Regularities of the vertical distribution of uranium-molybdenum mineralization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konstantinov, V.M.; Kazantsev, V.V.; Protasov, V.N.

1980-01-01

The geological structure of one of ore fields of the uranium-molybdenum formation pertaining to the northern framing of a large volcano-tectonic depression is studied. The main uranium deposits are related to necks formed by neck facies of brown liparites. Three zones are singled out within the limits of the ore field. In the upper one there are small ore bodies with a low uranium content represented by phenolite-chlorite, pitchblende 3-coffinite 3-jordizite and calcinite-sulphide associations, in the middle one - the main ore bodies formed by pitchblende 1-chlorite, molybdenite 2 (jordizite)-pitchblende 2-hydromica, coffinite 2-pyrite associations; in the lower one-thin veinlets formed by coffinite-molybdenite 1-chlorite, brannerite-pyrite and pitchblende 1-chlorite associations. Dimensions of the ore deposits depend on the neck sizes: in small necks the middle zone and, rarely, the lower one are of the industrial interest; in the large ones - the upper middle and, probably, lower ones. The regularities found can be extended to other deposits of the uranium-molybdenum formation [ru

From strategy to action: how top managers' support increases middle managers' commitment to innovation implementation in health care organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Birken, Sarah A; Lee, Shoou-Yih Daniel; Weiner, Bryan J; Chin, Marshall H; Chiu, Michael; Schaefer, Cynthia T

2015-01-01

Evidence suggests that top managers' support influences middle managers' commitment to innovation implementation. What remains unclear is how top managers' support influences middle managers' commitment. Results may be used to improve dismal rates of innovation implementation. We used a mixed-method sequential design. We surveyed (n = 120) and interviewed (n = 16) middle managers implementing an innovation intended to reduce health disparities in 120 U.S. health centers to assess whether top managers' support directly influences middle managers' commitment; by allocating implementation policies and practices; or by moderating the influence of implementation policies and practices on middle managers' commitment. For quantitative analyses, multivariable regression assessed direct and moderated effects; a mediation model assessed mediating effects. We used template analysis to assess qualitative data. We found support for each hypothesized relationship: Results suggest that top managers increase middle managers' commitment by directly conveying to middle managers that innovation implementation is an organizational priority (β = 0.37, p = .09); allocating implementation policies and practices including performance reviews, human resources, training, and funding (bootstrapped estimate for performance reviews = 0.09; 95% confidence interval [0.03, 0.17]); and encouraging middle managers to leverage performance reviews and human resources to achieve innovation implementation. Top managers can demonstrate their support directly by conveying to middle managers that an initiative is an organizational priority, allocating implementation policies and practices such as human resources and funding to facilitate innovation implementation, and convincing middle managers that innovation implementation is possible using available implementation policies and practices. Middle managers may maximize the influence of top managers' support on their commitment by communicating with top

Diverse Regular Employees and Non-regular Employment (Japanese)

OpenAIRE

MORISHIMA Motohiro

2011-01-01

Currently there are high expectations for the introduction of policies related to diverse regular employees. These policies are a response to the problem of disparities between regular and non-regular employees (part-time, temporary, contract and other non-regular employees) and will make it more likely that workers can balance work and their private lives while companies benefit from the advantages of regular employment. In this paper, I look at two issues that underlie this discussion. The ...

Brain imaging study of the acute effects of Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on attention and motor coordination in regular users of marijuana.

Science.gov (United States)

Weinstein, Aviv; Brickner, Orit; Lerman, Hedva; Greemland, Mazal; Bloch, Miki; Lester, Hava; Chisin, Roland; Mechoulam, Raphael; Bar-Hamburger, Rachel; Freedman, Nanette; Even-Sapir, Einat

2008-01-01

Twelve regular users of marijuana underwent two positron emission tomography (PET) scans using [18F] Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), one while subject to the effects of 17 mg THC, the other without THC. In both sessions, a virtual reality maze task was performed during the FDG uptake period. When subject to the effects of 17 mg THC, regular marijuana smokers hit the walls more often on the virtual maze task than without THC. Compared to results without THC, 17 mg THC increased brain metabolism during task performance in areas that are associated with motor coordination and attention in the middle and medial frontal cortices and anterior cingulate, and reduced metabolism in areas that are related to visual integration of motion in the occipital lobes. These findings suggest that in regular marijuana users, the immediate effects of marijuana may impact on cognitive-motor skills and brain mechanisms that modulate coordinated movement and driving.

Assessment of intensity effort of middle-aged adults practicing regular walking.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Anderson A; Lima, Daniela A; Vieira, Gabriella F; Fernandes, Aline A; Pereira, Danielle A G

2015-01-01

Walking is one of the most commonly recommended activities for sedentary individuals. When performed at the correct intensity, it can provide cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic, and other benefits by providing a training effect in addition to reducing the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases and other chronic health conditions. The primary aim of this study was to assess whether individuals who practiced regular unsupervised walking carry out the activity safely and with sufficient effort intensity parameters to have a positive physiological (training) effect. The secondary objective was to compare the training heart rate (HR) and the stability of the HR within the ideal range of training between the sexes. Individuals were selected from walking tracks within the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The study included subjects from 40 to 60 years of age who had practiced walking for at least two months prior to the study, walking at least three times a week. Individuals who agreed to participate in the survey were asked to walk 15 minutes at their usual pace with their HR measured every 5 minutes using a heart rate monitor. Their average walking HR was compared to the average training HR based on the formula: (220 - age) × 70 to 80% that would result in a positive physiological training effect. Of the 142 individuals evaluated, 25.4% achieved the average training HR. This result was significantly lower than those who did not achieve the average training HR while walking (p=0.002). There were significant differences between men and women who had reached the training HR (p=0.0001). The authors found that individuals who walk regularly performed outside the range of the ideal HR intensity that would cause a positive physiological effect and therefore would probably not achieve a beneficial training effect while walking.

Assessment of intensity effort of middle-aged adults practicing regular walking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anderson A. Silva

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Walking is one of the most commonly recommended activities for sedentary individuals. When performed at the correct intensity, it can provide cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic, and other benefits by providing a training effect in addition to reducing the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases and other chronic health conditions. Objectives: The primary aim of this study was to assess whether individuals who practiced regular unsupervised walking carry out the activity safely and with sufficient effort intensity parameters to have a positive physiological (training effect. The secondary objective was to compare the training heart rate (HR and the stability of the HR within the ideal range of training between the sexes. Method: Individuals were selected from walking tracks within the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The study included subjects from 40 to 60 years of age who had practiced walking for at least two months prior to the study, walking at least three times a week. Individuals who agreed to participate in the survey were asked to walk 15 minutes at their usual pace with their HR measured every 5 minutes using a heart rate monitor. Their average walking HR was compared to the average training HR based on the formula: (220 - age × 70 to 80% that would result in a positive physiological training effect. Results: Of the 142 individuals evaluated, 25.4% achieved the average training HR. This result was significantly lower than those who did not achieve the average training HR while walking (p=0.002. There were significant differences between men and women who had reached the training HR (p=0.0001. Conclusion: The authors found that individuals who walk regularly performed outside the range of the ideal HR intensity that would cause a positive physiological effect and therefore would probably not achieve a beneficial training effect while walking.

Coordinate-invariant regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halpern, M.B.

1987-01-01

A general phase-space framework for coordinate-invariant regularization is given. The development is geometric, with all regularization contained in regularized DeWitt Superstructures on field deformations. Parallel development of invariant coordinate-space regularization is obtained by regularized functional integration of the momenta. As representative examples of the general formulation, the regularized general non-linear sigma model and regularized quantum gravity are discussed. copyright 1987 Academic Press, Inc

Modeling social norms increasingly influences costly sharing in middle childhood.

Science.gov (United States)

House, Bailey R; Tomasello, Michael

2018-07-01

Prosocial and normative behavior emerges in early childhood, but substantial changes in prosocial behavior in middle childhood may be due to it becoming integrated with children's understanding of what is normative. Here we show that information about what is normative begins influencing children's costly sharing in middle childhood in a sample of 6- to 11-year-old German children. Information about what is normative was most influential when indicating what was "right" (i.e., "The right thing is to choose this"). It was less influential when indicating what was prescribed by a rule (i.e., "There is a rule that says to choose this") or when it indicated what the majority of people do (i.e., "Most people choose this"). These findings support the idea that middle childhood is when social norms begin to shape children's costly sharing and provide insight into the psychological foundations of the relationship between norms and prosocial behavior. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Selection of regularization parameter for l1-regularized damage detection

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Rongrong; Xia, Yong; Bao, Yuequan; Zhou, Xiaoqing

2018-06-01

The l1 regularization technique has been developed for structural health monitoring and damage detection through employing the sparsity condition of structural damage. The regularization parameter, which controls the trade-off between data fidelity and solution size of the regularization problem, exerts a crucial effect on the solution. However, the l1 regularization problem has no closed-form solution, and the regularization parameter is usually selected by experience. This study proposes two strategies of selecting the regularization parameter for the l1-regularized damage detection problem. The first method utilizes the residual and solution norms of the optimization problem and ensures that they are both small. The other method is based on the discrepancy principle, which requires that the variance of the discrepancy between the calculated and measured responses is close to the variance of the measurement noise. The two methods are applied to a cantilever beam and a three-story frame. A range of the regularization parameter, rather than one single value, can be determined. When the regularization parameter in this range is selected, the damage can be accurately identified even for multiple damage scenarios. This range also indicates the sensitivity degree of the damage identification problem to the regularization parameter.

Regular aerobic exercise correlates with reduced anxiety and incresed levels of irisin in brain and white adipose tissue.

Science.gov (United States)

Uysal, Nazan; Yuksel, Oguz; Kizildag, Servet; Yuce, Zeynep; Gumus, Hikmet; Karakilic, Aslı; Guvendi, Guven; Koc, Basar; Kandis, Sevim; Ates, Mehmet

2018-05-29

We have recently shown that regular voluntary aerobic exercised rats have low levels of anxiety. Irisin is an exercise-induced myokine that is produced by many tissues; and the role it plays in anxiolytic behavior is unknown. In this study we aimed to investigate the correlation between anxiety like behavior and irisin levels following regular voluntary aerobic exercise in male mice. We've have shown that anxiety levels decreased in exercised mice, while irisin levels increased in the brain, brown adipose tissue, white adipose tissue, kidney, and pancreas tissues. No significant difference of irisin levels in the liver, muscle and serum were detected in the exercise group, when compared to controls. In addition, there was a strong positive correlation between brain irisin levels and activity in middle area of open field test and in the open arms of elevated plus maze test; both which are indicators of low anxiety levels. Our results suggest that decrease in anxiolytic behavior due to regular voluntary exercise may be associated with locally produced brain irisin. White adipose tissue irisin levels also correlated very strongly with low anxiety. However, no serum irisin increase was detected, ruling out the possibility of increased peripheral irisin levels affecting the brain via the bloodstream. Further research is necessary to explain the mechanisms of which peripheral and central irisin effects anxiety and the brain region affected. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Persistence of physical activity in middle age: a nonlinear dynamic panel approach

OpenAIRE

Kumagai, Narimasa; Ogura, Seiritsu

2013-01-01

No prior investigation has considered the effects of state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity on the relationship between regular physical activity (RPA) and latent health stock (LHS). Accounting for state dependence corrects the possible overestimation of the impact of socioeconomic factors. We estimated the degree of the state dependence of RPA and LHS among middle-aged Japanese workers. The 5 years’ longitudinal data used in this study were taken from the Longitudinal Survey of Middle...

Increased Working Memory-Related Brain Activity in Middle-Aged Women with Cognitive Complaints

OpenAIRE

Dumas, Julie A.; Kutz, Amanda M.; McDonald, Brenna C.; R.Naylor, Magdalena; Pfaff, Ashley C.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Newhouse, Paul A.

2012-01-01

Individuals who report subjective cognitive complaints but perform normally on neuropsychological tests may be at increased risk for pathological cognitive aging. The current study examined the effects of the presence of subjective cognitive complaints on functional brain activity during a working memory task in a sample of middle-aged postmenopausal women. Twenty-three postmenopausal women aged 50–60 completed a cognitive complaint battery of questionnaires. Using 20% of items endorsed as th...

Increasing Motivation and Engagement in Elementary and Middle School Students through Technology-Supported Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Godzicki, Linda; Godzicki, Nicole; Krofel, Mary; Michaels, Rachel

2013-01-01

This action research project report was conducted in order to increase motivation and engagement in elementary and middle school students through technology-supported learning environments. The study was conducted from August 27, 2012, through December 14, 2012 with 116 participating students in first-, fourth-, fifth- and eighth-grade classes. To…

Alcohol consumption in Polish middle and high school pupils – has this rapidly increased during 2009–11?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulina Wojtyła-Buciora

2014-09-01

Full Text Available [b]Introduction.[/b] The dynamic rise of alcohol consumption in adolescents is a matter of serious concern, requiring frequently updated monitoring. By such means, it is possible to optimise preventative measures for dealing with this problem. [b]Objective[/b]. To estimate the magnitude/amount and frequency of alcohol consumed by middle and high school pupils in Poland, including the circumstances when alcohol was first drunk. [b]Materials and Methods[/b]. A randomised survey was performed throughout Poland on middle school (junior high school pupils, (n=9360 in 2009, followed by both middle and high school pupils in 2011 (n=7971. The questionnaire was devised by the Polish Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS. [b]Results[/b]. A strikingly sharp increase in alcohol consumption (29% was observed in subjects between 2009 – 2011. In the latter year, 1 month prior to survey, respectively, 50% and 71% of middle school and high school pupils drank alcohol, and correspondingly, 36% and 63% of these pupils ever became intoxicated/drunk. [b]Conclusions[/b]. 1 Adolescent alcohol consumption increases with age and is highest in girls. Monitoring as well as in-depth analysis thus becomes necessary. 2 Systematic monitoring and analysis of changing healthy lifestyle behaviour should be used for taking the necessary corrective action. This should happen concurrently and consist of planned health education programmes, including health promotion.

Higher muscle content of perilipin 5 and endothelial lipase protein in trained than untrained middle-aged men

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vigelsø Hansen, Andreas; Prats, C; Ploug, T

2016-01-01

A high VO(2)max in middle-age is related to high metabolic flexibility and lowered risk of metabolic diseases. However, the influence of a high VO(2)max induced by years of regular training in middle-age on protein expression related to muscle metabolism is not well studied. This study measures k...

Classroom Interaction in Regular and Special Education Middle Primary Classrooms in the United Arab Emirates

Science.gov (United States)

Dukmak, Samir

2010-01-01

Samir Dukmak is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education in the Faculty of Education at the United Arab Emirates University. The research reported in this article investigated the frequency, types of and reasons for student-initiated interactions in both regular and special education classrooms in the United Arab Emirates…

Cannabis use patterns and motives: A comparison of younger, middle-aged, and older medical cannabis dispensary patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Haug, Nancy A; Padula, Claudia B; Sottile, James E; Vandrey, Ryan; Heinz, Adrienne J; Bonn-Miller, Marcel O

2017-09-01

Medical cannabis is increasingly being used for a variety of health conditions as more states implement legislation permitting medical use of cannabis. Little is known about medical cannabis use patterns and motives among adults across the lifespan. The present study examined data collected at a medical cannabis dispensary in San Francisco, California. Participants included 217 medical cannabis patients who were grouped into age-defined cohorts (younger: 18-30, middle-aged: 31-50, and older: 51-72). The age groups were compared on several measures of cannabis use, motives and medical conditions using one-way ANOVAs, chi-square tests and linear regression analyses. All three age groups had similar frequency of cannabis use over the past month; however, the quantity of cannabis used and rates of problematic cannabis use were higher among younger users relative to middle-aged and older adults. The association between age and problematic cannabis use was moderated by age of regular use initiation such that earlier age of regular cannabis use onset was associated with more problematic use in the younger users, but not among older users. Middle-aged adults were more likely to report using medical cannabis for insomnia, while older adults were more likely to use medical cannabis for chronic medical problems such as cancer, glaucoma and HIV/AIDS. Younger participants reported cannabis use when bored at a greater rate than middle-aged and older adults. Findings suggest that there is an age-related risk for problematic cannabis use among medical cannabis users, such that younger users should be monitored for cannabis use patterns that may lead to deleterious consequences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cannabis Use Patterns and Motives: A Comparison of Younger, Middle-Aged, and Older Medical Cannabis Dispensary Patients

Science.gov (United States)

Haug, Nancy A.; Padula, Claudia B.; Sottile, James E.; Vandrey, Ryan; Heinz, Adrienne J.; Bonn-Miller, Marcel O.

2017-01-01

Introduction Medical cannabis is increasingly being used for a variety of health conditions as more states implement legislation permitting medical use of cannabis. Little is known about medical cannabis use patterns and motives among adults across the lifespan. Methods The present study examined data collected at a medical cannabis dispensary in San Francisco, California. Participants included 217 medical cannabis patients who were grouped into age-defined cohorts (younger: 18–30, middle-aged: 31–50, and older: 51–72). The age groups were compared on several measures of cannabis use, motives and medical conditions using one-way ANOVAs, chi-square tests and linear regression analyses. Results All three age groups had similar frequency of cannabis use over the past month; however, the quantity of cannabis used and rates of problematic cannabis use were higher among younger users relative to middle-aged and older adults. The association between age and problematic cannabis use was moderated by age of regular use initiation such that earlier age of regular cannabis use onset was associated with more problematic use in the younger users, but not among older users. Middle-aged adults were more likely to report using medical cannabis for insomnia, while older adults were more likely to use medical cannabis for chronic medical problems such as cancer, glaucoma and HIV/AIDS. Younger participants reported cannabis use when bored at a greater rate than middle-aged and older adults. Conclusions Findings suggest that there is an age-related risk for problematic cannabis use among medical cannabis users, such that younger users should be monitored for cannabis use patterns that may lead to deleterious consequences. PMID:28340421

Recognition Memory for Novel Stimuli: The Structural Regularity Hypothesis

Science.gov (United States)

Cleary, Anne M.; Morris, Alison L.; Langley, Moses M.

2007-01-01

Early studies of human memory suggest that adherence to a known structural regularity (e.g., orthographic regularity) benefits memory for an otherwise novel stimulus (e.g., G. A. Miller, 1958). However, a more recent study suggests that structural regularity can lead to an increase in false-positive responses on recognition memory tests (B. W. A.…

Is the relative increase in income inequality related to tooth loss in middle-aged adults?

Science.gov (United States)

Goulart, Mariél de Aquino; Vettore, Mario Vianna

2016-01-01

To assess whether Brazilian middle-aged adults living in cities that experienced a relative increase on income inequality were more likely to have severe tooth loss and lack a functional dentition. Data on Brazilian adults aged 35-44 years from state capitals and Federal District from the 2010 Brazilian Oral Health Survey (SBBrasil 2010) were analyzed. Clinically assessed tooth loss outcomes were severe tooth loss (Income inequality was assessed by Gini Index in 1991, 2000, and 2003 using tertiles of distribution. Variation in Gini Index was assessed by changes in the tertiles distribution between years. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95 percent confidence intervals (95 percent CI) between variation in income inequality and tooth loss outcomes adjusting for individual socio-demographic characteristics. Prevalence of severe tooth loss and lack of functional dentition was 4.8 percent and 21.2 percent, respectively. Individuals living in cities with moderate and high increase in income inequality between 1991 and 2003 were more likely to have severe tooth loss and lack a functional dentition in 2010 compared with those living in cities with stable income inequality in the same period. Relationships between low family income and both tooth loss outcomes were significantly attenuated by relative increases in income inequality. Relative increases in income inequality were significantly associated with severe tooth loss and lack of a functional dentition in Brazilian middle-aged adults. © 2015 American Association of Public Health Dentistry.

Regular Expression Matching and Operational Semantics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asiri Rathnayake

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Many programming languages and tools, ranging from grep to the Java String library, contain regular expression matchers. Rather than first translating a regular expression into a deterministic finite automaton, such implementations typically match the regular expression on the fly. Thus they can be seen as virtual machines interpreting the regular expression much as if it were a program with some non-deterministic constructs such as the Kleene star. We formalize this implementation technique for regular expression matching using operational semantics. Specifically, we derive a series of abstract machines, moving from the abstract definition of matching to increasingly realistic machines. First a continuation is added to the operational semantics to describe what remains to be matched after the current expression. Next, we represent the expression as a data structure using pointers, which enables redundant searches to be eliminated via testing for pointer equality. From there, we arrive both at Thompson's lockstep construction and a machine that performs some operations in parallel, suitable for implementation on a large number of cores, such as a GPU. We formalize the parallel machine using process algebra and report some preliminary experiments with an implementation on a graphics processor using CUDA.

Modelling the implications of regular increases in tobacco taxation in the tobacco endgame.

Science.gov (United States)

Cobiac, Linda J; Ikeda, Tak; Nghiem, Nhung; Blakely, Tony; Wilson, Nick

2015-06-01

We examine the potential role for taxation in the tobacco endgame in New Zealand, where the goal is to become 'smokefree' (less than 5% smoking prevalence) by 2025. Modelling study using a dynamic population model. New Zealand, Māori and non-Māori men and women. Annual increases in tobacco excise tax of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% (with 10% reflecting the annual increase recently legislated by the New Zealand Government to 2016). With a continued commitment to annual 10% increases in tobacco excise tax, in addition to on-going Quitline and cessation support, New Zealand's smoking prevalence is projected to fall from 15.1% in 2013 to 8.7% (95% uncertainty interval 8.6% to 8.9%) by 2025. This is compared to 9.9% without any further tax rises. With annual tax increases of 20%, the prevalence is projected to fall to 7.6% (7.5% to 7.7%) by 2025. The potential reductions in smoking prevalence are substantial for both Māori and non-Māori populations, although annual tax increases as high as 20% will still only see Māori smoking prevalence in 2025 approaching the non-Māori smoking levels for 2013. Scenario analyses did not suggest that growth of the illicit tobacco market would substantively undermine the impact of tobacco tax rises. Nevertheless, unknown factors such as the gradual denormalisation of smoking and changes to the 'nicotine market' may influence sensitivity to changes in tobacco prices in the future. Regular increases in tobacco taxation could play an important role in helping to achieve tobacco endgames. However, this modelling in New Zealand suggests that a wider range of tobacco endgame strategies will be needed to achieve a smoke-free goal of less than 5% prevalence for all social groups--a conclusion that could also apply in other countries. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

ACUTE PHASE PROTEIN INCREASE IN HIGH ALTITUDE MOUNTAINEERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tolga Saka

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Introduction: Many middle-aged Turks go hiking in mountains to breathe some fresh air or to maintain fitness. Objective: This study investigated the effects of regular high altitude mountain climbing on the metabolic and hematological responses of mountaineers. Methods: Hematological and biochemical parameters were studied, as well as some hormonal values of 21 mountaineers and 16 healthy age-matched sedentary volunteers. Results: The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR was significantly lower (p<0.04 in mountaineers compared with the sedentary group. Total protein (p<0.001 and albumin (p<0.001 were lower, while the levels of ferritin (p<0.04, creatine (p<0.03 and creatine phosphokinase (p<0.01 were higher in mountaineers. Other hematological and biochemical parameters, i.e., erythrocytes, leukocytes, hemoglobin and hematocrit, did not change significantly. Conclusion: Our results show that regular exposure to high altitude increased the serum levels of some acute phase proteins with anti-inflammatory properties.

Distance-regular graphs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dam, Edwin R.; Koolen, Jack H.; Tanaka, Hajime

2016-01-01

This is a survey of distance-regular graphs. We present an introduction to distance-regular graphs for the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject, and then give an overview of some developments in the area of distance-regular graphs since the monograph 'BCN'[Brouwer, A.E., Cohen, A.M., Neumaier,

Regular expressions cookbook

CERN Document Server

Goyvaerts, Jan

2009-01-01

This cookbook provides more than 100 recipes to help you crunch data and manipulate text with regular expressions. Every programmer can find uses for regular expressions, but their power doesn't come worry-free. Even seasoned users often suffer from poor performance, false positives, false negatives, or perplexing bugs. Regular Expressions Cookbook offers step-by-step instructions for some of the most common tasks involving this tool, with recipes for C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and VB.NET. With this book, you will: Understand the basics of regular expressions through a

LL-regular grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus

1980-01-01

Culik II and Cogen introduced the class of LR-regular grammars, an extension of the LR(k) grammars. In this paper we consider an analogous extension of the LL(k) grammars called the LL-regular grammars. The relation of this class of grammars to other classes of grammars will be shown. Any LL-regular

Drop weld thermal injuries to the middle ear.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Keogh, I J

2009-01-01

Drop weld injuries to the tympanic membrane and middle ear caused by hot sparks or molten slag are a rare but significant injury. Steel workers and welders who are regularly exposed to flying sparks and molten metal slag are predisposed. This type of transtympanic thermal injury occurs when the slag literally drops into the external auditory canal and burns through the tympanic membrane. A spectrum of severity of injury occurs which includes chronic tympanic membrane perforation, chronic otorrhoea, facial nerve injury and deafness. Chronic tympanic membrane perforation is the most common sequelae and is perhaps one of the most challenging of all perforations to repair The combination of direct thermal injury and foreign body reaction results in continuing or recurrent suppuration. The foreign body reaction is due to the embedding of metal slag in the promontorial mucosa. We present a case of drop weld injury to the left tympanic membrane, resulting in chronic middle ear inflammation, otorrhoea and tympanic perforation. CAT scan clearly demonstrated a metallic promontorial foreign body with localised bone erosion. We emphasise the importance of removing these foreign bodies and recommend a cartilage reinforced underlay tympanoplasty technique to repair these perforations. Transtympanic thermal trauma is a preventable occupational injury, which is best, avoided by earplugs and increased awareness.

Rotating Hayward’s regular black hole as particle accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amir, Muhammed; Ghosh, Sushant G.

2015-01-01

Recently, Bañados, Silk and West (BSW) demonstrated that the extremal Kerr black hole can act as a particle accelerator with arbitrarily high center-of-mass energy (E CM ) when the collision takes place near the horizon. The rotating Hayward’s regular black hole, apart from Mass (M) and angular momentum (a), has a new parameter g (g>0 is a constant) that provides a deviation from the Kerr black hole. We demonstrate that for each g, with M=1, there exist critical a E and r H E , which corresponds to a regular extremal black hole with degenerate horizons, and a E decreases whereas r H E increases with increase in g. While aregular non-extremal black hole with outer and inner horizons. We apply the BSW process to the rotating Hayward’s regular black hole, for different g, and demonstrate numerically that the E CM diverges in the vicinity of the horizon for the extremal cases thereby suggesting that a rotating regular black hole can also act as a particle accelerator and thus in turn provide a suitable framework for Plank-scale physics. For a non-extremal case, there always exist a finite upper bound for the E CM , which increases with the deviation parameter g.

Low-Dose Fluvastatin and Valsartan Rejuvenate the Arterial Wall Through Telomerase Activity Increase in Middle-Aged Men.

Science.gov (United States)

Janić, Miodrag; Lunder, Mojca; Cerkovnik, Petra; Prosenc Zmrzljak, Uršula; Novaković, Srdjan; Šabovič, Mišo

2016-04-01

Previously, we have shown that slightly to moderately aged arteries in middle-aged males can be rejuvenated functionally by sub-therapeutic, low-dose fluvastatin and valsartan treatment. Here, we explore whether this treatment could also increase telomerase activity. We hypothesized that telomerase activity might be associated with (1) an improvement of arterial wall properties and (2) a reduction of inflammatory/oxidative stress parameters (both observed in our previous studies). The stored blood samples from 130 apparently healthy middle-aged males treated with fluvastatin (10 mg daily), valsartan (20 mg daily), fluvastatin and valsartan combination (10 and 20 mg), respectively, and placebo (control), were analyzed. The samples were taken before and after treatment lasting 30 days, and 5 months after treatment discontinuation. Telomerase activity was measured in blood leukocytes by a TaqMan Gene Expression Assay. Low-dose fluvastatin or valsartan increased telomerase activity (106.9% and 59.5% respectively; both p valsartan substantially increased telomerase activity, which significantly correlated with an improvement of endothelial function and a decrease of inflammation/oxidative stress. These findings could lead to a new innovative approach to arterial rejuvenation.

The physical activity climate in Minnesota middle and high schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Samuelson, Anne; Lytle, Leslie; Pasch, Keryn; Farbakhsh, Kian; Moe, Stacey; Sirard, John Ronald

2010-11-01

This article describes policies, practices, and facilities that form the physical activity climate in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota metro area middle and high schools and examines how the physical activity climate varies by school characteristics, including public/private, school location and grade level. Surveys examining school physical activity practices, policies and environment were administered to principals and physical education department heads from 115 middle and high schools participating in the Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer-Identifying Determinants of Eating and Activity (TREC-IDEA) study. While some supportive practices were highly prevalent in the schools studied (such as prohibiting substitution of other classes for physical education); other practices were less common (such as providing opportunity for intramural (noncompetitive) sports). Public schools vs. private schools and schools with a larger school enrollment were more likely to have a school climate supportive of physical activity. Although schools reported elements of positive physical activity climates, discrepancies exist by school characteristics. Of note, public schools were more than twice as likely as private schools to have supportive physical activity environments. Establishing more consistent physical activity expectations and funding at the state and national level is necessary to increase regular school physical activity.

Habitual physical activity and vascular aging in a young to middle-age population at low cardiovascular risk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kozakova, Michaela; Palombo, Carlo; Mhamdi, Leila

2007-01-01

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Regular endurance exercise has been shown to reduce the age-related increase in arterial stiffness that is thought to contribute to cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of age and habitual physical activity on carotid artery wall thickness...... physical activity was negatively related to indices of carotid stiffness (r from -0.20 to -0.25, Page...... and physical activity were independently related to carotid stiffness. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides cross-sectional evidence that habitual physical activity is inversely related to the age-dependent increase in carotid wall stiffness in a young to middle-age population at low risk...

Water consumption increases weight loss during a hypocaloric diet intervention in middle-aged and older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Dennis, Elizabeth A; Dengo, Ana Laura; Comber, Dana L; Flack, Kyle D; Savla, Jyoti; Davy, Kevin P; Davy, Brenda M

2010-02-01

Water consumption acutely reduces meal energy intake (EI) among middle-aged and older adults. Our objectives were to determine if premeal water consumption facilitates weight loss among overweight/obese middle-aged and older adults, and to determine if the ability of premeal water consumption to reduce meal EI is sustained after a 12-week period of increased water consumption. Adults (n = 48; 55-75 years, BMI 25-40 kg/m(2)) were assigned to one of two groups: (i) hypocaloric diet + 500 ml water prior to each daily meal (water group), or (ii) hypocaloric diet alone (nonwater group). At baseline and week 12, each participant underwent two ad libitum test meals: (i) no preload (NP), and (ii) 500 ml water preload (WP). Meal EI was assessed at each test meal and body weight was assessed weekly for 12 weeks. Weight loss was ~2 kg greater in the water group than in the nonwater group, and the water group (beta = -0.87, P hypocaloric diet, consuming 500 ml water prior to each main meal leads to greater weight loss than a hypocaloric diet alone in middle-aged and older adults. This may be due in part to an acute reduction in meal EI following water ingestion.

Spatially-Variant Tikhonov Regularization for Double-Difference Waveform Inversion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lin, Youzuo [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Huang, Lianjie [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Zhang, Zhigang [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2011-01-01

Double-difference waveform inversion is a potential tool for quantitative monitoring for geologic carbon storage. It jointly inverts time-lapse seismic data for changes in reservoir geophysical properties. Due to the ill-posedness of waveform inversion, it is a great challenge to obtain reservoir changes accurately and efficiently, particularly when using time-lapse seismic reflection data. Regularization techniques can be utilized to address the issue of ill-posedness. The regularization parameter controls the smoothness of inversion results. A constant regularization parameter is normally used in waveform inversion, and an optimal regularization parameter has to be selected. The resulting inversion results are a trade off among regions with different smoothness or noise levels; therefore the images are either over regularized in some regions while under regularized in the others. In this paper, we employ a spatially-variant parameter in the Tikhonov regularization scheme used in double-difference waveform tomography to improve the inversion accuracy and robustness. We compare the results obtained using a spatially-variant parameter with those obtained using a constant regularization parameter and those produced without any regularization. We observe that, utilizing a spatially-variant regularization scheme, the target regions are well reconstructed while the noise is reduced in the other regions. We show that the spatially-variant regularization scheme provides the flexibility to regularize local regions based on the a priori information without increasing computational costs and the computer memory requirement.

An iterative method for Tikhonov regularization with a general linear regularization operator

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hochstenbach, M.E.; Reichel, L.

2010-01-01

Tikhonov regularization is one of the most popular approaches to solve discrete ill-posed problems with error-contaminated data. A regularization operator and a suitable value of a regularization parameter have to be chosen. This paper describes an iterative method, based on Golub-Kahan

Regular Expression Pocket Reference

CERN Document Server

Stubblebine, Tony

2007-01-01

This handy little book offers programmers a complete overview of the syntax and semantics of regular expressions that are at the heart of every text-processing application. Ideal as a quick reference, Regular Expression Pocket Reference covers the regular expression APIs for Perl 5.8, Ruby (including some upcoming 1.9 features), Java, PHP, .NET and C#, Python, vi, JavaScript, and the PCRE regular expression libraries. This concise and easy-to-use reference puts a very powerful tool for manipulating text and data right at your fingertips. Composed of a mixture of symbols and text, regular exp

Persistence of physical activity in middle age: a nonlinear dynamic panel approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumagai, Narimasa; Ogura, Seiritsu

2014-09-01

No prior investigation has considered the effects of state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity on the relationship between regular physical activity (RPA) and latent health stock (LHS). Accounting for state dependence corrects the possible overestimation of the impact of socioeconomic factors. We estimated the degree of the state dependence of RPA and LHS among middle-aged Japanese workers. The 5 years' longitudinal data used in this study were taken from the Longitudinal Survey of Middle and Elderly Persons. Individual heterogeneity was found for both RPA and LHS, and the dynamic random-effects probit model provided the best specification. A smoking habit, low educational attainment, longer work hours, and longer commuting time had negative effects on RPA participation. RPA had positive effects on LHS, taking into consideration the possibility of confounding with other lifestyle variables. The degree of state dependence of LHS was positive and significant. Increasing the intensity of RPA had positive effects on LHS and caused individuals with RPA to exhibit greater persistence of LHS compared to individuals without RPA. This result implies that policy interventions that promote RPA, such as smoking cessation, have lasting consequences. We concluded that smoking cessation is an important health policy to increase both the participation in RPA and LHS.

S-06: Effect of Increased Cadence on Neuromuscular Response and Lower Limb Kinematics in Middle Distance Runners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amrinder Singh

2017-03-01

Full Text Available AIM: To examine the differences in the neuromuscular and kinematic response in middle distance runners when the step rate was increased to 5% and 10% respectively of the preferred step rate.MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY: 80 middle distance runners (40 males and 40 females participated in the study. EMG of 8 muscles (rectus femoris, medial and lateral hamstrings, medial gastrocnemius, tibialis anterior, gluteus medius and maximus, kinematic changes at the lower limb joints during stance and swing phase of running, foot pressure readings and spatiotemporal gait pa-rameters were recorded as each participant ran at their preferred speed, 5% increase in preferred speed and 10% increase in their preferred speed while keeping the treadmill speed constant.RESULTS: Kinematic analysis showed an increased knee flexion angle at initial contact (p < 0.001 and decreased knee flexion angle during swing phase (p < 0.001, Ankle showed reduced dorsiflex-ion angle at initial contact (p<0.001 and the hip showed less peak flexion (p < 0.001 across step rate conditions.With an increase in step rate, a fore foot strike running pattern was seen. Muscle activity was signif-icantly increased during the late swing and pre-swing at 10% of the preferred speed (p<0.001, with less significant changes during 5% of the preferred speed. During loading response, significant de-crease in muscle activity (p<0.05 was found between 5% and 10% increase of preferred speed.CONCLUSION: Increased cadence showed increased muscle activation and a forefoot strike run-ning pattern. The kinematic changes documented along with the neuromuscular response across the step rate conditions could be beneficial to runners for rehabilitation and injury prevention.

Cardiovascular evaluation of middle-aged/ senior individuals engaged in leisure-time sport activities: position stand from the sections of exercise physiology and sports cardiology of the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Borjesson, Mats; Urhausen, Alex; Kouidi, Evangelia; Dugmore, Dorian; Sharma, Sanjay; Halle, Martin; Heidbüchel, Hein; Björnstad, Hans Halvor; Gielen, Stephan; Mezzani, Alessandro; Corrado, Domenico; Pelliccia, Antonio; Vanhees, Luc

2011-06-01

Regular aerobic exercise at moderate intensities and an increased physical fitness are associated with a reduced risk of fatal and nonfatal coronary events in middle-aged individuals. In contrast, moderate and vigorous physical exertion is associated with an increased risk for cardiac events, including sudden cardiac death in individuals harbouring cardiovascular disease. The risk-benefit ratio may differ in relation to the individual’s age, fitness level, and presence of cardiovascular disease; sedentary individuals with underlying coronary artery disease are at greatest risk. The intention of the present position stand of the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation is to encourage individuals to participate in regular physical activity and derive the benefits of physical exercise while minimizing the risk of cardiovascular adverse events. Therefore, the aim is to establish the most practical method of cardiovascular evaluation in middle-age/senior individuals, who are contemplating exercise or who are already engaged in nonprofessional competitive or recreational leisure sporting activity. These recommendations rely on existing scientific evidence, and in the absence of such, on expert consensus. The methodology of how middle-aged and older individuals should be evaluated appropriately before engaging in regular physical activity is both complex and controversial. On practical grounds the consensus panel recommend that such evaluation should vary according to the individual’s cardiac risk profile and the intended level of physical activity. Self assessment of the habitual physical activity level and of the risk factors, are recommended for screening of large populations. Individuals deemed to be at risk require further evaluation by a qualified physician. In senior/adult individuals with an increased risk for coronary events, maximal exercise testing (and possibly further evaluations) is advocated. Hopefully, the recommendations

Expressiveness modulo Bisimilarity of Regular Expressions with Parallel Composition (Extended Abstract

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Jos C. M. Baeten

2010-11-01

Full Text Available The languages accepted by finite automata are precisely the languages denoted by regular expressions. In contrast, finite automata may exhibit behaviours that cannot be described by regular expressions up to bisimilarity. In this paper, we consider extensions of the theory of regular expressions with various forms of parallel composition and study the effect on expressiveness. First we prove that adding pure interleaving to the theory of regular expressions strictly increases its expressiveness up to bisimilarity. Then, we prove that replacing the operation for pure interleaving by ACP-style parallel composition gives a further increase in expressiveness. Finally, we prove that the theory of regular expressions with ACP-style parallel composition and encapsulation is expressive enough to express all finite automata up to bisimilarity. Our results extend the expressiveness results obtained by Bergstra, Bethke and Ponse for process algebras with (the binary variant of Kleene's star operation.

The geometry of continuum regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halpern, M.B.

1987-03-01

This lecture is primarily an introduction to coordinate-invariant regularization, a recent advance in the continuum regularization program. In this context, the program is seen as fundamentally geometric, with all regularization contained in regularized DeWitt superstructures on field deformations

Chronic pyruvate supplementation increases exploratory activity and brain energy reserves in young and middle-aged mice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koivisto, Hennariikka; Leinonen, Henri; Puurula, Mari

2016-01-01

to brain and thereby attenuate aging- or AD-related cognitive impairment. Mice received ~800 mg/kg/day Na-pyruvate in their chow for 2-6 months. In middle-aged wild-type mice and in 6.5-month-old APP/PS1 mice, pyruvate facilitated spatial learning and increased exploration of a novel odor. However......, in passive avoidance task for fear memory, the treatment group was clearly impaired. Independent of age, long-term pyruvate increased explorative behavior, which likely explains the paradoxical impairment in passive avoidance. We also assessed pyruvate effects on body weight, muscle force, and endurance...

Regular expression containment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henglein, Fritz; Nielsen, Lasse

2011-01-01

We present a new sound and complete axiomatization of regular expression containment. It consists of the conventional axiomatiza- tion of concatenation, alternation, empty set and (the singleton set containing) the empty string as an idempotent semiring, the fixed- point rule E* = 1 + E × E......* for Kleene-star, and a general coin- duction rule as the only additional rule. Our axiomatization gives rise to a natural computational inter- pretation of regular expressions as simple types that represent parse trees, and of containment proofs as coercions. This gives the axiom- atization a Curry......-Howard-style constructive interpretation: Con- tainment proofs do not only certify a language-theoretic contain- ment, but, under our computational interpretation, constructively transform a membership proof of a string in one regular expres- sion into a membership proof of the same string in another regular expression. We...

Supersymmetric dimensional regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siegel, W.; Townsend, P.K.; van Nieuwenhuizen, P.

1980-01-01

There is a simple modification of dimension regularization which preserves supersymmetry: dimensional reduction to real D < 4, followed by analytic continuation to complex D. In terms of component fields, this means fixing the ranges of all indices on the fields (and therefore the numbers of Fermi and Bose components). For superfields, it means continuing in the dimensionality of x-space while fixing the dimensionality of theta-space. This regularization procedure allows the simple manipulation of spinor derivatives in supergraph calculations. The resulting rules are: (1) First do all algebra exactly as in D = 4; (2) Then do the momentum integrals as in ordinary dimensional regularization. This regularization procedure needs extra rules before one can say that it is consistent. Such extra rules needed for superconformal anomalies are discussed. Problems associated with renormalizability and higher order loops are also discussed

Impact of Light Salt Substitution for Regular Salt on Blood Pressure of Hypertensive Patients

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Carolina Lôbo de Almeida Barros

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Studies have shown sodium restriction to have a beneficial effect on blood pressure (BP of hypertensive patients. Objective: To evaluate the impact of light salt substitution for regular salt on BP of hypertensive patients. Methods: Uncontrolled hypertensive patients of both sexes, 20 to 65 years-old, on stable doses of antihypertensive drugs were randomized into Intervention Group (IG - receiving light salt and Control Group (CG - receiving regular salt. Systolic BP (SBP and diastolic BP (DBP were analyzed by using casual BP measurements and Home Blood Pressure Monitoring (HBPM, and sodium and potassium excretion was assessed on 24-hour urine samples. The patients received 3 g of salt for daily consumption for 4 weeks. Results: The study evaluated 35 patients (65.7% women, 19 allocated to the IG and 16 to the CG. The mean age was 55.5 ± 7.4 years. Most participants had completed the Brazilian middle school (up to the 8th grade; n = 28; 80.0%, had a family income of up to US$ 600 (n = 17; 48.6% and practiced regular physical activity (n = 19; 54.3%. Two patients (5.7% were smokers and 40.0% consumed alcohol regularly (n = 14. The IG showed a significant reduction in both SBP and DBP on the casual measurements and HBPM (p < 0.05 and in sodium excretion (p = 0.016. The CG showed a significant reduction only in casual SBP (p = 0.032. Conclusions: The light salt substitution for regular salt significantly reduced BP of hypertensive patients.

Regularization by External Variables

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bossolini, Elena; Edwards, R.; Glendinning, P. A.

2016-01-01

Regularization was a big topic at the 2016 CRM Intensive Research Program on Advances in Nonsmooth Dynamics. There are many open questions concerning well known kinds of regularization (e.g., by smoothing or hysteresis). Here, we propose a framework for an alternative and important kind of regula......Regularization was a big topic at the 2016 CRM Intensive Research Program on Advances in Nonsmooth Dynamics. There are many open questions concerning well known kinds of regularization (e.g., by smoothing or hysteresis). Here, we propose a framework for an alternative and important kind...

Acute effects of resistance exercise and intermittent intense aerobic exercise on blood cell count and oxidative stress in trained middle-aged women.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardoso, A M; Bagatini, M D; Roth, M A; Martins, C C; Rezer, J F P; Mello, F F; Lopes, L F D; Morsch, V M; Schetinger, M R C

2012-12-01

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of an intermittent intense aerobic exercise session and a resistance exercise session on blood cell counts and oxidative stress parameters in middle-aged women. Thirty-four women were selected and divided into three groups: RE group (performing 60 min of resistance exercises, N = 12), spinning group (performing 60 min of spinning, N = 12), and control group (not exercising regularly, N = 10). In both exercise groups, lymphocytes and monocytes decreased after 1-h recuperation (post-exercise) compared to immediately after exercise (P exercise, in both exercised groups, a significant increase in TBARS (from 16.5 ± 2 to 25 ± 2 for the spinning group and from 18.6 ± 1 to 28.2 ± 3 nmol MDA/mL serum for the RE group) and protein carbonyl (from 1.0 ± 0.3 to 1.6 ± 0.2 for the spinning group and from 0.9 ± 0.2 to 1.5 ± 0.2 nmol/mg protein for the RE group) was observed (P exercise induces immune suppression and increases the production of reactive oxygen species, causing oxidative stress in middle-aged and trained women. Furthermore, we demonstrated that trained women show improved antioxidant capacity and lower oxidative damage than sedentary ones, demonstrating the benefits of chronic regular physical activity.

Regular Single Valued Neutrosophic Hypergraphs

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Muhammad Aslam Malik

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we define the regular and totally regular single valued neutrosophic hypergraphs, and discuss the order and size along with properties of regular and totally regular single valued neutrosophic hypergraphs. We also extend work on completeness of single valued neutrosophic hypergraphs.

Increased heart rate variability during nondirective meditation.

Science.gov (United States)

Nesvold, Anders; Fagerland, Morten W; Davanger, Svend; Ellingsen, Øyvind; Solberg, Erik E; Holen, Are; Sevre, Knut; Atar, Dan

2012-08-01

Meditation practices are in use for relaxation and stress reduction. Some studies indicate beneficial cardiovascular health effects of meditation. The effects on the autonomous nervous system seem to vary among techniques. The purpose of the present study was to identify autonomic nerve activity changes during nondirective meditation. Heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure variability (BPV), and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) were monitored in 27 middle-aged healthy participants of both genders, first during 20 min regular rest with eyes closed, thereafter practising Acem meditation for 20 min. Haemodynamic and autonomic data were collected continuously (beat-to-beat) and non-invasively. HRV and BPV parameters were estimated by power spectral analyses, computed by an autoregressive model. Spontaneous activity of baroreceptors were determined by the sequence method. Primary outcomes were changes in HRV, BPV, and BRS between rest and meditation. HRV increased in the low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) bands during meditation, compared with rest (p = 0.014, 0.013, respectively). Power spectral density of the RR-intervals increased as well (p = 0.012). LF/HF ratio decreased non-significantly, and a reduction of LF-BPV power was observed during meditation (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in BRS. Respiration and heart rates remained unchanged. Blood pressure increased slightly during meditation. There is an increased parasympathetic and reduced sympathetic nerve activity and increased overall HRV, while practising the technique. Hence, nondirective meditation by the middle aged may contribute towards a reduction of cardiovascular risk.

Integrating Moral and Social Development within Middle School Social Studies: A Social Cognitive Domain Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Nucci, Larry; Creane, Michael W.; Powers, Deborah W.

2015-01-01

Eleven teachers and 254 urban middle-school students comprised the sample of this study examining the social and moral development outcomes of the integration of social cognitive domain theory within regular classroom instruction. Participating teachers were trained to construct and implement history lessons that stimulated students' moral…

Adrenarche and middle childhood.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Benjamin C

2011-09-01

Middle childhood, the period from 6 to 12 years of age, is defined socially by increasing autonomy and emotional regulation, somatically by the development of anatomical structures for subsistence, and endocrinologically by adrenarche, the adrenal production of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Here I suggest that DHEA plays a key role in the coordinated development of the brain and body beginning with middle childhood, via energetic allocation. I argue that with adrenarche, increasing levels of circulating DHEA act to down-regulate the release of glucose into circulation and hence limit the supply of glucose which is needed by the brain for synaptogenesis. Furthermore, I suggest the antioxidant properties of DHEA may be important in maintaining synaptic plasticity throughout middle childhood within slow-developing areas of the cortex, including the insula, thamalus, and anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, DHEA may play a role in the development of body odor as a reliable social signal of behavioral changes associated with middle childhood.

Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among schoolchildren: efforts in middle-income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Wijesinha-Bettoni, Ramani; Orito, Aya; Löwik, Marianne; Mclean, Catherine; Muehlhoff, Ellen

2013-03-01

To reverse the trend of rising child obesity rates in many middle-income countries, recommendations include increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. Schools can positively impact children's eating behavior, and multicomponent interventions that include the curriculum, school food environments, and parental involvement are most effective. To find out how fruits and vegetables feature in the dietary guidelines provided to schools, what specific schemes are available for providing these foods, the extent to which nutrition education is included in the curriculum, and how vegetables and fruits are procured in primary schools. In 2008, a survey questionnaire previously validated and revised was sent electronically to national program managers and focal points for school feeding programs in 58 middle-income countries. The rationale was to obtain information relevant to the entire country from these key informants. The survey response rate was 46%. The information provided by 22 respondents in 18 countries was included in the current study. On average, respondents answered 88% of the questions analyzed in this paper. Of the respondents, 73% worked for the national authority responsible for school food programs, with 45% at the program coordinator or director level. Few countries have any special fruit and vegetable schemes; implementation constraints include cost and lack of storage facilities. Although 11 of 18 countries have both nutrient-based guidelines and school food guidelines for meals, fruits and vegetables are often not adequately specified. In some countries, nutrition education, special activities, school gardens, and parental participation are used to promote fruits and vegetables. Specific schemes are needed in some, together with school food guidelines that include fruits and vegetables.

Generalization Performance of Regularized Ranking With Multiscale Kernels.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yicong; Chen, Hong; Lan, Rushi; Pan, Zhibin

2016-05-01

The regularized kernel method for the ranking problem has attracted increasing attentions in machine learning. The previous regularized ranking algorithms are usually based on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces with a single kernel. In this paper, we go beyond this framework by investigating the generalization performance of the regularized ranking with multiscale kernels. A novel ranking algorithm with multiscale kernels is proposed and its representer theorem is proved. We establish the upper bound of the generalization error in terms of the complexity of hypothesis spaces. It shows that the multiscale ranking algorithm can achieve satisfactory learning rates under mild conditions. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for drug discovery and recommendation tasks.

Canisius College Summer Science Camp: Combining Science and Education Experts to Increase Middle School Students' Interest in Science

Science.gov (United States)

Sheridan, Phillip M.; Szczepankiewicz, Steven H.; Mekelburg, Christopher R.; Schwabel, Kara M.

2011-01-01

The Canisius College Summer Science Camp is a successful and effective annual outreach program that specifically targets middle school students in an effort to increase their interest in science. Five broadly defined science topics are explored in a camp-like atmosphere filled with hands-on activities. A 2010 module focused on chemistry topics of…

On a correspondence between regular and non-regular operator monotone functions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gibilisco, P.; Hansen, Frank; Isola, T.

2009-01-01

We prove the existence of a bijection between the regular and the non-regular operator monotone functions satisfying a certain functional equation. As an application we give a new proof of the operator monotonicity of certain functions related to the Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information....

Short Sleep Duration Among Middle School and High School Students - United States, 2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Wheaton, Anne G; Jones, Sherry Everett; Cooper, Adina C; Croft, Janet B

2018-01-26

Insufficient sleep among children and adolescents is associated with increased risk for obesity, diabetes, injuries, poor mental health, attention and behavior problems, and poor academic performance (1-4). The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended that, for optimal health, children aged 6-12 years should regularly sleep 9-12 hours per 24 hours and teens aged 13-18 years should sleep 8-10 hours per 24 hours (1). CDC analyzed data from the 2015 national, state, and large urban school district Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBSs) to determine the prevalence of short sleep duration (school nights among middle school and high school students in the United States. In nine states that conducted the middle school YRBS and included a question about sleep duration in their questionnaire, the prevalence of short sleep duration among middle school students was 57.8%, with state-level estimates ranging from 50.2% (New Mexico) to 64.7% (Kentucky). The prevalence of short sleep duration among high school students in the national YRBS was 72.7%. State-level estimates of short sleep duration for the 30 states that conducted the high school YRBS and included a question about sleep duration in their questionnaire ranged from 61.8% (South Dakota) to 82.5% (West Virginia). The large percentage of middle school and high school students who do not get enough sleep on school nights suggests a need for promoting sleep health in schools and at home and delaying school start times to permit students adequate time for sleep.

