such as load dispatch rely on the short term forecast, thus it should be as accurate as possible. To this end, this paper proposes a short term load predictor, able to forecast the next 24 h of load. Using random forest, characterized by immunity to parameter variations and internal cross validation, the model is constructed following an online learning process. The inputs are refined by expert feature selection using a set of if–then rules, in order to include the own user specifications about the country weather or market, and to generalize the forecast ability. The proposed approach is tested through a real historical set from the Tunisian Power Company, and the simulation shows accurate and satisfactory results for one day in advance, with an average error exceeding rarely 2.3%. The model is validated for regular working days and weekends, and special attention is paid to moving holidays, following non Gregorian calendar

From holes to huts: reconstructing an extinct type of architecture at the Sixth Nile Cataract

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Varadzin, Ladislav; Varadzinová, L.; Pacina, J.

2017-01-01

Roč. 91, č. 357 (2017), s. 589-604 ISSN 0003-598X Institutional support: RVO:67985912 Keywords : North Africa * Sudan * Sixth Nile Cataract * Mesolithic * architecture * drilled holes Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology OBOR OECD: Archaeology Impact factor: 1.536, year: 2016

Strengthening Academic Vocabulary with Word Generation® Helps Sixth-Grade Students Improve Reading Comprehension

Science.gov (United States)

Mokhtari, Kouider; Velten, Justin

2015-01-01

In this quasi-experimental study, we assessed the promise of Word Generation, a research-based academic vocabulary program, on improving the reading achievement outcomes of struggling sixth-grade readers in an after-school small group instructional setting. After 34 hours of academic vocabulary instruction, we compared the performance of a…

Distribution of orientation selectivity in recurrent networks of spiking neurons with different random topologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadeh, Sadra; Rotter, Stefan

2014-01-01

Neurons in the primary visual cortex are more or less selective for the orientation of a light bar used for stimulation. A broad distribution of individual grades of orientation selectivity has in fact been reported in all species. A possible reason for emergence of broad distributions is the recurrent network within which the stimulus is being processed. Here we compute the distribution of orientation selectivity in randomly connected model networks that are equipped with different spatial patterns of connectivity. We show that, for a wide variety of connectivity patterns, a linear theory based on firing rates accurately approximates the outcome of direct numerical simulations of networks of spiking neurons. Distance dependent connectivity in networks with a more biologically realistic structure does not compromise our linear analysis, as long as the linearized dynamics, and hence the uniform asynchronous irregular activity state, remain stable. We conclude that linear mechanisms of stimulus processing are indeed responsible for the emergence of orientation selectivity and its distribution in recurrent networks with functionally heterogeneous synaptic connectivity.

A Structural Equation Model of the Writing Process in Typically-Developing Sixth Grade Children

Science.gov (United States)

Koutsoftas, Anthony D.; Gray, Shelley

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how sixth grade children planned, translated, and revised written narrative stories using a task reflecting current instructional and assessment practices. A modified version of the Hayes and Flower (1980) writing process model was used as the theoretical framework for the study. Two hundred one…

Sixth Conference on China-ASEAN People-to-People Friendship Organizations Held in Bangkok

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2011-01-01

<正>With the theme of "Opportunities and Challenges of China-ASEAN Friendly Cooperation", the Sixth Conference on China-ASEAN People-to-People Friendship Organizations organized by the Thai-Chinese Friendship Association was held in Bangkok August 18 and 19. A delegation of China-ASEAN Association led by its president Gu Xiulian joined about 200 representatives from friendship-with-China organizations in 10 ASEAN countries.

Modeling and Cognitive Behavior: The Effects of Modeling, Modes of Modeling and Selected Model Attributes on Rule-Governed Language Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Grieshop, James Ivo

The effect of modeling on the performance of rule-governed language behaviors of 208 male and female, Anglo and Chicano, sixth grade students in Albuquerque, N.M. was experimentally investigated. Eight boys and 8 girls (4 each Chicano and Anglo) were randomly assigned to each of the 12 experimental conditions and to the control group. Three modes…

Comparison of Writing Anxiety and Writing Dispositions of Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Berk, Rifat Ramazan; Ünal, Emre

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine sixth, seventh and eighth grade students' writing anxiety and dispositions and to examine to what extent they predict each other. The basis of this study is to determine whether writing disposition is the significant predictor of writing anxiety or not and whether students' grade levels and genders are…

Convergent sum of gradient expansion of the kinetic-energy density functional up to the sixth order term using Padé approximant

Science.gov (United States)

Sergeev, A.; Alharbi, F. H.; Jovanovic, R.; Kais, S.

2016-04-01

The gradient expansion of the kinetic energy density functional, when applied to atoms or finite systems, usually grossly overestimates the energy in the fourth order and generally diverges in the sixth order. We avoid the divergence of the integral by replacing the asymptotic series including the sixth order term in the integrand by a rational function. Padé approximants show moderate improvements in accuracy in comparison with partial sums of the series. The results are discussed for atoms and Hooke’s law model for two-electron atoms.

Abstracts of the sixth international conference on modern problems of nuclear physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuldashev, B.; Fazylov, M.; Ibragimova, E.; Salikhbaev, U.

2006-09-01

The Sixth International Conference on modern problems of nuclear physics was held on 19-22 September, 2006 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The specialists discussed various aspects of modern problems of both fundamental and applied nuclear physics. About 275 talks were presented in the meetingof on the following subjects: particle physics, relativistic nuclear physics and physics of atomic nuclei; radiation physics of condenced matter; nuclear applications in industry, medicine, biology and agriculture; nuclear and radiation safety, non prolifaration issues. (K.M.)

Abstracts of the sixth international conference on modern problems of nuclear physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yuldashev, B; Fazylov, M; Ibragimova, E; Salikhbaev, U [eds.

2006-09-15

The Sixth International Conference on modern problems of nuclear physics was held on 19-22 September, 2006 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The specialists discussed various aspects of modern problems of both fundamental and applied nuclear physics. About 275 talks were presented in the meetingof on the following subjects: particle physics, relativistic nuclear physics and physics of atomic nuclei; radiation physics of condenced matter; nuclear applications in industry, medicine, biology and agriculture; nuclear and radiation safety, non prolifaration issues. (K.M.)

Exploring the Use of Technology to Support Literacy of Sixth Grade Students with Reading Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Ball-Inman, Jaime Renee

2017-01-01

The degree to which the utilization of technology supports the academic achievement of sixth grade students with reading disabilities was examined using a quantitative research design. The data analysis involved the results from the Educational Technology Assessment Program to measure achievement. The Standardized Test for the Assessment of…

Negotiating Discourses: Sixth-Grade Students' Use of Multiple Science Discourses during a Science Fair Presentation

Science.gov (United States)

Gomez, Kimberley

2007-01-01

This study offers important insights into the coexistence of multiple discourses and the link between these discourses and science understanding. It offers concrete examples of students' movement between multiple discourses in sixth-grade science fair presentations, and shows how those multiple discourses in science practices illuminate students'…

Workshops of the Sixth International Brain–Computer Interface Meeting : brain–computer interfaces past, present, and future

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huggins, Jane E.; Guger, Christoph; Ziat, Mounia; Zander, Thorsten O.; Taylor, Denise; Tangermann, Michael; Soria-Frisch, Aureli; Simeral, John; Scherer, Reinhold; Rupp, Rüdiger; Ruffini, Giulio; Robinson, Douglas K.R.; Ramsey, Nick F.; Nijholt, Anton; Müller-Putz, Gernot R.; McFarland, Dennis J.; Mattia, Donatella; Lance, Brent J.; Kindermans, Pieter-Jan; Iturrate, Iñaki; Herff, Christian; Gupta, Disha; Do, An H.; Collinger, Jennifer L.; Chavarriaga, Ricardo; Chasey, Steven M.; Bleichner, Martin G.; Batista, Aaron; Anderson, Charles W.; Aarnoutse, Erik J.

2017-01-01

The Sixth International Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) Meeting was held 30 May–3 June 2016 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California, USA. The conference included 28 workshops covering topics in BCI and brain–machine interface research. Topics included BCI for specific

Longitudinal Examination of Aggression and Study Skills from Middle to High School: Implications for Dropout Prevention

Science.gov (United States)

Orpinas, Pamela; Raczynski, Katherine; Hsieh, Hsien-Lin; Nahapetyan, Lusine; Horne, Arthur M.

2018-01-01

Background: High school completion provides health and economic benefits. The purpose of this study is to describe dropout rates based on longitudinal trajectories of aggression and study skills using teacher ratings. Methods: The sample consisted of 620 randomly selected sixth graders. Every year from Grade 6 to 12, a teacher completed a…

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in early adolescents' friendship development: friendship selection, influence, and prospective friendship quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Ojanen, Tiina; Sijtsema, Jelle J; Hawley, Patricia H; Little, Todd D

2010-12-01

Friendships are essential for adolescent social development. However, they may be pursued for varying motives, which, in turn, may predict similarity in friendships via social selection or social influence processes, and likely help to explain friendship quality. We examined the effect of early adolescents' (N = 374, 12-14 years) intrinsic and extrinsic friendship motivation on friendship selection and social influence by utilizing social network modeling. In addition, longitudinal relations among motivation and friendship quality were estimated with structural equation modeling. Extrinsic motivation predicted activity in making friendship nominations during the sixth grade and lower friendship quality across time. Intrinsic motivation predicted inactivity in making friendship nominations during the sixth, popularity as a friend across the transition to middle school, and higher friendship quality across time. Social influence effects were observed for both motives, but were more pronounced for intrinsic motivation. Copyright © 2010 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Some Properties of Solutions for the Sixth-Order Cahn-Hilliard-Type Equation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhao Wang

2012-01-01

Full Text Available We study the initial boundary value problem for a sixth-order Cahn-Hilliard-type equation which describes the separation properties of oil-water mixtures, when a substance enforcing the mixing of the phases is added. We show that the solutions might not be classical globally. In other words, in some cases, the classical solutions exist globally, while in some other cases, such solutions blow up at a finite time. We also discuss the existence of global attractor.

Using Random Forests to Select Optimal Input Variables for Short-Term Wind Speed Forecasting Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hui Wang

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Achieving relatively high-accuracy short-term wind speed forecasting estimates is a precondition for the construction and grid-connected operation of wind power forecasting systems for wind farms. Currently, most research is focused on the structure of forecasting models and does not consider the selection of input variables, which can have significant impacts on forecasting performance. This paper presents an input variable selection method for wind speed forecasting models. The candidate input variables for various leading periods are selected and random forests (RF is employed to evaluate the importance of all variable as features. The feature subset with the best evaluation performance is selected as the optimal feature set. Then, kernel-based extreme learning machine is constructed to evaluate the performance of input variables selection based on RF. The results of the case study show that by removing the uncorrelated and redundant features, RF effectively extracts the most strongly correlated set of features from the candidate input variables. By finding the optimal feature combination to represent the original information, RF simplifies the structure of the wind speed forecasting model, shortens the training time required, and substantially improves the model’s accuracy and generalization ability, demonstrating that the input variables selected by RF are effective.

75 FR 42441 - Sixty-Sixth Report of the TSCA Interagency Testing Committee to the Administrator of the...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-21

... Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) transmitted its Sixty-Sixth... manufacture (defined by statute to include import) and/or process TSCA-covered chemicals and you may be identified by the North American [[Page 42442

Problem Solving vs. Troubleshooting Tasks: The Case of Sixth-Grade Students Studying Simple Electric Circuits

Science.gov (United States)

Safadi, Rafi'; Yerushalmi, Edit

2014-01-01

We compared the materialization of knowledge integration processes in class discussions that followed troubleshooting (TS) and problem-solving (PS) tasks and examined the impact of these tasks on students' conceptual understanding. The study was conducted in two sixth-grade classes taught by the same teacher, in six lessons that constituted a…

Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction

Science.gov (United States)

Ceballos, Gerardo; Ehrlich, Paul R.; Barnosky, Anthony D.; García, Andrés; Pringle, Robert M.; Palmer, Todd M.

2015-01-01

The oft-repeated claim that Earth’s biota is entering a sixth “mass extinction” depends on clearly demonstrating that current extinction rates are far above the “background” rates prevailing between the five previous mass extinctions. Earlier estimates of extinction rates have been criticized for using assumptions that might overestimate the severity of the extinction crisis. We assess, using extremely conservative assumptions, whether human activities are causing a mass extinction. First, we use a recent estimate of a background rate of 2 mammal extinctions per 10,000 species per 100 years (that is, 2 E/MSY), which is twice as high as widely used previous estimates. We then compare this rate with the current rate of mammal and vertebrate extinctions. The latter is conservatively low because listing a species as extinct requires meeting stringent criteria. Even under our assumptions, which would tend to minimize evidence of an incipient mass extinction, the average rate of vertebrate species loss over the last century is up to 100 times higher than the background rate. Under the 2 E/MSY background rate, the number of species that have gone extinct in the last century would have taken, depending on the vertebrate taxon, between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear. These estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already under way. Averting a dramatic decay of biodiversity and the subsequent loss of ecosystem services is still possible through intensified conservation efforts, but that window of opportunity is rapidly closing. PMID:26601195

Accelerated modern human-induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction.

Science.gov (United States)

Ceballos, Gerardo; Ehrlich, Paul R; Barnosky, Anthony D; García, Andrés; Pringle, Robert M; Palmer, Todd M

2015-06-01

The oft-repeated claim that Earth's biota is entering a sixth "mass extinction" depends on clearly demonstrating that current extinction rates are far above the "background" rates prevailing between the five previous mass extinctions. Earlier estimates of extinction rates have been criticized for using assumptions that might overestimate the severity of the extinction crisis. We assess, using extremely conservative assumptions, whether human activities are causing a mass extinction. First, we use a recent estimate of a background rate of 2 mammal extinctions per 10,000 species per 100 years (that is, 2 E/MSY), which is twice as high as widely used previous estimates. We then compare this rate with the current rate of mammal and vertebrate extinctions. The latter is conservatively low because listing a species as extinct requires meeting stringent criteria. Even under our assumptions, which would tend to minimize evidence of an incipient mass extinction, the average rate of vertebrate species loss over the last century is up to 100 times higher than the background rate. Under the 2 E/MSY background rate, the number of species that have gone extinct in the last century would have taken, depending on the vertebrate taxon, between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear. These estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already under way. Averting a dramatic decay of biodiversity and the subsequent loss of ecosystem services is still possible through intensified conservation efforts, but that window of opportunity is rapidly closing.

The Effects of a Water Conservation Instructional Unit on the Values Held by Sixth Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Aird, Andrew; Tomera, Audrey

1977-01-01

Sixth grade students were divided into two groups. Students in one group received instruction on water conservation using expository and discovery activities. The students in the control group received none. Results gave evidence that students' values could be changed by this mode of water conservation instruction. (MA)

Review of the presented papers for the sixth international conference on radiation shielding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sasamoto, Nobuo; Yamaji, Akio; Ueki, Kotaro

1984-01-01

Detailed review has been carried out on technical papers which were presented to the Sixth International Conference on Radiation Shielding, held in Tokyo, from May 16 to 20, 1983. We took into account 131 papers of which preprints were available during the Conference. The results of the review are described for each paper, including its originality, essential features, conclusions obtained and its applicability to shielding design, etc. Summary for each session are also included. (author)

Cigarette Smoking Trajectories From Sixth to Twelfth Grade: Associated Substance Use and High School Dropout.

Science.gov (United States)

Orpinas, Pamela; Lacy, Beth; Nahapetyan, Lusine; Dube, Shanta R; Song, Xiao

2016-02-01

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to identify distinct trajectories of cigarette smoking from sixth to twelfth grade and to characterize these trajectories by use of other drugs and high school dropout. The diverse sample for this analysis consisted of a cohort of 611 students from Northeast Georgia who participated in the Healthy Teens Longitudinal Study (2003-2009). Students completed seven yearly assessments from sixth through twelfth grade. We used semi-parametric, group-based modeling to identify groups of students whose smoking behavior followed a similar progression over time. Current smoking (past 30 day) increased from 6.9% among sixth graders to 28.8% among twelfth graders. Four developmental trajectories of cigarette smoking were identified: Abstainers/Sporadic Users (71.5% of the sample), Late Starters (11.3%), Experimenters (9.0%), and Continuous Users (8.2%). The Abstainer/Sporadic User trajectory was composed of two distinct groups: those who never reported any tobacco use (True Abstainers) and those who reported sporadic, low-level use (Sporadic Users). The True Abstainers reported significantly less use of alcohol and other drugs and lower dropout rates than students in all other trajectories, and Sporadic Users had worse outcomes than True Abstainers. Experimenters and Continuous Users reported the highest drug use. Over one-third of Late Starters (35.8%) and almost half of Continuous Users (44.4%) dropped out of high school. Cigarette smoking was associated with behavioral and academic problems. Results support early and continuous interventions to reduce use of tobacco and other drugs and prevent high school dropout. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Sixth negotiations meeting on the joint implementation of ITER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okumura, Y.

2003-01-01

During the Sixth ITER Negotiations Meeting (N6), the JA delegation reported that JA had sent a letter to China on 22 October 2002 on behalf of the ITER Negotiators in response to a letter from Mr. Liu, Vice Minister of Science and Technology of China. The Canadian delegation reported on the special informal ITER session at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in Lyon, France, and noted that it raised the ITER profile in a positive way. The EU delegation reported on the adoption, within the Sixth Framework Programme, of the Specific Euratom Programme, which gives an explicit basis for continuing activities in the period up to the end of 2006, including a provision of up to Euro 200 million for a possible start of ITER construction. The RF delegation reported that the ITER activities in the Russian Federation are conducted in accordance with the Federal Program (2002-2005) approved by the Russian Government. Funding for ITER activities in 2003 is expected to be on the same level as in previous years. It was reported that the mandate of the Russian delegation to participate in the Negotiations in 2003 is expected to be approved soon by the Government. The RF delegation also reported that they had received informal enquiries from the Republic of Korea about possible participation in ITER. Significant progress was also made on a wide range of other issues, including matters such as the treaty to implement ITER (the Joint Implementation Agreement - JIA), procurement allocation and the intellectual property rights that would accrue to participants in the project. The Negotiators agreed that the international organization responsible for implementing the project would be called the ITER International Fusion Energy Organization. The delegations noted the progress in developing the fifth draft of the JIA and charged the NSSG to elaborate further the JIA and Related Instruments. At the conclusion of the N6 meeting, the delegations reaffirmed their belief that the critical issues

The Influences of the Sixth Graders' Parents' Internet Literacy and Parenting Style on Internet Parenting

Science.gov (United States)

Lou, Shi-Jer; Shih, Ru-Chu; Liu, Hung-Tzu; Guo, Yuan-Chang; Tseng, Kuo-Hung

2010-01-01

This study aims to explore the sixth grade students' parents' Internet literacy and parenting style on Internet parenting in Kaohsiung County in Taiwan. Upon stratified cluster sampling, a total of 822 parents from 34 classes in 28 schools participated in this study. The descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to analyze the responses…

Proceedings of the sixth structural engineering convention. V. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iyer, Nagesh R.; Ramanjaneyulu, K.; Samuel Knight, G.M.

2008-12-01

Many of the developments taking place at present in India and abroad in the field of structural engineering have been captured in this sixth Structural Engineering Convention. The areas covered are: (i) Advances in Concrete Structures, (ii) Advances in Steel Structures, (iii) Advances in Computational Structural Mechanics, (iv) Testing and Evaluation of Structures/Structural components, (v) New Materials of Construction, (vi) Analysis and Design of Structures against Natural Hazards, (vii) Health Monitoring of Structures, (viii) Repair, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Structures, (ix) Advances in Construction Techniques/Practices and Guidelines and Codal Recommendations (x) Behaviour of Structures under Blast/Impact Loading and (xi) Fatigue and Fracture. About 200 papers that include contributory, invited, keynote and plenary papers are included in the proceedings. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately

Implications of structural genomics target selection strategies: Pfam5000, whole genome, and random approaches

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chandonia, John-Marc; Brenner, Steven E.

2004-07-14

The structural genomics project is an international effort to determine the three-dimensional shapes of all important biological macromolecules, with a primary focus on proteins. Target proteins should be selected according to a strategy which is medically and biologically relevant, of good value, and tractable. As an option to consider, we present the Pfam5000 strategy, which involves selecting the 5000 most important families from the Pfam database as sources for targets. We compare the Pfam5000 strategy to several other proposed strategies that would require similar numbers of targets. These include including complete solution of several small to moderately sized bacterial proteomes, partial coverage of the human proteome, and random selection of approximately 5000 targets from sequenced genomes. We measure the impact that successful implementation of these strategies would have upon structural interpretation of the proteins in Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, and 131 complete proteomes (including 10 of eukaryotes) from the Proteome Analysis database at EBI. Solving the structures of proteins from the 5000 largest Pfam families would allow accurate fold assignment for approximately 68 percent of all prokaryotic proteins (covering 59 percent of residues) and 61 percent of eukaryotic proteins (40 percent of residues). More fine-grained coverage which would allow accurate modeling of these proteins would require an order of magnitude more targets. The Pfam5000 strategy may be modified in several ways, for example to focus on larger families, bacterial sequences, or eukaryotic sequences; as long as secondary consideration is given to large families within Pfam, coverage results vary only slightly. In contrast, focusing structural genomics on a single tractable genome would have only a limited impact in structural knowledge of other proteomes: a significant fraction (about 30-40 percent of the proteins, and 40-60 percent of the residues) of each proteome is classified in small

Genome-wide association data classification and SNPs selection using two-stage quality-based Random Forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Thanh-Tung; Huang, Joshua; Wu, Qingyao; Nguyen, Thuy; Li, Mark

2015-01-01

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selection and identification are the most important tasks in Genome-wide association data analysis. The problem is difficult because genome-wide association data is very high dimensional and a large portion of SNPs in the data is irrelevant to the disease. Advanced machine learning methods have been successfully used in Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for identification of genetic variants that have relatively big effects in some common, complex diseases. Among them, the most successful one is Random Forests (RF). Despite of performing well in terms of prediction accuracy in some data sets with moderate size, RF still suffers from working in GWAS for selecting informative SNPs and building accurate prediction models. In this paper, we propose to use a new two-stage quality-based sampling method in random forests, named ts-RF, for SNP subspace selection for GWAS. The method first applies p-value assessment to find a cut-off point that separates informative and irrelevant SNPs in two groups. The informative SNPs group is further divided into two sub-groups: highly informative and weak informative SNPs. When sampling the SNP subspace for building trees for the forest, only those SNPs from the two sub-groups are taken into account. The feature subspaces always contain highly informative SNPs when used to split a node at a tree. This approach enables one to generate more accurate trees with a lower prediction error, meanwhile possibly avoiding overfitting. It allows one to detect interactions of multiple SNPs with the diseases, and to reduce the dimensionality and the amount of Genome-wide association data needed for learning the RF model. Extensive experiments on two genome-wide SNP data sets (Parkinson case-control data comprised of 408,803 SNPs and Alzheimer case-control data comprised of 380,157 SNPs) and 10 gene data sets have demonstrated that the proposed model significantly reduced prediction errors and outperformed

Proceedings of the sixth international conference on fluidized bed combustion. Volume III. Technical sessions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-08-01

The Sixth International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion was held April 9-11, 1980, at the Atlanta Hilton, Atlanta, Georgia. It was sponsored by the US Department of Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Forty-five papers from Vol. III of the proceedings have been entered individually into EDB and ERA. Two papers had been entered previously from other sources. (LTN)

Simultaneous involvement of third and sixth cranial nerve in a patient with Lyme disease

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lell, M.; Schmid, A.; Tomandl, B.F. [Division of Neuroradiology, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054, Erlangen (Germany); Stemper, B.; Maihoefner, C.; Heckmann, J.G. [Department of Neurosurgery, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054, Erlangen (Germany)

2003-02-01

We report a 57-year-old woman with neuroborreliosis presenting with headache, shoulder muscle pain and double vision. MRI demonstrated enhancement of the right third and sixth cranial nerves. A 3D MP-RAGE sequence was used to perform multiplanar reformations to show this more graphically. The patient was free of symptoms 1 month after completion of therapy, when thickening and contrast enhancement of the nerves were less pronounced. (orig.)

Simultaneous involvement of third and sixth cranial nerve in a patient with Lyme disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lell, M.; Schmid, A.; Tomandl, B.F.; Stemper, B.; Maihoefner, C.; Heckmann, J.G.

2003-01-01

We report a 57-year-old woman with neuroborreliosis presenting with headache, shoulder muscle pain and double vision. MRI demonstrated enhancement of the right third and sixth cranial nerves. A 3D MP-RAGE sequence was used to perform multiplanar reformations to show this more graphically. The patient was free of symptoms 1 month after completion of therapy, when thickening and contrast enhancement of the nerves were less pronounced. (orig.)

Sixth BHD Symposium and First International Upstate Kidney Cancer Symposium: latest scientific and clinical discoveries

OpenAIRE

Bratslavsky, Gennady; Woodford, Mark R.; Daneshvar, Michael; Mollapour, Mehdi

2016-01-01

The Sixth BHD Symposium and First International Upstate Kidney Cancer Symposium concluded in September 2015, in Syracuse, NY, USA. The program highlighted recent findings in a variety of areas, including drug development, therapeutics and surgical management of patients with BHD and multi-focal renal tumors, as well as multidisciplinary approaches for patients with localized, locally advanced and metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Sixth BHD Symposium and First International Upstate Kidney Cancer Symposium: latest scientific and clinical discoveries.

Science.gov (United States)

Bratslavsky, Gennady; Woodford, Mark R; Daneshvar, Michael; Mollapour, Mehdi

2016-03-29

The Sixth BHD Symposium and First International Upstate Kidney Cancer Symposium concluded in September 2015, in Syracuse, NY, USA. The program highlighted recent findings in a variety of areas, including drug development, therapeutics and surgical management of patients with BHD and multi-focal renal tumors, as well as multidisciplinary approaches for patients with localized, locally advanced and metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management : Focused on Electrical and Information Technology

CERN Document Server

Yasinzai, Masoom; Lev, Benjamin

2013-01-01

Welcome to the proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management (ICMSEM2012) held from November 11 to 14, 2012 at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan and supported by Sichuan University (Chengdu, China), Quaid-i-Azam University (Islamabad, Pakistan) and The National Natural Science Foundation of China. The International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management is the annual conference organized by the International Society of Management Science and Engineering Management. The goals of the Conference are to foster international research collaborations in Management Science and Engineering Management as well as to provide a forum to present current research results. The papers are classified into 8 sections: Computer and Networks, Information Technology, Decision Support System, Industrial Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, Manufacturing and Ecological Engineering. The key issues of the sixth ICMSEM cover variou...

Participant-selected music and physical activity in older adults following cardiac rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Imogen N; Baker, Felicity A; Peiris, Casey L; Shoebridge, Georgie; Taylor, Nicholas F

2017-03-01

To evaluate effects of participant-selected music on older adults' achievement of activity levels recommended in the physical activity guidelines following cardiac rehabilitation. A parallel group randomized controlled trial with measurements at Weeks 0, 6 and 26. A multisite outpatient rehabilitation programme of a publicly funded metropolitan health service. Adults aged 60 years and older who had completed a cardiac rehabilitation programme. Experimental participants selected music to support walking with guidance from a music therapist. Control participants received usual care only. The primary outcome was the proportion of participants achieving activity levels recommended in physical activity guidelines. Secondary outcomes compared amounts of physical activity, exercise capacity, cardiac risk factors, and exercise self-efficacy. A total of 56 participants, mean age 68.2 years (SD = 6.5), were randomized to the experimental ( n = 28) and control groups ( n = 28). There were no differences between groups in proportions of participants achieving activity recommended in physical activity guidelines at Week 6 or 26. Secondary outcomes demonstrated between-group differences in male waist circumference at both measurements (Week 6 difference -2.0 cm, 95% CI -4.0 to 0; Week 26 difference -2.8 cm, 95% CI -5.4 to -0.1), and observed effect sizes favoured the experimental group for amounts of physical activity (d = 0.30), exercise capacity (d = 0.48), and blood pressure (d = -0.32). Participant-selected music did not increase the proportion of participants achieving recommended amounts of physical activity, but may have contributed to exercise-related benefits.

r2VIM: A new variable selection method for random forests in genome-wide association studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Szymczak, Silke; Holzinger, Emily; Dasgupta, Abhijit; Malley, James D; Molloy, Anne M; Mills, James L; Brody, Lawrence C; Stambolian, Dwight; Bailey-Wilson, Joan E

2016-01-01

Machine learning methods and in particular random forests (RFs) are a promising alternative to standard single SNP analyses in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). RFs provide variable importance measures (VIMs) to rank SNPs according to their predictive power. However, in contrast to the established genome-wide significance threshold, no clear criteria exist to determine how many SNPs should be selected for downstream analyses. We propose a new variable selection approach, recurrent relative variable importance measure (r2VIM). Importance values are calculated relative to an observed minimal importance score for several runs of RF and only SNPs with large relative VIMs in all of the runs are selected as important. Evaluations on simulated GWAS data show that the new method controls the number of false-positives under the null hypothesis. Under a simple alternative hypothesis with several independent main effects it is only slightly less powerful than logistic regression. In an experimental GWAS data set, the same strong signal is identified while the approach selects none of the SNPs in an underpowered GWAS. The novel variable selection method r2VIM is a promising extension to standard RF for objectively selecting relevant SNPs in GWAS while controlling the number of false-positive results.

Mediators of Effects of a Selective Family-Focused Violence Prevention Approach for Middle School Students

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

This study examined how parenting and family characteristics targeted in a selective prevention program mediated effects on key youth proximal outcomes related to violence perpetration. The selective intervention was evaluated within the context of a multi-site trial involving random assignment of 37 schools to four conditions: a universal intervention composed of a student social-cognitive curriculum and teacher training, a selective family-focused intervention with a subset of high-risk students, a condition combining these two interventions, and a no-intervention control condition. Two cohorts of sixth-grade students (total N=1,062) exhibiting high levels of aggression and social influence were the sample for this study. Analyses of pre-post change compared to controls using intent-to-treat analyses found no significant effects. However, estimates incorporating participation of those assigned to the intervention and predicted participation among those not assigned revealed significant positive effects on student aggression, use of aggressive strategies for conflict management, and parental estimation of student’s valuing of achievement. Findings also indicated intervention effects on two targeted family processes: discipline practices and family cohesion. Mediation analyses found evidence that change in these processes mediated effects on some outcomes, notably aggressive behavior and valuing of school achievement. Results support the notion that changing parenting practices and the quality of family relationships can prevent the escalation in aggression and maintain positive school engagement for high-risk youth. PMID:21932067

Pilot study: EatFit impacts sixth graders' academic performance on achievement of mathematics and english education standards.

Science.gov (United States)

Shilts, Mical Kay; Lamp, Cathi; Horowitz, Marcel; Townsend, Marilyn S

2009-01-01

Investigate the impact of a nutrition education program on student academic performance as measured by achievement of education standards. Quasi-experimental crossover-controlled study. California Central Valley suburban elementary school (58% qualified for free or reduced-priced lunch). All sixth-grade students (n = 84) in the elementary school clustered in 3 classrooms. 9-lesson intervention with an emphasis on guided goal setting and driven by the Social Cognitive Theory. Multiple-choice survey assessing 5 education standards for sixth-grade mathematics and English at 3 time points: baseline (T1), 5 weeks (T2), and 10 weeks (T3). Repeated measures, paired t test, and analysis of covariance. Changes in total scores were statistically different (P academic performance measured by achievement of specific mathematics and English education standards. Nutrition educators can show school administrators and wellness committee members that this program can positively impact academic performance, concomitant to its primary objective of promoting healthful eating and physical activity.

Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion. Volume 1. Plenary sessions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-08-01

The Sixth International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion was held at the Atlanta Hilton, Atlanta, Georgia, April 9-11, 1980. The papers in this volume involved presentation of the research and development programs of the US (US DOE, TVA, EPRI and US EPA), United Kingdom, Federal Republic of Germany and the People's Republic of China. Eight papers from Vol. 1 (Plenary Sessions) of the proceedings have been entered individually into EDB and ERA. (LTN)

Effects of Math Anxiety and Perfectionism on Timed versus Untimed Math Testing in Mathematically Gifted Sixth Graders

Science.gov (United States)

Tsui, Joanne M.; Mazzocco, Michele M. M.

2006-01-01

This study was designed to examine the effects of math anxiety and perfectionism on math performance, under timed testing conditions, among mathematically gifted sixth graders. We found that participants had worse math performance during timed versus untimed testing, but this difference was statistically significant only when the timed condition…

Two-year Randomized Clinical Trial of Self-etching Adhesives and Selective Enamel Etching.

Science.gov (United States)

Pena, C E; Rodrigues, J A; Ely, C; Giannini, M; Reis, A F

2016-01-01

The aim of this randomized, controlled prospective clinical trial was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of restoring noncarious cervical lesions with two self-etching adhesive systems applied with or without selective enamel etching. A one-step self-etching adhesive (Xeno V(+)) and a two-step self-etching system (Clearfil SE Bond) were used. The effectiveness of phosphoric acid selective etching of enamel margins was also evaluated. Fifty-six cavities were restored with each adhesive system and divided into two subgroups (n=28; etch and non-etch). All 112 cavities were restored with the nanohybrid composite Esthet.X HD. The clinical effectiveness of restorations was recorded in terms of retention, marginal integrity, marginal staining, caries recurrence, and postoperative sensitivity after 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months (modified United States Public Health Service). The Friedman test detected significant differences only after 18 months for marginal staining in the groups Clearfil SE non-etch (p=0.009) and Xeno V(+) etch (p=0.004). One restoration was lost during the trial (Xeno V(+) etch; p>0.05). Although an increase in marginal staining was recorded for groups Clearfil SE non-etch and Xeno V(+) etch, the clinical effectiveness of restorations was considered acceptable for the single-step and two-step self-etching systems with or without selective enamel etching in this 24-month clinical trial.

A comparison of random forest and its Gini importance with standard chemometric methods for the feature selection and classification of spectral data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Himmelreich Uwe

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Regularized regression methods such as principal component or partial least squares regression perform well in learning tasks on high dimensional spectral data, but cannot explicitly eliminate irrelevant features. The random forest classifier with its associated Gini feature importance, on the other hand, allows for an explicit feature elimination, but may not be optimally adapted to spectral data due to the topology of its constituent classification trees which are based on orthogonal splits in feature space. Results We propose to combine the best of both approaches, and evaluated the joint use of a feature selection based on a recursive feature elimination using the Gini importance of random forests' together with regularized classification methods on spectral data sets from medical diagnostics, chemotaxonomy, biomedical analytics, food science, and synthetically modified spectral data. Here, a feature selection using the Gini feature importance with a regularized classification by discriminant partial least squares regression performed as well as or better than a filtering according to different univariate statistical tests, or using regression coefficients in a backward feature elimination. It outperformed the direct application of the random forest classifier, or the direct application of the regularized classifiers on the full set of features. Conclusion The Gini importance of the random forest provided superior means for measuring feature relevance on spectral data, but – on an optimal subset of features – the regularized classifiers might be preferable over the random forest classifier, in spite of their limitation to model linear dependencies only. A feature selection based on Gini importance, however, may precede a regularized linear classification to identify this optimal subset of features, and to earn a double benefit of both dimensionality reduction and the elimination of noise from the classification task.

Random effect selection in generalised linear models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Denwood, Matt; Houe, Hans; Forkman, Björn

We analysed abattoir recordings of meat inspection codes with possible relevance to onfarm animal welfare in cattle. Random effects logistic regression models were used to describe individual-level data obtained from 461,406 cattle slaughtered in Denmark. Our results demonstrate that the largest...

