WorldWideScience

Sample records for select order information

  1. A dissociation between selective attention and conscious awareness in the representation of temporal order information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eimer, Martin; Grubert, Anna

    2015-09-01

    Previous electrophysiological studies have shown that attentional selection processes are highly sensitive to the temporal order of task-relevant visual events. When two successively presented colour-defined target stimuli are separated by a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of only 10 ms, the onset latencies of N2pc components to these stimuli (which reflect their attentional selection) precisely match their objective temporal separation. We tested whether such small onset differences are accessible to conscious awareness by instructing participants to report the category (letter or digit) of the first of two target-colour items that were separated by an SOA of 10, 20, or 30 ms. Performance was at chance level for the 10 ms SOA, demonstrating that temporal order information which is available to attentional control processes cannot be utilized for conscious temporal order judgments. These results provide new evidence that selective attention and conscious awareness are functionally separable, and support the hypothesis that attention and awareness operate at different stages of cognitive processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Selective information sampling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter A. F. Fraser-Mackenzie

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the amount and valence of information selected during single item evaluation. One hundred and thirty-five participants evaluated a cell phone by reading hypothetical customers reports. Some participants were first asked to provide a preliminary rating based on a picture of the phone and some technical specifications. The participants who were given the customer reports only after they made a preliminary rating exhibited valence bias in their selection of customers reports. In contrast, the participants that did not make an initial rating sought subsequent information in a more balanced, albeit still selective, manner. The preliminary raters used the least amount of information in their final decision, resulting in faster decision times. The study appears to support the notion that selective exposure is utilized in order to develop cognitive coherence.

  3. Order information and free recall: evaluating the item-order hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulligan, Neil W; Lozito, Jeffrey P

    2007-05-01

    The item-order hypothesis proposes that order information plays an important role in recall from long-term memory, and it is commonly used to account for the moderating effects of experimental design in memory research. Recent research (Engelkamp, Jahn, & Seiler, 2003; McDaniel, DeLosh, & Merritt, 2000) raises questions about the assumptions underlying the item-order hypothesis. Four experiments tested these assumptions by examining the relationship between free recall and order memory for lists of varying length (8, 16, or 24 unrelated words or pictures). Some groups were given standard free-recall instructions, other groups were explicitly instructed to use order information in free recall, and other groups were given free-recall tests intermixed with tests of order memory (order reconstruction). The results for short lists were consistent with the assumptions of the item-order account. For intermediate-length lists, explicit order instructions and intermixed order tests made recall more reliant on order information, but under standard conditions, order information played little role in recall. For long lists, there was little evidence that order information contributed to recall. In sum, the assumptions of the item-order account held for short lists, received mixed support with intermediate lists, and received no support for longer lists.

  4. Selection of nuclear power information database management system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Shuxin; Wu Jianlei

    1996-01-01

    In the condition of the present database technology, in order to build the Chinese nuclear power information database (NPIDB) in the nuclear industry system efficiently at a high starting point, an important task is to select a proper database management system (DBMS), which is the hinge of the matter to build the database successfully. Therefore, this article explains how to build a practical information database about nuclear power, the functions of different database management systems, the reason of selecting relation database management system (RDBMS), the principles of selecting RDBMS, the recommendation of ORACLE management system as the software to build database and so on

  5. Information Security for Compliance with Select Agent Regulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Nick; Campbell, Mark J.

    2015-01-01

    The past decade has seen a significant rise in research on high-consequence human and animal pathogens, many now known as “select agents.” While physical security around these agents is tightly regulated, information security standards are still lagging. The understanding of the threats unique to the academic and research environment is still evolving, in part due to poor communication between the various stakeholders. Perhaps as a result, information security guidelines published by select agent regulators lack the critical details and directives needed to achieve even the lowest security level of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). While only government agencies are currently required to abide by the provisions of FISMA (unless specified as preconditions for obtaining government grants or contracts—still a relatively rare or narrowly scoped occurrence), the same strategies were recently recommended by executive order for others. We propose that information security guidelines for select agent research be updated to promulgate and detail FISMA standards and processes and that the latter be ultimately incorporated into select agent regulations. We also suggest that information security in academic and research institutions would greatly benefit from active efforts to improve communication among the biosecurity, security, and information technology communities, and from a secure venue for exchange of timely information on emerging threats and solutions in the research environment. PMID:26042864

  6. Information security for compliance with select agent regulations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Nick; Campbell, Mark J; Baskin, Carole R

    2015-01-01

    The past decade has seen a significant rise in research on high-consequence human and animal pathogens, many now known as "select agents." While physical security around these agents is tightly regulated, information security standards are still lagging. The understanding of the threats unique to the academic and research environment is still evolving, in part due to poor communication between the various stakeholders. Perhaps as a result, information security guidelines published by select agent regulators lack the critical details and directives needed to achieve even the lowest security level of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). While only government agencies are currently required to abide by the provisions of FISMA (unless specified as preconditions for obtaining government grants or contracts--still a relatively rare or narrowly scoped occurrence), the same strategies were recently recommended by executive order for others. We propose that information security guidelines for select agent research be updated to promulgate and detail FISMA standards and processes and that the latter be ultimately incorporated into select agent regulations. We also suggest that information security in academic and research institutions would greatly benefit from active efforts to improve communication among the biosecurity, security, and information technology communities, and from a secure venue for exchange of timely information on emerging threats and solutions in the research environment.

  7. Unsupervised Feature Selection for Interval Ordered Information Systems%区间序信息系统的无监督特征选择

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    闫岳君; 代建华

    2017-01-01

    目前已有很多针对单值信息系统的无监督特征选择方法,但针对区间值信息系统的无监督特征选择方法却很少.针对区间序信息系统,文中提出模糊优势关系,并基于此关系扩展模糊排序信息熵和模糊排序互信息,用于评价特征的重要性.再结合一种综合考虑信息量和冗余度的无监督最大信息最小冗余(UmIMR)准则,构造无监督特征选择方法.最后通过实验证明文中方法的有效性.%There are a number of unsupervised feature selection methods proposed for single-valued information systems, but little research focuses on unsupervised feature selection of interval-valued information systems. In this paper, a fuzzy dominance relation is proposed for interval ordered information systems. Then, fuzzy rank information entropy and fuzzy rank mutual information are extended to evaluate the importance of features. Consequently, an unsupervised feature selection method is designed based on an unsupervised maximum information and minimum redundancy ( UmImR ) criterion. In the UmImR criterion, the amount of information and redundancy are taken into account. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  8. The effects of calorie information on food selection and intake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Girz, L; Polivy, J; Herman, C P; Lee, H

    2012-10-01

    To examine the effects of calorie labeling on food selection and intake in dieters and non-dieters, and to explore whether expectations about food healthfulness moderate these effects. Participants were presented with a menu containing two items, a salad and a pasta dish. The menu had (a) no calorie information, (b) information that the salad was low in calories and the pasta was high in calories, (c) information that the salad was high in calories and the pasta was low in calories or (d) information that both were high in calories (study 2 only). Calorie labels influenced food selection for dieters, but not for non-dieters. Dieters were more likely to order salad when the salad was labeled as low in calories and more likely to order pasta, even high-calorie pasta, when the salad was labeled as high in calories. Participants who chose high-calorie foods over low-calorie foods did not eat less in response to calorie information, although non-dieters reduced their intake somewhat when calorie labels were put in the context of recommended daily calories. The results suggest that the rush to provide calorie information may not prove to be the best approach to fighting the obesity epidemic.

  9. A metaheuristic optimization framework for informative gene selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaberi Das

    Full Text Available This paper presents a metaheuristic framework using Harmony Search (HS with Genetic Algorithm (GA for gene selection. The internal architecture of the proposed model broadly works in two phases, in the first phase, the model allows the hybridization of HS with GA to compute and evaluate the fitness of the randomly selected solutions of binary strings and then HS ranks the solutions in descending order of their fitness. In the second phase, the offsprings are generated using crossover and mutation operations of GA and finally, those offsprings were selected for the next generation whose fitness value is more than their parents evaluated by SVM classifier. The accuracy of the final gene subsets obtained from this model has been evaluated using SVM classifiers. The merit of this approach is analyzed by experimental results on five benchmark datasets and the results showed an impressive accuracy over existing feature selection approaches. The occurrence of gene subsets selected from this model have also been computed and the most often selected gene subsets with the probability of [0.1–0.9] have been chosen as optimal sets of informative genes. Finally, the performance of those selected informative gene subsets have been measured and established through probabilistic measures. Keywords: Gene Selection, Metaheuristic, Harmony Search Algorithm, Genetic Algorithm, SVM

  10. Birth order and selected work-related personality variables.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, A S; Bedeian, A G; Mossholder, K W; Touliatos, J

    1988-12-01

    A possible link between birth order and various individual characteristics (e. g., intelligence, potential eminence, need for achievement, sociability) has been suggested by personality theorists such as Adler for over a century. The present study examines whether birth order is associated with selected personality variables that may be related to various work outcomes. 3 of 7 hypotheses were supported and the effect sizes for these were small. Firstborns scored significantly higher than later borns on measures of dominance, good impression, and achievement via conformity. No differences between firstborns and later borns were found in managerial potential, work orientation, achievement via independence, and sociability. The study's sample consisted of 835 public, government, and industrial accountants responding to a national US survey of accounting professionals. The nature of the sample may have been partially responsible for the results obtained. Its homogeneity may have caused any birth order effects to wash out. It can be argued that successful membership in the accountancy profession requires internalization of a set of prescribed rules and standards. It may be that accountants as a group are locked in to a behavioral framework. Any differentiation would result from spurious interpersonal differences, not from predictable birth-order related characteristics. A final interpretation is that birth order effects are nonexistent or statistical artifacts. Given the present data and particularistic sample, however, the authors have insufficient information from which to draw such a conclusion.

  11. A weighted possibilistic programming approach for sustainable vendor selection and order allocation in fuzzy environment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gupta, Pankaj; Govindan, Kannan; Mehlawat, Mukesh Kumar

    2016-01-01

    This paper focused on the analysis of imprecise information in terms of many critical parameters for a multi-objective multi-item vendor selection-order allocation problem with price-breaks. We used both quantitative and qualitative criteria taking into account the economic, technological, social...

  12. Maximising information recovery from rank-order codes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sen, B.; Furber, S.

    2007-04-01

    The central nervous system encodes information in sequences of asynchronously generated voltage spikes, but the precise details of this encoding are not well understood. Thorpe proposed rank-order codes as an explanation of the observed speed of information processing in the human visual system. The work described in this paper is inspired by the performance of SpikeNET, a biologically inspired neural architecture using rank-order codes for information processing, and is based on the retinal model developed by VanRullen and Thorpe. This model mimics retinal information processing by passing an input image through a bank of Difference of Gaussian (DoG) filters and then encoding the resulting coefficients in rank-order. To test the effectiveness of this encoding in capturing the information content of an image, the rank-order representation is decoded to reconstruct an image that can be compared with the original. The reconstruction uses a look-up table to infer the filter coefficients from their rank in the encoded image. Since the DoG filters are approximately orthogonal functions, they are treated as their own inverses in the reconstruction process. We obtained a quantitative measure of the perceptually important information retained in the reconstructed image relative to the original using a slightly modified version of an objective metric proposed by Petrovic. It is observed that around 75% of the perceptually important information is retained in the reconstruction. In the present work we reconstruct the input using a pseudo-inverse of the DoG filter-bank with the aim of improving the reconstruction and thereby extracting more information from the rank-order encoded stimulus. We observe that there is an increase of 10 - 15% in the information retrieved from a reconstructed stimulus as a result of inverting the filter-bank.

  13. Order effect in interactive information retrieval evaluation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clemmensen, Melanie Landvad; Borlund, Pia

    2016-01-01

    , and the good-subject effect shed light on how and why order effect may affect test participants’ IR system interaction and search behaviour. Research limitations/implications – Insight about order effect has implications for test design of IIR studies and hence the knowledge base generated on the basis...... of such studies. Due to the limited sample of 20 test participants (Library and Information Science (LIS) students) inference statistics is not applicable; hence conclusions can be drawn from this sample of test participants only. Originality/value – Only few studies in LIS focus on order effect and none from...... the perspective of IIR. Keywords Evaluation, Research methods, Information retrieval, User studies, Searching, Information searches...

  14. Searching and selecting online information: analysis of the strategic actions of the university students

    OpenAIRE

    María José Hernández Serrano

    2013-01-01

    As complex and dynamic activity, the searching and selection of online information needs a strategic performance in order to achieve effective and meaningful results and processes. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether university students perceive a need to be strategic, for what actions, what times, and what are their predispositions towards the strategic actions in the Internet information searching and selection process. Results showed differences between students by course, thos...

  15. 76 FR 36281 - Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Reapportionment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-22

    ... Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Reapportionment AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA... the Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order), which is authorized under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996 (Act), a review of the composition of the Board must be...

  16. Elektronik Bilgi Kaynaklarının Seçimi / Selection of Electronic Information Resources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pınar Al

    2003-04-01

    Full Text Available For many years, library users have used only from the printed media in order to get the information that they have needed. Today with the widespread use of the Web and the addition of electronic information resources to library collections, the use of information in the electronic environment as well as in printed media is started to be used. In time, such types of information resources as, electronic journals, electronic books, electronic encyclopedias, electronic dictionaries and electronic theses have been added to library collections. In this study, selection criteria that can be used for electronic information resources are discussed and suggestions are provided for libraries that try to select electronic information resources for their collections.

  17. Neural mechanisms of order information processing in working memory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barbara Dolenc

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The ability to encode and maintain the exact order of short sequences of stimuli or events is often crucial to our ability for effective high-order planning. However, it is not yet clear which neural mechanisms underpin this process. Several studies suggest that in comparison with item recognition temporal order coding activates prefrontal and parietal brain regions. Results of various studies tend to favour the hypothesis that the order of the stimuli is represented and encoded on several stages, from primacy and recency estimates to the exact position of the item in a sequence. Different brain regions play a different role in this process. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has a more general role in attention, while the premotor cortex is more involved in the process of information grouping. Parietal lobe and hippocampus also play a significant role in order processing as they enable the representation of distance. Moreover, order maintenance is associated with the existence of neural oscillators that operate at different frequencies. Electrophysiological studies revealed that theta and alpha oscillations play an important role in the maintenance of temporal order information. Those EEG oscillations are differentially associated with processes that support the maintenance of order information and item recognition. Various studies suggest a link between prefrontal areas and memory for temporal order, implying that EEG neural oscillations in the prefrontal cortex may play a role in the maintenance of information on temporal order.

  18. Efficient sensor selection for active information fusion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yongmian; Ji, Qiang

    2010-06-01

    In our previous paper, we formalized an active information fusion framework based on dynamic Bayesian networks to provide active information fusion. This paper focuses on a central issue of active information fusion, i.e., the efficient identification of a subset of sensors that are most decision relevant and cost effective. Determining the most informative and cost-effective sensors requires an evaluation of all the possible subsets of sensors, which is computationally intractable, particularly when information-theoretic criterion such as mutual information is used. To overcome this challenge, we propose a new quantitative measure for sensor synergy based on which a sensor synergy graph is constructed. Using the sensor synergy graph, we first introduce an alternative measure to multisensor mutual information for characterizing the sensor information gain. We then propose an approximated nonmyopic sensor selection method that can efficiently and near-optimally select a subset of sensors for active fusion. The simulation study demonstrates both the performance and the efficiency of the proposed sensor selection method.

  19. Mutual Information-Based Inputs Selection for Electric Load Time Series Forecasting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nenad Floranović

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Providing accurate load forecast to electric utility corporations is essential in order to reduce their operational costs and increase profits. Hence, training set selection is an important preprocessing step which has to be considered in practice in order to increase the accuracy of load forecasts. The usage of mutual information (MI has been recently proposed in regression tasks, mostly for feature selection and for identifying the real instances from training sets that contains noise and outliers. This paper proposes a methodology for the training set selection in a least squares support vector machines (LS-SVMs load forecasting model. A new application of the concept of MI is presented for the selection of a training set based on MI computation between initial training set instances and testing set instances. Accordingly, several LS-SVMs models have been trained, based on the proposed methodology, for hourly prediction of electric load for one day ahead. The results obtained from a real-world data set indicate that the proposed method increases the accuracy of load forecasting as well as reduces the size of the initial training set needed for model training.

  20. Country Selection Model for Sustainable Construction Businesses Using Hybrid of Objective and Subjective Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kang-Wook Lee

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available An important issue for international businesses and academia is selecting countries in which to expand in order to achieve entrepreneurial sustainability. This study develops a country selection model for sustainable construction businesses using both objective and subjective information. The objective information consists of 14 variables related to country risk and project performance in 32 countries over 25 years. This hybrid model applies subjective weighting from industrial experts to objective information using a fuzzy LinPreRa-based Analytic Hierarchy Process. The hybrid model yields a more accurate country selection compared to a purely objective information-based model in experienced countries. Interestingly, the hybrid model provides some different predictions with only subjective opinions in unexperienced countries, which implies that expert opinion is not always reliable. In addition, feedback from five experts in top international companies is used to validate the model’s completeness, effectiveness, generality, and applicability. The model is expected to aid decision makers in selecting better candidate countries that lead to sustainable business success.

  1. 76 FR 13530 - Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Reapportionment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-14

    ... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 1206 [Doc No. AMS-FV-10-0092] Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Reapportionment AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service.... In accordance with the Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order), which is authorized...

  2. A voluntary nutrition labeling program in restaurants: Consumer awareness, use of nutrition information, and food selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Christine M; Lillico, Heather G; Vanderlee, Lana; Hammond, David

    2016-12-01

    Health Check (HC) was a voluntary nutrition labeling program developed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada as a guide to help consumers choose healthy foods. Items meeting nutrient criteria were identified with a HC symbol. This study examined the impact of the program on differences in consumer awareness and use of nutritional information in restaurants. Exit surveys were conducted with 1126 patrons outside four HC and four comparison restaurants in Ontario, Canada (2013). Surveys assessed participant noticing of nutrition information, influence of nutrition information on menu selection, and nutrient intake. Significantly more patrons at HC restaurants noticed nutrition information than at comparison restaurants (34.2% vs. 28.1%; OR = 1.39; p = 0.019); however, only 5% of HC restaurant patrons recalled seeing the HC symbol. HC restaurant patrons were more likely to say that their order was influenced by nutrition information (10.9% vs. 4.5%; OR = 2.96, p restaurant patrons ordered HC approved items; however, only 1% ordered a HC item and mentioned seeing the symbol in the restaurant in an unprompted recall task, and only 4% ordered a HC item and reported seeing the symbol on the item when asked directly. The HC program was associated with greater levels of noticing and influence of nutrition information, and more favourable nutrient intake; however, awareness of the HC program was very low and differences most likely reflect the type of restaurants that "self-selected" into the program.

  3. Social networks predict selective observation and information spread in ravens

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubenstein, Daniel I.; Bugnyar, Thomas; Hoppitt, William; Mikus, Nace; Schwab, Christine

    2016-01-01

    Animals are predicted to selectively observe and learn from the conspecifics with whom they share social connections. Yet, hardly anything is known about the role of different connections in observation and learning. To address the relationships between social connections, observation and learning, we investigated transmission of information in two raven (Corvus corax) groups. First, we quantified social connections in each group by constructing networks on affiliative interactions, aggressive interactions and proximity. We then seeded novel information by training one group member on a novel task and allowing others to observe. In each group, an observation network based on who observed whose task-solving behaviour was strongly correlated with networks based on affiliative interactions and proximity. Ravens with high social centrality (strength, eigenvector, information centrality) in the affiliative interaction network were also central in the observation network, possibly as a result of solving the task sooner. Network-based diffusion analysis revealed that the order that ravens first solved the task was best predicted by connections in the affiliative interaction network in a group of subadult ravens, and by social rank and kinship (which influenced affiliative interactions) in a group of juvenile ravens. Our results demonstrate that not all social connections are equally effective at predicting the patterns of selective observation and information transmission. PMID:27493780

  4. Confirming preferences or collecting data? Information search strategies and romantic partner selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hennessy, Michael H; Fishbein, Marty; Curtis, Brenda; Barrett, Daniel

    2008-03-01

    This article investigates two kinds of information search strategies in the context of selecting romantic partners. Confirmatory searching occurs when people ask for more information about a romantic partner in order to validate or confirm their assessment. Balanced searches are characterized by a search for risk information for partners rated as attractive and for attractiveness information about partners rated as risky in order to attain a more complete evaluation. A factorial survey computer program randomly constructed five types of partner descriptions and college-age respondents evaluated nine descriptions in terms of both health risk and romantic attractiveness outcomes. The results show little evidence of balanced search strategies: for all vignette types the respondents searched for attractiveness information. Regression analysis of the search outcomes showed no difference between males and females in the desire for attractiveness or risk information, the amount of additional information desired, or the proportion of descriptions for which more information was desired. However, an attractive physical appearance did increase the amount of additional information desired and the proportion of vignettes for which more information was desired. The results were generally inconsistent with a balanced search hypothesis; a better characterization of the respondents' strategy might be "confirmatory bias."

  5. Considerations on the selection and prioritization of information security solutions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Cristina RĂDULESCU

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides a set of guidelines that can be used for prescribing a methodology or a detailed process for selecting and prioritizing security projects or solutions. It is based on the idea that costs of security solutions should be justified by their contribution to ensuring adequate protection of information resources in the organization which implements them. The article reviews general issues of security risks and costs, arguing the need for explicit consideration of information resources security requirements in order to validate decisions concerning security projects implementation. In such an approach, security requirements of information resources are used as a reference system to quantify the benefits and limitations of security solutions defined as alternative or complementary responses to certain security risks as their implementation faces budget constraints.

  6. Partial relay selection based on shadowing side information over generalized composite fading channels

    KAUST Repository

    Yilmaz, Ferkan

    2011-11-01

    In this paper, in contrast to the relay selection protocols available in the literature, we propose a partial relay selection protocol utilizing only the shadowing side information of the relays instead of their full channel side information in order to select a relay in a dual-hop relaying system through the available limited feedback channels and power budget. We then presented an exact unified performance expression combining the average bit error probability, ergodic capacity, and moments-generating function of the proposed partial relay selection over generalized fading channels. Referring to the unified performance expression introduced in [1], we explicitly offer a generic unified performance expression that can be easily calculated and that is applicable to a wide variety of fading scenarios. Finally, as an illustration of the mathematical formalism, some numerical and simulation results are generated for an extended generalized-K fading environment, and these numerical and simulation results are shown to be in perfect agreement. © 2011 IEEE.

  7. Maintenance of item and order information in verbal working memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camos, Valérie; Lagner, Prune; Loaiza, Vanessa M

    2017-09-01

    Although verbal recall of item and order information is well-researched in short-term memory paradigms, there is relatively little research concerning item and order recall from working memory. The following study examined whether manipulating the opportunity for attentional refreshing and articulatory rehearsal in a complex span task differently affected the recall of item- and order-specific information of the memoranda. Five experiments varied the opportunity for articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing in a complex span task, but the type of recall was manipulated between experiments (item and order, order only, and item only recall). The results showed that impairing attentional refreshing and articulatory rehearsal similarly affected recall regardless of whether the scoring procedure (Experiments 1 and 4) or recall requirements (Experiments 2, 3, and 5) reflected item- or order-specific recall. This implies that both mechanisms sustain the maintenance of item and order information, and suggests that the common cumulative functioning of these two mechanisms to maintain items could be at the root of order maintenance.

  8. The Agent of extracting Internet Information with Lead Order

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mo, Zan; Huang, Chuliang; Liu, Aijun

    In order to carry out e-commerce better, advanced technologies to access business information are in need urgently. An agent is described to deal with the problems of extracting internet information that caused by the non-standard and skimble-scamble structure of Chinese websites. The agent designed includes three modules which respond to the process of extracting information separately. A method of HTTP tree and a kind of Lead algorithm is proposed to generate a lead order, with which the required web can be retrieved easily. How to transform the extracted information structuralized with natural language is also discussed.

  9. Selecting practice management information systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Worley, R; Ciotti, V

    1997-01-01

    Despite enormous advances in information systems, the process by which most medical practices select them has remained virtually unchanged for decades: the request for proposal (RFP). Unfortunately, vendors have learned ways to minimize the value of RFP checklists to where purchasers now learn little about the system functionality. The authors describe a selection methodology that replaces the RFP with scored demos, reviews of vendor user manuals and mathematically structured reference checking. In a recent selection process at a major medical center, these techniques yielded greater user buy-in and favorable contract terms as well.

  10. Lost time: Bindings do not represent temporal order information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moeller, Birte; Frings, Christian

    2018-06-04

    Many accounts of human action control assume bindings between features of stimuli and responses of individual events. One widely accepted assumption about these bindings is that they do not contain temporal-order representations regarding the integrated elements. Even though several theories either explicitly or implicitly include it, this assumption has never been tested directly. One reason for this lack of evidence is likely that typical stimulus-response binding paradigms are inapt for such a test. Adapting a new paradigm of response-response binding to include order switches between response integration and retrieval, we were able to analyze possible representation of order information in bindings for the first time. Binding effects were identical for intact and switched response orders, indicating that bindings indeed include no temporal-order information.

  11. Information Overload in Multi-Stage Selection Procedures

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S.S. Ficco (Stefano); V.A. Karamychev (Vladimir)

    2004-01-01

    textabstractThe paper studies information processing imperfections in a fully rational decision-making network. It is shown that imperfect information transmission and imperfect information acquisition in a multi-stage selection game yield information overload. The paper analyses the mechanisms

  12. Statistical approach for selection of biologically informative genes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Das, Samarendra; Rai, Anil; Mishra, D C; Rai, Shesh N

    2018-05-20

    Selection of informative genes from high dimensional gene expression data has emerged as an important research area in genomics. Many gene selection techniques have been proposed so far are either based on relevancy or redundancy measure. Further, the performance of these techniques has been adjudged through post selection classification accuracy computed through a classifier using the selected genes. This performance metric may be statistically sound but may not be biologically relevant. A statistical approach, i.e. Boot-MRMR, was proposed based on a composite measure of maximum relevance and minimum redundancy, which is both statistically sound and biologically relevant for informative gene selection. For comparative evaluation of the proposed approach, we developed two biological sufficient criteria, i.e. Gene Set Enrichment with QTL (GSEQ) and biological similarity score based on Gene Ontology (GO). Further, a systematic and rigorous evaluation of the proposed technique with 12 existing gene selection techniques was carried out using five gene expression datasets. This evaluation was based on a broad spectrum of statistically sound (e.g. subject classification) and biological relevant (based on QTL and GO) criteria under a multiple criteria decision-making framework. The performance analysis showed that the proposed technique selects informative genes which are more biologically relevant. The proposed technique is also found to be quite competitive with the existing techniques with respect to subject classification and computational time. Our results also showed that under the multiple criteria decision-making setup, the proposed technique is best for informative gene selection over the available alternatives. Based on the proposed approach, an R Package, i.e. BootMRMR has been developed and available at https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/BootMRMR. This study will provide a practical guide to select statistical techniques for selecting informative genes

  13. Spatially dynamic recurrent information flow across long-range dorsal motor network encodes selective motor goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoo, Peter E; Hagan, Maureen A; John, Sam E; Opie, Nicholas L; Ordidge, Roger J; O'Brien, Terence J; Oxley, Thomas J; Moffat, Bradford A; Wong, Yan T

    2018-03-08

    Performing voluntary movements involves many regions of the brain, but it is unknown how they work together to plan and execute specific movements. We recorded high-resolution ultra-high-field blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal during a cued ankle-dorsiflexion task. The spatiotemporal dynamics and the patterns of task-relevant information flow across the dorsal motor network were investigated. We show that task-relevant information appears and decays earlier in the higher order areas of the dorsal motor network then in the primary motor cortex. Furthermore, the results show that task-relevant information is encoded in general initially, and then selective goals are subsequently encoded in specifics subregions across the network. Importantly, the patterns of recurrent information flow across the network vary across different subregions depending on the goal. Recurrent information flow was observed across all higher order areas of the dorsal motor network in the subregions encoding for the current goal. In contrast, only the top-down information flow from the supplementary motor cortex to the frontoparietal regions, with weakened recurrent information flow between the frontoparietal regions and bottom-up information flow from the frontoparietal regions to the supplementary cortex were observed in the subregions encoding for the opposing goal. We conclude that selective motor goal encoding and execution rely on goal-dependent differences in subregional recurrent information flow patterns across the long-range dorsal motor network areas that exhibit graded functional specialization. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Apparel Research Network (ARN) Apparel Order Processing Module (AOPM). Application Program for Management of Special Measurement Clothing Orders

    Science.gov (United States)

    1997-09-30

    Screen, abandoning changes. APPAREL ORDER PROCESSING MODULE FIELD USER MANUAL Ordering Official Screens The Ordering Official Screens are provided for...currendy selected Ordering Official will appear on the Ordering Official Information Screen. APPAREL ORDER PROCESSING MODULE FIELD USER MANUAL Ordering Official

  15. On distribution reduction and algorithm implementation in inconsistent ordered information systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yanqin

    2014-01-01

    As one part of our work in ordered information systems, distribution reduction is studied in inconsistent ordered information systems (OISs). Some important properties on distribution reduction are studied and discussed. The dominance matrix is restated for reduction acquisition in dominance relations based information systems. Matrix algorithm for distribution reduction acquisition is stepped. And program is implemented by the algorithm. The approach provides an effective tool for the theoretical research and the applications for ordered information systems in practices. For more detailed and valid illustrations, cases are employed to explain and verify the algorithm and the program which shows the effectiveness of the algorithm in complicated information systems.

  16. Between order and chaos: The quest for meaningful information

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Adriaans, P.

    2009-01-01

    The notion of meaningful information seems to be associated with the sweet spot between order and chaos. This form of meaningfulness of information, which is primarily what science is interested in, is not captured by both Shannon information and Kolmogorov complexity. In this paper I develop a

  17. Exploratory Movement Generates Higher-Order Information That Is Sufficient for Accurate Perception of Scaled Egocentric Distance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mantel, Bruno; Stoffregen, Thomas A.; Campbell, Alain; Bardy, Benoît G.

    2015-01-01

    Body movement influences the structure of multiple forms of ambient energy, including optics and gravito-inertial force. Some researchers have argued that egocentric distance is derived from inferential integration of visual and non-visual stimulation. We suggest that accurate information about egocentric distance exists in perceptual stimulation as higher-order patterns that extend across optics and inertia. We formalize a pattern that specifies the egocentric distance of a stationary object across higher-order relations between optics and inertia. This higher-order parameter is created by self-generated movement of the perceiver in inertial space relative to the illuminated environment. For this reason, we placed minimal restrictions on the exploratory movements of our participants. We asked whether humans can detect and use the information available in this higher-order pattern. Participants judged whether a virtual object was within reach. We manipulated relations between body movement and the ambient structure of optics and inertia. Judgments were precise and accurate when the higher-order optical-inertial parameter was available. When only optic flow was available, judgments were poor. Our results reveal that participants perceived egocentric distance from the higher-order, optical-inertial consequences of their own exploratory activity. Analysis of participants’ movement trajectories revealed that self-selected movements were complex, and tended to optimize availability of the optical-inertial pattern that specifies egocentric distance. We argue that accurate information about egocentric distance exists in higher-order patterns of ambient energy, that self-generated movement can generate these higher-order patterns, and that these patterns can be detected and used to support perception of egocentric distance that is precise and accurate. PMID:25856410

  18. 75 FR 733 - Implementation of the Executive Order, ``Classified National Security Information''

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-05

    ... of the Executive Order, ``Classified National Security Information'' Memorandum for the Heads of... Security Information'' (the ``order''), which substantially advances my goals for reforming the security... classified information shall provide the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) a copy...

  19. On the Feature Selection and Classification Based on Information Gain for Document Sentiment Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asriyanti Indah Pratiwi

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Sentiment analysis in a movie review is the needs of today lifestyle. Unfortunately, enormous features make the sentiment of analysis slow and less sensitive. Finding the optimum feature selection and classification is still a challenge. In order to handle an enormous number of features and provide better sentiment classification, an information-based feature selection and classification are proposed. The proposed method reduces more than 90% unnecessary features while the proposed classification scheme achieves 96% accuracy of sentiment classification. From the experimental results, it can be concluded that the combination of proposed feature selection and classification achieves the best performance so far.

  20. 75 FR 68529 - Proposed Christmas Tree Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Referendum Procedures

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-11-08

    ... and procedure, Advertising, Consumer information, Marketing agreements, Christmas trees, Promotion...-0008-PR] RIN 0581-AD00 Proposed Christmas Tree Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Referendum... or continuation of the proposed Christmas Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Proposed Order...

  1. Information Gain Based Dimensionality Selection for Classifying Text Documents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dumidu Wijayasekara; Milos Manic; Miles McQueen

    2013-06-01

    Selecting the optimal dimensions for various knowledge extraction applications is an essential component of data mining. Dimensionality selection techniques are utilized in classification applications to increase the classification accuracy and reduce the computational complexity. In text classification, where the dimensionality of the dataset is extremely high, dimensionality selection is even more important. This paper presents a novel, genetic algorithm based methodology, for dimensionality selection in text mining applications that utilizes information gain. The presented methodology uses information gain of each dimension to change the mutation probability of chromosomes dynamically. Since the information gain is calculated a priori, the computational complexity is not affected. The presented method was tested on a specific text classification problem and compared with conventional genetic algorithm based dimensionality selection. The results show an improvement of 3% in the true positives and 1.6% in the true negatives over conventional dimensionality selection methods.

  2. Strategic information transmission and stochastic orders

    OpenAIRE

    Szalay, Dezsö

    2012-01-01

    I develop new results on uniqueness and comparative statics of equilibria in the Crawford and Sobel (1982) strategic information transmission game. For a class of utility functions, I demonstrate that logconcavity of the density implies uniqueness of equilibria inducing a given number of Receiver actions. I provide comparative statics results with respect to the distribution of types for distributions that are comparable in the likelihood ratio order, implying, e.g., that advice from a better...

  3. Adaptation and selective information transmission in the cricket auditory neuron AN2.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klaus Wimmer

    Full Text Available Sensory systems adapt their neural code to changes in the sensory environment, often on multiple time scales. Here, we report a new form of adaptation in a first-order auditory interneuron (AN2 of crickets. We characterize the response of the AN2 neuron to amplitude-modulated sound stimuli and find that adaptation shifts the stimulus-response curves toward higher stimulus intensities, with a time constant of 1.5 s for adaptation and recovery. The spike responses were thus reduced for low-intensity sounds. We then address the question whether adaptation leads to an improvement of the signal's representation and compare the experimental results with the predictions of two competing hypotheses: infomax, which predicts that information conveyed about the entire signal range should be maximized, and selective coding, which predicts that "foreground" signals should be enhanced while "background" signals should be selectively suppressed. We test how adaptation changes the input-response curve when presenting signals with two or three peaks in their amplitude distributions, for which selective coding and infomax predict conflicting changes. By means of Bayesian data analysis, we quantify the shifts of the measured response curves and also find a slight reduction of their slopes. These decreases in slopes are smaller, and the absolute response thresholds are higher than those predicted by infomax. Most remarkably, and in contrast to the infomax principle, adaptation actually reduces the amount of encoded information when considering the whole range of input signals. The response curve changes are also not consistent with the selective coding hypothesis, because the amount of information conveyed about the loudest part of the signal does not increase as predicted but remains nearly constant. Less information is transmitted about signals with lower intensity.

  4. Accelerating distributed average consensus by exploring the information of second-order neighbors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yuan Deming [School of Automation, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, Jiangsu (China); Xu Shengyuan, E-mail: syxu02@yahoo.com.c [School of Automation, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, Jiangsu (China); Zhao Huanyu [School of Automation, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, Jiangsu (China); Chu Yuming [Department of Mathematics, Huzhou Teacher' s College, Huzhou 313000, Zhejiang (China)

    2010-05-17

    The problem of accelerating distributed average consensus by using the information of second-order neighbors in both the discrete- and continuous-time cases is addressed in this Letter. In both two cases, when the information of second-order neighbors is used in each iteration, the network will converge with a speed faster than the algorithm only using the information of first-order neighbors. Moreover, the problem of using partial information of second-order neighbors is considered, and the edges are not chosen randomly from second-order neighbors. In the continuous-time case, the edges are chosen by solving a convex optimization problem which is formed by using the convex relaxation method. In the discrete-time case, for small network the edges are chosen optimally via the brute force method. Finally, simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

  5. 48 CFR 36.607 - Release of information on firm selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... firm selection. 36.607 Section 36.607 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION... Services 36.607 Release of information on firm selection. (a) After final selection has taken place, the contracting officer may release information identifying only the architect-engineer firm with which a contract...

  6. Effects of persuasive message order on coping with breast cancer information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prentice-Dunn, S; Floyd, D L; Flournoy, J M

    2001-02-01

    The current study explored the impact of varying the order of message components on coping with breast cancer information. In a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design, threat information, coping information and order of information were manipulated. College students read persuasive essays that varied in emphasis on threat of developing breast cancer and effectiveness of breast self-examination (BSE) in averting the threat of cancer. Participants who read the high-threat message reported higher intentions to perform BSE, more rational problem solving and more hopelessness than did those who read a low-threat message. The coping information messages produced a similar pattern of results. In addition, those who read the high-coping message reported less fatalism than did participants who read the low-coping message. When threat information was presented first, the high-threat message led to less hopelessness and reliance on religious faith than when the coping information was presented first. These results demonstrate the threatening health information energizes one to act in both adaptive and maladaptive ways, and that coping information decreases the tendency to respond maladaptively to the health threat. They also suggest that the order of presentation of the information may affect the extent to which people respond adaptively.

  7. Information Source Selection and Management Framework in Wireless Sensor Network

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tobgay, Sonam; Olsen, Rasmus Løvenstein; Prasad, Ramjee

    2013-01-01

    information source selection and management framework and presents an algorithm which selects the information source based on the information mismatch probability [1]. The sampling rate for every access is decided as per the maximum allowable power consumption limit. Index Terms-wireless sensor network...

  8. Order information coding in working memory: Review of behavioural studies and cognitive mechanisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barbara Dolenc

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Executive processes, such as coding for sequential order, are of extreme importance for higher-order cognitive tasks. One of the significant questions is, how order information is coded in working memory and what cognitive mechanisms and processes mediate it. The aim of this review paper is to summarize results of studies that explore whether order and item memory are two separable processes. Furthermore, we reviewed evidence for each of the proposed cognitive mechanism that might mediate order processing. Previous behavioural and neuroimaging data suggest different representation and processing of item and order information in working memory. Both information are maintained and recalled separately and this separation seems to hold for recognition as well as for recall. To explain the result of studies of order coding, numerous cognitive mechanisms were proposed. We focused on four different mechanisms by which order information might be coded and retrieved, namely inter-item associations, direct coding, hierarchical coding and magnitude coding. Each of the mechanisms can explain some of the aspect of order information coding, however none of them is able to explain all of the empirical findings. Due to its complex nature it is not surprising that a single mechanism has difficulties accounting for all the behavioral data and order memory may be more accurately characterized as the result of a set of mechanisms rather than a single one. Moreover, the findings beget a question of whether different types of memory for order information might exist.

  9. Feature Selection for Chemical Sensor Arrays Using Mutual Information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, X. Rosalind; Lizier, Joseph T.; Nowotny, Thomas; Berna, Amalia Z.; Prokopenko, Mikhail; Trowell, Stephen C.

    2014-01-01

    We address the problem of feature selection for classifying a diverse set of chemicals using an array of metal oxide sensors. Our aim is to evaluate a filter approach to feature selection with reference to previous work, which used a wrapper approach on the same data set, and established best features and upper bounds on classification performance. We selected feature sets that exhibit the maximal mutual information with the identity of the chemicals. The selected features closely match those found to perform well in the previous study using a wrapper approach to conduct an exhaustive search of all permitted feature combinations. By comparing the classification performance of support vector machines (using features selected by mutual information) with the performance observed in the previous study, we found that while our approach does not always give the maximum possible classification performance, it always selects features that achieve classification performance approaching the optimum obtained by exhaustive search. We performed further classification using the selected feature set with some common classifiers and found that, for the selected features, Bayesian Networks gave the best performance. Finally, we compared the observed classification performances with the performance of classifiers using randomly selected features. We found that the selected features consistently outperformed randomly selected features for all tested classifiers. The mutual information filter approach is therefore a computationally efficient method for selecting near optimal features for chemical sensor arrays. PMID:24595058

  10. Green supplier selection and order allocation in a low-carbon paper industry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Govindan, Kannan; Sivakumar, R.

    2016-01-01

    is to engage the case company with their supplier networks to diminish the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and cost in their production process. It proposes a model to support the selection of the best green supplier and an allocation of order among the potential suppliers. The proposed model contains a two......-phase hybrid approach. The first phase presents the rating and selection of potential suppliers by considering economics (cost), operational factors (quality and delivery), and environmental criteria (recycle capability and GHG emission control) using Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity....... Finally, a conclusion and a suggested direction of future research are introduced....

  11. Understanding the limit order book: Conditioning on trade informativeness

    OpenAIRE

    Beltran, Héléna; Grammig, Joachim; Menkveld, Albert J.

    2005-01-01

    Electronic limit order books are ubiquitous in markets today. However, theoretical models for limit order markets fail to explain the real world data well. Sandas (2001) tests the classic Glosten (1994) model for order book equilibrium and rejects it. We reconfirm this result for one of the largest European stock markets. We then relax one of the model's assumptions and allow the informational content of trades to change over time. Adapting Hasbrouck's (1991a,b) methodology to estimate time v...

  12. Information, Sentiment, and Price in a Fast Order-Driven Market

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Derviz, Alexis

    2011-01-01

    Roč. 8, č. 3 (2011), s. 43-75 ISSN 0972-916X Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : limit order * market order * high frequency trading * price dicovery * sentiment Subject RIV: AH - Economics http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2011/E/derviz-information, sentiment, and price in a fast order-driven market.pdf

  13. Transformation of Selective Dissemination of Information: e-SDI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohd Hafizal Yusof; Ruzilah Ehsan; Habibah Adnan; Iberahim Ali

    2013-01-01

    ILMU or Integrated Library Management Utilities are first used by Malaysian Nuclear Agency's Library since 2005. The purpose of implementation of this system is to catalogue publications in the library. It uses languages of MARC 21 (Machine Readable Cataloging). One of services offered by this system are IRS Module where it used for indexing publication such as journal articles, patent, thesis, and newspaper articles. Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) was a famous services offered by libraries around the world to their user. User just updated their forms called user profile in order to apply the literature based on interested keywords or type of publications. The librarian will effort to get those publication wanted by the user. Nowadays, as technology developed, this services also transformed into the digital version. This paper work prepared to discuss e-SDI service in Malaysian Nuclear Agency's Library using ILMU system. (author)

  14. Order information is used to guide recall of long lists: Further evidence for the item-order account.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forrin, Noah D; MacLeod, Colin M

    2016-06-01

    Differences in memory for item order have been used to explain the absence of between-subjects (i.e., pure-list) effects in free recall for several encoding techniques, including the production effect, the finding that reading aloud benefits memory compared with reading silently. Notably, however, evidence in support of the item-order account (Nairne, Riegler, & Serra, 1991) has derived primarily from short-list paradigms. We provide novel evidence that the item-order account also applies when recalling long lists. In Experiment 1, participants studied and then free recalled 3 different long lists of words: pure aloud, pure silent, and mixed (half aloud, half silent). A Bayesian analysis supported a null pure-list production effect, and subsequent order analyses were largely consistent with the item-order account. These findings indicate that order information is retained in long-term memory and is useful in guiding subsequent free recall. In Experiment 2, a distractor task was inserted between the study and test phases, ensuring that only long-term memory processes were involved in recall: The pattern of results remained consistent with the item-order account. Order information can be retained in long-term memory for long lists, and is useful in guiding subsequent free recall, extending the domain of the item-order account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. 77 FR 51804 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Information Collection; Change Order Accounting

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-08-27

    ...; Information Collection; Change Order Accounting AGENCY: Department of Defense (DOD), General Services... requirement concerning change order accounting. Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this... 9000- 0026, Change Order Accounting by any of the following methods: Regulations.gov : http://www...

  16. Selecting for memory? The influence of selective attention on the mnemonic binding of contextual information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uncapher, Melina R; Rugg, Michael D

    2009-06-24

    Not all of what is experienced is remembered later. Behavioral evidence suggests that the manner in which an event is processed influences which aspects of the event will later be remembered. The present experiment investigated the neural correlates of "selective encoding," or the mechanisms that support the encoding of some elements of an event in preference to others. Event-related MRI data were acquired while volunteers selectively attended to one of two different contextual features of study items (color or location). A surprise memory test for the items and both contextual features was subsequently administered to determine the influence of selective attention on the neural correlates of contextual encoding. Activity in several cortical regions indexed later memory success selectively for color or location information, and this encoding-related activity was enhanced by selective attention to the relevant feature. Critically, a region in the hippocampus responded selectively to attended source information (whether color or location), demonstrating encoding-related activity for attended but not for nonattended source features. Together, the findings suggest that selective attention modulates the magnitude of activity in cortical regions engaged by different aspects of an event, and hippocampal encoding mechanisms seem to be sensitive to this modulation. Thus, the information that is encoded into a memory representation is biased by selective attention, and this bias is mediated by cortical-hippocampal interactions.

  17. Selecting for memory? The influence of selective attention on the mnemonic binding of contextual information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uncapher, Melina R.; Rugg, Michael D.

    2009-01-01

    Not all of what is experienced is remembered later. Behavioral evidence suggests that the manner in which an event is processed influences which aspects of the event will later be remembered. The present experiment investigated the neural correlates of ‘selective encoding’, or the mechanisms that support the encoding of some elements of an event in preference to others. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired while volunteers selectively attended to one of two different contextual features of study items (color or location). A surprise memory test for the items and both contextual features was subsequently administered to determine the influence of selective attention on the neural correlates of contextual encoding. Activity in several cortical regions indexed later memory success selectively for color or location information, and this encoding-related activity was enhanced by selective attention to the relevant feature. Critically, a region in the hippocampus responded selectively to attended source information (whether color or location), demonstrating encoding-related activity for attended but not for nonattended source features. Together, the findings suggest that selective attention modulates the magnitude of activity in cortical regions engaged by different aspects of an event, and hippocampal encoding mechanisms seem to be sensitive to this modulation. Thus, the information that is encoded into a memory representation is biased by selective attention, and this bias is mediated by cortico-hippocampal interactions. PMID:19553466

  18. Selective dissemination of health information: Bulletins of the National Medical Library of Cuba

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Santana Arroyo

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The National Medical Library of Cuba (BMN has the mission to ensure the provision of scientific and technology information to the community of professionals that make up the healthcare sector in the country, primarily the Ministry of Public Health, identified as prioritized user of BMN, in order to elevate the quality of care, research, management and teaching, as well as to encourage the finding of new solutions that enable to face health problems in Cuba and in the world. This article aims to describe the making process of the bulletins: Bibliomed, Bibliomed Supplemento, BiblioDir and Factográfico de Salud, which are offered by specialists from Selective Dissemination of Information Service that resides in the BMN area of Customer Service, in order to support the decision making of health managers of Cuba Ministry of Public Health. For this purpose, the paper details scope, content, sections, team responsibility, procedures for preparing and processing the bulletins. Most used sources of information and skills of staff are also presented. Such Informative scientific work strengthen BMN as a paradigm of the cuban medical libraries network, transforming the pattern of a traditional library into a modern library, characterized by an effective knowledge management and development processes in virtual environments.

  19. Directional enhancement of selected high-order-harmonics from intense laser irradiated blazed grating targets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Guobo; Chen, Min; Liu, Feng; Yuan, Xiaohui; Weng, Suming; Zheng, Jun; Ma, Yanyun; Shao, Fuqiu; Sheng, Zhengming; Zhang, Jie

    2017-10-02

    Relativistically intense laser solid target interaction has been proved to be a promising way to generate high-order harmonics, which can be used to diagnose ultrafast phenomena. However, their emission direction and spectra still lack tunability. Based upon two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we show that directional enhancement of selected high-order-harmonics can be realized using blazed grating targets. Such targets can select harmonics with frequencies being integer times of the grating frequency. Meanwhile, the radiation intensity and emission area of the harmonics are increased. The emission direction is controlled by tailoring the local blazed structure. Theoretical and electron dynamics analysis for harmonics generation, selection and directional enhancement from the interaction between multi-cycle laser and grating target are carried out. These studies will benefit the generation and application of laser plasma-based high order harmonics.

  20. Customer Order Decoupling Point Selection Model in Mass Customization Based on MAS

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    XU Xuanguo; LI Xiangyang

    2006-01-01

    Mass customization relates to the ability of providing individually designed products or services to customer with high process flexibility or integration. Literatures on mass customization have been focused on mechanism of MC, but little on customer order decoupling point selection. The aim of this paper is to present a model for customer order decoupling point selection of domain knowledge interactions between enterprises and customers in mass customization. Based on the analysis of other researchers' achievements combining the demand problems of customer and enterprise, a model of group decision for customer order decoupling point selection is constructed based on quality function deployment and multi-agent system. Considering relatively the decision makers of independent functional departments as independent decision agents, a decision agent set is added as the third dimensionality to house of quality, the cubic quality function deployment is formed. The decision-making can be consisted of two procedures: the first one is to build each plane house of quality in various functional departments to express each opinions; the other is to evaluate and gather the foregoing sub-decisions by a new plane quality function deployment. Thus, department decision-making can well use its domain knowledge by ontology, and total decision-making can keep simple by avoiding too many customer requirements.

  1. Word order and information structure in Makhuwa-Enahara

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wal, Guenever Johanna van der

    2009-01-01

    This thesis investigates the grammar of Makhuwa-Enahara, a Bantu language spoken in the north of Mozambique. The information structure is an influential factor in this language, determining the word order and the use of special conjugations known as conjoint and disjoint verb forms. The thesis

  2. A Reduced-Order Controller Considering High-Order Modal Information of High-Rise Buildings for AMD Control System with Time-Delay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zuo-Hua Li

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Time-delays of control force calculation, data acquisition, and actuator response will degrade the performance of Active Mass Damper (AMD control systems. To reduce the influence, model reduction method is used to deal with the original controlled structure. However, during the procedure, the related hierarchy information of small eigenvalues will be directly discorded. As a result, the reduced-order model ignores the information of high-order mode, which will reduce the design accuracy of an AMD control system. In this paper, a new reduced-order controller based on the improved Balanced Truncation (BT method is designed to reduce the calculation time and to retain the abandoned high-order modal information. It includes high-order natural frequency, damping ratio, and vibration modal information of the original structure. Then, a control gain design method based on Guaranteed Cost Control (GCC algorithm is presented to eliminate the adverse effects of data acquisition and actuator response time-delays in the design process of the reduced-order controller. To verify its effectiveness, the proposed methodology is applied to a numerical example of a ten-storey frame and an experiment of a single-span four-storey steel frame. Both numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the reduced-order controller with GCC algorithm has an excellent control effect; meanwhile it can compensate time-delays effectively.

  3. Image fusion and denoising using fractional-order gradient information

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mei, Jin-Jin; Dong, Yiqiu; Huang, Ting-Zhu

    Image fusion and denoising are significant in image processing because of the availability of multi-sensor and the presence of the noise. The first-order and second-order gradient information have been effectively applied to deal with fusing the noiseless source images. In this paper, due to the adv...... show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional total variation in methods for simultaneously fusing and denoising....

  4. 76 FR 23537 - Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Importer Associations and Assessment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-04-27

    ... Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Importer Associations and Assessment Computation... computation for assessments received by importer associations under the Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order)(7 CFR part 1219). The Order is authorized under the Hass Avocado Promotion, Research...

  5. Mean Abnormal Result Rate: Proof of Concept of a New Metric for Benchmarking Selectivity in Laboratory Test Ordering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naugler, Christopher T; Guo, Maggie

    2016-04-01

    There is a need to develop and validate new metrics to access the appropriateness of laboratory test requests. The mean abnormal result rate (MARR) is a proposed measure of ordering selectivity, the premise being that higher mean abnormal rates represent more selective test ordering. As a validation of this metric, we compared the abnormal rate of lab tests with the number of tests ordered on the same requisition. We hypothesized that requisitions with larger numbers of requested tests represent less selective test ordering and therefore would have a lower overall abnormal rate. We examined 3,864,083 tests ordered on 451,895 requisitions and found that the MARR decreased from about 25% if one test was ordered to about 7% if nine or more tests were ordered, consistent with less selectivity when more tests were ordered. We then examined the MARR for community-based testing for 1,340 family physicians and found both a wide variation in MARR as well as an inverse relationship between the total tests ordered per year per physician and the physician-specific MARR. The proposed metric represents a new utilization metric for benchmarking relative selectivity of test orders among physicians. © American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2016. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  6. PORTFOLIO SELECTION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROJECTS USING PROMETHEE V WITH C-OPTIMAL CONCEPT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonatas A. de Almeida

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a multicriteria decision model for selecting a portfolio of information system (IS projects, which integrates strategic and organizational view within a multicriteria decision structure. The PROMETHEE V method, based on outranking relations is applied, considering the c-optimal concept in order to overcome some scaling problems found in the classical PROMETHEE V approach. Then, a procedure is proposed in order to make a final analysis of the c-optimal portfolios found as a result of using PROMETHEE V. Also, the organizational view is discussed, including some factors that may influence decision making on IS projects to be included in the portfolio, such as adding the company's strategic vision and technical aspects that demonstrate how IS contributes value to a company's business.

