Serial position effects in Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, and normal aging: predictive value for conversion to dementia.

Science.gov (United States)

Cunha, Catarina; Guerreiro, Manuela; de Mendonça, Alexandre; Oliveira, Paulo Eduardo; Santana, Isabel

2012-01-01

Serial position effects in word list learning have been used to differentiate normal aging and dementia. Prominent recency and diminished primacy have consistently been observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We examined serial position effects in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), in patients with AD, and in normal healthy controls. Additionally, we classified MCI patients into those who progressed to AD (MCI-p) and those who did not (MCI-np). We compared two serial position measures: regional and standard scores. Regional scores, mainly the primacy effect, improved discrimination between MCI and controls and between MCI-np and MCI-p, proving to be more sensitive and specific than the recency effect.

Learning and memory for sequences of pictures, words, and spatial locations: an exploration of serial position effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Bonk, William J; Healy, Alice F

2010-01-01

A serial reproduction of order with distractors task was developed to make it possible to observe successive snapshots of the learning process at each serial position. The new task was used to explore the effect of several variables on serial memory performance: stimulus content (words, blanks, and pictures), presentation condition (spatial information vs. none), semantically categorized item clustering (grouped vs. ungrouped), and number of distractors relative to targets (none, equal, double). These encoding and retrieval variables, along with learning attempt number, affected both overall performance levels and the shape of the serial position function, although a large and extensive primacy advantage and a small 1-item recency advantage were found in each case. These results were explained well by a version of the scale-independent memory, perception, and learning model that accounted for improved performance by increasing the value of only a single parameter that reflects reduced interference from distant items.

Potential for false positive HIV test results with the serial rapid HIV testing algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Baveewo, Steven; Kamya, Moses R; Mayanja-Kizza, Harriet; Fatch, Robin; Bangsberg, David R; Coates, Thomas; Hahn, Judith A; Wanyenze, Rhoda K

2012-03-19

Rapid HIV tests provide same-day results and are widely used in HIV testing programs in areas with limited personnel and laboratory infrastructure. The Uganda Ministry of Health currently recommends the serial rapid testing algorithm with Determine, STAT-PAK, and Uni-Gold for diagnosis of HIV infection. Using this algorithm, individuals who test positive on Determine, negative to STAT-PAK and positive to Uni-Gold are reported as HIV positive. We conducted further testing on this subgroup of samples using qualitative DNA PCR to assess the potential for false positive tests in this situation. Of the 3388 individuals who were tested, 984 were HIV positive on two consecutive tests, and 29 were considered positive by a tiebreaker (positive on Determine, negative on STAT-PAK, and positive on Uni-Gold). However, when the 29 samples were further tested using qualitative DNA PCR, 14 (48.2%) were HIV negative. Although this study was not primarily designed to assess the validity of rapid HIV tests and thus only a subset of the samples were retested, the findings show a potential for false positive HIV results in the subset of individuals who test positive when a tiebreaker test is used in serial testing. These findings highlight a need for confirmatory testing for this category of individuals.

Potential for false positive HIV test results with the serial rapid HIV testing algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baveewo Steven

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Rapid HIV tests provide same-day results and are widely used in HIV testing programs in areas with limited personnel and laboratory infrastructure. The Uganda Ministry of Health currently recommends the serial rapid testing algorithm with Determine, STAT-PAK, and Uni-Gold for diagnosis of HIV infection. Using this algorithm, individuals who test positive on Determine, negative to STAT-PAK and positive to Uni-Gold are reported as HIV positive. We conducted further testing on this subgroup of samples using qualitative DNA PCR to assess the potential for false positive tests in this situation. Results Of the 3388 individuals who were tested, 984 were HIV positive on two consecutive tests, and 29 were considered positive by a tiebreaker (positive on Determine, negative on STAT-PAK, and positive on Uni-Gold. However, when the 29 samples were further tested using qualitative DNA PCR, 14 (48.2% were HIV negative. Conclusion Although this study was not primarily designed to assess the validity of rapid HIV tests and thus only a subset of the samples were retested, the findings show a potential for false positive HIV results in the subset of individuals who test positive when a tiebreaker test is used in serial testing. These findings highlight a need for confirmatory testing for this category of individuals.

Pointing movements both impair and improve visuospatial working memory depending on serial position.

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi-Arnaud, Clelia; Longobardi, Emiddia; Spataro, Pietro

2017-08-01

Two experiments investigated the effects of pointing movements on the item and order recall of random, horizontal, and vertical arrays consisting of 6 and 7 squares (Experiment 1) or 8 and 9 squares (Experiment 2). In the encoding phase, participants either viewed the items passively (passive-view condition) or pointed towards them (pointing condition). Then, after a brief interval, they were requested to recall the locations of the studied squares in the correct order of presentation. The critical result was that, for all types of arrays, the effects of the encoding condition varied as a function of serial position: for the initial and central positions accuracy was higher in the passive-view than in the pointing condition (confirming the standard inhibitory effect of pointing movements on visuospatial working memory), whereas the reverse pattern occurred in the final positions-showing a significant advantage of the pointing condition over the passive-view condition. Findings are interpreted as showing that pointing can have two simultaneous effects on the recall of spatial locations, a positive one due to the addition of a motor code and a negative one due to the attentional requirements of hand movements, with the net impact on serial recall depending on the amount of attention resources needed for the encoding of each position. Implications for the item-order hypothesis and the perceptual-gestural account of working memory are also discussed.

A matter of emphasis: Linguistic stress habits modulate serial recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, John C; Macken, Bill; Jones, Dylan M

2015-04-01

Models of short-term memory for sequential information rely on item-level, feature-based descriptions to account for errors in serial recall. Transposition errors within alternating similar/dissimilar letter sequences derive from interactions between overlapping features. However, in two experiments, we demonstrated that the characteristics of the sequence are what determine the fates of items, rather than the properties ascribed to the items themselves. Performance in alternating sequences is determined by the way that the sequences themselves induce particular prosodic rehearsal patterns, and not by the nature of the items per se. In a serial recall task, the shapes of the canonical "saw-tooth" serial position curves and transposition error probabilities at successive input-output distances were modulated by subvocal rehearsal strategies, despite all item-based parameters being held constant. We replicated this finding using nonalternating lists, thus demonstrating that transpositions are substantially influenced by prosodic features-such as stress-that emerge during subvocal rehearsal.

Wandering carotid arteries: Reciprocating change between normal and retropharyngeal positions on serial CT studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Akira Baba

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Positional change in the retropharyngeal carotid artery, a rare phenomenon over time, is even rarer in previous reports, and it is important to be aware of this before any neck surgical procedure. A woman in her 50s underwent an anterior maxillectomy for upper gingival cancer, without neck dissection. The patient had medical histories of diabetes mellitus and liver dysfunction, with unremarkable family histories. Serial neck contrast-enhanced computed tomography for detecting locoregional recurrence had been performed as a follow-up during 4 years. A radiological course of moving carotid arteries in serial computed tomography studies showed reciprocating positional changes (wandering between normal and retropharyngeal regions. There was no locoregional recurrence of the gingival cancer. This is the first case to describe a so-rare presentation of wandering carotid arteries. It is important for clinicians to be aware of a wandering carotid artery to avoid potentially fatal complications.

Free Recall Curves: Nothing but Rehearsing Some Items More or Recalling Them Sooner?

Science.gov (United States)

Brodie, Delbert A.; Prytulak, Lubomir S.

1975-01-01

The hypothesis that free recall curves reflecting effects of serial position, presentation time and delay of recall are attributable to subjects' pattern of rehearsal was explored. Experiments varied the patterns of rehearsal to examine the effects on recall. (CHK)

The death of recency: Relationship between end-state comfort and serial position effects in serial recall: Logan and Fischman (2011) revisited.

Science.gov (United States)

Logan, Samuel W; Fischman, Mark G

2015-12-01

Two experiments examined the dynamic interaction between cognitive resources in short-term memory and bimanual object manipulation by extending recent research by Logan and Fischman (2011). In Experiment 1, 16 participants completed a bimanual end-state comfort task and a memory task requiring serial recall of 12 words or pictures. The end-state comfort task involved moving two glasses between two shelves. Participants viewed the items, performed the end-state comfort task, and then serially recalled the items. Recall was evaluated by the presence or absence of primacy and recency effects. The end-state comfort effect (ESCE) was assessed by the percentage of initial hand positions that allowed the hands to end comfortably. The main findings indicated that the ESCE was disrupted; the primacy effect remained intact; and the recency effect disappeared regardless of the type of memory item recalled. In Experiment 2, 16 participants viewed six items, performed an end-state comfort task, viewed another six items, and then serially recalled all 12 items. Results were essentially the same as in Experiment 1. Findings suggest that executing a bimanual end-state comfort task, regardless of when it is completed during a memory task, diminishes the recency effect irrespective of the type of memory item. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A simple preparation of calibration curve standards of 134Cs and 137Cs by serial dilution of a standard reference material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Labrecque, J.J.; Rosales, P.A.

1990-01-01

Two sets of calibration standards for 134 Cs and 137 Cs were prepared by small serial dilution of a natural matrix standard reference material, IAEA-154 whey powder. The first set was intended to screen imported milk powders which were suspected to be contaminated with 134 Cs and 137 Cs. Their concentration ranged from 40 to 400 Bq/kg. The other set of calibration standards was prepared to measure the environmental levels of 137 Cs in commercial Venezuelan milk powders. Their concentration ranged from 3 to 10 Bq/kg of 137 Cs. The accuracy of these calibration curves was checked by IAEA-152 and A-14 milk powders. Their measured values were in good agreement with their certified values. Finally, it is shown that these preparation techniques using serial dilution of a standard reference material were simple, rapid, precise, accurate and cost-effective. (author) 5 refs.; 5 figs.; 3 tabs

Evaluation of Effects of Warning Sign Position on Driving Behavior in Horizontal Sharp Curves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-hua Zhao

2015-02-01

Full Text Available In present time, the guidelines on warning sign position in the China National Standard lack detailed and standard regulations of placing warning signs on sharp curves, which may cause road safety problems. Therefore, this paper briefly discussed how to optimize the position of a warning sign on a sharp curve through a driving simulator experiment. This study concluded that a warning sign placed at different positions prior to a sharp curve will have different influence ranges for drivers approaching and negotiating the curve. Meanwhile, different positions of a warning sign imposed different effect obviously on the adjustment of vehicle's lane position on sharp curves with the same radius, especially at the midpoint of a sharp curve. The evaluation results of five positions (0 m, 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m in advance showed that only when the warning signs were placed 100 m or 200 m prior to sharp curves, can they achieve positive influence on driving behavior. On this basis, the authors look forward to providing rationalization proposals in selecting the best position of a warning sign on a sharp curve for the engineering implementation and national standard.

Serial position effects scoring in the assessment of memory in Alzheimer's disease and major depression

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bemelmans, Karel Jozef

2009-01-01

The objective of this thesis was to validate serial position effects (SPE’S) scoring in the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). The RAVLT is a much used clinical method for assessing memory performance, but the method of scoring obfuscates that two memory processes underlie free recall. This

Serial recall of visuospatial and verbal information with and without material-specific interference: implications for contemporary models of working memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Lynne C; Rane, Shruti; Hiscock, Merrill

2013-01-01

A longstanding question in working memory (WM) research concerns the fractionation of verbal and nonverbal processing. Although some contemporary models include both domain-specific and general-purpose mechanisms, the necessity to postulate differential processing of verbal and nonverbal material remains unclear. In the present two-experiment series we revisit the order reconstruction paradigm that Jones, Farrand, Stuart, and Morris (1995) used to support a unitary model of WM. Goals were to assess (1) whether serial position curves for dot positions differ from curves for letter names; and (2) whether selective interference can be demonstrated. Although we replicated Jones et al.'s finding of similar serial position curves for the two tasks, this similarity could reflect the demands of the order reconstruction paradigm rather than undifferentiated processing of verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Both generalised and material-specific interference was found, which can be attributed to competition between primary and secondary tasks for attentional resources. As performance levels for the combined primary and secondary tasks exceed active WM capacity limits, primary task items apparently are removed from active memory during processing of the secondary list and held temporarily in maintenance storage. We conclude that active WM is multimodal but maintenance stores may be domain specific.

The effect of the position of atypical character-to-sound correspondences on reading kanji words aloud: Evidence for a sublexical serially operating kanji reading process.

Science.gov (United States)

Sambai, Ami; Coltheart, Max; Uno, Akira

2018-04-01

In English, the size of the regularity effect on word reading-aloud latency decreases across position of irregularity. This has been explained by a sublexical serially operating reading mechanism. It is unclear whether sublexical serial processing occurs in reading two-character kanji words aloud. To investigate this issue, we studied how the position of atypical character-to-sound correspondences influenced reading performance. When participants read inconsistent-atypical words aloud mixed randomly with nonwords, reading latencies of words with an inconsistent-atypical correspondence in the initial position were significantly longer than words with an inconsistent-atypical correspondence in the second position. The significant difference of reading latencies for inconsistent-atypical words disappeared when inconsistent-atypical words were presented without nonwords. Moreover, reading latencies for words with an inconsistent-atypical correspondence in the first position were shorter than for words with a typical correspondence in the first position. This typicality effect was absent when the atypicality was in the second position. These position-of-atypicality effects suggest that sublexical processing of kanji occurs serially and that the phonology of two-character kanji words is generated from both a lexical parallel process and a sublexical serial process.

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: the effects of list length and output order.

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia; Grenfell-Essam, Rachel

2010-09-01

In 4 experiments, participants were presented with lists of between 1 and 15 words for tests of immediate memory. For all tasks, participants tended to initiate recall with the first word on the list for short lists. As the list length was increased, so there was a decreased tendency to start with the first list item; and, when free to do so, participants showed an increased tendency to start with one of the last 4 list items. In all tasks, the start position strongly influenced the shape of the resultant serial position curves: When recall started at Serial Position 1, elevated recall of early list items was observed; when recall started toward the end of the list, there were extended recency effects. These results occurred under immediate free recall (IFR) and different variants of immediate serial recall (ISR) and reconstruction of order (RoO) tasks. We argue that these findings have implications for the relationship between IFR and ISR and between rehearsal and recall. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Time does not cause forgetting in short-term serial recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewandowsky, Stephan; Duncan, Matthew; Brown, Gordon D A

2004-10-01

Time-based theories expect memory performance to decline as the delay between study and recall of an item increases. The assumption of time-based forgetting, central to many models of serial recall, underpins their key behaviors. Here we compare the predictions of time-based and event-based models by simulation and test them in two experiments using a novel manipulation of the delay between study and retrieval. Participants were trained, via corrective feedback, to recall at different speeds, thus varying total recall time from 6 to 10 sec. In the first experiment, participants used the keyboard to enter their responses but had to repeat a word (called the suppressor) aloud during recall to prevent rehearsal. In the second experiment, articulation was again required, but recall was verbal and was paced by the number of repetitions of the suppressor in between retrieval of items. In both experiments, serial position curves for all retrieval speeds overlapped, and output time had little or no effect. Comparative evaluation of a time-based and an event-based model confirmed that these results present a particular challenge to time-based approaches. We conclude that output interference, rather than output time, is critical in serial recall.

Comparison of the serial position effect in very mild Alzheimer's disease, mild Alzheimer's disease, and amnesia associated with electroconvulsive therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bayley, P J; Salmon, D P; Bondi, M W; Bui, B K; Olichney, J; Delis, D C; Thomas, R G; Thal, L J

2000-03-01

Individuals given a series of words to memorize normally show better immediate recall for items from the beginning and end of the list than for mid-list items. This phenomenon, known as the serial position effect, is thought to reflect the concurrent contributions of secondary and primary memory, respectively, to recall performance. The present study compared the serial position effects produced on Trial 1 of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) in mildly demented (N = 25; M MMSE = 20.0) and very mildly demented (N = 25; M MMSE = 25.5) patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and age- and education-matched normal control (NC) participants (N = 50). In addition, the serial position effects of the very mildly demented AD patients were compared to those of patients with a transient, circumscribed amnesia arising from a prescribed series of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments for the relief of depressive illness (N = 11). While the NC group exhibited the typical serial position effect, AD patients recalled significantly fewer words than NC participants overall, and exhibited a significantly reduced primacy effect (i.e., recall of the first 2 list items) with a normal recency effect (i.e., recall of the last 2 list items). Patients with circumscribed amnesia due to ECT were as impaired as the very mildly demented AD patients on most standard CVLT measures of learning and memory, but exhibited primacy and recency effects, which were within normal limits. These results suggest that a reduction in the primacy effect, but not the recency effect, is an early and ubiquitous feature of the memory impairment of AD. It is not, however, a necessary feature of all causes of memory impairment.

General-purpose stepping motor-encoder positioning subsystem with standard asynchronous serial-line interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stubblefield, F.W.; Alberi, J.L.

1982-01-01

A general-purpose mechanical positioning subsystem for open-loop control of experiment devices which have their positions established and read out by stepping motor-encoder combinations has been developed. The subsystem is to be used mainly for experiments to be conducted at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The subsystem unit has been designed to be compatible with a wide variety of stepping motor and encoder types. The unit may be operated by any device capable of driving a standard RS-232-C asynchronous serial communication line. An informal survey has shown that several experiments at the Light Source will use one particular type of computer, operating system, and programming language. Accordingly, a library of subroutines compatible with this combination of computer system elements has been written to facilitate driving the positioning subsystem unit

A 16:1 Serializer ASIC for Data Transmission at 5 Gbps

CERN Document Server

Gong, D; The ATLAS collaboration

2010-01-01

A high speed, low power 16:1 serializer has been developed with a commercial 0.25 μm silicon-on-sapphire CMOS technology. The serializer operates from 4.0 to 5.7 Gbps. Total jitter is 62 ps and the eye openning of the bathtub curve is 122 ps at bit rate error of 10-12 at 5 Gbps. Power consumption is 463 mW at 5 Gbps. A proton beam test indicates the serializer is suitable for applications in high energy physics experiments.

Rational Degenerations of M-Curves, Totally Positive Grassmannians and KP2-Solitons

Science.gov (United States)

Abenda, Simonetta; Grinevich, Petr G.

2018-03-01

We establish a new connection between the theory of totally positive Grassmannians and the theory of M-curves using the finite-gap theory for solitons of the KP equation. Here and in the following KP equation denotes the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili 2 equation [see (1)], which is the first flow from the KP hierarchy. We also assume that all KP times are real. We associate to any point of the real totally positive Grassmannian Gr^{tp} (N,M) a reducible curve which is a rational degeneration of an M-curve of minimal genus {g=N(M-N)} , and we reconstruct the real algebraic-geometric data á la Krichever for the underlying real bounded multiline KP soliton solutions. From this construction, it follows that these multiline solitons can be explicitly obtained by degenerating regular real finite-gap solutions corresponding to smooth M-curves. In our approach, we rule the addition of each new rational component to the spectral curve via an elementary Darboux transformation which corresponds to a section of a specific projection Gr^{tp} (r+1,M-N+r+1)\\mapsto Gr^{tp} (r,M-N+r).

Infants' long-term memory for a serial list: recognition and reactivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gulya, M; Galluccio, L; Wilk, A; Rovee-Collier, C

2001-04-01

Serial lists contain information about item identity and item order. Using a task designed for nonverbal animals, we previously found that 3- and 6-month-olds exhibited a primacy effect after 24 hr, remembering both item identity and item order. Presently, we examined their memory of list information after longer delays. In Experiment 1, the serial-position curve reverted to a U-shape after 1 week at both ages, revealing that the common practice of attributing primacy and recency effects to long- and short-term memory, respectively, is flawed. In Experiment 2, a precuing procedure confirmed that 6-month-olds' memory still contained order information after 1 week, but 3-month-olds' reactivated memory contained none. Experiments 3A and 3B confirmed that increasing the complexity of information that was learned shortened the delay after which it could be retrieved. Testing infants after delays longer than have previously been used with animals or human adults sheds new light on an old phenomenon. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Linearization of Positional Response Curve of a Fiber-optic Displacement Sensor

Science.gov (United States)

Babaev, O. G.; Matyunin, S. A.; Paranin, V. D.

2018-01-01

Currently, the creation of optical measuring instruments and sensors for measuring linear displacement is one of the most relevant problems in the area of instrumentation. Fiber-optic contactless sensors based on the magneto-optical effect are of special interest. They are essentially contactless, non-electrical and have a closed optical channel not subject to contamination. The main problem of this type of sensors is the non-linearity of their positional response curve due to the hyperbolic nature of the magnetic field intensity variation induced by moving the magnetic source mounted on the controlled object relative to the sensing element. This paper discusses an algorithmic method of linearizing the positional response curve of fiber-optic displacement sensors in any selected range of the displacements to be measured. The method is divided into two stages: 1 - definition of the calibration function, 2 - measurement and linearization of the positional response curve (including its temperature stabilization). The algorithm under consideration significantly reduces the number of points of the calibration function, which is essential for the calibration of temperature dependence, due to the use of the points that randomly deviate from the grid points with uniform spacing. Subsequent interpolation of the deviating points and piecewise linear-plane approximation of the calibration function reduces the microcontroller storage capacity for storing the calibration function and the time required to process the measurement results. The paper also presents experimental results of testing real samples of fiber-optic displacement sensors.

Toward precise potential energy curves for diatomic molecules, derived from experimental line positions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Helm, H.

1984-01-01

An inverted, first-order perturbation approach is used to derive potential energy curves for diatomic molecules from experimental line positions of molecular bands. The concept adopted here is based on the inverted perturbation analysis (IPA) proposed by Kozman and Hinze, but uses radial eigenfunctions of the trial potential energy curves as basis sets for the perturbation correction. Using molecular linepositions rather than molecular energy levels we circumvent the necessity of defining molecular constants for the molecule prior to the derivation of the potential energy curves. (Author)

Investigation of the growth patterns of non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas using volumetric assessments on serial MRI investigations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaco Pieterse

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Benign non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFMA often cause mass effect on the optic chiasm necessitating transsphenoidal surgery to prevent blindness.However, surgery is complicated and there is a high tumour recurrence rate. Currently, very little is known about the natural (and residual post-surgical growth patterns of these NFMA. Conflicting data describe decreased growth to exponential growth over various time periods.Due to lack of information on growth dynamics of these NFMA, suitable follow-up imaging protocols have not been described to date. Objective: To determine if NFMA grow or stay quiescent over a time period using serial MRI investigations and a stereo logical method to determine tumour volume. In addition, to evaluate if NFMA adhere to a certain growth pattern or grow at random. Method: Thirteen patients with NFMA had serial MRI investigations over a 73-month period at the Universitas Academic Hospital. Six of the selected patients had undergone previous surgery, while seven patients had received no medical or surgical intervention. By using astereological method, tumour volumes were calculated and plotted over time to demonstrate growth curves. The data were then fitted to tumour growth models already described in literature in order to obtain the best fit by calculating the r2 value. Results: Positive tumour growth was demonstrated in all cases. Tumour growth patterns of nine patients best fitted the exponential growth curve while the growth patterns of three patients best fitted the logistic growth curve. The remaining patient demonstrated a linear growth pattern. Conclusion: A specific growth model best described tumour growth observed in non-surgical and surgical cases. If follow-up imaging confirms positive growth, future growth can be predicted by extrapolation. This information can then be used to determine the relevant follow-up-imaging interval in each individual patient.

Power shifts track serial position and modulate encoding in human episodic memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Serruya, Mijail D; Sederberg, Per B; Kahana, Michael J

2014-02-01

The first events in a series exert a powerful influence on cognition and behavior in both humans and animals. This is known as the law of primacy. Here, we analyze the neural correlates of primacy in humans by analyzing electrocorticographic recordings in 84 neurosurgical patients as they studied and subsequently recalled lists of common words. We found that spectral power in the gamma frequency band (28-100 Hz) was elevated at the start of the list and gradually subsided, whereas lower frequency (2-8 Hz) delta and theta band power exhibited the opposite trend. This gradual shift in the power spectrum was found across a widespread network of brain regions. The degree to which the subsequent memory effect was modulated by list (serial) position was most pronounced in medial temporal lobe structures. These results suggest that globally increased gamma and decreased delta-theta spectral powers reflect a brain state that predisposes medial temporal lobe structures to enhance the encoding and maintenance of early list items.

Positional glow curve simulation for thermoluminescent detector (TLD) system design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Branch, C.J.; Kearfott, K.J.

1999-01-01

Multi- and thin element dosimeters, variable heating rate schemes, and glow-curve analysis have been employed to improve environmental and personnel dosimetry using thermoluminescent detectors (TLDs). Detailed analysis of the effects of errors and optimization of techniques would be highly desirable. However, an understanding of the relationship between TL light production, light attenuation, and precise heating schemes is made difficult because of experimental challenges involved in measuring positional TL light production and temperature variations as a function of time. This work reports the development of a general-purpose computer code, thermoluminescent detector simulator, TLD-SIM, to simulate the heating of any TLD type using a variety of conventional and experimental heating methods including pulsed focused or unfocused lasers with Gaussian or uniform cross sections, planchet, hot gas, hot finger, optical, infrared, or electrical heating. TLD-SIM has been used to study the impact on the TL light production of varying the input parameters which include: detector composition, heat capacity, heat conductivity, physical size, and density; trapped electron density, the frequency factor of oscillation of electrons in the traps, and trap-conduction band potential energy difference; heating scheme source terms and heat transfer boundary conditions; and TL light scatter and attenuation coefficients. Temperature profiles and glow curves as a function of position time, as well as the corresponding temporally and/or spatially integrated glow values, may be plotted while varying any of the input parameters. Examples illustrating TLD system functions, including glow curve variability, will be presented. The flexible capabilities of TLD-SIM promises to enable improved TLD system design

Serial killers with military experience: applying learning theory to serial murder.

Science.gov (United States)

Castle, Tammy; Hensley, Christopher

2002-08-01

Scholars have endeavored to study the motivation and causality behind serial murder by researching biological, psychological, and sociological variables. Some of these studies have provided support for the relationship between these variables and serial murder. However, the study of serial murder continues to be an exploratory rather than explanatory research topic. This article examines the possible link between serial killers and military service. Citing previous research using social learning theory for the study of murder, this article explores how potential serial killers learn to reinforce violence, aggression, and murder in military boot camps. As with other variables considered in serial killer research, military experience alone cannot account for all cases of serial murder. Future research should continue to examine this possible link.

The word concreteness effect occurs for positive, but not negative, emotion words in immediate serial recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Tse, Chi-Shing; Altarriba, Jeanette

2009-02-01

The present study examined the roles of word concreteness and word valence in the immediate serial recall task. Emotion words (e.g. happy) were used to investigate these effects. Participants completed study-test trials with seven-item study lists consisting of positive or negative words with either high or low concreteness (Experiments 1 and 2) and neutral (i.e. non-emotion) words with either high or low concreteness (Experiment 2). For neutral words, the typical word concreteness effect (concrete words are better recalled than abstract words) was replicated. For emotion words, the effect occurred for positive words, but not for negative words. While the word concreteness effect was stronger for neutral words than for negative words, it was not different for the neutral words and the positive words. We conclude that both word valence and word concreteness simultaneously contribute to the item and order retention of emotion words and discuss how Hulme et al.'s (1997) item redintegration account can be modified to explain these findings.

Converting serial networks to Ethernet communications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosado, Elroy [Freewave Technologies, Inc., Boulder, CO (United States). Latin America

2008-07-01

Many oil and gas producers and pipeline companies find themselves in an awkward position. They have invested millions of dollars in legacy serial communications systems and in most cases, millions more in older SCADA remote terminal units and electronic flow meters. There is a desire throughout most of the industry to convert these systems to Ethernet. This presentation will explore how Ethernet protocol offers advantages over the older serial communications in terms of peer to peer communication, faster polling cycles, and the ability to poll multiple devices at the same time. (author)

Assessing Working Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment with Serial Order Recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Emrani, Sheina; Libon, David J; Lamar, Melissa; Price, Catherine C; Jefferson, Angela L; Gifford, Katherine A; Hohman, Timothy J; Nation, Daniel A; Delano-Wood, Lisa; Jak, Amy; Bangen, Katherine J; Bondi, Mark W; Brickman, Adam M; Manly, Jennifer; Swenson, Rodney; Au, Rhoda

2018-01-01

Working memory (WM) is often assessed with serial order tests such as repeating digits backward. In prior dementia research using the Backward Digit Span Test (BDT), only aggregate test performance was examined. The current research tallied primacy/recency effects, out-of-sequence transposition errors, perseverations, and omissions to assess WM deficits in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Memory clinic patients (n = 66) were classified into three groups: single domain amnestic MCI (aMCI), combined mixed domain/dysexecutive MCI (mixed/dys MCI), and non-MCI where patients did not meet criteria for MCI. Serial order/WM ability was assessed by asking participants to repeat 7 trials of five digits backwards. Serial order position accuracy, transposition errors, perseverations, and omission errors were tallied. A 3 (group)×5 (serial position) repeated measures ANOVA yielded a significant group×trial interaction. Follow-up analyses found attenuation of the recency effect for mixed/dys MCI patients. Mixed/dys MCI patients scored lower than non-MCI patients for serial position 3 (p Mixed/dys MCI patients also produced more transposition errors than both groups (p order parameters obtained from the BDT may provide a useful operational definition as well as additional diagnostic information regarding working memory deficits in MCI.

Selection and Serial Entrepreneurs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Jing

2013-01-01

There is substantial evidence that serial entrepreneurs outperform de novo entrepreneurs. But is this positive association between prior experience and performance the result of learning by doing or of selection on ability? This paper proposes a strategy that combines the fixed-effects model and IV...... when the analysis focuses on founding new startups in sectors closely related to entrepreneurs' previous ventures....

Tevatron serial data repeater system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ducar, R.J.

1981-01-01

A ten megabit per second serial data repeater system has been developed for the 6.28km Tevatron accelerator. The repeaters are positioned at each of the thirty service buildings and accommodate control and abort system communications as well as distribution of the Tevatron time and energy clocks. The repeaters are transparent to the particular protocol of the transmissions. Serial data are encoded locally as unipolar two volt signals employing the self-clocking Manchester Bi-Phase code. The repeaters modulate the local signals to low-power bursts of 50 MHz rf carrier for the 260m transmission between service buildings. The repeaters also demodulate the transmission and restructure the data for local utilization. The employment of frequency discrimination techniques yields high immunity to the characteristic noise spectrum

Fast Grasp Contact Computation for a Serial Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Jianying (Inventor); Hargrave, Brian (Inventor); Diftler, Myron A. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A system includes a controller and a serial robot having links that are interconnected by a joint, wherein the robot can grasp a three-dimensional (3D) object in response to a commanded grasp pose. The controller receives input information, including the commanded grasp pose, a first set of information describing the kinematics of the robot, and a second set of information describing the position of the object to be grasped. The controller also calculates, in a two-dimensional (2D) plane, a set of contact points between the serial robot and a surface of the 3D object needed for the serial robot to achieve the commanded grasp pose. A required joint angle is then calculated in the 2D plane between the pair of links using the set of contact points. A control action is then executed with respect to the motion of the serial robot using the required joint angle.

NormaCurve: a SuperCurve-based method that simultaneously quantifies and normalizes reverse phase protein array data.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sylvie Troncale

Full Text Available MOTIVATION: Reverse phase protein array (RPPA is a powerful dot-blot technology that allows studying protein expression levels as well as post-translational modifications in a large number of samples simultaneously. Yet, correct interpretation of RPPA data has remained a major challenge for its broad-scale application and its translation into clinical research. Satisfying quantification tools are available to assess a relative protein expression level from a serial dilution curve. However, appropriate tools allowing the normalization of the data for external sources of variation are currently missing. RESULTS: Here we propose a new method, called NormaCurve, that allows simultaneous quantification and normalization of RPPA data. For this, we modified the quantification method SuperCurve in order to include normalization for (i background fluorescence, (ii variation in the total amount of spotted protein and (iii spatial bias on the arrays. Using a spike-in design with a purified protein, we test the capacity of different models to properly estimate normalized relative expression levels. The best performing model, NormaCurve, takes into account a negative control array without primary antibody, an array stained with a total protein stain and spatial covariates. We show that this normalization is reproducible and we discuss the number of serial dilutions and the number of replicates that are required to obtain robust data. We thus provide a ready-to-use method for reliable and reproducible normalization of RPPA data, which should facilitate the interpretation and the development of this promising technology. AVAILABILITY: The raw data, the scripts and the normacurve package are available at the following web site: http://microarrays.curie.fr.

The role of serial casting in early-onset scoliosis (EOS).

Science.gov (United States)

Baulesh, David M; Huh, Jeannie; Judkins, Timothy; Garg, Sumeet; Miller, Nancy H; Erickson, Mark A

2012-01-01

Serial casting has demonstrated efficacy for idiopathic early-onset scoliosis (EOS). Results of casting in nonidiopathic (syndromic and congenital) EOS patients have not previously been well described. A total of 53 patients underwent serial casting for EOS from 2005 to 2010 at a single institution. Deformity was classified as idiopathic or nonidiopathic. Diagnosis, time in cast, number of casts, use of bracing, complications, and outcomes were recorded. Radiographic measures included Cobb angle and thoracic height (T1-T12). Thoracic height velocity was calculated and compared with established norms. A total of 36 patients, 19 idiopathic and 17 nonidiopathic (14 syndromic, 3 congenital), completed cast treatment and had >6-month follow-up and were therefore included. Of those, 17% (6/36) experienced resolution of their deformity, 53% (19/26) are currently in braces, and 31% (11/36) had undergone surgery. Surgery occurred on average at age 5.6 years and was delayed by an average of 2.1 years from time of first cast. A 19% complication was observed. There was no statistical difference in the rate of resolution of deformity between idiopathic (5/19) and nonidiopathic (1/17) patients (P=0.182), although there exists a trend toward greater curve correction in idiopathic patients. Surgery occurred in fewer patients (2/19) in the idiopathic group compared with the nonidiopathic group (9/17) (P=0.006). Significant improvements in Cobb angle was observed in the idiopathic group (12.2 degrees) during casting (P=0.003). Nonidiopathic patients did not maintain the correction gained during casting at the time of final follow-up. T1-T12 height increased across all study patients regardless of etiology during the period of casting at similar velocity to established norms of 1.4 cm/y for this age group. Serial casting offers modest deformity correction in idiopathic deformities compared with nonidiopathic deformities. Thoracic height growth continued throughout the casting period

The Windows serial port programming handbook

CERN Document Server

Bai, Ying

2004-01-01

The fundamentals of serial port communications. Serial port programming in ANSI C and Assembly languages for MS-DOS. Serial ports interface developed in VC++ 6.0. Serial port programming in Visual Basic. Serial port programming in LabVIEW. Serial port programming in MATLAB. Serial port programming in Smalltalk. Serial port programming in Java.

Serial position learning effects in patients with aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery.

Science.gov (United States)

Stefanova, Elka; Kostic, Vladimir S; Ziropadja, Ljubomir; Markovic, Milan; Ocic, Gordana

2002-08-01

Ruptured and repaired Anterior Communicating Artery (ACoA) aneurysm can result in devastating impairments involving memory, executive function, confabulation, and personality changes. This study tested serial position learning effects (SPEs) in patients following repaired and ruptured ACoA aneurysm, using results on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Thirty patients with ruptured aneurysms of the ACoA and 31 matched controls were included in the study. The primacy-recency effects were maintained during five learning trials in ACoA group, albeit at an overall lower level than in the controls. There was no difference in primacy-recency relation across five learning trials in ACoA group. On the delayed recall trial the patient group demonstrated neither a primacy, nor a recency phenomenon, reflecting a lack of recall of any parts of the word list. This kind of primacy-recency profile across learning trials in ACoA group has no similarity with SPE results in frontal lesion groups, or with SPE distributions in other amnesic disorders, despite the fact that memory and executive deficits were evident in our ACoA group.

Representation of Item Position in Immediate Serial Recall: Evidence from Intrusion Errors

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer-Baum, Simon; McCloskey, Michael

2015-01-01

In immediate serial recall, participants are asked to recall novel sequences of items in the correct order. Theories of the representations and processes required for this task differ in how order information is maintained; some have argued that order is represented through item-to-item associations, while others have argued that each item is…

Decreasing Serial Cost Sharing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hougaard, Jens Leth; Østerdal, Lars Peter

The increasing serial cost sharing rule of Moulin and Shenker [Econometrica 60 (1992) 1009] and the decreasing serial rule of de Frutos [Journal of Economic Theory 79 (1998) 245] have attracted attention due to their intuitive appeal and striking incentive properties. An axiomatic characterization...... of the increasing serial rule was provided by Moulin and Shenker [Journal of Economic Theory 64 (1994) 178]. This paper gives an axiomatic characterization of the decreasing serial rule...

Decreasing serial cost sharing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hougaard, Jens Leth; Østerdal, Lars Peter Raahave

2009-01-01

The increasing serial cost sharing rule of Moulin and Shenker (Econometrica 60:1009-1037, 1992) and the decreasing serial rule of de Frutos (J Econ Theory 79:245-275, 1998) are known by their intuitive appeal and striking incentive properties. An axiomatic characterization of the increasing serial...... rule was provided by Moulin and Shenker (J Econ Theory 64:178-201, 1994). This paper gives an axiomatic characterization of the decreasing serial rule....

Serial-order short-term memory predicts vocabulary development: evidence from a longitudinal study.

Science.gov (United States)

Leclercq, Anne-Lise; Majerus, Steve

2010-03-01

Serial-order short-term memory (STM), as opposed to item STM, has been shown to be very consistently associated with lexical learning abilities in cross-sectional study designs. This study investigated longitudinal predictions between serial-order STM and vocabulary development. Tasks maximizing the temporary retention of either serial-order or item information were administered to kindergarten children aged 4 and 5. At age 4, age 5, and from age 4 to age 5, serial-order STM capacities, but not item STM capacities, were specifically associated with vocabulary development. Moreover, the increase of serial-order STM capacity from age 4 to age 5 predicted the increase of vocabulary knowledge over the same time period. These results support a theoretical position that assumes an important role for serial-order STM capacities in vocabulary acquisition.

A Gene Expression Classifier of Node-Positive Colorectal Cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul F. Meeh

2009-10-01

Full Text Available We used digital long serial analysis of gene expression to discover gene expression differences between node-negative and node-positive colorectal tumors and developed a multigene classifier able to discriminate between these two tumor types. We prepared and sequenced long serial analysis of gene expression libraries from one node-negative and one node-positive colorectal tumor, sequenced to a depth of 26,060 unique tags, and identified 262 tags significantly differentially expressed between these two tumors (P < 2 x 10-6. We confirmed the tag-to-gene assignments and differential expression of 31 genes by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, 12 of which were elevated in the node-positive tumor. We analyzed the expression levels of these 12 upregulated genes in a validation panel of 23 additional tumors and developed an optimized seven-gene logistic regression classifier. The classifier discriminated between node-negative and node-positive tumors with 86% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Receiver operating characteristic analysis of the classifier revealed an area under the curve of 0.86. Experimental manipulation of the function of one classification gene, Fibronectin, caused profound effects on invasion and migration of colorectal cancer cells in vitro. These results suggest that the development of node-positive colorectal cancer occurs in part through elevated epithelial FN1 expression and suggest novel strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of advanced disease.

Relevance of the serial position effect in the differential diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer-type dementia, and normal ageing.

Science.gov (United States)

Martín, M E; Sasson, Y; Crivelli, L; Roldán Gerschovich, E; Campos, J A; Calcagno, M L; Leiguarda, R; Sabe, L; Allegri, R F

2013-05-01

Serial position effects are observed when a person memorises a series of words exceeding his or her attention span. Cognitively normal individuals recall words at the beginning and end of the list more frequently than those in the middle, which reflects the way that short- and long-term episodic memory works. To study the serial position effect in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to subjects with Alzheimer-type dementia (AD) or normal ageing (NA). 30 AD, 25 MCI and 20 NA subjects underwent neurological and neuropsychological assessment. The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) was used to study primacy, middle, and recency effects and delayed recall for each group. The general memory pattern of MCI subjects was very similar to that of AD subjects, and was characterised by reduced learning capacity, rapid forgetfulness and clear recency effect in learning. With regard to delayed recall, however, there were differences in performance; MCI subjects' ability to recall words at the beginning and middle of the list was similar to that of normal subjects, while their memory of words at the end of the list was poor, as in AD subjects. RAVLT is a tool permitting us to distinguish between MCI and NA subjects. The recency index for the delayed recall task is a valid indicator for distinguishing between MCI patients and patients with normal ageing. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

New developments in electron microscopy for serial image acquisition of neuronal profiles.

Science.gov (United States)

Kubota, Yoshiyuki

2015-02-01

Recent developments in electron microscopy largely automate the continuous acquisition of serial electron micrographs (EMGs), previously achieved by laborious manual serial ultrathin sectioning using an ultramicrotome and ultrastructural image capture process with transmission electron microscopy. The new systems cut thin sections and capture serial EMGs automatically, allowing for acquisition of large data sets in a reasonably short time. The new methods are focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy, ultramicrotome/serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, automated tape-collection ultramicrotome/scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope camera array. In this review, their positive and negative aspects are discussed. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japanese Society of Microscopy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A direct method for determining complete positive and negative capillary pressure curves for reservoir rock using the centrifuge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Spinler, E.A.; Baldwin, B.A. [Phillips Petroleum Co., Bartlesville, OK (United States)

1997-08-01

A method is being developed for direct experimental determination of capillary pressure curves from saturation distributions produced during centrifuging fluids in a rock plug. A free water level is positioned along the length of the plugs to enable simultaneous determination of both positive and negative capillary pressures. Octadecane as the oil phase is solidified by temperature reduction while centrifuging to prevent fluid redistribution upon removal from the centrifuge. The water saturation is then measured via magnetic resonance imaging. The saturation profile within the plug and the calculation of pressures for each point of the saturation profile allows for a complete capillary pressure curve to be determined from one experiment. Centrifuging under oil with a free water level into a 100 percent water saturated plug results in the development of a primary drainage capillary pressure curve. Centrifuging similarly at an initial water saturation in the plug results in the development of an imbibition capillary pressure curve. Examples of these measurements are presented for Berea sandstone and chalk rocks.

Impaired Processing of Serial Order Determines Working Memory Impairments in Alzheimer's Disease.

Science.gov (United States)

De Belder, Maya; Santens, Patrick; Sieben, Anne; Fias, Wim

2017-01-01

Working memory (WM) problems are commonly observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the affected mechanisms leading to impaired WM are still insufficiently understood. The ability to efficiently process serial order in WM has been demonstrated to be fundamental to fluent daily life functioning. The decreased capability to mentally process serial position in WM has been put forward as the underlying explanation for generally compromised WM performance. Determine which mechanisms, such as order processing, are responsible for deficient WM functioning in AD. A group of AD patients (n = 32) and their partners (n = 25), assigned to the control group, were submitted to an extensive battery of neuropsychological and experimental tasks, assessing general cognitive state and functioning of several aspects related to serial order WM. The results revealed an impaired ability to bind item information to serial position within WM in AD patients compared to controls. It was additionally observed that AD patients experienced specific difficulties with directing spatial attention when searching for item information stored in WM. The processing of serial order and the allocation of attentional resources are both disrupted, explaining the generally reduced WM functioning in AD patients. Further studies should now clarify whether this observation could explain disease-related problems for other cognitive functions such as verbal expression, auditory comprehension, or planning.

A serial-kinematic nanopositioner for high-speed atomic force microscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wadikhaye, Sachin P., E-mail: sachin.wadikhaye@uon.edu.au; Yong, Yuen Kuan; Reza Moheimani, S. O. [School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW (Australia)

2014-10-15

A flexure-guided serial-kinematic XYZ nanopositioner for high-speed Atomic Force Microscopy is presented in this paper. Two aspects influencing the performance of serial-kinematic nanopositioners are studied in this work. First, mass reduction by using tapered flexures is proposed to increased the natural frequency of the nanopositioner. 25% increase in the natural frequency is achieved due to reduced mass with tapered flexures. Second, a study of possible sensor positioning in a serial-kinematic nanopositioner is presented. An arrangement of sensors for exact estimation of cross-coupling is incorporated in the proposed design. A feedforward control strategy based on phaser approach is presented to mitigate the dynamics and nonlinearity in the system. Limitations in design approach and control strategy are discussed in the Conclusion.

A serial-kinematic nanopositioner for high-speed atomic force microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wadikhaye, Sachin P.; Yong, Yuen Kuan; Reza Moheimani, S. O.

2014-01-01

A flexure-guided serial-kinematic XYZ nanopositioner for high-speed Atomic Force Microscopy is presented in this paper. Two aspects influencing the performance of serial-kinematic nanopositioners are studied in this work. First, mass reduction by using tapered flexures is proposed to increased the natural frequency of the nanopositioner. 25% increase in the natural frequency is achieved due to reduced mass with tapered flexures. Second, a study of possible sensor positioning in a serial-kinematic nanopositioner is presented. An arrangement of sensors for exact estimation of cross-coupling is incorporated in the proposed design. A feedforward control strategy based on phaser approach is presented to mitigate the dynamics and nonlinearity in the system. Limitations in design approach and control strategy are discussed in the Conclusion

Serial Expression Analysis: a web tool for the analysis of serial gene expression data

Science.gov (United States)

Nueda, Maria José; Carbonell, José; Medina, Ignacio; Dopazo, Joaquín; Conesa, Ana

2010-01-01

Serial transcriptomics experiments investigate the dynamics of gene expression changes associated with a quantitative variable such as time or dosage. The statistical analysis of these data implies the study of global and gene-specific expression trends, the identification of significant serial changes, the comparison of expression profiles and the assessment of transcriptional changes in terms of cellular processes. We have created the SEA (Serial Expression Analysis) suite to provide a complete web-based resource for the analysis of serial transcriptomics data. SEA offers five different algorithms based on univariate, multivariate and functional profiling strategies framed within a user-friendly interface and a project-oriented architecture to facilitate the analysis of serial gene expression data sets from different perspectives. SEA is available at sea.bioinfo.cipf.es. PMID:20525784

Using identification in entertainment-education drama serials to ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study used two entertainment-education drama serials which were designed using Albert Bandura's theoretical framework to communicate positive messages of women's rights to real life audiences in select communities. The study sought to find out if there was any significant relationship i.e. identification between TV ...

Developments in Serials: 1977

Science.gov (United States)

James, John R.

1978-01-01

Discusses issues and developments relating to several aspects of serials, including economics and acquisitions; bibliographic control; automation; education; serials literature and bibliographies; and copyrights. A bibliography is included. (Author/MBR)

Malaysian Serials: Issues and Problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Bahri, Che Norma

This paper analyzes the issues and problems while looking at the trends and developments of serials publishing in Malaysia. The first section provides background; topics addressed include the country and people of Malaysia, the history of serials publishing in Malaysia, categories and formats of serials publishing, academic publications,…

Serial casting for reconstruction of a deformed Charcot foot: a case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenblum, Jonathan I; Weiss, Shmuel; Gazes, Michael; Amit-Kohn, Michal

2015-05-01

Charcot neuroarthropathy may occur in patients with peripheral neuropathy who do not notice pain while their bones and joints collapse or breakdown under the constant pressure of body weight. This can lead to ulcerations from severe deformity and potentially limb-threatening and life-threatening infections. Current treatments vary from immobilization to extensive reconstructive surgical interventions. Serial casting, used to correct many pediatric deformities while bones are often more pliable, was used with a 63-year-old male patient who presented with an active phase of Charcot foot with ulceration. The patient previously underwent foot reconstruction and had all hardware removed prior to serial casting. Due to the potential pliability of the bones, serial casting was attempted to reform the shape and position of the foot in a reverse Ponseti-type serial casting to create a more stable structure with less deformity that could lead to epithelial breakdown. The patient regained full ambulation with a plantargrade foot and no wounds, and was followed without complications for 36 months. Serial weekly casting was an effective modality for treatment of this patient's Charcot foot deformity.

Adjustment to subtle time constraints and power law learning in rapid serial visual presentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacqueline Chakyung Shin

2015-11-01

Full Text Available We investigated whether attention could be modulated through the implicit learning of temporal information in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP task. Participants identified two target letters among numeral distractors. The stimulus-onset asynchrony immediately following the first target (SOA1 varied at three levels (70, 98, and 126 ms randomly between trials or fixed within blocks of trials. Practice over three consecutive days resulted in a continuous improvement in the identification rate for both targets and attenuation of the attentional blink (AB, a decrement in target (T2 identification when presented 200-400 ms after another target (T1. Blocked SOA1s led to a faster rate of improvement in RSVP performance and more target order reversals relative to random SOA1s, suggesting that the implicit learning of SOA1 positively affected performance. The results also reveal power law learning curves for individual target identification as well as the reduction in the AB decrement. These learning curves reflect the spontaneous emergence of skill through subtle attentional modulations rather than general attentional distribution. Together, the results indicate that implicit temporal learning could improve high level and rapid cognitive processing and highlights the sensitivity and adaptability of the attentional system to subtle constraints in stimulus timing.