A report from the Sixth International Mouse Genome Conference

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, S. [Saint Mary`s Hospital Medical School, London (United Kingdom). Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

1992-12-31

The Sixth Annual Mouse Genome Conference was held in October, 1992 at Buffalo, USA. The mouse is one of the primary model organisms in the Human Genome Project. Through the use of gene targeting studies the mouse has become a powerful biological model for the study of gene function and, in addition, the comparison of the many homologous mutations identified in human and mouse have widened our understanding of the biology of these two organisms. A primary goal in the mouse genome program has been to create a genetic map of STSs of high resolution (<1cM) that would form the basis for the physical mapping of the whole mouse genome. Buffalo saw substantial new progress towards the goal of a very high density genetic map and the beginnings of substantive efforts towards physical mapping in chromosome regions with a high density of genetic markers.

Combining Self-Monitoring and an Interdependent Group Contingency to Improve the Behavior of Sixth Graders with EBD

Science.gov (United States)

Denune, Hilary; Hawkins, Renee; Donovan, Lauren; Mccoy, Dacia; Hall, Lyndsie; Moeder, Anthony

2015-01-01

A withdrawal design was used to examine the influence of a self-monitoring procedure on the overall effectiveness of an interdependent group contingency intervention implemented in a sixth-grade classroom in an alternative school serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Dependent variables included student on-task, off-task,…

Advancing Integrated STEM Learning through Engineering Design: Sixth-Grade Students' Design and Construction of Earthquake Resistant Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

English, Lyn D.; King, Donna; Smeed, Joanna

2017-01-01

As part of a 3-year longitudinal study, 136 sixth-grade students completed an engineering-based problem on earthquakes involving integrated STEM learning. Students employed engineering design processes and STEM disciplinary knowledge to plan, sketch, then construct a building designed to withstand earthquake damage, taking into account a number of…

Evaluation of Antistigma Interventions With Sixth-Grade Students: A School-Based Field Experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Painter, Kirstin; Phelan, Jo C; DuPont-Reyes, Melissa J; Barkin, Kay F; Villatoro, Alice P; Link, Bruce G

2017-04-01

School-based interventions for preadolescents provide the opportunity, in a ubiquitous institutional setting, to attack stigmatizing attitudes before they are firmly entrenched, and thus they may reduce mental illness stigma in the overall population. This study evaluated the effectiveness of classroom-based interventions in reducing stigma and increasing understanding of mental illness and positive attitudes toward treatment seeking among sixth-grade students. In an ethnically and racially diverse sample (N=721), 40% of participants were Latino, 26% were white, and 24% were African American; the mean age was 11.5. In a fully crossed design, classrooms from a school district in Texas were randomly assigned to receive all three, two, one, or none of the following interventions: a PowerPoint- and discussion-based curriculum, contact with two college students who described their experiences with mental illness, and exposure to antistigma printed materials. Standard and vignette-based quantitative measures of mental health knowledge and attitudes, social distance, and help-seeking attitudes were assessed pre- and postintervention. Printed materials had no significant effects on outcomes and were grouped with the control condition for analysis. For eight of 13 outcomes, the curriculum-only group reported significantly more positive outcomes than the control group; the largest between-group differences were for stigma awareness and action, recognition of mental illness in the vignettes, and positive orientation to treatment. The contact-alone group reported significantly more positive outcomes on three vignette-based measures. Results were most promising for a classroom-based curriculum that can be relatively easily disseminated to and delivered by teachers, offering the potential for broad application in the population.

Sixth research coordination meeting on the measurement and evaluation of transactinium isotope nuclear data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lorenz, A.

1983-11-01

Proceedings of the sixth meeting of the participants in the IAEA Coordinated Research Programme to measure and evaluate the required nuclear decay data of heavy element radionuclides, convened by the IAEA Nuclear Data Section on 21-24 June 1983 at Idaho Falls, USA. The meeting participants reviewed the data requirements, updated and extended the recommended list of half-lives, and continued to review the status of alpha and gamma radiation spectra emitted in the decay of transactinium isotopes

The sixth plenary meeting of the seminar 'Steel and nonmetallic inclusions'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kiseleva, S.A.

1976-01-01

The sixth plenary session of the 'Steel and non-metallic inclusions' seminar held in Volgograd in July of 1976 dealt, primarily with the application of rare-earth REM and alkaline earth AEM metals in metallurgy. The following problems were discussed: REM sources, alloyages with REM and AEM rational methods of producing them, industrial application of REM in metallurgy, the effect of REM on the quality of steel and the physicochemical nature of at effect. The seminar ended with a summary of the discussion and recommendations as to the areas of application of REM in metallurgy, as well as a summary of the basic requirements to be met in employing those metals in any field of metallurgy

RNA/DNA co-analysis from human skin and contact traces – results of a sixth collaborative EDNAP exercise

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haas, C; Hanson, E; Banemann, R

2015-01-01

The European DNA profiling group (EDNAP) organized a sixth collaborative exercise on RNA/DNA co-analysis for body fluid/tissue identification and STR profiling. The task was to identify skin samples/contact traces using specific RNA biomarkers and test three housekeeping genes for their suitabili...

Too Much Television? Prospective Associations Between Early Childhood Televiewing and Later Self-reports of Victimization by Sixth Grade Classmates.

Science.gov (United States)

Watt, Emmalyne; Fitzpatrick, Caroline; Derevensky, Jeffrey L; Pagani, Linda S

2015-01-01

Using a birth cohort, this study aimed to verify whether televiewing at 29 months, a common early childhood pastime, is prospectively associated with self-reported victimization at age 12. Participants are 991 girls and 1006 boys from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. The main predictor comprised parent-reported daily televiewing by their children at 29 months. In the sixth grade, children reported how often they experienced victimization by classmates in the past year. The authors conducted multivariate linear regression, in which child self-reports of victimization were linearly regressed on early televiewing and potential confounders. Every SD unit increase (0.88 hours) in daily televiewing at 29 months predicted an 11% SD unit increase in self-reported peer victimization by sixth grade classmates (unstandardized B = .031, p characteristics (gender, preexisting externalizing behaviors, baseline cognitive abilities, and televiewing at age 12) and family characteristics (family configuration, income, and functioning, and maternal education). Daily televiewing time at 29 months was associated with a subsequent increased risk of victimization by classmates at the end of sixth grade, a period which represents a critical developmental transition to middle school. Youth who experience peer victimization are at an increased risk of long-term mental health issues, such as depression, underachievement, and low self-esteem. This prospective association, across a 10-year period, suggests the need for better parental awareness, acknowledgement, and compliance with existing recommendations put forth by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

A rare case of an intercostal lung herniation with fractures of the fifth and sixth ribs after thoracic surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Haro, Akira; Komiya, Kazune; Taguchi, Yoshihiro; Nishikawa, Haruka; Kouda, Takuyuki; Fujishita, Takatoshi; Yokoyama, Hideki

2017-01-01

Lung herniation is a rare condition defined as a protrusion of the pleural-covered lung parenchyma through an abnormal defect or weakness in the thoracic wall. Postoperative lung herniation is reported to result from a preceding operation with inadequate closure of the chest wall. A 77-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for treatment of hemoptysis and nausea. One year previously, she had undergone wedge resection of the right lower lobe (S6) for treatment of primary lung adenocarcinoma. Upon admission, chest radiograph and chest computed tomography showed a right lung herniation through the fifth enlarged intercostal space with right fifth and sixth rib fractures. She underwent surgical closure of the intercostal hernia using synthetic materials with fixation of the fifth and sixth ribs. The patient had developed no recurrence 9 months after surgical repair. In the present case, adequate closure of the right pleural cavity was ensured by fixation of both fifth and sixth ribs during the preceding video-assisted thoracic surgery for the primary lung carcinoma. Our patient may have had some exacerbation factors for lung herniation, increased intrathoracic pressure, attenuation of chest wall by prolonged coughing and rib fracture, and high abdominal pressure due to her hunched-over posture. It is important to know some exacerbation factors for postoperative intercostal lung herniation. Addition of monofirament-suture fixation of the ribs to patch repair is very effective for lung herniation repair in patients with concurrent lung herniation and rib fractures.

Proceedings of the sixth structural engineering convent ion. V. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iyer, Nagesh R.; Ramanjaneyulu, K.; Samuel Knight, G.M.

2008-12-01

Many of the developments taking place at present in India and abroad in the field of structural engineering have been captured in this sixth Structural Engineering Convention. The areas covered are: (i) Advances in Concrete Structures, (ii) Advances in Steel Structures, (iii) Advances in Computational Structural Mechanics, (iv) Testing and Evaluation of Structures/Structural components, (v) New Materials of Construction, (vi) Analysis and Design of Structures against Natural Hazards, (vii) Health Monitoring of Structures, (viii) Repair, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Structures, (ix) Advances in Construction Techniques/Practices and Guidelines and Codal Recommendations (x) Behaviour of Structures under Blast/Impact Loading and (xi) Fatigue and Fracture. About 200 papers that include contributory, invited, keynote and plenary papers are included in the proceedings. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately

The effect of four instructional methods, gender, and time of testing on the achievement of sixth graders learning to interpret graphs

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Jerry Wayne

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of four instructional methods (direct instruction, computer-aided instruction, video observation, and microcomputer-based lab activities), gender, and time of testing (pretest, immediate posttest for determining the immediate effect of instruction, and a delayed posttest two weeks later to determine the retained effect of the instruction) on the achievement of sixth graders who were learning to interpret graphs of displacement and velocity. The dependent variable of achievement was reflected in the scores earned by students on a testing instrument of established validity and reliability. The 107 students participating in the study were divided by gender and were then randomly assigned to the four treatment groups, each taught by a different teacher. Each group had approximately equal numbers of males and females. The students were pretested and then involved in two class periods of the instructional method which was unique to their group. Immediately following treatment they were posttested and two weeks later they were posttested again. The data in the form of test scores were analyzed with a two-way split-plot analysis of variance to determine if there was significant interaction among technique, gender, and time of testing. When significant interaction was indicated, the Tukey HSD test was used to determine specific mean differences. The results of the analysis indicated no gender effect. Only students in the direct instruction group and the microcomputer-based laboratory group had significantly higher posttest-1 scores than pretest scores. They also had significantly higher posttest-2 scores than pretest scores. This suggests that the learning was retained. The other groups experienced no significant differences among pretest, posttest-1, and posttest-2 scores. Recommendations are that direct instruction and microcomputer-based laboratory activities should be considered as effective stand-alone methods for

Random forest variable selection in spatial malaria transmission modelling in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thandi Kapwata

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Malaria is an environmentally driven disease. In order to quantify the spatial variability of malaria transmission, it is imperative to understand the interactions between environmental variables and malaria epidemiology at a micro-geographic level using a novel statistical approach. The random forest (RF statistical learning method, a relatively new variable-importance ranking method, measures the variable importance of potentially influential parameters through the percent increase of the mean squared error. As this value increases, so does the relative importance of the associated variable. The principal aim of this study was to create predictive malaria maps generated using the selected variables based on the RF algorithm in the Ehlanzeni District of Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. From the seven environmental variables used [temperature, lag temperature, rainfall, lag rainfall, humidity, altitude, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI], altitude was identified as the most influential predictor variable due its high selection frequency. It was selected as the top predictor for 4 out of 12 months of the year, followed by NDVI, temperature and lag rainfall, which were each selected twice. The combination of climatic variables that produced the highest prediction accuracy was altitude, NDVI, and temperature. This suggests that these three variables have high predictive capabilities in relation to malaria transmission. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the predictive maps generated from predictions made by the RF algorithm could be used to monitor the progression of malaria and assist in intervention and prevention efforts with respect to malaria.

Numerical solution of sixth-order boundary-value problems using Legendre wavelet collocation method

Science.gov (United States)

Sohaib, Muhammad; Haq, Sirajul; Mukhtar, Safyan; Khan, Imad

2018-03-01

An efficient method is proposed to approximate sixth order boundary value problems. The proposed method is based on Legendre wavelet in which Legendre polynomial is used. The mechanism of the method is to use collocation points that converts the differential equation into a system of algebraic equations. For validation two test problems are discussed. The results obtained from proposed method are quite accurate, also close to exact solution, and other different methods. The proposed method is computationally more effective and leads to more accurate results as compared to other methods from literature.

The Declining Significance of Homohysteria for Male Students in Three Sixth Forms in the South of England

Science.gov (United States)

McCormack, M.

2011-01-01

English schools have traditionally been institutions with high levels of homophobia. This is attributed to the need that heterosexual boys have to maintain a heteromasculine identity. However, by drawing on 44 in-depth interviews and 12 months of participant observation across three sixth forms, I detail the ways in which homophobia holds little…

Gender and Racial Differences: Development of Sixth Grade Students' Geometric Spatial Visualization within an Earth/Space Unit

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Christa; Wilhelm, Jennifer Anne; Lamar, Mary; Cole, Merryn

2015-01-01

This study investigated sixth-grade middle-level students' geometric spatial development by gender and race within and between control and experimental groups at two middle schools as they participated in an Earth/Space unit. The control group utilized a regular Earth/Space curriculum and the experimental group used a National Aeronautics and…

Selecting Optimal Parameters of Random Linear Network Coding for Wireless Sensor Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heide, J; Zhang, Qi; Fitzek, F H P

2013-01-01

This work studies how to select optimal code parameters of Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). With Rateless Deluge [1] the authors proposed to apply Network Coding (NC) for Over-the-Air Programming (OAP) in WSNs, and demonstrated that with NC a significant...... reduction in the number of transmitted packets can be achieved. However, NC introduces additional computations and potentially a non-negligible transmission overhead, both of which depend on the chosen coding parameters. Therefore it is necessary to consider the trade-off that these coding parameters...... present in order to obtain the lowest energy consumption per transmitted bit. This problem is analyzed and suitable coding parameters are determined for the popular Tmote Sky platform. Compared to the use of traditional RLNC, these parameters enable a reduction in the energy spent per bit which grows...

Comparison of Writing Anxiety and Writing Dispositions of Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Grade Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rifat Ramazan Berk

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to determine sixth, seventh and eighth grade students’ writing anxiety and dispositions and to examine to what extent they predict each other. The basis of this study is to determine whether writing disposition is the significant predictor of writing anxiety or not and whether students’ grade levels and genders are significant predictor of writing anxiety and dispositions or not. The research was designed according to survey model. The study group, selected through simple sampling method, is made up of 860 students studying at 6th, 7th and 8th grades in elementary schools of Şarkışla District, Sivas. While “Writing Anxiety Scale”, adapted into Turkish by Özbay and Zorbay (2011, was administered to determine the study group’s writing anxiety level, “Writing Disposition Scale”, adapted into Turkish by İşeri and Ünal (2010, was used to determine the writing disposition level. At the end of the study, it was found that writing disposition is a significant predictor of writing anxiety and students’ grade levels and genders are significant predictors of writing anxiety and dispositions. An education environment to create a strong writing disposition for students is recommended. Also, similar studies on different dimensions of the issue can be conducted.

Application of random coherence order selection in gradient-enhanced multidimensional NMR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bostock, Mark J.; Nietlispach, Daniel

2016-01-01

Development of multidimensional NMR is essential to many applications, for example in high resolution structural studies of biomolecules. Multidimensional techniques enable separation of NMR signals over several dimensions, improving signal resolution, whilst also allowing identification of new connectivities. However, these advantages come at a significant cost. The Fourier transform theorem requires acquisition of a grid of regularly spaced points to satisfy the Nyquist criterion, while frequency discrimination and acquisition of a pure phase spectrum require acquisition of both quadrature components for each time point in every indirect (non-acquisition) dimension, adding a factor of 2 N -1 to the number of free- induction decays which must be acquired, where N is the number of dimensions. Compressed sensing (CS) ℓ 1 -norm minimisation in combination with non-uniform sampling (NUS) has been shown to be extremely successful in overcoming the Nyquist criterion. Previously, maximum entropy reconstruction has also been used to overcome the limitation of frequency discrimination, processing data acquired with only one quadrature component at a given time interval, known as random phase detection (RPD), allowing a factor of two reduction in the number of points for each indirect dimension (Maciejewski et al. 2011 PNAS 108 16640). However, whilst this approach can be easily applied in situations where the quadrature components are acquired as amplitude modulated data, the same principle is not easily extended to phase modulated (P-/N-type) experiments where data is acquired in the form exp (iωt) or exp (-iωt), and which make up many of the multidimensional experiments used in modern NMR. Here we demonstrate a modification of the CS ℓ 1 -norm approach to allow random coherence order selection (RCS) for phase modulated experiments; we generalise the nomenclature for RCS and RPD as random quadrature detection (RQD). With this method, the power of RQD can be extended

Sixth national stakeholder workshop summary report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-03-01

On June 17--18, 1998, the Department of Energy`s (DOE) Office of Worker and Community Transition convened its sixth National Stakeholder Workshop at the Ramada Plaza Hotel Old Town in Alexandria, Virginia. Approximately 325 stakeholders attended representing DOE headquarters and field offices, contractors, labor organizations, state and local government, education and community interest groups. The meeting addressed the progress made on the issues and challenges identified at the last stakeholder`s meeting in Oakland, California on April 9--11, 1997. Also discussed were the full range of the Department`s work force issues and creative solutions to the inherent challenges of simultaneously implementing the Department`s post Cold-War mission, work force restructuring guidance, contract reform objectives, asset disposition, performance-based management requirements, and business process improvement policies. The format of the Workshop included several plenary sessions and a number of small group discussion sessions. The small group sessions focused on topics related to labor issues, work force restructuring, work force planning, community transition, and employee concerns. The sessions provided a wide range of views on worker and community transition issues. The plenary sessions of the Workshop included presentations on the following topics: welcome and introductions; opening remarks; building a better labor-management relationship; keynote speech from Secretary of Energy Federico Pena; meeting tomorrow`s challenges (early site closures); harnessing the contracting process to encourage local growth; and, the British experience in economic conversion.

On Random Numbers and Design

Science.gov (United States)

Ben-Ari, Morechai

2004-01-01

The term "random" is frequently used in discussion of the theory of evolution, even though the mathematical concept of randomness is problematic and of little relevance in the theory. Therefore, since the core concept of the theory of evolution is the non-random process of natural selection, the term random should not be used in teaching the…

Taste of Fat: A Sixth Taste Modality?

Science.gov (United States)

Besnard, Philippe; Passilly-Degrace, Patricia; Khan, Naim A

2016-01-01

An attraction for palatable foods rich in lipids is shared by rodents and humans. Over the last decade, the mechanisms responsible for this specific eating behavior have been actively studied, and compelling evidence implicates a taste component in the orosensory detection of dietary lipids [i.e., long-chain fatty acids (LCFA)], in addition to textural, olfactory, and postingestive cues. The interactions between LCFA and specific receptors in taste bud cells (TBC) elicit physiological changes that affect both food intake and digestive functions. After a short overview of the gustatory pathway, this review brings together the key findings consistent with the existence of a sixth taste modality devoted to the perception of lipids. The main steps leading to this new paradigm (i.e., chemoreception of LCFA in TBC, cell signaling cascade, transfer of lipid signals throughout the gustatory nervous pathway, and their physiological consequences) will be critically analyzed. The limitations to this concept will also be discussed in the light of our current knowledge of the sense of taste. Finally, we will analyze the recent literature on obesity-related dysfunctions in the orosensory detection of lipids ("fatty" taste?), in relation to the overconsumption of fat-rich foods and the associated health risks. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Selecting for Fast Protein-Protein Association As Demonstrated on a Random TEM1 Yeast Library Binding BLIP.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen-Khait, Ruth; Schreiber, Gideon

2018-04-27

Protein-protein interactions mediate the vast majority of cellular processes. Though protein interactions obey basic chemical principles also within the cell, the in vivo physiological environment may not allow for equilibrium to be reached. Thus, in vitro measured thermodynamic affinity may not provide a complete picture of protein interactions in the biological context. Binding kinetics composed of the association and dissociation rate constants are relevant and important in the cell. Therefore, changes in protein-protein interaction kinetics have a significant impact on the in vivo activity of the proteins. The common protocol for the selection of tighter binders from a mutant library selects for protein complexes with slower dissociation rate constants. Here we describe a method to specifically select for variants with faster association rate constants by using pre-equilibrium selection, starting from a large random library. Toward this end, we refine the selection conditions of a TEM1-β-lactamase library against its natural nanomolar affinity binder β-lactamase inhibitor protein (BLIP). The optimal selection conditions depend on the ligand concentration and on the incubation time. In addition, we show that a second sort of the library helps to separate signal from noise, resulting in a higher percent of faster binders in the selected library. Fast associating protein variants are of particular interest for drug development and other biotechnological applications.

Modulation transfer function of a fish-eye lens based on the sixth-order wave aberration theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Han; Lu, Lijun; Cao, Yiqing

2018-01-10

A calculation program of the modulation transfer function (MTF) of a fish-eye lens is developed with the autocorrelation method, in which the sixth-order wave aberration theory of ultra-wide-angle optical systems is used to simulate the wave aberration distribution at the exit pupil of the optical systems. The autocorrelation integral is processed with the Gauss-Legendre integral, and the magnification chromatic aberration is discussed to calculate polychromatic MTF. The MTF calculation results of a given example are then compared with those previously obtained based on the fourth-order wave aberration theory of plane-symmetrical optical systems and with those from the Zemax program. The study shows that MTF based on the sixth-order wave aberration theory has satisfactory calculation accuracy even for a fish-eye lens with a large acceptance aperture. And the impacts of different types of aberrations on the MTF of a fish-eye lens are analyzed. Finally, we apply the self-adaptive and normalized real-coded genetic algorithm and the MTF developed in the paper to optimize the Nikon F/2.8 fish-eye lens; consequently, the optimized system shows better MTF performances than those of the original design.

Preparing for national implementation of an evidence-based, effective HIV prevention program among bahamian sixth-grade students.

Science.gov (United States)

Knowles, Valerie; Wang, Bo; Deveaux, Lynette; Lunn, Sonja; Rolle, Glenda; Jones, Giavana; Harris, Carole; Kaljee, Linda; Li, Xiaoming; Koci, Veronica; Chen, Xinguang; Marshall, Sharon; Stanton, Bonita

2012-01-01

Using data from the preparatory phase prior to national implementation of an effective HIV prevention program (Focus on Youth in the Caribbean; FOYC) in all Bahamian government sixth-grade classes, we describe (1) actual FOYC implementation, (2) factors that influenced implementation, and (3) the relationship of implementation with intervention outcome. Six elementary schools (with 17 grade six classrooms) were selected to participate in the preparatory phase. The 17 teachers were invited to attend a training workshop, coordinate administration of questionnaires to the students, teach the 10 sessions of FOYC and complete self-assessment checklists. A total of 395 students submitted baseline and 311 students submitted year-end questionnaires. Thirteen teachers initiated FOYC; five completed all 10 sessions. Implementation of FOYC was not related to teacher FOYC workshop experience but did cluster by school. There were significant positive correlations between improved student knowledge of HIV/AIDS, protective health skills, perceived parental monitoring and reduced risk behaviours with the number of FOYC sessions delivered. Implementation was impeded by logistics issues, structural issues with the measures, and comfort-level issues, most of which can be addressed for national implementation. Degree of FOYC implementation is correlated with positive student outcomes.

Impact of Hidden Curriculum on Ethical and Aesthetic Values of Sixth Graders in Tafila Directorate of Education

Science.gov (United States)

Al.qomoul, Mohammad; Al.roud, Atallah

2017-01-01

The present research attempts to investigate the impact of the hidden curriculum on ethical and aesthetic values of sixth graders in Tafila Directorate of education. It also, aims at counting the means and differences between the grades of the positive effects and the grades of the negative effects of both ethical and aesthetic values of the…

ICENES '91:Sixth international conference on emerging nuclear energy systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

This document contains the program and abstracts of the sessions at the Sixth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems held June 16--21, 1991 at Monterey, California. These sessions included: The plenary session, fission session, fission and nonelectric session, poster session 1P; (space propulsion, space nuclear power, electrostatic confined fusion, fusion miscellaneous, inertial confinement fusion, μ-catalyzed fusion, and cold fusion); Advanced fusion session, space nuclear session, poster session 2P, (nuclear reactions/data, isotope separation, direct energy conversion and exotic concepts, fusion-fission hybrids, nuclear desalting, accelerator waste-transmutation, and fusion-based chemical recycling); energy policy session, poster session 3P (energy policy, magnetic fusion reactors, fission reactors, magnetically insulated inertial fusion, and nuclear explosives for power generation); exotic energy storage and conversion session; and exotic energy storage and conversion; review and closing session

Phage display of the serpin alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor randomized at consecutive residues in the reactive centre loop and biopanned with or without thrombin.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin M Scott

Full Text Available In spite of the power of phage display technology to identify variant proteins with novel properties in large libraries, it has only been previously applied to one member of the serpin superfamily. Here we describe phage display of human alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor (API in a T7 bacteriophage system. API M358R fused to the C-terminus of T7 capsid protein 10B was directly shown to form denaturation-resistant complexes with thrombin by electrophoresis and immunoblotting following exposure of intact phages to thrombin. We therefore developed a biopanning protocol in which thrombin-reactive phages were selected using biotinylated anti-thrombin antibodies and streptavidin-coated magnetic beads. A library consisting of displayed API randomized at residues 357 and 358 (P2-P1 yielded predominantly Pro-Arg at these positions after five rounds of thrombin selection; in contrast the same degree of mock selection yielded only non-functional variants. A more diverse library of API M358R randomized at residues 352-356 (P7-P3 was also probed, yielding numerous variants fitting a loose consensus of DLTVS as judged by sequencing of the inserts of plaque-purified phages. The thrombin-selected sequences were transferred en masse into bacterial expression plasmids, and lysates from individual colonies were screening for API-thrombin complexing. The most active candidates from this sixth round of screening contained DITMA and AAFVS at P7-P3 and inhibited thrombin 2.1-fold more rapidly than API M358R with no change in reaction stoichiometry. Deep sequencing using the Ion Torrent platform confirmed that over 800 sequences were significantly enriched in the thrombin-panned versus naïve phage display library, including some detected using the combined phage display/bacterial lysate screening approach. Our results show that API joins Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 (PAI-1 as a serpin amenable to phage display and suggest the utility of this approach for the selection

High Temperature Materials Laboratory sixth annual report, October 1992--September 1993

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tennery, V.J.; Foust, F.M.

1993-12-01

The High Temperature Materials Laboratory has completed its sixth year of operation as a designated Department of Energy User Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Growth of the User Program is evidenced by the number of outside institutions executing user agreements since the facility began operation in 1987. A total of 172 nonproprietary agreements (88 university and 84 industry) and 35 proprietary agreements, (2 university, 33 industry) are now in effect. Six other government facilities have also participated in the User Program. Thirty-eight states are represented by these interactions. Ninety-four nonproprietary research proposals (44 from universities, 47 from industry, and 3 from other government facilities) and three proprietary proposals were considered during this reporting period. Nonproprietary research projects active in FY 1993 are summarized.

Sixth General Radioactive Waste Plan. Planning to the future of ENRESA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Espejo Hernandez, J. M.

2006-01-01

The Government approved last June 23''rd the Sixth General Radioactive Waste Plan that presents the activities to be carried out by ENRESA in all its field of responsibility to the year 2070. The document considers as one of the principal changes that ENRESA will be restructured to corporate public entity assigned to the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade as well as the need of a Centralised Temporary Storage for the spent fuel and the high level radioactive wastes generated in Spain. Nevertheless, information is provided on the plans for the full decommissioning of the nuclear power plants to complete their operational life and also the economic and financial aspects related to the activities contemplated in the Plan. (Author) 13 refs

A Permutation Importance-Based Feature Selection Method for Short-Term Electricity Load Forecasting Using Random Forest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nantian Huang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The prediction accuracy of short-term load forecast (STLF depends on prediction model choice and feature selection result. In this paper, a novel random forest (RF-based feature selection method for STLF is proposed. First, 243 related features were extracted from historical load data and the time information of prediction points to form the original feature set. Subsequently, the original feature set was used to train an RF as the original model. After the training process, the prediction error of the original model on the test set was recorded and the permutation importance (PI value of each feature was obtained. Then, an improved sequential backward search method was used to select the optimal forecasting feature subset based on the PI value of each feature. Finally, the optimal forecasting feature subset was used to train a new RF model as the final prediction model. Experiments showed that the prediction accuracy of RF trained by the optimal forecasting feature subset was higher than that of the original model and comparative models based on support vector regression and artificial neural network.

Direct random insertion mutagenesis of Helicobacter pylori

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jonge, Ramon; Bakker, Dennis; van Vliet, Arnoud H. M.; Kuipers, Ernst J.; Vandenbroucke-Grauls, Christina M. J. E.; Kusters, Johannes G.

2003-01-01

Random insertion mutagenesis is a widely used technique for the identification of bacterial virulence genes. Most strategies for random mutagenesis involve cloning in Escherichia coli for passage of plasmids or for phenotypic selection. This can result in biased selection due to restriction or

Direct random insertion mutagenesis of Helicobacter pylori.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jonge, de R.; Bakker, D.; Vliet, van AH; Kuipers, E.J.; Vandenbroucke-Grauls, C.M.J.E.; Kusters, J.G.

2003-01-01

Random insertion mutagenesis is a widely used technique for the identification of bacterial virulence genes. Most strategies for random mutagenesis involve cloning in Escherichia coli for passage of plasmids or for phenotypic selection. This can result in biased selection due to restriction or

Sixth International Conference on Precipitation: Predictability of Rainfall at the Various Scales. Abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1998-06-29

This volume contains abstracts of the papers presented at the Sixth International Conference on Precipitation: Predictability of Rainfall at the various scales, held at the Mauna Lani Bay and Bungalows, Hawaii, June 29 - July 1, 1998. The main goal of the conference was to bring together meteorologists, hydrologists, mathematicians, physicists, statisticians, and all others who are interested in fundamental principles governing the physical processes of precipitation. The results of the previous conferences have been published in issues of the Journal of Geophysical Research and Journal of Applied Meteorology. A similar format is planned for papers of this conference.

The Use of Textbooks for Advanced-Level GCE Courses in Physics, Chemistry and Biology by Sixth-Form Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Newton, D. P.

1984-01-01

A survey of sixth-form students to determine the level of A-level textbook use in physics, chemistry, and biology in English schools found that texts are used primarily after the lesson, at the student's discretion, and with great variations between students. Biology texts were used most, and physics texts used least. (MBR)

Selective oropharyngeal decontamination versus selective digestive decontamination in critically ill patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhao D

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Di Zhao,1,* Jian Song,2,* Xuan Gao,3 Fei Gao,4 Yupeng Wu,2 Yingying Lu,5 Kai Hou1 1Department of Neurosurgery, The First Hospital of Hebei Medical University, 2Department of Neurosurgery, 3Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, 4Hebei Provincial Procurement Centers for Medical Drugs and Devices, 5Department of Neurosurgery, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Selective digestive decontamination (SDD and selective oropharyngeal decontamination (SOD are associated with reduced mortality and infection rates among patients in intensive care units (ICUs; however, whether SOD has a superior effect than SDD remains uncertain. Hence, we conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs to compare SOD with SDD in terms of clinical outcomes and antimicrobial resistance rates in patients who were critically ill. Methods: RCTs published in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were systematically reviewed to compare the effects of SOD and SDD in patients who were critically ill. Outcomes included day-28 mortality, length of ICU stay, length of hospital stay, duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU-acquired bacteremia, and prevalence of antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Results were expressed as risk ratio (RR with 95% confidence intervals (CIs, and weighted mean differences (WMDs with 95% CIs. Pooled estimates were performed using a fixed-effects model or random-effects model, depending on the heterogeneity among studies. Results: A total of four RCTs involving 23,822 patients met the inclusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis. Among patients whose admitting specialty was surgery, cardiothoracic surgery (57.3% and neurosurgery (29.7% were the two main types of surgery being performed. Pooled results showed that SOD had similar effects as SDD in day-28 mortality (RR =1

Strategyproof Peer Selection using Randomization, Partitioning, and Apportionment

OpenAIRE

Aziz, Haris; Lev, Omer; Mattei, Nicholas; Rosenschein, Jeffrey S.; Walsh, Toby

2016-01-01

Peer review, evaluation, and selection is a fundamental aspect of modern science. Funding bodies the world over employ experts to review and select the best proposals of those submitted for funding. The problem of peer selection, however, is much more general: a professional society may want to give a subset of its members awards based on the opinions of all members; an instructor for a MOOC or online course may want to crowdsource grading; or a marketing company may select ideas from group b...

Sixth Graders Benefit from Educational Software when Learning about Fractions: A Controlled Classroom study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susanne Scharnagl

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This study analyses the effectiveness of an educational web-based software package for teaching mathematics in schools. In all, 864 sixth graders and their teachers took part in the controlled study. Students learned the addition and subtraction of fractions with (intervention group; n = 469 or without (control group; n = 395 the support of the educational software. Compared to the controls, students who used the software showed better results in the post-test. Gains were dose dependent and particularly marked in high-ability students and students with lower scores of math anxiety.

Boson-fermion and boson-boson scattering in a Yang-Mills theory at high energy: Sixth-order perturbation theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCoy, B.M.; Wu, T.T.

1976-01-01

Our previous study of Yang-Mills fields is extended by calculating the high-energy behavior of the boson-fermion and of the boson-boson amplitude in sixth-order perturbation theory. In the isovector and isoscalar channels of both these processes the behavior of the amplitude is the same as that found in fermion-fermion scattering

Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines.

Science.gov (United States)

Ceballos, Gerardo; Ehrlich, Paul R; Dirzo, Rodolfo

2017-07-25

The population extinction pulse we describe here shows, from a quantitative viewpoint, that Earth's sixth mass extinction is more severe than perceived when looking exclusively at species extinctions. Therefore, humanity needs to address anthropogenic population extirpation and decimation immediately. That conclusion is based on analyses of the numbers and degrees of range contraction (indicative of population shrinkage and/or population extinctions according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature) using a sample of 27,600 vertebrate species, and on a more detailed analysis documenting the population extinctions between 1900 and 2015 in 177 mammal species. We find that the rate of population loss in terrestrial vertebrates is extremely high-even in "species of low concern." In our sample, comprising nearly half of known vertebrate species, 32% (8,851/27,600) are decreasing; that is, they have decreased in population size and range. In the 177 mammals for which we have detailed data, all have lost 30% or more of their geographic ranges and more than 40% of the species have experienced severe population declines (>80% range shrinkage). Our data indicate that beyond global species extinctions Earth is experiencing a huge episode of population declines and extirpations, which will have negative cascading consequences on ecosystem functioning and services vital to sustaining civilization. We describe this as a "biological annihilation" to highlight the current magnitude of Earth's ongoing sixth major extinction event.

Effect of Curing Direction on Microtensile Bond Strength of Fifth and Sixth Generation Dental Adhesives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Nadaf

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Background and Aims: Composite restorative materials and dental adhesives are usually cured with light sources. The light direction may influence the bond strength of dental adhesives. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of light direction on the microtensile bond strength of fifth and sixth generation dental adhesives.Materials and Methods: Prime & Bond NT and Clearfil SE bond were used with different light directions.Sixty human incisor teeth were divided into 4 groups (n=15. In groups A and C, Clearfil SE bond with light curing direction from buccal was used for bonding a composite resin to dentin. In groups B and D, Prime & Bond NT with light curing direction from composite was used. After thermocycling the specimens were subjected to tensile force until debonding occurred and values for microtensile bond strength were recorded. The data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test.Results: The findings showed that the bond strength of Clearfil SE bond was significantly higher than that of Prime&Bond NT (P<0.001. There was no significant difference between light curing directions (P=0.132.Conclusion: Light curing direction did not have significant effect on the bond strength. Sixth generation adhesives was more successful than fifth generation in terms of bond strength to dentin.

The Effects of Sex, Race, IQ and SES on the Reading Scores of Sixth Graders for Both Levels and Gains in Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Jantz, Richard K.

1974-01-01

This study examines the effects of sex, race, socioeconomic status, and intelligence upon the reading achievement test scores of sixth-grade pupils in one school district. Differential effects were found. (Author)

47 CFR 1.1604 - Post-selection hearings.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Post-selection hearings. 1.1604 Section 1.1604 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE Random Selection Procedures for Mass Media Services General Procedures § 1.1604 Post-selection hearings. (a) Following the random...