  7. [Targeted pharmacist-led medication order review in hospital: Assessment of a selection method for drug prescriptions].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jarre, C; Bouchet, J; Hellot-Guersing, M; Leromain, A-S; Derharoutunian, C; Gadot, A; Roubille, R

    2017-11-01

    The aim of this study was to assess a selection method for drug prescriptions developed at the hospital level that allows to target pharmacist-led medication order review for at-risk patients and drugs. A one-month study has been conducted on all targeted medication orders in 19 care units. Selection criteria have been identified: biological criteria, alert medications and drug interactions. Pharmacists' interventions proposed during medication order review were listed and the possible links to the selection criteria were determined. A total of 1612 prescriptions were analysed and 236 pharmacists' interventions were performed (14.6 interventions per 100 prescriptions). Physicians' acceptance rate was 60.6%. The percentage of pharmacists' interventions linked to the selection criteria was 35.6%. The relevance of the biological criteria was identified, particularly the one identifying patients with creatinine clearance below 30ml/min. Six alert medications were also relevant selection criteria: dabigatran, morphine, gentamicin, methotrexate, potassium chloride and trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole. Drug interactions criteria was irrelevant. This study allowed a first assessment of the selection criteria used. A largest study seems necessary to continue the analysis of this selection method for prescriptions, especially the assessment of the alert medications list, in order to refine the prescriptions targeting. Copyright © 2017 Académie Nationale de Pharmacie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  8. A Proposal for IoT Dynamic Routes Selection Based on Contextual Information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Araújo, Harilton da Silva; Filho, Raimir Holanda; Rodrigues, Joel J P C; Rabelo, Ricardo de A L; Sousa, Natanael de C; Filho, José C C L S; Sobral, José V V

    2018-01-26

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is based on interconnection of intelligent and addressable devices, allowing their autonomy and proactive behavior with Internet connectivity. Data dissemination in IoT usually depends on the application and requires context-aware routing protocols that must include auto-configuration features (which adapt the behavior of the network at runtime, based on context information). This paper proposes an approach for IoT route selection using fuzzy logic in order to attain the requirements of specific applications. In this case, fuzzy logic is used to translate in math terms the imprecise information expressed by a set of linguistic rules. For this purpose, four Objective Functions (OFs) are proposed for the Routing Protocol for Low Power and Loss Networks (RPL); such OFs are dynamically selected based on context information. The aforementioned OFs are generated from the fusion of the following metrics: Expected Transmission Count (ETX), Number of Hops (NH) and Energy Consumed (EC). The experiments performed through simulation, associated with the statistical data analysis, conclude that this proposal provides high reliability by successfully delivering nearly 100% of data packets, low delay for data delivery and increase in QoS. In addition, an 30% improvement is attained in the network life time when using one of proposed objective function, keeping the devices alive for longer duration.

  9. A Proposal for IoT Dynamic Routes Selection Based on Contextual Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harilton da Silva Araújo

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The Internet of Things (IoT is based on interconnection of intelligent and addressable devices, allowing their autonomy and proactive behavior with Internet connectivity. Data dissemination in IoT usually depends on the application and requires context-aware routing protocols that must include auto-configuration features (which adapt the behavior of the network at runtime, based on context information. This paper proposes an approach for IoT route selection using fuzzy logic in order to attain the requirements of specific applications. In this case, fuzzy logic is used to translate in math terms the imprecise information expressed by a set of linguistic rules. For this purpose, four Objective Functions (OFs are proposed for the Routing Protocol for Low Power and Loss Networks (RPL; such OFs are dynamically selected based on context information. The aforementioned OFs are generated from the fusion of the following metrics: Expected Transmission Count (ETX, Number of Hops (NH and Energy Consumed (EC. The experiments performed through simulation, associated with the statistical data analysis, conclude that this proposal provides high reliability by successfully delivering nearly 100% of data packets, low delay for data delivery and increase in QoS. In addition, an 30% improvement is attained in the network life time when using one of proposed objective function, keeping the devices alive for longer duration.

  10. Microscopic description of orbital-selective spin ordering in BaMn2As2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craco, L.; Carara, S. S.

    2018-05-01

    Using generalized gradient approximation+dynamical mean-field theory, we provide a microscopic description of orbital-selective spin ordering in the tetragonal manganese pnictide BaMn2As2 . We demonstrate the coexistence of local moments and small band-gap electronic states in the parent compound. We also explore the role played by electron/hole doping, showing that the Mott insulating state is rather robust to small removal of electron charge carriers similar to cuprate oxide superconductors. Good qualitative accord between theory and angle-resolved photoemission as well as electrical transport provides support to our view of orbital-selective spin ordering in BaMn2As2 . Our proposal is expected to be an important step to understanding the emergent correlated electronic structure of materials with persisting ordered localized moments coexisting with Coulomb reconstructed nonmagnetic electronic states.

  11. Properties of hypothesis testing techniques and (Bayesian) model selection for exploration-based and theory-based (order-restricted) hypotheses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuiper, Rebecca M; Nederhoff, Tim; Klugkist, Irene

    2015-05-01

    In this paper, the performance of six types of techniques for comparisons of means is examined. These six emerge from the distinction between the method employed (hypothesis testing, model selection using information criteria, or Bayesian model selection) and the set of hypotheses that is investigated (a classical, exploration-based set of hypotheses containing equality constraints on the means, or a theory-based limited set of hypotheses with equality and/or order restrictions). A simulation study is conducted to examine the performance of these techniques. We demonstrate that, if one has specific, a priori specified hypotheses, confirmation (i.e., investigating theory-based hypotheses) has advantages over exploration (i.e., examining all possible equality-constrained hypotheses). Furthermore, examining reasonable order-restricted hypotheses has more power to detect the true effect/non-null hypothesis than evaluating only equality restrictions. Additionally, when investigating more than one theory-based hypothesis, model selection is preferred over hypothesis testing. Because of the first two results, we further examine the techniques that are able to evaluate order restrictions in a confirmatory fashion by examining their performance when the homogeneity of variance assumption is violated. Results show that the techniques are robust to heterogeneity when the sample sizes are equal. When the sample sizes are unequal, the performance is affected by heterogeneity. The size and direction of the deviations from the baseline, where there is no heterogeneity, depend on the effect size (of the means) and on the trend in the group variances with respect to the ordering of the group sizes. Importantly, the deviations are less pronounced when the group variances and sizes exhibit the same trend (e.g., are both increasing with group number). © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  12. 75 FR 67609 - Popcorn Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Order; Reapportionment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-11-03

    ... practice and procedure, Advertising, Consumer information, Marketing agreements, Popcorn promotion...-10-0010] Popcorn Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Order; Reapportionment AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: This rule amends the Popcorn Promotion...

  13. The representation of order information in auditory-verbal short-term memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalm, Kristjan; Norris, Dennis

    2014-05-14

    Here we investigate how order information is represented in auditory-verbal short-term memory (STM). We used fMRI and a serial recall task to dissociate neural activity patterns representing the phonological properties of the items stored in STM from the patterns representing their order. For this purpose, we analyzed fMRI activity patterns elicited by different item sets and different orderings of those items. These fMRI activity patterns were compared with the predictions made by positional and chaining models of serial order. The positional models encode associations between items and their positions in a sequence, whereas the chaining models encode associations between successive items and retain no position information. We show that a set of brain areas in the postero-dorsal stream of auditory processing store associations between items and order as predicted by a positional model. The chaining model of order representation generates a different pattern similarity prediction, which was shown to be inconsistent with the fMRI data. Our results thus favor a neural model of order representation that stores item codes, position codes, and the mapping between them. This study provides the first fMRI evidence for a specific model of order representation in the human brain. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/346879-08$15.00/0.

  14. 75 FR 7985 - Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Withdrawal of a Proposed Rule

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-02-23

    ..., advertising, and promotion of highbush blueberries in the marketplace. The Council recommended increasing the...-09-0021; FV-09-704] Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Withdrawal of a Proposed... amend the Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order) by increasing the assessment rate...

  15. Model selection and inference a practical information-theoretic approach

    CERN Document Server

    Burnham, Kenneth P

    1998-01-01

    This book is unique in that it covers the philosophy of model-based data analysis and an omnibus strategy for the analysis of empirical data The book introduces information theoretic approaches and focuses critical attention on a priori modeling and the selection of a good approximating model that best represents the inference supported by the data Kullback-Leibler information represents a fundamental quantity in science and is Hirotugu Akaike's basis for model selection The maximized log-likelihood function can be bias-corrected to provide an estimate of expected, relative Kullback-Leibler information This leads to Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) and various extensions and these are relatively simple and easy to use in practice, but little taught in statistics classes and far less understood in the applied sciences than should be the case The information theoretic approaches provide a unified and rigorous theory, an extension of likelihood theory, an important application of information theory, and are ...

  16. A voluntary nutrition labeling program in restaurants: Consumer awareness, use of nutrition information, and food selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine M. White

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Health Check (HC was a voluntary nutrition labeling program developed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada as a guide to help consumers choose healthy foods. Items meeting nutrient criteria were identified with a HC symbol. This study examined the impact of the program on differences in consumer awareness and use of nutritional information in restaurants. Exit surveys were conducted with 1126 patrons outside four HC and four comparison restaurants in Ontario, Canada (2013. Surveys assessed participant noticing of nutrition information, influence of nutrition information on menu selection, and nutrient intake. Significantly more patrons at HC restaurants noticed nutrition information than at comparison restaurants (34.2% vs. 28.1%; OR = 1.39; p = 0.019; however, only 5% of HC restaurant patrons recalled seeing the HC symbol. HC restaurant patrons were more likely to say that their order was influenced by nutrition information (10.9% vs. 4.5%; OR = 2.96, p < 0.001; and consumed less saturated fat and carbohydrates, and more protein and fibre (p < 0.05. Approximately 15% of HC restaurant patrons ordered HC approved items; however, only 1% ordered a HC item and mentioned seeing the symbol in the restaurant in an unprompted recall task, and only 4% ordered a HC item and reported seeing the symbol on the item when asked directly. The HC program was associated with greater levels of noticing and influence of nutrition information, and more favourable nutrient intake; however, awareness of the HC program was very low and differences most likely reflect the type of restaurants that “self-selected” into the program.

  17. 75 FR 31279 - Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Increase Membership

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-06-03

    ..., Advertising, Consumer information, Marketing agreements, Blueberry promotion, Reporting and recordkeeping... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 1218 [Document Number AMS-FV-09-0022; FV-09-705] Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Increase Membership AGENCY...

  18. 76 FR 16324 - Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Continuance Referendum

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-23

    ... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 1218 [Doc. No. AMS-FV-10-0095] Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Continuance Referendum AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing... information, Marketing agreements, Blueberry promotion, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements. Authority: 7...

  19. Selection of groundwater sites in Egypt, using geographic information systems, for desalination by solar energy in order to reduce greenhouse gases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariam G. Salim

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Although Egypt has already reached the water poverty limit, it possesses a high potential of brackish groundwater available from different aquifers. All Arab countries lie in the best sun-belt region in the world and Egypt has the highest number of sun hours all year round. Solar energy for groundwater desalination is an independent infinite energy resource; it has low running costs and reduces the contribution of greenhouse gases (GHG to global warming. Perfect meteorological conditions and land space are available in remote areas, where solar desalination could supply freshwater for drinking, industry, and for greenhouse agriculture. The present study uses Geographic Information System(s (GIS as a spatial decision support tool to select appropriate sites in Egypt for groundwater solar desalination. Solar radiation, aquifer depth, aquifer salinity, distance from the Delta and the Nile Valley, incidence of flash floods, sand dunes, rock faults, and seawater intrusion in the North Delta, are the criteria that have been taken into consideration in the process of analysis. A specific weight is given to each criterion according to its relative influence on the process of decision making. The results from the application of the presented methodology determine the relative suitability of sites for groundwater solar desalination. These sites are ranked in descending order to help decision-makers in Egypt. The results show that groundwater solar desalination is suitable in remote regions on the North Western Coast, on the North Sinai Coast, and at the Southern Oasis, for reducing greenhouse gases and that it is particularly useful for poor communities suffering from polluted water.

  20. A Review on influencing criteria for selecting supplier of information technology services in the hospital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ajami, Sima; Rajabzadeh, Ahmad; Ketabi, Saeedeh

    2014-01-01

    Organizations try to outsource their activities as much as possible in order to prevent the problems and use organizational capabilities in Information Technology (IT) field. The purpose of this paper was first, to express the effective criteria for selecting suppliers of IT services, second, to explain the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing IT in hospitals. This study was narrative review, which search was conducted with the help of libraries, books, conference proceedings, and databases of Science Direct, PubMed, Proquest, Springer, and SID (Scientific Information Database). In our searches, we employed the following keywords and their combinations: Outsourcing, information technology, hospital, decision making, and criteria. The preliminary search resulted in 120 articles, which were published between 2000 and 2013 during July 2013. After a careful analysis of the content of each paper, a total of 46 papers were selected based on their relevancy. The criteria and sub-criteria influencing outsourcing decisions in Iranian hospitals were identified in six major categories including administrative issues, issues related to the service/product, technology factors, environmental factors, risks, and economic factors associated with 15 sub-criteria containing business integration, dependence on suppliers, human resources, focus on core competencies, facilities and physical capital, innovation, quality, speed of service delivery, flexibility, market capabilities, geographical location, security, management control, cost, and financial capability. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing and effective criteria in IT services supplier selection causes the managers be able to take the most appropriate decision to select supplier of IT services. This is a general review on influencing criteria for electing of supplier of information technology services in hospitals. PMID:25540781

  1. A Review on influencing criteria for selecting supplier of information technology services in the hospital.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ajami, Sima; Rajabzadeh, Ahmad; Ketabi, Saeedeh

    2014-01-01

    Organizations try to outsource their activities as much as possible in order to prevent the problems and use organizational capabilities in Information Technology (IT) field. The purpose of this paper was first, to express the effective criteria for selecting suppliers of IT services, second, to explain the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing IT in hospitals. This study was narrative review, which search was conducted with the help of libraries, books, conference proceedings, and databases of Science Direct, PubMed, Proquest, Springer, and SID (Scientific Information Database). In our searches, we employed the following keywords and their combinations: Outsourcing, information technology, hospital, decision making, and criteria. The preliminary search resulted in 120 articles, which were published between 2000 and 2013 during July 2013. After a careful analysis of the content of each paper, a total of 46 papers were selected based on their relevancy. The criteria and sub-criteria influencing outsourcing decisions in Iranian hospitals were identified in six major categories including administrative issues, issues related to the service/product, technology factors, environmental factors, risks, and economic factors associated with 15 sub-criteria containing business integration, dependence on suppliers, human resources, focus on core competencies, facilities and physical capital, innovation, quality, speed of service delivery, flexibility, market capabilities, geographical location, security, management control, cost, and financial capability. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing and effective criteria in IT services supplier selection causes the managers be able to take the most appropriate decision to select supplier of IT services. This is a general review on influencing criteria for electing of supplier of information technology services in hospitals.

  2. Perioperative blood ordering optimization process using information from an anesthesia information management system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rinehart, Joseph B; Lee, Tiffany C; Kaneshiro, Kayleigh; Tran, Minh-Ha; Sun, Coral; Kain, Zeev N

    2016-04-01

    As part of ongoing perioperative surgical home implantation process, we applied a previously published algorithm for creation of a maximum surgical blood order schedule (MSBOS) to our operating rooms. We hypothesized that using the MSBOS we could show a reduction in unnecessary preoperative blood testing and associated costs. Data regarding all surgical cases done at UC Irvine Health's operating rooms from January 1, 2011, to January 1, 2014 were extracted from the anesthesia information management systems (AIMS). After the data were organized into surgical specialties and operative sites, blood order recommendations were generated based on five specific case characteristics of the group. Next, we assessed current ordering practices in comparison to actual blood utilization to identify potential areas of wastage and performed a cost analysis comparing the annual hospital costs from preoperative blood orders if the blood order schedule were to be followed to historical practices. Of the 19,138 patients who were categorized by the MSBOS as needing no blood sample, 2694 (14.0%) had a type and screen (T/S) ordered and 1116 (5.8%) had a type and crossmatch ordered. Of the 6073 procedures where MSBOS recommended only a T/S, 2355 (38.8%) had blood crossmatched. The cost analysis demonstrated an annual reduction in actual hospital costs of $57,335 with the MSBOS compared to historical blood ordering practices. We showed that the algorithm for development of a multispecialty blood order schedule is transferable and yielded reductions in preoperative blood product screening at our institution. © 2016 AABB.

  3. Default settings of computerized physician order entry system order sets drive ordering habits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olson, Jordan; Hollenbeak, Christopher; Donaldson, Keri; Abendroth, Thomas; Castellani, William

    2015-01-01

    Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems are quickly becoming ubiquitous, and groups of orders ("order sets") to allow for easy order input are a common feature. This provides a streamlined mechanism to view, modify, and place groups of related orders. This often serves as an electronic equivalent of a specialty requisition. A characteristic, of these order sets is that specific orders can be predetermined to be "preselected" or "defaulted-on" whenever the order set is used while others are "optional" or "defaulted-off" (though there is typically the option is to "deselect" defaulted-on tests in a given situation). While it seems intuitive that the defaults in an order set are often accepted, additional study is required to understand the impact of these "default" settings in an order set on ordering habits. This study set out to quantify the effect of changing the default settings of an order set. For quality improvement purposes, order sets dealing with transfusions were recently reviewed and modified to improve monitoring of outcome. Initially, the order for posttransfusion hematocrits and platelet count had the default setting changed from "optional" to "preselected." The default settings for platelet count was later changed back to "optional," allowing for a natural experiment to study the effect of the default selections of an order set on clinician ordering habits. Posttransfusion hematocrit values were ordered for 8.3% of red cell transfusions when the default order set selection was "off" and for 57.4% of transfusions when the default selection was "preselected" (P default order set selection was "optional," increased to 59.4% when the default was changed to "preselected" (P default selection was returned to "optional." The posttransfusion platelet count rates during the two "optional" periods: 7.0% versus 7.5% - were not statistically different (P = 0.620). Default settings in CPOE order sets can significantly influence physician selection of

  4. Age-ordered shirt numbering reduces the selection bias associated with the relative age effect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mann, David L; van Ginneken, Pleun J M A

    2017-04-01

    When placed into age groups for junior sporting competition, the relative differences in age between children leads to a bias in who is evaluated as being talented. While the impact of this relative age effect (RAE) is clear, until now there has been no evidence to show how to reduce it. The aim of this study was to determine whether the selection bias associated with the RAE could be reduced. Talent scouts from an elite football club watched junior games and ranked players on the basis of their potential. Scouts were allocated to one of three groups provided with contrasting information about the age of the players: (1) no age information, (2) players' birthdates or (3) knowledge that the numbers on the playing shirts corresponded to the relative age of the players. Results revealed a significant selection bias for the scouts in the no-age information group, and that bias remained when scouts knew the players' dates-of-birth. Strikingly though, the selection bias was eliminated when scouts watched the games knowing the shirt numbers corresponded to the relative ages of the players. The selection bias associated with the RAE can be reduced if information about age is presented appropriately.

  5. On the performance of transmit antenna selection based on shadowing side information

    KAUST Repository

    Yilmaz, Ahmet Oǧuz; Yilmaz, Ferkan; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Kucur, Oǧuz

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, a transmit antenna selection scheme, which is based on shadowing side information, is investigated. In this scheme, the selected single transmit antenna provides the highest shadowing coefficient between a transmitter and a receiver. By the proposed technique, the frequency of the usage of the feedback channel from the receiver to the transmitter and channel estimation complexity at the receiver can be reduced. We study the performance of our proposed technique, and in the analysis, we consider an independent but not identically distributed generalized-K composite fading model. More specifically, exact and closed-form expressions for the outage probability, the moment-generating function, the moments of signal-to-noise ratio, and the average symbol error probability (SEP) are derived. In addition, asymptotic outage probability and SP expressions are also presented to investigate the diversity order and the array gain. Finally, our theoretical performance results are validated by Monte Carlo simulations. © 2012 IEEE.

  6. Effects of the Ordering of Natural Selection and Population Regulation Mechanisms on Wright-Fisher Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Zhangyi; Beaumont, Mark; Yu, Feng

    2017-07-05

    We explore the effect of different mechanisms of natural selection on the evolution of populations for one- and two-locus systems. We compare the effect of viability and fecundity selection in the context of the Wright-Fisher model with selection under the assumption of multiplicative fitness. We show that these two modes of natural selection correspond to different orderings of the processes of population regulation and natural selection in the Wright-Fisher model. We find that under the Wright-Fisher model these two different orderings can affect the distribution of trajectories of haplotype frequencies evolving with genetic recombination. However, the difference in the distribution of trajectories is only appreciable when the population is in significant linkage disequilibrium. We find that as linkage disequilibrium decays the trajectories for the two different models rapidly become indistinguishable. We discuss the significance of these findings in terms of biological examples of viability and fecundity selection, and speculate that the effect may be significant when factors such as gene migration maintain a degree of linkage disequilibrium. Copyright © 2017 He et al.

  7. Selecting Informative Features of the Helicopter and Aircraft Acoustic Signals in the Adaptive Autonomous Information Systems for Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. K. Hohlov

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The article forms the rationale for selecting the informative features of the helicopter and aircraft acoustic signals to solve a problem of their recognition and shows that the most informative ones are the counts of extrema in the energy spectra of the input signals, which represent non-centered random variables. An apparatus of the multiple initial regression coefficients was selected as a mathematical tool of research. The application of digital re-circulators with positive and negative feedbacks, which have the comb-like frequency characteristics, solves the problem of selecting informative features. A distinguishing feature of such an approach is easy agility of the comb frequency characteristics just through the agility of a delay value of digital signal in the feedback circuit. Adding an adaptation block to the selection block of the informative features enables us to ensure the invariance of used informative feature and counts of local extrema of the spectral power density to the airspeed of a helicopter. The paper gives reasons for the principle of adaptation and the structure of the adaptation block. To form the discriminator characteristics are used the cross-correlation statistical characteristics of the quadrature components of acoustic signal realizations, obtained by Hilbert transform. The paper proposes to provide signal recognition using a regression algorithm that allows handling the non-centered informative features and using a priori information about coefficients of initial regression of signal and noise.The simulation in Matlab Simulink has shown that selected informative features of signals in regressive processing of signal realizations of 0.5 s duration have good separability, and based on a set of 100 acoustic signal realizations in each class in full-scale conditions, has proved ensuring a correct recognition probability of 0.975, at least. The considered principles of informative features selection and adaptation can

  8. A Feature Subset Selection Method Based On High-Dimensional Mutual Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chee Keong Kwoh

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Feature selection is an important step in building accurate classifiers and provides better understanding of the data sets. In this paper, we propose a feature subset selection method based on high-dimensional mutual information. We also propose to use the entropy of the class attribute as a criterion to determine the appropriate subset of features when building classifiers. We prove that if the mutual information between a feature set X and the class attribute Y equals to the entropy of Y , then X is a Markov Blanket of Y . We show that in some cases, it is infeasible to approximate the high-dimensional mutual information with algebraic combinations of pairwise mutual information in any forms. In addition, the exhaustive searches of all combinations of features are prerequisite for finding the optimal feature subsets for classifying these kinds of data sets. We show that our approach outperforms existing filter feature subset selection methods for most of the 24 selected benchmark data sets.

  9. Feeling conflicted and seeking information: when ambivalence enhances and diminishes selective exposure to attitude-consistent information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sawicki, Vanessa; Wegener, Duane T; Clark, Jason K; Fabrigar, Leandre R; Smith, Steven M; Durso, Geoffrey R O

    2013-06-01

    To date, little research has examined the impact of attitudinal ambivalence on attitude-congruent selective exposure. Past research would suggest that strong/univalent rather than weak/ambivalent attitudes should be more predictive of proattitudinal information seeking. Although ambivalent attitude structure might weaken the attitude's effect on seeking proattitudinal information, we believe that conflicted attitudes might also motivate attitude-congruent selective exposure because proattitudinal information should be effective in reducing ambivalence. Two studies provide evidence that the effects of ambivalence on information choices depend on amount of issue knowledge. That is, ambivalence motivates attitude-consistent exposure when issue knowledge is relatively low because less familiar information is perceived to be effective at reducing ambivalence. Conversely, when knowledge is relatively high, more unambivalent (univalent) attitudes predicted attitude-consistent information seeking.

  10. Selectively Distracted: Divided Attention and Memory for Important Information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Middlebrooks, Catherine D; Kerr, Tyson; Castel, Alan D

    2017-08-01

    Distractions and multitasking are generally detrimental to learning and memory. Nevertheless, people often study while listening to music, sitting in noisy coffee shops, or intermittently checking their e-mail. The current experiments examined how distractions and divided attention influence one's ability to selectively remember valuable information. Participants studied lists of words that ranged in value from 1 to 10 points while completing a digit-detection task, while listening to music, or without distractions. Though participants recalled fewer words following digit detection than in the other conditions, there were no significant differences between conditions in terms of selectively remembering the most valuable words. Similar results were obtained across a variety of divided-attention tasks that stressed attention and working memory to different degrees, which suggests that people may compensate for divided-attention costs by selectively attending to the most valuable items and that factors that worsen memory do not necessarily impair the ability to selectively remember important information.

  11. A New World Information Order for Better Human Understanding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masmoudi, Mustapha

    Many studies, particularly the report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (ICSCP), have tried to define a new world information order for better human understanding. What appears to be needed is the establishment of a new, open-ended, conceptual framework leading to a freer, more efficient, more equitable,…

  12. Selective dissemination of information of library in scientific research institution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Wenping

    2010-01-01

    Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) Service, which is an important component of intelligence, is the intelligence researcher to select key subjects and major issues and key technology or innovation goals under the actual needs of scientific research personnel issues, using network communication technology and database technology and information retrieval technologies, sustained and in a timely manner to track all kinds of literature for the front-line services, until the completion of research topics or key problem-solving. Library of China Institute of Atomic Energy is struggling to meet the diverse needs of customers, targeted to provide a lot of useful information for scientific researchers to use less time as possible to obtain as much intelligence information, and to research workers and leading to the successful completion of research tasks, and various decisions. The implementation of SDI services to identify clients and scope, to format SDI service team, to determine the SDI service principles and service mode. SDI services Selective demand intelligence researchers have been asked to improve their quality, to improve their interpersonal communication skills. (author)

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

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis-Chervin, Doryn; And Others

    1985-01-01

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

  14. Reduced order ARMA spectral estimation of ocean waves

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Mandal, S.; Witz, J.A.; Lyons, G.J.

    . After selecting the initial model order based on the Akaike Information Criterion method, a novel model order reduction technique is applied to obtain the final reduced order ARMA model. First estimates of the higher order autoregressive coefficients... of the reduced order ARMA model is obtained. The moving average part is determined based on partial fraction and recursive methods. The above system identification models and model order reduction technique are shown here to be successfully applied...

  15. 75 FR 13238 - Processed Raspberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Delay of Referendum

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-03-19

    ... Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Delay of Referendum AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service... further modifications to its proposal. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kimberly Coy, Marketing Specialist... Part 1208 Administrative practice and procedure, Advertising, Consumer information, Marketing...

  16. Animacy or case marker order?: priority information for online sentence comprehension in a head-final language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yokoyama, Satoru; Takahashi, Kei; Kawashima, Ryuta

    2014-01-01

    It is well known that case marker information and animacy information are incrementally used to comprehend sentences in head-final languages. However, it is still unclear how these two kinds of information are processed when they are in competition in a sentence's surface expression. The current study used sentences conveying the potentiality of some event (henceforth, potential sentences) in the Japanese language with theoretically canonical word order (dative-nominative/animate-inanimate order) and with scrambled word order (nominative-dative/inanimate-animate order). In Japanese, nominative-first case order and animate-inanimate animacy order are preferred to their reversed patterns in simplex sentences. Hence, in these potential sentences, case information and animacy information are in competition. The experiment consisted of a self-paced reading task testing two conditions (that is, canonical and scrambled potential sentences). Forty-five native speakers of Japanese participated. In our results, the canonical potential sentences showed a scrambling cost at the second argument position (the nominative argument). This result indicates that the theoretically scrambled case marker order (nominative-dative) is processed as a mentally canonical case marker order, suggesting that case information is used preferentially over animacy information when the two are in competition. The implications of our findings are discussed with regard to incremental simplex sentence comprehension models for head-final languages.

  17. 75 FR 61025 - Softwood Lumber Research, Promotion, Consumer Education and Industry Information Order...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... Information Order; Referendum Procedures AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA. ACTION: Proposed rule..., Washington, DC 20503. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Maureen T. Pello, Marketing Specialist, Research and... procedure, Advertising, Consumer information, Marketing agreements, Softwood Lumber, Promotion, Reporting...

  18. 76 FR 11939 - Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Section 610 Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-04

    ... electronic mail: [email protected] . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeanette Palmer, Marketing... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 1218 [Document Number AMS-FV-10-0006] Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Section 610 Review AGENCY...

  19. 75 FR 6089 - Processed Raspberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Referendum Procedures

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-02-08

    ..., Advertising, Consumer information, Marketing agreements, Processed Raspberries, Promotion, Reporting and...-705-FR] RIN 0581-AC79 Processed Raspberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Referendum... referendum to determine whether the issuance of the proposed Processed Raspberry Promotion, Research, and...

  20. Study of three-dimensional PET and MR image registration based on higher-order mutual information

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ren Haiping; Chen Shengzu; Wu Wenkai; Yang Hu

    2002-01-01

    Mutual information has currently been one of the most intensively researched measures. It has been proven to be accurate and effective registration measure. Despite the general promising results, mutual information sometimes might lead to misregistration because of neglecting spatial information and treating intensity variations with undue sensitivity. An extension of mutual information framework was proposed in which higher-order spatial information regarding image structures was incorporated into the registration processing of PET and MR. The second-order estimate of mutual information algorithm was applied to the registration of seven patients. Evaluation from Vanderbilt University and authors' visual inspection showed that sub-voxel accuracy and robust results were achieved in all cases with second-order mutual information as the similarity measure and with Powell's multidimensional direction set method as optimization strategy

  1. Integrating resource selection information with spatial capture--recapture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Royle, J. Andrew; Chandler, Richard B.; Sun, Catherine C.; Fuller, Angela K.

    2013-01-01

    1. Understanding space usage and resource selection is a primary focus of many studies of animal populations. Usually, such studies are based on location data obtained from telemetry, and resource selection functions (RSFs) are used for inference. Another important focus of wildlife research is estimation and modeling population size and density. Recently developed spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models accomplish this objective using individual encounter history data with auxiliary spatial information on location of capture. SCR models include encounter probability functions that are intuitively related to RSFs, but to date, no one has extended SCR models to allow for explicit inference about space usage and resource selection.

  2. A novel class of laboratory middleware. Promoting information flow and improving computerized provider order entry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grisson, Ricky; Kim, Ji Yeon; Brodsky, Victor; Kamis, Irina K; Singh, Balaji; Belkziz, Sidi M; Batra, Shalini; Myers, Harold J; Demyanov, Alexander; Dighe, Anand S

    2010-06-01

    A central duty of the laboratory is to inform clinicians about the availability and usefulness of laboratory testing. In this report, we describe a new class of laboratory middleware that connects the traditional clinical laboratory information system with the rest of the enterprise, facilitating information flow about testing services. We demonstrate the value of this approach in efficiently supporting an inpatient order entry application. We also show that order entry monitoring and iterative middleware updates can enhance ordering efficiency and promote improved ordering practices. Furthermore, we demonstrate the value of algorithmic approaches to improve the accuracy and completeness of laboratory test searches. We conclude with a discussion of design recommendations for middleware applications and discuss the potential role of middleware as a sharable, centralized repository of laboratory test information.

  3. Ancestral informative marker selection and population structure visualization using sparse Laplacian eigenfunctions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Zhang

    Full Text Available Identification of a small panel of population structure informative markers can reduce genotyping cost and is useful in various applications, such as ancestry inference in association mapping, forensics and evolutionary theory in population genetics. Traditional methods to ascertain ancestral informative markers usually require the prior knowledge of individual ancestry and have difficulty for admixed populations. Recently Principal Components Analysis (PCA has been employed with success to select SNPs which are highly correlated with top significant principal components (PCs without use of individual ancestral information. The approach is also applicable to admixed populations. Here we propose a novel approach based on our recent result on summarizing population structure by graph laplacian eigenfunctions, which differs from PCA in that it is geometric and robust to outliers. Our approach also takes advantage of the priori sparseness of informative markers in the genome. Through simulation of a ring population and the real global population sample HGDP of 650K SNPs genotyped in 940 unrelated individuals, we validate the proposed algorithm at selecting most informative markers, a small fraction of which can recover the similar underlying population structure efficiently. Employing a standard Support Vector Machine (SVM to predict individuals' continental memberships on HGDP dataset of seven continents, we demonstrate that the selected SNPs by our method are more informative but less redundant than those selected by PCA. Our algorithm is a promising tool in genome-wide association studies and population genetics, facilitating the selection of structure informative markers, efficient detection of population substructure and ancestral inference.

  4. GIS (Geographic Information Systems) based automatic tool for selection of gas pipeline corridors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Matos, Denise F.; Menezes, Paulo Cesar P.; Paz, Luciana R.L.; Garcia, Katia C.; Cruz, Cristiane B.; Pires, Silvia H.M.; Damazio, Jorge M.; Medeiros, Alexandre M.

    2009-07-01

    This paper describes a methodology developed to build total accumulated surfaces in order to better select gas pipelines corridor alternatives. The methodology is based on the minimization of negative impacts and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), allowing an automatic method of construction, evaluation and selection of alternatives, that will contribute to the decision making process. It is important to emphasize that this paper follows the assumptions presented on the research reports of a project sponsored by the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and elaborated at the Electric Power Research Center (CEPEL), called 'Development of a Geographic Information System to Oil and Gas Sectors in Brazil', and also the studies d GTW Project (Gas to Wire). Gas pipelines, as for their linear characteristic, may cross a variety of habitats and settlements, increasing the complexity of their environmental management. Considering this reality, this paper presents a methodology that takes into account different environmental criteria (layers), according to the area impacted. From the synthesis of the criteria it is presented the total accumulated surface. It is showed an example of a hypothetical gas pipeline connection between two points using the total accumulated surface. To select the 'impact scores' of the features, the gas pipeline was considered as a linear feature, but the result is a region, formed by pixels, each pixel with an accumulated impact score lower than some arbitrary measure. This region is called 'corridor', and it is the final result obtained using the proposed methodology. (author)

  5. 16 CFR 1605.10 - General or special orders seeking information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ..., management, and relation to any person, sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. Such reports and... information. The Commission may require by the issuance of general or special orders, any person, sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation to file with the Commission in such form as the Commission may...

  6. Five-Year-Olds' Systematic Errors in Second-Order False Belief Tasks Are Due to First-Order Theory of Mind Strategy Selection : A Computational Modeling Study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Arslan, Burcu; Taatgen, Niels A; Verbrugge, Rineke

    2017-01-01

    The focus of studies on second-order false belief reasoning generally was on investigating the roles of executive functions and language with correlational studies. Different from those studies, we focus on the question how 5-year-olds select and revise reasoning strategies in second-order false

  7. An Integrated Model of Material Supplier Selection and Order Allocation Using Fuzzy Extended AHP and Multiobjective Programming

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhi Li

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a supplier selection and order allocation (SSOA model to solve the problem of a multiperiod supplier selection and then order allocation in the environment of short product life cycle and frequent material purchasing, for example, fast fashion environment in apparel industry. At the first stage, with consideration of multiple decision criteria and the fuzziness of the data involved in deciding the preferences of multiple decision variables in supplier selection, the fuzzy extent analytic hierarchy process (FEAHP is adopted. In the second stage, supplier ranks are inputted into an order allocation model that aims at minimizing the risk of material purchasing and minimizing the total material purchasing costs using a dynamic programming approach, subject to constraints on deterministic customer demand and deterministic supplier capacity. Numerical examples are presented, and computational results are reported.

  8. Selective suppression of high-order harmonics within phase-matched spectral regions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lerner, Gavriel; Diskin, Tzvi; Neufeld, Ofer; Kfir, Ofer; Cohen, Oren

    2017-04-01

    Phase matching in high-harmonic generation leads to enhancement of multiple harmonics. It is sometimes desired to control the spectral structure within the phase-matched spectral region. We propose a scheme for selective suppression of high-order harmonics within the phase-matched spectral region while weakly influencing the other harmonics. The method is based on addition of phase-mismatched segments within a phase-matched medium. We demonstrate the method numerically in two examples. First, we show that one phase-mismatched segment can significantly suppress harmonic orders 9, 15, and 21. Second, we show that two phase-mismatched segments can efficiently suppress circularly polarized harmonics with one helicity over the other when driven by a bi-circular field. The new method may be useful for various applications, including the generation of highly helical bright attosecond pulses.

  9. Application of mathematical methods of analysis in selection of competing information technologies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semenov, V. L.; Kadyshev, E. N.; Zakharova, A. N.; Patianova, A. O.; Dulina, G. S.

    2018-05-01

    The article discusses the use of qualimetry methods using the apparatus of mathematical analysis in the formation of the integral index that allows one to select the best option among competing information technology. The authors propose the use of affine space in the evaluation and selection of competing information technologies.

  10. Order Selection for General Expression of Nonlinear Autoregressive Model Based on Multivariate Stepwise Regression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Jinfei; Zhu, Songqing; Chen, Ruwen

    2017-12-01

    An order selection method based on multiple stepwise regressions is proposed for General Expression of Nonlinear Autoregressive model which converts the model order problem into the variable selection of multiple linear regression equation. The partial autocorrelation function is adopted to define the linear term in GNAR model. The result is set as the initial model, and then the nonlinear terms are introduced gradually. Statistics are chosen to study the improvements of both the new introduced and originally existed variables for the model characteristics, which are adopted to determine the model variables to retain or eliminate. So the optimal model is obtained through data fitting effect measurement or significance test. The simulation and classic time-series data experiment results show that the method proposed is simple, reliable and can be applied to practical engineering.

  11. Selection of human capital in metallurgical companies using information technology (IT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Iancu

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Personnel selection is a process that takes place in a company in order to have better business performance and competitive advantage. Nowadays, companies have realized the importance of human capital as a necessity for survival in today’s competitive market. There are several methods for selecting staff, but this paper seeks to demonstrate that this selection can be done with the help of an expert system. Metallurgical companies face even greater challenges for managing personnel selection. This research will discover and test the key elements of management personnel selection and implementation of an expert system.

  12. FEATURE SELECTION METHODS BASED ON MUTUAL INFORMATION FOR CLASSIFYING HETEROGENEOUS FEATURES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ratri Enggar Pawening

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Datasets with heterogeneous features can affect feature selection results that are not appropriate because it is difficult to evaluate heterogeneous features concurrently. Feature transformation (FT is another way to handle heterogeneous features subset selection. The results of transformation from non-numerical into numerical features may produce redundancy to the original numerical features. In this paper, we propose a method to select feature subset based on mutual information (MI for classifying heterogeneous features. We use unsupervised feature transformation (UFT methods and joint mutual information maximation (JMIM methods. UFT methods is used to transform non-numerical features into numerical features. JMIM methods is used to select feature subset with a consideration of the class label. The transformed and the original features are combined entirely, then determine features subset by using JMIM methods, and classify them using support vector machine (SVM algorithm. The classification accuracy are measured for any number of selected feature subset and compared between UFT-JMIM methods and Dummy-JMIM methods. The average classification accuracy for all experiments in this study that can be achieved by UFT-JMIM methods is about 84.47% and Dummy-JMIM methods is about 84.24%. This result shows that UFT-JMIM methods can minimize information loss between transformed and original features, and select feature subset to avoid redundant and irrelevant features.

  13. Optimal Licensing Contracts with Adverse Selection and Informational Rents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela MARINESCU

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available In the paper we analyse a model for determining the optimal licensing contract in both situations of symmetric and asymmetric information between the license’s owner and the potential buyer. Next we present another way of solving the corresponding adverse selection model, using the informational rents as variables. This approach is different from that of Macho-Stadler and Perez-Castrillo.

  14. Use and selection of information as generic competition in the professional training of Systems Engineers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis Anderson Coronel-Rojas

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Generic competitions have become increasingly popular in the current educational field. In fact, they are considered by numerous higher education institutions when structuring their educational programs, as well as advocated in extensive academic work. However, thus far, not enough research reports demonstrating these competitions as indeed suited to higher education exist. University graduates do not seem sufficiently prepared for real-life challenges: they lack the skills needed to organize, take risks, and go beyond what was taught in class, tailoring their knowledge to new situations, especially in cases of correctly choosing the information necessary in order to make an informed decision. Accordingly, this article presents the results of a study published by students in their first and last semester of Systems Engineering at the University of Francisco de Paula Santander, Ocaña. The study examines the link between the ability to successfully select and use information with the evaluation of a certain skillset. Specifically, it seeks to investigate the way the students enter such a competition based on the perceptions of their teachers and peers. The results include the analysis of inductive subcategories, such as the gathering, classification and evaluation of relevant information and their ability to relay it through the appropriate channels, as well as their proficiency in information technology. Overall, the students assert that this competition is important for their education, and recognize their efficiency in selecting and classifying information, as well as their creativity the means by which they convey it, and the skills they have been able to successfully adapt during their education program However, they also recognize there are still points that require improvement.

  15. Higher-Order Statistical Correlations and Mutual Information Among Particles in a Quantum Well

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yépez, V. S.; Sagar, R. P.; Laguna, H. G.

    2017-12-01

    The influence of wave function symmetry on statistical correlation is studied for the case of three non-interacting spin-free quantum particles in a unidimensional box, in position and in momentum space. Higher-order statistical correlations occurring among the three particles in this quantum system is quantified via higher-order mutual information and compared to the correlation between pairs of variables in this model, and to the correlation in the two-particle system. The results for the higher-order mutual information show that there are states where the symmetric wave functions are more correlated than the antisymmetric ones with same quantum numbers. This holds in position as well as in momentum space. This behavior is opposite to that observed for the correlation between pairs of variables in this model, and the two-particle system, where the antisymmetric wave functions are in general more correlated. These results are also consistent with those observed in a system of three uncoupled oscillators. The use of higher-order mutual information as a correlation measure, is monitored and examined by considering a superposition of states or systems with two Slater determinants.

  16. Higher-Order Statistical Correlations and Mutual Information Among Particles in a Quantum Well

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yépez, V. S.; Sagar, R. P.; Laguna, H. G.

    2017-01-01

    The influence of wave function symmetry on statistical correlation is studied for the case of three non-interacting spin-free quantum particles in a unidimensional box, in position and in momentum space. Higher-order statistical correlations occurring among the three particles in this quantum system is quantified via higher-order mutual information and compared to the correlation between pairs of variables in this model, and to the correlation in the two-particle system. The results for the higher-order mutual information show that there are states where the symmetric wave functions are more correlated than the antisymmetric ones with same quantum numbers. This holds in position as well as in momentum space. This behavior is opposite to that observed for the correlation between pairs of variables in this model, and the two-particle system, where the antisymmetric wave functions are in general more correlated. These results are also consistent with those observed in a system of three uncoupled oscillators. The use of higher-order mutual information as a correlation measure, is monitored and examined by considering a superposition of states or systems with two Slater determinants. (author)

  17. Pretreatment of wastewater: Optimal coagulant selection using Partial Order Scaling Analysis (POSA)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tzfati, Eran; Sein, Maya; Rubinov, Angelika; Raveh, Adi; Bick, Amos

    2011-01-01

    Jar-test is a well-known tool for chemical selection for physical-chemical wastewater treatment. Jar test results show the treatment efficiency in terms of suspended matter and organic matter removal. However, in spite of having all these results, coagulant selection is not an easy task because one coagulant can remove efficiently the suspended solids but at the same time increase the conductivity. This makes the final selection of coagulants very dependent on the relative importance assigned to each measured parameter. In this paper, the use of Partial Order Scaling Analysis (POSA) and multi-criteria decision analysis is proposed to help the selection of the coagulant and its concentration in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Therefore, starting from the parameters fixed by the jar-test results, these techniques will allow to weight these parameters, according to the judgments of wastewater experts, and to establish priorities among coagulants. An evaluation of two commonly used coagulation/flocculation aids (Alum and Ferric Chloride) was conducted and based on jar tests and POSA model, Ferric Chloride (100 ppm) was the best choice. The results obtained show that POSA and multi-criteria techniques are useful tools to select the optimal chemicals for the physical-technical treatment.

  18. Five-Year-Olds’ Systematic Errors in Second-Order False Belief Tasks Are Due to First-Order Theory of Mind Strategy Selection: A Computational Modeling Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arslan, Burcu; Taatgen, Niels A.; Verbrugge, Rineke

    2017-01-01

    The focus of studies on second-order false belief reasoning generally was on investigating the roles of executive functions and language with correlational studies. Different from those studies, we focus on the question how 5-year-olds select and revise reasoning strategies in second-order false belief tasks by constructing two computational cognitive models of this process: an instance-based learning model and a reinforcement learning model. Unlike the reinforcement learning model, the instance-based learning model predicted that children who fail second-order false belief tasks would give answers based on first-order theory of mind (ToM) reasoning as opposed to zero-order reasoning. This prediction was confirmed with an empirical study that we conducted with 72 5- to 6-year-old children. The results showed that 17% of the answers were correct and 83% of the answers were wrong. In line with our prediction, 65% of the wrong answers were based on a first-order ToM strategy, while only 29% of them were based on a zero-order strategy (the remaining 6% of subjects did not provide any answer). Based on our instance-based learning model, we propose that when children get feedback “Wrong,” they explicitly revise their strategy to a higher level instead of implicitly selecting one of the available ToM strategies. Moreover, we predict that children’s failures are due to lack of experience and that with exposure to second-order false belief reasoning, children can revise their wrong first-order reasoning strategy to a correct second-order reasoning strategy. PMID:28293206

  19. Five-Year-Olds' Systematic Errors in Second-Order False Belief Tasks Are Due to First-Order Theory of Mind Strategy Selection: A Computational Modeling Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arslan, Burcu; Taatgen, Niels A; Verbrugge, Rineke

    2017-01-01

    The focus of studies on second-order false belief reasoning generally was on investigating the roles of executive functions and language with correlational studies. Different from those studies, we focus on the question how 5-year-olds select and revise reasoning strategies in second-order false belief tasks by constructing two computational cognitive models of this process: an instance-based learning model and a reinforcement learning model. Unlike the reinforcement learning model, the instance-based learning model predicted that children who fail second-order false belief tasks would give answers based on first-order theory of mind (ToM) reasoning as opposed to zero-order reasoning. This prediction was confirmed with an empirical study that we conducted with 72 5- to 6-year-old children. The results showed that 17% of the answers were correct and 83% of the answers were wrong. In line with our prediction, 65% of the wrong answers were based on a first-order ToM strategy, while only 29% of them were based on a zero-order strategy (the remaining 6% of subjects did not provide any answer). Based on our instance-based learning model, we propose that when children get feedback "Wrong," they explicitly revise their strategy to a higher level instead of implicitly selecting one of the available ToM strategies. Moreover, we predict that children's failures are due to lack of experience and that with exposure to second-order false belief reasoning, children can revise their wrong first-order reasoning strategy to a correct second-order reasoning strategy.

  20. 75 FR 7986 - Blueberry and Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information Orders; Section 610 Reviews

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-02-23

    ... importer assessment is remitted by Customs. Exports of domestic Hass avocados are exempt from assessments... Numbers AMS-FV-10-0006; AMS-FV-10-0007] Blueberry and Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information... review the Blueberry and Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information Orders (Orders). Both reviews...

  1. Quantile selection procedure and assoiated distribution of ratios of order statistics from a restricted family of probability distributions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gupta, S.S.; Panchapakesan, S.

    1975-01-01

    A quantile selection procedure in reliability problems pertaining to a restricted family of probability distributions is discussed. This family is assumed to be star-ordered with respect to the standard normal distribution folded at the origin. Motivation for this formulation of the problem is described. Both exact and asymptotic results dealing with the distribution of the maximum of ratios of order statistics from such a family are obtained and tables of the appropriate constants, percentiles of this statistic, are given in order to facilitate the use of the selection procedure

  2. Optimal heavy tail estimation – Part 1: Order selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Mudelsee

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The tail probability, P, of the distribution of a variable is important for risk analysis of extremes. Many variables in complex geophysical systems show heavy tails, where P decreases with the value, x, of a variable as a power law with a characteristic exponent, α. Accurate estimation of α on the basis of data is currently hindered by the problem of the selection of the order, that is, the number of largest x values to utilize for the estimation. This paper presents a new, widely applicable, data-adaptive order selector, which is based on computer simulations and brute force search. It is the first in a set of papers on optimal heavy tail estimation. The new selector outperforms competitors in a Monte Carlo experiment, where simulated data are generated from stable distributions and AR(1 serial dependence. We calculate error bars for the estimated α by means of simulations. We illustrate the method on an artificial time series. We apply it to an observed, hydrological time series from the River Elbe and find an estimated characteristic exponent of 1.48 ± 0.13. This result indicates finite mean but infinite variance of the statistical distribution of river runoff.

  3. Access is mainly a second-order process: SDT models whether phenomenally (first-order) conscious states are accessed by reflectively (second-order) conscious processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snodgrass, Michael; Kalaida, Natasha; Winer, E Samuel

    2009-06-01

    Access can either be first-order or second-order. First order access concerns whether contents achieve representation in phenomenal consciousness at all; second-order access concerns whether phenomenally conscious contents are selected for metacognitive, higher order processing by reflective consciousness. When the optional and flexible nature of second-order access is kept in mind, there remain strong reasons to believe that exclusion failure can indeed isolate phenomenally conscious stimuli that are not so accessed. Irvine's [Irvine, E. (2009). Signal detection theory, the exclusion failure paradigm and weak consciousness-Evidence for the access/phenomenal distinction? Consciousness and Cognition.] partial access argument fails because exclusion failure is indeed due to lack of second-order access, not insufficient phenomenally conscious information. Further, the enable account conforms with both qualitative differences and subjective report, and is simpler than the endow account. Finally, although first-order access may be a distinct and important process, second-order access arguably reflects the core meaning of access generally.

  4. On the presence of high-order interactions among somatosensory neurons and their effect on information transmission

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ince, Robin A A; Montani, Fernando; Panzeri, Stefano; Arabzadeh, Ehsan; Diamond, Mathew E

    2009-01-01

    In order to understand how populations of neurons encode information about external correlates, it is important to develop minimal models of the probability of neural population responses which capture all the salient changes of neural responses with stimuli. In this context, it is particularly useful to determine whether interactions among neurons responding to stimuli can be described by a pairwise interaction model, or whether a higher order interaction model is needed. To address this question, we compared real neural population activity obtained from the rat somatosensory cortex to maximum-entropy models which take into account only interaction of up any given order. By performing these comparisons, we found that interactions of order two were sufficient to explain a large amount of observed stimulus-response distributions, but not all of them. Triple-wise interactions were necessary to fully explain the data. We then used Shannon information to compute the impact of high order correlations on the amount of somatosensory information transmitted by the neural population. We found that correlations of order two gave a good approximation of information carried by the neural population, within 4% of the true value. Third order correlations gave an even better approximation, within 2% of the true value. Taken together, these results suggest that higher order interactions exist and shape the dynamics of cortical networks, but play a quantitatively minor role in determining the information capacity of neural populations.

  5. On the presence of high-order interactions among somatosensory neurons and their effect on information transmission

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ince, Robin A A [Faculty of Life Science, University of Manchester, 3.431 Stopford Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL (United Kingdom); Montani, Fernando; Panzeri, Stefano [Robotics, Brain, and Cognitive Sciences Department, Italian Institute of Technology, Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova (Italy); Arabzadeh, Ehsan [School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Diamond, Mathew E, E-mail: stefano.panzeri@iit.i [Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste (Italy) and the SISSA Unit, Italian Institute of Technology, Trieste (Italy)

    2009-12-01

    In order to understand how populations of neurons encode information about external correlates, it is important to develop minimal models of the probability of neural population responses which capture all the salient changes of neural responses with stimuli. In this context, it is particularly useful to determine whether interactions among neurons responding to stimuli can be described by a pairwise interaction model, or whether a higher order interaction model is needed. To address this question, we compared real neural population activity obtained from the rat somatosensory cortex to maximum-entropy models which take into account only interaction of up any given order. By performing these comparisons, we found that interactions of order two were sufficient to explain a large amount of observed stimulus-response distributions, but not all of them. Triple-wise interactions were necessary to fully explain the data. We then used Shannon information to compute the impact of high order correlations on the amount of somatosensory information transmitted by the neural population. We found that correlations of order two gave a good approximation of information carried by the neural population, within 4% of the true value. Third order correlations gave an even better approximation, within 2% of the true value. Taken together, these results suggest that higher order interactions exist and shape the dynamics of cortical networks, but play a quantitatively minor role in determining the information capacity of neural populations.

  6. Transmit antenna selection based on shadowing side information

    KAUST Repository

    Yilmaz, Ferkan

    2011-05-01

    In this paper, we propose a new transmit antenna selection scheme based on shadowing side information. In the proposed scheme, single transmit antenna which has the highest shadowing coefficient is selected. By the proposed technique, usage of the feedback channel and channel estimation complexity at the receiver can be reduced. We consider independent but not identically distributed Generalized-K composite fading model, which is a general composite fading & shadowing channel model for wireless environments. Exact closed-form outage probability, moment generating function and symbol error probability expressions are derived. In addition, theoretical performance results are validated by Monte Carlo simulations. © 2011 IEEE.

  7. Transmit antenna selection based on shadowing side information

    KAUST Repository

    Yilmaz, Ferkan; Yilmaz, Ahmet Oǧuz; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Kucur, Oǧuz

    2011-01-01

    In this paper, we propose a new transmit antenna selection scheme based on shadowing side information. In the proposed scheme, single transmit antenna which has the highest shadowing coefficient is selected. By the proposed technique, usage of the feedback channel and channel estimation complexity at the receiver can be reduced. We consider independent but not identically distributed Generalized-K composite fading model, which is a general composite fading & shadowing channel model for wireless environments. Exact closed-form outage probability, moment generating function and symbol error probability expressions are derived. In addition, theoretical performance results are validated by Monte Carlo simulations. © 2011 IEEE.

  8. Marketing of Information Resources in Selected Public Libraries in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Marketing of Information Resources in Selected Public Libraries in Lagos State: A Competitive Intelligence Approach. ... examined the use of marketing techniques in public libraries , and the e xtent to ... EMAIL FULL TEXT EMAIL FULL TEXT

  9. Marketing of Information Resources in Selected Public Libraries in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Marketing of Information Resources in Selected Public Libraries in Lagos State: ... and the e xtent to which competitive strategies could be employed in marketing ... negative influence were all indicated as factors militating against marketing of ...

  10. A Dynamic and Adaptive Selection Radar Tracking Method Based on Information Entropy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ge Jianjun

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays, the battlefield environment has become much more complex and variable. This paper presents a quantitative method and lower bound for the amount of target information acquired from multiple radar observations to adaptively and dynamically organize the detection of battlefield resources based on the principle of information entropy. Furthermore, for minimizing the given information entropy’s lower bound for target measurement at every moment, a method to dynamically and adaptively select radars with a high amount of information for target tracking is proposed. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method has higher tracking accuracy than that of tracking without adaptive radar selection based on entropy.