Hemispatial neglect and serial order in verbal working memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Antoine, Sophie; Ranzini, Mariagrazia; van Dijck, Jean-Philippe; Slama, Hichem; Bonato, Mario; Tousch, Ann; Dewulf, Myrtille; Bier, Jean-Christophe; Gevers, Wim

2018-01-09

Working memory refers to our ability to actively maintain and process a limited amount of information during a brief period of time. Often, not only the information itself but also its serial order is crucial for good task performance. It was recently proposed that serial order is grounded in spatial cognition. Here, we compared performance of a group of right hemisphere-damaged patients with hemispatial neglect to healthy controls in verbal working memory tasks. Participants memorized sequences of consonants at span level and had to judge whether a target consonant belonged to the memorized sequence (item task) or whether a pair of consonants were presented in the same order as in the memorized sequence (order task). In line with this idea that serial order is grounded in spatial cognition, we found that neglect patients made significantly more errors in the order task than in the item task compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, this deficit seemed functionally related to neglect severity and was more frequently observed following right posterior brain damage. Interestingly, this specific impairment for serial order in verbal working memory was not lateralized. We advance the hypotheses of a potential contribution to the deficit of serial order in neglect patients of either or both (1) reduced spatial working memory capacity that enables to keep track of the spatial codes that provide memorized items with a positional context, (2) a spatial compression of these codes in the intact representational space. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Serial Derotational Casting in Idiopathic and Non-Idiopathic Progressive Early-Onset Scoliosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Gussous, Yazeed M; Tarima, Sergey; Zhao, Shi; Khan, Safdar; Caudill, Angela; Sturm, Peter; Hammerberg, Kim W

2015-05-01

Serial derotational casting has been used as a definitive treatment or as delaying strategy in progressive idiopathic (IS) and non-idiopathic (NIS) early-onset scoliosis (EOS). Retrospective chart and radiographic review of patients who underwent serial casting for progressive EOS between 2005 and 2012 at a single institution. A total of 74 consecutive patients entered serial cast treatment. Twenty-eight were currently being casted, 30 completed cast treatment and were converted to thoracolumbosacral orthosis (TLSO), 9 were treated surgically, 6 were lost to follow-up, and 1 had no further treatment. The researchers diagnosed IS in 41 patients; 33 had NIS. At presentation the IS group had an average Cobb angle (CA) of 49° and a rib vertebral angle difference (RVAD) of 37°. The NIS group had a CA of 51° (p = .69) and RVAD of 37° (p = .94). In patients currently being casted, 19 IS patients had a decreased CA, from 47° to 27°. The 9 NIS patients had a decreased CA, from 62° to 57° (p = .0002). Cobb angle improvement was significantly better in IS (p = .0005). In the TLSO group the 17 IS patients had a decreased average CA, from 46° to 18°, after serial casting and the 13 NIS patients decreased CA from 42° to 32°. Patients with IS had better improvement in CA than the NIS group (p Casting initiated before age 2 years yielded better curve correction for IS (p casting than NIS patients. Casting in IS patients before age 24 months yielded better curve correction. Patients who required surgery had a higher age and Cobb angle at presentation than those who transitioned to a TLSO. The surgical group was observed for a similar duration of time and there was no significant statistical difference. Although RVAD is a predictor of progression in infantile IS, it did not show a predictive value in the response to casting of either the IS or NIS groups. Copyright © 2015 Scoliosis Research Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The neural signature of emotional memories in serial crimes.

Science.gov (United States)

Chassy, Philippe

2017-10-01

Neural plasticity is the process whereby semantic information and emotional responses are stored in neural networks. It is hypothesized that the neural networks built over time to encode the sexual fantasies that motivate serial killers to act should display a unique, detectable activation pattern. The pathological neural watermark hypothesis posits that such networks comprise activation of brain sites that reflect four cognitive components: autobiographical memory, sexual arousal, aggression, and control over aggression. The neural sites performing these cognitive functions have been successfully identified by previous research. The key findings are reviewed to hypothesise the typical pattern of activity that serial killers should display. Through the integration of biological findings into one framework, the neural approach proposed in this paper is in stark contrast with the many theories accounting for serial killers that offer non-medical taxonomies. The pathological neural watermark hypothesis offers a new framework to understand and detect deviant individuals. The technical and legal issues are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Long-Term Resolution of Severe Ankle Contractures Using Botulinum Toxin, Serial Casting, Splinting, and Motor Retraining.

Science.gov (United States)

Leung, Joan; Stroud, Katarina

2018-01-01

Purpose: Serial casting for ankle contractures is traditionally performed in prone, a position that patients may not easily tolerate. Also, although serial casting is effective in correcting contracture, its effect dissipates quickly. This case report describes a procedure for performing casting for ankle contractures in a supine or sitting position. It also describes a process that enables the effect of serial casting to be maintained long term. Client Description: The client was an adult who had suffered traumatic brain injury and severe bilateral ankle contractures. Intervention: He received botulinum toxin and serial casting for his bilateral ankle contractures, one ankle at 8 months and the other at 13 months after the injury. He then underwent a programme of splinting and motor training. Measures and Outcome: The client gained more than 40° dorsiflexion for both ankles after receiving botulinum toxin injections and serial casting. The improvement in ankle range enabled him to progress to walking practice. Ankle splinting was gradually reduced. On discharge at 25 months post-injury, the ankle joint range was maintained. Implications: The use of botulinum toxin and serial casting, followed by an intensive programme of splinting and motor training, may be an option to consider for effective long-term resolution of severe contractures after acquired brain injury.

CRNL library serials list

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alburger, T.P.

1982-04-01

A list of 1900 serial publications (periodicals, society transactions and proceedings, annuals and directories, indexes, newspapers, etc.) is presented with volumes and years held by the Main Library. This library is the largest in AECL as well as one of the largest scientific and technical libraries in North America, and functions as a Canadian resource for nuclear information. A main alphabetical list is followed by broad subject field lists representing research interests, and lists of abstract and index serials, general bibliographic serials, conference indexes, press releases, English translations, and original language journals

Deliberate Rumination and Positive Reappraisal as Serial Mediators Between Life Impact and Posttraumatic Growth in Victims of State Terrorism in Chile (1973-1990).

Science.gov (United States)

Cárdenas Castro, Manuel; Arnoso Martínez, Maitane; Faúndez Abarca, Ximena

2016-04-06

This study examines the role of coping strategies related to positive reappraisal versus other cognitive strategies (deliberate rumination) as mediators between life impact and posttraumatic growth in survivors of the military dictatorship in Chile between 1973 and 1990 (tortured political prisoners and family members of political prisoners executed and missing). Survey data from 251 political violence survivors were analyzed using the SPSS PROCESS macro for bootstrapping indirect effects (Hayes, 2013). Results indicated that positive reappraisal (or reframing) coping mediated the relationship between life impact and posttraumatic growth. A serial multiple mediation model indicates that in the life impact to growth moderation process, rumination must be followed by positive reappraisal to drive this growth. These findings suggest that positive reappraisal of the traumatic experience is essential to achieve growth reports. Implications of these more complex relations are discussed for both counseling interventions and further research. © The Author(s) 2016.

Variation of Bragg curve characteristic induced by changing the position of inhomogeneous material: Geant4 simulation study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, So-Hyun; Jung, Won-Gyun; Suh, Tae-Suk [Catholic University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Jang, Hong-Seok; Choi, Byeong-Oak [Seoul St. Mary' s Hospital, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Rah, Jeong-Eun; Park, Sun-Gyong; Lee, Se-Byeong [National Cancer Center, Ilsan (Korea, Republic of)

2011-02-15

When proton beam passes through the human body, the stopping power and the depth-dose distribution of the proton are influenced by the relative location among adjacent materials or the difference in material conditions. Our study demonstrates the effect of inhomogeneous materials placed in the Plateau and Bragg peak regions of the Bragg curve in water. We evaluated the Bragg peak position, range, penumbra and integrated doses by using the Geant4 simulation toolkit. The positions of inhomogeneities were selected as the proximal 36% and 50% points of the maximum dose, which indicates the location at entrance regions of the Plateau and the Bragg peak, respectively. Bone (density {rho} = 1.85 g/cm{sup 3}) and adipose tissue (density {rho} = 0.92 g/cm{sup 3}) were selected as inhomogeneous materials. The thickness of each material was varied by 0.1 cm between 0.1 cm and 1.0 cm. In addition, the initial energy of the proton beam was changed in 30 MeV steps between 108 MeV and 220 MeV. The effects of inhomogeneous conditions were performed for various parameters: Bragg peak position, range, penumbra width, full width at half maximum and dose of Bragg curve. A dose perturbation was observed in the region of the Bragg peak and inhomogeneous material, especially, When the bone equivalent material was inserted within the Bragg curve. However, there were no significant variations in the other parameters, except for the dose perturbation depending on the inserted location of each material. This study shows the characteristic changes in the Bragg curve due to inhomogeneous materials.

The Locus of Serial Processing in Reading Aloud: Orthography-to-Phonology Computation or Speech Planning?

Science.gov (United States)

Mousikou, Petroula; Rastle, Kathleen; Besner, Derek; Coltheart, Max

2015-01-01

Dual-route theories of reading posit that a sublexical reading mechanism that operates serially and from left to right is involved in the orthography-to-phonology computation. These theories attribute the masked onset priming effect (MOPE) and the phonological Stroop effect (PSE) to the serial left-to-right operation of this mechanism. However,…

Characterization of type, position and dimension of flaws by transit time locus curves of ultrasonic inspections - ALOK. Pt. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grohs, B.; Barbian, O.A.; Kappes, W.; Paul, H.

1981-01-01

With automatic ultrasonic testing, flaws can be detected and described and thus characterized according to their type, position and dimensions. During scanning of a test object, the flaws are registered by many different pathways and many different acoustic irradiation directions. The transit time locus curve represents the distance between the relfecting points of a flaw and the source in dependence of the probe position; hence, information on flaw position and dimensions can be derived from this curve. If the sound velocity is known, the transit path can then be calculated from the transit time. This requires, above all, a constant sound velocity along the whole transit path. Various methods are presented for reconstructing the flaw border in the plane of incidence. (orig./RW) [de

Scientific and Technical Serials Holdings Optimization in an Inefficient Market: A LSU Serials Redesign Project Exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Bensman, Stephen J.; Wilder, Stanley J.

1998-01-01

Analyzes the structure of the library market for scientific and technical (ST) serials. Describes an exercise aimed at a theoretical reconstruction of the ST-serials holdings of Louisiana State University (LSU) Libraries. Discusses the set definitions, measures, and algorithms necessary in the design of a computer program to appraise ST serials.…

Union Listing via OCLC's Serials Control Subsystem.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Malley, Terrence J.

1984-01-01

Describes library use of Conversion of Serials Project's (CONSER) online national machine-readable database for serials to create online union lists of serials via OCLC's Serial Control Subsystem. Problems in selection of appropriate, accurate, and authenticated records and prospects for the future are discussed. Twenty sources and sample records…

Continuous path control of a 5-DOF parallel-serial hybrid robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uchiyama, Takuma; Terada, Hidetsugu; Mitsuya, Hironori

2010-01-01

Using the 5-degree of freedom parallel-serial hybrid robot, to realize the de-burring, new forward and inverse kinematic calculation methods based on the 'off-line teaching' method are proposed. This hybrid robot consists of a parallel stage section and a serial stage section. Considering this point, each section is calculated individually. And the continuous path control algorithm of this hybrid robot is proposed. To verify the usefulness, a prototype robot is tested which is controlled based on the proposed methods. This verification includes a positioning test and a pose test. The positioning test evaluates the continuous path of the tool center point. The pose test evaluates the pose on the tool center point. As the result, it is confirmed that this hybrid robot moves correctly using the proposed methods

Handbook of serial communications interfaces a comprehensive compendium of serial digital input/output (I/O) standards

CERN Document Server

Frenzel, Louis

2015-01-01

This book catalogs the most popular and commonly used serial-port interfaces and provides details on the specifications and the latest standards, enabling you to select an interface for a new design or verify that an interface is working correctly. Each chapter is based on a different interface and is written in an easy to follow, standard format. With this book you will learn: The most widely used serial interfacesHow to select the best serial interface for a specific application or designThe trade-offs between data rate and distance (length or range)The operation and benefits of serial

Memory for serial order across domains: An overview of the literature and directions for future research.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurlstone, Mark J; Hitch, Graham J; Baddeley, Alan D

2014-03-01

From vocabulary learning to imitating sequences of motor actions, the ability to plan, represent, and recall a novel sequence of items in the correct order is fundamental for many verbal and nonverbal higher level cognitive activities. Here we review phenomena of serial order documented across the verbal, visual, and spatial short-term memory domains and interpret them with reference to the principles of serial order and ancillary assumptions instantiated in contemporary computational theories of memory for serial order. We propose that functional similarities across domains buttress the notion that verbal, visual, and spatial sequences are planned and controlled by a competitive queuing (CQ) mechanism in which items are simultaneously active in parallel and the strongest item is chosen for output. Within the verbal short-term memory CQ system, evidence suggests that serial order is represented via a primacy gradient, position marking, response suppression, and cumulative matching. Evidence further indicates that output interference operates during recall and that item similarity effects manifest during both serial order encoding and retrieval. By contrast, the principles underlying the representation of serial order in the visual and spatial CQ systems are unclear, largely because the relevant studies have yet to be performed. In the spatial domain, there is some evidence for a primacy gradient and position marking, whereas in the visual domain there is no direct evidence for either of the principles of serial order. We conclude by proposing some directions for future research designed to bridge this and other theoretical gaps in the literature.

Determination of curve 1/M profile as a function of control rod bank position

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pereira, Valmir; Martinez, Aquilino Senra; Silva, Fernando Carvalho da

2002-01-01

Determination of the subcritical multiplication curve profile (1/M) as a function of control rod bank position is of paramount importance to the development of a system which allows to foresee and also anticipate determination of criticality of a PWR reactor core. This work aims at determining this profile. For that, the 3D- two group-diffusion equations for a subcritical PWR reactor core with external neutron source is solved for different control rod bank positions. Results obtained are compared with the results from the corresponding eigenvalue problem, in order to verify how the external neutron source interferes with the reactor criticality search. (author)

Serials collection management in recessionary times

CERN Document Server

Lawson, Karen G

2015-01-01

Strategic planning, collaboration, continual stewardship, best practices, and re-engineering can provide librarians with a toolkit of innovative strategies that meets the worst of economic times with bold, persistent experimentation. This book covers the implications for libraries of a broad range of technological and economic challenges. These challenges include the fallout from the global economic crisis, the positioning of usage statistics, the advent of open access scholarship, database management, responding to budgetary constrictions and general access to serials. Taken as a whole, this

Serial elongation-derotation-flexion casting for children with early-onset scoliosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Canavese, Federico; Samba, Antoine; Dimeglio, Alain; Mansour, Mounira; Rousset, Marie

2015-12-18

Various early-onset spinal deformities, particularly infantile and juvenile scoliosis (JS), still pose challenges to pediatric orthopedic surgeons. The ideal treatment of these deformities has yet to emerge, as both clinicians and surgeons still face multiple challenges including preservation of thoracic motion, spine and cage, and protection of cardiac and lung growth and function. Elongation-derotation-flexion (EDF) casting is a technique that uses a custom-made thoracolumbar cast based on a three-dimensional correction concept. EDF can control progression of the deformity and - in some cases-coax the initially-curved spine to grow straighter by acting simultaneously in the frontal, sagittal and coronal planes. Here we provide a comprehensive review of how infantile and JS can affect normal spine and thorax and how serial EDF casting can be used to manage these spinal deformities. A fresh review of the literature helps fully understand the principles of the serial EDF casting technique and the effectiveness of conservative treatment in patients with early-onset spinal deformities, particularly infantile and juvenile scolisois.

Eye movements and serial memory for visual-spatial information: does time spent fixating contribute to recall?

Science.gov (United States)

Saint-Aubin, Jean; Tremblay, Sébastien; Jalbert, Annie

2007-01-01

This research investigated the nature of encoding and its contribution to serial recall for visual-spatial information. In order to do so, we examined the relationship between fixation duration and recall performance. Using the dot task--a series of seven dots spatially distributed on a monitor screen is presented sequentially for immediate recall--performance and eye-tracking data were recorded during the presentation of the to-be-remembered items. When participants were free to move their eyes at their will, both fixation durations and probability of correct recall decreased as a function of serial position. Furthermore, imposing constant durations of fixation across all serial positions had a beneficial impact (though relatively small) on item but not order recall. Great care was taken to isolate the effect of fixation duration from that of presentation duration. Although eye movement at encoding contributes to immediate memory, it is not decisive in shaping serial recall performance. Our results also provide further evidence that the distinction between item and order information, well-established in the verbal domain, extends to visual-spatial information.

Selective interference of grasp and space representations with number magnitude and serial order processing.

Science.gov (United States)

van Dijck, Jean-Philippe; Fias, Wim; Andres, Michael

2015-10-01

It has been proposed that the metrics of space, time and other magnitudes relevant for action are coupled through a generalized magnitude system that also contribute to number representation. Several studies capitalized on stimulus-response compatibility effects to show that numbers map onto left-right representations and grasp representations as a function of their magnitude. However, the tasks typically used do not allow disentangling magnitude from serial order processing. Here, we devised a working memory (WM) task where participants had to remember random sequences of numbers and perform a precision/whole-hand grip (Experiment 1) or a uni-manual left/right button press (Experiment 2) in response to numbers presented during the retention interval. This task does allow differentiating the interference of number magnitude and serial order with each set of responses. Experiment 1 showed that precision grips were initiated faster than whole-hand grips in response to small numbers, irrespective of their serial position in WM. In contrast, Experiment 2 revealed an advantage of right over left button presses as serial position increased, without any influence of number magnitude. These findings demonstrate that grasping and left-right movements overlap with distinct dimensions of number processing. These findings are discussed in the light of different theories explaining the interactions between numbers, space and action.

SERIAL ULTRASOUND TO ESTIMATE FETAL GROWTH CURVES IN SOUTHERN TAMANDUA (TAMANDUA TETRADACTYLA).

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Rachel; Wolf, Tiffany M; Robertson, Heather; Colburn, Margarita Woc; Moreno, Alexis; Moresco, Anneke; Napier, Anne Elise; Nofs, Sally A

2017-06-01

From 2012 to 2015, 16 pregnancies were monitored by ultrasonography in nine tamanduas ( Tamandua tetradactyla ) housed in three zoological facilities. Sonographic measurements were recorded to establish fetal growth curves using thoracic and skull landmarks described for giant anteaters ( Myrmecophaga tridactyla ). All pregnancies resulted in the uncomplicated delivery of healthy offspring, thus gestational development was considered normal. These data may be used as a reference for normal fetal development with potential for estimating parturition date in the absence of breeding data.

Analysis of each branch current of serial solar cells by using an equivalent circuit model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yi Shi-Guang; Zhang Wan-Hui; Ai Bin; Song Jing-Wei; Shen Hui

2014-01-01

In this paper, based on the equivalent single diode circuit model of the solar cell, an equivalent circuit diagram for two serial solar cells is drawn. Its equations of current and voltage are derived from Kirchhoff's current and voltage law. First, parameters are obtained from the I—V (current—voltage) curves for typical monocrystalline silicon solar cells (125 mm × 125 mm). Then, by regarding photo-generated current, shunt resistance, serial resistance of the first solar cell, and resistance load as the variables. The properties of shunt currents (I sh1 and I sh2 ), diode currents (I D1 and I D2 ), and load current (I L ) for the whole two serial solar cells are numerically analyzed in these four cases for the first time, and the corresponding physical explanations are made. We find that these parameters have different influences on the internal currents of solar cells. Our results will provide a reference for developing higher efficiency solar cell module and contribute to the better understanding of the reason of efficiency loss of solar cell module. (interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

Selective Serial Multi-Antibody Biosensing with TOPAS Microstructured Polymer Optical Fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Emiliyanov, Grigoriy Andreev; Høiby, Poul E.; Pedersen, Lars H.

2013-01-01

We have developed a fluorescence-based fiber-optical biosensor, which can selectively detect different antibodies in serial at preselected positions inside a single piece of fiber. The fiber is a microstructured polymer optical fiber fabricated from TOPAS cyclic olefin copolymer, which allows...

Reframing Serial Murder Within Empirical Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurian, Elizabeth A

2017-04-01

Empirical research on serial murder is limited due to the lack of consensus on a definition, the continued use of primarily descriptive statistics, and linkage to popular culture depictions. These limitations also inhibit our understanding of these offenders and affect credibility in the field of research. Therefore, this comprehensive overview of a sample of 508 cases (738 total offenders, including partnered groups of two or more offenders) provides analyses of solo male, solo female, and partnered serial killers to elucidate statistical differences and similarities in offending and adjudication patterns among the three groups. This analysis of serial homicide offenders not only supports previous research on offending patterns present in the serial homicide literature but also reveals that empirically based analyses can enhance our understanding beyond traditional case studies and descriptive statistics. Further research based on these empirical analyses can aid in the development of more accurate classifications and definitions of serial murderers.

Identification of Bodies by Unique Serial Numbers on Implanted Medical Devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Blessing, Melissa M; Lin, Peter T

2018-05-01

Visual identification is the most common identification method used by medical examiners but is not always possible. Alternative methods include X-ray, fingerprint, or DNA comparison, but these methods require additional resources. Comparison of serial numbers on implanted medical devices is a rapid and definitive method of identification. To assess the practicality of using this method, we reviewed 608 consecutive forensic autopsies performed at a regional medical examiner office. Of these, 56 cases required an alternative method of identification due to decomposition (n = 35), gunshot wound (n = 9), blunt trauma (n = 6), or charring (n = 6). Of these 56 cases, eight (14.3%) were known to have an implanted medical device. Of these eight cases, five (63%) could be positively identified by comparing serial numbers. If an implanted medical device is known to be present, and medical records are available, identification by medical device serial number should be a first-line method. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Female serial killing: review and case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Frei, Andreas; Völlm, Birgit; Graf, Marc; Dittmann, Volker

2006-01-01

Single homicide committed by women is rare. Serial killing is very infrequent, and the perpetrators are usually white, intelligent males with sadistic tendencies. Serial killing by women has, however, also been described. To conduct a review of published literature on female serial killers and consider its usefulness in assessing a presenting case. A literature review was conducted, after searching EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO. The presenting clinical case is described in detail in the context of the literature findings. Results The literature search revealed few relevant publications. Attempts to categorize the phenomenon of female serial killing according to patterns of and motives for the homicides have been made by some authors. The most common motive identified was material gain or similar extrinsic gratification while the 'hedonistic' sadistic or sexual serial killer seems to be extremely rare in women. There is no consistent theory of serial killing by women, but psychopathic personality traits and abusive childhood experiences have consistently been observed. The authors' case did not fit the description of a 'typical' female serial killer. In such unusual circumstances as serial killing by a woman, detailed individual case formulation is required to make sense of the psychopathology in each case. Publication of cases in scientific journals should be encouraged to advance our understanding of this phenomenon. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comparing the radiosensitivity of cervical and thoracic spinal cord using the relative seriality model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adamus-Gorka, M.; Lind, B.K.; Brahme, A.

2003-01-01

Spinal cord is one of the most important normal tissues that are aimed to be spared during radiation therapy of cancer. This organ has been known for its strongly serial character and its high sensitivity to radiation. In order to compare the sensitivity of different parts of spinal cord, the early data (1970's) for radiation myelopathy available in the literature could be used. In the present study the relative seriality model (Kallman et al. 1992) has been fitted to two different sets of clinical data for spinal cord irradiation: radiation myelitis of cervical spinal cord after treating 248 patients for malignant disease of head and neck (Abbatucci et al. 1978) and radiation myelitis of thoracic spinal cord after radiation treating 43 patients with lung carcinoma (Reinhold et al. 1976). The maximum likelihood method was applied for the fitting and the corresponding parameters together with their 68% confidence intervals calculated for each of the datasets respectively. The alpha-beta ratio for the thoracic survival was also obtained. On the basis of the present study the following conclusions can be drawn: 1. radiation myelopathy is a strongly serial endpoint, 2. it appears to be differences in radiosensitivity between the cervical and thoracic region of spinal cord, 3. thoracic spinal cord revealed very serial characteristic of dose response, while the cervical myelopathy seems to be a bit less serial endpoint, 4. the dose-response curve is much steeper in case of myelopathy of cervical spinal cord, due to the much higher gamma value for this region. This work compares the fitting of NTCP model to the cervical and thoracic regions of the spinal cord and shows quite different responses. In the future more data should be tested for better understanding the mechanism of spinal cord sensitivity to radiation

Analysis of aging in lager brewing yeast during serial repitching.

Science.gov (United States)

Bühligen, Franziska; Lindner, Patrick; Fetzer, Ingo; Stahl, Frank; Scheper, Thomas; Harms, Hauke; Müller, Susann

2014-10-10

Serial repitching of brewing yeast inoculates is an important economic factor in the brewing industry, as their propagation is time and resource intensive. Here, we investigated whether replicative aging and/or the population distribution status changed during serial repitching in three different breweries with the same brewing yeast strain but different abiotic backgrounds and repitching regimes with varying numbers of reuses. Next to bud scar numbers the DNA content of the Saccharomyces pastorianus HEBRU cells was analyzed. Gene expression patterns were investigated using low-density microarrays with genes for aging, stress, storage compound metabolism and cell cycle. Two breweries showed a stable rejuvenation rate during serial repitching. In a third brewery the fraction of virgin cells varied, which could be explained with differing wort aeration rates. Furthermore, the number of bud scars per cell and cell size correlated in all 3 breweries throughout all runs. Transcriptome analyses revealed that from the 6th run on, mainly for the cells positive gene expression could be seen, for example up-regulation of trehalose and glycogen metabolism genes. Additionally, the cells' settling in the cone was dependent on cell size, with the lowest and the uppermost cone layers showing the highest amount of dead cells. In general, cells do not progressively age during extended serial repitching. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The eyeball killer: serial killings with postmortem globe enucleation.

Science.gov (United States)

Coyle, Julie; Ross, Karen F; Barnard, Jeffrey J; Peacock, Elizabeth; Linch, Charles A; Prahlow, Joseph A

2015-05-01

Although serial killings are relatively rare, they can be the cause of a great deal of anxiety while the killer remains at-large. Despite the fact that the motivations for serial killings are typically quite complex, the psychological analysis of a serial killer can provide valuable insight into how and why certain individuals become serial killers. Such knowledge may be instrumental in preventing future serial killings or in solving ongoing cases. In certain serial killings, the various incidents have a variety of similar features. Identification of similarities between separate homicidal incidents is necessary to recognize that a serial killer may be actively killing. In this report, the authors present a group of serial killings involving three prostitutes who were shot to death over a 3-month period. Scene and autopsy findings, including the unusual finding of postmortem enucleation of the eyes, led investigators to recognize the serial nature of the homicides. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Exploration of variations in positions of upper and lower incisors, overjet, overbite, and irregularity index in orthodontic patients with dissimilar depths of curve of spee

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumari, N.; Fida, M.; Shaikh, A.

2017-01-01

The position and arrangement of teeth as well as the entire scheme of occlusion differs from one individual to the other .The purpose of this study was to examine differences in position and inclination of incisors, overjet, overbite and lower arch crowding in subjects with different depths of curve of Spee and to determine correlations between depth of curve of Spee and these variables. Methods: The sample comprised of 114 patients (55 females and 59 males) with fully erupted permanent second molars (age 12-25 years), having no history of previous orthodontic treatment, no craniofacial anomalies, and no missing permanent teeth. Study parameters were assessed by using pretreatment lateral cephalograms and dental casts of orthodontic patients. The entire sample was divided into three groups according to depth of curve of Spee (mild Spee=38, moderate Spee=38, severe Spee=38). Descriptive statistics were calculated. Differences between the Spee groups were assessed by analysis of variance. In addition, correlation coefficients were calculated between curve of Spee and other parameters. Results: Statistically significant differences were found in upper incisor inclination (p=0.000), lower incisor inclination (p=0.003), Steiner's mandibular plane angle (p=0.000), overjet (p=0.001), overbite (p=0.000) and irregularity index (p=0.008) among the Spee groups. Moreover, statistically significant positive correlations were found between curve of Spee and overjet, overbite and irregularity index. Upper and lower incisor inclinations as well as mandibular plane angle were found to have statistically significant but negative correlations with curve of Spee. Conclusion: Overjet and overbite in severe Spee group are larger than in mild and moderate Spee groups. There is negative correlation between curve of Spee depth and inclinations of upper and lower incisors. There is positive correlation between curve of Spee depth and severity of lower anterior crowding and Steiner

“It’s Always the Same, and It’s Always Different” Mythologisation and the Serial Killer in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

OpenAIRE

Smyth, David A.

2015-01-01

Serial killers are important in American horror because of their ability to exist between ‘myth’ and ‘reality’. The serial killer is one of the most important American myths, but it is one firmly rooted in real life: unlike Paul Bunyan or Superman, serial killers do exist. This essay examines the relationship between the ‘myth’ and the ‘reality’ of serial killers, and the complex relationship between the American public and the serial killer, using Henry: Portrait of a Serial K...

[A comparative study between inflation and deflation pressure-volume curve in determining the optimal positive end-expiratory pressure].

Science.gov (United States)

Gang, Li; Sun, Xiao-yi; Xu, Jin-quan; Zhang, Xin-li; Kou, Lu-xin; Jiang, Zhi-hong; Zhang, Lei

2012-02-01

To determine the optimal positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) according to inflation and deflation pressure-volume curve (P-V curve) in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARDS models were reproduced in 20 dogs, and they were randomly divided into two groups. In both groups, Levenberg-Marquardt iterative algorithm was employed using software to explore parameters fitting with Boltzmann formula, by which the real inflection point of pressure (Pinf d) in deflation limb or lower inflection point pressure (PLip) in inflation limb on P-V curve were defined. For the control group (inflation curve) P-V curve of PLip + 2 cm H(2)O [1 cm H(2)O = 0.098 kPa] was applied as the best PEEP value. In the experimental group (deflation curve) the Pinf d was taken as the best PEEP value. The heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), fingertip pulse oxygen saturation [SpO(2)], static lung compliance (Cst), arterial partial pressure of oxygen [PaO(2)] and arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide [PaCO(2)] were monitored at 0, 2, 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours. Oxygenation index increased significantly both in control and experimental groups. In experimental group, oxygenation index (mm Hg, 1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa) of 12, 24 and 48 hours was respectively significantly higher than that of the control group (12 hours: 177.63 ± 8.94 vs. 165.60 ± 8.90, 24 hours: 194.19 ± 10.67 vs. 168.70 ± 10.60, 48 hours: 203.15 ± 13.21 vs. 171.26 ± 9.21, all P deflation P-V curve was better than that of inflation curve.

Measurement and analysis of field-induced crystallographic texture using curved position-sensitive diffraction detectors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simons, Hugh; Daniels, John E.; Studer, Andrew J.

2014-01-01

This paper outlines measurement and analysis methodologies created for determining the structural responses of electroceramics to an electric field. A sample stage is developed to apply electric fields to ceramic materials at elevated temperatures during neutron diffraction experiments. The tested...... employing a curved positive sensitive detector. Methodologies are proposed to account for the geometrical effects when vector fields are applied to textured materials with angularly dispersive detector geometries. Representative results are presented for the ferroelectric (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-6%BaTiO3 (BNT-6BT...

Serial elongation derotation flexion (EDF) casting for patients with infantile and juvenile scoliosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Canavese, Federico; Rousset, Marie; Mansour, Mounira; Samba, Antoine; Dimeglio, Alain

2016-02-01

Infantile and juvenile scoliosis, among different types of spinal deformity, is still a challenge for pediatric orthopedic surgeons. The ideal treatment of infantile and juvenile scoliosis has not yet been identified as both clinicians and surgeons still face multiple challenges, including preservation of the thoracic spine, thoracic cage, lung growth and cardiac function without reducing spinal motion. Elongation, derotation, flexion (EDF) casting technique is a custom-made thoracolumbar cast based on a three dimensional correction concept. This cast offers three-dimensional correction and can control the evolution of the deformity in some cases. Spinal growth can be guided by EDF casting as it can influence the initially curved spine to grow straighter. This article aimed to provide a comprehensive review of how infantile and juvenile scoliosis can affect normal spine and thorax and how these deformities can be treated with serial EDF casting technique. A current literature review is mandatory in order to understand the principles of the serial EDF casting technique and the effectiveness of conservative treatment in young and very young patients.

Red light-induced shift of the fluence-response curve for first positive curvature of maize [Zea mays] coleoptiles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hofmann, E.; Schäfer, E.

1987-01-01

The fluence-response curve for first positive phototropic curvture of dark-grown maize coleoptiles is shifted to ten-fold higher fluences if the coieoptiles are irradiated with red light 2 h prior to the phototropic induction with blue light. Fluence-response curves for this red-induced shift were obtained with unilateral red irradiations 2 h prior to inductive blue pulses of different fluences. They differ significantly depending on whether the red light was given from the same side as or the opposite side to the respective inductive blue pulse, thus demonstrating that the red light effect is a local response of the coleoptile. The fluence-response curves for an inductive blue pulse in the ascending part were compared with those for an inductive blue pulse in the descending part of the fluence-response curve for blue light induced phototropism. They are quite different in threshold of red light sensitivity and shape for irradiations from both the same and the opposite sides. This offers evidence for the hypothesis that at least two different photosystems are involved in phototropism, and that they are modulated differently by a red light preirradiation. All these fluence-response curves indicate that it is possible to increase the response in the coleoptile, if the red light preirradiation is given opposite to the inductive blue pulse. This is supported by blue light fluence-response curves obtained after a weak unilateral red preirradiation. (author)

Serial interprocessor communications system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Labiak, W.; Siemens, P.; Bailey, C.

1980-01-01

A serial communications system based on the EIA RS232-C standard with modem control lines has been developed. The DLV11-E interface is used for this purpose. All handshaking is done with the modem control lines. This allows totally independent full duplex communication. The message format consists of eight bit data with odd parity and a sixteen bit checksum on the whole message. All communications are fully interrupt driven. A program was written to load a program into a remote LSI-11 using the serial line without bootstrap ROM

A Survey of Electronic Serials Managers Reveals Diversity in Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Costello

2014-09-01

Full Text Available A Review of: Branscome, B. A. (2013. Management of electronic serials in academic libraries: The results of an online survey. Serials Review, 39(4, 216-226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.serrev.2013.10.004 Abstract Objective – To examine industry standards for the management of electronic serials and measure the adoption of electronic serials over print. Design – Survey questionnaire. Setting – Email lists aimed at academic librarians working in serials management. Subjects – 195 self-selected subscribers to serials email lists. Methods – The author created a 20 question survey that consisted primarily of closed-ended questions pertaining to the collection demographics, staff, budget, and tools of serials management groups in academic libraries. The survey was conducted via Survey Monkey and examined using the analytical features of the tool. Participants remained anonymous and the survey questions did not ask them to reveal identifiable information about their libraries. Main Results – Collection demographics questions revealed that 78% of surveyed librarians estimated that print-only collections represented 40% or fewer of their serials holdings. The author observed diversity in the factors that influence print to digital transitions in academic libraries. However 71.5% of participants indicated that publisher technology support like IP authentication was required before adopting digital subscriptions. A lack of standardization also marked serials workflows, department responsibilities, and department titles. The author did not find a correlation between serials budget and the enrollment size of the institution. Participants reported that they used tools from popular serials management vendors like Serials Solutions, Innovative Interfaces, EBSCO, and Ex Libris, but most indicated that they used more than one tool for serials management. Participants specified 52 unique serials management products used in their libraries. Conclusion �

Criminal psychological profiling of serial arson crimes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kocsis, Richard N; Cooksey, Ray W

2002-12-01

The practice of criminal psychological profiling is frequently cited as being applicable to serial arson crimes. Despite this claim, there does not appear to be any empirical research that examines serial arson offence behaviors in the context of profiling. This study seeks to develop an empirical model of serial arsonist behaviors that can be systematically associated with probable offender characteristics. Analysis has produced a model of offence behaviors that identify four discrete behavior patterns, all of which share a constellation of common nondiscriminatory behaviors. The inherent behavioral themes of each of these patterns are explored with discussion of their broader implications for our understanding of serial arson and directions for future research.

CMOS serial link for fully duplexed data communication

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Kyeongho; Kim, Sungjoon; Ahn, Gijung; Jeong, Deog-Kyoon

1995-04-01

This paper describes a CMOS serial link allowing fully duplexed 500 Mbaud serial data communication. The CMOS serial link is a robust and low-cost solution to high data rate requirements. A central charge pump PLL for generating multiphase clocks for oversampling is shared by several serial link channels. Fully duplexed serial data communication is realized in the bidirectional bridge by separating incoming data from the mixed signal on the cable end. The digital PLL accomplishes process-independent data recovery by using a low-ratio oversampling, a majority voting, and a parallel data recovery scheme. Mostly, digital approach could extend its bandwidth further with scaled CMOS technology. A single channel serial link and a charge pump PLL are integrated in a test chip using 1.2 micron CMOS process technology. The test chip confirms upto 500 Mbaud unidirectional mode operation and 320 Mbaud fully duplexed mode operation with pseudo random data patterns.

The Productivity Advantage of Serial Entrepreneurs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shaw, Kathryn L.; Sørensen, Anders

Serial entrepreneurs, who open more than one business, are found to have higher sales and higher productivity than novice entrepreneurs, who open one business. Using panel data on entrepreneurs and their firms from Denmark for 2001-2013, the serial entrepreneur has 67% higher sales than the novice......, but also opens firms that are larger in terms of the initial capital and labor, and thus is 39% more productive. There are subsets of firms that perform especially well – serial entrepreneurs that hold a portfolio of overlapping ongoing firms perform the best, as do those that open as limited liability...

The American Serialization of Lord Jim

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Donovan

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This essay presents the discovery of the American serialization of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim in New York’s Evening Telegram in 1903. This ‘lost’ serialization, it argues, invites a new perspective on Conrad’s early career by foregrounding the role of newspaper serialization and syndication in establishing his literary standing. After surveying the principal differences in the respective reading experiences of the periodical versus the book, it concludes by proposing that the prominence of women among Conrad’s first audiences requires us to reassess the basis for his success in North America and elsewhere.

Broad ion beam serial section tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Winiarski, B., E-mail: b.winiarski@manchester.ac.uk [School of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL (United Kingdom); Materials Division, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington TW11 0LW (United Kingdom); Gholinia, A. [School of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL (United Kingdom); Mingard, K.; Gee, M. [Materials Division, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington TW11 0LW (United Kingdom); Thompson, G.E.; Withers, P.J. [School of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL (United Kingdom)

2017-01-15

Here we examine the potential of serial Broad Ion Beam (BIB) Ar{sup +} ion polishing as an advanced serial section tomography (SST) technique for destructive 3D material characterisation for collecting data from volumes with lateral dimensions significantly greater than 100 µm and potentially over millimetre sized areas. Further, the associated low level of damage introduced makes BIB milling very well suited to 3D EBSD acquisition with very high indexing rates. Block face serial sectioning data registration schemes usually assume that the data comprises a series of parallel, planar slices. We quantify the variations in slice thickness and parallelity which can arise when using BIB systems comparing Gatan PECS and Ilion BIB systems for large volume serial sectioning and 3D-EBSD data acquisition. As a test case we obtain 3D morphologies and grain orientations for both phases of a WC-11%wt. Co hardmetal. In our case we have carried out the data acquisition through the manual transfer of the sample between SEM and BIB which is a very slow process (1–2 slice per day), however forthcoming automated procedures will markedly speed up the process. We show that irrespective of the sectioning method raw large area 2D-EBSD maps are affected by distortions and artefacts which affect 3D-EBSD such that quantitative analyses and visualisation can give misleading and erroneous results. Addressing and correcting these issues will offer real benefits when large area (millimetre sized) automated serial section BIBS is developed. - Highlights: • In this work we examine how microstructures can be reconstructed in three-dimensions (3D) by serial argon broad ion beam (BIB) milling, enabling much larger volumes (>250×250×100µm{sup 3}) to be acquired than by serial section focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM). • The associated low level of damage introduced makes BIB milling very well suited to 3D-EBSD acquisition with very high indexing rates. • We explore

Relationship between head posture and lumbar curve in a sitting position: a biomechanical study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rozilene Maria Cota Aroeira

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: The sitting position routinely used for a wide variety of tasks increases the potential of developing forward head posture, which can seriously compromise the health of different systems in the human body. Objective: A static equilibrium analysis was conducted, comparing the position of the head with the lumbar curve in three different sitting positions. Methods: The approximate force and flexion moment of the head extensor muscles in static equilibrium was calculated in each of the following positions: (A without a backrest; (B using a backrest with a 100° tilt angle; (C using a 100° tilted backrest associated with a cylindrical lumbar support cushion at the level of the L3 vertebra. Results: The C7-tragus angles were 43°, 50° and 52°; Frankfort horizontal plane (FH angles were 5°, 9° and 9°; force of the head extensor muscles was 53.0N, 59.7N and 43.5N and flexion moments were 2.60Nm, 2.05Nm and 1.78Nm, in positions A, B and C, respectively. Conclusion: The results revealed that the sitting position using a 100° tilted backrest and lumbar support with the smallest L3-tragus horizontal distance required less effort by the head and neck extensor muscles to retain the head in equilibrium. This study demonstrated the need to preserve the physiology of the lumbar spine, characterized by the position of the L3 vertebra, in order to ensure good head position.

Implementation of a multicrate CAMAC serial highway for data acquisition on the ARGUS laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frerking, C.E.; Greenwood, J.R.

1976-09-01

Much of the target diagnostics data from the ARGUS laser are acquired through a CAMAC interface system, including equipment on a CAMAC serial highway. A scheme has been developed which allows a very general capability for dynamically defining the experimental configuration such that the serial highway is invisible to the controlling program. High level language software compiles the existence of each experimental entity in the system. As the position and description of each module is defined, a software structure is built, with each entry containing the information to be provided to the CAMAC handlers during operation of the equipment. Provision is made to allow tight loops at the lowest software level for critical high speed data acquisition. Currently, the serial highway is operated at a one megabit rate, allowing 24 bit CAMAC words to be transferred at a 5 KHz rate

Amnesia, rehearsal, and temporal distinctiveness models of recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Gordon D A; Della Sala, Sergio; Foster, Jonathan K; Vousden, Janet I

2007-04-01

Classical amnesia involves selective memory impairment for temporally distant items in free recall (impaired primacy) together with relative preservation of memory for recency items. This abnormal serial position curve is traditionally taken as evidence for a distinction between different memory processes, with amnesia being associated with selectively impaired long-term memory. However recent accounts of normal serial position curves have emphasized the importance of rehearsal processes in giving rise to primacy effects and have suggested that a single temporal distinctiveness mechanism can account for both primacy and recency effects when rehearsal is considered. Here we explore the pattern of strategic rehearsal in a patient with very severe amnesia. When the patient's rehearsal pattern is taken into account, a temporal distinctiveness model can account for the serial position curve in both amnesic and control free recall. The results are taken as consistent with temporal distinctiveness models of free recall, and they motivate an emphasis on rehearsal patterns in understanding amnesic deficits in free recall.

Serial Entrepreneurship, Learning by Doing and Self-selection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rocha, Vera; Carneiro, Anabela; Varum, Celeste

2015-01-01

of the person-specific effect, using information on individuals’ past histories in paid employment, confirm that serial entrepreneurs exhibit, on average, a larger person-specific effect than non-serial business owners. Moreover, ignoring serial entrepreneurs’ self-selection overestimates learning by doing......It remains a question whether serial entrepreneurs typically perform better than their novice counterparts owing to learning by doing effects or mostly because they are a selected sample of higher-than-average ability entrepreneurs. This paper tries to unravel these two effects by exploring a novel...... empirical strategy based on continuous time duration models with selection. We use a large longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset that allows us to identify about 220,000 individuals who have left their first entrepreneurial experience, out of which over 35,000 became serial entrepreneurs. We...

Analysis of assembly serial number usage in domestic light-water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reich, W.J.; Moore, R.S.

1991-05-01

Domestic light-water reactor (LWR) fuel assemblies are identified by a serial number that is placed on each assembly. These serial numbers are used as identifiers throughout the life of the fuel. The uniqueness of assembly serial numbers is important in determining their effectiveness as unambiguous identifiers. The purpose of this study is to determine what serial numbering schemes are used, the effectiveness of these schemes, and to quantify how many duplicate serial numbers occur on domestic LWR fuel assemblies. The serial numbering scheme adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) ensures uniqueness of assembly serial numbers. The latest numbering scheme adopted by General Electric (GE), was also found to be unique. Analysis of 70,971 fuel assembly serial numbers from permanently discharged fuel identified 11,948 serial number duplicates. Three duplicate serial numbers were found when analysis focused on duplication within the individual fuel inventory at each reactor site, but these were traced back to data entry errors and will be corrected by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). There were also three instances where the serial numbers used to identify assemblies used for hot cell studies differed from the serial numbers reported to the EIA. It is recommended that fuel fabricators and utilities adhere to the ANSI serial numbering scheme to ensure serial number uniqueness. In addition, organizations collecting serial number information, should request that all known serial numbers physically attached or associated with each assembly be reported and identified by the corresponding number scheme. 10 refs., 5 tabs

Simple measuring rod method for the coaxiality of serial holes

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lei; Yang, Tongyu; Wang, Zhong; Ji, Yuchen; Liu, Changjie; Fu, Luhua

2017-11-01

Aiming at the rapid coaxiality measurement of serial hole part with a small diameter, a coaxiality measuring rod for each layer hole with a single LDS (laser displacement sensor) is proposed. This method does not require the rotation angle information of the rod, and the coaxiality of serial holes can be calculated from the measured values of LDSs after randomly rotating the measuring rod several times. With the mathematical model of the coaxiality measuring rod, each factor affecting the accuracy of coaxiality measurement is analyzed by simulation, and the installation accuracy requirements of the measuring rod and LDSs are presented. In the tolerance of a certain installation error of the measuring rod, the relative center of the hole is calculated by setting the over-determined nonlinear equations of the fitting circles of the multi-layer holes. In experiment, coaxiality measurement accuracy is realized by a 16 μm precision LDS, and the validity of the measurement method is verified. The manufacture and measurement requirements of the coaxiality measuring rod are low, by changing the position of LDSs in the measuring rod, the serial holes with different sizes and numbers can be measured. The rapid coaxiality measurement of parts can be easily implemented in industrial sites.

Implementation of a Multichannel Serial Data Streaming Algorithm using the Xilinx Serial RapidIO Solution

Science.gov (United States)

Doxley, Charles A.

2016-01-01

In the current world of applications that use reconfigurable technology implemented on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), there is a need for flexible architectures that can grow as the systems evolve. A project has limited resources and a fixed set of requirements that development efforts are tasked to meet. Designers must develop robust solutions that practically meet the current customer demands and also have the ability to grow for future performance. This paper describes the development of a high speed serial data streaming algorithm that allows for transmission of multiple data channels over a single serial link. The technique has the ability to change to meet new applications developed for future design considerations. This approach uses the Xilinx Serial RapidIO LOGICORE Solution to implement a flexible infrastructure to meet the current project requirements with the ability to adapt future system designs.

SERIAL TELEVISI DEXTER SEBAGAI ANAKRONISME DALAM SASTRA POPULER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ida Rochani Adi

2014-06-01

Full Text Available In the popular literature context, this study aims to investigate: (1 how the formulation of the characterization of Dexter in the television serial Dexter violates the tradition of literary characterization, and (2 how the formula of moral values is dramatized through Dexter, who is a sociopath, psychopath, serial killer, and person without moral. The research object was the television serial Dexter, which ranks five in popularity in the world. The data were collected by documenting 84 episodes of the serial having been broadcast since 2006. They were analyzed by means of content analysis and qualitative descriptive techniques. Based on the findings, the conclusions are as follows. First, there is a violation or anachronism of characterization through the main character in the serial. Second, the dramatized moral values still contain conventional values although they are in different forms.

Reconstructing genealogies of serial samples under the assumption of a molecular clock using serial-sample UPGMA.

Science.gov (United States)

Drummond, A; Rodrigo, A G

2000-12-01

Reconstruction of evolutionary relationships from noncontemporaneous molecular samples provides a new challenge for phylogenetic reconstruction methods. With recent biotechnological advances there has been an increase in molecular sequencing throughput, and the potential to obtain serial samples of sequences from populations, including rapidly evolving pathogens, is fast being realized. A new method called the serial-sample unweighted pair grouping method with arithmetic means (sUPGMA) is presented that reconstructs a genealogy or phylogeny of sequences sampled serially in time using a matrix of pairwise distances. The resulting tree depicts the terminal lineages of each sample ending at a different level consistent with the sample's temporal order. Since sUPGMA is a variant of UPGMA, it will perform best when sequences have evolved at a constant rate (i.e., according to a molecular clock). On simulated data, this new method performs better than standard cluster analysis under a variety of longitudinal sampling strategies. Serial-sample UPGMA is particularly useful for analysis of longitudinal samples of viruses and bacteria, as well as ancient DNA samples, with the minimal requirement that samples of sequences be ordered in time.

Delaware's first serial killer.

Science.gov (United States)

Inguito, G B; Sekula-Perlman, A; Lynch, M J; Callery, R T

2000-11-01

The violent murder of Shirley Ellis on November 29, 1987, marked the beginning of the strange and terrible tale of Steven Bryan Pennell's reign as the state of Delaware's first convicted serial killer. Three more bodies followed the first victim, and all had been brutally beaten and sadistically tortured. The body of a fifth woman has never been found. State and county police collaborated with the FBI to identify and hunt down their suspect, forming a task force of over 100 officers and spending about one million dollars. Through their knowledge and experience with other serial killers, the FBI was able to make an amazingly accurate psychological profile of Delaware's serial killer. After months of around-the-clock surveillance, Steven Pennell was arrested on November 29, 1988, one year to the day after the first victim was found. Pennell was found guilty in the deaths of the first two victims on November 29, 1989, and plead no contest to the murder of two others on October 30, 1991. Still maintaining his innocence, he asked for the death penalty so that he could spare his family further agony. Steven Pennell was executed by lethal injection on March 15, 1992.