Selected acute phase CSF factors in ischemic stroke: findings and prognostic value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Intskirveli Nino

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Study aimed at investigation of pathogenic role and prognostic value of several selected cerebrospinal fluid acute phase factors that can reflect the severity of ischemic brain damage. Methods Ninety five acute ischemic stroke patients were investigated. Ischemic region visualized at the twenty fourth hour by conventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Stroke severity evaluated by National Institute Health Stroke Scale. One month outcome of disease was assessed by Barthel Index. Cerebrospinal fluid was taken at the sixth hour of stroke onset. CSF pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were studied by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Nitric Oxide and Lipoperoxide radical were measured by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance. CSF Nitrate levels were detected using the Griess reagent. Statistics performed by SPSS-11.0. Results At the sixth hour of stroke onset, cerebrospinal fluid cytokine levels were elevated in patients against controls. Severe stroke patients had increased interleukin-6 content compared to less severe strokes (P Conclusion According to present study the cerebrospinal fluid contents of interleukin-6 and nitrates seem to be the most reliable prognostic factors in acute phase of ischemic stroke.

Random genetic drift, natural selection, and noise in human cranial evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Roseman, Charles C

2016-08-01

This study assesses the extent to which relationships among groups complicate comparative studies of adaptation in recent human cranial variation and the extent to which departures from neutral additive models of evolution hinder the reconstruction of population relationships among groups using cranial morphology. Using a maximum likelihood evolutionary model fitting approach and a mixed population genomic and cranial data set, I evaluate the relative fits of several widely used models of human cranial evolution. Moreover, I compare the goodness of fit of models of cranial evolution constrained by genomic variation to test hypotheses about population specific departures from neutrality. Models from population genomics are much better fits to cranial variation than are traditional models from comparative human biology. There is not enough evolutionary information in the cranium to reconstruct much of recent human evolution but the influence of population history on cranial variation is strong enough to cause comparative studies of adaptation serious difficulties. Deviations from a model of random genetic drift along a tree-like population history show the importance of environmental effects, gene flow, and/or natural selection on human cranial variation. Moreover, there is a strong signal of the effect of natural selection or an environmental factor on a group of humans from Siberia. The evolution of the human cranium is complex and no one evolutionary process has prevailed at the expense of all others. A holistic unification of phenome, genome, and environmental context, gives us a strong point of purchase on these problems, which is unavailable to any one traditional approach alone. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:582-592, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Assessing the accuracy and stability of variable selection methods for random forest modeling in ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Eric W; Hill, Ryan A; Leibowitz, Scott G; Olsen, Anthony R; Thornbrugh, Darren J; Weber, Marc H

2017-07-01

Random forest (RF) modeling has emerged as an important statistical learning method in ecology due to its exceptional predictive performance. However, for large and complex ecological data sets, there is limited guidance on variable selection methods for RF modeling. Typically, either a preselected set of predictor variables are used or stepwise procedures are employed which iteratively remove variables according to their importance measures. This paper investigates the application of variable selection methods to RF models for predicting probable biological stream condition. Our motivating data set consists of the good/poor condition of n = 1365 stream survey sites from the 2008/2009 National Rivers and Stream Assessment, and a large set (p = 212) of landscape features from the StreamCat data set as potential predictors. We compare two types of RF models: a full variable set model with all 212 predictors and a reduced variable set model selected using a backward elimination approach. We assess model accuracy using RF's internal out-of-bag estimate, and a cross-validation procedure with validation folds external to the variable selection process. We also assess the stability of the spatial predictions generated by the RF models to changes in the number of predictors and argue that model selection needs to consider both accuracy and stability. The results suggest that RF modeling is robust to the inclusion of many variables of moderate to low importance. We found no substantial improvement in cross-validated accuracy as a result of variable reduction. Moreover, the backward elimination procedure tended to select too few variables and exhibited numerous issues such as upwardly biased out-of-bag accuracy estimates and instabilities in the spatial predictions. We use simulations to further support and generalize results from the analysis of real data. A main purpose of this work is to elucidate issues of model selection bias and instability to ecologists interested in

Proceedings of the Sixth Seminar on Computation in Nuclear Science and Technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

National Atomic Energy Agency (BATAN) had held the Sixth Seminar on Computation in Nuclear Science and Technology on January 16-17, 1996. The seminar is an event for information exchange among interest society in computation, modeling, and simulation. Similar as previous seminar in the past year, there were also non-BATAN and university-bound presenters and participants whose interest are in the field of science and technology. Examining the papers presented in this seminar, it shows that beside digging the so called classical computation methods, some papers brought relatively new topics like the determination and influence of chaos, neural network method, and expert system. Judging from the variety of the topics, one can conclude that interests in computation and its application are growing stronger in Indonesia

Blind Measurement Selection: A Random Matrix Theory Approach

KAUST Repository

Elkhalil, Khalil; Kammoun, Abla; Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2016-01-01

-aware fashions. We present two potential applications where the proposed algorithms can be used, namely antenna selection for uplink transmissions in large scale multi-user systems and sensor selection for wireless sensor networks. Numerical results are also

School Contextual Features of Social Disorder and Mental Health Complaints—A Multilevel Analysis of Swedish Sixth-Grade Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bitte Modin

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study addressed school-contextual features of social disorder in relation to sixth-grade students’ experiences of bullying victimization and mental health complaints. It investigated, firstly, whether the school’s concentrations of behavioural problems were associated with individual students’ likelihood of being bullied, and secondly, whether the school’s concentrations of behavioural problems and bullying victimization predicted students’ emotional and psychosomatic health complaints. The data were derived from the Swedish National Survey of Mental Health among Children and Young People, carried out among sixth-grade students (approximately 12–13 years old in Sweden in 2009. The analyses were based on information from 59,510 students distributed across 1999 schools. The statistical method used was multilevel modelling. While students’ own behavioural problems were associated with an elevated risk of being bullied, attending a school with a higher concentration of students with behavioural problems also increased the likelihood of being bullied. Attending a school with higher levels of bullying victimization and behavioural problems predicted more emotional and psychosomatic complaints, even when adjusting for their individual level analogues. The findings indicate that school-level features of social disorder influence bullying victimization and mental health complaints among students.

Effects of choice architecture and chef-enhanced meals on the selection and consumption of healthier school foods: a randomized clinical trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Juliana F W; Richardson, Scott A; Cluggish, Sarah A; Parker, Ellen; Catalano, Paul J; Rimm, Eric B

2015-05-01

Little is known about the long-term effect of a chef-enhanced menu on healthier food selection and consumption in school lunchrooms. In addition, it remains unclear if extended exposure to other strategies to promote healthier foods (eg, choice architecture) also improves food selection or consumption. To evaluate the short- and long-term effects of chef-enhanced meals and extended exposure to choice architecture on healthier school food selection and consumption. A school-based randomized clinical trial was conducted during the 2011-2012 school year among 14 elementary and middle schools in 2 urban, low-income school districts (intent-to-treat analysis). Included in the study were 2638 students in grades 3 through 8 attending participating schools (38.4% of eligible participants). Schools were first randomized to receive a professional chef to improve school meal palatability (chef schools) or to a delayed intervention (control group). To assess the effect of choice architecture (smart café), all schools after 3 months were then randomized to the smart café intervention or to the control group. School food selection was recorded, and consumption was measured using plate waste methods. After 3 months, vegetable selection increased in chef vs control schools (odds ratio [OR], 1.75; 95% CI, 1.36-2.24), but there was no effect on the selection of other components or on meal consumption. After long-term or extended exposure to the chef or smart café intervention, fruit selection increased in the chef (OR, 3.08; 95% CI, 2.23-4.25), smart café (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.13-1.87), and chef plus smart café (OR, 3.10; 95% CI, 2.26-4.25) schools compared with the control schools, and consumption increased in the chef schools (OR, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.03-0.30 cups/d). Vegetable selection increased in the chef (OR, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.83-3.54), smart café (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.46-2.50), and chef plus smart café schools (OR, 7.38, 95% CI, 5.26-10.35) compared with the control schools

Modified random hinge transport mechanics and multiple scattering step-size selection in EGS5

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilderman, S.J.; Bielajew, A.F.

2005-01-01

The new transport mechanics in EGS5 allows for significantly longer electron transport step sizes and hence shorter computation times than required for identical problems in EGS4. But as with all Monte Carlo electron transport algorithms, certain classes of problems exhibit step-size dependencies even when operating within recommended ranges, sometimes making selection of step-sizes a daunting task for novice users. Further contributing to this problem, because of the decoupling of multiple scattering and continuous energy loss in the dual random hinge transport mechanics of EGS5, there are two independent step sizes in EGS5, one for multiple scattering and one for continuous energy loss, each of which influences speed and accuracy in a different manner. Further, whereas EGS4 used a single value of fractional energy loss (ESTEPE) to determine step sizes at all energies, to increase performance by decreasing the amount of effort expended simulating lower energy particles, EGS5 permits the fractional energy loss values which are used to determine both the multiple scattering and continuous energy loss step sizes to vary with energy. This results in requiring the user to specify four fractional energy loss values when optimizing computations for speed. Thus, in order to simplify step-size selection and to mitigate step-size dependencies, a method has been devised to automatically optimize step-size selection based on a single material dependent input related to the size of problem tally region. In this paper we discuss the new transport mechanics in EGS5 and describe the automatic step-size optimization algorithm. (author)

Decreasing Off-Task Behavior through a Dot/Point Reward System and Portfolio Reflection with Second, Fifth, and Sixth Graders

Science.gov (United States)

Butera, Lisa M.; Giacone, Maria V.; Wagner, Kelly A.

2008-01-01

The purpose of this action research project report was to decrease off-task behavior through a dot/point reward system and portfolio reflections. Students involved in this research were in second, fifth, and sixth grade. There were a total of 85 student participants and 35 teacher participants. The dates of this research began on September 4, 2007…

Personal, societal, and ecological values of wilderness: Sixth World Wilderness Congress proceedings on research, management, and allocation, Volume I

Science.gov (United States)

Alan E. Watson; Greg H. Aplet; John C. Hendee

1998-01-01

The papers contained in Volume I of these Proceedings were originally scheduled for presentation at the Sixth World Wilderness Congress in Bangalore, India, in 1997. Due to a delay of the Congress until 1998, these 27 papers were compiled for publication prior to presentation. Volumes I and II contain papers covering seven topics: protected area systems: challenges,...

Evolving artificial metalloenzymes via random mutagenesis

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Hao; Swartz, Alan M.; Park, Hyun June; Srivastava, Poonam; Ellis-Guardiola, Ken; Upp, David M.; Lee, Gihoon; Belsare, Ketaki; Gu, Yifan; Zhang, Chen; Moellering, Raymond E.; Lewis, Jared C.

2018-03-01

Random mutagenesis has the potential to optimize the efficiency and selectivity of protein catalysts without requiring detailed knowledge of protein structure; however, introducing synthetic metal cofactors complicates the expression and screening of enzyme libraries, and activity arising from free cofactor must be eliminated. Here we report an efficient platform to create and screen libraries of artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) via random mutagenesis, which we use to evolve highly selective dirhodium cyclopropanases. Error-prone PCR and combinatorial codon mutagenesis enabled multiplexed analysis of random mutations, including at sites distal to the putative ArM active site that are difficult to identify using targeted mutagenesis approaches. Variants that exhibited significantly improved selectivity for each of the cyclopropane product enantiomers were identified, and higher activity than previously reported ArM cyclopropanases obtained via targeted mutagenesis was also observed. This improved selectivity carried over to other dirhodium-catalysed transformations, including N-H, S-H and Si-H insertion, demonstrating that ArMs evolved for one reaction can serve as starting points to evolve catalysts for others.

Desarrollo de un programa de Inteligencia Emocional Plena y su implicación en variables neuropsicológicas en alumnado de Sexto de Educación Primaria

OpenAIRE

Luna-Pedrosa, Juan Francisco

2017-01-01

In the last years the interest towards mindfulness has increased widely. Nevertheless, there is little research in the area of education. We do not know much about its possible impact and improvement in this area. This survey analysed the effectiveness of a full emotional intelligence program (PINEP) on students in the sixth grade of primary school. The program links specific emotional intelligence activities with daily practices of meditation in mindfulness. Two groups were selected randomly...

Sixth meeting of the ITPA Topical Group on Diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Donne, A.J.H.; Costley, A.E.

2004-01-01

The Sixth Meeting of the International Tokamak Physics Activities (ITPA) Topical Group (TG) on Diagnostics was held at JAERI, Naka from 19-21 February 2004. This meeting was combined with a Progress Meeting on ITER/BPX (burning plasma experiment) relevant diagnostic developments on-going in Japan. For the first time, ITPA members from China, as well as observers from South Korea, attended. In addition, an associated sub-meeting was held at General Atomics, San Diego, 23-24 April, immediately after the 15th Topical Conference on High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics. At the sub-meeting a special one-day session was devoted to issues related to beam-aided spectroscopy. In total more than 50 participants attended the meetings and all ITER partners were represented. The key topics reviewed and discussed at the TG meeting were: (i) the overall status of diagnostics developments for ITER, (ii) the progress in the research on the designated high priority topics, (iii) the progress with some key ITER/BPX-relevant diagnostic developments ongoing in the ITPA participant laboratories, (iv) the progress and plans for the work of the specialist working groups, (v) the status and plans for the International Diagnostic Database

Proceedings of the sixth IEA international workshop on beryllium technology for fusion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kawamura, Hiroshi [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Kashiwa, Chiba (Japan); Tanaka, Satoru [Tokyo Univ., Tokyo (Japan); Ishitsuka, Etsuo [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Oarai, Ibaraki (Japan). Oarai Research Establishment

2004-03-01

This report is the Proceedings of the Sixth International Energy Agency International Workshop on Beryllium Technology for Fusion. The workshop was held on December 2-5, 2003, at SEAGAIA in Miyazaki City, Japan with 69 participants who attended from Europe, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, China, the United States and Japan. The topics for papers were arranged into nine sessions; Status of beryllium study, Plasma and tritium interactions, ITER oriented issues, Neutron irradiation effects, Beryllide application, Disposal and recycling, Molten salt, Health and safety issues and Panel discussion. In the Panel discussion, the international collaboration for three topics, i.e., Neutron irradiation effects, Beryllide application, Recycling and Disposal, were discussed, and necessary items for the international collaboration were proposed. The 46 of the presented papers are indexed individually. (J.P.N.)

Analysis of Problems Posed by Sixth-Grade Middle School Students for the Addition of Fractions in Terms of Semantic Structures

Science.gov (United States)

Kar, Tugrul

2015-01-01

This study aimed to investigate how the semantic structures of problems posed by sixth-grade middle school students for the addition of fractions affect their problem-posing performance. The students were presented with symbolic operations involving the addition of fractions and asked to pose two different problems related to daily-life situations…

Pain following foraminal enlargement in mandibular molars with necrosis and apical periodontitis: A randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Saini, H R; Sangwan, P; Sangwan, A

2016-12-01

This randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of foraminal enlargement during chemomechanical root canal preparation on postoperative pain. Seventy mandibular first molars with asymptomatic pulp necrosis and chronic apical periodontitis were randomized into two groups - foraminal enlargement (FE) and conventional nonforaminal enlargement (NFE). Canals were prepared according to the respective protocols, and the teeth were restored temporarily. Postoperatively, the patients were prescribed ibuprofen 400 mg, to be taken if required. Pain experience and analgesic intake were recorded for 7 days following chemomechanical preparation. The data were analysed using Mann-Whitney U-test and chi-square tests. Pain experience was higher with foraminal enlargement than when using a conventional technique. A significant difference was observed in postoperative pain during the first 4 days and the sixth day (P  0.05). Enlargement of the apical foramen during root canal treatment increased the incidence and intensity of postoperative pain. © 2015 International Endodontic Journal. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Proceedings of the sixth international conference on fluidized bed combustion. Volume II. Technical sessions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-08-01

The Sixth International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion was held April 9-11, 1980, at the Atlanta Hilton, Atlanta, Georgia. It was sponsored by the US Department of Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The papers covered recent developments in atmospheric and pressurized fluidized-bed combustion, especially the design, operation and control of pilot and demonstration plants. The cleanup of combustion products and the erosion, corrosion and fouling of gas turbines was emphasized also. Fifty-five papers from Volume 2 of the proceedings have been entered individually into EDB and ERA; five papers had been entered previously from other sources. (LTN)

Apoplexy of a pituitary macroadenoma with reversible third, fourth and sixth cranial nerve palsies following administration of hypothalamic releasing hormones: MR features

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riedl, Michaela; Clodi, Martin; Kotzmann, Harald; Hainfellner, Johann A.; Schima, Wolfgang; Reitner, Andreas; Czech, Thomas; Luger, Anton

2000-01-01

Pituitary apoplexy in patients with pituitary macroadenomas can occur either spontaneously or following various interventions. We present a case of a 71-year-old woman who developed third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerve palsies following administration of the four hypothalamic releasing hormones for routine preoperative testing of pituitary function. The MR examination showed interval tumor growth with impression of the floor of the third ventricle. There were also changes in signal intensity characteristics of the mass, suggestive of intratumoral bleeding. A transsphenoidal surgery with subtotal resection of the pituitary adenoma was performed. Microscopical examination revealed large areas of necrosis and blood surrounded by adenomatous tissue. Third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerve palsies completely resolved within 4 months. We conclude that MR imaging is useful in the demonstration of pituitary apoplexy following preoperative stimulation tests, but we suggest that these tests should be abandoned in patients with pituitary macroadenomas

Apoplexy of a pituitary macroadenoma with reversible third, fourth and sixth cranial nerve palsies following administration of hypothalamic releasing hormones: MR features

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Riedl, Michaela E-mail: michaela.riedl@akh-wien.ac.at; Clodi, Martin; Kotzmann, Harald; Hainfellner, Johann A.; Schima, Wolfgang; Reitner, Andreas; Czech, Thomas; Luger, Anton

2000-10-01

Pituitary apoplexy in patients with pituitary macroadenomas can occur either spontaneously or following various interventions. We present a case of a 71-year-old woman who developed third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerve palsies following administration of the four hypothalamic releasing hormones for routine preoperative testing of pituitary function. The MR examination showed interval tumor growth with impression of the floor of the third ventricle. There were also changes in signal intensity characteristics of the mass, suggestive of intratumoral bleeding. A transsphenoidal surgery with subtotal resection of the pituitary adenoma was performed. Microscopical examination revealed large areas of necrosis and blood surrounded by adenomatous tissue. Third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerve palsies completely resolved within 4 months. We conclude that MR imaging is useful in the demonstration of pituitary apoplexy following preoperative stimulation tests, but we suggest that these tests should be abandoned in patients with pituitary macroadenomas.

The Effect of Smartphone-Delivered Emergency Preparedness Education on Coping Knowledge among Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Elementary Schoolchildren in South Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Shin-Jeong; Cho, Haeryun

2017-01-01

This study examined the effect of an intervention on coping knowledge among fifth- and sixth-grade elementary schoolchildren who received smartphone-delivered emergency preparedness education. This was a quasi-experimental study using a pre-/posttest design. Eighty-six children were recruited to participate. The children in the experimental group…

An Investigation on the impact of using problem-based trainings in the in-service courses on the teachers' performance and capabilities, by relying on the elementary sixth grade mathematics book (case study: the city of Ahvaz

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pari Cheraq

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Changes in the administrative structure of the education system and the need to coordinate with the world of science and technology and hence, the need to update the general and technical information and knowledge, have doubled the importance and necessity of holding the new and efficient in-service trainings for the teachers. In this study, the attempt was taken to examine and analyze the impact of using problem-based trainings during the in-service courses on the teachers' performance and capabilities, by relying on the mathematics book of the sixth grade elementary level (case study: the city of Ahvaz. To do so, using a quasi-experimental study, 37 teachers of the sixth grade were selected from the elementary schools of Ahvaz city. For the in-service training courses on the teaching of mathematics, the problem-based learning method was used. After conducting the problem-based teaching method and the traditional method of teaching, through using the test and the standard questionnaire, the data about the teaching practice and the capabilities of the teachers were collected. Using t-test for the paired and independent samples, it was demonstrated that the problem-based in-service trainings, enhance the teachers' capabilities and performance regarding the problem-solving skills.

Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians

OpenAIRE

Wake, David B.; Vredenburg, Vance T.

2008-01-01

Many scientists argue that we are either entering or in the midst of the sixth great mass extinction. Intense human pressure, both direct and indirect, is having profound effects on natural environments. The amphibians—frogs, salamanders, and caecilians—may be the only major group currently at risk globally. A detailed worldwide assessment and subsequent updates show that one-third or more of the 6,300 species are threatened with extinction. This trend is likely to accelerate because most amp...

Gender comparisons of unhealthy weight-control behaviors among sixth-Graders.

Science.gov (United States)

Cragun, Deborah; Ata, Rheanna N; Debate, Rita D; Thompson, J Kevin

2013-01-01

To examine gender differences in unhealthy weight-control behaviors (UWCB) and identify key psychosocial and demographic correlates of UWCB among sixth-graders. A cross-sectional survey was completed by 146 boys and 153 girls at a middle school. Secondary data analyses included bivariate tests and multivariable logistic regression. Forty-seven percent of participants reported 1 or more UWCB, with no differences by gender (P = .75). Factors common to boys and girls included: lower global self-esteem; lower body-esteem; and greater negative parental modeling among participants who engaged in UWCB compared to those who did not. However, multivariable models revealed gender differences. Among boys, body mass index, negative parental modeling, and global self-esteem retained statistically significant associations with UWCB after controlling for other variables in the model, whereas race and weight-related body-esteem remained significant for girls. This research highlights the need for gender-specific UWCB prevention programs implemented in late childhood and early adolescence. Copyright © 2013 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Voces de Olympo (Echoes from Mount Olympus). A Humanistic Approach to Latin for Children in the Sixth Grade: Teachers' Guide.

Science.gov (United States)

Masciantonio, Rudolph; And Others

This curriculum guide, developed for use in a sixth-grade FLES (foreign language in elementary school) program, embraces a visual-audiolingual approach to the teaching of Latin while providing a source of materials for the teaching of the culture of ancient Rome. The course is organized around eight major units on: (1) Jupiter and His Siblings,…

Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium of the Croatian Radiation Protection Association

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garaj-Vrhovac, V.; Kopjar, N.; Miljanic, S.

2005-01-01

Croatian Radiation Protection Association (CRPA) organised symposium with international participation. Co-organisers (Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia and Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia) show importance of this symposium, which was under the auspices of several ministries (Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction, Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia) and State Institute of Radiation Protection, State Office for Standardization and Metrology and APO Ltd. - Hazardous Waste Management Agency. All topics are of great interest for Croatia. They present recent researches in Croatia and in other almost same oriented countries in Europe.The distribution of topics at the Sixth symposium shows same parts with articles from radiation dosimetry and instrumentation, biological effects of radiation, public exposure, radiation protection in medicine, as well as radioecology. Also, non-ionising radiations take their share as very interesting topics at present. (S.P.)

Two novel mutations in the sixth transmembrane segment of the thyrotropin receptor gene causing hyperfunctioning thyroid nodules.

Science.gov (United States)

Gozu, Hulya; Avsar, Melike; Bircan, Rifat; Claus, Maren; Sahin, Serap; Sezgin, Ozlem; Deyneli, Oguzhan; Paschke, Ralf; Cirakoglu, Beyazit; Akalin, Sema

2005-04-01

Autonomously functioning thyroid nodules (AFTNs) can present as hyperfunctioning adenomas or toxic multinodular goiters. In the last decade, a large number of activating mutations have been identified in the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) gene in autonomously functioning thyroid nodules. Most have been situated close to, or within the sixth transmembrane segment and third intracellular loop of the TSHR where the receptor interacts with the Gs protein. In this study we describe two novel mutations in the sixth transmembrane segment of the TSHR causing hyperfunctioning thyroid nodules. Genomic DNAs were isolated from four hyperfunctioning thyroid nodules, normal tissues and peripheral leukocytes of two patients with toxic multinodular goiter. After amplifying the related regions, TSHR and G(s)alpha genes were analyzed by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. The precise localization of the mutations was identified by automatic DNA sequence analysis. Functional studies were done by site-directed mutagenesis and transfection of a mutant construct into COS-7 cells. We identified two novel TSHR mutations in two hyperfunctioning thyroid nodules: Phe631Val in the first patient and Iso630Met in the second patient. Both mutant receptors display an increase in constitutive stimulation of basal cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels compared to the wild-type receptor. This confirms that these mutant receptors cause hyperfunctioning thyroid nodules.

Comparison of confirmed inactive and randomly selected compounds as negative training examples in support vector machine-based virtual screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Heikamp, Kathrin; Bajorath, Jürgen

2013-07-22

The choice of negative training data for machine learning is a little explored issue in chemoinformatics. In this study, the influence of alternative sets of negative training data and different background databases on support vector machine (SVM) modeling and virtual screening has been investigated. Target-directed SVM models have been derived on the basis of differently composed training sets containing confirmed inactive molecules or randomly selected database compounds as negative training instances. These models were then applied to search background databases consisting of biological screening data or randomly assembled compounds for available hits. Negative training data were found to systematically influence compound recall in virtual screening. In addition, different background databases had a strong influence on the search results. Our findings also indicated that typical benchmark settings lead to an overestimation of SVM-based virtual screening performance compared to search conditions that are more relevant for practical applications.

Variable Selection in Time Series Forecasting Using Random Forests

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Hristos Tyralis

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Time series forecasting using machine learning algorithms has gained popularity recently. Random forest is a machine learning algorithm implemented in time series forecasting; however, most of its forecasting properties have remained unexplored. Here we focus on assessing the performance of random forests in one-step forecasting using two large datasets of short time series with the aim to suggest an optimal set of predictor variables. Furthermore, we compare its performance to benchmarking methods. The first dataset is composed by 16,000 simulated time series from a variety of Autoregressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average (ARFIMA models. The second dataset consists of 135 mean annual temperature time series. The highest predictive performance of RF is observed when using a low number of recent lagged predictor variables. This outcome could be useful in relevant future applications, with the prospect to achieve higher predictive accuracy.

[Does self-worth mediate the effects of socio-environmental experiences on depression among fifth and sixth grade students?].

Science.gov (United States)

Nishino, Yasuyo; Kobayashi, Sachiko; Kitagawa, Tomoko

2009-08-01

This study investigated self-worth as a mediator between socio-environmental experiences and depression. A sample of 255 fifth and sixth grade students completed self-report questionnaires assessing self-worth, depression, and socio-environmental experiences of social support and stressors. Data for both males and females showed a direct effect of "friend support" on depression. However, for males, but not females, self-worth also mediated the influence of "friend support" on depression.

The Long-Term Effectiveness of a Selective, Personality-Targeted Prevention Program in Reducing Alcohol Use and Related Harms: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Science.gov (United States)

Newton, Nicola C.; Conrod, Patricia J.; Slade, Tim; Carragher, Natacha; Champion, Katrina E.; Barrett, Emma L.; Kelly, Erin V.; Nair, Natasha K.; Stapinski, Lexine; Teesson, Maree

2016-01-01

Background: This study investigated the long-term effectiveness of Preventure, a selective personality-targeted prevention program, in reducing the uptake of alcohol, harmful use of alcohol, and alcohol-related harms over a 3-year period. Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the effectiveness of Preventure.…

Geometric description of a discrete power function associated with the sixth Painlevé equation.

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Joshi, Nalini; Kajiwara, Kenji; Masuda, Tetsu; Nakazono, Nobutaka; Shi, Yang

2017-11-01

In this paper, we consider the discrete power function associated with the sixth Painlevé equation. This function is a special solution of the so-called cross-ratio equation with a similarity constraint. We show in this paper that this system is embedded in a cubic lattice with [Formula: see text] symmetry. By constructing the action of [Formula: see text] as a subgroup of [Formula: see text], i.e. the symmetry group of P VI , we show how to relate [Formula: see text] to the symmetry group of the lattice. Moreover, by using translations in [Formula: see text], we explain the odd-even structure appearing in previously known explicit formulae in terms of the τ function.

Generating equilateral random polygons in confinement III

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diao, Y; Ernst, C; Montemayor, A; Ziegler, U

2012-01-01

In this paper we continue our earlier studies (Diao et al 2011 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 44 405202, Diao et al J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 45 275203) on the generation methods of random equilateral polygons confined in a sphere. The first half of this paper is concerned with the generation of confined equilateral random walks. We show that if the selection of a vertex is uniform subject to the position of its previous vertex and the confining condition, then the distributions of the vertices are not uniform, although there exists a distribution such that if the initial vertex is selected following this distribution, then all vertices of the random walk follow this same distribution. Thus in order to generate a confined equilateral random walk, the selection of a vertex cannot be uniform subject to the position of its previous vertex and the confining condition. We provide a simple algorithm capable of generating confined equilateral random walks whose vertex distribution is almost uniform in the confinement sphere. In the second half of this paper we show that any process generating confined equilateral random walks can be turned into a process generating confined equilateral random polygons with the property that the vertex distribution of the polygons approaches the vertex distribution of the walks as the polygons get longer and longer. In our earlier studies, the starting point of the confined polygon is fixed at the center of the sphere. The new approach here allows us to move the starting point of the confined polygon off the center of the sphere. (paper)

Affinity selection of Nipah and Hendra virus-related vaccine candidates from a complex random peptide library displayed on bacteriophage virus-like particles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peabody, David S.; Chackerian, Bryce; Ashley, Carlee; Carnes, Eric; Negrete, Oscar

2017-01-24

The invention relates to virus-like particles of bacteriophage MS2 (MS2 VLPs) displaying peptide epitopes or peptide mimics of epitopes of Nipah Virus envelope glycoprotein that elicit an immune response against Nipah Virus upon vaccination of humans or animals. Affinity selection on Nipah Virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies using random sequence peptide libraries on MS2 VLPs selected peptides with sequence similarity to peptide sequences found within the envelope glycoprotein of Nipah itself, thus identifying the epitopes the antibodies recognize. The selected peptide sequences themselves are not necessarily identical in all respects to a sequence within Nipah Virus glycoprotein, and therefore may be referred to as epitope mimics VLPs displaying these epitope mimics can serve as vaccine. On the other hand, display of the corresponding wild-type sequence derived from Nipah Virus and corresponding to the epitope mapped by affinity selection, may also be used as a vaccine.

Hierarchical Linear Modelling of Sixth-Grade Students' Socio-Economic Status and School Factors on Mathematics Achievement: Case Studies of Kenya and Zimbabwe

Science.gov (United States)

Kanyongo, Gibbs Y.; Ayieko, Rachel

2017-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between socio-economic status, school-level variables and mathematics achievement of sixth graders in Kenya and Zimbabwe. The study is based on secondary data collected by the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ III). SACMEQ employed cluster-sampling procedures…

The Implementation and Effects of the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC): Early Findings in Sixth-Grade Advanced Reading Courses. CRESST Report 846

Science.gov (United States)

Herman, Joan L.; Epstein, Scott; Leon, Seth; Dai, Yunyun; La Torre Matrundola, Deborah; Reber, Sarah; Choi, Kilchan

2015-01-01

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) as one strategy to support teachers' and students' transition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts. This report provides an early look at the implementation of LDC in sixth-grade Advanced Reading classes in a large Florida…

Environmental situation in Austria. Sixth environmental control report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deweis, M.; Kaitna, M.

2001-01-01

This sixth environmental control report gives an overall picture of the situation of the environment in Austria for the period from 1997 to 2000. It emphasizes the areas of the Austrian environmental policy where significant improvements were achieved, such as the reduction of air pollutant emissions and the improvement of the quality of running waters. It also deals with problem areas such as transport, climate protection and renewable energy, where new solutions will have to be found within the framework of the Austrian and European environmental policies and already agreed upon strategies will have to be translated into daily practice. This environmental control report was written by experts of the Federal Environment Agency, which is an agency subordinate to the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, and which acquired independent status in the form of a limited company. The report gives comprehensive information on all aspects of environmental monitoring in Austria, with a huge amount of numerical, geographical and evaluated data. The report is structured by the following chapters: population and land use; air; global climate change; stratospheric ozone degradation; water; soil; forests; environmental protection; agriculture; traffic; industry; economic audit; waste; contaminated sites; energy; noise; secure handling of chemicals; plant-protective agents; gene technology; radioecology. Those chapters which are in the INIS subject scope, dealing with radioecology and ecological aspects of nuclear and non-nuclear energy are treated individually on analytical level for the INIS database. (a.n.)

Relationship of nutrition and physical activity behaviors and fitness measures to academic performance for sixth graders in a midwest city school district.

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Jane U; Mauch, Lois; Winkelman, Mark R

2011-02-01

To support curriculum and policy, a midwest city school district assessed the association of selected categories of nutrition and physical activity (NUTR/PA) behaviors, fitness measures, and body mass index (BMI) with academic performance (AP) for 800 sixth graders. Students completed an adapted Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (NUTR/PA behaviors), fitness assessments (mile run, curl-ups, push-ups, height, and weight) with results matched to standardized scores (Measures of Academic Progress [MAP]), meal price status, and gender. Differences in mean MAP scores (math and reading) were compared by selected categories of each variable utilizing 1-way analysis of variance. Associations were determined by stepwise multiple regression utilizing mean MAP scores (for math and for reading) as the dependent variable and NUTR/PA behaviors, fitness, and BMI categories as independent variables. Significance was set at α = 0.05. Higher MAP math scores were associated with NUTR (more milk and breakfast; less 100% fruit juice and sweetened beverages [SB]) and PA (increased vigorous PA and sports teams; reduced television), and fitness (higher mile run performance). Higher MAP reading scores were associated with NUTR (fewer SB) and PA (increased vigorous PA, reduced television). Regression analysis indicated about 11.1% of the variation in the mean MAP math scores and 6.7% of the mean MAP reading scores could be accounted for by selected NUTR/PA behaviors, fitness, meal price status, and gender. Many positive NUTR/PA behaviors and fitness measures were associated with higher MAP scores supporting the school district focus on healthy lifestyles. Additional factors, including meal price status and gender, contribute to AP. © 2011, Fargo Public School.

An Examination of Single-Gender and Coeducational Classes: Their Impact on the Academic Achievement of Middle School Students Enrolled in Mathematics and Science at Selected Schools in Georgia

Science.gov (United States)

Elam, Jeanette H.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the academic performance of students enrolled in coeducational instruction and single-gender instruction. Within this framework, the researcher examined class type, gender, and racial/ethnicity using the sixth grade CRCT scores of selected students in the areas of mathematics and science. The fifth-grade…

Fast selection of miRNA candidates based on large-scale pre-computed MFE sets of randomized sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Warris, Sven; Boymans, Sander; Muiser, Iwe; Noback, Michiel; Krijnen, Wim; Nap, Jan-Peter

2014-01-13

Small RNAs are important regulators of genome function, yet their prediction in genomes is still a major computational challenge. Statistical analyses of pre-miRNA sequences indicated that their 2D structure tends to have a minimal free energy (MFE) significantly lower than MFE values of equivalently randomized sequences with the same nucleotide composition, in contrast to other classes of non-coding RNA. The computation of many MFEs is, however, too intensive to allow for genome-wide screenings. Using a local grid infrastructure, MFE distributions of random sequences were pre-calculated on a large scale. These distributions follow a normal distribution and can be used to determine the MFE distribution for any given sequence composition by interpolation. It allows on-the-fly calculation of the normal distribution for any candidate sequence composition. The speedup achieved makes genome-wide screening with this characteristic of a pre-miRNA sequence practical. Although this particular property alone will not be able to distinguish miRNAs from other sequences sufficiently discriminative, the MFE-based P-value should be added to the parameters of choice to be included in the selection of potential miRNA candidates for experimental verification.