  11. Mutual information as an order parameter for quantum synchronization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ameri, V.; Eghbali-Arani, M.; Mari, A.; Farace, A.; Kheirandish, F.; Giovannetti, V.; Fazio, R.

    2015-01-01

    Spontaneous synchronization is a fundamental phenomenon, important in many theoretical studies and applications. Recently, this effect has been analyzed and observed in a number of physical systems close to the quantum-mechanical regime. In this work we propose mutual information as a useful order parameter which can capture the emergence of synchronization in very different contexts, ranging from semiclassical to intrinsically quantum-mechanical systems. Specifically, we first study the synchronization of two coupled Van der Pol oscillators in both classical and quantum regimes and later we consider the synchronization of two qubits inside two coupled optical cavities. In all these contexts, we find that mutual information can be used as an appropriate figure of merit for determining the synchronization phases independently of the specific details of the system.

  12. Behavior Selection of Mobile Robot Based on Integration of Multimodal Information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Bin; Kaneko, Masahide

    Recently, biologically inspired robots have been developed to acquire the capacity for directing visual attention to salient stimulus generated from the audiovisual environment. On purpose to realize this behavior, a general method is to calculate saliency maps to represent how much the external information attracts the robot's visual attention, where the audiovisual information and robot's motion status should be involved. In this paper, we represent a visual attention model where three modalities, that is, audio information, visual information and robot's motor status are considered, while the previous researches have not considered all of them. Firstly, we introduce a 2-D density map, on which the value denotes how much the robot pays attention to each spatial location. Then we model the attention density using a Bayesian network where the robot's motion statuses are involved. Secondly, the information from both of audio and visual modalities is integrated with the attention density map in integrate-fire neurons. The robot can direct its attention to the locations where the integrate-fire neurons are fired. Finally, the visual attention model is applied to make the robot select the visual information from the environment, and react to the content selected. Experimental results show that it is possible for robots to acquire the visual information related to their behaviors by using the attention model considering motion statuses. The robot can select its behaviors to adapt to the dynamic environment as well as to switch to another task according to the recognition results of visual attention.

  13. 76 FR 80387 - Renewal of Agency Information Collection for Law and Order on Indian Reservations-Marriage...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-12-23

    ... Law and Order on Indian Reservations--Marriage & Dissolution Applications; Request for Comments... ``Law and Order on Indian Reservations--Marriage & Dissolution Applications.'' The information... personal information necessary for a Court of Indian Offenses to issue a marriage license or dissolve a...

  14. Optimizing preoperative blood ordering with data acquired from an anesthesia information management system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frank, Steven M; Rothschild, James A; Masear, Courtney G; Rivers, Richard J; Merritt, William T; Savage, Will J; Ness, Paul M

    2013-06-01

    The maximum surgical blood order schedule (MSBOS) is used to determine preoperative blood orders for specific surgical procedures. Because the list was developed in the late 1970s, many new surgical procedures have been introduced and others improved upon, making the original MSBOS obsolete. The authors describe methods to create an updated, institution-specific MSBOS to guide preoperative blood ordering. Blood utilization data for 53,526 patients undergoing 1,632 different surgical procedures were gathered from an anesthesia information management system. A novel algorithm based on previously defined criteria was used to create an MSBOS for each surgical specialty. The economic implications were calculated based on the number of blood orders placed, but not indicated, according to the MSBOS. Among 27,825 surgical cases that did not require preoperative blood orders as determined by the MSBOS, 9,099 (32.7%) had a type and screen, and 2,643 (9.5%) had a crossmatch ordered. Of 4,644 cases determined to require only a type and screen, 1,509 (32.5%) had a type and crossmatch ordered. By using the MSBOS to eliminate unnecessary blood orders, the authors calculated a potential reduction in hospital charges and actual costs of $211,448 and $43,135 per year, respectively, or $8.89 and $1.81 per surgical patient, respectively. An institution-specific MSBOS can be created, using blood utilization data extracted from an anesthesia information management system along with our proposed algorithm. Using these methods to optimize the process of preoperative blood ordering can potentially improve operating room efficiency, increase patient safety, and decrease costs.

  15. Informal information for web-based engineering catalogues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allen, Richard D.; Culley, Stephen J.; Hicks, Ben J.

    2001-10-01

    Success is highly dependent on the ability of a company to efficiently produce optimal designs. In order to achieve this companies must minimize time to market and possess the ability to make fully informed decisions at the early phase of the design process. Such decisions may include the choice of component and suppliers, as well as cost and maintenance considerations. Computer modeling and electronic catalogues are becoming the preferred medium for the selection and design of mechanical components. In utilizing these techniques, the designer demands the capability to identify, evaluate and select mechanical components both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative decisions generally encompass performance data included in the formal catalogue representation. It is in the area of qualitative decisions that the use of what the authors call 'Informal Information' is of crucial importance. Thus, 'Informal Information' must often be incorporated into the selection process and selection systems. This would enable more informed decisions to be made quicker, without the need for information retrieval via discussion with colleagues in the design environment. This paper provides an overview of the use of electronic information in the design of mechanical systems, including a discussion of limitations of current technology. The importance of Informal Information is discussed and the requirements for association with web based electronic catalogues are developed. This system is based on a flexible XML schema and enables the storage, classification and recall of Informal Information packets. Furthermore, a strategy for the inclusion of Informal Information is proposed, and an example case is used to illustrate the benefits.

  16. Information management: The adoption of order processing for B2B e-commerce

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. W. Voges

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available The management of information flow in the order processing activities of small enterprises is not always understood. An inefficient supply chain is often the result of the lack of timely and accessible inter-firm information and data exchange. Small suppliers often do not have the technology infrastructure and capable resources available for proper integration with supply chains. This research investigated suppliers and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG retailers, adopting business-to-business (B2B e-commerce. Small businesses are the focus of this research, as they contribute to a large portion of the South African economy and play an important role in the supply chains of retailers. Case study research using evidence obtained from nine small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs and suppliers located in the Western Cape, South Africa, was used. It was found that small suppliers have different processes for conducting business with various retailers. Literature revealed little evidence of using the Internet as an enabling technology in on-line order processing. From the analysis, nine improvement areas were identified to enhance the conduct of efficient B2B order processing and associated information flow. These improvement areas were merged with four factors that were identified in a framework when adopting e-supply chains. This resulted in the proposition of guidelines for small suppliers when adopting B2B e-commerce for order processing.

  17. Fringe order correction for the absolute phase recovered by two selected spatial frequency fringe projections in fringe projection profilometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Yi; Peng, Kai; Yu, Miao; Lu, Lei; Zhao, Kun

    2017-08-01

    The performance of the two selected spatial frequency phase unwrapping methods is limited by a phase error bound beyond which errors will occur in the fringe order leading to a significant error in the recovered absolute phase map. In this paper, we propose a method to detect and correct the wrong fringe orders. Two constraints are introduced during the fringe order determination of two selected spatial frequency phase unwrapping methods. A strategy to detect and correct the wrong fringe orders is also described. Compared with the existing methods, we do not need to estimate the threshold associated with absolute phase values to determine the fringe order error, thus making it more reliable and avoiding the procedure of search in detecting and correcting successive fringe order errors. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by the experimental results.

  18. Information Seeking Behavior & Information Resources Management:Mental Process Selecting Subjects & Identifying Information Needs Case study: Graduate Students in Women seminaries of Shiraz of Academic year 1393- 1394(

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zohre Eftekhar

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this research is Information Resources Management: Mental Process Selecting Subjects &  Identifying Information Needs. The research method used in this study is a Quantitative method. Sampling is purposeful. This means that it includes graduate Students in Women seminaries of Shiraz who have information-seeking experience and are able to express their views and information needs. The sample was selected according to the random sampling method with Cochran formula from 710 students. According to this sampling method there is 241 Graduate Students included in 1392-1393 seminaries year of  Women seminaries of Shiraz. This is a survey research Which has been carried out by employing a questionnaire and SPSS for windows to analyze data. The results showed that students for selecting subjects,  identifying information needs used methods and media such as Prying Mind, reviewing of information resources, Consulting with subject specialists.

  19. Science and Information Conference 2015 : Extended and Selected Results

    CERN Document Server

    Kapoor, Supriya; Bhatia, Rahul

    2016-01-01

    This book is a collection of extended chapters from the selected papers that were published in the proceedings of Science and Information (SAI) Conference 2015. It contains twenty-one chapters in the field of Computational Intelligence, which received highly recommended feedback during SAI Conference 2015 review process. During the three-day event 260 scientists, technology developers, young researcher including PhD students, and industrial practitioners from 56 countries have engaged intensively in presentations, demonstrations, open panel sessions and informal discussions. .

  20. System for selecting relevant information for decision support.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalina, Jan; Seidl, Libor; Zvára, Karel; Grünfeldová, Hana; Slovák, Dalibor; Zvárová, Jana

    2013-01-01

    We implemented a prototype of a decision support system called SIR which has a form of a web-based classification service for diagnostic decision support. The system has the ability to select the most relevant variables and to learn a classification rule, which is guaranteed to be suitable also for high-dimensional measurements. The classification system can be useful for clinicians in primary care to support their decision-making tasks with relevant information extracted from any available clinical study. The implemented prototype was tested on a sample of patients in a cardiological study and performs an information extraction from a high-dimensional set containing both clinical and gene expression data.

  1. Integration of genomic information into sport horse breeding programs for optimization of accuracy of selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haberland, A M; König von Borstel, U; Simianer, H; König, S

    2012-09-01

    Reliable selection criteria are required for young riding horses to increase genetic gain by increasing accuracy of selection and decreasing generation intervals. In this study, selection strategies incorporating genomic breeding values (GEBVs) were evaluated. Relevant stages of selection in sport horse breeding programs were analyzed by applying selection index theory. Results in terms of accuracies of indices (r(TI) ) and relative selection response indicated that information on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes considerably increases the accuracy of breeding values estimated for young horses without own or progeny performance. In a first scenario, the correlation between the breeding value estimated from the SNP genotype and the true breeding value (= accuracy of GEBV) was fixed to a relatively low value of r(mg) = 0.5. For a low heritability trait (h(2) = 0.15), and an index for a young horse based only on information from both parents, additional genomic information doubles r(TI) from 0.27 to 0.54. Including the conventional information source 'own performance' into the before mentioned index, additional SNP information increases r(TI) by 40%. Thus, particularly with regard to traits of low heritability, genomic information can provide a tool for well-founded selection decisions early in life. In a further approach, different sources of breeding values (e.g. GEBV and estimated breeding values (EBVs) from different countries) were combined into an overall index when altering accuracies of EBVs and correlations between traits. In summary, we showed that genomic selection strategies have the potential to contribute to a substantial reduction in generation intervals in horse breeding programs.

  2. Accessing information to rural communities: case studies of selected ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... facilities is, therefore, a basic need. This paper defines Telecentres, reviews Information Communication Technologies, and gives an overview of selected Telecentres in Uganda and their users. It concludes with discussing challenges and possible solutions. (University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal: 2003 5(1): 13-23) ...

  3. Hemi-ordered nanoporous carbon electrode material for highly selective determination of nitrite in physiological and environmental systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhou, Shenghai; Wu, Hongmin; Wu, Ying; Shi, Hongyan; Feng, Xun; Jiang, Shang; Chen, Jian; Song, Wenbo, E-mail: wbsong@jlu.edu.cn

    2014-08-01

    Hemi-ordered nanoporous carbon (HONC) was obtained from a mesoporous silica template through a nano-replication method using furfuryl alcohol as the carbon source. The structure and morphology of HONC were characterized and analyzed in detail by X-ray diffraction, N{sub 2}-sorption, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. HONC was then demonstrated as active electrode material for selective determination of nitrite in either physiological or environmental system. Well separated oxidation peaks of ascorbic acid, dopamine, uric acid and nitrite were observed in physiological system, and simultaneous discrimination of catechol, hydroquinone, resorcinol and nitrite in environmental system was also accomplished. Distinctly improved performances for selective determination of nitrite (such as significantly fast and sensitive current response with especially high selectivity) coexisted with ascorbic acid, dopamine and uric acid in the physiological system, as well as with catechol, hydroquinone and resorcinol in the environmental system were achieved at HONC electrode material. The excellent discriminating ability and high selectivity for NO{sub 2}{sup −} determination were ascribed to the good electronic conductivity, unique hemi-ordered porous structure, large surface area and large number of edge plane defect sites contained on the surface of nanopore walls of HONC. Results in this work demonstrated that HONC is one of the promising catalytic electrode materials for nitrite sensor fabrication. - Highlights: • Hemi-ordered nanoporous carbon as an active electrode material • Good discriminating ability towards NO{sub 2}{sup −} from physiological or environmental system • Highly selective determination of nitrite with fast and sensitive current response.

  4. Risk-Informed Decision Making: Application to Technology Development Alternative Selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dezfuli, Homayoon; Maggio, Gaspare; Everett, Christopher

    2010-01-01

    NASA NPR 8000.4A, Agency Risk Management Procedural Requirements, defines risk management in terms of two complementary processes: Risk-informed Decision Making (RIDM) and Continuous Risk Management (CRM). The RIDM process is used to inform decision making by emphasizing proper use of risk analysis to make decisions that impact all mission execution domains (e.g., safety, technical, cost, and schedule) for program/projects and mission support organizations. The RIDM process supports the selection of an alternative prior to program commitment. The CRM process is used to manage risk associated with the implementation of the selected alternative. The two processes work together to foster proactive risk management at NASA. The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters has developed a technical handbook to provide guidance for implementing the RIDM process in the context of NASA risk management and systems engineering. This paper summarizes the key concepts and procedures of the RIDM process as presented in the handbook, and also illustrates how the RIDM process can be applied to the selection of technology investments as NASA's new technology development programs are initiated.

  5. System of selective disemination of information at ININ

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martinez G, M.A.

    1981-01-01

    A study of the systems of selective dissemination of information (SDI) is presented, the concepts for such systems outlined, and their developments traced in advanced countries, its forms of operation and implications for the special libraries. Also the operation of INIS at CIDN (Centro de Informacion y Documentacion Nuclear) is presented, together with recommendations and conclusions to improve the development of this service in Mexico. (author)

  6. Information resources and material selection in bonded restorations among Korean dentists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Juhea; Kim, Hae-Young; Cho, Byeong Hoon; Lee, In Bog; Son, Ho Hyun

    2009-12-01

    To elucidate how dentists access knowledge sources when choosing adhesive agents for bonded restoration and whether these resources influenced the selection of materials. A national survey was carried out involving dentists in South Korea. The questionnaire included the status of the operator, clinical techniques, and materials. A total of 12,193 e-mails were distributed, 2632 were opened by recipients, and 840 responses were collected. For primary information resources in material selection, 55.8% (n = 469) of the responders mentioned continuing education. This selection criteria varied according to the working status of the clinician (p choice of bonding system was influenced by of the length of the career (p < 0.0001), and the preferred bonding systems differed according to the source of the information (p = 0.035). The popular bonding systems were not ranked according to the bonding strategy, but a preference was found for specific brands or manufacturers. To decrease the confusion of clinicians related to the selection of bonding materials, evidence-based guidelines need to be comprehensibly organized and efficiently approached in clinics.

  7. Informative gene selection using Adaptive Analytic Hierarchy Process (A2HP

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abhishek Bhola

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Gene expression dataset derived from microarray experiments are marked by large number of genes, which contains the gene expression values at different sample conditions/time-points. Selection of informative genes from these large datasets is an issue of major concern for various researchers and biologists. In this study, we propose a gene selection and dimensionality reduction method called Adaptive Analytic Hierarchy Process (A2HP. Traditional analytic hierarchy process is a multiple-criteria based decision analysis method whose result depends upon the expert knowledge or decision makers. It is mainly used to solve the decision problems in different fields. On the other hand, A2HP is a fused method that combines the outcomes of five individual gene selection ranking methods t-test, chi-square variance test, z-test, wilcoxon test and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR. At first, the preprocessing of gene expression dataset is done and then the reduced number of genes obtained, will be fed as input for A2HP. A2HP utilizes both quantitative and qualitative factors to select the informative genes. Results demonstrate that A2HP selects efficient number of genes as compared to the individual gene selection methods. The percentage of deduction in number of genes and time complexity are taken as the performance measure for the proposed method. And it is shown that A2HP outperforms individual gene selection methods.

  8. The order of information processing alters economic gain-loss framing effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwak, Youngbin; Huettel, Scott

    2018-01-01

    Adaptive decision making requires analysis of available information during the process of choice. In many decisions that information is presented visually - which means that variations in visual properties (e.g., salience, complexity) can potentially influence the process of choice. In the current study, we demonstrate that variation in the left-right positioning of risky and safe decision options can influence the canonical gain-loss framing effect. Two experiments were conducted using an economic framing task in which participants chose between gambles and certain outcomes. The first experiment demonstrated that the magnitude of the gain-loss framing effect was greater when the certain option signaling the current frame was presented on the left side of the visual display. Eye-tracking data during task performance showed a left-gaze bias for initial fixations, suggesting that the option presented on the left side was processed first. Combination of eye-tracking and choice data revealed that there was a significant effect of direction of first gaze (i.e. left vs. right) as well as an interaction between gaze direction and identity of the first fixated information (i.e. certain vs. gamble) regardless of frame. A second experiment presented the gamble and certain options in a random order, with a temporal delay between their presentations. We found that the magnitude of gain-loss framing was larger when the certain option was presented first, regardless of left and right positioning, only in individuals with lower risk-taking tendencies. The effect of presentation order on framing was not present in high risk-takers. These results suggest that the sequence of visual information processing as well as their left-right positioning can bias choices by changing the impact of the presented information during risky decision making. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Optimising a Model of Minimum Stock Level Control and a Model of Standing Order Cycle in Selected Foundry Plant

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Szymszal J.

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available It has been found that the area where one can look for significant reserves in the procurement logistics is a rational management of the stock of raw materials. Currently, the main purpose of projects which increase the efficiency of inventory management is to rationalise all the activities in this area, taking into account and minimising at the same time the total inventory costs. The paper presents a method for optimising the inventory level of raw materials under a foundry plant conditions using two different control models. The first model is based on the estimate of an optimal level of the minimum emergency stock of raw materials, giving information about the need for an order to be placed immediately and about the optimal size of consignments ordered after the minimum emergency level has occurred. The second model is based on the estimate of a maximum inventory level of raw materials and an optimal order cycle. Optimisation of the presented models has been based on the previously done selection and use of rational methods for forecasting the time series of the delivery of a chosen auxiliary material (ceramic filters to a casting plant, including forecasting a mean size of the delivered batch of products and its standard deviation.

  10. Mathematics of aperiodic order

    CERN Document Server

    Lenz, Daniel; Savinien, Jean

    2015-01-01

    What is order that is not based on simple repetition, that is, periodicity? How must atoms be arranged in a material so that it diffracts like a quasicrystal? How can we describe aperiodically ordered systems mathematically? Originally triggered by the – later Nobel prize-winning – discovery of quasicrystals, the investigation of aperiodic order has since become a well-established and rapidly evolving field of mathematical research with close ties to a surprising variety of branches of mathematics and physics. This book offers an overview of the state of the art in the field of aperiodic order, presented in carefully selected authoritative surveys. It is intended for non-experts with a general background in mathematics, theoretical physics or computer science, and offers a highly accessible source of first-hand information for all those interested in this rich and exciting field. Topics covered include the mathematical theory of diffraction, the dynamical systems of tilings or Delone sets, their cohomolog...

  11. Searching and selecting online information: analysis of the strategic actions of the university students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María José Hernández Serrano

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available 0 0 1 113 622 USAL 5 1 734 14.0 Normal 0 21 false false false ES JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:ES; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} As complex and dynamic activity, the searching and selection of online information needs a strategic performance in order to achieve effective and meaningful results and processes. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether university students perceive a need to be strategic, for what actions, what times, and what are their predispositions towards the strategic actions in the Internet information searching and selection process. Results showed differences between students by course, those in their final courses, who have also received training, showed better predisposition to strategic actions. Two factors that explain the university students’ predispositions were found, in terms of basic actions and complementary actions.

  12. Temporal mode selectivity by frequency conversion in second-order nonlinear optical waveguides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Reddy, D. V.; Raymer, M. G.; McKinstrie, C. J.

    2013-01-01

    in a transparent optical network using temporally orthogonal waveforms to encode different channels. We model the process using coupled-mode equations appropriate for wave mixing in a uniform second-order nonlinear optical medium pumped by a strong laser pulse. We find Green functions describing the process...... in this optimal regime. We also find an operating regime in which high-efficiency frequency conversion without temporal-shape selectivity can be achieved while preserving the shapes of a wide class of input pulses. The results are applicable to both classical and quantum frequency conversion....

  13. Planck 2015 results: VII. High Frequency Instrument data processing: Time-ordered information and beams

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Adam, R.; Ade, P. A R; Aghanim, N.

    2016-01-01

    The Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) has observed the full sky at six frequencies (100, 143, 217, 353, 545, and 857 GHz) in intensity and at four frequencies in linear polarization (100, 143, 217, and 353 GHz). In order to obtain sky maps, the time-ordered information (TOI) containing the d...

  14. Selecting Information to Answer Questions: Strategic Individual Differences when Searching Texts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerdan, Raquel; Gilabert, Ramiro; Vidal-Abarca, Eduardo

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of the study was to explore students' selection of information strategies in a task-oriented reading situation. 72 secondary school students read two texts and answered six questions per text, three of which were manipulated to induce a misleading matching between the wording of the question and distracting pieces of information in the…

  15. Judicial decision making: order of evidence presentation and availability of background information

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kerstholt, J.H.; Jackson, J.L.

    1998-01-01

    An experiment was conducted to investigate both the effect of the order of presentation of defence and prosecution evidence and the prior availability of background information on assessment of guilt. Subjects were required to judge the defendant's probability of guilt either after each witness

  16. Health information security: a case study of three selected medical centers in iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hajrahimi, Nafiseh; Dehaghani, Sayed Mehdi Hejazi; Sheikhtaheri, Abbas

    2013-03-01

    Health Information System (HIS) is considered a unique factor in improving the quality of health care activities and cost reduction, but today with the development of information technology and use of internet and computer networks, patients' electronic records and health information systems have become a source for hackers. This study aims at checking health information security of three selected medical centers in Iran using AHP fuzzy and TOPSIS compound model. To achieve that security measures were identified, based on the research literature and decision making matrix using experts' points of view. Among the 27 indicators, seven indicators were selected as effective indicators and Fuzzy AHP technique was used to determine the importance of security indicators. Based on the comparisons made between the three selected medical centers to assess the security of health information, it is concluded that Chamran hospital has the most acceptable level of security and attention in three indicators of "verification and system design, user access management, access control system", Al Zahra Hospital in two indicators of "access management and network access control" and Amin Hospital in "equipment safety and system design". In terms of information security, Chamran Hospital ranked first, Al-Zahra Hospital ranked second and Al- Zahra hospital has the third place.

  17. Study and distortion correction in a selective dissemination of information system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Freitas Queiroz, I.O. de.

    1978-03-01

    The Selective Dissemination of Information (S D I) system of the Nuclear Information Center (Brazil) was presented, and some parameters, for the evaluation of performance and distortion were defined. These parameters were quantified for a sample of 35 user's profiles and 25.818 documents. Possible distortion factors were analysed, and some were selected, so that they could be automatically processed. The 35 profiles were up-dated by use of two algorithms developed for this purpose. For the up-dated profiles new values of the parameters were determined and showed that distortion decreased and efficiency improved. Critical points of the system were identified and new studies, on topics investigated superficially, were proposed. (Author) [pt

  18. Health information technology vendor selection strategies and total factor productivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ford, Eric W; Huerta, Timothy R; Menachemi, Nir; Thompson, Mark A; Yu, Feliciano

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this study was to compare health information technology (HIT) adoption strategies' relative performance on hospital-level productivity measures. The American Hospital Association's Annual Survey and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Analytics for fiscal years 2002 through 2007 were used for this study. A two-stage approach is employed. First, a Malmquist model is specified to calculate hospital-level productivity measures. A logistic regression model is then estimated to compare the three HIT adoption strategies' relative performance on the newly constructed productivity measures. The HIT vendor selection strategy impacts the amount of technological change required of an organization but does not appear to have either a positive or adverse impact on technical efficiency or total factor productivity. The higher levels in technological change experienced by hospitals using the best of breed and best of suite HIT vendor selection strategies may have a more direct impact on the organization early on in the process. However, these gains did not appear to translate into either increased technical efficiency or total factor productivity during the period studied. Over a longer period, one HIT vendor selection strategy may yet prove to be more effective at improving efficiency and productivity.

  19. Two sides to every story : Causes and consequences of selective exposure to balanced political information

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brenes Peralta, C.M.

    2017-01-01

    Although the current information environment offers citizens an unprecedented opportunity to engage in selective exposure behavior, namely to seek mostly pro-attitudinal information about politics and public affairs, the debate about the prevalence and consequences of selective exposure in a

  20. The future of event-level information repositories, indexing, and selection in ATLAS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barberis, D; Cranshaw, J; Malon, D; Gemmeren, P Van; Zhang, Q; Dimitrov, G; Nairz, A; Sorokoletov, R; Doherty, T; Quilty, D; Gallas, E J; Hrivnac, J; Nowak, M

    2014-01-01

    ATLAS maintains a rich corpus of event-by-event information that provides a global view of the billions of events the collaboration has measured or simulated, along with sufficient auxiliary information to navigate to and retrieve data for any event at any production processing stage. This unique resource has been employed for a range of purposes, from monitoring, statistics, anomaly detection, and integrity checking, to event picking, subset selection, and sample extraction. Recent years of data-taking provide a foundation for assessment of how this resource has and has not been used in practice, of the uses for which it should be optimized, of how it should be deployed and provisioned for scalability to future data volumes, and of the areas in which enhancements to functionality would be most valuable. This paper describes how ATLAS event-level information repositories and selection infrastructure are evolving in light of this experience, and in view of their expected roles both in wide-area event delivery services and in an evolving ATLAS analysis model in which the importance of efficient selective access to data can only grow.

  1. Stochastic Pricing and Order Model with Transportation Mode Selection for Low-Carbon Retailers

    OpenAIRE

    Yi Zheng; Huchang Liao; Xue Yang

    2016-01-01

    More and more enterprises have begun to pay attention to their carbon footprint in the supply chain, of which transportation has become the second major source of carbon emissions. This paper aims to study both optimum pricing and order quantities, considering consumer demand and the selection of transportation modes by retailers, in terms of carbon emissions sensitivity and price sensitivity under the conditions of a cap-and-trade policy and uncertain market demand. Firstly, we analyze the e...

  2. Digital information order or anarchy?

    CERN Document Server

    Woodward, Hazel M

    2009-01-01

    In an information environment shaped by an ever-growing and persistent demand for more and more digital content from every direction, it has become increasingly important that publishers, libraries and information professionals understand the challenges and opportunities of the Google environment. This book addresses these issues.

  3. Atlas selection for hippocampus segmentation: Relevance evaluation of three meta-information parameters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dill, Vanderson; Klein, Pedro Costa; Franco, Alexandre Rosa; Pinho, Márcio Sarroglia

    2018-04-01

    Current state-of-the-art methods for whole and subfield hippocampus segmentation use pre-segmented templates, also known as atlases, in the pre-processing stages. Typically, the input image is registered to the template, which provides prior information for the segmentation process. Using a single standard atlas increases the difficulty in dealing with individuals who have a brain anatomy that is morphologically different from the atlas, especially in older brains. To increase the segmentation precision in these cases, without any manual intervention, multiple atlases can be used. However, registration to many templates leads to a high computational cost. Researchers have proposed to use an atlas pre-selection technique based on meta-information followed by the selection of an atlas based on image similarity. Unfortunately, this method also presents a high computational cost due to the image-similarity process. Thus, it is desirable to pre-select a smaller number of atlases as long as this does not impact on the segmentation quality. To pick out an atlas that provides the best registration, we evaluate the use of three meta-information parameters (medical condition, age range, and gender) to choose the atlas. In this work, 24 atlases were defined and each is based on the combination of the three meta-information parameters. These atlases were used to segment 352 vol from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. Hippocampus segmentation with each of these atlases was evaluated and compared to reference segmentations of the hippocampus, which are available from ADNI. The use of atlas selection by meta-information led to a significant gain in the Dice similarity coefficient, which reached 0.68 ± 0.11, compared to 0.62 ± 0.12 when using only the standard MNI152 atlas. Statistical analysis showed that the three meta-information parameters provided a significant improvement in the segmentation accuracy. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

  4. Cognitive analysis of physicians' medication ordering activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelayo, Sylvia; Leroy, Nicolas; Guerlinger, Sandra; Degoulet, Patrice; Meaux, Jean-Jacques; Beuscart-Zéphir, Marie-Catherine

    2005-01-01

    Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) addresses critical functions in healthcare systems. As the name clearly indicates, these systems focus on order entry. With regard to medication orders, such systems generally force physicians to enter exhaustively documented orders. But a cognitive analysis of the physician's medication ordering task shows that order entry is the last (and least) important step of the entire cognitive therapeutic decision making task. We performed a comparative analysis of these complex cognitive tasks in two working environments, computer-based and paper-based. The results showed that information gathering, selection and interpretation are critical cognitive functions to support the therapeutic decision making. Thus the most important requirement from the physician's perspective would be an efficient display of relevant information provided first in the form of a summarized view of the patient's current treatment, followed by in a more detailed focused display of those items pertinent to the current situation. The CPOE system examined obviously failed to provide the physicians this critical summarized view. Following these results, consistent with users' complaints, the Company decided to engage in a significant re-engineering process of their application.

  5. Algorithms for selecting informative marker panels for population assignment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenberg, Noah A

    2005-11-01

    Given a set of potential source populations, genotypes of an individual of unknown origin at a collection of markers can be used to predict the correct source population of the individual. For improved efficiency, informative markers can be chosen from a larger set of markers to maximize the accuracy of this prediction. However, selecting the loci that are individually most informative does not necessarily produce the optimal panel. Here, using genotypes from eight species--carp, cat, chicken, dog, fly, grayling, human, and maize--this univariate accumulation procedure is compared to new multivariate "greedy" and "maximin" algorithms for choosing marker panels. The procedures generally suggest similar panels, although the greedy method often recommends inclusion of loci that are not chosen by the other algorithms. In seven of the eight species, when applied to five or more markers, all methods achieve at least 94% assignment accuracy on simulated individuals, with one species--dog--producing this level of accuracy with only three markers, and the eighth species--human--requiring approximately 13-16 markers. The new algorithms produce substantial improvements over use of randomly selected markers; where differences among the methods are noticeable, the greedy algorithm leads to slightly higher probabilities of correct assignment. Although none of the approaches necessarily chooses the panel with optimal performance, the algorithms all likely select panels with performance near enough to the maximum that they all are suitable for practical use.

  6. Recruiter Perceptions of Information that Employment References Should Provide to Assist in Making Selection Decisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evuleocha, Stevina U.; Ugbah, Steve D.; Law, Sweety

    2009-01-01

    Authors investigated perceptions of campus recruiters (N = 168) in the San Francisco Bay Area regarding the importance of 15 types of information they solicit from job applicants' references in making selection decisions. Results suggest campus recruiters should consider 10 types of information to assist them in making selection decisions. Results…

  7. Site specific information in site selection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aeikaes, T.; Hautojaervi, A.

    1998-01-01

    The programme for the siting of a deep repository for final disposal of spent nuclear fuel was started already in 1983 and is carried out today by Posiva Oy which continues the work started by Teollisuuden Voima Oy. The programme aims at site selection by the end of the year 2000. The programme has progressed in successive interim stages with defined goals. After an early phase for site identification, five sites were selected in 1987 for preliminary site characterisation. Three of these were selected and judged to be best suited for the more detailed characterisation in 1992. An additional new site was included into the programme based on a separate feasibility study in the beginning of 1997. Since the year 1983 several safety assessments together with technical plans of the facility have been completed. When approaching the site selection the needs for more detailed consideration of the site specific properties in the safety assessment have been increased. The Finnish regulator STUK has published a proposal for general safety requirements for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel in Finland. This set of requirements has been projected to be used in conjunction of the decision making by the end 2000. Based on the site evaluation all sites can provide a stable environment and there is evidence that the requirements for the longevity of the canister can be fulfilled at each site. In this manner the four candidate sites do not differ too much from each other. The main difference between the sites is in the salinity of the deep groundwater. The significance of differences in the salinity for the long-term safety cannot be defined yet. The differences may contribute to the discussion of the longevity of the bentonite buffer and also to the modelling of the groundwater flow and transport. The use of the geosphere as a transport barrier is basically culminated on the questions about sparse but fast flow routes and 'how bad channeling can be'. To answer these questions

  8. Distinct regions of prefrontal cortex are associated with the controlled retrieval and selection of social information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Satpute, Ajay B; Badre, David; Ochsner, Kevin N

    2014-05-01

    Research in social neuroscience has uncovered a social knowledge network that is particularly attuned to making social judgments. However, the processes that are being performed by both regions within this network and those outside of this network that are nevertheless engaged in the service of making a social judgment remain unclear. To help address this, we drew upon research in semantic memory, which suggests that making a semantic judgment engages 2 distinct control processes: A controlled retrieval process, which aids in bringing goal-relevant information to mind from long-term stores, and a selection process, which aids in selecting the information that is goal-relevant from the information retrieved. In a neuroimaging study, we investigated whether controlled retrieval and selection for social information engage distinct portions of both the social knowledge network and regions outside this network. Controlled retrieval for social information engaged an anterior ventrolateral portion of the prefrontal cortex, whereas selection engaged both the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction within the social knowledge network. These results suggest that the social knowledge network may be more involved with the selection of social information than the controlled retrieval of it and incorporates lateral prefrontal regions in accessing memory for making social judgments.

  9. Effectiveness of a real-time clinical decision support system for computerized physician order entry of plasma orders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yazer, Mark H; Triulzi, Darrell J; Reddy, Vivek; Waters, Jonathan H

    2013-12-01

    We investigated the effect of implementing adaptive plasma ordering criteria in the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, with alerts that were automatically generated if the recipient's antecedent international normalized ratio (INR) did not meet the institutional criteria. In a regional health care system consisting of 11 hospitals using a common CPOE, data on the number of plasma orders and alerts that were generated were collected over a 4-month period before prescribers were required to select an indication for plasma. When adaptive ordering was implemented prescribers had to choose from prepopulated indications for plasma: INR of 1.6 or greater with bleeding, INR of 1.6 or greater before an invasive procedure, therapeutic exchange, massive transfusion, and other. Regardless of the antecedent INR the alert did not trigger if massive transfusion or plasmapheresis was selected. Information on prescribers and recipients was collected during this 5-month period. In the 4-month period before the adaptive alerts were implemented, 42.9% of the plasma orders generated an alert; in the 5-month period thereafter the alert rate was significantly lower at 27.9% (p plasma orders were for periprocedure or bleeding patients whose antecedent INR was less than 1.6. There were significant differences in prescriber specialties among those who ordered plasma using the other indication compared to all plasma orders. Electronic interventions improve compliance with plasma guidelines but as implemented are not sufficient to completely curtail non-evidence-based ordering. © 2013 American Association of Blood Banks.

  10. A fuzzy multi-criteria decision model for integrated suppliers selection and optimal order allocation in the green supply chain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamzeh Amin-Tahmasbi

    2018-09-01

    Full Text Available Today, with the advancement of technology in the production process of various products, the achievement of sustainable production and development has become one of the main concerns of factories and manufacturing organizations. In the same vein, many manufacturers try to select suppliers in their upstream supply chains that have the best performance in terms of sustainable development criteria. In this research, a new multi-criteria decision-making model for selecting suppliers and assigning orders in the green supply chain is presented with a fuzzy optimization approach. Due to uncertainty in supplier capacity as well as customer demand, the problem is formulated as a fuzzy multi-objective linear programming (FMOLP. The proposed model for the selection of suppliers of SAPCO Corporation is evaluated. Firstly, in order to select and rank suppliers in a green supply chain, a network structure of criteria has defined with five main criteria of cost, quality, delivery, technology and environmental benefits. Subsequently, using incomplete fuzzy linguistic relationships, pair-wise comparisons between the criteria and sub-criteria as well as the operation of the options will be assessed. The results of these comparisons rank the existing suppliers in terms of performance and determine the utility of them. The output of these calculations (utility index is used in the optimization model. Subsequently, in the order allocation process, the two functions of the target cost of purchase and purchase value are optimized simultaneously. Finally, the order quantity is determined for each supplier in each period.

  11. Order Aggressiveness and Order Book Dynamics

    OpenAIRE

    Anthony D. Hall; Nikolaus Hautsch

    2004-01-01

    In this paper, we study the determinants of order aggressiveness and traders' order submission strategy in an open limit order book market. Using order book data from the Australian Stock Exchange, we model traders' aggressiveness in market trading, limit order trading as well as in order cancellations on both sides of the market using a six-dimensional autoregressive intensity model. The information revealed by the open order book plays an important role in explaining the degree of order agg...

  12. Relevant cost information for order acceptance decisions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wouters, M.J.F.

    1997-01-01

    Some economic considerations for order acceptance decisions are discussed. The relevant economic considerations for order acceptance are widely discussed in the literature: only those costs are relevant which would be avoidable by not accepting the order incremental costs plus opportunity costs .

  13. Fractional Order Generalized Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Tenreiro Machado

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper formulates a novel expression for entropy inspired in the properties of Fractional Calculus. The characteristics of the generalized fractional entropy are tested both in standard probability distributions and real world data series. The results reveal that tuning the fractional order allow an high sensitivity to the signal evolution, which is useful in describing the dynamics of complex systems. The concepts are also extended to relative distances and tested with several sets of data, confirming the goodness of the generalization.

  14. Model selection criteria : how to evaluate order restrictions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kuiper, R.M.

    2012-01-01

    Researchers often have ideas about the ordering of model parameters. They frequently have one or more theories about the ordering of the group means, in analysis of variance (ANOVA) models, or about the ordering of coefficients corresponding to the predictors, in regression models.A researcher might

  15. Fusion of multiagent preference orderings with information on agent's importance being incomplete certain

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Wang Jianqiang

    2007-01-01

    The problem of fusing multiagent preference orderings, with information on agent's importance being incomplete certain with respect to a set of possible courses of action, is described. The approach is developed for dealing with the fusion problem described in the following sections and requires that each agent provides a preference ordering over the different alternatives completely independent of the other agents, and the information on agent's importance is incomplete certain. In this approach, the ternary comparison matrix of the alternatives is constructed, the eigenvector associated with the maximum eigenvalue of the ternary comparison matrix is attained so as to normalize priority vector of the alternatives. The interval number of the alternatives is then obtained by solving two sorts of linear programming problems. By comparing the interval numbers of the alternatives, the ranking of alternatives can be generated. Finally, some examples are given to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the method.

  16. Fisher Information Based Meteorological Factors Introduction and Features Selection for Short-Term Load Forecasting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuping Cai

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Weather information is an important factor in short-term load forecasting (STLF. However, for a long time, more importance has always been attached to forecasting models instead of other processes such as the introduction of weather factors or feature selection for STLF. The main aim of this paper is to develop a novel methodology based on Fisher information for meteorological variables introduction and variable selection in STLF. Fisher information computation for one-dimensional and multidimensional weather variables is first described, and then the introduction of meteorological factors and variables selection for STLF models are discussed in detail. On this basis, different forecasting models with the proposed methodology are established. The proposed methodology is implemented on real data obtained from Electric Power Utility of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, in southeast China. The results show the advantages of the proposed methodology in comparison with other traditional ones regarding prediction accuracy, and it has very good practical significance. Therefore, it can be used as a unified method for introducing weather variables into STLF models, and selecting their features.

  17. Entropy: Order or Information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ben-Naim, Arieh

    2011-01-01

    Changes in entropy can "sometimes" be interpreted in terms of changes in disorder. On the other hand, changes in entropy can "always" be interpreted in terms of changes in Shannon's measure of information. Mixing and demixing processes are used to highlight the pitfalls in the association of entropy with disorder. (Contains 3 figures.)

  18. Properties of hypothesis testing techniques and (Bayesian) model selection for exploration-based and theory-based (order-restricted) hypotheses

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kuiper, Rebecca M.; Nederhoff, Tim; Klugkist, Irene

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, the performance of six types of techniques for comparisons of means is examined. These six emerge from the distinction between the method employed (hypothesis testing, model selection using information criteria, or Bayesian model selection) and the set of hypotheses that is

  19. 12 November 1991-Ministerial Order setting up a Commission for assessing information in the nuclear field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1991-01-01

    The Commission sets up by this Order must ensure that the public is kept informed on the technical, health, ecological, economic and financial aspects of nuclear energy, and advises the Secretary of State for Energy on the conditions for informing the public and proposes methods for disseminating such information. (NEA)

  20. Information measures for terrain visualization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonaventura, Xavier; Sima, Aleksandra A.; Feixas, Miquel; Buckley, Simon J.; Sbert, Mateu; Howell, John A.

    2017-02-01

    Many quantitative and qualitative studies in geoscience research are based on digital elevation models (DEMs) and 3D surfaces to aid understanding of natural and anthropogenically-influenced topography. As well as their quantitative uses, the visual representation of DEMs can add valuable information for identifying and interpreting topographic features. However, choice of viewpoints and rendering styles may not always be intuitive, especially when terrain data are augmented with digital image texture. In this paper, an information-theoretic framework for object understanding is applied to terrain visualization and terrain view selection. From a visibility channel between a set of viewpoints and the component polygons of a 3D terrain model, we obtain three polygonal information measures. These measures are used to visualize the information associated with each polygon of the terrain model. In order to enhance the perception of the terrain's shape, we explore the effect of combining the calculated information measures with the supplementary digital image texture. From polygonal information, we also introduce a method to select a set of representative views of the terrain model. Finally, we evaluate the behaviour of the proposed techniques using example datasets. A publicly available framework for both the visualization and the view selection of a terrain has been created in order to provide the possibility to analyse any terrain model.

  1. 20 CFR 645.415 - What planning information must a State submit in order to receive a formula grant?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What planning information must a State submit in order to receive a formula grant? 645.415 Section 645.415 Employees' Benefits EMPLOYMENT AND... Grants Administration § 645.415 What planning information must a State submit in order to receive a...

  2. A Selective Group Authentication Scheme for IoT-Based Medical Information System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, YoHan; Park, YoungHo

    2017-04-01

    The technology of IoT combined with medical systems is expected to support advanced medical services. However, unsolved security problems, such as misuse of medical devices, illegal access to the medical server and so on, make IoT-based medical systems not be applied widely. In addition, users have a high burden of computation to access Things for the explosive growth of IoT devices. Because medical information is critical and important, but users have a restricted computing power, IoT-based medical systems are required to provide secure and efficient authentication for users. In this paper, we propose a selective group authentication scheme using Shamir's threshold technique. The property of selectivity gives the right of choice to users to form a group which consists of things users select and access. And users can get an access authority for those Things at a time. Thus, our scheme provides an efficient user authentication for multiple Things and conditional access authority for safe IoT-based medical information system. To the best of our knowledge, our proposed scheme is the first in which selectivity is combined with group authentication in IoT environments.

  3. The role of selective attention in short-term memory and goal-directed behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vissers, M.E.

    2018-01-01

    Selective attention enables the prioritization of goal-relevant aspects of our sensory environment in order to guide our actions, or to store goal-relevant information in short-term memory. Yet, it remains largely unclear how attention prioritizes goal-relevant information. For example, selective

  4. 20 CFR 667.120 - What planning information must a State submit in order to receive a formula grant?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What planning information must a State submit in order to receive a formula grant? 667.120 Section 667.120 Employees' Benefits EMPLOYMENT AND... INVESTMENT ACT Funding § 667.120 What planning information must a State submit in order to receive a formula...

  5. Efficient allocations in dynamic private information economies with persistent shocks: a first-order approach

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Kapička, Marek

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 80, č. 3 (2013), s. 1027-1054 ISSN 0034-6527 Institutional support: RVO:67985998 Keywords : first-order approach * persistent shocks * private information Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 3.235, year: 2013

  6. Hybrid Multicriteria Group Decision Making Method for Information System Project Selection Based on Intuitionistic Fuzzy Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jian Guo

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Information system (IS project selection is of critical importance to every organization in dynamic competing environment. The aim of this paper is to develop a hybrid multicriteria group decision making approach based on intuitionistic fuzzy theory for IS project selection. The decision makers’ assessment information can be expressed in the form of real numbers, interval-valued numbers, linguistic variables, and intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs. All these evaluation pieces of information can be transformed to the form of IFNs. Intuitionistic fuzzy weighted averaging (IFWA operator is utilized to aggregate individual opinions of decision makers into a group opinion. Intuitionistic fuzzy entropy is used to obtain the entropy weights of the criteria. TOPSIS method combined with intuitionistic fuzzy set is proposed to select appropriate IS project in group decision making environment. Finally, a numerical example for information system projects selection is given to illustrate application of hybrid multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM method based on intuitionistic fuzzy theory and TOPSIS method.

  7. Improvements in recall and food choices using a graphical method to deliver information of select nutrients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pratt, Nathan S; Ellison, Brenna D; Benjamin, Aaron S; Nakamura, Manabu T

    2016-01-01

    Consumers have difficulty using nutrition information. We hypothesized that graphically delivering information of select nutrients relative to a target would allow individuals to process information in time-constrained settings more effectively than numerical information. Objectives of the study were to determine the efficacy of the graphical method in (1) improving memory of nutrient information and (2) improving consumer purchasing behavior in a restaurant. Values of fiber and protein per calorie were 2-dimensionally plotted alongside a target box. First, a randomized cued recall experiment was conducted (n=63). Recall accuracy of nutrition information improved by up to 43% when shown graphically instead of numerically. Second, the impact of graphical nutrition signposting on diner choices was tested in a cafeteria. Saturated fat and sodium information was also presented using color coding. Nutrient content of meals (n=362) was compared between 3 signposting phases: graphical, nutrition facts panels (NFP), or no nutrition label. Graphical signposting improved nutrient content of purchases in the intended direction, whereas NFP had no effect compared with the baseline. Calories ordered from total meals, entrées, and sides were significantly less during graphical signposting than no-label and NFP periods. For total meal and entrées, protein per calorie purchased was significantly higher and saturated fat significantly lower during graphical signposting than the other phases. Graphical signposting remained a predictor of calories and protein per calorie purchased in regression modeling. These findings demonstrate that graphically presenting nutrition information makes that information more available for decision making and influences behavior change in a realistic setting. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Conditional Mutual Information Based Feature Selection for Classification Task

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Novovičová, Jana; Somol, Petr; Haindl, Michal; Pudil, Pavel

    2007-01-01

    Roč. 45, č. 4756 (2007), s. 417-426 ISSN 0302-9743 R&D Projects: GA MŠk 1M0572; GA AV ČR IAA2075302 EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 507752 - MUSCLE Grant - others:GA MŠk(CZ) 2C06019 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : Pattern classification * feature selection * conditional mutual information * text categorization Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research Impact factor: 0.402, year: 2005

  9. Efficient allocations in dynamic private information economies with persistent shocks: a first-order approach

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Kapička, Marek

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 80, č. 3 (2013), s. 1027-1054 ISSN 0034-6527 Institutional support: PRVOUK-P23 Keywords : first-order approach * persistent shocks * private information Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 3.235, year: 2013

  10. Strategic Disclosure of Demand Information by Duopolists

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jansen, Jos; Pollak, Andreas

    We study the strategic disclosure of demand information and product-market strategies of duopolists. In a setting where firms may fail to receive information, we show that firms selectively disclose information in equilibrium in order to influence their competitor's product-market strategy....... Subsequently, we analyze the firms' behavior in a laboratory experiment. We find that subjects often use selective disclosure strategies, and this finding appears to be robust to changes in the information structure, the mode of competition, and the degree of product-market conduct that is largely consistent...

  11. Information overload or search-amplified risk? Set size and order effects on decisions from experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hills, Thomas T; Noguchi, Takao; Gibbert, Michael

    2013-10-01

    How do changes in choice-set size influence information search and subsequent decisions? Moreover, does information overload influence information processing with larger choice sets? We investigated these questions by letting people freely explore sets of gambles before choosing one of them, with the choice sets either increasing or decreasing in number for each participant (from two to 32 gambles). Set size influenced information search, with participants taking more samples overall, but sampling a smaller proportion of gambles and taking fewer samples per gamble, when set sizes were larger. The order of choice sets also influenced search, with participants sampling from more gambles and taking more samples overall if they started with smaller as opposed to larger choice sets. Inconsistent with information overload, information processing appeared consistent across set sizes and choice order conditions, reliably favoring gambles with higher sample means. Despite the lack of evidence for information overload, changes in information search did lead to systematic changes in choice: People who started with smaller choice sets were more likely to choose gambles with the highest expected values, but only for small set sizes. For large set sizes, the increase in total samples increased the likelihood of encountering rare events at the same time that the reduction in samples per gamble amplified the effect of these rare events when they occurred-what we call search-amplified risk. This led to riskier choices for individuals whose choices most closely followed the sample mean.

  12. Robust Feature Selection from Microarray Data Based on Cooperative Game Theory and Qualitative Mutual Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Atiyeh Mortazavi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available High dimensionality of microarray data sets may lead to low efficiency and overfitting. In this paper, a multiphase cooperative game theoretic feature selection approach is proposed for microarray data classification. In the first phase, due to high dimension of microarray data sets, the features are reduced using one of the two filter-based feature selection methods, namely, mutual information and Fisher ratio. In the second phase, Shapley index is used to evaluate the power of each feature. The main innovation of the proposed approach is to employ Qualitative Mutual Information (QMI for this purpose. The idea of Qualitative Mutual Information causes the selected features to have more stability and this stability helps to deal with the problem of data imbalance and scarcity. In the third phase, a forward selection scheme is applied which uses a scoring function to weight each feature. The performance of the proposed method is compared with other popular feature selection algorithms such as Fisher ratio, minimum redundancy maximum relevance, and previous works on cooperative game based feature selection. The average classification accuracy on eleven microarray data sets shows that the proposed method improves both average accuracy and average stability compared to other approaches.

  13. Informative sensor selection and learning for prediction of lower limb kinematics using generative stochastic neural networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eunsuk Chong; Taejin Choi; Hyungmin Kim; Seung-Jong Kim; Yoha Hwang; Jong Min Lee

    2017-07-01

    We propose a novel approach of selecting useful input sensors as well as learning a mathematical model for predicting lower limb joint kinematics. We applied a feature selection method based on the mutual information called the variational information maximization, which has been reported as the state-of-the-art work among information based feature selection methods. The main difficulty in applying the method is estimating reliable probability density of input and output data, especially when the data are high dimensional and real-valued. We addressed this problem by applying a generative stochastic neural network called the restricted Boltzmann machine, through which we could perform sampling based probability estimation. The mutual informations between inputs and outputs are evaluated in each backward sensor elimination step, and the least informative sensor is removed with its network connections. The entire network is fine-tuned by maximizing conditional likelihood in each step. Experimental results are shown for 4 healthy subjects walking with various speeds, recording 64 sensor measurements including electromyogram, acceleration, and foot-pressure sensors attached on both lower limbs for predicting hip and knee joint angles. For test set of walking with arbitrary speed, our results show that our suggested method can select informative sensors while maintaining a good prediction accuracy.

  14. Automated selection of relevant information for notification of incident cancer cases within a multisource cancer registry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jouhet, V; Defossez, G; Ingrand, P

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a selection algorithm of relevant records for the notification of incident cases of cancer on the basis of the individual data available in a multi-source information system. This work was conducted on data for the year 2008 in the general cancer registry of Poitou-Charentes region (France). The selection algorithm hierarchizes information according to its level of relevance for tumoral topography and tumoral morphology independently. The selected data are combined to form composite records. These records are then grouped in respect with the notification rules of the International Agency for Research on Cancer for multiple primary cancers. The evaluation, based on recall, precision and F-measure confronted cases validated manually by the registry's physicians with tumours notified with and without records selection. The analysis involved 12,346 tumours validated among 11,971 individuals. The data used were hospital discharge data (104,474 records), pathology data (21,851 records), healthcare insurance data (7508 records) and cancer care centre's data (686 records). The selection algorithm permitted performances improvement for notification of tumour topography (F-measure 0.926 with vs. 0.857 without selection) and tumour morphology (F-measure 0.805 with vs. 0.750 without selection). These results show that selection of information according to its origin is efficient in reducing noise generated by imprecise coding. Further research is needed for solving the semantic problems relating to the integration of heterogeneous data and the use of non-structured information.

  15. Information order and outcome framing: an assesment of judgment bias in a naturalistic decision-making context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perrin, B M; Barnett, B J; Walrath, L; Grossman, J D

    2001-01-01

    Findings that decision makers can come to different conclusions depending on the order in which they receive information have been termed the "information order bias." When trained, experienced individuals exhibit similar behaviors; however, it has been argued that this result is not a bias, but rather, a pattern-matching process. This study provides a critical examination of this claim. It also assesses both experts' susceptibility to an outcome framing bias and the effects of varying task loads on judgment. Using a simulation of state-of-the-art ship defensive systems operated by experienced, active-duty U.S. Navy officers, we found no evidence of a framing bias, while task load had a minor, but systematic effect. The order in which information was received had a significant impact, with the effect being consistent with a judgment bias. Nonetheless, we note that pattern-matching processes, similar to those that produce inferential and reconstructive effects on memory, could also explain our results. Actual or potential applications of this research include decision support system interfaces or training programs that might be developed to reduce judgment bias.

  16. Birth order and sibship size: evaluation of the role of selection bias in a case-control study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mensah, F K; Willett, E V; Simpson, J; Smith, A G; Roman, E

    2007-09-15

    Substantial heterogeneity has been observed among case-control studies investigating associations between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and familial characteristics, such as birth order and sibship size. The potential role of selection bias in explaining such heterogeneity is considered within this study. Selection bias according to familial characteristics and socioeconomic status is investigated within a United Kingdom-based case-control study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosed during 1998-2001. Reported distributions of birth order and maternal age are each compared with expected reference distributions derived using national birth statistics from the United Kingdom. A method is detailed in which yearly data are used to derive expected distributions, taking account of variability in birth statistics over time. Census data are used to reweight both the case and control study populations such that they are comparable with the general population with regard to socioeconomic status. The authors found little support for an association between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and birth order or family size and little evidence for an influence of selection bias. However, the findings suggest that between-study heterogeneity could be explained by selection biases that influence the demographic characteristics of participants.