Galileo - The Serial-Production AIT Challenge

Science.gov (United States)

Ragnit, Ulrike; Brunner, Otto

2008-01-01

The Galileo Project is one of the most demanding projects of ESA, being Europe's autarkic navigation system and a constellation composed of 30 satellites. This presentation points out the different phases of the project up to the full operational capability and the corresponding launch options with respect to launch vehicles as well as launch configurations. One of the biggest challenges is to set up a small serial 'production line' for the overall integration and test campaign of satellites. This production line demands an optimization of all relevant tasks, taking into account also backup and recovery actions. A comprehensive AIT concept is required, reflecting a tightly merged facility layout and work flow design. In addition a common data management system is needed to handle all spacecraft related documentation and to have a direct input-out flow for all activities, phases and positions at the same time. Process optimization is a well known field of engineering in all small high tech production lines, nevertheless serial production of satellites are still not the daily task in space business and therefore new concepts have to be put in place. Therefore, and in order to meet the satellites overall system optimization, a thorough interface between unit/subsystem manufacturing and satellite AIT must be realized to ensure a smooth flow and to avoid any process interruption, which would directly lead to a schedule impact.

Classifying serial killers.

Science.gov (United States)

Promish, D I; Lester, D

1999-11-08

We attempted to match the appearance and demeanor of 27 serial killers to the postmortem 'signatures' found on their victims' bodies. Our results suggest that a link may exist between postmortem signatures and two complementary appearance-demeanor types.

CAMAC serial highway interface for the LSI-11

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lau, N.H.

1980-01-01

A CAMAC Serial Highway Interface has been designed for the Local Control and Instrumentation System of the Mirror Fusion Test Facility. There are over 50 distinguishable systems in the facility, each of which consists of the LSI-11 computer, fiber optic communication links, and the CAMAC system. The LSI-11 computer includes a 32k memory, serial modem interface and the CAMAC Serial Highway Interface

Notorious Cases of Serial Killers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iosub Elena-Cătălina

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The reconstruction of a death scene provides an overall picture of the crime and will indicate the murder as an event or one of a series of events and also the criminal. But when the criminal is declared a serial killer, many questions are raised up. How could a person kill some else without a reason or why people react in such a disorganized way and become so brutal or what made them act like that and so many questions with also so many answers. This project explains the psychology of a murderer, his own way of thinking and acting by presuming that we may accurately discover what is in their minds when they kill. It is about a very complex issue regarding murder investigations, biological factors and psychological profile of a serial killer. Dealing with this problem we will at last reach to the question that could solve finally the puzzle: ―Are serial murderers distorted reflections of society's own values?

Modus operandi of female serial killers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, W; Hilton, T

1998-04-01

The modus operandi of female serial killers was examined from a chronology of 58 cases in America and 47 cases in 17 other countries, compiled over 25-year intervals. Female serial killers in other countries accounted for a disproportionately greater number of victims, but those in America managed a longer killing career when associated with a low profile modus operandi.

The involvement of long-term serial-order memory in reading development: A longitudinal study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bogaerts, Louisa; Szmalec, Arnaud; De Maeyer, Marjolijn; Page, Mike P A; Duyck, Wouter

2016-05-01

Recent findings suggest that Hebb repetition learning-a paradigmatic example of long-term serial-order learning-is impaired in adults with dyslexia. The current study further investigated the link between serial-order learning and reading using a longitudinal developmental design. With this aim, verbal and visual Hebb repetition learning performance and reading skills were assessed in 96 Dutch-speaking children who we followed from first through second grade of primary school. We observed a positive association between order learning capacities and reading ability as well as weaker Hebb learning performance in early readers with poor reading skills even at the onset of reading instruction. Hebb learning further predicted individual differences in later (nonword) reading skills. Finally, Hebb learning was shown to explain a significant part of the variance in reading performance above and beyond phonological awareness. These findings highlight the role of serial-order memory in reading ability. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

SERIAL TELEVISI DEXTER SEBAGAI ANAKRONISME DALAM SASTRA POPULER

OpenAIRE

Ida Rochani Adi

2014-01-01

In the popular literature context, this study aims to investigate: (1) how the formulation of the characterization of Dexter in the television serial Dexter violates the tradition of literary characterization, and (2) how the formula of moral values is dramatized through Dexter, who is a sociopath, psychopath, serial killer, and person without moral. The research object was the television serial Dexter, which ranks five in popularity in the world. The data were collected by documenting 84 epi...

A multi-modular helical magnetic millirobot navigating in curved tubular environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seungmun Jeon

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel multi-modular helical magnetic millirobot (MHMM able to navigate in curved tubular environments. The proposed MHMM is basically composed of head, middle, and tail modules serially connected by a universal joint, and can employ more modules if necessary. The head module is a helical body with a magnetic rotary tip attached to the front end. Thus, once located in a curved tube filled with a fluid, the MHMM can effectively generate navigating or unclogging motions simply actuated by an external rotating magnetic field. This paper also examines the dynamic characteristics of the MHMM under various working conditions to manipulate the MHMM in a stable and safe manner. Then, it demonstrates various controlled motions of the MHMM in an in-vitro pulsatile flow environment to show the validity of the proposed structure and method.

A curve-fitting approach to estimate the arterial plasma input function for the assessment of glucose metabolic rate and response to treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Vriens, Dennis; de Geus-Oei, Lioe-Fee; Oyen, Wim J G; Visser, Eric P

2009-12-01

For the quantification of dynamic (18)F-FDG PET studies, the arterial plasma time-activity concentration curve (APTAC) needs to be available. This can be obtained using serial sampling of arterial blood or an image-derived input function (IDIF). Arterial sampling is invasive and often not feasible in practice; IDIFs are biased because of partial-volume effects and cannot be used when no large arterial blood pool is in the field of view. We propose a mathematic function, consisting of an initial linear rising activity concentration followed by a triexponential decay, to describe the APTAC. This function was fitted to 80 oncologic patients and verified for 40 different oncologic patients by area-under-the-curve (AUC) comparison, Patlak glucose metabolic rate (MR(glc)) estimation, and therapy response monitoring (Delta MR(glc)). The proposed function was compared with the gold standard (serial arterial sampling) and the IDIF. To determine the free parameters of the function, plasma time-activity curves based on arterial samples in 80 patients were fitted after normalization for administered activity (AA) and initial distribution volume (iDV) of (18)F-FDG. The medians of these free parameters were used for the model. In 40 other patients (20 baseline and 20 follow-up dynamic (18)F-FDG PET scans), this model was validated. The population-based curve, individually calibrated by AA and iDV (APTAC(AA/iDV)), by 1 late arterial sample (APTAC(1 sample)), and by the individual IDIF (APTAC(IDIF)), was compared with the gold standard of serial arterial sampling (APTAC(sampled)) using the AUC. Additionally, these 3 methods of APTAC determination were evaluated with Patlak MR(glc) estimation and with Delta MR(glc) for therapy effects using serial sampling as the gold standard. Excellent individual fits to the function were derived with significantly different decay constants (P AUC from APTAC(AA/iDV), APTAC(1 sample), and APTAC(IDIF) with the gold standard (APTAC(sampled)) were 0

The Serial Murderer's Motivations: An Interdisciplinary Review.

Science.gov (United States)

DeHart, Dana D.; Mahoney, John M.

1994-01-01

Defines serial killer as individual who murders two or more victims over an extended period of time, ranging from days to years, with the crimes often being sexually motivated. Reviews existing motivational theories of serial murder and proposes additional explications from range of disciplines. Presents suggestions for future research and…

Neck curve polynomials in neck rupture model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kurniadi, Rizal; Perkasa, Yudha S.; Waris, Abdul

2012-01-01

The Neck Rupture Model is a model that explains the scission process which has smallest radius in liquid drop at certain position. Old fashion of rupture position is determined randomly so that has been called as Random Neck Rupture Model (RNRM). The neck curve polynomials have been employed in the Neck Rupture Model for calculation the fission yield of neutron induced fission reaction of 280 X 90 with changing of order of polynomials as well as temperature. The neck curve polynomials approximation shows the important effects in shaping of fission yield curve.

From animal cruelty to serial murder: applying the graduation hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Jeremy; Hensley, Christopher

2003-02-01

Although serial murder has been recorded for centuries, limited academic attention has been given to this important topic. Scholars have attempted to examine the causality and motivations behind the rare phenomenon of serial murder. However, scant research exists which delves into the childhood characteristics of serial murderers. Using social learning theory, some of these studies present supporting evidence for a link between childhood animal cruelty and adult aggression toward humans. Based on five case studies of serial murderers, we contribute to the existing literature by exploring the possible link between childhood cruelty toward animals and serial murder with the application of the graduation hypothesis.

Serial Austen. Mashingups with Zombies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eleonora Federici

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Jane Austen sells. She sells in all possible ways, her novels have been adapted for the cinema and the stage, they have been rewritten as comics and graphic novels. Jane austen is a cultural icon. The interest in her life is so strong that many biographies have been written in order to recover new facts and details. The places where she has lived and the places depicted in her novels have become tourist sites for literary pilgrims. Austen is a cross-over phenomenon, with regency costume balls recreated in her name and an endless proliferation of her works in all media. My essay will investigate Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009, a mash-up novel which has become a real cultural phenomenon of the last decade and will demonstrate how it can be considered a serial narrative. If as Henry Jenkins asserts, seriality implies the unfolding of a story over time through a process of “chunking” (that is creating meaningful parts of the same story and of “dispersal” (that is breaking the story into more parts and in more genres and media, mash-ups seems to do this.  Austen’s story remains as a “story hook” which pushes the reader to come back to different products for a continuation of the same story. So, if on the one hand, seriality occurs within the same text, the story-telling of Austen’s stories across genres and media is part of a seriality process.

Sensing the Opaque : Seriality and the Aesthetics of Televisual Form

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dasgupta, S.; Kelleter, F.

2017-01-01

Recent work on TV seriality focuses on the deference of meaning through narrative extension. Contemporary seriality, it has been argued, exploits this expanding textuality to construct complicated narratives that tip the pleasures of seriality toward detecting the meaning of the plot's

Serial private infrastructures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Berg, V.A.C.

2013-01-01

This paper investigates private supply of two congestible infrastructures that are serial, where the consumer has to use both in order to consume. Four market structures are analysed: a monopoly and 3 duopolies that differ in how firms interact. It is well known that private supply leads too high

Serial murder: An unusual stereotype.

Science.gov (United States)

Sane, Mandar R; Mugadlimath, Anand B; Farooqui, Jamebaseer M; Janagond, Anand B; Mishra, Pradeep K

2017-12-01

Serial murders attract attention from the media, mental health experts, academia, and the general public. We present a case of serial murders that took place in a limited area and which caused public anxiety and anguish in central India. All the victims were homeless beggars, who were bludgeoned to death (crush injury). Individual murders were initially investigated by different police stations; fortunately, since they sent all the bodies to a common autopsy centre, a forensic pathologist was able to link all the cases, the first person to do so. This emphasises the need for sharing information among police stations and autopsy centres.

Child serial murder-psychodynamics: closely watched shadows.

Science.gov (United States)

Turco, R

2001-01-01

There is a malignant transformation in object relations resulting in an identification with an omnipotent and cruel object resulting in an identity transformation. If the tension, desperation, and dissociation increase, serial murder becomes spree murder. The presence of pathological narcissism and psychopathic tendencies are of diagnostic significance in understanding the murderer's personality functioning and motivation to kill. Meloy (1988) considered the degree of sadism and aggression combined with narcissistic qualities to reflect the "malignancy" of the psychopathic disturbance where gratification (of aggression) occurs in the service of narcissistic functioning--that is, cruelty toward others in the form of a triumphant victory over a rejecting object. Meloy also believes that dissociation is ubiquitious in the psychopath. The initial murder of the serial murderer may reflect a "new identity." The pathological object-relations of narcissism and the malignant narcissism are important diagnostic indicators in the personality functioning of serial killers and the occurrence of these phenomena is a significant factor in the formation of the personalities of serial killers, their inner motivations, and their pattern of commission.

IMPLEMENTATION OF SERIAL AND PARALLEL BUBBLE SORT ON FPGA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dwi Marhaendro Jati Purnomo

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Sorting is common process in computational world. Its utilization are on many fields from research to industry. There are many sorting algorithm in nowadays. One of the simplest yet powerful is bubble sort. In this study, bubble sort is implemented on FPGA. The implementation was taken on serial and parallel approach. Serial and parallel bubble sort then compared by means of its memory, execution time, and utility which comprises slices and LUTs. The experiments show that serial bubble sort required smaller memory as well as utility compared to parallel bubble sort. Meanwhile, parallel bubble sort performed faster than serial bubble sort

A high speed serializer ASIC for ATLAS Liquid Argon calorimeter upgrade

CERN Document Server

Liu, T; The ATLAS collaboration

2011-01-01

The current front-end electronics of the ATLAS Liquid Argon calorimeters need to be upgraded to sustain the higher radiation levels and data rates expected at the upgraded LHC machine (HL-LHC), which will have 5 times more luminosity than the LHC in its ultimate configuration. This upgrade calls for an optical link system of 100 Gbps per front-end board (FEB). A high speed, low power, radiation tolerant serializer is the critical component in this system. In this paper, we present the design and test results of a single channel 16:1 serializer and the design of a double-channel 16:1 serializer. Both designs are based on a commercial 0.25 μm silicon-on-sapphire CMOS technology. The single channel serializer consists of a serializing unit, a PLL clock generator and a line driver implemented in current mode logic (CML). The serializing unit multiplexes 16 bit parallel LVDS data into 1-bit width serial CMOS data. The serializing unit is composed of a cascade of 2:1 multiplexing circuits based on static D-flip-fl...

Fine motor movements while drawing during the encoding phase of a serial verbal recall task reduce working memory performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Tindle, Richard; Longstaff, Mitchell G

2016-02-01

The time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model of working memory indicates that secondary tasks that capture attention for relatively long periods can result in the interference of working memory processing and maintenance. The current study investigates if discrete and continuous movements have differing effects on a concurrent, verbal serial recall task. In the listening condition, participants were asked to recall spoken words presented in lists of six. In the drawing conditions, participants performed the same task while producing discrete (star) or continuous (circle) movements. As hypothesised, participants recalled more words overall in the listening condition compared to the combined drawing conditions. The prediction that the continuous movement condition would reduce recall compared to listening was also supported. Fine-grained analysis at each serial position revealed significantly more words were recalled at mid serial positions in the listening condition, with worst recall for the continuous condition at position 5 compared to the listening and discrete conditions. Kinematic analysis showed that participants increased the size and speed of the continuous movements resulting in a similar duration and number of strokes for each condition. The duration of brief pauses in the discrete condition was associated with the number of words recalled. The results indicate that fine motor movements reduced working memory performance; however, it was not merely performing a movement but the type of the movement that determined how resources were diverted. In the context of the TBRS, continuous movements could be capturing attention for longer periods relative to discrete movements, reducing verbal serial recall. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of multiple sclerosis, age and degree of disability, in the position of the contrast sensitivity curve peak

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A F Nunes

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Context: Contrast sensitivity (CS function is one of the most important tests available for evaluating visual impairment. Multiple sclerosis (MS can produce highly selective losses in visual function and psychophysical studies have demonstrated CS deficits for some spatial frequencies. Aims: This work studies the differences in CS between a group of controls and a group of MS patients, focusing on the location of the maximum sensitivity peak, shape of the curve, and determination of the most affected spatial frequencies. Materials and Methods: Using a sinusoidal stimulus the authors assessed CS function in 28 subjects with definitive relapsing remitting MS, and in 50 controls with acuities of 20/25 or better. The peaks of the CS curves were studied by fitting third degree polynomials to individual sets of data. Results: Compared with the control group, the CS function curve for MS subjects showed more deficits in extreme points (low- and high-spatial frequencies. Our results display significant CS losses, at the high-frequencies band level, in the beginning of the disease. When the disease progresses and the disabilities appear, there are greater losses at the low-frequencies band level. In average, the CS curve peaks for the MS group were shifted in relation to the control group. Conclusions: CS losses in the MS group suggest an association with ageing and disability level in the expanded disability status scale. The position of the CS function peak is influenced by MS, age, and degree of disability.

A curve-fitting approach to estimate the arterial plasma input function for the assessment of glucose metabolic rate and response to treatment.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vriens, D.; Geus-Oei, L.F. de; Oyen, W.J.G.; Visser, E.P.

2009-01-01

For the quantification of dynamic (18)F-FDG PET studies, the arterial plasma time-activity concentration curve (APTAC) needs to be available. This can be obtained using serial sampling of arterial blood or an image-derived input function (IDIF). Arterial sampling is invasive and often not feasible

[The serial murder: a few theoretical perspectives].

Science.gov (United States)

Leistedt, S; Linkowski, P

2011-01-01

Despite numbers of publications and effort to try to establish the definition, the classification, the epidemiology, the clinical aspects and the psychopathology of serial killers, a universal consensus seems to say the least. Crime, though reduced in some countries, appears to impact more and more consistent worldwide, generating controversial ideas and a multitude of possible explanations. The serial killer usually presents as a caucasian man, aged between 20 and 40 years, often embedded socially and in his family, but with serious psychiatric, personal and especially family history. Usually acting alone, the serial killer plans a crime well in advance, but sometimes within the scope of impulsivity for a minority, the victim not being previously selected. In the latter case, an actual mental illness like psychosis is found. It is clear from numerous psychopathological studies conducted so far that most serial killers are defined as psychopathic sexual sadists, whose childhood was difficult, if not flouted, punctuated by physical and psychological violence situations. In addition, pervasive fantasies combined with thoughts of death, sex and violence are as much in common with the original acts of which they are the instigators. Beyond a relentless media that is constantly watering the public with stories and pictures depicting them as such, serial killers remain an enigma. We can therefore attempt to answer the various questions raised by this phenomenon, the way these people operate and how we can curb the rise, thanks to the neurobiological and neurophysiological approaches that science offers us.

Development of serial magnification angiography and its clinical significance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sasaki, Tsuneo; Matsubara, Kazuhito; Ishiguchi, Tsuneo; Mashita, Shinichi; Kaii, Osamu

1979-01-01

In order to apply serial magnification angiography to clinical examinations so easily, a serial cardioangiography apparatus was equipped with a tube having 0.1 mm focal spot and with DRX-431HD diode. A CAT-FK Type catheter bed (Toshiba) was used as a roentgenographic table and a PUCK film changer was used. Thus, serial magnification angiography can be easily used to clinical examinations, and can be set in a usual x-ray photographic studio. Serial magnification angiography was used to examine the cerebral vessels in 6 patients, vessels of the pulmonary circulation in 1 patient, bronchial arteries in 6 patients, the celiac artery in 18 patients, the superior mesenteric artery in 2 patients, inferior mesenteric artery in 2 patients, the renal artery in 2 patients, and the adrenal vein in 7 patients. Owing to this angiography, minute changes in the vessel in the lesion can be observed and fine neovascularity can be detected. Thus, serial magnification angiography makes diagnoses of vascular disorders easier. (Ichikawa, K.)

Combined dynamic contrast-enhancement and serial 3D-subtraction analysis in magnetic resonance imaging of osteoid osteomas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kalle, T. von; Winkler, P. [Klinikum Stuttgart Olgahospital, Department of Paediatric Radiology, Stuttgart (Germany); Langendoerfer, M.; Fernandez, F.F. [Klinikum Stuttgart Olgahospital, Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics, Stuttgart (Germany)

2009-10-15

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively correlate the results of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with histological and clinical diagnoses in patients with osteoid osteomas. Fifty-four patients with the MR diagnosis of osteoid osteoma were studied. MRI (1.5 Tesla) consisted of thin-section STIR sequences, dynamic 3D T1 gradient echo sequences during application of contrast material, and high-resolution postcontrast T1 spin echo sequences with fat saturation (maximum voxel size 0.6 x 0.6 x 3.0 mm). Evaluation was focused on serial image subtraction during the early phase after contrast injection and on time-intensity curves. The surrounding edema was helpful in finding the nidus in each lesion. In 49 of 54 patients (90.7%), the diagnosis of osteoid osteoma was certain or highly probable (sensitivity 1.0, positive predictive value 0.91). A total of 38 of 54 osteoid osteomas were histologically proven. Five MRI diagnoses were regarded as false positives. A similar proportion has been reported for computed tomography. Tailored high-resolution MR examinations with dynamic contrast enhancement can reliably diagnose osteoid osteomas and exactly localize the nidus without radiation exposure. We propose a stepwise approach with STIR sequences, dynamic contrast-enhanced scanning, and high-resolution postcontrast T1 spin echo sequences with fat saturation. (orig.)

Combined dynamic contrast-enhancement and serial 3D-subtraction analysis in magnetic resonance imaging of osteoid osteomas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalle, T. von; Winkler, P.; Langendoerfer, M.; Fernandez, F.F.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively correlate the results of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with histological and clinical diagnoses in patients with osteoid osteomas. Fifty-four patients with the MR diagnosis of osteoid osteoma were studied. MRI (1.5 Tesla) consisted of thin-section STIR sequences, dynamic 3D T1 gradient echo sequences during application of contrast material, and high-resolution postcontrast T1 spin echo sequences with fat saturation (maximum voxel size 0.6 x 0.6 x 3.0 mm). Evaluation was focused on serial image subtraction during the early phase after contrast injection and on time-intensity curves. The surrounding edema was helpful in finding the nidus in each lesion. In 49 of 54 patients (90.7%), the diagnosis of osteoid osteoma was certain or highly probable (sensitivity 1.0, positive predictive value 0.91). A total of 38 of 54 osteoid osteomas were histologically proven. Five MRI diagnoses were regarded as false positives. A similar proportion has been reported for computed tomography. Tailored high-resolution MR examinations with dynamic contrast enhancement can reliably diagnose osteoid osteomas and exactly localize the nidus without radiation exposure. We propose a stepwise approach with STIR sequences, dynamic contrast-enhanced scanning, and high-resolution postcontrast T1 spin echo sequences with fat saturation. (orig.)

Curved butterfly bileaflet prosthetic cardiac valve

Science.gov (United States)

McQueen, David M.; Peskin, Charles S.

1991-06-25

An annular valve body having a central passageway for the flow of blood therethrough with two curved leaflets each of which is pivotally supported on an accentric positioned axis in the central passageway for moving between a closed position and an open position. The leaflets are curved in a plane normal to the eccentric axis and positioned with the convex side of the leaflets facing each other when the leaflets are in the open position. Various parameters such as the curvature of the leaflets, the location of the eccentric axis, and the maximum opening angle of the leaflets are optimized according to the following performance criteria: maximize the minimum peak velocity through the valve, maximize the net stroke volume, and minimize the mean forward pressure difference, thereby reducing thrombosis and improving the hemodynamic performance.

How Do We Write about Performance in Serial Television?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elliott Logan

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Television studies has produced few sustained analyses of performance in serial television. Yet film studies scholarship has shown how attending to the integration of performances with other aspects of film style is crucial to the interpretation and appreciation of expression and meaning in filmed narrative fictions. However, as a particle form of filmed serial narrative, series television raises a number of questions about performance that will not necessarily be satisfyingly addressed by the direct adoption and application of approaches to writing about performance that have been honed in regard to film. How, then, do we write about performance in television serials in ways that recognise and accommodate the form’s relationship to film, while at the same time appropriately acknowledging and responding to long-form television’s serial status? To examine the difficulties and opportunities of approaching performance in serial television this way, the article conducts close readings of various pieces of television studies writing on performance, by scholars such as Jason Mittell, Sue Turnbull, George Toles, and Steven Peacock. Their work brings into view film and television’s points of common relation, and the distinctive challenges, achievements, and rewards of appreciating the best television serials, and the performances in them.

Universal Linear Motor Driven Leg Press Dynamometer and Concept of Serial Stretch Loading.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamar, Dušan

2015-08-24

Paper deals with backgrounds and principles of universal linear motor driven leg press dynamometer and concept of serial stretch loading. The device is based on two computer controlled linear motors mounted to the horizontal rails. As the motors can keep either constant resistance force in selected position or velocity in both directions, the system allows simulation of any mode of muscle contraction. In addition, it also can generate defined serial stretch stimuli in a form of repeated force peaks. This is achieved by short segments of reversed velocity (in concentric phase) or acceleration (in eccentric phase). Such stimuli, generated at the rate of 10 Hz, have proven to be a more efficient means for the improvement of rate of the force development. This capability not only affects performance in many sports, but also plays a substantial role in prevention of falls and their consequences. Universal linear motor driven and computer controlled dynamometer with its unique feature to generate serial stretch stimuli seems to be an efficient and useful tool for enhancing strength training effects on neuromuscular function not only in athletes, but as well as in senior population and rehabilitation patients.

Design of position monitor module in radioactive material transport monitoring system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adi Abimanyu; Dwi Yuliansari N

2013-01-01

Aspects of safety and security of radioactive substances from the sender to the receiver is to be secured so as not to harm humans. In general, monitoring is done through conversation by telephone to determine the location and rate of exposure of radioactive substances. Through the development of science and technology makes it possible to develop a system of monitoring the transport of radioactive substances in real time by combining radiation monitor module, position monitors module and sending information nir-cable. Position monitor module developed using GPS-receiver and a micro controller ATMega8 based serial interrupts communication. Testing is done by testing communication between micro controller and GPS and also testing reading position by GPS receiver. From the test results concluded that the developed modules is good in serial communication is based on serial interrupts, good position measurement to be used outdoors and is not good enough for measurements indoors because the GPS receiver used is not using an outdoor antenna. (author)

Determination of motive of serial invaders as a stage of serial murders investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Davydov A.B.

2017-04-01

Full Text Available the article discusses the existing classification of motives of serial murderers. The author provides the classification, which is based on the technique of extreme meanings offered by D.A. Leontyev.

Playing at Serial Acquisitions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.T.J. Smit (Han); T. Moraitis (Thras)

2010-01-01

textabstractBehavioral biases can result in suboptimal acquisition decisions-with the potential for errors exacerbated in consolidating industries, where consolidators design serial acquisition strategies and fight escalating takeover battles for platform companies that may determine their future

PORNOGRAFI DALAM SERIAL ANIME ANAK (ANALISIS SEMIOTIKA DALAM SERIAL CRAYON SHIN CHAN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

- Sangidun

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Crayon Shin Chan, a Japanese two-dimension animation series broadcast in one of private Indonesian TVs, is categorized into child’s program since it is broadcast at child’s prime time, Sunday 08.30 a.m. In spite of its broadcast time, this series consist of symbols directed not for children, such as some acts that are not appropriate to be done by children, especially in Indonesia. Moreover, adult symbols of sex are also found in the program. For this reason it will be interesting to analyze it using semiotic analysis. Semiotics is the study of symbol and its meaning which its principle concept is that both signifier and signified consist of symbols and are related to denotation and connotation.   Crayon Shin Chan merupakan serial animasi dua dimensi yang tayang di salah satu stasiun televisi swasta di Indonesia. Ini merupakan produk animasi 2 dimensi yang diimpor dari Jepang. Di Indonesia, serial ini masuk dalam kategori acara anak. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari jam penayangannya yang merupakan waktu prime time bagi anak, yakni pada hari minggu pukul 08.30. Akan tetapi, pada serial ini banyak simbol-simbol yang mengarah pada tayangan yang bukan untuk anak-anak, yakni adeganadegan yang tidak pantas dilakukan oleh anak khususnya di Indonesia. Serta adanya pula simbol-simbol yang mengarah pada tayangan berbau dewasa. Tentu akan menarik jika tayangan ini diteliti menggunakan analisis semiotika. Semiotika sendiri merupakan kajian ilmu mengenai tanda dan makna. Yang pada prinsipnya, konsep penting seperti penanda (signifier dan petanda (signified sama-sama terdiri dari tanda dan terkait dengan denotasi dan konotasi.

Stochastic modeling of a serial killer.

Science.gov (United States)

Simkin, M V; Roychowdhury, V P

2014-08-21

We analyze the time pattern of the activity of a serial killer, who during 12 years had murdered 53 people. The plot of the cumulative number of murders as a function of time is of "Devil's staircase" type. The distribution of the intervals between murders (step length) follows a power law with the exponent of 1.4. We propose a model according to which the serial killer commits murders when neuronal excitation in his brain exceeds certain threshold. We model this neural activity as a branching process, which in turn is approximated by a random walk. As the distribution of the random walk return times is a power law with the exponent 1.5, the distribution of the inter-murder intervals is thus explained. We illustrate analytical results by numerical simulation. Time pattern activity data from two other serial killers further substantiate our analysis. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Investigation of Selective College and University Libraries' Serial Arrangement.

Science.gov (United States)

Kesler, Elizabeth Gates; Teborek, Gay

Data from a survey on serials arrangement procedures and policies at academic libraries was used by the University of Rhode Island (URI) Library in changing current serials policies. Ten libraries, four of which have similar serial holdings and user populations to URI, responded to a questionnaire. Information was obtained on classification versus…

Serials cataloging at the turn of the century

CERN Document Server

Williams, James W

2014-01-01

An overview of the research topics and trends that have appeared over the last five years, Serials Cataloging at the Turn of the Century doesn't just tell you that there has been a lot of change--that the information environment is something of a chameleon, always beguiling and slipping out of grasp. Instead, it gives you the plain facts on the specific challenges serials catalogers have been facing and how they're meeting adversity head-on, ready to gain the advantage in the rumble with proliferating information and formats.Comprehensive, resource-packed, and easy-to-digest, Serials Catalogin

New superintegrable models with position-dependent mass from Bertrand's Theorem on curved spaces

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ballesteros, A; Herranz, F J [Departamento de Fisica, Universidad de Burgos, E-09001 Burgos (Spain); Enciso, A [Departamento de Fisica Teorica II, Universidad Complutense, E-28040 Madrid (Spain); Ragnisco, O; Riglioni, D, E-mail: angelb@ubu.es, E-mail: aenciso@fis.ucm.es, E-mail: fjherranz@ubu.es, E-mail: ragnisco@fis.uniroma3.it, E-mail: riglioni@fis.uniroma3.it [Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Roma Tre and Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare sezione di Roma Tre, Via Vasca Navale 84, I-00146 Roma (Italy)

2011-03-01

A generalized version of Bertrand's theorem on spherically symmetric curved spaces is presented. This result is based on the classification of (3+1)-dimensional (Lorentzian) Bertrand spacetimes, that gives rise to two families of Hamiltonian systems defined on certain 3-dimensional (Riemannian) spaces. These two systems are shown to be either the Kepler or the oscillator potentials on the corresponding Bertrand spaces, and both of them are maximally superintegrable. Afterwards, the relationship between such Bertrand Hamiltonians and position-dependent mass systems is explicitly established. These results are illustrated through the example of a superintegrable (nonlinear) oscillator on a Bertrand-Darboux space, whose quantization and physical features are also briefly addressed.

[Landmark-based automatic registration of serial cross-sectional images of Chinese digital human using Photoshop and Matlab software].

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Xiu-yun; Pei, Guo-xian; Yu, Bin; Hu, Yan-ling; Li, Jin; Huang, Qian; Li, Xu; Zhang, Yuan-zhi

2007-12-01

This paper describes automatic registration of the serial cross-sectional images of Chinese digital human by projective registration method based on the landmarks using the commercially available software Photoshop and Matlab. During cadaver embedment for acquisition of the Chinese digital human images, 4 rods were placed parallel to the vertical axis of the frozen cadaver to allow orientation. Projective distortion of the rod positions on the cross-sectional images was inevitable due to even slight changes of the relative position of the camera. The original cross-sectional images were first processed using Photoshop software firstly to obtain the images of the orientation rods, and the centroid coordinate of every rod image was acquired with Matlab software. With the average coordinate value of the rods as the fiducial point, two-dimensional projective transformation coefficient of each image was determined. Projective transformation was then carried out and projective distortion from each original serial image was eliminated. The rectified cross-sectional images were again processed using Photoshop to obtain the image of the first orientation rod, the coordinate value of first rod image was calculated using Matlab software, and the cross-sectional images were cut into images of the same size according to the first rod spatial coordinate, to achieve automatic registration of the serial cross-sectional images. sing Photoshop and Matlab softwares, projective transformation can accurately accomplish the image registration for the serial images with simpler calculation processes and easier computer processing.

Representation of the serial killer on the Italian Internet.

Science.gov (United States)

Villano, P; Bastianoni, P; Melotti, G

2001-10-01

The representation of serial killers was examined from the analysis of 317 Web pages in the Italian language to study how the psychological profiles of serial killers are described on the Italian Internet. The correspondence analysis of the content of these Web pages shows that in Italy the serial killer is associated with words such as "monster" and "horror," which suggest and imply psychological perversion and aberrant acts. These traits are peculiar for the Italian scenario.

Effects of Serial Rehearsal Training on Memory Search

Science.gov (United States)

McCauley, Charley; And Others

1976-01-01

Half the subjects were trained to use a serial rehearsal strategy during target set storage and half were given no strategy training. The results indicate that the rate of memory search is IQ-related, and that serial rehearsal training facilitates memory search when rehearsal is covert. (Author/BW)

Highlights in radiation measuring technique's - Serial Micro Channel SMC 2100

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kandler, M.; Hoffmann, Ch.

2002-01-01

The Serial Micro Channel SMC 2100 offers an ''intelligent stand alone'' electronics for the radiation measuring technique's. First it is designed of being connected to a serial interface RS232 of a PC. With a RS485 serial interface on a PC, a network structure can be generated. It has all functional modules which are necessary for the measurement of detector signals. Hence it is possible to directly connect any detector for radiation measurement to a PC, laptop, or notebook. All variations can be operated without PC support too. It has a modular structure and consists of two blocks, the functional modules and the basic modules. The Serial Micro Channel SMC 2100 may be directly coupled to a detector, which therefore makes the realisation of an ''intelligent radiation detector'' with serial link RS232 or RS485. (orig.)

Multistage parallel-serial time averaging filters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Theodosiou, G.E.

1980-01-01

Here, a new time averaging circuit design, the 'parallel filter' is presented, which can reduce the time jitter, introduced in time measurements using counters of large dimensions. This parallel filter could be considered as a single stage unit circuit which can be repeated an arbitrary number of times in series, thus providing a parallel-serial filter type as a result. The main advantages of such a filter over a serial one are much less electronic gate jitter and time delay for the same amount of total time uncertainty reduction. (orig.)

Implementation of Serial and Parallel Bubble Sort on Fpga

OpenAIRE

Purnomo, Dwi Marhaendro Jati; Arinaldi, Ahmad; Priyantini, Dwi Teguh; Wibisono, Ari; Febrian, Andreas

2016-01-01

Sorting is common process in computational world. Its utilization are on many fields from research to industry. There are many sorting algorithm in nowadays. One of the simplest yet powerful is bubble sort. In this study, bubble sort is implemented on FPGA. The implementation was taken on serial and parallel approach. Serial and parallel bubble sort then compared by means of its memory, execution time, and utility which comprises slices and LUTs. The experiments show that serial bubble sort r...

Serial forced displacement in American cities, 1916-2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Fullilove, Mindy Thompson; Wallace, Rodrick

2011-06-01

Serial forced displacement has been defined as the repetitive, coercive upheaval of groups. In this essay, we examine the history of serial forced displacement in American cities due to federal, state, and local government policies. We propose that serial forced displacement sets up a dynamic process that includes an increase in interpersonal and structural violence, an inability to react in a timely fashion to patterns of threat or opportunity, and a cycle of fragmentation as a result of the first two. We present the history of the policies as they affected one urban neighborhood, Pittsburgh's Hill District. We conclude by examining ways in which this problematic process might be addressed.

SERIAL PERCENT-FREE PSA IN COMBINATION WITH PSA FOR POPULATION-BASED EARLY DETECTION OF PROSTATE CANCER

Science.gov (United States)

Ankerst, Donna Pauler; Gelfond, Jonathan; Goros, Martin; Herrera, Jesus; Strobl, Andreas; Thompson, Ian M.; Hernandez, Javier; Leach, Robin J.

2016-01-01

PURPOSE To characterize the diagnostic properties of serial percent-free prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in relation to PSA in a multi-ethnic, multi-racial cohort of healthy men. MATERIALS AND METHODS 6,982 percent-free PSA and PSA measures were obtained from participants in a 12 year+ Texas screening study comprising 1625 men who never underwent biopsy, 497 who underwent one or more biopsies negative for prostate cancer, and 61 diagnosed with prostate cancer. Area underneath the receiver-operating-characteristic-curve (AUC) for percent-free PSA, and the proportion of patients with fluctuating values across multiple visits were determined according to two thresholds (under 15% versus 25%) were evaluated. The proportion of cancer cases where percent-free PSA indicated a positive test before PSA > 4 ng/mL did and the number of negative biopsies that would have been spared by percent-free PSA testing negative were computed. RESULTS Percent-free PSA fluctuated around its threshold of PSA tested positive earlier than PSA in 71.4% (34.2%) of cancer cases, and among men with multiple negative biopsies and a PSA > 4 ng/mL, percent-free PSA would have tested negative in 31.6% (65.8%) instances. CONCLUSIONS Percent-free PSA should accompany PSA testing in order to potentially spare unnecessary biopsies or detect cancer earlier. When near the threshold, both tests should be repeated due to commonly observed fluctuation. PMID:26979652

Kinematics and dynamics analysis of a novel serial-parallel dynamic simulator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Bo; Zhang, Lian Dong; Yu, Jingjing [Parallel Robot and Mechatronic System Laboratory of Hebei Province, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei (China)

2016-11-15

A serial-parallel dynamics simulator based on serial-parallel manipulator is proposed. According to the dynamics simulator motion requirement, the proposed serial-parallel dynamics simulator formed by 3-RRS (active revolute joint-revolute joint-spherical joint) and 3-SPR (Spherical joint-active prismatic joint-revolute joint) PMs adopts the outer and inner layout. By integrating the kinematics, constraint and coupling information of the 3-RRS and 3-SPR PMs into the serial-parallel manipulator, the inverse Jacobian matrix, velocity, and acceleration of the serial-parallel dynamics simulator are studied. Based on the principle of virtual work and the kinematics model, the inverse dynamic model is established. Finally, the workspace of the (3-RRS)+(3-SPR) dynamics simulator is constructed.

Kinematics and dynamics analysis of a novel serial-parallel dynamic simulator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, Bo; Zhang, Lian Dong; Yu, Jingjing

2016-01-01

A serial-parallel dynamics simulator based on serial-parallel manipulator is proposed. According to the dynamics simulator motion requirement, the proposed serial-parallel dynamics simulator formed by 3-RRS (active revolute joint-revolute joint-spherical joint) and 3-SPR (Spherical joint-active prismatic joint-revolute joint) PMs adopts the outer and inner layout. By integrating the kinematics, constraint and coupling information of the 3-RRS and 3-SPR PMs into the serial-parallel manipulator, the inverse Jacobian matrix, velocity, and acceleration of the serial-parallel dynamics simulator are studied. Based on the principle of virtual work and the kinematics model, the inverse dynamic model is established. Finally, the workspace of the (3-RRS)+(3-SPR) dynamics simulator is constructed

A miniature microcontroller curve tracing circuit for space flight testing transistors.

Science.gov (United States)

Prokop, N; Greer, L; Krasowski, M; Flatico, J; Spina, D

2015-02-01

This paper describes a novel miniature microcontroller based curve tracing circuit, which was designed to monitor the environmental effects on Silicon Carbide Junction Field Effect Transistor (SiC JFET) device performance, while exposed to the low earth orbit environment onboard the International Space Station (ISS) as a resident experiment on the 7th Materials on the International Space Station Experiment (MISSE7). Specifically, the microcontroller circuit was designed to operate autonomously and was flown on the external structure of the ISS for over a year. This curve tracing circuit is capable of measuring current vs. voltage (I-V) characteristics of transistors and diodes. The circuit is current limited for low current devices and is specifically designed to test high temperature, high drain-to-source resistance SiC JFETs. The results of each I-V data set are transmitted serially to an external telemetered communication interface. This paper discusses the circuit architecture, its design, and presents example results.

Recommendations for CAMAC Serial Highway drivers and LAM Graders for the SCC-L2 Serial Crate Controller

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1978-01-01

The functional requirements of Drivers for the CAMAC Serial Highway defined in IEEE Standard 595-1976 are described. The description is independent of the implementation, and in particular no assumption is made about the boundary between hardware and software within the Driver. Topics covered are the user interface, the supporting system services required, demand handling, and a detailed discussion of the message analysis for various levels of error recovery. An appendix describes the recommended features of LAM Graders for use with the Serial Crate Controller Type L2 of IEEE Std 595-1976

A psychological profile of a serial killer: a case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Dogra, T D; Leenaars, Antoon A; Chadha, R K; Manju, Mehta; Lalwani, Sanjeev; Sood, Mamta; Lester, David; Raina, Anupuma; Behera, C

2012-01-01

Serial killers have always fascinated society. A serial killer is typically defined as a perpetrator who murders three or more people over a period of time. Most reported cases of serial killers come from the United States and Canada. In India, there are few reported cases. We present, to the best of our knowledge, the first Indian case in the literature. The present case is of a 28-year-old man, Surinder Koli. The Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delphi handled the forensic study. We present a most unique psychological investigation into the mind of a serial killer.

Malignant sex and aggression: an overview of serial sexual homicide.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, W C; Reccoppa, L; Burton, K; McElroy, R

1993-01-01

Serial murderers have attracted considerable attention in the popular press and criminal justice field, but scientific literature about these individuals is limited. This article provides an overview, from a psychiatric perspective, of serial sexual homicide, one type of serial killing. Characteristics of this type of murder and of these offenders are discussed. Defining qualities and diagnoses applicable to serial sexual killers are reviewed. Various etiologic theories are discussed, with emphasis on the role of fantasy and psychodynamic explanations. Governmental agencies involved in combating this type of crime, along with the role of mental health professionals in criminal profiling, are presented. Finally, the authors explore the reaction of society to this phenomenon.

Transtornos de personalidade, psicopatia e serial killers Personality disorders, psychopathy and serial killers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hilda C P Morana

2006-10-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Apresentar as características básicas dos diversos transtornos específicos de personalidade, mas centrando-se no transtorno de personalidade anti-social, fazendo sua diferenciação com psicopatia. O estudo ainda se propõe a abordar a figura do serial killer, apontando a presença de aspectos psicopáticos no homicídio seriado. MÉTODO: Uma revisão bibliográfica foi feita no sentido de se abordar convergências e divergências entre diversos autores sobre um assunto tão polêmico, sobretudo quanto à viabilidade de tratamento dessa clientela forense. RESULTADOS: Enquanto o transtorno de personalidade anti-social é um diagnóstico médico, pode-se entender o termo "psicopatia", pertencente à esfera psiquiátrico-forense, como um "diagnóstico legal". Não se pode falar ainda de tratamento eficaz para os chamados "serial killers". CONCLUSÃO: Os transtornos de personalidade, especialmente o tipo anti-social, representam ainda hoje um verdadeiro desafio para a psiquiatria forense. O local mais adequado e justo para seus portadores, bem como recomendação homogênea e padronizada de tratamento são questões ainda não respondidas.OBJECTIVE: To illustrate the basic characteristics of several specific personality disorders, focusing mainly in antisocial personality disorder. The differences between antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy are highlighted. Serial killers and its psychopathic aspects are also discussed. METHOD: A bibliographic review was completed in order to outline convergences and divergences among different authors about this controversial issue, especially those concerning the possibility of treatment. RESULTS: While anti-social personality disorder is a medical diagnosis, the term "psychopathy" (which belongs to the sphere of forensic psychiatry may be understood as a "legal diagnosis". It is not still possible to identify an effective treatment for serial killers. CONCLUSION: Personality disorders

Selection and Serial Entrepreneurs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Jing

2011-01-01

Although it has been broadly evidenced that entrepreneurial experience plays a substantial role in the emergence of serial entrepreneurship, the debate is still going on about whether this relationship should be attributed to learning by doing or instead be explained by selection on ability. This...

Suicide in serial killers.

Science.gov (United States)

Lester, David; White, John

2010-02-01

In a sample of 248 killers of two victims in America from 1900 to 2005, obtained from an encyclopedia of serial killers by Newton (2006), those completing suicide did not differ in sex, race, or the motive for the killing from those who were arrested.

The serial message-passing schedule for LDPC decoding algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Mingshan; Liu, Shanshan; Zhou, Yuan; Jiang, Xue

2015-12-01

The conventional message-passing schedule for LDPC decoding algorithms is the so-called flooding schedule. It has the disadvantage that the updated messages cannot be used until next iteration, thus reducing the convergence speed . In this case, the Layered Decoding algorithm (LBP) based on serial message-passing schedule is proposed. In this paper the decoding principle of LBP algorithm is briefly introduced, and then proposed its two improved algorithms, the grouped serial decoding algorithm (Grouped LBP) and the semi-serial decoding algorithm .They can improve LBP algorithm's decoding speed while maintaining a good decoding performance.

Nanoflow electrospinning serial femtosecond crystallography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sierra, Raymond G.; Laksmono, Hartawan; Kern, Jan; Tran, Rosalie; Hattne, Johan; Alonso-Mori, Roberto; Lassalle-Kaiser, Benedikt; Glöckner, Carina; Hellmich, Julia; Schafer, Donald W.; Echols, Nathaniel; Gildea, Richard J.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Sellberg, Jonas; McQueen, Trevor A.; Fry, Alan R.; Messerschmidt, Marc M.; Miahnahri, Alan; Seibert, M. Marvin; Hampton, Christina Y.; Starodub, Dmitri; Loh, N. Duane; Sokaras, Dimosthenis; Weng, Tsu-Chien; Zwart, Petrus H.; Glatzel, Pieter; Milathianaki, Despina; White, William E.; Adams, Paul D.; Williams, Garth J.; Boutet, Sébastien; Zouni, Athina; Messinger, Johannes; Sauter, Nicholas K.; Bergmann, Uwe; Yano, Junko; Yachandra, Vittal K.; Bogan, Michael J.

2012-01-01

A low flow rate liquid microjet method for delivery of hydrated protein crystals to X-ray lasers is presented. Linac Coherent Light Source data demonstrates serial femtosecond protein crystallography with micrograms, a reduction of sample consumption by orders of magnitude. An electrospun liquid microjet has been developed that delivers protein microcrystal suspensions at flow rates of 0.14–3.1 µl min −1 to perform serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) studies with X-ray lasers. Thermolysin microcrystals flowed at 0.17 µl min −1 and diffracted to beyond 4 Å resolution, producing 14 000 indexable diffraction patterns, or four per second, from 140 µg of protein. Nanoflow electrospinning extends SFX to biological samples that necessitate minimal sample consumption

Nanoflow electrospinning serial femtosecond crystallography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sierra, Raymond G.; Laksmono, Hartawan [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Kern, Jan [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Tran, Rosalie; Hattne, Johan [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Alonso-Mori, Roberto [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Lassalle-Kaiser, Benedikt [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Glöckner, Carina; Hellmich, Julia [Technische Universität Berlin, Strasse des 17 Juni 135, 10623 Berlin (Germany); Schafer, Donald W. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Echols, Nathaniel; Gildea, Richard J.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Sellberg, Jonas [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden); McQueen, Trevor A. [Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94025 (United States); Fry, Alan R.; Messerschmidt, Marc M.; Miahnahri, Alan; Seibert, M. Marvin; Hampton, Christina Y.; Starodub, Dmitri; Loh, N. Duane; Sokaras, Dimosthenis; Weng, Tsu-Chien [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Zwart, Petrus H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Glatzel, Pieter [European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble (France); Milathianaki, Despina; White, William E. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Adams, Paul D. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Williams, Garth J.; Boutet, Sébastien [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Zouni, Athina [Technische Universität Berlin, Strasse des 17 Juni 135, 10623 Berlin (Germany); Messinger, Johannes [Umeå Universitet, Umeå (Sweden); Sauter, Nicholas K. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Bergmann, Uwe [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); Yano, Junko; Yachandra, Vittal K. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Bogan, Michael J., E-mail: mbogan@slac.stanford.edu [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States)

2012-11-01

A low flow rate liquid microjet method for delivery of hydrated protein crystals to X-ray lasers is presented. Linac Coherent Light Source data demonstrates serial femtosecond protein crystallography with micrograms, a reduction of sample consumption by orders of magnitude. An electrospun liquid microjet has been developed that delivers protein microcrystal suspensions at flow rates of 0.14–3.1 µl min{sup −1} to perform serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) studies with X-ray lasers. Thermolysin microcrystals flowed at 0.17 µl min{sup −1} and diffracted to beyond 4 Å resolution, producing 14 000 indexable diffraction patterns, or four per second, from 140 µg of protein. Nanoflow electrospinning extends SFX to biological samples that necessitate minimal sample consumption.

Short term memory development : Differences in serial position curves between age groups and latent classes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koppenol, G.V.; Bouwmeester, S.; Vermunt, J.K.

2014-01-01

In studies on the development of cognitive processes, children are often grouped based on their ages before analyzing the data. After the analysis, the differences between age groups are interpreted as developmental differences. We argue that this approach is problematic because the variance in

Natural born killers?: the development of the sexually sadistic serial killer.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, B R; Becker, J V

1997-01-01

Today's society seems enthralled with serial killers in the news and the media. Forensic psychiatrists often interview serial killers after they have been caught. There are retrospective studies and case reports of individuals who have committed sexually sadistic serial murders. However, there exists a dearth of case reports on adolescents who have expressed serious fantasies about becoming serial killer prior to actualizing their fantasy. This article presents nine clinical cases of 14- to 18-year-olds who have clinically significant fantasies of becoming a serial killer. Similarities exist in these adolescent cases when compared with retrospective studies and case reports of serial killers on the role of sexually sadistic fantasies and actual killings. Since it has been established that sexual paraphilias may develop at a young age, one can surmise that sadistic paraphilias may also develop in some adolescents. The question is posed, can we predict which of these adolescents may go on to actually become serial killers? This article focuses on how the sexually sadistic fantasy can eventually be acted out and possible motives for the act to be repeated multiple times. Finally, recommendations are made about assessing and treating a youngster who expresses violent sexually sadistic killing fantasies so that attempts can be made to interrupt the progression to actual killing.