Impact on Smoking Behavior of the New Zealand Annual Increase in Tobacco Tax: Data for the Fifth and Sixth Year of Increases.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Judy; Newcombe, Rhiannon; Guiney, Hayley; Walton, Darren

2017-11-07

New Zealand has implemented a series of seven annual increases in tobacco tax since 2010. All tax increases, except for the first in the series, were preannounced. It is unusual for governments to introduce small, persistent, and predictable increases in tobacco tax, and little is known about the impact of such a strategy. This paper evaluates the impact of the fifth and sixth annual increases. Smokers' behaviors were self-reported during the 3-month period before, and the 3-month period after, the two annual increases. Responses to the two increases were analyzed separately, and generalized estimating equations models were used to control for sociodemographic variables, recent quit attempts, and the research design. Findings were consistent across years. The proportion of participants who made a smoking-related (54%-56% before and after each tax increase) or product-related change (fifth tax increase: 17%-19%; sixth tax increase: 21%-22%) did not significantly alter from before to after each tax increase. However, it should be noted that the proportion of participants making smoking-related changes was generally high, even prior to each increase. For example, before the 2015 tax increase, 1% reported quitting completely, 21% trying to quit, and 53% cutting down. In New Zealand, with its series of annual tobacco tax increases since 2010, there were no significant changes in smoking- or product-related behavior associated with the fifth and sixth increases. Nevertheless, overall cessation-related activity was high, with a majority of participants reporting either quitting and/or cutting down recently. Little is known about the impact of small, persistent, predictable tobacco tax increases on smoking behavior. This study evaluated the impact of the fifth (in 2014) and sixth (2015) tax increases in an annual series implemented in New Zealand. Although there were no detectable changes in smoking behaviors from before to after each tax increase, self-reported cessation

TRANSNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: PAPERS FROM THE SIXTH ADMINISTRATIVE LAW DISCUSSION FORUM, QUÉBEC CITY

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Russell Weaver

2010-10-01

Full Text Available On May 25 - 26, 2010, Université Laval, the University of Windsor Faculty of Law and the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, hosted the Sixth Administrative Law Discussion Forum. These discussion fora, which have become an international academic success, have been held in a variety of venues in North America and Europe since the early 1990s. They are an initiative of Russell Weaver, Professor of Law & Distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville. The fora provide an opportunity for thoughtful exchange among administrative law academics on contemporary issues that cut across national borders.

Evaluation of the effect of Spiritual care on patients with generalized anxiety and depression: a randomized controlled study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sankhe, A; Dalal, K; Save, D; Sarve, P

2017-12-01

The present study was conducted to assess the effect of spiritual care in patients with depression, anxiety or both in a randomized controlled design. The participants were randomized either to receive spiritual care or not and Hamilton anxiety rating scale-A (HAM-A), Hamilton depression rating scale-D (HAM-D), WHO-quality of life-Brief (WHOQOL-BREF) and Functional assessment of chronic illness therapy - Spiritual well-being (FACIT-Sp) were assessed before therapy and two follow-ups at 3 and 6 week. However, with regard to the spiritual care therapy group, statistically significant differences were observed in both HAM-A and HAM-D scales between the baseline and visit 2 (p scales during the follow-up periods for the control group of participants. When the scores were compared between the study groups, HAM-A, HAM-D and FACIT-Sp 12 scores were significantly lower in the interventional group as compared to the control group at both third and sixth weeks. This suggests a significant improvement in symptoms of anxiety and depression in the spiritual care therapy group than the control group; however, large randomized controlled trials with robust design are needed to confirm the same.

Varying levels of difficulty index of skills-test items randomly selected by examinees on the Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination.

Science.gov (United States)

Koh, Bongyeun; Hong, Sunggi; Kim, Soon-Sim; Hyun, Jin-Sook; Baek, Milye; Moon, Jundong; Kwon, Hayran; Kim, Gyoungyong; Min, Seonggi; Kang, Gu-Hyun

2016-01-01

The goal of this study was to characterize the difficulty index of the items in the skills test components of the class I and II Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination (KEMTLE), which requires examinees to select items randomly. The results of 1,309 class I KEMTLE examinations and 1,801 class II KEMTLE examinations in 2013 were subjected to analysis. Items from the basic and advanced skills test sections of the KEMTLE were compared to determine whether some were significantly more difficult than others. In the class I KEMTLE, all 4 of the items on the basic skills test showed significant variation in difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as 4 of the 5 items on the advanced skills test (P<0.05). In the class II KEMTLE, 4 of the 5 items on the basic skills test showed significantly different difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as all 3 of the advanced skills test items (P<0.01). In the skills test components of the class I and II KEMTLE, the procedure in which examinees randomly select questions should be revised to require examinees to respond to a set of fixed items in order to improve the reliability of the national licensing examination.

Varying levels of difficulty index of skills-test items randomly selected by examinees on the Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bongyeun Koh

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The goal of this study was to characterize the difficulty index of the items in the skills test components of the class I and II Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination (KEMTLE, which requires examinees to select items randomly. Methods: The results of 1,309 class I KEMTLE examinations and 1,801 class II KEMTLE examinations in 2013 were subjected to analysis. Items from the basic and advanced skills test sections of the KEMTLE were compared to determine whether some were significantly more difficult than others. Results: In the class I KEMTLE, all 4 of the items on the basic skills test showed significant variation in difficulty index (P<0.01, as well as 4 of the 5 items on the advanced skills test (P<0.05. In the class II KEMTLE, 4 of the 5 items on the basic skills test showed significantly different difficulty index (P<0.01, as well as all 3 of the advanced skills test items (P<0.01. Conclusion: In the skills test components of the class I and II KEMTLE, the procedure in which examinees randomly select questions should be revised to require examinees to respond to a set of fixed items in order to improve the reliability of the national licensing examination.

Prospective association of peer influence, school engagement, drinking expectancies, and parent expectations with drinking initiation among sixth graders.

Science.gov (United States)

Simons-Morton, Bruce

2004-02-01

Early initiation of drinking increases the lifetime risk for substance abuse and other serious health and social problems. An understanding of the predictors of early initiation is needed if successful preventive interventions are to be developed. Surveys were completed by 1009 sixth grade students at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of the school year in four schools in one suburban school district. At Time 1, 55/1009 (5.5%) reported drinking in the past 30 days. From Time 1 to Time 2, the percentage of drinkers increase to 127/1009 (10.9%) of whom 101 were new drinkers. In multiple logistic regression analyses, school engagement was negatively associated and peer influence and drinking expectancies were positively associated with drinking initiation. A significant interaction was found between drinking expectancies and parental expectations. Among sixth graders with high drinking expectancies, those with low parental expectations for their behavior were 2.6 times more likely to start drinking than those with parents with high expectations for their behavior. Positive drinking expectancies were significantly associated with drinking initiation only among teens who believed their parents did not hold strong expectations for them not to drink. This finding held for boys and girls, Blacks and Whites and was particularly strong for Black youth. This finding provides new information about the moderating effect of parental expectations on drinking expectancies among early adolescents.

New non-cognitive procedures for medical applicant selection: a qualitative analysis in one school.

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, Sara; Vinker, Shlomo

2014-11-07

Recent data have called into question the reliability and predictive validity of standard admission procedures to medical schools. Eliciting non-cognitive attributes of medical school applicants using qualitative tools and methods has thus become a major challenge. 299 applicants aged 18-25 formed the research group. A set of six research tools was developed in addition to the two existing ones. These included: a portfolio task, an intuitive task, a cognitive task, a personal task, an open self-efficacy questionnaire and field-notes. The criteria-based methodology design used constant comparative analysis and grounded theory techniques to produce a personal attributes profile per participant, scored on a 5-point scale holistic rubric. Qualitative validity of data gathering was checked by comparing the profiles elicited from the existing interview against the profiles elicited from the other tools, and by comparing two profiles of each of the applicants who handed in two portfolio tasks. Qualitative validity of data analysis was checked by comparing researcher results with those of an external rater (n =10). Differences between aggregated profile groups were checked by the Npar Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test and by Spearman Rank Order Correlation Test. All subjects gave written informed consent to their participation. Privacy was protected by using code numbers. A concept map of 12 personal attributes emerged, the core constructs of which were motivation, sociability and cognition. A personal profile was elicited. Inter-rater agreement was 83.3%. Differences between groups by aggregated profiles were found significant (p < .05, p < .01, p < .001).A random sample of sixth year students (n = 12) underwent the same admission procedure as the research group. Rank order was different; and arrogance was a new construct elicited in the sixth year group. This study suggests a broadening of the methodology for selecting medical school applicants. This methodology

Conference Report: Sixth Annual Meeting of Qualitative Psychology "Generalization in Qualitative Psychology"

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Leo Gürtler

2006-09-01

Full Text Available This conference report gives an overview of the 6th Annual Conference of the Qualitative Psychology Initiative held in Velden, Austria from 21-23 October, 2005 sponsored by the Center for Qualitative Psychology (Tübingen. Only in its sixth year, the conference has already become a tradition and was once again attended by researchers from a wide variety of professions and different countries. This year the conference focused on the subject of generalization in qualitative psychology and looked at different ways in which generalization can be handled in qualitative research in psychology. This conference report aims to convey an impression of the conference as a whole, to situate it within the context of psychological research and to point towards current issues and trends in qualitative research that are related to generalization. The individual presentations are first briefly summarized in this context, but are also presented again in greater detail in the Appendix C. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0604152

Random survival forests for competing risks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ishwaran, Hemant; Gerds, Thomas A; Kogalur, Udaya B

2014-01-01

We introduce a new approach to competing risks using random forests. Our method is fully non-parametric and can be used for selecting event-specific variables and for estimating the cumulative incidence function. We show that the method is highly effective for both prediction and variable selection...

Using Random Numbers in Science Research Activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlenker, Richard M.; And Others

1996-01-01

Discusses the importance of science process skills and describes ways to select sets of random numbers for selection of subjects for a research study in an unbiased manner. Presents an activity appropriate for grades 5-12. (JRH)

Average bond energies between boron and elements of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh groups of the periodic table

Science.gov (United States)

Altshuller, Aubrey P

1955-01-01

The average bond energies D(gm)(B-Z) for boron-containing molecules have been calculated by the Pauling geometric-mean equation. These calculated bond energies are compared with the average bond energies D(exp)(B-Z) obtained from experimental data. The higher values of D(exp)(B-Z) in comparison with D(gm)(B-Z) when Z is an element in the fifth, sixth, or seventh periodic group may be attributed to resonance stabilization or double-bond character.

Correlates of smoking with socioeconomic status, leisure time physical activity and alcohol consumption among Polish adults from randomly selected regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Woitas-Slubowska, Donata; Hurnik, Elzbieta; Skarpańska-Stejnborn, Anna

2010-12-01

To determine the association between smoking status and leisure time physical activity (LTPA), alcohol consumption, and socioeconomic status (SES) among Polish adults. 466 randomly selected men and women (aged 18-66 years) responded to an anonymous questionnaire regarding smoking, alcohol consumption, LTPA, and SES. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the association of smoking status with six socioeconomic measures, level of LTPA, and frequency and type of alcohol consumed. Smokers were defined as individuals smoking occasionally or daily. The odds of being smoker were 9 times (men) and 27 times (women) higher among respondents who drink alcohol several times/ week or everyday in comparison to non-drinkers (p times higher compared to those with the high educational attainment (p = 0.007). Among women we observed that students were the most frequent smokers. Female students were almost three times more likely to smoke than non-professional women, and two times more likely than physical workers (p = 0.018). The findings of this study indicated that among randomly selected Polish man and women aged 18-66 smoking and alcohol consumption tended to cluster. These results imply that intervention strategies need to target multiple risk factors simultaneously. The highest risk of smoking was observed among low educated men, female students, and both men and women drinking alcohol several times a week or every day. Information on subgroups with the high risk of smoking will help in planning future preventive strategies.

Mutation selection and induction in pera sweet orange using gamma - rays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tulmann Neto, Augusto; Menten, Jose O.M.; Ando, Akihiko; Ceravolo, Leonardo; Namakata, Takao; Rossi, Antonio C.

1996-01-01

The objective of the present research was the evaluate the methodology to select mutants of interest in the pera sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osb.), using bud gamma irradiation with 4.0 kR. The cutting back method was applied to the V1M1 branches originated after irradiation, and the six first buds from these branches were used to obtain V2M1 generation. Buds from these V2M1 branches were grafted to get the V3M1 generation. Selection was made in the quadrants (North, South, East and West) of the surviving plants, and 127 were selected. these plants differed from the controls in addition to the agronomic characteristics such as canopy height, seed number in the fruits, yield, fruit shape, leave morphology, etc. The higher frequency of morphological changes observed in the leaves and fruits, leads to conclude that the fifth and sixth buds along the V1M1 branch should be used when the present methodology is applied. The system of dividing the selecting plants into quadrants proved to be efficient because, despite the cutting back method used, the plants still showed chimerism. The selected clones are under evaluation in field condition in order to confirm the nature and the genetic stability of changes. (author)

Stimulating Graphical Summarization in Late Elementary Education: The Relationship between Two Instructional Mind-Map Approaches and Student Characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Merchie, Emmelien; Van Keer, Hilde

2016-01-01

This study examined the effectiveness of two instructional mind-mapping approaches to stimulate fifth and sixth graders' graphical summarization skills. Thirty-five fifth- and sixth-grade teachers and 644 students from 17 different elementary schools participated. A randomized quasi-experimental repeated-measures design was set up with two…

Proceedings of the sixth annual conference on fossil energy materials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cole, N.C.; Judkins, R.R. (comps.)

1992-07-01

The Sixth Annual Conference on Fossil Energy Materials was held in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on May 12--14, 1992. The meeting was sponsored by the US Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy through the Advanced Research and Technology Development (AR TD) Materials Program, and ASM International. The objective of the AR TD Materials Program is to conduct research and development on materials for longer-term fossil energy applications as well as for generic needs of various fossil fuel technologies. The management of the Program has been decentralized to the DOE Field Office, Oak Ridge with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as the technical support contractor. The research is performed by staff members at ORNL and by a substantial number of researchers at other national laboratories, universities, and in private industry. The work is divided into the following categories: (1) ceramics, (2) development and corrosion resistance of iron aluminide, advanced austenitic and chromium-niobium alloys, and (3) technology assessment and technology transfer. This conference is held each year to review the work on all of the projects of the Program. The agenda for the meeting is given in Appendix A, and a list of attendees is presented in Appendix B. ASM International cosponsored the conference, for which we are especially grateful.

Sixth national report of Brazil for the nuclear safety convention

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-01-01

Brazil has presented periodically its National Report prepared by a group composed of representatives of the various Brazilian organizations with responsibilities related to nuclear safety. Due to the implications of the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, an Extraordinary National Report was presented in 2012. This Sixth National Report is an update of the Fifth National Report in relation to the Convention on Nuclear Safety articles and also an update of the Extraordinary Report with respect to the action taken related to lesson learned from the Fukushima accident. It includes relevant information for the period of 2010/2012. This document represents the national report prepared as a fulfillment of the brazilian obligations related to the Convention on Nuclear Safety. In chapter 2 some details are given about the existing nuclear installations. Chapter 3 provides details about the legislation and regulations, including the regulatory framework and the regulatory body. Chapter 4 covers general safety considerations as described in articles 10 to 16 of the Convention. Chapter 5 addresses to the safety of the installations during siting, design, construction and operation. Chapter 6 describes planned activities to further enhance nuclear safety. Chapter 7 presents the final remarks related to the degree of compliance with the Convention obligations

Sixth national report of Brazil for the nuclear safety convention

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-07-01

Brazil has presented periodically its National Report prepared by a group composed of representatives of the various Brazilian organizations with responsibilities related to nuclear safety. Due to the implications of the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, an Extraordinary National Report was presented in 2012. This Sixth National Report is an update of the Fifth National Report in relation to the Convention on Nuclear Safety articles and also an update of the Extraordinary Report with respect to the action taken related to lesson learned from the Fukushima accident. It includes relevant information for the period of 2010/2012. This document represents the national report prepared as a fulfillment of the brazilian obligations related to the Convention on Nuclear Safety. In chapter 2 some details are given about the existing nuclear installations. Chapter 3 provides details about the legislation and regulations, including the regulatory framework and the regulatory body. Chapter 4 covers general safety considerations as described in articles 10 to 16 of the Convention. Chapter 5 addresses to the safety of the installations during siting, design, construction and operation. Chapter 6 describes planned activities to further enhance nuclear safety. Chapter 7 presents the final remarks related to the degree of compliance with the Convention obligations.

The Value of Supplementing Science Education with Outdoor Instruction for Sixth Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Devin Joseph Guilford

Science education is moving away from memorization of facts to inquiry based learning. Adding outdoor instruction can be an effective way to promote this exploratory method of learning. The limited number of empirical studies available have shown significant increase in attitudes and learning with outdoor science instruction. An eight-week quasi-experimental teacher research study was conducted to further this research and assess the value of schoolyard science instruction on student engagement and learning. Participants were 60 students in two sixth grade middle school Earth Science classes. A crossover study design was used with two classes alternating as experimental and control groups. NASA Global Precipitation Measurement mission curriculum was used (NASA/GPM, 2011). While the results did not show a clear increase in student engagement and content knowledge, the study adds to the body of knowledge on outdoor instruction and identifies limitations to consider in future studies.

Proceedings of the sixth technical committee meeting organized by the IAEA and held in Vienna, Austria, 8-11 June 1987

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-01-01

The Technical Committee on Thermal Reactor Safety Research held its sixth meeting from 8-11 June 1987 at the Agency's Headquarters in Vienna. It was attended by 25 participants representing 18 countries and 2 international organizations. With respect to exchange on national research activities the committee members presented their most recent achievements in the area of nuclear safety research. A separate abstract was prepared for each of their presentations. Refs, figs and tabs

The relationship between personality and attainment in 16-19-year-old students in a sixth form college: II: Self-perception, gender and attainment.

Science.gov (United States)

Summerfield, M; Youngman, M

1999-06-01

A related paper (Summerfield & Youngman, 1999) has described the development of a scale, the Student Self-Perception Scale (SSPS) designed to explore the relationship between academic self-concept, attainment and personality in sixth form college students. The study aimed to identify groups of students exhibiting varying patterns of relationship using a range of measures including the SSPS. Issues of gender and also examined. The samples comprised a pilot sample of 152 students (aged 16-17 years from two sixth form colleges) and a main sample of 364 students (mean age, 16 yrs 10 mths range 16:0 to 18:6 years, from one sixth form college). The main sample included similar numbers of male and female students (46% male, 54% female) and ethnic minority students comprised 14% of this sample. Data comprised responses to two personality measures (the SSPS, Summerfield, 1995, and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, Nowicki & Strickland, 1973), various student and tutor estimates of success, and performance data from college records. Students were classified using relocation cluster analysis and cluster differences verified using discriminant function analysis. Thirty outcome models were tested using covariance regression analysis. Eight distinct and interpretable groups, consistent with other research, were identified but the hypothesis of a positive, linear relationship between mastery and academic attainment was not sustained without qualification. Previous attainment was the major determinant of final performance. Gender variations were detected on the personality measures, particularly Confidence of outcomes, Prediction discrepancy, Passivity, Mastery, Dependency and Locus of control, and these were implicated in the cluster characteristics. The results suggest that a non-linear methodology may be required to isolate relationships between self-concept, personality and attainment, especially where gender effects may exist.

Effects of one versus two bouts of moderate intensity physical activity on selective attention during a school morning in Dutch primary schoolchildren: A randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Altenburg, Teatske M; Chinapaw, Mai J M; Singh, Amika S

2016-10-01

Evidence suggests that physical activity is positively related to several aspects of cognitive functioning in children, among which is selective attention. To date, no information is available on the optimal frequency of physical activity on cognitive functioning in children. The current study examined the acute effects of one and two bouts of moderate-intensity physical activity on children's selective attention. Randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN97975679). Thirty boys and twenty-six girls, aged 10-13 years, were randomly assigned to three conditions: (A) sitting all morning working on simulated school tasks; (B) one 20-min physical activity bout after 90min; and (C) two 20-min physical activity bouts, i.e. at the start and after 90min. Selective attention was assessed at five time points during the morning (i.e. at baseline and after 20, 110, 130 and 220min), using the 'Sky Search' subtest of the 'Test of Selective Attention in Children'. We used GEE analysis to examine differences in Sky Search scores between the three experimental conditions, adjusting for school, baseline scores, self-reported screen time and time spent in sports. Children who performed two 20-min bouts of moderate-intensity physical activity had significantly better Sky Search scores compared to children who performed one physical activity bout or remained seated the whole morning (B=-0.26; 95% CI=[-0.52; -0.00]). Our findings support the importance of repeated physical activity during the school day for beneficial effects on selective attention in children. Copyright © 2015 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The healthy options for nutrition environments in schools (Healthy ONES group randomized trial: using implementation models to change nutrition policy and environments in low income schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Coleman Karen J

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Healthy Options for Nutrition Environments in Schools (Healthy ONES study was an evidence-based public health (EBPH randomized group trial that adapted the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI rapid improvement process model to implement school nutrition policy and environmental change. Methods A low-income school district volunteered for participation in the study. All schools in the district agreed to participate (elementary = 6, middle school = 2 and were randomly assigned within school type to intervention (n = 4 and control (n =4 conditions following a baseline environmental audit year. Intervention goals were to 1 eliminate unhealthy foods and beverages on campus, 2 develop nutrition services as the main source on campus for healthful eating (HE, and 3 promote school staff modeling of HE. Schools were followed across a baseline year and two intervention years. Longitudinal assessment of height and weight was conducted with second, third, and sixth grade children. Behavioral observation of the nutrition environment was used to index the amount of outside foods and beverages on campuses. Observations were made monthly in each targeted school environment and findings were presented as items per child per week. Results From an eligible 827 second, third, and sixth grade students, baseline height and weight were collected for 444 second and third grade and 135 sixth grade students (51% reach. Data were available for 73% of these enrolled students at the end of three years. Intervention school outside food and beverage items per child per week decreased over time and control school outside food and beverage items increased over time. The effects were especially pronounced for unhealthy foods and beverage items. Changes in rates of obesity for intervention school (28% baseline, 27% year 1, 30% year 2 were similar to those seen for control school (22% baseline, 22% year 1, 25% year 2 children

Proceedings of the fifty sixth congress of Indian Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics: souvenir

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pradhan, V.H.

2011-01-01

The fifty sixth congress of Indian Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics had been organized from December 19-21, 2011. Mathematics has been playing a key role in the development of society right from the use of geometry in land measurement to satellite launching. The appropriate mathematical tools are right answers to real world problems which has increase many fold because of the advancement in various branches of applied sciences, engineering and technologies with the advanced development of high speed super digital computers. The topics such as wireless communication, health systems, financing, budgeting, planning, management and decision making which plays important role in day to day lives have been covered in this meet. Papers relevant to INIS have been indexed separately

Mirnacle: machine learning with SMOTE and random forest for improving selectivity in pre-miRNA ab initio prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

Marques, Yuri Bento; de Paiva Oliveira, Alcione; Ribeiro Vasconcelos, Ana Tereza; Cerqueira, Fabio Ribeiro

2016-12-15

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key gene expression regulators in plants and animals. Therefore, miRNAs are involved in several biological processes, making the study of these molecules one of the most relevant topics of molecular biology nowadays. However, characterizing miRNAs in vivo is still a complex task. As a consequence, in silico methods have been developed to predict miRNA loci. A common ab initio strategy to find miRNAs in genomic data is to search for sequences that can fold into the typical hairpin structure of miRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs). The current ab initio approaches, however, have selectivity issues, i.e., a high number of false positives is reported, which can lead to laborious and costly attempts to provide biological validation. This study presents an extension of the ab initio method miRNAFold, with the aim of improving selectivity through machine learning techniques, namely, random forest combined with the SMOTE procedure that copes with imbalance datasets. By comparing our method, termed Mirnacle, with other important approaches in the literature, we demonstrate that Mirnacle substantially improves selectivity without compromising sensitivity. For the three datasets used in our experiments, our method achieved at least 97% of sensitivity and could deliver a two-fold, 20-fold, and 6-fold increase in selectivity, respectively, compared with the best results of current computational tools. The extension of miRNAFold by the introduction of machine learning techniques, significantly increases selectivity in pre-miRNA ab initio prediction, which optimally contributes to advanced studies on miRNAs, as the need of biological validations is diminished. Hopefully, new research, such as studies of severe diseases caused by miRNA malfunction, will benefit from the proposed computational tool.

Randomized algorithms in automatic control and data mining

CERN Document Server

Granichin, Oleg; Toledano-Kitai, Dvora

2015-01-01

In the fields of data mining and control, the huge amount of unstructured data and the presence of uncertainty in system descriptions have always been critical issues. The book Randomized Algorithms in Automatic Control and Data Mining introduces the readers to the fundamentals of randomized algorithm applications in data mining (especially clustering) and in automatic control synthesis. The methods proposed in this book guarantee that the computational complexity of classical algorithms and the conservativeness of standard robust control techniques will be reduced. It is shown that when a problem requires "brute force" in selecting among options, algorithms based on random selection of alternatives offer good results with certain probability for a restricted time and significantly reduce the volume of operations.

The basic science and mathematics of random mutation and natural selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinman, Alan

2014-12-20

The mutation and natural selection phenomenon can and often does cause the failure of antimicrobial, herbicidal, pesticide and cancer treatments selection pressures. This phenomenon operates in a mathematically predictable behavior, which when understood leads to approaches to reduce and prevent the failure of the use of these selection pressures. The mathematical behavior of mutation and selection is derived using the principles given by probability theory. The derivation of the equations describing the mutation and selection phenomenon is carried out in the context of an empirical example. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Selecting Optimal Random Forest Predictive Models: A Case Study on Predicting the Spatial Distribution of Seabed Hardness

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jin; Tran, Maggie; Siwabessy, Justy

2016-01-01

Spatially continuous predictions of seabed hardness are important baseline environmental information for sustainable management of Australia’s marine jurisdiction. Seabed hardness is often inferred from multibeam backscatter data with unknown accuracy and can be inferred from underwater video footage at limited locations. In this study, we classified the seabed into four classes based on two new seabed hardness classification schemes (i.e., hard90 and hard70). We developed optimal predictive models to predict seabed hardness using random forest (RF) based on the point data of hardness classes and spatially continuous multibeam data. Five feature selection (FS) methods that are variable importance (VI), averaged variable importance (AVI), knowledge informed AVI (KIAVI), Boruta and regularized RF (RRF) were tested based on predictive accuracy. Effects of highly correlated, important and unimportant predictors on the accuracy of RF predictive models were examined. Finally, spatial predictions generated using the most accurate models were visually examined and analysed. This study confirmed that: 1) hard90 and hard70 are effective seabed hardness classification schemes; 2) seabed hardness of four classes can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy; 3) the typical approach used to pre-select predictive variables by excluding highly correlated variables needs to be re-examined; 4) the identification of the important and unimportant predictors provides useful guidelines for further improving predictive models; 5) FS methods select the most accurate predictive model(s) instead of the most parsimonious ones, and AVI and Boruta are recommended for future studies; and 6) RF is an effective modelling method with high predictive accuracy for multi-level categorical data and can be applied to ‘small p and large n’ problems in environmental sciences. Additionally, automated computational programs for AVI need to be developed to increase its computational efficiency and

Sensitivity Achieved by the LIGO and Virgo Gravitational Wave Detectors during LIGO's Sixth and Virgo's Second and Third Science Runs

OpenAIRE

Abadie, J.; Abbott, B.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T.; Abernathy, M.; Accadia, T.; Acernese, F.; Adams, C.; Adhikari, R.; Affeldt, C.; Agathos, M.; Ajith, P.; Allen, B.; Allen, G.; Amador Ceron, E.

2012-01-01

We summarize the sensitivity achieved by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors for low-mass compact binary coalescence (CBC) searches during LIGO's sixth science run and Virgo's second and third science runs. We present strain noise power spectral densities (PSDs) which are representative of the typical performance achieved by the detectors in these science runs. The data presented here and in the accompanying web-accessible data files are intended to be released to the public as a ...

RANDOM WALK HYPOTHESIS IN FINANCIAL MARKETS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolae-Marius JULA

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Random walk hypothesis states that the stock market prices do not follow a predictable trajectory, but are simply random. If you are trying to predict a random set of data, one should test for randomness, because, despite the power and complexity of the used models, the results cannot be trustworthy. There are several methods for testing these hypotheses and the use of computational power provided by the R environment makes the work of the researcher easier and with a cost-effective approach. The increasing power of computing and the continuous development of econometric tests should give the potential investors new tools in selecting commodities and investing in efficient markets.

Where students turn into teachers: the sixth Inverted CERN School of Computing

CERN Multimedia

François Fluckiger, CSC Director

2013-01-01

For the sixth time since 2005, the CERN School of Commuting has scheduled its inverted school for February. iCSCs are part of the CSC series of events, together with the main summer school to be held this year in Cyprus and the thematic school in Split next June.   The inverted CSC, iCSC2013, will take place at CERN on 25 and 26 February, in Room 513-1-024. The inverted CSCs stem from the observation that at regular CSCs it is common to find someone in the room who knows more on a particular (usually advanced) topic than the lecturer. So why not try and exploit this and turn the students into teachers? CSC2012 students made proposals via an electronic discussion forum, from which a programme was designed. This year’s programme focuses on timely, challenging and innovative topics, inlcuding: GPU computing in High Energy Physics, Computer vision, Testing in large scale distributed systems and Grid Interpretation by LHC experiments. Attendanc...

The Goodness of Covariance Selection Problem from AUC Bounds

OpenAIRE

Khajavi, Navid Tafaghodi; Kuh, Anthony

2016-01-01

We conduct a study of graphical models and discuss the quality of model selection approximation by formulating the problem as a detection problem and examining the area under the curve (AUC). We are specifically looking at the model selection problem for jointly Gaussian random vectors. For Gaussian random vectors, this problem simplifies to the covariance selection problem which is widely discussed in literature by Dempster [1]. In this paper, we give the definition for the correlation appro...

The effects of gender violence/ harassment prevention programming in middle schools: a randomized experimental evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Bruce; Stein, Nan; Burden, Frances

2010-01-01

In this experiment, 123 sixth and seventh grade classrooms from Cleveland area schools were randomly assigned to one of two five-session curricula addressing gender violence/ sexual harassment (GV/SH) or to a no-treatment control. Three-student surveys were administered. Students in the law and justice curricula, compared to the control group, had significantly improved outcomes in awareness of their abusive behaviors, attitudes toward GV/SH and personal space, and knowledge. Students in the interaction curricula experienced lower rates of victimization, increased awareness of abusive behaviors, and improved attitudes toward personal space. Neither curricula affected perpetration or victimization of sexual harassment. While the intervention appeared to reduce peer violence victimization and perpetration, a conflicting finding emerged-the intervention may have increased dating violence perpetration (or at least the reporting of it) but not dating violence victimization.

ISBNPA 2007: Marketing, serious games and nanny states. Observations from the sixth annual meeting of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Oslo 2007

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Brug Johannes

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract This commentary paper provides a selective overview of topics addressed at the sixth annual meeting of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA. With 31 symposiums, 42 free paper sessions and 236 poster presentations ISBNPA 2007 provided a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and of new avenues for behavioral nutrition and physical activity research. Research presented at the conference helps to identify and specify important nutrition and physical activity behaviors for health promotion, as well as the correlates, predictors and determinants of these behaviors, and to build and test intervention strategies that go beyond traditional health education. ISBNPA 2007 also indicates that ISBNPA should strive to become more international by inclusion of more scientists from countries outside North America, Western Europe and Australia. ISBNPA should maintain its encouragement of research that is firmly rooted in behavioral theory and research that goes beyond applying cross-sectional research designs, and that addresses the most important public health issues associated with behavioral nutrition and physical activity.

Effectiveness of app-based self-acupressure for women with menstrual pain compared to usual care: a randomized pragmatic trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Blödt, Susanne; Pach, Daniel; Eisenhart-Rothe, Sanna von; Lotz, Fabian; Roll, Stephanie; Icke, Katja; Witt, Claudia M

2018-02-01

Primary dysmenorrhea is common among women of reproductive age. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and oral contraceptives are effective treatments, although the failure rate is around 20% to 25%. Therefore additional evidence-based treatments are needed. In recent years, the use of smartphone applications (apps) has increased rapidly and may support individuals in self-management strategies. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of app-based self-acupressure in women with menstrual pain. A 2-armed, randomized, pragmatic trial was conducted from December 2012 to April 2015 with recruitment until August 2014 in Berlin, Germany, among women aged 18 to 34 years with self-reported cramping pain of 6 or more on a numeric rating scale (NRS) for the worst pain intensity during the previous menstruation. After randomization, women performed either app-based self-acupressure (n = 111) or followed usual care only (n = 110) for 6 consecutive menstruation cycles. The primary outcome was the mean pain intensity (NRS 0-10) on the days with pain during the third menstruation. Secondary outcomes included worst pain intensity during menstruation, duration of pain, 50% responder rates (reduction of mean pain by at least 50%), medication intake, sick leave days, and body efficacy expectation assessed at the first, second, third, and sixth menstruation cycles. We included 221 women (mean age, 24.0 years; standard deviation [SD], 3.6 years). The mean pain intensity difference during the third menstruation was statistically significant in favor of acupressure (acupressure: 4.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.0-4.7; usual care 5.0; 95% CI, 4.6-5.3; mean difference -0.6; 95% CI, - 1.2 to -0.1; P = .026). At the sixth cycle, the mean difference between the groups (-1.4; 95% CI, -2.0 to -0.8; P 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-0.9] and 0.3 (95% CI, 0.2-0.5) were lower in the acupressure group. At the third cycle, hormonal contraceptive use was more common in the usual care group than in

Measuring the ambiguity tolerance of medical students: a cross-sectional study from the first to sixth academic years.

Science.gov (United States)

Weissenstein, Anne; Ligges, Sandra; Brouwer, Britta; Marschall, Bernhard; Friederichs, Hendrik

2014-01-09

Tolerance of ambiguity, or the extent to which ambiguous situations are perceived as desirable, is an important component of the attitudes and behaviors of medical students. However, few studies have compared this trait across the years of medical school. General practitioners are considered to have a higher ambiguity tolerance than specialists. We compared ambiguity tolerance between general practitioners and medical students. We designed a cross-sectional study to evaluate the ambiguity tolerance of 622 medical students in the first to sixth academic years. We compared this with the ambiguity tolerance of 30 general practitioners. We used the inventory for measuring ambiguity tolerance (IMA) developed by Reis (1997), which includes three measures of ambiguity tolerance: openness to new experiences, social conflicts, and perception of insoluble problems. We obtained a total of 564 complete data sets (return rate 90.1%) from medical students and 29 questionnaires (return rate 96.7%) from general practitioners. In relation to the reference groups defined by Reis (1997), medical students had poor ambiguity tolerance on all three scales. No differences were found between those in the first and the sixth academic years, although we did observe gender-specific differences in ambiguity tolerance. We found no differences in ambiguity tolerance between general practitioners and medical students. The ambiguity tolerance of the students that we assessed was below average, and appeared to be stable throughout the course of their studies. In contrast to our expectations, the general practitioners did not have a higher level of ambiguity tolerance than the students did.