Borderline personality disorder and regularly drinking alcohol before sex.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Ronald G; Eaton, Nicholas R; Hu, Mei-Chen; Hasin, Deborah S

2017-07-01

Drinking alcohol before sex increases the likelihood of engaging in unprotected intercourse, having multiple sexual partners and becoming infected with sexually transmitted infections. Borderline personality disorder (BPD), a complex psychiatric disorder characterised by pervasive instability in emotional regulation, self-image, interpersonal relationships and impulse control, is associated with substance use disorders and sexual risk behaviours. However, no study has examined the relationship between BPD and drinking alcohol before sex in the USA. This study examined the association between BPD and regularly drinking before sex in a nationally representative adult sample. Participants were 17 491 sexually active drinkers from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Logistic regression models estimated effects of BPD diagnosis, specific borderline diagnostic criteria and BPD criterion count on the likelihood of regularly (mostly or always) drinking alcohol before sex, adjusted for controls. Borderline personality disorder diagnosis doubled the odds of regularly drinking before sex [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.26; confidence interval (CI) = 1.63, 3.14]. Of nine diagnostic criteria, impulsivity in areas that are self-damaging remained a significant predictor of regularly drinking before sex (AOR = 1.82; CI = 1.42, 2.35). The odds of regularly drinking before sex increased by 20% for each endorsed criterion (AOR = 1.20; CI = 1.14, 1.27) DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to examine the relationship between BPD and regularly drinking alcohol before sex in the USA. Substance misuse treatment should assess regularly drinking before sex, particularly among patients with BPD, and BPD treatment should assess risk at the intersection of impulsivity, sexual behaviour and substance use. [Thompson Jr RG, Eaton NR, Hu M-C, Hasin DS Borderline personality disorder and regularly drinking alcohol

Regular Breakfast and Blood Lead Levels among Preschool Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Needleman Herbert

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Previous studies have shown that fasting increases lead absorption in the gastrointestinal tract of adults. Regular meals/snacks are recommended as a nutritional intervention for lead poisoning in children, but epidemiological evidence of links between fasting and blood lead levels (B-Pb is rare. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between eating a regular breakfast and B-Pb among children using data from the China Jintan Child Cohort Study. Methods Parents completed a questionnaire regarding children's breakfast-eating habit (regular or not, demographics, and food frequency. Whole blood samples were collected from 1,344 children for the measurements of B-Pb and micronutrients (iron, copper, zinc, calcium, and magnesium. B-Pb and other measures were compared between children with and without regular breakfast. Linear regression modeling was used to evaluate the association between regular breakfast and log-transformed B-Pb. The association between regular breakfast and risk of lead poisoning (B-Pb≥10 μg/dL was examined using logistic regression modeling. Results Median B-Pb among children who ate breakfast regularly and those who did not eat breakfast regularly were 6.1 μg/dL and 7.2 μg/dL, respectively. Eating breakfast was also associated with greater zinc blood levels. Adjusting for other relevant factors, the linear regression model revealed that eating breakfast regularly was significantly associated with lower B-Pb (beta = -0.10 units of log-transformed B-Pb compared with children who did not eat breakfast regularly, p = 0.02. Conclusion The present study provides some initial human data supporting the notion that eating a regular breakfast might reduce B-Pb in young children. To our knowledge, this is the first human study exploring the association between breakfast frequency and B-Pb in young children.

Stochastic analytic regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alfaro, J.

1984-07-01

Stochastic regularization is reexamined, pointing out a restriction on its use due to a new type of divergence which is not present in the unregulated theory. Furthermore, we introduce a new form of stochastic regularization which permits the use of a minimal subtraction scheme to define the renormalized Green functions. (author)

Reducing errors in the GRACE gravity solutions using regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Save, Himanshu; Bettadpur, Srinivas; Tapley, Byron D.

2012-09-01

The nature of the gravity field inverse problem amplifies the noise in the GRACE data, which creeps into the mid and high degree and order harmonic coefficients of the Earth's monthly gravity fields provided by GRACE. Due to the use of imperfect background models and data noise, these errors are manifested as north-south striping in the monthly global maps of equivalent water heights. In order to reduce these errors, this study investigates the use of the L-curve method with Tikhonov regularization. L-curve is a popular aid for determining a suitable value of the regularization parameter when solving linear discrete ill-posed problems using Tikhonov regularization. However, the computational effort required to determine the L-curve is prohibitively high for a large-scale problem like GRACE. This study implements a parameter-choice method, using Lanczos bidiagonalization which is a computationally inexpensive approximation to L-curve. Lanczos bidiagonalization is implemented with orthogonal transformation in a parallel computing environment and projects a large estimation problem on a problem of the size of about 2 orders of magnitude smaller for computing the regularization parameter. Errors in the GRACE solution time series have certain characteristics that vary depending on the ground track coverage of the solutions. These errors increase with increasing degree and order. In addition, certain resonant and near-resonant harmonic coefficients have higher errors as compared with the other coefficients. Using the knowledge of these characteristics, this study designs a regularization matrix that provides a constraint on the geopotential coefficients as a function of its degree and order. This regularization matrix is then used to compute the appropriate regularization parameter for each monthly solution. A 7-year time-series of the candidate regularized solutions (Mar 2003-Feb 2010) show markedly reduced error stripes compared with the unconstrained GRACE release 4

Regularity and chaos in cavity QED

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bastarrachea-Magnani, Miguel Angel; López-del-Carpio, Baldemar; Chávez-Carlos, Jorge; Lerma-Hernández, Sergio; Hirsch, Jorge G

2017-01-01

The interaction of a quantized electromagnetic field in a cavity with a set of two-level atoms inside it can be described with algebraic Hamiltonians of increasing complexity, from the Rabi to the Dicke models. Their algebraic character allows, through the use of coherent states, a semiclassical description in phase space, where the non-integrable Dicke model has regions associated with regular and chaotic motion. The appearance of classical chaos can be quantified calculating the largest Lyapunov exponent over the whole available phase space for a given energy. In the quantum regime, employing efficient diagonalization techniques, we are able to perform a detailed quantitative study of the regular and chaotic regions, where the quantum participation ratio (P R ) of coherent states on the eigenenergy basis plays a role equivalent to the Lyapunov exponent. It is noted that, in the thermodynamic limit, dividing the participation ratio by the number of atoms leads to a positive value in chaotic regions, while it tends to zero in the regular ones. (paper)

Chimeric mitochondrial peptides from contiguous regular and swinger RNA.

Science.gov (United States)

Seligmann, Hervé

2016-01-01

Previous mass spectrometry analyses described human mitochondrial peptides entirely translated from swinger RNAs, RNAs where polymerization systematically exchanged nucleotides. Exchanges follow one among 23 bijective transformation rules, nine symmetric exchanges (X ↔ Y, e.g. A ↔ C) and fourteen asymmetric exchanges (X → Y → Z → X, e.g. A → C → G → A), multiplying by 24 DNA's protein coding potential. Abrupt switches from regular to swinger polymerization produce chimeric RNAs. Here, human mitochondrial proteomic analyses assuming abrupt switches between regular and swinger transcriptions, detect chimeric peptides, encoded by part regular, part swinger RNA. Contiguous regular- and swinger-encoded residues within single peptides are stronger evidence for translation of swinger RNA than previously detected, entirely swinger-encoded peptides: regular parts are positive controls matched with contiguous swinger parts, increasing confidence in results. Chimeric peptides are 200 × rarer than swinger peptides (3/100,000 versus 6/1000). Among 186 peptides with > 8 residues for each regular and swinger parts, regular parts of eleven chimeric peptides correspond to six among the thirteen recognized, mitochondrial protein-coding genes. Chimeric peptides matching partly regular proteins are rarer and less expressed than chimeric peptides matching non-coding sequences, suggesting targeted degradation of misfolded proteins. Present results strengthen hypotheses that the short mitogenome encodes far more proteins than hitherto assumed. Entirely swinger-encoded proteins could exist.

Structural characterization of the packings of granular regular polygons.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chuncheng; Dong, Kejun; Yu, Aibing

2015-12-01

By using a recently developed method for discrete modeling of nonspherical particles, we simulate the random packings of granular regular polygons with three to 11 edges under gravity. The effects of shape and friction on the packing structures are investigated by various structural parameters, including packing fraction, the radial distribution function, coordination number, Voronoi tessellation, and bond-orientational order. We find that packing fraction is generally higher for geometrically nonfrustrated regular polygons, and can be increased by the increase of edge number and decrease of friction. The changes of packing fraction are linked with those of the microstructures, such as the variations of the translational and orientational orders and local configurations. In particular, the free areas of Voronoi tessellations (which are related to local packing fractions) can be described by log-normal distributions for all polygons. The quantitative analyses establish a clearer picture for the packings of regular polygons.

Iterated Process Analysis over Lattice-Valued Regular Expressions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Midtgaard, Jan; Nielson, Flemming; Nielson, Hanne Riis

2016-01-01

We present an iterated approach to statically analyze programs of two processes communicating by message passing. Our analysis operates over a domain of lattice-valued regular expressions, and computes increasingly better approximations of each process's communication behavior. Overall the work e...... extends traditional semantics-based program analysis techniques to automatically reason about message passing in a manner that can simultaneously analyze both values of variables as well as message order, message content, and their interdependencies.......We present an iterated approach to statically analyze programs of two processes communicating by message passing. Our analysis operates over a domain of lattice-valued regular expressions, and computes increasingly better approximations of each process's communication behavior. Overall the work...

Civic engagement among orphans and non-orphans in five low- and middle-income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Gray, Christine L; Pence, Brian W; Messer, Lynne C; Ostermann, Jan; Whetten, Rachel A; Thielman, Nathan M; O'Donnell, Karen; Whetten, Kathryn

2016-10-11

Communities and nations seeking to foster social responsibility in their youth are interested in understanding factors that predict and promote youth involvement in public activities. Orphans and separated children (OSC) are a vulnerable population whose numbers are increasing, particularly in resource-poor settings. Understanding whether and how OSC are engaged in civic activities is important for community and world leaders who need to provide care for OSC and ensure their involvement in sustainable development. The Positive Outcomes for Orphans study (POFO) is a multi-country, longitudinal cohort study of OSC randomly sampled from institution-based care and from family-based care, and of non-OSC sampled from the same study regions. Participants represent six sites in five low-and middle-income countries. We examined civic engagement activities and government trust among subjects > =16 years old at 90-month follow-up (approximately 7.5 years after baseline). We calculated prevalences and estimated the association between key demographic variables and prevalence of regular volunteer work using multivariable Poisson regression, with sampling weights to accounting for the complex sampling design. Among the 1,281 POFO participants > =16 who were assessed at 90-month follow-up, 45 % participated in regular community service or volunteer work; two-thirds of those volunteers did so on a strictly voluntary basis. While government trust was fairly high, at approximately 70 % for each level of government, participation in voting was only 15 % among those who were > =18 years old. We did not observe significant associations between demographic characteristics and regular volunteer work, with the exception of large variation by study site. As the world's leaders grapple with the many competing demands of global health, economic security, and governmental stability, the participation of today's youth in community and governance is essential for

Regularized plane-wave least-squares Kirchhoff migration

KAUST Repository

Wang, Xin; Dai, Wei; Schuster, Gerard T.

2013-01-01

A Kirchhoff least-squares migration (LSM) is developed in the prestack plane-wave domain to increase the quality of migration images. A regularization term is included that accounts for mispositioning of reflectors due to errors in the velocity

[Use of tobacco smoke: approach and risk perception by middle-school students in Catania (Italy)].

Science.gov (United States)

Modonutti, G B; Altobello, A; Fiore, M; Garascia, C; Leon, L

2009-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the approach and behaviour of middle school students in Catania, towards the risks associated with tobacco smoke. This study is part of a multicentric project evaluating the lifestyles of middle school students (grades 6-8), carried out by the Research and Health Education Group (GRES) and was performed during the 2006/2007 school year. In total 432 students participated in the study by completing a self-administered questionnaire. Data was analysed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results show an increasing trend in the number of smokers from grades 6 to 8. In grades 6 and 8 most smokers are female while in grade 7 male smokers outnumber female smokers. Three percent of the student population reports smoking occasionally and 3% are regular smokers. In light of these results families, schools and institutions should take charge of programming and implementing health promotion interventions aimed at reducing risks and improving the quality of life of students in Catania.

Effective field theory dimensional regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lehmann, Dirk; Prezeau, Gary

2002-01-01

A Lorentz-covariant regularization scheme for effective field theories with an arbitrary number of propagating heavy and light particles is given. This regularization scheme leaves the low-energy analytic structure of Greens functions intact and preserves all the symmetries of the underlying Lagrangian. The power divergences of regularized loop integrals are controlled by the low-energy kinematic variables. Simple diagrammatic rules are derived for the regularization of arbitrary one-loop graphs and the generalization to higher loops is discussed

Effective field theory dimensional regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Lehmann, Dirk; Prézeau, Gary

2002-01-01

A Lorentz-covariant regularization scheme for effective field theories with an arbitrary number of propagating heavy and light particles is given. This regularization scheme leaves the low-energy analytic structure of Greens functions intact and preserves all the symmetries of the underlying Lagrangian. The power divergences of regularized loop integrals are controlled by the low-energy kinematic variables. Simple diagrammatic rules are derived for the regularization of arbitrary one-loop graphs and the generalization to higher loops is discussed.

Hierarchical regular small-world networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boettcher, Stefan; Goncalves, Bruno; Guclu, Hasan

2008-01-01

Two new networks are introduced that resemble small-world properties. These networks are recursively constructed but retain a fixed, regular degree. They possess a unique one-dimensional lattice backbone overlaid by a hierarchical sequence of long-distance links, mixing real-space and small-world features. Both networks, one 3-regular and the other 4-regular, lead to distinct behaviors, as revealed by renormalization group studies. The 3-regular network is planar, has a diameter growing as √N with system size N, and leads to super-diffusion with an exact, anomalous exponent d w = 1.306..., but possesses only a trivial fixed point T c = 0 for the Ising ferromagnet. In turn, the 4-regular network is non-planar, has a diameter growing as ∼2 √(log 2 N 2 ) , exhibits 'ballistic' diffusion (d w = 1), and a non-trivial ferromagnetic transition, T c > 0. It suggests that the 3-regular network is still quite 'geometric', while the 4-regular network qualifies as a true small world with mean-field properties. As an engineering application we discuss synchronization of processors on these networks. (fast track communication)

75 FR 76006 - Regular Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-07

... FARM CREDIT SYSTEM INSURANCE CORPORATION Regular Meeting AGENCY: Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board. ACTION: Regular meeting. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board (Board). Date and Time: The meeting of the Board will be held...

General inverse problems for regular variation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damek, Ewa; Mikosch, Thomas Valentin; Rosinski, Jan

2014-01-01

Regular variation of distributional tails is known to be preserved by various linear transformations of some random structures. An inverse problem for regular variation aims at understanding whether the regular variation of a transformed random object is caused by regular variation of components ...

Tibial loading increases osteogenic gene expression and cortical bone volume in mature and middle-aged mice.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew J Silva

Full Text Available There are conflicting data on whether age reduces the response of the skeleton to mechanical stimuli. We examined this question in female BALB/c mice of different ages, ranging from young to middle-aged (2, 4, 7, 12 months. We first assessed markers of bone turnover in control (non-loaded mice. Serum osteocalcin and CTX declined significantly from 2 to 4 months (p<0.001. There were similar age-related declines in tibial mRNA expression of osteoblast- and osteoclast-related genes, most notably in late osteoblast/matrix genes. For example, Col1a1 expression declined 90% from 2 to 7 months (p<0.001. We then assessed tibial responses to mechanical loading using age-specific forces to produce similar peak strains (-1300 µε endocortical; -2350 µε periosteal. Axial tibial compression was applied to the right leg for 60 cycles/day on alternate days for 1 or 6 weeks. qPCR after 1 week revealed no effect of loading in young (2-month mice, but significant increases in osteoblast/matrix genes in older mice. For example, in 12-month old mice Col1a1 was increased 6-fold in loaded tibias vs. controls (p = 0.001. In vivo microCT after 6 weeks revealed that loaded tibias in each age group had greater cortical bone volume (BV than contralateral control tibias (p<0.05, due to relative periosteal expansion. The loading-induced increase in cortical BV was greatest in 4-month old mice (+13%; p<0.05 vs. other ages. In summary, non-loaded female BALB/c mice exhibit an age-related decline in measures related to bone formation. Yet when subjected to tibial compression, mice from 2-12 months have an increase in cortical bone volume. Older mice respond with an upregulation of osteoblast/matrix genes, which increase to levels comparable to young mice. We conclude that mechanical loading of the tibia is anabolic for cortical bone in young and middle-aged female BALB/c mice.

Spiking Regularity and Coherence in Complex Hodgkin–Huxley Neuron Networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhi-Qiang, Sun; Ping, Xie; Wei, Li; Peng-Ye, Wang

2010-01-01

We study the effects of the strength of coupling between neurons on the spiking regularity and coherence in a complex network with randomly connected Hodgkin–Huxley neurons driven by colored noise. It is found that for the given topology realization and colored noise correlation time, there exists an optimal strength of coupling, at which the spiking regularity of the network reaches the best level. Moreover, when the temporal regularity reaches the best level, the spatial coherence of the system has already increased to a relatively high level. In addition, for the given number of neurons and noise correlation time, the values of average regularity and spatial coherence at the optimal strength of coupling are nearly independent of the topology realization. Furthermore, there exists an optimal value of colored noise correlation time at which the spiking regularity can reach its best level. These results may be helpful for understanding of the real neuron world. (cross-disciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

Continuum-regularized quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan Huesum; Halpern, M.B.

1987-01-01

The recent continuum regularization of d-dimensional Euclidean gravity is generalized to arbitrary power-law measure and studied in some detail as a representative example of coordinate-invariant regularization. The weak-coupling expansion of the theory illustrates a generic geometrization of regularized Schwinger-Dyson rules, generalizing previous rules in flat space and flat superspace. The rules are applied in a non-trivial explicit check of Einstein invariance at one loop: the cosmological counterterm is computed and its contribution is included in a verification that the graviton mass is zero. (orig.)

Online co-regularized algorithms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruijter, T. de; Tsivtsivadze, E.; Heskes, T.

2012-01-01

We propose an online co-regularized learning algorithm for classification and regression tasks. We demonstrate that by sequentially co-regularizing prediction functions on unlabeled data points, our algorithm provides improved performance in comparison to supervised methods on several UCI benchmarks

Geometric continuum regularization of quantum field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halpern, M.B.

1989-01-01

An overview of the continuum regularization program is given. The program is traced from its roots in stochastic quantization, with emphasis on the examples of regularized gauge theory, the regularized general nonlinear sigma model and regularized quantum gravity. In its coordinate-invariant form, the regularization is seen as entirely geometric: only the supermetric on field deformations is regularized, and the prescription provides universal nonperturbative invariant continuum regularization across all quantum field theory. 54 refs

World gas prospects: which role for the Middle East?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chabrelie, M.F.

1999-01-01

Since the early 1970's, the policies of energy diversification that have been implemented in the industrialized countries and in many developing countries have enabled natural gas to regularly increase its role in the world energy balance. Thus, during the past twenty years, natural gas to recorded the highest growth rate among fossil fuels, and its share in the energy market has gradually risen from 18.9 % in 1975 to 23 % in 1997. Today, thanks to favorable economic and environmental factors, natural gas has become the fuel of choice on many markets. Indeed, gas its blessed with a certain number of favorable assets (abundant reserves, flexibility, high-performance uses) which give it a major role in all energy demand forecast scenarios. The most spectacular development will indisputably take place in the power generation sector. Endowed with a considerable gas potential, the Middle East will represent an essential source of supply for many industrialized countries and several gas export projects, either by LNG tanker or by pipelines are currently being contemplated. During the past decade the contribution of natural gas to the energy mix also grew substantially in most Middle Eastern countries. The increase in gas demand should continue at a sustained rate, mainly driven by the power generation sector, petrochemicals and energy consumption by the hydrocarbons industry. These promising prospects for gas demand in most the markets in the region might lead to the development of an intra-regional network. However, although opportunities exist, the region will have to meet many challenges in order to contribute more largely to the world gas balance in the years to come. (author)

Vitamin K3 increased BMD at 1 and 2 months post-surgery and the maximum stress of the middle femur in the rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, You-jia; Liu, Sheng; Jiang, Ning-yi; Jiang, Sen; Liang, Jiu-gen

2015-02-01

The therapeutic effects of vitamin K3 (VK3) on osteoporosis are still unknown. In this study, we hypothesized that VK3 possesses therapeutic effects on osteoporosis; to verify this hypothesis, the ovariectomized rat was used as an osteoporosis model. Fifty-six Sprague-Dawley female rats aged 8 to 9 months were randomly assigned to 4 groups: sham surgery, ovariectomy with saline, ovariectomy with low-dose VK3, and ovariectomy with high-dose VK3. Intramuscular injection of VK3 was performed every other day beginning 1 month postoperatively. The therapeutic effects of VK3 on osteoporosis were evaluated by measurement of bone mineral density (BMD), bone biochemical markers, biomechanical properties, and bone morphometric parameters. The overall average BMD in VK3-treated groups increased to a level between those of the ovariectomy group and the sham surgery group. The procollagen I N-terminal peptide level peaked at 2 months after surgery in all groups except in the group that had undergone ovariectomy with low-dose VK3. The tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b level increased more slowly at 4 months after surgery than at 2 months after surgery in the VK3-treated groups. The ovariectomy with high-dose VK3 group had the highest maximum stress of the middle femur of all groups. With VK3 treatment, the trabecular bone area percentage increased. All morphometric indicators for the middle tibia in the VK3-treated groups reached the levels found in the sham surgery group. In summary, VK3 therapy increased BMD at 1 and 2 months postsurgery and the maximum stress of the middle femur. In addition, VK3 therapy slowed the increase in bone turnover in ovariectomized rats. Furthermore, VK3 can improve morphometric indicators for the middle tibia. Our preliminary study indicates that VK3 has a potential therapeutic effect on osteoporosis and is worthy of further investigation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bypassing the Limits of Ll Regularization: Convex Sparse Signal Processing Using Non-Convex Regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Parekh, Ankit

Sparsity has become the basis of some important signal processing methods over the last ten years. Many signal processing problems (e.g., denoising, deconvolution, non-linear component analysis) can be expressed as inverse problems. Sparsity is invoked through the formulation of an inverse problem with suitably designed regularization terms. The regularization terms alone encode sparsity into the problem formulation. Often, the ℓ1 norm is used to induce sparsity, so much so that ℓ1 regularization is considered to be `modern least-squares'. The use of ℓ1 norm, as a sparsity-inducing regularizer, leads to a convex optimization problem, which has several benefits: the absence of extraneous local minima, well developed theory of globally convergent algorithms, even for large-scale problems. Convex regularization via the ℓ1 norm, however, tends to under-estimate the non-zero values of sparse signals. In order to estimate the non-zero values more accurately, non-convex regularization is often favored over convex regularization. However, non-convex regularization generally leads to non-convex optimization, which suffers from numerous issues: convergence may be guaranteed to only a stationary point, problem specific parameters may be difficult to set, and the solution is sensitive to the initialization of the algorithm. The first part of this thesis is aimed toward combining the benefits of non-convex regularization and convex optimization to estimate sparse signals more effectively. To this end, we propose to use parameterized non-convex regularizers with designated non-convexity and provide a range for the non-convex parameter so as to ensure that the objective function is strictly convex. By ensuring convexity of the objective function (sum of data-fidelity and non-convex regularizer), we can make use of a wide variety of convex optimization algorithms to obtain the unique global minimum reliably. The second part of this thesis proposes a non-linear signal

Using Tikhonov Regularization for Spatial Projections from CSR Regularized Spherical Harmonic GRACE Solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Save, H.; Bettadpur, S. V.

2013-12-01

It has been demonstrated before that using Tikhonov regularization produces spherical harmonic solutions from GRACE that have very little residual stripes while capturing all the signal observed by GRACE within the noise level. This paper demonstrates a two-step process and uses Tikhonov regularization to remove the residual stripes in the CSR regularized spherical harmonic coefficients when computing the spatial projections. We discuss methods to produce mass anomaly grids that have no stripe features while satisfying the necessary condition of capturing all observed signal within the GRACE noise level.

Regularized maximum correntropy machine

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Wang, Yunji; Jing, Bing-Yi; Gao, Xin

2015-01-01

In this paper we investigate the usage of regularized correntropy framework for learning of classifiers from noisy labels. The class label predictors learned by minimizing transitional loss functions are sensitive to the noisy and outlying labels of training samples, because the transitional loss functions are equally applied to all the samples. To solve this problem, we propose to learn the class label predictors by maximizing the correntropy between the predicted labels and the true labels of the training samples, under the regularized Maximum Correntropy Criteria (MCC) framework. Moreover, we regularize the predictor parameter to control the complexity of the predictor. The learning problem is formulated by an objective function considering the parameter regularization and MCC simultaneously. By optimizing the objective function alternately, we develop a novel predictor learning algorithm. The experiments on two challenging pattern classification tasks show that it significantly outperforms the machines with transitional loss functions.

Regularized maximum correntropy machine

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2015-02-12

In this paper we investigate the usage of regularized correntropy framework for learning of classifiers from noisy labels. The class label predictors learned by minimizing transitional loss functions are sensitive to the noisy and outlying labels of training samples, because the transitional loss functions are equally applied to all the samples. To solve this problem, we propose to learn the class label predictors by maximizing the correntropy between the predicted labels and the true labels of the training samples, under the regularized Maximum Correntropy Criteria (MCC) framework. Moreover, we regularize the predictor parameter to control the complexity of the predictor. The learning problem is formulated by an objective function considering the parameter regularization and MCC simultaneously. By optimizing the objective function alternately, we develop a novel predictor learning algorithm. The experiments on two challenging pattern classification tasks show that it significantly outperforms the machines with transitional loss functions.

Anaemia in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus attending regular ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Anaemia in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus attending regular Diabetic ... Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences ... some patients may omit important food items in their daily diet for fear of increasing their blood sugar level.

Regularized plane-wave least-squares Kirchhoff migration

KAUST Repository

Wang, Xin

2013-09-22

A Kirchhoff least-squares migration (LSM) is developed in the prestack plane-wave domain to increase the quality of migration images. A regularization term is included that accounts for mispositioning of reflectors due to errors in the velocity model. Both synthetic and field results show that: 1) LSM with a reflectivity model common for all the plane-wave gathers provides the best image when the migration velocity model is accurate, but it is more sensitive to the velocity errors, 2) the regularized plane-wave LSM is more robust in the presence of velocity errors, and 3) LSM achieves both computational and IO saving by plane-wave encoding compared to shot-domain LSM for the models tested.

Regularized Discriminant Analysis: A Large Dimensional Study

KAUST Repository

Yang, Xiaoke

2018-04-28

In this thesis, we focus on studying the performance of general regularized discriminant analysis (RDA) classifiers. The data used for analysis is assumed to follow Gaussian mixture model with different means and covariances. RDA offers a rich class of regularization options, covering as special cases the regularized linear discriminant analysis (RLDA) and the regularized quadratic discriminant analysis (RQDA) classi ers. We analyze RDA under the double asymptotic regime where the data dimension and the training size both increase in a proportional way. This double asymptotic regime allows for application of fundamental results from random matrix theory. Under the double asymptotic regime and some mild assumptions, we show that the asymptotic classification error converges to a deterministic quantity that only depends on the data statistical parameters and dimensions. This result not only implicates some mathematical relations between the misclassification error and the class statistics, but also can be leveraged to select the optimal parameters that minimize the classification error, thus yielding the optimal classifier. Validation results on the synthetic data show a good accuracy of our theoretical findings. We also construct a general consistent estimator to approximate the true classification error in consideration of the unknown previous statistics. We benchmark the performance of our proposed consistent estimator against classical estimator on synthetic data. The observations demonstrate that the general estimator outperforms others in terms of mean squared error (MSE).

Regularities of Multifractal Measures

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

First, we prove the decomposition theorem for the regularities of multifractal Hausdorff measure and packing measure in R R d . This decomposition theorem enables us to split a set into regular and irregular parts, so that we can analyze each separately, and recombine them without affecting density properties. Next, we ...

Adaptive Regularization of Neural Classifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Lars Nonboe; Larsen, Jan; Hansen, Lars Kai

1997-01-01

We present a regularization scheme which iteratively adapts the regularization parameters by minimizing the validation error. It is suggested to use the adaptive regularization scheme in conjunction with optimal brain damage pruning to optimize the architecture and to avoid overfitting. Furthermo......, we propose an improved neural classification architecture eliminating an inherent redundancy in the widely used SoftMax classification network. Numerical results demonstrate the viability of the method...

A Magnetic Transport Middle Eastern Positron Beam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al-Qaradawi, I.Y.; Britton, D.T.; Rajaraman, R.; Abdulmalik, D.

2008-01-01

A magnetically guided slow positron beam is being constructed at Qatar University and is currently being optimised for regular operation. This is the first positron beam in the Middle East, as well as being the first Arabic positron beam. Novel features in the design include a purely magnetic in-line deflector, working in the solenoid guiding field, to eliminate un-moderated positrons and block the direct line of sight to the source. The impact of this all-magnetic transport on the Larmor radius and resultant beam characteristics are studied by SIMION simulations for both ideal and real life magnetic field variations. These results are discussed in light of the coupled effect arising from electrostatic beam extraction

Condition Number Regularized Covariance Estimation.

Science.gov (United States)

Won, Joong-Ho; Lim, Johan; Kim, Seung-Jean; Rajaratnam, Bala

2013-06-01

Estimation of high-dimensional covariance matrices is known to be a difficult problem, has many applications, and is of current interest to the larger statistics community. In many applications including so-called the "large p small n " setting, the estimate of the covariance matrix is required to be not only invertible, but also well-conditioned. Although many regularization schemes attempt to do this, none of them address the ill-conditioning problem directly. In this paper, we propose a maximum likelihood approach, with the direct goal of obtaining a well-conditioned estimator. No sparsity assumption on either the covariance matrix or its inverse are are imposed, thus making our procedure more widely applicable. We demonstrate that the proposed regularization scheme is computationally efficient, yields a type of Steinian shrinkage estimator, and has a natural Bayesian interpretation. We investigate the theoretical properties of the regularized covariance estimator comprehensively, including its regularization path, and proceed to develop an approach that adaptively determines the level of regularization that is required. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the regularized estimator in decision-theoretic comparisons and in the financial portfolio optimization setting. The proposed approach has desirable properties, and can serve as a competitive procedure, especially when the sample size is small and when a well-conditioned estimator is required.

The association between regular yoga and meditation practice and falls and injuries: Results of a national cross-sectional survey among Australian women.

Science.gov (United States)

Cramer, Holger; Sibbritt, David; Adams, Jon; Lauche, Romy

2016-02-01

Falls are the leading cause of injuries in women across all ages. While yoga has been shown to increase balance, it has also been associated with injuries due to falls during practice. This study aimed to analyse whether regular yoga or meditation practice is associated with the frequency of falls and fall-related injuries in upper middle-aged Australian women. Women aged 59-64 years from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) were queried regarding falls and falls-related injuries; and whether they regularly practiced yoga or meditation. Associations of falls and falls-related injuries with yoga or meditation practice were analysed using chi-squared tests and multiple logistic regression modelling. Of 10,011 women, 4413 (44.1%) had slipped, tripped or stumbled, 2770 (27.7%) had fallen to the ground, 1398 (14.0%) had been injured as a result of falling, and 901 (9.0%) women had sought medical attention for a fall-related injury within the previous 12 months. Yoga or meditation was practiced regularly by 746 (7.5%) women. No associations of falls, fall-related injuries and treatment due to falls-related injury with yoga or meditation practice were found. No association between yoga or meditation practice and falls or fall-related injuries have been found. Further studies are warranted for conclusive judgement of benefits and safety of yoga and meditation in relation to balance, falls and fall-related injuries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Differential increases in blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery after tourniquet deflation during sevoflurane, isoflurane or propofol anaesthesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Kadoi, Y; Kawauchi, C H; Ide, M; Saito, S; Mizutani, A

2009-07-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the comparative effects of sevoflurane, isoflurane or propofol on cerebral blood flow velocity after tourniquet deflation during orthopaedic surgery. Thirty patients undergoing elective orthopaedic surgery were randomly divided into sevoflurane, isoflurane and propofol groups. Anaesthesia was maintained with sevoflurane, isoflurane or propofol infusion in 33% oxygen and 67% nitrous oxide, in whatever concentrations were necessary to keep bispectral index values between 45 and 50. Ventilatory rate or tidal volume was adjusted to target PaCO2 of 35 mmHg. A 2.0 MHz transcranial Doppler probe was attached to the patient's head at the temporal window and mean blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery was continuously measured. The extremity was exsanguinated with an Esmarch bandage and the pneumatic tourniquet was inflated to a pressure of 450 mmHg. Arterial blood pressure, heart rate, velocity in the middle cerebral artery and arterial blood gas analysis were measured every minute for 10 minutes after release of the tourniquet in all three groups. Velocity in the middle cerebral artery in the three groups increased for five minutes after tourniquet deflation. Because of the different cerebrovascular effects of the three agents, the degree of increase in flow velocity in the isoflurane group was greater than in the other two groups, the change in flow velocity in the propofol group being the lowest (at three minutes after deflation 40 +/- 7%, 32 +/- 6% and 28 +/- 10% in the isoflurane, sevoflurane and propofol groups respectively, P < 0.05).

Increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary activity in adolescent girls – The Incorporating More Physical Activity and Calcium in Teens (IMPACT) study

OpenAIRE

Hergenroeder Albert; Kelder Steven H; Hoelscher Deanna M; Jones Desiree; Sharma Shreela V

2008-01-01

Abstract Background Lack of regular physical activity and consequent sub-optimal bone mass acquisition in youth has been implicated as a primary cause of adult-onset osteoporosis. IMPACT was a behavioral theory-based 1 1/2 year randomized controlled field study aimed at increasing bone accretion in middle school girls. The objective of this study was to determine the intervention effects of the IMPACT program upon key physical and sedentary activity endpoints among schools that participated i...

The acceptance of dental operating microscope among advance education specialty programs in endodontics in the middle east

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mansour Alrejaie

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Aim: To present the current situation of dental operating microscopy (DOM training in the available Advance Specialty Education Programs in Endodontics in Arab Middle-Eastern countries. Materials and Methods: A web-based survey was sent to the electronic mail address of Advance Specialty Education programs of 15 Arab and middle east countries. The questions were limited to those who have an advanced specialty education program in Endodontics at their University if they are using an operating microscope? Results: Out of 15 countries, only 4 countries have microscopic technology in their Advance Education Programs in Endodontics. Conclusion: Few Arab Middle-Eastern countries have DOM in their advance education programs in endodontics. The highest authority in advancing endodontic education in the Arab Middle-East should consider in the near future the importance of this technology as standard care in teaching advance endodontics. An advance workshops should be organized regularly to provide enough knowledge about this standard educational technology.

Condition Number Regularized Covariance Estimation*

Science.gov (United States)

Won, Joong-Ho; Lim, Johan; Kim, Seung-Jean; Rajaratnam, Bala

2012-01-01

Estimation of high-dimensional covariance matrices is known to be a difficult problem, has many applications, and is of current interest to the larger statistics community. In many applications including so-called the “large p small n” setting, the estimate of the covariance matrix is required to be not only invertible, but also well-conditioned. Although many regularization schemes attempt to do this, none of them address the ill-conditioning problem directly. In this paper, we propose a maximum likelihood approach, with the direct goal of obtaining a well-conditioned estimator. No sparsity assumption on either the covariance matrix or its inverse are are imposed, thus making our procedure more widely applicable. We demonstrate that the proposed regularization scheme is computationally efficient, yields a type of Steinian shrinkage estimator, and has a natural Bayesian interpretation. We investigate the theoretical properties of the regularized covariance estimator comprehensively, including its regularization path, and proceed to develop an approach that adaptively determines the level of regularization that is required. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the regularized estimator in decision-theoretic comparisons and in the financial portfolio optimization setting. The proposed approach has desirable properties, and can serve as a competitive procedure, especially when the sample size is small and when a well-conditioned estimator is required. PMID:23730197

Chronic pyruvate supplementation increases exploratory activity and brain energy reserves in young and middle-aged mice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hennariikka eKoivisto

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Numerous studies have reported neuroprotective effects of pyruvate when given in systemic injections. Impaired glucose uptake and metabolism are found in Alzheimer's disease (AD and in AD mouse models. We tested whether dietary pyruvate supplementation is able to provide added energy supply to brain and thereby attenuate aging- or AD-related cognitive impairment. Mice received ~ 800 mg/kg/day Na-pyruvate in their chow for 2- 6 months. In middle-aged wild-type mice and in 6.5-month-old APP/PS1 mice, pyruvate facilitated spatial learning and increased exploration of a novel odor. However, in passive avoidance task for fear memory, the treatment group was clearly impaired. Independent of age, long-term pyruvate increased explorative behavior, which likely explains the paradoxical impairment in passive avoidance. We also assessed pyruvate effects on body weight, muscle force and endurance, and found no effects. Metabolic post-mortem assays revealed increased energy compounds in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy as well as increased brain glycogen storages in the pyruvate group. Pyruvate supplementation may counteract aging-related behavioral impairment but its beneficial effect seems related to increased explorative activity rather than direct memory enhancement.

Correction of engineering servicing regularity of transporttechnological machines in operational process

Science.gov (United States)

Makarova, A. N.; Makarov, E. I.; Zakharov, N. S.

2018-03-01

In the article, the issue of correcting engineering servicing regularity on the basis of actual dependability data of cars in operation is considered. The purpose of the conducted research is to increase dependability of transport-technological machines by correcting engineering servicing regularity. The subject of the research is the mechanism of engineering servicing regularity influence on reliability measure. On the basis of the analysis of researches carried out before, a method of nonparametric estimation of car failure measure according to actual time-to-failure data was chosen. A possibility of describing the failure measure dependence on engineering servicing regularity by various mathematical models is considered. It is proven that the exponential model is the most appropriate for that purpose. The obtained results can be used as a separate method of engineering servicing regularity correction with certain operational conditions taken into account, as well as for the technical-economical and economical-stochastic methods improvement. Thus, on the basis of the conducted researches, a method of engineering servicing regularity correction of transport-technological machines in the operational process was developed. The use of that method will allow decreasing the number of failures.

On the MSE Performance and Optimization of Regularized Problems

KAUST Repository

Alrashdi, Ayed

2016-11-01

The amount of data that has been measured, transmitted/received, and stored in the recent years has dramatically increased. So, today, we are in the world of big data. Fortunately, in many applications, we can take advantages of possible structures and patterns in the data to overcome the curse of dimensionality. The most well known structures include sparsity, low-rankness, block sparsity. This includes a wide range of applications such as machine learning, medical imaging, signal processing, social networks and computer vision. This also led to a specific interest in recovering signals from noisy compressed measurements (Compressed Sensing (CS) problem). Such problems are generally ill-posed unless the signal is structured. The structure can be captured by a regularizer function. This gives rise to a potential interest in regularized inverse problems, where the process of reconstructing the structured signal can be modeled as a regularized problem. This thesis particularly focuses on finding the optimal regularization parameter for such problems, such as ridge regression, LASSO, square-root LASSO and low-rank Generalized LASSO. Our goal is to optimally tune the regularizer to minimize the mean-squared error (MSE) of the solution when the noise variance or structure parameters are unknown. The analysis is based on the framework of the Convex Gaussian Min-max Theorem (CGMT) that has been used recently to precisely predict performance errors.

Regular-, irregular-, and pseudo-character processing in Chinese: The regularity effect in normal adult readers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dustin Kai Yan Lau

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Background Unlike alphabetic languages, Chinese uses a logographic script. However, the pronunciation of many character’s phonetic radical has the same pronunciation as the character as a whole. These are considered regular characters and can be read through a lexical non-semantic route (Weekes & Chen, 1999. Pseudocharacters are another way to study this non-semantic route. A pseudocharacter is the combination of existing semantic and phonetic radicals in their legal positions resulting in a non-existing character (Ho, Chan, Chung, Lee, & Tsang, 2007. Pseudocharacters can be pronounced by direct derivation from the sound of its phonetic radical. Conversely, if the pronunciation of a character does not follow that of the phonetic radical, it is considered as irregular and can only be correctly read through the lexical-semantic route. The aim of the current investigation was to examine reading aloud in normal adults. We hypothesized that the regularity effect, previously described for alphabetical scripts and acquired dyslexic patients of Chinese (Weekes & Chen, 1999; Wu, Liu, Sun, Chromik, & Zhang, 2014, would also be present in normal adult Chinese readers. Method Participants. Thirty (50% female native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers with a mean age of 19.6 years and a mean education of 12.9 years. Stimuli. Sixty regular-, 60 irregular-, and 60 pseudo-characters (with at least 75% of name agreement in Chinese were matched by initial phoneme, number of strokes and family size. Additionally, regular- and irregular-characters were matched by frequency (low and consistency. Procedure. Each participant was asked to read aloud the stimuli presented on a laptop using the DMDX software. The order of stimuli presentation was randomized. Data analysis. ANOVAs were carried out by participants and items with RTs and errors as dependent variables and type of stimuli (regular-, irregular- and pseudo-character as repeated measures (F1 or between subject�

Embedding organisational quality improvement through middle manager ownership.

Science.gov (United States)

Balding, Cathy

2005-01-01

To strengthen the middle manager role in a hospital quality improvement (QI) program, with a view to increasing and sustaining organisational QI implementation. Case study based action research project, combining pre- and post-action quantitative and qualitative data collection, relating to a QI program intervention in an Australian metropolitan specialist teaching hospital. A model for enhancing the middle manager role in QI was developed and then implemented as the action over a 12-month period. Middle manager understanding and ownership of the QI program and organisational QI implementation significantly increased, although their perceived enjoyment of being involved in QI decreased. This case-study based action research project was limited to one organisation of a specific type - a large specialist metropolitan teaching hospital. The composition of the middle manager group, therefore, is necessarily limited to particular specialties. It is acknowledged that findings from case study and action research methodologies are limited in their generalisability, but assist in the development of knowledge and principles that can be adapted to different settings. This QI implementation model can increase levels of organisational QI implementation by effecting a positive change in middle manager attitude to and involvement in QI. There are many theories regarding the importance of the middle manager role in QI, but little empirical research into exactly what this role may be and how it may be strengthened. This research adds to the knowledge base, and provides clear steps for achieving increased staff involvement and QI implementation.

Control of particle precipitation into the middle atmosphere by regular changes of the interplanetary magnetic field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bremer, J.

1987-01-01

After DUNGEY (1961) negative B Z -components induced by the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) in the solar-magnetospheric coordinate system should favour precipitation of high energetic particles into the middle atmosphere whereas positive B Z -values should inhibit such precipitation. In high subauroral and auroral latitudes this expected dependence of particle precipitation on IMF structure can be confirmed. In mid-latitudes, however, the most important precipitation events, the so-called aftereffects after strong geomagnetic disturbances, are only partly controlled by IMF sector structure. In particular, during the second part of the aftereffect after the main phase, internal magnetospheric loss processes which seem to be independent of solar sector structure play a dominant role. (author)

Consumption of Milk Protein or Whey Protein Results in a Similar Increase in Muscle Protein Synthesis in Middle Aged Men.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Cameron J; McGregor, Robin A; D'Souza, Randall F; Thorstensen, Eric B; Markworth, James F; Fanning, Aaron C; Poppitt, Sally D; Cameron-Smith, David

2015-10-21

The differential ability of various milk protein fractions to stimulate muscle protein synthesis (MPS) has been previously described, with whey protein generally considered to be superior to other fractions. However, the relative ability of a whole milk protein to stimulate MPS has not been compared to whey. Sixteen healthy middle-aged males ingested either 20 g of milk protein (n = 8) or whey protein (n = 8) while undergoing a primed constant infusion of ring (13)C₆ phenylalanine. Muscle biopsies were obtained 120 min prior to consumption of the protein and 90 and 210 min afterwards. Resting myofibrillar fractional synthetic rates (FSR) were 0.019% ± 0.009% and 0.021% ± 0.018% h(-1) in the milk and whey groups respectively. For the first 90 min after protein ingestion the FSR increased (p whey groups respectively with no difference between groups (p = 0.810). FSR returned to baseline in both groups between 90 and 210 min after protein ingestion. Despite evidence of increased rate of digestion and leucine availability following the ingestion of whey protein, there was similar activation of MPS in middle-aged men with either 20 g of milk protein or whey protein.

A multimedia educational program that increases science achievement among inner-city non-Asian minority middle-school students.

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Nancy G; Opuni, Kwame A; Reininger, Belinda; Sessions, Nathalie; Mowry, Melanie M; Hobbs, Mary

2009-06-01

To test the effectiveness of a middle school, multimedia health sciences educational program called HEADS UP in non-Asian-minority (Hispanic and African American), inner-city students. The program designers hope to increase the number of these students entering the health sciences pipeline. The program includes video role-model stories featuring minority scientists and students, hands-on activities, and teacher resources. Collaborators from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Spring Branch Independent School District, and the Health Museum developed the modules. From 2004 to 2007, the authors used a quasi-experimental, two-group pretest/posttest design to assess program effects on students' performance and interest in science, their science self-efficacy, their fear of science, and their science-related careers self-efficacy. An independent third party matched the intervention school to a comparison school by test scores, school demographics, and student demographics and then matched pairs of sixth-grade students (N = 428) by fifth-grade science scores, gender, ethnicity, and participation in the free or reduced lunch program. The authors collected data on these students for three years. At eighth grade (2007), the intervention school students scored significantly higher (F = 12.38, P science and reported higher interest in science (F = 11.08, P school pairs. Students in neither group reported an increase in their confidence to choose a science-related career, but students in one high-implementing teacher's class reported decreased fear of science. HEADS UP shows potential for improving inner-city, non-Asian-minority middle school students' performance and interest in science.

Regularity effect in prospective memory during aging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geoffrey Blondelle

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Background: Regularity effect can affect performance in prospective memory (PM, but little is known on the cognitive processes linked to this effect. Moreover, its impacts with regard to aging remain unknown. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine regularity effect in PM in a lifespan perspective, with a sample of young, intermediate, and older adults. Objective and design: Our study examined the regularity effect in PM in three groups of participants: 28 young adults (18–30, 16 intermediate adults (40–55, and 25 older adults (65–80. The task, adapted from the Virtual Week, was designed to manipulate the regularity of the various activities of daily life that were to be recalled (regular repeated activities vs. irregular non-repeated activities. We examine the role of several cognitive functions including certain dimensions of executive functions (planning, inhibition, shifting, and binding, short-term memory, and retrospective episodic memory to identify those involved in PM, according to regularity and age. Results: A mixed-design ANOVA showed a main effect of task regularity and an interaction between age and regularity: an age-related difference in PM performances was found for irregular activities (older < young, but not for regular activities. All participants recalled more regular activities than irregular ones with no age effect. It appeared that recalling of regular activities only involved planning for both intermediate and older adults, while recalling of irregular ones were linked to planning, inhibition, short-term memory, binding, and retrospective episodic memory. Conclusion: Taken together, our data suggest that planning capacities seem to play a major role in remembering to perform intended actions with advancing age. Furthermore, the age-PM-paradox may be attenuated when the experimental design is adapted by implementing a familiar context through the use of activities of daily living. The clinical

J-regular rings with injectivities

OpenAIRE

Shen, Liang

2010-01-01

A ring $R$ is called a J-regular ring if R/J(R) is von Neumann regular, where J(R) is the Jacobson radical of R. It is proved that if R is J-regular, then (i) R is right n-injective if and only if every homomorphism from an $n$-generated small right ideal of $R$ to $R_{R}$ can be extended to one from $R_{R}$ to $R_{R}$; (ii) R is right FP-injective if and only if R is right (J, R)-FP-injective. Some known results are improved.

Iterative Regularization with Minimum-Residual Methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Toke Koldborg; Hansen, Per Christian

2007-01-01

subspaces. We provide a combination of theory and numerical examples, and our analysis confirms the experience that MINRES and MR-II can work as general regularization methods. We also demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the same is not true, in general, for GMRES and RRGMRES their success......We study the regularization properties of iterative minimum-residual methods applied to discrete ill-posed problems. In these methods, the projection onto the underlying Krylov subspace acts as a regularizer, and the emphasis of this work is on the role played by the basis vectors of these Krylov...... as regularization methods is highly problem dependent....

Iterative regularization with minimum-residual methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Toke Koldborg; Hansen, Per Christian

2006-01-01

subspaces. We provide a combination of theory and numerical examples, and our analysis confirms the experience that MINRES and MR-II can work as general regularization methods. We also demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the same is not true, in general, for GMRES and RRGMRES - their success......We study the regularization properties of iterative minimum-residual methods applied to discrete ill-posed problems. In these methods, the projection onto the underlying Krylov subspace acts as a regularizer, and the emphasis of this work is on the role played by the basis vectors of these Krylov...... as regularization methods is highly problem dependent....

The State of the Australian Middle Class

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clive Hamilton

2008-09-01

Full Text Available There is a widespread view that the middle class in Australia is doing it tough, that they arefinding it increasingly difficult to maintain a decent standard of living and are suffering frommortgage stress. Indeed, some media reports have announced the end of the middle classdream.This paper tests a number of these popular views against the statistical data. It asks whetherthe typical Australian family can be said to be struggling? Are mortgages creating severeproblems for middle-class families? Is the middle class shrinking? Are families copingfinancially only because wives are going out to work?

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

2012-11-19

Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

Acute effects of resistance exercise and intermittent intense aerobic exercise on blood cell count and oxidative stress in trained middle-aged women

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cardoso, A.M. [Departamento de Química, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Exatas, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS (Brazil); Bagatini, M.D. [Curso de Enfermagem, Campus Chapecó, Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul, Chapecó, SC (Brazil); Roth, M.A. [Departamento de Desportos Individuais, Centro de Educação Física e Desportos, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS (Brazil); Martins, C.C.; Rezer, J.F.P. [Departamento de Química, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Exatas, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS (Brazil); Mello, F.F. [Departamento de Desportos Individuais, Centro de Educação Física e Desportos, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS (Brazil); Lopes, L.F.D. [Departamento de Administração, Centro de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS (Brazil); Morsch, V.M.; Schetinger, M.R.C. [Departamento de Química, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Exatas, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS (Brazil)

2012-10-26

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of an intermittent intense aerobic exercise session and a resistance exercise session on blood cell counts and oxidative stress parameters in middle-aged women. Thirty-four women were selected and divided into three groups: RE group (performing 60 min of resistance exercises, N = 12), spinning group (performing 60 min of spinning, N = 12), and control group (not exercising regularly, N = 10). In both exercise groups, lymphocytes and monocytes decreased after 1-h recuperation (post-exercise) compared to immediately after exercise (P < 0.05). Immediately after exercise, in both exercised groups, a significant increase in TBARS (from 16.5 ± 2 to 25 ± 2 for the spinning group and from 18.6 ± 1 to 28.2 ± 3 nmol MDA/mL serum for the RE group) and protein carbonyl (from 1.0 ± 0.3 to 1.6 ± 0.2 for the spinning group and from 0.9 ± 0.2 to 1.5 ± 0.2 nmol/mg protein for the RE group) was observed (P < 0.05). A decrease in antioxidant activities (non-protein sulfhydryl, superoxide dismutase, catalase) was also demonstrated with a negative correlation between damage markers and antioxidant body defenses (P < 0.05). These results indicate that an acute bout of intermittent or anaerobic exercise induces immune suppression and increases the production of reactive oxygen species, causing oxidative stress in middle-aged and trained women. Furthermore, we demonstrated that trained women show improved antioxidant capacity and lower oxidative damage than sedentary ones, demonstrating the benefits of chronic regular physical activity.