Using Serial and Discrete Digit Naming to Unravel Word Reading Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Altani, Angeliki; Protopapas, Athanassios; Georgiou, George K

2018-01-01

During reading acquisition, word recognition is assumed to undergo a developmental shift from slow serial/sublexical processing of letter strings to fast parallel processing of whole word forms. This shift has been proposed to be detected by examining the size of the relationship between serial- and discrete-trial versions of word reading and rapid naming tasks. Specifically, a strong association between serial naming of symbols and single word reading suggests that words are processed serially, whereas a strong association between discrete naming of symbols and single word reading suggests that words are processed in parallel as wholes. In this study, 429 Grade 1, 3, and 5 English-speaking Canadian children were tested on serial and discrete digit naming and word reading. Across grades, single word reading was more strongly associated with discrete naming than with serial naming of digits, indicating that short high-frequency words are processed as whole units early in the development of reading ability in English. In contrast, serial naming was not a unique predictor of single word reading across grades, suggesting that within-word sequential processing was not required for the successful recognition for this set of words. Factor mixture analysis revealed that our participants could be clustered into two classes, namely beginning and more advanced readers. Serial naming uniquely predicted single word reading only among the first class of readers, indicating that novice readers rely on a serial strategy to decode words. Yet, a considerable proportion of Grade 1 students were assigned to the second class, evidently being able to process short high-frequency words as unitized symbols. We consider these findings together with those from previous studies to challenge the hypothesis of a binary distinction between serial/sublexical and parallel/lexical processing in word reading. We argue instead that sequential processing in word reading operates on a continuum

The Organized/Disorganized Typology of Serial Murder: Myth or Model?

OpenAIRE

Canter, David V.; Alison, Laurence J.; Alison, Emily; Wentink, Natalia

2004-01-01

Despite weaknesses in the organized/disorganized classification of serial killers, it is drawn on for "offender profiles," theories of offending, and in murder trials. This dichotomy was therefore tested by the multidimensional scaling of the co-occurrence of 39 aspects of serial killings derived 100 murders committed by 100 U.S. serial killers. Results revealed no distinct subsets of offense characteristics reflecting the dichotomy. They showed a subset of organized features typical of most ...

Optimization and Interpretation of Serial QuantiFERON Testing to Measure Acquisition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Nemes, Elisa; Rozot, Virginie; Geldenhuys, Hennie; Bilek, Nicole; Mabwe, Simbarashe; Abrahams, Deborah; Makhethe, Lebohang; Erasmus, Mzwandile; Keyser, Alana; Toefy, Asma; Cloete, Yolundi; Ratangee, Frances; Blauenfeldt, Thomas; Ruhwald, Morten; Walzl, Gerhard; Smith, Bronwyn; Loxton, Andre G; Hanekom, Willem A; Andrews, Jason R; Lempicki, Maria D; Ellis, Ruth; Ginsberg, Ann M; Hatherill, Mark; Scriba, Thomas J

2017-09-01

Conversion from a negative to positive QuantiFERON-TB test is indicative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, which predisposes individuals to tuberculosis disease. Interpretation of serial tests is confounded by immunological and technical variability. To improve the consistency of serial QuantiFERON-TB testing algorithms and provide a data-driven definition of conversion. Sources of QuantiFERON-TB variability were assessed, and optimal procedures were identified. Distributions of IFN-γ response levels were analyzed in healthy adolescents, Mtb-unexposed control subjects, and patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Individuals with no known Mtb exposure had IFN-γ values less than 0.2 IU/ml. Among individuals with IFN-γ values less than 0.2 IU/ml, 0.2-0.34 IU/ml, 0.35-0.7 IU/ml, and greater than 0.7 IU/ml, tuberculin skin test positivity results were 15%, 53%, 66%, and 91% (P 0.7 IU/ml) would allow more definitive detection of recent Mtb infection and potentially improve identification of those more likely to develop disease.

Utilization of serial resources in libraries of selected tertiary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Information Impact: Journal of Information and Knowledge Management ... security personnel for adequate monitoring of the serial materials, as well as the need for authors and stakeholders in education to donate more serial materials in order to enrich the collections in the library and enhance academic performance.

IT-based Value Creation in Serial Acquisitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henningsson, Stefan; Yetton, Philip

2013-01-01

serial acquirers realize IT-based value, we integrate and model the findings on individual acquisitions from the extant literature, and extend that model to explain the effects of sequential acquisitions in a growth-by-acquisition strategy. This extended model, drawing on the Resource-Based Theory......The extant research on post-acquisition IT integration analyzes how acquirers realize IT-based value in individual acquisitions. However, serial acquirers make 60% of acquisitions. These acquisitions are not isolated events, but are components in growth-by-acquisition programs. To explain how...

Opportunity recognition: delineating the process and motivators for serial entrepreneurs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boris Urban

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Opportunity recognition is a fundamental research issue in entrepreneurship which this paper empirically investigates for serial entrepreneurs. Initially key definitions and boundary conditions of opportunity recognition are explored to elucidate the relevant motivators driving serial entrepreneurs. After operationalising the various concepts, data is collected by surveying serial entrepreneurs (n= 77 based on pre-determined selection criteria. Since the study’s objective is to build solid theory on these new phenomena, descriptive analysis on the empirical results is provided. To test the hypotheses inferential statistics employing parametric and non-parametric tests are used. The findings reveal that the opportunity recognition behaviours are manifest among serial entrepreneurs, with few significant differences on how many new, major businesses have been pursued, or whether they can be said to be successes.

Female serial murderers: directions for future research on a hidden population.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurian, Elizabeth A

2011-02-01

This comprehensive overview on a sample of 65 cases (134 total offenders, including some partnered teams of more than 2 offenders) provides information on female serial murderers who either work in a mixed-sex offending group or alone. These female serial homicide offenders have a distinct set of offender-victim characteristics, including specific victim preferences, methods, and motivations: Partnered serial homicide offenders are more likely to target adult strangers and dispatch them using a combination of methods, whereas solo female serial murderers are most likely to target adult family members and murder them with poison. These patterns have the potential to add to our understanding of the possible similarities and differences of serial homicide cases by building on established offender characteristics. Convictions and sentences for the offenders are included and areas of future research and implications for treatment with this sample are also explored.

IEEE 1394/firewire a low cost, high speed, digital serial bus

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gaunt, R.

1997-05-01

Does the world need yet another 1/0 bus standard? If you need fast and cheap serial video communication, then the answer is yes. As technology advances, so too must data transport mechanisms advance. You can`t expect RS-232 to support real-time digital video, and if you can`t afford expensive professional serial video interfaces, (such as Sony`s Serial Digital Interface), Firewire may be a good solution. IEEE 1394, or commonly known as Firewire, is a general purpose serial bus that meets many of the 1/0 needs of today`s video and multimedia developers. For those of you who only read the first paragraph, here`s Firewire in a nutshell: It provides a guaranteed transfer rate of 10OMbps or 20OMbps of digital data (such as video direct from camera to computer), over an inexpensive, non-proprietary serial bus. Here is a list of its features.

Indexing Serialized Fiction: May the Force Be with You.

Science.gov (United States)

Barr, Melissa M.

The adult novel offers indexers an unusual opportunity to create a serialized fiction index. This research paper involved designing and creating a Character Index, Thesaurus, Glossary, and Abstract (with descriptors) for 21 novels based on the "Star Wars" movies. The novels are an unusual example of serialized fiction featuring main…

Perpendicular serial maxillary distraction osteogenesis in cleft lip and palate patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Ylikontiola, Leena P; Sándor, George K; Harila, Virpi

2015-01-01

Cleft lip and palate patients often have a retruded maxilla with a severely narrowed deficient maxillary arch. This report aims to describe the management of severe maxillary retrusion and constriction in cleft lip and palate patients using distraction osteogenesis applied in serial sequence in two directions perpendicular to each other. Two adult male cleft lip and palate patients were treated with maxillary distraction osteogenesis in two stages. In the first stage, surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion with a tooth-borne device was performed to significantly expand the maxillary arch in the transverse dimension. After the teeth were orthodontically aligned, the horizontal distraction of the maxilla was made by two internal maxillary distraction devices. In the first patient, the maxilla was initially widened by 11 mm and then distracted forward by 20 mm. Despite the breakage of the shaft of one of the two distractors at the end of distraction, a satisfactory occlusion was found at the time of distractor device removal. The maxillary position has remained stable through 8 years of follow-up. In the second patient, the palate was widened by 14 mm and the maxilla was distracted forward by 22 mm. The maxillary position has remained stable through 3 years of follow-up. Sequential serial distraction of maxilla in two planes perpendicular to each other is a safe and stable approach for the treatment of cleft lip and palate patients with severe transverse and anteroposterior discrepancies.

Stress in Harmonic Serialism

Science.gov (United States)

Pruitt, Kathryn Ringler

2012-01-01

This dissertation proposes a model of word stress in a derivational version of Optimality Theory (OT) called Harmonic Serialism (HS; Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004, McCarthy 2000, 2006, 2010a). In this model, the metrical structure of a word is derived through a series of optimizations in which the "best" metrical foot is chosen…

The relationship between serial sexual murder and autoerotic asphyxiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Wade C; Bukhanovskiy, Alexandr; Justen, Elle; Morton, Robert J; Tilley, John; Adams, Kenneth; Vandagriff, Virgil L; Hazelwood, Robert R

2008-04-07

This case series documents and examines the association between autoerotic asphyxiation, sadomasochism, and serial sexual murderers. Autoerotic asphyxiation, along with other paraphilias found in this population, is reviewed. Five cases of serial sexual killers who engaged in autoerotic asphyxiation were identified worldwide: four from the United States and one from Russia. Case reports for each are provided. All (100%) were found to have sexual sadism in addition to autoerotic asphyxiation. Furthermore, two (40%) had bondage fetishism, and two (40%) had transvestic fetishism, consistent with these paraphilias co-occurring in those with autoerotic asphyxiation. Overall the group averaged 4.0 lifetime paraphilias. Some possible relationships were observed between the offenders' paraphilic orientation and their modus operandi, e.g., all of these serial killers strangled victims-suggesting an association between their sadistic and asphyxiative paraphilic interests. The overlap of seemingly polar opposite paraphilias in this sample--sexual sadism and autoerotic asphyxiation--is explored from a historical and clinical perspective. Multiple commonalities shared between these five offenders and serial sexual murderers in general are addressed. A primary limitation of this study is its small sample size and empirical basis; the results may not be generalizable beyond the sample. The findings from this study support the supposition that crime scene behaviors often reflect paraphilic disturbances in those who commit serial sexual homicides.

ON THE TOPOLOGY OF MECHANISMS DESIGNED FOR CURVES GENERATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MEREUTA Elena

2008-07-01

Full Text Available The paper presents some mechanisms used for generating simple or complex curves. The mechanisms are shown in different positions and for some special curves the demonstrations are performed.

High-resolution time series of Pseudomonas aeruginosa gene expression and rhamnolipid secretion through growth curve synchronization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xavier João B

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Online spectrophotometric measurements allow monitoring dynamic biological processes with high-time resolution. Contrastingly, numerous other methods require laborious treatment of samples and can only be carried out offline. Integrating both types of measurement would allow analyzing biological processes more comprehensively. A typical example of this problem is acquiring quantitative data on rhamnolipid secretion by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. P. aeruginosa cell growth can be measured by optical density (OD600 and gene expression can be measured using reporter fusions with a fluorescent protein, allowing high time resolution monitoring. However, measuring the secreted rhamnolipid biosurfactants requires laborious sample processing, which makes this an offline measurement. Results Here, we propose a method to integrate growth curve data with endpoint measurements of secreted metabolites that is inspired by a model of exponential cell growth. If serial diluting an inoculum gives reproducible time series shifted in time, then time series of endpoint measurements can be reconstructed using calculated time shifts between dilutions. We illustrate the method using measured rhamnolipid secretion by P. aeruginosa as endpoint measurements and we integrate these measurements with high-resolution growth curves measured by OD600 and expression of rhamnolipid synthesis genes monitored using a reporter fusion. Two-fold serial dilution allowed integrating rhamnolipid measurements at a ~0.4 h-1 frequency with high-time resolved data measured at a 6 h-1 frequency. We show how this simple method can be used in combination with mutants lacking specific genes in the rhamnolipid synthesis or quorum sensing regulation to acquire rich dynamic data on P. aeruginosa virulence regulation. Additionally, the linear relation between the ratio of inocula and the time-shift between curves produces high-precision measurements of

Testing Cross-Sectional Correlation in Large Panel Data Models with Serial Correlation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Badi H. Baltagi

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper considers the problem of testing cross-sectional correlation in large panel data models with serially-correlated errors. It finds that existing tests for cross-sectional correlation encounter size distortions with serial correlation in the errors. To control the size, this paper proposes a modification of Pesaran’s Cross-sectional Dependence (CD test to account for serial correlation of an unknown form in the error term. We derive the limiting distribution of this test as N , T → ∞ . The test is distribution free and allows for unknown forms of serial correlation in the errors. Monte Carlo simulations show that the test has good size and power for large panels when serial correlation in the errors is present.

Fixed target matrix for femtosecond time-resolved and in situ serial micro-crystallography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Mueller

2015-09-01

Full Text Available We present a crystallography chip enabling in situ room temperature crystallography at microfocus synchrotron beamlines and X-ray free-electron laser (X-FEL sources. Compared to other in situ approaches, we observe extremely low background and high diffraction data quality. The chip design is robust and allows fast and efficient loading of thousands of small crystals. The ability to load a large number of protein crystals, at room temperature and with high efficiency, into prescribed positions enables high throughput automated serial crystallography with microfocus synchrotron beamlines. In addition, we demonstrate the application of this chip for femtosecond time-resolved serial crystallography at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS, Menlo Park, California, USA. The chip concept enables multiple images to be acquired from each crystal, allowing differential detection of changes in diffraction intensities in order to obtain high signal-to-noise and fully exploit the time resolution capabilities of XFELs.

A semiparametric separation curve approach for comparing correlated ROC data from multiple markers

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Liansheng Larry; Zhou, Xiao-Hua

2012-01-01

In this article we propose a separation curve method to identify the range of false positive rates for which two ROC curves differ or one ROC curve is superior to the other. Our method is based on a general multivariate ROC curve model, including interaction terms between discrete covariates and false positive rates. It is applicable with most existing ROC curve models. Furthermore, we introduce a semiparametric least squares ROC estimator and apply the estimator to the separation curve method. We derive a sandwich estimator for the covariance matrix of the semiparametric estimator. We illustrate the application of our separation curve method through two real life examples. PMID:23074360

Antisocial personality disorder, sexual sadism, malignant narcissism, and serial murder.

Science.gov (United States)

Geberth, V J; Turco, R N

1997-01-01

This paper examines the research on serial murder and its relationship to antisocial personality disorder and sexual sadism. The concept of malignant narcissism is also discussed. Case studies of serial killers are examined regarding the nature of sexual violation and crime scene behavior.

Attractive Serial Dependence in the Absence of an Explicit Task.

Science.gov (United States)

Fornaciai, Michele; Park, Joonkoo

2018-03-01

Attractive serial dependence refers to an adaptive change in the representation of sensory information, whereby a current stimulus appears to be similar to a previous one. The nature of this phenomenon is controversial, however, as serial dependence could arise from biased perceptual representations or from biased traces of working memory representation at a decisional stage. Here, we demonstrated a neural signature of serial dependence in numerosity perception emerging early in the visual processing stream even in the absence of an explicit task. Furthermore, a psychophysical experiment revealed that numerosity perception is biased by a previously presented stimulus in an attractive way, not by repulsive adaptation. These results suggest that serial dependence is a perceptual phenomenon starting from early levels of visual processing and occurring independently from a decision process, which is consistent with the view that these biases smooth out noise from neural signals to establish perceptual continuity.

Using Behavior Sequence Analysis to Map Serial Killers' Life Histories.

Science.gov (United States)

Keatley, David A; Golightly, Hayley; Shephard, Rebecca; Yaksic, Enzo; Reid, Sasha

2018-03-01

The aim of the current research was to provide a novel method for mapping the developmental sequences of serial killers' life histories. An in-depth biographical account of serial killers' lives, from birth through to conviction, was gained and analyzed using Behavior Sequence Analysis. The analyses highlight similarities in behavioral events across the serial killers' lives, indicating not only which risk factors occur, but the temporal order of these factors. Results focused on early childhood environment, indicating the role of parental abuse; behaviors and events surrounding criminal histories of serial killers, showing that many had previous convictions and were known to police for other crimes; behaviors surrounding their murders, highlighting differences in victim choice and modus operandi; and, finally, trial pleas and convictions. The present research, therefore, provides a novel approach to synthesizing large volumes of data on criminals and presenting results in accessible, understandable outcomes.

Serial murder by healthcare professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Yorker, Beatrice Crofts; Kizer, Kenneth W; Lampe, Paula; Forrest, A R W; Lannan, Jacquetta M; Russell, Donna A

2008-01-01

The prosecution of Charles Cullen, a nurse who killed at least 40 patients over a 16-year period, highlights the need to better understand the phenomenon of serial murder by healthcare professionals. The authors conducted a LexisNexis search which yielded 90 criminal prosecutions of healthcare providers that met inclusion criteria for serial murder of patients. In addition we reviewed epidemiologic studies, toxicology evidence, and court transcripts, to provide data on healthcare professionals who have been prosecuted between 1970 and 2006. Fifty-four of the 90 have been convicted; 45 for serial murder, four for attempted murder, and five pled guilty to lesser charges. Twenty-four more have been indicted and are either awaiting trial or the outcome has not been published. The other 12 prosecutions had a variety of legal outcomes. Injection was the main method used by healthcare killers followed by suffocation, poisoning, and tampering with equipment. Prosecutions were reported from 20 countries with 40% taking place in the United States. Nursing personnel comprised 86% of the healthcare providers prosecuted; physicians 12%, and 2% were allied health professionals. The number of patient deaths that resulted in a murder conviction is 317 and the number of suspicious patient deaths attributed to the 54 convicted caregivers is 2113. These numbers are disturbing and demand that systemic changes in tracking adverse patient incidents associated with presence of a specific healthcare provider be implemented. Hiring practices must shift away from preventing wrongful discharge or denial of employment lawsuits to protecting patients from employees who kill.

Serial evaluation of the MODS, SOFA and LOD scores to predict ICU mortality in mixed critically ill patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Khwannimit, Bodin

2008-09-01

To perform a serial assessment and compare ability in predicting the intensive care unit (ICU) mortality of the multiple organ dysfunction score (MODS), sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) and logistic organ dysfunction (LOD) score. The data were collected prospectively on consecutive ICU admissions over a 24-month period at a tertiary referral university hospital. The MODS, SOFA, and LOD scores were calculated on initial and repeated every 24 hrs. Two thousand fifty four patients were enrolled in the present study. The maximum and delta-scores of all the organ dysfunction scores correlated with ICU mortality. The maximum score of all models had better ability for predicting ICU mortality than initial or delta score. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for maximum scores was 0.892 for the MODS, 0.907 for the SOFA, and 0.92for the LOD. No statistical difference existed between all maximum scores and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score. Serial assessment of organ dysfunction during the ICU stay is reliable with ICU mortality. The maximum scores is the best discrimination comparable with APACHE II score in predicting ICU mortality.

A combination strategy for tracking the serial criminal

Science.gov (United States)

He, Chuan; Zhang, Yuan-Biao; Wan, Jiadi; Yu, Wenjing

2010-08-01

We build a Geographic Profiling Model to generate the criminal's geographical profile, by combining two complementary strategies: the Spatial Distribution Strategy and the Probability Distance Strategy. In the first strategy, we designate the mean of all the known crime sites as the anchor point, and build a Standard Deviational Ellipse Model, considering the effect of landscape. In the second strategy, we take many factors such as the buffer zone and distance decay theory into consideration and calculate the probability of the offender's residence in a certain area by using the Bayesian Theorem and the Rossmo Algorithm. Then, we combine the result of two strategies and get three search areas suit different conditions of the police to track the serial criminal. Apply the model to the English serial killer Peter Sutcliffe's case, the calculation result shows that the model can effectively be used to track serial criminal.

Spatial attention interacts with serial-order retrieval from verbal working memory.

Science.gov (United States)

van Dijck, Jean-Philippe; Abrahamse, Elger L; Majerus, Steve; Fias, Wim

2013-09-01

The ability to maintain the serial order of events is recognized as a major function of working memory. Although general models of working memory postulate a close link between working memory and attention, such a link has so far not been proposed specifically for serial-order working memory. The present study provided the first empirical demonstration of a direct link between serial order in verbal working memory and spatial selective attention. We show that the retrieval of later items of a sequence stored in working memory-compared with that of earlier items-produces covert attentional shifts toward the right. This observation suggests the conceptually surprising notion that serial-order working memory, even for nonspatially defined verbal items, draws on spatial attention.

Serial CSTR digester configuration for improving biogas production from manure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boe, Kanokwan; Angelidaki, Irini

2009-01-01

distribution ratio of 80/20 and 90/10, and total HRT of 15 days. The results showed that the serial CSTR could obtain 11% higher biogas yield compared to the single CSTR. The increased biogas yield in the serial CSTR was mainly from the second reactor, which accounted for 16% and 12% of total biogas yield......A new configuration of manure digesters for improving biogas production has been investigated in laboratory scale. A single thermophilic continuous-flow stirred tank reactor (CSTR) operated with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 15 days was compared to a serial CSTR configuration with volume...

Whole-pattern fitting technique in serial femtosecond nanocrystallography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruben A. Dilanian

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography (SFX has created new opportunities in the field of structural analysis of protein nanocrystals. The intensity and timescale characteristics of the X-ray free-electron laser sources used in SFX experiments necessitate the analysis of a large collection of individual crystals of variable shape and quality to ultimately solve a single, average crystal structure. Ensembles of crystals are commonly encountered in powder diffraction, but serial crystallography is different because each crystal is measured individually and can be oriented via indexing and merged into a three-dimensional data set, as is done for conventional crystallography data. In this way, serial femtosecond crystallography data lie in between conventional crystallography data and powder diffraction data, sharing features of both. The extremely small sizes of nanocrystals, as well as the possible imperfections of their crystallite structure, significantly affect the diffraction pattern and raise the question of how best to extract accurate structure-factor moduli from serial crystallography data. Here it is demonstrated that whole-pattern fitting techniques established for one-dimensional powder diffraction analysis can be feasibly extended to higher dimensions for the analysis of merged SFX diffraction data. It is shown that for very small crystals, whole-pattern fitting methods are more accurate than Monte Carlo integration methods that are currently used.

Serial killer: il database mondiale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gaetano parente

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The complex and multisided study of serial killers is partly made difficult by the current level of progress that has led these deviant people to evolve in relation to the aspects of shrewdness (concerning the staging and mobility. Despite the important work of some scholars who proposed important theories, all this shows that, concerning serial murders, it is still particularly frequent not to pay attention to links among homicides committed by the same person but in different parts of the world. It is therefore crucial to develop a worldwide database that allows all police forces to access information collected on crime scenes of murders which are particularly absurd and committed without any apparent reason. It will then be up to the profiler, through ad hoc and technologically advanced tools, to collect this information on the crime scene that would be made available to all police forces thanks to the worldwide database.

Numerical discrepancy between serial and MPI parallel computations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sang Bong Lee

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Numerical simulations of 1D Burgers equation and 2D sloshing problem were carried out to study numerical discrepancy between serial and parallel computations. The numerical domain was decomposed into 2 and 4 subdomains for parallel computations with message passing interface. The numerical solution of Burgers equation disclosed that fully explicit boundary conditions used on subdomains of parallel computation was responsible for the numerical discrepancy of transient solution between serial and parallel computations. Two dimensional sloshing problems in a rectangular domain were solved using OpenFOAM. After a lapse of initial transient time sloshing patterns of water were significantly different in serial and parallel computations although the same numerical conditions were given. Based on the histograms of pressure measured at two points near the wall the statistical characteristics of numerical solution was not affected by the number of subdomains as much as the transient solution was dependent on the number of subdomains.

A comparison of serial order short-term memory effects across verbal and musical domains.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorin, Simon; Mengal, Pierre; Majerus, Steve

2018-04-01

Recent studies suggest that the mechanisms involved in the short-term retention of serial order information may be shared across short-term memory (STM) domains such as verbal and visuospatial STM. Given the intrinsic sequential organization of musical material, the study of STM for musical information may be particularly informative about serial order retention processes and their domain-generality. The present experiment examined serial order STM for verbal and musical sequences in participants with no advanced musical expertise and experienced musicians. Serial order STM for verbal information was assessed via a serial order reconstruction task for digit sequences. In the musical domain, serial order STM was assessed using a novel melodic sequence reconstruction task maximizing the retention of tone order information. We observed that performance for the verbal and musical tasks was characterized by sequence length as well as primacy and recency effects. Serial order errors in both tasks were characterized by similar transposition gradients and ratios of fill-in:infill errors. These effects were observed for both participant groups, although the transposition gradients and ratios of fill-in:infill errors showed additional specificities for musician participants in the musical task. The data support domain-general serial order STM effects but also suggest the existence of additional domain-specific effects. Implications for models of serial order STM in verbal and musical domains are discussed.

S3-1: The Serial Dependence of Visual Perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Whitney

2012-10-01

Full Text Available In our moment-to-moment perceptual experience, visual scenes can change, but objects rarely spontaneously come into or out of existence. The visual system may therefore delicately balance the need to optimize sensitivity to image changes (e.g., by adapting to changes in color, orientation, object identity, etc with the desire to represent the temporal continuity of objects—the likelihood that objects perceived at this moment tend to exist in subsequent moments. One way that the visual system may promote such stability is through the introduction of serial dependence to visual perception: by biasing the current percept toward what was seen at previous moments, the brain could compensate for variability in visual input that might otherwise disrupt perceptual continuity. Here, in two sets of experiments, we tested for serial dependence in visual perception of orientation and facial expression. We found that on a given trial, a subject's perception of the orientation of a grating reflected not only the currently viewed stimulus, but also a systematic attraction toward the orientations of the previously viewed stimuli. We found the same serial dependence in the perception of facial expression. This perceptual attraction extended over several trials and seconds, and displayed clear tuning to the difference (in orientation or facial expression between the sequential stimuli. Furthermore, serial dependence in object perception was spatially specific and selective to the attended object within a scene. Several control experiments showed that the perceptual serial dependence we report cannot be explained by effects of priming, known hysteresis effects, visual short-term memory, or expectation. Our results reveal a systematic influence of recent visual experiences on perception at any given moment: visual percepts, even of unambiguous stimuli, are attracted toward what was previously seen. We propose that such serial dependence helps to maintain

Some Considerations on Seriality and Synchronicity

OpenAIRE

Elena Nechita

2010-01-01

This paper presents an overview of the results that have been obtained lately on seriality and synchronicity and their link, in the light of the new theories and within the frame of complexity science.

Evaluation of serial urine viral cultures for the diagnosis of cytomegalovirus infection in neonates and infants.

Science.gov (United States)

Chisholm, Karen M; Aziz, Natali; McDowell, Michal; Guo, Frances P; Srinivas, Nivedita; Benitz, William E; Norton, Mary E; Gutierrez, Kathleen; Folkins, Ann K; Pinsky, Benjamin A

2014-01-01

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of congenital infection worldwide. Urine viral culture is the standard for CMV diagnosis in neonates and infants. The objectives of this study were to compare the performance of serial paired rapid shell vial cultures (SVC) and routine viral cultures (RVC), and to determine the optimal number of cultures needed to detect positive cases. From 2001 to 2011, all paired CMV SVC and RVC performed on neonates and infants less than 100 days of age were recorded. Testing episodes were defined as sets of cultures performed within 7 days of one another. A total of 1264 neonates and infants underwent 1478 testing episodes; 68 (5.4%) had at least one episode with a positive CMV culture. In episodes where CMV was detected before day 21 of life, the first specimen was positive in 100% (16/16) of cases. When testing occurred after 21 days of life, the first specimen was positive in 82.7% (43/52) of cases, requiring three cultures to reach 100% detection. The SVC was more prone to assay failure than RVC. Overall, when RVC was compared to SVC, there was 86.0% positive agreement and 99.9% negative agreement. In conclusion, three serial urine samples are necessary for detection of CMV in specimens collected between day of life 22 and 99, while one sample may be sufficient on or before day of life 21. Though SVC was more sensitive than RVC, the risk of SVC failure supports the use of multimodality testing to optimize detection.

The Effect of Concurrent Semantic Categorization on Delayed Serial Recall

Science.gov (United States)

Acheson, Daniel J.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.; Postle, Bradley R.

2011-01-01

The influence of semantic processing on the serial ordering of items in short-term memory was explored using a novel dual-task paradigm. Participants engaged in 2 picture-judgment tasks while simultaneously performing delayed serial recall. List material varied in the presence of phonological overlap (Experiments 1 and 2) and in semantic content…

Infants' Memory Processing of a Serial List: List Length Effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Gulya, Michele; Sweeney, Becky; Rovee-Collier, Carolyn

1999-01-01

Three experiments demonstrated that increasing the length of a mobile serial list impaired 6-month olds' memory for serial order. Findings indicated that the primacy effect was absent on a 24-hour delayed recognition test and was exhibited on a reactivation test, adding to growing evidence that young infants possess two functionally distinct…

Motor cortical encoding of serial order in a context-recall task.

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, A F; Georgopoulos, A P; Pellizzer, G

1999-03-12

The neural encoding of serial order was studied in the motor cortex of monkeys performing a context-recall memory scanning task. Up to five visual stimuli were presented successively on a circle (list presentation phase), and then one of them (test stimulus) changed color; the monkeys had to make a single motor response toward the stimulus that immediately followed the test stimulus in the list. Correct performance in this task depends on memorization of the serial order of the stimuli during their presentation. It was found that changes in neural activity during the list presentation phase reflected the serial order of the stimuli; the effect on cell activity of the serial order of stimuli during their presentation was at least as strong as the effect of motor direction on cell activity during the execution of the motor response. This establishes the serial order of stimuli in a motor task as an important determinant of motor cortical activity during stimulus presentation and in the absence of changes in peripheral motor events, in contrast to the commonly held view of the motor cortex as just an "upper motor neuron."

Reaction kinetics in open reactors and serial transfers between closed reactors

Science.gov (United States)

Blokhuis, Alex; Lacoste, David; Gaspard, Pierre

2018-04-01

Kinetic theory and thermodynamics of reaction networks are extended to the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of continuous-flow stirred tank reactors (CSTR) and serial transfers. On the basis of their stoichiometry matrix, the conservation laws and the cycles of the network are determined for both dynamics. It is shown that the CSTR and serial transfer dynamics are equivalent in the limit where the time interval between the transfers tends to zero proportionally to the ratio of the fractions of fresh to transferred solutions. These results are illustrated with a finite cross-catalytic reaction network and an infinite reaction network describing mass exchange between polymers. Serial transfer dynamics is typically used in molecular evolution experiments in the context of research on the origins of life. The present study is shedding a new light on the role played by serial transfer parameters in these experiments.

The cortisol awakening response is associated with performance of a serial sequence reaction time task.

Science.gov (United States)

Hodyl, Nicolette A; Schneider, Luke; Vallence, Ann-Maree; Clow, Angela; Ridding, Michael C; Pitcher, Julia B

2016-02-01

There is emerging evidence of a relationship between the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and the neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory. The aim of this study was to determine whether the CAR is associated with acquisition, retention and overnight consolidation or improvement of a serial sequence reaction time task. Salivary samples were collected at 0, 15, 30 and 45 min after awakening in 39 healthy adults on 2 consecutive days. The serial sequence reaction time task was repeated each afternoon. Participants completed the perceived stress scale and provided salivary samples prior to testing for cortisol assessment. While the magnitude of the CAR (Z score) was not associated with either baseline performance or the timed improvement during task acquisition of the serial sequence task, a positive correlation was observed with reaction times during the stable performance phase on day 1 (r=0.373, p=0.019). Residuals derived from the relationship between baseline and stable phase reaction times on day 1 were used as a surrogate for the degree of learning: these residuals were also correlated with the CAR mean increase on day 1 (r=0.357, p=0.048). Task performance on day 2 was not associated with the CAR obtained on this same day. No association was observed between the perceived stress score, cortisol at testing or task performance. These data indicate that a smaller CAR in healthy adults is associated with a greater degree of learning and faster performance of a serial sequence reaction time task. These results support recognition of the CAR as an important factor contributing to cognitive performance throughout the day. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The predictive diagnostic value of serial daily bedside ultrasonography for severe dengue in Indonesian adults.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meta Michels

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Identification of dengue patients at risk for progressing to severe disease is difficult. Significant plasma leakage is a hallmark of severe dengue infection which can suddenly lead to hypovolemic shock around the time of defervescence. We hypothesized that the detection of subclinical plasma leakage may identify those at risk for severe dengue. The aim of the study was to determine the predictive diagnostic value of serial ultrasonography for severe dengue. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Daily bedside ultrasounds were performed with a handheld ultrasound device in a prospective cohort of adult Indonesians with dengue. Timing, localization and relation to dengue severity of the ultrasonography findings were determined, as well as the relation with serial hematocrit and albumin values. The severity of dengue was retrospectively determined by WHO 2009 criteria. A total of 66 patients with proven dengue infection were included in the study of whom 11 developed severe dengue. Presence of subclinical plasma leakage at enrollment had a positive predictive value of 35% and a negative predictive value of 90% for severe dengue. At enrollment, 55% of severe dengue cases already had subclinical plasma leakage, which increased to 91% during the subsequent days. Gallbladder wall edema was more pronounced in severe than in non-severe dengue patients and often preceded ascites/pleural effusion. Serial hematocrit and albumin measurements failed to identify plasma leakage and patients at risk for severe dengue. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Serial ultrasonography, in contrast to existing markers such as hematocrit, may better identify patients at risk for development of severe dengue. Patients with evidence of subclinical plasma leakage and/or an edematous gallbladder wall by ultrasonography merit intensive monitoring for development of complications.

The role of visual representations within working memory for paired-associate and serial order of spoken words.

Science.gov (United States)

Ueno, Taiji; Saito, Satoru

2013-09-01

Caplan and colleagues have recently explained paired-associate learning and serial-order learning with a single-mechanism computational model by assuming differential degrees of isolation. Specifically, two items in a pair can be grouped together and associated to positional codes that are somewhat isolated from the rest of the items. In contrast, the degree of isolation among the studied items is lower in serial-order learning. One of the key predictions drawn from this theory is that any variables that help chunking of two adjacent items into a group should be beneficial to paired-associate learning, more than serial-order learning. To test this idea, the role of visual representations in memory for spoken verbal materials (i.e., imagery) was compared between two types of learning directly. Experiment 1 showed stronger effects of word concreteness and of concurrent presentation of irrelevant visual stimuli (dynamic visual noise: DVN) in paired-associate memory than in serial-order memory, consistent with the prediction. Experiment 2 revealed that the irrelevant visual stimuli effect was boosted when the participants had to actively maintain the information within working memory, rather than feed it to long-term memory for subsequent recall, due to cue overloading. This indicates that the sensory input from irrelevant visual stimuli can reach and affect visual representations of verbal items within working memory, and that this disruption can be attenuated when the information within working memory can be efficiently supported by long-term memory for subsequent recall.

The effects of nidopallium caudolaterale inactivation on serial-order behaviour in pigeons (Columba livia).

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, Melissa Jane; Clarkson, Andrew N; Gowing, Emma K; Scarf, Damian; Colombo, Mike

2018-06-06

Serial-order behaviour is the ability to complete a sequence of responses in a predetermined order to achieve a reward. In birds, serial-order behaviour is thought to be impaired by damage to the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL). In the current study, we examined the role of the NCL in serial-order behaviour by training pigeons on a 4-item serial-order task and a go/no-go discrimination task. Following training, pigeons were received infusions of 1μl of either tetrodotoxin (TTX) or saline. Saline infusions had no impact on serial-order behaviour whereas TTX infusions resulted in a significant decrease in performance. The serial-order impairments, however, were not the results of errors of any specific error at any specific list item. With respect to the go/no-go discrimination task, saline infusions also had no impact on performance whereas TTX infusions impaired pigeons' discrimination abilities. Given the impairments on the go/no-go discrimination task, which does not require processing of serial-order information, we tentatively conclude that damage to the NCL does not impair serial-order behaviour per se, but rather results in a more generalised impairment that may impact performance across a range of tasks.

Some Considerations on Seriality and Synchronicity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Nechita

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an overview of the results that have been obtained lately on seriality and synchronicity and their link, in the light of the new theories and within the frame of complexity science.

Framing Violence and Serial Murder in My Friend Dahmer and Green River Killer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Harriet Earle

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The comics form has not remained untouched by true crime’s massive surge in status across popular culture, especially in America. Comics as a form is uniquely positioned to represent violent and graphic narratives in such a way as to maximise reader affect and create a chronicle of crime that is both entertaining and captivating, guiding and being guided by the reader. Two comics have received massive critical acclaim for their portrayals of ‘famous’ American serial killers: Jeffrey Dahmer in Derf’s 'My Friend Dahmer' (2012 and Arthur Shawcross in Jeff Jensen & Jonathan Case’s 'Green River Killer' (2011. This article considers the framing techniques deployed in both comics. I consider how these two comics, distinct in their artistic presentation and their focus, frame their respective subjects and represent the complexities of serial murder. To conclude, I perform a close analysis of one framing aspect of 'My Friend Dahmer' and expand on what the execution of this technique can tell us about comics as a true crime form.

Lagrangian Curves on Spectral Curves of Monopoles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guilfoyle, Brendan; Khalid, Madeeha; Ramon Mari, Jose J.

2010-01-01

We study Lagrangian points on smooth holomorphic curves in TP 1 equipped with a natural neutral Kaehler structure, and prove that they must form real curves. By virtue of the identification of TP 1 with the space LE 3 of oriented affine lines in Euclidean 3-space, these Lagrangian curves give rise to ruled surfaces in E 3 , which we prove have zero Gauss curvature. Each ruled surface is shown to be the tangent lines to a curve in E 3 , called the edge of regression of the ruled surface. We give an alternative characterization of these curves as the points in E 3 where the number of oriented lines in the complex curve Σ that pass through the point is less than the degree of Σ. We then apply these results to the spectral curves of certain monopoles and construct the ruled surfaces and edges of regression generated by the Lagrangian curves.

[Personality disorders, psychopathy and serial killers].

Science.gov (United States)

Morana, Hilda C P; Stone, Michael H; Abdalla-Filho, Elias

2006-10-01

To illustrate the basic characteristics of several specific personality disorders, focusing mainly in antisocial personality disorder. The differences between antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy are highlighted. Serial killers and its psychopathic aspects are also discussed. A bibliographic review was completed in order to outline convergences and divergences among different authors about this controversial issue, especially those concerning the possibility of treatment. While anti-social personality disorder is a medical diagnosis, the term "psychopathy" (which belongs to the sphere of forensic psychiatry) may be understood as a "legal diagnosis". It is not still possible to identify an effective treatment for serial killers. Personality disorders, especially of the antisocial type, still represent a formidable challenge to forensic psychiatry today. Questions as yet unanswered include the best and most humane place for patients with this condition and the nature of a standardised treatment recommendation.

How Do We Write about Performance in Serial Television?

OpenAIRE

Elliott Logan

2015-01-01

Television studies has produced few sustained analyses of performance in serial television. Yet film studies scholarship has shown how attending to the integration of performances with other aspects of film style is crucial to the interpretation and appreciation of expression and meaning in filmed narrative fictions. However, as a particle form of filmed serial narrative, series television raises a number of questions about performance that will not necessarily be satisfyingly addressed by th...

Serial cranial ultrasonography or early MRI for detecting preterm brain injury?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Plaisier, Annemarie; Raets, Marlou M A; Ecury-Goossen, Ginette M; Govaert, Paul; Feijen-Roon, Monique; Reiss, Irwin K M; Smit, Liesbeth S; Lequin, Maarten H; Dudink, Jeroen

OBJECTIVE: To investigate detection ability and feasibility of serial cranial ultrasonography (CUS) and early MRI in preterm brain injury. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Level III neonatal intensive care unit. PATIENTS: 307 infants, born below 29 weeks of gestation. METHODS: Serial CUS

Paths to destruction: the lives and crimes of two serial killers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, Barbara C; Lavezzi, Wendy A

2007-01-01

Although research into the phenomenon of serial murder has revealed that serial killers frequently do not fit the initially described paradigm in terms of their physical and psychological profiles, backgrounds, and motives to kill, the media continues to sensationalize the figures of such killers and the investigators who attempt to analyze them on the basis of aspects of their crimes. Although the so-called "typical" profile of the serial murderer has proven accurate in some instances, in many other cases the demographics and behaviors of these killers have deviated widely from the generalized assumptions. This report details two unusual cases in which five and eight murders were committed in upstate New York. The lives and crimes of these offenders illustrate the wide spectrum of variations in the backgrounds, demographics, motivations, and actions witnessed among serial murderers, and highlight the limitations and dangers of profiling based on generalities.

Rehearsal in serial memory for visual-spatial information: evidence from eye movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Tremblay, Sébastien; Saint-Aubin, Jean; Jalbert, Annie

2006-06-01

It is well established that rote rehearsal plays a key role in serial memory for lists of verbal items. Although a great deal of research has informed us about the nature of verbal rehearsal, much less attention has been devoted to rehearsal in serial memory for visual-spatial information. By using the dot task--a visual-spatial analogue of the classical verbal serial recall task--with delayed recall, performance and eyetracking data were recorded in order to establish whether visual-spatial rehearsal could be evidenced by eye movement. The use of eye movement as a form of rehearsal is detectable (Experiment 1), and it seems to contribute to serial memory performance over and above rehearsal based on shifts of spatial attention (Experiments 1 and 2).

SMALL SERIAL AND SERIAL PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT IN UNSTABLE DEMAND ENVIROUMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsomaeva I. V.

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The work presents the methodological approach to production program of the enterprise serial engineering for the current period in the conditions of uncertainty of demand. Here are two problems with this. The first is connected with the formation of the production program of the next quarter, year. Objective could be to stochastic programming, but this task is difficult. Therefore, in this paper we proposed a simple solution. On the basis of statistical historical information about the deviation of actual sales data products from predicted by Monte Carlo generated a lot of production programs. Fixed worst key performance (sales, profit etc. The difference between the values of the planned target and the settlement defines stochastic reserve, to be established at the expense of additional innovations. The second problem is connected with the formation of the production program production in the planned month, taking into account the creation of stocks of production in the conditions when for a short period of time is difficult to build a pattern of change in the quantity demanded by month for serial production, as in some months of the year the products are not produced nor sold. To justify the level of inventories of finished products is information on deviations from the fact plan for past periods. Built function of frequency distribution of the values of deviations. This allows you to further build the methodology for determining the level of production (taking into account the reserves and sales of products that deliver maximum economic effect from the sales in the conditions of a random process of realization of production.

DDCMP protocol on a DMA serial-line board

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hunt, D.N.; Kessler, G.C.

1982-01-01

The Nuclear Chemistry Division of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is in the midst of an upgrade to their radiation counting facility. The result of this upgrade wil be a computer-based data acquisition network, the Nuclear Chemistry Counting Facility Network (NCCF-NET). This network will consist of forty dedicated LSI-11/2 based controllers, ten interactive LSI-11/23 based workstations and a VAX-11/750 central node for data reduction and storage. One of the data acquisition instruments used in this network is a Nuclear Data pulse-height analyzer, the ND66L. This analyzer communicates to a host system over a 9600-baud serial line, using the DDCMP link level protocol. In order to relieve the host computer from the overhead of handling the DDCMP protocol, an in-house designed DMA serial line board was implemented to communicate with the ND66L. The hardware used and its environment will be duscussed along with the design and implementation of the firmware, which implements the serial DDCMP link

A network-based Macintosh serial host interface program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wight, J.

1991-03-01

A program has been written for the Apple Macintosh to replace conventional host RS232 terminals with customizable user interfaces. Serial port NuBus cards in the Macintosh allow many simultaneous sessions to be maintained. A powerful system is attained by connecting multiple Macintoshes on a network, each running this program. Each is then able to share incoming data from any of its serial ports with any other Macintosh, as well as accept data from any other Macintosh for output to any of its serial ports. The program has been used to eliminate multiple host terminals, modernize the user interface, and to centralize operation of a complex control system. Minimal changes to host software have been required. By making extensive use of Macintosh resources, the same executable code serves in a variety of roles. An object oriented C language with a class library made the development straightforward and easy to modify. This program is used to control a 2 MW neutral beam system on the DIII-D magnetic fusion tokamak. 7 figs

A reappraisal of serial isotope bone scans in prostate cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

O' Donoghue, J M; Rogers, E; Grimes, H; McCarthy, P; Corcoran, M; Bredin, H; Given, H F [University College Hospital, Galway (Ireland)

1993-08-01

The authors have evaluated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) as alternatives to conventional serial bone scanning in 129 patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer over a period of 3 years. Although serum PSA did not reflect local tumour burden at presentation, it was significantly elevated in those with stage D disease (p < 0.01). 45 patients presented de novo with metastatic bone deposits and a further 18 patients developed metastases during the study. The sensitivity of PSA in detecting secondary deposits at presentation for levels in excess of 100 [mu]g/l was 93.75%, the positive predictive value 95.7% and the negative predictive value for levels less than 5 [mu]g/l was 90.6%. During the follow-up period sensitivity was 94.4%, the positive predictive value 100%, the negative predictive value 100%, with a median lead time of 3 months in predicting metastases in the 18 patients with progressive disease. (author).

The utilization of forensic science and criminal profiling for capturing serial killers.

Science.gov (United States)

White, John H; Lester, David; Gentile, Matthew; Rosenbleeth, Juliana

2011-06-15

Movies and nightly television shows appear to emphasize highly efficient regimens in forensic science and criminal investigative analysis (profiling) that result in capturing serial killers and other perpetrators of homicide. Although some of the shows are apocryphal and unrealistic, they reflect major advancements that have been made in the fields of forensic science and criminal psychology during the past two decades that have helped police capture serial killers. Some of the advancements are outlined in this paper. In a study of 200 serial killers, we examined the variables that led to police focusing their attention on specific suspects. We developed 12 categories that describe how serial killers come to the attention of the police. The results of the present study indicate that most serial killers are captured as a result of citizens and surviving victims contributing information that resulted in police investigations that led to an arrest. The role of forensic science appears to be important in convicting the perpetrator, but not necessarily in identifying the perpetrator. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spatial patterns of serial murder: an analysis of disposal site location choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Lundrigan, S; Canter, D

2001-01-01

Although the murders committed by serial killers may not be considered rational, there is growing evidence that the locations in which they commit their crimes may be guided by an implicit, if limited rationality. The hypothesized logic of disposal site choice of serial killers led to predictions that (a) their criminal domains would be around their home base and relate to familiar travel distances, (b) they would have a size that was characteristic of each offender, (c) the distribution would be biased towards other non-criminal activities, and (d) the size of the domains would increase over time. Examination of the geographical distribution of the sites at which 126 US and 29 UK serial killers disposed of their victims' bodies supported all four hypotheses. It was found that rational choice and routine activity models of criminal behavior could explain the spatial choices of serial murderers. It was concluded that the locations at which serial killers dispose of their victims' bodies reflect the inherent logic of the choices that underlie their predatory activities. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The value of serial FDG PET on therapeutic evaluation and relapse monitoring of lung cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Zhaohui; Cheng Wuying; Cui Ruixue; Chen Xin; Hao Li; Dang Yonghong; Zhe Fu; Wang Bocheng

2004-01-01

muscle uptake diminished the uptake in the lesions as well as the other tissues. However, the serial follow-ups also helped in differentiation. With the help of X rays, serial PET confirmed the bone repair after fracture in one case, because the mild uptake lesion didn't change with the advance and release of the primary tumor. Chronic inflammation of lymph nodes was diagnosed in two cases by their disappearance or no remarkable changes in long-term follow-up. FDG PET was less sensitive than CT or MRI in one case of high-differentiated lung cancer and in two cases of brain metastases. Conclusion: Serial FDG PET showed advantages in evaluating and monitoring of lung cancer, especially when the lesions located in complicated anatomic positions and in complicated conditions after therapy. However it should also be cautious to evaluate the tumors when there was tissue repair, chronic inflammation, recent radiotherapy, recent administration of G-CSF and high muscle uptake. (authors)

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) seed performance as influenced by ovary and ovule position

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jing, H.C.; Jalink, H.; Bergervoet, J.W.; Klooster, M.; Du, S.L.; Bino, R.J.; Hilhorst, H.W.M.; Groot, S.P.C.

2000-01-01

The performance of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) seeds in relation to ovary and ovule position was monitored during seed production. Seeds from three (first, seventh and tenth nodes) fruit positions and three (stylar, intermediate and peduncular) ovule positions were harvested serially during

Geometrical properties of negatively curved spaces. A revival

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Signore, R.L.