Organic Ferroelectric-Based 1T1T Random Access Memory Cell Employing a Common Dielectric Layer Overcoming the Half-Selection Problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Qiang; Wang, Hanlin; Ni, Zhenjie; Liu, Jie; Zhen, Yonggang; Zhang, Xiaotao; Jiang, Lang; Li, Rongjin; Dong, Huanli; Hu, Wenping

2017-09-01

Organic electronics based on poly(vinylidenefluoride/trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) dielectric is facing great challenges in flexible circuits. As one indispensable part of integrated circuits, there is an urgent demand for low-cost and easy-fabrication nonvolatile memory devices. A breakthrough is made on a novel ferroelectric random access memory cell (1T1T FeRAM cell) consisting of one selection transistor and one ferroelectric memory transistor in order to overcome the half-selection problem. Unlike complicated manufacturing using multiple dielectrics, this system simplifies 1T1T FeRAM cell fabrication using one common dielectric. To achieve this goal, a strategy for semiconductor/insulator (S/I) interface modulation is put forward and applied to nonhysteretic selection transistors with high performances for driving or addressing purposes. As a result, high hole mobility of 3.81 cm 2 V -1 s -1 (average) for 2,6-diphenylanthracene (DPA) and electron mobility of 0.124 cm 2 V -1 s -1 (average) for N,N'-1H,1H-perfluorobutyl dicyanoperylenecarboxydiimide (PDI-FCN 2 ) are obtained in selection transistors. In this work, we demonstrate this technology's potential for organic ferroelectric-based pixelated memory module fabrication. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Designing the selenium and bladder cancer trial (SELEBLAT, a phase lll randomized chemoprevention study with selenium on recurrence of bladder cancer in Belgium

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Goossens Maria E

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In Belgium, bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in males (5.2% and the sixth most frequent cause of death from cancer in males (3.8%. Previous epidemiological studies have consistently reported that selenium concentrations were inversely associated with the risk of bladder cancer. This suggests that selenium may also be suitable for chemoprevention of recurrence. Method The SELEBLAT study opened in September 2009 and is still recruiting all patients with non-invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder on TURB operation in 15 Belgian hospitals. Recruitment progress can be monitored live at http://www.seleblat.org. Patients are randomly assigned to selenium yeast (200 μg/day supplementation for 3 years or matching placebo, in addition to standard care. The objective is to determine the effect of selenium on the recurrence of bladder cancer. Randomization is stratified by treatment centre. A computerized algorithm randomly assigns the patients to a treatment arm. All study personnel and participants are blinded to treatment assignment for the duration of the study. Design The SELEnium and BLAdder cancer Trial (SELEBLAT is a phase III randomized, placebo-controlled, academic, double-blind superior trial. Discussion This is the first report on a selenium randomized trial in bladder cancer patients. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00729287

Random-walk simulation of selected aspects of dissipative collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toeke, J.; Gobbi, A.; Matulewicz, T.

1984-11-01

Internuclear thermal equilibrium effects and shell structure effects in dissipative collisions are studied numerically within the framework of the model of stochastic exchanges by applying the random-walk technique. Effective blocking of the drift through the mass flux induced by the temperature difference, while leaving the variances of the mass distributions unaltered is found possible, provided an internuclear potential barrier is present. Presence of the shell structure is found to lead to characteristic correlations between the consecutive exchanges. Experimental evidence for the predicted effects is discussed. (orig.)

Learning to write in science: A study of English language learners' writing experience in sixth-grade science classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Qi, Yang

Writing is a predictor of academic achievement and is essential for student success in content area learning. Despite its importance, many students, including English language learners (ELLs), struggle with writing. There is thus a need to study students' writing experience in content area classrooms. Informed by systemic functional linguistics, this study examined 11 ELL students' writing experience in two sixth grade science classrooms in a southeastern state of the United States, including what they wrote, how they wrote, and why they wrote in the way they did. The written products produced by these students over one semester were collected. Also collected were teacher interviews, field notes from classroom observations, and classroom artifacts. Student writing samples were first categorized into extended and nonextended writing categories, and each extended essay was then analyzed with respect to its schematic structure and grammatical features. Teacher interviews and classroom observation notes were analyzed thematically to identify teacher expectations, beliefs, and practices regarding writing instruction for ELLs. It was found that the sixth-grade ELLs engaged in mostly non-extended writing in the science classroom, with extended writing (defined as writing a paragraph or longer) constituting roughly 11% of all writing assignments. Linguistic analysis of extended writing shows that the students (a) conveyed information through nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbial groups and prepositional phrases; (b) constructed interpersonal context through choices of mood, modality, and verb tense; and (c) structured text through thematic choices and conjunctions. The appropriateness of these lexicogrammatical choices for particular writing tasks was related to the students' English language proficiency levels. The linguistic analysis also uncovered several grammatical problems in the students' writing, including a limited range of word choices, inappropriate use of mood

Random number generation and creativity.

Science.gov (United States)

Bains, William

2008-01-01

A previous paper suggested that humans can generate genuinely random numbers. I tested this hypothesis by repeating the experiment with a larger number of highly numerate subjects, asking them to call out a sequence of digits selected from 0 through 9. The resulting sequences were substantially non-random, with an excess of sequential pairs of numbers and a deficit of repeats of the same number, in line with previous literature. However, the previous literature suggests that humans generate random numbers with substantial conscious effort, and distractions which reduce that effort reduce the randomness of the numbers. I reduced my subjects' concentration by asking them to call out in another language, and with alcohol - neither affected the randomness of their responses. This suggests that the ability to generate random numbers is a 'basic' function of the human mind, even if those numbers are not mathematically 'random'. I hypothesise that there is a 'creativity' mechanism, while not truly random, provides novelty as part of the mind's defence against closed programming loops, and that testing for the effects seen here in people more or less familiar with numbers or with spontaneous creativity could identify more features of this process. It is possible that training to perform better at simple random generation tasks could help to increase creativity, through training people to reduce the conscious mind's suppression of the 'spontaneous', creative response to new questions.

Selection and characterization of DNA aptamers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruigrok, V.J.B.

2013-01-01

This thesis focusses on the selection and characterisation of DNA aptamers and the various aspects related to their selection from large pools of randomized oligonucleotides. Aptamers are affinity tools that can specifically recognize and bind predefined target molecules; this ability, however,

Proceedings of the Sixth Forum: Energy day in Croatia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

The problem of ''Regional Planning as a Part of National Energy Planning'' has been chosen as a subject of the Sixth FORUM, with the aim of giving an impetus to the necessary transfer of certain responsibilities in the planning process, as well as in the process of energy management, to local levels. Transformation procedures in Croatia which help establish the infrastructure of state and local authorities essentially lead to the recognition of tasks on each of the level so that operational activities run as efficiently as possible. It should be emphasised that on global level the energy sector is facing major changes leading to market liberalization and demonopolization. Discussion are being held regarding market range and opportunities, requirements and levels of planning, needs and scope of government and local community measures in achieving increased energy efficiency and utilization of renewable resources, and ultimately in overall energy management. The objective of this FORUM is to start discussions of all the mentioned problems without giving final solutions or removing dilemmas. The only unquestionable issue is that each country will have to find its own manner in transforming the energy sector, in defining the range and mode of planning within the sector, as well as the proportions and active involvement of the state and local community in increasing energy efficiency and environment protection. Experiences and views of our foreign colleagues are certainly going to be of great help in our efforts to review the needs of the Republic of Croatia. (author)

Pseudo-Random Number Generators

Science.gov (United States)

Howell, L. W.; Rheinfurth, M. H.

1984-01-01

Package features comprehensive selection of probabilistic distributions. Monte Carlo simulations resorted to whenever systems studied not amenable to deterministic analyses or when direct experimentation not feasible. Random numbers having certain specified distribution characteristic integral part of simulations. Package consists of collector of "pseudorandom" number generators for use in Monte Carlo simulations.

Model Selection with the Linear Mixed Model for Longitudinal Data

Science.gov (United States)

Ryoo, Ji Hoon

2011-01-01

Model building or model selection with linear mixed models (LMMs) is complicated by the presence of both fixed effects and random effects. The fixed effects structure and random effects structure are codependent, so selection of one influences the other. Most presentations of LMM in psychology and education are based on a multilevel or…

The Impact of Educational Games-Based iPad Applications on the Development of Social Studies Achievement and Learning Retention among Sixth Grade Students in Jeddah

Science.gov (United States)

Najmuldeen, Hanan A.

2017-01-01

The present study aims to evaluate the impact of educational games-based iPad applications on the development of social studies achievement and learning retention. Sample consisted of (48) sixth grade primary students in Jeddah. The author adopted Quasi-experimental design of the experimental and control groups. She also provided the teacher a…

The adverse effect of selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor on random skin flap survival in rats.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haiyong Ren

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2 inhibitors provide desired analgesic effects after injury or surgery, but evidences suggested they also attenuate wound healing. The study is to investigate the effect of COX-2 inhibitor on random skin flap survival. METHODS: The McFarlane flap model was established in 40 rats and evaluated within two groups, each group gave the same volume of Parecoxib and saline injection for 7 days. The necrotic area of the flap was measured, the specimens of the flap were stained with haematoxylin-eosin(HE for histologic analysis. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to analyse the level of VEGF and COX-2 . RESULTS: 7 days after operation, the flap necrotic area ratio in study group (66.65 ± 2.81% was significantly enlarged than that of the control group(48.81 ± 2.33%(P <0.01. Histological analysis demonstrated angiogenesis with mean vessel density per mm(2 being lower in study group (15.4 ± 4.4 than in control group (27.2 ± 4.1 (P <0.05. To evaluate the expression of COX-2 and VEGF protein in the intermediate area II in the two groups by immunohistochemistry test .The expression of COX-2 in study group was (1022.45 ± 153.1, and in control group was (2638.05 ± 132.2 (P <0.01. The expression of VEGF in the study and control groups were (2779.45 ± 472.0 vs (4938.05 ± 123.6(P <0.01.In the COX-2 inhibitor group, the expressions of COX-2 and VEGF protein were remarkably down-regulated as compared with the control group. CONCLUSION: Selective COX-2 inhibitor had adverse effect on random skin flap survival. Suppression of neovascularization induced by low level of VEGF was supposed to be the biological mechanism.

Bias in random forest variable importance measures: Illustrations, sources and a solution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hothorn Torsten

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Variable importance measures for random forests have been receiving increased attention as a means of variable selection in many classification tasks in bioinformatics and related scientific fields, for instance to select a subset of genetic markers relevant for the prediction of a certain disease. We show that random forest variable importance measures are a sensible means for variable selection in many applications, but are not reliable in situations where potential predictor variables vary in their scale of measurement or their number of categories. This is particularly important in genomics and computational biology, where predictors often include variables of different types, for example when predictors include both sequence data and continuous variables such as folding energy, or when amino acid sequence data show different numbers of categories. Results Simulation studies are presented illustrating that, when random forest variable importance measures are used with data of varying types, the results are misleading because suboptimal predictor variables may be artificially preferred in variable selection. The two mechanisms underlying this deficiency are biased variable selection in the individual classification trees used to build the random forest on one hand, and effects induced by bootstrap sampling with replacement on the other hand. Conclusion We propose to employ an alternative implementation of random forests, that provides unbiased variable selection in the individual classification trees. When this method is applied using subsampling without replacement, the resulting variable importance measures can be used reliably for variable selection even in situations where the potential predictor variables vary in their scale of measurement or their number of categories. The usage of both random forest algorithms and their variable importance measures in the R system for statistical computing is illustrated and

PREFACE: The Sixth International Conference on Gravitation & Cosmology

Science.gov (United States)

Date, Ghanashyam; Souradeep, Tarun

2008-07-01

The sixth International Conference on Gravitation & Cosmology (ICGC-2007) was organized at IUCAA, Pune, 17-21 December 2007. This series of international meetings, held every four years under the auspices of the Indian Association for General Relativity and Gravitation (IAGRG), has now spanned two decades. Previous ICGC meetings were held at Cochin University of Science and Technology (2004), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (2000), IUCAA, Pune (1995), Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad (1991) & Goa (1987). These meetings have broad international participation and feature leading experts in the field of Cosmology, gravitational waves and quantum gravity. The frontier of research in Gravitation and Cosmology has seen remarkable progress in the past decades. On the theoretical front, black holes and cosmological singularities continue to challenge and attract quantum gravity researchers. The quest for the detection of Gravitational waves and the promise of gravitational wave astronomy continues to grow and breakthroughs of the past couple of years indicate that numerical relativity is catching up too. The past few years have also seen very ambitious experimental efforts to verify general relativity as the theory of gravitation. Cosmology has been veritably transformed into a precision science with the tremendous improvement in the quantity and quality of cosmological observations. The exquisite measurements not only allow refinement of the cosmological model parameters but have begun to allow observational tests of underlying fundamental assumptions and hunt for subtle deviations that could be the key to understanding the early universe. The sixth meeting brought together active scientists from all over the globe to present the state of the art at the frontiers of research. It also offered younger Indian researchers an opportunity for interaction with experts from within India and abroad. The meeting was attended by over 160 participants. The scientific

Multi-Label Learning via Random Label Selection for Protein Subcellular Multi-Locations Prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiao; Li, Guo-Zheng

2013-03-12

Prediction of protein subcellular localization is an important but challenging problem, particularly when proteins may simultaneously exist at, or move between, two or more different subcellular location sites. Most of the existing protein subcellular localization methods are only used to deal with the single-location proteins. In the past few years, only a few methods have been proposed to tackle proteins with multiple locations. However, they only adopt a simple strategy, that is, transforming the multi-location proteins to multiple proteins with single location, which doesn't take correlations among different subcellular locations into account. In this paper, a novel method named RALS (multi-label learning via RAndom Label Selection), is proposed to learn from multi-location proteins in an effective and efficient way. Through five-fold cross validation test on a benchmark dataset, we demonstrate our proposed method with consideration of label correlations obviously outperforms the baseline BR method without consideration of label correlations, indicating correlations among different subcellular locations really exist and contribute to improvement of prediction performance. Experimental results on two benchmark datasets also show that our proposed methods achieve significantly higher performance than some other state-of-the-art methods in predicting subcellular multi-locations of proteins. The prediction web server is available at http://levis.tongji.edu.cn:8080/bioinfo/MLPred-Euk/ for the public usage.

Can a pilates exercise program be effective on balance, flexibility and muscle endurance? A randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Kibar, Sibel; Yardimci, Fatma Ö; Evcik, Deniz; Ay, Saime; Alhan, Aslıhan; Manço, Miray; Ergin, Emine S

2016-10-01

This randomized controlled study aims to determine the effect of pilates mat exercises on dynamic and static balance, hamstring flexibility, abdominal muscle activity and endurance in healthy adults. Female healthy volunteer university students randomly assigned into two groups. Group 1 followed a pilates program for an hour two times a week. Group 2 continued daily activities as control group. Dynamic and static balance were evaluated by Sport Kinesthetic Ability Trainer (KAT) 4000 device. Hamstring flexibility and abdominal endurance were determined by sit-and-reach test, curl-up test respectively. Pressure biofeedback unit (PBU) was used to measure transversus abdominis and lumbar muscle activity. The physical activity of the participants was followed by International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form. Twenty-three subjects in pilates group and 24 control subjects completed the study. In pilates group, statistical significant improvements were observed in curl-up, sit-and-reach test, PBU scores at sixth week (Ppilates group for sit-and-reach test (P=0.01) and PBU scores (Ppilates training program has been found to have beneficial effect on static balance, flexibility, abdominal muscle endurance, abdominal and lumbar muscle activity. These parameters have no effect on balance.

Survivor bias in Mendelian randomization analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vansteelandt, Stijn; Dukes, Oliver; Martinussen, Torben

2017-01-01

Mendelian randomization studies employ genotypes as experimental handles to infer the effect of genetically modified exposures (e.g. vitamin D exposure) on disease outcomes (e.g. mortality). The statistical analysis of these studies makes use of the standard instrumental variables framework. Many...... of these studies focus on elderly populations, thereby ignoring the problem of left truncation, which arises due to the selection of study participants being conditional upon surviving up to the time of study onset. Such selection, in general, invalidates the assumptions on which the instrumental variables...... analysis rests. We show that Mendelian randomization studies of adult or elderly populations will therefore, in general, return biased estimates of the exposure effect when the considered genotype affects mortality; in contrast, standard tests of the causal null hypothesis that the exposure does not affect...

High-Tg Polynorbornene-Based Block and Random Copolymers for Butanol Pervaporation Membranes

Science.gov (United States)

Register, Richard A.; Kim, Dong-Gyun; Takigawa, Tamami; Kashino, Tomomasa; Burtovyy, Oleksandr; Bell, Andrew

Vinyl addition polymers of substituted norbornene (NB) monomers possess desirably high glass transition temperatures (Tg); however, until very recently, the lack of an applicable living polymerization chemistry has precluded the synthesis of such polymers with controlled architecture, or copolymers with controlled sequence distribution. We have recently synthesized block and random copolymers of NB monomers bearing hydroxyhexafluoroisopropyl and n-butyl substituents (HFANB and BuNB) via living vinyl addition polymerization with Pd-based catalysts. Both series of polymers were cast into the selective skin layers of thin film composite (TFC) membranes, and these organophilic membranes investigated for the isolation of n-butanol from dilute aqueous solution (model fermentation broth) via pervaporation. The block copolymers show well-defined microphase-separated morphologies, both in bulk and as the selective skin layers on TFC membranes, while the random copolymers are homogeneous. Both block and random vinyl addition copolymers are effective as n-butanol pervaporation membranes, with the block copolymers showing a better flux-selectivity balance. While polyHFANB has much higher permeability and n-butanol selectivity than polyBuNB, incorporating BuNB units into the polymer (in either a block or random sequence) limits the swelling of the polyHFANB and thereby improves the n-butanol pervaporation selectivity.

Impact of episiotomy on pelvic floor disorders and their influence on women's wellness after the sixth month postpartum: a retrospective study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Calcagno Angelo

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The role of episiotomy as a protective factor against pelvic floor disorders postpartum has been debated for many years, but its routine use has been hitherto discouraged in the literature. Comparisons between restrictive and routine use of episiotomy in existent literature, however, fail to include any consideration relating to quality of life. The aim of this study, therefore, is to state the role of episiotomy in preserving the perineum from damage, in order to prevent the influence of pelvic floor disorders on women's psycho-physical wellness after the sixth month postpartum. Methods A follow-up telephone interview was performed among 377 primiparous and secondiparous Caucasian women who had a child by spontaneous or operative vaginal delivery in 2006 using a self-created questionnaire and King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ. Results The mean age at delivery was 35.26 (±4.68 years and episiotomy was performed in 59.2% of women. Multivariate linear regression shows episiotomy associated to higher quality of life after the sixth month postpartum by correlating with inferior values of King's Health Questionnaire (p Conclusions Episiotomy appears to be a protective factor for women's wellness. Women who had episiotomy and who experienced perineal symptoms have a better psycho-physical health status in the 12.79 months (±3.3 follow-up.

Random coil chemical shifts in acidic 8 M urea: Implementation of random coil shift data in NMRView

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwarzinger, Stephan; Kroon, Gerard J.A.; Foss, Ted R.; Wright, Peter E.; Dyson, H. Jane

2000-01-01

Studies of proteins unfolded in acid or chemical denaturant can help in unraveling events during the earliest phases of protein folding. In order for meaningful comparisons to be made of residual structure in unfolded states, it is necessary to use random coil chemical shifts that are valid for the experimental system under study. We present a set of random coil chemical shifts obtained for model peptides under experimental conditions used in studies of denatured proteins. This new set, together with previously published data sets, has been incorporated into a software interface for NMRView, allowing selection of the random coil data set that fits the experimental conditions best

Discriminative Projection Selection Based Face Image Hashing

Science.gov (United States)

Karabat, Cagatay; Erdogan, Hakan

Face image hashing is an emerging method used in biometric verification systems. In this paper, we propose a novel face image hashing method based on a new technique called discriminative projection selection. We apply the Fisher criterion for selecting the rows of a random projection matrix in a user-dependent fashion. Moreover, another contribution of this paper is to employ a bimodal Gaussian mixture model at the quantization step. Our simulation results on three different databases demonstrate that the proposed method has superior performance in comparison to previously proposed random projection based methods.

The effect of selection on genetic parameter estimates

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Unknown

The South African Journal of Animal Science is available online at ... A simulation study was carried out to investigate the effect of selection on the estimation of genetic ... The model contained a fixed effect, random genetic and random.

A theory for the origin of a self-replicating chemical system. I - Natural selection of the autogen from short, random oligomers

Science.gov (United States)

White, D. H.

1980-01-01

A general theory is presented for the origin of a self-replicating chemical system, termed an autogen, which is capable of both crude replication and translation (protein synthesis). The theory requires the availability of free energy and monomers to the system, a significant background low-yield synthesis of kinetically stable oligopeptides and oligonucleotides, the localization of the oligomers, crude oligonucleotide selectivity of amino acids during oligopeptide synthesis, crude oligonucleotide replication, and two short peptide families which catalyze replication and translation, to produce a localized group of at least one copy each of two protogenes and two protoenzymes. The model posits a process of random oligomerization, followed by the random nucleation of functional components and the rapid autocatalytic growth of the functioning autogen to macroscopic amounts, to account for the origin of the first self-replicating system. Such a process contains steps of such high probability and short time periods that it is suggested that the emergence of an autogen in a laboratory experiment of reasonable time scale may be possible.

The Effects of Self-Monitoring with a MotivAider[R] on the On-Task Behavior of Fifth and Sixth Graders with Autism and Other Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Legge, Dina Boccuzzi; DeBar, Ruth M.; Alber-Morgan, Sheila R.

2010-01-01

This study examined the effects of self-monitoring on the on-task behavior of three fifth and sixth grade boys with autism and other disabilities. While completing math assignments independently, the students wore an electronic device called a MotivAider[R] that vibrated at pre-set time schedules prompting the students to self-record whether or…

Unlikely culprit: congenital middle aortic syndrome diagnosed in the sixth decade of life.

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, Muhammad Sajawal; Tchernodrinski, Stefan; Mohananey, Divyanshu; Ali, Ahya Sajawal

2016-08-16

A 58-year-old woman was admitted with acute heart failure. She had a long history of resistant hypertension, with an unremarkable work up for secondary causes in the past. Her brachial blood pressure was 210/70 mm Hg, with ankle blood pressure of 100/70 mm Hg. CT angiogram revealed marked narrowing of the descending thoracic aorta between the left subclavian artery and the diaphragm, consistent with middle aortic syndrome (MAS). She was initially managed with diuretics and antihypertensives. Subsequently thoracotomy revealed a severely hypoplastic segment of the descending aorta. The diseased segment was resected and aortic reconstruction performed. Histopathology showed fragmentation of the medial elastic fibres and fibrosis of the medial and intimal layers. These findings along with gross aortic hypoplasia and absence of features of Takayasu's arteritis, suggest that our patient had congenital MAS. The patient has done well since her surgery. We believe this is the first case of congenital MAS reported in the sixth decade of life. 2016 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

The genealogy of samples in models with selection.

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Neuhauser, C; Krone, S M

1997-02-01

We introduce the genealogy of a random sample of genes taken from a large haploid population that evolves according to random reproduction with selection and mutation. Without selection, the genealogy is described by Kingman's well-known coalescent process. In the selective case, the genealogy of the sample is embedded in a graph with a coalescing and branching structure. We describe this graph, called the ancestral selection graph, and point out differences and similarities with Kingman's coalescent. We present simulations for a two-allele model with symmetric mutation in which one of the alleles has a selective advantage over the other. We find that when the allele frequencies in the population are already in equilibrium, then the genealogy does not differ much from the neutral case. This is supported by rigorous results. Furthermore, we describe the ancestral selection graph for other selective models with finitely many selection classes, such as the K-allele models, infinitely-many-alleles models. DNA sequence models, and infinitely-many-sites models, and briefly discuss the diploid case.

Sixth International Conference on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations

Science.gov (United States)

Han, D. (Editor); Kim, Y. S. (Editor); Solimento, S. (Editor)

2000-01-01

These proceedings contain contributions from about 200 participants to the 6th International Conference on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations (ICSSUR'99) held in Naples May 24-29, 1999, and organized jointly by the University of Naples "Federico II," the University of Maryland at College Park, and the Lebedev Institute, Moscow. This was the sixth of a series of very successful meetings started in 1990 at the College Park Campus of the University of Maryland. The other meetings in the series were held in Moscow (1992), Baltimore (1993), Taiyuan P.R.C. (1995) and Balatonfuered, Hungary (1997). The present one was held at the campus Monte Sant'Angelo of the University "Federico II" of Naples. The meeting sought to provide a forum for updating and reviewing a wide range of quantum optics disciplines, including device developments and applications, and related areas of quantum measurements and quantum noise. Over the years, the ICSSUR Conference evolved from a meeting on quantum measurement sector of quantum optics, to a wide range of quantum optics themes, including multifacet aspects of generation, measurement, and applications of nonclassical light (squeezed and Schrodinger cat radiation fields, etc.), and encompassing several related areas, ranging from quantum measurement to quantum noise. ICSSUR'99 brought together about 250 people active in the field of quantum optics, with special emphasis on nonclassical light sources and related areas. The Conference was organized in 8 Sections: Squeezed states and uncertainty relations; Harmonic oscillators and squeeze transformations; Methods of quantum interference and correlations; Quantum measurements; Generation and characterisation of non-classical light; Quantum noise; Quantum communication and information; and Quantum-like systems.

Selection gradients, the opportunity for selection, and the coefficient of determination.

Science.gov (United States)

Moorad, Jacob A; Wade, Michael J

2013-03-01

Abstract We derive the relationship between R(2) (the coefficient of determination), selection gradients, and the opportunity for selection for univariate and multivariate cases. Our main result is to show that the portion of the opportunity for selection that is caused by variation for any trait is equal to the product of its selection gradient and its selection differential. This relationship is a corollary of the first and second fundamental theorems of natural selection, and it permits one to investigate the portions of the total opportunity for selection that are involved in directional selection, stabilizing (and diversifying) selection, and correlational selection, which is important to morphological integration. It also allows one to determine the fraction of fitness variation not explained by variation in measured phenotypes and therefore attributable to random (or, at least, unknown) influences. We apply our methods to a human data set to show how sex-specific mating success as a component of fitness variance can be decoupled from that owing to prereproductive mortality. By quantifying linear sources of sexual selection and quadratic sources of sexual selection, we illustrate that the former is stronger in males, while the latter is stronger in females.

Nitrates and bone turnover (NABT) - trial to select the best nitrate preparation: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Bucur, Roxana C; Reid, Lauren S; Hamilton, Celeste J; Cummings, Steven R; Jamal, Sophie A

2013-09-08

comparisons with the best' approach for data analyses, as this strategy allows practical considerations of ease of use and tolerability to guide selection of the preparation for future studies. Data from this protocol will be used to develop a randomized, controlled trial of nitrates to prevent osteoporotic fractures. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01387672. Controlled-Trials.com: ISRCTN08860742.

Performance of Universal Adhesive in Primary Molars After Selective Removal of Carious Tissue: An 18-Month Randomized Clinical Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenzi, Tathiane Larissa; Pires, Carine Weber; Soares, Fabio Zovico Maxnuck; Raggio, Daniela Prócida; Ardenghi, Thiago Machado; de Oliveira Rocha, Rachel

2017-09-15

To evaluate the 18-month clinical performance of a universal adhesive, applied under different adhesion strategies, after selective carious tissue removal in primary molars. Forty-four subjects (five to 10 years old) contributed with 90 primary molars presenting moderately deep dentin carious lesions on occlusal or occluso-proximal surfaces, which were randomly assigned following either self-etch or etch-and-rinse protocol of Scotchbond Universal Adhesive (3M ESPE). Resin composite was incrementally inserted for all restorations. Restorations were evaluated at one, six, 12, and 18 months using the modified United States Public Health Service criteria. Survival estimates for restorations' longevity were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariate Cox regression analysis with shared frailty to assess the factors associated with failures (Padhesion strategy did not influence the restorations' longevity (P=0.06; 72.2 percent and 89.7 percent with etch-and-rinse and self-etch mode, respectively). Self-etch and etch-and-rinse strategies did not influence the clinical behavior of universal adhesive used in primary molars after selective carious tissue removal; although there was a tendency for better outcome of the self-etch strategy.

Analysis of swaps in Radix selection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elmasry, Amr Ahmed Abd Elmoneim; Mahmoud, Hosam

2011-01-01

Radix Sort is a sorting algorithm based on analyzing digital data. We study the number of swaps made by Radix Select (a one-sided version of Radix Sort) to find an element with a randomly selected rank. This kind of grand average provides a smoothing over all individual distributions for specific...

Clinical, manometric, and ultrasonographic results of pneumatic balloon dilatation vs. lateral internal sphincterotomy for chronic anal fissure: a prospective, randomized, controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Renzi, Adolfo; Izzo, Domenico; Di Sarno, Giandomenico; Talento, Pasquale; Torelli, Francesco; Izzo, Giuseppe; Di Martino, Natale

2008-01-01

This prospective, randomized, controlled trial was designed to compare the clinical, functional, and morphologic results of pneumatic balloon dilatation with lateral internal sphincterotomy for the treatment of chronic anal fissure. All patients with symptomatic chronic anal fissure were randomly assigned to pneumatic balloon dilatation or lateral internal sphincterotomy and invited to complete a standardized questionnaire inquiring about their symptoms. Anal ultrasonography and anal manometry were performed before and six months after surgery. A proctologic examination was performed between the fifth and sixth postoperative weeks. Anal continence, scored by using a validated continence grading scale, was evaluated preoperatively at 1 and 6 weeks and at 12 and 24 months. Fifty-three patients, who satisfied selection criteria, were enrolled in the trial. Four patients (7.5 percent) were lost to follow-up. Twenty-four patients (11 males; mean age, 42 +/- 8.2 years) underwent pneumatic balloon dilatation and 25 patients (10 males; mean age, 44 +/- 7.3 years) underwent lateral internal sphincterotomy. Fissure-healing rates were 83.3 percent in the pneumatic balloon dilatation and 92 percent in the lateral internal sphincterotomy group. Recurrent anal fissure was observed in one patient (4 percent) after lateral internal sphincterotomy. At anal manometry, mean resting pressure decrements obtained after pneumatic balloon dilatation and lateral internal sphincterotomy were 30.5 and 34.3 percent, respectively. After pneumatic balloon dilatation, anal ultrasonography did not show any significant sphincter damage. At 24-month follow-up, the incidence of incontinence, irrespective of severity, was 0 percent in the pneumatic balloon dilatation group and 16 percent in the lateral internal sphincterotomy group (P < 0.0001). As lateral internal sphincterotomy, pneumatic balloon dilatation grants a high anal fissure-healing rate but with a statistically significant reduction in

Integral Histogram with Random Projection for Pedestrian Detection.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang-Hua Liu

Full Text Available In this paper, we give a systematic study to report several deep insights into the HOG, one of the most widely used features in the modern computer vision and image processing applications. We first show that, its magnitudes of gradient can be randomly projected with random matrix. To handle over-fitting, an integral histogram based on the differences of randomly selected blocks is proposed. The experiments show that both the random projection and integral histogram outperform the HOG feature obviously. Finally, the two ideas are combined into a new descriptor termed IHRP, which outperforms the HOG feature with less dimensions and higher speed.

Unwilling or Unable to Cheat? Evidence from a Randomized Tax Audit Experiment in Denmark

OpenAIRE

Henrik J. Kleven; Martin B. Knudsen; Claus T. Kreiner; Søren Pedersen; Emmanuel Saez

2010-01-01

This paper analyzes a randomized tax enforcement experiment in Denmark. In the base year, a stratified and representative sample of over 40,000 individual income tax filers was selected for the experiment. Half of the tax filers were randomly selected to be thoroughly audited, while the rest were deliberately not audited. The following year, "threat-of-audit" letters were randomly assigned and sent to tax filers in both groups. Using comprehensive administrative tax data, we present four main...

Radioactive Waste Management - Community Policy and Research Initiatives. The sixth international conference on the management and disposal of radioactive waste - Euradwaste '04

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Forsstroem, Hans [Research Directorate Energy, Nuclear Fission and Radiation Protection, European Commission, MO-75 5/37, 200 avenue de la Loi, B-1049 Brussels (Belgium); Ruiz, P Fernandez [DG Research, Energy, Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear, CSN, C/ Justo Dorado, 11, E-28040 Madrid (Spain)

2004-07-01

The sixth international conference on the management and disposal of radioactive waste organized be European Commission, held on 29-31 March 2004 in Luxembourg aimed to cover the following objectives: - To present EC policy in waste management, in particular the proposed 'Directive on the Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste' and to discuss relating issues such as the effect on national programmes, site selection, EU added value, the case for EU safety standards, and various socio-political aspects; - To highlight the main results of the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) of EURATOM for 'Nuclear Energy, Fission Research and Training Activities' in the field of waste in spent fuel management and disposal, and partitioning and transmutation; - To present examples of activities under FP5 and to discuss further research European integration through FP6. The program was divided into two main groups: 1. 'Community Policy and Socio-Political Aspects' which included sessions on community policy initiatives, disposal option, common safety standards and public involvement and acceptance; 2. 'Community Research Activities - FP5' which included sessions on partitioning and transmutation, geological disposal and research networking. There were 29 oral presentations and 36 poster presentations which, for the latter, allowed detailed presentations of the results of the EU-funded research projects. The conference was attended by some 240 participants from 27 countries.

Bayesian dose selection design for a binary outcome using restricted response adaptive randomization.

Science.gov (United States)

Meinzer, Caitlyn; Martin, Renee; Suarez, Jose I

2017-09-08

In phase II trials, the most efficacious dose is usually not known. Moreover, given limited resources, it is difficult to robustly identify a dose while also testing for a signal of efficacy that would support a phase III trial. Recent designs have sought to be more efficient by exploring multiple doses through the use of adaptive strategies. However, the added flexibility may potentially increase the risk of making incorrect assumptions and reduce the total amount of information available across the dose range as a function of imbalanced sample size. To balance these challenges, a novel placebo-controlled design is presented in which a restricted Bayesian response adaptive randomization (RAR) is used to allocate a majority of subjects to the optimal dose of active drug, defined as the dose with the lowest probability of poor outcome. However, the allocation between subjects who receive active drug or placebo is held constant to retain the maximum possible power for a hypothesis test of overall efficacy comparing the optimal dose to placebo. The design properties and optimization of the design are presented in the context of a phase II trial for subarachnoid hemorrhage. For a fixed total sample size, a trade-off exists between the ability to select the optimal dose and the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis. This relationship is modified by the allocation ratio between active and control subjects, the choice of RAR algorithm, and the number of subjects allocated to an initial fixed allocation period. While a responsive RAR algorithm improves the ability to select the correct dose, there is an increased risk of assigning more subjects to a worse arm as a function of ephemeral trends in the data. A subarachnoid treatment trial is used to illustrate how this design can be customized for specific objectives and available data. Bayesian adaptive designs are a flexible approach to addressing multiple questions surrounding the optimal dose for treatment efficacy

Distributional and efficiency results for subset selection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laan, van der P.

1996-01-01

Assume k (??k \\geq 2) populations are given. The associated independent random variables have continuous distribution functions with an unknown location parameter. The statistical selec??tion goal is to select a non??empty subset which contains the best population,?? that is the pop??ulation with

Sequence-Based Prediction of RNA-Binding Proteins Using Random Forest with Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance Feature Selection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xin Ma

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The prediction of RNA-binding proteins is one of the most challenging problems in computation biology. Although some studies have investigated this problem, the accuracy of prediction is still not sufficient. In this study, a highly accurate method was developed to predict RNA-binding proteins from amino acid sequences using random forests with the minimum redundancy maximum relevance (mRMR method, followed by incremental feature selection (IFS. We incorporated features of conjoint triad features and three novel features: binding propensity (BP, nonbinding propensity (NBP, and evolutionary information combined with physicochemical properties (EIPP. The results showed that these novel features have important roles in improving the performance of the predictor. Using the mRMR-IFS method, our predictor achieved the best performance (86.62% accuracy and 0.737 Matthews correlation coefficient. High prediction accuracy and successful prediction performance suggested that our method can be a useful approach to identify RNA-binding proteins from sequence information.