Acute effects of resistance exercise and intermittent intense aerobic exercise on blood cell count and oxidative stress in trained middle-aged women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.M. Cardoso

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to compare the effect of an intermittent intense aerobic exercise session and a resistance exercise session on blood cell counts and oxidative stress parameters in middle-aged women. Thirty-four women were selected and divided into three groups: RE group (performing 60 min of resistance exercises, N = 12, spinning group (performing 60 min of spinning, N = 12, and control group (not exercising regularly, N = 10. In both exercise groups, lymphocytes and monocytes decreased after 1-h recuperation (post-exercise compared to immediately after exercise (P < 0.05. Immediately after exercise, in both exercised groups, a significant increase in TBARS (from 16.5 ± 2 to 25 ± 2 for the spinning group and from 18.6 ± 1 to 28.2 ± 3 nmol MDA/mL serum for the RE group and protein carbonyl (from 1.0 ± 0.3 to 1.6 ± 0.2 for the spinning group and from 0.9 ± 0.2 to 1.5 ± 0.2 nmol/mg protein for the RE group was observed (P < 0.05. A decrease in antioxidant activities (non-protein sulfhydryl, superoxide dismutase, catalase was also demonstrated with a negative correlation between damage markers and antioxidant body defenses (P < 0.05. These results indicate that an acute bout of intermittent or anaerobic exercise induces immune suppression and increases the production of reactive oxygen species, causing oxidative stress in middle-aged and trained women. Furthermore, we demonstrated that trained women show improved antioxidant capacity and lower oxidative damage than sedentary ones, demonstrating the benefits of chronic regular physical activity.

Acute effects of resistance exercise and intermittent intense aerobic exercise on blood cell count and oxidative stress in trained middle-aged women

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cardoso, A.M.; Bagatini, M.D.; Roth, M.A.; Martins, C.C.; Rezer, J.F.P.; Mello, F.F.; Lopes, L.F.D.; Morsch, V.M.; Schetinger, M.R.C.

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of an intermittent intense aerobic exercise session and a resistance exercise session on blood cell counts and oxidative stress parameters in middle-aged women. Thirty-four women were selected and divided into three groups: RE group (performing 60 min of resistance exercises, N = 12), spinning group (performing 60 min of spinning, N = 12), and control group (not exercising regularly, N = 10). In both exercise groups, lymphocytes and monocytes decreased after 1-h recuperation (post-exercise) compared to immediately after exercise (P < 0.05). Immediately after exercise, in both exercised groups, a significant increase in TBARS (from 16.5 ± 2 to 25 ± 2 for the spinning group and from 18.6 ± 1 to 28.2 ± 3 nmol MDA/mL serum for the RE group) and protein carbonyl (from 1.0 ± 0.3 to 1.6 ± 0.2 for the spinning group and from 0.9 ± 0.2 to 1.5 ± 0.2 nmol/mg protein for the RE group) was observed (P < 0.05). A decrease in antioxidant activities (non-protein sulfhydryl, superoxide dismutase, catalase) was also demonstrated with a negative correlation between damage markers and antioxidant body defenses (P < 0.05). These results indicate that an acute bout of intermittent or anaerobic exercise induces immune suppression and increases the production of reactive oxygen species, causing oxidative stress in middle-aged and trained women. Furthermore, we demonstrated that trained women show improved antioxidant capacity and lower oxidative damage than sedentary ones, demonstrating the benefits of chronic regular physical activity

World review: Middle East

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

2000-01-01

The article gives information on contracts announced (and to whom) and recently completed in some parts of the Middle East in the petroleum, natural gas and petrochemicals industries. Areas specifically mentioned are Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. The prospects for the petrochemical industry in particular are good and continued growth is expected. Gas is likely to make an increasingly important contribution to the prosperity of the Middle East and is expected to carry a higher priority than expansion of crude oil production

Higher derivative regularization and chiral anomaly

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagahama, Yoshinori.

1985-02-01

A higher derivative regularization which automatically leads to the consistent chiral anomaly is analyzed in detail. It explicitly breaks all the local gauge symmetry but preserves global chiral symmetry and leads to the chirally symmetric consistent anomaly. This regularization thus clarifies the physics content contained in the consistent anomaly. We also briefly comment on the application of this higher derivative regularization to massless QED. (author)

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2012-11-19

Background: Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods.Results: To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods.Conclusion: The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. 2012 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

2012-01-01

Background: Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods.Results: To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods.Conclusion: The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. 2012 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Jim

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. Results To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. Conclusion The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

Effect of controlled exercise on middle gluteal muscle fibre composition in Thoroughbred foals.

Science.gov (United States)

Eto, D; Yamano, S; Kasashima, Y; Sugiura, T; Nasu, T; Tokuriki, M; Miyata, H

2003-11-01

Most racehorses are trained regularly from about age 18 months; therefore, little information is available on the effect of training in Thoroughbred foals. Well-controlled exercise could improve muscle potential ability for endurance running. Thoroughbred foals at age 2 months were separated into control and training (treadmill exercise) groups and samples obtained from the middle gluteal muscle at 2 and 12 months post partum. Muscle fibre compositions were determined by histochemical and electrophoretical techniques and succinic dehydrogenase (SDH) activity was analysed in each fibre type. All fibre types were hypertrophied with growth and type I and IIA fibres were significantly larger in the training than the control group at age 12 months. A significant increase of SDH activity was found in type IIX muscle fibres in the training group. Training in young Thoroughbred horses can facilitate muscle fibre hypertrophy and increase the oxidative capacity of type IIX fibres, which could potentially enhance stamina at high speeds. To apply this result to practical training, further studies are needed to determine more effective and safe intensities of controlled exercise.

75 FR 53966 - Regular Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-02

... FARM CREDIT SYSTEM INSURANCE CORPORATION Regular Meeting AGENCY: Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board (Board). DATE AND TIME: The meeting of the Board will be held at the offices of the Farm...

Work and family life of childrearing women workers in Japan: comparison of non-regular employees with short working hours, non-regular employees with long working hours, and regular employees.

Science.gov (United States)

Seto, Masako; Morimoto, Kanehisa; Maruyama, Soichiro

2006-05-01

This study assessed the working and family life characteristics, and the degree of domestic and work strain of female workers with different employment statuses and weekly working hours who are rearing children. Participants were the mothers of preschoolers in a large Japanese city. We classified the women into three groups according to the hours they worked and their employment conditions. The three groups were: non-regular employees working less than 30 h a week (n=136); non-regular employees working 30 h or more per week (n=141); and regular employees working 30 h or more a week (n=184). We compared among the groups the subjective values of work, financial difficulties, childcare and housework burdens, psychological effects, and strains such as work and family strain, work-family conflict, and work dissatisfaction. Regular employees were more likely to report job pressures and inflexible work schedules and to experience more strain related to work and family than non-regular employees. Non-regular employees were more likely to be facing financial difficulties. In particular, non-regular employees working longer hours tended to encounter socioeconomic difficulties and often lacked support from family and friends. Female workers with children may have different social backgrounds and different stressors according to their working hours and work status.

Associations between hypo-HDL cholesterolemia and cardiometabolic risk factors in middle-aged men and women: Independence of habitual alcohol drinking, smoking and regular exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Wakabayashi, Ichiro; Daimon, Takashi

Hypo-HDL cholesterolemia is a potent cardiovascular risk factor, and HDL cholesterol level is influenced by lifestyles including alcohol drinking, smoking and regular exercise. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationships between hypo-HDL cholesterolemia and cardiovascular risk factors and to determine whether or not these relationships depend on the above-mentioned lifestyles. The subjects were 3456 men and 2510 women (35-60 years of age) showing low HDL cholesterol levels (smoking and regular exercise (men, n=333; women, n=1410) and their age-matched control subjects were also analysed. Both in men and in women of overall subjects and subjects without histories of alcohol drinking, smoking and regular exercise, odds ratios of subjects with hypo-HDL cholesterolemia vs. subjects with normo-HDL cholesterolemia for high body mass index, high waist-to-height ratio, high triglycerides, high lipid accumulation product and multiple risk factors (three or more out of obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and diabetes) were significantly higher than the reference level of 1.00. These associations in overall subjects were found when the above habits were adjusted. Hypo-HDL cholesterolemic men and women have adverse cardiovascular profiles, such as obesity, hypertriglyceridemia and multiple risk factors, independently of age, alcohol drinking, smoking and regular exercise. Copyright © 2016 Asia Oceania Association for the Study of Obesity. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increasing work-time influence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nabe-Nielsen, Kirsten; Garde, Anne Helene; Aust, Birgit

2012-01-01

This quasi-experimental study investigated how an intervention aiming at increasing eldercare workers' influence on their working hours affected the flexibility, variability, regularity and predictability of the working hours. We used baseline (n = 296) and follow-up (n = 274) questionnaire data......), or discussion of working hours (subgroup C). Only computerised self-scheduling changed the working hours and the way they were planned. These changes implied more flexible but less regular working hours and an experience of less predictability and less continuity in the care of clients and in the co...... that while increasing the individual flexibility, increasing work-time influence may also result in decreased regularity of the working hours and less continuity in the care of clients and co-operation with colleagues....

Incremental projection approach of regularization for inverse problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Souopgui, Innocent, E-mail: innocent.souopgui@usm.edu [The University of Southern Mississippi, Department of Marine Science (United States); Ngodock, Hans E., E-mail: hans.ngodock@nrlssc.navy.mil [Naval Research Laboratory (United States); Vidard, Arthur, E-mail: arthur.vidard@imag.fr; Le Dimet, François-Xavier, E-mail: ledimet@imag.fr [Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann (France)

2016-10-15

This paper presents an alternative approach to the regularized least squares solution of ill-posed inverse problems. Instead of solving a minimization problem with an objective function composed of a data term and a regularization term, the regularization information is used to define a projection onto a convex subspace of regularized candidate solutions. The objective function is modified to include the projection of each iterate in the place of the regularization. Numerical experiments based on the problem of motion estimation for geophysical fluid images, show the improvement of the proposed method compared with regularization methods. For the presented test case, the incremental projection method uses 7 times less computation time than the regularization method, to reach the same error target. Moreover, at convergence, the incremental projection is two order of magnitude more accurate than the regularization method.

Geometric regularizations and dual conifold transitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Landsteiner, Karl; Lazaroiu, Calin I.

2003-01-01

We consider a geometric regularization for the class of conifold transitions relating D-brane systems on noncompact Calabi-Yau spaces to certain flux backgrounds. This regularization respects the SL(2,Z) invariance of the flux superpotential, and allows for computation of the relevant periods through the method of Picard-Fuchs equations. The regularized geometry is a noncompact Calabi-Yau which can be viewed as a monodromic fibration, with the nontrivial monodromy being induced by the regulator. It reduces to the original, non-monodromic background when the regulator is removed. Using this regularization, we discuss the simple case of the local conifold, and show how the relevant field-theoretic information can be extracted in this approach. (author)

Adaptive regularization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lars Kai; Rasmussen, Carl Edward; Svarer, C.

1994-01-01

Regularization, e.g., in the form of weight decay, is important for training and optimization of neural network architectures. In this work the authors provide a tool based on asymptotic sampling theory, for iterative estimation of weight decay parameters. The basic idea is to do a gradient desce...

Regularizing portfolio optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Still, Susanne; Kondor, Imre

2010-01-01

The optimization of large portfolios displays an inherent instability due to estimation error. This poses a fundamental problem, because solutions that are not stable under sample fluctuations may look optimal for a given sample, but are, in effect, very far from optimal with respect to the average risk. In this paper, we approach the problem from the point of view of statistical learning theory. The occurrence of the instability is intimately related to over-fitting, which can be avoided using known regularization methods. We show how regularized portfolio optimization with the expected shortfall as a risk measure is related to support vector regression. The budget constraint dictates a modification. We present the resulting optimization problem and discuss the solution. The L2 norm of the weight vector is used as a regularizer, which corresponds to a diversification 'pressure'. This means that diversification, besides counteracting downward fluctuations in some assets by upward fluctuations in others, is also crucial because it improves the stability of the solution. The approach we provide here allows for the simultaneous treatment of optimization and diversification in one framework that enables the investor to trade off between the two, depending on the size of the available dataset.

Regularizing portfolio optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Still, Susanne; Kondor, Imre

2010-07-01

The optimization of large portfolios displays an inherent instability due to estimation error. This poses a fundamental problem, because solutions that are not stable under sample fluctuations may look optimal for a given sample, but are, in effect, very far from optimal with respect to the average risk. In this paper, we approach the problem from the point of view of statistical learning theory. The occurrence of the instability is intimately related to over-fitting, which can be avoided using known regularization methods. We show how regularized portfolio optimization with the expected shortfall as a risk measure is related to support vector regression. The budget constraint dictates a modification. We present the resulting optimization problem and discuss the solution. The L2 norm of the weight vector is used as a regularizer, which corresponds to a diversification 'pressure'. This means that diversification, besides counteracting downward fluctuations in some assets by upward fluctuations in others, is also crucial because it improves the stability of the solution. The approach we provide here allows for the simultaneous treatment of optimization and diversification in one framework that enables the investor to trade off between the two, depending on the size of the available dataset.

Tessellating the Sphere with Regular Polygons

Science.gov (United States)

Soto-Johnson, Hortensia; Bechthold, Dawn

2004-01-01

Tessellations in the Euclidean plane and regular polygons that tessellate the sphere are reviewed. The regular polygons that can possibly tesellate the sphere are spherical triangles, squares and pentagons.

Employment, work hours and weight gain among middle-aged women.

Science.gov (United States)

Au, N; Hauck, K; Hollingsworth, B

2013-05-01

To investigate the influence of employment and work hours on weight gain and weight loss among middle-aged women. Quantile regression techniques were used to estimate the influence of employment and hours worked on percentage weight change over 2 years across the entire distribution of weight change in a cohort of middle-aged women. A range of controls was included in the models to isolate the effect of work status. A total of 9276 women aged 45-50 years at baseline who were present in both the 1996 and 1998 surveys of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health. The women were a representative sample of the Australian population. Being out of the labour force or unemployed was associated with lower weight gain and higher weight loss than being employed. The association was stronger at low to moderate levels of weight gain. Among employed women, working regular (35-40), long (41-48) or very long (49+) hours was associated with increasingly higher levels of weight gain compared with working part-time hours. The association was stronger for women with greater weight gain overall. The association between unemployment and weight change became insignificant when health status was controlled for. Employment was associated with more weight gain and less weight loss. Among the employed, working longer hours was associated with more weight gain, especially at the higher levels of weight gain where the health consequences are more serious. These findings suggest that as women work longer hours they are more likely to make lifestyle choices that are associated with weight gain.

Accretion onto some well-known regular black holes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jawad, Abdul; Shahzad, M.U.

2016-01-01

In this work, we discuss the accretion onto static spherically symmetric regular black holes for specific choices of the equation of state parameter. The underlying regular black holes are charged regular black holes using the Fermi-Dirac distribution, logistic distribution, nonlinear electrodynamics, respectively, and Kehagias-Sftesos asymptotically flat regular black holes. We obtain the critical radius, critical speed, and squared sound speed during the accretion process near the regular black holes. We also study the behavior of radial velocity, energy density, and the rate of change of the mass for each of the regular black holes. (orig.)

Accretion onto some well-known regular black holes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jawad, Abdul; Shahzad, M.U. [COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Department of Mathematics, Lahore (Pakistan)

2016-03-15

In this work, we discuss the accretion onto static spherically symmetric regular black holes for specific choices of the equation of state parameter. The underlying regular black holes are charged regular black holes using the Fermi-Dirac distribution, logistic distribution, nonlinear electrodynamics, respectively, and Kehagias-Sftesos asymptotically flat regular black holes. We obtain the critical radius, critical speed, and squared sound speed during the accretion process near the regular black holes. We also study the behavior of radial velocity, energy density, and the rate of change of the mass for each of the regular black holes. (orig.)

Accretion onto some well-known regular black holes

Science.gov (United States)

Jawad, Abdul; Shahzad, M. Umair

2016-03-01

In this work, we discuss the accretion onto static spherically symmetric regular black holes for specific choices of the equation of state parameter. The underlying regular black holes are charged regular black holes using the Fermi-Dirac distribution, logistic distribution, nonlinear electrodynamics, respectively, and Kehagias-Sftesos asymptotically flat regular black holes. We obtain the critical radius, critical speed, and squared sound speed during the accretion process near the regular black holes. We also study the behavior of radial velocity, energy density, and the rate of change of the mass for each of the regular black holes.

Attachment in Middle Childhood: Progress and Prospects

Science.gov (United States)

Bosmans, Guy; Kerns, Kathryn A.

2015-01-01

Contrary to the substantial amount of research on infant, preschool, adolescent, and adult attachment, middle childhood has long been neglected by the international attachment research community. In the past two decades, however, there has been a steep increase in research focusing on middle childhood attachment. This article provides an overview…

Regular Latin Dancing and Health Education may Improve Cognition of Late Middle-Aged and Older Latinos

Science.gov (United States)

Marquez, David X.; Wilson, Robert; Aguiñaga, Susan; Vásquez, Priscilla; Fogg, Louis; Yang, Zhi; Wilbur, JoEllen; Hughes, Susan; Spanbauer, Charles

2017-01-01

Disparities exist between Latinos and non-Latino whites in cognitive function. Dance is culturally appropriate and challenges individuals physically and cognitively, yet the impact of regular dancing on cognitive function in older Latinos has not been examined. A two-group pilot trial was employed among inactive, older Latinos. Participants (N = 57) participated in the BAILAMOS© dance program or a health education program. Cognitive test scores were converted to z-scores and measures of global cognition and specific domains (executive function, episodic memory, working memory) were derived. Results revealed a group × time interaction for episodic memory (pdance group showed greater improvement in episodic memory than the health education group. A main effect for time for global cognition (pdance programs can positively influence episodic memory; and participation in structured programs may improve overall cognition among older Latinos. PMID:28095105

Effect of bariatric surgery on adiposity and metabolic profiles: A prospective cohort study in Middle-Eastern patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazidi, Mohsen; Rezaie, Peyman; Jangjoo, Ali; Tavassoli, Alireza; Rajabi, Mohammad Taghi; Kengne, Andre Pascal; Nematy, Mohsen

2017-07-15

To investigate changes in adiposity and cardio-metabolic risk profile following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in patients of Middle Eastern ethnicity with severe obesity. This prospective cohort study involved 92 patients who met the indications of bariatric surgery. Post-procedure markers of obesity and cardiometabolic profile were monitored regularly for a year. Mean body mass index decreased by 29.5% from 41.9 to 29.5 kg/m 2 between baseline and 12-mo follow-up, while mean fat mass decreased by 45.9% from 64.2 kg to 34.7 kg. An improvement was also observed in the gluco-metabolic profile with both fasting glucose and HbA1c substantially decreasing ( P Middle Eastern ethnicity.

Diagrammatic methods in phase-space regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bern, Z.; Halpern, M.B.; California Univ., Berkeley

1987-11-01

Using the scalar prototype and gauge theory as the simplest possible examples, diagrammatic methods are developed for the recently proposed phase-space form of continuum regularization. A number of one-loop and all-order applications are given, including general diagrammatic discussions of the nogrowth theorem and the uniqueness of the phase-space stochastic calculus. The approach also generates an alternate derivation of the equivalence of the large-β phase-space regularization to the more conventional coordinate-space regularization. (orig.)

Metric regularity and subdifferential calculus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ioffe, A D

2000-01-01

The theory of metric regularity is an extension of two classical results: the Lyusternik tangent space theorem and the Graves surjection theorem. Developments in non-smooth analysis in the 1980s and 1990s paved the way for a number of far-reaching extensions of these results. It was also well understood that the phenomena behind the results are of metric origin, not connected with any linear structure. At the same time it became clear that some basic hypotheses of the subdifferential calculus are closely connected with the metric regularity of certain set-valued maps. The survey is devoted to the metric theory of metric regularity and its connection with subdifferential calculus in Banach spaces

Temporal regularity of the environment drives time perception

OpenAIRE

van Rijn, H; Rhodes, D; Di Luca, M

2016-01-01

It’s reasonable to assume that a regularly paced sequence should be perceived as regular, but here we show that perceived regularity depends on the context in which the sequence is embedded. We presented one group of participants with perceptually regularly paced sequences, and another group of participants with mostly irregularly paced sequences (75% irregular, 25% regular). The timing of the final stimulus in each sequence could be var- ied. In one experiment, we asked whether the last stim...

The uniqueness of the regularization procedure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brzezowski, S.

1981-01-01

On the grounds of the BPHZ procedure, the criteria of correct regularization in perturbation calculations of QFT are given, together with the prescription for dividing the regularized formulas into the finite and infinite parts. (author)

Coupling regularizes individual units in noisy populations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ly Cheng; Ermentrout, G. Bard

2010-01-01

The regularity of a noisy system can modulate in various ways. It is well known that coupling in a population can lower the variability of the entire network; the collective activity is more regular. Here, we show that diffusive (reciprocal) coupling of two simple Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (O-U) processes can regularize the individual, even when it is coupled to a noisier process. In cellular networks, the regularity of individual cells is important when a select few play a significant role. The regularizing effect of coupling surprisingly applies also to general nonlinear noisy oscillators. However, unlike with the O-U process, coupling-induced regularity is robust to different kinds of coupling. With two coupled noisy oscillators, we derive an asymptotic formula assuming weak noise and coupling for the variance of the period (i.e., spike times) that accurately captures this effect. Moreover, we find that reciprocal coupling can regularize the individual period of higher dimensional oscillators such as the Morris-Lecar and Brusselator models, even when coupled to noisier oscillators. Coupling can have a counterintuitive and beneficial effect on noisy systems. These results have implications for the role of connectivity with noisy oscillators and the modulation of variability of individual oscillators.

Learning regularization parameters for general-form Tikhonov

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, Julianne; Español, Malena I

2017-01-01

Computing regularization parameters for general-form Tikhonov regularization can be an expensive and difficult task, especially if multiple parameters or many solutions need to be computed in real time. In this work, we assume training data is available and describe an efficient learning approach for computing regularization parameters that can be used for a large set of problems. We consider an empirical Bayes risk minimization framework for finding regularization parameters that minimize average errors for the training data. We first extend methods from Chung et al (2011 SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 33 3132–52) to the general-form Tikhonov problem. Then we develop a learning approach for multi-parameter Tikhonov problems, for the case where all involved matrices are simultaneously diagonalizable. For problems where this is not the case, we describe an approach to compute near-optimal regularization parameters by using operator approximations for the original problem. Finally, we propose a new class of regularizing filters, where solutions correspond to multi-parameter Tikhonov solutions, that requires less data than previously proposed optimal error filters, avoids the generalized SVD, and allows flexibility and novelty in the choice of regularization matrices. Numerical results for 1D and 2D examples using different norms on the errors show the effectiveness of our methods. (paper)

5 CFR 551.421 - Regular working hours.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Regular working hours. 551.421 Section... Activities § 551.421 Regular working hours. (a) Under the Act there is no requirement that a Federal employee... distinction based on whether the activity is performed by an employee during regular working hours or outside...

Regular extensions of some classes of grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus

Culik and Cohen introduced the class of LR-regular grammars, an extension of the LR(k) grammars. In this report we consider the analogous extension of the LL(k) grammers, called the LL-regular grammars. The relations of this class of grammars to other classes of grammars are shown. Every LL-regular

Interactions of Chemistry Teachers with Gifted Students in a Regular High-School Chemistry Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Benny, Naama; Blonder, Ron

2018-01-01

Regular high-school chemistry teachers view gifted students as one of several types of students in a regular (mixed-ability) classroom. Gifted students have a range of unique abilities that characterize their learning process: mostly they differ in three key learning aspects: their faster learning pace, increased depth of understanding, and…

Parameter optimization in the regularized kernel minimum noise fraction transformation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Vestergaard, Jacob Schack

2012-01-01

Based on the original, linear minimum noise fraction (MNF) transformation and kernel principal component analysis, a kernel version of the MNF transformation was recently introduced. Inspired by we here give a simple method for finding optimal parameters in a regularized version of kernel MNF...... analysis. We consider the model signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a function of the kernel parameters and the regularization parameter. In 2-4 steps of increasingly refined grid searches we find the parameters that maximize the model SNR. An example based on data from the DLR 3K camera system is given....

Condom use and intimacy among Tajik male migrants and their regular female partners in Moscow.

Science.gov (United States)

Zabrocki, Christopher; Polutnik, Chloe; Jonbekov, Jonbek; Shoakova, Farzona; Bahromov, Mahbat; Weine, Stevan

2015-01-01

This study examined condom use and intimacy among Tajik male migrants and their regular female partners in Moscow, Russia. This study included a survey of 400 Tajik male labour migrants and longitudinal ethnographic interviews with 30 of the surveyed male migrants and 30 of their regular female partners. of the surveyed male migrants, 351 (88%) reported having a regular female partner in Moscow. Findings demonstrated that the migrants' and regular partners' intentions to use condoms diminished with increased intimacy, yet each party perceived intimacy differently. Migrants' intimacy with regular partners was determined by their familiarity and the perceived sexual cleanliness of their partner. Migrants believed that Muslim women were cleaner than Orthodox Christian women and reported using condoms more frequently with Orthodox Christian regular partners. Regular partners reported determining intimacy based on the perceived commitment of the male migrant. When perceived commitment faced a crisis, intimacy declined and regular partners renegotiated condom use. The association between intimacy and condom use suggests that HIV-prevention programmes should aim to help male migrants and female regular partners to dissociate their approaches to condom use from their perceptions of intimacy.

Regular non-twisting S-branes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obregon, Octavio; Quevedo, Hernando; Ryan, Michael P.

2004-01-01

We construct a family of time and angular dependent, regular S-brane solutions which corresponds to a simple analytical continuation of the Zipoy-Voorhees 4-dimensional vacuum spacetime. The solutions are asymptotically flat and turn out to be free of singularities without requiring a twist in space. They can be considered as the simplest non-singular generalization of the singular S0-brane solution. We analyze the properties of a representative of this family of solutions and show that it resembles to some extent the asymptotic properties of the regular Kerr S-brane. The R-symmetry corresponds, however, to the general lorentzian symmetry. Several generalizations of this regular solution are derived which include a charged S-brane and an additional dilatonic field. (author)

Near-Regular Structure Discovery Using Linear Programming

KAUST Repository

Huang, Qixing

2014-06-02

Near-regular structures are common in manmade and natural objects. Algorithmic detection of such regularity greatly facilitates our understanding of shape structures, leads to compact encoding of input geometries, and enables efficient generation and manipulation of complex patterns on both acquired and synthesized objects. Such regularity manifests itself both in the repetition of certain geometric elements, as well as in the structured arrangement of the elements. We cast the regularity detection problem as an optimization and efficiently solve it using linear programming techniques. Our optimization has a discrete aspect, that is, the connectivity relationships among the elements, as well as a continuous aspect, namely the locations of the elements of interest. Both these aspects are captured by our near-regular structure extraction framework, which alternates between discrete and continuous optimizations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework on a variety of problems including near-regular structure extraction, structure-preserving pattern manipulation, and markerless correspondence detection. Robustness results with respect to geometric and topological noise are presented on synthesized, real-world, and also benchmark datasets. © 2014 ACM.

Consensus clinical recommendations for the management of plasma lipid disorders in the Middle East.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Sayed, Nasreen; Al Waili, Khalid; Alawadi, Fatheya; Al-Ghamdi, Saeed; Al Mahmeed, Wael; Al-Nouri, Fahad; Al Rukhaimi, Mona; Al-Rasadi, Khalid; Awan, Zuhier; Farghaly, Mohamed; Hassanein, Mohamed; Sabbour, Hani; Zubaid, Mohammad; Barter, Philip

2016-12-15

Plasma lipid disorders are key risk factors for the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and are prevalent in the Middle East, with rates increasing in recent decades. Despite this, no region-specific guidelines for managing plasma lipids exist and there is a lack of use of guidelines developed in other regions. A multidisciplinary panel of regional experts was convened to develop consensus clinical recommendations for the management of plasma lipids in the Middle East. The panel considered existing international guidelines and regional clinical experience to develop recommendations. The panel's recommendations include plasma lipid screening, ASCVD risk calculation and treatment considerations. The panel recommend that plasma lipid levels should be measured in all at-risk patients and at regular intervals in all adults from the age of 20years. A scoring system should be used to calculate ASCVD risk that includes known lipid and non-lipid risk factors. Primary treatment targets include low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Lifestyle modifications should be first-line treatment for all patients; the first-line pharmacological treatment targeting plasma lipids in patients at moderate-to-high risk of ASCVD is statin therapy, with a number of adjunctive or second-line agents available. Guidance is also provided on the management of underlying conditions and special populations; of particular pertinence in the region are familial hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes and metabolic dyslipidaemia. These consensus clinical recommendations provide practicing clinicians with comprehensive, region-specific guidance to improve the detection and management of plasma lipid disorders in patients in the Middle East. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Middle Man Concept for In-Orbit Collision Risks Mitigation, CAESAR and CARA Examples

Science.gov (United States)

Moury, Monique; Newman, Lauri K.; Laporte, Francois

2014-01-01

This paper describes the conjunction analysis which has to be performed using data provided by JSpOC. This description not only demonstrates that Collision Avoidance is a 2- step process (close approach detection followed by risk evaluation for collision avoidance decision) but also leads to the conclusion that there is a need for a Middle Man role. After describing the Middle Man concept, this paper introduces two examples with their similarities and particularities: the American civil space effort delivered by the NASA CARA team (Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis) and the French response CAESAR (Conjunction Assessment and Evaluation Service: Alerts and Recommendations). For both, statistics are presented and feedbacks discussed. All together, around 80 satellites are served by CARA and/or CAESAR. Both processes regularly evolve in order either to follow JSpOC upgrades or to improve analysis according to experience acquired during the past years.

The Growing Need for Middle School Evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, William M.

A review of the goals and issues in the development and evaluation of the middle school concept is presented. Although there has been a great increase in the number of middle schools, many seem to be organized without careful planning of goals, programs and evaluation strategies. A review of the problems involved led to the formation of fifteen…

Tetravalent one-regular graphs of order 4p2

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Feng, Yan-Quan; Kutnar, Klavdija; Marusic, Dragan

2014-01-01

A graph is one-regular if its automorphism group acts regularly on the set of its arcs. In this paper tetravalent one-regular graphs of order 4p2, where p is a prime, are classified.......A graph is one-regular if its automorphism group acts regularly on the set of its arcs. In this paper tetravalent one-regular graphs of order 4p2, where p is a prime, are classified....

Regularization and error assignment to unfolded distributions

CERN Document Server

Zech, Gunter

2011-01-01

The commonly used approach to present unfolded data only in graphical formwith the diagonal error depending on the regularization strength is unsatisfac-tory. It does not permit the adjustment of parameters of theories, the exclusionof theories that are admitted by the observed data and does not allow the com-bination of data from different experiments. We propose fixing the regulariza-tion strength by a p-value criterion, indicating the experimental uncertaintiesindependent of the regularization and publishing the unfolded data in additionwithout regularization. These considerations are illustrated with three differentunfolding and smoothing approaches applied to a toy example.

Preliminary results from a field experiment on e-bike safety : Speed choice and mental workload for middle-aged and elderly cyclists

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Twisk, D.A.M.; Boele, M.J.; Vlakveld, W.P.; Christoph, M.; Sikkema, R.; Remij, R.; Schwab, A.L.

2013-01-01

To study the safety of e-bikes for the elderly, an experimental field study was conducted, using instrumented bicycles and comparing two age groups: older cyclists, n= 29, mean age = 70, SD = 4.2 and middle-aged cyclists, n = 29, mean age = 38, SD = 4.3. All were regular cyclists. They rode a fixed

Higher order total variation regularization for EIT reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Bo; Schullcke, Benjamin; Krueger-Ziolek, Sabine; Zhang, Fan; Mueller-Lisse, Ullrich; Moeller, Knut

2018-01-08

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) attempts to reveal the conductivity distribution of a domain based on the electrical boundary condition. This is an ill-posed inverse problem; its solution is very unstable. Total variation (TV) regularization is one of the techniques commonly employed to stabilize reconstructions. However, it is well known that TV regularization induces staircase effects, which are not realistic in clinical applications. To reduce such artifacts, modified TV regularization terms considering a higher order differential operator were developed in several previous studies. One of them is called total generalized variation (TGV) regularization. TGV regularization has been successively applied in image processing in a regular grid context. In this study, we adapted TGV regularization to the finite element model (FEM) framework for EIT reconstruction. Reconstructions using simulation and clinical data were performed. First results indicate that, in comparison to TV regularization, TGV regularization promotes more realistic images. Graphical abstract Reconstructed conductivity changes located on selected vertical lines. For each of the reconstructed images as well as the ground truth image, conductivity changes located along the selected left and right vertical lines are plotted. In these plots, the notation GT in the legend stands for ground truth, TV stands for total variation method, and TGV stands for total generalized variation method. Reconstructed conductivity distributions from the GREIT algorithm are also demonstrated.

Application of Turchin's method of statistical regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Zelenyi, Mikhail; Poliakova, Mariia; Nozik, Alexander; Khudyakov, Alexey

2018-04-01

During analysis of experimental data, one usually needs to restore a signal after it has been convoluted with some kind of apparatus function. According to Hadamard's definition this problem is ill-posed and requires regularization to provide sensible results. In this article we describe an implementation of the Turchin's method of statistical regularization based on the Bayesian approach to the regularization strategy.

Dependence of regular background noise of VLF radiation and thunder-storm activity on solar wind proton density

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sobolev, A.V.; Kozlov, V.I.

1997-01-01

Correlation of the intensity of slowly changing regular background noise within 9.7 kHz frequency in Yakutsk (L = 3) and of the solar wind density protons was determined. This result explains the reverse dependence of the intensity of the regular background noise on the solar activity, 27-day frequency, increase before and following geomagnetic storms, absence of relation with K p index of geomagnetic activity. Conclusion is made that growth of density of the solar wind protons results in increase of the regular background noise and thunderstorm activity

Mortality increase in late-middle and early-old age: heterogeneity in death processes as a new explanation.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ting; Yang, Yang Claire; Anderson, James J

2013-10-01

Deviations from the Gompertz law of exponential mortality increases in late-middle and early-old age are commonly neglected in overall mortality analyses. In this study, we examined mortality increase patterns between ages 40 and 85 in 16 low-mortality countries and demonstrated sex differences in these patterns, which also changed across period and cohort. These results suggest that the interaction between aging and death is more complicated than what is usually assumed from the Gompertz law and also challenge existing biodemographic hypotheses about the origin and mechanisms of sex differences in mortality. We propose a two-mortality model that explains these patterns as the change in the composition of intrinsic and extrinsic death rates with age. We show that the age pattern of overall mortality and the population heterogeneity therein are possibly generated by multiple dynamics specified by a two-mortality model instead of a uniform process throughout most adult ages.

On the regularized fermionic projector of the vacuum

Science.gov (United States)

Finster, Felix

2008-03-01

We construct families of fermionic projectors with spherically symmetric regularization, which satisfy the condition of a distributional MP-product. The method is to analyze regularization tails with a power law or logarithmic scaling in composite expressions in the fermionic projector. The resulting regularizations break the Lorentz symmetry and give rise to a multilayer structure of the fermionic projector near the light cone. Furthermore, we construct regularizations which go beyond the distributional MP-product in that they yield additional distributional contributions supported at the origin. The remaining freedom for the regularization parameters and the consequences for the normalization of the fermionic states are discussed.

On the regularized fermionic projector of the vacuum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Finster, Felix

2008-01-01

We construct families of fermionic projectors with spherically symmetric regularization, which satisfy the condition of a distributional MP-product. The method is to analyze regularization tails with a power law or logarithmic scaling in composite expressions in the fermionic projector. The resulting regularizations break the Lorentz symmetry and give rise to a multilayer structure of the fermionic projector near the light cone. Furthermore, we construct regularizations which go beyond the distributional MP-product in that they yield additional distributional contributions supported at the origin. The remaining freedom for the regularization parameters and the consequences for the normalization of the fermionic states are discussed

Curcumin supplementation improves vascular endothelial function in healthy middle-aged and older adults by increasing nitric oxide bioavailability and reducing oxidative stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos-Parker, Jessica R; Strahler, Talia R; Bassett, Candace J; Bispham, Nina Z; Chonchol, Michel B; Seals, Douglas R

2017-01-03

We hypothesized that curcumin would improve resistance and conduit artery endothelial function and large elastic artery stiffness in healthy middle-aged and older adults. Thirty-nine healthy men and postmenopausal women (45-74 yrs) were randomized to 12 weeks of curcumin (2000 mg/day Longvida®; n=20) or placebo (n=19) supplementation. Forearm blood flow response to acetylcholine infusions (FBF ACh ; resistance artery endothelial function) increased 37% following curcumin supplementation (107±13 vs. 84±11 AUC at baseline, P=0.03), but not placebo (P=0.2). Curcumin treatment augmented the acute reduction in FBF ACh induced by the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor NG monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA; P=0.03), and reduced the acute increase in FBF ACh to the antioxidant vitamin C (P=0.02), whereas placebo had no effect (both P>0.6). Similarly, brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (conduit artery endothelial function) increased 36% in the curcumin group (5.7±0.4 vs. 4.4±0.4% at baseline, P=0.001), with no change in placebo (P=0.1). Neither curcumin nor placebo influenced large elastic artery stiffness (aortic pulse wave velocity or carotid artery compliance) or circulating biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation (all P>0.1). In healthy middle-aged and older adults, 12 weeks of curcumin supplementation improves resistance artery endothelial function by increasing vascular nitric oxide bioavailability and reducing oxidative stress, while also improving conduit artery endothelial function.

Regularization modeling for large-eddy simulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geurts, Bernardus J.; Holm, D.D.

2003-01-01

A new modeling approach for large-eddy simulation (LES) is obtained by combining a "regularization principle" with an explicit filter and its inversion. This regularization approach allows a systematic derivation of the implied subgrid model, which resolves the closure problem. The central role of

Obesity increases the prevalence and severity of focal knee abnormalities diagnosed using 3T MRI in middle-aged subjects - data from the osteoarthritis initiative

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laberge, Marc A.; Baum, Thomas; Virayavanich, Warapat; Nardo, Lorenzo; Link, Thomas M.; Nevitt, M.C.; Lynch, J.; McCulloch, C.E.

2012-01-01

To study the effect of BMI on the prevalence, severity, and 36-month progression of early degenerative changes in the knee by using 3T MRI in middle-aged subjects without radiographic osteoarthritis (OA). We examined baseline and 36-month follow-up MR studies from 137 middle-aged individuals (45-55 years old) with risk factors for knee OA but no radiographic OA from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Subjects were grouped into three categories: normal BMI (BMI 2 , n = 38), overweight (BMI 25-29.9 kg/m 2 , n = 37), and obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m 2 , n = 62). Using 3T MRI, cartilage, meniscus, and bone marrow abnormalities were graded using the OA Whole-organ MR Imaging Score (WORMS). The statistical analysis was corrected as necessary for differences in age, sex, and OA risk factors other than BMI. The overall prevalence of lesions was 64% for meniscus and 79% for cartilage (including low grade lesions). At baseline, the prevalence and severity of knee lesions was positively associated with BMI, with a nearly fourfold increase in meniscal tears and more than twofold increase in high-grade cartilage defects in obese individuals relative to normal-weight subjects. Over the 36-month follow-up period, the number of new or worsening cartilage lesions of any grade was significantly higher in obese subjects (p = 0.039), while there was no significant difference in meniscal lesion progression. Obesity was associated with both higher prevalence and severity of early degenerative changes in the knee in middle-aged individuals without radiographic OA and with significantly increased cartilage lesion progression (of any grade) over 36 months. (orig.)

Obesity increases the prevalence and severity of focal knee abnormalities diagnosed using 3T MRI in middle-aged subjects - data from the osteoarthritis initiative

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Laberge, Marc A.; Baum, Thomas; Virayavanich, Warapat; Nardo, Lorenzo; Link, Thomas M. [University of California San Francisco, Musculoskeletal and Quantitative Imaging Research, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, San Francisco, CA (United States); Nevitt, M.C.; Lynch, J.; McCulloch, C.E. [University of California San Francisco, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, San Francisco, CA (United States)

2012-06-15

To study the effect of BMI on the prevalence, severity, and 36-month progression of early degenerative changes in the knee by using 3T MRI in middle-aged subjects without radiographic osteoarthritis (OA). We examined baseline and 36-month follow-up MR studies from 137 middle-aged individuals (45-55 years old) with risk factors for knee OA but no radiographic OA from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Subjects were grouped into three categories: normal BMI (BMI < 25 kg/m{sup 2}, n = 38), overweight (BMI 25-29.9 kg/m{sup 2}, n = 37), and obese (BMI {>=} 30 kg/m{sup 2}, n = 62). Using 3T MRI, cartilage, meniscus, and bone marrow abnormalities were graded using the OA Whole-organ MR Imaging Score (WORMS). The statistical analysis was corrected as necessary for differences in age, sex, and OA risk factors other than BMI. The overall prevalence of lesions was 64% for meniscus and 79% for cartilage (including low grade lesions). At baseline, the prevalence and severity of knee lesions was positively associated with BMI, with a nearly fourfold increase in meniscal tears and more than twofold increase in high-grade cartilage defects in obese individuals relative to normal-weight subjects. Over the 36-month follow-up period, the number of new or worsening cartilage lesions of any grade was significantly higher in obese subjects (p = 0.039), while there was no significant difference in meniscal lesion progression. Obesity was associated with both higher prevalence and severity of early degenerative changes in the knee in middle-aged individuals without radiographic OA and with significantly increased cartilage lesion progression (of any grade) over 36 months. (orig.)

Age-related patterns of drug use initiation among polydrug using regular psychostimulant users.

Science.gov (United States)

Darke, Shane; Kaye, Sharlene; Torok, Michelle

2012-09-01

To determine age-related patterns of drug use initiation, drug sequencing and treatment entry among regular psychostimulant users. Cross-sectional study of 269 regular psychostimulant users, administered a structured interview examining onset of use for major licit and illicit drugs. The mean age at first intoxication was not associated with age or gender. In contrast, younger age was associated with earlier ages of onset for all of the illicit drug classes. Each additional year of age was associated with a 4 month increase in onset age for methamphetamine, and 3 months for heroin. By the age of 17, those born prior to 1961 had, on average, used only tobacco and alcohol, whereas those born between 1986 and 1990 had used nine different drug classes. The period between initial use and the transition to regular use, however, was stable. Age was also negatively correlated with both age at initial injection and regular injecting. Onset sequences, however, remained stable. Consistent with the age-related patterns of drug use, each additional year of age associated with a 0.47 year increase in the age at first treatment. While the age at first intoxication appeared stable, the trajectory through illicit drug use was substantially truncated. The data indicate that, at least among those who progress to regular illicit drug use, younger users are likely to be exposed to far broader polydrug use in their teens than has previously been the case. © 2012 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Dissociation between the activity of the right middle frontal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus in processing semantic priming.

Science.gov (United States)

Laufer, Ilan; Negishi, Michiro; Lacadie, Cheryl M; Papademetris, Xenophon; Constable, R Todd

2011-01-01

The aim of this event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to test whether the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG) would show differential sensitivity to the effect of prime-target association strength on repetition priming. In the experimental condition (RP), the target occurred after repetitive presentation of the prime within an oddball design. In the control condition (CTR), the target followed a single presentation of the prime with equal probability of the target as in RP. To manipulate semantic overlap between the prime and the target both conditions (RP and CTR) employed either the onomatopoeia "oink" as the prime and the referent "pig" as the target (OP) or vice-versa (PO) since semantic overlap was previously shown to be greater in OP. The results showed that the left MTG was sensitive to release of adaptation while both the right MTG and MFG were sensitive to sequence regularity extraction and its verification. However, dissociated activity between OP and PO was revealed in RP only in the right MFG. Specifically, target "pig" (OP) and the physically equivalent target in CTR elicited comparable deactivations whereas target "oink" (PO) elicited less inhibited response in RP than in CTR. This interaction in the right MFG was explained by integrating these effects into a competition model between perceptual and conceptual effects in priming processing.

Dissociation between the activity of the right middle frontal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus in processing semantic priming.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilan Laufer

Full Text Available The aim of this event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI study was to test whether the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG and middle temporal gyrus (MTG would show differential sensitivity to the effect of prime-target association strength on repetition priming. In the experimental condition (RP, the target occurred after repetitive presentation of the prime within an oddball design. In the control condition (CTR, the target followed a single presentation of the prime with equal probability of the target as in RP. To manipulate semantic overlap between the prime and the target both conditions (RP and CTR employed either the onomatopoeia "oink" as the prime and the referent "pig" as the target (OP or vice-versa (PO since semantic overlap was previously shown to be greater in OP. The results showed that the left MTG was sensitive to release of adaptation while both the right MTG and MFG were sensitive to sequence regularity extraction and its verification. However, dissociated activity between OP and PO was revealed in RP only in the right MFG. Specifically, target "pig" (OP and the physically equivalent target in CTR elicited comparable deactivations whereas target "oink" (PO elicited less inhibited response in RP than in CTR. This interaction in the right MFG was explained by integrating these effects into a competition model between perceptual and conceptual effects in priming processing.

Manifold Regularized Correlation Object Tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Hongwei; Ma, Bo; Shen, Jianbing; Shao, Ling

2018-05-01

In this paper, we propose a manifold regularized correlation tracking method with augmented samples. To make better use of the unlabeled data and the manifold structure of the sample space, a manifold regularization-based correlation filter is introduced, which aims to assign similar labels to neighbor samples. Meanwhile, the regression model is learned by exploiting the block-circulant structure of matrices resulting from the augmented translated samples over multiple base samples cropped from both target and nontarget regions. Thus, the final classifier in our method is trained with positive, negative, and unlabeled base samples, which is a semisupervised learning framework. A block optimization strategy is further introduced to learn a manifold regularization-based correlation filter for efficient online tracking. Experiments on two public tracking data sets demonstrate the superior performance of our tracker compared with the state-of-the-art tracking approaches.

From recreational to regular drug use

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Järvinen, Margaretha; Ravn, Signe

2011-01-01

This article analyses the process of going from recreational use to regular and problematic use of illegal drugs. We present a model containing six career contingencies relevant for young people’s progress from recreational to regular drug use: the closing of social networks, changes in forms...

Joint Adaptive Mean-Variance Regularization and Variance Stabilization of High Dimensional Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Dazard, Jean-Eudes; Rao, J Sunil

2012-07-01

The paper addresses a common problem in the analysis of high-dimensional high-throughput "omics" data, which is parameter estimation across multiple variables in a set of data where the number of variables is much larger than the sample size. Among the problems posed by this type of data are that variable-specific estimators of variances are not reliable and variable-wise tests statistics have low power, both due to a lack of degrees of freedom. In addition, it has been observed in this type of data that the variance increases as a function of the mean. We introduce a non-parametric adaptive regularization procedure that is innovative in that : (i) it employs a novel "similarity statistic"-based clustering technique to generate local-pooled or regularized shrinkage estimators of population parameters, (ii) the regularization is done jointly on population moments, benefiting from C. Stein's result on inadmissibility, which implies that usual sample variance estimator is improved by a shrinkage estimator using information contained in the sample mean. From these joint regularized shrinkage estimators, we derived regularized t-like statistics and show in simulation studies that they offer more statistical power in hypothesis testing than their standard sample counterparts, or regular common value-shrinkage estimators, or when the information contained in the sample mean is simply ignored. Finally, we show that these estimators feature interesting properties of variance stabilization and normalization that can be used for preprocessing high-dimensional multivariate data. The method is available as an R package, called 'MVR' ('Mean-Variance Regularization'), downloadable from the CRAN website.

Mobile health (mHealth) approaches and lessons for increased performance and retention of community health workers in low- and middle-income countries: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Källander, Karin; Tibenderana, James K; Akpogheneta, Onome J; Strachan, Daniel L; Hill, Zelee; ten Asbroek, Augustinus H A; Conteh, Lesong; Kirkwood, Betty R; Meek, Sylvia R

2013-01-25

Mobile health (mHealth) describes the use of portable electronic devices with software applications to provide health services and manage patient information. With approximately 5 billion mobile phone users globally, opportunities for mobile technologies to play a formal role in health services, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, are increasingly being recognized. mHealth can also support the performance of health care workers by the dissemination of clinical updates, learning materials, and reminders, particularly in underserved rural locations in low- and middle-income countries where community health workers deliver integrated community case management to children sick with diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. Our aim was to conduct a thematic review of how mHealth projects have approached the intersection of cellular technology and public health in low- and middle-income countries and identify the promising practices and experiences learned, as well as novel and innovative approaches of how mHealth can support community health workers. In this review, 6 themes of mHealth initiatives were examined using information from peer-reviewed journals, websites, and key reports. Primary mHealth technologies reviewed included mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones, patient monitoring devices, and mobile telemedicine devices. We examined how these tools could be used for education and awareness, data access, and for strengthening health information systems. We also considered how mHealth may support patient monitoring, clinical decision making, and tracking of drugs and supplies. Lessons from mHealth trials and studies were summarized, focusing on low- and middle-income countries and community health workers. The review revealed that there are very few formal outcome evaluations of mHealth in low-income countries. Although there is vast documentation of project process evaluations, there are few studies demonstrating an impact on

Regular variation on measure chains

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Řehák, Pavel; Vitovec, J.

2010-01-01

Roč. 72, č. 1 (2010), s. 439-448 ISSN 0362-546X R&D Projects: GA AV ČR KJB100190701 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : regularly varying function * regularly varying sequence * measure chain * time scale * embedding theorem * representation theorem * second order dynamic equation * asymptotic properties Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 1.279, year: 2010 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362546X09008475

New regular black hole solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lemos, Jose P. S.; Zanchin, Vilson T.

2011-01-01

In the present work we consider general relativity coupled to Maxwell's electromagnetism and charged matter. Under the assumption of spherical symmetry, there is a particular class of solutions that correspond to regular charged black holes whose interior region is de Sitter, the exterior region is Reissner-Nordstroem and there is a charged thin-layer in-between the two. The main physical and geometrical properties of such charged regular black holes are analyzed.

Manifold Regularized Correlation Object Tracking

OpenAIRE

Hu, Hongwei; Ma, Bo; Shen, Jianbing; Shao, Ling

2017-01-01

In this paper, we propose a manifold regularized correlation tracking method with augmented samples. To make better use of the unlabeled data and the manifold structure of the sample space, a manifold regularization-based correlation filter is introduced, which aims to assign similar labels to neighbor samples. Meanwhile, the regression model is learned by exploiting the block-circulant structure of matrices resulting from the augmented translated samples over multiple base samples cropped fr...

On geodesics in low regularity

Science.gov (United States)

Sämann, Clemens; Steinbauer, Roland

2018-02-01

We consider geodesics in both Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds with metrics of low regularity. We discuss existence of extremal curves for continuous metrics and present several old and new examples that highlight their subtle interrelation with solutions of the geodesic equations. Then we turn to the initial value problem for geodesics for locally Lipschitz continuous metrics and generalize recent results on existence, regularity and uniqueness of solutions in the sense of Filippov.

Middle Eastern rhinoplasty.

Science.gov (United States)

Azizzadeh, Babak; Mashkevich, Grigoriy

2010-02-01

The ethnic appearance of the Middle Eastern nose is defined by several unique visual features, particularly a high radix, wide overprojecting dorsum, and an amorphous hanging nasal tip. These external characteristics reflect distinct structural properties of the osseo-cartilaginous nasal framework and skin-soft tissue envelope in patients of Middle Eastern extraction. The goal, and the ultimate challenge, of rhinoplasty on Middle Eastern patients is to achieve balanced aesthetic refinement, while avoiding surgical westernization. Detailed understanding of the ethnic visual harmony in a Middle Eastern nose greatly assists in preserving native nasal-facial relationships during rhinoplasty on Middle Eastern patients. Esthetic alteration of a Middle Eastern nose follows a different set of goals and principles compared with rhinoplasties on white or other ethnic patients. This article highlights the inherent nasal features of the Middle Eastern nose and reviews pertinent concepts of rhinoplasty on Middle Eastern patients. Essential considerations in the process spanning the consultation and surgery are reviewed. Reliable operative techniques that achieve a successful aesthetic outcome are discussed in detail. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Regular examinations for toxic maculopathy in long-term chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine users.