2000-01-01

The negatively curved space is generally kept in the background behind the much more popular positively curved space. The goal of the article is to re-establish a balance between these two different spaces. In the first part, negatively curved space is considered in se, some of its geometric properties are investigated and its Minkowskian properties emphasized. The Lobatchevsky-Bolyai geometry is also illustrated. In a second part, space is assumed to be in expansion in an inflation are. World lines, null geodesics, particle horizon, event horizon are considered

Serial Millisecond Crystallography of Membrane Proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaeger, Kathrin; Dworkowski, Florian; Nogly, Przemyslaw; Milne, Christopher; Wang, Meitian; Standfuss, Joerg

2016-01-01

Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) is a powerful method to determine high-resolution structures of pharmaceutically relevant membrane proteins. Recently, the technology has been adapted to carry out serial millisecond crystallography (SMX) at synchrotron sources, where beamtime is more abundant. In an injector-based approach, crystals grown in lipidic cubic phase (LCP) or embedded in viscous medium are delivered directly into the unattenuated beam of a microfocus beamline. Pilot experiments show the application of microjet-based SMX for solving the structure of a membrane protein and compatibility of the method with de novo phasing. Planned synchrotron upgrades, faster detectors and software developments will go hand-in-hand with developments at free-electron lasers to provide a powerful methodology for solving structures from microcrystals at room temperature, ligand screening or crystal optimization for time-resolved studies with minimal or no radiation damage.

Antagonisms in the Phillips Curves with a positive slope: Mexico and Spain’s case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rubén E. Roa Dueñas

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This document presents the indispensable theoretical aspects of the Phillips curve, as well as its evolution. A brief relation of the causes and effects of the Mexican 1994 crisis, as well as the consequent and visible noncompliance of the Phillips input. In same way we present the inclusion of Spain to the European Economic Community through the consummation of the Maastricht Treaty, its environment and some of its consequences, whose economy usually shows a vigorous and prosperous character. We conclude that the so-called inverted relation between unemployment and inflation which grossly shows the Phillips curve and the situations that do not comply with that norm, take us to a debate about the scenery and the required tools used by the different economies to try to defeat this theory, tending to direct the curve to the beginning, such as the Spain case. We can mention that it is not that important to defeat it in theory, but to generate the required conditions to consolidate the economy, as a future platform of sustained social and economical development.

A study on the utilization of serial resources in selected tertiary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A study on the utilization of serial resources in selected tertiary institutions in Ogun State. ... Lagos Journal of Library and Information Science ... Serial resources are publications either in printed form or electronic format issued in successive parts usually having numerical or chronological designations and intended to be ...

ROC-ing along: Evaluation and interpretation of receiver operating characteristic curves.

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Jane V; Pan, Jianmin; Rai, Shesh N; Galandiuk, Susan

2016-06-01

It is vital for clinicians to understand and interpret correctly medical statistics as used in clinical studies. In this review, we address current issues and focus on delivering a simple, yet comprehensive, explanation of common research methodology involving receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. ROC curves are used most commonly in medicine as a means of evaluating diagnostic tests. Sample data from a plasma test for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer were used to generate a prediction model. These are actual, unpublished data that have been used to describe the calculation of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values, and accuracy. The ROC curves were generated to determine the accuracy of this plasma test. These curves are generated by plotting the sensitivity (true-positive rate) on the y axis and 1 - specificity (false-positive rate) on the x axis. Curves that approach closest to the coordinate (x = 0, y = 1) are more highly predictive, whereas ROC curves that lie close to the line of equality indicate that the result is no better than that obtained by chance. The optimum sensitivity and specificity can be determined from the graph as the point where the minimum distance line crosses the ROC curve. This point corresponds to the Youden index (J), a function of sensitivity and specificity used commonly to rate diagnostic tests. The area under the curve is used to quantify the overall ability of a test to discriminate between 2 outcomes. By following these simple guidelines, interpretation of ROC curves will be less difficult and they can then be interpreted more reliably when writing, reviewing, or analyzing scientific papers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Subject-Verb Agreement in Children and Adults: Serial or Hierarchical Processing?

Science.gov (United States)

Negro, Isabelle; Chanquoy, Lucile; Fayol, Michel; Louis-Sidney, Maryse

2005-01-01

Two processes, serial and hierarchical, are generally opposed to account for grammatical encoding in language production. In a developmental perspective, the question addressed here is whether the subject-verb agreement during writing is computed serially, once the words are linearly ordered in the sentence, or hierarchically, as soon as the…

Serial elongation, derotation and flexion (EDF) casting under general anesthesia and neuromuscular blocking drugs improve outcome in patients with juvenile scoliosis: preliminary results.

Science.gov (United States)

Canavese, Federico; Botnari, Alexei; Dimeglio, Alain; Samba, Antoine; Pereira, Bruno; Gerst, Adeline; Granier, Marie; Rousset, Marie; Dubousset, Jean

2016-02-01

Juvenile scoliosis (JS), among different types of spinal deformity, remains still a challenge for orthopedic surgeons. Elongation, derotation and flexion (EDF) casting technique is a custom-made thoracolumbar cast based on a three-dimensional correction concept. The primary objective of the present study was to measure changes on plain radiographs of patients with JS treated with EDF plaster technique. The second aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of the EDF plaster technique realized under general anesthesia (GA) and neuromuscular blocking drugs, i.e. curare, on the radiological curve correction. A retrospective comparative case series study was performed in which were included forty-four skeletally immature patients. Three patient groups were selected. Group 1: EDF cast applied with patients awaken and no anesthesia; Group 2: EDF cast applied under GA without neuromuscular blocking drugs; Group 3: EDF cast applied under GA with neuromuscular blocking drugs. All the patients were treated with two serial EDF casts by 2 months and a half each. All measurements were taken from the radiographic exams. Cobb's angle; RVAD and Nash and Moe grade of rotation were assessed before and after applying the cast. Thirty-four (77.3 %) patients were followed up at least 24 months after removal of last EDF cast. Eighteen patients (3 males, 15 females) were included in Group 1, 12 (2 males, 10 females) in Group 2 and 14 (5 males, 9 females) in Group 3. Serial EDF casting was more effective at initial curve reduction and in preventing curve progression when applied under GA with neuromuscular blocking drugs, i.e. curare. RVAD and Nash and Moe score improved significantly in all groups of patients treated according to principles of EDF technique. During follow-up period, six patients required surgery in Group 1 (6/18; 33.3 %), 3 patients required surgery in Group 2 (3/12; 25 %) and 2 patients underwent surgery in Group 3 (2/14; 15 %). Preliminary results show EDF casting is

Efficient multitasking: parallel versus serial processing of multiple tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Rico; Plessow, Franziska

2015-01-01

In the context of performance optimizations in multitasking, a central debate has unfolded in multitasking research around whether cognitive processes related to different tasks proceed only sequentially (one at a time), or can operate in parallel (simultaneously). This review features a discussion of theoretical considerations and empirical evidence regarding parallel versus serial task processing in multitasking. In addition, we highlight how methodological differences and theoretical conceptions determine the extent to which parallel processing in multitasking can be detected, to guide their employment in future research. Parallel and serial processing of multiple tasks are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, questions focusing exclusively on either task-processing mode are too simplified. We review empirical evidence and demonstrate that shifting between more parallel and more serial task processing critically depends on the conditions under which multiple tasks are performed. We conclude that efficient multitasking is reflected by the ability of individuals to adjust multitasking performance to environmental demands by flexibly shifting between different processing strategies of multiple task-component scheduling.

An analysis on the environmental Kuznets curve of Chengdu

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Zijian; Peng, Yue; Zhao, Yue

2017-12-01

In this paper based on the environmental and economic data of Chengdu from 2005 to 2014, the measurement models were established to analyze 3 kinds of environmental flow indicators and 4 kinds of environmental stock indicators to obtain their EKC evolution trajectories and characters. The results show that the relationship curve between the discharge of SO2 from industry and the GDP per capita is a positive U shape, just as the curve between discharge of COD from industry and the GDP per person. The relationship curve between the dust discharge from industry and the GDP per capita is an inverted N shape. In the central of the urban the relationship curve between the concentration of SO2 in the air and the GDP per person is a positive U shape. The relationship curves between the concentration of NO2 in the air and the GDP per person, between the concentration of the particulate matters and the GDP per person, and between the concentration of the fallen dusts and the GDP per person are fluctuating. So the EKC curves of the 7 kinds of environmental indicators are not accord with inverted U shape feature. In the development of this urban the environmental problems can’t be resolved only by economic growth. The discharge of industrial pollutants should be controlled to improve the atmospheric environmental quality and reduce the environmental risks.

Relativistic electron-beam transport in curved channels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vittitoe, C.N.; Morel, J.E.; Wright, T.P.

1982-01-01

Collisionless single particle trajectories are modeled for a single plasma channel having one section curved in a circular arc. The magnetic field is developed by superposition of straight and curved channel segments. The plasma density gives charge and beam-current neutralization. High transport efficiencies are found for turning a relativistic electron beam 90 0 under reasonable conditions of plasma current, beam energy, arc radius, channel radius, and injection distributions in velocity and in position at the channel entrance. Channel exit distributions in velocity and position are found consistent with those for a straight plasma channel of equivalent length. Such transport problems are important in any charged particle-beam application constrained by large diode-to-target distance or by requirements of maximum power deposition in a confined area

Changing Series: Narrative Models and the Role of the Viewer in Contemporary Television Seriality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Veronica Innocenti

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In the past few years television serial narratives have gone through some severe changes in the way they are organized from a narrative point of view, as well as in the way they are perceived by the audiences. Our article originates from the necessity of investigating the products of this new wave of serial production, with the purpose of focusing on narrative formulas and on the relationships that serial products establish with their users. Vast serialized narratives are not just texts anymore, they have become complex universes of meaning that last for long time and that have a strong influence on the audiences. The article aims to investigate serial narratives as usable objects, that are not just seen by the public, but that are part of a complex experience.

Alcohol purchase age laws and the serial beginning drinker in New York.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, J

1995-08-01

Raising the drinking age twice in New York State in the 1980s might have created a generation of "serial beginning drinkers." Findings indicate that when young adults become beginning drinkers, their chances of drinking-driving increase; when they become serial beginning drinkers, their involvement in drinking-driving remains high over time. The beginning drinkers belong to a special historical period and are only composed of birth cohorts of 3 or 4 years (mainly early 1960s). The effect of the serial beginning drinker should fade out as those birth cohorts grow into maturity.

Synchronic Seriality: The Dissolving of Diegetic Borders Through Metalepsis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paige M. Piper

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In dialogue with Gérard Genette’s literary concept of metalepsis to television, this paper considers instances of meta-textual actor/character portrayals in serial narratives to show that meta-narrative intrusion fosters a greater empathetic link between the spectator and character, whilst simultaneously inviting the viewer to appreciate the technique as an artifice-aware gesture. The fluidity of diegetic borders brought on by the conflation of performer/performance replicates Baudrillard’s simulacra, creating a synchronic form of seriality and transcending rigid genre classifications.

Serial MR evaluations of human immunodeficiency virus-positive homosexual men

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, W.A.; Maravilla, K.R.; Gerlach, R.; Claypool, K.; Coombs, R.; Collier, A.

1989-01-01

This paper presents an evaluation of the progression of neurologic and neuropsy chological dysfunction in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive homosexual men in order to define the natural history of this disease. Markers predictive of disease progression are discussed. Experimental methods and materials are included and results are assessed

Spatial serial order processing in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, David; Park, Sohee; Clark, Gina; Yohanna, Daniel; Houk, James C

2004-10-01

The aim of this study was to examine serial order processing deficits in 21 schizophrenia patients and 16 age- and education-matched healthy controls. In a spatial serial order working memory task, one to four spatial targets were presented in a randomized sequence. Subjects were required to remember the locations and the order in which the targets were presented. Patients showed a marked deficit in ability to remember the sequences compared with controls. Increasing the number of targets within a sequence resulted in poorer memory performance for both control and schizophrenia subjects, but the effect was much more pronounced in the patients. Targets presented at the end of a long sequence were more vulnerable to memory error in schizophrenia patients. Performance deficits were not attributable to motor errors, but to errors in target choice. The results support the idea that the memory errors seen in schizophrenia patients may be due to saturating the working memory network at relatively low levels of memory load.

Quick, sensitive serial NMR experiments with Radon transform.

Science.gov (United States)

Dass, Rupashree; Kasprzak, Paweł; Kazimierczuk, Krzysztof

2017-09-01

The Radon transform is a potentially powerful tool for processing the data from serial spectroscopic experiments. It makes it possible to decode the rate at which frequencies of spectral peaks shift under the effect of changing conditions, such as temperature, pH, or solvent. In this paper we show how it also improves speed and sensitivity, especially in multidimensional experiments. This is particularly important in the case of low-sensitivity techniques, such as NMR spectroscopy. As an example, we demonstrate how Radon transform processing allows serial measurements of 15 N-HSQC spectra of unlabelled peptides that would otherwise be infeasible. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bit-Serial Adder Based on Quantum Dots

Science.gov (United States)

Fijany, Amir; Toomarian, Nikzad; Modarress, Katayoon; Spotnitz, Mathew

2003-01-01

A proposed integrated circuit based on quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) would function as a bit-serial adder. This circuit would serve as a prototype building block for demonstrating the feasibility of quantum-dots computing and for the further development of increasingly complex and increasingly capable quantum-dots computing circuits. QCA-based bit-serial adders would be especially useful in that they would enable the development of highly parallel and systolic processors for implementing fast Fourier, cosine, Hartley, and wavelet transforms. The proposed circuit would complement the QCA-based circuits described in "Implementing Permutation Matrices by Use of Quantum Dots" (NPO-20801), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 10 (October 2001), page 42 and "Compact Interconnection Networks Based on Quantum Dots" (NPO-20855), which appears elsewhere in this issue. Those articles described the limitations of very-large-scale-integrated (VLSI) circuitry and the major potential advantage afforded by QCA. To recapitulate: In a VLSI circuit, signal paths that are required not to interact with each other must not cross in the same plane. In contrast, for reasons too complex to describe in the limited space available for this article, suitably designed and operated QCA-based signal paths that are required not to interact with each other can nevertheless be allowed to cross each other in the same plane without adverse effect. In principle, this characteristic could be exploited to design compact, coplanar, simple (relative to VLSI) QCA-based networks to implement complex, advanced interconnection schemes. To enable a meaningful description of the proposed bit-serial adder, it is necessary to further recapitulate the description of a quantum-dot cellular automation from the first-mentioned prior article: A quantum-dot cellular automaton contains four quantum dots positioned at the corners of a square cell. The cell contains two extra mobile electrons that can tunnel (in the

Position detectors, methods of detecting position, and methods of providing positional detectors

Science.gov (United States)

Weinberg, David M.; Harding, L. Dean; Larsen, Eric D.

2002-01-01

Position detectors, welding system position detectors, methods of detecting various positions, and methods of providing position detectors are described. In one embodiment, a welding system positional detector includes a base that is configured to engage and be moved along a curved surface of a welding work piece. At least one position detection apparatus is provided and is connected with the base and configured to measure angular position of the detector relative to a reference vector. In another embodiment, a welding system positional detector includes a weld head and at least one inclinometer mounted on the weld head. The one inclinometer is configured to develop positional data relative to a reference vector and the position of the weld head on a non-planar weldable work piece.

The primacy model: a new model of immediate serial recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Page, M P; Norris, D

1998-10-01

A new model of immediate serial recall is presented: the primacy model. The primacy model stores order information by means of the assumption that the strength of activation of successive list items decreases across list position to form a primacy gradient. Ordered recall is supported by a repeated cycle of operations involving a noisy choice of the most active item followed by suppression of the chosen item. Word-length and list-length effects are attributed to a decay process that occurs both during input, when effective rehearsal is prevented, and during output. The phonological similarity effect is attributed to a second stage of processing at which phonological confusions occur. The primacy model produces accurate simulations of the effects of word length, list length, and phonological similarity.

The serial order of response units in word production: The case of typing.

Science.gov (United States)

Scaltritti, Michele; Longcamp, Marieke; Alario, F-Xavier

2018-05-01

The selection and ordering of response units (phonemes, letters, keystrokes) represents a transversal issue across different modalities of language production. Here, the issue of serial order was investigated with respect to typewriting. Following seminal investigations in the spoken modality, we conducted an experiment where participants typed as many times as possible a pair of words during a fixed time-window. The 2 words shared either their first 2 keystrokes, the last 2 ones, all the keystrokes, or were unrelated. Fine-grained performance measures were recorded at the level of individual keystrokes. In contrast with previous results from the spoken modality, we observed an overall facilitation for words sharing the initial keystrokes. In addition, the initial overlap briefly delayed the execution of the following keystroke. The results are discussed with reference to different theoretical perspectives on serial order, with a particular attention to the competing accounts offered by position coding models and chaining models. Our findings point to potential major differences between the speaking and typing modalities in terms of interactive activation between lexical and response units processing levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Measuring propagation delay over a coded serial communication channel using FPGAs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jansweijer, P.P.M.; Peek, H.Z.

2011-01-01

Measurement and control applications are increasingly using distributed system technologies. In such applications, which may be spread over large distances, it is often necessary to synchronize system timing and know with great precision the time offsets between parts of the system. Measuring the propagation delay over a coded serial communication channel using serializer/deserializer (SerDes) functionality in FPGAs is described. The propagation delay between transmitter and receiver is measured with a resolution of a single unit interval (i.e. a serial link running at 3.125 Gbps provides a 320 ps resolution). The technique has been demonstrated to work over 100 km fibre to verify the feasibility for application in the future KM3NeT telescope.

Certificateless short sequential and broadcast multisignature schemes using elliptic curve bilinear pairings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SK Hafizul Islam

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Several certificateless short signature and multisignature schemes based on traditional public key infrastructure (PKI or identity-based cryptosystem (IBC have been proposed in the literature; however, no certificateless short sequential (or serial multisignature (CL-SSMS or short broadcast (or parallel multisignature (CL-SBMS schemes have been proposed. In this paper, we propose two such new CL-SSMS and CL-SBMS schemes based on elliptic curve bilinear pairing. Like any certificateless public key cryptosystem (CL-PKC, the proposed schemes are free from the public key certificate management burden and the private key escrow problem as found in PKI- and IBC-based cryptosystems, respectively. In addition, the requirements of the expected security level and the fixed length signature with constant verification time have been achieved in our schemes. The schemes are communication efficient as the length of the multisignature is equivalent to a single elliptic curve point and thus become the shortest possible multisignature scheme. The proposed schemes are then suitable for communication systems having resource constrained devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, RFID chips, and sensors where the communication bandwidth, battery life, computing power and storage space are limited.

Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Ruissen, Fred; Baas, Frank

2007-01-01

In 1995, serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was developed as a versatile tool for gene expression studies. SAGE technology does not require pre-existing knowledge of the genome that is being examined and therefore SAGE can be applied to many different model systems. In this chapter, the SAGE

Auditory distraction and serial memory: The avoidable and the ineluctable

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dylan M Jones

2010-01-01

Full Text Available One mental activity that is very vulnerable to auditory distraction is serial recall. This review of the contemporary findings relating to serial recall charts the key determinants of distraction. It is evident that there is one form of distraction that is a joint product of the cognitive characteristics of the task and of the obligatory cognitive processing of the sound. For sequences of sound, distraction appears to be an ineluctable product of similarity-of-process, specifically, the serial order processing of the visually presented items and the serial order coding that is the by-product of the streaming of the sound. However, recently emerging work shows that the distraction from a single sound (one deviating from a prevailing sequence results in attentional capture and is qualitatively distinct from that of a sequence in being restricted in its action to encoding, not to rehearsal of list members. Capture is also sensitive to the sensory task load, suggesting that it is subject to top-down control and therefore avoidable. These two forms of distraction-conflict of process and attentional capture-may be two consequences of auditory perceptual organization processes that serve to strike the optimal balance between attentional selectivity and distractability.

Kinematics/statics analysis of a novel serial-parallel robotic arm with hand

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lu, Yi; Dai, Zhuohong; Ye, Nijia; Wang, Peng [Yanshan University, Hebei (China)

2015-10-15

A robotic arm with fingered hand generally has multi-functions to complete various complicated operations. A novel serial-parallel robotic arm with a hand is proposed and its kinematics and statics are studied systematically. A 3D prototype of the serial-parallel robotic arm with a hand is constructed and analyzed by simulation. The serial-parallel robotic arm with a hand is composed of an upper 3RPS parallel manipulator, a lower 3SPR parallel manipulator and a hand with three finger mechanisms. Its kinematics formulae for solving the displacement, velocity, acceleration of are derived. Its statics formula for solving the active/constrained forces is derived. Its reachable workspace and orientation workspace are constructed and analyzed. Finally, an analytic example is given for solving the kinematics and statics of the serial-parallel robotic arm with a hand and the analytic solutions are verified by a simulation mechanism.

Kinematics/statics analysis of a novel serial-parallel robotic arm with hand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Yi; Dai, Zhuohong; Ye, Nijia; Wang, Peng

2015-01-01

A robotic arm with fingered hand generally has multi-functions to complete various complicated operations. A novel serial-parallel robotic arm with a hand is proposed and its kinematics and statics are studied systematically. A 3D prototype of the serial-parallel robotic arm with a hand is constructed and analyzed by simulation. The serial-parallel robotic arm with a hand is composed of an upper 3RPS parallel manipulator, a lower 3SPR parallel manipulator and a hand with three finger mechanisms. Its kinematics formulae for solving the displacement, velocity, acceleration of are derived. Its statics formula for solving the active/constrained forces is derived. Its reachable workspace and orientation workspace are constructed and analyzed. Finally, an analytic example is given for solving the kinematics and statics of the serial-parallel robotic arm with a hand and the analytic solutions are verified by a simulation mechanism.

Piezoelectric micromotor based on the structure of serial bending arms.

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Jianhua; Cui, Tianhong; Shao, Peige; Wang, Liding

2003-09-01

This paper presents a new piezoelectric micromotor based on the structure of serial bending arms. Serial bending arms are composed of two piezoelectric bimorphs with one end fixed and the other end free, driven by two signals of a biased square wave with a phase difference of pi/2. The free end of a cantilever arm will move along an elliptic orbit so that the cantilever is used to drive a cylinder rotor. The rotor's end surface contacts the free end of the cantilever, resulting in the rotor's rotation. There are six serial bending arms anchored on the base. The driving mechanism of the micromotor is proposed and analyzed. A new micromotor prototype, 5 mm in diameter, has been fabricated and characterized. The maximum rotational speed reaches 325 rpm, and the output torque is about 36.5 microNm.

Influence of Seasonality and Circulating Cytokines on Serial QuantiFERON Discordances

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marsha L. Griffin

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. An 18-month prospective study serially tested healthcare workers (HCWs for tuberculosis infection (TBI and reported discordant QuantiFERON Gold In-Tube® (QFT results in some participants. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ measured by QFT in discordant individuals could be influenced by other circulating cytokines that vary seasonally at the time of phlebotomy. Methods. The CDC funded TBESC Task Order 18 (TO18 project to assess the use of Interferon Gamma Release Assays (IGRAs, T-SPOT.TB® and QFT, compared to the tuberculin skin test (TST for the serial testing of TBI in HCW at 4 US sites. Unstimulated plasma from 9 discordant TO18 participants at 4 different time points from the Houston site was multiplexed to determine the association between circulating cytokines and antigen stimulated IFN-γ levels. Results. IL-12, IL-1β, IL-3, GCSF, and IL-7 were associated with the amount of IFN-γ measured in response to antigen stimulation. In addition to these cytokines, a significant relationship was found between a positive QFT result and the spring season. Conclusions. Allergens during the spring season can result in the upregulation of IL-1β and IL-3, and this upregulation was observed with the amount of IFN-γ measured in discordant results.

Advances in Serials Management. Volume 6.

Science.gov (United States)

Hepfer, Cindy, Ed.; Gammon, Julia, Ed.; Malinowski, Teresa, Ed.

In order to further discussion and support constructive change, this volume presents the following eight papers on various dimensions of serials management: (1) "CD-ROMs, Surveys, and Sales: The OSA [Optical Society of America] Experience" (Frank E. Harris and Alan Tourtlotte); (2) "Management and Integration of Electronic Journals into the…

Impact of Serials Management, Access and Use on Publication Output of Lecturers in Nigerian Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Akinbode, Rahmon O. Onaolapo; Nwalo, Kenneth Ivo Ngozi

2017-01-01

This study investigates serials management in university libraries, determines the extent to which serials are accessed and used and appraises the influence of availability, accessibility and use of serials on publications output of lecturers in federal universities in Nigeria. Questionnaire administration method was adopted to accumulate data for…

IFN-γ release assay conversions and reversions. Challenges with serial testing in U.S. health care workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Joshi, Manish; Monson, Thomas P; Joshi, Anita; Woods, Gail L

2014-03-01

IFN-γ release assays (IGRAs) including the QuantiFERON-TB gold in-tube test (QFT-GIT) are increasingly used in place of the tuberculin skin test (TST) in surveillance programs for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in the United States. However, data on conversions, reversions, and predictive value of QFT in such programs for health care workers (HCWs) are limited. The purpose of this study is to assess long-term reproducibility and conversion and reversion rates of QFT-GIT among HCWs who underwent serial testing at a tertiary care center in the United States. Retrospective chart review of HCWs at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) who underwent serial testing with QFT-GIT as a part of their employee screening between November 1, 2008 and January 31, 2011. A total of 2,303 HCWs had at least 2 QFT-GITs 1 year apart. The initial QFT-GIT was positive for 69 and 2 were indeterminate. Of these 69 HCWs, 31 (45%) reverted on repeat testing, and 25 of 31 (80.6%) HCWs who reverted had a negative look-back TST. Of the 2,232 HCWs with an initial negative QFT-GIT, 71 (3.2%) converted on repeat testing. A third QFT-GIT assay was performed in 41 of the 71 converters and 90% (37 of 41) reverted back to negative. Only two HCWs had TST and QFT-GIT conversion. Poor IGRA reproducibility and a low predictive value of QFT-GIT conversions indicate that QFT-GIT with current interpretation criteria should not be used for serial screening of U.S. HCWs. Negative TSTs have higher reproducibility than QFT-GIT for serial testing of HCWs in low tuberculosis incidence settings.

Fungal myositis in children: serial ultrasonographic findings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kwon, Jung Hwa; Lee, Hee Jung; Choi, Jin Soo [Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu (Korea, Republic of)

2003-08-01

To evaluate serial ultrasonographic findings of fungal myositis in children. Eleven lesions caused by fungal myositis and occurring in six children were included in this study. Eight lesions in five children were histopathologically proven and the other three were clinically diagnosed. Serial ultrasonographic findings were retrospectively evaluated in terms of size, location, margin, internal echotexture and adjacent cortical change occurring during the follow-up period ranging from five days to two months. Three patients (50%) had multiple lesions. The sites of involvment were the thigh (n=4), calf (n=3), chest wall (n=2), abdominal wall (n=1) and forearm (n=1). Initially, diffuse muscular swelling was revealed, with ill-defined hypoechoic lesions confined to the muscle layer (n=8). Follow-up examination of eight lesions over a period of 5-10 days showed that round central echogenic lesions were surrounded by previous slightly echogenic lesions (n=6, 75%). Long-term follow-up of five lesions over a two-month period revealed periosteal thickening in one case (20%), and the peristence of echogenic solid nodules in four (80%). Pathologic examination showed that the central lesions correlated with a fungus ball and the peripheral slightly echogenic lesions corresponded to hematoma and necrosis. Serial ultrasonographic findings of fungal myositis in children revealed relatively constant features in each case. In particular, the findings of muscular necrosis and a fungus ball over a period of 5-14 days were thought to be characteristic.

Fungal myositis in children: serial ultrasonographic findings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwon, Jung Hwa; Lee, Hee Jung; Choi, Jin Soo

2003-01-01

To evaluate serial ultrasonographic findings of fungal myositis in children. Eleven lesions caused by fungal myositis and occurring in six children were included in this study. Eight lesions in five children were histopathologically proven and the other three were clinically diagnosed. Serial ultrasonographic findings were retrospectively evaluated in terms of size, location, margin, internal echotexture and adjacent cortical change occurring during the follow-up period ranging from five days to two months. Three patients (50%) had multiple lesions. The sites of involvment were the thigh (n=4), calf (n=3), chest wall (n=2), abdominal wall (n=1) and forearm (n=1). Initially, diffuse muscular swelling was revealed, with ill-defined hypoechoic lesions confined to the muscle layer (n=8). Follow-up examination of eight lesions over a period of 5-10 days showed that round central echogenic lesions were surrounded by previous slightly echogenic lesions (n=6, 75%). Long-term follow-up of five lesions over a two-month period revealed periosteal thickening in one case (20%), and the peristence of echogenic solid nodules in four (80%). Pathologic examination showed that the central lesions correlated with a fungus ball and the peripheral slightly echogenic lesions corresponded to hematoma and necrosis. Serial ultrasonographic findings of fungal myositis in children revealed relatively constant features in each case. In particular, the findings of muscular necrosis and a fungus ball over a period of 5-14 days were thought to be characteristic

Race as Seriality: A Response to David Benatar and Zimitri Erasmus

Science.gov (United States)

Gouws, A.

2010-01-01

In this article I draw on the Sarte's notion of "seriality" as theorized in his book "Dialectic of Reason" and as interpreted by Iris Marion Young. I argue that seriality can be used to escape the false essentialism and identity politics of race as a category for admissions to universities. A series is a social collective whose members are unified…

FIB/FESEM experimental and analytical assessment of R-curve behavior of WC–Co cemented carbides

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tarragó, J.M., E-mail: jose.maria.tarrago@upc.edu [CIEFMA, Departament de Ciència dels Materials i Enginyeria Metallúrgica, ETSEIB, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona (Spain); CRnE, Centre de Recerca en Nanoenginyeria, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona (Spain); Jiménez-Piqué, E. [CIEFMA, Departament de Ciència dels Materials i Enginyeria Metallúrgica, ETSEIB, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona (Spain); CRnE, Centre de Recerca en Nanoenginyeria, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona (Spain); Schneider, L. [Sandvik Hyperion, Coventry CV4 0XG (United Kingdom); Casellas, D. [Fundació CTM Centre Tecnològic, 08243 Manresa (Spain); Torres, Y. [Departamento de Ingeniería y Ciencia de los Materiales y del Transporte, ETSI, Universidad de Sevilla, 41092 Sevilla (Spain); Llanes, L. [CIEFMA, Departament de Ciència dels Materials i Enginyeria Metallúrgica, ETSEIB, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona (Spain); CRnE, Centre de Recerca en Nanoenginyeria, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona (Spain)

2015-10-01

Exceptional fracture toughness levels exhibited by WC–Co cemented carbides (hardmetals) are due mainly to toughening derived from plastic stretching of crack-bridging ductile enclaves. This takes place due to the development of a multiligament zone at the wake of cracks growing in a stable manner. As a result, hardmetals exhibit crack growth resistance (R-curve) behavior. In this work, the toughening mechanics and mechanisms of these materials are investigated by combining experimental and analytical approaches. Focused Ion Beam technique (FIB) and Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) are implemented to obtain serial sectioning and imaging of crack–microstructure interaction in cracks arrested after stable extension under monotonic loading. The micrographs obtained provide experimental proof of the developing multiligament zone, including failure micromechanisms within individual bridging ligaments. Analytical assessment of the multiligament zone is then conducted on the basis of experimental information attained from FIB/FESEM images, and a model for the description of R-curve behavior of hardmetals is proposed. It was found that, due to the large stresses supported by the highly constrained and strongly bonded bridging ligaments, WC–Co cemented carbides exhibit quite steep but short R-curve behavior. Relevant strength and reliability attributes exhibited by hardmetals may then be rationalized on the basis of such toughening scenario.

A high speed serializer ASIC for ATLAS Liquid Argon calorimeter upgrade

CERN Document Server

Liu, T; The ATLAS collaboration

2014-01-01

We have been developing a serializer application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) based on a commercial 0.25-μm silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) CMOS technology for the ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter front-end electronics upgrade. The first prototype, a 5 Gbps 16:1 serializer has been designed, fabricated, and tested in lab environment and in 200 MeV proton beam. The test results indicate that the first prototype meets the design goals. The second prototype, a double-lane, 8 Gbps per lane serializer is under development. The post layout simulation indicates that 8 Gbps is achievable. In this paper we present the design and the test results of the first prototype and the design and status of the second prototype.

Facial rejuvenation: Serial fat graft transfer

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Saad Mohamed Saad Ibrahiem

2016-02-01

Feb 1, 2016 ... This a clinical study carried out to test the aesthetic outcome of serial injection of the cryo-preserved fat cells for both aesthetic and reconstructive purposes. Methods: Clinical ..... ucts, devices, or drugs mentioned in this manuscript that might create a ... Adipose stem cells and regenerative medicine. 7th ed.

Application of robot kinematics methods to the simulation and control of neutron beam line positioning systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

James, Jonathan A. [Open University, Materials Engineering, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK7 6AA (United Kingdom)]. E-mail: j.a.j.james@open.ac.uk; Edwards, Lyndon [Open University, Materials Engineering, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK7 6AA (United Kingdom)

2007-02-11

Neutron stress measurements require specimens of complex geometry to be speedily and accurately positioned and oriented with respect to the neutron beam. Recognition that a majority of the specimen positioning systems in use at strain scanning facilities are effectively serial robot manipulators, suggests that the methods of serial robot kinematic modelling may be applied to advantage. The adoption of robotics methods provides a simple and reliable framework for controlling positioning systems of arbitrary geometry and complexity. In addition the numerical solution of the inverse kinematic problem is facilitated, allowing specimens to be automatically positioned and orientated so that pre-determined strain components are measured. It is also shown that, given sufficient degrees of freedom, a secondary characteristic of the measurement position such as the measurement count time may be simultaneously optimised.

Spontaneous regression of curve in immature idiopathic scoliosis - does spinal column play a role to balance? An observation with literature review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Modi Hitesh N

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Child with mild scoliosis is always a subject of interest for most orthopaedic surgeons regarding progression. Literature described Hueter-Volkmann theory regarding disc and vertebral wedging, and muscular imbalance for the progression of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. However, many authors reported spontaneous resolution of curves also without any reason for that and the rate of resolution reported is almost 25%. Purpose of this study was to question the role of paraspinal muscle tuning/balancing mechanism, especially in patients with idiopathic scoliosis with early mild curve, for spontaneous regression or progression as well as changing pattern of curves. Methods An observational study of serial radiograms in 169 idiopathic scoliosis children (with minimum follow-up one year was carried. All children with Cobb angle Results Average age was 9.2 years at first visit and 10.11 years at final follow-up with an average follow-up of 21 months. 32.5% (55/169, 41.4% (70/169 and 26% (44/169 children exhibited regression, no change and progression in their curves, respectively. 46.1% of children (78/169 showed changing pattern of their curves during the follow-up visits before it settled down to final curve. Comparing final fate of curve with side of curve and number of curves it did not show any relationship (p > 0.05 in our study population. Conclusion Possible reason for changing patterns could be better explained by the tuning/balancing mechanism of spinal column that makes an effort to balance the spine and result into spontaneous regression or prevent further progression of curve. If this which we called as "tuning/balancing mechanism" fails, curve will ultimately progress.

Smart grid serialization comparison: Comparision of serialization for distributed control in the context of the Internet of Things

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Bo Søborg; Bindner, Henrik W.; You, Shi

2017-01-01

within a given timeframe, especially in the context of the Internet of Things, using low-bandwidth data connections and constrained devices. The paper shows that there are better alternatives than XML & JAXB and gives guidance in choosing the most appropriate serialization format and library depending...

Spontaneous regression of curve in immature idiopathic scoliosis - does spinal column play a role to balance? An observation with literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Modi, Hitesh N; Suh, Seung-Woo; Yang, Jae-Hyuk; Hong, Jae-Young; Venkatesh, Kp; Muzaffar, Nasir

2010-11-04

Child with mild scoliosis is always a subject of interest for most orthopaedic surgeons regarding progression. Literature described Hueter-Volkmann theory regarding disc and vertebral wedging, and muscular imbalance for the progression of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. However, many authors reported spontaneous resolution of curves also without any reason for that and the rate of resolution reported is almost 25%. Purpose of this study was to question the role of paraspinal muscle tuning/balancing mechanism, especially in patients with idiopathic scoliosis with early mild curve, for spontaneous regression or progression as well as changing pattern of curves. An observational study of serial radiograms in 169 idiopathic scoliosis children (with minimum follow-up one year) was carried. All children with Cobb angle change and progression of their curves, respectively. Additionally changes in the pattern of curve were also noted. Average age was 9.2 years at first visit and 10.11 years at final follow-up with an average follow-up of 21 months. 32.5% (55/169), 41.4% (70/169) and 26% (44/169) children exhibited regression, no change and progression in their curves, respectively. 46.1% of children (78/169) showed changing pattern of their curves during the follow-up visits before it settled down to final curve. Comparing final fate of curve with side of curve and number of curves it did not show any relationship (p > 0.05) in our study population. Possible reason for changing patterns could be better explained by the tuning/balancing mechanism of spinal column that makes an effort to balance the spine and result into spontaneous regression or prevent further progression of curve. If this which we called as "tuning/balancing mechanism" fails, curve will ultimately progress.

Native sulfur/chlorine SAD phasing for serial femtosecond crystallography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakane, Takanori; Song, Changyong; Suzuki, Mamoru; Nango, Eriko; Kobayashi, Jun; Masuda, Tetsuya; Inoue, Shigeyuki; Mizohata, Eiichi; Nakatsu, Toru; Tanaka, Tomoyuki; Tanaka, Rie; Shimamura, Tatsuro; Tono, Kensuke; Joti, Yasumasa; Kameshima, Takashi; Hatsui, Takaki; Yabashi, Makina; Nureki, Osamu; Iwata, So; Sugahara, Michihiro

2015-01-01

Sulfur SAD phasing facilitates the structure determination of diverse native proteins using femtosecond X-rays from free-electron lasers via serial femtosecond crystallography. Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) allows structures to be determined with minimal radiation damage. However, phasing native crystals in SFX is not very common. Here, the structure determination of native lysozyme from single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) by utilizing the anomalous signal of sulfur and chlorine at a wavelength of 1.77 Å is successfully demonstrated. This sulfur SAD method can be applied to a wide range of proteins, which will improve the determination of native crystal structures

On the Performance of the Python Programming Language for Serial and Parallel Scientific Computations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xing Cai

2005-01-01

Full Text Available This article addresses the performance of scientific applications that use the Python programming language. First, we investigate several techniques for improving the computational efficiency of serial Python codes. Then, we discuss the basic programming techniques in Python for parallelizing serial scientific applications. It is shown that an efficient implementation of the array-related operations is essential for achieving good parallel performance, as for the serial case. Once the array-related operations are efficiently implemented, probably using a mixed-language implementation, good serial and parallel performance become achievable. This is confirmed by a set of numerical experiments. Python is also shown to be well suited for writing high-level parallel programs.

Serializing off-the-shelf MOSFETs by Magnetically Coupling Their Gate Electrodes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dimopoulos, Emmanouil; Munk-Nielsen, Stig

2013-01-01

While the semiconductor industry struggles with the inherent trade-offs of solid-state devices, serialization of power switches, like the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) or the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), has been proven to be an advantageous alternative...... to acquire a high-efficient, high-voltage, fast-switching device. More than twenty years of research, on the serialization of solid-state devices, have resulted into several different stacking concepts. Among the prevailing ones, the gate balancing core technique, which has demonstrated very good performance...... in strings of high-power IGBT modules. In this paper, the limitations of the gate balancing core technique, when employed to serialize low or medium power off-the-shelf switches, are identified via experimental results. A new design specification for the interwinding capacitance of the employed transformer...

Recalling visual serial order for verbal sequences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Logie, R.H.; Saito, S.; Morita, A.; Varma, S.; Norris, D.

2016-01-01

We report three experiments in which participants performed written serial recall of visually presented verbal sequences with items varying in visual similarity. In Experiments 1 and 2 native speakers of Japanese recalled visually presented Japanese Kanji characters. In Experiment 3, native speakers

Serial consolidation of orientation information into visual short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Taosheng; Becker, Mark W

2013-06-01

Previous research suggests that there is a limit to the rate at which items can be consolidated in visual short-term memory (VSTM). This limit could be due to either a serial or a limited-capacity parallel process. Historically, it has proven difficult to distinguish between these two types of processes. In the present experiment, we took a novel approach that allowed us to do so. Participants viewed two oriented gratings either sequentially or simultaneously and reported one of the gratings' orientation via method of adjustment. Performance was worse for the simultaneous than for the sequential condition. We fit the data with a mixture model that assumes performance is limited by a noisy memory representation plus random guessing. Critically, the serial and limited-capacity parallel processes made distinct predictions regarding the model's guessing and memory-precision parameters. We found strong support for a serial process, which implies that one can consolidate only a single orientation into VSTM at a time.

System Level Design of Reconfigurable Server Farms Using Elliptic Curve Cryptography Processor Engines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sangook Moon

2014-01-01

Full Text Available As today’s hardware architecture becomes more and more complicated, it is getting harder to modify or improve the microarchitecture of a design in register transfer level (RTL. Consequently, traditional methods we have used to develop a design are not capable of coping with complex designs. In this paper, we suggest a way of designing complex digital logic circuits with a soft and advanced type of SystemVerilog at an electronic system level. We apply the concept of design-and-reuse with a high level of abstraction to implement elliptic curve crypto-processor server farms. With the concept of the superior level of abstraction to the RTL used with the traditional HDL design, we successfully achieved the soft implementation of the crypto-processor server farms as well as robust test bench code with trivial effort in the same simulation environment. Otherwise, it could have required error-prone Verilog simulations for the hardware IPs and other time-consuming jobs such as C/SystemC verification for the software, sacrificing more time and effort. In the design of the elliptic curve cryptography processor engine, we propose a 3X faster GF(2m serial multiplication architecture.

[Some criminological and psychopathologic reflexions about serial crimes].

Science.gov (United States)

Romi, Juan Carlos

2011-01-01

This article reviews the concept of serial crime, including murder as well as any action for the purpose of inflicting bodily harm upon any person. It characterizes three types of multi-murderers: serial killers, mass murderers, and spree killers. These offenders often have a specific (ritual) behavior that is idiosyncratic and repeated on each crime, which allows the psychological profiling of the murderer. Examples, a psychopathological background, and a description of both their criminal behavior and dynamics are provided for each of these criminals. They are further classified according to their different motivations: psychotic, prophetic or enlightened, pleasure, secondary or pecuniary profits, power or control. Finally, the author shares his personal experience over 20 years in the assessment of sexual offenders.

Serial SPECT in children with partial epilepsy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hosoya, Machiko; Ushiku, Hideo

1995-01-01

We performed serial single-photon emission CT (SPECT) with N-isopropyl-p-( 123 I)-Iodoamphetamine to measure the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 15 children with partial epilepsy. SPECT showed focal changes in 14 cases. Ten cases had abnormalities in the initial SPECT and another four cases in the second test. The cases with normal rCBF in initial SPECT had been tested in an early phase after the onset, and then decreased rCBF were observed in the second SPECT. The cases with both abnormal rCBF in the initial SPECT and improved rCBF in the second SPECT showed good prognosis in clinico-electrophysiological evolutions. In cases with abnormal changes of rCBF in the second SPECT, clinical prognosis was found to be not so good. These findings suggest that serial SPECT may be used to follow the course of epilepsy. (author)

How to Say No: Single- and Dual-Process Theories of Short-Term Recognition Tested on Negative Probes

Science.gov (United States)

Oberauer, Klaus

2008-01-01

Three experiments with short-term recognition tasks are reported. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants decided whether a probe matched a list item specified by its spatial location. Items presented at study in a different location (intrusion probes) had to be rejected. Serial position curves of positive, new, and intrusion probes over the probed…

Estimating Population Parameters using the Structured Serial Coalescent with Bayesian MCMC Inference when some Demes are Hidden

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Allen Rodrigo

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Using the structured serial coalescent with Bayesian MCMC and serial samples, we estimate population size when some demes are not sampled or are hidden, ie ghost demes. It is found that even with the presence of a ghost deme, accurate inference was possible if the parameters are estimated with the true model. However with an incorrect model, estimates were biased and can be positively misleading. We extend these results to the case where there are sequences from the ghost at the last time sample. This case can arise in HIV patients, when some tissue samples and viral sequences only become available after death. When some sequences from the ghost deme are available at the last sampling time, estimation bias is reduced and accurate estimation of parameters associated with the ghost deme is possible despite sampling bias. Migration rates for this case are also shown to be good estimates when migration values are low.

End-of-treatment and serial PET imaging in primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma following dose-adjusted-EPOCH-R: A paradigm shift in clinical decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Melani, Christopher; Advani, Ranjana; Roschewski, Mark; Walters, Kelsey M; Chen, Clara C; Baratto, Lucia; Ahlman, Mark A; Miljkovic, Milos D; Steinberg, Seth M; Lam, Jessica; Shovlin, Margaret; Dunleavy, Kieron; Pittaluga, Stefania; Jaffe, Elaine S; Wilson, Wyndham H

2018-05-10

Dose-adjusted-EPOCH-R obviates the need for radiotherapy in most patients with primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma. End-of-treatment PET, however, does not accurately identify patients at risk of treatment failure, thereby confounding clinical decision making. To define the role of PET in primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma following dose-adjusted-EPOCH-R, we extended enrollment and follow-up on our published phase II trial and independent series. Ninety-three patients received dose-adjusted-EPOCH-R without radiotherapy. End-of-treatment PET was performed in 80 patients, of whom 57 received 144 serial scans. One nuclear medicine physician from each institution blindly reviewed all scans from their respective institution. End-of-treatment PET was negative (Deauville 1-3) in 55 (69%) patients with one treatment failure (8-year event-free and overall survival of 96.0% and 97.7%). Among 25 (31%) patients with a positive (Deauville 4-5) end-of-treatment PET, there were 5 (20%) treatment failures (8-year event-free and overall survival of 71.1% and 84.3%). Linear regression analysis of serial scans showed a significant decrease in SUVmax in positive end-of-treatment PET non-progressors compared to an increase in treatment failures. Among 6 treatment failures, the median end-of-treatment SUVmax was 15.4 (range, 1.9-21.3) and 4 achieved long-term remission with salvage therapy. Virtually all patients with a negative end-of-treatment PET following dose-adjusted-EPOCH-R achieved durable remissions and should not receive radiotherapy. Among patients with a positive end-of-treatment PET, only 5/25 (20%) had treatment-failure. Serial PET imaging distinguished end-of-treatment PET positive patients without treatment failure, thereby reducing unnecessary radiotherapy by 80%, and should be considered in all patients with an initial positive PET following dose-adjusted-EPOCH-R (NCT00001337). Copyright © 2018, Ferrata Storti Foundation.

Bragg Curve, Biological Bragg Curve and Biological Issues in Space Radiation Protection with Shielding

Science.gov (United States)

Honglu, Wu; Cucinotta, F.A.; Durante, M.; Lin, Z.; Rusek, A.

2006-01-01

The space environment consists of a varying field of radiation particles including high-energy ions, with spacecraft shielding material providing the major protection to astronauts from harmful exposure. Unlike low-LET gamma or X-rays, the presence of shielding does not always reduce the radiation risks for energetic charged particle exposure. Since the dose delivered by the charged particle increases sharply as the particle approaches the end of its range, a position known as the Bragg peak, the Bragg curve does not necessarily represent the biological damage along the particle traversal since biological effects are influenced by the track structure of both primary and secondary particles. Therefore, the biological Bragg curve is dependent on the energy and the type of the primary particle, and may vary for different biological endpoints. To achieve a Bragg curve distribution, we exposed cells to energetic heavy ions with the beam geometry parallel to a monolayer of fibroblasts. Qualitative analyses of gamma-H2AX fluorescence, a known marker of DSBs, indicated increased clustering of DNA damage before the Bragg peak, enhanced homogenous distribution at the peak, and provided visual evidence of high linear energy transfer (LET) particle traversal of cells beyond the Bragg peak. A quantitative biological response curve generated for micronuclei (MN) induction across the Bragg curve did not reveal an increased yield of MN at the location of the Bragg peak. However, the ratio of mono-to bi-nucleated cells, which indicates inhibition in cell progression, increased at the Bragg peak location. These results, along with other biological concerns, show that space radiation protection with shielding can be a complicated issue.

Woody Allen, serial schlemiel ?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frédérique Brisset

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Woody Allen a développé au fil des années une persona cinématographique de schlemiel new-yorkais aisément reconnaissable par le spectateur. Elle marque nombre de ses films, qu’il y apparaisse en tant qu’acteur ou y dirige des substituts comédiens comme déclinaisons de lui-même. Si cette figure prototypique est le fondement de la sérialité dans sa filmographie, il est des traits stylistiques qui en portent trace tout au long de son œuvre : la récurrence annuelle de ses réalisations, la signature formelle symbolisée par ses génériques à la typographie singulière, le rythme de ses dialogues ponctués d’interjections et l’usage de l’autocitation sont autant de procédés qui marquent son cinéma d’un sceau très personnel. Ils fonctionnent comme des clins d’œil au spectateur qui reçoit dès lors LE Woody Allen millésimé comme une invitation à retrouver son microcosme. Ainsi la sérialité se pose comme à la fois initiale et conséquentielle de son système filmique, processus de création unique dans le cinéma américain.Woody Allen has long constructed a cinematographic persona of schlemiel New- Yorker that the audience can easily identify. It impacts most of his films, whether he stars in them or directs “substitute” actors to impersonate his character. If this prototypical figure is the basis of seriality in his cinematography, serial stylistic features can also be found all along his career: the annual recurrence of his productions, the formal signature symbolised by the typography of his singular credit titles, his rhythmical interjection-punctuated dialogues and the use of self-quotation imprint a very personal seal upon his movies. They all work as a recognition signals for the audience who thus receive THE Woody Allen vintage as an invitation to re-enter his microcosm. Seriality is then both initial and consequential to his cinematographic system, a unique creative process in American film history.