Randomized Prediction Games for Adversarial Machine Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Rota Bulo, Samuel; Biggio, Battista; Pillai, Ignazio; Pelillo, Marcello; Roli, Fabio

In spam and malware detection, attackers exploit randomization to obfuscate malicious data and increase their chances of evading detection at test time, e.g., malware code is typically obfuscated using random strings or byte sequences to hide known exploits. Interestingly, randomization has also been proposed to improve security of learning algorithms against evasion attacks, as it results in hiding information about the classifier to the attacker. Recent work has proposed game-theoretical formulations to learn secure classifiers, by simulating different evasion attacks and modifying the classification function accordingly. However, both the classification function and the simulated data manipulations have been modeled in a deterministic manner, without accounting for any form of randomization. In this paper, we overcome this limitation by proposing a randomized prediction game, namely, a noncooperative game-theoretic formulation in which the classifier and the attacker make randomized strategy selections according to some probability distribution defined over the respective strategy set. We show that our approach allows one to improve the tradeoff between attack detection and false alarms with respect to the state-of-the-art secure classifiers, even against attacks that are different from those hypothesized during design, on application examples including handwritten digit recognition, spam, and malware detection.In spam and malware detection, attackers exploit randomization to obfuscate malicious data and increase their chances of evading detection at test time, e.g., malware code is typically obfuscated using random strings or byte sequences to hide known exploits. Interestingly, randomization has also been proposed to improve security of learning algorithms against evasion attacks, as it results in hiding information about the classifier to the attacker. Recent work has proposed game-theoretical formulations to learn secure classifiers, by simulating different

Pseudo-random number generation using a 3-state cellular automaton

Science.gov (United States)

Bhattacharjee, Kamalika; Paul, Dipanjyoti; Das, Sukanta

This paper investigates the potentiality of pseudo-random number generation of a 3-neighborhood 3-state cellular automaton (CA) under periodic boundary condition. Theoretical and empirical tests are performed on the numbers, generated by the CA, to observe the quality of it as pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). We analyze the strength and weakness of the proposed PRNG and conclude that the selected CA is a good random number generator.

Theory of Randomized Search Heuristics in Combinatorial Optimization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

The rigorous mathematical analysis of randomized search heuristics(RSHs) with respect to their expected runtime is a growing research area where many results have been obtained in recent years. This class of heuristics includes well-known approaches such as Randomized Local Search (RLS), the Metr......The rigorous mathematical analysis of randomized search heuristics(RSHs) with respect to their expected runtime is a growing research area where many results have been obtained in recent years. This class of heuristics includes well-known approaches such as Randomized Local Search (RLS...... analysis of randomized algorithms to RSHs. Mostly, the expected runtime of RSHs on selected problems is analzyed. Thereby, we understand why and when RSHs are efficient optimizers and, conversely, when they cannot be efficient. The tutorial will give an overview on the analysis of RSHs for solving...

Discrete least squares polynomial approximation with random evaluations - application to PDEs with Random parameters

KAUST Repository

Nobile, Fabio

2015-01-07

We consider a general problem F(u, y) = 0 where u is the unknown solution, possibly Hilbert space valued, and y a set of uncertain parameters. We specifically address the situation in which the parameterto-solution map u(y) is smooth, however y could be very high (or even infinite) dimensional. In particular, we are interested in cases in which F is a differential operator, u a Hilbert space valued function and y a distributed, space and/or time varying, random field. We aim at reconstructing the parameter-to-solution map u(y) from random noise-free or noisy observations in random points by discrete least squares on polynomial spaces. The noise-free case is relevant whenever the technique is used to construct metamodels, based on polynomial expansions, for the output of computer experiments. In the case of PDEs with random parameters, the metamodel is then used to approximate statistics of the output quantity. We discuss the stability of discrete least squares on random points show convergence estimates both in expectation and probability. We also present possible strategies to select, either a-priori or by adaptive algorithms, sequences of approximating polynomial spaces that allow to reduce, and in some cases break, the curse of dimensionality

Evolution in fluctuating environments: decomposing selection into additive components of the Robertson-Price equation.

Science.gov (United States)

Engen, Steinar; Saether, Bernt-Erik

2014-03-01

We analyze the stochastic components of the Robertson-Price equation for the evolution of quantitative characters that enables decomposition of the selection differential into components due to demographic and environmental stochasticity. We show how these two types of stochasticity affect the evolution of multivariate quantitative characters by defining demographic and environmental variances as components of individual fitness. The exact covariance formula for selection is decomposed into three components, the deterministic mean value, as well as stochastic demographic and environmental components. We show that demographic and environmental stochasticity generate random genetic drift and fluctuating selection, respectively. This provides a common theoretical framework for linking ecological and evolutionary processes. Demographic stochasticity can cause random variation in selection differentials independent of fluctuating selection caused by environmental variation. We use this model of selection to illustrate that the effect on the expected selection differential of random variation in individual fitness is dependent on population size, and that the strength of fluctuating selection is affected by how environmental variation affects the covariance in Malthusian fitness between individuals with different phenotypes. Thus, our approach enables us to partition out the effects of fluctuating selection from the effects of selection due to random variation in individual fitness caused by demographic stochasticity. © 2013 The Author(s). Evolution © 2013 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Workshops of the Sixth International Brain–Computer Interface Meeting: brain–computer interfaces past, present, and future

Science.gov (United States)

Huggins, Jane E.; Guger, Christoph; Ziat, Mounia; Zander, Thorsten O.; Taylor, Denise; Tangermann, Michael; Soria-Frisch, Aureli; Simeral, John; Scherer, Reinhold; Rupp, Rüdiger; Ruffini, Giulio; Robinson, Douglas K. R.; Ramsey, Nick F.; Nijholt, Anton; Müller-Putz, Gernot; McFarland, Dennis J.; Mattia, Donatella; Lance, Brent J.; Kindermans, Pieter-Jan; Iturrate, Iñaki; Herff, Christian; Gupta, Disha; Do, An H.; Collinger, Jennifer L.; Chavarriaga, Ricardo; Chase, Steven M.; Bleichner, Martin G.; Batista, Aaron; Anderson, Charles W.; Aarnoutse, Erik J.

2017-01-01

The Sixth International Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) Meeting was held 30 May–3 June 2016 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California, USA. The conference included 28 workshops covering topics in BCI and brain–machine interface research. Topics included BCI for specific populations or applications, advancing BCI research through use of specific signals or technological advances, and translational and commercial issues to bring both implanted and non-invasive BCIs to market. BCI research is growing and expanding in the breadth of its applications, the depth of knowledge it can produce, and the practical benefit it can provide both for those with physical impairments and the general public. Here we provide summaries of each workshop, illustrating the breadth and depth of BCI research and highlighting important issues and calls for action to support future research and development. PMID:29152523

Workshops of the Sixth International Brain-Computer Interface Meeting: brain-computer interfaces past, present, and future.

Science.gov (United States)

Huggins, Jane E; Guger, Christoph; Ziat, Mounia; Zander, Thorsten O; Taylor, Denise; Tangermann, Michael; Soria-Frisch, Aureli; Simeral, John; Scherer, Reinhold; Rupp, Rüdiger; Ruffini, Giulio; Robinson, Douglas K R; Ramsey, Nick F; Nijholt, Anton; Müller-Putz, Gernot; McFarland, Dennis J; Mattia, Donatella; Lance, Brent J; Kindermans, Pieter-Jan; Iturrate, Iñaki; Herff, Christian; Gupta, Disha; Do, An H; Collinger, Jennifer L; Chavarriaga, Ricardo; Chase, Steven M; Bleichner, Martin G; Batista, Aaron; Anderson, Charles W; Aarnoutse, Erik J

2017-01-01

The Sixth International Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Meeting was held 30 May-3 June 2016 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California, USA. The conference included 28 workshops covering topics in BCI and brain-machine interface research. Topics included BCI for specific populations or applications, advancing BCI research through use of specific signals or technological advances, and translational and commercial issues to bring both implanted and non-invasive BCIs to market. BCI research is growing and expanding in the breadth of its applications, the depth of knowledge it can produce, and the practical benefit it can provide both for those with physical impairments and the general public. Here we provide summaries of each workshop, illustrating the breadth and depth of BCI research and highlighting important issues and calls for action to support future research and development.

Programmable disorder in random DNA tilings

Science.gov (United States)

Tikhomirov, Grigory; Petersen, Philip; Qian, Lulu

2017-03-01

Scaling up the complexity and diversity of synthetic molecular structures will require strategies that exploit the inherent stochasticity of molecular systems in a controlled fashion. Here we demonstrate a framework for programming random DNA tilings and show how to control the properties of global patterns through simple, local rules. We constructed three general forms of planar network—random loops, mazes and trees—on the surface of self-assembled DNA origami arrays on the micrometre scale with nanometre resolution. Using simple molecular building blocks and robust experimental conditions, we demonstrate control of a wide range of properties of the random networks, including the branching rules, the growth directions, the proximity between adjacent networks and the size distribution. Much as combinatorial approaches for generating random one-dimensional chains of polymers have been used to revolutionize chemical synthesis and the selection of functional nucleic acids, our strategy extends these principles to random two-dimensional networks of molecules and creates new opportunities for fabricating more complex molecular devices that are organized by DNA nanostructures.

Key Aspects of Nucleic Acid Library Design for in Vitro Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Vorobyeva, Maria A.; Davydova, Anna S.; Vorobjev, Pavel E.; Pyshnyi, Dmitrii V.; Venyaminova, Alya G.

2018-01-01

Nucleic acid aptamers capable of selectively recognizing their target molecules have nowadays been established as powerful and tunable tools for biospecific applications, be it therapeutics, drug delivery systems or biosensors. It is now generally acknowledged that in vitro selection enables one to generate aptamers to almost any target of interest. However, the success of selection and the affinity of the resulting aptamers depend to a large extent on the nature and design of an initial random nucleic acid library. In this review, we summarize and discuss the most important features of the design of nucleic acid libraries for in vitro selection such as the nature of the library (DNA, RNA or modified nucleotides), the length of a randomized region and the presence of fixed sequences. We also compare and contrast different randomization strategies and consider computer methods of library design and some other aspects. PMID:29401748

DNABP: Identification of DNA-Binding Proteins Based on Feature Selection Using a Random Forest and Predicting Binding Residues.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Xin; Guo, Jing; Sun, Xiao

2016-01-01

DNA-binding proteins are fundamentally important in cellular processes. Several computational-based methods have been developed to improve the prediction of DNA-binding proteins in previous years. However, insufficient work has been done on the prediction of DNA-binding proteins from protein sequence information. In this paper, a novel predictor, DNABP (DNA-binding proteins), was designed to predict DNA-binding proteins using the random forest (RF) classifier with a hybrid feature. The hybrid feature contains two types of novel sequence features, which reflect information about the conservation of physicochemical properties of the amino acids, and the binding propensity of DNA-binding residues and non-binding propensities of non-binding residues. The comparisons with each feature demonstrated that these two novel features contributed most to the improvement in predictive ability. Furthermore, to improve the prediction performance of the DNABP model, feature selection using the minimum redundancy maximum relevance (mRMR) method combined with incremental feature selection (IFS) was carried out during the model construction. The results showed that the DNABP model could achieve 86.90% accuracy, 83.76% sensitivity, 90.03% specificity and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.727. High prediction accuracy and performance comparisons with previous research suggested that DNABP could be a useful approach to identify DNA-binding proteins from sequence information. The DNABP web server system is freely available at http://www.cbi.seu.edu.cn/DNABP/.

A Heckman Selection- t Model

KAUST Repository

Marchenko, Yulia V.

2012-03-01

Sample selection arises often in practice as a result of the partial observability of the outcome of interest in a study. In the presence of sample selection, the observed data do not represent a random sample from the population, even after controlling for explanatory variables. That is, data are missing not at random. Thus, standard analysis using only complete cases will lead to biased results. Heckman introduced a sample selection model to analyze such data and proposed a full maximum likelihood estimation method under the assumption of normality. The method was criticized in the literature because of its sensitivity to the normality assumption. In practice, data, such as income or expenditure data, often violate the normality assumption because of heavier tails. We first establish a new link between sample selection models and recently studied families of extended skew-elliptical distributions. Then, this allows us to introduce a selection-t (SLt) model, which models the error distribution using a Student\\'s t distribution. We study its properties and investigate the finite-sample performance of the maximum likelihood estimators for this model. We compare the performance of the SLt model to the conventional Heckman selection-normal (SLN) model and apply it to analyze ambulatory expenditures. Unlike the SLNmodel, our analysis using the SLt model provides statistical evidence for the existence of sample selection bias in these data. We also investigate the performance of the test for sample selection bias based on the SLt model and compare it with the performances of several tests used with the SLN model. Our findings indicate that the latter tests can be misleading in the presence of heavy-tailed data. © 2012 American Statistical Association.

Feature-selective attention in healthy old age: a selective decline in selective attention?

Science.gov (United States)

Quigley, Cliodhna; Müller, Matthias M

2014-02-12

Deficient selection against irrelevant information has been proposed to underlie age-related cognitive decline. We recently reported evidence for maintained early sensory selection when older and younger adults used spatial selective attention to perform a challenging task. Here we explored age-related differences when spatial selection is not possible and feature-selective attention must be deployed. We additionally compared the integrity of feedforward processing by exploiting the well established phenomenon of suppression of visual cortical responses attributable to interstimulus competition. Electroencephalogram was measured while older and younger human adults responded to brief occurrences of coherent motion in an attended stimulus composed of randomly moving, orientation-defined, flickering bars. Attention was directed to horizontal or vertical bars by a pretrial cue, after which two orthogonally oriented, overlapping stimuli or a single stimulus were presented. Horizontal and vertical bars flickered at different frequencies and thereby elicited separable steady-state visual-evoked potentials, which were used to examine the effect of feature-based selection and the competitive influence of a second stimulus on ongoing visual processing. Age differences were found in feature-selective attentional modulation of visual responses: older adults did not show consistent modulation of magnitude or phase. In contrast, the suppressive effect of a second stimulus was robust and comparable in magnitude across age groups, suggesting that bottom-up processing of the current stimuli is essentially unchanged in healthy old age. Thus, it seems that visual processing per se is unchanged, but top-down attentional control is compromised in older adults when space cannot be used to guide selection.

Effects of Math Anxiety and Perfectionism on Timed versus Untimed Math Testing in Mathematically Gifted Sixth Graders

Science.gov (United States)

Tsui, Joanne M.; Mazzocco, Michèle M. M.

2009-01-01

This study was designed to examine the effects of math anxiety and perfectionism on math performance, under timed testing conditions, among mathematically gifted sixth graders. We found that participants had worse math performance during timed versus untimed testing, but this difference was statistically significant only when the timed condition preceded the untimed condition. We also found that children with higher levels of either math anxiety or perfectionism had a smaller performance discrepancy during timed versus untimed testing, relative to children with lower levels of math anxiety or perfectionism. There were no statistically significant gender differences in overall test performance, nor in levels of math anxiety or perfectionism; however, the difference between performance on timed and untimed math testing was statistically significant for girls, but not for boys. Implications for educators are discussed. PMID:20084180

Opportunistic Relay Selection with Cooperative Macro Diversity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Chia-Hao

2010-01-01

Full Text Available We apply a fully opportunistic relay selection scheme to study cooperative diversity in a semianalytical manner. In our framework, idle Mobile Stations (MSs are capable of being used as Relay Stations (RSs and no relaying is required if the direct path is strong. Our relay selection scheme is fully selection based: either the direct path or one of the relaying paths is selected. Macro diversity, which is often ignored in analytical works, is taken into account together with micro diversity by using a complete channel model that includes both shadow fading and fast fading effects. The stochastic geometry of the network is taken into account by having a random number of randomly located MSs. The outage probability analysis of the selection differs from the case where only fast fading is considered. Under our framework, distribution of the received power is formulated using different Channel State Information (CSI assumptions to simulate both optimistic and practical environments. The results show that the relay selection gain can be significant given a suitable amount of candidate RSs. Also, while relay selection according to incomplete CSI is diversity suboptimal compared to relay selection based on full CSI, the loss in average throughput is not too significant. This is a consequence of the dominance of geometry over fast fading.

Radioactive Waste Management - Community Policy and Research Initiatives. The sixth international conference on the management and disposal of radioactive waste - Euradwaste '04

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Forsstroem, Hans [Research Directorate Energy, Nuclear Fission and Radiation Protection, European Commission, MO-75 5/37, 200 avenue de la Loi, B-1049 Brussels (Belgium); Ruiz, P. Fernandez (ed.) [DG Research, Energy, Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear, CSN, C/ Justo Dorado, 11, E-28040 Madrid (Spain)

2004-07-01

The sixth international conference on the management and disposal of radioactive waste organized be European Commission, held on 29-31 March 2004 in Luxembourg aimed to cover the following objectives: - To present EC policy in waste management, in particular the proposed 'Directive on the Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste' and to discuss relating issues such as the effect on national programmes, site selection, EU added value, the case for EU safety standards, and various socio-political aspects; - To highlight the main results of the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) of EURATOM for 'Nuclear Energy, Fission Research and Training Activities' in the field of waste in spent fuel management and disposal, and partitioning and transmutation; - To present examples of activities under FP5 and to discuss further research European integration through FP6. The program was divided into two main groups: 1. 'Community Policy and Socio-Political Aspects' which included sessions on community policy initiatives, disposal option, common safety standards and public involvement and acceptance; 2. 'Community Research Activities - FP5' which included sessions on partitioning and transmutation, geological disposal and research networking. There were 29 oral presentations and 36 poster presentations which, for the latter, allowed detailed presentations of the results of the EU-funded research projects. The conference was attended by some 240 participants from 27 countries.

Statistical auditing and randomness test of lotto k/N-type games

Science.gov (United States)

Coronel-Brizio, H. F.; Hernández-Montoya, A. R.; Rapallo, F.; Scalas, E.

2008-11-01

One of the most popular lottery games worldwide is the so-called “lotto k/N”. It considers N numbers 1,2,…,N from which k are drawn randomly, without replacement. A player selects k or more numbers and the first prize is shared amongst those players whose selected numbers match all of the k randomly drawn. Exact rules may vary in different countries. In this paper, mean values and covariances for the random variables representing the numbers drawn from this kind of game are presented, with the aim of using them to audit statistically the consistency of a given sample of historical results with theoretical values coming from a hypergeometric statistical model. The method can be adapted to test pseudorandom number generators.

Random and non-random mating populations: Evolutionary dynamics in meiotic drive.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarkar, Bijan

2016-01-01

Game theoretic tools are utilized to analyze a one-locus continuous selection model of sex-specific meiotic drive by considering nonequivalence of the viabilities of reciprocal heterozygotes that might be noticed at an imprinted locus. The model draws attention to the role of viability selections of different types to examine the stable nature of polymorphic equilibrium. A bridge between population genetics and evolutionary game theory has been built up by applying the concept of the Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection. In addition to pointing out the influences of male and female segregation ratios on selection, configuration structure reveals some noted results, e.g., Hardy-Weinberg frequencies hold in replicator dynamics, occurrence of faster evolution at the maximized variance fitness, existence of mixed Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) in asymmetric games, the tending evolution to follow not only a 1:1 sex ratio but also a 1:1 different alleles ratio at particular gene locus. Through construction of replicator dynamics in the group selection framework, our selection model introduces a redefining bases of game theory to incorporate non-random mating where a mating parameter associated with population structure is dependent on the social structure. Also, the model exposes the fact that the number of polymorphic equilibria will depend on the algebraic expression of population structure. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Velocity and Dispersion for a Two-Dimensional Random Walk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Jinghui

2009-01-01

In the paper, we consider the transport of a two-dimensional random walk. The velocity and the dispersion of this two-dimensional random walk are derived. It mainly show that: (i) by controlling the values of the transition rates, the direction of the random walk can be reversed; (ii) for some suitably selected transition rates, our two-dimensional random walk can be efficient in comparison with the one-dimensional random walk. Our work is motivated in part by the challenge to explain the unidirectional transport of motor proteins. When the motor proteins move at the turn points of their tracks (i.e., the cytoskeleton filaments and the DNA molecular tubes), some of our results in this paper can be used to deal with the problem. (general)

The Dilemma of Inclusion: Is Full Inclusion Ethical? An Examination of the Culture of Special Education within a Semi-Rural Pre-K to Sixth Grade Elementary School District

Science.gov (United States)

Press, Kandie A.

2010-01-01

At its core the political push for full inclusion models of special education delivery derives from the belief that inclusion provides equal access, equitable distribution of resources and increased social opportunity to children. This study focused upon the evolution of special education programming within a pre-K to sixth grade elementary school…

Risk Attitudes, Sample Selection and Attrition in a Longitudinal Field Experiment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harrison, Glenn W.; Lau, Morten Igel

with respect to risk attitudes. Our design builds in explicit randomization on the incentives for participation. We show that there are significant sample selection effects on inferences about the extent of risk aversion, but that the effects of subsequent sample attrition are minimal. Ignoring sample...... selection leads to inferences that subjects in the population are more risk averse than they actually are. Correcting for sample selection and attrition affects utility curvature, but does not affect inferences about probability weighting. Properly accounting for sample selection and attrition effects leads...... to findings of temporal stability in overall risk aversion. However, that stability is around different levels of risk aversion than one might naively infer without the controls for sample selection and attrition we are able to implement. This evidence of “randomization bias” from sample selection...

Effects of Video Game Training on Measures of Selective Attention and Working Memory in Older Adults: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Science.gov (United States)

Ballesteros, Soledad; Mayas, Julia; Prieto, Antonio; Ruiz-Marquez, Eloísa; Toril, Pilar; Reales, José M.

2017-01-01

Video game training with older adults potentially enhances aspects of cognition that decline with aging and could therefore offer a promising training approach. Although, previous published studies suggest that training can produce transfer, many of them have certain shortcomings. This randomized controlled trial (RCT; Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT02796508) tried to overcome some of these limitations by incorporating an active control group and the assessment of motivation and expectations. Seventy-five older volunteers were randomly assigned to the experimental group trained for 16 sessions with non-action video games from Lumosity, a commercial platform (http://www.lumosity.com/) or to an active control group trained for the same number of sessions with simulation strategy games. The final sample included 55 older adults (30 in the experimental group and 25 in the active control group). Participants were tested individually before and after training to assess working memory (WM) and selective attention and also reported their perceived improvement, motivation and engagement. The results showed improved performance across the training sessions. The main results were: (1) the experimental group did not show greater improvements in measures of selective attention and working memory than the active control group (the opposite occurred in the oddball task); (2) a marginal training effect was observed for the N-back task, but not for the Stroop task while both groups improved in the Corsi Blocks task. Based on these results, one can conclude that training with non-action games provide modest benefits for untrained tasks. The effect is not specific for that kind of training as a similar effect was observed for strategy video games. Groups did not differ in motivation, engagement or expectations. PMID:29163136

Effects of Video Game Training on Measures of Selective Attention and Working Memory in Older Adults: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soledad Ballesteros

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Video game training with older adults potentially enhances aspects of cognition that decline with aging and could therefore offer a promising training approach. Although, previous published studies suggest that training can produce transfer, many of them have certain shortcomings. This randomized controlled trial (RCT; Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT02796508 tried to overcome some of these limitations by incorporating an active control group and the assessment of motivation and expectations. Seventy-five older volunteers were randomly assigned to the experimental group trained for 16 sessions with non-action video games from Lumosity, a commercial platform (http://www.lumosity.com/ or to an active control group trained for the same number of sessions with simulation strategy games. The final sample included 55 older adults (30 in the experimental group and 25 in the active control group. Participants were tested individually before and after training to assess working memory (WM and selective attention and also reported their perceived improvement, motivation and engagement. The results showed improved performance across the training sessions. The main results were: (1 the experimental group did not show greater improvements in measures of selective attention and working memory than the active control group (the opposite occurred in the oddball task; (2 a marginal training effect was observed for the N-back task, but not for the Stroop task while both groups improved in the Corsi Blocks task. Based on these results, one can conclude that training with non-action games provide modest benefits for untrained tasks. The effect is not specific for that kind of training as a similar effect was observed for strategy video games. Groups did not differ in motivation, engagement or expectations.

Effects of Video Game Training on Measures of Selective Attention and Working Memory in Older Adults: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballesteros, Soledad; Mayas, Julia; Prieto, Antonio; Ruiz-Marquez, Eloísa; Toril, Pilar; Reales, José M

2017-01-01

Video game training with older adults potentially enhances aspects of cognition that decline with aging and could therefore offer a promising training approach. Although, previous published studies suggest that training can produce transfer, many of them have certain shortcomings. This randomized controlled trial (RCT; Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT02796508) tried to overcome some of these limitations by incorporating an active control group and the assessment of motivation and expectations. Seventy-five older volunteers were randomly assigned to the experimental group trained for 16 sessions with non-action video games from Lumosity , a commercial platform (http://www.lumosity.com/) or to an active control group trained for the same number of sessions with simulation strategy games. The final sample included 55 older adults (30 in the experimental group and 25 in the active control group). Participants were tested individually before and after training to assess working memory (WM) and selective attention and also reported their perceived improvement, motivation and engagement. The results showed improved performance across the training sessions. The main results were: (1) the experimental group did not show greater improvements in measures of selective attention and working memory than the active control group (the opposite occurred in the oddball task); (2) a marginal training effect was observed for the N -back task, but not for the Stroop task while both groups improved in the Corsi Blocks task. Based on these results, one can conclude that training with non-action games provide modest benefits for untrained tasks. The effect is not specific for that kind of training as a similar effect was observed for strategy video games. Groups did not differ in motivation, engagement or expectations.

Proceedings of the sixth international workshop on ceramic breeder blanket interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noda, Kenji

1998-03-01

This report is the Proceedings of ''the Sixth International Workshop on Ceramic Breeder Blanket Interactions'' which was held as a workshop on ceramic breeders under Annex II of IEA Implementing Agreement on a Programme of Research and Development on Fusion Materials, and Japan-US Workshop 97FT4-01. This workshop was held in Mito city, Japan on October 22-24, 1997. About forty experts from EU, Japan, USA, and Chile attended the workshop. The scope of the workshop included the following: 1) fabrication and characterization of ceramic breeders, 2) properties data for ceramic breeders, 3) tritium release characteristics, 4) modeling of tritium behavior, 5) irradiation effects on performance behavior, 6) blanket design and R and D requirements, 7) hydrogen behavior in materials, and 8) blanket system technology and structural materials. In the workshop, information exchange was performed for fabrication technology of ceramic breeder pebbles in EU and Japan, data of various properties of Li 2 TiO 3 , tritium release behavior of Li 2 TiO 3 and Li 2 ZrO 3 including tritium diffusion, modeling of tritium release from Li 2 ZrO 3 in ITER condition, helium release behavior from Li 2 O, results of tritium release irradiation tests of Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles in EXOTIC-7, R and D issues for ceramic breeders for ITER and DEMO blankets, etc. The 23 of the papers are indexed individually. (J.P.N.)

Lines of Descent Under Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Baake, Ellen; Wakolbinger, Anton

2017-11-01

We review recent progress on ancestral processes related to mutation-selection models, both in the deterministic and the stochastic setting. We mainly rely on two concepts, namely, the killed ancestral selection graph and the pruned lookdown ancestral selection graph. The killed ancestral selection graph gives a representation of the type of a random individual from a stationary population, based upon the individual's potential ancestry back until the mutations that define the individual's type. The pruned lookdown ancestral selection graph allows one to trace the ancestry of individuals from a stationary distribution back into the distant past, thus leading to the stationary distribution of ancestral types. We illustrate the results by applying them to a prototype model for the error threshold phenomenon.

Feature Selection with the Boruta Package

OpenAIRE

Kursa, Miron B.; Rudnicki, Witold R.

2010-01-01

This article describes a R package Boruta, implementing a novel feature selection algorithm for finding emph{all relevant variables}. The algorithm is designed as a wrapper around a Random Forest classification algorithm. It iteratively removes the features which are proved by a statistical test to be less relevant than random probes. The Boruta package provides a convenient interface to the algorithm. The short description of the algorithm and examples of its application are presented.

COMPARISONS OF SELF-EFFICACY AND HOPE AMONG STUDENTS WITH AND WITHOUT LEARNING DISABILITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad HOJATI

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Learning disability is a life-long condition that can affect academic functioning, everyday life and social life. In multiple areas, academic and other, students with LD often underachieve, and often with pervasive negative consequences. This study compared self-efficacy and hope in 30 elementary school (sixth grade children with learning disabilities (LD and 30 their peers without LD. An ex post facto design was used. Statistical population comprised of all students in elementary schools (sixth grade in, Harsin, Iran, during the 2012-2013 academic year. Students with learning disabilities were randomly selected. The students with LD had been diagnosed by Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (CLDQ. The students completed the Wechsler Memory Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Children’s Hope Scale. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 20 was used for computing descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. Differences were found between the groups on the self-efficacy and hope. The study demon­strated the important role of self-efficacy and hope for students with LD.

Social marketing-based communications to integrate and support the HEALTHY study intervention

Science.gov (United States)

The HEALTHY study was a randomized, controlled, multicenter, middle school-based, multifaceted intervention designed to reduce risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes. The study randomized 42 middle schools to intervention or control, and followed students from the sixth to the eighth gr...

Pseudo-random-number generators and the square site percolation threshold.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Michael J

2008-09-01

Selected pseudo-random-number generators are applied to a Monte Carlo study of the two-dimensional square-lattice site percolation model. A generator suitable for high precision calculations is identified from an application specific test of randomness. After extended computation and analysis, an ostensibly reliable value of p_{c}=0.59274598(4) is obtained for the percolation threshold.

Acceptance sampling using judgmental and randomly selected samples

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sego, Landon H.; Shulman, Stanley A.; Anderson, Kevin K.; Wilson, John E.; Pulsipher, Brent A.; Sieber, W. Karl

2010-09-01

We present a Bayesian model for acceptance sampling where the population consists of two groups, each with different levels of risk of containing unacceptable items. Expert opinion, or judgment, may be required to distinguish between the high and low-risk groups. Hence, high-risk items are likely to be identifed (and sampled) using expert judgment, while the remaining low-risk items are sampled randomly. We focus on the situation where all observed samples must be acceptable. Consequently, the objective of the statistical inference is to quantify the probability that a large percentage of the unsampled items in the population are also acceptable. We demonstrate that traditional (frequentist) acceptance sampling and simpler Bayesian formulations of the problem are essentially special cases of the proposed model. We explore the properties of the model in detail, and discuss the conditions necessary to ensure that required samples sizes are non-decreasing function of the population size. The method is applicable to a variety of acceptance sampling problems, and, in particular, to environmental sampling where the objective is to demonstrate the safety of reoccupying a remediated facility that has been contaminated with a lethal agent.

Effect of mirtazapine versus selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on benzodiazepine use in patients with major depressive disorder: a pragmatic, multicenter, open-label, randomized, active-controlled, 24-week trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Hashimoto, Tasuku; Shiina, Akihiro; Hasegawa, Tadashi; Kimura, Hiroshi; Oda, Yasunori; Niitsu, Tomihisa; Ishikawa, Masatomo; Tachibana, Masumi; Muneoka, Katsumasa; Matsuki, Satoshi; Nakazato, Michiko; Iyo, Masaomi

2016-01-01

This study aimed to evaluate whether selecting mirtazapine as the first choice for current depressive episode instead of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) reduces benzodiazepine use in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). We concurrently examined the relationship between clinical responses and serum mature brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its precursor, proBDNF. We conducted an open-label randomized trial in routine psychiatric practice settings. Seventy-seven MDD outpatients were randomly assigned to the mirtazapine or predetermined SSRIs groups, and investigators arbitrarily selected sertraline or paroxetine. The primary outcome was the proportion of benzodiazepine users at weeks 6, 12, and 24 between the groups. We defined patients showing a ≥50 % reduction in Hamilton depression rating scale (HDRS) scores from baseline as responders. Blood samples were collected at baseline, weeks 6, 12, and 24. Sixty-five patients prescribed benzodiazepines from prescription day 1 were analyzed for the primary outcome. The percentage of benzodiazepine users was significantly lower in the mirtazapine than in the SSRIs group at weeks 6, 12, and 24 (21.4 vs. 81.8 %; 11.1 vs. 85.7 %, both P  depressive episodes may reduce benzodiazepine use in patients with MDD. Trial registration UMIN000004144. Registered 2nd September 2010. The date of enrolment of the first participant to the trial was 24th August 2010. This study was retrospectively registered 9 days after the first participant was enrolled.

[Is the learning process of "evidence-based medicine" influenced by determined factors? Results from a national survey of 1870 French students in their sixth year].

Science.gov (United States)

Rouprêt, Morgan; Karila, Laurent; Kerneis, Solen; Lefevre, Jérémie H

2010-06-01

To investigate the baseline level of knowledge of evidence based medicine (EBM) concepts in a sample of French medical students in their sixth year of training. An "electronic-questionnaire" was proposed to 3125 sixth-year students from all 39 French medical schools in 2009. Overall, 1870 students (58.2% response rate) completed the questionnaire (women=1168; 63%). The concept of EBM was known by 1716 students (92%). Most students (n=1382; 74%) read at least one French medical article per year, but 1051 students (56%) never read international articles. Just over half of students (1030; 55%) knew of web-based medical information databases. Treatment guidelines were considered to be important by most students (97%). Only 24.3% and 29% of students said that they write or speak English. In multivariate analysis, studying in a Parisian University and/or knowledge of what a journal's "impact factor" is were both associated with a ranking in the top 20% of the National Ranking Exam practice session. Only the most successful students showed interest in obtaining more knowledge of EBM. The lack of education about EBM in this sample suggests a lack of efficacy in the current heterogeneous EBM teaching programs. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Pseudo-random number generator for the Sigma 5 computer

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, S. N.

1983-01-01

A technique is presented for developing a pseudo-random number generator based on the linear congruential form. The two numbers used for the generator are a prime number and a corresponding primitive root, where the prime is the largest prime number that can be accurately represented on a particular computer. The primitive root is selected by applying Marsaglia's lattice test. The technique presented was applied to write a random number program for the Sigma 5 computer. The new program, named S:RANDOM1, is judged to be superior to the older program named S:RANDOM. For applications requiring several independent random number generators, a table is included showing several acceptable primitive roots. The technique and programs described can be applied to any computer having word length different from that of the Sigma 5.

Review of Random Phase Encoding in Volume Holographic Storage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei-Chia Su

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Random phase encoding is a unique technique for volume hologram which can be applied to various applications such as holographic multiplexing storage, image encryption, and optical sensing. In this review article, we first review and discuss diffraction selectivity of random phase encoding in volume holograms, which is the most important parameter related to multiplexing capacity of volume holographic storage. We then review an image encryption system based on random phase encoding. The alignment of phase key for decryption of the encoded image stored in holographic memory is analyzed and discussed. In the latter part of the review, an all-optical sensing system implemented by random phase encoding and holographic interconnection is presented.

Managing salinity in Upper Colorado River Basin streams: Selecting catchments for sediment control efforts using watershed characteristics and random forests models

Science.gov (United States)

Tillman, Fred; Anning, David W.; Heilman, Julian A.; Buto, Susan G.; Miller, Matthew P.

2018-01-01

Elevated concentrations of dissolved-solids (salinity) including calcium, sodium, sulfate, and chloride, among others, in the Colorado River cause substantial problems for its water users. Previous efforts to reduce dissolved solids in upper Colorado River basin (UCRB) streams often focused on reducing suspended-sediment transport to streams, but few studies have investigated the relationship between suspended sediment and salinity, or evaluated which watershed characteristics might be associated with this relationship. Are there catchment properties that may help in identifying areas where control of suspended sediment will also reduce salinity transport to streams? A random forests classification analysis was performed on topographic, climate, land cover, geology, rock chemistry, soil, and hydrologic information in 163 UCRB catchments. Two random forests models were developed in this study: one for exploring stream and catchment characteristics associated with stream sites where dissolved solids increase with increasing suspended-sediment concentration, and the other for predicting where these sites are located in unmonitored reaches. Results of variable importance from the exploratory random forests models indicate that no simple source, geochemical process, or transport mechanism can easily explain the relationship between dissolved solids and suspended sediment concentrations at UCRB monitoring sites. Among the most important watershed characteristics in both models were measures of soil hydraulic conductivity, soil erodibility, minimum catchment elevation, catchment area, and the silt component of soil in the catchment. Predictions at key locations in the basin were combined with observations from selected monitoring sites, and presented in map-form to give a complete understanding of where catchment sediment control practices would also benefit control of dissolved solids in streams.