Science.gov (United States)

Nika, Melisa; Blachley, Taylor S; Edwards, Paul; Lee, Paul P; Stein, Joshua D

2014-10-01

According to evidence-based, expert recommendations, long-term users of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine sulfate should undergo regular visits to eye care providers and diagnostic testing to check for maculopathy. To determine whether patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) taking chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine are regularly visiting eye care providers and being screened for maculopathy. Patients with RA or SLE who were continuously enrolled in a particular managed care network for at least 5 years between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2011, were studied. Patients' amount of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine use in the 5 years since the initial RA or SLE diagnosis was calculated, along with their number of eye care visits and diagnostic tests for maculopathy. Those at high risk for maculopathy were identified. Logistic regression was performed to assess potential factors associated with regular eye care visits (annual visits in ≥3 of 5 years) among chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine users, including those at highest risk for maculopathy. Among chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine users and those at high risk for toxic maculopathy, the proportions with regular eye care visits and diagnostic testing, as well as the likelihood of regular eye care visits. Among 18 051 beneficiaries with RA or SLE, 6339 (35.1%) had at least 1 record of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine use, and 1409 (7.8%) had used chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for at least 4 years. Among those at high risk for maculopathy, 27.9% lacked regular eye care visits, 6.1% had no visits to eye care providers, and 34.5% had no diagnostic testing for maculopathy during the 5-year period. Among high-risk patients, each additional month of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine use was associated with a 2.0% increased likelihood of regular eye care (adjusted odds ratio, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.01-1.03). High-risk patients whose SLE or RA was managed by rheumatologists had a 77

Dose domain regularization of MLC leaf patterns for highly complex IMRT plans

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nguyen, Dan; Yu, Victoria Y.; Ruan, Dan; Cao, Minsong; Low, Daniel A.; Sheng, Ke, E-mail: ksheng@mednet.ucla.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States); O’Connor, Daniel [Department of Mathematics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)

2015-04-15

Purpose: The advent of automated beam orientation and fluence optimization enables more complex intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) planning using an increasing number of fields to exploit the expanded solution space. This has created a challenge in converting complex fluences to robust multileaf collimator (MLC) segments for delivery. A novel method to regularize the fluence map and simplify MLC segments is introduced to maximize delivery efficiency, accuracy, and plan quality. Methods: In this work, we implemented a novel approach to regularize optimized fluences in the dose domain. The treatment planning problem was formulated in an optimization framework to minimize the segmentation-induced dose distribution degradation subject to a total variation regularization to encourage piecewise smoothness in fluence maps. The optimization problem was solved using a first-order primal-dual algorithm known as the Chambolle-Pock algorithm. Plans for 2 GBM, 2 head and neck, and 2 lung patients were created using 20 automatically selected and optimized noncoplanar beams. The fluence was first regularized using Chambolle-Pock and then stratified into equal steps, and the MLC segments were calculated using a previously described level reducing method. Isolated apertures with sizes smaller than preset thresholds of 1–3 bixels, which are square units of an IMRT fluence map from MLC discretization, were removed from the MLC segments. Performance of the dose domain regularized (DDR) fluences was compared to direct stratification and direct MLC segmentation (DMS) of the fluences using level reduction without dose domain fluence regularization. Results: For all six cases, the DDR method increased the average planning target volume dose homogeneity (D95/D5) from 0.814 to 0.878 while maintaining equivalent dose to organs at risk (OARs). Regularized fluences were more robust to MLC sequencing, particularly to the stratification and small aperture removal. The maximum and

Manifold Regularized Reinforcement Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Hongliang; Liu, Derong; Wang, Ding

2018-04-01

This paper introduces a novel manifold regularized reinforcement learning scheme for continuous Markov decision processes. Smooth feature representations for value function approximation can be automatically learned using the unsupervised manifold regularization method. The learned features are data-driven, and can be adapted to the geometry of the state space. Furthermore, the scheme provides a direct basis representation extension for novel samples during policy learning and control. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated on two benchmark control tasks, i.e., the inverted pendulum and the energy storage problem. Simulation results illustrate the concepts of the proposed scheme and show that it can obtain excellent performance.

Has the Internet Increased Exports for Firms from Low and Middle-Income Countries?

OpenAIRE

Clarke, George R. G.

2008-01-01

Many commentators have suggested that the internet is one of the forces driving globalization. This paper assesses one aspect of these claims, looking at whether internet access appears to affect the export performance using data from enterprises in low and middle-income economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The paper finds a strong correlation between exporting and internet access at the enterprise level. Moreover, this correlation remains after controlling factors that might affect ...

What Is Middle Class about the Middle Classes around the World?

OpenAIRE

Abhijit V. Banerjee; Esther Duflo

2008-01-01

We expect a lot from the middle classes. At least three distinct arguments about the special economic role of the middle class are traditionally made. In one, new entrepreneurs armed with a capacity and a tolerance for delayed gratification emerge from the middle class and create employment and productivity growth for the rest of society. In a second, perhaps more conventional view, the middle class is primarily a source of vital inputs for the entrepreneurial class: it is their "middle class...

Inflammatory bowel disease in children of middle eastern descent.

Science.gov (United States)

Naidoo, Christina Mai Ying; Leach, Steven T; Day, Andrew S; Lemberg, Daniel A

2014-01-01

Increasing rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are now seen in populations where it was once uncommon. The pattern of IBD in children of Middle Eastern descent in Australia has never been reported. This study aimed to investigate the burden of IBD in children of Middle Eastern descent at the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick (SCHR). The SCHR IBD database was used to identify patients of self-reported Middle Eastern ethnicity diagnosed between 1987 and 2011. Demographic, diagnosis, and management data was collected for all Middle Eastern children and an age and gender matched non-Middle Eastern IBD control group. Twenty-four patients of Middle Eastern descent were identified. Middle Eastern Crohn's disease patients had higher disease activity at diagnosis, higher use of thiopurines, and less restricted colonic disease than controls. Although there were limitations with this dataset, we estimated a higher prevalence of IBD in Middle Eastern children and they had a different disease phenotype and behavior compared to the control group, with less disease restricted to the colon and likely a more active disease course.

Laplacian manifold regularization method for fluorescence molecular tomography

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xuelei; Wang, Xiaodong; Yi, Huangjian; Chen, Yanrong; Zhang, Xu; Yu, Jingjing; He, Xiaowei

2017-04-01

Sparse regularization methods have been widely used in fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) for stable three-dimensional reconstruction. Generally, ℓ1-regularization-based methods allow for utilizing the sparsity nature of the target distribution. However, in addition to sparsity, the spatial structure information should be exploited as well. A joint ℓ1 and Laplacian manifold regularization model is proposed to improve the reconstruction performance, and two algorithms (with and without Barzilai-Borwein strategy) are presented to solve the regularization model. Numerical studies and in vivo experiment demonstrate that the proposed Gradient projection-resolved Laplacian manifold regularization method for the joint model performed better than the comparative algorithm for ℓ1 minimization method in both spatial aggregation and location accuracy.

Learning Sparse Visual Representations with Leaky Capped Norm Regularizers

OpenAIRE

Wangni, Jianqiao; Lin, Dahua

2017-01-01

Sparsity inducing regularization is an important part for learning over-complete visual representations. Despite the popularity of $\\ell_1$ regularization, in this paper, we investigate the usage of non-convex regularizations in this problem. Our contribution consists of three parts. First, we propose the leaky capped norm regularization (LCNR), which allows model weights below a certain threshold to be regularized more strongly as opposed to those above, therefore imposes strong sparsity and...

Adaptive regularization of noisy linear inverse problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lars Kai; Madsen, Kristoffer Hougaard; Lehn-Schiøler, Tue

2006-01-01

In the Bayesian modeling framework there is a close relation between regularization and the prior distribution over parameters. For prior distributions in the exponential family, we show that the optimal hyper-parameter, i.e., the optimal strength of regularization, satisfies a simple relation: T......: The expectation of the regularization function, i.e., takes the same value in the posterior and prior distribution. We present three examples: two simulations, and application in fMRI neuroimaging....

Trade and energy consumption in the Middle East

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sadorsky, Perry

2011-01-01

Over the past 30 years many economies have experienced large increases in economic trade, income and energy consumption. This brings up an interesting question. How do increases in trade affect energy consumption? This study uses panel cointegration data estimation techniques to examine the impact of trade on energy consumption in a sample of 8 Middle Eastern countries covering the period 1980 to 2007. Short-run dynamics show Granger causality from exports to energy consumption, and a bi-directional feedback relationship between imports and energy consumption. Long run elasticities estimated from FMOLS show that a 1% increase in per capita exports increases per capita energy consumption by 0.11% while a one percent increase in per capita imports increases per capita energy consumption by 0.04%. These results are important in establishing that increased trade affects energy demand in the Middle East in both the short and long-run. This has implications for energy policy and environmental policy. - Research Highlights: → Trade affects energy consumption in Middle Eastern economies. → Short-run causality runs from exports to energy consumption. → There is a short-run feedback relationship between energy consumption and imports. → In the long-run a 1% increase in per capita exports increases per capita energy consumption by 0.11%. → In the long-run a 1% increase in per capita imports increases per capita energy consumption by 0.04%.

Exclusion of children with intellectual disabilities from regular ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Study investigated why teachers exclude children with intellectual disability from the regular classrooms in Nigeria. Participants were, 169 regular teachers randomly selected from Oyo and Ogun states. Questionnaire was used to collect data result revealed that 57.4% regular teachers could not cope with children with ID ...

Curcumin supplementation improves vascular endothelial function in healthy middle-aged and older adults by increasing nitric oxide bioavailability and reducing oxidative stress

OpenAIRE

Santos-Parker, Jessica R.; Strahler, Talia R.; Bassett, Candace J.; Bispham, Nina Z.; Chonchol, Michel B.; Seals, Douglas R.

2017-01-01

We hypothesized that curcumin would improve resistance and conduit artery endothelial function and large elastic artery stiffness in healthy middle-aged and older adults. Thirty-nine healthy men and postmenopausal women (45-74 yrs) were randomized to 12 weeks of curcumin (2000 mg/day Longvida?; n=20) or placebo (n=19) supplementation. Forearm blood flow response to acetylcholine infusions (FBFACh; resistance artery endothelial function) increased 37% following curcumin supplementation (107?13...

On infinite regular and chiral maps

OpenAIRE

Arredondo, John A.; Valdez, Camilo Ramírez y Ferrán

2015-01-01

We prove that infinite regular and chiral maps take place on surfaces with at most one end. Moreover, we prove that an infinite regular or chiral map on an orientable surface with genus can only be realized on the Loch Ness monster, that is, the topological surface of infinite genus with one end.

29 CFR 779.18 - Regular rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... employee under subsection (a) or in excess of the employee's normal working hours or regular working hours... Relating to Labor (Continued) WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR STATEMENTS OF GENERAL POLICY OR... not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay. Section 7(e) of the Act defines...

Continuum regularized Yang-Mills theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sadun, L.A.

1987-01-01

Using the machinery of stochastic quantization, Z. Bern, M. B. Halpern, C. Taubes and I recently proposed a continuum regularization technique for quantum field theory. This regularization may be implemented by applying a regulator to either the (d + 1)-dimensional Parisi-Wu Langevin equation or, equivalently, to the d-dimensional second order Schwinger-Dyson (SD) equations. This technique is non-perturbative, respects all gauge and Lorentz symmetries, and is consistent with a ghost-free gauge fixing (Zwanziger's). This thesis is a detailed study of this regulator, and of regularized Yang-Mills theory, using both perturbative and non-perturbative techniques. The perturbative analysis comes first. The mechanism of stochastic quantization is reviewed, and a perturbative expansion based on second-order SD equations is developed. A diagrammatic method (SD diagrams) for evaluating terms of this expansion is developed. We apply the continuum regulator to a scalar field theory. Using SD diagrams, we show that all Green functions can be rendered finite to all orders in perturbation theory. Even non-renormalizable theories can be regularized. The continuum regulator is then applied to Yang-Mills theory, in conjunction with Zwanziger's gauge fixing. A perturbative expansion of the regulator is incorporated into the diagrammatic method. It is hoped that the techniques discussed in this thesis will contribute to the construction of a renormalized Yang-Mills theory is 3 and 4 dimensions

Perceptions of Arab men regarding female breast cancer screening examinations-Findings from a Middle East study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tam Truong Donnelly

Full Text Available In the Middle East, Qatar in particular, the incidence of breast cancer has substantially increased in recent years, and is expected to double by 2030. This diagnosis also occurs at a later stage in the disease. Early detection along with proper treatment reduces radical mastectomy and mortality rates, yet only one-third of Arab women in Qatar participate in breast cancer screening (BCS activities of any sort. Many women in the conservative Qatari society rely on male family members for support and protection. This study investigates the attitudes and perceptions of Arab men in regards to breast cancer screening and what they see as both incentives and barriers to women's participation in BCS activities.A qualitative methodology using purposive sampling technique was chosen in order to explore participant's attitudes, beliefs and health-related actions. Individual in-depth interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with 50 Arab men during October 2011 to May 2012. Data collection, analysis, and interpretation occurred simultaneously. NVivo 9, a qualitative data analysis software program was used to organize themes and subthemes.It was found that most men understood the importance of regular BCS in early detection of breast cancer. They felt they had an important role in encouraging the women in their lives to participate in BCS activities, but were adamant that any examination must be done by a female health care professional. Few knew details about screening guidelines in Qatar, but most had a basic knowledge of some screening activities. Most indicated an interest in learning more about BC and screening activities in order to better help and inform their female family members.Because Arab men perceive that their opinions and support are a major factor influencing female family members' participation in breast cancer screening, it is important that any program instituted to increase such screening participation be aimed at both men and

Middle Class Fortunes in Western Europe

OpenAIRE

Kochhar, Rakesh

2017-01-01

This paper examines the state of the middle classes in the U.S. and 11 countries in Western Europe and how it has changed since 1991. Among Western Europe's six largest economies, the shares of adults living in middle-income households increased in France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom from 1991 to 2010, but shrank in Germany, Italy and Spain. France, the Netherlands and the UK also experienced notable growth in disposable household income, but incomes were either stagnant or falling...

Does graded return-to-work improve sick-listed workers' chance of returning to regular working hours?

Science.gov (United States)

Høgelund, Jan; Holm, Anders; McIntosh, James

2010-01-01

Using Danish register and survey data, we examine the effect of a national graded return-to-work program on the probability of sick-listed workers returning to regular working hours. During program participation, the sick-listed worker works fewer hours and receives the normal hourly wage for the hours worked and sickness benefit for the hours off work. When the worker's health improves, working hours are increased until the sick-listed worker is able to work regular hours. Taking account of unobserved differences between program participants and non-participants, we find that participation in the program significantly increases the probability of returning to regular working hours. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Comparison of Subcutaneous Regular Insulin and Lispro Insulin in Diabetics Receiving Continuous Nutrition

Science.gov (United States)

Stull, Mamie C.; Strilka, Richard J.; Clemens, Michael S.; Armen, Scott B.

2015-01-01

Background: Optimal management of non–critically ill patients with diabetes maintained on continuous enteral feeding (CEN) is poorly defined. Subcutaneous (SQ) lispro and SQ regular insulin were compared in a simulated type 1 and type 2 diabetic patient receiving CEN. Method: A glucose-insulin feedback mathematical model was employed to simulate type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients on CEN. Each patient received 25 SQ injections of regular insulin or insulin lispro, ranging from 0-6 U. Primary endpoints were the change in mean glucose concentration (MGC) and change in glucose variability (GV); hypoglycemic episodes were also reported. The model was first validated against patient data. Results: Both SQ insulin preparations linearly decreased MGC, however, SQ regular insulin decreased GV whereas SQ lispro tended to increase GV. Hourly glucose concentration measurements were needed to capture the increase in GV. In the type 2 diabetic patient, “rebound hyperglycemia” occurred after SQ lispro was rapidly metabolized. Although neither SQ insulin preparation caused hypoglycemia, SQ lispro significantly lowered MGC compared to SQ regular insulin. Thus, it may be more likely to cause hypoglycemia. Analyses of the detailed glucose concentration versus time data suggest that the inferior performance of lispro resulted from its shorter duration of action. Finally, the effects of both insulin preparations persisted beyond their duration of actions in the type 2 diabetic patient. Conclusions: Subcutaneous regular insulin may be the short-acting insulin preparation of choice for this subset of diabetic patients. Clinical trial is required before a definitive recommendation can be made. PMID:26134836

Regular nicotine intake increased tooth movement velocity, osteoclastogenesis and orthodontically induced dental root resorptions in a rat model

Science.gov (United States)

Kirschneck, Christian; Maurer, Michael; Wolf, Michael; Reicheneder, Claudia; Proff, Peter

2017-01-01

Orthodontic forces have been reported to significantly increase nicotine-induced periodontal bone loss. At present, however, it is unknown, which further (side) effects can be expected during orthodontic treatment at a nicotine exposure corresponding to that of an average European smoker. 63 male Fischer344 rats were randomized in three consecutive experiments of 21 animals each (A/B/C) to 3 experimental groups (7 rats, 1/2/3): (A) cone-beam-computed tomography (CBCT); (B) histology/serology; (C) reverse-transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR)/cotinine serology—(1) control; (2) orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) of the first and second upper left molar (NiTi closed coil spring, 0.25 N); (3) OTM with 1.89 mg·kg−1 per day s.c. of L(−)-nicotine. After 14 days of OTM, serum cotinine and IL-6 concentration as well as orthodontically induced inflammatory root resorption (OIIRR), osteoclast activity (histology), orthodontic tooth movement velocity (CBCT, within 14 and 28 days of OTM) and relative gene expression of known inflammatory and osteoclast markers were quantified in the dental-periodontal tissue (RT–qPCR). Animals exposed to nicotine showed significantly heightened serum cotinine and IL-6 levels corresponding to those of regular European smokers. Both the extent of root resorption, osteoclast activity, orthodontic tooth movement and gene expression of inflammatory and osteoclast markers were significantly increased compared to controls with and without OTM under the influence of nicotine. We conclude that apart from increased periodontal bone loss, a progression of dental root resorption and accelerated orthodontic tooth movement are to be anticipated during orthodontic therapy, if nicotine consumption is present. Thus patients should be informed about these risks and the necessity of nicotine abstinence during treatment. PMID:28960194

Regularity effect in prospective memory during aging

OpenAIRE

Blondelle, Geoffrey; Hainselin, Mathieu; Gounden, Yannick; Heurley, Laurent; Voisin, Hélène; Megalakaki, Olga; Bressous, Estelle; Quaglino, Véronique

2016-01-01

Background: Regularity effect can affect performance in prospective memory (PM), but little is known on the cognitive processes linked to this effect. Moreover, its impacts with regard to aging remain unknown. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine regularity effect in PM in a lifespan perspective, with a sample of young, intermediate, and older adults.Objective and design: Our study examined the regularity effect in PM in three groups of participants: 28 young adults (18–30), 1...

Deceptive but Not Honest Manipulative Actions Are Associated with Increased Interaction between Middle and Inferior Frontal gyri

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maxim Kireev

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The prefrontal cortex is believed to be responsible for execution of deceptive behavior and its involvement is associated with greater cognitive efforts. It is also generally assumed that deception is associated with the inhibition of default honest actions. However, the precise neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this process remain largely unknown. The present study was aimed to use functional magnetic resonance imaging to reveal the underlying functional integration within the prefrontal cortex during the task which requires that subjects to deliberately mislead an opponent through the sequential execution of deceptive and honest claims. To address this issue, we performed psychophysiological interaction (PPI analysis, which allows for statistical assessment of changes in functional relationships between active brain areas in changing psychological contexts. As a result the whole brain PPI-analysis established that both manipulative honest and deceptive claiming were associated with an increase in connectivity between the left middle frontal gyrus and right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ. Taking into account the role played by rTPJ in processes associated with the theory of mind the revealed data can reflect possible influence of socio-cognitive context on the process of selecting manipulative claiming regardless their honest or deceptive nature. Direct comparison between deceptive and honest claims revealed pattern enhancement of coupling between the left middle frontal gyrus and the left inferior frontal gyrus. This finding provided evidence that the execution of deception relies to a greater extent on higher-order hierarchically-organized brain mechanisms of executive control required to select between two competing deceptive or honest task sets.

20 CFR 226.14 - Employee regular annuity rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Employee regular annuity rate. 226.14 Section... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing an Employee Annuity § 226.14 Employee regular annuity rate. The regular annuity rate payable to the employee is the total of the employee tier I...

SparseBeads data: benchmarking sparsity-regularized computed tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Jørgensen, Jakob S.; Coban, Sophia B.; Lionheart, William R. B.; McDonald, Samuel A.; Withers, Philip J.

2017-12-01

Sparsity regularization (SR) such as total variation (TV) minimization allows accurate image reconstruction in x-ray computed tomography (CT) from fewer projections than analytical methods. Exactly how few projections suffice and how this number may depend on the image remain poorly understood. Compressive sensing connects the critical number of projections to the image sparsity, but does not cover CT, however empirical results suggest a similar connection. The present work establishes for real CT data a connection between gradient sparsity and the sufficient number of projections for accurate TV-regularized reconstruction. A collection of 48 x-ray CT datasets called SparseBeads was designed for benchmarking SR reconstruction algorithms. Beadpacks comprising glass beads of five different sizes as well as mixtures were scanned in a micro-CT scanner to provide structured datasets with variable image sparsity levels, number of projections and noise levels to allow the systematic assessment of parameters affecting performance of SR reconstruction algorithms6. Using the SparseBeads data, TV-regularized reconstruction quality was assessed as a function of numbers of projections and gradient sparsity. The critical number of projections for satisfactory TV-regularized reconstruction increased almost linearly with the gradient sparsity. This establishes a quantitative guideline from which one may predict how few projections to acquire based on expected sample sparsity level as an aid in planning of dose- or time-critical experiments. The results are expected to hold for samples of similar characteristics, i.e. consisting of few, distinct phases with relatively simple structure. Such cases are plentiful in porous media, composite materials, foams, as well as non-destructive testing and metrology. For samples of other characteristics the proposed methodology may be used to investigate similar relations.

Regular algebra and finite machines

CERN Document Server

Conway, John Horton

2012-01-01

World-famous mathematician John H. Conway based this classic text on a 1966 course he taught at Cambridge University. Geared toward graduate students of mathematics, it will also prove a valuable guide to researchers and professional mathematicians.His topics cover Moore's theory of experiments, Kleene's theory of regular events and expressions, Kleene algebras, the differential calculus of events, factors and the factor matrix, and the theory of operators. Additional subjects include event classes and operator classes, some regulator algebras, context-free languages, communicative regular alg

39 CFR 6.1 - Regular meetings, annual meeting.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 39 Postal Service 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Regular meetings, annual meeting. 6.1 Section 6.1 Postal Service UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE MEETINGS (ARTICLE VI) § 6.1 Regular meetings, annual meeting. The Board shall meet regularly on a schedule...

A Public Health Issue that Increased Prevelance: Non-Acholic Fatty Liver Disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muammer Kara

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD, is a liver disease, that occur in non alcohol users, with same histological features of alcoholic liver disease. The increased importance of NAFLD is depends on its close relation of current problems such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and hyperlipidemia, and its high prevalence as %20-30, in Europe and Middle East. NAFLD has a wide spectrum from simple steatozis (SS, liver cell damage, non alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH with inflammation to high stage fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Hepathocellular cancer and liver failure might develop in cirrhosis patients. Biopsy is gold standard for NAFLD diagnosis; differentiate from SS and NASH and defining NASH stages. Nutrition regulations and slow and continuous weight loss with regular exercises is still best treatment method [TAF Prev Med Bull 2014; 13(1.000: 65-76

Stochastic dynamic modeling of regular and slow earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Aso, N.; Ando, R.; Ide, S.

2017-12-01

Both regular and slow earthquakes are slip phenomena on plate boundaries and are simulated by a (quasi-)dynamic modeling [Liu and Rice, 2005]. In these numerical simulations, spatial heterogeneity is usually considered not only for explaining real physical properties but also for evaluating the stability of the calculations or the sensitivity of the results on the condition. However, even though we discretize the model space with small grids, heterogeneity at smaller scales than the grid size is not considered in the models with deterministic governing equations. To evaluate the effect of heterogeneity at the smaller scales we need to consider stochastic interactions between slip and stress in a dynamic modeling. Tidal stress is known to trigger or affect both regular and slow earthquakes [Yabe et al., 2015; Ide et al., 2016], and such an external force with fluctuation can also be considered as a stochastic external force. A healing process of faults may also be stochastic, so we introduce stochastic friction law. In the present study, we propose a stochastic dynamic model to explain both regular and slow earthquakes. We solve mode III problem, which corresponds to the rupture propagation along the strike direction. We use BIEM (boundary integral equation method) scheme to simulate slip evolution, but we add stochastic perturbations in the governing equations, which is usually written in a deterministic manner. As the simplest type of perturbations, we adopt Gaussian deviations in the formulation of the slip-stress kernel, external force, and friction. By increasing the amplitude of perturbations of the slip-stress kernel, we reproduce complicated rupture process of regular earthquakes including unilateral and bilateral ruptures. By perturbing external force, we reproduce slow rupture propagation at a scale of km/day. The slow propagation generated by a combination of fast interaction at S-wave velocity is analogous to the kinetic theory of gasses: thermal

A regularized stationary mean-field game

KAUST Repository

Yang, Xianjin

2016-01-01

In the thesis, we discuss the existence and numerical approximations of solutions of a regularized mean-field game with a low-order regularization. In the first part, we prove a priori estimates and use the continuation method to obtain the existence of a solution with a positive density. Finally, we introduce the monotone flow method and solve the system numerically.

A regularized stationary mean-field game

KAUST Repository

Yang, Xianjin

2016-04-19

In the thesis, we discuss the existence and numerical approximations of solutions of a regularized mean-field game with a low-order regularization. In the first part, we prove a priori estimates and use the continuation method to obtain the existence of a solution with a positive density. Finally, we introduce the monotone flow method and solve the system numerically.

Automating InDesign with Regular Expressions

CERN Document Server

Kahrel, Peter

2006-01-01

If you need to make automated changes to InDesign documents beyond what basic search and replace can handle, you need regular expressions, and a bit of scripting to make them work. This Short Cut explains both how to write regular expressions, so you can find and replace the right things, and how to use them in InDesign specifically.

The Talent Development Middle School. An Elective Replacement Approach to Providing Extra Help in Math--The CATAMA Program (Computer- and Team-Assisted Mathematics Acceleration). Report No. 21.

Science.gov (United States)

Mac Iver, Douglas J.; Balfanz, Robert; Plank, Stephen B.

In Talent Development Middle Schools, students needing extra help in mathematics participate in the Computer- and Team-Assisted Mathematics Acceleration (CATAMA) course. CATAMA is an innovative combination of computer-assisted instruction and structured cooperative learning that students receive in addition to their regular math course for about…

The reduced serum free triiodothyronine and increased dorsal hippocampal SNAP-25 and Munc18-1 had existed in middle-aged CD-1 mice with mild spatial cognitive impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Lei; Jiang, Wei; Wang, Fang; Yang, Qi-Gang; Wang, Chao; Chen, Yong-Ping; Chen, Gui-Hai

2013-12-02

Changes of synaptic proteins in highlighted brain regions and decreased serum thyroid hormones (THs) have been implied in age-related learning and memory decline. Previously, we showed significant pairwise correlations among markedly impaired spatial learning and memory ability, decreased serum free triiodothyronine (FT3) and increased hippocampal SNAP-25 and Munc18-1 in old Kunming mice. However, whether these changes and the correlations occur in middle-age mice remains unclear. Since this age is one of the best stages to study age-related cognitive decline, we explored the spatial learning and memory ability, serum THs, cerebral SNAP-25 and Munc18-1 levels and their relationships of middle-aged mice in this study. The learning and memory abilities of 35 CD-1 mice (19 mice aged 6 months and 16 mice aged 12 months) were measured with a radial six-arm water maze (RAWM). The SNAP-25 and Munc18-1 levels were semi-quantified by Western blotting and the serum THs were detected by radioimmunoassay. The results showed the middle-aged mice had decreased serum FT3, increased dorsal hippocampal (DH) SNAP-25 and Munc18-1, and many or long number of errors and latency in both learning and memory phases of the RAWM. The Pearson's correlation test showed that the DH SANP-25 and Munc18-1 levels were positively correlated with the number of errors and latency in learning phases of the RAWM. Meanwhile, the DH SANP-25 and Munc18-1 levels negatively correlated with the serum FT3 level. These results suggested that reduced FT3 with increased DH SNAP-25 and Munc18-1 levels might be involved in the spatial learning ability decline in the middle-aged mice. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimal behaviour can violate the principle of regularity.

Science.gov (United States)

Trimmer, Pete C

2013-07-22

Understanding decisions is a fundamental aim of behavioural ecology, psychology and economics. The regularity axiom of utility theory holds that a preference between options should be maintained when other options are made available. Empirical studies have shown that animals violate regularity but this has not been understood from a theoretical perspective, such decisions have therefore been labelled as irrational. Here, I use models of state-dependent behaviour to demonstrate that choices can violate regularity even when behavioural strategies are optimal. I also show that the range of conditions over which regularity should be violated can be larger when options do not always persist into the future. Consequently, utility theory--based on axioms, including transitivity, regularity and the independence of irrelevant alternatives--is undermined, because even alternatives that are never chosen by an animal (in its current state) can be relevant to a decision.

Dimensional regularization in configuration space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bollini, C.G.; Giambiagi, J.J.

1995-09-01

Dimensional regularization is introduced in configuration space by Fourier transforming in D-dimensions the perturbative momentum space Green functions. For this transformation, Bochner theorem is used, no extra parameters, such as those of Feynman or Bogoliubov-Shirkov are needed for convolutions. The regularized causal functions in x-space have ν-dependent moderated singularities at the origin. They can be multiplied together and Fourier transformed (Bochner) without divergence problems. The usual ultraviolet divergences appear as poles of the resultant functions of ν. Several example are discussed. (author). 9 refs

Matrix regularization of 4-manifolds

OpenAIRE

Trzetrzelewski, M.

2012-01-01

We consider products of two 2-manifolds such as S^2 x S^2, embedded in Euclidean space and show that the corresponding 4-volume preserving diffeomorphism algebra can be approximated by a tensor product SU(N)xSU(N) i.e. functions on a manifold are approximated by the Kronecker product of two SU(N) matrices. A regularization of the 4-sphere is also performed by constructing N^2 x N^2 matrix representations of the 4-algebra (and as a byproduct of the 3-algebra which makes the regularization of S...

Medical image of the week: right middle lobe syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristan EA

2016-05-01

Full Text Available No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. A 73 year-old woman, a lifetime non-smoker, presented to the pulmonary clinic with chronic dyspnea on exertion and cough. Physical exam was unremarkable and pulmonary function testing showed normal spirometry. A chest radiograph revealed calcified mediastinal adenopathy and increased density in the right middle lobe region (Figure 1. A computed tomography scan of the chest revealed significant narrowing of the right middle lobe bronchus with partial atelectasis and prominent calcified mediastinal lymphadenopathy (Figure 2. Bronchoscopy showed no endobronchial lesions but there was evidence of extrinsic compression surrounding the right middle lobe orifice. An endobronchial biopsy revealed noncaseating granulomas. Bronchoscopy cultures and cytology were negative and this was presumed to be from a previous infection with histoplasmosis given the patient’s long-term residence in an endemic area. Given chronic narrowing of right middle lobe bronchus with persistent atelectasis of the right middle lobe, the patient was diagnosed with right middle lobe syndrome. ...

Influence of whitening and regular dentifrices on orthodontic clear ligature color stability.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Adauê S; Kaizer, Marina R; Salgado, Vinícius E; Soldati, Dener C; Silva, Roberta C; Moraes, Rafael R

2015-01-01

This study evaluated the effect of brushing orthodontic clear ligatures with a whitening dentifrice containing a blue pigment (Close Up White Now, Unilever, London, UK) on their color stability, when exposed to a staining agent. Ligatures from 3M Unitek (Monrovia, CA, USA) and Morelli (Sorocaba, SP, Brazil) were tested. Baseline color measurements were performed and nonstained groups (control) were stored in distilled water whereas test groups were exposed for 1 hour daily to red wine. Specimens were brushed daily using regular or whitening dentifrice. Color measurements were repeated after 7, 14, 21, and 28 days using a spectrophotometer based on the CIE L*a*b* system. Decreased luminosity (CIE L*), increased red discoloration (CIE a* axis), and increased yellow discoloration (CIE b* axis) were generally observed for ligatures exposed to the staining agent. Color variation was generally lower in specimens brushed with regular dentifrice, but ligatures brushed with whitening dentifrice were generally less red and less yellow than regular dentifrice. The whitening dentifrice led to blue discoloration trend, with visually detectable differences particularly apparent according to storage condition and ligature brand. The whitening dentifrice containing blue pigment did not improve the ligature color stability, but it decreased yellow discoloration and increased a blue coloration. The use of a whitening dentifrice containing blue pigment during orthodontic treatment might decrease the yellow discoloration of elastic ligatures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Corn Yield and Soil Nitrous Oxide Emission under Different Fertilizer and Soil Management: A Three-Year Field Experiment in Middle Tennessee.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Qi; Hui, Dafeng; Wang, Junming; Iwuozo, Stephen; Yu, Chih-Li; Jima, Tigist; Smart, David; Reddy, Chandra; Dennis, Sam

2015-01-01

A three-year field experiment was conducted to examine the responses of corn yield and soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emission to various management practices in middle Tennessee. The management practices include no-tillage + regular applications of urea ammonium nitrate (NT-URAN); no-tillage + regular applications of URAN + denitrification inhibitor (NT-inhibitor); no-tillage + regular applications of URAN + biochar (NT-biochar); no-tillage + 20% applications of URAN + chicken litter (NT-litter), no-tillage + split applications of URAN (NT-split); and conventional tillage + regular applications of URAN as a control (CT-URAN). Fertilizer equivalent to 217 kg N ha(-1) was applied to each of the experimental plots. Results showed that no-tillage (NT-URAN) significantly increased corn yield by 28% over the conventional tillage (CT-URAN) due to soil water conservation. The management practices significantly altered soil N2O emission, with the highest in the CT-URAN (0.48 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) and the lowest in the NT-inhibitor (0.20 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) and NT-biochar (0.16 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) treatments. Significant exponential relationships between soil N2O emission and water filled pore space were revealed in all treatments. However, variations in soil N2O emission among the treatments were positively correlated with the moisture sensitivity of soil N2O emission that likely reflects an interactive effect between soil properties and WFPS. Our results indicated that improved fertilizer and soil management have the potential to maintain highly productive corn yield while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

On the equivalence of different regularization methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brzezowski, S.

1985-01-01

The R-circunflex-operation preceded by the regularization procedure is discussed. Some arguments are given, according to which the results may depend on the method of regularization, introduced in order to avoid divergences in perturbation calculations. 10 refs. (author)

Accreting fluids onto regular black holes via Hamiltonian approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jawad, Abdul [COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Department of Mathematics, Lahore (Pakistan); Shahzad, M.U. [COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Department of Mathematics, Lahore (Pakistan); University of Central Punjab, CAMS, UCP Business School, Lahore (Pakistan)

2017-08-15

We investigate the accretion of test fluids onto regular black holes such as Kehagias-Sfetsos black holes and regular black holes with Dagum distribution function. We analyze the accretion process when different test fluids are falling onto these regular black holes. The accreting fluid is being classified through the equation of state according to the features of regular black holes. The behavior of fluid flow and the existence of sonic points is being checked for these regular black holes. It is noted that the three-velocity depends on critical points and the equation of state parameter on phase space. (orig.)

Racial sexual mixing and factors associated with condom use among Middle Eastern-Canadians.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoueri, Nour; Bullock, Sandra L; Dubin, Joel A

2010-02-01

Interracial relationships in Canada have increased over the years. However, little research has focused on comparing STI/HIV risk and condom use between those in intra- and interracial relationships, specifically among Middle Eastern-Canadians. A web-based survey was administered to Middle Eastern-Canadians. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess factors associated with consistent condom use. Analyses were stratified by partner's race (Middle Eastern or non-Middle Eastern). The analysis sub-sample consisted of 92 participants. Factors associated with consistent condom use varied between the stratified groups. Among those with Middle Eastern partners, attitude towards marriage and the family and control in the relationship were associated with condom use. Among participants with non-Middle Eastern partners, acculturation and HIV knowledge were found to be associated with condom use. Factors associated with condom use varied between Middle Eastern-Canadians in intra- and interracial relationships. These differences illustrate the need for tailored interventions aimed at increasing condom use among this racial group.

Are Long-Term Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine Users Being Checked Regularly for Toxic Maculopathy?

Science.gov (United States)

Nika, Melisa; Blachley, Taylor S.; Edwards, Paul; Lee, Paul P.; Stein, Joshua D.

2014-01-01

Importance According to evidence-based, expert recommendations, long-term users of chloroquine (CQ) or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) should undergo regular visits to eye-care providers and diagnostic testing to check for maculopathy. Objective To determine whether patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) taking CQ or HCQ are regularly visiting eye-care providers and being screened for maculopathy. Setting, Design and Participants Patients with RA or SLE who were continuously enrolled in a particular managed-care network for ≥5 years during 2001-2011 were studied. Patients' amount of CQ/HCQ use in the 5 years since initial RA/SLE diagnosis was calculated, along with their number of eye-care visits and diagnostic tests for maculopathy. Those at high risk for maculopathy were identified. Visits to eye providers and diagnostic testing for maculopathy were assessed for each enrollee over the study period. Logistic regression was performed to assess potential factors associated with regular eye-care-provider visits (≥3 in 5 years) among CQ/HCQ users, including those at greatest risk for maculopathy. Main Outcome Measures Among CQ/HCQ users and those at high risk for toxic maculopathy, the proportions with regular eye-care visits and diagnostic testing, and the likelihood of regular eye-care visits (odds ratios [ORs] with 95% confidence intervals [CI]). Results Among 18,051 beneficiaries with RA or SLE, 6,339 (35.1%) had ≥1 record of HCQ/CQ use and 1,409 (7.8%) used HCQ/CQ for ≥4 years. Among those at high risk for maculopathy, 27.9% lacked regular eye-provider visits, 6.1% had no visits to eye providers, and 34.5% had no diagnostic testing for maculopathy during the 5-year period. Among high-risk patients, each additional month of HCQ/CQ use was associated with a 2.0%-increased likelihood of regular eye care (adjusted OR=1.02, CI=1.01-1.03). High-risk patients whose SLE/RA were managed by rheumatologists had a 77%-increased

Enhancing Middle-Level General Music: Suggestions from the Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Gerrity, Kevin W.

2009-01-01

In his book "Teaching Music in the Secondary Schools," Charles Hoffer reported a lack of consensus among music educators when considering the essential components of a middle-level general music course. Today, this condition persists. The increasingly diverse nature of students and schools makes a singular, model curriculum for middle-level…

Applying 4-regular grid structures in large-scale access networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Jens Myrup; Knudsen, Thomas P.; Patel, Ahmed

2006-01-01

4-Regular grid structures have been used in multiprocessor systems for decades due to a number of nice properties with regard to routing, protection, and restoration, together with a straightforward planar layout. These qualities are to an increasing extent demanded also in largescale access...... networks, but concerning protection and restoration these demands have been met only to a limited extent by the commonly used ring and tree structures. To deal with the fact that classical 4-regular grid structures are not directly applicable in such networks, this paper proposes a number of extensions...... concerning restoration, protection, scalability, embeddability, flexibility, and cost. The extensions are presented as a tool case, which can be used for implementing semi-automatic and in the longer term full automatic network planning tools....

If We Build It, We Will Come: Impacts of a Summer Robotics Program on Regular Year Attendance in Middle School. Policy Brief

Science.gov (United States)

Mac Iver, Martha Abele; Mac Iver, Douglas J.

2014-01-01

Recognizing the importance of both keeping middle school students engaged and improving their math skills, Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) developed a summer school STEM program involving not only math and science instruction but also the experience of building a robot and competing with those robots in a city-wide tournament.…

Bounded Perturbation Regularization for Linear Least Squares Estimation

KAUST Repository

Ballal, Tarig

2017-10-18

This paper addresses the problem of selecting the regularization parameter for linear least-squares estimation. We propose a new technique called bounded perturbation regularization (BPR). In the proposed BPR method, a perturbation with a bounded norm is allowed into the linear transformation matrix to improve the singular-value structure. Following this, the problem is formulated as a min-max optimization problem. Next, the min-max problem is converted to an equivalent minimization problem to estimate the unknown vector quantity. The solution of the minimization problem is shown to converge to that of the ℓ2 -regularized least squares problem, with the unknown regularizer related to the norm bound of the introduced perturbation through a nonlinear constraint. A procedure is proposed that combines the constraint equation with the mean squared error (MSE) criterion to develop an approximately optimal regularization parameter selection algorithm. Both direct and indirect applications of the proposed method are considered. Comparisons with different Tikhonov regularization parameter selection methods, as well as with other relevant methods, are carried out. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method provides significant improvement over state-of-the-art methods.

MRI reconstruction with joint global regularization and transform learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanc, A Korhan; Eksioglu, Ender M

2016-10-01

Sparsity based regularization has been a popular approach to remedy the measurement scarcity in image reconstruction. Recently, sparsifying transforms learned from image patches have been utilized as an effective regularizer for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reconstruction. Here, we infuse additional global regularization terms to the patch-based transform learning. We develop an algorithm to solve the resulting novel cost function, which includes both patchwise and global regularization terms. Extensive simulation results indicate that the introduced mixed approach has improved MRI reconstruction performance, when compared to the algorithms which use either of the patchwise transform learning or global regularization terms alone. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Periodontal Disease, Regular Dental Care Use, and Incident Ischemic Stroke.

Science.gov (United States)

Sen, Souvik; Giamberardino, Lauren D; Moss, Kevin; Morelli, Thiago; Rosamond, Wayne D; Gottesman, Rebecca F; Beck, James; Offenbacher, Steven

2018-02-01

Periodontal disease is independently associated with cardiovascular disease. Identification of periodontal disease as a risk factor for incident ischemic stroke raises the possibility that regular dental care utilization may reduce the stroke risk. In the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) study, pattern of dental visits were classified as regular or episodic dental care users. In the ancillary dental ARIC study, selected subjects from ARIC underwent fullmouth periodontal measurements collected at 6 sites per tooth and classified into 7 periodontal profile classes (PPCs). In the ARIC study 10 362 stroke-free participants, 584 participants had incident ischemic strokes over a 15-year period. In the dental ARIC study, 6736 dentate subjects were assessed for periodontal disease status using PPC with a total of 299 incident ischemic strokes over the 15-year period. The 7 levels of PPC showed a trend toward an increased stroke risk (χ 2 trend P periodontal disease). Periodontal disease was significantly associated with cardioembolic (hazard ratio, 2.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-5.6) and thrombotic (hazard ratio, 2.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-3.8) stroke subtypes. Regular dental care utilization was associated with lower adjusted stroke risk (hazard ratio, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.94). We confirm an independent association between periodontal disease and incident stroke risk, particularly cardioembolic and thrombotic stroke subtype. Further, we report that regular dental care utilization may lower this risk for stroke. © 2018 American Heart Association, Inc.

School-level factors associated with increased fruit and vegetable consumption among students in California middle and high schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Gosliner, Wendi

2014-09-01

This study assessed associations between selective school-level factors and students' consumption of fruits and vegetables at school. Better understanding of school factors associated with increased produce consumption is especially important, as students are served more produce items at school. This cross-sectional study included 5439 seventh- and ninth-grade students from 31 schools in California in 2010. Multilevel regression models estimated whether the odds of consuming fruits or vegetables at school among students eating the school lunch were associated with the length of the lunch period, quality/variety of produce options, or other factors. A longer lunch period was associated with increased odds of a student eating fruits (odds ratio [OR] = 1.40) and vegetables (OR = 1.54) at school. Better fruit quality increased the odds of a student consuming fruit (OR = 1.44). Including a salad bar and involving students in food service decisions increased a student's odds of consuming vegetables (OR = 1.48 and OR = 1.34, respectively). This study suggests that institutional factors in schools are positively associated with middle and high school students' consumption of produce items at school. Additional efforts to structure school meal environments to enhance students' consumption of produce items can benefit students' nutrition and health. © 2014, American School Health Association.

The use of regularization in inferential measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hines, J. Wesley; Gribok, Andrei V.; Attieh, Ibrahim; Uhrig, Robert E.

1999-01-01

Inferential sensing is the prediction of a plant variable through the use of correlated plant variables. A correct prediction of the variable can be used to monitor sensors for drift or other failures making periodic instrument calibrations unnecessary. This move from periodic to condition based maintenance can reduce costs and increase the reliability of the instrument. Having accurate, reliable measurements is important for signals that may impact safety or profitability. This paper investigates how collinearity adversely affects inferential sensing by making the results inconsistent and unrepeatable; and presents regularization as a potential solution (author) (ml)

Occupational concerns associated with regular use of microscope.

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, Garima; Shetty, Pushparaja

2014-08-01

Microscope work can be strenuous both to the visual system and the musculoskeletal system. Lack of awareness or indifference towards health issues may result in microscope users becoming victim to many occupational hazards. Our objective was to understand the occupational problems associated with regular use of microscope, awareness regarding the hazards, attitude and practice of microscope users towards the problems and preventive strategies. a questionnaire based survey done on 50 professionals and technicians who used microscope regularly in pathology, microbiology, hematology and cytology laboratories. Sixty two percent of subjects declared that they were suffering from musculoskeletal problems, most common locations being neck and back. Maximum prevalence of musculoskeletal problems was noted in those using microscope for 11-15 years and for more than 30 h/week. Sixty two percent of subjects were aware of workplace ergonomics. Fifty six percent of microscope users took regular short breaks for stretching exercises and 58% took visual breaks every 15-30 min in between microscope use sessions. As many as 94% subjects reported some form of visual problem. Fourty four percent of microscope users felt stressed with long working hours on microscope. The most common occupational concerns of microscope users were musculoskeletal problems of neck and back regions, eye fatigue, aggravation of ametropia, headache, stress due to long working hours and anxiety during or after microscope use. There is an immediate need for increasing awareness about the various occupational hazards and their irreversible effects to prevent them.

Strictly-regular number system and data structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elmasry, Amr Ahmed Abd Elmoneim; Jensen, Claus; Katajainen, Jyrki

2010-01-01

We introduce a new number system that we call the strictly-regular system, which efficiently supports the operations: digit-increment, digit-decrement, cut, concatenate, and add. Compared to other number systems, the strictly-regular system has distinguishable properties. It is superior to the re...

Analysis of regularized Navier-Stokes equations, 2

Science.gov (United States)

Ou, Yuh-Roung; Sritharan, S. S.

1989-01-01

A practically important regularization of the Navier-Stokes equations was analyzed. As a continuation of the previous work, the structure of the attractors characterizing the solutins was studied. Local as well as global invariant manifolds were found. Regularity properties of these manifolds are analyzed.

Regularities, Natural Patterns and Laws of Nature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stathis Psillos

2014-02-01

Full Text Available  The goal of this paper is to sketch an empiricist metaphysics of laws of nature. The key idea is that there are regularities without regularity-enforcers. Differently put, there are natural laws without law-makers of a distinct metaphysical kind. This sketch will rely on the concept of a natural pattern and more significantly on the existence of a network of natural patterns in nature. The relation between a regularity and a pattern will be analysed in terms of mereology.  Here is the road map. In section 2, I will briefly discuss the relation between empiricism and metaphysics, aiming to show that an empiricist metaphysics is possible. In section 3, I will offer arguments against stronger metaphysical views of laws. Then, in section 4 I will motivate nomic objectivism. In section 5, I will address the question ‘what is a regularity?’ and will develop a novel answer to it, based on the notion of a natural pattern. In section 6, I will raise the question: ‘what is a law of nature?’, the answer to which will be: a law of nature is a regularity that is characterised by the unity of a natural pattern.

Interventions to increase physical activity in middle-age women at the workplace: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribeiro, Marcos Ausenka; Martins, Milton Arruda; Carvalho, Celso R F

2014-01-01

A four-group randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of distinct workplace interventions to increase the physical activity (PA) and to reduce anthropometric parameters in middle-age women. One-hundred and ninety-five women age 40-50 yr who were employees from a university hospital and physically inactive at their leisure time were randomly assigned to one of four groups: minimal treatment comparator (MTC; n = 47), pedometer-based individual counseling (PedIC; n = 53), pedometer-based group counseling (PedGC; n = 48), and aerobic training (AT; n = 47). The outcomes were total number of steps (primary outcome), those performed at moderate intensity (≥ 110 steps per minute), and weight and waist circumference (secondary outcomes). Evaluations were performed at baseline, at the end of a 3-month intervention, and 3 months after that. Data were presented as delta [(after 3 months-baseline) or (after 6 months-baseline)] and 95% confidence interval. To detect the differences among the groups, a one-way ANOVA and a Holm-Sidak post hoc test was used (P Women submitted to AT did not modify PA daily life activity but reduced anthropometric parameters after 3 and 6 months (P workplace setting, pedometer-based PA intervention with counseling is effective increasing daily life number of steps, whereas AT is effective for weight loss.

Prevalence and Correlates of Having a Regular Physician among Women Presenting for Induced Abortion.

Science.gov (United States)

Chor, Julie; Hebert, Luciana E; Hasselbacher, Lee A; Whitaker, Amy K

2016-01-01

To determine the prevalence and correlates of having a regular physician among women presenting for induced abortion. We conducted a retrospective review of women presenting to an urban, university-based family planning clinic for abortion between January 2008 and September 2011. We conducted bivariate analyses, comparing women with and without a regular physician, and multivariable regression modeling, to identify factors associated with not having a regular physician. Of 834 women, 521 (62.5%) had a regular physician and 313 (37.5%) did not. Women with a prior pregnancy, live birth, or spontaneous abortion were more likely than women without these experiences to have a regular physician. Women with a prior induced abortion were not more likely than women who had never had a prior induced abortion to have a regular physician. Compared with women younger than 18 years, women aged 18 to 26 years were less likely to have a physician (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.10-0.62). Women with a prior live birth had increased odds of having a regular physician compared with women without a prior pregnancy (aOR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.13-3.16). Women without medical/fetal indications and who had not been victims of sexual assault (self-indicated) were less likely to report having a regular physician compared with women with medical/fetal indications (aOR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.17-0.82). The abortion visit is a point of contact with a large number of women without a regular physician and therefore provides an opportunity to integrate women into health care. Copyright © 2016 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Shrinking Middle Class and Changing Income Distribution of Korea: 1995-2005

OpenAIRE

Joon-Woo Nahm

2008-01-01

This paper investigates the shrinking middle class hypothesis and reveals more details about recent trends in income distribution of Korea from 1995 to 2005. We find that the consensus view of a declining middle class is correct and the decline in the middle class splited equally into the lower class and the upper class in Korea. Furthermore, while the size and income share of the middle class declined, the share of the upper class increased rapidly and the share of the lower class remained s...

Consistent Partial Least Squares Path Modeling via Regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Sunho; Park, JaeHong

2018-01-01

Partial least squares (PLS) path modeling is a component-based structural equation modeling that has been adopted in social and psychological research due to its data-analytic capability and flexibility. A recent methodological advance is consistent PLS (PLSc), designed to produce consistent estimates of path coefficients in structural models involving common factors. In practice, however, PLSc may frequently encounter multicollinearity in part because it takes a strategy of estimating path coefficients based on consistent correlations among independent latent variables. PLSc has yet no remedy for this multicollinearity problem, which can cause loss of statistical power and accuracy in parameter estimation. Thus, a ridge type of regularization is incorporated into PLSc, creating a new technique called regularized PLSc. A comprehensive simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of regularized PLSc as compared to its non-regularized counterpart in terms of power and accuracy. The results show that our regularized PLSc is recommended for use when serious multicollinearity is present.