Juvenility and serial vegetative propagation of Norway spruce clones (Picea abies Karst.).

Science.gov (United States)

J.B. St. Clair; J. Kleinschmit; J. Svolba

1985-01-01

Effects associated with progressive maturation of clones are of greatest concern in clonal tree improvement programs. Serial propagation has been in use at the Lower Saxony Forest Research Institute since 1968 to arrest maturation in Norway spruce clones. By 1980 cuttings were established in the nursery that had been serially propagated from one to five cycles. This...

Rationalization in architecture with surfaces foliated by elastic curves

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørbjerg, Toke Bjerge

analytic form using elliptic functions. We use a gradient-driven optimization to approximate arbitrary planar curves by planar elastic curves. The method depends on an explicit parameterization of the space of elastic curves and on a method for finding a good initial guess for the optimization. We......We develop methods for rationalization of CAD surfaces using elastic curves, aiming at a costeffective fabrication method for architectural designs of complex shapes. By moving a heated flexible metal rod though a block of expanded polystyrene, it is possible to produce shapes with both positive...... and negative Gaussian curvature, either for direct use or for use as moulds for concrete casting. If we can control the shape of the rod, while moving, we can produce prescribed shapes. The flexible rod assumes at all times the shape of an Euler elastica (or elastic curve). The elastica are given in closed...

Serials Management In Polytechnic Libraries in Nigeria: A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Serials Management In Polytechnic Libraries in Nigeria: A Comparative Study of Kaduna Polytechnic And Yaba College of Technology Libraries. ... Samaru Journal of Information Studies. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced ...

The Functional Determinants of Short-Term Memory: Evidence from Perceptual-Motor Interference in Verbal Serial Recall

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, Robert W.; Marsh, John E.

2017-01-01

A functional, perceptual-motor, account of serial short-term memory (STM) is examined by investigating the way in which an irrelevant spoken sequence interferes with verbal serial recall. Even with visual list-presentation, verbal serial recall is particularly susceptible to disruption by irrelevant spoken stimuli that have the same identity…

Neurodevelopmental and psychosocial risk factors in serial killers and mass murderers

OpenAIRE

Allely, Clare S.; Minnis, Helen; Thompson, Lucy; Wilson, Philip; Gillberg, Christopher

2014-01-01

Multiple and serial murders are rare events that have a very profound societal impact. We have conducted a systematic review, following PRISMA guidelines, of both the peer reviewed literature and of journalistic and legal sources regarding mass and serial killings. Our findings tentatively indicate that these extreme forms of violence may be a result of a highly complex interaction of biological, psychological and sociological factors and that, potentially, a significant proportion of mass or...

Event Related Potentials and Serial List Picture Memory in Parkinson’s Patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. S. Korsnes

1996-01-01

Full Text Available Two experiments examined short-term memory for order information in six patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD and six control subjects while event related potentials (ERPs were recorded. The subjects were tested for recognition of abstract spatial designs and words after a 5 s retention interval. The PD patients failed to respond in 29% of all trials, but the overall accuracy was similar to that in the control group when these trials were excluded. The corresponding ERP results show serial position variations both after presentation of the probe items, and after presentation of the memory set items. The amplitudes were generally lower at all positions for the PD patients at the parietal midline electrode, and the amplitudes were similar for both groups at the frontal electrode. Also, the ERP latencies were significantly slower for the PD patients than for the control group at all conditions. Indirectly the data are consistent with an interpretation of cognitive deficit in PD stressing attention resources.

BRAIN Journal - Some Considerations on Seriality and Synchronicity

OpenAIRE

Elena Nechita

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT This paper presents an overview of the results that have been obtained lately on seriality and synchronicity and their link, in the light of the new theories and within the frame of complexity science.

Fault tolerance based on serial communication of FPGA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peng Jing; Fang Zongliang; Xu Quanzhou; Hu Jiewei; Ma Guizhen

2012-01-01

There maybe appear mistake in serial communication. This paper was described the intellectual detector of γ dose ratemeter communication with FPGA. The software of FPGA designed the code about fault tolerance, prevented mistake effectively. (authors)

Temporal grouping effects in musical short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorin, Simon; Mengal, Pierre; Majerus, Steve

2018-07-01

Recent theoretical accounts of verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory (STM) have proposed the existence of domain-general mechanisms for the maintenance of serial order information. These accounts are based on the observation of similar behavioural effects across several modalities, such as temporal grouping effects. Across two experiments, the present study aimed at extending these findings, by exploring a STM modality that has received little interest so far, STM for musical information. Given its inherent rhythmic, temporal and serial organisation, the musical domain is of interest for investigating serial order STM processes such as temporal grouping. In Experiment 1, the data did not allow to determine the presence or the absence of temporal grouping effects. In Experiment 2, we observed that temporal grouping of tone sequences during encoding improves short-term recognition for serially presented probe tones. Furthermore, the serial position curves included micro-primacy and micro-recency effects, which are the hallmark characteristic of temporal grouping. Our results suggest that the encoding of serial order information in musical STM may be supported by temporal positional coding mechanisms similar to those reported in the verbal domain.

Four-dimensional hilbert curves for R-trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haverkort, Herman; Walderveen, Freek van

2011-01-01

Two-dimensional R-trees are a class of spatial index structures in which objects are arranged to enable fast window queries: report all objects that intersect a given query window. One of the most successful methods of arranging the objects in the index structure is based on sorting the objects...... according to the positions of their centers along a two-dimensional Hilbert space-filling curve. Alternatively, one may use the coordinates of the objects' bounding boxes to represent each object by a four-dimensional point, and sort these points along a four-dimensional Hilbert-type curve. In experiments...

Ranking serials in oceanography: An analysis based on the Indian contributions and their citations

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Tapaswi, M.P.; Maheswarappa, B.S.

An analysis of serials preferred and cited in various communications by the Indian oceanographers during 1963 to 1992 is presented. A shift in preference of serials from general sciences to oceanography (interdisciplinary) and to core subject...

Serial measurements of serum human placental lactogen (hPL) and serial ultrasound examinations in the evaluation of fetal growth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Steen; von Tabouillot, D; Schioler, V

2000-01-01

Serial serum hPL measurements and serial ultrasound fetometry were compared in the evaluation of fetal growth by relating these two parameters to size at birth and to clinical factors known to influence size at birth. The data were from a prospective study of 1000 consecutive pregnant women...... considered to be at risk for fetal growth retardation with retrospective analysis. Serum hPL was measured by radioimmunoassay and fetal weight estimated by ultrasound every 3 weeks during the last trimester. hPL values were expressed as multiples of the median (MoM) and linear regression analysis of the h......PL MoM values was carried out for each pregnancy to find the slope of the line (hPL-slope); at least 3 serum hPL values were required. The estimated fetal weight and weight-for-age at birth was expressed in Z-scores. The individual intrauterine growth velocity was calculated by regression analysis...

Learning curve for radical retropubic prostatectomy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando J. A. Saito

2011-02-01

Full Text Available PURPOSE: The learning curve is a period in which the surgical procedure is performed with difficulty and slowness, leading to a higher risk of complications and reduced effectiveness due the surgeon's inexperience. We sought to analyze the residents' learning curve for open radical prostatectomy (RP in a training program. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a prospective study from June 2006 to January 2008 in the academic environment of the University of São Paulo. Five residents operated on 184 patients during a four-month rotation in the urologic oncology division, mentored by the same physician assistants. We performed sequential analyses according to the number of surgeries, as follows: = 10, 11 to 19, 20 to 28, and = 29. RESULTS: The residents performed an average of 37 RP each. The average psa was 9.3 ng/mL and clinical stage T1c in 71% of the patients. The pathological stage was pT2 (73%, pT3 (23%, pT4 (4%, and 46% of the patients had a Gleason score 7 or higher. In all surgeries, the average operative time and estimated blood loss was 140 minutes and 488 mL. Overall, 7.2% of patients required blood transfusion, and 23% had positive surgical margins. CONCLUSION: During the initial RP learning curve, we found a significant reduction in the operative time; blood transfusion during the procedures and positive surgical margin rate were stable in our series.

A serial founder effect model for human settlement out of Africa

OpenAIRE

Deshpande, Omkar; Batzoglou, Serafim; Feldman, Marcus W.; Luca Cavalli-Sforza, L.

2008-01-01

The increasing abundance of human genetic data has shown that the geographical patterns of worldwide genetic diversity are best explained by human expansion out of Africa. This expansion is modelled well by prolonged migration from a single origin in Africa with multiple subsequent serial founding events. We discuss a new simulation model for the serial founder effect out of Africa and compare it with results from previous studies. Unlike previous models, we distinguish colonization events fr...

Emotional noun processing: an ERP study with rapid serial visual presentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Yi, Shengnan; He, Weiqi; Zhan, Lei; Qi, Zhengyang; Zhu, Chuanlin; Luo, Wenbo; Li, Hong

2015-01-01

Reading is an important part of our daily life, and rapid responses to emotional words have received a great deal of research interest. Our study employed rapid serial visual presentation to detect the time course of emotional noun processing using event-related potentials. We performed a dual-task experiment, where subjects were required to judge whether a given number was odd or even, and the category into which each emotional noun fit. In terms of P1, we found that there was no negativity bias for emotional nouns. However, emotional nouns elicited larger amplitudes in the N170 component in the left hemisphere than did neutral nouns. This finding indicated that in later processing stages, emotional words can be discriminated from neutral words. Furthermore, positive, negative, and neutral words were different from each other in the late positive complex, indicating that in the third stage, even different emotions can be discerned. Thus, our results indicate that in a three-stage model the latter two stages are more stable and universal.

Emotional noun processing: an ERP study with rapid serial visual presentation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shengnan Yi

Full Text Available Reading is an important part of our daily life, and rapid responses to emotional words have received a great deal of research interest. Our study employed rapid serial visual presentation to detect the time course of emotional noun processing using event-related potentials. We performed a dual-task experiment, where subjects were required to judge whether a given number was odd or even, and the category into which each emotional noun fit. In terms of P1, we found that there was no negativity bias for emotional nouns. However, emotional nouns elicited larger amplitudes in the N170 component in the left hemisphere than did neutral nouns. This finding indicated that in later processing stages, emotional words can be discriminated from neutral words. Furthermore, positive, negative, and neutral words were different from each other in the late positive complex, indicating that in the third stage, even different emotions can be discerned. Thus, our results indicate that in a three-stage model the latter two stages are more stable and universal.

Evaluation of Serial Casting for Boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Case Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, Kate; de Valle, Katy; Kornberg, Andrew; Ryan, Monique; Kennedy, Rachel

2018-02-01

To report the effects of below-knee serial casting in two boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who presented with well-preserved strength and calf shortening. Bilateral below-knee serial casts were applied over two weeks with follow-up of daily stretching and wearing of customized night splints. Outcome measures were performed at baseline, 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-casting. These included measures of calf length, leg strength, motor function, endurance, and spatio-temporal gait parameters. Both boys completed serial casting with gains in muscle length. No adverse effects on strength or motor function were observed over a 12-month follow-up period.

Serial network simplifies the design of multiple microcomputer systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Folkes, D.

1981-01-01

Recently there has been a lot of interest in developing network communication schemes for carrying digital data between locally distributed computing stations. Many of these schemes have focused on distributed networking techniques for data processing applications. These applications suggest the use of a serial, multipoint bus, where a number of remote intelligent units act as slaves to a central or host computer. Each slave would be serially addressable from the host and would perform required operations upon being addressed by the host. Based on an MK3873 single-chip microcomputer, the SCU 20 is designed to be such a remote slave device. The capabilities of the SCU 20 and its use in systems applications are examined.

Serial murder in America: case studies of seven offenders.

Science.gov (United States)

Beasley, James O

2004-01-01

This article summarizes and compares information on seven interviewed serial killers in an ongoing project designed to study similarities and differences among these individuals. The aim of this article is to increase our collective knowledge of the dynamics of serial murder by examining the perpetrators' backgrounds, as well as the unique ways in which they view themselves and the world around them. Although qualitative interview research alone is not sufficient to fully understand such behavior, it is useful in many ways. Some of the information discussed based on the seven offenders interviewed is compared with broader epidemiological studies, and the strengths and limitations of each type of research are discussed. Published in 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Numerical Simulation of Particle Motion in a Curved Channel

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yi; Nie, Deming

2018-01-01

In this work the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to numerically study the motion of a circular particle in a curved channel at intermediate Reynolds numbers (Re). The effects of the Reynolds number and the initial particle position are taken into account. Numerical results include the streamlines, particle trajectories and final equilibrium positions. It has been found that the particle is likely to migrate to a similar equilibrium position irrespective of its initial position when Re is large.

Singular interactions supported by embedded curves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaynak, Burak Tevfik; Turgut, O Teoman

2012-01-01

In this work, singular interactions supported by embedded curves on Riemannian manifolds are discussed from a more direct and physical perspective, via the heat kernel approach. We show that the renormalized problem is well defined, the ground state is finite and the corresponding wavefunction is positive. The renormalization group invariance of the model is also discussed. (paper)

Cognitive, emotional and social markers of serial murdering.

Science.gov (United States)

Angrilli, Alessandro; Sartori, Giuseppe; Donzella, Giovanna

2013-01-01

Although criminal psychopathy is starting to be relatively well described, our knowledge of the characteristics and scientific markers of serial murdering is still very poor. A serial killer who murdered more than five people, KT, was administered a battery of standardized tests aimed at measuring neuropsychological impairment and social/emotional cognition deficits. KT exhibited a striking dissociation between a high level of emotional detachment and a low score on the antisocial behavior scale on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 showed a normal pattern with the psychotic triad at borderline level. KT had a high intelligence score and showed almost no impairment in cognitive tests sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Theory of Mind, Tower of London, this latter evidenced a mild impairment in planning performance). In the tests on moral, emotional and social cognition, his patterns of response differed from matched controls and from past reports on criminal psychopaths as, unlike these individuals, KT exhibited normal recognition of fear and a relatively intact knowledge of moral rules but he was impaired in the recognition of anger, embarrassment and conventional social rules. The overall picture of KT suggests that serial killing may be closer to normality than psychopathy defined according to either the DSM IV or the PCL-R, and it would be characterized by a relatively spared moral cognition and selective deficits in social and emotional cognition domains.

Evidence for spontaneous serial refreshing in verbal working memory?

Science.gov (United States)

Vergauwe, Evie; Langerock, Naomi; Cowan, Nelson

2018-04-01

Working memory (WM) keeps information temporarily accessible for ongoing cognition. One proposed mechanism to keep information active in WM is refreshing. This mechanism is assumed to operate by bringing memory items into the focus of attention, thereby serially refreshing the content of WM. We report two experiments in which we examine evidence for the spontaneous occurrence of serial refreshing in verbal WM. Participants had to remember series of red letters, while black probe letters were presented between these memory items, with each probe to be judged present in or absent from the list presented so far, as quickly as possible (i.e., the probe-span task). Response times to the probes were used to infer the status of the representations in WM and, in particular, to examine whether the content of the focus of attention changed over time, as would be expected if serial refreshing occurs spontaneously during inter-item pauses. In sharp contrast with this hypothesis, our results indicate that the last-presented memory item remained in the focus of attention during the inter-item pauses of the probe-span task. We discuss how these findings help to define the boundary conditions of spontaneous refreshing of verbal material in WM, and discuss implications for verbal WM maintenance and forgetting.

The combined effect of two mutations that alter serially homologous color pattern elements on the fore and hindwings of a butterfly

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vedder Lindsey

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The ability for serially homologous structures to acquire a separate identity has been primarily investigated for structures dependent on Hox gene input but is still incompletely understood in other systems. The fore and hindwings of butterflies are serially homologous structures as are the serially homologous eyespots that can decorate each of these wings. Eyespots can vary in number between fore and hindwings of the same individual and mutations of large effect can control the total number of eyespots that each of the wings displays. Here we investigate the genetics of a new spontaneous color pattern mutation, Missing, that alters eyespot number in the nymphalid butterfly, Bicyclus anynana. We further test the interaction of Missing with a previously described mutation, Spotty, describe the developmental stage affected by Missing, and test whether Missing is a mutant variant of the gene Distal-less via a linkage association study. Results Missing removes or greatly reduces the size of two of the hindwing eyespots from the row of seven eyespots, with no detectable effect on the rest of the wing pattern. Offspring carrying a single Missing allele display intermediate sized eyespots at these positions. Spotty has the opposite effect of Missing, i.e., it introduces two extra eyespots in homologous wing positions to those affected by Missing, but on the forewing. When Missing is combined with Spotty the size of the two forewing eyespots decreases but the size of the hindwing spots stays the same, suggesting that these two mutations have a combined effect on the forewing such that Missing reduces eyespot size when in the presence of a Spotty mutant allele, but that Spotty has no effect on the hindwing. Missing prevents the complete differentiation of two of the eyespot foci on the hindwing. We found no evidence for any linkage between the Distal-less and Missing genes. Conclusion The spontaneous mutation Missing controls the

Serial Casting for Infantile Idiopathic Scoliosis: Radiographic Outcomes and Factors Associated With Response to Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Iorio, Justin; Orlando, Giuseppe; Diefenbach, Chris; Gaughan, John P; Samdani, Amer F; Pahys, Joshua M; Betz, Randal R; Cahill, Patrick J

Serial casting for early-onset scoliosis has been shown to improve curve deformity. Our goal was to define clinical and radiographic features that determine response to treatment. We retrospectively reviewed patients with idiopathic infantile scoliosis with a minimum of 2-year follow-up. Inclusion criteria were: progressive idiopathic infantile scoliosis and initial casting before 6 years of age. Two groups were analyzed and compared: group 1 (≥10-degree improvement in Cobb angle from baseline) and group 2 (no improvement). Twenty-one patients with an average Cobb angle of 48 degrees (range, 24 to 72 degrees) underwent initial casting at an average age of 2.1 years (range, 0.7 to 5.4 y). Average follow-up was 3.5 years (range, 2 to 6.9 y). Sex, age at initial casting, magnitude of spinal deformity, and curve flexibility (defined as change in Cobb angle from pretreatment to first in-cast radiograph) were not significantly different between groups (P>0.05). Group 1 had a significantly higher body mass index (BMI) than group 2 at the onset of treatment (17.6 vs. 14.8, Pcasted at less than 1.8 years of age had a Cobb angle casting does not confirm treatment success. Key aspects of treatment that may determine success include age of less than 1.8 years at initiation of casting and derotation of the spine to correct rib vertebral angle difference of <20 degrees. Level IV-Therapeutic.

Cross-domain interference costs during concurrent verbal and spatial serial memory tasks are asymmetric

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Morey, Candice C.; Mall, Jonathan T.

2012-01-01

Some evidence suggests that memory for serial order is domain-general. Evidence also points to asymmetries in interference between verbal and visual-spatial tasks. We confirm that concurrently remembering verbal and spatial serial lists provokes substantial interference compared with remembering a

Parameters leading to a successful radiographic outcome following surgical treatment for Lenke 2 curves.

Science.gov (United States)

Koller, Heiko; Meier, Oliver; McClung, Anna; Hitzl, Wolfgang; Mayer, Michael; Sucato, Daniel

2015-07-01

In Lenke 2 curves, there are conflicting data when to include the PTC into the fusion. Studies focusing on Lenke 2 curves are scant. The number of patients with significant postoperative shoulder height difference (SHD) or trunk shift (TS) is as high as 30 % indicating further research. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to improve understanding of curve resolution and shoulder balance following surgical correction of Lenke 2 curves as well as the identification of radiographic parameters predicting postoperative curve resolution, shoulder and trunk balance in perspective of inclusion/exclusion of the proximal thoracic curve (PTC). This is a retrospective study of a 158 Lenke 2 curves. Serial radiographs were analyzed for the main thoracic curve (MTC), PTC, and lumbar curve (LC), SHD, clavicle angle (CA), T-1 tilt, deviation of the central sacral vertical line (CSVL) off the C7 plumb line.Patients were stratified whether the PTC was included in the fusion (+PTC group, n = 60) or not (-PTC group, n = 98). Intergroup results were studied. Compensatory mechanisms for SHD were studied in detail. Adding-on distally was defined as an increase of the lowest instrumented vertebra adjacent disc angle (LIVDA) >3°. Stepwise regression analyses were performed to establish predictive radiographic parameters. At follow-up averaging 24 months significant differences between the +PTC and -PTC group existed for the PTC (24° vs 28°, p 5° (27 vs 53 %, p 2 cm) was 9 (6 %): 7 in the -PTC vs 2 in the +PTC group (p = .03). Utilization of compensatory mechanisms (99 vs 83 %, p Statistics showed postoperative SHD improvement in both the +PTC and -PTC groups. There were no significant differences regarding SHD, CA and T1-Tilt between groups. However, only in the -PTC group, a significant change between postoperative and follow-up SHD existed (p = .02). Statistics identified a preoperative 'left shoulder up' (p statistical model only for the -PTC group showed 9 parameters

Nanoflow electrospinning serial femtosecond crystallography

Science.gov (United States)

Sierra, Raymond G.; Laksmono, Hartawan; Kern, Jan; Tran, Rosalie; Hattne, Johan; Alonso-Mori, Roberto; Lassalle-Kaiser, Benedikt; Glöckner, Carina; Hellmich, Julia; Schafer, Donald W.; Echols, Nathaniel; Gildea, Richard J.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Sellberg, Jonas; McQueen, Trevor A.; Fry, Alan R.; Messerschmidt, Marc M.; Miahnahri, Alan; Seibert, M. Marvin; Hampton, Christina Y.; Starodub, Dmitri; Loh, N. Duane; Sokaras, Dimosthenis; Weng, Tsu-Chien; Zwart, Petrus H.; Glatzel, Pieter; Milathianaki, Despina; White, William E.; Adams, Paul D.; Williams, Garth J.; Boutet, Sébastien; Zouni, Athina; Messinger, Johannes; Sauter, Nicholas K.; Bergmann, Uwe; Yano, Junko; Yachandra, Vittal K.; Bogan, Michael J.

2012-01-01

An electrospun liquid microjet has been developed that delivers protein microcrystal suspensions at flow rates of 0.14–3.1 µl min−1 to perform serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) studies with X-ray lasers. Thermolysin microcrystals flowed at 0.17 µl min−1 and diffracted to beyond 4 Å resolution, producing 14 000 indexable diffraction patterns, or four per second, from 140 µg of protein. Nanoflow electrospinning extends SFX to biological samples that necessitate minimal sample consumption. PMID:23090408

Verification of Kaplan turbine cam curves realization accuracy at power plant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Džepčeski Dane

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Sustainability of approximately constant value of Kaplan turbine efficiency, for relatively large net head changes, is a result of turbine runner variable geometry. Dependence of runner blades position change on guide vane opening represents the turbine cam curve. The cam curve realization accuracy is of great importance for the efficient and proper exploitation of turbines and consequently complete units. Due to the reasons mentioned above, special attention has been given to the tests designed for cam curves verification. The goal of this paper is to provide the description of the methodology and the results of the tests performed in the process of Kaplan turbine cam curves verification.

Glow curve characteristics of bulb type thermoluminescent dosimeters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deme, S.; Feher, I.; Felszerfalvi, J.

1993-01-01

TL dosemeter readers are equipped usually with thermocouples connected to the heater unit. This layout can well be applied to stabilize the position of the glow curve as a function of heating-up time. Bulb type TL dosemeters do not have temperature sensors, no possibility for stabilization, which can cause an additional readout error of dose determination. For this reason, the time dependence of glow curves for bulb-type TL dosemeters was measured, and a new microprocessor controlled readout device was developed. (N.T.) 2 refs.; 2 figs

Serial casting for elbow flexion contractures in neonatal brachial plexus palsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Duijnisveld, B J; Steenbeek, D; Nelissen, R G H H

2016-09-02

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of serial casting of elbow flexion contractures in neonatal brachial plexus palsy. A prospective consecutive cohort study was performed with a median follow-up of 5 years. Forty-one patients with elbow flexion contractures ≥ 30° were treated with serial casting until the contracture was ≤ 10°, for a maximum of 8 weeks. Range of motion, number of recurrences and patient satisfaction were recorded and analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank and Cox regression tests. Passive extension increased from a median of -40° (IQR -50 to -30) to -15° (IQR -10 to -20, p casting had to be prematurely replaced by night splinting due to complaints. Serial casting improved elbow flexion contractures, although recurrences were frequent. The severity of elbow flexion contracture is a predictor of recurrence. We recommend more research on muscle degeneration and determinants involved in elbow flexion contractures to improve treatment strategies and prevent side-effects.

SPOTTED STAR LIGHT CURVES WITH ENHANCED PRECISION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, R. E.

2012-01-01

The nearly continuous timewise coverage of recent photometric surveys is free of the large gaps that compromise attempts to follow starspot growth and decay as well as motions, thereby giving incentive to improve computational precision for modeled spots. Due to the wide variety of star systems in the surveys, such improvement should apply to light/velocity curve models that accurately include all the main phenomena of close binaries and rotating single stars. The vector fractional area (VFA) algorithm that is introduced here represents surface elements by small sets of position vectors so as to allow accurate computation of circle-triangle overlap by spherical geometry. When computed by VFA, spots introduce essentially no noticeable scatter in light curves at the level of one part in 10,000. VFA has been put into the Wilson-Devinney light/velocity curve program and all logic and mathematics are given so as to facilitate entry into other such programs. Advantages of precise spot computation include improved statistics of spot motions and aging, reduced computation time (intrinsic precision relaxes needs for grid fineness), noise-free illustration of spot effects in figures, and help in guarding against false positives in exoplanet searches, where spots could approximately mimic transiting planets in unusual circumstances. A simple spot growth and decay template quantifies time profiles, and specifics of its utilization in differential corrections solutions are given. Computational strategies are discussed, the overall process is tested in simulations via solutions of synthetic light curve data, and essential simulation results are described. An efficient time smearing facility by Gaussian quadrature can deal with Kepler mission data that are in 30 minute time bins.

Rapid-Sequence Serial Sexual Homicides.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlesinger, Louis B; Ramirez, Stephanie; Tusa, Brittany; Jarvis, John P; Erdberg, Philip

2017-03-01

Serial sexual murderers have been described as committing homicides in a methodical manner, taking substantial time between offenses to elude the authorities. The results of our study of the temporal patterns (i.e., the length of time between homicides) of a nonrandom national sample of 44 serial sexual murderers and their 201 victims indicate that this representation may not always be accurate. Although 25 offenders (56.8%) killed with longer than a 14-day period between homicides, a sizeable subgroup was identified: 19 offenders (43.2%) who committed homicides in rapid-sequence fashion, with fewer than 14 days between all or some of the murders. Six offenders (13.6%) killed all their victims in one rapid-sequence, spree-like episode, with homicides just days apart or sometimes two murders in the same day. Thirteen offenders (29.5%) killed in one or two rapid-sequence clusters (i.e., more than one murder within a 14-day period, as well as additional homicides with greater than 14 days between each). The purpose of our study was to describe this subgroup of rapid-sequence offenders who have not been identified until now. These findings argue for accelerated forensic assessments of dangerousness and public safety when a sexual murder is detected. Psychiatric disorders with rapidly occurring symptom patterns, or even atypical mania or mood dysregulation, may serve as exemplars for understanding this extraordinary group of offenders. © 2017 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Serial thallium-201 imaging after dipyridamole for coronary disease detection: quantitative analysis using myocardial clearance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okada, R.D.; Dai, Y.H.; Boucher, C.A.; Pohost, G.M.

1984-01-01

After dipyridamole, canine studies have demonstrated a slower rate of myocardial thallium-201 clearance from zones distal to a coronary artery stenosis compared to normal zones. To determine if criteria based on canine myocardial thallium-201 clearance rates could be applied clinically, 40 patients with and 26 patients without coronary artery disease (CAD) had serial thallium-201 images obtained for 2 to 5 hours after dipyridamole. Regions of interest were manually placed over six left ventricular segments in two projections for each of three imaging times. The myocardial thallium-201 clearance rate was calculated for each of the six segments and, using the clearance rate criterion found in canine studies, was considered abnormal if less than 6.5%/hr. Using this criterion alone, 22 of 26 patients (85%) without CAD had normal and 30 of 40 patients (75%) with CAD had abnormal myocardial thallium-201 clearance rates. A quantitative analysis of regional inhomogeneity in tracer distribution (normal was greater than or equal to 25% difference between segments) was negative in 24 of 26 patients (92%) without CAD and positive in 20 of 40 patients (50%) with CAD. When both clearance rate and regional inhomogeneity were considered, 21 of 26 patients (81%) without CAD had negative and 36 of 40 patients (90%) with CAD had positive results. Thus, post-dipyridamole myocardial clearance rate criteria derived from canine studies can be applied to clinical thallium imaging. Quantitative analysis of serial thallium-201 images after dipyridamole is optimized by using myocardial thallium-201 clearance rates. Such an approach is independent of regional inhomogeneities in tracer distribution

Smart grid communication comparison: Distributed control middleware and serialization comparison for the Internet of Things

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Bo Søborg; Bindner, Henrik W.; Poulsen, Bjarne

2017-01-01

To solve the problems caused by intermittent renewable energy production, communication between Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and system operators is necessary. The communication middleware and serialization used for communication are essential to ensure delivery of the messages within...... communication middleware and serialization format/library, aided by the authors' earlier work, which investigates the performance and characteristics of communication middleware and serialization independently. Given the performance criteria of the paper, ZeroMQ, YAMI4, and ICE are the middleware that performs...

Test amnioinfusion to determine suitability for serial therapeutic amnioinfusion in midtrimester premature rupture of membranes.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, L-K; Kumar, S; Jolly, M; Gleeson, C; Johnson, P; Fisk, N M

2003-01-01

To evaluate whether a test amnioinfusion procedure is useful in selecting cases of midtrimester preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) which may benefit from serial amnioinfusions if the initial fluid is retained. The Centre for Fetal Care database between 1992 and 2000 was reviewed for women with PPROM amnioinfusion. Amniotic fluid index (AFI) was assessed before and after a test amnioinfusion procedure. Those who retained fluid > or =48 h underwent serial AFI assessment with a view to serial amnioinfusion when oligohydramnios recurred. Eighty-five amnioinfusion procedures were performed in 60 women with oligohydramnios. Nineteen of these women presented with confirmed PPROM at a median gestation of 19 (range 15-22) weeks and severe olighohydramnios (median AFI 1, range 0-3 cm), in whom 20 test amnioinfusions were carried out. Two amnioinfusions were abandoned during the procedure because of fetal bradycardia and both mothers opted for termination of pregnancy. Only 4 women retained fluid during the test amnioinfusion, 1 of whom miscarried at 19 weeks before serial amnioinfusion could be started. The remaining 3 underwent a median of 4 (range 1-6) serial amnioinfusion procedures; none had evidence of pulmonary hypoplasia. Thirteen (68%) leaked fluid within 48 h; within this group there was 1 subsequent miscarriage and 9 pregnancy terminations. The remaining 3 pregnancies resulted in livebirths 2 of which had pulmonary hypoplasia with 1 early neonatal death. Overall survival was poor (4/19), largely attributed to the high incidence of terminations in the presence of persistent severe oligohydramnios. In continuing pregnancies reaching viability survival was 67% (4 of 6). Three quarters of women with mid-trimester PPROM lose fluid at test amnioinfusion and therefore would not be suitable candidates for serial amnioinfusion. However, if infused fluid is retained, this allows subsequent serial amnioinfusion and prolongation of pregnancy in about 75%, with an

The motivation behind serial sexual homicide: is it sex, power, and control, or anger?

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Wade C; Husted, David S; Safarik, Mark E; O'Toole, Mary Ellen

2006-07-01

Controversy exists in the literature and society regarding what motivates serial sexual killers to commit their crimes. Hypotheses range from the seeking of sexual gratification to the achievement of power and control to the expression of anger. The authors provide theoretical, empirical, evolutionary, and physiological support for the argument that serial sexual murderers above all commit their crimes in pursuit of sadistic pleasure. The seeking of power and control over victims is believed to serve the two secondary purposes of heightening sexual arousal and ensuring victim presence for the crime. Anger is not considered a key component of these offenders' motivation due to its inhibitory physiological effect on sexual functioning. On the contrary, criminal investigations into serial sexual killings consistently reveal erotically charged crimes, with sexual motivation expressed either overtly or symbolically. Although anger may be correlated with serial sexual homicide offenders, as it is with criminal offenders in general, it is not causative. The authors further believe serial sexual murderers should be considered sex offenders. A significant proportion of them appear to have paraphilic disorders within the spectrum of sexual sadism. "sexual sadism, homicidal type" is proposed as a diagnostic subtype of sexual sadism applicable to many of these offenders, and a suggested modification of DSM criteria is presented.

Factors in Variability of Serial Gabapentin Concentrations in Elderly Patients with Epilepsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Conway, Jeannine M; Eberly, Lynn E; Collins, Joseph F; Macias, Flavia M; Ramsay, R Eugene; Leppik, Ilo E; Birnbaum, Angela K

2017-10-01

To characterize and quantify the variability of serial gabapentin concentrations in elderly patients with epilepsy. This study included 83 patients (age ≥ 60 yrs) from an 18-center randomized double-blind double-dummy parallel study from the Veterans Affairs Cooperative 428 Study. All patients were taking 1500 mg/day gabapentin. Within-person coefficient of variation (CV) in gabapentin concentrations, measured weekly to bimonthly for up to 52 weeks, then quarterly, was computed. Impact of patient characteristics on gabapentin concentrations (linear mixed model) and CV (linear regression) were estimated. A total of 482 gabapentin concentration measurements were available for analysis. Gabapentin concentrations and intrapatient CVs ranged from 0.5 to 22.6 μg/ml (mean 7.9 μg/ml, standard deviation [SD] 4.1 μg/ml) and 2% to 79% (mean 27.9%, SD 15.3%), respectively, across all visits. Intrapatient CV was higher by 7.3% for those with a body mass index of ≥ 30 kg/m 2 (coefficient = 7.3, p=0.04). CVs were on average 0.5% higher for each 1-unit higher CV in creatinine clearance (coefficient = 0.5, p=0.03) and 1.2% higher for each 1-hour longer mean time after dose (coefficient = 1.2, p=0.04). Substantial intrapatient variability in serial gabapentin concentration was noted in elderly patients with epilepsy. Creatinine clearance, time of sampling relative to dose, and obesity were found to be positively associated with variability. © 2017 Pharmacotherapy Publications, Inc.

Raster-scanning serial protein crystallography using micro- and nano-focused synchrotron beams

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coquelle, Nicolas [Université Grenoble Alpes, IBS, 38044 Grenoble (France); CNRS, IBS, 38044 Grenoble (France); CEA, IBS, 38044 Grenoble (France); Brewster, Aaron S. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Kapp, Ulrike; Shilova, Anastasya; Weinhausen, Britta [European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, 38043 Grenoble (France); Burghammer, Manfred, E-mail: burgham@esrf.fr [European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, 38043 Grenoble (France); Ghent University, Ghent B-9000 (Belgium); Colletier, Jacques-Philippe, E-mail: burgham@esrf.fr [Université Grenoble Alpes, IBS, 38044 Grenoble (France); CNRS, IBS, 38044 Grenoble (France); CEA, IBS, 38044 Grenoble (France)

2015-05-01

A raster scanning serial protein crystallography approach is presented, that consumes as low ∼200–700 nl of sedimented crystals. New serial data pre-analysis software, NanoPeakCell, is introduced. High-resolution structural information was obtained from lysozyme microcrystals (20 µm in the largest dimension) using raster-scanning serial protein crystallography on micro- and nano-focused beamlines at the ESRF. Data were collected at room temperature (RT) from crystals sandwiched between two silicon nitride wafers, thereby preventing their drying, while limiting background scattering and sample consumption. In order to identify crystal hits, new multi-processing and GUI-driven Python-based pre-analysis software was developed, named NanoPeakCell, that was able to read data from a variety of crystallographic image formats. Further data processing was carried out using CrystFEL, and the resultant structures were refined to 1.7 Å resolution. The data demonstrate the feasibility of RT raster-scanning serial micro- and nano-protein crystallography at synchrotrons and validate it as an alternative approach for the collection of high-resolution structural data from micro-sized crystals. Advantages of the proposed approach are its thriftiness, its handling-free nature, the reduced amount of sample required, the adjustable hit rate, the high indexing rate and the minimization of background scattering.

Emotional prosody of task-irrelevant speech interferes with the retention of serial order.

Science.gov (United States)

Kattner, Florian; Ellermeier, Wolfgang

2018-04-09

Task-irrelevant speech and other temporally changing sounds are known to interfere with the short-term memorization of ordered verbal materials, as compared to silence or stationary sounds. It has been argued that this disruption of short-term memory (STM) may be due to (a) interference of automatically encoded acoustical fluctuations with the process of serial rehearsal or (b) attentional capture by salient task-irrelevant information. To disentangle the contributions of these 2 processes, the authors investigated whether the disruption of serial recall is due to the semantic or acoustical properties of task-irrelevant speech (Experiment 1). They found that performance was affected by the prosody (emotional intonation), but not by the semantics (word meaning), of irrelevant speech, suggesting that the disruption of serial recall is due to interference of precategorically encoded changing-state sound (with higher fluctuation strength of emotionally intonated speech). The authors further demonstrated a functional distinction between this form of distraction and attentional capture by contrasting the effect of (a) speech prosody and (b) sudden prosody deviations on both serial and nonserial STM tasks (Experiment 2). Although serial recall was again sensitive to the emotional prosody of irrelevant speech, performance on a nonserial missing-item task was unaffected by the presence of neutral or emotionally intonated speech sounds. In contrast, sudden prosody changes tended to impair performance on both tasks, suggesting an independent effect of attentional capture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The attention-weighted sample-size model of visual short-term memory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Smith, Philip L.; Lilburn, Simon D.; Corbett, Elaine A.

2016-01-01

exceeded that predicted by the sample-size model for both simultaneously and sequentially presented stimuli. Instead, the set-size effect and the serial position curves with sequential presentation were predicted by an attention-weighted version of the sample-size model, which assumes that one of the items...

The Effect of Concurrent Semantic Categorization on Delayed Serial Recall

Science.gov (United States)

Acheson, Daniel J.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.; Postle, Bradley R.

2010-01-01

The influence of semantic processing on the serial ordering of items in short-term memory was explored using a novel dual-task paradigm. Subjects engaged in two picture judgment tasks while simultaneously performing delayed serial recall. List material varied in the presence of phonological overlap (Experiments 1 and 2) and in semantic content (concrete words in Experiment 1 and 3; nonwords in Experiments 2 and 3). Picture judgments varied in the extent to which they required accessing visual semantic information (i.e., semantic categorization and line orientation judgments). Results showed that, relative to line orientation judgments, engaging in semantic categorization judgments increased the proportion of item ordering errors for concrete lists but did not affect error proportions for nonword lists. Furthermore, although more ordering errors were observed for phonologically similar relative to dissimilar lists, no interactions were observed between the phonological overlap and picture judgment task manipulations. These results thus demonstrate that lexical-semantic representations can affect the serial ordering of items in short-term memory. Furthermore, the dual-task paradigm provides a new method for examining when and how semantic representations affect memory performance. PMID:21058880

An extension of the receiver operating characteristic curve and AUC-optimal classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Takenouchi, Takashi; Komori, Osamu; Eguchi, Shinto

2012-10-01

While most proposed methods for solving classification problems focus on minimization of the classification error rate, we are interested in the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which provides more information about classification performance than the error rate does. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) is a natural measure for overall assessment of a classifier based on the ROC curve. We discuss a class of concave functions for AUC maximization in which a boosting-type algorithm including RankBoost is considered, and the Bayesian risk consistency and the lower bound of the optimum function are discussed. A procedure derived by maximizing a specific optimum function has high robustness, based on gross error sensitivity. Additionally, we focus on the partial AUC, which is the partial area under the ROC curve. For example, in medical screening, a high true-positive rate to the fixed lower false-positive rate is preferable and thus the partial AUC corresponding to lower false-positive rates is much more important than the remaining AUC. We extend the class of concave optimum functions for partial AUC optimality with the boosting algorithm. We investigated the validity of the proposed method through several experiments with data sets in the UCI repository.

Serial MRI studies using gadolinium DTPA in active multiple sclerosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, D.H.; Johnson, G.; Barnes, D.; Rudge, P.; McDonald, W.I.

1988-01-01

It has been suggested that blood brain barrier (BBB) impairment is a necessary early event in the pathogenesis of the multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions. To evaluate such an hypothesis in vivo would require: (1) serial imaging studies using a modality with high sensitivity for detecting plaques; (2) a contrast enhancing agent which demonstrates BBB impairment. A serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study was undertaken of a group of MS patients using the contrast agent gadolinium-DTPA. As it has been suggested that T 1 and T 2 relaxation times are longer in acute than chronic MS lesions, these were also measured. 3 refs.; 1 figure

Development of parallel/serial program analyzing tool

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watanabe, Hiroshi; Nagao, Saichi; Takigawa, Yoshio; Kumakura, Toshimasa

1999-03-01

Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute has been developing 'KMtool', a parallel/serial program analyzing tool, in order to promote the parallelization of the science and engineering computation program. KMtool analyzes the performance of program written by FORTRAN77 and MPI, and it reduces the effort for parallelization. This paper describes development purpose, design, utilization and evaluation of KMtool. (author)

Task based synthesis of serial manipulators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarosh Patel

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Computing the optimal geometric structure of manipulators is one of the most intricate problems in contemporary robot kinematics. Robotic manipulators are designed and built to perform certain predetermined tasks. There is a very close relationship between the structure of the manipulator and its kinematic performance. It is therefore important to incorporate such task requirements during the design and synthesis of the robotic manipulators. Such task requirements and performance constraints can be specified in terms of the required end-effector positions, orientations and velocities along the task trajectory. In this work, we present a comprehensive method to develop the optimal geometric structure (DH parameters of a non-redundant six degree of freedom serial manipulator from task descriptions. In this work we define, develop and test a methodology to design optimal manipulator configurations based on task descriptions. This methodology is devised to investigate all possible manipulator configurations that can satisfy the task performance requirements under imposed joint constraints. Out of all the possible structures, the structures that can reach all the task points with the required orientations are selected. Next, these candidate structures are tested to see whether they can attain end-effector velocities in arbitrary directions within the user defined joint constraints, so that they can deliver the best kinematic performance. Additionally least power consuming configurations are also identified.

Automated Microfluidic Platform for Serial Polymerase Chain Reaction and High-Resolution Melting Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Weidong; Bean, Brian; Corey, Scott; Coursey, Johnathan S; Hasson, Kenton C; Inoue, Hiroshi; Isano, Taisuke; Kanderian, Sami; Lane, Ben; Liang, Hongye; Murphy, Brian; Owen, Greg; Shinoda, Nobuhiko; Zeng, Shulin; Knight, Ivor T

2016-06-01

We report the development of an automated genetic analyzer for human sample testing based on microfluidic rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with high-resolution melting analysis (HRMA). The integrated DNA microfluidic cartridge was used on a platform designed with a robotic pipettor system that works by sequentially picking up different test solutions from a 384-well plate, mixing them in the tips, and delivering mixed fluids to the DNA cartridge. A novel image feedback flow control system based on a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera was developed for controlling fluid movement through a complex microfluidic branching network without the use of valves. The same camera was used for measuring the high-resolution melt curve of DNA amplicons that were generated in the microfluidic chip. Owing to fast heating and cooling as well as sensitive temperature measurement in the microfluidic channels, the time frame for PCR and HRMA was dramatically reduced from hours to minutes. Preliminary testing results demonstrated that rapid serial PCR and HRMA are possible while still achieving high data quality that is suitable for human sample testing. © 2015 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Object-Image Correspondence for Algebraic Curves under Projections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joseph M. Burdis

2013-03-01

Full Text Available We present a novel algorithm for deciding whether a given planar curve is an image of a given spatial curve, obtained by a central or a parallel projection with unknown parameters. The motivation comes from the problem of establishing a correspondence between an object and an image, taken by a camera with unknown position and parameters. A straightforward approach to this problem consists of setting up a system of conditions on the projection parameters and then checking whether or not this system has a solution. The computational advantage of the algorithm presented here, in comparison to algorithms based on the straightforward approach, lies in a significant reduction of a number of real parameters that need to be eliminated in order to establish existence or non-existence of a projection that maps a given spatial curve to a given planar curve. Our algorithm is based on projection criteria that reduce the projection problem to a certain modification of the equivalence problem of planar curves under affine and projective transformations. To solve the latter problem we make an algebraic adaptation of signature construction that has been used to solve the equivalence problems for smooth curves. We introduce a notion of a classifying set of rational differential invariants and produce explicit formulas for such invariants for the actions of the projective and the affine groups on the plane.

Influence of Media on Seasonal Influenza Epidemic Curves.

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Satoshi; Saito, Norihiro; Itoga, Masamichi; Ozaki, Hiromi; Kimura, Toshiyuki; Okamura, Yuji; Murakami, Hiroshi; Kayaba, Hiroyuki

2016-09-01

Theoretical investigations predicting the epidemic curves of seasonal influenza have been demonstrated so far; however, there is little empirical research using ever accumulated epidemic curves. The effects of vaccine coverage and information distribution on influenza epidemics were evaluated. Four indices for epidemics (i.e., onset-peak duration, onset-end duration, ratio of the onset-peak duration to onset-end duration and steepness of epidemic curves) were defined, and the correlations between these indices and anti-flu drug prescription dose, vaccine coverage, the volume of media and search trend on influenza through internet were analyzed. Epidemiological data on seasonal influenza epidemics from 2002/2003 to 2013/2014 excluding 2009/2010 season were collected from National Institute of Infectious Diseases of Japan. The onset-peak duration and its ratio to onset-end duration correlated inversely with the volume of anti-flu drug prescription. Onset-peak duration correlated positively with media information volume on influenza. The steepness of the epidemic curve, and anti-flu drug prescription dose inversely correlated with the volume of media information. Pre-epidemic search trend and media volume on influenza correlated with the vaccine coverage in the season. Vaccine coverage had no strong effect on epidemic curve. Education through media has an effect on the epidemic curve of seasonal influenza. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Growing Up and Cleaning Up: The Environmental Kuznets Curve Redux.

Science.gov (United States)

Franklin, Rachel S; Ruth, Matthias

2012-01-01

Borrowing from the Kuznets curve literature, researchers have coined the term "environmental Kuznets curve" or EKC to characterize the relationship between pollution levels and income: pollution levels will increase with income but some threshold of income will eventually be reached, beyond which pollution levels will decrease. The link between the original Kuznets curve, which posited a similar relationship between income and inequality, and its pollution-concerned offspring lies primarily with the shape of both curves (an upside-down U) and the central role played by income change. Although the EKC literature has burgeoned over the past several years, few concrete conclusions have been drawn, the main themes of the literature have remained constant, and no consensus has been reached regarding the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve. EKC research has used a variety of types of data and a range of geographical units to examine the effects of income levels on pollution. Changes in pollution levels might also be at least partly explained by countries' position in the demographic transition and their general population structure, however little research has included this important aspect in the analysis. In addition, few analyses confine themselves to an evaluation for one country of the long-term relationship between income and pollution. Using United States CO 2 emissions as well as demographic, employment, trade and energy price data, this paper seeks to highlight the potential impact of population and economic structure in explaining the relationship between income and pollution levels.

Comparison of Paired ROC Curves through a Two-Stage Test.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Wenbao; Park, Eunsik; Chang, Yuan-Chin Ivan

2015-01-01

The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) is a popularly used index when comparing two ROC curves. Statistical tests based on it for analyzing the difference have been well developed. However, this index is less informative when two ROC curves cross and have similar AUCs. In order to detect differences between ROC curves in such situations, a two-stage nonparametric test that uses a shifted area under the ROC curve (sAUC), along with AUCs, is proposed for paired designs. The new procedure is shown, numerically, to be effective in terms of power under a wide range of scenarios; additionally, it outperforms two conventional ROC-type tests, especially when two ROC curves cross each other and have similar AUCs. Larger sAUC implies larger partial AUC at the range of low false-positive rates in this case. Because high specificity is important in many classification tasks, such as medical diagnosis, this is an appealing characteristic. The test also implicitly analyzes the equality of two commonly used binormal ROC curves at every operating point. We also apply the proposed method to synthesized data and two real examples to illustrate its usefulness in practice.

Serial Killers: Academic Libraries Respond to Soaring Costs.

Science.gov (United States)

McCarthy, Paul

1994-01-01

Discusses ways in which academic libraries are responding to rising costs of serials. Topics addressed include pricing by publishers; the effect of journal cancellations on research activities; interlibrary loans and document delivery services; coordinated cancelling; electronic journals; and experiences at the University of Arizona. (LRW)

Characteristics of voltage regulators with serial NPN transistor in the fields of medium and high energy photons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vukic, V.; Osmokrovic, P.

2007-01-01

Variation of collector - emitter dropout voltage on serial transistors of voltage regulators LM2990T-5 and LT1086CT5 were used as the parameter for detection of examined devices' radiation hardness in X and ? radiation fields. Biased voltage regulators with serial super-β transistor in the medium dose rate X radiation field had significantly different response from devices with conventional serial NPN transistor. Although unbiased components suffered greater damage in most cases, complete device failure happened only among the biased components with serial super-β transistor in Bremsstrahlung field. Mechanisms of transistors degradation in ionizing radiation fields were analysed [sr

500 MHz narrowband beam position monitor electronics for electron synchrotrons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohos, I.; Dietrich, J.