Randomizer for High Data Rates

Science.gov (United States)

Garon, Howard; Sank, Victor J.

2018-01-01

NASA as well as a number of other space agencies now recognize that the current recommended CCSDS randomizer used for telemetry (TM) is too short. When multiple applications of the PN8 Maximal Length Sequence (MLS) are required in order to fully cover a channel access data unit (CADU), spectral problems in the form of elevated spurious discretes (spurs) appear. Originally the randomizer was called a bit transition generator (BTG) precisely because it was thought that its primary value was to insure sufficient bit transitions to allow the bit/symbol synchronizer to lock and remain locked. We, NASA, have shown that the old BTG concept is a limited view of the real value of the randomizer sequence and that the randomizer also aids in signal acquisition as well as minimizing the potential for false decoder lock. Under the guidelines we considered here there are multiple maximal length sequences under GF(2) which appear attractive in this application. Although there may be mitigating reasons why another MLS sequence could be selected, one sequence in particular possesses a combination of desired properties which offsets it from the others.

Feature Selection with the Boruta Package

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Miron B. Kursa

2010-10-01

Full Text Available This article describes a R package Boruta, implementing a novel feature selection algorithm for finding emph{all relevant variables}. The algorithm is designed as a wrapper around a Random Forest classification algorithm. It iteratively removes the features which are proved by a statistical test to be less relevant than random probes. The Boruta package provides a convenient interface to the algorithm. The short description of the algorithm and examples of its application are presented.

Sixth Semiannual Report of the Commission to the Congress: Atomic Energy and the Life Sciences, July 1949

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lilienthal, David E.; Bacher, Robert F.; Pike, Sumner T.; Strauss, Lewis L.

1949-07-01

The document represents the sixth semiannual Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) report to Congress. The report sums up briefly the major developments in the national atomic energy program and further gives a comprehensive review of one of its major phases -- the biological and medical activities. It outlines the AEC program in all phases of medicine and biology, reviews research results and projects under way, reports what is known of the effects of radiation on man and other living things, and surveys the benefits which may be derived from the use of radiation for diagnosis and treatment of disease and for the study of plants and animals. Since radiation from atomic sources also is potentially harmful to all living things, the Commission has set up safeguards for all who might, without such protection, be exposed to harmful radiation.

A Monte Carlo study of adsorption of random copolymers on random surfaces

CERN Document Server

Moghaddam, M S

2003-01-01

We study the adsorption problem of a random copolymer on a random surface in which a self-avoiding walk in three dimensions interacts with a plane defining a half-space to which the walk is confined. Each vertex of the walk is randomly labelled A with probability p sub p or B with probability 1 - p sub p , and only vertices labelled A are attracted to the surface plane. Each lattice site on the plane is also labelled either A with probability p sub s or B with probability 1 - p sub s , and only lattice sites labelled A interact with the walk. We study two variations of this model: in the first case the A-vertices of the walk interact only with the A-sites on the surface. In the second case the constraint of selective binding is removed; that is, any contact between the walk and the surface that involves an A-labelling, either from the surface or from the walk, is counted as a visit to the surface. The system is quenched in both cases, i.e. the labellings of the walk and of the surface are fixed as thermodynam...

A dark hollow beam from a selectively liquid-filled photonic crystal fibre

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mei-Yan, Zhang; Shu-Guang, Li; Yan-Yan, Yao; Bo, Fu; Lei, Zhang

2010-01-01

This paper reports that, based on the electromagnetic scattering theory of the multipole method, a high-quality hollow beam is produced through a selectively liquid-filled photonic crystal fibre. Instead of a doughnut shape, a typical hollow beam is produced by other methods; the mode-field images of the hollow-beam photonic crystal fibre satisfy sixth-order rotation symmetry, according to the symmetry of the photonic crystal fibre (PCF) structure. A dark spot size of the liquid-filled photonic crystal fibre-generated hollow beam can be tuned by inserting liquid into the cladding region and varying the photonic crystal fibre structure parameters. The liquid-filled PCF makes a convenient and flexible tool for the guiding and trapping of atoms and the creation of all-fibre optical tweezers. (condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties)

Universal Prevention for Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Children: A Meta-analysis of Randomized and Cluster-Randomized Trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahlen, Johan; Lenhard, Fabian; Ghaderi, Ata

2015-12-01

Although under-diagnosed, anxiety and depression are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, leading to severe impairment, increased risk of future psychiatric problems, and a high economic burden to society. Universal prevention may be a potent way to address these widespread problems. There are several benefits to universal relative to targeted interventions because there is limited knowledge as to how to screen for anxiety and depression in the general population. Earlier meta-analyses of the prevention of depression and anxiety symptoms among children suffer from methodological inadequacies such as combining universal, selective, and indicated interventions in the same analyses, and comparing cluster-randomized trials with randomized trials without any correction for clustering effects. The present meta-analysis attempted to determine the effectiveness of universal interventions to prevent anxiety and depressive symptoms after correcting for clustering effects. A systematic search of randomized studies in PsychINFO, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar resulted in 30 eligible studies meeting inclusion criteria, namely peer-reviewed, randomized or cluster-randomized trials of universal interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in school-aged children. Sixty-three percent of the studies reported outcome data regarding anxiety and 87 % reported outcome data regarding depression. Seventy percent of the studies used randomization at the cluster level. There were small but significant effects regarding anxiety (.13) and depressive (.11) symptoms as measured at immediate posttest. At follow-up, which ranged from 3 to 48 months, effects were significantly larger than zero regarding depressive (.07) but not anxiety (.11) symptoms. There was no significant moderation effect of the following pre-selected variables: the primary aim of the intervention (anxiety or depression), deliverer of the intervention, gender distribution

Prevalence of at-risk genotypes for genotoxic effects decreases with age in a randomly selected population in Flanders: a cross sectional study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

van Delft Joost HM

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background We hypothesized that in Flanders (Belgium, the prevalence of at-risk genotypes for genotoxic effects decreases with age due to morbidity and mortality resulting from chronic diseases. Rather than polymorphisms in single genes, the interaction of multiple genetic polymorphisms in low penetrance genes involved in genotoxic effects might be of relevance. Methods Genotyping was performed on 399 randomly selected adults (aged 50-65 and on 442 randomly selected adolescents. Based on their involvement in processes relevant to genotoxicity, 28 low penetrance polymorphisms affecting the phenotype in 19 genes were selected (xenobiotic metabolism, oxidative stress defense and DNA repair, respectively 13, 6 and 9 polymorphisms. Polymorphisms which, based on available literature, could not clearly be categorized a priori as leading to an 'increased risk' or a 'protective effect' were excluded. Results The mean number of risk alleles for all investigated polymorphisms was found to be lower in the 'elderly' (17.0 ± 2.9 than the 'adolescent' (17.6 ± 3.1 subpopulation (P = 0.002. These results were not affected by gender nor smoking. The prevalence of a high (> 17 = median number of risk alleles was less frequent in the 'elderly' (40.6% than the 'adolescent' (51.4% subpopulation (P = 0.002. In particular for phase II enzymes, the mean number of risk alleles was lower in the 'elderly' (4.3 ± 1.6 than the 'adolescent' age group (4.8 ± 1.9 P 4 = median number of risk alleles was less frequent in the 'elderly' (41.3% than the adolescent subpopulation (56.3%, P 8 = median number of risk alleles for DNA repair enzyme-coding genes was lower in the 'elderly' (37,3% than the 'adolescent' subpopulation (45.6%, P = 0.017. Conclusions These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that, in Flanders, the prevalence of at-risk alleles in genes involved in genotoxic effects decreases with age, suggesting that persons carrying a higher number of

Can we avoid the Sixth Mass Extinction? Setting today's extinction crisis in the context of the Big Five

Science.gov (United States)

Barnosky, A. D.

2012-12-01

While the ultimate extinction driver now—Homo sapiens—is unique with respect to the drivers of past extinctions, comparison of parallel neontological and paleontological information helps calibrate how far the so-called Sixth Mass Extinction has progressed and whether it is inevitable. Such comparisons document that rates of extinction today are approaching or exceeding those that characterized the Big Five Mass Extinctions. Continuation of present extinction rates for vertebrates, for example, would result in 75% species loss—the minimum benchmark exhibited in the Big Five extinctions—within 3 to 22 centuries, assuming constant rates of loss and no threshold effects. Preceding and during each of the Big Five, the global ecosystem experienced major changes in climate, atmospheric chemisty, and ocean chemistry—not unlike what is being observed presently. Nevertheless, only 1-2% of well-assessed modern species have been lost over the past five centuries, still far below what characterized past mass extinctions in the strict paleontological sense. For mammals, adding in the end-Pleistocene species that died out would increase the species-loss percentage by some 5%. If threatened vertebrate species were to actually go extinct, losses would rise to between 14 and 40%, depending on the group. Such observations highlight that, although many species have already had their populations drastically reduced to near-critical levels, the Sixth Mass Extinction has not yet progressed to the point where it is unavoidable. Put another way, the vast majority of species that have occupied the world in concert with Homo sapiens are still alive and are possible to save. That task, however, will require slowing the abnormally high extinction rates that are now in progress, which in turn requires unified efforts to cap human population growth, decrease the average human footprint, reduce fossil fuel use while simultaneously increasing clean energy technologies, integrate

Health literacy and the determinants of obesity: a population-based survey of sixth grade school children in Taiwan.

Science.gov (United States)

Shih, Shu-Fang; Liu, Chieh-Hsing; Liao, Li-Ling; Osborne, Richard H

2016-03-22

Health literacy has become an important health policy and health promotion agenda item in recent years. It had been seen as a means to reduce health disparities and a critical empowerment strategy to increase people's control over their health. So far, most of health literacy studies mainly focus on adults with few studies investigating associations between child health literacy and health status. This study aimed to investigate the association between health literacy and body weight in Taiwan's sixth grade school children. Using a population-based survey, 162,209 sixth grade (11-12 years old) school children were assessed. The response rate at school level was 83%, with 70% of all students completing the survey. The Taiwan child health literacy assessment tool was applied and information on sex, ethnicity, self-reported health, and health behaviors were also collected. BMI was used to classify the children as underweight, normal, overweight, or obese. A multinomial logit model with robust estimation was used to explore associations between health literacy and the body weight with an adjustment for covariates. The sample consisted of 48.9% girls, 3.8% were indigenous and the mean BMI was 19.55 (SD = 3.93). About 6% of children self-reported bad or very bad health. The mean child health literacy score was 24.03 (SD = 6.12, scale range from 0 to 32). The overall proportion of obese children was 15.2%. Children in the highest health literacy quartile were less likely to be obese (12.4%) compared with the lowest quartile (17.4%). After controlling for gender, ethnicity, self-rated health, and health behaviors, children with higher health literacy were less likely to be obese (Relative Risk Ratio (RRR) = 0.94, p 1.10, p obese. This study demonstrates strong links between health literacy and obesity, even after adjusting for key potential confounders, and provides new insights into potential intervention points in school education for obesity prevention. Systematic

Effects of prey abundance, distribution, visual contrast and morphology on selection by a pelagic piscivore

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Adam G.; Beauchamp, David A.

2014-01-01

Most predators eat only a subset of possible prey. However, studies evaluating diet selection rarely measure prey availability in a manner that accounts for temporal–spatial overlap with predators, the sensory mechanisms employed to detect prey, and constraints on prey capture.We evaluated the diet selection of cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) feeding on a diverse planktivore assemblage in Lake Washington to test the hypothesis that the diet selection of piscivores would reflect random (opportunistic) as opposed to non-random (targeted) feeding, after accounting for predator–prey overlap, visual detection and capture constraints.Diets of cutthroat trout were sampled in autumn 2005, when the abundance of transparent, age-0 longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) was low, and 2006, when the abundance of smelt was nearly seven times higher. Diet selection was evaluated separately using depth-integrated and depth-specific (accounted for predator–prey overlap) prey abundance. The abundance of different prey was then adjusted for differences in detectability and vulnerability to predation to see whether these factors could explain diet selection.In 2005, cutthroat trout fed non-randomly by selecting against the smaller, transparent age-0 longfin smelt, but for the larger age-1 longfin smelt. After adjusting prey abundance for visual detection and capture, cutthroat trout fed randomly. In 2006, depth-integrated and depth-specific abundance explained the diets of cutthroat trout well, indicating random feeding. Feeding became non-random after adjusting for visual detection and capture. Cutthroat trout selected strongly for age-0 longfin smelt, but against similar sized threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and larger age-1 longfin smelt in 2006. Overlap with juvenile sockeye salmon (O. nerka) was minimal in both years, and sockeye salmon were rare in the diets of cutthroat trout.The direction of the shift between random and non-random selection

Why the null matters: statistical tests, random walks and evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheets, H D; Mitchell, C E

2001-01-01

A number of statistical tests have been developed to determine what type of dynamics underlie observed changes in morphology in evolutionary time series, based on the pattern of change within the time series. The theory of the 'scaled maximum', the 'log-rate-interval' (LRI) method, and the Hurst exponent all operate on the same principle of comparing the maximum change, or rate of change, in the observed dataset to the maximum change expected of a random walk. Less change in a dataset than expected of a random walk has been interpreted as indicating stabilizing selection, while more change implies directional selection. The 'runs test' in contrast, operates on the sequencing of steps, rather than on excursion. Applications of these tests to computer generated, simulated time series of known dynamical form and various levels of additive noise indicate that there is a fundamental asymmetry in the rate of type II errors of the tests based on excursion: they are all highly sensitive to noise in models of directional selection that result in a linear trend within a time series, but are largely noise immune in the case of a simple model of stabilizing selection. Additionally, the LRI method has a lower sensitivity than originally claimed, due to the large range of LRI rates produced by random walks. Examination of the published results of these tests show that they have seldom produced a conclusion that an observed evolutionary time series was due to directional selection, a result which needs closer examination in light of the asymmetric response of these tests.

Sixth Annual NASA Ames Space Science and Astrobiology Jamboree

Science.gov (United States)

Hollingsworth, Jeffery; Howell, Steve; Fonda, Mark; Dateo, Chris; Martinez, Christine M.

2018-01-01

Welcome to the Sixth Annual NASA Ames Research Center, Space Science and Astrobiology Jamboree at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). The Space Science and Astrobiology Division consists of over 60 Civil Servants, with more than 120 Cooperative Agreement Research Scientists, Post-Doctoral Fellows, Science Support Contractors, Visiting Scientists, and many other Research Associates. Within the Division there is engagement in scientific investigations over a breadth of disciplines including Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Exobiology, Exoplanets, Planetary Systems Science, and many more. The Division's personnel support NASA spacecraft missions (current and planned), including SOFIA, K2, MSL, New Horizons, JWST, WFIRST, and others. Our top-notch science research staff is spread amongst three branches in five buildings at ARC. Naturally, it can thus be difficult to remain abreast of what fellow scientific researchers pursue actively, and then what may present and/or offer regarding inter-Branch, intra-Division future collaborative efforts. In organizing this annual jamboree, the goals are to offer a wholesome, one-venue opportunity to sense the active scientific research and spacecraft mission involvement within the Division; and to facilitate communication and collaboration amongst our research scientists. Annually, the Division honors one senior research scientist with a Pollack Lecture, and one early career research scientist with an Outstanding Early Career Space Scientist Lecture. For the Pollack Lecture, the honor is bestowed upon a senior researcher who has made significant contributions within any area of research aligned with space science and/or astrobiology. This year we are pleased to honor Linda Jahnke. With the Early Career Lecture, the honor is bestowed upon an early-career researcher who has substantially demonstrated great promise for significant contributions within space science, astrobiology, and/or, in support of spacecraft missions addressing such

Natural Selection as an Emergent Process: Instructional Implications

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Robert A.

2017-01-01

Student reasoning about cases of natural selection is often plagued by errors that stem from miscategorising selection as a direct, causal process, misunderstanding the role of randomness, and from the intuitive ideas of intentionality, teleology and essentialism. The common thread throughout many of these reasoning errors is a failure to apply…

Energy contribution from non-breastmilk items in low-income Guatemalan infantsin their sixth month of life

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Marieke Vossenaar

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Objective. To examine the nature and energy contribution of complementary feeding in breastfed infants in their sixth month of life, and the prevalence of the use of bottles as a delivery method. Materials and methods. We recruited 156 breastfeeding infants at a health clinic in metropolitan Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. A previous-day recall was performed. Results. Sixty nine mothers (44% reported offering items other than breastmilk. The median contribution of energy from complementary foods among infants with mixed feeding (n=66 was 197 kcal/day (interquartile range [IQR] 49-353. The median energy contribution of formula or cow’s milk among consumers (n=39 was 212 kcal/day (IQR 84-394. Bottles were used on the previous day by 55 (80% of the 69 mothers not offering exclusive breastfeeding. Conclusions. Premature introduction of non-breastmilk items is commonly practiced in feeding Guatemalan infants. Adherence to the internationally recognized guidelines for early infant feeding should be an intervention priority for this population.

Ultra-Low Voltage Sixth-Order Low Pass Filter for Sensing the T-Wave Signal in ECGs

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Panagiotis Bertsias

2014-11-01

Full Text Available An ultra-low voltage sixth-order low pass filter topology, suitable for sensing the T-wave signal in an electrocardiogram (ECG, is presented in this paper. This is realized using a cascade connection of second-order building blocks constructed from a sinh-domain two-integrator loop. The performance of the filter has been evaluated using the Cadence Analog Design Environment and the design kit provided by the Austria Mikro Systeme (AMS 0.35-µm CMOS process. The power consumption of filters was 7.21 nW, while a total harmonic distortion (THD level of 4% was observed for an input signal of 220 pA. The RMS value of the input referred noise was 0.43 pA, and the simulated value of the dynamic range (DR was 51.1 dB. A comparison with already published counterparts shows that the proposed topology offers the benefits of 0.5-V supply voltage operation and significantly improved power efficiency.

SAM-VI RNAs selectively bind S-adenosylmethionine and exhibit similarities to SAM-III riboswitches.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirihana Arachchilage, Gayan; Sherlock, Madeline E; Weinberg, Zasha; Breaker, Ronald R

2018-03-04

Five distinct riboswitch classes that regulate gene expression in response to the cofactor S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) or its metabolic breakdown product S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) have been reported previously. Collectively, these SAM- or SAH-sensing RNAs constitute the most abundant collection of riboswitches, and are found in nearly every major bacterial lineage. Here, we report a potential sixth member of this pervasive riboswitch family, called SAM-VI, which is predominantly found in Bifidobacterium species. SAM-VI aptamers selectively bind the cofactor SAM and strongly discriminate against SAH. The consensus sequence and structural model for SAM-VI share some features with the consensus model for the SAM-III riboswitch class, whose members are mainly found in lactic acid bacteria. However, there are sufficient differences between the two classes such that current bioinformatics methods separately cluster representatives of the two motifs. These findings highlight the abundance of RNA structures that can form to selectively recognize SAM, and showcase the ability of RNA to utilize diverse strategies to perform similar biological functions.

Conversion of the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Conversion of the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker UBC#116 linked to Fusarium crown and root rot resistance gene (Frl) into a co-dominant sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) marker for marker-assisted selection of tomato.

Proceedings of the sixth international workshop on ceramic breeder blanket interactions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Noda, Kenji [ed.

1998-03-01

This report is the Proceedings of `the Sixth International Workshop on Ceramic Breeder Blanket Interactions` which was held as a workshop on ceramic breeders under Annex II of IEA Implementing Agreement on a Programme of Research and Development on Fusion Materials, and Japan-US Workshop 97FT4-01. This workshop was held in Mito city, Japan on October 22-24, 1997. About forty experts from EU, Japan, USA, and Chile attended the workshop. The scope of the workshop included the following: (1) fabrication and characterization of ceramic breeders, (2) properties data for ceramic breeders, (3) tritium release characteristics, (4) modeling of tritium behavior, (5) irradiation effects on performance behavior, (6) blanket design and R and D requirements, (7) hydrogen behavior in materials, and (8) blanket system technology and structural materials. In the workshop, information exchange was performed for fabrication technology of ceramic breeder pebbles in EU and Japan, data of various properties of Li{sub 2}TiO{sub 3}, tritium release behavior of Li{sub 2}TiO{sub 3} and Li{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} including tritium diffusion, modeling of tritium release from Li{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} in ITER condition, helium release behavior from Li{sub 2}O, results of tritium release irradiation tests of Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4} pebbles in EXOTIC-7, R and D issues for ceramic breeders for ITER and DEMO blankets, etc. The 23 of the papers are indexed individually. (J.P.N.)

Random matrices and random difference equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uppuluri, V.R.R.

1975-01-01

Mathematical models leading to products of random matrices and random difference equations are discussed. A one-compartment model with random behavior is introduced, and it is shown how the average concentration in the discrete time model converges to the exponential function. This is of relevance to understanding how radioactivity gets trapped in bone structure in blood--bone systems. The ideas are then generalized to two-compartment models and mammillary systems, where products of random matrices appear in a natural way. The appearance of products of random matrices in applications in demography and control theory is considered. Then random sequences motivated from the following problems are studied: constant pulsing and random decay models, random pulsing and constant decay models, and random pulsing and random decay models

Effect of Child Gender and Psychosocial Factors on Physical Activity From Fifth to Sixth Grade.

Science.gov (United States)

Forthofer, Melinda; Dowda, Marsha; O'Neill, Jennifer R; Addy, Cheryl L; McDonald, Samantha; Reid, Lauren; Pate, Russell R

2017-12-01

Gender differences in physical activity (PA) trajectories during adolescence are well documented, yet little research has examined whether the determinants of these trajectories vary by child's gender. This study is one of few prospective examinations of gender differences in the influences of psychosocial and socioenvironmental factors on changes in objectively measured PA. Students and parents from elementary and middle schools located in 2 school districts in South Carolina were enrolled in a prospective cohort study of changes in children's PA from elementary to middle school. Measures included children's and/or parents' ratings of various psychosocial and socioenvironmental factors as well as objectively measured PA, children's anthropometric characteristics, and neighborhood factors at fifth and sixth grades. Parents' reports of children's sport and class participation, parent-reported support for PA, and neighborhood resources for PA were protective against declines in PA for both boys and girls. The effects of 2 factors-children's self-efficacy and parents' leisure-time PA-on changes in PA over time were moderated by the child's gender. A better understanding of these dynamics may inform the development of interventions.

State of Play of CME in Europe in 2013: Proceedings from the Sixth Annual Meeting of the European CME Forum

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Eugene Pozniak

2014-07-01

Full Text Available European CME Forum is a not-for-profit organisation that is dedicated to bringing together all stakeholder groups with an interest in European Continuing Medical Education (CME in order to promote multi-channel discussion in an independent and neutral environment. This report summarises the presentations and discussions that took place at the Sixth Annual Meeting of the European CME Forum, held in London on the 14th and 15th November 2013, which was preceded by a series of ‘Day 0’ meetings as pre-meeting sessions for delegates from specific interest groups. The predominant target audience comprised people with an interest in European CME including the accreditation bodies, scientific societies, education providers, industry and European medical communications agencies. The year prior to the meeting saw the introduction of new accreditation standards from UEMS-EACCME, with other accreditors examining how they should be evolving their own; the introduction of the US Physicians’ Payment Sunshine Act and its rather unexpected ramifications in Europe; pharmaceutical companies also starting to employ the grant process for funding CME, and their own increasing insistence on being hands-off from CME programmes. This in turn has led to education providers needing to be more knowledgeable and accountable and looking for their own guidance to help them navigate these evermore complicated waters. Against this back-drop, session themes for the sixth annual meeting were focused on sharing best practices and identifying what constitutes good CME in practice, discussing the role of industry in CME, summarising the latest trends relating to accreditation in Europe, discussing the current legal and regulatory frameworks impacting on CME, and communicating new innovative CME ideas (e.g. relating to e-learning.

Effect of a Counseling Session Bolstered by Text Messaging on Self-Selected Health Behaviors in College Students: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandrick, Janice; Tracy, Doreen; Eliasson, Arn; Roth, Ashley; Bartel, Jeffrey; Simko, Melanie; Bowman, Tracy; Harouse-Bell, Karen; Kashani, Mariam; Vernalis, Marina

2017-05-17

The college experience is often the first time when young adults live independently and make their own lifestyle choices. These choices affect dietary behaviors, exercise habits, techniques to deal with stress, and decisions on sleep time, all of which direct the trajectory of future health. There is a need for effective strategies that will encourage healthy lifestyle choices in young adults attending college. This preliminary randomized controlled trial tested the effect of coaching and text messages (short message service, SMS) on self-selected health behaviors in the domains of diet, exercise, stress, and sleep. A second analysis measured the ripple effect of the intervention on health behaviors not specifically selected as a goal by participants. Full-time students aged 18-30 years were recruited by word of mouth and campuswide advertisements (flyers, posters, mailings, university website) at a small university in western Pennsylvania from January to May 2015. Exclusions included pregnancy, eating disorders, chronic medical diagnoses, and prescription medications other than birth control. Of 60 participants, 30 were randomized to receive a single face-to-face meeting with a health coach to review results of behavioral questionnaires and to set a health behavior goal for the 8-week study period. The face-to-face meeting was followed by SMS text messages designed to encourage achievement of the behavioral goal. A total of 30 control subjects underwent the same health and behavioral assessments at intake and program end but did not receive coaching or SMS text messages. The texting app showed that 87.31% (2187/2505) of messages were viewed by intervention participants. Furthermore, 28 of the 30 intervention participants and all 30 control participants provided outcome data. Among intervention participants, 22 of 30 (73%) showed improvement in health behavior goal attainment, with the whole group (n=30) showing a mean improvement of 88% (95% CI 39-136). Mean

Sampling large random knots in a confined space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arsuaga, J; Blackstone, T; Diao, Y; Hinson, K; Karadayi, E; Saito, M

2007-01-01

DNA knots formed under extreme conditions of condensation, as in bacteriophage P4, are difficult to analyze experimentally and theoretically. In this paper, we propose to use the uniform random polygon model as a supplementary method to the existing methods for generating random knots in confinement. The uniform random polygon model allows us to sample knots with large crossing numbers and also to generate large diagrammatically prime knot diagrams. We show numerically that uniform random polygons sample knots with large minimum crossing numbers and certain complicated knot invariants (as those observed experimentally). We do this in terms of the knot determinants or colorings. Our numerical results suggest that the average determinant of a uniform random polygon of n vertices grows faster than O(e n 2 )). We also investigate the complexity of prime knot diagrams. We show rigorously that the probability that a randomly selected 2D uniform random polygon of n vertices is almost diagrammatically prime goes to 1 as n goes to infinity. Furthermore, the average number of crossings in such a diagram is at the order of O(n 2 ). Therefore, the two-dimensional uniform random polygons offer an effective way in sampling large (prime) knots, which can be useful in various applications

Sampling large random knots in a confined space

Science.gov (United States)

Arsuaga, J.; Blackstone, T.; Diao, Y.; Hinson, K.; Karadayi, E.; Saito, M.

2007-09-01

DNA knots formed under extreme conditions of condensation, as in bacteriophage P4, are difficult to analyze experimentally and theoretically. In this paper, we propose to use the uniform random polygon model as a supplementary method to the existing methods for generating random knots in confinement. The uniform random polygon model allows us to sample knots with large crossing numbers and also to generate large diagrammatically prime knot diagrams. We show numerically that uniform random polygons sample knots with large minimum crossing numbers and certain complicated knot invariants (as those observed experimentally). We do this in terms of the knot determinants or colorings. Our numerical results suggest that the average determinant of a uniform random polygon of n vertices grows faster than O(e^{n^2}) . We also investigate the complexity of prime knot diagrams. We show rigorously that the probability that a randomly selected 2D uniform random polygon of n vertices is almost diagrammatically prime goes to 1 as n goes to infinity. Furthermore, the average number of crossings in such a diagram is at the order of O(n2). Therefore, the two-dimensional uniform random polygons offer an effective way in sampling large (prime) knots, which can be useful in various applications.

Sampling large random knots in a confined space

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arsuaga, J [Department of Mathematics, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco, CA 94132 (United States); Blackstone, T [Department of Computer Science, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132 (United States); Diao, Y [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223 (United States); Hinson, K [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223 (United States); Karadayi, E [Department of Mathematics, University of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620 (United States); Saito, M [Department of Mathematics, University of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620 (United States)

2007-09-28

DNA knots formed under extreme conditions of condensation, as in bacteriophage P4, are difficult to analyze experimentally and theoretically. In this paper, we propose to use the uniform random polygon model as a supplementary method to the existing methods for generating random knots in confinement. The uniform random polygon model allows us to sample knots with large crossing numbers and also to generate large diagrammatically prime knot diagrams. We show numerically that uniform random polygons sample knots with large minimum crossing numbers and certain complicated knot invariants (as those observed experimentally). We do this in terms of the knot determinants or colorings. Our numerical results suggest that the average determinant of a uniform random polygon of n vertices grows faster than O(e{sup n{sup 2}}). We also investigate the complexity of prime knot diagrams. We show rigorously that the probability that a randomly selected 2D uniform random polygon of n vertices is almost diagrammatically prime goes to 1 as n goes to infinity. Furthermore, the average number of crossings in such a diagram is at the order of O(n{sup 2}). Therefore, the two-dimensional uniform random polygons offer an effective way in sampling large (prime) knots, which can be useful in various applications.

Comparative evaluation of shear bond strength of two self-etching adhesives (sixth and seventh generation on dentin of primary and permanent teeth: An in vitro study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaseen S

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Aim: The present study was undertaken to compare and evaluate shear bond strength of two self-etching adhesives (sixth and seventh generation on dentin of primary and permanent teeth. Materials and Methods: Flat dentin surface of 64 human anterior teeth (32 primary and 32 permanent divided into four groups of 16 each. Groups A and C were treated with Contax (sixth generation, while groups B and D were treated with Clearfil S3 (seventh generation. A teflon mold was used to build the composite (Filtek Z-350 cylinders on the dentinal surface of all the specimens. Shear bond strength was tested for all the specimens with an Instron Universal Testing Machine. Data were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA for multiple group comparison, followed by student′s unpaired ′t′ test for group-wise comparison. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in shear bond strength among the study groups except that primary teeth bonded with Contax exhibited significantly lesser shear bond strength than permanent teeth bonded with Clearfil S3. Conclusion: This study revealed that Clearfil S3 could be of greater advantage in pediatric dentistry than Contax because of its fewer steps and better shear bond strength in dentin of both primary and permanent teeth.

Bridging Emergent Attributes and Darwinian Principles in Teaching Natural Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Dongchen; Chi, Michelene T. H.

2016-01-01

Students often have misconceptions about natural selection as they misuse a direct causal schema to explain the process. Natural selection is in fact an emergent process where random interactions lead to changes in a population. The misconceptions stem from students' lack of emergent schema for natural selection. In order to help students…

Selection of representative calibration sample sets for near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy to predict nitrogen concentration in grasses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shetty, Nisha; Rinnan, Åsmund; Gislum, René

2012-01-01

) algorithm were used and compared. Both Puchwein and CADEX methods provide a calibration set equally distributed in space, and both methods require a minimum prior of knowledge. The samples were also selected randomly using complete random, cultivar random (year fixed), year random (cultivar fixed......) and interaction (cultivar × year fixed) random procedures to see the influence of different factors on sample selection. Puchwein's method performed best with lowest RMSEP followed by CADEX, interaction random, year random, cultivar random and complete random. Out of 118 samples of the complete calibration set...... effectively enhance the cost-effectiveness of NIR spectral analysis by reducing the number of analyzed samples in the calibration set by more than 80%, which substantially reduces the effort of laboratory analyses with no significant loss in prediction accuracy....

Selective mutism.

Science.gov (United States)

Hua, Alexandra; Major, Nili

2016-02-01

Selective mutism is a disorder in which an individual fails to speak in certain social situations though speaks normally in other settings. Most commonly, this disorder initially manifests when children fail to speak in school. Selective mutism results in significant social and academic impairment in those affected by it. This review will summarize the current understanding of selective mutism with regard to diagnosis, epidemiology, cause, prognosis, and treatment. Studies over the past 20 years have consistently demonstrated a strong relationship between selective mutism and anxiety, most notably social phobia. These findings have led to the recent reclassification of selective mutism as an anxiety disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition. In addition to anxiety, several other factors have been implicated in the development of selective mutism, including communication delays and immigration/bilingualism, adding to the complexity of the disorder. In the past few years, several randomized studies have supported the efficacy of psychosocial interventions based on a graduated exposure to situations requiring verbal communication. Less data are available regarding the use of pharmacologic treatment, though there are some studies that suggest a potential benefit. Selective mutism is a disorder that typically emerges in early childhood and is currently conceptualized as an anxiety disorder. The development of selective mutism appears to result from the interplay of a variety of genetic, temperamental, environmental, and developmental factors. Although little has been published about selective mutism in the general pediatric literature, pediatric clinicians are in a position to play an important role in the early diagnosis and treatment of this debilitating condition.

Statistical properties of random clique networks

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Yi-Min; Meng, Jun; Fan, Jing-Fang; Ye, Fang-Fu; Chen, Xiao-Song

2017-10-01

In this paper, a random clique network model to mimic the large clustering coefficient and the modular structure that exist in many real complex networks, such as social networks, artificial networks, and protein interaction networks, is introduced by combining the random selection rule of the Erdös and Rényi (ER) model and the concept of cliques. We find that random clique networks having a small average degree differ from the ER network in that they have a large clustering coefficient and a power law clustering spectrum, while networks having a high average degree have similar properties as the ER model. In addition, we find that the relation between the clustering coefficient and the average degree shows a non-monotonic behavior and that the degree distributions can be fit by multiple Poisson curves; we explain the origin of such novel behaviors and degree distributions.

Benchmarking Variable Selection in QSAR.

Science.gov (United States)

Eklund, Martin; Norinder, Ulf; Boyer, Scott; Carlsson, Lars

2012-02-01

Variable selection is important in QSAR modeling since it can improve model performance and transparency, as well as reduce the computational cost of model fitting and predictions. Which variable selection methods that perform well in QSAR settings is largely unknown. To address this question we, in a total of 1728 benchmarking experiments, rigorously investigated how eight variable selection methods affect the predictive performance and transparency of random forest models fitted to seven QSAR datasets covering different endpoints, descriptors sets, types of response variables, and number of chemical compounds. The results show that univariate variable selection methods are suboptimal and that the number of variables in the benchmarked datasets can be reduced with about 60 % without significant loss in model performance when using multivariate adaptive regression splines MARS and forward selection. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Feature Selection for Chemical Sensor Arrays Using Mutual Information

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, X. Rosalind; Lizier, Joseph T.; Nowotny, Thomas; Berna, Amalia Z.; Prokopenko, Mikhail; Trowell, Stephen C.

2014-01-01

We address the problem of feature selection for classifying a diverse set of chemicals using an array of metal oxide sensors. Our aim is to evaluate a filter approach to feature selection with reference to previous work, which used a wrapper approach on the same data set, and established best features and upper bounds on classification performance. We selected feature sets that exhibit the maximal mutual information with the identity of the chemicals. The selected features closely match those found to perform well in the previous study using a wrapper approach to conduct an exhaustive search of all permitted feature combinations. By comparing the classification performance of support vector machines (using features selected by mutual information) with the performance observed in the previous study, we found that while our approach does not always give the maximum possible classification performance, it always selects features that achieve classification performance approaching the optimum obtained by exhaustive search. We performed further classification using the selected feature set with some common classifiers and found that, for the selected features, Bayesian Networks gave the best performance. Finally, we compared the observed classification performances with the performance of classifiers using randomly selected features. We found that the selected features consistently outperformed randomly selected features for all tested classifiers. The mutual information filter approach is therefore a computationally efficient method for selecting near optimal features for chemical sensor arrays. PMID:24595058

The Effect of Speed Alterations on Tempo Note Selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Madsen, Clifford K.; And Others

1986-01-01

Investigated the tempo note preferences of 100 randomly selected college-level musicians using familiar orchestral music as stimuli. Subjects heard selections at increased, decreased, and unaltered tempi. Results showed musicians were not accurate in estimating original tempo and showed consistent preference for faster than actual tempo.…

Random walk on random walks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hilário, M.; Hollander, den W.Th.F.; Sidoravicius, V.; Soares dos Santos, R.; Teixeira, A.