Consistent Partial Least Squares Path Modeling via Regularization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunho Jung

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Partial least squares (PLS path modeling is a component-based structural equation modeling that has been adopted in social and psychological research due to its data-analytic capability and flexibility. A recent methodological advance is consistent PLS (PLSc, designed to produce consistent estimates of path coefficients in structural models involving common factors. In practice, however, PLSc may frequently encounter multicollinearity in part because it takes a strategy of estimating path coefficients based on consistent correlations among independent latent variables. PLSc has yet no remedy for this multicollinearity problem, which can cause loss of statistical power and accuracy in parameter estimation. Thus, a ridge type of regularization is incorporated into PLSc, creating a new technique called regularized PLSc. A comprehensive simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of regularized PLSc as compared to its non-regularized counterpart in terms of power and accuracy. The results show that our regularized PLSc is recommended for use when serious multicollinearity is present.

Increasing evidence for the efficacy of tobacco control mass media communication programming in low- and middle-income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Mullin, Sandra; Prasad, Vinayak; Kaur, Jagdish; Turk, Tahir

2011-08-01

Antitobacco mass media campaigns have had good success at changing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors with respect to smoking in high-income countries provided they are sustained. Mass media campaigns should be a critical component of tobacco control programs in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Mounting evidence shows that graphic campaigns and those that evoke negative emotions run over long periods of time have achieved the most influence. These types of campaigns are now being implemented in low- and middle-income countries. The authors provide 3 case studies of first-ever graphic warning mass media campaigns in China, India, and Russia, 3 priority high-burden countries in the global Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. In each of these countries, message testing of core messages provided confidence in messages, and evaluations demonstrated message uptake. The authors argue that given the initial success of these campaigns, governments in low- and middle-income countries should consider resourcing and sustaining these interventions as key components of their tobacco control strategies and programs.

Eye care utilization by older adults in low, middle, and high income countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vela Claudia

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The risk of visual impairment increases dramatically with age and therefore older adults should have their eyes examined at least every 1 to 2 years. Using a world-wide, population-based dataset, we sought to determine the frequency that older people had their eyes examined. We also examined factors associated with having a recent eye exam. Methods The World Health Surveys were conducted in 70 countries throughout the world in 2002-2003 using a random, multi-stage, stratified, cluster sampling design. Participants 60 years and older from 52 countries (n = 35,839 were asked "When was the last time you had your eyes examined by a medical professional?". The income status of countries was estimated using gross national income per capita data from 2003 from the World Bank website. Prevalence estimates were adjusted to account for the complex sample design. Results Overall, only 18% (95% CI 17, 19 of older adults had an eye exam in the last year. The rate of an eye exam in the last year in low, lower middle, upper middle, and high income countries was 10%, 24%, 22%, and 37% respectively. Factors associated with having an eye exam in the last year included older age, female gender, more education, urban residence, greater wealth, worse self-reported health, having diabetes, and wearing glasses or contact lenses (p Conclusions Given that older adults often suffer from age-related but treatable conditions, they should be seen on a regular basis to prevent visual impairment and its disabling consequences.

Regularization of the Boundary-Saddle-Node Bifurcation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xia Liu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper we treat a particular class of planar Filippov systems which consist of two smooth systems that are separated by a discontinuity boundary. In such systems one vector field undergoes a saddle-node bifurcation while the other vector field is transversal to the boundary. The boundary-saddle-node (BSN bifurcation occurs at a critical value when the saddle-node point is located on the discontinuity boundary. We derive a local topological normal form for the BSN bifurcation and study its local dynamics by applying the classical Filippov’s convex method and a novel regularization approach. In fact, by the regularization approach a given Filippov system is approximated by a piecewise-smooth continuous system. Moreover, the regularization process produces a singular perturbation problem where the original discontinuous set becomes a center manifold. Thus, the regularization enables us to make use of the established theories for continuous systems and slow-fast systems to study the local behavior around the BSN bifurcation.

Low-Complexity Regularization Algorithms for Image Deblurring

KAUST Repository

Alanazi, Abdulrahman

2016-11-01

Image restoration problems deal with images in which information has been degraded by blur or noise. In practice, the blur is usually caused by atmospheric turbulence, motion, camera shake, and several other mechanical or physical processes. In this study, we present two regularization algorithms for the image deblurring problem. We first present a new method based on solving a regularized least-squares (RLS) problem. This method is proposed to find a near-optimal value of the regularization parameter in the RLS problems. Experimental results on the non-blind image deblurring problem are presented. In all experiments, comparisons are made with three benchmark methods. The results demonstrate that the proposed method clearly outperforms the other methods in terms of both the output PSNR and structural similarity, as well as the visual quality of the deblurred images. To reduce the complexity of the proposed algorithm, we propose a technique based on the bootstrap method to estimate the regularization parameter in low and high-resolution images. Numerical results show that the proposed technique can effectively reduce the computational complexity of the proposed algorithms. In addition, for some cases where the point spread function (PSF) is separable, we propose using a Kronecker product so as to reduce the computations. Furthermore, in the case where the image is smooth, it is always desirable to replace the regularization term in the RLS problems by a total variation term. Therefore, we propose a novel method for adaptively selecting the regularization parameter in a so-called square root regularized total variation (SRTV). Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms the other benchmark methods when applied to smooth images in terms of PSNR, SSIM and the restored image quality. In this thesis, we focus on the non-blind image deblurring problem, where the blur kernel is assumed to be known. However, we developed algorithms that also work

Improvements in GRACE Gravity Fields Using Regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Save, H.; Bettadpur, S.; Tapley, B. D.

2008-12-01

The unconstrained global gravity field models derived from GRACE are susceptible to systematic errors that show up as broad "stripes" aligned in a North-South direction on the global maps of mass flux. These errors are believed to be a consequence of both systematic and random errors in the data that are amplified by the nature of the gravity field inverse problem. These errors impede scientific exploitation of the GRACE data products, and limit the realizable spatial resolution of the GRACE global gravity fields in certain regions. We use regularization techniques to reduce these "stripe" errors in the gravity field products. The regularization criteria are designed such that there is no attenuation of the signal and that the solutions fit the observations as well as an unconstrained solution. We have used a computationally inexpensive method, normally referred to as "L-ribbon", to find the regularization parameter. This paper discusses the characteristics and statistics of a 5-year time-series of regularized gravity field solutions. The solutions show markedly reduced stripes, are of uniformly good quality over time, and leave little or no systematic observation residuals, which is a frequent consequence of signal suppression from regularization. Up to degree 14, the signal in regularized solution shows correlation greater than 0.8 with the un-regularized CSR Release-04 solutions. Signals from large-amplitude and small-spatial extent events - such as the Great Sumatra Andaman Earthquake of 2004 - are visible in the global solutions without using special post-facto error reduction techniques employed previously in the literature. Hydrological signals as small as 5 cm water-layer equivalent in the small river basins, like Indus and Nile for example, are clearly evident, in contrast to noisy estimates from RL04. The residual variability over the oceans relative to a seasonal fit is small except at higher latitudes, and is evident without the need for de-striping or

Executive summary: The health and fitness benefits of regular participation in small-sided football games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krustrup, Peter; Dvorak, J.; Junge, A.

2010-01-01

The present special issue of Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports deals with health and fitness benefits of regular participation in small-sided football games. One review article and 13 original articles were the result of a 2-year multi-center study in Copenhagen and Zurich...... and include studies of different age groups analyzed from a physiological, medical, social and psychological perspective. The main groups investigated were middle-aged, former untrained, healthy men and women who were followed for up to 16 months. In addition, elderly, children and hypertensive patients were...... studied. A summary and interpretations of the main findings divided into an analysis of the physical demands during training of various groups and the effect of a period of training on performance, muscle adaptations and health profile follow. In addition, social and psychological effects on participation...

β-Cell dedifferentiation, reduced duct cell plasticity, and impaired β-cell mass regeneration in middle-aged rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Téllez, Noèlia; Vilaseca, Marina; Martí, Yasmina; Pla, Arturo; Montanya, Eduard

2016-09-01

Limitations in β-cell regeneration potential in middle-aged animals could contribute to the increased risk to develop diabetes associated with aging. We investigated β-cell regeneration of middle-aged Wistar rats in response to two different regenerative stimuli: partial pancreatectomy (Px + V) and gastrin administration (Px + G). Pancreatic remnants were analyzed 3 and 14 days after surgery. β-Cell mass increased in young animals after Px and was further increased after gastrin treatment. In contrast, β-cell mass did not change after Px or after gastrin treatment in middle-aged rats. β-Cell replication and individual β-cell size were similarly increased after Px in young and middle-aged animals, and β-cell apoptosis was not modified. Nuclear immunolocalization of neurog3 or nkx6.1 in regenerative duct cells, markers of duct cell plasticity, was increased in young but not in middle-aged Px rats. The pancreatic progenitor-associated transcription factors neurog3 and sox9 were upregulated in islet β-cells of middle-aged rats and further increased after Px. The percentage of chromogranin A+/hormone islet cells was significantly increased in the pancreases of middle-aged Px rats. In summary, the potential for compensatory β-cell hyperplasia and hypertrophy was retained in middle-aged rats, but β-cell dedifferentiation and impaired duct cell plasticity limited β-cell regeneration. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Separating relational from item load effects in paired recognition: temporoparietal and middle frontal gyral activity with increased associates, but not items during encoding and retention.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Steven; Niki, Kazuhisa

2002-10-01

Working memory is affected by items stored and the relations between them. However, separating these factors has been difficult, because increased items usually accompany increased associations/relations. Hence, some have argued, relational effects are reducible to item effects. We overcome this problem by manipulating index length: the fewest number of item positions at which there is a unique item, or tuple of items (if length >1), for every instance in the relational (memory) set. Longer indexes imply greater similarity (number of shared items) between instances and higher load on encoding processes. Subjects were given lists of study pairs and asked to make a recognition judgement. The number of unique items and index length in the three list conditions were: (1) AB, CD: four/one; (2) AB, CD, EF: six/one; and (3) AB, AD, CB: four/two, respectively. Japanese letters were used in Experiments 1 (kanji-ideograms) and 2 (hiragana-phonograms); numbers in Experiment 3; and shapes generated from Fourier descriptors in Experiment 4. Across all materials, right dominant temporoparietal and middle frontal gyral activity was found with increased index length, but not items during study. In Experiment 5, a longer delay was used to isolate retention effects in the absence of visual stimuli. Increased left hemispheric activity was observed in the precuneus, middle frontal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus with increased index length for the delay period. These results show that relational load is not reducible to item load.

Deterministic automata for extended regular expressions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syzdykov Mirzakhmet

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In this work we present the algorithms to produce deterministic finite automaton (DFA for extended operators in regular expressions like intersection, subtraction and complement. The method like “overriding” of the source NFA(NFA not defined with subset construction rules is used. The past work described only the algorithm for AND-operator (or intersection of regular languages; in this paper the construction for the MINUS-operator (and complement is shown.

Regularities of intermediate adsorption complex relaxation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manukova, L.A.

1982-01-01

The experimental data, characterizing the regularities of intermediate adsorption complex relaxation in the polycrystalline Mo-N 2 system at 77 K are given. The method of molecular beam has been used in the investigation. The analytical expressions of change regularity in the relaxation process of full and specific rates - of transition from intermediate state into ''non-reversible'', of desorption into the gas phase and accumUlation of the particles in the intermediate state are obtained

Intrinsic motivation factors based on the self-determinant theory for regular breast cancer screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Su Mi; Jo, Heui-Sug

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify factors of intrinsic motivation that affect regular breast cancer screening and contribute to development of a program for strategies to improve effective breast cancer screening. Subjects were residing in South Korea Gangwon-Province and were female over 40 and under 69 years of age. For the investigation, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) was modified to the situation of cancer screening and was used to survey 905 inhabitants. Multinominal logistic regression analyses were conducted for regular breast cancer screening (RS), one-time breast cancer screening (OS) and non-breast cancer screening (NS). For statistical analysis, IBM SPSS 20.0 was utilized. The determinant factors between RS and NS were "perceived effort and choice" and "stress and strain" - internal motivations related to regular breast cancer screening. Also, determinant factors between RS and OS are "age" and "perceived effort and choice" for internal motivation related to cancer screening. To increase regular screening, strategies that address individual perceived effort and choice are recommended.

A pro-inflammatory diet is associated with increased risk of developing hypertension among middle-aged women

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vissers, L E T; Waller, M; van der Schouw, Y T; Hébert, J R; Shivappa, N; Schoenaker, D A J M; Mishra, G D

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A pro-inflammatory diet is thought to lead to hypertension through oxidative stress and vessel wall inflammation. We therefore investigated the association between the dietary inflammatory index (DII) and developing hypertension in a population-based cohort of middle-aged women.

Enhanced middle-infrared light transmission through Au/SiO(x)N(y)/Au aperture arrays.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Gongli; Yao, Xiang; Ji, Xinming; Zhou, Jia; Bao, Zongming; Huang, Yiping

2011-12-01

The enhanced middle-infrared light transmission through Au/SiO(x)N(y)/Au aperture arrays by changing the refractive index and the thickness of a dielectric layer was studied experimentally. The results indicated that the transmission spectra was highly dependent on the refractive index and the thickness of SiO(x)N(y). We found that the transmission peaks redshifted regularly along with the refractive index from 1.6 to 1.8, owing to the role of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) coupling in the Au/SiO(x)N(y)/Au cascaded metallic structure. Simultaneously, a higher transmission efficiency and narrower transmission peak was obtained in Au/SiO2.1N0.3/Au cascaded metallic structure with small refractive index (1.6) than in Au/SiO0.6N1/Au cascaded metallic structure with large refractive index (1.8). When the thickness of SiO(x)N(y) changes from 0.2 to 0.4 microm, the shape of transmission spectra exhibits a large change. It was found that a higher transmission efficiency and narrower transmission peak was obtained in Au/SiO(x)N(y)/Au cascaded metallic structure with a thin dielectric film (0.2 microm), with the increase of SiO(x)N(y) film's thickness, the transmission peak gradually widened and disappeared finally. This effect is useful in applications of biochemical sensing and tunable integrated plasmonic devices in the middle-infrared region.

Sparse structure regularized ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Sun, Yijun; Gao, Xin

2014-01-01

Learning ranking scores is critical for the multimedia database retrieval problem. In this paper, we propose a novel ranking score learning algorithm by exploring the sparse structure and using it to regularize ranking scores. To explore the sparse

The impact of comorbid cannabis and methamphetamine use on mental health among regular ecstasy users.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Laura A; Roxburgh, Amanda; Bruno, Raimondo; Matthews, Allison; Burns, Lucy

2012-09-01

Residual effects of ecstasy use induce neurotransmitter changes that make it biologically plausible that extended use of the drug may induce psychological distress. However, there has been only mixed support for this in the literature. The presence of polysubstance use is a confounding factor. The aim of this study was to investigate whether regular cannabis and/or regular methamphetamine use confers additional risk of poor mental health and high levels of psychological distress, beyond regular ecstasy use alone. Three years of data from a yearly, cross-sectional, quantitative survey of Australian regular ecstasy users was examined. Participants were divided into four groups according to whether they regularly (at least monthly) used ecstasy only (n=936), ecstasy and weekly cannabis (n=697), ecstasy and weekly methamphetamine (n=108) or ecstasy, weekly cannabis and weekly methamphetamine (n=180). Self-reported mental health problems and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) were examined. Approximately one-fifth of participants self-reported at least one mental health problem, most commonly depression and anxiety. The addition of regular cannabis and/or methamphetamine use substantially increases the likelihood of self-reported mental health problems, particularly with regard to paranoia, over regular ecstasy use alone. Regular cannabis use remained significantly associated with self reported mental health problems even when other differences between groups were accounted for. Regular cannabis and methamphetamine use was also associated with earlier initiation to ecstasy use. These findings suggest that patterns of drug use can help identify at risk groups that could benefit from targeted approaches in education and interventions. Given that early initiation to substance use was more common in those with regular cannabis and methamphetamine use and given that this group had a higher likelihood of mental health problems, work around delaying onset of initiation

Can an evidence-based book club intervention delivered via a tablet computer improve physical activity in middle-aged women?

Science.gov (United States)

Ehlers, Diane K; Huberty, Jennifer L; de Vreede, Gert-Jan

2015-02-01

Fewer than 50% of middle-aged women participate in regular physical activity (PA). Innovative approaches that engage women who may not otherwise participate in PA programs are warranted. The purpose of this study was to explore the acceptability and feasibility of a 12-week tablet-based book club for improving middle-aged women's PA. Thirty women (35-64 years of age) were randomized to the Fit Minded Tablet (n=15) and the Standard Fit Minded (i.e., face-to-face intervention) (n=15) groups. The Fit Minded Tablet was adapted from the Standard Fit Minded, a previously tested, theory-based book club intervention using books as a platform for discussion and group support to help women adopt regular PA. Both interventions met weekly for 3 months, for a total of 12 sessions. Tablet group participants accessed materials (e.g., e-books, workbook, live/recorded videoconferencing) via a tablet computer; Standard group participants received materials (e.g., printed books, workbook, live face-to-face meetings) in person. Feasibility (i.e., implementation and expansion) was assessed using process evaluation, qualitative interviews, satisfaction surveys, and quantitative outcome assessments. Women in the Tablet group attended fewer meetings (mean, 8.25) than women in the Standard group (mean, 9.9). Videoconferencing, digital literacy, and participant engagement limitations were observed in the Tablet group. Tablet participants enjoyed the e-books but thought technology barriers hindered their engagement during meetings. Women in both groups valued the support they received from other group members. Standard participants cited this support as a key contributor to their PA changes, whereas Tablet participants reported needing in-person contact to feel more connected. Given the popularity of tablet computers and the value that middle-aged women place on group interaction to support their PA behaviors, additional research is warranted to determine best strategies for optimizing

Sparse structure regularized ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2014-04-17

Learning ranking scores is critical for the multimedia database retrieval problem. In this paper, we propose a novel ranking score learning algorithm by exploring the sparse structure and using it to regularize ranking scores. To explore the sparse structure, we assume that each multimedia object could be represented as a sparse linear combination of all other objects, and combination coefficients are regarded as a similarity measure between objects and used to regularize their ranking scores. Moreover, we propose to learn the sparse combination coefficients and the ranking scores simultaneously. A unified objective function is constructed with regard to both the combination coefficients and the ranking scores, and is optimized by an iterative algorithm. Experiments on two multimedia database retrieval data sets demonstrate the significant improvements of the propose algorithm over state-of-the-art ranking score learning algorithms.

Efficient L1 regularization-based reconstruction for fluorescent molecular tomography using restarted nonlinear conjugate gradient.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Junwei; Zhang, Bin; Liu, Fei; Luo, Jianwen; Bai, Jing

2013-09-15

For the ill-posed fluorescent molecular tomography (FMT) inverse problem, the L1 regularization can protect the high-frequency information like edges while effectively reduce the image noise. However, the state-of-the-art L1 regularization-based algorithms for FMT reconstruction are expensive in memory, especially for large-scale problems. An efficient L1 regularization-based reconstruction algorithm based on nonlinear conjugate gradient with restarted strategy is proposed to increase the computational speed with low memory consumption. The reconstruction results from phantom experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can obtain high spatial resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio, as well as high localization accuracy for fluorescence targets.

20 CFR 226.35 - Deductions from regular annuity rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Deductions from regular annuity rate. 226.35... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing a Spouse or Divorced Spouse Annuity § 226.35 Deductions from regular annuity rate. The regular annuity rate of the spouse and divorced...

Residual stress evolution regularity in thermal barrier coatings under thermal shock loading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ximin Chen

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Residual stress evolution regularity in thermal barrier ceramic coatings (TBCs under different cycles of thermal shock loading of 1100°C was investigated by the microscopic digital image correlation (DIC and micro-Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The obtained results showed that, as the cycle number of the thermal shock loading increases, the evolution of the residual stress undergoes three distinct stages: a sharp increase, a gradual change, and a reduction. The extension stress near the TBC surface is fast transformed to compressive one through just one thermal cycle. After different thermal shock cycles with peak temperature of 1100°C, phase transformation in TBC does not happen, whereas the generation, development, evolution of the thermally grown oxide (TGO layer and micro-cracks are the main reasons causing the evolution regularity of the residual stress.

The Jump Set under Geometric Regularization. Part 1: Basic Technique and First-Order Denoising

KAUST Repository

Valkonen, Tuomo

2015-01-01

© 2015 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Let u ∈ BV(Ω) solve the total variation (TV) denoising problem with L²-squared fidelity and data f. Caselles, Chambolle, and Novaga [Multiscale Model. Simul., 6 (2008), pp. 879-894] have shown the containment H^m-1 (Ju \\\\Jf) = 0 of the jump set Ju of u in that of f. Their proof unfortunately depends heavily on the co-area formula, as do many results in this area, and as such is not directly extensible to higher-order, curvature-based, and other advanced geometric regularizers, such as total generalized variation and Euler\\'s elastica. These have received increased attention in recent times due to their better practical regularization properties compared to conventional TV or wavelets. We prove analogous jump set containment properties for a general class of regularizers. We do this with novel Lipschitz transformation techniques and do not require the co-area formula. In the present Part 1 we demonstrate the general technique on first-order regularizers, while in Part 2 we will extend it to higher-order regularizers. In particular, we concentrate in this part on TV and, as a novelty, Huber-regularized TV. We also demonstrate that the technique would apply to nonconvex TV models as well as the Perona-Malik anisotropic diffusion, if these approaches were well-posed to begin with.

Regularization theory for ill-posed problems selected topics

CERN Document Server

Lu, Shuai

2013-01-01

Thismonograph is a valuable contribution to thehighly topical and extremly productive field ofregularisationmethods for inverse and ill-posed problems. The author is an internationally outstanding and acceptedmathematicianin this field. In his book he offers a well-balanced mixtureof basic and innovative aspects.He demonstrates new,differentiatedviewpoints, and important examples for applications. The bookdemontrates thecurrent developments inthe field of regularization theory,such as multiparameter regularization and regularization in learning theory. The book is written for graduate and PhDs

The Middle East population puzzle.

Science.gov (United States)

Omran, A R; Roudi, F

1993-07-01

An overview is provided of Middle Eastern countries on the following topics; population change, epidemiological transition theory and 4 patterns of transition in the middle East, transition in causes of death, infant mortality declines, war mortality, fertility, family planning, age and sex composition, ethnicity, educational status, urbanization, labor force, international labor migration, refugees, Jewish immigration, families, marriage patterns, and future growth. The Middle East is geographically defined as Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Gaza and the West Bank, Iran, Turkey, and Israel. The Middle East's population grew very little until 1990 when the population was 43 million. Population was about doubled in the mid-1950s at 80 million. Rapid growth occurred after 1950 with declines in mortality due to widespread disease control and sanitation efforts. Countries are grouped in the following ways: persistent high fertility and declining mortality with low to medium socioeconomic conditions (Jordan, Oman, Syria, Yemen, and the West Bank and Gaza), declining fertility and mortality in intermediate socioeconomic development (Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iran), high fertility and declining mortality in high socioeconomic conditions (Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), and low fertility and mortality in average socioeconomic conditions (Israel). As birth and death rates decline, there is an accompanying shift from communicable diseases to degenerative diseases and increases in life expectancy; this pattern is reflected in the available data from Egypt, Kuwait, and Israel. High infant and child mortality tends to remain a problem throughout the Middle East, with the exception of Israel and the Gulf States. War casualties are undetermined, yet have not impeded the fastest growing population growth rate in the world. The average fertility is 5 births

20 CFR 226.34 - Divorced spouse regular annuity rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Divorced spouse regular annuity rate. 226.34... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing a Spouse or Divorced Spouse Annuity § 226.34 Divorced spouse regular annuity rate. The regular annuity rate of a divorced spouse is equal to...

Fast and compact regular expression matching

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bille, Philip; Farach-Colton, Martin

2008-01-01

We study 4 problems in string matching, namely, regular expression matching, approximate regular expression matching, string edit distance, and subsequence indexing, on a standard word RAM model of computation that allows logarithmic-sized words to be manipulated in constant time. We show how...... to improve the space and/or remove a dependency on the alphabet size for each problem using either an improved tabulation technique of an existing algorithm or by combining known algorithms in a new way....

Dimensional regularization and analytical continuation at finite temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Xiangjun; Liu Lianshou

1998-01-01

The relationship between dimensional regularization and analytical continuation of infrared divergent integrals at finite temperature is discussed and a method of regularization of infrared divergent integrals and infrared divergent sums is given

Regular website transformation to mobile friendly methodology development

OpenAIRE

Miščenkov, Ilja

2017-01-01

Nowadays, rate of technology improvement grows faster than ever which results in increased mobile device usage. Internet users often choose to browse their favorite websites via computers as well as mobile devices, however, not every website is suited to be displayed on both types of technology. As an example the website of Vilnius University’s Mathematics and Informatics faculty. Therefore the objective of this work is to develop a step-by-step procedure which is used to turn a regular websi...

Association of regular walking and body mass index on metabolic syndrome among an elderly Korean population.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Soonyoung; Kim, Dong-Il

2018-06-01

Aging is associated with increased body fat and lower lean body mass, which leads to increased prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome. This study aimed to investigate the association of regular participation in walking and body mass index (BMI) with metabolic syndrome and its 5 criteria in elderly Koreans. A total of 3554 (male = 1581, female = 1973) elderly subjects (age ≥ 65 years), who participated in the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V) were analyzed in this cross-sectional study. Participation in walking activity, BMI, metabolic syndrome and its 5 criteria; waist circumference (WC), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting glucose (FG) levels, triglyceride (TG) levels, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) levels, were measured. Subjects were categorized into four groups based on the duration and regularity of their walks and BMI. In the regular walking (≥30 min of continuous walking a day, on ≥5 days a week) and normal weight (BMI metabolic syndrome was 4.36 times higher (Odds ratio [OR]: 4.36, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.37-5.63) in the non-regular walking and overweight group than that of the regular walking and normal weight group after controlling for the influence of age, sex, and smoking status. Moreover, The BMI (β = 0.328, R 2  = 0.152) were more contributing factors than Regular walking (β = -0.011) for metabolic syndrome. In conclusions, regular participation in walking activity and implementing weight control may reduce the incidence rate of metabolic syndrome in elderly Koreans, with weight management serving as the greater influences of the two. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The Mobility of Italy’s Middle Income Group

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiara Assunta Ricci

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The bulk of economic studies on income distribution focus on the poor and/or on the rich, mostly ignoring those who fall between these two categories. Research on the polarisation of incomes reverses this perspective, considering the middle-income group as a crucial element of analysis. The exploration of the income dynamics of the middle-income group is particularly relevant in the case of Italy. There, it has helped explaining the gap between the empirical evidence of stability in the main distributional indices and the worsening of confidence and expectations among Italian households since the 2000s, already before the crisis. This paper investigates the drivers of mobility of the middle-income group in Italy during the recent recession, with the aim of assessing the changes in the vulnerability of this group to downward mobility. Our findings reveal a general impoverishment of the middle-income group due to the recession and highlight an increasing rigidity of the Italian social structure. Lower entry and exit rates between groups emerge after 2008, possibly due to a growing weakness of the welfare state and the increasing inability of families to cope with unforeseen financial difficulties. JEL: D31; D63; I32

Regular use of alcohol and tobacco in India and its association with age, gender, and poverty.

Science.gov (United States)

Neufeld, K J; Peters, D H; Rani, M; Bonu, S; Brooner, R K

2005-03-07

This study provides national estimates of regular tobacco and alcohol use in India and their associations with gender, age, and economic group obtained from a representative survey of 471,143 people over the age of 10 years in 1995-96, the National Sample Survey. The national prevalence of regular use of smoking tobacco is estimated to be 16.2%, chewing tobacco 14.0%, and alcohol 4.5%. Men were 25.5 times more likely than women to report regular smoking, 3.7 times more likely to regularly chew tobacco, and 9.7 times more likely to regularly use alcohol. Respondents belonging to scheduled castes and tribes (recognized disadvantaged groups) were significantly more likely to report regular use of alcohol as well as smoking and chewing tobacco. People from rural areas had higher rates compared to urban dwellers, as did those with no formal education. Individuals with incomes below the poverty line had higher relative odds of use of chewing tobacco and alcohol compared to those above the poverty line. The regular use of both tobacco and alcohol also increased significantly with each diminishing income quintile. Comparisons are made between these results and those found in the United States and elsewhere, highlighting the need to address control of these substances on the public health agenda.

Regular and conformal regular cores for static and rotating solutions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Azreg-Aïnou, Mustapha

2014-03-07

Using a new metric for generating rotating solutions, we derive in a general fashion the solution of an imperfect fluid and that of its conformal homolog. We discuss the conditions that the stress–energy tensors and invariant scalars be regular. On classical physical grounds, it is stressed that conformal fluids used as cores for static or rotating solutions are exempt from any malicious behavior in that they are finite and defined everywhere.

Regular and conformal regular cores for static and rotating solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azreg-Aïnou, Mustapha

2014-01-01

Using a new metric for generating rotating solutions, we derive in a general fashion the solution of an imperfect fluid and that of its conformal homolog. We discuss the conditions that the stress–energy tensors and invariant scalars be regular. On classical physical grounds, it is stressed that conformal fluids used as cores for static or rotating solutions are exempt from any malicious behavior in that they are finite and defined everywhere.

Convergence and fluctuations of Regularized Tyler estimators

KAUST Repository

Kammoun, Abla

2015-10-26

This article studies the behavior of regularized Tyler estimators (RTEs) of scatter matrices. The key advantages of these estimators are twofold. First, they guarantee by construction a good conditioning of the estimate and second, being a derivative of robust Tyler estimators, they inherit their robustness properties, notably their resilience to the presence of outliers. Nevertheless, one major problem that poses the use of RTEs in practice is represented by the question of setting the regularization parameter p. While a high value of p is likely to push all the eigenvalues away from zero, it comes at the cost of a larger bias with respect to the population covariance matrix. A deep understanding of the statistics of RTEs is essential to come up with appropriate choices for the regularization parameter. This is not an easy task and might be out of reach, unless one considers asymptotic regimes wherein the number of observations n and/or their size N increase together. First asymptotic results have recently been obtained under the assumption that N and n are large and commensurable. Interestingly, no results concerning the regime of n going to infinity with N fixed exist, even though the investigation of this assumption has usually predated the analysis of the most difficult N and n large case. This motivates our work. In particular, we prove in the present paper that the RTEs converge to a deterministic matrix when n → ∞ with N fixed, which is expressed as a function of the theoretical covariance matrix. We also derive the fluctuations of the RTEs around this deterministic matrix and establish that these fluctuations converge in distribution to a multivariate Gaussian distribution with zero mean and a covariance depending on the population covariance and the parameter.

Convergence and fluctuations of Regularized Tyler estimators

KAUST Repository

Kammoun, Abla; Couillet, Romain; Pascal, Frederic; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2015-01-01

This article studies the behavior of regularized Tyler estimators (RTEs) of scatter matrices. The key advantages of these estimators are twofold. First, they guarantee by construction a good conditioning of the estimate and second, being a derivative of robust Tyler estimators, they inherit their robustness properties, notably their resilience to the presence of outliers. Nevertheless, one major problem that poses the use of RTEs in practice is represented by the question of setting the regularization parameter p. While a high value of p is likely to push all the eigenvalues away from zero, it comes at the cost of a larger bias with respect to the population covariance matrix. A deep understanding of the statistics of RTEs is essential to come up with appropriate choices for the regularization parameter. This is not an easy task and might be out of reach, unless one considers asymptotic regimes wherein the number of observations n and/or their size N increase together. First asymptotic results have recently been obtained under the assumption that N and n are large and commensurable. Interestingly, no results concerning the regime of n going to infinity with N fixed exist, even though the investigation of this assumption has usually predated the analysis of the most difficult N and n large case. This motivates our work. In particular, we prove in the present paper that the RTEs converge to a deterministic matrix when n → ∞ with N fixed, which is expressed as a function of the theoretical covariance matrix. We also derive the fluctuations of the RTEs around this deterministic matrix and establish that these fluctuations converge in distribution to a multivariate Gaussian distribution with zero mean and a covariance depending on the population covariance and the parameter.

Vitamin D deficiency is endemic in Middle Eastern sportsmen.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, Bruce; Grantham, Justin; Racinais, Sebastien; Chalabi, Hakim

2010-10-01

While vitamin D deficiency is well recognized in Middle Eastern women as a result of cultural norms of remaining covered, Middle Eastern men are an under-reported group. Vitamin D is now known to have multiple effects, including an impact on muscle function, thereby increasing the relevance for sportsmen. The aim of the present study was to evaluate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels in young male Middle Eastern athletes. Cross-sectional study. Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar. Ninety-three Middle Eastern men presenting to hospital for an annual screening undertook a blood test to evaluate their vitamin D status. Ninety-one per cent of athletes were found to be deficient in 25(OH)D (serum concentration Middle Eastern male athletes. Given the potentially significant long- and short-term effects of 25(OH)D deficiency, serum 25(OH)D evaluation should be part of the routine assessment in this region.

Energy privatization in the Middle East

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tetreault, M.A.

1997-01-01

The issue of energy privatization in the Middle East was discussed with particular examples from Kuwait. The development of Kuwait's domestic political institutions is unique in the Arab Gulf which makes privatization more complicated than in other Middle Eastern countries. The major issue in Kuwait is whether foreign investors and domestic private investors will be allowed equity participation in oil and gas production projects. It was suggested that the answer depends on general assessments of national financial and state security interests and on individual case judgements respecting each potential partnership. Historically, one of the main reasons for nationalization of private investment in oil and gas in the Middle East was the desire of governments to increase state revenues. Nationalization permitted states to set prices and production levels themselves and to keep the difference between costs and prices instead of sharing it with corporate owners. However, nationalization is not without its problems as indicated by the difficulties encountered by governments in trying to make the the OPEC-managed hydrocarbon regime work. The three main reasons for the current willingness of Middle Eastern governments to consider re-admitting private companies as equity participants in their energy industries, namely market share and terms of access, interstate disputes, and desire to minimize corruption, were also discussed. It was suggested that these are strong arguments that support taking another look at privatization as a strategy that is in the long-term interest of Middle Eastern oil producing states. 19 refs

Occupational concerns associated with regular use of microscope

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garima Jain

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Microscope work can be strenuous both to the visual system and the musculoskeletal system. Lack of awareness or indifference towards health issues may result in microscope users becoming victim to many occupational hazards. Our objective was to understand the occupational problems associated with regular use of microscope, awareness regarding the hazards, attitude and practice of microscope users towards the problems and preventive strategies. Material and Methods: A questionnaire based survey done on 50 professionals and technicians who used microscope regularly in pathology, microbiology, hematology and cytology laboratories. Results: Sixty two percent of subjects declared that they were suffering from musculoskeletal problems, most common locations being neck and back. Maximum prevalence of musculoskeletal problems was noted in those using microscope for 11–15 years and for more than 30 h/week. Sixty two percent of subjects were aware of workplace ergonomics. Fifty six percent of microscope users took regular short breaks for stretching exercises and 58% took visual breaks every 15–30 min in between microscope use sessions. As many as 94% subjects reported some form of visual problem. Fourty four percent of microscope users felt stressed with long working hours on microscope. Conclusions: The most common occupational concerns of microscope users were musculoskeletal problems of neck and back regions, eye fatigue, aggravation of ametropia, headache, stress due to long working hours and anxiety during or after microscope use. There is an immediate need for increasing awareness about the various occupational hazards and their irreversible effects to prevent them.

Low-rank matrix approximation with manifold regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhenyue; Zhao, Keke

2013-07-01

This paper proposes a new model of low-rank matrix factorization that incorporates manifold regularization to the matrix factorization. Superior to the graph-regularized nonnegative matrix factorization, this new regularization model has globally optimal and closed-form solutions. A direct algorithm (for data with small number of points) and an alternate iterative algorithm with inexact inner iteration (for large scale data) are proposed to solve the new model. A convergence analysis establishes the global convergence of the iterative algorithm. The efficiency and precision of the algorithm are demonstrated numerically through applications to six real-world datasets on clustering and classification. Performance comparison with existing algorithms shows the effectiveness of the proposed method for low-rank factorization in general.

Regularity criteria for incompressible magnetohydrodynamics equations in three dimensions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Hongxia; Du, Lili

2013-01-01

In this paper, we give some new global regularity criteria for three-dimensional incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations. More precisely, we provide some sufficient conditions in terms of the derivatives of the velocity or pressure, for the global regularity of strong solutions to 3D incompressible MHD equations in the whole space, as well as for periodic boundary conditions. Moreover, the regularity criterion involving three of the nine components of the velocity gradient tensor is also obtained. The main results generalize the recent work by Cao and Wu (2010 Two regularity criteria for the 3D MHD equations J. Diff. Eqns 248 2263–74) and the analysis in part is based on the works by Cao C and Titi E (2008 Regularity criteria for the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations Indiana Univ. Math. J. 57 2643–61; 2011 Gobal regularity criterion for the 3D Navier–Stokes equations involving one entry of the velocity gradient tensor Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 202 919–32) for 3D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. (paper)

Regular-fat dairy and human health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Astrup, Arne; Bradley, Beth H Rice; Brenna, J Thomas

2016-01-01

In recent history, some dietary recommendations have treated dairy fat as an unnecessary source of calories and saturated fat in the human diet. These assumptions, however, have recently been brought into question by current research on regular fat dairy products and human health. In an effort to......, cheese and yogurt, can be important components of an overall healthy dietary pattern. Systematic examination of the effects of dietary patterns that include regular-fat milk, cheese and yogurt on human health is warranted....

Bounded Perturbation Regularization for Linear Least Squares Estimation

KAUST Repository

Ballal, Tarig; Suliman, Mohamed Abdalla Elhag; Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.

2017-01-01

This paper addresses the problem of selecting the regularization parameter for linear least-squares estimation. We propose a new technique called bounded perturbation regularization (BPR). In the proposed BPR method, a perturbation with a bounded

MIDDLE-CLASS FORMATION STRATEGY IN THE REGION: PRACTICAL ASPECTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuliya Pereguda

2017-09-01

country are also analysed in details. In particular, it is shown how strategy can influence a decision for tasks of regional development, concentration of the available resources. There is analysed in details the available experience of realization of this approach in practice of regional Ukrainian policy. Also, the author describes special cases when regional development and intensive growth of some industry branches did not promote either increase in the middle class or increase in the level of the general wellbeing. In conclusions, the author has noted the prospect of using such a tool as the strategy of the middle-class formation, management of regional development, and potential opportunities in the solution of the available obstacles. The author proves that at our days in Ukraine, increase in the number of the middle class is the most effective tool for the economic growth and regional development.

The menstrual cycle regularization following D-chiro-inositol treatment in PCOS women: a retrospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

La Marca, Antonio; Grisendi, Valentina; Dondi, Giulia; Sighinolfi, Giovanna; Cianci, Antonio

2015-01-01

Polycystic ovary syndrome is characterized by irregular cycles, hyperandrogenism, polycystic ovary at ultrasound and insulin resistance. The effectiveness of D-chiro-inositol (DCI) treatment in improving insulin resistance in PCOS patients has been confirmed in several reports. The objective of this study was to retrospectively analyze the effect of DCI on menstrual cycle regularity in PCOS women. This was a retrospective study of patients with irregular cycles who were treated with DCI. Of all PCOS women admitted to our centre, 47 were treated with DCI and had complete medical charts. The percentage of women reporting regular menstrual cycles significantly increased with increasing duration of DCI treatment (24% and 51.6% at a mean of 6 and 15 months of treatment, respectively). Serum AMH levels and indexes of insulin resistance significantly decreased during the treatment. Low AMH levels, high HOMA index, and the presence of oligomenorrhea at the first visit were the independent predictors of obtaining regular menstrual cycle with DCI. In conclusion, the use of DCI is associated to clinical benefits for many women affected by PCOS including the improvement in insulin resistance and menstrual cycle regularity. Responders to the treatment may be identified on the basis of menstrual irregularity and hormonal or metabolic markers.

A Tale of Two Classes: The Black Poor and the Black Middle Class.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewin, Arthur

1991-01-01

To understand the African-American family, the African-American poor and middle class must be investigated. Extra costs mean that it is much harder for African Americans to reach the middle class. Ways to improve the economic status of African-American families and to increase the middle class are discussed. (SLD)

Expression of estrogen receptors in the hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian axis in middle-aged rats after re-instatement of estrus cyclicity.

Science.gov (United States)

Böttner, M; Leonhardt, S; Wuttke, W; Wedel, T; Jarry, H

2010-02-01

During reproductive aging female rats enter an anovulatory state of persistent estrus (PE). In an animal model of reinstatement of estrus cyclicity in middle-aged PE rats we injected the animals with progesterone (0.5 mg progesterone/kg body weight) at 12:00 for 4 days whereas control animals received corn oil injections. After the last injection animals were analyzed at 13:00 and 17:00. Young regular cycling rats served as positive controls and were assessed at 13:00 and 17:00 on proestrus. Progesterone treatment of middle-aged PE rats led to occurrence of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and prolactin surges in a subset of animals that were denoted as responders. Responding middle-aged rats displayed a reduction of ER-beta mRNA in the preoptic area which was similar to the effect in young rats. Within the mediobasal hypothalamus, only young rats showed a decline of ER-alpha mRNA expression. A decrease of ER-alpha mRNA levels in the pituitary was observed in progesterone-responsive rats and in young animals. ER-beta mRNA expression was reduced in young regular cycling rats. ER-beta mRNA levels in the ovary were reduced following progesterone treatment in PE rats and in young rats. Taken together our data show that cyclic administration of progesterone reinstates ovulatory cycles in intact aging females which have already lost their ability to display spontaneous cyclicity. This treatment leads to the occurrence of preovulatory LH, FSH and prolactin surges which are accompanied by differential modulation of ERs in the hypothalamus, the pituitary and the ovary.

Clustering, randomness, and regularity in cloud fields: 2. Cumulus cloud fields

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, T.; Lee, J.; Weger, R. C.; Welch, R. M.

1992-12-01

During the last decade a major controversy has been brewing concerning the proper characterization of cumulus convection. The prevailing view has been that cumulus clouds form in clusters, in which cloud spacing is closer than that found for the overall cloud field and which maintains its identity over many cloud lifetimes. This "mutual protection hypothesis" of Randall and Huffman (1980) has been challenged by the "inhibition hypothesis" of Ramirez et al. (1990) which strongly suggests that the spatial distribution of cumuli must tend toward a regular distribution. A dilemma has resulted because observations have been reported to support both hypotheses. The present work reports a detailed analysis of cumulus cloud field spatial distributions based upon Landsat, Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, and Skylab data. Both nearest-neighbor and point-to-cloud cumulative distribution function statistics are investigated. The results show unequivocally that when both large and small clouds are included in the cloud field distribution, the cloud field always has a strong clustering signal. The strength of clustering is largest at cloud diameters of about 200-300 m, diminishing with increasing cloud diameter. In many cases, clusters of small clouds are found which are not closely associated with large clouds. As the small clouds are eliminated from consideration, the cloud field typically tends towards regularity. Thus it would appear that the "inhibition hypothesis" of Ramirez and Bras (1990) has been verified for the large clouds. However, these results are based upon the analysis of point processes. A more exact analysis also is made which takes into account the cloud size distributions. Since distinct clouds are by definition nonoverlapping, cloud size effects place a restriction upon the possible locations of clouds in the cloud field. The net effect of this analysis is that the large clouds appear to be randomly distributed, with only weak tendencies towards

Enhanced spatial resolution in fluorescence molecular tomography using restarted L1-regularized nonlinear conjugate gradient algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Junwei; Liu, Fei; Zhang, Guanglei; Luo, Jianwen; Bai, Jing

2014-04-01

Owing to the high degree of scattering of light through tissues, the ill-posedness of fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) inverse problem causes relatively low spatial resolution in the reconstruction results. Unlike L2 regularization, L1 regularization can preserve the details and reduce the noise effectively. Reconstruction is obtained through a restarted L1 regularization-based nonlinear conjugate gradient (re-L1-NCG) algorithm, which has been proven to be able to increase the computational speed with low memory consumption. The algorithm consists of inner and outer iterations. In the inner iteration, L1-NCG is used to obtain the L1-regularized results. In the outer iteration, the restarted strategy is used to increase the convergence speed of L1-NCG. To demonstrate the performance of re-L1-NCG in terms of spatial resolution, simulation and physical phantom studies with fluorescent targets located with different edge-to-edge distances were carried out. The reconstruction results show that the re-L1-NCG algorithm has the ability to resolve targets with an edge-to-edge distance of 0.1 cm at a depth of 1.5 cm, which is a significant improvement for FMT.

Regularization Techniques for Linear Least-Squares Problems

KAUST Repository

Suliman, Mohamed

2016-04-01

Linear estimation is a fundamental branch of signal processing that deals with estimating the values of parameters from a corrupted measured data. Throughout the years, several optimization criteria have been used to achieve this task. The most astonishing attempt among theses is the linear least-squares. Although this criterion enjoyed a wide popularity in many areas due to its attractive properties, it appeared to suffer from some shortcomings. Alternative optimization criteria, as a result, have been proposed. These new criteria allowed, in one way or another, the incorporation of further prior information to the desired problem. Among theses alternative criteria is the regularized least-squares (RLS). In this thesis, we propose two new algorithms to find the regularization parameter for linear least-squares problems. In the constrained perturbation regularization algorithm (COPRA) for random matrices and COPRA for linear discrete ill-posed problems, an artificial perturbation matrix with a bounded norm is forced into the model matrix. This perturbation is introduced to enhance the singular value structure of the matrix. As a result, the new modified model is expected to provide a better stabilize substantial solution when used to estimate the original signal through minimizing the worst-case residual error function. Unlike many other regularization algorithms that go in search of minimizing the estimated data error, the two new proposed algorithms are developed mainly to select the artifcial perturbation bound and the regularization parameter in a way that approximately minimizes the mean-squared error (MSE) between the original signal and its estimate under various conditions. The first proposed COPRA method is developed mainly to estimate the regularization parameter when the measurement matrix is complex Gaussian, with centered unit variance (standard), and independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) entries. Furthermore, the second proposed COPRA

Regularized Regression and Density Estimation based on Optimal Transport

KAUST Repository

Burger, M.

2012-03-11

The aim of this paper is to investigate a novel nonparametric approach for estimating and smoothing density functions as well as probability densities from discrete samples based on a variational regularization method with the Wasserstein metric as a data fidelity. The approach allows a unified treatment of discrete and continuous probability measures and is hence attractive for various tasks. In particular, the variational model for special regularization functionals yields a natural method for estimating densities and for preserving edges in the case of total variation regularization. In order to compute solutions of the variational problems, a regularized optimal transport problem needs to be solved, for which we discuss several formulations and provide a detailed analysis. Moreover, we compute special self-similar solutions for standard regularization functionals and we discuss several computational approaches and results. © 2012 The Author(s).

Energy functions for regularization algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Delingette, H.; Hebert, M.; Ikeuchi, K.

1991-01-01

Regularization techniques are widely used for inverse problem solving in computer vision such as surface reconstruction, edge detection, or optical flow estimation. Energy functions used for regularization algorithms measure how smooth a curve or surface is, and to render acceptable solutions these energies must verify certain properties such as invariance with Euclidean transformations or invariance with parameterization. The notion of smoothness energy is extended here to the notion of a differential stabilizer, and it is shown that to void the systematic underestimation of undercurvature for planar curve fitting, it is necessary that circles be the curves of maximum smoothness. A set of stabilizers is proposed that meet this condition as well as invariance with rotation and parameterization.

Three regularities of recognition memory: the role of bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Hilford, Andrew; Maloney, Laurence T; Glanzer, Murray; Kim, Kisok

2015-12-01

A basic assumption of Signal Detection Theory is that decisions are made on the basis of likelihood ratios. In a preceding paper, Glanzer, Hilford, and Maloney (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 431-455, 2009) showed that the likelihood ratio assumption implies that three regularities will occur in recognition memory: (1) the Mirror Effect, (2) the Variance Effect, (3) the normalized Receiver Operating Characteristic (z-ROC) Length Effect. The paper offered formal proofs and computational demonstrations that decisions based on likelihood ratios produce the three regularities. A survey of data based on group ROCs from 36 studies validated the likelihood ratio assumption by showing that its three implied regularities are ubiquitous. The study noted, however, that bias, another basic factor in Signal Detection Theory, can obscure the Mirror Effect. In this paper we examine how bias affects the regularities at the theoretical level. The theoretical analysis shows: (1) how bias obscures the Mirror Effect, not the other two regularities, and (2) four ways to counter that obscuring. We then report the results of five experiments that support the theoretical analysis. The analyses and the experimental results also demonstrate: (1) that the three regularities govern individual, as well as group, performance, (2) alternative explanations of the regularities are ruled out, and (3) that Signal Detection Theory, correctly applied, gives a simple and unified explanation of recognition memory data.

Supporting Regularized Logistic Regression Privately and Efficiently

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Wenfa; Liu, Hongzhe; Yang, Peng; Xie, Wei

2016-01-01

As one of the most popular statistical and machine learning models, logistic regression with regularization has found wide adoption in biomedicine, social sciences, information technology, and so on. These domains often involve data of human subjects that are contingent upon strict privacy regulations. Concerns over data privacy make it increasingly difficult to coordinate and conduct large-scale collaborative studies, which typically rely on cross-institution data sharing and joint analysis. Our work here focuses on safeguarding regularized logistic regression, a widely-used statistical model while at the same time has not been investigated from a data security and privacy perspective. We consider a common use scenario of multi-institution collaborative studies, such as in the form of research consortia or networks as widely seen in genetics, epidemiology, social sciences, etc. To make our privacy-enhancing solution practical, we demonstrate a non-conventional and computationally efficient method leveraging distributing computing and strong cryptography to provide comprehensive protection over individual-level and summary data. Extensive empirical evaluations on several studies validate the privacy guarantee, efficiency and scalability of our proposal. We also discuss the practical implications of our solution for large-scale studies and applications from various disciplines, including genetic and biomedical studies, smart grid, network analysis, etc. PMID:27271738

Supporting Regularized Logistic Regression Privately and Efficiently.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Wenfa; Liu, Hongzhe; Yang, Peng; Xie, Wei

2016-01-01

As one of the most popular statistical and machine learning models, logistic regression with regularization has found wide adoption in biomedicine, social sciences, information technology, and so on. These domains often involve data of human subjects that are contingent upon strict privacy regulations. Concerns over data privacy make it increasingly difficult to coordinate and conduct large-scale collaborative studies, which typically rely on cross-institution data sharing and joint analysis. Our work here focuses on safeguarding regularized logistic regression, a widely-used statistical model while at the same time has not been investigated from a data security and privacy perspective. We consider a common use scenario of multi-institution collaborative studies, such as in the form of research consortia or networks as widely seen in genetics, epidemiology, social sciences, etc. To make our privacy-enhancing solution practical, we demonstrate a non-conventional and computationally efficient method leveraging distributing computing and strong cryptography to provide comprehensive protection over individual-level and summary data. Extensive empirical evaluations on several studies validate the privacy guarantee, efficiency and scalability of our proposal. We also discuss the practical implications of our solution for large-scale studies and applications from various disciplines, including genetic and biomedical studies, smart grid, network analysis, etc.

Supporting Regularized Logistic Regression Privately and Efficiently.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenfa Li

Full Text Available As one of the most popular statistical and machine learning models, logistic regression with regularization has found wide adoption in biomedicine, social sciences, information technology, and so on. These domains often involve data of human subjects that are contingent upon strict privacy regulations. Concerns over data privacy make it increasingly difficult to coordinate and conduct large-scale collaborative studies, which typically rely on cross-institution data sharing and joint analysis. Our work here focuses on safeguarding regularized logistic regression, a widely-used statistical model while at the same time has not been investigated from a data security and privacy perspective. We consider a common use scenario of multi-institution collaborative studies, such as in the form of research consortia or networks as widely seen in genetics, epidemiology, social sciences, etc. To make our privacy-enhancing solution practical, we demonstrate a non-conventional and computationally efficient method leveraging distributing computing and strong cryptography to provide comprehensive protection over individual-level and summary data. Extensive empirical evaluations on several studies validate the privacy guarantee, efficiency and scalability of our proposal. We also discuss the practical implications of our solution for large-scale studies and applications from various disciplines, including genetic and biomedical studies, smart grid, network analysis, etc.