  17. Improving DLA Supply Chain Agility: Lead Times, Order Quantities, and Information Flow

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    and market for these items. Even for com- mercial items, there is a lack of PLT benchmarking information, which contributes to buyers’ perception...an item is not on an outline agreement (long-term contract) ◦ Micro purchases ◦ Other purchases c. Supplier selection process ◦ Market research process...to find the relationship between Q*/σ and the corresponding reorder point R, fitting to a logarith- mic function R = α – δlog(Q*/σ).6 She arrived at

  18. "This Is How We Work Here": Informal Logic and Social Order in Primary Health Care Services in Mexico City.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saavedra, Nayelhi Itandehui; Berenzon, Shoshana; Galván, Jorge

    2017-07-01

    People who work in health care facilities participate in a shared set of tacit agreements, attitudes, habits, and behaviors that contribute to the functioning of those institutions, but that can also cause conflict. This phenomenon has been addressed tangentially in the study of bureaucratic practices in governmental agencies, but it has not been carefully explored in the specific context of public health care centers. To this end, we analyzed a series of encounters among staff and patients, as well as the situations surrounding the services offered, in public primary care health centers in Mexico City, based on Erving Goffman's concepts of social order, encounter, and situation, and on the concepts of formal and informal logic. In a descriptive study over the course of 2 years, we carried out systematic observations in 19 health centers and conducted interviews with medical, technical, and administrative staff, and psychologists, social workers, and patients. We recorded these observations in field notes and performed reflexive analysis with readings on three different levels. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through identification of thematic categories and subcategories. Information related to encounters and situations from field notes and interviews was selected to triangulate the materials. We found the social order prevailing among staff to be based on a combination of status markers, such as educational level, seniority, and employee versus contractor status, which define the distribution of workloads, material resources, and space. Although this system generates conflicts, it also contributes to the smooth functioning of the health centers. The daily encounters and situations in all of these health centers allow for a set of informal practices that provide a temporary resolution of the contradictions posed by the institution for its workers.

  19. Congruence analysis of geodetic networks - hypothesis tests versus model selection by information criteria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lehmann, Rüdiger; Lösler, Michael

    2017-12-01

    Geodetic deformation analysis can be interpreted as a model selection problem. The null model indicates that no deformation has occurred. It is opposed to a number of alternative models, which stipulate different deformation patterns. A common way to select the right model is the usage of a statistical hypothesis test. However, since we have to test a series of deformation patterns, this must be a multiple test. As an alternative solution for the test problem, we propose the p-value approach. Another approach arises from information theory. Here, the Akaike information criterion (AIC) or some alternative is used to select an appropriate model for a given set of observations. Both approaches are discussed and applied to two test scenarios: A synthetic levelling network and the Delft test data set. It is demonstrated that they work but behave differently, sometimes even producing different results. Hypothesis tests are well-established in geodesy, but may suffer from an unfavourable choice of the decision error rates. The multiple test also suffers from statistical dependencies between the test statistics, which are neglected. Both problems are overcome by applying information criterions like AIC.

  20. Selective spatial attention modulates bottom-up informational masking of speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlile, Simon; Corkhill, Caitlin

    2015-03-02

    To hear out a conversation against other talkers listeners overcome energetic and informational masking. Largely attributed to top-down processes, information masking has also been demonstrated using unintelligible speech and amplitude-modulated maskers suggesting bottom-up processes. We examined the role of speech-like amplitude modulations in information masking using a spatial masking release paradigm. Separating a target talker from two masker talkers produced a 20 dB improvement in speech reception threshold; 40% of which was attributed to a release from informational masking. When across frequency temporal modulations in the masker talkers are decorrelated the speech is unintelligible, although the within frequency modulation characteristics remains identical. Used as a masker as above, the information masking accounted for 37% of the spatial unmasking seen with this masker. This unintelligible and highly differentiable masker is unlikely to involve top-down processes. These data provides strong evidence of bottom-up masking involving speech-like, within-frequency modulations and that this, presumably low level process, can be modulated by selective spatial attention.

  1. Fuzzy Mutual Information Based min-Redundancy and Max-Relevance Heterogeneous Feature Selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daren Yu

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Feature selection is an important preprocessing step in pattern classification and machine learning, and mutual information is widely used to measure relevance between features and decision. However, it is difficult to directly calculate relevance between continuous or fuzzy features using mutual information. In this paper we introduce the fuzzy information entropy and fuzzy mutual information for computing relevance between numerical or fuzzy features and decision. The relationship between fuzzy information entropy and differential entropy is also discussed. Moreover, we combine fuzzy mutual information with qmin-Redundancy-Max-Relevanceq, qMax-Dependencyq and min-Redundancy-Max-Dependencyq algorithms. The performance and stability of the proposed algorithms are tested on benchmark data sets. Experimental results show the proposed algorithms are effective and stable.

  2. Lean Information Management: Criteria For Selecting Key Performance Indicators At Shop Floor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iuga, Maria Virginia; Kifor, Claudiu Vasile; Rosca, Liviu-Ion

    2015-07-01

    Most successful organizations worldwide use key performance indicators as an important part of their corporate strategy in order to forecast, measure and plan their businesses. Performance metrics vary in their purpose, definition and content. Therefore, the way organizations select what they think are the optimal indicators for their businesses varies from company to company, sometimes even from department to department. This study aims to answer the question of what is the most suitable way to define and select key performance indicators. More than that, it identifies the right criteria to select key performance indicators at shop floor level. This paper contributes to prior research by analysing and comparing previously researched selection criteria and proposes an original six-criteria-model, which caters towards choosing the most adequate KPIs. Furthermore, the authors take the research a step further by further steps to closed research gaps within this field of study.

  3. Nutrition Information at the Point of Selection in High Schools Does Not Affect Purchases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rainville, Alice Jo; Choi, Kyunghee; Ragg, Mark; King, Amber; Carr, Deborah H.

    2010-01-01

    Purpose/Objectives: Nutrition information can be an important component of local wellness policies. There are very few studies regarding nutrition information at the point of selection (POS) in high schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of posting entree nutrition information at the POS in high schools nationwide.…

  4. 20 CFR 266.4 - Information considered in selecting a representative payee.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ..., including the type of relationship, e.g., family or legal guardianship; degree of relationship, if the... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Information considered in selecting a representative payee. 266.4 Section 266.4 Employees' Benefits RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD REGULATIONS UNDER THE...

  5. Endogenous information, adverse selection, and prevention: Implications for genetic testing policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peter, Richard; Richter, Andreas; Thistle, Paul

    2017-09-01

    We examine public policy toward the use of genetic information by insurers. Individuals engage in unobservable primary prevention and have access to different prevention technologies. Thus, insurance markets are affected by moral hazard and adverse selection. Individuals can choose to take a genetic test to acquire information about their prevention technology. Information has positive decision-making value, that is, individuals may adjust their behavior based on the result of the test. However, testing also exposes individuals to uncertainty over the available insurance contract, so-called classification risk, which lowers the value of information. In our analysis we distinguish between four different policy regimes, determine the value of information under each regime and associated equilibrium outcomes on the insurance market. We show that the policy regimes can be Pareto ranked, with a duty to disclose being the preferred regime and an information ban the least preferred one. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. The role of selective attention in short-term memory and goal-directed behavior

    OpenAIRE

    Vissers, M.E.

    2018-01-01

    Selective attention enables the prioritization of goal-relevant aspects of our sensory environment in order to guide our actions, or to store goal-relevant information in short-term memory. Yet, it remains largely unclear how attention prioritizes goal-relevant information. For example, selective attention may enhance processing of goal-relevant information, suppress processing of distracting information, or both. The research presented in this dissertation examined the neurophysiological mec...

  7. Selective Redundancy Removal: A Framework for Data Hiding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ugo Fiore

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Data hiding techniques have so far concentrated on adding or modifying irrelevant information in order to hide a message. However, files in widespread use, such as HTML documents, usually exhibit high redundancy levels, caused by code-generation programs. Such redundancy may be removed by means of optimization software. Redundancy removal, if applied selectively, enables information hiding. This work introduces Selective Redundancy Removal (SRR as a framework for hiding data. An example application of the framework is given in terms of hiding information in HTML documents. Non-uniformity across documents may raise alarms. Nevertheless, selective application of optimization techniques might be due to the legitimate use of optimization software not supporting all the optimization methods, or configured to not use all of them.

  8. Computed ABC Analysis for Rational Selection of Most Informative Variables in Multivariate Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ultsch, Alfred; Lötsch, Jörn

    2015-01-01

    Multivariate data sets often differ in several factors or derived statistical parameters, which have to be selected for a valid interpretation. Basing this selection on traditional statistical limits leads occasionally to the perception of losing information from a data set. This paper proposes a novel method for calculating precise limits for the selection of parameter sets. The algorithm is based on an ABC analysis and calculates these limits on the basis of the mathematical properties of the distribution of the analyzed items. The limits implement the aim of any ABC analysis, i.e., comparing the increase in yield to the required additional effort. In particular, the limit for set A, the "important few", is optimized in a way that both, the effort and the yield for the other sets (B and C), are minimized and the additional gain is optimized. As a typical example from biomedical research, the feasibility of the ABC analysis as an objective replacement for classical subjective limits to select highly relevant variance components of pain thresholds is presented. The proposed method improved the biological interpretation of the results and increased the fraction of valid information that was obtained from the experimental data. The method is applicable to many further biomedical problems including the creation of diagnostic complex biomarkers or short screening tests from comprehensive test batteries. Thus, the ABC analysis can be proposed as a mathematically valid replacement for traditional limits to maximize the information obtained from multivariate research data.

  9. Selecting the Best Mobile Information Service with Natural Language User Input

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Qiangze; Qi, Hongwei; Fukushima, Toshikazu

    Information services accessed via mobile phones provide information directly relevant to subscribers’ daily lives and are an area of dynamic market growth worldwide. Although many information services are currently offered by mobile operators, many of the existing solutions require a unique gateway for each service, and it is inconvenient for users to have to remember a large number of such gateways. Furthermore, the Short Message Service (SMS) is very popular in China and Chinese users would prefer to access these services in natural language via SMS. This chapter describes a Natural Language Based Service Selection System (NL3S) for use with a large number of mobile information services. The system can accept user queries in natural language and navigate it to the required service. Since it is difficult for existing methods to achieve high accuracy and high coverage and anticipate which other services a user might want to query, the NL3S is developed based on a Multi-service Ontology (MO) and Multi-service Query Language (MQL). The MO and MQL provide semantic and linguistic knowledge, respectively, to facilitate service selection for a user query and to provide adaptive service recommendations. Experiments show that the NL3S can achieve 75-95% accuracies and 85-95% satisfactions for processing various styles of natural language queries. A trial involving navigation of 30 different mobile services shows that the NL3S can provide a viable commercial solution for mobile operators.

  10. 78 FR 59165 - Orders: Information Reporting With Respect to Stress Testing of Regulated Entities

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-09-26

    ... Instructions and Guidance is effective on October 28, 2013. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Naa Awaa Tagoe, Senior Associate Director, Office of Financial Analysis, Modeling and Simulations, (202) 649-3140... Guidance accompanying each Order provides to the regulated entities general advice concerning the content...

  11. Information Theory for Gabor Feature Selection for Face Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shen Linlin

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available A discriminative and robust feature—kernel enhanced informative Gabor feature—is proposed in this paper for face recognition. Mutual information is applied to select a set of informative and nonredundant Gabor features, which are then further enhanced by kernel methods for recognition. Compared with one of the top performing methods in the 2004 Face Verification Competition (FVC2004, our methods demonstrate a clear advantage over existing methods in accuracy, computation efficiency, and memory cost. The proposed method has been fully tested on the FERET database using the FERET evaluation protocol. Significant improvements on three of the test data sets are observed. Compared with the classical Gabor wavelet-based approaches using a huge number of features, our method requires less than 4 milliseconds to retrieve a few hundreds of features. Due to the substantially reduced feature dimension, only 4 seconds are required to recognize 200 face images. The paper also unified different Gabor filter definitions and proposed a training sample generation algorithm to reduce the effects caused by unbalanced number of samples available in different classes.

  12. Information Theory for Gabor Feature Selection for Face Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Linlin; Bai, Li

    2006-12-01

    A discriminative and robust feature—kernel enhanced informative Gabor feature—is proposed in this paper for face recognition. Mutual information is applied to select a set of informative and nonredundant Gabor features, which are then further enhanced by kernel methods for recognition. Compared with one of the top performing methods in the 2004 Face Verification Competition (FVC2004), our methods demonstrate a clear advantage over existing methods in accuracy, computation efficiency, and memory cost. The proposed method has been fully tested on the FERET database using the FERET evaluation protocol. Significant improvements on three of the test data sets are observed. Compared with the classical Gabor wavelet-based approaches using a huge number of features, our method requires less than 4 milliseconds to retrieve a few hundreds of features. Due to the substantially reduced feature dimension, only 4 seconds are required to recognize 200 face images. The paper also unified different Gabor filter definitions and proposed a training sample generation algorithm to reduce the effects caused by unbalanced number of samples available in different classes.

  13. The New World Information Order.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masmoudi, Mustapha

    1979-01-01

    Argues for a reordering of the present conception of world information transmission dominated by the developed nations and characterized by imbalances in the political, legal, and technico-financial spheres. (JMF)

  14. Genome Scan for Selection in Structured Layer Chicken Populations Exploiting Linkage Disequilibrium Information.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahmood Gholami

    Full Text Available An increasing interest is being placed in the detection of genes, or genomic regions, that have been targeted by selection because identifying signatures of selection can lead to a better understanding of genotype-phenotype relationships. A common strategy for the detection of selection signatures is to compare samples from distinct populations and to search for genomic regions with outstanding genetic differentiation. The aim of this study was to detect selective signatures in layer chicken populations using a recently proposed approach, hapFLK, which exploits linkage disequilibrium information while accounting appropriately for the hierarchical structure of populations. We performed the analysis on 70 individuals from three commercial layer breeds (White Leghorn, White Rock and Rhode Island Red, genotyped for approximately 1 million SNPs. We found a total of 41 and 107 regions with outstanding differentiation or similarity using hapFLK and its single SNP counterpart FLK respectively. Annotation of selection signature regions revealed various genes and QTL corresponding to productions traits, for which layer breeds were selected. A number of the detected genes were associated with growth and carcass traits, including IGF-1R, AGRP and STAT5B. We also annotated an interesting gene associated with the dark brown feather color mutational phenotype in chickens (SOX10. We compared FST, FLK and hapFLK and demonstrated that exploiting linkage disequilibrium information and accounting for hierarchical population structure decreased the false detection rate.

  15. Quantifying the information in the long-range order of words: semantic structures and universal linguistic constraints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montemurro, Marcelo A

    2014-06-01

    We review some recent progress on the characterisation of long-range patterns of word use in language using methods from information theory. In particular, two levels of structure in language are considered. The first level corresponds to the patterns of words usage over different contextual domains. A direct application of information theory to quantify the specificity of words across different sections of a linguistic sequence leads to a measure of semantic information. Moreover, a natural scale emerges that characterises the typical size of semantic structures. Since the information measure is made up of additive contributions from individual words, it is possible to rank the words according to their overall weight in the total information. This allows the extraction of keywords most relevant to the semantic content of the sequence without any prior knowledge of the language. The second level considered is the complex structure of correlations among words in linguistic sequences. The degree of order in language can be quantified by means of the entropy. Reliable estimates of the entropy were obtained from corpora of texts from several linguistic families by means of lossless compression algorithms. The value of the entropy fluctuates across different languages since it depends on linguistic organisation at various levels. However, when a measure of relative entropy that specifically quantifies the degree of word ordering in language is estimated, it presents an almost constant value over all the linguistic families studied. This suggests that the entropy of word ordering is a novel quantitative linguistic universal. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. 7 CFR 1206.13 - Order.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS... INFORMATION Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1206.13 Order. Order means an order..., research, and information regarding agricultural commodities authorized under the Act. ...

  17. The Fisher Information Matrix as a Relevant Tool for Sensor Selection in Engine Health Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Borguet

    2008-01-01

    the essential elements of the sensor selection problem is defined from the Fisher information matrix. An example application consisting in a commercial turbofan engine illustrates the enhancement that can be expected from a wise selection of the sensor set.

  18. Do pseudo-absence selection strategies influence species distribution models and their predictions? An information-theoretic approach based on simulated data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guisan Antoine

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Multiple logistic regression is precluded from many practical applications in ecology that aim to predict the geographic distributions of species because it requires absence data, which are rarely available or are unreliable. In order to use multiple logistic regression, many studies have simulated "pseudo-absences" through a number of strategies, but it is unknown how the choice of strategy influences models and their geographic predictions of species. In this paper we evaluate the effect of several prevailing pseudo-absence strategies on the predictions of the geographic distribution of a virtual species whose "true" distribution and relationship to three environmental predictors was predefined. We evaluated the effect of using a real absences b pseudo-absences selected randomly from the background and c two-step approaches: pseudo-absences selected from low suitability areas predicted by either Ecological Niche Factor Analysis: (ENFA or BIOCLIM. We compared how the choice of pseudo-absence strategy affected model fit, predictive power, and information-theoretic model selection results. Results Models built with true absences had the best predictive power, best discriminatory power, and the "true" model (the one that contained the correct predictors was supported by the data according to AIC, as expected. Models based on random pseudo-absences had among the lowest fit, but yielded the second highest AUC value (0.97, and the "true" model was also supported by the data. Models based on two-step approaches had intermediate fit, the lowest predictive power, and the "true" model was not supported by the data. Conclusion If ecologists wish to build parsimonious GLM models that will allow them to make robust predictions, a reasonable approach is to use a large number of randomly selected pseudo-absences, and perform model selection based on an information theoretic approach. However, the resulting models can be expected to have

  19. Sample Selection for Training Cascade Detectors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vállez, Noelia; Deniz, Oscar; Bueno, Gloria

    2015-01-01

    Automatic detection systems usually require large and representative training datasets in order to obtain good detection and false positive rates. Training datasets are such that the positive set has few samples and/or the negative set should represent anything except the object of interest. In this respect, the negative set typically contains orders of magnitude more images than the positive set. However, imbalanced training databases lead to biased classifiers. In this paper, we focus our attention on a negative sample selection method to properly balance the training data for cascade detectors. The method is based on the selection of the most informative false positive samples generated in one stage to feed the next stage. The results show that the proposed cascade detector with sample selection obtains on average better partial AUC and smaller standard deviation than the other compared cascade detectors.

  20. Mutual information spectrum for selection of event-related spatial components. Application to eloquent motor cortex mapping.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexei eOssadtchi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Spatial component analysis is often used to explore multidimensional time series data whose sources cannot be measured directly. Several methods may be used to decompose the data into a set of spatial components with temporal loadings. Component selection is of crucial importance, and should be supported by objective criteria. In some applications, the use of a well defined component selection criterion may provide for automation of the analysis.In this paper we describe a novel approach for ranking of spatial components calculated from the EEG or MEG data recorded within evoked response paradigm. Our method is called Mutual Information Spectrum and is based on gauging the amount of mutual information of spatial component temporal loadings with a synthetically created reference signal. We also describe the appropriate randomization based statistical assessment scheme that can be used for selection of components with statistically significant amount of mutual information. Using simulated data with realistic trial to trial variations and SNR corresponding to the real recordings we demonstrate the superior performance characteristics of the described mutual information based measure as compared to a more conventionally used power driven gauge. We also demonstrate the application of the Mutual Information Spectrum for the selection of task-related independent components from real MEG data. We show that the Mutual Information spectrum allows to identify task-related components reliably in a consistent fashion, yielding stable results even from a small number of trials. We conclude that the proposed method fits naturally the information driven nature of ICA and can be used for routine and automatic ranking of independent components calculated from the functional neuroimaging data collected within event-related paradigms.

  1. Standardization in library and information science in selected European countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matysek, Anna

    2015-02-01

    Standardization plays an important role in library and information science (LIS), because it gives rules to identify, classify, access, select, exploit, communicate, exchange and preserve information. Standards are developed by national, European and international organizations. The objective of the study is to present the situation of standardization in library and information science in the countries that joined the European Union in 2004. The research covered Technical Committees that take the problems of LIS, their cooperation with European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The second part of the study is an analysis of LIS standards published in the last 10 years. Data on published documents were gathered from online standards directories. The documents were searched using International Classification for Standards. Retrieved standards were analyzed for their origin and status. The research illustrates the changes in the national standardization, most popular topics and the growing importance of international cooperation in standardization.

  2. DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATIC EXTRACTION METHOD FOR ROAD UPDATE INFORMATION BASED ON PUBLIC WORK ORDER OUTLOOK

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sekimoto, Yoshihide; Nakajo, Satoru; Minami, Yoshitaka; Yamaguchi, Syohei; Yamada, Harutoshi; Fuse, Takashi

    Recently, disclosure of statistic data, representing financial effects or burden for public work, through each web site of national or local government, enables us to discuss macroscopic financial trends. However, it is still difficult to grasp a basic property nationwide how each spot was changed by public work. In this research, our research purpose is to collect road update information reasonably which various road managers provide, in order to realize efficient updating of various maps such as car navigation maps. In particular, we develop the system extracting public work concerned and registering summary including position information to database automatically from public work order outlook, released by each local government, combinating some web mining technologies. Finally, we collect and register several tens of thousands from web site all over Japan, and confirm the feasibility of our method.

  3. Half-size me? How calorie and price information influence ordering on restaurant menus with both half and full entrée portion sizes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haws, Kelly L; Liu, Peggy J

    2016-02-01

    Many restaurants are increasingly required to display calorie information on their menus. We present a study examining how consumers' food choices are affected by the presence of calorie information on restaurant menus. However, unlike prior research on this topic, we focus on the effect of calorie information on food choices made from a menu that contains both full size portions and half size portions of entrées. This different focus is important because many restaurants increasingly provide more than one portion size option per entrée. Additionally, we examine whether the impact of calorie information differs depending on whether full portions are cheaper per unit than half portions (non-linear pricing) or whether they have a similar per unit price (linear pricing). We find that when linear pricing is used, calorie information leads people to order fewer calories. This decrease occurs as people switch from unhealthy full sized portions to healthy full sized portions, not to unhealthy half sized portions. In contrast, when non-linear pricing is used, calorie information has no impact on calories selected. Considering the impact of calorie information on consumers' choices from menus with more than one entrée portion size option is increasingly important given restaurant and legislative trends, and the present research demonstrates that calorie information and pricing scheme may interact to affect choices from such menus. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. An improved discriminative filter bank selection approach for motor imagery EEG signal classification using mutual information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Shiu; Sharma, Alok; Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko

    2017-12-28

    Common spatial pattern (CSP) has been an effective technique for feature extraction in electroencephalography (EEG) based brain computer interfaces (BCIs). However, motor imagery EEG signal feature extraction using CSP generally depends on the selection of the frequency bands to a great extent. In this study, we propose a mutual information based frequency band selection approach. The idea of the proposed method is to utilize the information from all the available channels for effectively selecting the most discriminative filter banks. CSP features are extracted from multiple overlapping sub-bands. An additional sub-band has been introduced that cover the wide frequency band (7-30 Hz) and two different types of features are extracted using CSP and common spatio-spectral pattern techniques, respectively. Mutual information is then computed from the extracted features of each of these bands and the top filter banks are selected for further processing. Linear discriminant analysis is applied to the features extracted from each of the filter banks. The scores are fused together, and classification is done using support vector machine. The proposed method is evaluated using BCI Competition III dataset IVa, BCI Competition IV dataset I and BCI Competition IV dataset IIb, and it outperformed all other competing methods achieving the lowest misclassification rate and the highest kappa coefficient on all three datasets. Introducing a wide sub-band and using mutual information for selecting the most discriminative sub-bands, the proposed method shows improvement in motor imagery EEG signal classification.

  5. 76 FR 14278 - U.S. Honey Producer Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information Order; Termination of...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-16

    ... 7 CFR Part 1245 Administrative practice and procedure, Advertising, Consumer Education, U.S. Honey... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 1245 [Document Number AMS-FV... Information Order; Termination of Referendum Procedures AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA. ACTION...

  6. Balancing Effort and Information Transmission During Language Acquisition: Evidence From Word Order and Case Marking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fedzechkina, Maryia; Newport, Elissa L; Jaeger, T Florian

    2017-03-01

    Across languages of the world, some grammatical patterns have been argued to be more common than expected by chance. These are sometimes referred to as (statistical) language universals. One such universal is the correlation between constituent order freedom and the presence of a case system in a language. Here, we explore whether this correlation can be explained by a bias to balance production effort and informativity of cues to grammatical function. Two groups of learners were presented with miniature artificial languages containing optional case marking and either flexible or fixed constituent order. Learners of the flexible order language used case marking significantly more often. This result parallels the typological correlation between constituent order flexibility and the presence of case marking in a language and provides a possible explanation for the historical development of Old English to Modern English, from flexible constituent order with case marking to relatively fixed order without case marking. In addition, learners of the flexible order language conditioned case marking on constituent order, using more case marking with the cross-linguistically less frequent order, again mirroring typological data. These results suggest that some cross-linguistic generalizations originate in functionally motivated biases operating during language learning. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  7. Investigating domain-general short-term memory for order versus specific item memory in developmental dyslexia

    OpenAIRE

    Hachmann, Wibke Maria

    2012-01-01

    Recent findings suggest that people with dyslexia experience difficulties with the learning of serial order information during the transition from short- to long-term memory. At the same time, models of short-term memory increasingly incorporate a distinction of order and item processing. This work aims to investigate whether serial order processing deficiencies in dyslexia can be traced back to a selective impairment of short-term memory for serial order, and whether this impairment also aff...

  8. Selecting information technology for physicians' practices: a cross-sectional study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eden Karen

    2002-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Many physicians are transitioning from paper to electronic formats for billing, scheduling, medical charts, communications, etc. The primary objective of this research was to identify the relationship (if any between the software selection process and the office staff's perceptions of the software's impact on practice activities. Methods A telephone survey was conducted with office representatives of 407 physician practices in Oregon who had purchased information technology. The respondents, usually office managers, answered scripted questions about their selection process and their perceptions of the software after implementation. Results Multiple logistic regression revealed that software type, selection steps, and certain factors influencing the purchase were related to whether the respondents felt the software improved the scheduling and financial analysis practice activities. Specifically, practices that selected electronic medical record or practice management software, that made software comparisons, or that considered prior user testimony as important were more likely to have perceived improvements in the scheduling process than were other practices. Practices that considered value important, that did not consider compatibility important, that selected managed care software, that spent less than $10,000, or that provided learning time (most dramatic increase in odds ratio, 8.2 during implementation were more likely to perceive that the software had improved the financial analysis process than were other practices. Conclusion Perhaps one of the most important predictors of improvement was providing learning time during implementation, particularly when the software involves several practice activities. Despite this importance, less than half of the practices reported performing this step.

  9. Configurational Information as Potentially Negative Entropy: The Triple Helix Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Loet Leydesdorff

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available Configurational information is generated when three or more sources of variance interact. The variations not only disturb each other relationally, but by selecting upon each other, they are also positioned in a configuration. A configuration can be stabilized and/or globalized. Different stabilizations can be considered as second-order variation, and globalization as a second-order selection. The positive manifestations and the negative selections operate upon one another by adding and reducing uncertainty, respectively. Reduction of uncertainty in a configuration can be measured in bits of information. The variables can also be considered as dimensions of the probabilistic entropy in the system(s under study. The configurational information then provides us with a measure of synergy within a complex system. For example, the knowledge base of an economy can be considered as such a synergy in the otherwise virtual (that is, fourth dimension of a regime

  10. Information-theoretic model selection for optimal prediction of stochastic dynamical systems from data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Darmon, David

    2018-03-01

    In the absence of mechanistic or phenomenological models of real-world systems, data-driven models become necessary. The discovery of various embedding theorems in the 1980s and 1990s motivated a powerful set of tools for analyzing deterministic dynamical systems via delay-coordinate embeddings of observations of their component states. However, in many branches of science, the condition of operational determinism is not satisfied, and stochastic models must be brought to bear. For such stochastic models, the tool set developed for delay-coordinate embedding is no longer appropriate, and a new toolkit must be developed. We present an information-theoretic criterion, the negative log-predictive likelihood, for selecting the embedding dimension for a predictively optimal data-driven model of a stochastic dynamical system. We develop a nonparametric estimator for the negative log-predictive likelihood and compare its performance to a recently proposed criterion based on active information storage. Finally, we show how the output of the model selection procedure can be used to compare candidate predictors for a stochastic system to an information-theoretic lower bound.

  11. SELECTING WORKING TEAMS FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OUTSOURCING PROJECTS THROUGH A COMBINATION OF METHODOLOGIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Alejandra Castellini

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT This paper deals with a problem that Information Technology outsourcing suppliers generally face when selecting a working team technically capable for specific roles in software development projects. A combination of methodologies, interactively integrated, is proposed. They are Soft System Methodology to structure the problem, Repertory Grid for individual interviews and elicitation of the selection criteria, DRV Processes to assess the candidates and to generate knowledge and consensus on the selection process and Linear Programming to assign people to each position. This multimethodology allowed finding a more comprehensive solution than that initially requested by the company, since it helped to establish the necessary transformations for the selection model to operate in the right way, set the competencies to be considered as selection criteria, develop a consensus estimate of the weighted criteria, and award global values to candidates, optimizing the assignment of roles in the group for the project.

  12. Sample Selection for Training Cascade Detectors.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noelia Vállez

    Full Text Available Automatic detection systems usually require large and representative training datasets in order to obtain good detection and false positive rates. Training datasets are such that the positive set has few samples and/or the negative set should represent anything except the object of interest. In this respect, the negative set typically contains orders of magnitude more images than the positive set. However, imbalanced training databases lead to biased classifiers. In this paper, we focus our attention on a negative sample selection method to properly balance the training data for cascade detectors. The method is based on the selection of the most informative false positive samples generated in one stage to feed the next stage. The results show that the proposed cascade detector with sample selection obtains on average better partial AUC and smaller standard deviation than the other compared cascade detectors.

  13. A New Variable Selection Method Based on Mutual Information Maximization by Replacing Collinear Variables for Nonlinear Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship Models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ghasemi, Jahan B.; Zolfonoun, Ehsan [Toosi University of Technology, Tehran (Korea, Republic of)

    2012-05-15

    Selection of the most informative molecular descriptors from the original data set is a key step for development of quantitative structure activity/property relationship models. Recently, mutual information (MI) has gained increasing attention in feature selection problems. This paper presents an effective mutual information-based feature selection approach, named mutual information maximization by replacing collinear variables (MIMRCV), for nonlinear quantitative structure-property relationship models. The proposed variable selection method was applied to three different QSPR datasets, soil degradation half-life of 47 organophosphorus pesticides, GC-MS retention times of 85 volatile organic compounds, and water-to-micellar cetyltrimethylammonium bromide partition coefficients of 62 organic compounds.The obtained results revealed that using MIMRCV as feature selection method improves the predictive quality of the developed models compared to conventional MI based variable selection algorithms.

  14. A New Variable Selection Method Based on Mutual Information Maximization by Replacing Collinear Variables for Nonlinear Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship Models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ghasemi, Jahan B.; Zolfonoun, Ehsan

    2012-01-01

    Selection of the most informative molecular descriptors from the original data set is a key step for development of quantitative structure activity/property relationship models. Recently, mutual information (MI) has gained increasing attention in feature selection problems. This paper presents an effective mutual information-based feature selection approach, named mutual information maximization by replacing collinear variables (MIMRCV), for nonlinear quantitative structure-property relationship models. The proposed variable selection method was applied to three different QSPR datasets, soil degradation half-life of 47 organophosphorus pesticides, GC-MS retention times of 85 volatile organic compounds, and water-to-micellar cetyltrimethylammonium bromide partition coefficients of 62 organic compounds.The obtained results revealed that using MIMRCV as feature selection method improves the predictive quality of the developed models compared to conventional MI based variable selection algorithms

  15. Applied information system-based in enhancing students' understanding towards higher order thinking (HOTS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hua, Ang Kean; Ping, Owi Wei

    2017-05-01

    The application of information and communications technology (ICT) had become more important in our daily life, especially in educational field. Teachers are encouraged to use information system-based in teaching Mathematical courses. Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) approach is unable to explain using chalk and talk methods. It needs students to analyze, evaluate, and create by their own natural abilities. The aim of this research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the application information system-based in enhance the students understanding about HOTS question. Mixed-methods or quantitative and qualitative approach was applied in collecting data, which involve only the standard five students and the teachers in Sabak Bernam, Selangor. Pra-postests was held before and after using information system-based in teaching to evaluate the students' understanding. The result from post-test indicates significant improvement which proves that the use of information system based able to enhance students' understanding about HOTS question and solve it. There were several factor influenced the students such as students' attitude, teachers attraction, school facilities, and computer approach. Teachers play an important role in attracting students to learn. Therefore, the school should provide a conducive learning environment and good facilities for students to learn so that they are able to access more information and always exposed to new knowledge. As conclusion, information system-based are able to enhance students understanding the need of HOTS questions and solve it.

  16. FCJ-198 New International Information Order (NIIO Revisited: Global Algorithmic Governance and Neocolonialism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danny Butt

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The field of Internet governance has been dominated by Euro-American actors and has largely resisted consideration of a holistic and integrative rights-based agenda, confining itself to narrow discussions on the technical stability of Internet Protocol resources and debates about nation-state involvement in multistakeholder governance of those resources. In light of the work of Edward Snowden documenting the close relationship between government security agencies and dominant social media platforms, this paper revisits the relevance of the New International Information Order (NIIO, a conceptualisation of the global politics of information described at the 1973 Fourth Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement of nations in Algiers. This paper argues that critical analysis of the oligopolistic structure of “platforms” and their algorithmic forms of governance can build a more inclusive movement toward social justice by extending the NIIO framework’s emphasis on decolonisation, collective ownership of strategic information resources, and documentation of powerful transnational entities.

  17. Combining Empirical Relationships with Data Based Mechanistic Modeling to Inform Solute Tracer Investigations across Stream Orders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrington, C.; Gonzalez-Pinzon, R.; Covino, T. P.; Mortensen, J.

    2015-12-01

    Solute transport studies in streams and rivers often begin with the introduction of conservative and reactive tracers into the water column. Information on the transport of these substances is then captured within tracer breakthrough curves (BTCs) and used to estimate, for instance, travel times and dissolved nutrient and carbon dynamics. Traditionally, these investigations have been limited to systems with small discharges (turbidity (e.g., nitrate signals with SUNA instruments or fluorescence measures) and/or high total dissolved solids (e.g., making prohibitively expensive the use of salt tracers such as NaCl) in larger systems. Additionally, a successful time-of-travel study is valuable for only a single discharge and river stage. We have developed a method to predict tracer BTCs to inform sampling frequencies at small and large stream orders using empirical relationships developed from multiple tracer injections spanning several orders of magnitude in discharge and reach length. This method was successfully tested in 1st to 8th order systems along the Middle Rio Grande River Basin in New Mexico, USA.

  18. Factors Related to the Selection of Information Sources: A Study of Ramkhamhaeng University Regional Campuses Graduate Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angchun, Peemasak

    2011-01-01

    This study assessed students' satisfaction with Ramkhamhaeng University regional library services (RURLs) and the perceived quality of information retrieved from other information sources. In particular, this study investigated factors relating to regional students' selection of information sources to meet their information needs. The researcher…

  19. Cloud decision model for selecting sustainable energy crop based on linguistic intuitionistic information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Hong-Gang; Wang, Jian-Qiang

    2017-11-01

    In recent years, sustainable energy crop has become an important energy development strategy topic in many countries. Selecting the most sustainable energy crop is a significant problem that must be addressed during any biofuel production process. The focus of this study is the development of an innovative multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method to handle sustainable energy crop selection problems. Given that various uncertain data are encountered in the evaluation of sustainable energy crops, linguistic intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (LIFNs) are introduced to present the information necessary to the evaluation process. Processing qualitative concepts requires the effective support of reliable tools; then, a cloud model can be used to deal with linguistic intuitionistic information. First, LIFNs are converted and a novel concept of linguistic intuitionistic cloud (LIC) is proposed. The operations, score function and similarity measurement of the LICs are defined. Subsequently, the linguistic intuitionistic cloud density-prioritised weighted Heronian mean operator is developed, which served as the basis for the construction of an applicable MCDM model for sustainable energy crop selection. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the proposed method, and its feasibility and validity are further verified by comparing it with other existing methods.

  20. Assessment of Users Information Needs and Satisfaction in Selected Seminary Libraries in Oyo State, Nigeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adekunjo, Olalekan Abraham; Adepoju, Samuel Olusegun; Adeola, Anuoluwapo Odebunmi

    2015-01-01

    The study assessed users' information needs and satisfaction in selected seminary libraries in Oyo State, Nigeria. This paper employed the descriptive survey research design, whereby the expost-facto was employed with a sample size of three hundred (300) participants, selected from six seminaries located in Ibadan, Oyo and Ogbomoso, all in Oyo…

  1. The sequence relay selection strategy based on stochastic dynamic programming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Rui; Chen, Xihao; Huang, Yangchao

    2017-07-01

    Relay-assisted (RA) network with relay node selection is a kind of effective method to improve the channel capacity and convergence performance. However, most of the existing researches about the relay selection did not consider the statically channel state information and the selection cost. This shortage limited the performance and application of RA network in practical scenarios. In order to overcome this drawback, a sequence relay selection strategy (SRSS) was proposed. And the performance upper bound of SRSS was also analyzed in this paper. Furthermore, in order to make SRSS more practical, a novel threshold determination algorithm based on the stochastic dynamic program (SDP) was given to work with SRSS. Numerical results are also presented to exhibit the performance of SRSS with SDP.

  2. Measuring child maltreatment using multi-informant survey data: a higher-order confirmatory factor analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salum, Giovanni A; DeSousa, Diogo Araújo; Manfro, Gisele Gus; Pan, Pedro Mario; Gadelha, Ary; Brietzke, Elisa; Miguel, Eurípedes Constantino; Mari, Jair J; do Rosário, Maria Conceição; Grassi-Oliveira, Rodrigo

    2016-01-01

    To investigate the validity and reliability of a multi-informant approach to measuring child maltreatment (CM) comprising seven questions assessing CM administered to children and their parents in a large community sample. Our sample comprised 2,512 children aged 6 to 12 years and their parents. Child maltreatment (CM) was assessed with three questions answered by the children and four answered by their parents, covering physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the fit indices of different models. Convergent and divergent validity were tested using parent-report and teacher-report scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Discriminant validity was investigated using the Development and Well-Being Assessment to divide subjects into five diagnostic groups: typically developing controls (n = 1,880), fear disorders (n = 108), distress disorders (n = 76), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 143) and oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder (n = 56). A higher-order model with one higher-order factor (child maltreatment) encompassing two lower-order factors (child report and parent report) exhibited the best fit to the data and this model's reliability results were acceptable. As expected, child maltreatment was positively associated with measures of psychopathology and negatively associated with prosocial measures. All diagnostic category groups had higher levels of overall child maltreatment than typically developing children. We found evidence for the validity and reliability of this brief measure of child maltreatment using data from a large survey combining information from parents and their children.

  3. Brain activity related to working memory for temporal order and object information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Brooke M; Libby, Laura A; Inhoff, Marika C; Ranganath, Charan

    2017-06-08

    Maintaining items in an appropriate sequence is important for many daily activities; however, remarkably little is known about the neural basis of human temporal working memory. Prior work suggests that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus, play a role in representing information about temporal order. The involvement of these areas in successful temporal working memory, however, is less clear. Additionally, it is unknown whether regions in the PFC and MTL support temporal working memory across different timescales, or at coarse or fine levels of temporal detail. To address these questions, participants were scanned while completing 3 working memory task conditions (Group, Position and Item) that were matched in terms of difficulty and the number of items to be actively maintained. Group and Position trials probed temporal working memory processes, requiring the maintenance of hierarchically organized coarse and fine temporal information, respectively. To isolate activation related to temporal working memory, Group and Position trials were contrasted against Item trials, which required detailed working memory maintenance of visual objects. Results revealed that working memory encoding and maintenance of temporal information relative to visual information was associated with increased activation in dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), and perirhinal cortex (PRC). In contrast, maintenance of visual details relative to temporal information was characterized by greater activation of parahippocampal cortex (PHC), medial and anterior PFC, and retrosplenial cortex. In the hippocampus, a dissociation along the longitudinal axis was observed such that the anterior hippocampus was more active for working memory encoding and maintenance of visual detail information relative to temporal information, whereas the posterior hippocampus displayed the opposite effect. Posterior parietal cortex was the only region to show sensitivity to temporal

  4. Selectivity in multiple quantum nuclear magnetic resonance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Warren, W.S.

    1980-11-01

    The observation of multiple-quantum nuclear magnetic resonance transitions in isotropic or anisotropic liquids is shown to give readily interpretable information on molecular configurations, rates of motional processes, and intramolecular interactions. However, the observed intensity of high multiple-quantum transitions falls off dramatically as the number of coupled spins increases. The theory of multiple-quantum NMR is developed through the density matrix formalism, and exact intensities are derived for several cases (isotropic first-order systems and anisotropic systems with high symmetry) to shown that this intensity decrease is expected if standard multiple-quantum pulse sequences are used. New pulse sequences are developed which excite coherences and produce population inversions only between selected states, even though other transitions are simultaneously resonant. One type of selective excitation presented only allows molecules to absorb and emit photons in groups of n. Coherent averaging theory is extended to describe these selective sequences, and to design sequences which are selective to arbitrarily high order in the Magnus expansion. This theory and computer calculations both show that extremely good selectivity and large signal enhancements are possible

  5. Selectivity in multiple quantum nuclear magnetic resonance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Warren, Warren Sloan [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division

    1980-11-01

    The observation of multiple-quantum nuclear magnetic resonance transitions in isotropic or anisotropic liquids is shown to give readily interpretable information on molecular configurations, rates of motional processes, and intramolecular interactions. However, the observed intensity of high multiple-quantum transitions falls off dramatically as the number of coupled spins increases. The theory of multiple-quantum NMR is developed through the density matrix formalism, and exact intensities are derived for several cases (isotropic first-order systems and anisotropic systems with high symmetry) to shown that this intensity decrease is expected if standard multiple-quantum pulse sequences are used. New pulse sequences are developed which excite coherences and produce population inversions only between selected states, even though other transitions are simultaneously resonant. One type of selective excitation presented only allows molecules to absorb and emit photons in groups of n. Coherent averaging theory is extended to describe these selective sequences, and to design sequences which are selective to arbitrarily high order in the Magnus expansion. This theory and computer calculations both show that extremely good selectivity and large signal enhancements are possible.

  6. Introduction to the Special Issue on Information: Selected Papers from “FIS 2010 Beijing”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pedro C. Marijuán

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available During the last two decades, a systematic re-examination of the whole information science field has taken place around the FIS—Foundations of Information Science—initiative. With the occasion of its Fourth Conference in Beijing 2010, a group of selected contributors and leading practitioners of those fields have been invited to contribute to this Special Issue. What is the status of information science today? What is the relationship between information and the laws of nature? Is information merely “physical”? What is the difference between information and computation? Has the genomic revolution changed the contemporary views on information and life? And what about the nature of social information? Cogent answers to these questions and to quite many others are attempted in the contributions that follow.

  7. Short-Term Memory for Order but Not for Item Information Is Impaired in Developmental Dyslexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hachmann, Wibke M.; Bogaerts, Louisa; Szmalec, Arnaud; Woumans, Evy; Duyck, Wouter; Job, Remo

    2014-01-01

    Recent findings suggest that people with dyslexia experience difficulties with the learning of serial order information during the transition from short-to long-term memory (Szmalec et al. "Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition" 37(5): 1270-1279, 2011). At the same time, models of short-term memory…

  8. Criteria for selecting measures of plant information with application to nuclear reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiguchi, T.; Sheridan, T.B.

    1979-01-01

    Criteria for selecting from alternative measures of plant information have been derived by information theory and the expected-value model of decision theory. Two criteria derived by information theory are minimum ''uncertainty'' of judgement of plant states, and maximum ''surprise'' of human operators. Two criteria derived by decision theory are maximum expected reward to operators, and maximum ratio of the maximum and next-to-maximum expected rewards. These four criteria have been evaluated experimentally in application to human monitoring problems of three ''plants'': an abstract laboratory exercise, a small research reactor, and a conventional nuclear power plant (high-fidelity training simulator). The results show that the criteria derived by decision theory are superior to the others from the viewpoint of correct rate of human subjects' judgement

  9. Principles in selecting human capital measurements and metrics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pharny D. Chrysler-Fox

    2014-09-01

    Research purpose: The study explored principles in selecting human capital measurements,drawing on the views and recommendations of human resource management professionals,all experts in human capital measurement. Motivation for the study: The motivation was to advance the understanding of selectingappropriate and strategic valid measurements, in order for human resource practitioners tocontribute to creating value and driving strategic change. Research design, approach and method: A qualitative approach, with purposively selectedcases from a selected panel of human capital measurement experts, generated a datasetthrough unstructured interviews, which were analysed thematically. Main findings: Nineteen themes were found. They represent a process that considers thecentrality of the business strategy and a systemic integration across multiple value chains inthe organisation through business partnering, in order to select measurements and generatemanagement level-appropriate information. Practical/managerial implications: Measurement practitioners, in partnership withmanagement from other functions, should integrate the business strategy across multiplevalue chains in order to select measurements. Analytics becomes critical in discoveringrelationships and formulating hypotheses to understand value creation. Higher educationinstitutions should produce graduates able to deal with systems thinking and to operatewithin complexity. Contribution: This study identified principles to select measurements and metrics. Noticeableis the move away from the interrelated scorecard perspectives to a systemic view of theorganisation in order to understand value creation. In addition, the findings may help toposition the human resource management function as a strategic asset.

  10. Information-Theoretic Inference of Large Transcriptional Regulatory Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meyer Patrick

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents MRNET, an original method for inferring genetic networks from microarray data. The method is based on maximum relevance/minimum redundancy (MRMR, an effective information-theoretic technique for feature selection in supervised learning. The MRMR principle consists in selecting among the least redundant variables the ones that have the highest mutual information with the target. MRNET extends this feature selection principle to networks in order to infer gene-dependence relationships from microarray data. The paper assesses MRNET by benchmarking it against RELNET, CLR, and ARACNE, three state-of-the-art information-theoretic methods for large (up to several thousands of genes network inference. Experimental results on thirty synthetically generated microarray datasets show that MRNET is competitive with these methods.

  11. Information-Theoretic Inference of Large Transcriptional Regulatory Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick E. Meyer

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents MRNET, an original method for inferring genetic networks from microarray data. The method is based on maximum relevance/minimum redundancy (MRMR, an effective information-theoretic technique for feature selection in supervised learning. The MRMR principle consists in selecting among the least redundant variables the ones that have the highest mutual information with the target. MRNET extends this feature selection principle to networks in order to infer gene-dependence relationships from microarray data. The paper assesses MRNET by benchmarking it against RELNET, CLR, and ARACNE, three state-of-the-art information-theoretic methods for large (up to several thousands of genes network inference. Experimental results on thirty synthetically generated microarray datasets show that MRNET is competitive with these methods.

  12. Stochastic Pricing and Order Model with Transportation Mode Selection for Low-Carbon Retailers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi Zheng

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available More and more enterprises have begun to pay attention to their carbon footprint in the supply chain, of which transportation has become the second major source of carbon emissions. This paper aims to study both optimum pricing and order quantities, considering consumer demand and the selection of transportation modes by retailers, in terms of carbon emissions sensitivity and price sensitivity under the conditions of a cap-and-trade policy and uncertain market demand. Firstly, we analyze the effects of transportation mode (including transportation costs and transportation-induced carbon emissions, initial emissions allowances, carbon emissions trading price and consumer sensitivity to carbon emissions on the optimum decisions and profits of retailers. The results demonstrate that when consumers are less sensitive to price, the optimum retail price and the optimum order quantity of products are proportional to the transportation cost and transportation-induced carbon emissions of retailers per unit product, the carbon emissions trading price as well as consumer sensitivity to carbon emissions. However, when consumers are highly sensitive to price, the optimum order quantity of products is inversely proportional to the transportation costs and transportation-induced carbon emissions of retailers per unit product, the carbon emissions trading price and consumer sensitivity to carbon emissions. In addition, the optimum retail price of products is inversely proportional to consumer sensitivity to carbon emissions. We also find that retailers prefer a low-carbon transportation mode when the carbon emissions trading price is high. Meanwhile, the carbon emissions trading price influences the carbon emissions trading volume of retailers. These theoretical findings are further validated by some numerical analysis.

  13. Partial Least Square Approach to Second Order Factor in Behavioural Study of Accounting Information System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ibrahim Mohd Tarmizi

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Theories are developed to explain an observed phenomenon in an effort to understand why and how things happen. Theories thus, use latent variables to estimate conceptual parameters. The level of abstraction depends, partly on the complexity of the theoretical model explaining the phenomenon. The conjugation of directly-measured variables leads to a formation of a first-order factor. A combination of theoretical underpinnings supporting an existence of a higher-order components, and statistical evidence pointing to such presence adds advantage for the researchers to investigate a phenomenon both at an aggregated and disjointed dimensions. As partial least square (PLS gains its tractions in theory development, behavioural accounting discipline in general should exploit the flexibility of PLS to work with the higher-order factors. However, technical guides are scarcely available. Therefore, this article presents a PLS approach to validate a higher-order factor on a statistical ground using accounting information system dataset.

  14. Selective excitation of higher-radial-order Laguerre-Gaussian beams using a solid-state digital laser

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Bell, Teboho

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Filter (LF) was introduced to only transmit 1064 nm and block the 808 nm pump. The laser beam was transmitted out of the cavity through an output coupler mirror (M3 on Figure 1) and was 1:1 relay imaged using two 125 mm lenses (L3 and L4) to a Photon...; Published December 30, 2016 Citation: Bell T, Ngcobo S (2016) Selective Excitation of Higher-radial-order Laguerre-Gaussian Beams Using a Solid-state Digital Laser. J Laser Opt Photonics 3: 144. doi: 10.4172/2469-410X.1000144 Copyright: © 2016 Bell T, et...

  15. Nonmathematical models for evolution of altruism, and for group selection (peck order-territoriality-ant colony-dual-determinant model-tri-determinant model).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Darlington, P J

    1972-02-01

    Mathematical biologists have failed to produce a satisfactory general model for evolution of altruism, i.e., of behaviors by which "altruists" benefit other individuals but not themselves; kin selection does not seem to be a sufficient explanation of nonreciprocal altruism. Nonmathematical (but mathematically acceptable) models are now proposed for evolution of negative altruism in dual-determinant and of positive altruism in tri-determinant systems. Peck orders, territorial systems, and an ant society are analyzed as examples. In all models, evolution is primarily by individual selection, probably supplemented by group selection. Group selection is differential extinction of populations. It can act only on populations preformed by selection at the individual level, but can either cancel individual selective trends (effecting evolutionary homeostasis) or supplement them; its supplementary effect is probably increasingly important in the evolution of increasingly organized populations.

  16. 76 FR 56786 - Renewal of Agency Information Collection for Law and Order on Indian Reservations-Marriage...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-14

    ... Law and Order on Indian Reservations--Marriage & Dissolution Applications; Request for Comments AGENCY... on Indian Reservations--Marriage & Dissolution Applications, which concerns marriage and dissolution of a marriage in a Court of Indian Offenses. The information collection is currently authorized by...

  17. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in an Elementary School: Students' Engagement in Higher Order Thinking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Cher Ping; Tay, Lee Yong

    2003-01-01

    Based on a case study of an elementary school in Singapore, this article describes and analyzes how different types of ICT tools (informative, situating, constructive, and communicative tools) are used to engage students in higher-order thinking. The discussion emphasizes that the objective of the lesson and the orienting activities, rather than…

  18. Measuring child maltreatment using multi-informant survey data: a higher-order confirmatory factor analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giovanni A. Salum

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Objective To investigate the validity and reliability of a multi-informant approach to measuring child maltreatment (CM comprising seven questions assessing CM administered to children and their parents in a large community sample. Methods Our sample comprised 2,512 children aged 6 to 12 years and their parents. Child maltreatment (CM was assessed with three questions answered by the children and four answered by their parents, covering physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the fit indices of different models. Convergent and divergent validity were tested using parent-report and teacher-report scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Discriminant validity was investigated using the Development and Well-Being Assessment to divide subjects into five diagnostic groups: typically developing controls (n = 1,880, fear disorders (n = 108, distress disorders (n = 76, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 143 and oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder (n = 56. Results A higher-order model with one higher-order factor (child maltreatment encompassing two lower-order factors (child report and parent report exhibited the best fit to the data and this model's reliability results were acceptable. As expected, child maltreatment was positively associated with measures of psychopathology and negatively associated with prosocial measures. All diagnostic category groups had higher levels of overall child maltreatment than typically developing children. Conclusions We found evidence for the validity and reliability of this brief measure of child maltreatment using data from a large survey combining information from parents and their children.