2014-01-01

In this paper we study a random walk in a one-dimensional dynamic random environment consisting of a collection of independent particles performing simple symmetric random walks in a Poisson equilibrium with density ¿¿(0,8). At each step the random walk performs a nearest-neighbour jump, moving to

Biased random key genetic algorithm with insertion and gender selection for capacitated vehicle routing problem with time windows

Science.gov (United States)

Rochman, Auliya Noor; Prasetyo, Hari; Nugroho, Munajat Tri

2017-06-01

Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) often occurs when the manufacturers need to distribute their product to some customers/outlets. The distribution process is typically restricted by the capacity of the vehicle and the working hours at the distributor. This type of VRP is also known as Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (CVRPTW). A Biased Random Key Genetic Algorithm (BRKGA) was designed and coded in MATLAB to solve the CVRPTW case of soft drink distribution. The standard BRKGA was then modified by applying chromosome insertion into the initial population and defining chromosome gender for parent undergoing crossover operation. The performance of the established algorithms was then compared to a heuristic procedure for solving a soft drink distribution. Some findings are revealed (1) the total distribution cost of BRKGA with insertion (BRKGA-I) results in a cost saving of 39% compared to the total cost of heuristic method, (2) BRKGA with the gender selection (BRKGA-GS) could further improve the performance of the heuristic method. However, the BRKGA-GS tends to yield worse results compared to that obtained from the standard BRKGA.

Nonlinear Pricing with Random Participation

OpenAIRE

Jean-Charles Rochet; Lars A. Stole

2002-01-01

The canonical selection contracting programme takes the agent's participation decision as deterministic and finds the optimal contract, typically satisfying this constraint for the worst type. Upon weakening this assumption of known reservation values by introducing independent randomness into the agents' outside options, we find that some of the received wisdom from mechanism design and nonlinear pricing is not robust and the richer model which allows for stochastic participation affords a m...

Genetic search feature selection for affective modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martínez, Héctor P.; Yannakakis, Georgios N.

2010-01-01

Automatic feature selection is a critical step towards the generation of successful computational models of affect. This paper presents a genetic search-based feature selection method which is developed as a global-search algorithm for improving the accuracy of the affective models built....... The method is tested and compared against sequential forward feature selection and random search in a dataset derived from a game survey experiment which contains bimodal input features (physiological and gameplay) and expressed pairwise preferences of affect. Results suggest that the proposed method...

Impact of selective genotyping in the training population on accuracy and bias of genomic selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Yusheng; Gowda, Manje; Longin, Friedrich H; Würschum, Tobias; Ranc, Nicolas; Reif, Jochen C

2012-08-01

Estimating marker effects based on routinely generated phenotypic data of breeding programs is a cost-effective strategy to implement genomic selection. Truncation selection in breeding populations, however, could have a strong impact on the accuracy to predict genomic breeding values. The main objective of our study was to investigate the influence of phenotypic selection on the accuracy and bias of genomic selection. We used experimental data of 788 testcross progenies from an elite maize breeding program. The testcross progenies were evaluated in unreplicated field trials in ten environments and fingerprinted with 857 SNP markers. Random regression best linear unbiased prediction method was used in combination with fivefold cross-validation based on genotypic sampling. We observed a substantial loss in the accuracy to predict genomic breeding values in unidirectional selected populations. In contrast, estimating marker effects based on bidirectional selected populations led to only a marginal decrease in the prediction accuracy of genomic breeding values. We concluded that bidirectional selection is a valuable approach to efficiently implement genomic selection in applied plant breeding programs.

The Role of the Clerk to the Corporation in Promoting the Legitimate Governance of Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges in England: A Role in the Governance of All Educational Institutions?

Science.gov (United States)

Forrest, Colin; Goodall, Janet; Hill, Ron; James, Chris

2018-01-01

In England, further education college and sixth form college governing bodies are required to appoint a clerk to administer and advise on governing procedure and practice. In this article we report research which aimed to understand and theorise about the role and the associated responsibilities. We analysed the relevant literatures, carried out a…

Avaliação do desempenho agroindustrial de famílias da série RB07 na fase inicial de seleção em cana-de-açúcar | Agroindustrial performance evaluation of some families of Series RB07 in initial phase selection in sugar cane

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Júlio da Silva Corrêa de Oliveira Andrade

2016-04-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of productivity in sugarcane, richness in sugar and early maturation of families of series RB07 in stage T2 selection in sugarcane. This work was conducted in the crop year of 2008/2009 with sugarcane in the agricultural area of San Jose. The Plant experimental design adopted was a randomized block design with four replications, and using ten treatments (families. Were evaluated in sugarcane, at the three-month-old plant for agricultural production the characters leaves numer per plant (LNP, mean height plant (MHP and plant number per clump (PNC; at the sixth month, beyond these characters have been added mean diamter of the culm (MDC and mean number of cane per plant (MNCP; already at the twelfth month of age, were also evaluated the following characters leaves number per plant (LNP, mean height plant (MHP, mean diameter of the culm (MDC , cane brix (CB, mean weight of cane per clump (MWC, mean number of cane per plant (MNCP, cane ton per hectare (CTH, cane ton per estimated hectare (CTeH and brix tone per hectare (BTH. The presence of genetic variability among families from cross of brother-german in cane sugar, found in this population allows you to select the best families based in production characteristics and can be a strategy to be adopted in the early stages of selection in fase T2. In this present population there is the possibility for families selection from cross of brother-german families for early maturing based on the Brix% cane (CB. The selection of families in early fase of improvement of sugarcane, is a strategy for identifying individuals with high values genotypes, with the possibility of selecting clones potentially productive in CTH and BTH.

Noncontextuality with Marginal Selectivity in Reconstructing Mental Architectures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ru eZhang

2015-06-01

Full Text Available We present a general theory of series-parallel mental architectures with selectively influenced stochastically non-independent components. A mental architecture is a hypothetical network of processes aimed at performing a task, of which we only observe the overall time it takes under variable parameters of the task. It is usually assumed that the network contains several processes selectively influenced by different experimental factors, and then the question is asked as to how these processes are arranged within the network, e.g., whether they are concurrent or sequential. One way of doing this is to consider the distribution functions for the overall processing time and compute certain linear combinations thereof (interaction contrasts. The theory of selective influences in psychology can be viewed as a special application of the interdisciplinary theory of (noncontextuality having its origins and main applications in quantum theory. In particular, lack of contextuality is equivalent to the existence of a hidden random entity of which all the random variables in play are functions. Consequently, for any given value of this common random entity, the processing times and their compositions (minima, maxima, or sums become deterministic quantities. These quantities, in turn, can be treated as random variables with (shifted Heaviside distribution functions, for which one can easily compute various linear combinations across different treatments, including interaction contrasts. This mathematical fact leads to a simple method, more general than the previously used ones, to investigate and characterize the interaction contrast for different types of series-parallel architectures.

DNA-based random number generation in security circuitry.

Science.gov (United States)

Gearheart, Christy M; Arazi, Benjamin; Rouchka, Eric C

2010-06-01

DNA-based circuit design is an area of research in which traditional silicon-based technologies are replaced by naturally occurring phenomena taken from biochemistry and molecular biology. This research focuses on further developing DNA-based methodologies to mimic digital data manipulation. While exhibiting fundamental principles, this work was done in conjunction with the vision that DNA-based circuitry, when the technology matures, will form the basis for a tamper-proof security module, revolutionizing the meaning and concept of tamper-proofing and possibly preventing it altogether based on accurate scientific observations. A paramount part of such a solution would be self-generation of random numbers. A novel prototype schema employs solid phase synthesis of oligonucleotides for random construction of DNA sequences; temporary storage and retrieval is achieved through plasmid vectors. A discussion of how to evaluate sequence randomness is included, as well as how these techniques are applied to a simulation of the random number generation circuitry. Simulation results show generated sequences successfully pass three selected NIST random number generation tests specified for security applications.

Multistage Selection and the Financing of New Ventures

OpenAIRE

Jonathan T. Eckhardt; Scott Shane; Frédéric Delmar

2006-01-01

Using a random sample of 221 new Swedish ventures initiated in 1998, we examine why some new ventures are more likely than others to successfully be awarded capital from external sources. We examine venture financing as a staged selection process in which two sequential selection events systematically winnow the population of ventures and influence which ventures receive financing. For a venture to receive external financing its founders must first select it as a candidate for external fundin...

Rural Women\\'s Preference For Selected Programmes Of The ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study focused on the rural women's preference for selected programmes of the National Special Programme for Food Security (NSPFS) in Imo State, Nigeria. Data was collected with the aid of structured interview from 150 randomly selected women in the study area. Results from the study showed that respondents ...

Physiological red cell, 2,3-diphosphoglycerate increase by the sixth hour after birth.

Science.gov (United States)

Barretto, O C; Nonoyama, K; Deutsch, A D; Ramos, J L

1995-01-01

As the available hemoglobin A1 at birth ranges from 20 to 30% a possible mechanism to favor oxygen release to the tissues could be a decrease of hemoglobin A1 affinity to oxygen. This may be accomplished by an increase in blood pH soon after birth and by an elevation in red cell 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG). This hypothesis is supported by Valleri and Hirsch, who described a rapid 2,3-DPG recovery of transfused depleted 2,3-DPG red cells. That being so, we carried out this current study by assaying the 2,3-DPG of cord blood from 22 newborns and at 6, 24 and 72 hours after birth, as well as those enzymes assumed to be envolved in the 2,3-DPG levels regulation. 2,3-DPG (nmoles g-1 Hb) demonstrated the following values: cord blood: 9,770 +/- 1,026; 6h: 12,773 +/- 1,726; 72 h: 11,990 +/- 728, unveiling a distinct behavior of a sharp increase of 30% by the sixth hour. This confirmed our hypothesis. Regarding the metabolic mechanisms which can account for the 2,3-DPG increase, besides the rise of blood pH, we detected a significant decrease of the 2,3-DPG phosphatase activity, which might diminish the 2,3-DPG breakdown.

A New Random Walk for Replica Detection in WSNs

Science.gov (United States)

Aalsalem, Mohammed Y.; Saad, N. M.; Hossain, Md. Shohrab; Atiquzzaman, Mohammed; Khan, Muhammad Khurram

2016-01-01

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are vulnerable to Node Replication attacks or Clone attacks. Among all the existing clone detection protocols in WSNs, RAWL shows the most promising results by employing Simple Random Walk (SRW). More recently, RAND outperforms RAWL by incorporating Network Division with SRW. Both RAND and RAWL have used SRW for random selection of witness nodes which is problematic because of frequently revisiting the previously passed nodes that leads to longer delays, high expenditures of energy with lower probability that witness nodes intersect. To circumvent this problem, we propose to employ a new kind of constrained random walk, namely Single Stage Memory Random Walk and present a distributed technique called SSRWND (Single Stage Memory Random Walk with Network Division). In SSRWND, single stage memory random walk is combined with network division aiming to decrease the communication and memory costs while keeping the detection probability higher. Through intensive simulations it is verified that SSRWND guarantees higher witness node security with moderate communication and memory overheads. SSRWND is expedient for security oriented application fields of WSNs like military and medical. PMID:27409082

A New Random Walk for Replica Detection in WSNs.

Science.gov (United States)

Aalsalem, Mohammed Y; Khan, Wazir Zada; Saad, N M; Hossain, Md Shohrab; Atiquzzaman, Mohammed; Khan, Muhammad Khurram

2016-01-01

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are vulnerable to Node Replication attacks or Clone attacks. Among all the existing clone detection protocols in WSNs, RAWL shows the most promising results by employing Simple Random Walk (SRW). More recently, RAND outperforms RAWL by incorporating Network Division with SRW. Both RAND and RAWL have used SRW for random selection of witness nodes which is problematic because of frequently revisiting the previously passed nodes that leads to longer delays, high expenditures of energy with lower probability that witness nodes intersect. To circumvent this problem, we propose to employ a new kind of constrained random walk, namely Single Stage Memory Random Walk and present a distributed technique called SSRWND (Single Stage Memory Random Walk with Network Division). In SSRWND, single stage memory random walk is combined with network division aiming to decrease the communication and memory costs while keeping the detection probability higher. Through intensive simulations it is verified that SSRWND guarantees higher witness node security with moderate communication and memory overheads. SSRWND is expedient for security oriented application fields of WSNs like military and medical.

The concentration of heavy metals: zinc, cadmium, lead, copper, mercury, iron and calcium in head hair of a randomly selected sample of Kenyan people

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wandiga, S.O.; Jumba, I.O.

1982-01-01

An intercomparative analysis of the concentration of heavy metals:zinc, cadmium, lead, copper, mercury, iron and calcium in head hair of a randomly selected sample of Kenyan people using the techniques of atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) and differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPAS) has been undertaken. The percent relative standard deviation for each sample analysed using either of the techniques show good sensitivity and correlation between the techniques. The DPAS was found to be slightly sensitive than the AAs instrument used. The recalculated body burden rations of Cd to Zn, Pb to Fe reveal no unusual health impairement symptoms and suggest a relatively clean environment in Kenya.(author)

A computational model of selection by consequences.

OpenAIRE

McDowell, J J

2004-01-01

Darwinian selection by consequences was instantiated in a computational model that consisted of a repertoire of behaviors undergoing selection, reproduction, and mutation over many generations. The model in effect created a digital organism that emitted behavior continuously. The behavior of this digital organism was studied in three series of computational experiments that arranged reinforcement according to random-interval (RI) schedules. The quantitative features of the model were varied o...

Portfolio Selection with Jumps under Regime Switching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lin Zhao

2010-01-01

Full Text Available We investigate a continuous-time version of the mean-variance portfolio selection model with jumps under regime switching. The portfolio selection is proposed and analyzed for a market consisting of one bank account and multiple stocks. The random regime switching is assumed to be independent of the underlying Brownian motion and jump processes. A Markov chain modulated diffusion formulation is employed to model the problem.

Music in the cath lab: who should select it?

Science.gov (United States)

Goertz, Wolfram; Dominick, Klaus; Heussen, Nicole; vom Dahl, Juergen

2011-05-01

The ALMUT study wants to evaluate the anxiolytic effects of different music styles and no music in 200 patients undergoing cardiac catheterization and to assess if there is a difference if patients select one of these therapies or are randomized to one of them. The anxiolytic and analgesic effects of music have been described in previous trials. Some authors have suggested to evaluate whether patient-selected music is more effective than the music selected by the physician in reducing anxiety and stress levels. After randomization 100 patients (group A) were allowed to choose between classical music, relaxing modern music, smooth jazz, and no music. One hundred patients (group B) were randomized directly to one of these therapies (n = 25 each). Complete data were available for 197 patients (65 ± 10 years; 134 male). Using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) all patients in group B who listened to music showed a significantly higher decrease of their anxiety level (STAI-State difference pre-post of 16.8 ± 10.2) compared to group A (13.3 ± 11.1; p = 0.0176). Patients without music (6.2 ± 6.7) had a significantly weaker reduction of anxiety compared to all music-listeners (14.9 ± 10.7, p music in the cath lab support previous reports. Surprisingly, the hypothesis that the patient's choice of preferred music might yield higher benefits than a randomized assignment could be dismissed.

Proceedings of the Sixth Seminar on Computation in Nuclear Science and Technology; Lokakarya Komputasi dalam Sains dan Teknologi Nuklir VI

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-07-01

National Atomic Energy Agency (BATAN) had held the Sixth Seminar on Computation in Nuclear Science and Technology on January 16-17, 1996. The seminar is an event for information exchange among interest society in computation, modeling, and simulation. Similar as previous seminar in the past year, there were also non-BATAN and university-bound presenters and participants whose interest are in the field of science and technology. Examining the papers presented in this seminar, it shows that beside digging the so called classical computation methods, some papers brought relatively new topics like the determination and influence of chaos, neural network method, and expert system. Judging from the variety of the topics, one can conclude that interests in computation and its application are growing stronger in Indonesia.

Effect of paracetamol, dexketoprofen trometamol, lidocaine spray, pethidine & diclofenac sodium application for pain relief during fractional curettage: A randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Acmaz, Gökhan; Bayraktar, Evrim; Aksoy, Hüseyin; Başer, Mürvet; Yilmaz, Mustafa Oğuz; Müderris, İptisam İpek

2015-10-01

Patients frequently experience pain of moderate to severe degree during gynaecologic procedures. This prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was aimed to investigate the analgesic efficacy of preoperative oral dexketoprofen trometamol, intravenous paracetamol, lidocaine spray, pethidine and diclofenac sodium on fractional curettage procedure. A total of 144 multiparous women were randomly allocated to one of the six groups. The first group (control group) consisted of 22 participants and they did not receive any treatment. The second group had 26 participants receiving oral 25 mg dexketoprofen trometamol. The 23 participants of the third group received two puff lidocaine sprays on cervical mucosa. t0 he forth group consisted of 25 participants receiving 100 mg pethidine. In the fifth group, the 23 participants received 1000 mg intravenous paracetamol and the sixth group consisted of 25 participants receiving diclofenac sodium. Pethidine was the best choice for reducing pain score during curettage procedure (t2:intra-operative). All analgesic procedures were significantly effective in reducing pain during postoperative period (t3). Significant pain reduction was achieved for both intra- and postoperative period by using analgesics. The results of our study showed that lidocaine puffs provided the best pain relief than the other analgesics used. Therefore, lidocaine may be considered as the first choice analgesic in fractional curettage (NCT ID: 01993589).

Combined impact of negative lifestyle factors on cardiovascular risk in children: a randomized prospective study

OpenAIRE

Meyer, Ursina; Schindler, Christian; Bloesch, Tamara; Schmocker, Eliane; Zahner, Lukas; Puder, Jardena J; Kriemler, Susi

2014-01-01

PURPOSE: Negative lifestyle factors are known to be associated with increased cardiovascular risk (CVR) in children, but research on their combined impact on a general population of children is sparse. Therefore, we aimed to quantify the combined impact of easily assessable negative lifestyle factors on the CVR scores of randomly selected children after 4 years. METHODS: Of the 540 randomly selected 6- to 13-year-old children, 502 children participated in a baseline health assessment, and ...

Brain Tumor Segmentation Based on Random Forest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

László Lefkovits

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In this article we present a discriminative model for tumor detection from multimodal MR images. The main part of the model is built around the random forest (RF classifier. We created an optimization algorithm able to select the important features for reducing the dimensionality of data. This method is also used to find out the training parameters used in the learning phase. The algorithm is based on random feature properties for evaluating the importance of the variable, the evolution of learning errors and the proximities between instances. The detection performances obtained have been compared with the most recent systems, offering similar results.

Exploring pseudo- and chaotic random Monte Carlo simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Blais, J. A. Rod; Zhang, Zhan

2011-07-01

Computer simulations are an increasingly important area of geoscience research and development. At the core of stochastic or Monte Carlo simulations are the random number sequences that are assumed to be distributed with specific characteristics. Computer-generated random numbers, uniformly distributed on (0, 1), can be very different depending on the selection of pseudo-random number (PRN) or chaotic random number (CRN) generators. In the evaluation of some definite integrals, the resulting error variances can even be of different orders of magnitude. Furthermore, practical techniques for variance reduction such as importance sampling and stratified sampling can be applied in most Monte Carlo simulations and significantly improve the results. A comparative analysis of these strategies has been carried out for computational applications in planar and spatial contexts. Based on these experiments, and on some practical examples of geodetic direct and inverse problems, conclusions and recommendations concerning their performance and general applicability are included.

Health literacy and the determinants of obesity: a population-based survey of sixth grade school children in Taiwan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shu-Fang Shih

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Health literacy has become an important health policy and health promotion agenda item in recent years. It had been seen as a means to reduce health disparities and a critical empowerment strategy to increase people’s control over their health. So far, most of health literacy studies mainly focus on adults with few studies investigating associations between child health literacy and health status. This study aimed to investigate the association between health literacy and body weight in Taiwan’s sixth grade school children. Methods Using a population-based survey, 162,209 sixth grade (11–12 years old school children were assessed. The response rate at school level was 83 %, with 70 % of all students completing the survey. The Taiwan child health literacy assessment tool was applied and information on sex, ethnicity, self-reported health, and health behaviors were also collected. BMI was used to classify the children as underweight, normal, overweight, or obese. A multinomial logit model with robust estimation was used to explore associations between health literacy and the body weight with an adjustment for covariates. Results The sample consisted of 48.9 % girls, 3.8 % were indigenous and the mean BMI was 19.55 (SD = 3.93. About 6 % of children self-reported bad or very bad health. The mean child health literacy score was 24.03 (SD = 6.12, scale range from 0 to 32. The overall proportion of obese children was 15.2 %. Children in the highest health literacy quartile were less likely to be obese (12.4 % compared with the lowest quartile (17.4 %. After controlling for gender, ethnicity, self-rated health, and health behaviors, children with higher health literacy were less likely to be obese (Relative Risk Ratio (RRR = 0.94, p  1.10, p < 0.0001 were more likely to report being overweight or obese. Conclusions This study demonstrates strong links between health literacy and obesity, even after

Fixation probability in a two-locus intersexual selection model.

Science.gov (United States)

Durand, Guillermo; Lessard, Sabin

2016-06-01

We study a two-locus model of intersexual selection in a finite haploid population reproducing according to a discrete-time Moran model with a trait locus expressed in males and a preference locus expressed in females. We show that the probability of ultimate fixation of a single mutant allele for a male ornament introduced at random at the trait locus given any initial frequency state at the preference locus is increased by weak intersexual selection and recombination, weak or strong. Moreover, this probability exceeds the initial frequency of the mutant allele even in the case of a costly male ornament if intersexual selection is not too weak. On the other hand, the probability of ultimate fixation of a single mutant allele for a female preference towards a male ornament introduced at random at the preference locus is increased by weak intersexual selection and weak recombination if the female preference is not costly, and is strong enough in the case of a costly male ornament. The analysis relies on an extension of the ancestral recombination-selection graph for samples of haplotypes to take into account events of intersexual selection, while the symbolic calculation of the fixation probabilities is made possible in a reasonable time by an optimizing algorithm. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Apple Down 152: a putative case of syphilis from sixth century AD Anglo-Saxon England.

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Garrard; Waldron, Tony

2011-01-01

This report describes a putative case of a treponemal infection observed on a skeleton of a young male adult from the Apple Down Anglo-Saxon cemetery dating to the sixth century AD, accompanied by grave goods indicative of a high status burial. The skeleton is well preserved and almost complete. The pathological evidence includes an extensive area of lytic destruction to the frontal bone of the skull, widespread profuse bilateral symmetrical periosteal reaction affecting scapulae, clavicles, arms, legs, hands, feet and ribs. There is also evidence of gummatous destruction on some of the long bones. Application of a differential diagnosis of all probable diseases exhibiting the individual symptoms leads to a clear conclusion that the person was infected with a treponemal pathogen. The skeleton shows none of the stigmata associated with the congenital form of treponemal disease. We propose that the evidence suggests a possible case of venereal syphilis rather than one of the endemic forms of treponemal disease. This diagnosis is based on the geographical pathogen range, the apparent low prevalence of the disease, significant social upheaval at the time, the high social status and early age of death of the individual. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

How random is a random vector?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eliazar, Iddo

2015-01-01

Over 80 years ago Samuel Wilks proposed that the “generalized variance” of a random vector is the determinant of its covariance matrix. To date, the notion and use of the generalized variance is confined only to very specific niches in statistics. In this paper we establish that the “Wilks standard deviation” –the square root of the generalized variance–is indeed the standard deviation of a random vector. We further establish that the “uncorrelation index” –a derivative of the Wilks standard deviation–is a measure of the overall correlation between the components of a random vector. Both the Wilks standard deviation and the uncorrelation index are, respectively, special cases of two general notions that we introduce: “randomness measures” and “independence indices” of random vectors. In turn, these general notions give rise to “randomness diagrams”—tangible planar visualizations that answer the question: How random is a random vector? The notion of “independence indices” yields a novel measure of correlation for Lévy laws. In general, the concepts and results presented in this paper are applicable to any field of science and engineering with random-vectors empirical data.

How random is a random vector?

Science.gov (United States)

Eliazar, Iddo

2015-12-01

Over 80 years ago Samuel Wilks proposed that the "generalized variance" of a random vector is the determinant of its covariance matrix. To date, the notion and use of the generalized variance is confined only to very specific niches in statistics. In this paper we establish that the "Wilks standard deviation" -the square root of the generalized variance-is indeed the standard deviation of a random vector. We further establish that the "uncorrelation index" -a derivative of the Wilks standard deviation-is a measure of the overall correlation between the components of a random vector. Both the Wilks standard deviation and the uncorrelation index are, respectively, special cases of two general notions that we introduce: "randomness measures" and "independence indices" of random vectors. In turn, these general notions give rise to "randomness diagrams"-tangible planar visualizations that answer the question: How random is a random vector? The notion of "independence indices" yields a novel measure of correlation for Lévy laws. In general, the concepts and results presented in this paper are applicable to any field of science and engineering with random-vectors empirical data.

Randomized random walk on a random walk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, P.A.

1983-06-01

This paper discusses generalizations of the model introduced by Kehr and Kunter of the random walk of a particle on a one-dimensional chain which in turn has been constructed by a random walk procedure. The superimposed random walk is randomised in time according to the occurrences of a stochastic point process. The probability of finding the particle in a particular position at a certain instant is obtained explicitly in the transform domain. It is found that the asymptotic behaviour for large time of the mean-square displacement of the particle depends critically on the assumed structure of the basic random walk, giving a diffusion-like term for an asymmetric walk or a square root law if the walk is symmetric. Many results are obtained in closed form for the Poisson process case, and these agree with those given previously by Kehr and Kunter. (author)

A comparative assessment of enamel mineral content and Streptococcus mutans population between conventional composites and composites containing nano amorphous calcium phosphate in fixed orthodontic patients: a split-mouth randomized clinical trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Jahanbin, Arezoo; Farzanegan, Fahimeh; Atai, Mohammad; Jamehdar, Saeed Amel; Golfakhrabadi, Parvaneh; Shafaee, Hooman

2017-02-01

The aim of this 'split-mouth design' trial was to evaluate the effect of the nano amorphous calcium phosphate (NACP) containing composite on enamel mineral contents and streptococcus mutans population in fixed orthodontic patients. Randomized, prospective, single-center controlled trial. Twenty-four patients between the ages of 13-18 years participated in this study. The control and test sides were randomly selected by a coin toss (1:1 ratio). On the control side orthodontic brackets were bonded on the buccal surfaces of upper premolars and laterals using an orthodontic composite (Transbond XT), and on the study side NACP-containing composite was used. Outcome measures were the mineral content around the brackets and S.mutans count. The later were calculated in the plaque around the brackets by real-time PCR at 3 months, and 6 months after the initiation of treatment. All stages of the study were blind using coding system. Paired t-test and repeated measurements were used for data analysis. In the third and sixth month, the bacterial population was significantly lower in the study side than the control side (P = 0.01 and 0.000).The mineral content of the study side was significantly higher than the controls, 6 months after brocket bonding (P = 0.004). There were no significant differences between the premolars and lateral teeth for all measurements. This research was performed in a single-center by one experienced clinician. NACP-containing composites have the potential to inhibit mineral content loss and S.mutans colonization around orthodontic brackets during fixed orthodontic treatments. This trial was not registered. The protocol was not published before trial commencement. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Sixth-Grade Students' Progress in Understanding the Mechanisms of Global Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

Visintainer, Tammie; Linn, Marcia

2015-04-01

Developing solutions for complex issues such as global climate change requires an understanding of the mechanisms involved. This study reports on the impact of a technology-enhanced unit designed to improve understanding of global climate change, its mechanisms, and their relationship to everyday energy use. Global Climate Change, implemented in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE), engages sixth-grade students in conducting virtual investigations using NetLogo models to foster an understanding of core mechanisms including the greenhouse effect. Students then test how the greenhouse effect is enhanced by everyday energy use. This study draws on three data sources: (1) pre- and post-unit interviews, (2) analysis of embedded assessments following virtual investigations, and (3) contrasting cases of two students (normative vs. non-normative understanding of the greenhouse effect). Results show the value of using virtual investigations for teaching the mechanisms associated with global climate change. Interviews document that students hold a wide range of ideas about the mechanisms driving global climate change. Investigations with models help students use evidence-based reasoning to distinguish their ideas. Results show that understanding the greenhouse effect offers a foundation for building connections between everyday energy use and increases in global temperature. An impediment to establishing coherent understanding was the persistence of an alternative conception about ozone as an explanation for climate change. These findings illustrate the need for regular revision of curriculum based on classroom trials. We discuss key design features of models and instructional revisions that can transform the teaching and learning of global climate change.

77 FR 2606 - Pipeline Safety: Random Drug Testing Rate

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-18

... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [Docket ID PHMSA-2012-0004] Pipeline Safety: Random Drug Testing Rate AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials... pipelines and operators of liquefied natural gas facilities must select and test a percentage of covered...

75 FR 9018 - Pipeline Safety: Random Drug Testing Rate

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-26

... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [Docket ID PHMSA-2010-0034] Pipeline Safety: Random Drug Testing Rate AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials... pipelines and operators of liquefied natural gas facilities must select and test a percentage of covered...

Influence of Maximum Inbreeding Avoidance under BLUP EBV Selection on Pinzgau Population Diversity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radovan Kasarda

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Evaluated was effect of mating (random vs. maximum avoidance of inbreeding under BLUP EBV selection strategy. Existing population structure was under Monte Carlo stochastic simulation analyzed from the point to minimize increase of inbreeding. Maximum avoidance of inbreeding under BLUP selection resulted into comparable increase of inbreeding then random mating in average of 10 generation development. After 10 generations of simulation of mating strategy was observed ΔF= 6,51 % (2 sires, 5,20 % (3 sires, 3,22 % (4 sires resp. 2,94 % (5 sires. With increased number of sires selected, decrease of inbreeding was observed. With use of 4, resp. 5 sires increase of inbreeding was comparable to random mating with phenotypic selection. For saving of genetic diversity and prevention of population loss is important to minimize increase of inbreeding in small populations. Classical approach was based on balancing ratio of sires and dams in mating program. Contrariwise in the most of commercial populations small number of sires was used with high mating ratio.

Adoption of selected innovations in rice production and their effect ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Adoption of selected innovations in rice production and their effect on farmers living standard in Bauchi local government area, Bauchi state, Nigeria. ... International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences ... Simple random sampling technique was used for the selection of 82 rice growers from these villages. The data ...

RARtool: A MATLAB Software Package for Designing Response-Adaptive Randomized Clinical Trials with Time-to-Event Outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryeznik, Yevgen; Sverdlov, Oleksandr; Wong, Weng Kee

2015-08-01

Response-adaptive randomization designs are becoming increasingly popular in clinical trial practice. In this paper, we present RARtool , a user interface software developed in MATLAB for designing response-adaptive randomized comparative clinical trials with censored time-to-event outcomes. The RARtool software can compute different types of optimal treatment allocation designs, and it can simulate response-adaptive randomization procedures targeting selected optimal allocations. Through simulations, an investigator can assess design characteristics under a variety of experimental scenarios and select the best procedure for practical implementation. We illustrate the utility of our RARtool software by redesigning a survival trial from the literature.

Response to family selection and genetic parameters in Japanese quail selected for four week breast weight

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Khaldari, Majid; Yeganeh, Hassan Mehrabani; Pakdel, Abbas

2011-01-01

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of short-term selection for 4 week breast weight (4wk BRW), and to estimate genetic parameters of body weight, and carcass traits. A selection (S) line and control (C) line was randomly selected from a base population. Data were collected over...... was 0.35±0.06. There were a significant difference for BW, and carcass weights but not for carcass percent components between lines (Pcarcass and leg weights were 0.46, 0.41 and 0.47, and 13.2, 16.2, 4.4 %, respectively....... The genetic correlations of BRW with BW, carcass, leg, and back weights were 0.85, 0.88 and 0.72, respectively. Selection for 4 wk BRW improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) about 0.19 units over the selection period. Inbreeding caused an insignificant decline of the mean of some traits. Results from...

40 CFR 205.57-2 - Test vehicle sample selection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... pursuant to a test request in accordance with this subpart will be selected in the manner specified in the... then using a table of random numbers to select the number of vehicles as specified in paragraph (c) of... with the desig-nated AQL are contained in Appendix I, -Table II. (c) The appropriate batch sample size...

Record statistics of financial time series and geometric random walks.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabir, Behlool; Santhanam, M S

2014-09-01

The study of record statistics of correlated series in physics, such as random walks, is gaining momentum, and several analytical results have been obtained in the past few years. In this work, we study the record statistics of correlated empirical data for which random walk models have relevance. We obtain results for the records statistics of select stock market data and the geometric random walk, primarily through simulations. We show that the distribution of the age of records is a power law with the exponent α lying in the range 1.5≤α≤1.8. Further, the longest record ages follow the Fréchet distribution of extreme value theory. The records statistics of geometric random walk series is in good agreement with that obtained from empirical stock data.

Mating schemes for optimum contribution selection with constrained rates of inbreeding

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sonesson, A.K.; Meuwissen, T.H.E.

2000-01-01

The effect of non-random mating on genetic response was compared for populations with discrete generations. Mating followed a selection step where the average coancestry of selected animals was constrained, while genetic response was maximised. Minimum coancestry (MC), Minimum coancestry with a

Vast Portfolio Selection with Gross-exposure Constraints().

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Jianqing; Zhang, Jingjin; Yu, Ke

2012-01-01

We introduce the large portfolio selection using gross-exposure constraints. We show that with gross-exposure constraint the empirically selected optimal portfolios based on estimated covariance matrices have similar performance to the theoretical optimal ones and there is no error accumulation effect from estimation of vast covariance matrices. This gives theoretical justification to the empirical results in Jagannathan and Ma (2003). We also show that the no-short-sale portfolio can be improved by allowing some short positions. The applications to portfolio selection, tracking, and improvements are also addressed. The utility of our new approach is illustrated by simulation and empirical studies on the 100 Fama-French industrial portfolios and the 600 stocks randomly selected from Russell 3000.

Novel β-lactamase-random peptide fusion libraries for phage display selection of cancer cell-targeting agents suitable for enzyme prodrug therapy

Science.gov (United States)

Shukla, Girja S.; Krag, David N.

2010-01-01

Novel phage-displayed random linear dodecapeptide (X12) and cysteine-constrained decapeptide (CX10C) libraries constructed in fusion to the amino-terminus of P99 β-lactamase molecules were used for identifying β-lactamase-linked cancer cell-specific ligands. The size and quality of both libraries were comparable to the standards of other reported phage display systems. Using the single-round panning method based on phage DNA recovery, we identified severalβ-lactamase fusion peptides that specifically bind to live human breast cancer MDA-MB-361 cells. The β-lactamase fusion to the peptides helped in conducting the enzyme activity-based clone normalization and cell-binding screening in a very time- and cost-efficient manner. The methods were suitable for 96-well readout as well as microscopic imaging. The success of the biopanning was indicated by the presence of ~40% cancer cell-specific clones among recovered phages. One of the binding clones appeared multiple times. The cancer cell-binding fusion peptides also shared several significant motifs. This opens a new way of preparing and selecting phage display libraries. The cancer cell-specific β-lactamase-linked affinity reagents selected from these libraries can be used for any application that requires a reporter for tracking the ligand molecules. Furthermore, these affinity reagents have also a potential for their direct use in the targeted enzyme prodrug therapy of cancer. PMID:19751096