Method of transferring regular shaped vessel into cell

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murai, Tsunehiko.

1997-01-01

The present invention concerns a method of transferring regular shaped vessels from a non-contaminated area to a contaminated cell. A passage hole for allowing the regular shaped vessels to pass in the longitudinal direction is formed to a partitioning wall at the bottom of the contaminated cell. A plurality of regular shaped vessel are stacked in multiple stages in a vertical direction from the non-contaminated area present below the passage hole, allowed to pass while being urged and transferred successively into the contaminated cell. As a result, since they are transferred while substantially closing the passage hole by the regular shaped vessels, radiation rays or contaminated materials are prevented from discharging from the contaminated cell to the non-contaminated area. Since there is no requirement to open/close an isolation door frequently, the workability upon transfer can be improved remarkably. In addition, the sealing member for sealing the gap between the regular shaped vessel passing through the passage hole and the partitioning wall of the bottom is disposed to the passage hole, the contaminated materials in the contaminated cells can be prevented from discharging from the gap to the non-contaminated area. (N.H.)

Automatic Constraint Detection for 2D Layout Regularization.

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Jiang, Haiyong; Nan, Liangliang; Yan, Dong-Ming; Dong, Weiming; Zhang, Xiaopeng; Wonka, Peter

2016-08-01

In this paper, we address the problem of constraint detection for layout regularization. The layout we consider is a set of two-dimensional elements where each element is represented by its bounding box. Layout regularization is important in digitizing plans or images, such as floor plans and facade images, and in the improvement of user-created contents, such as architectural drawings and slide layouts. To regularize a layout, we aim to improve the input by detecting and subsequently enforcing alignment, size, and distance constraints between layout elements. Similar to previous work, we formulate layout regularization as a quadratic programming problem. In addition, we propose a novel optimization algorithm that automatically detects constraints. We evaluate the proposed framework using a variety of input layouts from different applications. Our results demonstrate that our method has superior performance to the state of the art.

Automatic Constraint Detection for 2D Layout Regularization

KAUST Repository

Jiang, Haiyong

2015-09-18

In this paper, we address the problem of constraint detection for layout regularization. As layout we consider a set of two-dimensional elements where each element is represented by its bounding box. Layout regularization is important for digitizing plans or images, such as floor plans and facade images, and for the improvement of user created contents, such as architectural drawings and slide layouts. To regularize a layout, we aim to improve the input by detecting and subsequently enforcing alignment, size, and distance constraints between layout elements. Similar to previous work, we formulate the layout regularization as a quadratic programming problem. In addition, we propose a novel optimization algorithm to automatically detect constraints. In our results, we evaluate the proposed framework on a variety of input layouts from different applications, which demonstrates our method has superior performance to the state of the art.

Lavrentiev regularization method for nonlinear ill-posed problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kinh, Nguyen Van

2002-10-01

In this paper we shall be concerned with Lavientiev regularization method to reconstruct solutions x 0 of non ill-posed problems F(x)=y o , where instead of y 0 noisy data y δ is an element of X with absolut(y δ -y 0 ) ≤ δ are given and F:X→X is an accretive nonlinear operator from a real reflexive Banach space X into itself. In this regularization method solutions x α δ are obtained by solving the singularly perturbed nonlinear operator equation F(x)+α(x-x*)=y δ with some initial guess x*. Assuming certain conditions concerning the operator F and the smoothness of the element x*-x 0 we derive stability estimates which show that the accuracy of the regularized solutions is order optimal provided that the regularization parameter α has been chosen properly. (author)

Middle School Students' Perceptions of Their Interests in Reading as Defined by Engagement and Social Interaction When Using Sustained Silent Reading, SSR, and Peer Interests Reading Strategies, PIRS

Science.gov (United States)

Ware, Regina J.

2012-01-01

Alarming statistics report that middle school students are not reading as much as they should be reading. This study is an examination of two interventions that were incorporated into the regular curriculum to determine if these two reading interventions would encourage this researcher's students to read more. The "Nation's Report Card"…

Attitudes and actions of asthma patients on regular maintenance therapy: the INSPIRE study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Myrseth Sven-Erik

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study examined the attitudes and actions of 3415 physician-recruited adults aged ≥ 16 years with asthma in eleven countries who were prescribed regular maintenance therapy with inhaled corticosteroids or inhaled corticosteroids plus long-acting β2-agonists. Methods Structured interviews were conducted to assess medication use, asthma control, and patients' ability to recognise and self-manage worsening asthma. Results Despite being prescribed regular maintenance therapy, 74% of patients used short-acting β2-agonists daily and 51% were classified by the Asthma Control Questionnaire as having uncontrolled asthma. Even patients with well-controlled asthma reported an average of 6 worsenings/year. The mean period from the onset to the peak symptoms of a worsening was 5.1 days. Although most patients recognised the early signs of worsenings, the most common response was to increase short-acting β2-agonist use; inhaled corticosteroids were increased to a lesser extent at the peak of a worsening. Conclusion Previous studies of this nature have also reported considerable patient morbidity, but in those studies approximately three-quarters of patients were not receiving regular maintenance therapy and not all had a physician-confirmed diagnosis of asthma. This study shows that patients with asthma receiving regular maintenance therapy still have high levels of inadequately controlled asthma. The study also shows that patients recognise deteriorating asthma control and adjust their medication during episodes of worsening. However, they often adjust treatment in an inappropriate manner, which represents a window of missed opportunity.

Benefits of regular walking exercise in advanced pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Kosmadakis, George C; John, Stephen G; Clapp, Emma L; Viana, Joao L; Smith, Alice C; Bishop, Nicolette C; Bevington, Alan; Owen, Paul J; McIntyre, Christopher W; Feehally, John

2012-03-01

There is increasing evidence of the benefit of regular physical exercise in a number of long-term conditions including chronic kidney disease (CKD). In CKD, this evidence has mostly come from studies in end stage patients receiving regular dialysis. There is little evidence in pre-dialysis patients with CKD Stages 4 and 5. A prospective study compared the benefits of 6 months regular walking in 40 pre-dialysis patients with CKD Stages 4 and 5. Twenty of them were the exercising group and were compared to 20 patients who were continuing with usual physical activity. In addition, the 40 patients were randomized to receive additional oral sodium bicarbonate (target venous bicarbonate 29 mmol/L) or continue with previous sodium bicarbonate treatment (target 24 mmol/L). Improvements noted after 1 month were sustained to 6 months in the 18 of 20 who completed the exercise study. These included improvements in exercise tolerance (reduced exertion to achieve the same activity), weight loss, improved cardiovascular reactivity, avoiding an increase in blood pressure medication and improvements in quality of health and life and uraemic symptom scores assessed by questionnaire. Sodium bicarbonate supplementation did not produce any significant alterations. This study provides further support for the broad benefits of aerobic physical exercise in CKD. More studies are needed to understand the mechanisms of these benefits, to study whether resistance exercise will add to the benefit and to evaluate strategies to promote sustained lifestyle changes, that could ensure continued increase in habitual daily physical activity levels.

Online Manifold Regularization by Dual Ascending Procedure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boliang Sun

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel online manifold regularization framework based on the notion of duality in constrained optimization. The Fenchel conjugate of hinge functions is a key to transfer manifold regularization from offline to online in this paper. Our algorithms are derived by gradient ascent in the dual function. For practical purpose, we propose two buffering strategies and two sparse approximations to reduce the computational complexity. Detailed experiments verify the utility of our approaches. An important conclusion is that our online MR algorithms can handle the settings where the target hypothesis is not fixed but drifts with the sequence of examples. We also recap and draw connections to earlier works. This paper paves a way to the design and analysis of online manifold regularization algorithms.

Caffeine and diphenyl diselenide improve long-term memory impaired in middle-aged rats.

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Leite, Marlon R; Marcondes Sari, Marcel Henrique; de Freitas, Mayara L; Oliveira, Lia P; Dalmolin, Laíza; Brandão, Ricardo; Zeni, Gilson

2014-05-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of diphenyl diselenide (PhSe)2 supplemented diet (10ppm) associated to the administration of caffeine (15mg/kg; i.g.) for 30days on the novel object recognition memory in middle-aged rats. The present findings showed that (PhSe)2-supplemented diet enhanced short-term memory, but not long-term memory, of middle-aged rats in the novel object recognition task. The (PhSe)2 supplemented diet associated with caffeine administration improved long-term memory, but did not alter short-term memory, impaired in middle-aged rats. Daily caffeine administration to middle-aged rats had no effect on the memory tasks. Diet supplemented with (PhSe)2 plus caffeine administration increased the number of crossings and rearings reduced in middle-aged rats. Caffeine administration plus (PhSe)2 diets were effective in increasing the number of rearings and crossings, respectively, in middle-aged rats, [(3)H] glutamate uptake was reduced in hippocampal slices of rats from (PhSe)2 and caffeine plus (PhSe)2 groups. In addition, animals supplemented with (PhSe)2 showed an increase in the pCREB/CREB ratio whereas pAkt/Akt ratio was not modified. These results suggest that the effects of (PhSe)2 on the short-term memory may be related to its ability to decrease the uptake of glutamate, influencing the increase of CREB phosphorylation. (PhSe)2-supplemented diet associated to the administration of caffeine improved long-term memory impaired in middle-aged rats, an effect independent of CREB and Akt phosphorylation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Four Weeks of Classical Altitude Training Increases Resting Metabolic Rate in Highly Trained Middle-Distance Runners.

Science.gov (United States)

Woods, Amy L; Sharma, Avish P; Garvican-Lewis, Laura A; Saunders, Philo U; Rice, Anthony J; Thompson, Kevin G

2017-02-01

High altitude exposure can increase resting metabolic rate (RMR) and induce weight loss in obese populations, but there is a lack of research regarding RMR in athletes at moderate elevations common to endurance training camps. The present study aimed to determine whether 4 weeks of classical altitude training affects RMR in middle-distance runners. Ten highly trained athletes were recruited for 4 weeks of endurance training undertaking identical programs at either 2200m in Flagstaff, Arizona (ALT, n = 5) or 600m in Canberra, Australia (CON, n = 5). RMR, anthropometry, energy intake, and hemoglobin mass (Hb mass ) were assessed pre- and posttraining. Weekly run distance during the training block was: ALT 96.8 ± 18.3km; CON 103.1 ± 5.6km. A significant interaction for Time*Group was observed for absolute (kJ.day -1 ) (F-statistic, p-value: F (1,8) =13.890, p = .01) and relative RMR (F (1,8) =653.453, p = .003) POST-training. No significant changes in anthropometry were observed in either group. Energy intake was unchanged (mean ± SD of difference, ALT: 195 ± 3921kJ, p = .25; CON: 836 ± 7535kJ, p = .75). A significant main effect for time was demonstrated for total Hb mass (g) (F (1,8) =13.380, p = .01), but no significant interactions were observed for either variable [Total Hb mass (g): F (1,8) =1.706, p = .23; Relative Hb mass (g.kg -1 ): F (1,8) =0.609, p = .46]. These novel findings have important practical application to endurance athletes routinely training at moderate altitude, and those seeking to optimize energy management without compromising training adaptation. Altitude exposure may increase RMR and enhance training adaptation,. During training camps at moderate altitude, an increased energy intake is likely required to support an increased RMR and provide sufficient energy for training and performance.

Regular graph construction for semi-supervised learning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vega-Oliveros, Didier A; Berton, Lilian; Eberle, Andre Mantini; Lopes, Alneu de Andrade; Zhao, Liang

2014-01-01

Semi-supervised learning (SSL) stands out for using a small amount of labeled points for data clustering and classification. In this scenario graph-based methods allow the analysis of local and global characteristics of the available data by identifying classes or groups regardless data distribution and representing submanifold in Euclidean space. Most of methods used in literature for SSL classification do not worry about graph construction. However, regular graphs can obtain better classification accuracy compared to traditional methods such as k-nearest neighbor (kNN), since kNN benefits the generation of hubs and it is not appropriate for high-dimensionality data. Nevertheless, methods commonly used for generating regular graphs have high computational cost. We tackle this problem introducing an alternative method for generation of regular graphs with better runtime performance compared to methods usually find in the area. Our technique is based on the preferential selection of vertices according some topological measures, like closeness, generating at the end of the process a regular graph. Experiments using the global and local consistency method for label propagation show that our method provides better or equal classification rate in comparison with kNN

Making the middle classes on shifting ground? Residential status, performativity and middle-class subjectivities in contemporary London.

Science.gov (United States)

Benson, Michaela; Jackson, Emma

2017-06-01

This paper argues that shifts in access to housing - both in relation to rental and ownership - disrupt middle-class reproduction in ways that fundamentally influence class formation. While property ownership has had a long association with middle-class identities, status and distinction, an increasingly competitive rental market alongside inflated property prices has impacted on expectations and anxieties over housing futures. In this paper, we consider two key questions: (1) What happens to middle-class identities under the conditions of this wider structural change? (2) How do the middle classes variously manoeuvre within this? Drawing on empirical research conducted in London, we demonstrate that becoming an owner-occupier may be fractured along lines of class but also along the axes of age, wealth and timing, particularly as this relates to the housing market. It builds on understandings of residential status and place as central to the formation of class, orienting this around the recognition of both people and place as mutable, emphasizing that changing economic and social processes generate new class positionalities and strategies for class reproduction. We argue that these processes are writ large in practices of belonging and claims to place, with wider repercussions within the urban landscape. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2017.

Avoidance of cigarette pack health warnings among regular cigarette smokers.

Science.gov (United States)

Maynard, Olivia M; Attwood, Angela; O'Brien, Laura; Brooks, Sabrina; Hedge, Craig; Leonards, Ute; Munafò, Marcus R

2014-03-01

Previous research with adults and adolescents indicates that plain cigarette packs increase visual attention to health warnings among non-smokers and non-regular smokers, but not among regular smokers. This may be because regular smokers: (1) are familiar with the health warnings, (2) preferentially attend to branding, or (3) actively avoid health warnings. We sought to distinguish between these explanations using eye-tracking technology. A convenience sample of 30 adult dependent smokers participated in an eye-tracking study. Participants viewed branded, plain and blank packs of cigarettes with familiar and unfamiliar health warnings. The number of fixations to health warnings and branding on the different pack types were recorded. Analysis of variance indicated that regular smokers were biased towards fixating the branding rather than the health warning on all three pack types. This bias was smaller, but still evident, for blank packs, where smokers preferentially attended the blank region over the health warnings. Time-course analysis showed that for branded and plain packs, attention was preferentially directed to the branding location for the entire 10s of the stimulus presentation, while for blank packs this occurred for the last 8s of the stimulus presentation. Familiarity with health warnings had no effect on eye gaze location. Smokers actively avoid cigarette pack health warnings, and this remains the case even in the absence of salient branding information. Smokers may have learned to divert their attention away from cigarette pack health warnings. These findings have implications for cigarette packaging and health warning policy. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Recruiting middle school students into nursing: An integrative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Cheryl

2017-10-27

Middle school students interested in nursing need clarification of the nursing role. Students choose nursing as a career because they want to help others, yet they are often unaware of the need to for arduous secondary education preparation to become a nurse. Middle school students, if not properly exposed to the career during their formative years, may choose another career or not have enough time for adequate nursing school preparation. This integrative review examined seven studies from years 2007 to 2016, which utilized various recruitment strategies to increase the awareness of nursing as a career in middle school and address the need for academic rigor. Implications of the review: there is a need for collaboration between nurses and school counselors to design more robust longitudinal studies of middle school interventions for students interested in nursing as a career. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Oral Health Behaviour and Social and Health Factors in University Students from 26 Low, Middle and High Income Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karl Peltzer

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Poor oral health is still a major burden for populations throughout the world, particularly in developing countries. The aim of this study was investigate oral health behaviour (tooth brushing and dental attendance and associated factors in low, middle and high income countries. Using anonymous questionnaires, data were collected from 19,560 undergraduate university students (mean age 20.8, SD = 2.8 from 27 universities in 26 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Results indicate that 67.2% of students reported to brush their teeth twice or more times a day, 28.8% about once a day and 4.0% never. Regarding dental check-up visit, 16.3% reported twice a year, 25.6% once a year, 33.9% rarely and 24.3% never. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, being a male, coming from a wealthy or quite well off family background, living in low income or lower middle income, weak beliefs in the importance of regular tooth brushing, depression and PTSD symptoms, tobacco use and frequent gambling, low physical activity, and low daily meal and snacks frequency were associated with inadequate tooth brushing (middle income, weak beliefs in the importance of regular tooth brushing, PTSD symptoms, illicit drug use, low physical activity, and low daily snacks frequency, skipping breakfast and inadequate fruit and vegetables consumption were associated with less than one annual dental care visit. Oral health behaviour among the students was found to be low. Various risk factors identified can be used to guide interventions to improve oral health behaviour among university students.

A Class of Manifold Regularized Multiplicative Update Algorithms for Image Clustering.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Shangming; Yi, Zhang; He, Xiaofei; Li, Xuelong

2015-12-01

Multiplicative update algorithms are important tools for information retrieval, image processing, and pattern recognition. However, when the graph regularization is added to the cost function, different classes of sample data may be mapped to the same subspace, which leads to the increase of data clustering error rate. In this paper, an improved nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) cost function is introduced. Based on the cost function, a class of novel graph regularized NMF algorithms is developed, which results in a class of extended multiplicative update algorithms with manifold structure regularization. Analysis shows that in the learning, the proposed algorithms can efficiently minimize the rank of the data representation matrix. Theoretical results presented in this paper are confirmed by simulations. For different initializations and data sets, variation curves of cost functions and decomposition data are presented to show the convergence features of the proposed update rules. Basis images, reconstructed images, and clustering results are utilized to present the efficiency of the new algorithms. Last, the clustering accuracies of different algorithms are also investigated, which shows that the proposed algorithms can achieve state-of-the-art performance in applications of image clustering.

Physical model of dimensional regularization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schonfeld, Jonathan F.

2016-12-15

We explicitly construct fractals of dimension 4-ε on which dimensional regularization approximates scalar-field-only quantum-field theory amplitudes. The construction does not require fractals to be Lorentz-invariant in any sense, and we argue that there probably is no Lorentz-invariant fractal of dimension greater than 2. We derive dimensional regularization's power-law screening first for fractals obtained by removing voids from 3-dimensional Euclidean space. The derivation applies techniques from elementary dielectric theory. Surprisingly, fractal geometry by itself does not guarantee the appropriate power-law behavior; boundary conditions at fractal voids also play an important role. We then extend the derivation to 4-dimensional Minkowski space. We comment on generalization to non-scalar fields, and speculate about implications for quantum gravity. (orig.)

Information-theoretic semi-supervised metric learning via entropy regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Niu, Gang; Dai, Bo; Yamada, Makoto; Sugiyama, Masashi

2014-08-01

We propose a general information-theoretic approach to semi-supervised metric learning called SERAPH (SEmi-supervised metRic leArning Paradigm with Hypersparsity) that does not rely on the manifold assumption. Given the probability parameterized by a Mahalanobis distance, we maximize its entropy on labeled data and minimize its entropy on unlabeled data following entropy regularization. For metric learning, entropy regularization improves manifold regularization by considering the dissimilarity information of unlabeled data in the unsupervised part, and hence it allows the supervised and unsupervised parts to be integrated in a natural and meaningful way. Moreover, we regularize SERAPH by trace-norm regularization to encourage low-dimensional projections associated with the distance metric. The nonconvex optimization problem of SERAPH could be solved efficiently and stably by either a gradient projection algorithm or an EM-like iterative algorithm whose M-step is convex. Experiments demonstrate that SERAPH compares favorably with many well-known metric learning methods, and the learned Mahalanobis distance possesses high discriminability even under noisy environments.

Optimized star sensors laboratory calibration method using a regularization neural network.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Chengfen; Niu, Yanxiong; Zhang, Hao; Lu, Jiazhen

2018-02-10

High-precision ground calibration is essential to ensure the performance of star sensors. However, the complex distortion and multi-error coupling have brought great difficulties to traditional calibration methods, especially for large field of view (FOV) star sensors. Although increasing the complexity of models is an effective way to improve the calibration accuracy, it significantly increases the demand for calibration data. In order to achieve high-precision calibration of star sensors with large FOV, a novel laboratory calibration method based on a regularization neural network is proposed. A multi-layer structure neural network is designed to represent the mapping of the star vector and the corresponding star point coordinate directly. To ensure the generalization performance of the network, regularization strategies are incorporated into the net structure and the training algorithm. Simulation and experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve high precision with less calibration data and without any other priori information. Compared with traditional methods, the calibration error of the star sensor decreased by about 30%. The proposed method can satisfy the precision requirement for large FOV star sensors.

Coping Proactively with Middle Years Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Hindle, Douglas R.

1994-01-01

To deal proactively with middle-years students, educators must consider four areas: development of an effective home-school team; student counseling; classroom management and discipline; and instructional strategies focused on students' personal growth and academic achievement. Teachers should use diverse approaches and materials, increase student…

Fluctuations of quantum fields via zeta function regularization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cognola, Guido; Zerbini, Sergio; Elizalde, Emilio

2002-01-01

Explicit expressions for the expectation values and the variances of some observables, which are bilinear quantities in the quantum fields on a D-dimensional manifold, are derived making use of zeta function regularization. It is found that the variance, related to the second functional variation of the effective action, requires a further regularization and that the relative regularized variance turns out to be 2/N, where N is the number of the fields, thus being independent of the dimension D. Some illustrating examples are worked through. The issue of the stress tensor is also briefly addressed

X-ray computed tomography using curvelet sparse regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Wieczorek, Matthias; Frikel, Jürgen; Vogel, Jakob; Eggl, Elena; Kopp, Felix; Noël, Peter B; Pfeiffer, Franz; Demaret, Laurent; Lasser, Tobias

2015-04-01

Reconstruction of x-ray computed tomography (CT) data remains a mathematically challenging problem in medical imaging. Complementing the standard analytical reconstruction methods, sparse regularization is growing in importance, as it allows inclusion of prior knowledge. The paper presents a method for sparse regularization based on the curvelet frame for the application to iterative reconstruction in x-ray computed tomography. In this work, the authors present an iterative reconstruction approach based on the alternating direction method of multipliers using curvelet sparse regularization. Evaluation of the method is performed on a specifically crafted numerical phantom dataset to highlight the method's strengths. Additional evaluation is performed on two real datasets from commercial scanners with different noise characteristics, a clinical bone sample acquired in a micro-CT and a human abdomen scanned in a diagnostic CT. The results clearly illustrate that curvelet sparse regularization has characteristic strengths. In particular, it improves the restoration and resolution of highly directional, high contrast features with smooth contrast variations. The authors also compare this approach to the popular technique of total variation and to traditional filtered backprojection. The authors conclude that curvelet sparse regularization is able to improve reconstruction quality by reducing noise while preserving highly directional features.

Semisupervised Support Vector Machines With Tangent Space Intrinsic Manifold Regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Shiliang; Xie, Xijiong

2016-09-01

Semisupervised learning has been an active research topic in machine learning and data mining. One main reason is that labeling examples is expensive and time-consuming, while there are large numbers of unlabeled examples available in many practical problems. So far, Laplacian regularization has been widely used in semisupervised learning. In this paper, we propose a new regularization method called tangent space intrinsic manifold regularization. It is intrinsic to data manifold and favors linear functions on the manifold. Fundamental elements involved in the formulation of the regularization are local tangent space representations, which are estimated by local principal component analysis, and the connections that relate adjacent tangent spaces. Simultaneously, we explore its application to semisupervised classification and propose two new learning algorithms called tangent space intrinsic manifold regularized support vector machines (TiSVMs) and tangent space intrinsic manifold regularized twin SVMs (TiTSVMs). They effectively integrate the tangent space intrinsic manifold regularization consideration. The optimization of TiSVMs can be solved by a standard quadratic programming, while the optimization of TiTSVMs can be solved by a pair of standard quadratic programmings. The experimental results of semisupervised classification problems show the effectiveness of the proposed semisupervised learning algorithms.

Counseling and Psychotherapy with Clients of Middle Eastern Descent: A Qualitative Inquiry

OpenAIRE

Boghosian, Sara

2011-01-01

It is becoming increasingly important for clinical and counseling psychologists to have multicultural competence skills for treating an increasingly diverse client population. The psychology literature related to culturally competent treatment with persons of Middle Eastern descent is currently limited. In this study, qualitative methodology was utilized to explore the mental health attitudes and psychotherapy experiences of clients of Middle Eastern descent. Participants described culturally...

Cognitive Aspects of Regularity Exhibit When Neighborhood Disappears

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Sau-Chin; Hu, Jon-Fan

2015-01-01

Although regularity refers to the compatibility between pronunciation of character and sound of phonetic component, it has been suggested as being part of consistency, which is defined by neighborhood characteristics. Two experiments demonstrate how regularity effect is amplified or reduced by neighborhood characteristics and reveals the…

An adaptive regularization parameter choice strategy for multispectral bioluminescence tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Feng Jinchao; Qin Chenghu; Jia Kebin; Han Dong; Liu Kai; Zhu Shouping; Yang Xin; Tian Jie [Medical Image Processing Group, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 2728, Beijing 100190 (China); College of Electronic Information and Control Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124 (China); Medical Image Processing Group, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 2728, Beijing 100190 (China); Medical Image Processing Group, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 2728, Beijing 100190 (China) and School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi' an 710071 (China)

2011-11-15

Purpose: Bioluminescence tomography (BLT) provides an effective tool for monitoring physiological and pathological activities in vivo. However, the measured data in bioluminescence imaging are corrupted by noise. Therefore, regularization methods are commonly used to find a regularized solution. Nevertheless, for the quality of the reconstructed bioluminescent source obtained by regularization methods, the choice of the regularization parameters is crucial. To date, the selection of regularization parameters remains challenging. With regards to the above problems, the authors proposed a BLT reconstruction algorithm with an adaptive parameter choice rule. Methods: The proposed reconstruction algorithm uses a diffusion equation for modeling the bioluminescent photon transport. The diffusion equation is solved with a finite element method. Computed tomography (CT) images provide anatomical information regarding the geometry of the small animal and its internal organs. To reduce the ill-posedness of BLT, spectral information and the optimal permissible source region are employed. Then, the relationship between the unknown source distribution and multiview and multispectral boundary measurements is established based on the finite element method and the optimal permissible source region. Since the measured data are noisy, the BLT reconstruction is formulated as l{sub 2} data fidelity and a general regularization term. When choosing the regularization parameters for BLT, an efficient model function approach is proposed, which does not require knowledge of the noise level. This approach only requests the computation of the residual and regularized solution norm. With this knowledge, we construct the model function to approximate the objective function, and the regularization parameter is updated iteratively. Results: First, the micro-CT based mouse phantom was used for simulation verification. Simulation experiments were used to illustrate why multispectral data were used

Atrial fibrillation in the Middle East: unmapped, underdiagnosed, undertreated.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Shamkhani, Warkaa; Ayetey, Harold; Lip, Gregory Y H

2018-05-01

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the commonest persistent cardiac arrhythmia with an estimated incidence rate of between 1.5-2% and an important cause of strokes. Few epidemiological studies and clinical trials on the management of AF have been conducted outside Europe and North America. These gaps in our understanding of AF likely lead to sub-optimal management of patients with AF in the rest of the world. Areas covered: We discuss the epidemiology, treatment and clinical outcomes for AF in the Middle East after systematic review of published work for AF from the Middle East. We also discuss important clinical trials on AF conducted in the West in the same period to help contextualize our findings. Expert commentary: The few available Middle East studies suggest important epidemiological differences between Middle Eastern and Western AF populations. In particular, the Middle Eastern AF population is younger and have more co-morbidities than patients in the West. We find that significant numbers of moderate to high risk patients with AF are either undertreated or untreated placing them at increased risk of complications such as stroke. More studies in the Middle Eastern population are required to aid the development of region-specific clinical guidelines to improve patient care.

Meddling with middle modalities: a decomposition approach to mental health inequalities between intersectional gender and economic middle groups in northern Sweden

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Per E. Gustafsson

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Intersectionality has received increased interest within population health research in recent years, as a concept and framework to understand entangled dimensions of health inequalities, such as gender and socioeconomic inequalities in health. However, little attention has been paid to the intersectional middle groups, referring to those occupying positions of mixed advantage and disadvantage. Objective: This article aimed to 1 examine mental health inequalities between intersectional groups reflecting structural positions of gender and economic affluence and 2 decompose any observed health inequalities, among middle groups, into contributions from experiences and conditions representing processes of privilege and oppression. Design: Participants (N=25,585 came from the cross-sectional ‘Health on Equal Terms’ survey covering 16- to 84-year-olds in the four northernmost counties of Sweden. Six intersectional positions were constructed from gender (woman vs. men and tertiles (low vs. medium vs. high of disposable income. Mental health was measured through the General Health Questionnaire-12. Explanatory variables covered areas of material conditions, job relations, violence, domestic burden, and healthcare contacts. Analysis of variance (Aim 1 and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis (Aim 2 were used. Results: Significant mental health inequalities were found between dominant (high-income women and middle-income men and subordinate (middle-income women and low-income men middle groups. The health inequalities between adjacent middle groups were mostly explained by violence (mid-income women vs. men comparison; material conditions (mid- vs. low-income men comparison; and material needs, job relations, and unmet medical needs (high- vs. mid-income women comparison. Conclusions: The study suggests complex processes whereby dominant middle groups in the intersectional space of economic affluence and gender can leverage strategic

24 CFR 982.519 - Regular tenancy: Annual adjustment of rent to owner.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECTION 8 TENANT BASED ASSISTANCE: HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM Rent and Housing Assistance Payment § 982.519 Regular tenancy: Annual adjustment of rent to owner. (a... rent to owner will only be increased for housing assistance payments covering months commencing on the...

Matrix regularization of embedded 4-manifolds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trzetrzelewski, Maciej

2012-01-01

We consider products of two 2-manifolds such as S 2 ×S 2 , embedded in Euclidean space and show that the corresponding 4-volume preserving diffeomorphism algebra can be approximated by a tensor product SU(N)⊗SU(N) i.e. functions on a manifold are approximated by the Kronecker product of two SU(N) matrices. A regularization of the 4-sphere is also performed by constructing N 2 ×N 2 matrix representations of the 4-algebra (and as a byproduct of the 3-algebra which makes the regularization of S 3 also possible).

Delivery of Type 2 diabetes care in low- and middle-income countries: lessons from Lima, Peru.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardenas, M K; Miranda, J J; Beran, D

2016-06-01

The health system's response is crucial to addressing the increasing burden of diabetes, particularly that affecting low- and middle-income countries. This study aims to assess the facilitators and barriers that help or hinder access to care for people with diabetes in Peru. We used a survey tool to design and collect qualitative and quantitative data from primary and secondary sources of information at different levels of the health system. We performed 111 interviews in Lima, the capital city of Peru, with patients with diabetes, healthcare providers and healthcare officials. We applied the six building blocks framework proposed by the World Health Organization in our analysis. We found low political commitment, as well as several barriers that directly affect access to medicines, regular laboratory check-ups and follow-up appointments for diabetes, especially at the primary healthcare level. Three major system-level barriers were identified: (1) the availability of information at different healthcare system levels that affects several processes in the healthcare provision; (2) insufficient financial resources; and (3) insufficient human resources trained in diabetes management. Despite an initial political commitment by the Peruvian government to improve the delivery of diabetes care, there exist several key limitations that affect access to adequate diabetes care, especially at the primary healthcare level. In a context in which various low- and middle-income countries are aiming to achieve universal health coverage, this study provides lessons for the implementation of strategies related to diabetes care delivery. © 2016 Diabetes UK.

Optimal Tikhonov Regularization in Finite-Frequency Tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Y.; Yao, Z.; Zhou, Y.

2017-12-01

The last decade has witnessed a progressive transition in seismic tomography from ray theory to finite-frequency theory which overcomes the resolution limit of the high-frequency approximation in ray theory. In addition to approximations in wave propagation physics, a main difference between ray-theoretical tomography and finite-frequency tomography is the sparseness of the associated sensitivity matrix. It is well known that seismic tomographic problems are ill-posed and regularizations such as damping and smoothing are often applied to analyze the tradeoff between data misfit and model uncertainty. The regularizations depend on the structure of the matrix as well as noise level of the data. Cross-validation has been used to constrain data uncertainties in body-wave finite-frequency inversions when measurements at multiple frequencies are available to invert for a common structure. In this study, we explore an optimal Tikhonov regularization in surface-wave phase-velocity tomography based on minimization of an empirical Bayes risk function using theoretical training datasets. We exploit the structure of the sensitivity matrix in the framework of singular value decomposition (SVD) which also allows for the calculation of complete resolution matrix. We compare the optimal Tikhonov regularization in finite-frequency tomography with traditional tradeo-off analysis using surface wave dispersion measurements from global as well as regional studies.

An investigation of the general regularity of size dependence of reaction kinetics of nanoparticles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cui, Zixiang; Duan, Huijuan; Xue, Yongqiang; Li, Ping

2015-01-01

In the processes of preparation and application of nanomaterials, the chemical reactions of nanoparticles are often involved, and the size of nanoparticles has dramatic influence on the reaction kinetics. Nevertheless, there are many conflicts on regularities of size dependence of reaction kinetic parameters, and these conflicts have not been explained so far. In this paper, taking the reaction of nano-ZnO (average diameter is from 20.96 to 53.31 nm) with acrylic acid solution as a system, the influence regularities of the particle size on the kinetic parameters were researched. The regularities were consistent with that in most literatures, but inconsistent with that in a few of literatures, the reasons for the conflicts were interpreted. The reasons can be attributed to two factors: one is improper data processing for fewer data points, and the other is the difference between solid particles and porous particles. A general regularity of the size dependence of reaction kinetics for solid particles was obtained. The regularity shows that with the size of nanoparticles decreasing, the rate constant and the reaction order increase, while the apparent activation energy and the pre-exponential factor decrease; and the relationships of the logarithm of rate constant, the logarithm of pre-exponential factor, and the apparent activation energy to the reciprocal of the particle size are linear, respectively

Increasing Drought Sensitivity and Decline of Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica in the Moroccan Middle Atlas Forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jesús Julio Camarero

2011-09-01

Full Text Available An understanding of the interactions between climate change and forest structure on tree growth are needed for decision making in forest conservation and management. In this paper, we investigated the relative contribution of tree features and stand structure on Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica radial growth in forests that have experienced heavy grazing and logging in the past. Dendrochronological methods were applied to quantify patterns in basal-area increment and drought sensitivity of Atlas cedar in the Middle Atlas, northern Morocco. We estimated the tree-to-tree competition intensity and quantified the structure in Atlas cedar stands with contrasting tree density, age, and decline symptoms. The relative contribution of tree age and size and stand structure to Atlas cedar growth decline was estimated by variance partitioning using partial-redundancy analyses. Recurrent drought events and temperature increases have been identified from local climate records since the 1970s. We detected consistent growth declines and increased drought sensitivity in Atlas cedar across all sites since the early 1980s. Specifically, we determined that previous growth rates and tree age were the strongest tree features, while Quercus rotundifolia basal area was the strongest stand structure measure related to Atlas cedar decline. As a result, we suggest that Atlas cedar forests that have experienced severe drought in combination with grazing and logging may be in the process of shifting dominance toward more drought-tolerant species such as Q. rotundifolia.

In the Beginning of the Middle: Curriculum Considerations for Middle School General Music

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Giebelhausen, Robin

2015-01-01

Middle school general music is an experience that numerous music educators feel underprepared to teach. Because many undergraduate programs spend little time on this teaching scenario and because the challenges of middle school general music are different from those of elementary general music or middle school ensembles, teachers often lack the…

Recursive regularization step for high-order lattice Boltzmann methods

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Coreixas, Christophe; Wissocq, Gauthier; Puigt, Guillaume; Boussuge, Jean-François; Sagaut, Pierre

2017-09-01

A lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with enhanced stability and accuracy is presented for various Hermite tensor-based lattice structures. The collision operator relies on a regularization step, which is here improved through a recursive computation of nonequilibrium Hermite polynomial coefficients. In addition to the reduced computational cost of this procedure with respect to the standard one, the recursive step allows to considerably enhance the stability and accuracy of the numerical scheme by properly filtering out second- (and higher-) order nonhydrodynamic contributions in under-resolved conditions. This is first shown in the isothermal case where the simulation of the doubly periodic shear layer is performed with a Reynolds number ranging from 104 to 106, and where a thorough analysis of the case at Re=3 ×104 is conducted. In the latter, results obtained using both regularization steps are compared against the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook LBM for standard (D2Q9) and high-order (D2V17 and D2V37) lattice structures, confirming the tremendous increase of stability range of the proposed approach. Further comparisons on thermal and fully compressible flows, using the general extension of this procedure, are then conducted through the numerical simulation of Sod shock tubes with the D2V37 lattice. They confirm the stability increase induced by the recursive approach as compared with the standard one.

Fractional Regularization Term for Variational Image Registration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael Verdú-Monedero

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Image registration is a widely used task of image analysis with applications in many fields. Its classical formulation and current improvements are given in the spatial domain. In this paper a regularization term based on fractional order derivatives is formulated. This term is defined and implemented in the frequency domain by translating the energy functional into the frequency domain and obtaining the Euler-Lagrange equations which minimize it. The new regularization term leads to a simple formulation and design, being applicable to higher dimensions by using the corresponding multidimensional Fourier transform. The proposed regularization term allows for a real gradual transition from a diffusion registration to a curvature registration which is best suited to some applications and it is not possible in the spatial domain. Results with 3D actual images show the validity of this approach.

Increase of Stroke Incidence in Young Adults in a Middle-Income Country: A 10-Year Population-Based Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Cabral, Norberto Luiz; Freire, Aracélli Tavares; Conforto, Adriana Bastos; Dos Santos, Nayara; Reis, Felipe Ibiapina; Nagel, Vivian; Guesser, Vanessa V; Safanelli, Juliana; Longo, Alexandre L

2017-11-01

The incidence of stroke is on the rise in young adults in high-income countries. However, there is a gap of knowledge about trends in stroke incidence in young adults from low- and middle-income countries. We aimed to measure trends in incidence of ischemic stroke (IS) and intracerebral hemorrhage (IH) in young people from 2005 to 2015 in Joinville, Brazil. We retrospectively ascertained all first-ever IS subtypes and IH that occurred in Joinville in the periods of 2005 to 2006, 2010 to 2011, and 2014 to 2015. Poisson regression was used to calculate incidence rate ratios of all strokes, IS, and IH. We also compared the prevalence of risk factors and extension of diagnostic work-up across the 3 periods. For 10 years, we registered 2483 patients (7.5% aged incidence significantly increased by 62% (incidence rate ratios, 1.62; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-2.40) in subjects incidence rate ratios, 1.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.60). Incidence of IS increased by 66% (incidence rate ratios, 1.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-2.54), but there was no significant change in incidence of IH in subjects incidence is rising in young adults in Joinville, Brazil, because of increase in rates of ischemic but not hemorrhagic strokes. We urgently need better policies of cardiovascular prevention in the young. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

[Hearing the impact of MP3 on a survey of middle school students].

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Zhan; Li, Zonghua; Chen, Yang; He, Ya; Chunyu, Xiujie; Wang, Fangyuan; Zhang, Pengzhi; Gao, Lei; Qiu, Shuping; Liu, Shunli; Qiao, Li; Qiu, Jianhua

2011-02-01

To understand the usage of MP3 and effects on hearing of middle school students in Xi'an, and discuss controlling strategies. Stratified random cluster sampling method was used in the 1567 middle school students in Xi'an through questionnaire survey, ear examination and hearing examination, data were analysed by the SPSS13.0 statistical software. 1) The rate of holding MP3 in the middle school students was 85.2%. Average daily use time was (1.41 +/- 1.11) h. 2) The noise group of pure tone hearing threshold was significantly higher compared with the control group (PMP3. 3) The detection rate of symptoms increased with the increasing use of MP3. The usage of MP3 can harm hearing in middle school students, which can result in neurasthenic syndrome.

Uso regular de serviços odontológicos entre adultos: padrões de utilização e tipos de serviços Regular use of dental care services by adults: patterns of utilization and types of services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Beatriz J. Camargo

2009-09-01

Full Text Available O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o uso regular de serviços odontológicos entre adultos, identificando grupos nos quais esse comportamento é mais freqüente. O estudo foi realizado em Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, com desenho transversal de base populacional, envolvendo 2.961 indivíduos, que responderam um questionário estruturado. A prevalência de uso regular encontrada foi de 32,8%. Estiveram positivamente associadas ao uso de forma regular as seguintes características: ser do sexo feminino, ter idade The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of regular use of dental services by adults and identify groups where this behavior is more frequent. A cross-sectional population-based study was carried out in Pelotas, southern Brazil, including 2,961 individuals who answered a standardized questionnaire. Overall prevalence of regular use of dental services was 32.8%. The following variables were positively associated with regular use: female gender, age > 60 years, no partner, high educational level, high economic status, private service user, good/excellent self-rated oral health, and no perceived need for dental treatment. Those who had received orientation on prevention and expressed a favorable view towards the dentist had higher odds of being regular users. Especially among lower-income individuals, regular use was infrequent (15%. When restricting the analysis to users of public dental services, schooling was still positively associated with the outcome. Dental services, especially in the public sector, should develop strategies to increase regular and preventive use.

Likelihood ratio decisions in memory: three implied regularities.

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Glanzer, Murray; Hilford, Andrew; Maloney, Laurence T

2009-06-01

We analyze four general signal detection models for recognition memory that differ in their distributional assumptions. Our analyses show that a basic assumption of signal detection theory, the likelihood ratio decision axis, implies three regularities in recognition memory: (1) the mirror effect, (2) the variance effect, and (3) the z-ROC length effect. For each model, we present the equations that produce the three regularities and show, in computed examples, how they do so. We then show that the regularities appear in data from a range of recognition studies. The analyses and data in our study support the following generalization: Individuals make efficient recognition decisions on the basis of likelihood ratios.

Low-Rank Matrix Factorization With Adaptive Graph Regularizer.

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Lu, Gui-Fu; Wang, Yong; Zou, Jian

2016-05-01

In this paper, we present a novel low-rank matrix factorization algorithm with adaptive graph regularizer (LMFAGR). We extend the recently proposed low-rank matrix with manifold regularization (MMF) method with an adaptive regularizer. Different from MMF, which constructs an affinity graph in advance, LMFAGR can simultaneously seek graph weight matrix and low-dimensional representations of data. That is, graph construction and low-rank matrix factorization are incorporated into a unified framework, which results in an automatically updated graph rather than a predefined one. The experimental results on some data sets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art low-rank matrix factorization methods.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Newton, Charles R.

2012-01-01

In "Global Perspective on Early Diagnosis and Intervention for Children with Developmental Delays and Disabilities" (p1079-1084, this issue), Scherzer et al. highlighted the potential increase in neurodevelopmental impairments and disabilities affecting an increasing number of children in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In this…

Online Manifold Regularization by Dual Ascending Procedure

OpenAIRE

Sun, Boliang; Li, Guohui; Jia, Li; Zhang, Hui

2013-01-01

We propose a novel online manifold regularization framework based on the notion of duality in constrained optimization. The Fenchel conjugate of hinge functions is a key to transfer manifold regularization from offline to online in this paper. Our algorithms are derived by gradient ascent in the dual function. For practical purpose, we propose two buffering strategies and two sparse approximations to reduce the computational complexity. Detailed experiments verify the utility of our approache...

Degree-regular triangulations of torus and Klein bottle

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 115; Issue 3 ... A triangulation of a connected closed surface is called degree-regular if each of its vertices have the same degree. ... In [5], Datta and Nilakantan have classified all the degree-regular triangulations of closed surfaces on at most 11 vertices.

Variability in Regularity: Mining Temporal Mobility Patterns in London, Singapore and Beijing Using Smart-Card Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Chen; Batty, Michael; Manley, Ed; Wang, Jiaqiu; Wang, Zijia; Chen, Feng; Schmitt, Gerhard

2016-01-01

To discover regularities in human mobility is of fundamental importance to our understanding of urban dynamics, and essential to city and transport planning, urban management and policymaking. Previous research has revealed universal regularities at mainly aggregated spatio-temporal scales but when we zoom into finer scales, considerable heterogeneity and diversity is observed instead. The fundamental question we address in this paper is at what scales are the regularities we detect stable, explicable, and sustainable. This paper thus proposes a basic measure of variability to assess the stability of such regularities focusing mainly on changes over a range of temporal scales. We demonstrate this by comparing regularities in the urban mobility patterns in three world cities, namely London, Singapore and Beijing using one-week of smart-card data. The results show that variations in regularity scale as non-linear functions of the temporal resolution, which we measure over a scale from 1 minute to 24 hours thus reflecting the diurnal cycle of human mobility. A particularly dramatic increase in variability occurs up to the temporal scale of about 15 minutes in all three cities and this implies that limits exist when we look forward or backward with respect to making short-term predictions. The degree of regularity varies in fact from city to city with Beijing and Singapore showing higher regularity in comparison to London across all temporal scales. A detailed discussion is provided, which relates the analysis to various characteristics of the three cities. In summary, this work contributes to a deeper understanding of regularities in patterns of transit use from variations in volumes of travellers entering subway stations, it establishes a generic analytical framework for comparative studies using urban mobility data, and it provides key points for the management of variability by policy-makers intent on for making the travel experience more amenable.

Variability in Regularity: Mining Temporal Mobility Patterns in London, Singapore and Beijing Using Smart-Card Data

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Chen; Batty, Michael; Manley, Ed; Wang, Jiaqiu; Wang, Zijia; Chen, Feng; Schmitt, Gerhard

2016-01-01

To discover regularities in human mobility is of fundamental importance to our understanding of urban dynamics, and essential to city and transport planning, urban management and policymaking. Previous research has revealed universal regularities at mainly aggregated spatio-temporal scales but when we zoom into finer scales, considerable heterogeneity and diversity is observed instead. The fundamental question we address in this paper is at what scales are the regularities we detect stable, explicable, and sustainable. This paper thus proposes a basic measure of variability to assess the stability of such regularities focusing mainly on changes over a range of temporal scales. We demonstrate this by comparing regularities in the urban mobility patterns in three world cities, namely London, Singapore and Beijing using one-week of smart-card data. The results show that variations in regularity scale as non-linear functions of the temporal resolution, which we measure over a scale from 1 minute to 24 hours thus reflecting the diurnal cycle of human mobility. A particularly dramatic increase in variability occurs up to the temporal scale of about 15 minutes in all three cities and this implies that limits exist when we look forward or backward with respect to making short-term predictions. The degree of regularity varies in fact from city to city with Beijing and Singapore showing higher regularity in comparison to London across all temporal scales. A detailed discussion is provided, which relates the analysis to various characteristics of the three cities. In summary, this work contributes to a deeper understanding of regularities in patterns of transit use from variations in volumes of travellers entering subway stations, it establishes a generic analytical framework for comparative studies using urban mobility data, and it provides key points for the management of variability by policy-makers intent on for making the travel experience more amenable. PMID:26872333

Variability in Regularity: Mining Temporal Mobility Patterns in London, Singapore and Beijing Using Smart-Card Data.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Zhong

Full Text Available To discover regularities in human mobility is of fundamental importance to our understanding of urban dynamics, and essential to city and transport planning, urban management and policymaking. Previous research has revealed universal regularities at mainly aggregated spatio-temporal scales but when we zoom into finer scales, considerable heterogeneity and diversity is observed instead. The fundamental question we address in this paper is at what scales are the regularities we detect stable, explicable, and sustainable. This paper thus proposes a basic measure of variability to assess the stability of such regularities focusing mainly on changes over a range of temporal scales. We demonstrate this by comparing regularities in the urban mobility patterns in three world cities, namely London, Singapore and Beijing using one-week of smart-card data. The results show that variations in regularity scale as non-linear functions of the temporal resolution, which we measure over a scale from 1 minute to 24 hours thus reflecting the diurnal cycle of human mobility. A particularly dramatic increase in variability occurs up to the temporal scale of about 15 minutes in all three cities and this implies that limits exist when we look forward or backward with respect to making short-term predictions. The degree of regularity varies in fact from city to city with Beijing and Singapore showing higher regularity in comparison to London across all temporal scales. A detailed discussion is provided, which relates the analysis to various characteristics of the three cities. In summary, this work contributes to a deeper understanding of regularities in patterns of transit use from variations in volumes of travellers entering subway stations, it establishes a generic analytical framework for comparative studies using urban mobility data, and it provides key points for the management of variability by policy-makers intent on for making the travel experience more

Quantification of fetal heart rate regularity using symbolic dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

van Leeuwen, P.; Cysarz, D.; Lange, S.; Geue, D.; Groenemeyer, D.

2007-03-01

Fetal heart rate complexity was examined on the basis of RR interval time series obtained in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. In each fetal RR interval time series, short term beat-to-beat heart rate changes were coded in 8bit binary sequences. Redundancies of the 28 different binary patterns were reduced by two different procedures. The complexity of these sequences was quantified using the approximate entropy (ApEn), resulting in discrete ApEn values which were used for classifying the sequences into 17 pattern sets. Also, the sequences were grouped into 20 pattern classes with respect to identity after rotation or inversion of the binary value. There was a specific, nonuniform distribution of the sequences in the pattern sets and this differed from the distribution found in surrogate data. In the course of gestation, the number of sequences increased in seven pattern sets, decreased in four and remained unchanged in six. Sequences that occurred less often over time, both regular and irregular, were characterized by patterns reflecting frequent beat-to-beat reversals in heart rate. They were also predominant in the surrogate data, suggesting that these patterns are associated with stochastic heart beat trains. Sequences that occurred more frequently over time were relatively rare in the surrogate data. Some of these sequences had a high degree of regularity and corresponded to prolonged heart rate accelerations or decelerations which may be associated with directed fetal activity or movement or baroreflex activity. Application of the pattern classes revealed that those sequences with a high degree of irregularity correspond to heart rate patterns resulting from complex physiological activity such as fetal breathing movements. The results suggest that the development of the autonomic nervous system and the emergence of fetal behavioral states lead to increases in not only irregular but also regular heart rate patterns. Using symbolic dynamics to

The Impact of Mentoring Programs on Teachers in Urban Middle Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Wider, Beyonka Shantel

2012-01-01

Retaining teachers is a pressing issue facing many urban middle schools in the southern US. Urban middle schools continually face increased teacher turnover rates in spite of state mandated induction and mentoring programs. Drawing from Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, the purpose of the qualitative case study was to examine urban middle…

Impact of telecommunication technologies on the middle class formation

Science.gov (United States)

Khusnullova, A.; Absalyamova, S.; Sakhapov, R.; Mukhametgalieva, Ch

2017-12-01

The article is devoted to the study of the impact of the information economy on the formation of the middle class. The paper identifies factors contributing to the increase in the share of the middle class in the transition to the information economy. The positive synergetic influence of telecommunication technologies on the formation of the middle class is considered through a possibility of using virtual spaces for labor and educational activities, a possibility of obtaining high returns in the form of dividends on intellectual capital, a qualitative change in the structure of needs, an access to new types of information services, etc. Authors develop a complex model of research of the middle class in the information economy, differing from those available using an expanded list of criteria. In addition to such widely used criteria as income level, level of education and self-identification, the criterion "degree of involvement in the information society" was introduced. The study substantiates that the transition to the information economy made an access to information and communication technologies one of the most significant criteria for social differentiation of society. On the basis of the model, an econometric estimate of the middle class has been carried out, which makes it possible to reveal the share of the middle class in modern society, dynamics of its development, as well as multicollinearity between spending on education, the Gini coefficient, access to information and telecommunication technologies and the size of the middle class.