1998-01-01

Narrowband beam position monitor electronics were developed in the Forschungszentrum Juelich-IKP for the orbit measurement equipment used at ELSA Bonn. The equipment uses 32 monitor chambers, each with four capacitive button electrodes. The monitor electronics, consisting of an rf signal processing module (BPM-RF) and a data acquisition and control module (BPM-DAQ), sequentially process and measure the monitor signals and deliver calculated horizontal and vertical beam position data via a serial network

500 MHz narrowband beam position monitor electronics for electron synchrotrons

Science.gov (United States)

Mohos, I.; Dietrich, J.

1998-12-01

Narrowband beam position monitor electronics were developed in the Forschungszentrum Jülich-IKP for the orbit measurement equipment used at ELSA Bonn. The equipment uses 32 monitor chambers, each with four capacitive button electrodes. The monitor electronics, consisting of an rf signal processing module (BPM-RF) and a data acquisition and control module (BPM-DAQ), sequentially process and measure the monitor signals and deliver calculated horizontal and vertical beam position data via a serial network.

E-serials cataloging access to continuing and integrating resources via the catalog and the web

CERN Document Server

Cole, Jim

2014-01-01

This comprehensive guide examines the state of electronic serials cataloging with special attention paid to online capacities. E-Serials Cataloging: Access to Continuing and Integrating Resources via the Catalog and the Web presents a review of the e-serials cataloging methods of the 1990s and discusses the international standards (ISSN, ISBD[ER], AACR2) that are applicable. It puts the concept of online accessibility into historical perspective and offers a look at current applications to consider. Practicing librarians, catalogers and administrators of technical services, cataloging and serv

Dosimetric effects of the prone and supine positions on image guided localized prostate cancer radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Bei; Lerma, Fritz A.; Patel, Shilpen; Amin, Pradip; Feng Yuanming; Yi, B.-Y.; Yu, Cedric

2008-01-01

Purpose: To compare target coverage and doses to rectum and bladder in IMRT of localized prostate cancer in the supine versus prone position, with the inclusion of image guidance. Materials and methods: Twenty patients with early stage localized prostate carcinoma who received external beam radiotherapy in the supine and prone positions underwent approximately 10 serial CT examinations in their respective treatment position in non-consecutive days, except for one patient who was treated prone but serially imaged supine. The prostate, bladder and rectum were contoured on all CT scans. A PTV was generated on the first scan of each patient's CT series by expanding the prostate with a 5 mm margin and an IMRT plan was created. The resultant IMRT plan was then applied to that patient's remaining serial CT scans by aligning the initial CT image set with the subsequent serial CT image sets using (1) skin marks, (2) bony anatomy and (3) center of mass of the prostate. The dosimetric results from these three alignments were compared between the supine and prone groups. To account for the uncertainties associated with prostate delineation and intra-fractional geometric changes, a fictional 'daily PTV' was generated by expanding the prostate with a 3 mm margin on each serial CT scan. Thus, a more realistic target coverage index, V95, was quantified as the fraction of the daily PTV receiving at least 95% of the prescription dose. Dose-volume measures of the organs at risk were also compared. The fraction of the daily PTV contained by the initial PTV after each alignment method was quantified on each patient's serial CT scan, and is defined as PTV overlap index. Results: As expected, alignment based on skin marks yielded unacceptable dose coverage for both groups of patients. Under bony alignment, the target coverage index, V95, was 97.3% and 93.6% for prone and supine patients (p < 0.0001), respectively. The mean PTV overlap indices were 90.7% and 84.7% for prone and supine

Evaluation of false positivity and cross reactivity in the investigation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study evaluated the causes of false positive Human Immunodeficiency Virus test results (F+HIV), cross reactivity of HIV antibodies with other non HIV antibodies, and efficiency of the serial and parallel testing algorithms. 100 blood samples randomly collected from clients attending the Heart to Heart HIV counseling and ...

Implementation of CTRLPOS, a VENTURE module for control rod position criticality searches, control rod worth curve calculations, and general criticality searches

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, L.A.; Renier, J.P.

1994-06-01

A module in the VENTURE reactor analysis code system, CTRLPOS, is developed to position control rods and perform control rod position criticality searches. The module is variably dimensioned so that calculations can be performed with any number of control rod banks each having any number of control rods. CTRLPOS can also calculate control rod worth curves for a single control rod or a bank of control rods. Control rod depletion can be calculated to provide radiation source terms. These radiation source terms can be used to predict radiation doses to personnel and estimate the shielding and long-term storage requirements for spent control rods. All of these operations are completely automated. The numerous features of the module are discussed in detail. The necessary input data for the CTRLPOS module is explained. Several sample problems are presented to show the flexibility of the module. The results presented with the sample problems show that the CTRLPOS module is a powerful tool which allows a wide variety of calculations to be easily performed.

Working memory capacity and controlled serial memory search.

Science.gov (United States)

Mızrak, Eda; Öztekin, Ilke

2016-08-01

The speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure was used to investigate the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and the dynamics of temporal order memory retrieval. High- and low-span participants (HSs, LSs) studied sequentially presented five-item lists, followed by two probes from the study list. Participants indicated the more recent probe. Overall, accuracy was higher for HSs compared to LSs. Crucially, in contrast to previous investigations that observed no impact of WMC on speed of access to item information in memory (e.g., Öztekin & McElree, 2010), recovery of temporal order memory was slower for LSs. While accessing an item's representation in memory can be direct, recovery of relational information such as temporal order information requires a more controlled serial memory search. Collectively, these data indicate that WMC effects are particularly prominent during high demands of cognitive control, such as serial search operations necessary to access temporal order information from memory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The elastic T-stress for slightly curved or kinked cracks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Dong-Feng; Li, Chen-Feng; Qing, Hai

2010-01-01

This work presents a solution for the elastic T-stress at the tip of a slightly curved or kinked crack based on a perturbation approach. Compared to other exact or numerical solutions the present solution is accurate for considerable deviations from straightness. The T-stress variation as crack...... extends along a curved trajectory is subsequently examined. It is predicted that T-stress always keeps negative during crack extension when the crack has an initial negative T-stress. In the case of a positive T-stress and non-zero first and second stress intensity factors initially accompanying the crack......, the T-stress is not positive with increasing the extension length until a threshold is exceeded. Based on directional stability criterion with respect to the sign of the T-stress, this result implies that for a straight crack with a positive T-stress, the crack extension path will not turn immediately...

Serial MR findings of metaphyseal cyst in Legg-Calve-Perthes disease: a case report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shim, Chang Min; Na, Jae Boem; Moon, Haeng Jin

2001-01-01

Metaphyseal cysts are common findings in Lee-Calve-Perthes(LCP) disease, though usually disappear within 6-12 months several studies have described the MR imaging findings of these cysts, though serial MRI findings have not been documented. In this report, therefore, we report the serial MRI results of metaphyseal cyst in LCP patients

Short-term Memory in Childhood Dyslexia: Deficient Serial Order in Multiple Modalities.

Science.gov (United States)

Cowan, Nelson; Hogan, Tiffany P; Alt, Mary; Green, Samuel; Cabbage, Kathryn L; Brinkley, Shara; Gray, Shelley

2017-08-01

In children with dyslexia, deficits in working memory have not been well-specified. We assessed second-grade children with dyslexia, with and without concomitant specific language impairment, and children with typical development. Immediate serial recall of lists of phonological (non-word), lexical (digit), spatial (location) and visual (shape) items were included. For the latter three modalities, we used not only standard span but also running span tasks, in which the list length was unpredictable to limit mnemonic strategies. Non-word repetition tests indicated a phonological memory deficit in children with dyslexia alone compared with those with typical development, but this difference vanished when these groups were matched for non-verbal intelligence and language. Theoretically important deficits in serial order memory in dyslexic children, however, persisted relative to matched typically developing children. The deficits were in recall of (1) spoken digits in both standard and running span tasks and (2) spatial locations, in running span only. Children with dyslexia with versus without language impairment, when matched on non-verbal intelligence, had comparable serial order memory, but differed in phonology. Because serial orderings of verbal and spatial elements occur in reading, the careful examination of order memory may allow a deeper understanding of dyslexia and its relation to language impairment. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Karl Ove Knausgård’s My Struggle and the Serial Self

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inge van de Ven

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes Karl Ove Knausgård’s six-volume autobiography My Struggle in the frame of an emerging cross-medial aesthetics of the ‘serial self’. This aesthetics is informed by the technological potentialities of digital media, and by social media practices like taking a selfie or posting a blog every single day and accumulating these self-representations, without selection. The serial self is marked by continuity, real-time effects, open-endedness, rhythm, repetition, and a thematic attention to the mundane. It can be discerned in the daily comic strip, the daily selfie, and time-lapse cinema. The article embeds My Struggle in this larger, intermedial framework. Moreover, it refers to the work of psychologist Galen Strawson to argue that the self-representations in Knausgård’s work should be understood as episodic rather than diachronic in nature. This results in a sequential and paratactic, rather than causal and hierarchical, presentation of memorial material. It is claimed that serial self-representations of this type are increasingly central to our current media ecology. They offer a valuable medium for investigating, materializing, and mapping on the page the traces left by the passage of time, as serialization lends itself to performative and cumulative representations of a ‘self’ in flux, that dramatize and perform the struggles of the episodic personality in search for continuity.

Pulse shaping for all-optical signal processing of ultra-high bit rate serial data signals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Palushani, Evarist

The following thesis concerns pulse shaping and optical waveform manipulation for all-optical signal processing of ultra-high bit rate serial data signals, including generation of optical pulses in the femtosecond regime, serial-to-parallel conversion and terabaud coherent optical time division...

IMAGE-PLANE ANALYSIS OF n-POINT-MASS LENS CRITICAL CURVES AND CAUSTICS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Danek, Kamil; Heyrovský, David, E-mail: kamil.danek@utf.mff.cuni.cz, E-mail: heyrovsky@utf.mff.cuni.cz [Institute of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic)

2015-06-10

The interpretation of gravitational microlensing events caused by planetary systems or multiple stars is based on the n-point-mass lens model. The first planets detected by microlensing were well described by the two-point-mass model of a star with one planet. By the end of 2014, four events involving three-point-mass lenses had been announced. Two of the lenses were stars with two planetary companions each; two were binary stars with a planet orbiting one component. While the two-point-mass model is well understood, the same cannot be said for lenses with three or more components. Even the range of possible critical-curve topologies and caustic geometries of the three-point-mass lens remains unknown. In this paper we provide new tools for mapping the critical-curve topology and caustic cusp number in the parameter space of n-point-mass lenses. We perform our analysis in the image plane of the lens. We show that all contours of the Jacobian are critical curves of re-scaled versions of the lens configuration. Utilizing this property further, we introduce the cusp curve to identify cusp-image positions on all contours simultaneously. In order to track cusp-number changes in caustic metamorphoses, we define the morph curve, which pinpoints the positions of metamorphosis-point images along the cusp curve. We demonstrate the usage of both curves on simple two- and three-point-mass lens examples. For the three simplest caustic metamorphoses we illustrate the local structure of the image and source planes.

Identification of serial number on bank card using recurrent neural network

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Li; Huang, Linlin; Xue, Jian

2018-04-01

Identification of serial number on bank card has many applications. Due to the different number printing mode, complex background, distortion in shape, etc., it is quite challenging to achieve high identification accuracy. In this paper, we propose a method using Normalization-Cooperated Gradient Feature (NCGF) and Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) for serial number identification. The NCGF maps the gradient direction elements of original image to direction planes such that the RNN with direction planes as input can recognize numbers more accurately. Taking the advantages of NCGF and RNN, we get 90%digit string recognition accuracy.

Effect of a school-based intervention on physical activity and quality of life through serial mediation of social support and exercise motivation: the PESSOA program.

Science.gov (United States)

Quaresma, A M; Palmeira, A L; Martins, S S; Minderico, C S; Sardinha, L B

2014-12-01

The aim of this study was to explore the effects of social support and behavioral regulation of exercise on physical activity (PA) and quality of life (QoL), in a Portuguese school-based intervention. We hypothesized that serial mediation effects would be present leading to greater levels of PA and QoL. The sample comprised 1042 students (549 boys), aged 10-16 years, BMI = 19.31 ± 3.51, allocated to two groups of schools: control (n = 207) and intervention (n = 835). This study will report the 24 months results of the program, which aimed to develop healthy lifestyles. Questionnaires were used to measure PA, QoL, motivation to exercise and social support. There was no direct impact of the intervention on QoL or PA. Serial mediation analyses were conducted. Social support (P motivation (P = 0.085) increased more on intervention group. Indirect effects were observed in all serial mediation models. The positive indirect effects on PA and QoL were explained by the increase on peer/parent support in serial with the increase in intrinsic motivation (P motivation (P school-based intervention promoted the development of social support and motivational mechanisms that explained higher levels of PA and QoL. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Taking serial correlation into account in tests of the mean

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zwiers, F.W.; Storch, H. von

1993-01-01

The comparison of means derived from samples of noisy data is a standard part of climatology. When the data are not serially correlated the appropriate statistical tool for this task is usually the conventional Student's t-test. However, data frequently are serially correlated in climatological applications with the result that the t-tests in its standard form is not applicable. The usual solution to this problem is to scale the t-statistic by a factor which depends upon the equivalent sample size n e . We show, by means of simulations, that the revised t-test is often conservative (the actual significance level is smaller than the specified significance level) when the equivalent sample size is known. However, in most practical cases the equivalent sample size is not known. Then the test becomes liberal (the actual significance level is greater than the specified significance level). This systematic error becomes small when the true equivalent sample size is large (greater than approximately 30). We re-examine the difficulties inherent in difference of means tests when there is serial dependence. We provide guidelines for the application of the 'usual' t-test and propose two alternative tests which substantially improve upon the 'usual' t-test when samples are small. (orig.)

Impedance-stabilized positive corona discharge and its decontamination properties

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Horak, P; Khun, J, E-mail: pavel.horak@vscht.c [Department of Physics and Measurements, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Technicka 5, 166 28 Praha 6 (Czech Republic)

2010-04-01

The point-to-plane DC corona discharge in air at atmospheric pressure was stabilized by a serially connected ballast impedance. The ballast impedance was implemented by a resistor-capacitor group connected in parallel. In the case of connecting the serial impedance into the electric circuit of a negative corona, the transition into a spark takes place at parameters similar to those of a non-stabilized discharge. In contrast, in the case of a positive corona, the discharge does not undergo a transition into a spark, but rather into a mode of periodic streamers. We measured the bactericidal effect of the stabilized discharge. The experiments showed that after a 2-minute exposure the quantity of surviving bacteria decreased from 95% for a non-stabilized discharge down to 5% for a stabilized one.

Impedance-stabilized positive corona discharge and its decontamination properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horak, P; Khun, J

2010-01-01

The point-to-plane DC corona discharge in air at atmospheric pressure was stabilized by a serially connected ballast impedance. The ballast impedance was implemented by a resistor-capacitor group connected in parallel. In the case of connecting the serial impedance into the electric circuit of a negative corona, the transition into a spark takes place at parameters similar to those of a non-stabilized discharge. In contrast, in the case of a positive corona, the discharge does not undergo a transition into a spark, but rather into a mode of periodic streamers. We measured the bactericidal effect of the stabilized discharge. The experiments showed that after a 2-minute exposure the quantity of surviving bacteria decreased from 95% for a non-stabilized discharge down to 5% for a stabilized one.

Characterization of time series via Rényi complexity-entropy curves

Science.gov (United States)

Jauregui, M.; Zunino, L.; Lenzi, E. K.; Mendes, R. S.; Ribeiro, H. V.

2018-05-01

One of the most useful tools for distinguishing between chaotic and stochastic time series is the so-called complexity-entropy causality plane. This diagram involves two complexity measures: the Shannon entropy and the statistical complexity. Recently, this idea has been generalized by considering the Tsallis monoparametric generalization of the Shannon entropy, yielding complexity-entropy curves. These curves have proven to enhance the discrimination among different time series related to stochastic and chaotic processes of numerical and experimental nature. Here we further explore these complexity-entropy curves in the context of the Rényi entropy, which is another monoparametric generalization of the Shannon entropy. By combining the Rényi entropy with the proper generalization of the statistical complexity, we associate a parametric curve (the Rényi complexity-entropy curve) with a given time series. We explore this approach in a series of numerical and experimental applications, demonstrating the usefulness of this new technique for time series analysis. We show that the Rényi complexity-entropy curves enable the differentiation among time series of chaotic, stochastic, and periodic nature. In particular, time series of stochastic nature are associated with curves displaying positive curvature in a neighborhood of their initial points, whereas curves related to chaotic phenomena have a negative curvature; finally, periodic time series are represented by vertical straight lines.

Lipidic cubic phase serial millisecond crystallography using synchrotron radiation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Przemyslaw Nogly

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Lipidic cubic phases (LCPs have emerged as successful matrixes for the crystallization of membrane proteins. Moreover, the viscous LCP also provides a highly effective delivery medium for serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs. Here, the adaptation of this technology to perform serial millisecond crystallography (SMX at more widely available synchrotron microfocus beamlines is described. Compared with conventional microcrystallography, LCP-SMX eliminates the need for difficult handling of individual crystals and allows for data collection at room temperature. The technology is demonstrated by solving a structure of the light-driven proton-pump bacteriorhodopsin (bR at a resolution of 2.4 Å. The room-temperature structure of bR is very similar to previous cryogenic structures but shows small yet distinct differences in the retinal ligand and proton-transfer pathway.

Serials Management by Microcomputer: The Potential of DBMS.

Science.gov (United States)

Vogel, J. Thomas; Burns, Lynn W.

1984-01-01

Describes serials management at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science library via a microcomputer, a file manager called PFS, and a relational database management system called dBase II. Check-in procedures, programing with dBase II, "static" and "active" databases, and claim procedures are discussed. Check-in forms are…

Development of a large area, curved two-dimensional detector for single-crystal neutron diffraction studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moon, Myung-Kook; Lee, Chang-Hee; Kim, Shin-Ae; Noda, Yukio

2013-01-01

A new type of two-dimensional curved position-sensitive neutron detector has been developed for a high-throughput single-crystal neutron diffractometer, which was designed to cover 110° horizontally and 56° vertically. The prototype curved detector covering 70° horizontally and 45° vertically was first developed to test the technical feasibility of the detector parameters, the internal anode and cathode structures for the curved shape, technical difficulties in the assembly procedure, and so on. Then, based on this experience, a full-scale curved detector with twice the active area of the prototype was fabricated with newly modified anode and cathode planes and optimized design parameters in terms of mechanical and electric properties. The detector was installed in a dedicated diffractometer at the ST3 beam port of the research reactor HANARO. In this paper, the fabrication and application of the prototype and a new larger-area curved position-sensitive neutron detector for single crystal diffraction is presented

Injection Methods and Instrumentation for Serial X-ray Free Electron Laser Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

James, Daniel

Scientists have used X-rays to study biological molecules for nearly a century. Now with the X-ray free electron laser (XFEL), new methods have been developed to advance structural biology. These new methods include serial femtosecond crystallography, single particle imaging, solution scattering, and time resolved techniques. The XFEL is characterized by high intensity pulses, which are only about 50 femtoseconds in duration. The intensity allows for scattering from microscopic particles, while the short pulses offer a way to outrun radiation damage. XFELs are powerful enough to obliterate most samples in a single pulse. While this allows for a "diffract and destroy" methodology, it also requires instrumentation that can position microscopic particles into the X-ray beam (which may also be microscopic), continuously renew the sample after each pulse, and maintain sample viability during data collection. Typically these experiments have used liquid microjets to continuously renew sample. The high flow rate associated with liquid microjets requires large amounts of sample, most of which runs to waste between pulses. An injector designed to stream a viscous gel-like material called lipidic cubic phase (LCP) was developed to address this problem. LCP, commonly used as a growth medium for membrane protein crystals, lends itself to low flow rate jetting and so reduces the amount of sample wasted significantly. This work discusses sample delivery and injection for XFEL experiments. It reviews the liquid microjet method extensively, and presents the LCP injector as a novel device for serial crystallography, including detailed protocols for the LCP injector and anti-settler operation.

Memory as embodiment: The case of modality and serial short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Macken, Bill; Taylor, John C; Kozlov, Michail D; Hughes, Robert W; Jones, Dylan M

2016-10-01

Classical explanations for the modality effect-superior short-term serial recall of auditory compared to visual sequences-typically recur to privileged processing of information derived from auditory sources. Here we critically appraise such accounts, and re-evaluate the nature of the canonical empirical phenomena that have motivated them. Three experiments show that the standard account of modality in memory is untenable, since auditory superiority in recency is often accompanied by visual superiority in mid-list serial positions. We explain this simultaneous auditory and visual superiority by reference to the way in which perceptual objects are formed in the two modalities and how those objects are mapped to speech motor forms to support sequence maintenance and reproduction. Specifically, stronger obligatory object formation operating in the standard auditory form of sequence presentation compared to that for visual sequences leads both to enhanced addressability of information at the object boundaries and reduced addressability for that in the interior. Because standard visual presentation does not lead to such object formation, such sequences do not show the boundary advantage observed for auditory presentation, but neither do they suffer loss of addressability associated with object information, thereby affording more ready mapping of that information into a rehearsal cohort to support recall. We show that a range of factors that impede this perceptual-motor mapping eliminate visual superiority while leaving auditory superiority unaffected. We make a general case for viewing short-term memory as an embodied, perceptual-motor process. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Serial Echocardiographic Characteristics, Novel Biomarkers and Cachexia Development in Patients with Stable Chronic Heart Failure.

Science.gov (United States)

Gaggin, Hanna K; Belcher, Arianna M; Gandhi, Parul U; Ibrahim, Nasrien E; Januzzi, James L

2016-12-01

Little is known regarding objective predictors of cachexia affecting patients with heart failure (HF). We studied 108 stable chronic systolic HF patients with serial echocardiography and biomarker measurements over 10 months. Cachexia was defined as weight loss ≥5 % from baseline or final BMI cachexia. While there were no significant differences in baseline or serial echocardiographic measures in those developing cachexia, we found significant differences in baseline amino-terminal pro-B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), highly sensitive troponin I, sST2, and endothelin-1. Baseline log NT-proBNP (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.57, p = 0.004) and edema (HR = 3.36, p = 0.04) were predictive of cachexia in an adjusted analysis. When serial measurement of biomarkers was considered, only percent time with NT-proBNP ≥1000 pg/mL was predictive of cachexia. Thus, a close association exists between baseline and serial measurement of NT-proBNP and HF cachexia.

Serial binary interval ratios improve rhythm reproduction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiang eWu

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Musical rhythm perception is a natural human ability that involves complex cognitive processes. Rhythm refers to the organization of events in time, and musical rhythms have an underlying hierarchical metrical structure. The metrical structure induces the feeling of a beat and the extent to which a rhythm induces the feeling of a beat is referred to as its metrical strength. Binary ratios are the most frequent interval ratio in musical rhythms. Rhythms with hierarchical binary ratios are better discriminated and reproduced than rhythms with hierarchical non-binary ratios. However, it remains unclear whether a superiority of serial binary over non-binary ratios in rhythm perception and reproduction exists. In addition, how different types of serial ratios influence the metrical strength of rhythms remains to be elucidated. The present study investigated serial binary vs. non-binary ratios in a reproduction task. Rhythms formed with exclusively binary (1:2:4:8, non-binary integer (1:3:5:6, and non-integer (1:2.3:5.3:6.4 ratios were examined within a constant meter. The results showed that the 1:2:4:8 rhythm type was more accurately reproduced than the 1:3:5:6 and 1:2.3:5.3:6.4 rhythm types, and the 1:2.3:5.3:6.4 rhythm type was more accurately reproduced than the 1:3:5:6 rhythm type. Further analyses showed that reproduction performance was better predicted by the distribution pattern of event occurrences within an inter-beat interval, than by the coincidence of events with beats, or the magnitude and complexity of interval ratios. Whereas rhythm theories and empirical data emphasize the role of the coincidence of events with beats in determining metrical strength and predicting rhythm performance, the present results suggest that rhythm processing may be better understood when the distribution pattern of event occurrences is taken into account. These results provide new insights into the mechanisms underlining musical rhythm perception.

Serial binary interval ratios improve rhythm reproduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Xiang; Westanmo, Anders; Zhou, Liang; Pan, Junhao

2013-01-01

Musical rhythm perception is a natural human ability that involves complex cognitive processes. Rhythm refers to the organization of events in time, and musical rhythms have an underlying hierarchical metrical structure. The metrical structure induces the feeling of a beat and the extent to which a rhythm induces the feeling of a beat is referred to as its metrical strength. Binary ratios are the most frequent interval ratio in musical rhythms. Rhythms with hierarchical binary ratios are better discriminated and reproduced than rhythms with hierarchical non-binary ratios. However, it remains unclear whether a superiority of serial binary over non-binary ratios in rhythm perception and reproduction exists. In addition, how different types of serial ratios influence the metrical strength of rhythms remains to be elucidated. The present study investigated serial binary vs. non-binary ratios in a reproduction task. Rhythms formed with exclusively binary (1:2:4:8), non-binary integer (1:3:5:6), and non-integer (1:2.3:5.3:6.4) ratios were examined within a constant meter. The results showed that the 1:2:4:8 rhythm type was more accurately reproduced than the 1:3:5:6 and 1:2.3:5.3:6.4 rhythm types, and the 1:2.3:5.3:6.4 rhythm type was more accurately reproduced than the 1:3:5:6 rhythm type. Further analyses showed that reproduction performance was better predicted by the distribution pattern of event occurrences within an inter-beat interval, than by the coincidence of events with beats, or the magnitude and complexity of interval ratios. Whereas rhythm theories and empirical data emphasize the role of the coincidence of events with beats in determining metrical strength and predicting rhythm performance, the present results suggest that rhythm processing may be better understood when the distribution pattern of event occurrences is taken into account. These results provide new insights into the mechanisms underlining musical rhythm perception.

Biceps Tendon Lengthening Surgery for Failed Serial Casting Patients With Elbow Flexion Contractures Following Brachial Plexus Birth Injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Nath, Rahul K; Somasundaram, Chandra

2016-01-01

Assessment of surgical outcomes of biceps tendon lengthening (BTL) surgery in obstetric brachial plexus injury (OBPI) patients with elbow flexion contractures, who had unsuccessful serial casting. Serial casting and splinting have been shown to be effective in correcting elbow flexion contractures in OBPI. However, the possibilities of radial head dislocations and other complications have been reported in serial casting and splinting. Literature indicates surgical intervention when such nonoperative techniques and range-of-motion exercises fail. Here, we demonstrated a significant reduction of the contractures of the affected elbow and improvement in arm length to more normal after BTL in these patients, who had unsuccessful serial casting. Ten OBPI patients (6 girls and 4 boys) with an average age of 11.2 years (4-17.7 years) had BTL surgery after unsuccessful serial casting. Mean elbow flexion contracture was 40° before and 37° (average) after serial casting. Mean elbow flexion contracture was reduced to 8° (0°-20°) post-BTL surgical procedure with an average follow-up of 11 months. This was 75% improvement and statistically significant (P casting. These OBPI patients in our study had 75% significant reduction in elbow flexion contractures and achieved an improved and more normal length of the affected arm after the BTL surgery when compared to only 7% insignificant reduction and no improvement in arm length after serial casting.

Il ruolo della neurocriminologia nella costruzione di un profilo criminologico dell’omicida seriale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Occhi

2015-09-01

The purpose of this article is to analyse modalities permitting the investigators to determine the profile of a serial killer according to their neurocriminological characteristics. The phenomenon of serial killing is described in the introduction. This descriptive analysis takes into account the typically used classifications, the criminogenesis, and the criminodynamics. In the second part, neurocriminological variables associated with this criminal profile are reviewed. Among them, the main variables are genetics and brain functioning.

Serial crystallography captures enzyme catalysis in copper nitrite reductase at atomic resolution from one crystal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sam Horrell

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Relating individual protein crystal structures to an enzyme mechanism remains a major and challenging goal for structural biology. Serial crystallography using multiple crystals has recently been reported in both synchrotron-radiation and X-ray free-electron laser experiments. In this work, serial crystallography was used to obtain multiple structures serially from one crystal (MSOX to study in crystallo enzyme catalysis. Rapid, shutterless X-ray detector technology on a synchrotron MX beamline was exploited to perform low-dose serial crystallography on a single copper nitrite reductase crystal, which survived long enough for 45 consecutive 100 K X-ray structures to be collected at 1.07–1.62 Å resolution, all sampled from the same crystal volume. This serial crystallography approach revealed the gradual conversion of the substrate bound at the catalytic type 2 Cu centre from nitrite to nitric oxide, following reduction of the type 1 Cu electron-transfer centre by X-ray-generated solvated electrons. Significant, well defined structural rearrangements in the active site are evident in the series as the enzyme moves through its catalytic cycle, namely nitrite reduction, which is a vital step in the global denitrification process. It is proposed that such a serial crystallography approach is widely applicable for studying any redox or electron-driven enzyme reactions from a single protein crystal. It can provide a `catalytic reaction movie' highlighting the structural changes that occur during enzyme catalysis. The anticipated developments in the automation of data analysis and modelling are likely to allow seamless and near-real-time analysis of such data on-site at some of the powerful synchrotron crystallographic beamlines.

Alur Kerja Tahap Produksi Karakter Animasi Serial 3D Menggunakan Perangkat Lunak Maxon Cinema 4D

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ardiyan Ardiyan

2011-04-01

Full Text Available 3D Animation serial for television needs have been showed in the national television program, especially fantasy theme and educational program for children. There are so many and sequential needs which tricked by instant and high quality production so the work flow in creating 3D animation serial are facilitating the producers. The article will explain specifically how the software of Maxon Cinema 4D in process production in 3D animation serial. The article will also clarify and focus on how the work flow of Maxon Cinema 4D software in processing production and post-production stages. The writer does research including audio visual tutorial, end-result comparison and rendering time between some software, self-observation of work flow in creating 3D animation serial using Maxon Cinema 4D software and digital literature study (e-book.  

Laser projection positioning of spatial contour curves via a galvanometric scanner

Science.gov (United States)

Tu, Junchao; Zhang, Liyan

2018-04-01

The technology of laser projection positioning is widely applied in advanced manufacturing fields (e.g. composite plying, parts location and installation). In order to use it better, a laser projection positioning (LPP) system is designed and implemented. Firstly, the LPP system is built by a laser galvanometric scanning (LGS) system and a binocular vision system. Applying Single-hidden Layer Feed-forward Neural Network (SLFN), the system model is constructed next. Secondly, the LGS system and the binocular system, which are respectively independent, are integrated through a datadriven calibration method based on extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm. Finally, a projection positioning method is proposed within the framework of the calibrated SLFN system model. A well-designed experiment is conducted to verify the viability and effectiveness of the proposed system. In addition, the accuracy of projection positioning are evaluated to show that the LPP system can achieves the good localization effect.

A Serializer ASIC for High Speed Data Transmission in Cryogenic and HiRel Environment

CERN Document Server

Liu, T; The ATLAS collaboration

2010-01-01

A high speed 16:1 serializer ASIC has been developed using a commercial 0.25 μm silicon-on-sapphire CMOS technology. At room temperature the ASIC operates from 4.0 to 5.7 Gbps with power consumption of 463 mW. The total jitter is 62 ps at the bit error rate of 10-12 at 5 Gbps. A 200-MeV proton beam test indicates that the ASIC is suitable for high energy physics applications. A liquid nitrogen temperature test indicates that the ASIC may be used at cryogenic temperature applications. The reliability of the serializer at liquid nitrogen temperature is to be studied. A 6-lane serializer array with 10 Gbps/lane with redundancy capability is under development.

Update on the high speed serializer ASIC development for ATLAS Liquid Argon calorimeter upgrade

CERN Document Server

Liu, T; The ATLAS collaboration

2011-01-01

We have been developing a serializer application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) based on a commercial 0.25-μm silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) CMOS technology for the ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter front-end electronics upgrade. The first prototype, a 5 Gbps 16:1 serializer has been designed, fabricated, and tested in lab environment and in a 200 MeV proton beam. The test results indicate that the first prototype meets the design goals. The second prototype, a double-lane, 8 Gbps per lane serializer is under development. The post-layout simulation indicates that 8 Gbps is achievable. In this paper we present the design and the test results of the first prototype and the design and status of the second prototype.

Co-simulation of dynamic systems in parallel and serial model configurations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sweafford, Trevor; Yoon, Hwan Sik

2013-01-01

Recent advancement in simulation software and computation hardware make it realizable to simulate complex dynamic systems comprised of multiple submodels developed in different modeling languages. The so-called co-simulation enables one to study various aspects of a complex dynamic system with heterogeneous submodels in a cost-effective manner. Among several different model configurations for co-simulation, synchronized parallel configuration is regarded to expedite the simulation process by simulation multiple sub models concurrently on a multi core processor. In this paper, computational accuracies as well as computation time are studied for three different co-simulation frameworks : integrated, serial, and parallel. for this purpose, analytical evaluations of the three different methods are made using the explicit Euler method and then they are applied to two-DOF mass-spring systems. The result show that while the parallel simulation configuration produces the same accurate results as the integrated configuration, results of the serial configuration, results of the serial configuration show a slight deviation. it is also shown that the computation time can be reduced by running simulation in the parallel configuration. Therefore, it can be concluded that the synchronized parallel simulation methodology is the best for both simulation accuracy and time efficiency.

Observable Zitterbewegung in curved spacetimes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kobakhidze, Archil, E-mail: archilk@physics.usyd.edu.au [ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Manning, Adrian, E-mail: a.manning@physics.usyd.edu.au [ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia); Tureanu, Anca, E-mail: anca.tureanu@helsinki.fi [Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, 00014 Helsinki (Finland)

2016-06-10

Zitterbewegung, as it was originally described by Schrödinger, is an unphysical, non-observable effect. We verify whether the effect can be observed in non-inertial reference frames/curved spacetimes, where the ambiguity in defining particle states results in a mixing of positive and negative frequency modes. We explicitly demonstrate that such a mixing is in fact necessary to obtain the correct classical value for a particle's velocity in a uniformly accelerated reference frame, whereas in cosmological spacetime a particle does indeed exhibit Zitterbewegung.

Observable Zitterbewegung in curved spacetimes

Science.gov (United States)

Kobakhidze, Archil; Manning, Adrian; Tureanu, Anca

2016-06-01

Zitterbewegung, as it was originally described by Schrödinger, is an unphysical, non-observable effect. We verify whether the effect can be observed in non-inertial reference frames/curved spacetimes, where the ambiguity in defining particle states results in a mixing of positive and negative frequency modes. We explicitly demonstrate that such a mixing is in fact necessary to obtain the correct classical value for a particle's velocity in a uniformly accelerated reference frame, whereas in cosmological spacetime a particle does indeed exhibit Zitterbewegung.

Full counting statistics in a serially coupled double quantum dot system with spin-orbit coupling

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Qiang; Xue, Hai-Bin; Xie, Hai-Qing

2018-04-01

We study the full counting statistics of electron transport through a serially coupled double quantum dot (QD) system with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) weakly coupled to two electrodes. We demonstrate that the spin polarizations of the source and drain electrodes determine whether the shot noise maintains super-Poissonian distribution, and whether the sign transitions of the skewness from positive to negative values and of the kurtosis from negative to positive values take place. In particular, the interplay between the spin polarizations of the source and drain electrodes and the magnitude of the external magnetic field, can give rise to a gate-voltage-tunable strong negative differential conductance (NDC) and the shot noise in this NDC region is significantly enhanced. Importantly, for a given SOC parameter, the obvious variation of the high-order current cumulants as a function of the energy-level detuning in a certain range, especially the dip position of the Fano factor of the skewness can be used to qualitatively extract the information about the magnitude of the SOC.

Visual and Phonological Similarity Effects in Verbal Immediate Serial Recall: A Test with Kanji Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Satoru; Logie, Robert H.; Morita, Aiko; Law, Anna

2008-01-01

In a series of three experiments, native speakers of Japanese performed serial ordered written recall of visually presented Japanese kanji characters that varied systematically in visual and phonological similarity. Overall effects of phonological similarity were observed for retention of serial order under silent reading in Experiments 1 and 3…

Inverse Kinematics of a Serial Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amici Cinzia

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This work describes a technique to treat the inverse kinematics of a serial manipulator. The inverse kinematics is obtained through the numerical inversion of the Jacobian matrix, that represents the equation of motion of the manipulator. The inversion is affected by numerical errors and, in different conditions, due to the numerical nature of the solver, it does not converge to a reasonable solution. Thus a soft computing approach is adopted to mix different traditional methods to obtain an increment of algorithmic convergence.

CAR-T cells are serial killers.

Science.gov (United States)

Davenport, Alexander J; Jenkins, Misty R; Ritchie, David S; Prince, H Miles; Trapani, Joseph A; Kershaw, Michael H; Darcy, Phillip K; Neeson, Paul J

2015-12-01

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have enjoyed unprecedented clinical success against haematological malignancies in recent years. However, several aspects of CAR T cell biology remain unknown. We recently compared CAR and T cell receptor (TCR)-based killing in the same effector cell and showed that CAR T cells can not only efficiently kill single tumor targets, they can also kill multiple tumor targets in a sequential manner. Single and serial killing events were not sustained long term due to CAR down-regulation after 20 hours.

Serial millisecond crystallography of membrane and soluble protein microcrystals using synchrotron radiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin-Garcia, Jose M; Conrad, Chelsie E; Nelson, Garrett; Stander, Natasha; Zatsepin, Nadia A; Zook, James; Zhu, Lan; Geiger, James; Chun, Eugene; Kissick, David; Hilgart, Mark C; Ogata, Craig; Ishchenko, Andrii; Nagaratnam, Nirupa; Roy-Chowdhury, Shatabdi; Coe, Jesse; Subramanian, Ganesh; Schaffer, Alexander; James, Daniel; Ketwala, Gihan; Venugopalan, Nagarajan; Xu, Shenglan; Corcoran, Stephen; Ferguson, Dale; Weierstall, Uwe; Spence, John C H; Cherezov, Vadim; Fromme, Petra; Fischetti, Robert F; Liu, Wei

2017-07-01

Crystal structure determination of biological macromolecules using the novel technique of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) is severely limited by the scarcity of X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) sources. However, recent and future upgrades render microfocus beamlines at synchrotron-radiation sources suitable for room-temperature serial crystallography data collection also. Owing to the longer exposure times that are needed at synchrotrons, serial data collection is termed serial millisecond crystallography (SMX). As a result, the number of SMX experiments is growing rapidly, with a dozen experiments reported so far. Here, the first high-viscosity injector-based SMX experiments carried out at a US synchrotron source, the Advanced Photon Source (APS), are reported. Microcrystals (5-20 µm) of a wide variety of proteins, including lysozyme, thaumatin, phycocyanin, the human A 2A adenosine receptor (A 2A AR), the soluble fragment of the membrane lipoprotein Flpp3 and proteinase K, were screened. Crystals suspended in lipidic cubic phase (LCP) or a high-molecular-weight poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO; molecular weight 8 000 000) were delivered to the beam using a high-viscosity injector. In-house data-reduction (hit-finding) software developed at APS as well as the SFX data-reduction and analysis software suites Cheetah and CrystFEL enabled efficient on-site SMX data monitoring, reduction and processing. Complete data sets were collected for A 2A AR, phycocyanin, Flpp3, proteinase K and lysozyme, and the structures of A 2A AR, phycocyanin, proteinase K and lysozyme were determined at 3.2, 3.1, 2.65 and 2.05 Å resolution, respectively. The data demonstrate the feasibility of serial millisecond crystallography from 5-20 µm crystals using a high-viscosity injector at APS. The resolution of the crystal structures obtained in this study was dictated by the current flux density and crystal size, but upcoming developments in beamline optics and the planned APS

Serial millisecond crystallography of membrane and soluble protein microcrystals using synchrotron radiation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jose M. Martin-Garcia

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Crystal structure determination of biological macromolecules using the novel technique of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX is severely limited by the scarcity of X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL sources. However, recent and future upgrades render microfocus beamlines at synchrotron-radiation sources suitable for room-temperature serial crystallography data collection also. Owing to the longer exposure times that are needed at synchrotrons, serial data collection is termed serial millisecond crystallography (SMX. As a result, the number of SMX experiments is growing rapidly, with a dozen experiments reported so far. Here, the first high-viscosity injector-based SMX experiments carried out at a US synchrotron source, the Advanced Photon Source (APS, are reported. Microcrystals (5–20 µm of a wide variety of proteins, including lysozyme, thaumatin, phycocyanin, the human A2A adenosine receptor (A2AAR, the soluble fragment of the membrane lipoprotein Flpp3 and proteinase K, were screened. Crystals suspended in lipidic cubic phase (LCP or a high-molecular-weight poly(ethylene oxide (PEO; molecular weight 8 000 000 were delivered to the beam using a high-viscosity injector. In-house data-reduction (hit-finding software developed at APS as well as the SFX data-reduction and analysis software suites Cheetah and CrystFEL enabled efficient on-site SMX data monitoring, reduction and processing. Complete data sets were collected for A2AAR, phycocyanin, Flpp3, proteinase K and lysozyme, and the structures of A2AAR, phycocyanin, proteinase K and lysozyme were determined at 3.2, 3.1, 2.65 and 2.05 Å resolution, respectively. The data demonstrate the feasibility of serial millisecond crystallography from 5–20 µm crystals using a high-viscosity injector at APS. The resolution of the crystal structures obtained in this study was dictated by the current flux density and crystal size, but upcoming developments in beamline optics and the

Measurement of gastric emptying time in various positions using sup(99m)Tc-DTPA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shibatsuji, H; Hamada, S; Takahashi, H; Ohishi, H; Hachiya, T [Nara Medical Univ., Kashihara (Japan)

1976-04-01

Gastric emptying with the patients in various positions was evaluated in a group of 8 volunteers by means of serial recordings of gastric radioactivity after administration of a test meal labelled with sup(99m)Tc-DTPA. Gastric emptying time was measured in the supine, prone and sitting position, and the time, which differed according to the position, was expressed as a half life (T1/2) of meal in the stomach. Emptying time was shorter in the prone position and longer in the supine position.

Serial auditory-evoked potentials in the diagnosis and monitoring of a child with Landau-Kleffner syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Plyler, Erin; Harkrider, Ashley W

2013-01-01

A boy, aged 2 1/2 yr, experienced sudden deterioration of speech and language abilities. He saw multiple medical professionals across 2 yr. By almost 5 yr, his vocabulary diminished from 50 words to 4, and he was referred to our speech and hearing center. The purpose of this study was to heighten awareness of Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS) and emphasize the importance of an objective test battery that includes serial auditory-evoked potentials (AEPs) to audiologists who often are on the front lines of diagnosis and treatment delivery when faced with a child experiencing unexplained loss of the use of speech and language. Clinical report. Interview revealed a family history of seizure disorder. Normal social behaviors were observed. Acoustic reflexes and otoacoustic emissions were consistent with normal peripheral auditory function. The child could not complete behavioral audiometric testing or auditory processing tests, so serial AEPs were used to examine central nervous system function. Normal auditory brainstem responses, a replicable Na and absent Pa of the middle latency responses, and abnormal slow cortical potentials suggested dysfunction of auditory processing at the cortical level. The child was referred to a neurologist, who confirmed LKS. At age 7 1/2 yr, after 2 1/2 yr of antiepileptic medications, electroencephalographic (EEG) and audiometric measures normalized. Presently, the child communicates manually with limited use of oral information. Audiologists often are one of the first professionals to assess children with loss of speech and language of unknown origin. Objective, noninvasive, serial AEPs are a simple and valuable addition to the central audiometric test battery when evaluating a child with speech and language regression. The inclusion of these tests will markedly increase the chance for early and accurate referral, diagnosis, and monitoring of a child with LKS which is imperative for a positive prognosis. American Academy of Audiology.

Position dependent spin wave spectrum in nanostrip magnonic waveguides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Qi; Zhang, Huaiwu; Ma, Guokun; Liao, Yulong; Zhong, Zhiyong; Zheng, Yun

2014-01-01

The dispersion curves of propagating spin wave along different positions in nanostrip magnonic waveguides were studied by micromagnetic simulation. The results show that the modes of spin wave in the nanostrip magnonic waveguide are dependent on the position and the weak even modes of spin wave are excited even by symmetric excitation fields in a nanostrip magnonic waveguide. The reasons of the position dependent dispersion curve are explained by associating with geometrical confinement in the nanostrip magnonic waveguide

Stenting for curved lesions using a novel curved balloon: Preliminary experimental study.

Science.gov (United States)

Tomita, Hideshi; Higaki, Takashi; Kobayashi, Toshiki; Fujii, Takanari; Fujimoto, Kazuto

2015-08-01

Stenting may be a compelling approach to dilating curved lesions in congenital heart diseases. However, balloon-expandable stents, which are commonly used for congenital heart diseases, are usually deployed in a straight orientation. In this study, we evaluated the effect of stenting with a novel curved balloon considered to provide better conformability to the curved-angled lesion. In vitro experiments: A Palmaz Genesis(®) stent (Johnson & Johnson, Cordis Co, Bridgewater, NJ, USA) mounted on the Goku(®) curve (Tokai Medical Co. Nagoya, Japan) was dilated in vitro to observe directly the behavior of the stent and balloon assembly during expansion. Animal experiment: A short Express(®) Vascular SD (Boston Scientific Co, Marlborough, MA, USA) stent and a long Express(®) Vascular LD stent (Boston Scientific) mounted on the curved balloon were deployed in the curved vessel of a pig to observe the effect of stenting in vivo. In vitro experiments: Although the stent was dilated in a curved fashion, stent and balloon assembly also rotated conjointly during expansion of its curved portion. In the primary stenting of the short stent, the stent was dilated with rotation of the curved portion. The excised stent conformed to the curved vessel. As the long stent could not be negotiated across the mid-portion with the balloon in expansion when it started curving, the mid-portion of the stent failed to expand fully. Furthermore, the balloon, which became entangled with the stent strut, could not be retrieved even after complete deflation. This novel curved balloon catheter might be used for implantation of the short stent in a curved lesion; however, it should not be used for primary stenting of the long stent. Post-dilation to conform the stent to the angled vessel would be safer than primary stenting irrespective of stent length. Copyright © 2014 Japanese College of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Curve Boxplot: Generalization of Boxplot for Ensembles of Curves.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirzargar, Mahsa; Whitaker, Ross T; Kirby, Robert M

2014-12-01

In simulation science, computational scientists often study the behavior of their simulations by repeated solutions with variations in parameters and/or boundary values or initial conditions. Through such simulation ensembles, one can try to understand or quantify the variability or uncertainty in a solution as a function of the various inputs or model assumptions. In response to a growing interest in simulation ensembles, the visualization community has developed a suite of methods for allowing users to observe and understand the properties of these ensembles in an efficient and effective manner. An important aspect of visualizing simulations is the analysis of derived features, often represented as points, surfaces, or curves. In this paper, we present a novel, nonparametric method for summarizing ensembles of 2D and 3D curves. We propose an extension of a method from descriptive statistics, data depth, to curves. We also demonstrate a set of rendering and visualization strategies for showing rank statistics of an ensemble of curves, which is a generalization of traditional whisker plots or boxplots to multidimensional curves. Results are presented for applications in neuroimaging, hurricane forecasting and fluid dynamics.

Serial casting versus stretching technique to treat knee flexion contracture in children with spina bifida: a comparative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Oraibi, S; Tariah, Hashem Abu; Alanazi, Abdullah

2013-01-01

Severe knee contractures that develop soon after muscle imbalance may not improve with stretching exercises and splinting. An alternative treatment is serial casting, which has been used to promote increased range of motion. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of using serial casting and passive stretching approaches to treat knee flexion contracture in children with spina bifida. In a pre/post randomized controlled study, ten participants were included in the serial casting group, while eight participants were included in the passive stretching intervention group. The degree of knee extension was measured at baseline, immediately after intervention, and at a one-year follow-up using a standard goniometer. Both groups showed significant improvements in the degree of flexion contracture at the post-treatment evaluation and the follow-up evaluation. The serial casting group showed significant improvements in knee flexion contracture at the post-treatment evaluation, t (9)=13.4, p casting group compared with passive stretching group in relation to the degree of flexion contracture were found at the immediate post-treatment evaluation, F(1, 15)=246, p=0.0001, and the one-year follow-up evaluation, F (1, 15)=51.5, p=0.0001. The outcomes of this study provide the first evidence that serial casting may be a useful intervention in treating knee flexion contracture in children with spina bifida. However, further investigations into serial casting, as well as investigations into the use of serial casting with other interventions, are warranted.

JUMPING THE CURVE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

René Pellissier

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the notion ofjump ing the curve,following from Handy 's S-curve onto a new curve with new rules policies and procedures. . It claims that the curve does not generally lie in wait but has to be invented by leadership. The focus of this paper is the identification (mathematically and inferentially ofthat point in time, known as the cusp in catastrophe theory, when it is time to change - pro-actively, pre-actively or reactively. These three scenarios are addressed separately and discussed in terms ofthe relevance ofeach.

ECT DAMAGE INDICATES STM DIVIDED INTO STM CONTROL & LTM TRACES: NEUROLOGICAL DEFINITION OF “CONFUSION”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eugen Tarnow

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Recently it was shown that short term memory (STM free recall consists of two stages: the first few recalls empty working memory and a second stage, a reactivation stage, concludes the recall (Tarnow, 2015; for a review of the theoretical predictions see Murdock, 1974. Bayley et al (2000 investigated free recall in people who had undergone Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT and found that both recency and primacy effects were normal. Here I investigate this further, and argue that this finding suggests a division of STM between STM Control and long term memory (LTM traces and that STM Control is not effected by ECT.Serial position probabilities from an investigation of Bayley et al (2000 were used to compare 11 subjects with ECT treatments to a control group and to a group of Alzheimer’s subjects.The free recall probabilities are found to be separable into the serial position curves and the overall probability of recall. This suggests that STM is separable into an STM Control structure (the serial position curve responsible for working memory and reactivation functions and LTM traces (the overall probability of recall.Using the ECT review of Abbott et al (2014a showing excess activity in MTL and lacking activity in the frontal lobes I suggest that STM Control is overworked trying to establish stable patterns in LTM. It could be that the confusion resulting from ECT is due to the failure of this process, suggesting a neurological definition of confusion.