  19. IRaPPA: information retrieval based integration of biophysical models for protein assembly selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moal, Iain H; Barradas-Bautista, Didier; Jiménez-García, Brian; Torchala, Mieczyslaw; van der Velde, Arjan; Vreven, Thom; Weng, Zhiping; Bates, Paul A; Fernández-Recio, Juan

    2017-06-15

    In order to function, proteins frequently bind to one another and form 3D assemblies. Knowledge of the atomic details of these structures helps our understanding of how proteins work together, how mutations can lead to disease, and facilitates the designing of drugs which prevent or mimic the interaction. Atomic modeling of protein-protein interactions requires the selection of near-native structures from a set of docked poses based on their calculable properties. By considering this as an information retrieval problem, we have adapted methods developed for Internet search ranking and electoral voting into IRaPPA, a pipeline integrating biophysical properties. The approach enhances the identification of near-native structures when applied to four docking methods, resulting in a near-native appearing in the top 10 solutions for up to 50% of complexes benchmarked, and up to 70% in the top 100. IRaPPA has been implemented in the SwarmDock server ( http://bmm.crick.ac.uk/∼SwarmDock/ ), pyDock server ( http://life.bsc.es/pid/pydockrescoring/ ) and ZDOCK server ( http://zdock.umassmed.edu/ ), with code available on request. moal@ebi.ac.uk. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  20. Perceived social pressure not to experience negative emotion is linked to selective attention for negative information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bastian, Brock; Pe, Madeline Lee; Kuppens, Peter

    2017-02-01

    Social norms and values may be important predictors of how people engage with and regulate their negative emotional experiences. Previous research has shown that social expectancies (the perceived social pressure not to feel negative emotion (NE)) exacerbate feelings of sadness. In the current research, we examined whether social expectancies may be linked to how people process emotional information. Using a modified classical flanker task involving emotional rather than non-emotional stimuli, we found that, for those who experienced low levels of NE, social expectancies were linked to the selective avoidance of negative emotional information. Those who experienced high levels of NE did not show a selective avoidance of negative emotional information. The findings suggest that, for people who experience many NEs, social expectancies may lead to discrepancies between how they think they ought to feel and the kind of emotional information they pay attention to.

  1. Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Neural Activity Associated with Information Selection in Open-ended Creativity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Siyuan; Chen, Shi; Wang, Shuang; Zhao, Qingbai; Zhou, Zhijin; Lu, Chunming

    2018-02-10

    Novel information selection is a crucial process in creativity and was found to be associated with frontal-temporal functional connectivity in the right brain in closed-ended creativity. Since it has distinct cognitive processing from closed-ended creativity, the information selection in open-ended creativity might be underlain by different neural activity. To address this issue, a creative generation task of Chinese two-part allegorical sayings was adopted, and the trials were classified into novel and normal solutions according to participants' self-ratings. The results showed that (1) novel solutions induced a higher lower alpha power in the temporal area, which might be associated with the automatic, unconscious mental process of retrieving extensive semantic information, and (2) upper alpha power in both frontal and temporal areas and frontal-temporal alpha coherence were higher in novel solutions than in normal solutions, which might reflect the selective inhibition of semantic information. Furthermore, lower alpha power in the temporal area showed a reduction with time, while the frontal-temporal and temporal-temporal coherence in the upper alpha band appeared to increase from the early to the middle phase. These dynamic changes in neural activity might reflect the transformation from divergent thinking to convergent thinking in the creative progress. The advantage of the right brain in frontal-temporal connectivity was not found in the present work, which might result from the diversity of solutions in open-ended creativity. Copyright © 2017 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. On the Impact of Explicit Uplink Information on Autonomous Component Carrier Selection for LTE-A Femtocells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sanchez-Moya, Fernando; Villalba-Espinosa, Juan; Garcia, Luis Guilherme Uzeda

    2011-01-01

    argumentation by including uplink information into the component carrier selection process. We assess and discuss the uplink performance of two proposed variants of ACCS via extensive system level simulations. The striking conclusion based on the results is that the mere addition of uplink information, which...

  3. 76 FR 62312 - Multi-Agency Informational Meeting Concerning Compliance With the Federal Select Agent Program...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-07

    ... interested individuals to obtain specific regulatory guidance and information on standards concerning biosafety and biosecurity issues related to the Federal Select Agent Program. CDC, APHIS, and CJIS...

  4. Project portfolio selection of banking services using COPRAS and Fuzzy-TOPSIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C.O. Anyaeche

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Portfolio selection is a business process which has helped organisations identify an area of com-petitive advantage and it is a major concern to industrial players in the banking sectors. In order to enhance bank portfolio selection, cost, profitability, time and location are important parameters that decision-makers often consider. This study implements a fuzzy-TOPSIS (Technique for Or-der Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution framework to evaluate three potential portfolios (automated teller machine gallery, quick service point and branch for a bank using the infor-mation from three decision-makers. An illustrative example of real bank information is used to demonstrate the proposed framework applicability. The complex proportional assessment of al-ternatives (COPRAS method is also used as an evaluation technique and the results are com-pared, which yields that the results from the ranking order of fuzzy-TOPSIS and COPRAS were different. However, there is a consistency between the aggregation of intuition-based, fuzzy-TOPSIS and COPRAS ranks and fuzzy-TOPSIS ranking results. The presented framework is an easy-to-apply tool that improves portfolio selection decision in the banking system.

  5. Clinician‐selected Electronic Information Resources do not Guarantee Accuracy in Answering Primary Care Physicians’ Information Needs. A review of: McKibbon, K. Ann, and Douglas B. Fridsma. “Effectiveness of Clinician‐selected Electronic Information Resources for Answering Primary Care Physicians’ Information Needs.” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 13.6 (2006: 653‐9.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martha Ingrid Preddie

    2008-03-01

    one correct answer was due to the answers from 5 (10.9% questions changing from correct to incorrect, while the answers to 6 questions (13.0% changed from incorrect to correct. The ability to provide correct answers differed among the various resources. Google and Cochrane provided the correct answers about 50% of the time while PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, UpToDate, Ovid Evidence Based Medicine Reviews and InfoPOEMs were more likely to be associated with incorrect answers. Physicians also seemed unable to determine when they needed to search for informationi n order to make an accurate decision.Conclusion – Clinician‐selected electronic information resources did not guarantee accuracy in the answers provided to simulated clinical questions. At times the use of these resources caused physicians to change self‐determined correct answers to incorrect ones. The authors state that this was possibly due to factors such as poor choice of resources, ineffective search strategies, time constraints and automation bias. Library and information practitioners have an important role to play in identifying and advocating for appropriate information resources to be integrated into the electronic medical record systems provided by healthcare institutions to ensure evidence based health care delivery.

  6. 41 CFR 301-53.4 - May I select travel service providers for which my agency is not a mandatory user in order to...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... select travel service providers for which my agency is not a mandatory user in order to maximize my... frequent traveler benefits. You must use the travel service provider for which your agency is a mandatory... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false May I select travel...

  7. Model selection emphasises the importance of non-chromosomal information in genetic studies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reda Rawi

    Full Text Available Ever since the case of the missing heritability was highlighted some years ago, scientists have been investigating various possible explanations for the issue. However, none of these explanations include non-chromosomal genetic information. Here we describe explicitly how chromosomal and non-chromosomal modifiers collectively influence the heritability of a trait, in this case, the growth rate of yeast. Our results show that the non-chromosomal contribution can be large, adding another dimension to the estimation of heritability. We also discovered, combining the strength of LASSO with model selection, that the interaction of chromosomal and non-chromosomal information is essential in describing phenotypes.

  8. Paradoxical self-esteem and selectivity in the processing of social information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tafarodi, R W

    1998-05-01

    Paradoxical self-esteem is defined as contrasting levels of self-liking and self-competence. Consideration of the social and motivational implications of this uncommon form of self-esteem suggests that heightened selectivity in the processing of social information may be behind its persistence. Two experiments were conducted to confirm the prediction of heightened selectivity in paradoxicals. As expected, those paradoxically low in self-liking were more negatively biased in their memory for personality feedback (Study 1) and interpretation of valuatively ambiguous phrases (Study 2) than were their counterparts who shared the same low self-liking but were also low in self-competence. Symmetrical with this result, those paradoxically high in self-liking exhibited a heightened positive bias relative to those who were high in both self-liking and self-competence. The findings are discussed in relation to attitudes and motivation.

  9. 77 FR 56845 - Multi-Agency Informational Meeting Concerning Compliance With the Federal Select Agent Program...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-09-14

    ... regulatory guidance and information on standards concerning biosafety, biosecurity and incident response... Laboratory Registration for Possession, Use, and Transfer of Select Agents and Toxins (APHIS/CDC Form 1...

  10. A redundancy-removing feature selection algorithm for nominal data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhihua Li

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available No order correlation or similarity metric exists in nominal data, and there will always be more redundancy in a nominal dataset, which means that an efficient mutual information-based nominal-data feature selection method is relatively difficult to find. In this paper, a nominal-data feature selection method based on mutual information without data transformation, called the redundancy-removing more relevance less redundancy algorithm, is proposed. By forming several new information-related definitions and the corresponding computational methods, the proposed method can compute the information-related amount of nominal data directly. Furthermore, by creating a new evaluation function that considers both the relevance and the redundancy globally, the new feature selection method can evaluate the importance of each nominal-data feature. Although the presented feature selection method takes commonly used MIFS-like forms, it is capable of handling high-dimensional datasets without expensive computations. We perform extensive experimental comparisons of the proposed algorithm and other methods using three benchmarking nominal datasets with two different classifiers. The experimental results demonstrate the average advantage of the presented algorithm over the well-known NMIFS algorithm in terms of the feature selection and classification accuracy, which indicates that the proposed method has a promising performance.

  11. Proposed Risk-Informed Seismic Hazard Periodic Reevaluation Methodology for Complying with DOE Order 420.1C

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kammerer, Annie [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2016-03-01

    Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facilities must comply with DOE Order 420.1C Facility Safety, which requires that all such facilities review their natural phenomena hazards (NPH) assessments no less frequently than every ten years. The Order points the reader to Standard DOE-STD-1020-2012. In addition to providing a discussion of the applicable evaluation criteria, the Standard references other documents, including ANSI/ANS-2.29-2008 and NUREG-2117. These documents provide supporting criteria and approaches for evaluating the need to update an existing probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). All of the documents are consistent at a high level regarding the general conceptual criteria that should be considered. However, none of the documents provides step-by-step detailed guidance on the required or recommended approach for evaluating the significance of new information and determining whether or not an existing PSHA should be updated. Further, all of the conceptual approaches and criteria given in these documents deal with changes that may have occurred in the knowledge base that might impact the inputs to the PSHA, the calculated hazard itself, or the technical basis for the hazard inputs. Given that the DOE Order is aimed at achieving and assuring the safety of nuclear facilities—which is a function not only of the level of the seismic hazard but also the capacity of the facility to withstand vibratory ground motions—the inclusion of risk information in the evaluation process would appear to be both prudent and in line with the objectives of the Order. The purpose of this white paper is to describe a risk-informed methodology for evaluating the need for an update of an existing PSHA consistent with the DOE Order. While the development of the proposed methodology was undertaken as a result of assessments for specific SDC-3 facilities at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and it is expected that the application at INL will provide a demonstration of the

  12. Proposed Risk-Informed Seismic Hazard Periodic Reevaluation Methodology for Complying with DOE Order 420.1C

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kammerer, Annie [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2015-10-01

    Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facilities must comply with DOE Order 420.1C Facility Safety, which requires that all such facilities review their natural phenomena hazards (NPH) assessments no less frequently than every ten years. The Order points the reader to Standard DOE-STD-1020-2012. In addition to providing a discussion of the applicable evaluation criteria, the Standard references other documents, including ANSI/ANS-2.29-2008 and NUREG-2117. These documents provide supporting criteria and approaches for evaluating the need to update an existing probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). All of the documents are consistent at a high level regarding the general conceptual criteria that should be considered. However, none of the documents provides step-by-step detailed guidance on the required or recommended approach for evaluating the significance of new information and determining whether or not an existing PSHA should be updated. Further, all of the conceptual approaches and criteria given in these documents deal with changes that may have occurred in the knowledge base that might impact the inputs to the PSHA, the calculated hazard itself, or the technical basis for the hazard inputs. Given that the DOE Order is aimed at achieving and assuring the safety of nuclear facilities—which is a function not only of the level of the seismic hazard but also the capacity of the facility to withstand vibratory ground motions—the inclusion of risk information in the evaluation process would appear to be both prudent and in line with the objectives of the Order. The purpose of this white paper is to describe a risk-informed methodology for evaluating the need for an update of an existing PSHA consistent with the DOE Order. While the development of the proposed methodology was undertaken as a result of assessments for specific SDC-3 facilities at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and it is expected that the application at INL will provide a demonstration of the

  13. Dual-wavelength phase-shifting digital holography selectively extracting wavelength information from wavelength-multiplexed holograms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tahara, Tatsuki; Mori, Ryota; Kikunaga, Shuhei; Arai, Yasuhiko; Takaki, Yasuhiro

    2015-06-15

    Dual-wavelength phase-shifting digital holography that selectively extracts wavelength information from five wavelength-multiplexed holograms is presented. Specific phase shifts for respective wavelengths are introduced to remove the crosstalk components and extract only the object wave at the desired wavelength from the holograms. Object waves in multiple wavelengths are selectively extracted by utilizing 2π ambiguity and the subtraction procedures based on phase-shifting interferometry. Numerical results show the validity of the proposed technique. The proposed technique is also experimentally demonstrated.

  14. Clustering with Instance and Attribute Level Side Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinlong Wang

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Selecting a suitable proximity measure is one of the fundamental tasks in clustering. How to effectively utilize all available side information, including the instance level information in the form of pair-wise constraints, and the attribute level information in the form of attribute order preferences, is an essential problem in metric learning. In this paper, we propose a learning framework in which both the pair-wise constraints and the attribute order preferences can be incorporated simultaneously. The theory behind it and the related parameter adjusting technique have been described in details. Experimental results on benchmark data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed method.

  15. Does Research Information Meet the Needs of Stakeholders? Exploring Evidence Selection in the Global Management of Invasive Species

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayliss, Helen R.; Wilcox, Andrew; Stewart, Gavin B.; Randall, Nicola P.

    2012-01-01

    This study explored factors affecting information selection by international stakeholders working with invasive species. Despite differences in information requirements between groups, all stakeholders demonstrated a clear preference for free, easily accessible online information, and predominantly used internet search engines and specialist…

  16. Potential effect of physical activity based menu labels on the calorie content of selected fast food meals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dowray, Sunaina; Swartz, Jonas J; Braxton, Danielle; Viera, Anthony J

    2013-03-01

    In this study we examined the effect of physical activity based labels on the calorie content of meals selected from a sample fast food menu. Using a web-based survey, participants were randomly assigned to one of four menus which differed only in their labeling schemes (n=802): (1) a menu with no nutritional information, (2) a menu with calorie information, (3) a menu with calorie information and minutes to walk to burn those calories, or (4) a menu with calorie information and miles to walk to burn those calories. There was a significant difference in the mean number of calories ordered based on menu type (p=0.02), with an average of 1020 calories ordered from a menu with no nutritional information, 927 calories ordered from a menu with only calorie information, 916 calories ordered from a menu with both calorie information and minutes to walk to burn those calories, and 826 calories ordered from the menu with calorie information and the number of miles to walk to burn those calories. The menu with calories and the number of miles to walk to burn those calories appeared the most effective in influencing the selection of lower calorie meals (p=0.0007) when compared to the menu with no nutritional information provided. The majority of participants (82%) reported a preference for physical activity based menu labels over labels with calorie information alone and no nutritional information. Whether these labels are effective in real-life scenarios remains to be tested. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. MATHEMATICAL МODELLING OF SELECTING INFORMATIVE FEATURES FOR ANALYZING THE LIFE CYCLE PROCESSES OF RADIO-ELECTRONIC MEANS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Николай Григорьевич Стародубцев

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The subject of the study are methods and models for extracting information about the processes of the life cycle of radio electronic means at the design, production and operation stages. The goal is to develop the fundamentals of the theory of holistic monitoring of the life cycle of radio electronic means at the stages of their design, production and operation, in particular the development of information models for monitoring life cycle indicators in the production of radio electronic means. The attainment of this goal is achieved by solving such problems: research and development of a methodology for solving the problems of selecting informative features characterizing the state of the life cycle of radio electronic means; choice of informative features characterizing the state of the life cycle processes of radio electronic means; identification of the state of the life cycle processes of radio electronic means. To solve these problems, general scientific methods were used: the main provisions of functional analysis, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, estimation and prediction of random processes, optimization methods, pattern recognition. The following results are obtained. Methods for solving the problems of selecting informative features for monitoring the life cycle of radioelectronic facilities are developed by classifying the states of radioelectronic means and the processes of LC in the space of characteristics, each of which has a certain significance, which allowed finding a complex criterion and formalizing the selection procedures. When the number of a priori data is insufficient for a correct classification, heuristic methods of selection according to the criteria for using basic prototypes and information priorities are proposed. Conclusions. The solution of the problem of mathematical modeling of the efficiency functions of the processes of the life cycle of radioelectronic facilities and the choice of informative features for

  18. TOF-SIMS imaging technique with information entropy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aoyagi, Satoka; Kawashima, Y.; Kudo, Masahiro

    2005-01-01

    Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) is capable of chemical imaging of proteins on insulated samples in principal. However, selection of specific peaks related to a particular protein, which are necessary for chemical imaging, out of numerous candidates had been difficult without an appropriate spectrum analysis technique. Therefore multivariate analysis techniques, such as principal component analysis (PCA), and analysis with mutual information defined by information theory, have been applied to interpret SIMS spectra of protein samples. In this study mutual information was applied to select specific peaks related to proteins in order to obtain chemical images. Proteins on insulated materials were measured with TOF-SIMS and then SIMS spectra were analyzed by means of the analysis method based on the comparison using mutual information. Chemical mapping of each protein was obtained using specific peaks related to each protein selected based on values of mutual information. The results of TOF-SIMS images of proteins on the materials provide some useful information on properties of protein adsorption, optimality of immobilization processes and reaction between proteins. Thus chemical images of proteins by TOF-SIMS contribute to understand interactions between material surfaces and proteins and to develop sophisticated biomaterials

  19. National Clearinghouse for Drug Abuse Information Selected Reference Series, Series 4, No. 1.

    Science.gov (United States)

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

    This bibliography, which attempts to gather the significant research on the reproductive effects of the drugs of abuse, is one in a series prepared by the National Clearinghouse for Drug Abuse Information on subjects of topical interest. Selection of literature is based on its currency, its significance in the field, and its availability in local…

  20. The criteria for selecting a method for unfolding neutron spectra based on the information entropy theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhu, Qingjun; Song, Fengquan; Ren, Jie; Chen, Xueyong; Zhou, Bin

    2014-01-01

    To further expand the application of an artificial neural network in the field of neutron spectrometry, the criteria for choosing between an artificial neural network and the maximum entropy method for the purpose of unfolding neutron spectra was presented. The counts of the Bonner spheres for IAEA neutron spectra were used as a database, and the artificial neural network and the maximum entropy method were used to unfold neutron spectra; the mean squares of the spectra were defined as the differences between the desired and unfolded spectra. After the information entropy of each spectrum was calculated using information entropy theory, the relationship between the mean squares of the spectra and the information entropy was acquired. Useful information from the information entropy guided the selection of unfolding methods. Due to the importance of the information entropy, the method for predicting the information entropy using the Bonner spheres' counts was established. The criteria based on the information entropy theory can be used to choose between the artificial neural network and the maximum entropy method unfolding methods. The application of an artificial neural network to unfold neutron spectra was expanded. - Highlights: • Two neutron spectra unfolding methods, ANN and MEM, were compared. • The spectrum's entropy offers useful information for selecting unfolding methods. • For the spectrum with low entropy, the ANN was generally better than MEM. • The spectrum's entropy was predicted based on the Bonner spheres' counts

  1. Observed fitness may affect niche overlap in competing species via selective social information use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loukola, Olli J; Seppänen, Janne-Tuomas; Krams, Indrikis; Torvinen, Satu S; Forsman, Jukka T

    2013-10-01

    Social information transmission is important because it enables horizontal spread of behaviors, not only between conspecifics but also between individuals of different species. Because interspecific social information use is expected to take place among species with similar resource needs, it may have major consequences for the emergence of local adaptations, resource sharing, and community organization. Social information use is expected to be selective, but the conditions promoting it in an interspecific context are not well known. Here, we experimentally test whether pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) use the clutch size of great tits (Parus major) in determining the quality of the observed individual and use it as a basis of decision making. We show that pied flycatchers copied or rejected a novel nest site feature preference of great tits experimentally manipulated to exhibit high or low fitness (clutch size), respectively. Our results demonstrate that the social transmission of behaviors across species can be highly selective in response to observed fitness, plausibly making the phenomenon adaptive. In contrast with the current theory of species coexistence, overlap between realized niches of species could dynamically increase or decrease depending on the observed success of surrounding individuals.

  2. LEARNING MATERIALS SELECTION FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES OF FUTURE PROFESSIONALS IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oksana Synekop

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In conditions of differentiation the learning materials selection will optimize the training English for Specific Purposes of the future professionals in the field of information technology at university level. The purpose of the article is to define the basic unit of learning material, the factors of influence on the learning material selection, principles, criteria and the procedure of learning material selection in this paper. Reviewing the scientific achievements in the learning material selection in teaching English has become a basis for defining the factors of influence, principles and criteria in the research. The basic unit of learning material (learning English text for professional purposes is outlined. The factors of influence and principles (correspondence of learning materials to professional interests and needs of information technology students; necessary ability and accessibility; regarding the linguistic and stylistic necessity and sufficiency; availability of Internet sources information of the learning material selection are defined. Also, the qualitative criteria (authenticity; professional significance, relevance and informativeness; conformity of foreign language level and intellectual development of students; variety of genres and forms of speech, their sufficient filling by linguistic material; coherence, integrity, consistency, semantic completeness; topic conformity; situation conformity; unlimited access, reliability and exemplarity of Internet sources and the quantitative criteria (the amount of material of the learning material selection are highlighted. The process of English for Specific Purposes material selection (defining the disciplines of different cycles; defining spheres and related topics; outlining situations, communicative roles and intentions of professional communication; specifying the sources of selection; evaluating the texts; analysis of the knowledge, skills and sub-skills required for the

  3. Processing and Integration of Contextual Information in Monkey Ventrolateral Prefrontal Neurons during Selection and Execution of Goal-Directed Manipulative Actions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruni, Stefania; Giorgetti, Valentina; Bonini, Luca; Fogassi, Leonardo

    2015-08-26

    The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is deemed to underlie the complexity, flexibility, and goal-directedness of primates' behavior. Most neurophysiological studies performed so far investigated PFC functions with arm-reaching or oculomotor tasks, thus leaving unclear whether, and to which extent, PFC neurons also play a role in goal-directed manipulative actions, such as those commonly used by primates during most of their daily activities. Here we trained two macaques to perform or withhold grasp-to-eat and grasp-to-place actions, depending on the combination of two subsequently presented cues: an auditory go/no-go cue (high/low tone) and a visually presented target (food/object). By varying the order of presentation of the two cues, we could segment and independently evaluate the processing and integration of contextual information allowing the monkey to make a decision on whether or not to act, and what action to perform. We recorded 403 task-related neurons from the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC): unimodal sensory-driven (37%), motor-related (21%), unimodal sensory-and-motor (23%), and multisensory (19%) neurons. Target and go/no-go selectivity characterized most of the recorded neurons, particularly those endowed with motor-related discharge. Interestingly, multisensory neurons appeared to encode a behavioral decision independently from the sensory modality of the stimulus allowing the monkey to make it: some of them reflected the decision to act or refraining from acting (56%), whereas others (44%) encoded the decision to perform (or withhold) a specific action (e.g., grasp-to-eat). Our findings indicate that VLPFC neurons play a role in the processing of contextual information underlying motor decision during goal-directed manipulative actions. We demonstrated that macaque ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) neurons show remarkable selectivity for different aspects of the contextual information allowing the monkey to select and execute goal

  4. Model selection for semiparametric marginal mean regression accounting for within-cluster subsampling variability and informative cluster size.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Chung-Wei; Chen, Yi-Hau

    2018-03-13

    We propose a model selection criterion for semiparametric marginal mean regression based on generalized estimating equations. The work is motivated by a longitudinal study on the physical frailty outcome in the elderly, where the cluster size, that is, the number of the observed outcomes in each subject, is "informative" in the sense that it is related to the frailty outcome itself. The new proposal, called Resampling Cluster Information Criterion (RCIC), is based on the resampling idea utilized in the within-cluster resampling method (Hoffman, Sen, and Weinberg, 2001, Biometrika 88, 1121-1134) and accommodates informative cluster size. The implementation of RCIC, however, is free of performing actual resampling of the data and hence is computationally convenient. Compared with the existing model selection methods for marginal mean regression, the RCIC method incorporates an additional component accounting for variability of the model over within-cluster subsampling, and leads to remarkable improvements in selecting the correct model, regardless of whether the cluster size is informative or not. Applying the RCIC method to the longitudinal frailty study, we identify being female, old age, low income and life satisfaction, and chronic health conditions as significant risk factors for physical frailty in the elderly. © 2018, The International Biometric Society.

  5. Bisindeno-annulated pentacenes with exceptionally high photo-stability and ordered molecular packing: Simple synthesis by a regio-selective Scholl reaction

    KAUST Repository

    Naibi Lakshminarayana, Arun; Chang, Jingjing; Luo, Jie; Zheng, Bin; Huang, Kuo-Wei; Chi, Chunyan

    2015-01-01

    Bisindeno-annulated pentacenes 3a and 3b were synthesized by a simple regio-selective, FeCl3-mediated Scholl reaction from the corresponding 6,13-diaryl pentacene precursors. The fusion of two indeno-units dramatically changes the electronic properties and chemical reactivity of pentacene and the obtained compounds exhibited exceptionally high photo-stability in the solution, with a half-life time of 11.2 (3a) and 32.0 (3b) days under ambient light and air conditions. Ordered molecular packing with a small π-π stacking distance was observed in the single crystals of 3a and 3b. Our research provides a promising strategy to access stable higher order acenes with controlled molecular order. This journal is

  6. Assessment of pharmacy information system performance in selected hospitals in isfahan city during 2011.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saqaeian Nejad Isfahani, Sakineh; Mirzaeian, Razieh; Habibi, Mahbobe

    2013-01-01

    In supporting a therapeutic approach and medication therapy management, pharmacy information system acts as one of the central pillars of information system. This ensures that medication therapy is being supported and evaluated with an optimal level of safety and quality similar to other treatments and services. This research aims to evaluate the performance of pharmacy information system in three types of teaching, private and social affiliated hospitals. The present study is an applied, descriptive and analytical study which was conducted on the pharmacy information system in use in the selected hospitals. The research population included all the users of pharmacy information systems in the selected hospitals. The research sample is the same as the research population. Researchers collected data using a self-designed checklist developed following the guidelines of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Australia pharmaceutical Society and Therapeutic guidelines of the Drug Commission of the German Medical Association. The checklist validity was assessed by research supervisors and pharmacy information system pharmacists and users. To collect data besides observation, the questionnaires were distributed among pharmacy information system pharmacists and users. Finally, the analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS software. Pharmacy information system was found to be semi-automated in 16 hospitals and automated in 3 ones. Regarding the standards in the guidelines issued by the Society of Pharmacists, the highest rank in observing the input standards belonged to the Social Services associated hospitals with a mean score of 32.75. While teaching hospitals gained the highest score both in processing standards with a mean score of 29.15 and output standards with a mean score of 43.95, and the private hospitals had the lowest mean scores of 23.32, 17.78, 24.25 in input, process and output standards respectively. Based on the findings, the studied

  7. 48 CFR 16.505 - Ordering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... factors in the selection decision. (iii) Orders exceeding $5 million. For task or delivery orders in... procedures in 5.705. (11) When using the Governmentwide commercial purchase card as a method of payment, orders at or below the micro-purchase threshold are exempt from verification in the Central Contractor...

  8. A Semidefinite Programming Based Search Strategy for Feature Selection with Mutual Information Measure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naghibi, Tofigh; Hoffmann, Sarah; Pfister, Beat

    2015-08-01

    Feature subset selection, as a special case of the general subset selection problem, has been the topic of a considerable number of studies due to the growing importance of data-mining applications. In the feature subset selection problem there are two main issues that need to be addressed: (i) Finding an appropriate measure function than can be fairly fast and robustly computed for high-dimensional data. (ii) A search strategy to optimize the measure over the subset space in a reasonable amount of time. In this article mutual information between features and class labels is considered to be the measure function. Two series expansions for mutual information are proposed, and it is shown that most heuristic criteria suggested in the literature are truncated approximations of these expansions. It is well-known that searching the whole subset space is an NP-hard problem. Here, instead of the conventional sequential search algorithms, we suggest a parallel search strategy based on semidefinite programming (SDP) that can search through the subset space in polynomial time. By exploiting the similarities between the proposed algorithm and an instance of the maximum-cut problem in graph theory, the approximation ratio of this algorithm is derived and is compared with the approximation ratio of the backward elimination method. The experiments show that it can be misleading to judge the quality of a measure solely based on the classification accuracy, without taking the effect of the non-optimum search strategy into account.

  9. Selecting essential information for biosurveillance--a multi-criteria decision analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicholas Generous

    Full Text Available The National Strategy for Biosurveillance defines biosurveillance as "the process of gathering, integrating, interpreting, and communicating essential information related to all-hazards threats or disease activity affecting human, animal, or plant health to achieve early detection and warning, contribute to overall situational awareness of the health aspects of an incident, and to enable better decision-making at all levels." However, the strategy does not specify how "essential information" is to be identified and integrated into the current biosurveillance enterprise, or what the metrics qualify information as being "essential". The question of data stream identification and selection requires a structured methodology that can systematically evaluate the tradeoffs between the many criteria that need to be taken in account. Multi-Attribute Utility Theory, a type of multi-criteria decision analysis, can provide a well-defined, structured approach that can offer solutions to this problem. While the use of Multi-Attribute Utility Theoryas a practical method to apply formal scientific decision theoretical approaches to complex, multi-criteria problems has been demonstrated in a variety of fields, this method has never been applied to decision support in biosurveillance.We have developed a formalized decision support analytic framework that can facilitate identification of "essential information" for use in biosurveillance systems or processes and we offer this framework to the global BSV community as a tool for optimizing the BSV enterprise. To demonstrate utility, we applied the framework to the problem of evaluating data streams for use in an integrated global infectious disease surveillance system.

  10. Selecting essential information for biosurveillance--a multi-criteria decision analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Generous, Nicholas; Margevicius, Kristen J; Taylor-McCabe, Kirsten J; Brown, Mac; Daniel, W Brent; Castro, Lauren; Hengartner, Andrea; Deshpande, Alina

    2014-01-01

    The National Strategy for Biosurveillance defines biosurveillance as "the process of gathering, integrating, interpreting, and communicating essential information related to all-hazards threats or disease activity affecting human, animal, or plant health to achieve early detection and warning, contribute to overall situational awareness of the health aspects of an incident, and to enable better decision-making at all levels." However, the strategy does not specify how "essential information" is to be identified and integrated into the current biosurveillance enterprise, or what the metrics qualify information as being "essential". The question of data stream identification and selection requires a structured methodology that can systematically evaluate the tradeoffs between the many criteria that need to be taken in account. Multi-Attribute Utility Theory, a type of multi-criteria decision analysis, can provide a well-defined, structured approach that can offer solutions to this problem. While the use of Multi-Attribute Utility Theoryas a practical method to apply formal scientific decision theoretical approaches to complex, multi-criteria problems has been demonstrated in a variety of fields, this method has never been applied to decision support in biosurveillance.We have developed a formalized decision support analytic framework that can facilitate identification of "essential information" for use in biosurveillance systems or processes and we offer this framework to the global BSV community as a tool for optimizing the BSV enterprise. To demonstrate utility, we applied the framework to the problem of evaluating data streams for use in an integrated global infectious disease surveillance system.

  11. Adaptive transmission based on multi-relay selection and rate-compatible LDPC codes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Hualing; He, Yucheng; Zhou, Lin

    2017-08-01

    In order to adapt to the dynamical changeable channel condition and improve the transmissive reliability of the system, a cooperation system of rate-compatible low density parity check (RC-LDPC) codes combining with multi-relay selection protocol is proposed. In traditional relay selection protocol, only the channel state information (CSI) of source-relay and the CSI of relay-destination has been considered. The multi-relay selection protocol proposed by this paper takes the CSI between relays into extra account in order to obtain more chances of collabration. Additionally, the idea of hybrid automatic request retransmission (HARQ) and rate-compatible are introduced. Simulation results show that the transmissive reliability of the system can be significantly improved by the proposed protocol.

  12. Implementation HR information system – part of a unified information environment of MPEI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. M. Krepkov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to the unified information environment of National Research University “Moscow Power Engineering Institute” (MPEI, and its most important component – the HR information system. The article describes the architecture of the unified information space of MPEI. The main objective of the development of the HR information system – to provide access to users, including other information systems, to actual information about employees of MPEI.HR information system are based on many years of operating experience of the previous system and the like, are available on the market today, taking into account the decisions of personnel. The earlier HR information system was developed in 1995–1997 and used until mid-2015. In the process of its using it has accumulated a large number of «patches» and requests for revision that was stopped by limitations in the platform and solutions architecture. Comparative analysis of 1C and SAP products showed that the cost of implementation, configuration and maintenance of these products is higher than developing new solutions. Package of Microsoft technology software was chosen as a platform. These technologies have proven themselves in the development of similar projects, and vendor solutions for a long time support all key processes of information systems. Important is the presence of the selected software Microsoft FSTEC certificates (Federal Service for Technical and Export Control, which support the use of these products for storing and processing information in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. The MPEI has already implemented a number of systems on the Microsoft platform – postgraduate register, an Internet portal, etc. The use of technology of one supplier facilitates the integration processes and products into a unified information environment. The article details the technical and hardware specifications of the HR information system. The result of the work on

  13. SITE SELECTION OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILLS USING ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS METHOD IN A GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT IN GIROFT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Javaheri, T. Nasrabadi, M. H. Jafarian, G. R. Rowshan, H. Khoshnam

    2006-07-01

    Full Text Available Municipal solid waste generation is among the most significant sources which threaten the global environmental health. As an ideal selection depends on considering several independent factors concerning land use, socio economy and hydrogeology, the use of a multi criteria evaluation method seems inevitable. Taking benefit of geographic information system as a tool in combination with geographical information technology, equips the spatial decision support systems in appropriate site selection of sanitary landfills. The present study involves a kind of multi criteria evaluation method under the name of weighted linear combination by using geographical information technology as a practical instrument to evaluate the suitability of the vicinity of Giroft city in Kerman province of Iran for landfill. Water permeability, slope, distance from rivers, depth of underground watertable, distance from residential areas, distance from generation centers, general environmental criterion and distance from roads are the criteria which have been taken in to consideration in the process of analyzing. Superposing all of the raster type layers including geomorphologic, hydrologic, humanistic and land use criteria in land suitability, the final zoning of appropriate, fairly appropriate and inappropriate districts have been identified. Considering relative priority of all criteria in comparison with others, a specific weight is designated to each criterion according to their total influence on the whole process of decision making. The results from the application of the presented methodology are zones for landfill with varying zonal land suitability. Finally the zones will be ranked in descending order to indicate the priority of different options in front of the eyes of decision makers. The results achieved by this study may help policy makers of Giroft city by a variety of options for being considered as sanitary landfill locations.

  14. A diagnostic signal selection scheme for planetary gearbox vibration monitoring under non-stationary operational conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feng, Ke; Wang, KeSheng; Zhang, Mian; Ni, Qing; Zuo, Ming J

    2017-01-01

    The planetary gearbox, due to its unique mechanical structures, is an important rotating machine for transmission systems. Its engineering applications are often in non-stationary operational conditions, such as helicopters, wind energy systems, etc. The unique physical structures and working conditions make the vibrations measured from planetary gearboxes exhibit a complex time-varying modulation and therefore yield complicated spectral structures. As a result, traditional signal processing methods, such as Fourier analysis, and the selection of characteristic fault frequencies for diagnosis face serious challenges. To overcome this drawback, this paper proposes a signal selection scheme for fault-emphasized diagnostics based upon two order tracking techniques. The basic procedures for the proposed scheme are as follows. (1) Computed order tracking is applied to reveal the order contents and identify the order(s) of interest. (2) Vold–Kalman filter order tracking is used to extract the order(s) of interest—these filtered order(s) constitute the so-called selected vibrations. (3) Time domain statistic indicators are applied to the selected vibrations for faulty information-emphasized diagnostics. The proposed scheme is explained and demonstrated in a signal simulation model and experimental studies and the method proves to be effective for planetary gearbox fault diagnosis. (paper)

  15. Why Latinas With Breast Cancer Select Specific Informal Caregivers to Participate With Them in Psychosocial Interventions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badger, Terry; Segrin, Chris; Swiatkowski, Paulina; McNelis, Melissa; Weihs, Karen; Lopez, Ana Maria

    2017-07-01

    The purpose of this study is to describe the reasons 88 Latinas with breast cancer selected specific supportive others to participate in an 8-week psychosocial intervention. Participants were asked one open-ended question during the baseline assessment for a larger clinical trial: "Could you tell me more about why you selected [insert name] to participate in the study with you?" A content analysis of the responses found three thematic categories: source of informational or emotional support, concern for the informal caregiver's welfare, and special characteristics or qualities of the informal caregiver. These findings reflected both the cultural value of familism, the woman's role as caregiver to the family ( marianismo), and the man's role of provider ( machismo). Findings provide support for including the supportive person identified by the patient during a health crisis rather than the provider suggesting who that should be. Psychosocial services designed and implemented through such a cultural lens are more likely to be successful.

  16. Selection of lixiviants for in situ uranium leaching. Information circular

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tweeton, D.R.; Peterson, K.A.

    1981-10-01

    This Bureau of Mines publication provides information to assist in selecting a lixiviant (leach solution) for in situ uranium leaching. The cost, advantages, and disadvantages of lixiviants currently used and proposed are presented. Laboratory and field tests are described, and applications of geochemical models are discussed. Environmental, economic, and technical factors should all be considered. Satisfying environmental regulations on restoring groundwater quality is becoming an overriding factor, favoring sodium bicarbonate or dissolved carbon dioxide over ammonium carbonate. The cheapest lixiviant is dissolved carbon dioxide, but it is not effective in all deposits. Technical factors include clay swelling by sodium, acid consumption by calcite, and the low solubility of oxygen in shallow deposits

  17. The future of event-level information repositories, indexing, and selection in ATLAS

    CERN Document Server

    Barberis, D; The ATLAS collaboration; Dimitrov, G; Doherty, T; Gallas, E; Hrivnac, J; Malon, D; Nairz, A; Nowak, M; Quilty, D; Sorokoletov, R; Van Gemmeren, P; Zhang, Q

    2014-01-01

    ATLAS maintains a rich corpus of event-by-event information that provides a global view of virtually all of the billions of events the collaboration has seen or simulated, along with sufficient auxiliary information to navigate to and retrieve data for any event at any production processing stage. This unique resource has been employed for a range of purposes, from monitoring, statistics, anomaly detection, and integrity checking to event picking, subset selection, and sample extraction. Recent years of data-taking provide a foundation for assessment of how this resource has and has not been used in practice, of the uses for which it should be optimized, of how it should be deployed and provisioned for scalability to future data volumes, and of the areas in which enhancements to functionality would be most valuable. \

  18. Environment as a witness: Selective proliferation of information and emergence of objectivity in a quantum universe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ollivier, Harold; Poulin, David; Zurek, Wojciech H.

    2005-01-01

    We study the role of the information deposited in the environment of an open quantum system in the course of the decoherence process. Redundant spreading of information--the fact that some observables of the system can be independently read off from many distinct fragments of the environment--is investigated as the key to effective objectivity, the essential ingredient of classical reality. This focus on the environment as a communication channel through which observers learn about physical systems underscores the importance of quantum Darwinism--selective proliferation of information about 'the fittest states' chosen by the dynamics of decoherence at the expense of their superpositions--as redundancy imposes the existence of preferred observables. We demonstrate that the only observables that can leave multiple imprints in the environment are the familiar pointer observables singled out by environment-induced superselection (einselection) for their predictability. Many independent observers monitoring the environment will therefore agree on properties of the system as they can only learn about preferred observables. In this operational sense, the selective spreading of information leads to appearance of an objective classical reality from within the quantum substrate

  19. Multitarget Tracking with Spatial Nonmaximum Suppressed Sensor Selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liang Ma

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Multitarget tracking is one of the most important applications of sensor networks, yet it is an extremely challenging problem since multisensor multitarget tracking itself is nontrivial and the difficulty is further compounded by sensor management. Recently, random finite set based Bayesian framework has opened doors for multitarget tracking with sensor management, which is modelled in the framework of partially observed Markov decision process (POMDP. However, sensor management posed as a POMDP is in essence a combinatorial optimization problem which is NP-hard and computationally unacceptable. In this paper, we propose a novel sensor selection method for multitarget tracking. We first present the sequential multi-Bernoulli filter as a centralized multisensor fusion scheme for multitarget tracking. In order to perform sensor selection, we define the hypothesis information gain (HIG of a sensor to measure its information quantity when the sensor is selected alone. Then, we propose spatial nonmaximum suppression approach to select sensors with respect to their locations and HIGs. Two distinguished implementations have been provided using the greedy spatial nonmaximum suppression. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of proposed sensor selection approach for multitarget tracking.

  20. A Selected Bibliography of Dictionaries. General Information Series, No. 9. Indochinese Refugee Education Guides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Center for Applied Linguistics, Arlington, VA.

    This is a selected, annotated bibliography of dictionaries useful to Indochinese refugees. The purpose of this guide is to provide the American teacher or sponsor with information on the use, limitations and availability of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries which can be used by refugees. The bibliography is preceded by notes on problems with…

  1. Optimised Selection of Stroke Biomarker Based on Svm and Information Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Xiang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available With the development of molecular biology and gene-engineering technology, gene diagnosis has been an emerging approach for modern life sciences. Biological marker, recognized as the hot topic in the molecular and gene fields, has important values in early diagnosis, malignant tumor stage, treatment and therapeutic efficacy evaluation. So far, the researcher has not found any effective way to predict and distinguish different type of stroke. In this paper, we aim to optimize stroke biomarker and figure out effective stroke detection index based on SVM (support vector machine and information theory. Through mutual information analysis and principal component analysis to complete the selection of biomarkers and then we use SVM to verify our model. According to the testing data of patients provided by Xuanwu Hospital, we explore the significant markers of the stroke through data analysis. Our model can predict stroke well. Then discuss the effects of each biomarker on the incidence of stroke.

  2. Simple, complex and hyper-complex understanding - enhanced sensitivity in observation of information

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bering Keiding, Tina

    for construction and analysis of empirical information. A quick overview on empirical research drawing on Luhmann reveals a diverse complex of analytical strategies and empirical methods. Despite differences between strategies and methods they have in common that understanding of uttered information is crucial...... in their production of empirically founded knowledge. However research generally seems to pay more attention to production of uttered information than to selection of understanding. The aim of this contribution is to sketch out a suggestion to how selection of understanding can be systematized in order to produce...... enhanced transparency in selection of understanding as well as enhanced sensitivity and definition in dept. The contribution suggest that we distinguish between three types of understanding; simple, complex and hyper-complex understanding. Simple understanding is the simultaneous selection of understanding...

  3. An Extended VIKOR-Based Approach for Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Plant Site Selection with Heterogeneous Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunna Wu

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The selection of a desirable site for constructing a pumped hydro energy storage plant (PHESP plays a vital important role in the whole life cycle. However, little research has been done on the site selection of PHESP, which affects the rapid development of PHESP. Therefore, this paper aims to select the most ideal PHESP site from numerous candidate alternatives using the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM technique. Firstly, a comprehensive evaluation criteria system is established for the first time. Then, considering quantitative and qualitative criteria coexist in this system, multiple types of representations, including crisp numerical values (CNVs, triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TIFNs, and 2-dimension uncertain linguistic variables (2DULVs, are employed to deal with heterogeneous criteria information. To determine the weight of criteria and fully take the preference of the decision makers (DMs into account, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP method is applied for criteria weighting. After that, an extended Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR method is utilized to provide compromise solutions for the PHESP site considering such heterogeneous information. At last, the proposed model is then applied in a case study of Zhejiang province, China to illustrate its practicality and efficiency. The result shows the Changlongshan should be selected as the optimal PHESP.

  4. The importance of identity-by-state information for the accuracy of genomic selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luan Tu

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background It is commonly assumed that prediction of genome-wide breeding values in genomic selection is achieved by capitalizing on linkage disequilibrium between markers and QTL but also on genetic relationships. Here, we investigated the reliability of predicting genome-wide breeding values based on population-wide linkage disequilibrium information, based on identity-by-descent relationships within the known pedigree, and to what extent linkage disequilibrium information improves predictions based on identity-by-descent genomic relationship information. Methods The study was performed on milk, fat, and protein yield, using genotype data on 35 706 SNP and deregressed proofs of 1086 Italian Brown Swiss bulls. Genome-wide breeding values were predicted using a genomic identity-by-state relationship matrix and a genomic identity-by-descent relationship matrix (averaged over all marker loci. The identity-by-descent matrix was calculated by linkage analysis using one to five generations of pedigree data. Results We showed that genome-wide breeding values prediction based only on identity-by-descent genomic relationships within the known pedigree was as or more reliable than that based on identity-by-state, which implicitly also accounts for genomic relationships that occurred before the known pedigree. Furthermore, combining the two matrices did not improve the prediction compared to using identity-by-descent alone. Including different numbers of generations in the pedigree showed that most of the information in genome-wide breeding values prediction comes from animals with known common ancestors less than four generations back in the pedigree. Conclusions Our results show that, in pedigreed breeding populations, the accuracy of genome-wide breeding values obtained by identity-by-descent relationships was not improved by identity-by-state information. Although, in principle, genomic selection based on identity-by-state does not require

  5. The New World Information Order. [Commission Document] 31.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masmoudi, Mustapha

    One of a series prepared for the International Commission for the Study of Communication of Unesco, this report elucidates the principal reasons supporting reform of the international information system. Following an introduction that outlines the role of information in developing countries and explains why the current media are inadequate, the…

  6. Effect of keywords assignment on secondary information processing and notice on their selection and description

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mishima, Yoshitsugu; Oi, Shoichi; Ebinuma, Yukio.

    1976-01-01

    Completed are the observation and analysis which have been made on author-assigned keywords to his paper by the Special Committee on Nuclear Documentation in cooperation with the INIS National Center. The keywords must be the most suitable information items in principle for a brief representation of the paper. Each of the keywords is a title-augmentative term, capable of structuring a very short summary. Consequently, it may be possible to transfer them easily to descriptors in every secondary information system. Keywords cited in the two journals of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan are considerably effective in general to get a high quality of indexing and a subsequent high quality of information retrieval, because of both the indexing consistency of 66% and the hit retrieval consistency of 75% in the INIS. On the other hand, it is stressed that the keywords should be selected from the terms in title and abstract of the paper except for short notes. Resulting from the experience in checking of the keywords, a guideline for their selection and description are proposed over eight items on trial so that more adequate assignment can be uniformly attained by all authors concerned. (auth.)

  7. Feature-selective Attention in Frontoparietal Cortex: Multivoxel Codes Adjust to Prioritize Task-relevant Information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Jade; Rich, Anina N; Williams, Mark A; Woolgar, Alexandra

    2017-02-01

    Human cognition is characterized by astounding flexibility, enabling us to select appropriate information according to the objectives of our current task. A circuit of frontal and parietal brain regions, often referred to as the frontoparietal attention network or multiple-demand (MD) regions, are believed to play a fundamental role in this flexibility. There is evidence that these regions dynamically adjust their responses to selectively process information that is currently relevant for behavior, as proposed by the "adaptive coding hypothesis" [Duncan, J. An adaptive coding model of neural function in prefrontal cortex. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2, 820-829, 2001]. Could this provide a neural mechanism for feature-selective attention, the process by which we preferentially process one feature of a stimulus over another? We used multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data during a perceptually challenging categorization task to investigate whether the representation of visual object features in the MD regions flexibly adjusts according to task relevance. Participants were trained to categorize visually similar novel objects along two orthogonal stimulus dimensions (length/orientation) and performed short alternating blocks in which only one of these dimensions was relevant. We found that multivoxel patterns of activation in the MD regions encoded the task-relevant distinctions more strongly than the task-irrelevant distinctions: The MD regions discriminated between stimuli of different lengths when length was relevant and between the same objects according to orientation when orientation was relevant. The data suggest a flexible neural system that adjusts its representation of visual objects to preferentially encode stimulus features that are currently relevant for behavior, providing a neural mechanism for feature-selective attention.

  8. A hybrid method for information technology selection combining multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) with technology roadmapping

    OpenAIRE

    García Mejía, Jaime Andrés

    2013-01-01

    Abstract: Strategic information technology (IT) management has been recognized as vital for achieving competitive advantage. IT selection, the process of choosing the best technology alternative from a number of available options, is an important part of IT management. The IT selection is a multi-criteria decision making process, where relative importance of each criterion is determined and the degree of satisfaction of every criterion from each alternative is evaluated. Decision makers (DMs)...

  9. The spontaneous market order and evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beck, Naomi

    2016-08-01

    Darwin's theory of natural selection and the idea of a spontaneous order share a fundamental feature: the claim that apparent design or order do not necessarily imply a designer or rational planning. But they also present important differences, which touch upon central questions such as the evolution of morality, the role of human agency in social evolution, the existence (or not) of directionality in undesigned processes, and the presence (nor not) of a providential element in evolutionary accounts. In this article, I explore these themes and probe the relationship between the notion of a spontaneous order and the theory of evolution by natural selection. The reflections of Nobel laureate in economics, F.A. von Hayek, provide the beginning and endpoint in this voyage, for they constitute the most pronounced effort to develop a full-fledged theory combining evolution and economics in recent times. But along the way, I also investigate the influence of classical political economy on Darwin's thought, primarily that of Adam Smith, and consider the reasons for which Darwin did not refer to Smith when discussing the principle of natural selection in The Origin of Species. I conclude that the spontaneous order, as understood by Hayek, and evolution by natural selection constitute two disparate concepts. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Correlating Structural Order with Structural Rearrangement in Dusty Plasma Liquids: Can Structural Rearrangement be Predicted by Static Structural Information?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Yen-Shuo; Liu, Yu-Hsuan; I, Lin

    2012-11-01

    Whether the static microstructural order information is strongly correlated with the subsequent structural rearrangement (SR) and their predicting power for SR are investigated experimentally in the quenched dusty plasma liquid with microheterogeneities. The poor local structural order is found to be a good alarm to identify the soft spot and predict the short term SR. For the site with good structural order, the persistent time for sustaining the structural memory until SR has a large mean value but a broad distribution. The deviation of the local structural order from that averaged over nearest neighbors serves as a good second alarm to further sort out the short time SR sites. It has the similar sorting power to that using the temporal fluctuation of the local structural order over a small time interval.

  11. 76 FR 17617 - Multi-Agency Informational Meeting Concerning Compliance With the Federal Select Agent Program...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-30

    ... assessments, biosafety requirements, and security measures. DATES: The meeting will be held on May 10, 2011...) and other interested individuals to obtain specific regulatory guidance and information on standards concerning biosafety and biosecurity issues related to the Federal Select Agent Program. CDC, APHIS, and FBI...

  12. Breeding common bean populations for traits using selection index

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dayane Cristina Lima

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available A common bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL. cultivar must combine desirable genotypes for several traits in order to be accepted by producers and consumers. This study aimed to evaluate selection efficiency when segregating bean populations for traits, by means of a selection index, in order to obtain superior progenies for traits considered. A total of 16 populations from the F4 and F5generations were evaluated in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The traits evaluated were plant architecture, plant disease, grain type and yield. Using standard scores (Z, the sum of the four traits (∑Z was obtained and, based on this information, the best populations were identified. The evaluation of selection effectiveness was performed on 31 progenies from each population. The 496 progenies plus eight controls were evaluated in the F5:6and F5:7 generations for the same traits in July and November 2012, respectively. The selection, using the index based on the sum of standardized variables (∑Z, was efficient for identifying populations with superior progenies for all the traits considered.

  13. Personalised Information Gathering and Recommender Systems: Techniques and Trends

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaohui Tao

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available With the explosive growth of resources available through the Internet, information mismatching and overload have become a severe concern to users.Web users are commonly overwhelmed by huge volume of information and are faced with the challenge of finding the most relevant and reliable information in a timely manner. Personalised information gathering and recommender systems represent state-of-the-art tools for efficient selection of the most relevant and reliable information resources, and the interest in such systems has increased dramatically over the last few years. However, web personalization has not yet been well-exploited; difficulties arise while selecting resources through recommender systems from a technological and social perspective. Aiming to promote high quality research in order to overcome these challenges, this paper provides a comprehensive survey on the recent work and achievements in the areas of personalised web information gathering and recommender systems. The report covers concept-based techniques exploited in personalised information gathering and recommender systems.

  14. 75 FR 37288 - Kiwifruit Grown in California; Order Amending Marketing Order No. 920

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-06-29

    ... administration of the order. The amendments will redefine the grower districts into which the production area is... improve the operation and administration of the California kiwifruit marketing order program. Proposed..., 2010. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laurel May or Kathleen M. Finn, Marketing Order Administration...

  15. LEARNIG TO BE INFORMED ON THE INTERNET: ¿ARE STUDENTS EFFECTIVE IN SEEKING AND SELECTING ONLINE INFORMATION? APRENDER A INFORMARSE EN LA RED: ¿SON LOS ESTUDIANTES EFICIENTES BUSCANDO Y SELECCIONANDO INFORMACIÓN?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María José Hernández Serrano

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available From an educational perspective, taking the Internet as an informational resource for education, the article analyzes the scope of the new information skills in regard to the concepts of literacy and information competence. This brief description of skills leads to the question of how students perform in their searching and selecting practices with online information. The main conclusions abstracted from the recent author’s research are brought to debate in order to respond questions raised about the skills needed to being effective in accessing and managing online information. Finally, since the new ways to locate and operate with the information contributes to the reorganization of both the traditional models of teaching/learning and the roles of the educational stakeholders, we understand that preparing students to meet the informational demands requires of teachers as mediators or facilitators of the informational process; thus, in the final section of the article, a proposal for teaching strategies in searching and selecting online information is explored, by describing several useful activities.Desde una óptica educativa, tomando la Red como recurso de información para la educación, el artículo analiza qué suponen las nuevas habilidades informativas, en lo que respecta a los conceptos de alfabetización y competencia informacional. Esta breve descripción y recapitulación de habilidades nos lleva a preguntarnos, en la práctica, por cómo los estudiantes realizan los procesos de búsqueda y selección de información en línea. Traemos a debate las principales conclusiones abstraídas de los resultados de algunas de las investigaciones más relevantes de las autoras, que dan respuesta a los interrogantes planteados en torno a las habilidades necesarias para acceder y manejar eficazmente la información digital. Finalmente, y puesto que los nuevos modos para localizar y operar con la información precisan reorganizaciones tanto de

  16. 46 CFR 5.569 - Selection of an appropriate order.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... an order and present argument in support of this suggestion during the presentation of aggravating or... should not affect the fair and impartial adjudication of each case on its individual facts and merits...