Laplacian embedded regression for scalable manifold regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lin; Tsang, Ivor W; Xu, Dong

2012-06-01

Semi-supervised learning (SSL), as a powerful tool to learn from a limited number of labeled data and a large number of unlabeled data, has been attracting increasing attention in the machine learning community. In particular, the manifold regularization framework has laid solid theoretical foundations for a large family of SSL algorithms, such as Laplacian support vector machine (LapSVM) and Laplacian regularized least squares (LapRLS). However, most of these algorithms are limited to small scale problems due to the high computational cost of the matrix inversion operation involved in the optimization problem. In this paper, we propose a novel framework called Laplacian embedded regression by introducing an intermediate decision variable into the manifold regularization framework. By using ∈-insensitive loss, we obtain the Laplacian embedded support vector regression (LapESVR) algorithm, which inherits the sparse solution from SVR. Also, we derive Laplacian embedded RLS (LapERLS) corresponding to RLS under the proposed framework. Both LapESVR and LapERLS possess a simpler form of a transformed kernel, which is the summation of the original kernel and a graph kernel that captures the manifold structure. The benefits of the transformed kernel are two-fold: (1) we can deal with the original kernel matrix and the graph Laplacian matrix in the graph kernel separately and (2) if the graph Laplacian matrix is sparse, we only need to perform the inverse operation for a sparse matrix, which is much more efficient when compared with that for a dense one. Inspired by kernel principal component analysis, we further propose to project the introduced decision variable into a subspace spanned by a few eigenvectors of the graph Laplacian matrix in order to better reflect the data manifold, as well as accelerate the calculation of the graph kernel, allowing our methods to efficiently and effectively cope with large scale SSL problems. Extensive experiments on both toy and real

Comparison of Subcutaneous Regular Insulin and Lispro Insulin in Diabetics Receiving Continuous Nutrition: A Numerical Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stull, Mamie C; Strilka, Richard J; Clemens, Michael S; Armen, Scott B

2015-06-30

Optimal management of non-critically ill patients with diabetes maintained on continuous enteral feeding (CEN) is poorly defined. Subcutaneous (SQ) lispro and SQ regular insulin were compared in a simulated type 1 and type 2 diabetic patient receiving CEN. A glucose-insulin feedback mathematical model was employed to simulate type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients on CEN. Each patient received 25 SQ injections of regular insulin or insulin lispro, ranging from 0-6 U. Primary endpoints were the change in mean glucose concentration (MGC) and change in glucose variability (GV); hypoglycemic episodes were also reported. The model was first validated against patient data. Both SQ insulin preparations linearly decreased MGC, however, SQ regular insulin decreased GV whereas SQ lispro tended to increase GV. Hourly glucose concentration measurements were needed to capture the increase in GV. In the type 2 diabetic patient, "rebound hyperglycemia" occurred after SQ lispro was rapidly metabolized. Although neither SQ insulin preparation caused hypoglycemia, SQ lispro significantly lowered MGC compared to SQ regular insulin. Thus, it may be more likely to cause hypoglycemia. Analyses of the detailed glucose concentration versus time data suggest that the inferior performance of lispro resulted from its shorter duration of action. Finally, the effects of both insulin preparations persisted beyond their duration of actions in the type 2 diabetic patient. Subcutaneous regular insulin may be the short-acting insulin preparation of choice for this subset of diabetic patients. Clinical trial is required before a definitive recommendation can be made. © 2015 Diabetes Technology Society.

The relationship between lifestyle regularity and subjective sleep quality

Science.gov (United States)

Monk, Timothy H.; Reynolds, Charles F 3rd; Buysse, Daniel J.; DeGrazia, Jean M.; Kupfer, David J.

2003-01-01

In previous work we have developed a diary instrument-the Social Rhythm Metric (SRM), which allows the assessment of lifestyle regularity-and a questionnaire instrument--the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), which allows the assessment of subjective sleep quality. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between lifestyle regularity and subjective sleep quality. Lifestyle regularity was assessed by both standard (SRM-17) and shortened (SRM-5) metrics; subjective sleep quality was assessed by the PSQI. We hypothesized that high lifestyle regularity would be conducive to better sleep. Both instruments were given to a sample of 100 healthy subjects who were studied as part of a variety of different experiments spanning a 9-yr time frame. Ages ranged from 19 to 49 yr (mean age: 31.2 yr, s.d.: 7.8 yr); there were 48 women and 52 men. SRM scores were derived from a two-week diary. The hypothesis was confirmed. There was a significant (rho = -0.4, p subjects with higher levels of lifestyle regularity reported fewer sleep problems. This relationship was also supported by a categorical analysis, where the proportion of "poor sleepers" was doubled in the "irregular types" group as compared with the "non-irregular types" group. Thus, there appears to be an association between lifestyle regularity and good sleep, though the direction of causality remains to be tested.

System identification via sparse multiple kernel-based regularization using sequential convex optimization techniques

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Tianshi; Andersen, Martin Skovgaard; Ljung, Lennart

2014-01-01

Model estimation and structure detection with short data records are two issues that receive increasing interests in System Identification. In this paper, a multiple kernel-based regularization method is proposed to handle those issues. Multiple kernels are conic combinations of fixed kernels...

Caught in the Middle: Some in Canada’s Middle Class are Doing Well; Others Have Good Reason to Worry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Philip Cross

2015-03-01

-sector professionals in particular have come to share the human-capital and income characteristics of Canada’s highest-paid managers and professionals, often enjoying greater job security as well. In reality, anxiety over the state of the middle class and its future is actually about the working class. Lumping middle-class factory workers and clerical assistants in with middle-class teachers and nurses — as current political discussion tends to do — obscures the truth about which members of that group are genuinely struggling to keep up. As long as politicians continue to promote policies aimed at helping everyone within such a vague and broad target group, they can only end up misdirecting resources by enriching those who are already doing reasonably well, rather than focusing on those working-class Canadians who truly are not. Already net transfers through the tax system to middle-income groups have grown markedly. These transfers have managed to offset about half the erosion of middle-class incomes in the marketplace. Those transfers have been financed through increased tax payments from high-income groups, but also through shrinking transfers to low-income groups. These developments raise serious policy issues for which there are no simple answers. The breadth of Canada’s middle class obviously means that it encompasses the largest proportion of families, by far. Any further policies aimed at transferring wealth from other income groups to appease middle-class voters will be costly. Given that the main cause for concern is the worsening situation of lowerskilled workers, politicians who truly want to help those struggling in the “middle class,” should focus their efforts on helping Canadians acquire more education and more skills.

Biostratigraphy of the upper Bajocian-middle Callovian (Middle Jurassic), South America

Science.gov (United States)

Riccardi, A. C.; Westermann, G. E. G.; Elmi, S.

The biostratigraphic division of the upper Bajocian-middle Callovian of South America is based on ammonites from different sections of the following provinces and regions: Neuquén, Mendoza, and San Juan in Argentina; Malleco, Linares, Talca, Atacama, Antofagasta, and Tarapacá in Chile. The complete upper Bajocian-middle Callovian succession includes the following biostratigraphic units: the Megasphaeroceras magnum assemblage zone, lowermost upper Bajocian; the Cadomites-Tulitidae mixed assemblages, (?lower) middle and upper Bathonian; the Steinmanni zone, index Lilloettia steinmanni (Spath), uppermost Bathonian, with two local horizons— Stenocephalites gerthi horizon (Argentina) and Choffatia jupiter horizon (northern Chile); the Vergarensis zone, index Eurycephalites vergarensis (Burck.), near the Bathonian-Callovian boundary; the Bodenbenderi zone, index Neuqueniceras (Frickites) bodenbenderi (Tornq.), lower Callovian; the Proximum zone, index Hecticoceras proximum Elmi, uppermost lower Callovian; and the Rehmannia (Loczyceras) patagoniensis horizon, middle Callovian.

Increases of Obesity and Overweight in Children: an Alarm for Parents and Policymakers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gholam Hasan Khadaee

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. The problem is global and is steadily affecting many low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. The prevalence has increased at an alarming rate. Globally, in 2013 the number of overweight children under the age of five years old, is estimated to be over 42 million. Close to 31 million of these are living in developing countries. In the WHO African Region alone the number of overweight or obese children increased from 4 to 9 million over the same period. The vast majority of overweight or obese children live in developing countries, where the rate of increase has been more than 30% higher than that of developed countries. If current trends continue the number of overweight or obese infants and young children globally will increase to 70 million by 2025.  Without intervention, obese infants and young children will likely continue to be obese during childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Overweight and obesity are largely preventable. Supportive policies, environments, schools and communities are fundamental in shaping parents’ and children’s choices, making the healthier choice of foods and regular physical activity the easiest choice (accessible, available and affordable, and therefore preventing obesity.

Generalized Bregman distances and convergence rates for non-convex regularization methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grasmair, Markus

2010-01-01

We generalize the notion of Bregman distance using concepts from abstract convexity in order to derive convergence rates for Tikhonov regularization with non-convex regularization terms. In particular, we study the non-convex regularization of linear operator equations on Hilbert spaces, showing that the conditions required for the application of the convergence rates results are strongly related to the standard range conditions from the convex case. Moreover, we consider the setting of sparse regularization, where we show that a rate of order δ 1/p holds, if the regularization term has a slightly faster growth at zero than |t| p

Breast ultrasound tomography with total-variation regularization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huang, Lianjie [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Li, Cuiping [KARMANOS CANCER INSTIT.; Duric, Neb [KARMANOS CANCER INSTIT

2009-01-01

Breast ultrasound tomography is a rapidly developing imaging modality that has the potential to impact breast cancer screening and diagnosis. A new ultrasound breast imaging device (CURE) with a ring array of transducers has been designed and built at Karmanos Cancer Institute, which acquires both reflection and transmission ultrasound signals. To extract the sound-speed information from the breast data acquired by CURE, we have developed an iterative sound-speed image reconstruction algorithm for breast ultrasound transmission tomography based on total-variation (TV) minimization. We investigate applicability of the TV tomography algorithm using in vivo ultrasound breast data from 61 patients, and compare the results with those obtained using the Tikhonov regularization method. We demonstrate that, compared to the Tikhonov regularization scheme, the TV regularization method significantly improves image quality, resulting in sound-speed tomography images with sharp (preserved) edges of abnormalities and few artifacts.

Manufacture of Regularly Shaped Sol-Gel Pellets

Science.gov (United States)

Leventis, Nicholas; Johnston, James C.; Kinder, James D.

2006-01-01

An extrusion batch process for manufacturing regularly shaped sol-gel pellets has been devised as an improved alternative to a spray process that yields irregularly shaped pellets. The aspect ratio of regularly shaped pellets can be controlled more easily, while regularly shaped pellets pack more efficiently. In the extrusion process, a wet gel is pushed out of a mold and chopped repetitively into short, cylindrical pieces as it emerges from the mold. The pieces are collected and can be either (1) dried at ambient pressure to xerogel, (2) solvent exchanged and dried under ambient pressure to ambigels, or (3) supercritically dried to aerogel. Advantageously, the extruded pellets can be dropped directly in a cross-linking bath, where they develop a conformal polymer coating around the skeletal framework of the wet gel via reaction with the cross linker. These pellets can be dried to mechanically robust X-Aerogel.

Regularization and Complexity Control in Feed-forward Networks

OpenAIRE

Bishop, C. M.

1995-01-01

In this paper we consider four alternative approaches to complexity control in feed-forward networks based respectively on architecture selection, regularization, early stopping, and training with noise. We show that there are close similarities between these approaches and we argue that, for most practical applications, the technique of regularization should be the method of choice.

Manifold regularization for sparse unmixing of hyperspectral images.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Junmin; Zhang, Chunxia; Zhang, Jiangshe; Li, Huirong; Gao, Yuelin

2016-01-01

Recently, sparse unmixing has been successfully applied to spectral mixture analysis of remotely sensed hyperspectral images. Based on the assumption that the observed image signatures can be expressed in the form of linear combinations of a number of pure spectral signatures known in advance, unmixing of each mixed pixel in the scene is to find an optimal subset of signatures in a very large spectral library, which is cast into the framework of sparse regression. However, traditional sparse regression models, such as collaborative sparse regression , ignore the intrinsic geometric structure in the hyperspectral data. In this paper, we propose a novel model, called manifold regularized collaborative sparse regression , by introducing a manifold regularization to the collaborative sparse regression model. The manifold regularization utilizes a graph Laplacian to incorporate the locally geometrical structure of the hyperspectral data. An algorithm based on alternating direction method of multipliers has been developed for the manifold regularized collaborative sparse regression model. Experimental results on both the simulated and real hyperspectral data sets have demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed model.

Regularization dependence on phase diagram in Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kohyama, H.; Kimura, D.; Inagaki, T.

2015-01-01

We study the regularization dependence on meson properties and the phase diagram of quark matter by using the two flavor Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model. The model also has the parameter dependence in each regularization, so we explicitly give the model parameters for some sets of the input observables, then investigate its effect on the phase diagram. We find that the location or the existence of the critical end point highly depends on the regularization methods and the model parameters. Then we think that regularization and parameters are carefully considered when one investigates the QCD critical end point in the effective model studies

A Primer of Middle Eastern Leadership Culture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheldon Greaves

2012-01-01

Full Text Available It is natural for someone looking in on a foreign culture from the outside to interpret what they see and frame their reactions based on their own background and assumptions. With cultures as a different as those of the Middle East and the West, the potential for blunders increases dramatically, made worse by the high political, diplomatic, military, and commercial stakes involved. Leadership culture in this region has been shaped over centuries through a variety of factors, such as reputation, family, and religion, which continue to influence decision making. The present study posits that an understanding of these factors and how they work is crucial for intelligence analysts, policy and decision makers, strategists, and scholars who must find their way through a very unfamiliar cultural landscape in the Middle East. It is hoped that this discussion will in some way assist in the creation of more effective interaction, policies, and analysis associated with the Middle East.

Genetic Improvements in Rice Yield and Concomitant Increases in Radiation- and Nitrogen-Use Efficiency in Middle Reaches of Yangtze River

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Guanglong; Peng, Shaobing; Huang, Jianliang; Cui, Kehui; Nie, Lixiao; Wang, Fei

2016-01-01

The yield potential of rice (Oryza sativa L.) has experienced two significant growth periods that coincide with the introduction of semi-dwarfism and the utilization of heterosis. In present study, we determined the annual increase in the grain yield of rice varieties grown from 1936 to 2005 in Middle Reaches of Yangtze River and examined the contributions of RUE (radiation-use efficiency, the conversion efficiency of pre-anthesis intercepted global radiation to biomass) and NUE (nitrogen-use efficiency, the ratio of grain yield to aboveground N accumulation) to these improvements. An examination of the 70-year period showed that the annual gains of 61.9 and 75.3 kg ha−1 in 2013 and 2014, respectively, corresponded to an annual increase of 1.18 and 1.16% in grain yields, respectively. The improvements in grain yield resulted from increases in the harvest index and biomass, and the sink size (spikelets per panicle) was significantly enlarged because of breeding for larger panicles. Improvements were observed in RUE and NUE through advancements in breeding. Moreover, both RUE and NUE were significantly correlated with the grain yield. Thus, our study suggests that genetic improvements in rice grain yield are associated with increased RUE and NUE. PMID:26876641

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction in middle-aged patients

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Johnson, T.; Monk, T.; Rasmussen, L.S.; Abildstrom, H.; Houx, P.J.; Korttila, K.; Kuipers, H.M.; Hanning, C.D.; Siersma, V.D.; Kristensen, D.; Canet, J.; Ibanaz, M.T.; Moller, J.T.

2002-01-01

Background: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) after noncardiac surgery is strongly associated with increasing age in elderly patients; middle-aged patients (aged 40-60 yr) may be expected to have a lower incidence, although subjective complaints are frequent. Methods: The authors compared

Top-down attention affects sequential regularity representation in the human visual system.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimura, Motohiro; Widmann, Andreas; Schröger, Erich

2010-08-01

Recent neuroscience studies using visual mismatch negativity (visual MMN), an event-related brain potential (ERP) index of memory-mismatch processes in the visual sensory system, have shown that although sequential regularities embedded in successive visual stimuli can be automatically represented in the visual sensory system, an existence of sequential regularity itself does not guarantee that the sequential regularity will be automatically represented. In the present study, we investigated the effects of top-down attention on sequential regularity representation in the visual sensory system. Our results showed that a sequential regularity (SSSSD) embedded in a modified oddball sequence where infrequent deviant (D) and frequent standard stimuli (S) differing in luminance were regularly presented (SSSSDSSSSDSSSSD...) was represented in the visual sensory system only when participants attended the sequential regularity in luminance, but not when participants ignored the stimuli or simply attended the dimension of luminance per se. This suggests that top-down attention affects sequential regularity representation in the visual sensory system and that top-down attention is a prerequisite for particular sequential regularities to be represented. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Internet-based remote counseling to support stress management: preventing interruptions to regular exercise in elderly people

Science.gov (United States)

Hashimoto, Sayuri; Munakata, Tsunestugu; Hashimoto, Nobuyuki; Okunaka, Jyunzo; Koga, Tatsuzo

2006-01-01

Our research showed that a high degree of life-stress has a negative mental health effect that may interrupt regular exercise. We used an internet based, remotely conducted, face to face, preventive counseling program using video monitors to reduce the source of life-stresses that interrupts regular exercise and evaluated the preventative effects of the program in elderly people. NTSC Video signals were converted to the IP protocol and facial images were transmitted to a PC display using the exclusive optical network lines of JGN2. Participants were 22 elderly people in Hokkaido, Japan, who regularly played table tennis. A survey was conducted before the intervention in August 2003. IT remote counseling was conducted on two occasions for one hour on each occasion. A post intervention survey was conducted in February 2004 and a follow-up survey was conducted in March 2005. Network quality was satisfactory with little data loss and high display quality. Results indicated that self-esteem increased significantly, trait anxiety decreased significantly, cognition of emotional support by people other than family members had a tendency to increase, and source of stress had a tendency to decrease after the intervention. Follow-up results indicated that cognition of emotional support by family increased significantly, and interpersonal dependency decreased significantly compared to before the intervention. These results suggest that face to face IT remote counseling using video monitors is useful to keep elderly people from feeling anxious and to make them confident to continue exercising regularly. Moreover, it has a stress management effect.

Oxidative stress and inflammation: liver responses and adaptations to acute and regular exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Pillon Barcelos, Rômulo; Freire Royes, Luiz Fernando; Gonzalez-Gallego, Javier; Bresciani, Guilherme

2017-02-01

The liver is remarkably important during exercise outcomes due to its contribution to detoxification, synthesis, and release of biomolecules, and energy supply to the exercising muscles. Recently, liver has been also shown to play an important role in redox status and inflammatory modulation during exercise. However, while several studies have described the adaptations of skeletal muscles to acute and chronic exercise, hepatic changes are still scarcely investigated. Indeed, acute intense exercise challenges the liver with increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation onset, whereas regular training induces hepatic antioxidant and anti-inflammatory improvements. Acute and regular exercise protocols in combination with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory supplementation have been also tested to verify hepatic adaptations to exercise. Although positive results have been reported in some acute models, several studies have shown an increased exercise-related stress upon liver. A similar trend has been observed during training: while synergistic effects of training and antioxidant/anti-inflammatory supplementations have been occasionally found, others reported a blunting of relevant adaptations to exercise, following the patterns described in skeletal muscles. This review discusses current data regarding liver responses and adaptation to acute and regular exercise protocols alone or combined with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory supplementation. The understanding of the mechanisms behind these modulations is of interest for both exercise-related health and performance outcomes.

Patterns of Change in Adolescent Dating Victimization and Aggression During Middle School.

Science.gov (United States)

Goncy, Elizabeth A; Farrell, Albert D; Sullivan, Terri N

2018-03-01

Although mounting evidence suggests dating victimization and aggression begin in early adolescence, little work has examined the pattern of these behaviors across this age. This longitudinal study examined trajectories of dating victimization and aggression across middle school using 12 waves of data. A sample of early adolescents (N = 1369, 52.3% girls; 83% African American; 15% Hispanic or Latino) residing in an urban, economically disadvantaged area participated in this study. Youth completed measures of dating victimization and aggression quarterly across the 3 years of middle school. Although results indicated a general trend of increasing dating victimization and aggression across middle school, variation existed for boys and girls. Specifically, girls showed increasing patterns of both, whereas boys remained relatively stable across time. Dating victimization and aggression were also highly correlated across time. These findings support the implementation and refinement of prevention programming aimed at preventing and reducing dating aggression and victimization in middle school.

Adaptive Regularization of Neural Networks Using Conjugate Gradient

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Goutte, Cyril; Larsen, Jan

1998-01-01

Andersen et al. (1997) and Larsen et al. (1996, 1997) suggested a regularization scheme which iteratively adapts regularization parameters by minimizing validation error using simple gradient descent. In this contribution we present an improved algorithm based on the conjugate gradient technique........ Numerical experiments with feedforward neural networks successfully demonstrate improved generalization ability and lower computational cost...

20 CFR 226.33 - Spouse regular annuity rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Spouse regular annuity rate. 226.33 Section... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing a Spouse or Divorced Spouse Annuity § 226.33 Spouse regular annuity rate. The final tier I and tier II rates, from §§ 226.30 and 226.32, are...

Female non-regular workers in Japan: their current status and health.

Science.gov (United States)

Inoue, Mariko; Nishikitani, Mariko; Tsurugano, Shinobu

2016-12-07

The participation of women in the Japanese labor force is characterized by its M-shaped curve, which reflects decreased employment rates during child-rearing years. Although, this M-shaped curve is now improving, the majority of women in employment are likely to fall into the category of non-regular workers. Based on a review of the previous Japanese studies of the health of non-regular workers, we found that non-regular female workers experienced greater psychological distress, poorer self-rated health, a higher smoking rate, and less access to preventive medicine than regular workers did. However, despite the large number of non-regular workers, there are limited researches regarding their health. In contrast, several studies in Japan concluded that regular workers also had worse health conditions due to the additional responsibility and longer work hours associated with the job, housekeeping, and child rearing. The health of non-regular workers might be threatened by the effects of precarious employment status, lower income, a lower safety net, outdated social norm regarding non-regular workers, and difficulty in achieving a work-life balance. A sector wide social approach to consider life course aspect is needed to protect the health and well-being of female workers' health; promotion of an occupational health program alone is insufficient.

Female non-regular workers in Japan: their current status and health

Science.gov (United States)

INOUE, Mariko; NISHIKITANI, Mariko; TSURUGANO, Shinobu

2016-01-01

The participation of women in the Japanese labor force is characterized by its M-shaped curve, which reflects decreased employment rates during child-rearing years. Although, this M-shaped curve is now improving, the majority of women in employment are likely to fall into the category of non-regular workers. Based on a review of the previous Japanese studies of the health of non-regular workers, we found that non-regular female workers experienced greater psychological distress, poorer self-rated health, a higher smoking rate, and less access to preventive medicine than regular workers did. However, despite the large number of non-regular workers, there are limited researches regarding their health. In contrast, several studies in Japan concluded that regular workers also had worse health conditions due to the additional responsibility and longer work hours associated with the job, housekeeping, and child rearing. The health of non-regular workers might be threatened by the effects of precarious employment status, lower income, a lower safety net, outdated social norm regarding non-regular workers, and difficulty in achieving a work-life balance. A sector wide social approach to consider life course aspect is needed to protect the health and well-being of female workers’ health; promotion of an occupational health program alone is insufficient. PMID:27818453

Middle-aged women's preferred theory-based features in mobile physical activity applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Ehlers, Diane K; Huberty, Jennifer L

2014-09-01

The purpose of this study was to describe which theory-based behavioral and technological features middle-aged women prefer to be included in a mobile application designed to help them adopt and maintain regular physical activity (PA). Women aged 30 to 64 years (N = 120) completed an online survey measuring their demographics and mobile PA application preferences. The survey was developed upon behavioral principles of Social Cognitive Theory, recent mobile app research, and technology adoption principles of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. Frequencies were calculated and content analyses conducted to identify which features women most preferred. Behavioral features that help women self-regulate their PA (PA tracking, goal-setting, progress monitoring) were most preferred. Technological features that enhance perceived effort expectancy and playfulness were most preferred. Many women reported the desire to interact and compete with others through the application. Theory-based PA self-regulation features and theory-based design features that improve perceived effort expectancy and playfulness may be most beneficial in a mobile PA application for middle-aged women. Opportunities to interact with other people and the employment of social, game-like activities may also be attractive. Interdisciplinary engagement of experts in PA behavior change, technology adoption, and software development is needed.

PET regularization by envelope guided conjugate gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaufman, L.; Neumaier, A.

1996-01-01

The authors propose a new way to iteratively solve large scale ill-posed problems and in particular the image reconstruction problem in positron emission tomography by exploiting the relation between Tikhonov regularization and multiobjective optimization to obtain iteratively approximations to the Tikhonov L-curve and its corner. Monitoring the change of the approximate L-curves allows us to adjust the regularization parameter adaptively during a preconditioned conjugate gradient iteration, so that the desired solution can be reconstructed with a small number of iterations

Nontuberculous mycobacteria in Middle East: Current situation and future challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Akbar Velayati

2015-01-01

Mycobacterium fortuitum was the most common rapid growing mycobacteria (RGM isolated from both clinical (269 out of 447 RGM; 60.1% and environmental (135 out of 289 RGM; 46.7% samples. Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC was the most common slow growing mycobacteria (SGM isolated from clinical samples (140 out of 637 SGM; 21.9%. An increasing trend in NTM isolation from the Middle East was noted over the last 5 years. This review demonstrates the increasing concern regarding NTM disease in the Middle East, emphasizing the need for regional collaboration and coordination in order to respond appropriately.

Regularized Regression and Density Estimation based on Optimal Transport

KAUST Repository

Burger, M.; Franek, M.; Schonlieb, C.-B.

2012-01-01

for estimating densities and for preserving edges in the case of total variation regularization. In order to compute solutions of the variational problems, a regularized optimal transport problem needs to be solved, for which we discuss several formulations

Regularization of Nonmonotone Variational Inequalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konnov, Igor V.; Ali, M.S.S.; Mazurkevich, E.O.

2006-01-01

In this paper we extend the Tikhonov-Browder regularization scheme from monotone to rather a general class of nonmonotone multivalued variational inequalities. We show that their convergence conditions hold for some classes of perfectly and nonperfectly competitive economic equilibrium problems

Interval matrices: Regularity generates singularity

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Rohn, Jiří; Shary, S.P.

2018-01-01

Roč. 540, 1 March (2018), s. 149-159 ISSN 0024-3795 Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : interval matrix * regularity * singularity * P-matrix * absolute value equation * diagonally singilarizable matrix Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.973, year: 2016

First experience with the MATLAB Middle Layer at ANKA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marsching, S.; Huttel, E.; Klein, M.; Mueller, A.S.; Smale, N.J.

2012-01-01

ANKA is a synchrotron radiation facility at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The MATLAB Middle Layer (MML) is a collection of scripts for the MATLAB programming environment, designed to control and measure parameters of an accelerator. MML has been adapted for use at ANKA and the commissioning process was quite simple and would have been even simpler if we had used one of the control systems directly supported by MML. At ANKA MML is used for accelerator physics studies and regular tasks like beam-based alignment and response matrix analysis using LOCO. Furthermore, we intend to study the MML as default orbit correction tool for user operation. We report on the experience made during the commissioning process and present the latest results obtained while using the MML for machine studies. MML simplifies the task of performing a beam-based alignment dramatically compared to our old solution which required the user to copy the measured data into specific files for further evaluation

Regular perturbations in a vector space with indefinite metric

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chiang, C.C.

1975-08-01

The Klein space is discussed in connection with practical applications. Some lemmas are presented which are to be used for the discussion of regular self-adjoint operators. The criteria for the regularity of perturbed operators are given. (U.S.)

Regular Generalized Star Star closed sets in Bitopological Spaces

OpenAIRE

K. Kannan; D. Narasimhan; K. Chandrasekhara Rao; R. Ravikumar

2011-01-01

The aim of this paper is to introduce the concepts of τ1τ2-regular generalized star star closed sets , τ1τ2-regular generalized star star open sets and study their basic properties in bitopological spaces.

Solution path for manifold regularized semisupervised classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Gang; Wang, Fei; Chen, Tao; Yeung, Dit-Yan; Lochovsky, Frederick H

2012-04-01

Traditional learning algorithms use only labeled data for training. However, labeled examples are often difficult or time consuming to obtain since they require substantial human labeling efforts. On the other hand, unlabeled data are often relatively easy to collect. Semisupervised learning addresses this problem by using large quantities of unlabeled data with labeled data to build better learning algorithms. In this paper, we use the manifold regularization approach to formulate the semisupervised learning problem where a regularization framework which balances a tradeoff between loss and penalty is established. We investigate different implementations of the loss function and identify the methods which have the least computational expense. The regularization hyperparameter, which determines the balance between loss and penalty, is crucial to model selection. Accordingly, we derive an algorithm that can fit the entire path of solutions for every value of the hyperparameter. Its computational complexity after preprocessing is quadratic only in the number of labeled examples rather than the total number of labeled and unlabeled examples.

(2+1-dimensional regular black holes with nonlinear electrodynamics sources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yun He

2017-11-01

Full Text Available On the basis of two requirements: the avoidance of the curvature singularity and the Maxwell theory as the weak field limit of the nonlinear electrodynamics, we find two restricted conditions on the metric function of (2+1-dimensional regular black hole in general relativity coupled with nonlinear electrodynamics sources. By the use of the two conditions, we obtain a general approach to construct (2+1-dimensional regular black holes. In this manner, we construct four (2+1-dimensional regular black holes as examples. We also study the thermodynamic properties of the regular black holes and verify the first law of black hole thermodynamics.

The relationship of mentoring on middle school girls' science-related attitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Lynette M.

This quantitative study examined the science-related attitudes of middle school girls who attended a science-focused mentoring program and those of middle school girls who attended a traditional mentoring program. Theories related to this study include social cognitive theory, cognitive development theory, and possible selves' theory. These theories emphasize social and learning experiences that may impact the science-related attitudes of middle school girls. The research questions examined the science-related attitudes of middle school girls who participate in a science-related mentoring program. The hypotheses suggested that there are significant differences that exist between the attitudes of middle school female participants in a science-related mentoring program and female participants in a traditional mentoring program. The quantitative data were collected through a survey entitled the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA) which measures science-related attitudes. The population of interest for this study is 11-15 year old middle school girls of various racial and socio-economic backgrounds. The sample groups for the study were middle school girls participating in either a science-focused mentoring program or a traditional mentoring program. Results of the study indicated that no significant difference existed between the science-related attitudes of middle school girls in a science-related mentoring program and the attitudes of those in a traditional mentoring program. The practical implications for examining the concerns of the study would be further investigations to increase middle school girls' science-related attitudes.

Regularity of the Maxwell equations in heterogeneous media and Lipschitz domains

KAUST Repository

Bonito, Andrea

2013-12-01

This note establishes regularity estimates for the solution of the Maxwell equations in Lipschitz domains with non-smooth coefficients and minimal regularity assumptions. The argumentation relies on elliptic regularity estimates for the Poisson problem with non-smooth coefficients. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Regularized forecasting of chaotic dynamical systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bollt, Erik M.

2017-01-01

While local models of dynamical systems have been highly successful in terms of using extensive data sets observing even a chaotic dynamical system to produce useful forecasts, there is a typical problem as follows. Specifically, with k-near neighbors, kNN method, local observations occur due to recurrences in a chaotic system, and this allows for local models to be built by regression to low dimensional polynomial approximations of the underlying system estimating a Taylor series. This has been a popular approach, particularly in context of scalar data observations which have been represented by time-delay embedding methods. However such local models can generally allow for spatial discontinuities of forecasts when considered globally, meaning jumps in predictions because the collected near neighbors vary from point to point. The source of these discontinuities is generally that the set of near neighbors varies discontinuously with respect to the position of the sample point, and so therefore does the model built from the near neighbors. It is possible to utilize local information inferred from near neighbors as usual but at the same time to impose a degree of regularity on a global scale. We present here a new global perspective extending the general local modeling concept. In so doing, then we proceed to show how this perspective allows us to impose prior presumed regularity into the model, by involving the Tikhonov regularity theory, since this classic perspective of optimization in ill-posed problems naturally balances fitting an objective with some prior assumed form of the result, such as continuity or derivative regularity for example. This all reduces to matrix manipulations which we demonstrate on a simple data set, with the implication that it may find much broader context.

Forcing absoluteness and regularity properties

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ikegami, D.

2010-01-01

For a large natural class of forcing notions, we prove general equivalence theorems between forcing absoluteness statements, regularity properties, and transcendence properties over L and the core model K. We use our results to answer open questions from set theory of the reals.

Interrupting Prolonged Sitting with Regular Activity Breaks does not Acutely Influence Appetite: A Randomised Controlled Trial

OpenAIRE

Evelyn M. Mete; Tracy L. Perry; Jillian J. Haszard; Ashleigh R. Homer; Stephen P. Fenemor; Nancy J. Rehrer; C. Murray Skeaff; Meredith C. Peddie

2018-01-01

Regular activity breaks increase energy expenditure; however, this may promote compensatory eating behaviour. The present study compared the effects of regular activity breaks and prolonged sitting on appetite. In a randomised, cross-over trial, 36 healthy adults (BMI (Body Mass Index) 23.9 kg/m2 (S.D. = 3.9)) completed four, two-day interventions: two with prolonged sitting (SIT), and two with sitting and 2 min of walking every 30 min (RAB). Standardized meals were provided throughout the in...

An interior-point method for total variation regularized positron emission tomography image reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

Bai, Bing

2012-03-01

There has been a lot of work on total variation (TV) regularized tomographic image reconstruction recently. Many of them use gradient-based optimization algorithms with a differentiable approximation of the TV functional. In this paper we apply TV regularization in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) image reconstruction. We reconstruct the PET image in a Bayesian framework, using Poisson noise model and TV prior functional. The original optimization problem is transformed to an equivalent problem with inequality constraints by adding auxiliary variables. Then we use an interior point method with logarithmic barrier functions to solve the constrained optimization problem. In this method, a series of points approaching the solution from inside the feasible region are found by solving a sequence of subproblems characterized by an increasing positive parameter. We use preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) algorithm to solve the subproblems directly. The nonnegativity constraint is enforced by bend line search. The exact expression of the TV functional is used in our calculations. Simulation results show that the algorithm converges fast and the convergence is insensitive to the values of the regularization and reconstruction parameters.

Arithmetic properties of $\\ell$-regular overpartition pairs

OpenAIRE

NAIKA, MEGADAHALLI SIDDA MAHADEVA; SHIVASHANKAR, CHANDRAPPA

2017-01-01

In this paper, we investigate the arithmetic properties of $\\ell$-regular overpartition pairs. Let $\\overline{B}_{\\ell}(n)$ denote the number of $\\ell$-regular overpartition pairs of $n$. We will prove the number of Ramanujan-like congruences and infinite families of congruences modulo 3, 8, 16, 36, 48, 96 for $\\overline{B}_3(n)$ and modulo 3, 16, 64, 96 for $\\overline{B}_4(n)$. For example, we find that for all nonnegative integers $\\alpha$ and $n$, $\\overline{B}_{3}(3^{\\alpha}(3n+2))\\equiv ...

Regularities of praseodymium oxide dissolution in acids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Savin, V.D.; Elyutin, A.V.; Mikhajlova, N.P.; Eremenko, Z.V.; Opolchenova, N.L.

1989-01-01

The regularities of Pr 2 O 3 , Pr 2 O 5 and Pr(OH) 3 interaction with inorganic acids are studied. pH of the solution and oxidation-reduction potential registrated at 20±1 deg C are the working parameters of studies. It is found that the amount of all oxides dissolved increase in the series of acids - nitric, hydrochloric and sulfuric, in this case for hydrochloric and sulfuric acid it increases in the series of oxides Pr 2 O 3 , Pr 2 O 5 and Pr(OH) 3 . It is noted that Pr 2 O 5 has a high value of oxidation-reduction potential with a positive sign in the whole disslolving range. A low positive value of a redox potential during dissolving belongs to Pr(OH) 3 and in the case of Pr 2 O 3 dissloving redox potential is negative. The schemes of dissolving processes which do not agree with classical assumptions are presented

Literature Discussion: Encouraging Reading Interest and Comprehension in Struggling Middle School Readers

Science.gov (United States)

Pittman, Pamela; Honchell, Barbara

2014-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how literature discussion affects middle school struggling readers. The focus was on 16 middle school struggling readers in a rural Title I school in the southeastern United States. Findings indicated that (a) literature discussion increased student enjoyment of reading, and (b) students…

Chaos regularization of quantum tunneling rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pecora, Louis M.; Wu Dongho; Lee, Hoshik; Antonsen, Thomas; Lee, Ming-Jer; Ott, Edward

2011-01-01

Quantum tunneling rates through a barrier separating two-dimensional, symmetric, double-well potentials are shown to depend on the classical dynamics of the billiard trajectories in each well and, hence, on the shape of the wells. For shapes that lead to regular (integrable) classical dynamics the tunneling rates fluctuate greatly with eigenenergies of the states sometimes by over two orders of magnitude. Contrarily, shapes that lead to completely chaotic trajectories lead to tunneling rates whose fluctuations are greatly reduced, a phenomenon we call regularization of tunneling rates. We show that a random-plane-wave theory of tunneling accounts for the mean tunneling rates and the small fluctuation variances for the chaotic systems.

Regularization Tools Version 3.0 for Matlab 5.2

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Per Christian

1999-01-01

This communication describes Version 3.0 of Regularization Tools, a Matlab package for analysis and solution of discrete ill-posed problems.......This communication describes Version 3.0 of Regularization Tools, a Matlab package for analysis and solution of discrete ill-posed problems....

Remediation for Students With Mathematics Difficulties: An Intervention Study in Middle Schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Moser Opitz, Elisabeth; Freesemann, Okka; Prediger, Susanne; Grob, Urs; Matull, Ina; Hußmann, Stephan

As empirical studies have consistently shown, low achievement in mathematics at the secondary level can often be traced to deficits in the understanding of certain basic arithmetic concepts taught in primary school. The present intervention study in middle schools evaluated whether such learning deficits can be reduced effectively and whether the type of instruction influences students' progress. The sample consisted of 123 students in 34 classes, split among one control group and two intervention groups: (a) small group instruction and (b) independent work partially integrated into regular classrooms. Over a period of 14 weeks, students were taught basic concepts, such as place value and basic operations. In addition, they practiced fact retrieval and counting (in groups). Multilevel regression analyses demonstrated that the interventions can be used to reduce given deficits.

Regular group exercise is associated with improved mood but not quality of life following stroke

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle N. McDonnell

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose. People with stroke living in the community have an increased prevalence of depression and lower quality of life than healthy older adults. This cross-sectional observational study investigated whether participation in regular exercise was associated with improved mood and quality of life.Methods. We recruited three groups of community dwelling participants: 13 healthy older adults, 17 adults post-stroke who regularly participated in group exercise at a community fitness facility and 10 adults post-stroke who did not regularly exercise. We measured mood using the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS and quality of life using the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL scale.Results. Levels of stress and depression were significantly greater in the people with stroke who did not undertake regular exercise (p = 0.004 and p = 0.004 respectively, although this group had more recent strokes (p < 0.001. Both stroke groups had lower quality of life scores (p = 0.04 than the healthy adults.Conclusions. This small, community-based study confirms that people following stroke report poorer quality of life than stroke-free individuals. However, those who exercise regularly have significantly lower stress and depression compared to stroke survivors who do not. Future research should focus on the precise type and amount of exercise capable of improving mood following stroke.

Automated Assume-Guarantee Reasoning for Omega-Regular Systems and Specifications

Science.gov (United States)

Chaki, Sagar; Gurfinkel, Arie

2010-01-01

We develop a learning-based automated Assume-Guarantee (AG) reasoning framework for verifying omega-regular properties of concurrent systems. We study the applicability of non-circular (AGNC) and circular (AG-C) AG proof rules in the context of systems with infinite behaviors. In particular, we show that AG-NC is incomplete when assumptions are restricted to strictly infinite behaviors, while AG-C remains complete. We present a general formalization, called LAG, of the learning based automated AG paradigm. We show how existing approaches for automated AG reasoning are special instances of LAG.We develop two learning algorithms for a class of systems, called infinite regular systems, that combine finite and infinite behaviors. We show that for infinity-regular systems, both AG-NC and AG-C are sound and complete. Finally, we show how to instantiate LAG to do automated AG reasoning for infinite regular, and omega-regular, systems using both AG-NC and AG-C as proof rules

Human visual system automatically encodes sequential regularities of discrete events.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimura, Motohiro; Schröger, Erich; Czigler, István; Ohira, Hideki

2010-06-01

For our adaptive behavior in a dynamically changing environment, an essential task of the brain is to automatically encode sequential regularities inherent in the environment into a memory representation. Recent studies in neuroscience have suggested that sequential regularities embedded in discrete sensory events are automatically encoded into a memory representation at the level of the sensory system. This notion is largely supported by evidence from investigations using auditory mismatch negativity (auditory MMN), an event-related brain potential (ERP) correlate of an automatic memory-mismatch process in the auditory sensory system. However, it is still largely unclear whether or not this notion can be generalized to other sensory modalities. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the contribution of the visual sensory system to the automatic encoding of sequential regularities using visual mismatch negativity (visual MMN), an ERP correlate of an automatic memory-mismatch process in the visual sensory system. To this end, we conducted a sequential analysis of visual MMN in an oddball sequence consisting of infrequent deviant and frequent standard stimuli, and tested whether the underlying memory representation of visual MMN generation contains only a sensory memory trace of standard stimuli (trace-mismatch hypothesis) or whether it also contains sequential regularities extracted from the repetitive standard sequence (regularity-violation hypothesis). The results showed that visual MMN was elicited by first deviant (deviant stimuli following at least one standard stimulus), second deviant (deviant stimuli immediately following first deviant), and first standard (standard stimuli immediately following first deviant), but not by second standard (standard stimuli immediately following first standard). These results are consistent with the regularity-violation hypothesis, suggesting that the visual sensory system automatically encodes sequential

Increasing the availability and consumption of drinking water in middle schools: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Anisha I; Bogart, Laura M; Elliott, Marc N; Lamb, Sheila; Uyeda, Kimberly E; Hawes-Dawson, Jennifer; Klein, David J; Schuster, Mark A

2011-05-01

Although several studies suggest that drinking water may help prevent obesity, no US studies have examined the effect of school drinking water provision and promotion on student beverage intake. We assessed the acceptability, feasibility, and outcomes of a school-based intervention to improve drinking water consumption among adolescents. The 5-week program, conducted in a Los Angeles middle school in 2008, consisted of providing cold, filtered drinking water in cafeterias; distributing reusable water bottles to students and staff; conducting school promotional activities; and providing education. Self-reported consumption of water, nondiet soda, sports drinks, and 100% fruit juice was assessed by conducting surveys among students (n = 876), preintervention and at 1 week and 2 months postintervention, from the intervention school and the comparison school. Daily water (in gallons) distributed in the cafeteria during the intervention was recorded. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and baseline intake of water at school, the odds of drinking water at school were higher for students at the intervention school than students at the comparison school. Students from the intervention school had higher adjusted odds of drinking water from fountains and from reusable water bottles at school than students from the comparison school. Intervention effects for other beverages were not significant. Provision of filtered, chilled drinking water in school cafeterias coupled with promotion and education is associated with increased consumption of drinking water at school. A randomized controlled trial is necessary to assess the intervention's influence on students' consumption of water and sugar-sweetened beverages, as well as obesity-related outcomes.

Middle-Upper Triassic and Middle Jurassic tetrapod track assemblages of southern Tunisia, Sahara Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Niedźwiedzki, Grzegorz; Soussi, Mohamed; Boukhalfa, Kamel; Gierliński, Gerard D.

2017-05-01

Three tetrapod track assemblages from the early-middle Mesozoic of southern Tunisia are reported. The strata exposed at the Tejra 2 clay-pit near the Medenine and Rehach site, located in the vicinity of Kirchaou, contain the first tetrapod tracks found in the Triassic of Tunisia. The Middle Jurassic (early Aalenian) dinosaur tracks are reported from the Mestaoua plain near Tataouine. In the Middle Triassic outcrop of the Tejra 2 clay-pit, tridactyl tracks of small and medium-sized dinosauromorphs, were discovered. These tracks represent the oldest evidence of dinosaur-lineage elements in the Triassic deposits of Tunisia. Similar tracks have been described from the Middle Triassic of Argentina, France and Morocco. An isolated set of the manus and pes of a quadrupedal tetrapod discovered in Late Triassic Rehach tracksite is referred to a therapsid tracemaker. The Middle Jurassic deposits of the Mestaoua plain reveal small and large tridactyl theropod dinosaur tracks (Theropoda track indet. A-C). Based on comparison with the abundant record of Triassic tetrapod ichnofossils from Europe and North America, the ichnofauna described here indicates the presence of a therapsid-dinosauromorph ichnoassociation (without typical Chirotheriidae tracks) in the Middle and Late Triassic, which sheds light on the dispersal of the Middle-Upper Triassic tetrapod ichnofaunas in this part of Gondwana. The reported Middle Jurassic ichnofauna show close similarities to dinosaur track assemblages from the Lower and Middle Jurassic of northwestern Africa, North America, Europe and also southeastern Asia. Sedimentological and lithostratigraphic data of each new tracksite have been defined on published data and new observations. Taken together, these discoveries present a tantalizing window into the evolutionary history of tetrapods from the Triassic and Jurassic of southern Tunisia. Given the limited early Mesozoic tetrapod record from the region, these discoveries are of both temporal and

Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. Methods We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Results Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. Conclusions These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to regularities in auditory input

Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Strait, Dana L; Hornickel, Jane; Kraus, Nina

2011-10-17

Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to regularities in auditory input. Definition of common biological underpinnings

Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Strait Dana L

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. Methods We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Results Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. Conclusions These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to

Characteristic of Extracellular Zn2+ Influx in the Middle-Aged Dentate Gyrus and Its Involvement in Attenuation of LTP.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeda, Atsushi; Koike, Yuta; Osaw, Misa; Tamano, Haruna

2018-03-01

An increased influx of extracellular Zn 2+ into neurons is a cause of cognitive decline. The influx of extracellular Zn 2+ into dentate granule cells was compared between young and middle-aged rats because of vulnerability of the dentate gyrus to aging. The influx of extracellular Zn 2+ into dentate granule cells was increased in middle-aged rats after injection of AMPA and high K + into the dentate gyrus, but not in young rats. Simultaneously, high K + -induced attenuation of LTP was observed in middle-aged rats, but not in young rats. The attenuation was rescued by co-injection of CaEDTA, an extracellular Zn 2+ chelator. Intracellular Zn 2+ in dentate granule cells was also increased in middle-aged slices with high K + , in which the increase in extracellular Zn 2+ was the same as young slices with high K + , suggesting that ability of extracellular Zn 2+ influx into dentate granule cells is greater in middle-aged rats. Furthermore, extracellular zinc concentration in the hippocampus was increased age-dependently. The present study suggests that the influx of extracellular Zn 2+ into dentate granule cells is more readily increased in middle-aged rats and that its increase is a cause of age-related attenuation of LTP in the dentate gyrus.

Surface-based prostate registration with biomechanical regularization

Science.gov (United States)

van de Ven, Wendy J. M.; Hu, Yipeng; Barentsz, Jelle O.; Karssemeijer, Nico; Barratt, Dean; Huisman, Henkjan J.

2013-03-01

Adding MR-derived information to standard transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images for guiding prostate biopsy is of substantial clinical interest. A tumor visible on MR images can be projected on ultrasound by using MRUS registration. A common approach is to use surface-based registration. We hypothesize that biomechanical modeling will better control deformation inside the prostate than a regular surface-based registration method. We developed a novel method by extending a surface-based registration with finite element (FE) simulation to better predict internal deformation of the prostate. For each of six patients, a tetrahedral mesh was constructed from the manual prostate segmentation. Next, the internal prostate deformation was simulated using the derived radial surface displacement as boundary condition. The deformation field within the gland was calculated using the predicted FE node displacements and thin-plate spline interpolation. We tested our method on MR guided MR biopsy imaging data, as landmarks can easily be identified on MR images. For evaluation of the registration accuracy we used 45 anatomical landmarks located in all regions of the prostate. Our results show that the median target registration error of a surface-based registration with biomechanical regularization is 1.88 mm, which is significantly different from 2.61 mm without biomechanical regularization. We can conclude that biomechanical FE modeling has the potential to improve the accuracy of multimodal prostate registration when comparing it to regular surface-based registration.

Regularization in Matrix Relevance Learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schneider, Petra; Bunte, Kerstin; Stiekema, Han; Hammer, Barbara; Villmann, Thomas; Biehl, Michael

A In this paper, we present a regularization technique to extend recently proposed matrix learning schemes in learning vector quantization (LVQ). These learning algorithms extend the concept of adaptive distance measures in LVQ to the use of relevance matrices. In general, metric learning can

Left regular bands of groups of left quotients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Qallali, A.

1988-10-01

A semigroup S which has a left regular band of groups as a semigroup of left quotients is shown to be the semigroup which is a left regular band of right reversible cancellative semigroups. An alternative characterization is provided by using spinned products. These results are applied to the case where S is a superabundant whose set of idempotents forms a left normal band. (author). 13 refs

Sparsity regularization for parameter identification problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin, Bangti; Maass, Peter

2012-01-01

The investigation of regularization schemes with sparsity promoting penalty terms has been one of the dominant topics in the field of inverse problems over the last years, and Tikhonov functionals with ℓ p -penalty terms for 1 ⩽ p ⩽ 2 have been studied extensively. The first investigations focused on regularization properties of the minimizers of such functionals with linear operators and on iteration schemes for approximating the minimizers. These results were quickly transferred to nonlinear operator equations, including nonsmooth operators and more general function space settings. The latest results on regularization properties additionally assume a sparse representation of the true solution as well as generalized source conditions, which yield some surprising and optimal convergence rates. The regularization theory with ℓ p sparsity constraints is relatively complete in this setting; see the first part of this review. In contrast, the development of efficient numerical schemes for approximating minimizers of Tikhonov functionals with sparsity constraints for nonlinear operators is still ongoing. The basic iterated soft shrinkage approach has been extended in several directions and semi-smooth Newton methods are becoming applicable in this field. In particular, the extension to more general non-convex, non-differentiable functionals by variational principles leads to a variety of generalized iteration schemes. We focus on such iteration schemes in the second part of this review. A major part of this survey is devoted to applying sparsity constrained regularization techniques to parameter identification problems for partial differential equations, which we regard as the prototypical setting for nonlinear inverse problems. Parameter identification problems exhibit different levels of complexity and we aim at characterizing a hierarchy of such problems. The operator defining these inverse problems is the parameter-to-state mapping. We first summarize some

Regularity of difference equations on Banach spaces

CERN Document Server

Agarwal, Ravi P; Lizama, Carlos

2014-01-01

This work introduces readers to the topic of maximal regularity for difference equations. The authors systematically present the method of maximal regularity, outlining basic linear difference equations along with relevant results. They address recent advances in the field, as well as basic semigroup and cosine operator theories in the discrete setting. The authors also identify some open problems that readers may wish to take up for further research. This book is intended for graduate students and researchers in the area of difference equations, particularly those with advance knowledge of and interest in functional analysis.

Middle East gas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thomas, V.