  17. On Secure NOMA Systems with Transmit Antenna Selection Schemes

    KAUST Repository

    Lei, Hongjiang; Zhang, Jianming; Park, Kihong; Xu, Peng; Ansari, Imran Shafique; Pan, Gaofeng; Alomair, Basel; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

    2017-01-01

    This paper investigates the secrecy performance of a two-user downlink non-orthogonal multiple access systems. Both single-input and single-output and multiple-input and singleoutput systems with different transmit antenna selection (TAS) strategies are considered. Depending on whether the base station has the global channel state information of both the main and wiretap channels, the exact closed-form expressions for the secrecy outage probability (SOP) with suboptimal antenna selection and optimal antenna selection schemes are obtained and compared with the traditional space-time transmission scheme. To obtain further insights, the asymptotic analysis of the SOP in high average channel power gains regime is presented and it is found that the secrecy diversity order for all the TAS schemes with fixed power allocation is zero. Furthermore, an effective power allocation scheme is proposed to obtain the nonzero diversity order with all the TAS schemes. Monte-Carlo simulations are performed to verify the proposed analytical results.

  18. On Secure NOMA Systems with Transmit Antenna Selection Schemes

    KAUST Repository

    Lei, Hongjiang

    2017-08-09

    This paper investigates the secrecy performance of a two-user downlink non-orthogonal multiple access systems. Both single-input and single-output and multiple-input and singleoutput systems with different transmit antenna selection (TAS) strategies are considered. Depending on whether the base station has the global channel state information of both the main and wiretap channels, the exact closed-form expressions for the secrecy outage probability (SOP) with suboptimal antenna selection and optimal antenna selection schemes are obtained and compared with the traditional space-time transmission scheme. To obtain further insights, the asymptotic analysis of the SOP in high average channel power gains regime is presented and it is found that the secrecy diversity order for all the TAS schemes with fixed power allocation is zero. Furthermore, an effective power allocation scheme is proposed to obtain the nonzero diversity order with all the TAS schemes. Monte-Carlo simulations are performed to verify the proposed analytical results.

  19. Expanding resource theory and feminist-informed theory to explain intimate partner violence perpetration by court-ordered men.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basile, Kathleen C; Hall, Jeffrey E; Walters, Mikel L

    2013-07-01

    This study tested resource and feminist-informed theories to explain physical, sexual, psychological, and stalking intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated by court-mandated men. Data were obtained from 340 men arrested for physical assault of a partner before their court-ordered treatment. Using path analysis, findings provided partial support for each model. Ineffective arguing and substance-use problems were moderators of resources and perpetration. Dominance mediated early exposures and perpetration in the feminist-informed model. In both models, predictors of stalking were different than those for other types of perpetration. Future studies should replicate this research and determine the utility of combining models.

  20. Selected Topics on Advanced Information Systems Engineering: Editorial Introduction to the Issue 5 of CSIMQ

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janis Grabis

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The 5th issue of the journal on Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling (CSIMQ presents extended versions of five papers selected from the CAiSE Forum 2015. The forum was part of the 27th edition of international Conference on Advanced Information Systems engineering (CAiSE 2015, which took place in June 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden. Information systems engineering draws its foundation from various interrelated disciplines including, e.g., conceptual modeling, database systems, business process management, requirements engineering, human computer interaction, and enterprise computing to address various practical challenges in development and application of information systems. The guiding subjects of CAiSE 2015 were Creativity, Ability, and Integrity. The CAiSE Forum aimed at presenting and discussing new ideas and tools related to information systems Engineering.

  1. Threat and Selective Exposure: The Moderating Role of Threat and Decision Context on Confirmatory Information Search after Decisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischer, Peter; Kastenmuller, Andreas; Greitemeyer, Tobias; Fischer, Julia; Frey, Dieter; Crelley, David

    2011-01-01

    Previous studies on the impact of perceived threat on confirmatory information search (selective exposure) in the context of decision making have yielded mixed results. Some studies have suggested that confirmatory information search is reduced, yet others have found contradictory effects. The present series of 5 studies consistently found that…

  2. Data survivability vs. security in information systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Levitin, Gregory; Hausken, Kjell; Taboada, Heidi A.; Coit, David W.

    2012-01-01

    A multiple objective problem formulation and solution methodology is presented to select optimal information and data storage configurations considering both data survivability and data security, as well as cost. This paper considers a situation where the information is divided into several separately stored blocks in order to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access or theft. The information can be used only if all of the blocks are accessed. To impede the information theft, the defender prefers to maximize the number of blocks. On the other hand the destruction of any block destroys the integrity of information and makes it impossible to use. To impede the information destruction, the defender prefers to maximize the number of parallel (reserve) copies of each block, regardless how many blocks in series there are. Given the set of available information storage resources, the defender must consider a multi-objective optimization problem to determine how many blocks and their copies to create, and how to distribute them among available resources in order to minimize information vulnerability, insecurity, and storage cost. Non-dominated solutions to this problem are determined using a multiple objective genetic algorithm (MOGA). This methodology is demonstrated with two general examples.

  3. Mechanical properties of ordered alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kroupa, F.

    1977-06-01

    A survey is given of the metallophysical fundamentals of the mechanical properties of ordered two-phase alloys. Alloys of this type have a superlattice structure in a substitution mixed crystal. Ordering is achieved by slow cooling or by annealing below the critical temperature, during which ordering domains (antiphase domains) are formed. At a high degree of ordering, the dislocations are concentrated to form pairs, so-called super-dislocations. The mechanical properties may be selectively changed by varying different parameters (size of the ordering domains, degree of ordering, energy of the antiphase boundaries) by a special composition and heat treatment.(GSC) [de

  4. Genomic selection strategies in breeding programs: Strong positive interaction between application of genotypic information and intensive use of young bulls on genetic gain

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buch, Line Hjortø; Sørensen, Morten Kargo; Berg, Peer

    2012-01-01

    We tested the following hypotheses: (i) breeding schemes with genomic selection are superior to breeding schemes without genomic selection regarding annual genetic gain of the aggregate genotype (ΔGAG), annual genetic gain of the functional traits and rate of inbreeding per generation (ΔF), (ii......) a positive interaction exists between the use of genotypic information and a short generation interval on ΔGAG and (iii) the inclusion of an indicator trait in the selection index will only result in a negligible increase in ΔGAG if genotypic information about the breeding goal trait is known. We examined......, greater contributions of the functional trait to ΔGAG and lower ΔF than the two breeding schemes without genomic selection. Thus, the use of genotypic information may lead to more sustainable breeding schemes. In addition, a short generation interval increases the effect of using genotypic information...

  5. Tailoring NIST Security Controls for the Ground System: Selection and Implementation -- Recommendations for Information System Owners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takamura, Eduardo; Mangum, Kevin

    2016-01-01

    . Certain protective measures for the general enterprise may not be as efficient within the ground segment. This is what the authors have concluded through observations and analysis of patterns identified from the various security assessments performed on NASA missions such as MAVEN, OSIRIS-REx, New Horizons and TESS, to name a few. The security audits confirmed that the framework for managing information system security developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for the federal government, and adopted by NASA, is indeed effective. However, the selection of the technical, operational and management security controls offered by the NIST model - and how they are implemented - does not always fit the nature and the environment where the ground system operates in even though there is no apparent impact on mission success. The authors observed that unfit controls, that is, controls that are not necessarily applicable or sufficiently effective in protecting the mission systems, are often selected to facilitate compliance with security requirements and organizational expectations even if the selected controls offer minimum or non-existent protection. This paper identifies some of the standard security controls that can in fact protect the ground system, and which of them offer little or no benefit at all. It offers multiple scenarios from real security audits in which the controls are not effective without, of course, disclosing any sensitive information about the missions assessed. In addition to selection and implementation of controls, the paper also discusses potential impact of recent legislation such as the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) of 2014 - aimed at the enterprise - on the ground system, and offers other recommendations to Information System Owners (ISOs).

  6. Information Literacy and the Public Library

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Bo Gerner; Borlund, Pia

    2013-01-01

    This paper reports on the results of an empirical study of Danish public librarians’ conceptions of information literacy and user education in order to support and optimize lifelong learning of library users. The study builds on data from interviews of purposely selected public librarians...... and a large-scale e-mail survey (questionnaire). The results show that the public librarians consider the public library an important place for learning, but also that they do not share a common understanding of the concepts of information literacy and lifelong learning. The study further reveals a diversity...

  7. Information processing. [in human performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wickens, Christopher D.; Flach, John M.

    1988-01-01

    Theoretical models of sensory-information processing by the human brain are reviewed from a human-factors perspective, with a focus on their implications for aircraft and avionics design. The topics addressed include perception (signal detection and selection), linguistic factors in perception (context provision, logical reversals, absence of cues, and order reversals), mental models, and working and long-term memory. Particular attention is given to decision-making problems such as situation assessment, decision formulation, decision quality, selection of action, the speed-accuracy tradeoff, stimulus-response compatibility, stimulus sequencing, dual-task performance, task difficulty and structure, and factors affecting multiple task performance (processing modalities, codes, and stages).

  8. Event-Triggered Control for Multiagent Systems with the Problem of Packet Losses and Communication Delays When Using the Second-Order Neighbors’ Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chuan Yan

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper mainly investigates the event-triggered control for discrete-time multiagent systems with the problem of packet losses and communication delays when both the first-order and the second-order neighbors’ information are used. Event-triggered control laws are adopted so as to reduce the frequency of individual actuation updating under the sampled-data framework for discrete-time agent dynamics. The communication graph is undirected and the loss of data across each communication link occurs at certain probability, which is governed by a Bernoulli process. It is found that the distributed consensus speeds up by using the second-order neighbors’ information when packet losses and communication delays occur. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

  9. Buffer-Aided Relaying with Adaptive Link Selection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zlatanov, Nikola; Schober, Robert; Popovski, Petar

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we consider a simple network consisting of a source, a half-duplex decode-and-forward relay, and a destination. We propose a new relaying protocol employing adaptive link selection, i.e., in any given time slot, based on the channel state information of the source-relay and the relay......-destination link a decision is made whether the source or the relay transmits. In order to avoid data loss at the relay, adaptive link selection requires the relay to be equipped with a buffer such that data can be queued until the relay-destination link is selected for transmission. We study both delay......-constrained and delay-unconstrained transmission. For the delay-unconstrained case, we characterize the optimal link selection policy, derive the corresponding throughput, and develop an optimal power allocation scheme. For the delay-constrained case, we propose to starve the buffer of the relay by choosing...

  10. Outage Probability versus Fairness Trade-off in Opportunistic Relay Selection with Outdated CSI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vicario JoseLopez

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available We analyze the existing trade-offs in terms of system performance versus fairness of a cooperative system based on opportunistic relay selection (ORS and with outdated channel state information (CSI. In particular, system performance is analytically evaluated in terms of outage probability, and the fairness behavior is assessed based on the power consumption at the different relays. In order to improve the fairness behavior of ORS while keeping the selection diversity gain, we propose a relay selection mechanism where the relay with the highest normalized signal-to-noise ratio (SNR is selected for relaying the source's information. The proposed strategy is compared with existing relay selection strategies by adopting a novel graphical representation inspired by expected profit versus risk plots used in modern portfolio theory. As shown in the paper, this strategy allows operating the system in more favorable points of the outage versus fairness region.

  11. Selective Attention in Multi-Chip Address-Event Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giacomo Indiveri

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Selective attention is the strategy used by biological systems to cope with the inherent limits in their available computational resources, in order to efficiently process sensory information. The same strategy can be used in artificial systems that have to process vast amounts of sensory data with limited resources. In this paper we present a neuromorphic VLSI device, the “Selective Attention Chip” (SAC, which can be used to implement these models in multi-chip address-event systems. We also describe a real-time sensory-motor system, which integrates the SAC with a dynamic vision sensor and a robotic actuator. We present experimental results from each component in the system, and demonstrate how the complete system implements a real-time stimulus-driven selective attention model.

  12. Selective attention in multi-chip address-event systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartolozzi, Chiara; Indiveri, Giacomo

    2009-01-01

    Selective attention is the strategy used by biological systems to cope with the inherent limits in their available computational resources, in order to efficiently process sensory information. The same strategy can be used in artificial systems that have to process vast amounts of sensory data with limited resources. In this paper we present a neuromorphic VLSI device, the "Selective Attention Chip" (SAC), which can be used to implement these models in multi-chip address-event systems. We also describe a real-time sensory-motor system, which integrates the SAC with a dynamic vision sensor and a robotic actuator. We present experimental results from each component in the system, and demonstrate how the complete system implements a real-time stimulus-driven selective attention model.

  13. Mobile food ordering application

    OpenAIRE

    Yang, Fan

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this thesis was to build a food ordering client server application for Tom Yum Thai Oy, which is a Thai restaurant in Vaasa. For the customer, this application provides a view of current food information (category, name, image,price, description etc.) on the website and Android application. The customer can order food from these two platforms. For the administrator in restaurant, this application offers a series of operations to add, update, delete and query the information of ...

  14. A Consumer Health Information System to Assist Patients Select Quality Home Health Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dimitrios Zikos

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Patients evaluate the quality of home health agencies (HHAs using the Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS survey. This paper describes a prototype community health information system to help patients select appropriate and quality HHAs, according to the location, proprietary status, type of service, and year of HHA establishment. Five HCAHPS indicators were selected: “summary rating”, “quality of care”, “professional care”, “communication”, and “recommend agency”. Independent t-test analysis showed that agencies offering Speech Pathology, Medical-Social, or Home Health Aide services, receive significantly worse HCAHPS ratings, while mean ratings vary significantly across different US states. Multiple comparisons with post hoc ANOVA revealed differences between and within HHAs of different proprietary status (p < 0.001: governmental HHAs receiving higher ratings than private HHAs. Finally, there was observed a relationship between all five quality rating variables and the HHA year of establishment (Pearson, p < 0.001. The older the agency is, the better the HCAPS summary ratings. Findings provided the knowledge to design of a consumer health information system, to provide rankings filtered according to user criteria, comparing the quality rankings of eligible HHAs. Users can also see how a specific agency is ranked against eligible HHAs. Ultimately, the system aims to support the patient community with contextually realistic comparisons in an effort to choose optimal HH service.

  15. OPTICON: Pro-Matlab software for large order controlled structure design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, Lee D.

    1989-01-01

    A software package for large order controlled structure design is described and demonstrated. The primary program, called OPTICAN, uses both Pro-Matlab M-file routines and selected compiled FORTRAN routines linked into the Pro-Matlab structure. The program accepts structural model information in the form of state-space matrices and performs three basic design functions on the model: (1) open loop analyses; (2) closed loop reduced order controller synthesis; and (3) closed loop stability and performance assessment. The current controller synthesis methods which were implemented in this software are based on the Generalized Linear Quadratic Gaussian theory of Bernstein. In particular, a reduced order Optimal Projection synthesis algorithm based on a homotopy solution method was successfully applied to an experimental truss structure using a 58-state dynamic model. These results are presented and discussed. Current plans to expand the practical size of the design model to several hundred states and the intention to interface Pro-Matlab to a supercomputing environment are discussed.

  16. Empirical information on nuclear matter fourth-order symmetry energy from an extended nuclear mass formula

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rui Wang

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available We establish a relation between the equation of state of nuclear matter and the fourth-order symmetry energy asym,4(A of finite nuclei in a semi-empirical nuclear mass formula by self-consistently considering the bulk, surface and Coulomb contributions to the nuclear mass. Such a relation allows us to extract information on nuclear matter fourth-order symmetry energy Esym,4(ρ0 at normal nuclear density ρ0 from analyzing nuclear mass data. Based on the recent precise extraction of asym,4(A via the double difference of the “experimental” symmetry energy extracted from nuclear masses, for the first time, we estimate a value of Esym,4(ρ0=20.0±4.6 MeV. Such a value of Esym,4(ρ0 is significantly larger than the predictions from mean-field models and thus suggests the importance of considering the effects of beyond the mean-field approximation in nuclear matter calculations.

  17. Bayesian or Laplacien inference, entropy and information theory and information geometry in data and signal processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammad-Djafari, Ali

    2015-01-01

    The main object of this tutorial article is first to review the main inference tools using Bayesian approach, Entropy, Information theory and their corresponding geometries. This review is focused mainly on the ways these tools have been used in data, signal and image processing. After a short introduction of the different quantities related to the Bayes rule, the entropy and the Maximum Entropy Principle (MEP), relative entropy and the Kullback-Leibler divergence, Fisher information, we will study their use in different fields of data and signal processing such as: entropy in source separation, Fisher information in model order selection, different Maximum Entropy based methods in time series spectral estimation and finally, general linear inverse problems.

  18. Presenting a Multi Objective Model for Supplier Selection in Order to Reduce Green House Gas Emission under Uncertion Demand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Habibollah Mohamadi

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Recently, much attention has been given to Stochastic demand due to uncertainty in the real -world. In the literature, decision-making models and suppliers' selection do not often consider inventory management as part of shopping problems. On the other hand, the environmental sustainability of a supply chain depends on the shopping strategy of the supply chain members. The supplier selection plays an important role in the green chain. In this paper, a multi-objective nonlinear integer programming model for selecting a set of supplier considering Stochastic demand is proposed. while the cost of purchasing include the total cost, holding and stock out costs, rejected units, units have been delivered sooner, and total green house gas emissions are minimized, while the obtained total score from the supplier assessment process is maximized. It is assumed, the purchaser provides the different products from the number predetermined supplier to a with Stochastic demand and the uniform probability distribution function. The product price depends on the order quantity for each product line is intended. Multi-objective models using known methods, such as Lp-metric has become an objective function and then uses genetic algorithms and simulated annealing meta-heuristic is solved.

  19. A novel evaluation method for building construction project based on integrated information entropy with reliability theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bai, Xiao-ping; Zhang, Xi-wei

    2013-01-01

    Selecting construction schemes of the building engineering project is a complex multiobjective optimization decision process, in which many indexes need to be selected to find the optimum scheme. Aiming at this problem, this paper selects cost, progress, quality, and safety as the four first-order evaluation indexes, uses the quantitative method for the cost index, uses integrated qualitative and quantitative methodologies for progress, quality, and safety indexes, and integrates engineering economics, reliability theories, and information entropy theory to present a new evaluation method for building construction project. Combined with a practical case, this paper also presents detailed computing processes and steps, including selecting all order indexes, establishing the index matrix, computing score values of all order indexes, computing the synthesis score, sorting all selected schemes, and making analysis and decision. Presented method can offer valuable references for risk computing of building construction projects.

  20. Song tutoring in presinging zebra finch juveniles biases a small population of higher-order song-selective neurons toward the tutor song.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adret, Patrice; Meliza, C Daniel; Margoliash, Daniel

    2012-10-01

    We explored physiological changes correlated with song tutoring by recording the responses of caudal nidopallium neurons of zebra finches aged P21-P24 (days post hatching) to a broad spectrum of natural and synthetic stimuli. Those birds raised with their fathers tended to show behavioral evidence of song memorization but not of singing; thus auditory responses were not confounded by the birds' own vocalizations. In study 1, 37 of 158 neurons (23%) in 17 of 22 tutored and untutored birds were selective for only 1 of 10 stimuli comprising broadband signals, early juvenile songs and calls, female calls, and adult songs. Approximately 30% of the selective neurons (12/37 neurons in 9 birds) were selective for adult conspecific songs. All these were found in the song system nuclei HVC and paraHVC. Of 122 neurons (17 birds) in tutored birds, all of the conspecific song-selective neurons (8 neurons in 6 birds) were selective for the adult tutor song; none was selective for unfamiliar song. In study 2 with a different sampling strategy, we found that 11 of 12 song-selective neurons in 6 of 7 birds preferred the tutor song; none preferred unfamiliar or familiar conspecific songs. Most of these neurons were found in caudal lateral nidopallium (NCL) below HVC. Thus by the time a bird begins to sing, there are small numbers of tutor song-selective neurons distributed in several forebrain regions. We hypothesize that a small population of higher-order auditory neurons is innately selective for complex features of behaviorally relevant stimuli and these responses are modified by specific perceptual/social experience during development.

  1. The effect of menu labeling with calories and exercise equivalents on food selection and consumption.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Platkin, Charles; Yeh, Ming-Chin; Hirsch, Kimberly; Wiewel, Ellen Weiss; Lin, Chang-Yun; Tung, Ho-Jui; Castellanos, Victoria H

    2014-01-01

    Better techniques are needed to help consumers make lower calorie food choices. This pilot study examined the effect of menu labeling with caloric information and exercise equivalents (EE) on food selection. Participants, 62 females, ages 18-34, recruited for this study, ordered a fast food meal with menus that contained the names of the food (Lunch 1 (L1), control meal). One week later (Lunch 2 (L2), experiment meal), participants ordered a meal from one of three menus with the same items as the previous week: no calorie information, calorie information only, or calorie information and EE. There were no absolute differences between groups in calories ordered from L1 to L2. However, it is noteworthy that calorie only and calorie plus exercise equivalents ordered about 16% (206 kcal) and 14% (162 kcal) fewer calories from Lunch 1 to Lunch 2, respectively; whereas, the no information group ordered only 2% (25 kcal) fewer. Menu labeling alone may be insufficient to reduce calories; however, further research is needed in finding the most effective ways of presenting the menu labels for general public.

  2. Selected Topics on Business Information Systems: Editorial Introduction to Issue 11 of CSIMQ

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kurt Sandkuhl

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Information and Communication Technology (ICT plays an important role in enterprises, public authorities, inter-organizational networks, company clusters and other kinds of distributed organizations. Business, value creation and supporting activities in organizations are dependent on complex, distributed software and service systems operating in dynamic and often changing environments. In order to produce and supply products and services efficiently, organizations must be able to effectively exchange information between internal stakeholder groups and with external collaborators and customers. A high level of agility and interoperability is required when it comes to meeting the changing requirements from market or technical environments. The demand for interoperability exists at technological, business process and knowledge levels. Methods, theories and tools that ease change and adaptation of business processes, organizations and their supporting IT-systems are needed.The content of this issue presents novel research results in business information systems. Most of the articles in the issue originate from the 15th International Conference on Perspectives in Business Informatics Research (BIR 2016 in Prague (Czech Republic and the 9th International Workshop on Information Logistics and Applications of Semantic Technologies (ILOG, which was co-located with BIR 2016.The five accepted articles address different technical and methodic aspects of business information systems and various their application fields.

  3. vuv fluorescence from selective high-order multiphoton excitation of N2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coffee, Ryan N.; Gibson, George N.

    2004-01-01

    Recent fluorescence studies suggest that ultrashort pulse laser excitation may be highly selective. Selective high-intensity laser excitation holds important consequences for the physics of multiphoton processes. To establish the extent of this selectivity, we performed a detailed comparative study of the vacuum ultraviolet fluorescence resulting from the interaction of N 2 and Ar with high-intensity infrared ultrashort laser pulses. Both N 2 and Ar reveal two classes of transitions, inner-valence ns ' l ' . From their pressure dependence, we associate each transition with either plasma or direct laser excitation. Furthermore, we qualitatively confirm such associations with the time dependence of the fluorescence signal. Remarkably, only N 2 presents evidence of direct laser excitation. This direct excitation produces ionic nitrogen fragments with inner-valence (2s) holes, two unidentified transitions, and one molecular transition, the N 2 + :X 2 Σ g + 2 Σ u + . We discuss these results in the light of a recently proposed model for multiphoton excitation

  4. Experimental demonstration of selective quantum process tomography on an NMR quantum information processor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaikwad, Akshay; Rehal, Diksha; Singh, Amandeep; Arvind, Dorai, Kavita

    2018-02-01

    We present the NMR implementation of a scheme for selective and efficient quantum process tomography without ancilla. We generalize this scheme such that it can be implemented efficiently using only a set of measurements involving product operators. The method allows us to estimate any element of the quantum process matrix to a desired precision, provided a set of quantum states can be prepared efficiently. Our modified technique requires fewer experimental resources as compared to the standard implementation of selective and efficient quantum process tomography, as it exploits the special nature of NMR measurements to allow us to compute specific elements of the process matrix by a restrictive set of subsystem measurements. To demonstrate the efficacy of our scheme, we experimentally tomograph the processes corresponding to "no operation," a controlled-NOT (CNOT), and a controlled-Hadamard gate on a two-qubit NMR quantum information processor, with high fidelities.

  5. Application of geographical information system in disposal site selection for hazardous wastes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rezaeimahmoudi, Mehdi; Esmaeli, Abdolreza; Gharegozlu, Alireza; Shabanian, Hassan; Rokni, Ladan

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to provide a scientific method based on Geographical Information System (GIS) regarding all sustainable development measures to locate a proper landfill for disposal of hazardous wastes, especially industrial (radioactive) wastes. Seven effective factors for determining hazardous waste landfill were applied in Qom Province, central Iran. These criteria included water, slope, population centers, roads, fault, protected areas and geology. The Analysis Hierarchical Process (AHP) model based on pair comparison was used. First, the weight of each factor was determined by experts; afterwards each layer of maps entered to ARC GIS and with special weight multiplied together, finally the best suitable site was introduced. The most suitable sites for burial were in northwest and west of Qom Province and eventually five zones were introduced as the sample sites. GIs and AHP model is introduced as the technical, useful and accelerator tool for disposal site selection. Furthermore it is determined that geological factor is the most effective layer for site selection. It is suggested that geological conditions should be considered primarily then other factors are taken into consideration.

  6. Asymmetric Information in Iranian’s Health Insurance Market: Testing of Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lotfi, Farhad; Gorji, Hassan Abolghasem; Mahdavi, Ghadir; Hadian, Mohammad

    2015-01-01

    Background: Asymmetric information is one of the most important issues in insurance market which occurred due to inherent characteristics of one of the agents involved in insurance contracts; hence its management requires designing appropriate policies. This phenomenon can lead to the failure of insurance market via its two consequences, namely, adverse selection and moral hazard. Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the status of asymmetric information in Iran’s health insurance market with respect to the demand for outpatient services. Materials/sPatients and Methods: This research is a cross sectional study conducted on households living in Iran. The data of the research was extracted from the information on household’s budget survey collected by the Statistical Center of Iran in 2012. In this study, the Generalized Method of Moment model was used and the status of adverse selection and moral hazard was evaluated through calculating the latent health status of individuals in each insurance category. To analyze the data, Excel, Eviews and stata11 software were used. Results: The estimation of parameters of the utility function of the demand for outpatient services (visit, medicine, and Para-clinical services) showed that households were more risk averse in the use of outpatient care than other goods and services. After estimating the health status of households based on their health insurance categories, the results showed that rural-insured people had the best health status and people with supplementary insurance had the worst health status. In addition, the comparison of the conditional distribution of latent health status approved the phenomenon of adverse selection in all insurance groups, with the exception of rural insurance. Moreover, calculation of the elasticity of medical expenses to reimbursement rate confirmed the existence of moral hazard phenomenon. Conclusions: Due to the existence of the phenomena of adverse selection and moral hazard

  7. Theory of mind selectively predicts preschoolers' knowledge-based selective word learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brosseau-Liard, Patricia; Penney, Danielle; Poulin-Dubois, Diane

    2015-11-01

    Children can selectively attend to various attributes of a model, such as past accuracy or physical strength, to guide their social learning. There is a debate regarding whether a relation exists between theory-of-mind skills and selective learning. We hypothesized that high performance on theory-of-mind tasks would predict preference for learning new words from accurate informants (an epistemic attribute), but not from physically strong informants (a non-epistemic attribute). Three- and 4-year-olds (N = 65) completed two selective learning tasks, and their theory-of-mind abilities were assessed. As expected, performance on a theory-of-mind battery predicted children's preference to learn from more accurate informants but not from physically stronger informants. Results thus suggest that preschoolers with more advanced theory of mind have a better understanding of knowledge and apply that understanding to guide their selection of informants. This work has important implications for research on children's developing social cognition and early learning. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

  8. Theory of mind selectively predicts preschoolers’ knowledge-based selective word learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brosseau-Liard, Patricia; Penney, Danielle; Poulin-Dubois, Diane

    2015-01-01

    Children can selectively attend to various attributes of a model, such as past accuracy or physical strength, to guide their social learning. There is a debate regarding whether a relation exists between theory-of-mind skills and selective learning. We hypothesized that high performance on theory-of-mind tasks would predict preference for learning new words from accurate informants (an epistemic attribute), but not from physically strong informants (a non-epistemic attribute). Three- and 4-year-olds (N = 65) completed two selective learning tasks, and their theory of mind abilities were assessed. As expected, performance on a theory-of-mind battery predicted children’s preference to learn from more accurate informants but not from physically stronger informants. Results thus suggest that preschoolers with more advanced theory of mind have a better understanding of knowledge and apply that understanding to guide their selection of informants. This work has important implications for research on children’s developing social cognition and early learning. PMID:26211504

  9. To Kill, Stay or Flee: The Effects of Lions and Landscape Factors on Habitat and Kill Site Selection of Cheetahs in South Africa

    OpenAIRE

    Rostro-Garc?a, Susana; Kamler, Jan F.; Hunter, Luke T. B.

    2015-01-01

    Understanding how animals utilize available space is important for their conservation, as it provides insight into the ecological needs of the species, including those related to habitat, prey and inter and intraspecific interactions. We used 28 months of radio telemetry data and information from 200 kill locations to assess habitat selection at the 3rd order (selection of habitats within home ranges) and 4th order (selection of kill sites within the habitats used) of a reintroduced populatio...

  10. Visual attention spreads broadly but selects information locally.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shioiri, Satoshi; Honjyo, Hajime; Kashiwase, Yoshiyuki; Matsumiya, Kazumichi; Kuriki, Ichiro

    2016-10-19

    Visual attention spreads over a range around the focus as the spotlight metaphor describes. Spatial spread of attentional enhancement and local selection/inhibition are crucial factors determining the profile of the spatial attention. Enhancement and ignorance/suppression are opposite effects of attention, and appeared to be mutually exclusive. Yet, no unified view of the factors has been provided despite their necessity for understanding the functions of spatial attention. This report provides electroencephalographic and behavioral evidence for the attentional spread at an early stage and selection/inhibition at a later stage of visual processing. Steady state visual evoked potential showed broad spatial tuning whereas the P3 component of the event related potential showed local selection or inhibition of the adjacent areas. Based on these results, we propose a two-stage model of spatial attention with broad spread at an early stage and local selection at a later stage.

  11. Towards the Significance of Decision Aid in Building Information Modeling (BIM Software Selection Process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Omar Mohd Faizal

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Building Information Modeling (BIM has been considered as a solution in construction industry to numerous problems such as delays, increased lead in times and increased costs. This is due to the concept and characteristic of BIM that will reshaped the way construction project teams work together to increase productivity and improve the final project outcomes (cost, time, quality, safety, functionality, maintainability, etc.. As a result, the construction industry has witnesses numerous of BIM software available in market. Each of this software has offers different function, features. Furthermore, the adoption of BIM required high investment on software, hardware and also training expenses. Thus, there is indentified that there is a need of decision aid for appropriated BIM software selection that fulfill the project needs. However, research indicates that there is limited study attempt to guide decision in BIM software selection problem. Thus, this paper highlight the importance of decision making and support for BIM software selection as it is vital to increase productivity, construction project throughout building lifecycle.

  12. Selective Audiovisual Semantic Integration Enabled by Feature-Selective Attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yuanqing; Long, Jinyi; Huang, Biao; Yu, Tianyou; Wu, Wei; Li, Peijun; Fang, Fang; Sun, Pei

    2016-01-13

    An audiovisual object may contain multiple semantic features, such as the gender and emotional features of the speaker. Feature-selective attention and audiovisual semantic integration are two brain functions involved in the recognition of audiovisual objects. Humans often selectively attend to one or several features while ignoring the other features of an audiovisual object. Meanwhile, the human brain integrates semantic information from the visual and auditory modalities. However, how these two brain functions correlate with each other remains to be elucidated. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we explored the neural mechanism by which feature-selective attention modulates audiovisual semantic integration. During the fMRI experiment, the subjects were presented with visual-only, auditory-only, or audiovisual dynamical facial stimuli and performed several feature-selective attention tasks. Our results revealed that a distribution of areas, including heteromodal areas and brain areas encoding attended features, may be involved in audiovisual semantic integration. Through feature-selective attention, the human brain may selectively integrate audiovisual semantic information from attended features by enhancing functional connectivity and thus regulating information flows from heteromodal areas to brain areas encoding the attended features.

  13. Contrast based band selection for optimized weathered oil detection in hyperspectral images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levaux, Florian; Bostater, Charles R., Jr.; Neyt, Xavier

    2012-09-01

    Hyperspectral imagery offers unique benefits for detection of land and water features due to the information contained in reflectance signatures such as the bi-directional reflectance distribution function or BRDF. The reflectance signature directly shows the relative absorption and backscattering features of targets. These features can be very useful in shoreline monitoring or surveillance applications, for example to detect weathered oil. In real-time detection applications, processing of hyperspectral data can be an important tool and Optimal band selection is thus important in real time applications in order to select the essential bands using the absorption and backscatter information. In the present paper, band selection is based upon the optimization of target detection using contrast algorithms. The common definition of the contrast (using only one band out of all possible combinations available within a hyperspectral image) is generalized in order to consider all the possible combinations of wavelength dependent contrasts using hyperspectral images. The inflection (defined here as an approximation of the second derivative) is also used in order to enhance the variations in the reflectance spectra as well as in the contrast spectrua in order to assist in optimal band selection. The results of the selection in term of target detection (false alarms and missed detection) are also compared with a previous method to perform feature detection, namely the matched filter. In this paper, imagery is acquired using a pushbroom hyperspectral sensor mounted at the bow of a small vessel. The sensor is mechanically rotated using an optical rotation stage. This opto-mechanical scanning system produces hyperspectral images with pixel sizes on the order of mm to cm scales, depending upon the distance between the sensor and the shoreline being monitored. The motion of the platform during the acquisition induces distortions in the collected HSI imagery. It is therefore

  14. Characterisation of PDO olive oil Chianti Classico by non-selective (UV–visible, NIR and MIR spectroscopy) and selective (fatty acid composition) analytical techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Casale, M.; Oliveri, P.; Casolino, C.; Sinelli, N.; Zunin, P.; Armanino, C.; Forina, M.; Lanteri, S.

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► Characterisation of the Italian PDO extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico. ► Comparison between non-selective (UV–vis, NIR and MIR spectroscopy) and selective (fatty acid composition) analytical techniques. ► Synergy among spectroscopic techniques, by the fusion of the respective spectra. ► Prediction of the content of oleic and linoleic acids in the olive oils. - Abstract: An authentication study of the Italian PDO (protected designation of origin) extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico was performed; UV–visible (UV–vis), Near-Infrared (NIR) and Mid-Infrared (MIR) spectroscopies were applied to a set of samples representative of the whole Chianti Classico production area. The non-selective signals (fingerprints) provided by the three spectroscopic techniques were utilised both individually and jointly, after fusion of the respective profile vectors, in order to build a model for the Chianti Classico PDO olive oil. Moreover, these results were compared with those obtained by the gas chromatographic determination of the fatty acids composition. In order to characterise the olive oils produced in the Chianti Classico PDO area, UNEQ (unequal class models) and SIMCA (soft independent modelling of class analogy) were employed both on the MIR, NIR and UV–vis spectra, individually and jointly, and on the fatty acid composition. Finally, PLS (partial least square) regression was applied on the UV–vis, NIR and MIR spectra, in order to predict the content of oleic and linoleic acids in the extra virgin olive oils. UNEQ, SIMCA and PLS were performed after selection of the relevant predictors, in order to increase the efficiency of both classification and regression models. The non-selective information obtained from UV–vis, NIR and MIR spectroscopy allowed to build reliable models for checking the authenticity of the Italian PDO extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico.

  15. Characterisation of PDO olive oil Chianti Classico by non-selective (UV-visible, NIR and MIR spectroscopy) and selective (fatty acid composition) analytical techniques

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Casale, M., E-mail: monica@dictfa.unige.it [Universita degli Studi di Genova, Department of Chemistry and Food and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Via Brigata Salerno 13, I-16147, Genoa (Italy); Oliveri, P.; Casolino, C. [Universita degli Studi di Genova, Department of Chemistry and Food and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Via Brigata Salerno 13, I-16147, Genoa (Italy); Sinelli, N. [Universita degli Studi di Milano, Department of Food Science and Technology, Via Celoria, 2 - I-20133 Milan (Italy); Zunin, P.; Armanino, C.; Forina, M.; Lanteri, S. [Universita degli Studi di Genova, Department of Chemistry and Food and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Via Brigata Salerno 13, I-16147, Genoa (Italy)

    2012-01-27

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Characterisation of the Italian PDO extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Comparison between non-selective (UV-vis, NIR and MIR spectroscopy) and selective (fatty acid composition) analytical techniques. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Synergy among spectroscopic techniques, by the fusion of the respective spectra. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Prediction of the content of oleic and linoleic acids in the olive oils. - Abstract: An authentication study of the Italian PDO (protected designation of origin) extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico was performed; UV-visible (UV-vis), Near-Infrared (NIR) and Mid-Infrared (MIR) spectroscopies were applied to a set of samples representative of the whole Chianti Classico production area. The non-selective signals (fingerprints) provided by the three spectroscopic techniques were utilised both individually and jointly, after fusion of the respective profile vectors, in order to build a model for the Chianti Classico PDO olive oil. Moreover, these results were compared with those obtained by the gas chromatographic determination of the fatty acids composition. In order to characterise the olive oils produced in the Chianti Classico PDO area, UNEQ (unequal class models) and SIMCA (soft independent modelling of class analogy) were employed both on the MIR, NIR and UV-vis spectra, individually and jointly, and on the fatty acid composition. Finally, PLS (partial least square) regression was applied on the UV-vis, NIR and MIR spectra, in order to predict the content of oleic and linoleic acids in the extra virgin olive oils. UNEQ, SIMCA and PLS were performed after selection of the relevant predictors, in order to increase the efficiency of both classification and regression models. The non-selective information obtained from UV-vis, NIR and MIR spectroscopy allowed to build reliable models for checking the authenticity of the Italian PDO extra virgin olive oil

  16. The ancestral selection graph under strong directional selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pokalyuk, Cornelia; Pfaffelhuber, Peter

    2013-08-01

    The ancestral selection graph (ASG) was introduced by  Neuhauser and Krone (1997) in order to study populations of constant size which evolve under selection. Coalescence events, which occur at rate 1 for every pair of lines, lead to joint ancestry. In addition, splitting events in the ASG at rate α, the scaled selection coefficient, produce possible ancestors, such that the real ancestor depends on the ancestral alleles. Here, we use the ASG in the case without mutation in order to study fixation of a beneficial mutant. Using our main tool, a reversibility property of the ASG, we provide a new proof of the fact that a beneficial allele fixes roughly in time (2logα)/α if α is large. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Information-based cues at point of choice to change selection and consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco products: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, Patrice; Bignardi, Giacomo; Hollands, Gareth J; Marteau, Theresa M

    2018-03-27

    Reducing harmful consumption of food, alcohol, and tobacco products would prevent many cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Placing information-based cues in the environments in which we select and consume these products has the potential to contribute to changing these behaviours. In this review, information-based cues are defined as those which comprise any combination of words, symbols, numbers or pictures that convey information about a product or its use. We specifically exclude cues which are located on the products themselves. We conducted a systematic review of randomised, cluster- randomised, and non-randomised controlled trials to assess the impact of such cues on selection and consumption. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria, of which 12 targeted food (most commonly fruit and vegetables), one targeted alcohol sales, and none targeted tobacco products. Ten studies reported statistically significant effects on some or all of the targeted products, although studies were insufficiently homogenous to justify meta-analysis. Existing evidence suggests information-based cues can influence selection and consumption of food and alcohol products, although significant uncertainty remains. The current evidence base is limited both in quality and quantity, with relatively few, heterogeneous studies at unclear or high risk of bias. Additional, more rigorously conducted studies are warranted to better estimate the potential for these interventions to change selection and consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco products. PROSPERO. 2016; CRD42016051884 .

  18. Data-Driven Derivation of an "Informer Compound Set" for Improved Selection of Active Compounds in High-Throughput Screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paricharak, Shardul; IJzerman, Adriaan P; Jenkins, Jeremy L; Bender, Andreas; Nigsch, Florian

    2016-09-26

    Despite the usefulness of high-throughput screening (HTS) in drug discovery, for some systems, low assay throughput or high screening cost can prohibit the screening of large numbers of compounds. In such cases, iterative cycles of screening involving active learning (AL) are employed, creating the need for smaller "informer sets" that can be routinely screened to build predictive models for selecting compounds from the screening collection for follow-up screens. Here, we present a data-driven derivation of an informer compound set with improved predictivity of active compounds in HTS, and we validate its benefit over randomly selected training sets on 46 PubChem assays comprising at least 300,000 compounds and covering a wide range of assay biology. The informer compound set showed improvement in BEDROC(α = 100), PRAUC, and ROCAUC values averaged over all assays of 0.024, 0.014, and 0.016, respectively, compared to randomly selected training sets, all with paired t-test p-values agnostic fashion. This approach led to a consistent improvement in hit rates in follow-up screens without compromising scaffold retrieval. The informer set is adjustable in size depending on the number of compounds one intends to screen, as performance gains are realized for sets with more than 3,000 compounds, and this set is therefore applicable to a variety of situations. Finally, our results indicate that random sampling may not adequately cover descriptor space, drawing attention to the importance of the composition of the training set for predicting actives.

  19. A Novel Evaluation Method for Building Construction Project Based on Integrated Information Entropy with Reliability Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiao-ping Bai

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Selecting construction schemes of the building engineering project is a complex multiobjective optimization decision process, in which many indexes need to be selected to find the optimum scheme. Aiming at this problem, this paper selects cost, progress, quality, and safety as the four first-order evaluation indexes, uses the quantitative method for the cost index, uses integrated qualitative and quantitative methodologies for progress, quality, and safety indexes, and integrates engineering economics, reliability theories, and information entropy theory to present a new evaluation method for building construction project. Combined with a practical case, this paper also presents detailed computing processes and steps, including selecting all order indexes, establishing the index matrix, computing score values of all order indexes, computing the synthesis score, sorting all selected schemes, and making analysis and decision. Presented method can offer valuable references for risk computing of building construction projects.

  20. USER SERVICES AND EXTENSION SERVICES IN SELECTED SPECIAL LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION CENTERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

    Science.gov (United States)

    NONINI, CERISE

    A SURVEY BY QUESTIONNAIRE WAS MADE OF THE PROBLEM OF USER SERVICES AND EXTENSION SERVICES USED IN THE DISSEMINATION OF MATERIALS AND INFORMATION TO A SELECTED NUMBER OF INDUSTRIAL LIBRARIES. THE SURVEY RESULTED IN DATA CONCERNING STAFF SIZE, PROFESSIONAL-TO-CLERICAL RATIO, SIZE OF BOOK, DOCUMENT, PERIODICAL AND MICROFORM COLLECTIONS, LIBRARY…

  1. A Course to Promote Informed Selection of an Engineering Major Using a Partially Flipped Classroom Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyers, Kerry Lynn

    2016-01-01

    A 1 credit hour First-Year Engineering Course which provides background to students on the engineering disciplinary options available to them was redesigned to help inform the selection of their engineering major for future study. Initially, course administration was a large lecture class but was transformed into smaller classes that were…

  2. Disentangled Cooperative Orderings in Artificial Rare-Earth Nickelates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Middey, S.; Meyers, D.; Kareev, M.; Cao, Yanwei; Liu, X.; Shafer, P.; Freeland, J. W.; Kim, J.-W.; Ryan, P. J.; Chakhalian, J.

    2018-04-01

    Coupled transitions between distinct ordered phases are important aspects behind the rich phase complexity of correlated oxides that hinder our understanding of the underlying phenomena. For this reason, fundamental control over complex transitions has become a leading motivation of the designer approach to materials. We have devised a series of new superlattices by combining a Mott insulator and a correlated metal to form ultrashort period superlattices, which allow one to disentangle the simultaneous orderings in RENiO3 . Tailoring an incommensurate heterostructure period relative to the bulk charge ordering pattern suppresses the charge order transition while preserving metal-insulator and antiferromagnetic transitions. Such selective decoupling of the entangled phases resolves the long-standing puzzle about the driving force behind the metal-insulator transition and points to the site-selective Mott transition as the operative mechanism. This designer approach emphasizes the potential of heterointerfaces for selective control of simultaneous transitions in complex materials with entwined broken symmetries.

  3. Advantages of Information Systems in Health Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MARIA MALLIAROU & SOFIA ZYGA

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Nursing Information System (NIS has been defined as “a part of a health care information system that deals with nursing aspects, particularly the maintenance of the nursing record”. Nursing Uses of Information Systems in order to assess patient acuity and condition, prepare a plan of care or critical pathway, specify interventions, document care, track outcomes and control quality in the given patient care. Patient care processes, Communication, research, education and ward management can be easily delivered using NIS. There is a specific procedure that should be followed when implementing NISs. The electronic databases CINAHL and Medline were used to identify studies for review. Studies were selected from a search that included the terms ‘nursing information systems’, ‘clinical information systems’, ‘hospital information systems’, ‘documentation’, ‘nursing records’, combined with ‘electronic’ and ‘computer’. Journal articles, research papers, and systematic reviews from 1980 to 2007 were included. In Greek Hospitals there have been made many trials and efforts in order to develop electronic nursing documentation with little results. There are many difficulties and some of them are different levels of nursing education, low nurse to patient ratios, not involvement of nurses in the phases of their implementation, resistance in change. Today’s nursing practice in Greece needs to follow others counties paradigm and phase its controversies and problems in order to follow the worldwide changes in delivering nursing care.

  4. How Many Separable Sources? Model Selection In Independent Components Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woods, Roger P.; Hansen, Lars Kai; Strother, Stephen

    2015-01-01

    Unlike mixtures consisting solely of non-Gaussian sources, mixtures including two or more Gaussian components cannot be separated using standard independent components analysis methods that are based on higher order statistics and independent observations. The mixed Independent Components Analysis/Principal Components Analysis (mixed ICA/PCA) model described here accommodates one or more Gaussian components in the independent components analysis model and uses principal components analysis to characterize contributions from this inseparable Gaussian subspace. Information theory can then be used to select from among potential model categories with differing numbers of Gaussian components. Based on simulation studies, the assumptions and approximations underlying the Akaike Information Criterion do not hold in this setting, even with a very large number of observations. Cross-validation is a suitable, though computationally intensive alternative for model selection. Application of the algorithm is illustrated using Fisher's iris data set and Howells' craniometric data set. Mixed ICA/PCA is of potential interest in any field of scientific investigation where the authenticity of blindly separated non-Gaussian sources might otherwise be questionable. Failure of the Akaike Information Criterion in model selection also has relevance in traditional independent components analysis where all sources are assumed non-Gaussian. PMID:25811988

  5. Further differentiating item and order information in semantic memory: students' recall of words from the "CU Fight Song", Harry Potter book titles, and Scooby Doo theme song.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Overstreet, Michael F; Healy, Alice F; Neath, Ian

    2017-01-01

    University of Colorado (CU) students were tested for both order and item information in their semantic memory for the "CU Fight Song". Following an earlier study by Overstreet and Healy [(2011). Item and order information in semantic memory: Students' retention of the "CU fight song" lyrics. Memory & Cognition, 39, 251-259. doi: 10.3758/s13421-010-0018-3 ], a symmetrical bow-shaped serial position function (with both primacy and recency advantages) was found for reconstructing the order of the nine lines in the song, whereas a function with no primacy advantage was found for recalling a missing word from each line. This difference between order and item information was found even though students filled in missing words without any alternatives provided and missing words came from the beginning, middle, or end of each line. Similar results were found for CU students' recall of the sequence of Harry Potter book titles and the lyrics of the Scooby Doo theme song. These findings strengthen the claim that the pronounced serial position function in semantic memory occurs largely because of the retention of order, rather than item, information.

  6. Analysis Of Educational Services Distribution-Based Geographic Information System GIS

    OpenAIRE

    Waleed Lagrab; Noura AKNIN

    2015-01-01

    Abstract This study analyzes the spatial distribution of kindergarten facilities in the study area based on the Geographic Information Systems GIS in order to test an efficiency of GIS technology to redistribute the existing kindergarten and choose the best location in the future and applying the standard criteria for selecting the suitable locations for kindergarten. To achieve this goal the data and information are collected via interviews and comprehensive statistics on the education facil...

  7. One size does not fit all: On how Markov model order dictates performance of genomic sequence analyses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narlikar, Leelavati; Mehta, Nidhi; Galande, Sanjeev; Arjunwadkar, Mihir

    2013-01-01

    The structural simplicity and ability to capture serial correlations make Markov models a popular modeling choice in several genomic analyses, such as identification of motifs, genes and regulatory elements. A critical, yet relatively unexplored, issue is the determination of the order of the Markov model. Most biological applications use a predetermined order for all data sets indiscriminately. Here, we show the vast variation in the performance of such applications with the order. To identify the ‘optimal’ order, we investigated two model selection criteria: Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion (BIC). The BIC optimal order delivers the best performance for mammalian phylogeny reconstruction and motif discovery. Importantly, this order is different from orders typically used by many tools, suggesting that a simple additional step determining this order can significantly improve results. Further, we describe a novel classification approach based on BIC optimal Markov models to predict functionality of tissue-specific promoters. Our classifier discriminates between promoters active across 12 different tissues with remarkable accuracy, yielding 3 times the precision expected by chance. Application to the metagenomics problem of identifying the taxum from a short DNA fragment yields accuracies at least as high as the more complex mainstream methodologies, while retaining conceptual and computational simplicity. PMID:23267010

  8. Characterisation of PDO olive oil Chianti Classico by non-selective (UV-visible, NIR and MIR spectroscopy) and selective (fatty acid composition) analytical techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casale, M; Oliveri, P; Casolino, C; Sinelli, N; Zunin, P; Armanino, C; Forina, M; Lanteri, S

    2012-01-27

    An authentication study of the Italian PDO (protected designation of origin) extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico was performed; UV-visible (UV-vis), Near-Infrared (NIR) and Mid-Infrared (MIR) spectroscopies were applied to a set of samples representative of the whole Chianti Classico production area. The non-selective signals (fingerprints) provided by the three spectroscopic techniques were utilised both individually and jointly, after fusion of the respective profile vectors, in order to build a model for the Chianti Classico PDO olive oil. Moreover, these results were compared with those obtained by the gas chromatographic determination of the fatty acids composition. In order to characterise the olive oils produced in the Chianti Classico PDO area, UNEQ (unequal class models) and SIMCA (soft independent modelling of class analogy) were employed both on the MIR, NIR and UV-vis spectra, individually and jointly, and on the fatty acid composition. Finally, PLS (partial least square) regression was applied on the UV-vis, NIR and MIR spectra, in order to predict the content of oleic and linoleic acids in the extra virgin olive oils. UNEQ, SIMCA and PLS were performed after selection of the relevant predictors, in order to increase the efficiency of both classification and regression models. The non-selective information obtained from UV-vis, NIR and MIR spectroscopy allowed to build reliable models for checking the authenticity of the Italian PDO extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Evolvability Search: Directly Selecting for Evolvability in order to Study and Produce It

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mengistu, Henok; Lehman, Joel Anthony; Clune, Jeff

    2016-01-01

    of evolvable digital phenotypes. Although some types of selection in evolutionary computation indirectly encourage evolvability, one unexplored possibility is to directly select for evolvability. To do so, we estimate an individual's future potential for diversity by calculating the behavioral diversity of its...... immediate offspring, and select organisms with increased offspring variation. While the technique is computationally expensive, we hypothesized that direct selection would better encourage evolvability than indirect methods. Experiments in two evolutionary robotics domains confirm this hypothesis: in both...... domains, such Evolvability Search produces solutions with higher evolvability than those produced with Novelty Search or traditional objective-based search algorithms. Further experiments demonstrate that the higher evolvability produced by Evolvability Search in a training environment also generalizes...

  10. 75 FR 21157 - Milk in the Northeast and Other Marketing Areas; Order Amending the Orders

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-23

    ... INFORMATION: This final rule amends the producer-handler provisions of all Federal milk marketing orders to... producer-handlers under the Federal milk marketing order system to the same terms as other fully regulated... considered producer-handlers under the Federal order system, the impact is offset by the benefit to other...

  11. Applied information science, engineering and technology selected topics from the field of production information engineering and IT for manufacturing : theory and practice

    CERN Document Server

    Tóth, Tibor

    2014-01-01

    The objective of the book is to give a selection from the papers, which summarize several important results obtained within the framework of the József Hatvany Doctoral School operating at the University of Miskolc, Hungary. In accordance with the three main research areas of the Doctoral School established for Information Science, Engineering and Technology, the papers can be classified into three groups. They are as follows: (1) Applied Computational Science; (2) Production Information Engineering (IT for Manufacturing included); (3) Material Stream Systems and IT for Logistics. As regards the first area, some papers deal with special issues of algorithms theory and its applications, with computing algorithms for engineering tasks, as well as certain issues of data base systems and knowledge intensive systems. Related to the second research area, the focus is on Production Information Engineering with special regard to discrete production processes. In the second research area the papers show some new inte...

  12. Planck 2015 results: VII. High Frequency Instrument data processing: Time-ordered information and beams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adam, R.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.

    2016-01-01

    The Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) has observed the full sky at six frequencies (100, 143, 217, 353, 545, and 857 GHz) in intensity and at four frequencies in linear polarization (100, 143, 217, and 353 GHz). In order to obtain sky maps, the time-ordered information (TOI) containing the detector and pointing samples must be processed and the angular response must be assessed. The full mission TOI is included in the Planck 2015 release. This study describes the HFI TOI and beam processing for the 2015 release. HFI calibration and map making are described in a companion paper. The main pipeline has been modified since the last release (2013 nominal mission in intensity only), by including a correction for the nonlinearity of the warm readout and by improving the model of the bolometer time response. The beam processing is an essential tool that derives the angular response used in all the Planck science papers and we report an improvement in the effective beam window function uncertainty of more than a factor of 10 relative to the2013 release. Noise correlations introduced by pipeline filtering function are assessed using dedicated simulations. Finally, angular cross-power spectra using data sets that are decorrelated in time are immune to the main systematic effects.

  13. Disorder overtakes order in information concentration over quantum networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prabhu, R.; Pradhan, Saurabh; Sen, Aditi; Sen, Ujjwal

    2011-01-01

    We consider different classes of quenched disordered quantum XY spin chains, including a quantum XY spin glass and a quantum XY model with a random transverse field, and investigate the behavior of genuine multiparty entanglement in the ground states of these models. We find that there are distinct ranges of the disorder parameter that give rise to a higher genuine multiparty entanglement than in the corresponding systems without disorder: an order-from-disorder phenomenon in genuine multiparty entanglement. Moreover, we show that such a disorder-induced advantage in the genuine multiparty entanglement is useful: It is almost certainly accompanied by a order-from-disorder phenomenon for a multiport quantum dense coding capacity with the same ground state used as a multiport quantum network.

  14. Cascade conical refraction for annular pumping of a vortex Nd:YAG laser and selective excitation of low- and high-order Laguerre–Gaussian modes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Yongxiao; Wang, Zhongyang; Chen, Sanbin; Shirakwa, Akira; Ueda, Ken-ichi; Li, Jianlang

    2018-05-01

    We proposed an efficient and vortex Nd:YAG laser for selective lasing of low- and high-order vortex modes, in which multiple-ring pump light was originated from cascaded conical refraction of multiple biaxial crystals. In our proof of concept demonstration, we used two-crystal cascade conical refraction to generate two-ring pump light; the mutual intensity ratio and relative separation of the inner ring and outer ring were controlled by rotating the second biaxial crystal and by moving the imaging lens, respectively. As a result, we obtained selective excitation of Laguerre–Gaussian (LG01 and LG03) vortex modes in the end-pump Nd:YAG laser. For LG01-mode output, the laser power reached 439 mW with 52.5% slope efficiency; for LG03-mode output, the laser power reached 160 mW with 41.3% slope efficiency. Our results revealed that the multiple-ring pumping technique based on cascaded conical refraction would pave the way for realization of the efficient and switchable excitation of low- and high-order LG modes in an end-pumped solid-state laser.

  15. An interactive roof bolting selection and performance system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Agioutantis, Z.; Stiakakis, C.; Stiakakis, N. [Technical Univ. of Crete, Chania (Greece); Karmis, M. [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (United States)

    2001-07-01

    In the last decades, bolting has become one of the most dominant support methods in underground construction, including both mining as well as civil engineering applications. A variety of bolt types has been developed in order to meet the support needs of different geological and geotechnical settings. The selection of the appropriate bolt type, as well as the troubleshooting procedures in case of failure or suspected failure, are often complex and require extensive experience. To facilitate bolt type selection as well as troubleshooting, various tools have been presented in the form of nomograms, computer programs or trouble shooting guides. The approach described in this paper incorporates information and data developed by laboratory and field investigations and has led to the development of a dynamic knowledge base system that can aid in the selection of appropriate bolting systems and, also, help troubleshoot existing installations. Additionally, the user can enhance the functionality of the existing database with site-specific information and geological behavior as experienced by field personnel. The package is developed as a Windows trademark based application, where data is stored in Microsoft Access trademark database. (orig.)

  16. Benchmark selection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hougaard, Jens Leth; Tvede, Mich

    2002-01-01

    Within a production theoretic framework, this paper considers an axiomatic approach to benchmark selection. It is shown that two simple and weak axioms; efficiency and comprehensive monotonicity characterize a natural family of benchmarks which typically becomes unique. Further axioms are added...... in order to obtain a unique selection...

  17. Infants' Selectively Pay Attention to the Information They Receive from a Native Speaker of Their Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marno, Hanna; Guellai, Bahia; Vidal, Yamil; Franzoi, Julia; Nespor, Marina; Mehler, Jacques

    2016-01-01

    From the first moments of their life, infants show a preference for their native language, as well as toward speakers with whom they share the same language. This preference appears to have broad consequences in various domains later on, supporting group affiliations and collaborative actions in children. Here, we propose that infants' preference for native speakers of their language also serves a further purpose, specifically allowing them to efficiently acquire culture specific knowledge via social learning. By selectively attending to informants who are native speakers of their language and who probably also share the same cultural background with the infant, young learners can maximize the possibility to acquire cultural knowledge. To test whether infants would preferably attend the information they receive from a speaker of their native language, we familiarized 12-month-old infants with a native and a foreign speaker, and then presented them with movies where each of the speakers silently gazed toward unfamiliar objects. At test, infants' looking behavior to the two objects alone was measured. Results revealed that infants preferred to look longer at the object presented by the native speaker. Strikingly, the effect was replicated also with 5-month-old infants, indicating an early development of such preference. These findings provide evidence that young infants pay more attention to the information presented by a person with whom they share the same language. This selectivity can serve as a basis for efficient social learning by influencing how infants' allocate attention between potential sources of information in their environment.

  18. Rapid e-Learning Tools Selection Process for Cognitive and Psychomotor Learning Objectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ku, David Tawei; Huang, Yung-Hsin

    2012-01-01

    This study developed a decision making process for the selection of rapid e-learning tools that could match different learning domains. With the development of the Internet, the speed of information updates has become faster than ever. E-learning has rapidly become the mainstream for corporate training and academic instruction. In order to reduce…

  19. Effects of language dominance on item and order memory in free recall, serial recall and order reconstruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francis, Wendy S; Baca, Yuzeth

    2014-01-01

    Spanish-English bilinguals (N = 144) performed free recall, serial recall and order reconstruction tasks in both English and Spanish. Long-term memory for both item and order information was worse in the less fluent language (L2) than in the more fluent language (L1). Item scores exhibited a stronger disadvantage for the L2 in serial recall than in free recall. Relative order scores were lower in the L2 for all three tasks, but adjusted scores for free and serial recall were equivalent across languages. Performance of English-speaking monolinguals (N = 72) was comparable to bilingual performance in the L1, except that monolinguals had higher adjusted order scores in free recall. Bilingual performance patterns in the L2 were consistent with the established effects of concurrent task performance on these memory tests, suggesting that the cognitive resources required for processing words in the L2 encroach on resources needed to commit item and order information to memory. These findings are also consistent with a model in which item memory is connected to the language system, order information is processed by separate mechanisms and attention can be allocated differentially to these two systems.

  20. Using a Process Dissociation Approach to Assess Verbal Short-Term Memory for Item and Order Information in a Sample of Individuals with a Self-Reported Diagnosis of Dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiaoli; Xuan, Yifu; Jarrold, Christopher

    2016-01-01

    Previous studies have examined whether difficulties in short-term memory for verbal information, that might be associated with dyslexia, are driven by problems in retaining either information about to-be-remembered items or the order in which these items were presented. However, such studies have not used process-pure measures of short-term memory for item or order information. In this work we adapt a process dissociation procedure to properly distinguish the contributions of item and order processes to verbal short-term memory in a group of 28 adults with a self-reported diagnosis of dyslexia and a comparison sample of 29 adults without a dyslexia diagnosis. In contrast to previous work that has suggested that individuals with dyslexia experience item deficits resulting from inefficient phonological representation and language-independent order memory deficits, the results showed no evidence of specific problems in short-term retention of either item or order information among the individuals with a self-reported diagnosis of dyslexia, despite this group showing expected difficulties on separate measures of word and non-word reading. However, there was some suggestive evidence of a link between order memory for verbal material and individual differences in non-word reading, consistent with other claims for a role of order memory in phonologically mediated reading. The data from the current study therefore provide empirical evidence to question the extent to which item and order short-term memory are necessarily impaired in dyslexia.

  1. Information and communication strategies for increasing information literacy in students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haddadian, F

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available The study reviews the effects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT on learning and information literacy of students. Experimental method involving experimental and control groups was used. Pre-test and post-test were run to investigate the effectiveness of ICT. The statistical population of the research consisted of all male third year students of middle school (school year 89-90 in the city of Arak. After pre-certification testing and applying random cluster sampling, 64 students were selected and placed into two experimental and control groups. Data collection instruments were Educational Improvement Test and Standardized Information Literacy Questionnaire. Collected data were analysed using analysis of covariance method, t-test, and non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. Findings showed that general hypotheses of the research were true: ICT has a significant effect on learning rate of students, and there is a significant difference between the experimental group and control group regarding information literacy and its features. Based on the results of this study, we recommend educational authorities to apply ICT in educational canters in order to improve students’ learning and educational quality.

  2. Linearly Ordered Attribute Grammars : With Automatic Augmenting Dependency Selection

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Binsbergen, L. Thomas; Bransen, Jeroen; Dijkstra, Atze

    2015-01-01

    Attribute Grammars (AGs) extend Context-Free Grammars with attributes: information gathered on the syntax tree that adds semantics to the syntax. AGs are very well suited for describing static analyses, code-generation and other phases incorporated in a compiler. AGs are divided into classes based

  3. Selecting healthcare information systems provided by third-party vendors: a mind map beyond the manuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gortzis, Lefteris G

    2010-01-01

    The selection of a new healthcare information system (HIS) has always been a daunting process for clinicians, health care providers and policy makers. The objective of this study is to present the lessons learned and the main findings from several relevant case studies to support this process. Data were collected by retrospectively reviewing the summative results of three well-established systems, acquiring feedback from two E.U. projects, and conducting semi-structured interviews with a number of collaborators involved in electronic healthcare interventions. Selection issues were identified and classified into the following five categories: (i) data creation, (ii) data management, (iii) data sharing, (iv) data presentation and (v) modules management. A mind map was also structured to provide a more manageable list of issues concerning the most common electronic clinical technologies (e-CT). The vendor manual is intended as an overview of the merchandise e-CT and therefore has limited potential in supporting effectively the selection process of a new HIS. The present classification and the mind map - based on lessons learned - provide a ready-to-use toolkit for supporting the HIS selection process when healthcare organisations are unable to employ research development groups to lay the groundwork for building a new HIS from scratch.

  4. Multiuser hybrid switched-selection diversity systems

    KAUST Repository

    Shaqfeh, Mohammad

    2011-09-01

    A new multiuser scheduling scheme is proposed and analyzed in this paper. The proposed system combines features of conventional full-feedback selection-based diversity systems and reduced-feedback switch-based diversity systems. The new hybrid system provides flexibility in trading-off the channel information feedback overhead with the prospected multiuser diversity gains. The users are clustered into groups, and the users\\' groups are ordered into a sequence. Per-group feedback thresholds are used and optimized to maximize the system overall achievable rate. The proposed hybrid system applies switched diversity criterion to choose one of the groups, and a selection criterion to decide the user to be scheduled from the chosen group. Numerical results demonstrate that the system capacity increases as the number of users per group increases, but at the cost of more required feedback messages. © 2011 IEEE.

  5. Methods for model selection in applied science and engineering.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Field, Richard V., Jr.

    2004-10-01

    Mathematical models are developed and used to study the properties of complex systems and/or modify these systems to satisfy some performance requirements in just about every area of applied science and engineering. A particular reason for developing a model, e.g., performance assessment or design, is referred to as the model use. Our objective is the development of a methodology for selecting a model that is sufficiently accurate for an intended use. Information on the system being modeled is, in general, incomplete, so that there may be two or more models consistent with the available information. The collection of these models is called the class of candidate models. Methods are developed for selecting the optimal member from a class of candidate models for the system. The optimal model depends on the available information, the selected class of candidate models, and the model use. Classical methods for model selection, including the method of maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods, as well as a method employing a decision-theoretic approach, are formulated to select the optimal model for numerous applications. There is no requirement that the candidate models be random. Classical methods for model selection ignore model use and require data to be available. Examples are used to show that these methods can be unreliable when data is limited. The decision-theoretic approach to model selection does not have these limitations, and model use is included through an appropriate utility function. This is especially important when modeling high risk systems, where the consequences of using an inappropriate model for the system can be disastrous. The decision-theoretic method for model selection is developed and applied for a series of complex and diverse applications. These include the selection of the: (1) optimal order of the polynomial chaos approximation for non-Gaussian random variables and stationary stochastic processes, (2) optimal pressure load model to be

  6. Model selection in periodic autoregressions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ph.H.B.F. Franses (Philip Hans); R. Paap (Richard)

    1994-01-01

    textabstractThis paper focuses on the issue of period autoagressive time series models (PAR) selection in practice. One aspect of model selection is the choice for the appropriate PAR order. This can be of interest for the valuation of economic models. Further, the appropriate PAR order is important

  7. Mining for diagnostic information in body surface potential maps: A comparison of feature selection techniques

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    McCullagh Paul J

    2005-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In body surface potential mapping, increased spatial sampling is used to allow more accurate detection of a cardiac abnormality. Although diagnostically superior to more conventional electrocardiographic techniques, the perceived complexity of the Body Surface Potential Map (BSPM acquisition process has prohibited its acceptance in clinical practice. For this reason there is an interest in striking a compromise between the minimum number of electrocardiographic recording sites required to sample the maximum electrocardiographic information. Methods In the current study, several techniques widely used in the domains of data mining and knowledge discovery have been employed to mine for diagnostic information in 192 lead BSPMs. In particular, the Single Variable Classifier (SVC based filter and Sequential Forward Selection (SFS based wrapper approaches to feature selection have been implemented and evaluated. Using a set of recordings from 116 subjects, the diagnostic ability of subsets of 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 32 electrocardiographic recording sites have been evaluated based on their ability to correctly asses the presence or absence of Myocardial Infarction (MI. Results It was observed that the wrapper approach, using sequential forward selection and a 5 nearest neighbour classifier, was capable of choosing a set of 24 recording sites that could correctly classify 82.8% of BSPMs. Although the filter method performed slightly less favourably, the performance was comparable with a classification accuracy of 79.3%. In addition, experiments were conducted to show how (a features chosen using the wrapper approach were specific to the classifier used in the selection model, and (b lead subsets chosen were not necessarily unique. Conclusion It was concluded that both the filter and wrapper approaches adopted were suitable for guiding the choice of recording sites useful for determining the presence of MI. It should be noted however

  8. Improving preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) reliability by selection of sperm donor with the most informative haplotype.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malcov, Mira; Gold, Veronica; Peleg, Sagit; Frumkin, Tsvia; Azem, Foad; Amit, Ami; Ben-Yosef, Dalit; Yaron, Yuval; Reches, Adi; Barda, Shimi; Kleiman, Sandra E; Yogev, Leah; Hauser, Ron

    2017-04-26

    The study is aimed to describe a novel strategy that increases the accuracy and reliability of PGD in patients using sperm donation by pre-selecting the donor whose haplotype does not overlap the carrier's one. A panel of 4-9 informative polymorphic markers, flanking the mutation in carriers of autosomal dominant/X-linked disorders, was tested in DNA of sperm donors before PGD. Whenever the lengths of donors' repeats overlapped those of the women, additional donors' DNA samples were analyzed. The donor that demonstrated the minimal overlapping with the patient was selected for IVF. In 8 out of 17 carriers the markers of the initially chosen donors overlapped the patients' alleles and 2-8 additional sperm donors for each patient were haplotyped. The selection of additional sperm donors increased the number of informative markers and reduced misdiagnosis risk from 6.00% ± 7.48 to 0.48% ±0.68. The PGD results were confirmed and no misdiagnosis was detected. Our study demonstrates that pre-selecting a sperm donor whose haplotype has minimal overlapping with the female's haplotype, is critical for reducing the misdiagnosis risk and ensuring a reliable PGD. This strategy may contribute to prevent the transmission of affected IVF-PGD embryos using a simple and economical procedure. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. DNA testing of donors was approved by the institutional Helsinki committee (registration number 319-08TLV, 2008). The present study was approved by the institutional Helsinki committee (registration number 0385-13TLV, 2013).

  9. Higher-Order Minimal Functional Graphs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jones, Neil D; Rosendahl, Mads

    1994-01-01

    We present a minimal function graph semantics for a higher-order functional language with applicative evaluation order. The semantics captures the intermediate calls performed during the evaluation of a program. This information may be used in abstract interpretation as a basis for proving...

  10. Contests with rank-order spillovers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    M.R. Baye (Michael); D. Kovenock (Dan); C.G. de Vries (Casper)

    2012-01-01

    textabstractThis paper presents a unified framework for characterizing symmetric equilibrium in simultaneous move, two-player, rank-order contests with complete information, in which each player's strategy generates direct or indirect affine "spillover" effects that depend on the rank-order of her

  11. Selective Exposure to and Acquisition of Information from Educational Television Programs as a Function of Appeal and Tempo of Background Music.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wakshlag, Jacob J.; And Others

    1982-01-01

    The effect of educational television background music on selective exposure and information acquisition was studied. Background music of slow tempo, regardless of its appeal, had negligible effects on attention and information acquisition. Rhythmic, fast-tempo background music, especially when appealing, significantly reduced visual attention to…

  12. 13thInternational Conference on Computer and Information Science

    CERN Document Server

    Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing 2012

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of the 13th  International Conference on Computer and Information Science (SNPD 2012) held on August 8-10, 2012 in Kyoto, Japan was to bring together researchers and scientists, businessmen and entrepreneurs, teachers and students to discuss the numerous fields of computer science, and to share ideas and information in a meaningful way.  Our conference officers selected the best 17 papers from those papers accepted for presentation at the conference in order to publish them in this volume.  The papers were chosen based on review scores submitted by members of the program committee, and underwent further rounds of rigorous review.   The  conference organizers selected 17 outstanding papers from SNPD 2012, all of which you will find in this volume of Springer’s Studies in Computational Intelligence.

  13. Probability calculus of fractional order and fractional Taylor's series application to Fokker-Planck equation and information of non-random functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jumarie, Guy

    2009-01-01

    A probability distribution of fractional (or fractal) order is defined by the measure μ{dx} = p(x)(dx) α , 0 α (D x α h α )f(x) provided by the modified Riemann Liouville definition, one can expand a probability calculus parallel to the standard one. A Fourier's transform of fractional order using the Mittag-Leffler function is introduced, together with its inversion formula; and it provides a suitable generalization of the characteristic function of fractal random variables. It appears that the state moments of fractional order are more especially relevant. The main properties of this fractional probability calculus are outlined, it is shown that it provides a sound approach to Fokker-Planck equation which are fractional in both space and time, and it provides new results in the information theory of non-random functions.

  14. The Use of Evolution in a Central Action Selection Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Montes-Gonzalez

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The use of effective central selection provides flexibility in design by offering modularity and extensibility. In earlier papers we have focused on the development of a simple centralized selection mechanism. Our current goal is to integrate evolutionary methods in the design of non-sequential behaviours and the tuning of specific parameters of the selection model. The foraging behaviour of an animal robot (animat has been modelled in order to integrate the sensory information from the robot to perform selection that is nearly optimized by the use of genetic algorithms. In this paper we present how selection through optimization finally arranges the pattern of presented behaviours for the foraging task. Hence, the execution of specific parts in a behavioural pattern may be ruled out by the tuning of these parameters. Furthermore, the intensive use of colour segmentation from a colour camera for locating a cylinder sets a burden on the calculations carried out by the genetic algorithm.

  15. GoDisco: Selective Gossip Based Dissemination of Information in Social Community Based Overlays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Datta, Anwitaman; Sharma, Rajesh

    We propose and investigate a gossip based, social principles and behavior inspired decentralized mechanism (GoDisco) to disseminate information in online social community networks, using exclusively social links and exploiting semantic context to keep the dissemination process selective to relevant nodes. Such a designed dissemination scheme using gossiping over a egocentric social network is unique and is arguably a concept whose time has arrived, emulating word of mouth behavior and can have interesting applications like probabilistic publish/subscribe, decentralized recommendation and contextual advertisement systems, to name a few. Simulation based experiments show that despite using only local knowledge and contacts, the system has good global coverage and behavior.

  16. Dataset of statements on policy integration of selected intergovernmental organizations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jale Tosun

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available This article describes data for 78 intergovernmental organizations (IGOs working on topics related to energy governance, environmental protection, and the economy. The number of IGOs covered also includes organizations active in other sectors. The point of departure for data construction was the Correlates of War dataset, from which we selected this sample of IGOs. We updated and expanded the empirical information on the IGOs selected by manual coding. Most importantly, we collected the primary law texts of the individual IGOs in order to code whether they commit themselves to environmental policy integration (EPI, climate policy integration (CPI and/or energy policy integration (EnPI.

  17. Selective Recall and Information Use in Consumer Preferences.

    OpenAIRE

    Costley, Carolyn L; Brucks, Merrie

    1992-01-01

    This study investigated the relation between consumers' memory and use of information in judging brand preferences. The authors used ads to test hypotheses about how pictorial and verbal presentations of previously encountered information and the content of subsequently encountered information affect recall and information use in shaping brand preferences. Even when subjects more easily recalled.pictured attributes than verbally described attributes, this picture superiority effect did not in...

  18. Selectivity of single, mixed, and modified pseudostationary phases in electrokinetic chromatography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuguet, Elisabet; Ràfols, Clara; Bosch, Elisabeth; Abraham, Michael H; Rosés, Martí

    2006-05-01

    The selectivity of a compilation of single, mixed, and modified EKC pseudostationary phases, described in the literature and characterized through the solvation parameter model, is analyzed. Not only have micellar systems of different nature been included but also microemulsions, polymeric, and liposomial phases. In order to compare the systems, a principal component analysis of the coefficients of the solvation equation is performed. From this analysis, direct information of the system properties, differences in selectivity, as well as evidence of lack of accuracy in some system characterizations are obtained. These results become a very useful tool to perform separations with mixtures of surfactants, since it is possible to know which mixtures will provide a greater selectivity variation by changing only the composition of the pseudostationary phases. Furthermore, the variation of the selectivity of some mixtures, as well as the effect of the addition of organic solvents on selectivity, is also discussed.

  19. A quick method based on SIMPLISMA-KPLS for simultaneously selecting outlier samples and informative samples for model standardization in near infrared spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Li-Na; Ma, Chang-Ming; Chang, Ming; Zhang, Ren-Cheng

    2017-12-01

    A novel method based on SIMPLe-to-use Interactive Self-modeling Mixture Analysis (SIMPLISMA) and Kernel Partial Least Square (KPLS), named as SIMPLISMA-KPLS, is proposed in this paper for selection of outlier samples and informative samples simultaneously. It is a quick algorithm used to model standardization (or named as model transfer) in near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The NIR experiment data of the corn for analysis of the protein content is introduced to evaluate the proposed method. Piecewise direct standardization (PDS) is employed in model transfer. And the comparison of SIMPLISMA-PDS-KPLS and KS-PDS-KPLS is given in this research by discussion of the prediction accuracy of protein content and calculation speed of each algorithm. The conclusions include that SIMPLISMA-KPLS can be utilized as an alternative sample selection method for model transfer. Although it has similar accuracy to Kennard-Stone (KS), it is different from KS as it employs concentration information in selection program. This means that it ensures analyte information is involved in analysis, and the spectra (X) of the selected samples is interrelated with concentration (y). And it can be used for outlier sample elimination simultaneously by validation of calibration. According to the statistical data results of running time, it is clear that the sample selection process is more rapid when using KPLS. The quick algorithm of SIMPLISMA-KPLS is beneficial to improve the speed of online measurement using NIR spectroscopy.

  20. Second-order nonlinearity induced transparency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Y H; Zhang, S S; Shen, H Z; Yi, X X

    2017-04-01

    In analogy to electromagnetically induced transparency, optomechanically induced transparency was proposed recently in [Science330, 1520 (2010)SCIEAS0036-807510.1126/science.1195596]. In this Letter, we demonstrate another form of induced transparency enabled by second-order nonlinearity. A practical application of the second-order nonlinearity induced transparency is to measure the second-order nonlinear coefficient. Our scheme might find applications in quantum optics and quantum information processing.

  1. Study on Integrating Accounting in the Information System of the Organization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ciuhureanu Alina-Teodora

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In order to gain power in an ever-changing economy, in diversified markets, the organization must have an up-to-date information system that enables managers to get a detailed understanding of the organization’s status and to obtain what is needed to manage – the information. Starting from these premises, the empirical research presents the components of the information system. One of the main contributions, however, is to customize the opinions of the specialists and to create a logical scheme on the accounting information system. Moreover, through selective research, the article analyzed the managers’ interest in accounting information and its integration into the information system of the organization.

  2. 75 FR 12707 - Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Increase Membership

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-03-17

    ... personal information provided. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeanette Palmer, Marketing Specialist..., Advertising, Consumer information, Marketing agreements, Blueberry promotion, Reporting and recordkeeping... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 1218 [Document Number AMS-FV...

  3. 75 FR 31730 - Popcorn Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Order; Reapportionment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-06-04

    ..., including any personal information provided. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Deborah Simmons, Marketing..., Consumer information, Marketing agreements, Popcorn Promotion, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 1215 [Document Number AMS-FV...

  4. Dynamic Question Ordering in Online Surveys

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Early Kirstin

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Online surveys have the potential to support adaptive questions, where later questions depend on earlier responses. Past work has taken a rule-based approach, uniformly across all respondents. We envision a richer interpretation of adaptive questions, which we call Dynamic Question Ordering (DQO, where question order is personalized. Such an approach could increase engagement, and therefore response rate, as well as imputation quality. We present a DQO framework to improve survey completion and imputation. In the general survey-taking setting, we want to maximize survey completion, and so we focus on ordering questions to engage the respondent and collect hopefully all information, or at least the information that most characterizes the respondent, for accurate imputations. In another scenario, our goal is to provide a personalized prediction. Since it is possible to give reasonable predictions with only a subset of questions, we are not concerned with motivating users to answer all questions. Instead, we want to order questions to get information that reduces prediction uncertainty, while not being too burdensome. We illustrate this framework with two case studies, for the prediction and survey-taking settings. We also discuss DQO for national surveys and consider connections between our statistics-based question-ordering approach and cognitive survey methodology.

  5. Objective ARX Model Order Selection for Multi-Channel Human Operator Identification

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roggenkämper, N; Pool, D.M.; Drop, F.M.; van Paassen, M.M.; Mulder, M.

    2016-01-01

    In manual control, the human operator primarily responds to visual inputs but may elect to make use of other available feedback paths such as physical motion, adopting a multi-channel control strategy. Hu- man operator identification procedures generally require a priori selection of the model

  6. Information theory and rate distortion theory for communications and compression

    CERN Document Server

    Gibson, Jerry

    2013-01-01

    This book is very specifically targeted to problems in communications and compression by providing the fundamental principles and results in information theory and rate distortion theory for these applications and presenting methods that have proved and will prove useful in analyzing and designing real systems. The chapters contain treatments of entropy, mutual information, lossless source coding, channel capacity, and rate distortion theory; however, it is the selection, ordering, and presentation of the topics within these broad categories that is unique to this concise book. While the cover

  7. Trust Based Algorithm for Candidate Node Selection in Hybrid MANET-DTN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Papaj

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The hybrid MANET - DTN is a mobile network that enables transport of the data between groups of the disconnected mobile nodes. The network provides benefits of the Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANET and Delay Tolerant Network (DTN. The main problem of the MANET occurs if the communication path is broken or disconnected for some short time period. On the other side, DTN allows sending data in the disconnected environment with respect to higher tolerance to delay. Hybrid MANET - DTN provides optimal solution for emergency situation in order to transport information. Moreover, the security is the critical factor because the data are transported by mobile devices. In this paper, we investigate the issue of secure candidate node selection for transportation of the data in a disconnected environment for hybrid MANET- DTN. To achieve the secure selection of the reliable mobile nodes, the trust algorithm is introduced. The algorithm enables select reliable nodes based on collecting routing information. This algorithm is implemented to the simulator OPNET modeler.

  8. Ordering due to disorder in frustrated quantum magnetic system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yildirim, T.

    1999-01-01

    The phenomenon of order by disorder in frustrated magnetic systems is reviewed. Disorder (thermal or quantum fluctuations) may sometimes give rise to long range ordering in systems with frustration, where one must often consider the selection among classically degenerate ground states which are not equivalent by any symmetry. The lowest order effects of quantum fluctuations in such frustrated systems usually resolves the continues degeneracy of the ground state manifold into discrete Ising-type degeneracy. A unique ground state selection out of this Ising degenerate manifold then occurs due to higher order effects of quantum fluctuations. For systems such as face-centered cubic and body-centered tetragonal antiferromagnets where the number of Ising parameters to describe the ground state manifold is not macroscopic, we show that quantum fluctuations choose a unique ground state at the first order in 1/S

  9. Information system for selection of conditions and equipment for the cultivation of mammalian cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. R. Batyrgazieva

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The use of mammals cells and their products wide application, so the actual problem is a creation of an information system in the field of their cultivation for the organizing and structuring of information on process experimental data. This work is devoted the analysis of mammalian cell cultivation. The main technologies of cell cultivation, necessary equipment and matrices are considered. The main stages of database design and information system is described. The justification of software products are provided and the results of the database and information system implementation are done. The detailed description of all modules of the system, as well as a comparative analysis of the results of the search are in the system to verify correct operation of the system. The scientific and practical significance of the work lies in the fact that the effective tool for presenting knowledge and data for search by specific parameters is required. The convenience of the system is that it is not necessary to address in various data sources to get and conditions of cultivation of mammalian cells, it has already been collected and structured according to parameters. With help of the system, it is possible to select conditions for the cultivation of mammalian cells at the stage of scientific researches that will significantly reduce the time and cost of work, also to rank of recommended technological and hardware solutions. The system has a functional completeness, i.e. in a specific subject area, it ensures the fulfillment of user's requirements, and allows to accumulate and process information.

  10. Are Limit Orders Rational?

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Šmíd, Martin

    2007-01-01

    Roč. 14, č. 4 (2007), s. 32-38 ISSN 0572-3043 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA402/06/1417; GA ČR GA402/04/1294; GA ČR GD402/03/H057 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : market microstructure * limit order market * portfolio selection Subject RIV: AH - Economics

  11. Information access in a dual-task context: testing a model of optimal strategy selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wickens, C. D.; Seidler, K. S.

    1997-01-01

    Pilots were required to access information from a hierarchical aviation database by navigating under single-task conditions (Experiment 1) and when this task was time-shared with an altitude-monitoring task of varying bandwidth and priority (Experiment 2). In dual-task conditions, pilots had 2 viewports available, 1 always used for the information task and the other to be allocated to either task. Dual-task strategy, inferred from the decision of which task to allocate to the 2nd viewport, revealed that allocation was generally biased in favor of the monitoring task and was only partly sensitive to the difficulty of the 2 tasks and their relative priorities. Some dominant sources of navigational difficulties failed to adaptively influence selection strategy. The implications of the results are to provide tools for jumping to the top of the database, to provide 2 viewports into the common database, and to provide training as to the optimum viewport management strategy in a multitask environment.

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

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bostock, Mark J.; Nietlispach, Daniel

    2016-01-01

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

  13. Direction selectivity in the larval zebrafish tectum is mediated by asymmetric inhibition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abhinav eGrama

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available The extraction of the direction of motion is an important computation performed by many sensory systems and in particular, the mechanism by which direction selective ganglion cells (DS-RGCs in the retina acquire their selective properties, has been studied extensively. However, whether DS-RGCs simply relay this information to downstream areas or whether additional and potentially de-novo processing occurs in these recipient structures is a matter of great interest. Neurons in the larval zebrafish tectum, the largest retino-recipent area in this animal, show direction selective responses to moving visual stimuli but how these properties are acquired is still unknown. In order to study this, we first used two-photon calcium imaging to classify the population responses of tectal cells to bars moving at different speeds and in different directions. Subsequently, we performed in-vivo whole cell electrophysiology on these direction selective tectal neurons and we found that their inhibitory inputs were strongly biased towards the null direction of motion, whereas the excitatory inputs showed little selectivity. In addition, we found that excitatory currents evoked by a stimulus moving in the preferred direction occurred before the inhibitory currents whereas a stimulus moving in the null direction evoked currents in the reverse temporal order. The membrane potential modulations resulting from these currents were enhanced by the spike generation mechanism to generate amplified direction selectivity in the spike output. Thus our results implicate a local inhibitory circuit in generating direction selectivity in tectal neurons.

  14. Optimal Sensor Selection for Health Monitoring Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santi, L. Michael; Sowers, T. Shane; Aguilar, Robert B.

    2005-01-01

    Sensor data are the basis for performance and health assessment of most complex systems. Careful selection and implementation of sensors is critical to enable high fidelity system health assessment. A model-based procedure that systematically selects an optimal sensor suite for overall health assessment of a designated host system is described. This procedure, termed the Systematic Sensor Selection Strategy (S4), was developed at NASA John H. Glenn Research Center in order to enhance design phase planning and preparations for in-space propulsion health management systems (HMS). Information and capabilities required to utilize the S4 approach in support of design phase development of robust health diagnostics are outlined. A merit metric that quantifies diagnostic performance and overall risk reduction potential of individual sensor suites is introduced. The conceptual foundation for this merit metric is presented and the algorithmic organization of the S4 optimization process is described. Representative results from S4 analyses of a boost stage rocket engine previously under development as part of NASA's Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) program are presented.

  15. Selective 4D modelling framework for spatial-temporal land information management system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doulamis, Anastasios; Soile, Sofia; Doulamis, Nikolaos; Chrisouli, Christina; Grammalidis, Nikos; Dimitropoulos, Kosmas; Manesis, Charalambos; Potsiou, Chryssy; Ioannidis, Charalabos

    2015-06-01

    This paper introduces a predictive (selective) 4D modelling framework where only the spatial 3D differences are modelled at the forthcoming time instances, while regions of no significant spatial-temporal alterations remain intact. To accomplish this, initially spatial-temporal analysis is applied between 3D digital models captured at different time instances. So, the creation of dynamic change history maps is made. Change history maps indicate spatial probabilities of regions needed further 3D modelling at forthcoming instances. Thus, change history maps are good examples for a predictive assessment, that is, to localize surfaces within the objects where a high accuracy reconstruction process needs to be activated at the forthcoming time instances. The proposed 4D Land Information Management System (LIMS) is implemented using open interoperable standards based on the CityGML framework. CityGML allows the description of the semantic metadata information and the rights of the land resources. Visualization aspects are also supported to allow easy manipulation, interaction and representation of the 4D LIMS digital parcels and the respective semantic information. The open source 3DCityDB incorporating a PostgreSQL geo-database is used to manage and manipulate 3D data and their semantics. An application is made to detect the change through time of a 3D block of plots in an urban area of Athens, Greece. Starting with an accurate 3D model of the buildings in 1983, a change history map is created using automated dense image matching on aerial photos of 2010. For both time instances meshes are created and through their comparison the changes are detected.

  16. Infrared maritime target detection using the high order statistic filtering in fractional Fourier domain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Anran; Xie, Weixin; Pei, Jihong

    2018-06-01

    Accurate detection of maritime targets in infrared imagery under various sea clutter conditions is always a challenging task. The fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) is the extension of the Fourier transform in the fractional order, and has richer spatial-frequency information. By combining it with the high order statistic filtering, a new ship detection method is proposed. First, the proper range of angle parameter is determined to make it easier for the ship components and background to be separated. Second, a new high order statistic curve (HOSC) at each fractional frequency point is designed. It is proved that maximal peak interval in HOSC reflects the target information, while the points outside the interval reflect the background. And the value of HOSC relative to the ship is much bigger than that to the sea clutter. Then, search the curve's maximal target peak interval and extract the interval by bandpass filtering in fractional Fourier domain. The value outside the peak interval of HOSC decreases rapidly to 0, so the background is effectively suppressed. Finally, the detection result is obtained by the double threshold segmenting and the target region selection method. The results show the proposed method is excellent for maritime targets detection with high clutters.

  17. Feature selection in classification of eye movements using electrooculography for activity recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mala, S; Latha, K

    2014-01-01

    Activity recognition is needed in different requisition, for example, reconnaissance system, patient monitoring, and human-computer interfaces. Feature selection plays an important role in activity recognition, data mining, and machine learning. In selecting subset of features, an efficient evolutionary algorithm Differential Evolution (DE), a very efficient optimizer, is used for finding informative features from eye movements using electrooculography (EOG). Many researchers use EOG signals in human-computer interactions with various computational intelligence methods to analyze eye movements. The proposed system involves analysis of EOG signals using clearness based features, minimum redundancy maximum relevance features, and Differential Evolution based features. This work concentrates more on the feature selection algorithm based on DE in order to improve the classification for faultless activity recognition.

  18. Benchmarking whole-building energy performance with multi-criteria technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution using a selective objective-weighting approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Endong

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A TOPSIS based multi-criteria whole-building energy benchmarking is developed. • A selective objective-weighting procedure is used for a cost-accuracy tradeoff. • Results from a real case validated the benefits of the presented approach. - Abstract: This paper develops a robust multi-criteria Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) based building energy efficiency benchmarking approach. The approach is explicitly selective to address multicollinearity trap due to the subjectivity in selecting energy variables by considering cost-accuracy trade-off. It objectively weights the relative importance of individual pertinent efficiency measuring criteria using either multiple linear regression or principal component analysis contingent on meta data quality. Through this approach, building energy performance is comprehensively evaluated and optimized. Simultaneously, the significant challenges associated with conventional single-criterion benchmarking models can be avoided. Together with a clustering algorithm on a three-year panel dataset, the benchmarking case of 324 single-family dwellings demonstrated an improved robustness of the presented multi-criteria benchmarking approach over the conventional single-criterion ones

  19. Conflict Resolution in Partially Ordered OWL DL Ontologies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ji, Q.; Gao, Z.; Huang, Z.

    2014-01-01

    Inconsistency handling in OWL DL ontologies is an important problem because an ontology can easily be inconsistent when it is generated or modified. Current approaches to dealing with inconsistent ontologies often assume that there exists a total order over axioms and use such an order to select

  20. Estimating and Forecasting Production and Orders in Manufacturing Industry from Business Survey Data: Evidence from Switzerland, 1990-2003

    OpenAIRE

    Richard Etter; Michael Graff

    2003-01-01

    A fundamental issue for policy-oriented business cycle research is access to leading - or at least coincident - and reliable indicators of economic activity in manufacturing industry. Therefore, we analyse how the quickly disposable, qualitative information of the business tendency survey conducted by the Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF) is related to the official production and order statistics of Switzerland. Pairs of high cross-correlations were selected for further analys...

  1. Performance of Genomic Selection in Mice

    OpenAIRE

    Legarra, Andrés; Robert-Granié, Christèle; Manfredi, Eduardo; Elsen, Jean-Michel

    2008-01-01

    Selection plans in plant and animal breeding are driven by genetic evaluation. Recent developments suggest using massive genetic marker information, known as “genomic selection.” There is little evidence of its performance, though. We empirically compared three strategies for selection: (1) use of pedigree and phenotypic information, (2) use of genomewide markers and phenotypic information, and (3) the combination of both. We analyzed four traits from a heterogeneous mouse population (http://...

  2. Performance of Cross-Layer Design with Antenna Selection and Imperfect Feedback Information in MIMO Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaoyu Dang

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available By combining adaptive modulation and automatic repeat request, a cross-layer design (CLD scheme for MIMO system with antenna selection (AS and imperfect feedback is presented, and the corresponding performance is studied. Subject to a target packet loss rate and fixed power constraint, the variable switching thresholds of fading gain are derived. According to these results, and using mathematical manipulation, the average spectrum efficiency (SE and packet error rate (PER of the system are further derived. As a result, closed-form expressions of the average SE and PER are obtained, respectively. These expressions include the expressions under perfect channel state information as special cases and provide good performance evaluation for the system. Numerical results show that the proposed CLD scheme with antenna selection has higher SE than the existing CLD scheme with space-time block coding, and the CLD scheme with variable switching thresholds outperforms that with conventional-fixed switching thresholds.

  3. to the Question of IPv6-protocol Logical Characteristics Properties Using in order to Increase of the Security Level of the Russian Federation National Information Technology Infrastructure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dmitry Anatolevich Melnikov

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a method of IPv6-protocol logical characteristics using in order to increase the security level of the Russian Federation national information technology infrastructure and the global information society.

  4. Health-Care Waste Treatment Technology Selection Using the Interval 2-Tuple Induced TOPSIS Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chao Lu

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Health-care waste (HCW management is a major challenge for municipalities, particularly in the cities of developing nations. Selecting the best treatment technology for HCW can be regarded as a complex multi-criteria decision making (MCDM issue involving a number of alternatives and multiple evaluation criteria. In addition, decision makers tend to express their personal assessments via multi-granularity linguistic term sets because of different backgrounds and knowledge, some of which may be imprecise, uncertain and incomplete. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to propose a new hybrid decision making approach combining interval 2-tuple induced distance operators with the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS for tackling HCW treatment technology selection problems with linguistic information. The proposed interval 2-tuple induced TOPSIS (ITI-TOPSIS can not only model the uncertainty and diversity of the assessment information given by decision makers, but also reflect the complex attitudinal characters of decision makers and provide much more complete information for the selection of the optimum disposal alternative. Finally, an empirical example in Shanghai, China is provided to illustrate the proposed decision making method, and results show that the ITI-TOPSIS proposed in this paper can solve the problem of HCW treatment technology selection effectively.

  5. Target-matched insertion gain derived from three different hearing aid selection procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Punch, J L; Shovels, A H; Dickinson, W W; Calder, J H; Snead, C

    1995-11-01

    Three hearing aid selection procedures were compared to determine if any one was superior in producing prescribed real-ear insertion gain. For each of three subject groups, 12 in-the-ear style hearing aids with Class D circuitry and similar dispenser controls were ordered from one of three manufacturers. Subject groups were classified based on the type of information included on the hearing aid order form: (1) the subject's audiogram, (2) a three-part matrix specifying the desired maximum output, full-on gain, and frequency response slope of the hearing aid, or (3) the desired 2-cc coupler full-in grain of the hearing aid, based on real-ear coupler difference (RECD) measurements. Following electroacoustic adjustments aimed at approximating a commonly used target insertion gain formula, results revealed no significant differences among any of the three selection procedures with respect to obtaining acceptable insertion gain values.

  6. Relating β+ radionuclides' properties by order theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quintero, N.Y.; Guillermo Restrepo; Cohen, I.M.; Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Buenos Aires

    2013-01-01

    We studied 27 β + radionuclides taking into account some of their variants encoding information of their production, such as integral yield, threshold energy and energy of projectiles used to generate them; these radionuclides are of current use in clinical diagnostic imaging by positron emission tomography (PET). The study was conducted based on physical, physico-chemical, nuclear, dosimetric and quantum properties, which characterise the β + radionuclides selected, with the aim of finding meaningful relationships among them. In order to accomplish this objective the mathematical methodology known as formal concept analysis was employed. We obtained a set of logical assertions (rules) classified as implications and associations, for the set of β + radionuclides considered. Some of them show that low mass defect is related to high and medium values of maximum β + energy, and with even parity and low mean lives; all these parameters are associated to the dose received by a patient subjected to a PET analysis. (author)

  7. Apparel Research Network (ARN); Apparel Order Processing Module (AOPM): Field User Manual, Version 1

    Science.gov (United States)

    1997-09-30

    changes. Cancel Button Closes the Site Information Screen, abandoning changes. APPAREL ORDER PROCESSING MODULE FIELD USER MANUAL Ordering Official...on the Ordering Official Information Screen. APPAREL ORDER PROCESSING MODULE FIELD USER MANUAL Ordering Official Information Screen (Jjj

  8. Stock Return Prediction with Hidden Order Mapping

    OpenAIRE

    Mamidi, Varsha

    2016-01-01

    Missing data problem is ubiquitous in many real life situations. Information Technology researchers have explored and tried to address this problem in different settings. In this thesis, we undertake research to address missing data problem associated with order book information in stock markets. This is an in-depth and large-scale study with systematic and comprehensive framework to address missing data problem in the finance literature.    Orders placed by traders and ...

  9. A review and evaluation of the Langley Research Center's Scientific and Technical Information Program. Results of phase 5. Design and evaluation of STI systems: A selected, annotated bibliography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinelli, T. E.; Hinnebusch, P. A.; Jaffe, J. M.

    1981-01-01

    A selected, annotated bibliography of literature citations related to the design and evaluation of STI systems is presented. The use of manual and machine-readable literature searches; the review of numerous books, periodicals reports, and papers; and the selection and annotation of literature citations were required. The bibliography was produced because the information was needed to develop the methodology for the review and evaluation project, and a survey of the literature did not reveal the existence of a single published source of information pertinent to the subject. Approximately 200 citations are classified in four subject areas. The areas include information - general; information systems - design and evaluation, including information products and services; information - use and need; and information - economics.

  10. Pecking Order Behavior in Emerging Markets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Seifert, Bruce; Gonenc, Halit

    2010-01-01

    This paper examines the validity of the pecking order hypothesis in 23 emerging market countries. Emerging market countries would appear to be an ideal setting for the pecking order hypothesis to hold because of the presence of strong asymmetric information issues and agency costs. We observe,

  11. Assemble-to-order systems: a review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Atan, Z.; Ahmadi, T.; Stegehuis, C.; de Kok, A.G.; Adan, I.J.B.F.

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, we review the recent literature on assemble-to-order systems. Each assemble-to-order system consists of multiple components and end-products. The components are assembled into the end-products after information on customer demand is received but the decision on what components to

  12. Why and how selection patterns in classroom networks differ between students.The potential influence of networks size preferences, level of information, and group membership.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baerveldt, Chris

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available High school students can select class mates for new friendships using a repertoire of patterns. They can actively pursue new friendships, make use of the existing network structure, and/ or use the scarce and often erroneous information about candidates. In this theoretical paper, we argue that such selection patterns should not be studied as the result of general rules, as is usually done in social network studies. Specifically, we state that network size preferences, the level of information about individual attributes of fellow classmates, and group membership are likely to differ among high school students, and that as a result, also their selection patterns are likely to be different. In this paper we sketch the theoretical articulations between these.

  13. 76 FR 26946 - Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order; Assessment Increase

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-10

    ... Web site. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Veronica Douglass, Marketing Specialist, Research and... information, Marketing agreements, Mango promotion, Reporting and recording requirements. For the reasons set... 10, 2011 / Proposed Rules#0;#0; [[Page 26946

  14. Corporate ownership as a means to solve adverse selection problems in a model of asymmetric information and credit rationing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gangopadhyay, Shubashis; Lensink, Robert

    2001-01-01

    This paper analyzes an asymmetric information model where the financing needs of entrepreneurs are obtained from two sources. We show that adverse selection is only important if the credit constraint of banks is not too tight. Next, we show that banks can induce a pattern of corporate ownership,

  15. Information seeking behaviour of pregnant women in selected ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Information Impact: Journal of Information and Knowledge Management. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 4, No 1 (2013) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

  16. Information Needs and Use of Library Resources by Special Needs Students in Selected Government Schools in Kaduna State and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christiana Alami Atabor

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This study is on the information needs and use of library resources by special needs students in selected government schools in Kaduna State and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. The survey technique was employed in the study. Five schools (i.e., Kaduna State Special Education School; Government Technical College, Malali, Kaduna; Alhudahuda College Zaria; Government Secondary School, Kwali and Government Secondary School, Kuje were purposefully selected out of a total of seven. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire for two respondent groups (i.e., special needs students and teachers/librarians. A total of 5 teachers/librarians and 345 special needs students were selected for the study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings of the study show that the special needs students have high needs for information on education, employment opportunities, health matter, and human rights. The major information resources in the libraries are books, magazines, newspapers, and few Braille materials. In general, special needs students have a moderate level of satisfaction with the resources in the libraries. The major issue identified by special needs students is insufficient information resources, especially in Braille. On the part of the teachers/librarians, inadequate funds for the acquisition of information resources and the employment of qualified librarians/teachers are found to be the major challenges faced by the libraries.

  17. [Violent video games and aggression: long-term impact and selection effects].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Staude-Müller, Frithjof

    2011-01-01

    This study applied social-cognitive models of aggression in order to examine relations between video game use and aggressive tendencies and biases in social information processing. To this end, 499 secondary school students (aged 12-16) completed a survey on two occasions one year apart. Hierarchical regression analysis probed media effects and selection effects and included relevant contextual variables (parental monitoring of media consumption, impulsivity, and victimization). Results revealed that it was not the consumption of violent video games but rather an uncontrolled pattern of video game use that was associated with increasing aggressive tendencies. This increase was partly mediated by a hostile attribution bias in social information processing. The influence of aggressive tendencies on later video game consumption was also examined (selection path). Adolescents with aggressive traits intensified their video game behavior only in terms of their uncontrolled video game use. This was found even after controlling for sensation seeking and parental media control.

  18. Order Entry Protocols Are an Amenable Target for Workflow Automation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tudor, James; Klochko, Chad; Patel, Milind; Siegal, Daniel

    2018-04-21

    Order entry protocol selection of advanced imaging studies is labor-intensive, can disrupt workflow, and may displace staff from more valuable tasks. The aim of this study was to explore and compare the behaviors of radiologic technologists and radiologists when determining protocol to identify opportunities for workflow automation. A data set of over 273,000 cross-sectional examination orders from four hospitals within our health system was created. From this data set, we isolated the 12 most frequently requested examinations, which represent almost 50% of the entirety of advanced imaging volume. Intergroup comparisons were made between behavior of radiologic technologists and radiologists or residents when determining protocol. Frequencies of changes were calculated. Common parameters of changed examinations were identified. The overall change rate for both radiologists and residents (4%) is very low and comparable to the overall change rate of radiologic technologists (1%). The change rates for the 12 most ordered examinations were calculated and compared individually. Most examinations that underwent change involved a patient with a low estimated glomerular filtration rate, a patient with a contrast allergy, or a provider ordering a general examination but in fact wanting an organ-specific protocol or an angiographic study. Order entry protocol selection of the most frequently ordered advanced imaging examinations was rarely a value-added activity because these examinations are rarely changed. Changes follow predictable patterns that make order entry protocol selection of most radiology orders for advanced imaging amenable to workflow automation. Copyright © 2018 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Domain-Generality of Timing-Based Serial Order Processes in Short-Term Memory: New Insights from Musical and Verbal Domains.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simon Gorin

    Full Text Available Several models in the verbal domain of short-term memory (STM consider a dissociation between item and order processing. This view is supported by data demonstrating that different types of time-based interference have a greater effect on memory for the order of to-be-remembered items than on memory for the items themselves. The present study investigated the domain-generality of the item versus serial order dissociation by comparing the differential effects of time-based interfering tasks, such as rhythmic interference and articulatory suppression, on item and order processing in verbal and musical STM domains. In Experiment 1, participants had to maintain sequences of verbal or musical information in STM, followed by a probe sequence, this under different conditions of interference (no-interference, rhythmic interference, articulatory suppression. They were required to decide whether all items of the probe list matched those of the memory list (item condition or whether the order of the items in the probe sequence matched the order in the memory list (order condition. In Experiment 2, participants performed a serial order probe recognition task for verbal and musical sequences ensuring sequential maintenance processes, under no-interference or rhythmic interference conditions. For Experiment 1, serial order recognition was not significantly more impacted by interfering tasks than was item recognition, this for both verbal and musical domains. For Experiment 2, we observed selective interference of the rhythmic interference condition on both musical and verbal order STM tasks. Overall, the results suggest a similar and selective sensitivity to time-based interference for serial order STM in verbal and musical domains, but only when the STM tasks ensure sequential maintenance processes.

  20. Domain-Generality of Timing-Based Serial Order Processes in Short-Term Memory: New Insights from Musical and Verbal Domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorin, Simon; Kowialiewski, Benjamin; Majerus, Steve

    2016-01-01

    Several models in the verbal domain of short-term memory (STM) consider a dissociation between item and order processing. This view is supported by data demonstrating that different types of time-based interference have a greater effect on memory for the order of to-be-remembered items than on memory for the items themselves. The present study investigated the domain-generality of the item versus serial order dissociation by comparing the differential effects of time-based interfering tasks, such as rhythmic interference and articulatory suppression, on item and order processing in verbal and musical STM domains. In Experiment 1, participants had to maintain sequences of verbal or musical information in STM, followed by a probe sequence, this under different conditions of interference (no-interference, rhythmic interference, articulatory suppression). They were required to decide whether all items of the probe list matched those of the memory list (item condition) or whether the order of the items in the probe sequence matched the order in the memory list (order condition). In Experiment 2, participants performed a serial order probe recognition task for verbal and musical sequences ensuring sequential maintenance processes, under no-interference or rhythmic interference conditions. For Experiment 1, serial order recognition was not significantly more impacted by interfering tasks than was item recognition, this for both verbal and musical domains. For Experiment 2, we observed selective interference of the rhythmic interference condition on both musical and verbal order STM tasks. Overall, the results suggest a similar and selective sensitivity to time-based interference for serial order STM in verbal and musical domains, but only when the STM tasks ensure sequential maintenance processes.

  1. Interval 2-Tuple Linguistic Distance Operators and Their Applications to Supplier Evaluation and Selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meng-Meng Shan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available With respect to multicriteria supplier selection problems with interval 2-tuple linguistic information, a new decision making approach that uses distance measures is proposed. Motivated by the ordered weighted distance (OWD measures, in this paper, we develop some interval 2-tuple linguistic distance operators such as the interval 2-tuple weighted distance (ITWD, the interval 2-tuple ordered weighted distance (ITOWD, and the interval 2-tuple hybrid weighted distance (ITHWD operators. These aggregation operators are very useful for the treatment of input data in the form of interval 2-tuple linguistic variables. We study some desirable properties of the ITOWD operator and further generalize it by using the generalized and the quasi-arithmetic means. Finally, the new approach is utilized to complete a supplier selection study for an actual hospital from the healthcare industry.

  2. THE INFORMATIONAL SYSTEM FOR THE COLLABORATIVE LOGISTICS NETWORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    NAIANA ŢARCĂ

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an informatic system designed for collaborative logistic networks. The informational system is composed of structured informational modules that can easily be modified in order to facilitate the testing of the different algorithms that are being used. The informational system has two components, in the form of web application modules, which are connected to the user-specific modules (THE CLIENT WEB APPLICATION and to the server-specific modules (THE SERVER WEB APPLICATION, respectively. These two modules operate the transmission of information, the demands of the client and the offers generated by the server. The designed informational system has been tested in actual operating conditions, by co-optating ten EMSs from the Bihor county area. Some of the elements considered positive by the users, in the testing period, were: usability, the automatic assignment of a motor vehicle according to the characteristics of the product, the automatic route generation, the selection of goods according to the cluster “route” of the system.