2001-01-01

Despite the significant contribution of the Middle East countries of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the Arabia Gulf to the world's oil output, they are placing increasing emphasis on natural gas as a source of exports and to fuel domestic economic growth. The region accounts for 35% of the world's proven gas resource base, with Iran and Qatar holding major reserves. The region is becoming increasingly important in global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade and details of key LNG projects and the major players in this area are given; a key advantage is the region's position between the two main markets - the Asia Pacific and the Atlantic Basin. Brief details are also given of gas pipeline projects and gas-to-liquid (GTL) projects in the region

Motivação à prática regular de atividades físicas e esportivas: um estudo comparativo entre estudantes com sobrepeso, obesos e eutróficos Motivation of regular physical and sporting activities practice: a comparative study between obeses, overweight, and other students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcos Alencar Abaide Balbinotti

2011-09-01

Full Text Available O principal objetivo do presente estudo é comparar os níveis de motivação à prática regular de atividades físicas de três diferentes grupos de alunos das escolas de ensino fundamental e médio do município de Erechim/RS: Obesos, com sobrepeso, e eutróficos. Para tanto, além das avaliações antropométricas - massa corporal e altura - foi aplicado o Inventário de motivação à prática regular de atividades físicas e esportivas (IMPRAFE-54 ( BALBINOTTI; BARBOSA, 2006 . Os resultados variaram consideravelmente em valores nominais e a principais dimensões motivacionais foram as seguintes: Obesos (saúde; sobrepeso (estética; saúde; prazer; eutróficos (saúde, estética, prazer. Na comparação inter-grupo (obesos; sobrepeso; eutróficos, a dimensão Estética se destacou na diferença entre os grupos de sobrepesos e obesos. Espera-se que esses resultados possam contribuir para a prática pedagógica da educação física escolar.The main intent of the present study is compare the motivation levels of regular physical activities practice of three differents scholars groups from elementary and middle schools of Erechim/RS municipal district: Obeses, overweight, and Eutrophic. Then, besides the anthropometry evaluations - corporal mass and height - was applied the "Inventário de motivação à prática regular de atividades físicas e esportivas" (IMPRAFE-54 ( BALBINOTTI; BARBOSA, 2006 . The results varied considerably in nominal values and the main motivation dimensions were as follows: Obeses (health; overweight (esthetics; health; joy; Eutrophic (health; esthetics; joy. In comparing inter-group (obese, overweight, Eutrophic, the Aesthetic dimension stood out in the difference between the groups of overweight and obese. Hope these results might contribute for the pedagogy practice in scholar physical education.

Gamma regularization based reconstruction for low dose CT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Junfeng; Chen, Yang; Hu, Yining; Luo, Limin; Shu, Huazhong; Li, Bicao; Liu, Jin; Coatrieux, Jean-Louis

2015-01-01

Reducing the radiation in computerized tomography is today a major concern in radiology. Low dose computerized tomography (LDCT) offers a sound way to deal with this problem. However, more severe noise in the reconstructed CT images is observed under low dose scan protocols (e.g. lowered tube current or voltage values). In this paper we propose a Gamma regularization based algorithm for LDCT image reconstruction. This solution is flexible and provides a good balance between the regularizations based on l 0 -norm and l 1 -norm. We evaluate the proposed approach using the projection data from simulated phantoms and scanned Catphan phantoms. Qualitative and quantitative results show that the Gamma regularization based reconstruction can perform better in both edge-preserving and noise suppression when compared with other norms. (paper)

Regularization of plurisubharmonic functions with a net of good points

OpenAIRE

Li, Long

2017-01-01

The purpose of this article is to present a new regularization technique of quasi-plurisubharmoinc functions on a compact Kaehler manifold. The idea is to regularize the function on local coordinate balls first, and then glue each piece together. Therefore, all the higher order terms in the complex Hessian of this regularization vanish at the center of each coordinate ball, and all the centers build a delta-net of the manifold eventually.

Optimal Embeddings of Distance Regular Graphs into Euclidean Spaces

NARCIS (Netherlands)

F. Vallentin (Frank)

2008-01-01

htmlabstractIn this paper we give a lower bound for the least distortion embedding of a distance regular graph into Euclidean space. We use the lower bound for finding the least distortion for Hamming graphs, Johnson graphs, and all strongly regular graphs. Our technique involves semidefinite

76 FR 3629 - Regular Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-20

... Meeting SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board (Board). Date and Time: The meeting of the Board will be held at the offices of the Farm... meeting of the Board will be open to the [[Page 3630

Empowering Middle School Teachers with Portable Computers.

Science.gov (United States)

Weast, Jerry D.; And Others

1993-01-01

A Sioux Falls (South Dakota) project that supplied middle school teachers with Macintosh computers and training to use them showed gratifying results. Easy access to portable notebook computers made teachers more active computer users, increased teacher interaction and collaboration, enhanced teacher productivity regarding management tasks and…

Maximum mutual information regularized classification

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2014-09-07

In this paper, a novel pattern classification approach is proposed by regularizing the classifier learning to maximize mutual information between the classification response and the true class label. We argue that, with the learned classifier, the uncertainty of the true class label of a data sample should be reduced by knowing its classification response as much as possible. The reduced uncertainty is measured by the mutual information between the classification response and the true class label. To this end, when learning a linear classifier, we propose to maximize the mutual information between classification responses and true class labels of training samples, besides minimizing the classification error and reducing the classifier complexity. An objective function is constructed by modeling mutual information with entropy estimation, and it is optimized by a gradient descend method in an iterative algorithm. Experiments on two real world pattern classification problems show the significant improvements achieved by maximum mutual information regularization.

Maximum mutual information regularized classification

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Wang, Yi; Zhao, Shiguang; Gao, Xin

2014-01-01

In this paper, a novel pattern classification approach is proposed by regularizing the classifier learning to maximize mutual information between the classification response and the true class label. We argue that, with the learned classifier, the uncertainty of the true class label of a data sample should be reduced by knowing its classification response as much as possible. The reduced uncertainty is measured by the mutual information between the classification response and the true class label. To this end, when learning a linear classifier, we propose to maximize the mutual information between classification responses and true class labels of training samples, besides minimizing the classification error and reducing the classifier complexity. An objective function is constructed by modeling mutual information with entropy estimation, and it is optimized by a gradient descend method in an iterative algorithm. Experiments on two real world pattern classification problems show the significant improvements achieved by maximum mutual information regularization.

The equivalence problem for LL- and LR-regular grammars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus; Gecsec, F.

It will be shown that the equivalence problem for LL-regular grammars is decidable. Apart from extending the known result for LL(k) grammar equivalence to LLregular grammar equivalence, we obtain an alternative proof of the decidability of LL(k) equivalence. The equivalence prob]em for LL-regular

A middle layer solution to support ACID properties for NoSQL databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayman E. Lotfy

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this paper is to keep the strengths of RDBMSs as consistency and ACID properties and at the same time providing the benefits that inspired the NoSQL movement through a middle layer. The proposed middle layer uses a four phase commit protocol to ensure: the use of recent data, the use of the Pessimistic technique to forbid others dealing with data while it is used and the data updates residing in many locations to avoid the loss of data and disappointment. This mechanism is required, especially in distributed database application NoSQL based environment, because allowing conflicting transactions to continue not only wastes constrained computing power and decreases bandwidth, but also exacerbates conflicts. The middle layer keeps tracking all running transactions and manages with other layers the execution of concurrent transactions. This solution will help increase both of the scalability, and throughput. Finally, the experimental results show that the throughput of the system improves on increasing the number of middle layers in scenarios and the amount of updates to read in a transaction increases. Also the data are consistent with executing many transactions related to each other through updating the same data. The scalability and availability of the system is not affected while ensuring strict consistency.

'Regular' and 'emergency' repair

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luchnik, N.V.

1975-01-01

Experiments on the combined action of radiation and a DNA inhibitor using Crepis roots and on split-dose irradiation of human lymphocytes lead to the conclusion that there are two types of repair. The 'regular' repair takes place twice in each mitotic cycle and ensures the maintenance of genetic stability. The 'emergency' repair is induced at all stages of the mitotic cycle by high levels of injury. (author)

Processing SPARQL queries with regular expressions in RDF databases

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background As the Resource Description Framework (RDF) data model is widely used for modeling and sharing a lot of online bioinformatics resources such as Uniprot (dev.isb-sib.ch/projects/uniprot-rdf) or Bio2RDF (bio2rdf.org), SPARQL - a W3C recommendation query for RDF databases - has become an important query language for querying the bioinformatics knowledge bases. Moreover, due to the diversity of users’ requests for extracting information from the RDF data as well as the lack of users’ knowledge about the exact value of each fact in the RDF databases, it is desirable to use the SPARQL query with regular expression patterns for querying the RDF data. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no work that efficiently supports regular expression processing in SPARQL over RDF databases. Most of the existing techniques for processing regular expressions are designed for querying a text corpus, or only for supporting the matching over the paths in an RDF graph. Results In this paper, we propose a novel framework for supporting regular expression processing in SPARQL query. Our contributions can be summarized as follows. 1) We propose an efficient framework for processing SPARQL queries with regular expression patterns in RDF databases. 2) We propose a cost model in order to adapt the proposed framework in the existing query optimizers. 3) We build a prototype for the proposed framework in C++ and conduct extensive experiments demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of our technique. Conclusions Experiments with a full-blown RDF engine show that our framework outperforms the existing ones by up to two orders of magnitude in processing SPARQL queries with regular expression patterns. PMID:21489225

Processing SPARQL queries with regular expressions in RDF databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jinsoo; Pham, Minh-Duc; Lee, Jihwan; Han, Wook-Shin; Cho, Hune; Yu, Hwanjo; Lee, Jeong-Hoon

2011-03-29

As the Resource Description Framework (RDF) data model is widely used for modeling and sharing a lot of online bioinformatics resources such as Uniprot (dev.isb-sib.ch/projects/uniprot-rdf) or Bio2RDF (bio2rdf.org), SPARQL - a W3C recommendation query for RDF databases - has become an important query language for querying the bioinformatics knowledge bases. Moreover, due to the diversity of users' requests for extracting information from the RDF data as well as the lack of users' knowledge about the exact value of each fact in the RDF databases, it is desirable to use the SPARQL query with regular expression patterns for querying the RDF data. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no work that efficiently supports regular expression processing in SPARQL over RDF databases. Most of the existing techniques for processing regular expressions are designed for querying a text corpus, or only for supporting the matching over the paths in an RDF graph. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for supporting regular expression processing in SPARQL query. Our contributions can be summarized as follows. 1) We propose an efficient framework for processing SPARQL queries with regular expression patterns in RDF databases. 2) We propose a cost model in order to adapt the proposed framework in the existing query optimizers. 3) We build a prototype for the proposed framework in C++ and conduct extensive experiments demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of our technique. Experiments with a full-blown RDF engine show that our framework outperforms the existing ones by up to two orders of magnitude in processing SPARQL queries with regular expression patterns.

Girls in Foster Care: Risk and Promotive Factors for School Adjustment Across the Transition to Middle School.

Science.gov (United States)

Pears, Katherine C; Kim, Hyoun K; Leve, Leslie D

2012-01-01

Girls in foster care may face difficulties across the transition to middle school. Latent growth curve modeling was employed to examine trajectories and predictors of academic competence and aggression from and against peers for 75 girls in foster care from the end of elementary school to the 2(nd) year of middle school. Across the transition to middle school, academic competence increased. Poor self-regulation was associated with decreased academic competence, and higher caregiver support was associated with increased academic competence. Frequency of aggression from peers decreased across the transition, with perceived school competence predicting smaller decreases. Aggression against peers dropped initially and then increased to pretransition levels by the end of the 2(nd) year of middle school. Lower caregiver support was associated with higher rates of aggression against peers at the end of the 1(st) year of middle school. The results are discussed in terms of implications for interventions for girls in foster care.

Review and meta analysis of nontuberculous mycobacteria in the Middle East

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanaz Rahideh

2015-01-01

Conclusion: This is the first study reporting NTM species in the Middle East. In summary, this review demonstrates that the frequency of NTM has increased in this region. In addition to the limitations of the NTM study in some countries of the Middle East, there is an urgent need to develop laboratory methods for NTM identification to prepare a comprehensive report for this region.

Fluid queues and regular variation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

O.J. Boxma (Onno)

1996-01-01

textabstractThis paper considers a fluid queueing system, fed by $N$ independent sources that alternate between silence and activity periods. We assume that the distribution of the activity periods of one or more sources is a regularly varying function of index $zeta$. We show that its fat tail

Bit-coded regular expression parsing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Lasse; Henglein, Fritz

2011-01-01

the DFA-based parsing algorithm due to Dub ´e and Feeley to emit the bits of the bit representation without explicitly materializing the parse tree itself. We furthermore show that Frisch and Cardelli’s greedy regular expression parsing algorithm can be straightforwardly modified to produce bit codings...

Prenatal evaluation of the middle ear and diagnosis of middle ear hypoplasia using MRI

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Katorza, Eldad; Nahama-Allouche, Catherine; Ducou le Pointe, Hubert; Garel, Catherine [Hopital d' Enfants Armand-Trousseau, Service de Radiologie, Paris (France); Castaigne, Vanina [Hopital Saint-Antoine, Service de Gynecologie-Obstetrique, Paris (France); Gonzales, Marie; Marlin, Sandrine [Hopital d' Enfants Armand-Trousseau, Service de Genetique et Embryologie medicales, Paris (France); Galliani, Eva [Hopital d' Enfants Armand-Trousseau, Service de Chirurgie maxillo-faciale, Paris (France); Jouannic, Jean-Marie; Rosenblatt, Jonathan [Hopital d' Enfants Armand-Trousseau, Service de Gynecologie-Obstetrique, Centre pluridisciplinaire de diagnostic prenatal, Paris (France)

2011-05-15

Analysis of the middle ear with fetal MRI has not been previously reported. To show the contribution of fetal MRI to middle ear imaging. The tympanic cavity was evaluated in 108 fetal cerebral MRI examinations (facial and/or cerebral malformation excluded) and in two cases, one of Treacher Collins syndrome (case 1) and the other of oculo-auriculo-vertebral (OUV) spectrum (case 2) with middle ear hypoplasia identified by MRI at 27 and 36 weeks' gestation, respectively. In all 108 fetuses (mean gestational age 32.5 weeks), the tympanic cavity and T2 hypointensity related to the ossicles were well visualised on both sides. Case 1 had micro/retrognathia and bilateral external ear deformity and case 2 had retrognathism with a left low-set and deformed ear. MRI made it possible to recognize the marked hypoplasia of the tympanic cavity, which was bilateral in case 1 and unilateral in case 2. Both syndromes are characterized by craniofacial abnormalities including middle ear hypoplasia, which cannot be diagnosed with US. The middle ear cavity can be visualized with fetal MRI. We emphasize the use of this imaging modality in the diagnosis of middle ear hypoplasia. (orig.)

[Sub-health status of middle school teachers and its correlation analysis with occupational stress].

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, W J; Shao, H M; Zhi, X Y; Xu, J; Xie, J

2017-08-20

Objective: To study the distribution of sub-health and occupational stress as well as their correlation among middle school teachers in Tianjin, then provide evidences for prevention and control of the status of sub-health. Methods: A total of 3 522 middle school teachers from six districts of Tianjin were recruited with stratified cluster sampling strategy for the investigation of Sub-Health Measurement Scale version 1.0 (SHMS V1.0) and Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised Edition (OSI-R) . Results: Detection rate of sub-health status among Tianjin middle school teachers was 58.55%. Men had significantly lower sub-health detection rate (55.19%) than women (59.71%) . Sub-health detection rate increased with age ( P occupational stress norm of China ( P occupational stress of middle school teachers showed that the scores of occupational role and personal strain were negatively correlated with the scores of sub-health state ( P occupational stress level of middle school teachers, increase personal resources, and scientific and effective health guidance and education should be strengthened.

Cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults participating in synchronized swimming-exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Maeshima, Etsuko; Okumura, Yuka; Tatsumi, Juri; Tomokane, Sayaka; Ikeshima, Akiko

2017-01-01

[Purpose] The purpose of the present study was to examine cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults regularly engaging in synchronized swimming-exercise. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-three female synchronized swimmers ranging in age from 49 to 85 years were recruited for the present study. The duration of synchronized swimming experience ranged from 1 to 39 years. The control group consisted of 36 age- and gender-matched community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults (age range: 49 to 77 years). Cognitive function was evaluated using the Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-J) and compared between the synchronized swimmers and control participants. [Results] No significant differences in mean total MoCA-J scores were observed between the synchronized swimmers and control participants (23.2 ± 3.1 and 22.2 ± 3.6, respectively). Twenty-nine subjects in the control group and 17 in the synchronized swimming group scored below 26 on the MoCA-J, indicative of mild cognitive impairment. Significant differences in delayed recall-but not in visuospatial/executive function, naming, attention, language, abstraction, or orientation-were also observed between the two groups. [Conclusion] The results of the present study suggest that synchronized swimming has beneficial effects on cognitive function, particularly with regard to recent memory.

Closedness type regularity conditions in convex optimization and beyond

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sorin-Mihai Grad

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The closedness type regularity conditions have proven during the last decade to be viable alternatives to their more restrictive interiority type counterparts, in both convex optimization and different areas where it was successfully applied. In this review article we de- and reconstruct some closedness type regularity conditions formulated by means of epigraphs and subdifferentials, respectively, for general optimization problems in order to stress that they arise naturally when dealing with such problems. The results are then specialized for constrained and unconstrained convex optimization problems. We also hint towards other classes of optimization problems where closedness type regularity conditions were successfully employed and discuss other possible applications of them.

Imbalance of positive and negative links induces regularity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamal, Neeraj Kumar; Sinha, Sudeshna

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → We consider the behaviour of a random weighted network with chaotic neuronal dynamics at the nodes. → We investigate the effect of the balance of positive and negative links on dynamical regularity. → We find that when the connections are predominantly excitatory or inhibitory, one obtains a spatiotemporal fixed point. → However, when the links are balanced, the chaotic nature of the nodal dynamics of the uncoupled case is preserved. → Further we observe that larger network size leads to greater spatiotemporal regularity. - Abstract: We investigate the effect of the interplay of positive and negative links, on the dynamical regularity of a random weighted network, with neuronal dynamics at the nodes. We investigate how the mean J-bar and the variance of the weights of links, influence the spatiotemporal regularity of this dynamical network. We find that when the connections are predominantly positive (i.e. the links are mostly excitatory, with J-bar>0) the spatiotemporal fixed point is stable. A similar trend is observed when the connections are predominantly negative (i.e. the links are mostly inhibitory, with J-bar<0). However, when the positive and negative feedback is quite balanced (namely, when the mean of the connection weights is close to zero) one observes spatiotemporal chaos. That is, the balance of excitatory and inhibitory connections preserves the chaotic nature of the uncoupled case. To be brought to an inactive state one needs one type of connection (either excitatory or inhibitory) to dominate. Further we observe that larger network size leads to greater spatiotemporal regularity. We rationalize our observations through mean field analysis of the network dynamics.

Spectral Regularization Algorithms for Learning Large Incomplete Matrices.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazumder, Rahul; Hastie, Trevor; Tibshirani, Robert

2010-03-01

We use convex relaxation techniques to provide a sequence of regularized low-rank solutions for large-scale matrix completion problems. Using the nuclear norm as a regularizer, we provide a simple and very efficient convex algorithm for minimizing the reconstruction error subject to a bound on the nuclear norm. Our algorithm Soft-Impute iteratively replaces the missing elements with those obtained from a soft-thresholded SVD. With warm starts this allows us to efficiently compute an entire regularization path of solutions on a grid of values of the regularization parameter. The computationally intensive part of our algorithm is in computing a low-rank SVD of a dense matrix. Exploiting the problem structure, we show that the task can be performed with a complexity linear in the matrix dimensions. Our semidefinite-programming algorithm is readily scalable to large matrices: for example it can obtain a rank-80 approximation of a 10(6) × 10(6) incomplete matrix with 10(5) observed entries in 2.5 hours, and can fit a rank 40 approximation to the full Netflix training set in 6.6 hours. Our methods show very good performance both in training and test error when compared to other competitive state-of-the art techniques.

Poisson image reconstruction with Hessian Schatten-norm regularization.

Science.gov (United States)

Lefkimmiatis, Stamatios; Unser, Michael

2013-11-01

Poisson inverse problems arise in many modern imaging applications, including biomedical and astronomical ones. The main challenge is to obtain an estimate of the underlying image from a set of measurements degraded by a linear operator and further corrupted by Poisson noise. In this paper, we propose an efficient framework for Poisson image reconstruction, under a regularization approach, which depends on matrix-valued regularization operators. In particular, the employed regularizers involve the Hessian as the regularization operator and Schatten matrix norms as the potential functions. For the solution of the problem, we propose two optimization algorithms that are specifically tailored to the Poisson nature of the noise. These algorithms are based on an augmented-Lagrangian formulation of the problem and correspond to two variants of the alternating direction method of multipliers. Further, we derive a link that relates the proximal map of an l(p) norm with the proximal map of a Schatten matrix norm of order p. This link plays a key role in the development of one of the proposed algorithms. Finally, we provide experimental results on natural and biological images for the task of Poisson image deblurring and demonstrate the practical relevance and effectiveness of the proposed framework.

A projection-based approach to general-form Tikhonov regularization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kilmer, Misha E.; Hansen, Per Christian; Espanol, Malena I.

2007-01-01

We present a projection-based iterative algorithm for computing general-form Tikhonov regularized solutions to the problem minx| Ax-b |2^2+lambda2| Lx |2^2, where the regularization matrix L is not the identity. Our algorithm is designed for the common case where lambda is not known a priori...

Sparse regularization for force identification using dictionaries

Science.gov (United States)

Qiao, Baijie; Zhang, Xingwu; Wang, Chenxi; Zhang, Hang; Chen, Xuefeng

2016-04-01

The classical function expansion method based on minimizing l2-norm of the response residual employs various basis functions to represent the unknown force. Its difficulty lies in determining the optimum number of basis functions. Considering the sparsity of force in the time domain or in other basis space, we develop a general sparse regularization method based on minimizing l1-norm of the coefficient vector of basis functions. The number of basis functions is adaptively determined by minimizing the number of nonzero components in the coefficient vector during the sparse regularization process. First, according to the profile of the unknown force, the dictionary composed of basis functions is determined. Second, a sparsity convex optimization model for force identification is constructed. Third, given the transfer function and the operational response, Sparse reconstruction by separable approximation (SpaRSA) is developed to solve the sparse regularization problem of force identification. Finally, experiments including identification of impact and harmonic forces are conducted on a cantilever thin plate structure to illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of SpaRSA. Besides the Dirac dictionary, other three sparse dictionaries including Db6 wavelets, Sym4 wavelets and cubic B-spline functions can also accurately identify both the single and double impact forces from highly noisy responses in a sparse representation frame. The discrete cosine functions can also successfully reconstruct the harmonic forces including the sinusoidal, square and triangular forces. Conversely, the traditional Tikhonov regularization method with the L-curve criterion fails to identify both the impact and harmonic forces in these cases.

Regular black holes: electrically charged solutions, Reissner-Nordstroem outside a De Sitter core

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lemos, Jose P.S. [Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa (CENTRA/IST/UTL) (Portugal). Instituto Superior Tecnico. Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrofisica; Zanchin, Vilson T. [Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Santo Andre, SP (Brazil). Centro de Ciencias Naturais e Humanas

2011-07-01

Full text: The understanding of the inside of a black hole is of crucial importance in order to have the correct picture of a black hole as a whole. The singularities that lurk inside of the usual black hole solutions are things to avoid. Their substitution by a regular part is of great interest, the process generating regular black holes. In the present work regular black hole solutions are found within general relativity coupled to Maxwell's electromagnetism and charged matter. We show that there are objects which correspond to regular charged black holes, whose interior region is de Sitter, whose exterior region is Reissner-Nordstroem, and the boundary between both regions is made of an electrically charged spherically symmetric coat. There are several solutions: the regular nonextremal black holes with a null matter boundary, the regular nonextremal black holes with a timelike matter boundary, the regular extremal black holes with a timelike matter boundary, and the regular overcharged stars with a timelike matter boundary. The main physical and geometrical properties of such charged regular solutions are analyzed. (author)

Stress-relevant social behaviors of middle-class male cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis).

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Ding; Zhou, Yuan

2015-11-18

Stress from dominance ranks in human societies, or that of other social animals, especially nonhuman primates, can have negative influences on health. Individuals holding different social status may be burdened with various stress levels. The middle class experiences a special stress situation within the dominance hierarchy due to its position between the higher and lower classes. Behaviorally, questions about where middle-class stress comes from and how individuals adapt to middle-class stress remain poorly understood in nonhuman primates. In the present study, social interactions, including aggression, avoidance, grooming and mounting behaviors, between beta males, as well as among group members holding higher or lower social status, were analyzed in captive male-only cynomolgus monkey groups. We found that aggressive tension from the higher hierarchy members was the main origin of stress for middle-class individuals. However, behaviors such as attacking lower hierarchy members immediately after being the recipient of aggression, as well as increased avoidance, grooming and mounting toward both higher and lower hierarchy members helped alleviate middle-class stress and were particular adaptations to middle-class social status.

Impact of regular nursing rounds on patient satisfaction with nursing care.

Science.gov (United States)

Negarandeh, Reza; Hooshmand Bahabadi, Abbas; Aliheydari Mamaghani, Jafar

2014-12-01

The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of regular nursing rounds on patient satisfaction with nursing care. This was a controlled clinical trial in which 100 hospitalized patients in a medical surgical ward were allocated to control and experimental groups through convenience sampling. The experimental group received regular nursing rounds every 1-2 hours. Routine care was performed for the control group. Patient satisfaction with the quality of nursing care was assessed on the second and fifth days of hospitalization in both groups using Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality Questionnaire. On the second day, patient satisfaction scores of the two groups had no significant difference (p = .499). However, the intervention was associated with statistically significant increased patient satisfaction in the experimental group compared to the control group (p patient satisfaction. This method may hence improve patient-nurse interactions and promote the quality of nursing care and patient satisfaction. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The neural substrates of impaired finger tapping regularity after stroke.

Science.gov (United States)

Calautti, Cinzia; Jones, P Simon; Guincestre, Jean-Yves; Naccarato, Marcello; Sharma, Nikhil; Day, Diana J; Carpenter, T Adrian; Warburton, Elizabeth A; Baron, Jean-Claude

2010-03-01

Not only finger tapping speed, but also tapping regularity can be impaired after stroke, contributing to reduced dexterity. The neural substrates of impaired tapping regularity after stroke are unknown. Previous work suggests damage to the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and prefrontal cortex (PFCx) affects externally-cued hand movement. We tested the hypothesis that these two areas are involved in impaired post-stroke tapping regularity. In 19 right-handed patients (15 men/4 women; age 45-80 years; purely subcortical in 16) partially to fully recovered from hemiparetic stroke, tri-axial accelerometric quantitative assessment of tapping regularity and BOLD fMRI were obtained during fixed-rate auditory-cued index-thumb tapping, in a single session 10-230 days after stroke. A strong random-effect correlation between tapping regularity index and fMRI signal was found in contralesional PMd such that the worse the regularity the stronger the activation. A significant correlation in the opposite direction was also present within contralesional PFCx. Both correlations were maintained if maximal index tapping speed, degree of paresis and time since stroke were added as potential confounds. Thus, the contralesional PMd and PFCx appear to be involved in the impaired ability of stroke patients to fingertap in pace with external cues. The findings for PMd are consistent with repetitive TMS investigations in stroke suggesting a role for this area in affected-hand movement timing. The inverse relationship with tapping regularity observed for the PFCx and the PMd suggests these two anatomically-connected areas negatively co-operate. These findings have implications for understanding the disruption and reorganization of the motor systems after stroke. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Regularizations: different recipes for identical situations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gambin, E.; Lobo, C.O.; Battistel, O.A.

2004-03-01

We present a discussion where the choice of the regularization procedure and the routing for the internal lines momenta are put at the same level of arbitrariness in the analysis of Ward identities involving simple and well-known problems in QFT. They are the complex self-interacting scalar field and two simple models where the SVV and AVV process are pertinent. We show that, in all these problems, the conditions to symmetry relations preservation are put in terms of the same combination of divergent Feynman integrals, which are evaluated in the context of a very general calculational strategy, concerning the manipulations and calculations involving divergences. Within the adopted strategy, all the arbitrariness intrinsic to the problem are still maintained in the final results and, consequently, a perfect map can be obtained with the corresponding results of the traditional regularization techniques. We show that, when we require an universal interpretation for the arbitrariness involved, in order to get consistency with all stated physical constraints, a strong condition is imposed for regularizations which automatically eliminates the ambiguities associated to the routing of the internal lines momenta of loops. The conclusion is clean and sound: the association between ambiguities and unavoidable symmetry violations in Ward identities cannot be maintained if an unique recipe is required for identical situations in the evaluation of divergent physical amplitudes. (author)

Regular transport dynamics produce chaotic travel times.

Science.gov (United States)

Villalobos, Jorge; Muñoz, Víctor; Rogan, José; Zarama, Roberto; Johnson, Neil F; Toledo, Benjamín; Valdivia, Juan Alejandro

2014-06-01

In the hope of making passenger travel times shorter and more reliable, many cities are introducing dedicated bus lanes (e.g., Bogota, London, Miami). Here we show that chaotic travel times are actually a natural consequence of individual bus function, and hence of public transport systems more generally, i.e., chaotic dynamics emerge even when the route is empty and straight, stops and lights are equidistant and regular, and loading times are negligible. More generally, our findings provide a novel example of chaotic dynamics emerging from a single object following Newton's laws of motion in a regularized one-dimensional system.

The Impact of Computerization on Regular Employment (Japanese)

OpenAIRE

SUNADA Mitsuru; HIGUCHI Yoshio; ABE Masahiro

2004-01-01

This paper uses micro data from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activity to analyze the effects of companies' introduction of information and telecommunications technology on employment structures, especially regular versus non-regular employment. Firstly, examination of trends in the ratio of part-time workers recorded in the Basic Survey shows that part-time worker ratios in manufacturing firms are rising slightly, but that companies with a high proportion of part-timers...

Lattice regularized chiral perturbation theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borasoy, Bugra; Lewis, Randy; Ouimet, Pierre-Philippe A.

2004-01-01

Chiral perturbation theory can be defined and regularized on a spacetime lattice. A few motivations are discussed here, and an explicit lattice Lagrangian is reviewed. A particular aspect of the connection between lattice chiral perturbation theory and lattice QCD is explored through a study of the Wess-Zumino-Witten term

Empirical laws, regularity and necessity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koningsveld, H.

1973-01-01

In this book I have tried to develop an analysis of the concept of an empirical law, an analysis that differs in many ways from the alternative analyse's found in contemporary literature dealing with the subject.

1 am referring especially to two well-known views, viz. the regularity and

The late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record of eastern Asia: synthesis and review.

Science.gov (United States)

Bae, Christopher J

2010-01-01

Traditionally, Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils that cannot be allocated to Homo erectus sensu lato or modern H. sapiens have been assigned to different specific taxa. For example, in eastern Asia, these hominin fossils have been classified as archaic, early, or premodern H. sapiens. An increasing number of Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils are currently being assigned to H. heidelbergensis. This is particularly the case for the African and European Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record. There have been suggestions that perhaps the eastern Asian late Middle Pleistocene hominins can also be allocated to the H. heidelbergensis hypodigm. In this article, I review the current state of the late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record from eastern Asia and examine the various arguments for assigning these hominins to the different specific taxa. The two primary conclusions drawn from this review are as follows: 1) little evidence currently exists in the eastern Asian Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record to support their assignment to H. heidelbergensis; and 2) rather than add to the growing list of hominin fossil taxa by using taxonomic names like H. daliensis for northeast Asian fossils and H. mabaensis for Southeast Asian fossils, it is better to err on the side of caution and continue to use the term archaic H. sapiens to represent all of these hominin fossils. What should be evident from this review is the need for an increase in the quality and quantity of the eastern Asian hominin fossil data set. Fortunately, with the increasing number of large-scale multidisciplinary paleoanthropological field and laboratory research projects in eastern Asia, the record is quickly becoming better understood. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Rescuing Middle School Astronomy

Science.gov (United States)

Mayo, L. A.; Janney, D.

2010-12-01

There is a crisis in education at the middle school level (Spellings, 2006). Recent studies point to large disparities in middle school performance in schools with high minority populations. The largest disparities exist in areas of math and science. Astronomy has a universal appeal for K-12 students but is rarely taught at the middle school level. When it is taught at all it is usually taught in isolation with few references in other classes such as other sciences (e.g. physics, biology, and chemistry), math, history, geography, music, art, or English. The problem is greatest in our most challenged school districts. With scores in reading and math below national averages in these schools and with most state achievement tests ignoring subjects like astronomy, there is little room in the school day to teach about the world outside our atmosphere. Add to this the exceedingly minimal training and education in astronomy that most middle school teachers have and it is a rare school that includes any astronomy teaching at all. In this presentation, we show how to develop and offer an astronomy education training program for middle school teachers encompassing a wide range of educational disciplines that are frequently taught at the middle school level. The prototype for this program was developed and launched in two of the most challenged and diverse school systems in the country; D.C. Public Schools, and Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools.

Regularization ambiguities in loop quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perez, Alejandro

2006-01-01

One of the main achievements of loop quantum gravity is the consistent quantization of the analog of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation which is free of ultraviolet divergences. However, ambiguities associated to the intermediate regularization procedure lead to an apparently infinite set of possible theories. The absence of an UV problem--the existence of well-behaved regularization of the constraints--is intimately linked with the ambiguities arising in the quantum theory. Among these ambiguities is the one associated to the SU(2) unitary representation used in the diffeomorphism covariant 'point-splitting' regularization of the nonlinear functionals of the connection. This ambiguity is labeled by a half-integer m and, here, it is referred to as the m ambiguity. The aim of this paper is to investigate the important implications of this ambiguity. We first study 2+1 gravity (and more generally BF theory) quantized in the canonical formulation of loop quantum gravity. Only when the regularization of the quantum constraints is performed in terms of the fundamental representation of the gauge group does one obtain the usual topological quantum field theory as a result. In all other cases unphysical local degrees of freedom arise at the level of the regulated theory that conspire against the existence of the continuum limit. This shows that there is a clear-cut choice in the quantization of the constraints in 2+1 loop quantum gravity. We then analyze the effects of the ambiguity in 3+1 gravity exhibiting the existence of spurious solutions for higher representation quantizations of the Hamiltonian constraint. Although the analysis is not complete in 3+1 dimensions - due to the difficulties associated to the definition of the physical inner product - it provides evidence supporting the definitions quantum dynamics of loop quantum gravity in terms of the fundamental representation of the gauge group as the only consistent possibilities. If the gauge group is SO(3) we find

Middle ear implants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K S Gangadhara Somayaji

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Hearing loss is becoming more common in the society living in cities with lot of background noise around, and frequent use of gadgets like mobile phones, MP3s, and IPods are adding to the problem. The loss may involve the conductive or perceptive pathway. Majority of the patients with conductive hearing loss will revert back to normal hearing levels with medical and/or surgical treatment. However, in sensorineural hearing loss, many factors are involved in the management. Though traditionally hearing aids in various forms are the most commonly used modality in managing these patients, there are some drawbacks associated with them. Implantable middle ear amplifiers represent the most recent breakthrough in the management of hearing loss. Middle ear implants are surgically implanted electronic devices that aim to correct hearing loss by stimulating the ossicular chain or middle ear. Of late, they are also being used in the management of congenital conductive hearing loss and certain cases of chronic otitis media with residual hearing loss. The article aims to provide general information about the technology, indications and contraindications, selection of candidates, available systems, and advantages of middle ear implants. (MEI

Oral health behaviour and social and health factors in university students from 26 low, middle and high income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Peltzer, Karl; Pengpid, Supa

2014-11-26

Poor oral health is still a major burden for populations throughout the world, particularly in developing countries. The aim of this study was investigate oral health behaviour (tooth brushing and dental attendance) and associated factors in low, middle and high income countries. Using anonymous questionnaires, data were collected from 19,560 undergraduate university students (mean age 20.8, SD = 2.8) from 27 universities in 26 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Results indicate that 67.2% of students reported to brush their teeth twice or more times a day, 28.8% about once a day and 4.0% never. Regarding dental check-up visit, 16.3% reported twice a year, 25.6% once a year, 33.9% rarely and 24.3% never. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, being a male, coming from a wealthy or quite well off family background, living in low income or lower middle income, weak beliefs in the importance of regular tooth brushing, depression and PTSD symptoms, tobacco use and frequent gambling, low physical activity, and low daily meal and snacks frequency were associated with inadequate tooth brushing (importance of regular tooth brushing, PTSD symptoms, illicit drug use, low physical activity, and low daily snacks frequency, skipping breakfast and inadequate fruit and vegetables consumption were associated with less than one annual dental care visit. Oral health behaviour among the students was found to be low. Various risk factors identified can be used to guide interventions to improve oral health behaviour among university students.

Parent-child divergence in the development of alcohol use norms from middle childhood into middle adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Prins, Jennifer C; Donovan, John E; Molina, Brooke S G

2011-05-01

Despite the importance of alcohol use norms as predictors of adolescent and college drinking, there has been little research on their development from childhood into adolescence. This study used parental and child beliefs regarding the acceptability of sipping, drinking, and drunkenness for children ages 8-16 years to establish age norms for these alcohol use behaviors and examined differences in the growth of these norms between parents and children. Data were collected as part of an ongoing cohort-sequential longitudinal study of 452 families with children initially 8 or 10 years old followed over 10 waves covering the age span from age 8 to age 16 years. Children completed interviews every 6 months. Parents completed interviews annually. Latent growth modeling was performed on the mother, father, and child data. Unconditional latent growth curve modeling showed that parental acceptance of child sipping increased with child age but that there was no increase in their acceptance of child drinking or drunkenness through age 16 years. In contrast, there was significant growth in children's acceptance of sipping, drinking, and drunkenness. Piecewise growth models with a transition at 11.5 or 12 years of age best described the development of child and adolescent alcohol use norms. From middle childhood into middle adolescence, there is increasing divergence between parents' acceptance of alcohol use by children and child/adolescent acceptance of alcohol use by people their age.

Processing SPARQL queries with regular expressions in RDF databases

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Cho Hune

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background As the Resource Description Framework (RDF data model is widely used for modeling and sharing a lot of online bioinformatics resources such as Uniprot (dev.isb-sib.ch/projects/uniprot-rdf or Bio2RDF (bio2rdf.org, SPARQL - a W3C recommendation query for RDF databases - has become an important query language for querying the bioinformatics knowledge bases. Moreover, due to the diversity of users’ requests for extracting information from the RDF data as well as the lack of users’ knowledge about the exact value of each fact in the RDF databases, it is desirable to use the SPARQL query with regular expression patterns for querying the RDF data. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no work that efficiently supports regular expression processing in SPARQL over RDF databases. Most of the existing techniques for processing regular expressions are designed for querying a text corpus, or only for supporting the matching over the paths in an RDF graph. Results In this paper, we propose a novel framework for supporting regular expression processing in SPARQL query. Our contributions can be summarized as follows. 1 We propose an efficient framework for processing SPARQL queries with regular expression patterns in RDF databases. 2 We propose a cost model in order to adapt the proposed framework in the existing query optimizers. 3 We build a prototype for the proposed framework in C++ and conduct extensive experiments demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of our technique. Conclusions Experiments with a full-blown RDF engine show that our framework outperforms the existing ones by up to two orders of magnitude in processing SPARQL queries with regular expression patterns.

Simbolic boundaries and middle classes. Social mobility in Chile

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Mayarí Castillo

2016-07-01

Full Text Available After more than three decades of the implementation of the policies of structural adjustment in Chile, the middle classes increased their weight in the social structure and changed their economic sector, occupation and trajectories of social mobility. This article analyzes the perceptionof symbolic boundaries, which emerging of these macro-processes and shapes the subjectivity of middle class subjects into upward mobility processes and modifies their perceptions of inequality. Whit this objective the paper presents a qualitative analysis of cases in which discursive components like meritocracy, the effort and the idea of “barriers/obstacles” became a key discursive axis. This article is inscribed within the recent studies on middle classes for the Chilean case, which focus specially on the cultural aspects after reproduction of stratification and inequality in Chile.

Pairing renormalization and regularization within the local density approximation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borycki, P.J.; Dobaczewski, J.; Nazarewicz, W.; Stoitsov, M.V.

2006-01-01

We discuss methods used in mean-field theories to treat pairing correlations within the local density approximation. Pairing renormalization and regularization procedures are compared in spherical and deformed nuclei. Both prescriptions give fairly similar results, although the theoretical motivation, simplicity, and stability of the regularization procedure make it a method of choice for future applications

Strong Bisimilarity and Regularity of Basic Parallel Processes is PSPACE-Hard

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Srba, Jirí

2002-01-01

We show that the problem of checking whether two processes definable in the syntax of Basic Parallel Processes (BPP) are strongly bisimilar is PSPACE-hard. We also demonstrate that there is a polynomial time reduction from the strong bisimilarity checking problem of regular BPP to the strong...... regularity (finiteness) checking of BPP. This implies that strong regularity of BPP is also PSPACE-hard....

Contour Propagation With Riemannian Elasticity Regularization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjerre, Troels; Hansen, Mads Fogtmann; Sapru, W.

2011-01-01

Purpose/Objective(s): Adaptive techniques allow for correction of spatial changes during the time course of the fractionated radiotherapy. Spatial changes include tumor shrinkage and weight loss, causing tissue deformation and residual positional errors even after translational and rotational image...... the planning CT onto the rescans and correcting to reflect actual anatomical changes. For deformable registration, a free-form, multi-level, B-spline deformation model with Riemannian elasticity, penalizing non-rigid local deformations, and volumetric changes, was used. Regularization parameters was defined...... on the original delineation and tissue deformation in the time course between scans form a better starting point than rigid propagation. There was no significant difference of locally and globally defined regularization. The method used in the present study suggests that deformed contours need to be reviewed...

Capped Lp approximations for the composite L0 regularization problem

OpenAIRE

Li, Qia; Zhang, Na

2017-01-01

The composite L0 function serves as a sparse regularizer in many applications. The algorithmic difficulty caused by the composite L0 regularization (the L0 norm composed with a linear mapping) is usually bypassed through approximating the L0 norm. We consider in this paper capped Lp approximations with $p>0$ for the composite L0 regularization problem. For each $p>0$, the capped Lp function converges to the L0 norm pointwisely as the approximation parameter tends to infinity. We point out tha...

Fluid queues and regular variation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boxma, O.J.

1996-01-01

This paper considers a fluid queueing system, fed by N independent sources that alternate between silence and activity periods. We assume that the distribution of the activity periods of one or more sources is a regularly varying function of index ¿. We show that its fat tail gives rise to an even

Executive summary: the health and fitness benefits of regular participation in small-sided football games.

Science.gov (United States)

Krustrup, P; Dvorak, J; Junge, A; Bangsbo, J

2010-04-01

The present special issue of Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports deals with health and fitness benefits of regular participation in small-sided football games. One review article and 13 original articles were the result of a 2-year multi-center study in Copenhagen and Zurich and include studies of different age groups analyzed from a physiological, medical, social and psychological perspective. The main groups investigated were middle-aged, former untrained, healthy men and women who were followed for up to 16 months. In addition, elderly, children and hypertensive patients were studied. A summary and interpretations of the main findings divided into an analysis of the physical demands during training of various groups and the effect of a period of training on performance, muscle adaptations and health profile follow. In addition, social and psychological effects on participation in recreational football are considered, the comparison of football training and endurance running is summarized and the effects of football practice on the elderly and children and youngsters are presented.

Further investigation on "A multiplicative regularization for force reconstruction"

Science.gov (United States)

Aucejo, M.; De Smet, O.

2018-05-01

We have recently proposed a multiplicative regularization to reconstruct mechanical forces acting on a structure from vibration measurements. This method does not require any selection procedure for choosing the regularization parameter, since the amount of regularization is automatically adjusted throughout an iterative resolution process. The proposed iterative algorithm has been developed with performance and efficiency in mind, but it is actually a simplified version of a full iterative procedure not described in the original paper. The present paper aims at introducing the full resolution algorithm and comparing it with its simplified version in terms of computational efficiency and solution accuracy. In particular, it is shown that both algorithms lead to very similar identified solutions.

Regularization method for solving the inverse scattering problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Denisov, A.M.; Krylov, A.S.

1985-01-01

The inverse scattering problem for the Schroedinger radial equation consisting in determining the potential according to the scattering phase is considered. The problem of potential restoration according to the phase specified with fixed error in a finite range is solved by the regularization method based on minimization of the Tikhonov's smoothing functional. The regularization method is used for solving the problem of neutron-proton potential restoration according to the scattering phases. The determined potentials are given in the table

Variational analysis of regular mappings theory and applications

CERN Document Server

Ioffe, Alexander D

2017-01-01

This monograph offers the first systematic account of (metric) regularity theory in variational analysis. It presents new developments alongside classical results and demonstrates the power of the theory through applications to various problems in analysis and optimization theory. The origins of metric regularity theory can be traced back to a series of fundamental ideas and results of nonlinear functional analysis and global analysis centered around problems of existence and stability of solutions of nonlinear equations. In variational analysis, regularity theory goes far beyond the classical setting and is also concerned with non-differentiable and multi-valued operators. The present volume explores all basic aspects of the theory, from the most general problems for mappings between metric spaces to those connected with fairly concrete and important classes of operators acting in Banach and finite dimensional spaces. Written by a leading expert in the field, the book covers new and powerful techniques, whic...

Iterative regularization in intensity-modulated radiation therapy optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carlsson, Fredrik; Forsgren, Anders

2006-01-01

A common way to solve intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) optimization problems is to use a beamlet-based approach. The approach is usually employed in a three-step manner: first a beamlet-weight optimization problem is solved, then the fluence profiles are converted into step-and-shoot segments, and finally postoptimization of the segment weights is performed. A drawback of beamlet-based approaches is that beamlet-weight optimization problems are ill-conditioned and have to be regularized in order to produce smooth fluence profiles that are suitable for conversion. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explain the suitability of solving beamlet-based IMRT problems by a BFGS quasi-Newton sequential quadratic programming method with diagonal initial Hessian estimate, and second, to empirically show that beamlet-weight optimization problems should be solved in relatively few iterations when using this optimization method. The explanation of the suitability is based on viewing the optimization method as an iterative regularization method. In iterative regularization, the optimization problem is solved approximately by iterating long enough to obtain a solution close to the optimal one, but terminating before too much noise occurs. Iterative regularization requires an optimization method that initially proceeds in smooth directions and makes rapid initial progress. Solving ten beamlet-based IMRT problems with dose-volume objectives and bounds on the beamlet-weights, we find that the considered optimization method fulfills the requirements for performing iterative regularization. After segment-weight optimization, the treatments obtained using 35 beamlet-weight iterations outperform the treatments obtained using 100 beamlet-weight iterations, both in terms of objective value and of target uniformity. We conclude that iterating too long may in fact deteriorate the quality of the deliverable plan

Analysis of regularized inversion of data corrupted by white Gaussian noise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kekkonen, Hanne; Lassas, Matti; Siltanen, Samuli

2014-01-01

Tikhonov regularization is studied in the case of linear pseudodifferential operator as the forward map and additive white Gaussian noise as the measurement error. The measurement model for an unknown function u(x) is m(x) = Au(x) + δ ε (x), where δ > 0 is the noise magnitude. If ε was an L 2 -function, Tikhonov regularization gives an estimate T α (m) = u∈H r arg min { ||Au-m|| L 2 2 + α||u|| H r 2 } for u where α = α(δ) is the regularization parameter. Here penalization of the Sobolev norm ||u|| H r covers the cases of standard Tikhonov regularization (r = 0) and first derivative penalty (r = 1). Realizations of white Gaussian noise are almost never in L 2 , but do belong to H s with probability one if s < 0 is small enough. A modification of Tikhonov regularization theory is presented, covering the case of white Gaussian measurement noise. Furthermore, the convergence of regularized reconstructions to the correct solution as δ → 0 is proven in appropriate function spaces using microlocal analysis. The convergence of the related finite-dimensional problems to the infinite-dimensional problem is also analysed. (paper)

47 CFR 76.614 - Cable television system regular monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

...-137 and 225-400 MHz shall provide for a program of regular monitoring for signal leakage by... in these bands of 20 uV/m or greater at a distance of 3 meters. During regular monitoring, any leakage source which produces a field strength of 20 uV/m or greater at a distance of 3 meters in the...

Prevalence of and factors associated with regular khat chewing among university students in Ethiopia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Astatkie A

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Ayalew Astatkie,1 Meaza Demissie,2 Yemane Berhane,2 Alemayehu Worku2,3 1School of Public and Environmental Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia; 2Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 3School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Purpose: Khat (Catha edulis is commonly chewed for its psychostimulant and euphorigenic effects in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Students use it to help them study for long hours especially during the period of examination. However, how regularly khat is chewed among university students and its associated factors are not well documented. In this article we report on the prevalence of and factors associated with regular khat chewing among university students in Ethiopia. Methods: We did a cross-sectional study from May 20, 2014 to June 23, 2014 on a sample of 1,255 regular students recruited from all campuses of Hawassa University, southern Ethiopia. The data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. We analyzed the data to identify factors associated with current regular khat chewing using complex sample adjusted logistic regression analysis. Results: The prevalence of current regular khat chewing was 10.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.1%–14.9%. After controlling for sex, religion, year of study, having a father who chews khat, cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking in the adjusted logistic regression model, living off-campus in rented houses as compared to living in the university dormitory (adjusted odds ratio [95% CI] =8.09 [1.56–42.01], and having friends who chew khat (adjusted odds ratio [95% CI] =4.62 [1.98–10.74] were found to significantly increase the odds of current regular khat use. Conclusion: Students living outside the university campus in rented houses compared to those living in dormitory and those with khat chewing peers are more likely to use

Geostatistical regularization operators for geophysical inverse problems on irregular meshes

Science.gov (United States)

Jordi, C.; Doetsch, J.; Günther, T.; Schmelzbach, C.; Robertsson, J. OA

2018-05-01

Irregular meshes allow to include complicated subsurface structures into geophysical modelling and inverse problems. The non-uniqueness of these inverse problems requires appropriate regularization that can incorporate a priori information. However, defining regularization operators for irregular discretizations is not trivial. Different schemes for calculating smoothness operators on irregular meshes have been proposed. In contrast to classical regularization constraints that are only defined using the nearest neighbours of a cell, geostatistical operators include a larger neighbourhood around a particular cell. A correlation model defines the extent of the neighbourhood and allows to incorporate information about geological structures. We propose an approach to calculate geostatistical operators for inverse problems on irregular meshes by eigendecomposition of a covariance matrix that contains the a priori geological information. Using our approach, the calculation of the operator matrix becomes tractable for 3-D inverse problems on irregular meshes. We tested the performance of the geostatistical regularization operators and compared them against the results of anisotropic smoothing in inversions of 2-D surface synthetic electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data as well as in the inversion of a realistic 3-D cross-well synthetic ERT scenario. The inversions of 2-D ERT and seismic traveltime field data with geostatistical regularization provide results that are in good accordance with the expected geology and thus facilitate their interpretation. In particular, for layered structures the geostatistical regularization provides geologically more plausible results compared to the anisotropic smoothness constraints.

Neuroimmune and Neuropathic Responses of Spinal Cord and Dorsal Root Ganglia in Middle Age

Science.gov (United States)

Galbavy, William; Kaczocha, Martin; Puopolo, Michelino; Liu, Lixin; Rebecchi, Mario J.

2015-01-01

Prior studies of aging and neuropathic injury have focused on senescent animals compared to young adults, while changes in middle age, particularly in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG), have remained largely unexplored. 14 neuroimmune mRNA markers, previously associated with peripheral nerve injury, were measured in multiplex assays of lumbar spinal cord (LSC), and DRG from young and middle-aged (3, 17 month) naïve rats, or from rats subjected to chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve (after 7 days), or from aged-matched sham controls. Results showed that CD2, CD3e, CD68, CD45, TNF-α, IL6, CCL2, ATF3 and TGFβ1 mRNA levels were substantially elevated in LSC from naïve middle-aged animals compared to young adults. Similarly, LSC samples from older sham animals showed increased levels of T-cell and microglial/macrophage markers. CCI induced further increases in CCL2, and IL6, and elevated ATF3 mRNA levels in LSC of young and middle-aged adults. Immunofluorescence images of dorsal horn microglia from middle-aged naïve or sham rats were typically hypertrophic with mostly thickened, de-ramified processes, similar to microglia following CCI. Unlike the spinal cord, marker expression profiles in naïve DRG were unchanged across age (except increased ATF3); whereas, levels of GFAP protein, localized to satellite glia, were highly elevated in middle age, but independent of nerve injury. Most neuroimmune markers were elevated in DRG following CCI in young adults, yet middle-aged animals showed little response to injury. No age-related changes in nociception (heat, cold, mechanical) were observed in naïve adults, or at days 3 or 7 post-CCI. The patterns of marker expression and microglial morphologies in healthy middle age are consistent with development of a para-inflammatory state involving microglial activation and T-cell marker elevation in the dorsal horn, and neuronal stress and satellite cell activation in the DRG. These changes, however, did not