  3. Selection Input Output by Restriction Using DEA Models Based on a Fuzzy Delphi Approach and Expert Information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arsad, Roslah; Nasir Abdullah, Mohammad; Alias, Suriana; Isa, Zaidi

    2017-09-01

    Stock evaluation has always been an interesting problem for investors. In this paper, a comparison regarding the efficiency stocks of listed companies in Bursa Malaysia were made through the application of estimation method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). One of the interesting research subjects in DEA is the selection of appropriate input and output parameter. In this study, DEA was used to measure efficiency of stocks of listed companies in Bursa Malaysia in terms of the financial ratio to evaluate performance of stocks. Based on previous studies and Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM), the most important financial ratio was selected. The results indicated that return on equity, return on assets, net profit margin, operating profit margin, earnings per share, price to earnings and debt to equity were the most important ratios. Using expert information, all the parameter were clarified as inputs and outputs. The main objectives were to identify most critical financial ratio, clarify them based on expert information and compute the relative efficiency scores of stocks as well as rank them in the construction industry and material completely. The methods of analysis using Alirezaee and Afsharian’s model were employed in this study, where the originality of Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) with the assumption of Constant Return to Scale (CSR) still holds. This method of ranking relative efficiency of decision making units (DMUs) was value-added by the Balance Index. The interested data was made for year 2015 and the population of the research includes accepted companies in stock markets in the construction industry and material (63 companies). According to the ranking, the proposed model can rank completely for 63 companies using selected financial ratio.

  4. Relative Performance Information, Rank Ordering and Employee Performance: A Research Note

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kramer, S.; Maas, V.S.; van Rinsum, M.

    2016-01-01

    We conduct a laboratory experiment to examine whether the provision of detailed relative performance information (i.e., information about the specific performance levels of peers) affects employee performance. We also investigate how – if at all – explicit ranking of performance levels affects how

  5. Robust resource loading for engineer-to-order manufacturing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wullink, Gerhard; Hans, Elias W.; van Harten, Aart

    2004-01-01

    Order acceptance decisions in Engineer-To-Order (ETO) environments are often based on incomplete or uncertain information about the order specifications and the status of the production system. To quote reliable due dates and manage the production system adequately, resource loading techniques that

  6. To kill, stay or flee: the effects of lions and landscape factors on habitat and kill site selection of cheetahs in South Africa.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susana Rostro-García

    Full Text Available Understanding how animals utilize available space is important for their conservation, as it provides insight into the ecological needs of the species, including those related to habitat, prey and inter and intraspecific interactions. We used 28 months of radio telemetry data and information from 200 kill locations to assess habitat selection at the 3rd order (selection of habitats within home ranges and 4th order (selection of kill sites within the habitats used of a reintroduced population of cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus in Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa. Along with landscape characteristics, we investigated if lion Panthera leo presence affected habitat selection of cheetahs. Our results indicated that cheetah habitat selection was driven by a trade-off between resource acquisition and lion avoidance, and the balance of this trade-off varied with scale: more open habitats with high prey densities were positively selected within home ranges, whereas more closed habitats with low prey densities were positively selected for kill sites. We also showed that habitat selection, feeding ecology, and avoidance of lions differed depending on the sex and reproductive status of cheetahs. The results highlight the importance of scale when investigating a species' habitat selection. We conclude that the adaptability of cheetahs, together with the habitat heterogeneity found within Phinda, explained their success in this small fenced reserve. The results provide information for the conservation and management of this threatened species, especially with regards to reintroduction efforts in South Africa.

  7. To Kill, Stay or Flee: The Effects of Lions and Landscape Factors on Habitat and Kill Site Selection of Cheetahs in South Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rostro-García, Susana; Kamler, Jan F.; Hunter, Luke T. B.

    2015-01-01

    Understanding how animals utilize available space is important for their conservation, as it provides insight into the ecological needs of the species, including those related to habitat, prey and inter and intraspecific interactions. We used 28 months of radio telemetry data and information from 200 kill locations to assess habitat selection at the 3rd order (selection of habitats within home ranges) and 4th order (selection of kill sites within the habitats used) of a reintroduced population of cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus in Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa. Along with landscape characteristics, we investigated if lion Panthera leo presence affected habitat selection of cheetahs. Our results indicated that cheetah habitat selection was driven by a trade-off between resource acquisition and lion avoidance, and the balance of this trade-off varied with scale: more open habitats with high prey densities were positively selected within home ranges, whereas more closed habitats with low prey densities were positively selected for kill sites. We also showed that habitat selection, feeding ecology, and avoidance of lions differed depending on the sex and reproductive status of cheetahs. The results highlight the importance of scale when investigating a species’ habitat selection. We conclude that the adaptability of cheetahs, together with the habitat heterogeneity found within Phinda, explained their success in this small fenced reserve. The results provide information for the conservation and management of this threatened species, especially with regards to reintroduction efforts in South Africa. PMID:25693067

  8. To kill, stay or flee: the effects of lions and landscape factors on habitat and kill site selection of cheetahs in South Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rostro-García, Susana; Kamler, Jan F; Hunter, Luke T B

    2015-01-01

    Understanding how animals utilize available space is important for their conservation, as it provides insight into the ecological needs of the species, including those related to habitat, prey and inter and intraspecific interactions. We used 28 months of radio telemetry data and information from 200 kill locations to assess habitat selection at the 3rd order (selection of habitats within home ranges) and 4th order (selection of kill sites within the habitats used) of a reintroduced population of cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus in Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa. Along with landscape characteristics, we investigated if lion Panthera leo presence affected habitat selection of cheetahs. Our results indicated that cheetah habitat selection was driven by a trade-off between resource acquisition and lion avoidance, and the balance of this trade-off varied with scale: more open habitats with high prey densities were positively selected within home ranges, whereas more closed habitats with low prey densities were positively selected for kill sites. We also showed that habitat selection, feeding ecology, and avoidance of lions differed depending on the sex and reproductive status of cheetahs. The results highlight the importance of scale when investigating a species' habitat selection. We conclude that the adaptability of cheetahs, together with the habitat heterogeneity found within Phinda, explained their success in this small fenced reserve. The results provide information for the conservation and management of this threatened species, especially with regards to reintroduction efforts in South Africa.

  9. Rolling Bearing Fault Diagnosis Using Modified Neighborhood Preserving Embedding and Maximal Overlap Discrete Wavelet Packet Transform with Sensitive Features Selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fei Dong

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to enhance the performance of bearing fault diagnosis and classification, features extraction and features dimensionality reduction have become more important. The original statistical feature set was calculated from single branch reconstruction vibration signals obtained by using maximal overlap discrete wavelet packet transform (MODWPT. In order to reduce redundancy information of original statistical feature set, features selection by adjusted rand index and sum of within-class mean deviations (FSASD was proposed to select fault sensitive features. Furthermore, a modified features dimensionality reduction method, supervised neighborhood preserving embedding with label information (SNPEL, was proposed to realize low-dimensional representations for high-dimensional feature space. Finally, vibration signals collected from two experimental test rigs were employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed procedure. The results show that the effectiveness, adaptability, and superiority of the proposed procedure can serve as an intelligent bearing fault diagnosis system.

  10. SNPs selected by information content outperform randomly selected microsatellite loci for delineating genetic identification and introgression in the endangered dark European honeybee (Apis mellifera mellifera).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muñoz, Irene; Henriques, Dora; Jara, Laura; Johnston, J Spencer; Chávez-Galarza, Julio; De La Rúa, Pilar; Pinto, M Alice

    2017-07-01

    The honeybee (Apis mellifera) has been threatened by multiple factors including pests and pathogens, pesticides and loss of locally adapted gene complexes due to replacement and introgression. In western Europe, the genetic integrity of the native A. m. mellifera (M-lineage) is endangered due to trading and intensive queen breeding with commercial subspecies of eastern European ancestry (C-lineage). Effective conservation actions require reliable molecular tools to identify pure-bred A. m. mellifera colonies. Microsatellites have been preferred for identification of A. m. mellifera stocks across conservation centres. However, owing to high throughput, easy transferability between laboratories and low genotyping error, SNPs promise to become popular. Here, we compared the resolving power of a widely utilized microsatellite set to detect structure and introgression with that of different sets that combine a variable number of SNPs selected for their information content and genomic proximity to the microsatellite loci. Contrary to every SNP data set, microsatellites did not discriminate between the two lineages in the PCA space. Mean introgression proportions were identical across the two marker types, although at the individual level, microsatellites' performance was relatively poor at the upper range of Q-values, a result reflected by their lower precision. Our results suggest that SNPs are more accurate and powerful than microsatellites for identification of A. m. mellifera colonies, especially when they are selected by information content. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  11. A Bayesian Approach to Model Selection in Hierarchical Mixtures-of-Experts Architectures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanner, Martin A.; Peng, Fengchun; Jacobs, Robert A.

    1997-03-01

    There does not exist a statistical model that shows good performance on all tasks. Consequently, the model selection problem is unavoidable; investigators must decide which model is best at summarizing the data for each task of interest. This article presents an approach to the model selection problem in hierarchical mixtures-of-experts architectures. These architectures combine aspects of generalized linear models with those of finite mixture models in order to perform tasks via a recursive "divide-and-conquer" strategy. Markov chain Monte Carlo methodology is used to estimate the distribution of the architectures' parameters. One part of our approach to model selection attempts to estimate the worth of each component of an architecture so that relatively unused components can be pruned from the architecture's structure. A second part of this approach uses a Bayesian hypothesis testing procedure in order to differentiate inputs that carry useful information from nuisance inputs. Simulation results suggest that the approach presented here adheres to the dictum of Occam's razor; simple architectures that are adequate for summarizing the data are favored over more complex structures. Copyright 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

  12. Rank-based model selection for multiple ions quantum tomography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guţă, Mădălin; Kypraios, Theodore; Dryden, Ian

    2012-01-01

    The statistical analysis of measurement data has become a key component of many quantum engineering experiments. As standard full state tomography becomes unfeasible for large dimensional quantum systems, one needs to exploit prior information and the ‘sparsity’ properties of the experimental state in order to reduce the dimensionality of the estimation problem. In this paper we propose model selection as a general principle for finding the simplest, or most parsimonious explanation of the data, by fitting different models and choosing the estimator with the best trade-off between likelihood fit and model complexity. We apply two well established model selection methods—the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC)—two models consisting of states of fixed rank and datasets such as are currently produced in multiple ions experiments. We test the performance of AIC and BIC on randomly chosen low rank states of four ions, and study the dependence of the selected rank with the number of measurement repetitions for one ion states. We then apply the methods to real data from a four ions experiment aimed at creating a Smolin state of rank 4. By applying the two methods together with the Pearson χ 2 test we conclude that the data can be suitably described with a model whose rank is between 7 and 9. Additionally we find that the mean square error of the maximum likelihood estimator for pure states is close to that of the optimal over all possible measurements. (paper)

  13. Work orders management based on XML file in printing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ran Peipei

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The Extensible Markup Language (XML technology is increasingly used in various field, if it’s used to express the information of work orders will improve efficiency for management and production. According to the features, we introduce the technology of management for work orders and get a XML file through the Document Object Model (DOM technology in the paper. When we need the information to conduct production, parsing the XML file and save the information in database, this is beneficial to the preserve and modify for information.

  14. On Uselessness of Limit Orders

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Šmíd, Martin

    2007-01-01

    Roč. 2007, č. 24 (2007), s. 45-57 ISSN 1212-074X R&D Projects: GA ČR GD402/03/H057; GA ČR GA402/07/1113; GA ČR(CZ) GA402/06/1417 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : market microstructure * limit order market * portfolio selection Subject RIV: AH - Economics

  15. Quantum Information Processing using Nonlinear Optical Effects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Lasse Mejling

    This PhD thesis treats applications of nonlinear optical effects for quantum information processing. The two main applications are four-wave mixing in the form of Bragg scattering (BS) for quantum-state-preserving frequency conversion, and sum-frequency generation (SFG) in second-order nonlinear......-chirping the pumps. In the high-conversion regime without the effects of NPM, exact Green functions for BS are derived. In this limit, separability is possible for conversion efficiencies up to 60 %. However, the system still allows for selective frequency conversion as well as re-shaping of the output. One way...

  16. Warehouse Order-Picking Process. Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. V. Korobkov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This article describes basic warehousing activities, namely: movement, information storage and transfer, as well as connections between typical warehouse operations (reception, transfer, assigning storage position and put-away, order-picking, hoarding and sorting, cross-docking, shipping. It presents a classification of the warehouse order-picking systems in terms of manual labor on offer as well as external (marketing channels, consumer’s demand structure, supplier’s replenishment structure and inventory level, total production demand, economic situation and internal (mechanization level, information accessibility, warehouse dimensionality, method of dispatch for shipping, zoning, batching, storage assignment method, routing method factors affecting the designing systems complexity. Basic optimization considerations are described. There is a literature review on the following sub-problems of planning and control of orderpicking processes.A layout design problem has been taken in account at two levels — external (facility layout problem and internal (aisle configuration problem. For a problem of distributing goods or stock keeping units the following methods are emphasized: random, nearest open storage position, and dedicated (COI-based, frequency-based distribution, as well as class-based and familygrouped (complimentary- and contact-based one. Batching problem can be solved by two main methods, i.e. proximity order batching (seed and saving algorithms and time-window order batching. There are two strategies for a zoning problem: progressive and synchronized, and also a special case of zoning — bucket brigades method. Hoarding/sorting problem is briefly reviewed. Order-picking routing problem will be thoroughly described in the next article of the cycle “Warehouse order-picking process”.

  17. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors for Treatment of Selective Mutism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mazlum Çöpür

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Some authors suggest that selective mutism should be considered as a variant of social phobia or a disorder in the obsessive-compulsive spectrum. Recent studies indicate that pharmacological treatments may be effective in the treatment of selective mutism. In this article, four cases who were treated with citalopram and escitalopram are presented. The results indicate that the drugs were well tolerated, and the level of social and verbal interactions improved significantly. These findings have shown that citalopram and escitalopram can be considered in medication of selective mutism; nevertheless, it is essential that research be done with more cases than previous ones, in order to prove their accuracy

  18. The Finite and Moving Order Multinomial Universal Portfolio

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tan, Choon Peng; Pang, Sook Theng

    2013-01-01

    An upper bound for the ratio of wealths of the best constant -rebalanced portfolio to that of the multinomial universal portfolio is derived. The finite- order multinomial universal portfolios can reduce the implementation time and computer-memory requirements for computation. The improved performance of the finite-order portfolios on some selected local stock-price data sets is observed.

  19. Infinitely robust order and local order-parameter tulips in Apollonian networks with quenched disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaplan, C. Nadir; Hinczewski, Michael; Berker, A. Nihat

    2009-06-01

    For a variety of quenched random spin systems on an Apollonian network, including ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic bond percolation and the Ising spin glass, we find the persistence of ordered phases up to infinite temperature over the entire range of disorder. We develop a renormalization-group technique that yields highly detailed information, including the exact distributions of local magnetizations and local spin-glass order parameters, which turn out to exhibit, as function of temperature, complex and distinctive tulip patterns.

  20. Clustering and Bayesian hierarchical modeling for the definition of informative prior distributions in hydrogeology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cucchi, K.; Kawa, N.; Hesse, F.; Rubin, Y.

    2017-12-01

    In order to reduce uncertainty in the prediction of subsurface flow and transport processes, practitioners should use all data available. However, classic inverse modeling frameworks typically only make use of information contained in in-situ field measurements to provide estimates of hydrogeological parameters. Such hydrogeological information about an aquifer is difficult and costly to acquire. In this data-scarce context, the transfer of ex-situ information coming from previously investigated sites can be critical for improving predictions by better constraining the estimation procedure. Bayesian inverse modeling provides a coherent framework to represent such ex-situ information by virtue of the prior distribution and combine them with in-situ information from the target site. In this study, we present an innovative data-driven approach for defining such informative priors for hydrogeological parameters at the target site. Our approach consists in two steps, both relying on statistical and machine learning methods. The first step is data selection; it consists in selecting sites similar to the target site. We use clustering methods for selecting similar sites based on observable hydrogeological features. The second step is data assimilation; it consists in assimilating data from the selected similar sites into the informative prior. We use a Bayesian hierarchical model to account for inter-site variability and to allow for the assimilation of multiple types of site-specific data. We present the application and validation of the presented methods on an established database of hydrogeological parameters. Data and methods are implemented in the form of an open-source R-package and therefore facilitate easy use by other practitioners.

  1. Information Interaction Criteria Among Students in Process of Task-Based Information Searching (Role of Objective Complexity and Type of Product

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marziyeh Saeedizadeh

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Purpose:  human-information interactions must be considered in order to be able to interactively design Information Retrieval Systems (IRS. In this regard, study of users’ interactions must be based on their socio-cultural context (specifically work tasks. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore the use of information-interaction criteria among students in the information searching process according to different kinds of their work tasks.  Methodology: This research is applied qualitative method using exploratory study. The research population consisted of MSc students of Ferdowsi university of Mashhad enrolled in 2012-13  academic year. In 3 stages of sampling (random stratified, quota, and voluntary sampling, 30 cases were selected. Each of these cases searched 6 different types of simulated work tasks. Interaction criteria were extracted ? Content analysis of aloud thinking reports. Validity of tools was verified through Faculties of KIS at Ferdowsi university of Mashhad. Also,0.78  Kripendorff’s alpha ratio based on an agreement between the inter – coder indicates the Dependability  of content analysis. Findings: The findings show that in addition to ‘topic’ criteria, other interaction criteria impact on information- interaction of users, such as: ‘search results ranking’, ‘domain knowledge of user’, ‘layout’, ‘type of information resource’ and etc. based on the level of objective complexity and product of  work tasks, information-interaction criteria change. Conclusion: the users pay attention to different information-interaction criteria in process of information searching, considering to variety of work tasks (level of objective complexity and product. So, it is necessary to pay attention to work task characteristics in order to design interactive and personalized IR systems.

  2. Anonymity versus privacy: selective information sharing in online cancer communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frost, Jeana; Vermeulen, Ivar E; Beekers, Nienke

    2014-05-14

    Active sharing in online cancer communities benefits patients. However, many patients refrain from sharing health information online due to privacy concerns. Existing research on privacy emphasizes data security and confidentiality, largely focusing on electronic medical records. Patient preferences around information sharing in online communities remain poorly understood. Consistent with the privacy calculus perspective adopted from e-commerce research, we suggest that patients approach online information sharing instrumentally, weighing privacy costs against participation benefits when deciding whether to share certain information. Consequently, we argue that patients prefer sharing clinical information over daily life and identity information that potentially compromises anonymity. Furthermore, we explore whether patients' prior experiences, age, health, and gender affect perceived privacy costs and thus willingness to share information. The goal of the present study is to document patient preferences for sharing information within online health platforms. A total of 115 cancer patients reported sharing intentions for 15 different types of information, demographics, health status, prior privacy experiences, expected community utility, and privacy concerns. Factor analysis on the 15 information types revealed 3 factors coinciding with 3 proposed information categories: clinical, daily life, and identity information. A within-subject ANOVA showed a strong preference for sharing clinical information compared to daily life and identity information (F1,114=135.59, P=.001, η(2)=.93). Also, adverse online privacy experiences, age, and health status negatively affected information-sharing intentions. Female patients shared information less willingly. Respondents' information-sharing intentions depend on dispositional and situational factors. Patients share medical details more willingly than daily life or identity information. The results suggest the need to focus on

  3. Information Science and Information Systems: Conjunct Subjects Disjunct Disciplines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, David; Allen, David; Wilson, Tom

    1999-01-01

    Examines the relationship between information science and information-systems (IS) research through analysis of the subject literature of each field and by citation and co-citation analysis of highly cited researchers in each field. Subfields of user studies and information-retrieval research were selected to represent information-science…

  4. Large-order perturbation theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, T.T.

    1982-01-01

    The original motivation for studying the asymptotic behavior of the coefficients of perturbation series came from quantum field theory. An overview is given of some of the attempts to understand quantum field theory beyond finite-order perturbation series. At least is the case of the Thirring model and probably in general, the full content of a relativistic quantum field theory cannot be recovered from its perturbation series. This difficulty, however, does not occur in quantum mechanics, and the anharmonic oscillator is used to illustrate the methods used in large-order perturbation theory. Two completely different methods are discussed, the first one using the WKB approximation, and a second one involving the statistical analysis of Feynman diagrams. The first one is well developed and gives detailed information about the desired asymptotic behavior, while the second one is still in its infancy and gives instead information about the distribution of vertices of the Feynman diagrams

  5. Majoring in Information Systems: Reasons Why Students Select (or Not) Information Systems as a Major

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snyder, Johnny; Slauson, Gayla Jo

    2014-01-01

    Filling the pipeline for information systems workers is critical in the information era. Projected growth rates for jobs requiring information systems expertise are significantly higher than the projected growth rates for other jobs. Why then do relatively few students choose to major in information systems? This paper reviews survey results from…

  6. A comprehensive analysis of earthquake damage patterns using high dimensional model representation feature selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taşkin Kaya, Gülşen

    2013-10-01

    Recently, earthquake damage assessment using satellite images has been a very popular ongoing research direction. Especially with the availability of very high resolution (VHR) satellite images, a quite detailed damage map based on building scale has been produced, and various studies have also been conducted in the literature. As the spatial resolution of satellite images increases, distinguishability of damage patterns becomes more cruel especially in case of using only the spectral information during classification. In order to overcome this difficulty, textural information needs to be involved to the classification to improve the visual quality and reliability of damage map. There are many kinds of textural information which can be derived from VHR satellite images depending on the algorithm used. However, extraction of textural information and evaluation of them have been generally a time consuming process especially for the large areas affected from the earthquake due to the size of VHR image. Therefore, in order to provide a quick damage map, the most useful features describing damage patterns needs to be known in advance as well as the redundant features. In this study, a very high resolution satellite image after Iran, Bam earthquake was used to identify the earthquake damage. Not only the spectral information, textural information was also used during the classification. For textural information, second order Haralick features were extracted from the panchromatic image for the area of interest using gray level co-occurrence matrix with different size of windows and directions. In addition to using spatial features in classification, the most useful features representing the damage characteristic were selected with a novel feature selection method based on high dimensional model representation (HDMR) giving sensitivity of each feature during classification. The method called HDMR was recently proposed as an efficient tool to capture the input

  7. Rumination impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information, but not attention, control, or response selection in general.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colzato, Lorenza S; Steenbergen, Laura; Hommel, Bernhard

    2018-01-23

    The aim of the study was to throw more light on the relationship between rumination and cognitive-control processes. Seventy-eight adults were assessed with respect to rumination tendencies by means of the LEIDS-r before performing a Stroop task, an event-file task assessing the automatic retrieval of irrelevant information, an attentional set-shifting task, and the Attentional Network Task, which provided scores for alerting, orienting, and executive control functioning. The size of the Stroop effect and irrelevant retrieval in the event-five task were positively correlated with the tendency to ruminate, while all other scores did not correlate with any rumination scale. Controlling for depressive tendencies eliminated the Stroop-related finding (an observation that may account for previous failures to replicate), but not the event-file finding. Taken altogether, our results suggest that rumination does not affect attention, executive control, or response selection in general, but rather selectively impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information.

  8. Anonymity Versus Privacy: Selective Information Sharing in Online Cancer Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vermeulen, Ivar E; Beekers, Nienke

    2014-01-01

    Background Active sharing in online cancer communities benefits patients. However, many patients refrain from sharing health information online due to privacy concerns. Existing research on privacy emphasizes data security and confidentiality, largely focusing on electronic medical records. Patient preferences around information sharing in online communities remain poorly understood. Consistent with the privacy calculus perspective adopted from e-commerce research, we suggest that patients approach online information sharing instrumentally, weighing privacy costs against participation benefits when deciding whether to share certain information. Consequently, we argue that patients prefer sharing clinical information over daily life and identity information that potentially compromises anonymity. Furthermore, we explore whether patients’ prior experiences, age, health, and gender affect perceived privacy costs and thus willingness to share information. Objective The goal of the present study is to document patient preferences for sharing information within online health platforms. Methods A total of 115 cancer patients reported sharing intentions for 15 different types of information, demographics, health status, prior privacy experiences, expected community utility, and privacy concerns. Results Factor analysis on the 15 information types revealed 3 factors coinciding with 3 proposed information categories: clinical, daily life, and identity information. A within-subject ANOVA showed a strong preference for sharing clinical information compared to daily life and identity information (F 1,114=135.59, P=.001, η2=.93). Also, adverse online privacy experiences, age, and health status negatively affected information-sharing intentions. Female patients shared information less willingly. Conclusions Respondents’ information-sharing intentions depend on dispositional and situational factors. Patients share medical details more willingly than daily life or identity

  9. Selection Ideal Coal Suppliers of Thermal Power Plants Using the Matter-Element Extension Model with Integrated Empowerment Method for Sustainability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhongfu Tan

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to reduce thermal power generation cost and improve its market competitiveness, considering fuel quality, cost, creditworthiness, and sustainable development capacity factors, this paper established the evaluation system for coal supplier selection of thermal power and put forward the coal supplier selection strategies for thermal power based on integrated empowering and ideal matter-element extension models. On the one hand, the integrated empowering model can overcome the limitations of subjective and objective methods to determine weights, better balance subjective, and objective information. On the other hand, since the evaluation results of the traditional element extension model may fall into the same class and only get part of the order results, in order to overcome this shortcoming, the idealistic matter-element extension model is constructed. It selects the ideal positive and negative matter-elements classical field and uses the closeness degree to replace traditional maximum degree of membership criterion and calculates the positive or negative distance between the matter-element to be evaluated and the ideal matter-element; then it can get the full order results of the evaluation schemes. Simulated and compared with the TOPSIS method, Romania selection method, and PROMETHEE method, numerical example results show that the method put forward by this paper is effective and reliable.

  10. Temporal Order Processing in Adult Dyslexics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maxwell, David L.; And Others

    This study investigated the premise that disordered temporal order perception in retarded readers can be seen in the serial processing of both nonverbal auditory and visual information, and examined whether such information processing deficits relate to level of reading ability. The adult subjects included 20 in the dyslexic group, 12 in the…

  11. A Feature Selection Method Based on Fisher's Discriminant Ratio for Text Sentiment Classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Suge; Li, Deyu; Wei, Yingjie; Li, Hongxia

    With the rapid growth of e-commerce, product reviews on the Web have become an important information source for customers' decision making when they intend to buy some product. As the reviews are often too many for customers to go through, how to automatically classify them into different sentiment orientation categories (i.e. positive/negative) has become a research problem. In this paper, based on Fisher's discriminant ratio, an effective feature selection method is proposed for product review text sentiment classification. In order to validate the validity of the proposed method, we compared it with other methods respectively based on information gain and mutual information while support vector machine is adopted as the classifier. In this paper, 6 subexperiments are conducted by combining different feature selection methods with 2 kinds of candidate feature sets. Under 1006 review documents of cars, the experimental results indicate that the Fisher's discriminant ratio based on word frequency estimation has the best performance with F value 83.3% while the candidate features are the words which appear in both positive and negative texts.

  12. RULES FOR SELECTING AND USING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR THE SERVICE INDUSTRY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandra - Elena RUSĂNEANU

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available There is no question that performance is the desired result of every activity or action. In order to correctly measure an organization’s performance it is necessary to select key performance indicators (KPIs that will deliver long-term value to the company. KPIs are presenting performance information for all levels of the organization and they are reflecting the progress made so far to achieve strategic objectives. The selection of the key performance indicators must be made according to the organization’s industry and activity. The company must truly understand its business and its mission. Also, KPIs must be closely linked to the strategic objectives. The focus of this research is to present effective rules for defining key performance indicators for the Service industry. This sector of economy consists in generating intangible goods like experience, expertise and information. Therefore, monitoring this type of services requires a different approach when defining performance indicators compared to the manufacturing industry.

  13. Defense Health Care: DOD Lacks Assurance That Selected Reserve Members Are Informed about TRICARE Reserve Select

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-01

    percentages include members of the Selected Reserve and their dependents. Selected Reserve members living overseas, in unknown locations, and in Puerto Rico ...8 Diabetes mellitush 1.7 Asthmai 1.8 9 Adjustment reaction 1.7 Acute upper respiratory infections of multiple or unspecified sites 1.6 10 Special...heterogeneous disorders that have an increase in blood glucose concentrations. The current classifications for diabetes mellitus Types 1 through 4

  14. Social information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luiz Fernando de Barros Campos

    Full Text Available Based on Erving Goffman's work, the article aims to discuss a definition of information centered on the type conveyed by individuals in a multimodal way, encompassing language and body in situations of co-presence, where face-to-face interaction occurs, and influencing inter-subjective formation of the self. Six types of information are highlighted: material information, expressive information, ritualized information, meta-information, strategic information, and information displays. It is argued that the construction of this empirical object tends to dissolve the tension among material, cognitive and pragmatic aspects, constituting an example of the necessary integration among them. Some vulnerable characteristics of the theory are critically mentioned and it is suggested that the concept of information displays could provide a platform to approach the question of the interaction order in its relations with the institutional and social orders, and consequently, to reassess the scope of the notion of social information analyzed.

  15. Identifying polar bear resource selection patterns to inform offshore development in a dynamic and changing Arctic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Ryan R.; Horne, Jon S.; Rode, Karyn D.; Regehr, Eric V.; Durner, George M.

    2014-01-01

    Although sea ice loss is the primary threat to polar bears (Ursus maritimus), little can be done to mitigate its effects without global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Other factors, however, could exacerbate the impacts of sea ice loss on polar bears, such as exposure to increased industrial activity. The Arctic Ocean has enormous oil and gas potential, and its development is expected to increase in the coming decades. Estimates of polar bear resource selection will inform managers how bears use areas slated for oil development and to help guide conservation planning. We estimated temporally-varying resource selection patterns for non-denning adult female polar bears in the Chukchi Sea population (2008–2012) at two scales (i.e., home range and weekly steps) to identify factors predictive of polar bear use throughout the year, before any offshore development. From the best models at each scale, we estimated scale-integrated resource selection functions to predict polar bear space use across the population's range and determined when bears were most likely to use the region where offshore oil and gas development in the United States is slated to occur. Polar bears exhibited significant intra-annual variation in selection patterns at both scales but the strength and annual patterns of selection differed between scales for most variables. Bears were most likely to use the offshore oil and gas planning area during ice retreat and growth with the highest predicted use occurring in the southern portion of the planning area. The average proportion of predicted high-value habitat in the planning area was >15% of the total high-value habitat for the population during sea ice retreat and growth and reached a high of 50% during November 2010. Our results provide a baseline on which to judge future changes to non-denning adult female polar bear resource selection in the Chukchi Sea and help guide offshore development in the region. Lastly, our study provides a

  16. On the Computation of the Efficient Frontier of the Portfolio Selection Problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clara Calvo

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available An easy-to-use procedure is presented for improving the ε-constraint method for computing the efficient frontier of the portfolio selection problem endowed with additional cardinality and semicontinuous variable constraints. The proposed method provides not only a numerical plotting of the frontier but also an analytical description of it, including the explicit equations of the arcs of parabola it comprises and the change points between them. This information is useful for performing a sensitivity analysis as well as for providing additional criteria to the investor in order to select an efficient portfolio. Computational results are provided to test the efficiency of the algorithm and to illustrate its applications. The procedure has been implemented in Mathematica.

  17. Finding Higher Order Differentials of MISTY1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsunoo, Yukiyasu; Saito, Teruo; Kawabata, Takeshi; Nakagawa, Hirokatsu

    MISTY1 is a 64-bit block cipher that has provable security against differential and linear cryptanalysis. MISTY1 is one of the algorithms selected in the European NESSIE project, and it is recommended for Japanese e-Government ciphers by the CRYPTREC project. In this paper, we report on 12th order differentials in 3-round MISTY1 with FL functions and 44th order differentials in 4-round MISTY1 with FL functions both previously unknown. We also report that both data complexity and computational complexity of higher order differential attacks on 6-round MISTY1 with FL functions and 7-round MISTY1 with FL functions using the 46th order differential can be reduced to as much as 1/22 of the previous values by using multiple 44th order differentials simultaneously.

  18. Recognition of Risk Information - Adaptation of J. Bertin's Orderable Matrix for social communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ishida, Keiichi

    2018-05-01

    This paper aims to show capability of the Orderable Matrix of Jacques Bertin which is a visualization method of data analyze and/or a method to recognize data. That matrix can show the data by replacing numbers to visual element. As an example, using a set of data regarding natural hazard rankings for certain metropolitan cities in the world, this paper describes how the Orderable Matrix handles the data set and show characteristic factors of this data to understand it. Not only to see a kind of risk ranking of cities, the Orderable Matrix shows how differently danger concerned cities ones and others are. Furthermore, we will see that the visualized data by Orderable Matrix allows us to see the characteristics of the data set comprehensively and instantaneously.

  19. Introducing Switching Ordered Statistic CFAR Type I in Different Radar Environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saeed Erfanian

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, a new CFAR detector based on a switching algorithm and OS-CFAR for nonhomogeneous background environments is introduced. The new detector is named Switching Ordered Statistic CFAR type I (SOS CFAR I. The SOS CFAR I selects a set of suitable cells and then with the help of the ordering method, estimates the unknown background noise level. The proposed detector does not require any prior information about the background environment and uses cells with similar statistical specifications to estimate the background noise. The performance of SOS CFAR I is evaluated and compared with other detectors such as CA-CFAR, GO-CFAR, SO-CFAR, and OS-CFAR for the Swerling I target model in homogeneous and nonhomogeneous noise environments such as those with multiple interference and clutter edges. The results show that SOS CFAR I detectors considerably reduce the problem of excessive false alarm probability near clutter edges while maintaining good performance in other environments. Also, simulation results confirm the achievement of an optimum detection threshold in homogenous and nonhomogeneous radar environments by the mentioned processor.

  20. Information Needs, Sources, and Information Seeking Behaviour of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This work which focused on the policy-makers/administrators as information users was carried out using hundred (100) questionnaire in order to ascertain the information needs, sources and information seeking behaviour of the administrators. The barrier to information flow to them was also identified. The study adopted a ...

  1. Selecting and Using Information Sources: Source Preferences and Information Pathways of Israeli Library and Information Science Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bronstein, Jenny

    2010-01-01

    Introduction: The study investigated the source preference criteria of library and information science students for their academic and personal information needs. Method: The empirical study was based on two methods of data collection. Eighteen participants wrote a personal diary for four months in which they recorded search episodes and answered…

  2. Vertical selection in the information domain of children

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Duarte Torres, Sergio; Hiemstra, Djoerd; Huibers, Theo W.C.

    In this paper we explore the vertical selection methods in aggregated search in the specific domain of topics for children between 7 and 12 years old. A test collection consisting of 25 verticals, 3.8K queries and relevant assessments for a large sample of these queries mapping relevant verticals to

  3. Exploring enhanced menu labels' influence on fast food selections and exercise-related attitudes, perceptions, and intentions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Morgan S; Thompson, Joel Kevin

    2016-10-01

    Labeling restaurant menus with calorie counts is a popular public health intervention, but research shows these labels have small, inconsistent effects on behavior. Supplementing calorie counts with physical activity equivalents may produce stronger results, but few studies of these enhanced labels have been conducted, and the labels' potential to influence exercise-related outcomes remains unexplored. This online study evaluated the impact of no information, calories-only, and calories plus equivalent miles of walking labels on fast food item selection and exercise-related attitudes, perceptions, and intentions. Participants (N = 643) were randomly assigned to a labeling condition and completed a menu ordering task followed by measures of exercise-related outcomes. The labels had little effect on ordering behavior, with no significant differences in total calories ordered and counterintuitive increases in calories ordered in the two informational conditions in some item categories. The labels also had little impact on the exercise-related outcomes, though participants in the two informational conditions perceived exercise as less enjoyable than did participants in the no information condition, and trends following the same pattern were found for other exercise-related outcomes. The present findings concur with literature demonstrating small, inconsistent effects of current menu labeling strategies and suggest that alternatives such as traffic light systems should be explored. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. A geographic information system and multi criteria analysis method for site selection of spent nuclear fuel disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martins, Vivian Borges

    2009-01-01

    This thesis aims to develop a site selection methodology for the construction of final repository for the spent nuclear fuel disposal, by using geographic information systems (GIS) and multi-criteria decision analysis. Decision making processes of this kind are often complex, given the great number of space parameters to consider and also the typically conflicting opinions of the diverse stake holders. By using GIS, data from different space parameters can be quickly and reliably stored, treated and analyzed. Multi-criteria techniques allow for the incorporation of different stake holders' opinions. These tools, when jointly used, allow for the decision process to be more transparent, quick and reliable. The method developed was applied to the particular case of the state of Rio de Janeiro. Weights obtained from an expert panel and also by using the Hierarchical Analysis Method and cartographic data were combined in the GIS. The application showed that it is possible not only to select and classify areas as to their aptness for the proposed objective, but also to exclude those clearly inadequate areas, thus optimizing the selection process by reducing the search space and consequently minimizing costs and the time spent in the search. (author)

  5. Conceptualizing and Assessing Higher-Order Thinking in Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afflerbach, Peter; Cho, Byeong-Young; Kim, Jong-Yun

    2015-01-01

    Students engage in higher-order thinking as they read complex texts and perform complex reading-related tasks. However, the most consequential assessments, high-stakes tests, are currently limited in providing information about students' higher-order thinking. In this article, we describe higher-order thinking in relation to reading. We provide a…

  6. YAC clone information - RGP physicalmap | LSDB Archive [Life Science Database Archive metadata

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available 08/lsdba.nbdc00318-06-002 Description of data contents YAC clones selected with DNA markers Data file File name: rgp_physical...map_yac_clones.zip File URL: ftp://ftp.biosciencedbc.jp/archive/rgp-physicalmap/LATEST/rgp_physical...sciencedbc.jp/togodb/view/rgp_physicalmap_yac_clones#en Data acquisition method YAC clones selected with RGP...rom. No. Chromosome number Region Region number Physical map image The file name of rice physical map Order ...bout This Database Database Description Download License Update History of This Database Site Policy | Contact Us YAC clone information - RGP physicalmap | LSDB Archive ...

  7. Entropy and Selection: Life as an Adaptation for Universe Replication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael E. Price

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Natural selection is the strongest known antientropic process in the universe when operating at the biological level and may also operate at the cosmological level. Consideration of how biological natural selection creates adaptations may illuminate the consequences and significance of cosmological natural selection. An organismal trait is more likely to constitute an adaptation if characterized by more improbable complex order, and such order is the hallmark of biological selection. If the same is true of traits created by selection in general, then the more improbably ordered something is (i.e., the lower its entropy, the more likely it is to be a biological or cosmological adaptation. By this logic, intelligent life (as the least-entropic known entity is more likely than black holes or anything else to be an adaptation designed by cosmological natural selection. This view contrasts with Smolin’s suggestion that black holes are an adaptation designed by cosmological natural selection and that life is the by-product of selection for black holes. Selection may be the main or only ultimate antientropic process in the universe/multiverse; that is, much or all observed order may ultimately be the product or by-product of biological and cosmological selection.

  8. Working memory deficits in developmental dyscalculia: The importance of serial order.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Attout, Lucie; Majerus, Steve

    2015-01-01

    Although a number of studies suggests a link between working memory (WM) storage capacity of short-term memory and calculation abilities, the nature of verbal WM deficits in children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) remains poorly understood. We explored verbal WM capacity in DD by focusing on the distinction between memory for item information (the items to be retained) and memory for order information (the order of the items within a list). We hypothesized that WM for order could be specifically related to impaired numerical abilities given that recent studies suggest close interactions between the representation of order information in WM and ordinal numerical processing. We investigated item and order WM abilities as well as basic numerical processing abilities in 16 children with DD (age: 8-11 years) and 16 typically developing children matched on age, IQ, and reading abilities. The DD group performed significantly poorer than controls in the order WM condition but not in the item WM condition. In addition, the DD group performed significantly slower than the control group on a numerical order judgment task. The present results show significantly reduced serial order WM abilities in DD coupled with less efficient numerical ordinal processing abilities, reflecting more general difficulties in explicit processing of ordinal information.

  9. Target Selection for the SDSS-III MARVELS Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paegert, Martin; Stassun, Keivan G.; De Lee, Nathan; Pepper, Joshua; Fleming, Scott W.; Sivarani, Thirupathi; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Mack, Claude E., III; Dhital, Saurav; Hebb, Leslie; Ge, Jian

    2015-06-01

    We present the target selection process for the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanets Large-area Survey (MARVELS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III. MARVELS is a medium-resolution (R ∼ 11,000) multi-fiber spectrograph capable of obtaining radial velocities for 60 objects at a time in order to find brown dwarfs and giant planets. The survey was configured to target dwarf stars with effective temperatures approximately between 4500 and 6250 K. For the first 2 years MARVELS relied on low-resolution spectroscopic pre-observations to estimate the effective temperature and log (g) for candidate stars and then selected suitable dwarf stars from this pool. Ultimately, the pre-observation spectra proved ineffective at filtering out giant stars; many giants were incorrectly classified as dwarfs, resulting in a giant contamination rate of ∼30% for the first phase of the MARVELS survey. Thereafter, the survey instead applied a reduced proper motion cut to eliminate giants and used the Infrared Flux Method to estimate effective temperatures, using only extant photmetric and proper-motion catalog information. The target selection method introduced here may be useful for other surveys that need to rely on extant catalog data for selection of specific stellar populations.

  10. Evolution of genetic architecture under directional selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, Thomas F; Alvarez-Castro, José M; Carter, Ashley J R; Hermisson, Joachim; Wagner, Günter P

    2006-08-01

    We investigate the multilinear epistatic model under mutation-limited directional selection. We confirm previous results that only directional epistasis, in which genes on average reinforce or diminish each other's effects, contribute to the initial evolution of mutational effects. Thus, either canalization or decanalization can occur under directional selection, depending on whether positive or negative epistasis is prevalent. We then focus on the evolution of the epistatic coefficients themselves. In the absence of higher-order epistasis, positive pairwise epistasis will tend to weaken relative to additive effects, while negative pairwise epistasis will tend to become strengthened. Positive third-order epistasis will counteract these effects, while negative third-order epistasis will reinforce them. More generally, gene interactions of all orders have an inherent tendency for negative changes under directional selection, which can only be modified by higher-order directional epistasis. We identify three types of nonadditive quasi-equilibrium architectures that, although not strictly stable, can be maintained for an extended time: (1) nondirectional epistatic architectures; (2) canalized architectures with strong epistasis; and (3) near-additive architectures in which additive effects keep increasing relative to epistasis.

  11. Subset of Cortical Layer 6b Neurons Selectively Innervates Higher Order Thalamic Nuclei in Mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoerder-Suabedissen, Anna; Hayashi, Shuichi; Upton, Louise; Nolan, Zachary; Casas-Torremocha, Diana; Grant, Eleanor; Viswanathan, Sarada; Kanold, Patrick O; Clasca, Francisco; Kim, Yongsoo; Molnár, Zoltán

    2018-05-01

    The thalamus receives input from 3 distinct cortical layers, but input from only 2 of these has been well characterized. We therefore investigated whether the third input, derived from layer 6b, is more similar to the projections from layer 6a or layer 5. We studied the projections of a restricted population of deep layer 6 cells ("layer 6b cells") taking advantage of the transgenic mouse Tg(Drd1a-cre)FK164Gsat/Mmucd (Drd1a-Cre), that selectively expresses Cre-recombinase in a subpopulation of layer 6b neurons across the entire cortical mantle. At P8, 18% of layer 6b neurons are labeled with Drd1a-Cre::tdTomato in somatosensory cortex (SS), and some co-express known layer 6b markers. Using Cre-dependent viral tracing, we identified topographical projections to higher order thalamic nuclei. VGluT1+ synapses formed by labeled layer 6b projections were found in posterior thalamic nucleus (Po) but not in the (pre)thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN). The lack of TRN collaterals was confirmed with single-cell tracing from SS. Transmission electron microscopy comparison of terminal varicosities from layer 5 and layer 6b axons in Po showed that L6b varicosities are markedly smaller and simpler than the majority from L5. Our results suggest that L6b projections to the thalamus are distinct from both L5 and L6a projections.

  12. Predicting inpatient clinical order patterns with probabilistic topic models vs conventional order sets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jonathan H; Goldstein, Mary K; Asch, Steven M; Mackey, Lester; Altman, Russ B

    2017-05-01

    Build probabilistic topic model representations of hospital admissions processes and compare the ability of such models to predict clinical order patterns as compared to preconstructed order sets. The authors evaluated the first 24 hours of structured electronic health record data for > 10 K inpatients. Drawing an analogy between structured items (e.g., clinical orders) to words in a text document, the authors performed latent Dirichlet allocation probabilistic topic modeling. These topic models use initial clinical information to predict clinical orders for a separate validation set of > 4 K patients. The authors evaluated these topic model-based predictions vs existing human-authored order sets by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, precision, and recall for subsequent clinical orders. Existing order sets predict clinical orders used within 24 hours with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.81, precision 16%, and recall 35%. This can be improved to 0.90, 24%, and 47% ( P  sets tend to provide nonspecific, process-oriented aid, with usability limitations impairing more precise, patient-focused support. Algorithmic summarization has the potential to breach this usability barrier by automatically inferring patient context, but with potential tradeoffs in interpretability. Probabilistic topic modeling provides an automated approach to detect thematic trends in patient care and generate decision support content. A potential use case finds related clinical orders for decision support. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

  13. [Selected enhancement of different order stokes lines of SRS by using fluorescence of mixed dye solution].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zuo, Hao-yi; Gao, Jie; Yang, Jing-guo

    2007-03-01

    A new method to enhance the intensity of the different orders of Stokes lines of SRS by using mixed dye fluorescence is reported. The Stokes lines from the second-order to the fifth-order of CCl4 were enhanced by the fluorescence of mixed R6G and RB solutions in different proportions of 20:2, 20:13 and 20:40 (R6g:Rb), respectively. It is considered that the Stokes lines from the second-order to the fifth-order are near the fluorescence peaks of the three mixed solutions, and far from the absorption peaks of R6g and Rb, so the enhancement effect dominates the absorption effect; as a result, these stokes lines are enhanced. On the contrary, the first-order stokes line is near the absorption peak of RB and far from the fluorescence peaks of the mixed solutions, which leads to the weakening of this stokes line. It is also reported that the first-order, the second-order and the third-order Stokes lines of benzene were enhanced by the fluorescence of mixed solutions of R6g and DCM with of different proportions. The potential application of this method is forecasted.

  14. Integration trumps selection in object recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saarela, Toni P.; Landy, Michael S.

    2015-01-01

    Summary Finding and recognizing objects is a fundamental task of vision. Objects can be defined by several “cues” (color, luminance, texture etc.), and humans can integrate sensory cues to improve detection and recognition [1–3]. Cortical mechanisms fuse information from multiple cues [4], and shape-selective neural mechanisms can display cue-invariance by responding to a given shape independent of the visual cue defining it [5–8]. Selective attention, in contrast, improves recognition by isolating a subset of the visual information [9]. Humans can select single features (red or vertical) within a perceptual dimension (color or orientation), giving faster and more accurate responses to items having the attended feature [10,11]. Attention elevates neural responses and sharpens neural tuning to the attended feature, as shown by studies in psychophysics and modeling [11,12], imaging [13–16], and single-cell and neural population recordings [17,18]. Besides single features, attention can select whole objects [19–21]. Objects are among the suggested “units” of attention because attention to a single feature of an object causes the selection of all of its features [19–21]. Here, we pit integration against attentional selection in object recognition. We find, first, that humans can integrate information near-optimally from several perceptual dimensions (color, texture, luminance) to improve recognition. They cannot, however, isolate a single dimension even when the other dimensions provide task-irrelevant, potentially conflicting information. For object recognition, it appears that there is mandatory integration of information from multiple dimensions of visual experience. The advantage afforded by this integration, however, comes at the expense of attentional selection. PMID:25802154

  15. Integration trumps selection in object recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saarela, Toni P; Landy, Michael S

    2015-03-30

    Finding and recognizing objects is a fundamental task of vision. Objects can be defined by several "cues" (color, luminance, texture, etc.), and humans can integrate sensory cues to improve detection and recognition [1-3]. Cortical mechanisms fuse information from multiple cues [4], and shape-selective neural mechanisms can display cue invariance by responding to a given shape independent of the visual cue defining it [5-8]. Selective attention, in contrast, improves recognition by isolating a subset of the visual information [9]. Humans can select single features (red or vertical) within a perceptual dimension (color or orientation), giving faster and more accurate responses to items having the attended feature [10, 11]. Attention elevates neural responses and sharpens neural tuning to the attended feature, as shown by studies in psychophysics and modeling [11, 12], imaging [13-16], and single-cell and neural population recordings [17, 18]. Besides single features, attention can select whole objects [19-21]. Objects are among the suggested "units" of attention because attention to a single feature of an object causes the selection of all of its features [19-21]. Here, we pit integration against attentional selection in object recognition. We find, first, that humans can integrate information near optimally from several perceptual dimensions (color, texture, luminance) to improve recognition. They cannot, however, isolate a single dimension even when the other dimensions provide task-irrelevant, potentially conflicting information. For object recognition, it appears that there is mandatory integration of information from multiple dimensions of visual experience. The advantage afforded by this integration, however, comes at the expense of attentional selection. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Selection of security system design via games of imperfect information and multi-objective genetic algorithm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lins, Isis Didier; Rêgo, Leandro Chaves; Moura, Márcio das Chagas

    2013-01-01

    This work analyzes the strategic interaction between a defender and an intelligent attacker by means of a game and reliability framework involving a multi-objective approach and imperfect information so as to support decision-makers in choosing efficiently designed security systems. A multi-objective genetic algorithm is used to determine the optimal security system's configurations representing the tradeoff between the probability of a successful defense and the acquisition and operational costs. Games with imperfect information are considered, in which the attacker has limited knowledge about the actual security system. The types of security alternatives are readily observable, but the number of redundancies actually implemented in each security subsystem is not known. The proposed methodology is applied to an illustrative example considering power transmission lines in the Northeast of Brazil, which are often targets for attackers who aims at selling the aluminum conductors. The empirical results show that the framework succeeds in handling this sort of strategic interaction. -- Highlights: ► Security components must have feasible costs and must be reliable. ► The optimal design of security systems considers a multi-objective approach. ► Games of imperfect information enable the choice of non-dominated configurations. ► MOGA, reliability and games support the entire defender's decision process. ► The selection of effective security systems may discourage attacker's actions

  17. Information resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Friend, Milton; Franson, J. Christian; Friend, Milton; Gibbs, Samantha E.J.; Wild, Margaret A.

    2015-10-19

    During recent decades, natural resources agency personnel and others involved with the management and stewardship of wildlife have experienced an increasing need to access information and obtain technical assistance for addressing a diverse array of wildlife disease issues. This Chapter provides a broad overview of selected sources for obtaining supplemental information and technical assistance for addressing wildlife disease issues in North America. Specifically, examples of existing major wildlife disease programs focusing on free-ranging wildlife populations are highlighted; training opportunities for enhancing within-agency wildlife disease response are identified; a selected reading list of wildlife disease references is provided; and selected Web sites providing timely information on wildlife disease are highlighted. No attempt is made to detail all the North American programs and capabilities that address disease in free-ranging wildlife populations. Instead, this Chapter is focused on enhancing awareness of the types of capabilities that exist as potential sources for assistance and collaboration between wildlife conservation agency personnel and others in addressing wildlife disease issues.

  18. Graft and Corruption Practices Among Selected Public Officials in Mindanao, Southern Philippines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amer Husain L. Laut

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to examine the graft and corruption practices among selected public officials in southern Philippines. The study is qualitative in nature making use of case study method in which an in-depth analysis of primary data obtained from eight informants, four of whom are town mayors and their four incumbent municipal treasurers, is employed. The findings revealed that the mayor informants got elected through vote buying and bribery. Politics and family matters intersect as informants are supported by their families during election who used guns, gold and goons to ensure election victory. The clannish nature of the community finds expression also in the selection of relatives in municipal employment and in accessing municipal resources. The most prevalent corruption practice disclosed by the informants is amassing the internal revenue allotment (IRA for personal purposes in order to recover the huge amount of money spent during election. Other types of corruption practices also include falsification of documents, nepotism, bribery, kickbacks, and evasion of public bidding. These public officials also do not seem to perform official duties in their towns as they live outside of their municipalities. Inter-agency involvement of corruption among different government agencies in the areas studied are also uncovered. Moreover, the perceived negative effects of corruption are manifested in the poor delivery of the community’s basic social services in health, water supply, education, and security protection. Corruption also adversely affects the construction of community infrastructure facilities and the establishment of an equitable and solid economic base. The study has implications to the strict policy implementation of the provisions of the 1991 Local Government Code of the Philippines, The Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and other pertinent laws in order to improve the transparency, integrity and accountability of public officials

  19. A Permutation Approach for Selecting the Penalty Parameter in Penalized Model Selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabourin, Jeremy A; Valdar, William; Nobel, Andrew B

    2015-01-01

    Summary We describe a simple, computationally effcient, permutation-based procedure for selecting the penalty parameter in LASSO penalized regression. The procedure, permutation selection, is intended for applications where variable selection is the primary focus, and can be applied in a variety of structural settings, including that of generalized linear models. We briefly discuss connections between permutation selection and existing theory for the LASSO. In addition, we present a simulation study and an analysis of real biomedical data sets in which permutation selection is compared with selection based on the following: cross-validation (CV), the Bayesian information criterion (BIC), Scaled Sparse Linear Regression, and a selection method based on recently developed testing procedures for the LASSO. PMID:26243050

  20. EEG feature selection method based on decision tree.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duan, Lijuan; Ge, Hui; Ma, Wei; Miao, Jun

    2015-01-01

    This paper aims to solve automated feature selection problem in brain computer interface (BCI). In order to automate feature selection process, we proposed a novel EEG feature selection method based on decision tree (DT). During the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal processing, a feature extraction method based on principle component analysis (PCA) was used, and the selection process based on decision tree was performed by searching the feature space and automatically selecting optimal features. Considering that EEG signals are a series of non-linear signals, a generalized linear classifier named support vector machine (SVM) was chosen. In order to test the validity of the proposed method, we applied the EEG feature selection method based on decision tree to BCI Competition II datasets Ia, and the experiment showed encouraging results.