The Serial Link Processor for the Fast TracKer (FTK) at ATLAS

CERN Document Server

Annovi, A; The ATLAS collaboration; Beccherle, R; Beretta, M; Biesuz, N; Billereau, W; Combe, J M; Citterio, M; Citraro, S; Crescioli, F; Dimas, D; Donati, S; Gentsos, C; Giannetti, P; Kordas, K; Lanza, A; Liberali, V; Luciano, P; Magalotti, D; Neroutsos, P; Nikolaidis, S; Piendibene, M; Rossi, E; Sakellariou, A; Shojaii, S; Sotiropoulou, C-L; Stabile, A; Vulliez, P

2014-01-01

The Associative Memory (AM) system of the FTK processor has been designed to perform pattern matching using the hit information of the ATLAS silicon tracker. The AM is the heart of the FTK and it finds track candidates at low resolution that are seeds for a full resolution track fitting. To solve the very challenging data traffic problem inside the FTK, multiple designs and tests have been performed. The currently proposed solution is named the “Serial Link Processor” and is based on an extremely powerful network of 2 Gb/s serial links. This paper reports on the design of the Serial Link Processor consisting of the AM chip, an ASIC designed and optimized to perform pattern matching, and two types of boards, the Local Associative Memory Board (LAMB), a mezzanine where the AM chips are mounted, and the Associative Memory Board (AMB), a 9U VME board which holds and exercises four LAMBs. We report also on the performance of a first prototype based on the use of a min@sic AM chip, a small but complete version ...

A Serializer ASIC at 5 Gbps for Detector Front-end Electronics Readout

CERN Document Server

Gong, D; The ATLAS collaboration; Liu, T; Xiang, A; Ye, J

2010-01-01

High speed and ultra low power serial data transmission over fiber optics plays an essential roll in detector front-end electronics readout for experiments at the LHC. The ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter front-end readout upgrade for the sLHC calls for an optical link system with a data bandwidth of 100 Gbps per each front-end board (FEB), a factor of 62 increase compared with the present optical link system. The transmitter of this optical link will have to withstand the radiation environment where the front-end crates are situated, and stay within the current power dissipation budget limited by the present FEB cooling capacity. To meet these challenges, we developed a 16:1 serializer based on a commercial 0.25 μm silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) CMOS technology. This serializer, designed to work at 5 Gbps, is a key component in an optical link system. Test results of this ASIC will be reported. A system design for the 100 Gbps optical link system will also be presented, with discussions about key components identi...

Superior serial memory in the blind: a case of cognitive compensatory adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

Raz, Noa; Striem, Ella; Pundak, Golan; Orlov, Tanya; Zohary, Ehud

2007-07-03

In the absence of vision, perception of space is likely to be highly dependent on memory. As previously stated, the blind tend to code spatial information in the form of "route-like" sequential representations [1-3]. Thus, serial memory, indicating the order in which items are encountered, may be especially important for the blind to generate a mental picture of the world. In accordance, we find that the congenitally blind are remarkably superior to sighted peers in serial memory tasks. Specifically, subjects heard a list of 20 words and were instructed to recall the words according to their original order in the list. The blind recalled more words than the sighted (indicating better item memory), but their greatest advantage was in recalling longer word sequences (according to their original order). We further show that the serial memory superiority of the blind is not merely a result of their advantage in item recall per se (as we additionally confirm via a separate recognition memory task). These results suggest the refinement of a specific cognitive ability to compensate for blindness in humans.

Abutment region dosimetry for serial tomotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Low, Daniel A.; Mutic, Sasa; Dempsey, James F.; Markman, Jerry; Goddu, S. Murty; Purdy, James A.

1999-01-01

Purpose: A commercial intensity modulated radiation therapy system (Corvus, NOMOS Corp.) is presently used in our clinic to generate optimized dose distributions delivered using a proprietary dynamic multileaf collimator (DMLC) (MIMiC) composed of 20 opposed leaf pairs. On our accelerator (Clinac 600C/D, Varian Associates, Inc.) each MIMiC leaf projects to either 1.00 x 0.84 or 1.00 x 1.70 cm 2 (depending on the treatment plan and termed 1 cm or 2 cm mode, respectively). The MIMiC is used to deliver serial (axial) tomotherapy treatment plans, in which the beam is delivered to a nearly cylindrical volume as the DMLC is rotated about the patient. For longer targets, the patient is moved (indexed) between treatments a distance corresponding to the projected leaf width. The treatment relies on precise indexing and a method was developed to measure the precision of indexing devices. A treatment planning study of the dosimetric effects of incorrect patient indexing and concluded that a dose heterogeneity of 10% mm -1 resulted. Because the results may be sensitive to the dose model accuracy, we conducted a measurement-based investigation of the consequences of incorrect indexing using our accelerator. Although the indexing provides an accurate field abutment along the isocenter, due to beam divergence, hot and cold spots will be produced below and above isocenter, respectively, when less than 300 deg. arcs were used. A preliminary study recently determined that for a 290 deg. rotation in 1 cm mode, 15% cold and 7% hot spots were delivered to 7 cm above and below isocenter, respectively. This study completes the earlier work by investigating the dose heterogeneity as a function of position relative to the axis of rotation, arc length, and leaf width. The influence of random daily patient positioning errors is also investigated. Methods and Materials: Treatment plans were generated using 8.0 cm diameter cylindrical target volumes within a homogeneous rectilinear film

The LHCb SciFi Tracker: studies on scintillating fibres and development of quality assurance procedures for the SciFi serial production

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(INSPIRE)INSPIRE-00522744

For 2019 an upgrade of the LHCb detector is foreseen. The tracking stations behind the magnet will be replaced by a detector made of scintillating fibres with a silicon photomultiplier read out. To achieve a spatial resolution better than 100 µm, fibres with a diameter of 250 µm are accurately positioned in several layers and glued to 2.5 m long mats. To ensure a proper quality of these fibre mats quality assurance during the production of these mats is mandatory. This thesis presents quality assurance procedures which were developed for the serial production of the Scintillating Fibre (SciFi) Tracker. In the production scintillating fibres are wound on a threaded wheel. To directly check the winding procedure, a live monitoring setup including a software based on machine learning and image recognition has been developed. The introduced quality assurance procedures enabled a smooth running serial production with high quality fibre mats. An essential parameter to assess the quality is the light yield of a fi...

Serial analysis of resected prostate cancer suggests up-regulation of type 1 IGF receptor with disease progression.

Science.gov (United States)

Turney, Benjamin W; Turner, Gareth D H; Brewster, Simon F; Macaulay, Valentine M

2011-05-01

• To compare immunostaining protocols using different antibodies for the type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R) in channel transurethal resection of the prostate (chTURP) chips, and to investigate how IGF-1R expression varies with time in serial prostate cancer specimens from individual patients. • We studied IGF-1R expression in 44 prostate cancer specimens from 18 patients who had undergone serial chTURP at least 3 months apart. • Retrospective analysis of the hospital notes was undertaken to obtain clinical information, including age, Gleason score, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, hormone treatment and metastatic disease status at the time of each operation. • After an optimization process using three commercially-available IGF-1R antibodies, we used two antibodies for semiquantititve immunostaining of serial chTURP chips. • Santa Cruz antibody sc713 gave positive staining in IGF-1R null R- cells, and was not used further. Antibodies from Cell Signaling Technology (Beverly, MA, USA) (CS) and NeoMarkers Inc. (Fremont, CA, USA) (NM) did not stain R- cells and, in prostate tissue, showed staining of the glandular epithelium, with negligible stromal staining. All 44 chTURP samples contained identifiable malignant tissue and, of these, 73% and 64% scored moderately or strongly (score 3 or 4) with the CS and NM antibodies respectively. • There was significant correlation of IGF-1R scores of malignant tissue between the two antibodies (P < 0.001). By contrast, staining of benign glands showed poor correlation between antibodies: CS gave significantly weaker staining than malignant epithelium in the same sections (P < 0.001), whereas NM showed poor discrimination between malignant and benign glands. IGF-1R staining scores generated by the CS antibody were used to analyze the clinical data. • Most patients (six of seven) with falling IGF-1R staining scores were responding to androgen deprivation therapy (confirmed by PSA response

Exponential rarefaction of real curves with many components

OpenAIRE

Gayet , Damien; Welschinger , Jean-Yves

2011-01-01

21 pages; Given a positive real Hermitian holomorphic line bundle L over a smooth real projective manifold X, the space of real holomorphic sections of the bundle L^d inherits for every positive integer d a L^2 scalar product which induces a Gaussian measure. When X is a curve or a surface, we estimate the volume of the cone of real sections whose vanishing locus contains many real components. In particular, the volume of the cone of maximal real sections decreases exponentially as d grows to...

Reference Curve for the Mean Uterine Artery Pulsatility Index in Singleton Pregnancies.

Science.gov (United States)

Weichert, Alexander; Hagen, Andreas; Tchirikov, Michael; Fuchs, Ilka B; Henrich, Wolfgang; Entezami, Michael

2017-05-01

Doppler sonography of the uterine artery (UA) is done to monitor pregnancies, because the detected flow patterns are useful to draw inferences about possible disorders of trophoblast invasion. Increased resistance in the UA is associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia and/or intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and perinatal mortality. In the absence of standardized figures, the normal ranges of the various available reference curves sometimes differ quite substantially from one another. The causes for this are differences in the flow patterns of the UA depending on the position of the pulsed Doppler gates as well as branching of the UA. Because of the discrepancies between the different reference curves and the practical problems this poses for guideline recommendations, we thought it would be useful to create our own reference curves for Doppler measurements of the UA obtained from a singleton cohort under standardized conditions. This retrospective cohort study was carried out in the Department of Obstetrics of the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Department for Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine of the University Hospital Halle (Saale) and the Center for Prenatal Diagnostics and Human Genetics Kurfürstendamm 199. Available datasets from the three study locations were identified and reference curves were generated using the LMS method. Measured values were correlated with age of gestation, and a cubic model and Box-Cox power transformation (L), the median (M) and the coefficient of variation (S) were used to smooth the curves. 103 720 Doppler examinations of the UA carried out in singleton pregnancies from the 11th week of gestation (10 + 1 GW) were analyzed. The mean pulsatility index (Mean PI) showed a continuous decline over the course of pregnancy, dropping to a plateau of around 0.84 between the 23rd and 27th GW, after which it decreased again. Age of gestation, placental position, position of pulsed Doppler gates and branching of

An application of stereoscopy and image processing in forensics: recovering obliterated firearms serial number

Science.gov (United States)

da Silva Nunes, L. C.; dos Santos, Paulo Acioly M.

2004-10-01

We present an application of the use of stereoscope to recovering obliterated firearms serial number. We investigate a promising new combined cheap method using both non-destructive and destructive techniques. With the use of a stereomicroscope coupled with a digital camera and a flexible cold light source, we can capture the image of the damaged area, and with continuous polishing and sometimes with the help of image processing techniques we could enhance the observed images and they can also be recorded as evidence. This method has already proven to be useful, in certain cases, in aluminum dotted pistol frames, whose serial number is printed with a laser, when etching techniques are not successful. We can also observe acid treated steel surfaces and enhance the images of recovered serial numbers, which sometimes lack of definition.

Dual Smarandache Curves of a Timelike Curve lying on Unit dual Lorentzian Sphere

OpenAIRE

Kahraman, Tanju; Hüseyin Ugurlu, Hasan

2016-01-01

In this paper, we give Darboux approximation for dual Smarandache curves of time like curve on unit dual Lorentzian sphere. Firstly, we define the four types of dual Smarandache curves of a timelike curve lying on dual Lorentzian sphere.

A constrained rasch model of trace redintegration in serial recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Roodenrys, Steven; Miller, Leonie M

2008-04-01

The notion that verbal short-term memory tasks, such as serial recall, make use of information in long-term as well as in short-term memory is instantiated in many models of these tasks. Such models incorporate a process in which degraded traces retrieved from a short-term store are reconstructed, or redintegrated (Schweickert, 1993), through the use of information in long-term memory. This article presents a conceptual and mathematical model of this process based on a class of item-response theory models. It is demonstrated that this model provides a better fit to three sets of data than does the multinomial processing tree model of redintegration (Schweickert, 1993) and that a number of conceptual accounts of serial recall can be related to the parameters of the model.

Plastic optical fiber serial communications link for distributed control system

Science.gov (United States)

Saxena, Piyush; Sharangpani, K. K.; Vora, H. S.; Nakhe, S. V.; Jain, R.; Shenoy, N. M.; Bhatnagar, R.; Shirke, N. D.

2001-09-01

One of the most common interface for communications specified is RS 232C standard. Though widely accepted, RS232 has limited transmission speed, range and networking capabilities. RS 422 standard overcomes limitations by using differential signal lines. In automation of the operation of gas discharge lasers, multiple processors are used for control of lasers, cooling system, vacuum system etc. High EMI generated by lasers interfere through galvanic transmission or by radiation over the length of cables, and hang up operation of processors or control PC. A serial communications link was designed eliminating copper transmission media, using plastic optical fiber cables and components, to connect local controllers with the master PC working on RS232 protocols. The paper discusses the design and implementation of a high ly reliable EMI harden serial communications link.

The effect and complication of botulinum toxin type a injection with serial casting for the treatment of spastic equinus foot.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sook Joung; Sung, In Young; Jang, Dae Hyun; Yi, Jin Hwa; Lee, Jin Ho; Ryu, Ju Seok

2011-06-01

To identify the effect of serial casting combined with Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) injection on spastic equinus foot. Twenty-nine children with cerebral palsy who had equinus foot were recruited from the outpatient clinic of Rehabilitation Medicine. The children were divided into 2 groups, one of which received serial casting after BTX-A injection, and the other which only received BTX-A injection. Serial casting started 3 weeks after the BTX-A injection, and was changed weekly for 3 times. Spasticity of the ankle joint was evaluated using the modified Ashworth scale (MAS), and the modified Tardieu scale (MTS). Gait pattern was measured using the physician's rating scale (PRS). The degree of ankle dorsiflexion and the MAS improved significantly until 12 weeks following the BTX-A injection in the serial casting group (pcasting. Our study demonstrated that the effect of BTX-A injection with serial casting was superior and lasted longer than the effect of BTX-A injection only in patients with spastic equinus foot. We therefore recommend BTX-A injection with serial casting for the treatment of equinus foot. However, physicians must also consider the possible complications associated with serial casting.

Energy Information Data Base: serial titles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1980-06-01

The Department of Energy Technical Information Center (TIC) is responsible for creating bibliographic data bases that are used in the announcement and retrieval of publications dealing with all phases of energy. The TIC interactive information processing system makes use of a number of computerized authorities so that consistency can be maintained and indexes can be produced. One such authority is the Energy Information Data Base: Serial Titles. This authority contains the full and abbreviated journal title, country of publication, CODEN, and certain codes. This revision replaces previous revisions of this document

Personality disorders, psychopathy and serial killers

OpenAIRE

Morana, Hilda C P; Stone, Michael H; Abdalla-Filho, Elias

2006-01-01

OBJETIVO: Apresentar as características básicas dos diversos transtornos específicos de personalidade, mas centrando-se no transtorno de personalidade anti-social, fazendo sua diferenciação com psicopatia. O estudo ainda se propõe a abordar a figura do serial killer, apontando a presença de aspectos psicopáticos no homicídio seriado. MÉTODO: Uma revisão bibliográfica foi feita no sentido de se abordar convergências e divergências entre diversos autores sobre um assunto tão polêmico, sobretudo...

Peak and Tail Scaling of Breakthrough Curves in Hydrologic Tracer Tests

Science.gov (United States)

Aquino, T.; Aubeneau, A. F.; Bolster, D.

2014-12-01

Power law tails, a marked signature of anomalous transport, have been observed in solute breakthrough curves time and time again in a variety of hydrologic settings, including in streams. However, due to the low concentrations at which they occur they are notoriously difficult to measure with confidence. This leads us to ask if there are other associated signatures of anomalous transport that can be sought. We develop a general stochastic transport framework and derive an asymptotic relation between the tail scaling of a breakthrough curve for a conservative tracer at a fixed downstream position and the scaling of the peak concentration of breakthrough curves as a function of downstream position, demonstrating that they provide equivalent information. We then quantify the relevant spatiotemporal scales for the emergence of this asymptotic regime, where the relationship holds, in the context of a very simple model that represents transport in an idealized river. We validate our results using random walk simulations. The potential experimental benefits and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Impaired Curve Negotiation in Drivers with Parkinson’s Disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ergun Y Uç

2009-03-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To assess the ability to negotiate curves in drivers with Parkinson’s disease (PD. METHODS: Licensed active drivers with mild-moderate PD (n= 76; 65 male, 11 female and elderly controls (n= 51; 26 male, 25 female drove on a simulated 2-lane rural highway in a high-fidelity simulator scenario in which the drivers had to negotiate 6 curves during a 37-mile drive. The participants underwent motor, cognitive, and visual testing before the simulator drive. RESULTS: Compared to controls, the drivers with PD had less vehicle control and driving safety, both on curves and straight baseline segments, as measured by significantly higher standard deviation of lateral position (SDLP and lane violation counts. The PD group also scored lower on tests of motor, cognitive, and visual abilities. In the PD group, lower scores on tests of motion perception, visuospatial ability, executive function, postural instability, and general cognition, as well as a lower level of independence in daily activities predicted low vehicle control on curves. CONCLUSION: Drivers with PD had less vehicle control and driving safety on curves compared to controls, which was associated primarily with impairments in visual perception and cognition, rather than motor function

Serial MR imaging in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Uchino, A.; Hata, H.; Ohno, M. (Kyushu Rosai Hospital, Kitakyushu (Japan). Dept. of Radiology); Yoshinaga, M.; Shiokawa, O. (Kyushu Rosai Hospital, Kitakyushu (Japan). Stroke Care Unit)

1991-08-01

Serial magnetic resonance (MR) imagings of two autopsied patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) are presented. Both patients showed a dramatic progression of brain atrophy. The initial MR imagings were, however, interpreted as normal except for localized mild cortical atrophy in one patient. When a normal MR image is obtained in a demented middle-aged or aged patient, CJD may still need to be ruled out: follow up MR imaging may be useful. (orig.).

Serial MR imaging in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uchino, A.; Hata, H.; Ohno, M.; Yoshinaga, M.; Shiokawa, O.

1991-01-01

Serial magnetic resonance (MR) imagings of two autopsied patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) are presented. Both patients showed a dramatic progression of brain atrophy. The initial MR imagings were, however, interpreted as normal except for localized mild cortical atrophy in one patient. When a normal MR image is obtained in a demented middle-aged or aged patient, CJD may still need to be ruled out: follow up MR imaging may be useful. (orig.)

The stand-alone test and decreasing serial cost sharing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hougaard, Jens Leth; Thorlund-Petersen, Lars

2000-01-01

The rule of decreasing serial cost sharing defined in de Frutos [1] over the class of concave cost functions may violate the important stand-alone test. Sufficient conditions for the test to be satisfied are given, in terms of individual rationality as well as coalitional stability...

Mixed-List Phonological Similarity Effects in Delayed Serial Recall

Science.gov (United States)

Farrell, Simon

2006-01-01

Recent experiments have shown that placing dissimilar items on lists of phonologically similar items enhances accuracy of ordered recall of the dissimilar items [Farrell, S., & Lewandowsky, S. (2003). Dissimilar items benefit from phonological similarity in serial recall. "Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition," 29,…

ECM using Edwards curves

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bernstein, Daniel J.; Birkner, Peter; Lange, Tanja

2013-01-01

-arithmetic level are as follows: (1) use Edwards curves instead of Montgomery curves; (2) use extended Edwards coordinates; (3) use signed-sliding-window addition-subtraction chains; (4) batch primes to increase the window size; (5) choose curves with small parameters and base points; (6) choose curves with large...

Flow characteristics of curved ducts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rudolf P.

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Curved channels are very often present in real hydraulic systems, e.g. curved diffusers of hydraulic turbines, S-shaped bulb turbines, fittings, etc. Curvature brings change of velocity profile, generation of vortices and production of hydraulic losses. Flow simulation using CFD techniques were performed to understand these phenomena. Cases ranging from single elbow to coupled elbows in shapes of U, S and spatial right angle position with circular cross-section were modeled for Re = 60000. Spatial development of the flow was studied and consequently it was deduced that minor losses are connected with the transformation of pressure energy into kinetic energy and vice versa. This transformation is a dissipative process and is reflected in the amount of the energy irreversibly lost. Least loss coefficient is connected with flow in U-shape elbows, biggest one with flow in Sshape elbows. Finally, the extent of the flow domain influenced by presence of curvature was examined. This isimportant for proper placement of mano- and flowmeters during experimental tests. Simulations were verified with experimental results presented in literature.

RProtoBuf: Efficient Cross-Language Data Serialization in R

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dirk Eddelbuettel

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Modern data collection and analysis pipelines often involve a sophisticated mix of applications written in general purpose and specialized programming languages. Many formats commonly used to import and export data between different programs or systems, such as CSV or JSON, are verbose, inefficient, not type-safe, or tied to a specific programming language. Protocol Buffers are a popular method of serializing structured data between applications - while remaining independent of programming languages or operating systems. They offer a unique combination of features, performance, and maturity that seems particularly well suited for data-driven applications and numerical computing. The RProtoBuf package provides a complete interface to Protocol Buffers from the R environment for statistical computing. This paper outlines the general class of data serialization requirements for statistical computing, describes the implementation of the RProtoBuf package, and illustrates its use with example applications in large-scale data collection pipelines and web services.

3D Topography of the Young Adult Anal Sphincter Complex Reconstructed from Undeformed Serial Anatomical Sections

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wu, Yi; Dabhoiwala, Noshir F.; Hagoort, Jaco; Shan, Jin-Lu; Tan, Li-Wen; Fang, Bin-Ji; Zhang, Shao-Xiang; Lamers, Wouter H.

2015-01-01

Pelvic-floor anatomy is usually studied by artifact-prone dissection or imaging, which requires prior anatomical knowledge. We used the serial-section approach to settle contentious issues and an interactive 3D-pdf to make the results widely accessible. 3D reconstructions of undeformed thin serial

Learning of serial digits leads to frontal activation in functional MR imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Karakaş, Hakki Muammer; Karakaş, Sirel

2006-03-01

Clinical studies have shown that performance on the serial digit learning test (SDLT) is dependent upon the mesial temporal lobes, which are responsible for learning and its consolidation. However, an effective SDLT performance is also dependent upon sequencing, temporal ordering, and the utilization of mnemonic strategies. All of these processes are among the functions of the frontal lobes; in spite of this, the relationship between SDLT performance and the frontal lobes has not been demonstrated with previously used mapping techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate the areas of the brain that are activated by SDLT performance. Ten healthy, right handed volunteers (mean age, 20.1 years; SD: 3.3) who had 12 years of education were studied with a 1.0 T MR imaging scanner. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) contrast and a modified SDLT were used. Activated loci were automatically mapped using a proportional grid. In learning, the most consistent activation was observed in B-a-7 of the right (80%) and the left hemispheres (50%). In recall, the most consistent activation was observed in B-a-7 of the right hemisphere (60%). Activations were observed in 2.5+/-0.97 Talairach volumes in learning, whereas they encompassed 1.7+/-0.95 volumes in recall. The difference between both phases (learning and recall) regarding total activated volume was significant (p SDLT performance was not related to learning or to recall, but to a function that is common to both of these cognitive processes. A candidate for this common factor may be the executive functions, which also include serial position processing and temporal ordering.

Serial type-specific human papillomavirus (HPV) load measurement allows differentiation between regressing cervical lesions and serial virion productive transient infections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Depuydt, Christophe E; Jonckheere, Jef; Berth, Mario; Salembier, Geert M; Vereecken, Annie J; Bogers, Johannes J

2015-01-01

Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is strongly associated with the development of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) or cancer. Not all persistent infections lead to cancer. Viral load measured at a single time-point is a poor predictor of the natural history of HPV infections. However the profile of viral load evolution over time could distinguish nonprogressive from progressive (carcinogenic) infections. A retrospective natural history study was set up using a Belgian laboratory database including more than 800,000 liquid cytology specimens. All samples were submitted to qPCR identifying E6/E7 genes of 18 HPV types. Viral load changes over time were assessed by the linear regression slope. Database search identified 261 untreated women with persistent type-specific HPV DNA detected (270 infections) in at least three of the last smears for a average period of 3.2 years. Using the coefficient of determination (R²) infections could be subdivided in a latency group (n = 143; R² < 0.85) and a regressing group (n = 127; R² ≥ 0.85). In (≥3) serial viral load measurements, serial transient infections with latency is characterized by a nonlinear limited difference in decrease or increase of type-specific viral load (R² < 0.85 and slopes between 2 measurements 0.0010 and −0.0010 HPV copies/cell per day) over a longer period of time (1553 days), whereas regression of a clonal cell population is characterized by a linear (R² ≥ 0.85) decrease (−0.0033 HPV copies/cell per day) over a shorter period of time (708 days; P < 0.001). Using serial HPV type-specific viral load measurements we could for the first time identify regressing CIN2 and CIN3 lesions. Evolution of the viral load is an objective measurable indicator of the natural history of HPV infections and could be used for future triage in HPV-based cervical screening programs

Technological change in energy systems. Learning curves, logistic curves and input-output coefficients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pan, Haoran; Koehler, Jonathan

2007-01-01

Learning curves have recently been widely adopted in climate-economy models to incorporate endogenous change of energy technologies, replacing the conventional assumption of an autonomous energy efficiency improvement. However, there has been little consideration of the credibility of the learning curve. The current trend that many important energy and climate change policy analyses rely on the learning curve means that it is of great importance to critically examine the basis for learning curves. Here, we analyse the use of learning curves in energy technology, usually implemented as a simple power function. We find that the learning curve cannot separate the effects of price and technological change, cannot reflect continuous and qualitative change of both conventional and emerging energy technologies, cannot help to determine the time paths of technological investment, and misses the central role of R and D activity in driving technological change. We argue that a logistic curve of improving performance modified to include R and D activity as a driving variable can better describe the cost reductions in energy technologies. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the top-down Leontief technology can incorporate the bottom-up technologies that improve along either the learning curve or the logistic curve, through changing input-output coefficients. An application to UK wind power illustrates that the logistic curve fits the observed data better and implies greater potential for cost reduction than the learning curve does. (author)

EXISTENCE OF POSITIVE SOLUTIONS FOR AN ELASTIC CURVED BEAM EQUATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Béla Kovacs

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the existence of positive solutions for a sixth-order differential equations. By using the Leggett-Williams fixed point theorem we give some new existence results.

Energy information data base. Serial titles, February 1978--June 1979

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1979-06-01

This supplement contains changes and additions to TID-4579-R10 (the authority list for serial titles used by TIC), and is intended to be used with that publication. Supplements are cumulative until another revision is issued

On the topology of real algebraic plane curves

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cheng, Jinsan; Lazard, Sylvain; Peñaranda, Luis

2010-01-01

We revisit the problem of computing the topology and geometry of a real algebraic plane curve. The topology is of prime interest but geometric information, such as the position of singular and critical points, is also relevant. A challenge is to compute efficiently this information for the given...... and isolation with rational univariate representations. This has the advantage of avoiding computations with polynomials with algebraic coefficients, even in non-generic positions. Our algorithm isolates critical points in boxes and computes a decomposition of the plane by rectangular boxes. This decomposition...

Neuromyelitis optica in a young child with positive serum autoantibody

OpenAIRE

Loma, Ingrid P.; Asato, Miya R.; Filipink, Robyn A.; Alper, Gulay

2008-01-01

Relapsing neuromyelitis optica is rare in children. The identification of highly specific serum autoantibody marker (neuromyelitis optica –immunoglobulin G) differentiates neuromyelitis optica from other demyelinating disorders particularly in clinically challenging cases. We present a child with multiple episodes of transverse myelitis and optic neuritis with positive neuromyelitis optica-immunoglobulin G titers consistent with a diagnosis of relapsing neuromyelitis optica. Serial titers of ...

Numerical investigation of power requirements for ultra-high-speed serial-to-parallel conversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lillieholm, Mads; Mulvad, Hans Christian Hansen; Palushani, Evarist

2012-01-01

We present a numerical bit-error rate investigation of 160-640 Gbit/s serial-to-parallel conversion by four-wave mixing based time-domain optical Fourier transformation, showing an inverse scaling of the required pump energy per bit with the bit rate.......We present a numerical bit-error rate investigation of 160-640 Gbit/s serial-to-parallel conversion by four-wave mixing based time-domain optical Fourier transformation, showing an inverse scaling of the required pump energy per bit with the bit rate....

Test for the statistical significance of differences between ROC curves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Metz, C.E.; Kronman, H.B.

1979-01-01

A test for the statistical significance of observed differences between two measured Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves has been designed and evaluated. The set of observer response data for each ROC curve is assumed to be independent and to arise from a ROC curve having a form which, in the absence of statistical fluctuations in the response data, graphs as a straight line on double normal-deviate axes. To test the significance of an apparent difference between two measured ROC curves, maximum likelihood estimates of the two parameters of each curve and the associated parameter variances and covariance are calculated from the corresponding set of observer response data. An approximate Chi-square statistic with two degrees of freedom is then constructed from the differences between the parameters estimated for each ROC curve and from the variances and covariances of these estimates. This statistic is known to be truly Chi-square distributed only in the limit of large numbers of trials in the observer performance experiments. Performance of the statistic for data arising from a limited number of experimental trials was evaluated. Independent sets of rating scale data arising from the same underlying ROC curve were paired, and the fraction of differences found (falsely) significant was compared to the significance level, α, used with the test. Although test performance was found to be somewhat dependent on both the number of trials in the data and the position of the underlying ROC curve in the ROC space, the results for various significance levels showed the test to be reliable under practical experimental conditions

Comparing Angular and Curved Shapes in Terms of Implicit Associations and Approach/Avoidance Responses.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Letizia Palumbo

Full Text Available Most people prefer smoothly curved shapes over more angular shapes. We investigated the origin of this effect using abstract shapes and implicit measures of semantic association and preference. In Experiment 1 we used a multidimensional Implicit Association Test (IAT to verify the strength of the association of curved and angular polygons with danger (safe vs. danger words, valence (positive vs. negative words and gender (female vs. male names. Results showed that curved polygons were associated with safe and positive concepts and with female names, whereas angular polygons were associated with danger and negative concepts and with male names. Experiment 2 used a different implicit measure, which avoided any need to categorise the stimuli. Using a revised version of the Stimulus Response Compatibility (SRC task we tested with a stick figure (i.e., the manikin approach and avoidance reactions to curved and angular polygons. We found that RTs for approaching vs. avoiding angular polygons did not differ, even in the condition where the angles were more pronounced. By contrast participants were faster and more accurate when moving the manikin towards curved shapes. Experiment 2 suggests that preference for curvature cannot derive entirely from an association of angles with threat. We conclude that smoothly curved contours make these abstract shapes more pleasant. Further studies are needed to clarify the nature of such a preference.

Voltage balancing strategies for serial connection of microbial fuel cells

Science.gov (United States)

Khaled, Firas; Ondel, Olivier; Allard, Bruno; Buret, François

2015-07-01

The microbial fuel cell (MFC) converts electrochemically organic matter into electricity by means of metabolisms of bacteria. The MFC power output is limited by low voltage and low current characteristics in the range of microwatts or milliwatts per litre. In order to produce a sufficient voltage level (>1.5 V) and sufficient power to supply real applications such as autonomous sensors, it is necessary to either scale-up one single unit or to connect multiple units together. Many topologies of connection are possible as the serial association to improve the output voltage, or the parallel connection to improve the output current or the series/parallel connection to step-up both voltage and current. The association of MFCs in series is a solution to increase the voltage to an acceptable value and to mutualize the unit's output power. The serial association of a large number of MFCs presents several issues. The first one is the hydraulic coupling among MFCs when they share the same substrate. The second one is the dispersion between generators that lead to a non-optimal stack efficiency because the maximum power point (MPP) operation of all MFCs is not permitted. Voltage balancing is a solution to compensate non-uniformities towards MPP. This paper presents solutions to improve the efficiency of a stack of serially connected MFCs through a voltage-balancing circuit. Contribution to the topical issue "Electrical Engineering Symposium (SGE 2014)", edited by Adel Razek

Serial-order learning impairment and hypersensitivity-to-interference in dyscalculia.

Science.gov (United States)

De Visscher, Alice; Szmalec, Arnaud; Van Der Linden, Lize; Noël, Marie-Pascale

2015-11-01

In the context of heterogeneity, the different profiles of dyscalculia are still hypothetical. This study aims to link features of mathematical difficulties to certain potential etiologies. First, we wanted to test the hypothesis of a serial-order learning deficit in adults with dyscalculia. For this purpose we used a Hebb repetition learning task. Second, we wanted to explore a recent hypothesis according to which hypersensitivity-to-interference hampers the storage of arithmetic facts and leads to a particular profile of dyscalculia. We therefore used interfering and non-interfering repeated sequences in the Hebb paradigm. A final test was used to assess the memory trace of the non-interfering sequence and the capacity to manipulate it. In line with our predictions, we observed that people with dyscalculia who show good conceptual knowledge in mathematics but impaired arithmetic fluency suffer from increased sensitivity-to-interference compared to controls. Secondly, people with dyscalculia who show a deficit in a global mathematical test suffer from a serial-order learning deficit characterized by a slow learning and a quick degradation of the memory trace of the repeated sequence. A serial-order learning impairment could be one of the explanations for a basic numerical deficit, since it is necessary for the number-word sequence acquisition. Among the different profiles of dyscalculia, this study provides new evidence and refinement for two particular profiles. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

What's Your Money Worth? Materials Budgets and the Selection and Evaluation of Book and Serial Vendors.

Science.gov (United States)

Barker, Joseph W.

1992-01-01

Discusses budgets for library materials and how to select and evaluate book and serial vendors. Trends in automation, publishing, and economics that affect both libraries and vendors are discussed; and examples from the University of California at Berkeley that include serials service charges and approval plan discounts are presented. (six…

Serial Comparison Processes and Sex Differences in Clerical Speed.

Science.gov (United States)

Majeres, Raymond L.

1988-01-01

Three experiments were conducted with 91 male and 91 female university students to assess sex differences in performance on speeded matching tests and theory on same-different judgments. Results are interpreted via the dual-process hypothesis of same-difference judgments with sex differences explained in terms of serial comparison processes rather…

Benchmarking Usage Statistics in Collection Management Decisions for Serials

Science.gov (United States)

Tucker, Cory

2009-01-01

Usage statistics are an important metric for making decisions on serials. Although the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries have been collecting usage statistics, the statistics had not frequently been used to make decisions and had not been included in collection development policy. After undergoing a collection assessment, the…

The functional determinants of short-term memory: Evidence from perceptual-motor interference in verbal serial recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, Robert W; Marsh, John E

2017-04-01

A functional, perceptual-motor, account of serial short-term memory (STM) is examined by investigating the way in which an irrelevant spoken sequence interferes with verbal serial recall. Even with visual list-presentation, verbal serial recall is particularly susceptible to disruption by irrelevant spoken stimuli that have the same identity as-but that are order-incongruent with-the to-be-remembered items. We test the view that such interference is because of the obligatory perceptual organization of the spoken stimuli yielding a sequence that competes with a subvocal motor-plan assembled to support the reproduction of the to-be-remembered list. In support of this view, the interference can be eliminated without changing either the identities or objective serial order of the spoken stimuli but merely by promoting a subjective perceptual organization that strips them of their order-incongruent relation to the to-be-remembered list (Experiment 1). The interference is also eliminated if subvocal motor sequence-planning is impeded via articulatory suppression (Experiment 2). The results are in line with the view that performance-limits in verbal serial STM are because of having to exploit perceptual and motor processes for purposes for which they did not evolve, not the inherently limited capacity of structures or mechanisms dedicated to storage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Serially cultured keratinocytes from human scalp hair follicles: a tool for cytogenetic studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Weterings, P J; Roelofs, H M; Jansen, B A; Vermorken, A J

1983-01-01

Keratinocytes originating from adult human hair follicles, the most convenient biopsy tissue, can be serially cultured using a combination of two techniques. Primary cultures are established using plucked scalp hair follicles and the bovine eye lens capsule as a growth substrate. Subsequently, cells from these cultures are serially cultivated in the presence of irradiated 3T3 cells as feeders. By this combination of techniques many keratinocytes can be generated from one single hair follicle. These cultures, appropriately treated with colchicine, can provide an adequate number of metaphases suitable for chromosome studies.

Testing serial dependence by Random-shuffle surrogates and the Wayland method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hirata, Yoshito [Department of Mathematical Informatics, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656 (Japan); Aihara Complexity Modelling Project, ERATO, JST (Japan); Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505 (Japan)], E-mail: yoshito@sat.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp; Horai, Shunsuke [Aihara Complexity Modelling Project, ERATO, JST (Japan); Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505 (Japan); Suzuki, Hideyuki [Department of Mathematical Informatics, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656 (Japan); Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505 (Japan); Aihara, Kazuyuki [Department of Mathematical Informatics, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656 (Japan); Aihara Complexity Modelling Project, ERATO, JST (Japan); Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505 (Japan)

2007-10-22

Given time series, a primary concern is existence of serial dependence and determinism. They are often tested with Random-shuffle surrogates, which totally break serial dependence, and the Wayland method. Since the statistic of the Wayland method fundamentally shows a smaller value for a more deterministic time series, for real-world data, we usually expect that the statistic for the original data is smaller than or equal to those of Random-shuffle surrogates. However, we show herewith an opposite result with wind data in high time resolution. We argue that this puzzling phenomenon can be produced by observational or dynamical noise, both of which may be produced by a low-dimensional deterministic system. Thus the one-sided test is dangerous.

Testing serial dependence by Random-shuffle surrogates and the Wayland method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirata, Yoshito; Horai, Shunsuke; Suzuki, Hideyuki; Aihara, Kazuyuki

2007-01-01

Given time series, a primary concern is existence of serial dependence and determinism. They are often tested with Random-shuffle surrogates, which totally break serial dependence, and the Wayland method. Since the statistic of the Wayland method fundamentally shows a smaller value for a more deterministic time series, for real-world data, we usually expect that the statistic for the original data is smaller than or equal to those of Random-shuffle surrogates. However, we show herewith an opposite result with wind data in high time resolution. We argue that this puzzling phenomenon can be produced by observational or dynamical noise, both of which may be produced by a low-dimensional deterministic system. Thus the one-sided test is dangerous

Computerised curve deconvolution of TL/OSL curves using a popular spreadsheet program.

Science.gov (United States)

Afouxenidis, D; Polymeris, G S; Tsirliganis, N C; Kitis, G

2012-05-01

This paper exploits the possibility of using commercial software for thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence curve deconvolution analysis. The widely used software package Microsoft Excel, with the Solver utility has been used to perform deconvolution analysis to both experimental and reference glow curves resulted from the GLOw Curve ANalysis INtercomparison project. The simple interface of this programme combined with the powerful Solver utility, allows the analysis of complex stimulated luminescence curves into their components and the evaluation of the associated luminescence parameters.

Computerised curve deconvolution of TL/OSL curves using a popular spreadsheet program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Afouxenidis, D.; Polymeris, G. S.; Tsirliganis, N. C.; Kitis, G.

2012-01-01

This paper exploits the possibility of using commercial software for thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence curve deconvolution analysis. The widely used software package Microsoft Excel, with the Solver utility has been used to perform deconvolution analysis to both experimental and reference glow curves resulted from the Glow Curve Analysis Intercomparison project. The simple interface of this programme combined with the powerful Solver utility, allows the analysis of complex stimulated luminescence curves into their components and the evaluation of the associated luminescence parameters. (authors)

Kinematic Gait Changes Following Serial Casting and Bracing to Treat Toe Walking in a Child With Autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Barkocy, Marybeth; Dexter, James; Petranovich, Colleen

2017-07-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of serial casting in a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibiting a toe-walking gait pattern with equinus contractures. Although many children with ASD toe walk, little research on physical therapy interventions exists for this population. Serial casting has been validated for use in idiopathic toe walking to increase passive dorsiflexion and improve gait, but not for toe walking in children with ASD. Serial casting followed by ankle-foot orthosis use was implemented to treat a child with ASD who had an obligatory equinus gait pattern. Gait analysis supported improvements in kinematic, spatial, and temporal parameters of gait, and the child maintained a consistent heel-toe gait at 2-year follow-up. STATEMENT OF CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE:: Serial casting followed by ankle-foot orthosis use is a viable treatment option for toe walking in children with ASD.

Attempted Serial Neonaticides: Case Report and a Brief Review of the Literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Barros, Alcina Juliana Soares; Rosa, Regis Goulart; Telles, Lisieux Elaine de Borba; Taborda, José Geraldo Vernet

2016-01-01

Neonaticide is an infant murder occurring on the day of birth. The case reports found in the literature are often focused on the mother as the agent in the context of pregnancy denial, dissociative symptoms, or psychosis. However, this report describes a rare case of attempted serial neonaticides, in which the acts were committed by a nurse at the nursery of a referral hospital in Brazil. The authors describe a forensic psychiatric evaluation for criminal responsibility and correlate the information from this particular case with relevant forensic themes, namely neonaticide, Munchausen by proxy syndrome, and serial healthcare killers. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

The magnitude of muscle strain does not influence serial sarcomere number adaptations following eccentric exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Butterfield, Timothy A; Herzog, Walter

2006-02-01

It is generally accepted that eccentric exercise, when performed by a muscle that is unaccustomed to that type of contraction, results in a delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS). A prolonged exposure to eccentric exercise leads to the disappearance of the signs and symptoms associated with DOMS, which has been referred to as the repeated bout effect (RBE). Although the mechanisms underlying the RBE remain unclear, several mechanisms have been proposed, including the serial sarcomere number addition following exercise induced muscle damage. In the traditional DOMS and RBE protocols, muscle injury has been treated as a global parameter, with muscle force and strain assumed to be uniform throughout the muscle. To assess the effects of muscle-tendon unit strain, fiber strain, torque and injury on serial sarcomere number adaptations, three groups of New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits were subjected to chronic repetitive eccentric exercise bouts of the ankle dorsiflexors for 6 weeks. These eccentric exercise protocols consisted of identical muscle tendon unit (MTU) strain, but other mechanical factors were systematically altered. Following chronic eccentric exercise, serial sarcomere number adaptations were not identical between the three eccentric exercise protocols, and serial sarcomere number adaptations were not uniform across all regions of the muscle. Peak torque and relaxation fiber strain were the best predictors of serial sarcomere number across all three protocols. Therefore, MTU strain does not appear to be the primary cause for sarcomerogenesis, and differential adaptations within the muscle may be explained by the nonuniform architecture of the muscle, resulting in differential local fiber strains.

Evaluation of Esophageal Anastomotic Integrity With Serial Pleural Amylase Levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Daniel L; Helms, Gerald A; Mayfield, William R

2018-01-01

An anastomotic leak is the most devastating and potentially fatal complication after esophagectomy. Current detection methods can be inaccurate and place patients at risk of other complications. Analysis of pleural fluid for amylase may be more accurate and place patients at less of a risk for evaluating the integrity of an esophageal anastomosis. We retrospectively reviewed prospective data of 45 consecutive patients who underwent an Ivor Lewis esophagectomy over an 18-month period and evaluated their anastomotic integrity with serial pleural amylase levels (PAL). There were 40 men (89%), and median age was 63 years (range, 35 to 79). Indication for esophagectomy was cancer in 38 patients (84%); 27 (71%) underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiation. A barium swallow was performed in the first 25 patients at median postoperative day (POD) 5 (range, 5 to 10); the swallow was negative in 23 patients (93%). Serial PALs were obtained starting on POD 3 and stopped 1 day after toleration of clear liquids. The PALs in the no-leak patients were highest on POD 3 (median 42 IU/L; range, 20 to 102 IU/L) and decreased (median 15 IU/L; range, 8 to 34 IU/L) to the lowest levels 1 day after clear liquid toleration (p = 0.04). Two patients had a leak and had peak PALs of 227 IU/L and 630 IU/L, respectively; both leaks occurred on POD 4, 1 day before their scheduled swallow test. The last 20 patients underwent serial PALs only, without a planned swallow test or computed tomography scan for anastomotic integrity evaluation. One of these patients had a leak on POD 5 with a low PAL of 55 IU/L the day before the spike of more than 4,000 IU/L. Two of the leaks were treated with esophageal stent placement and intravenous antibiotics, and the remaining patient's leak resolved with intravenous antibiotics, no oral intake, and observation only. None of the leak patients required transthoracic esophageal repair or drainage of an empyema. There was 1 postoperative death (2%) secondary to aspiration

Pancreatic pseudocyst-portal vein fistula: Serial imaging and clinical follow-up from pseudocyst to fistula

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jee, Keun Nahn [Dept. of Radiology, Dankook University Hospital, Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan (Korea, Republic of)

2015-03-15

Pancreatic pseudocyst-portal vein fistula is an extremely rare complication of pancreatitis. Only 18 such cases have been previously reported in the medical literature. However, a serial process from pancreatic pseudocyst to fistula formation has not been described. The serial clinical and radiological findings in a 52-year-old chronic alcoholic male patient with fistula between pancreatic pseudocyst and main portal vein are presented.

The disappearing Environmental Kuznets Curve: a study of water quality in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB).

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Yoon Loong Andrew; Lewis, Lynne

2013-12-15

The literature is flush with articles focused on estimating the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for various pollutants and various locations. Most studies have utilized air pollution variables; far fewer have utilized water quality variables, all with mixed results. We suspect that mixed evidence of the EKC stems from model and error specification. We analyze annual data for four water quality indicators, three of them previously unstudied - total phosphorus (TOTP), dissolved oxygen (DO), ammonium (NH4) and nitrites (NO2) - from the Lower Mekong Basin region to determine whether an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is evident for a transboundary river in a developing country and whether that curve is dependent on model specification and/or pollutant. We build upon previous studies by correcting for the problems of heteroskedasticity, serial correlation and cross-sectional dependence. Unlike multi-country EKC studies, we mitigate for potential distortion from pooling data across geographically heterogeneous locations by analyzing data drawn from proximate locations within a specific international river basin in Southeast Asia. We also attempt to identify vital socioeconomic determinants of water pollution by including a broad list of explanatory variables alongside the income term. Finally, we attempt to shed light on the pollution-income relationship as it pertains to trans-boundary water pollution by examining data from an international river system. We do not find consistent evidence of an EKC for any of the 4 pollutant indicators in this study, but find the results are entirely dependent on model and error specification as well as pollutant. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design of a Two-Step Calibration Method of Kinematic Parameters for Serial Robots

Science.gov (United States)

WANG, Wei; WANG, Lei; YUN, Chao

2017-03-01

Serial robots are used to handle workpieces with large dimensions, and calibrating kinematic parameters is one of the most efficient ways to upgrade their accuracy. Many models are set up to investigate how many kinematic parameters can be identified to meet the minimal principle, but the base frame and the kinematic parameter are indistinctly calibrated in a one-step way. A two-step method of calibrating kinematic parameters is proposed to improve the accuracy of the robot's base frame and kinematic parameters. The forward kinematics described with respect to the measuring coordinate frame are established based on the product-of-exponential (POE) formula. In the first step the robot's base coordinate frame is calibrated by the unit quaternion form. The errors of both the robot's reference configuration and the base coordinate frame's pose are equivalently transformed to the zero-position errors of the robot's joints. The simplified model of the robot's positioning error is established in second-power explicit expressions. Then the identification model is finished by the least square method, requiring measuring position coordinates only. The complete subtasks of calibrating the robot's 39 kinematic parameters are finished in the second step. It's proved by a group of calibration experiments that by the proposed two-step calibration method the average absolute accuracy of industrial robots is updated to 0.23 mm. This paper presents that the robot's base frame should be calibrated before its kinematic parameters in order to upgrade its absolute positioning accuracy.

Symphysis-fundal height curve in the diagnosis of fetal growth deviations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Djacyr Magna Cabral Freire

2010-12-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To validate a new symphysis-fundal curve for screening fetal growth deviations and to compare its performance with the standard curve adopted by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. METHODS: Observational study including a total of 753 low-risk pregnant women with gestational age above 27 weeks between March to October 2006 in the city of João Pessoa, Northeastern Brazil. Symphisys-fundal was measured using a standard technique recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Estimated fetal weight assessed through ultrasound using the Brazilian fetal weight chart for gestational age was the gold standard. A subsample of 122 women with neonatal weight measurements was taken up to seven days after estimated fetal weight measurements and symphisys-fundal classification was compared with Lubchenco growth reference curve as gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated. The McNemar χ2 test was used for comparing sensitivity of both symphisys-fundal curves studied. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the new curve for detecting small for gestational age fetuses was 51.6% while that of the Brazilian Ministry of Health reference curve was significantly lower (12.5%. In the subsample using neonatal weight as gold standard, the sensitivity of the new reference curve was 85.7% while that of the Brazilian Ministry of Health was 42.9% for detecting small for gestational age. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic performance of the new curve for detecting small for gestational age fetuses was significantly higher than that of the Brazilian Ministry of Health reference curve.

False Positives in Exoplanet Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Leuquire, Jacob; Kasper, David; Jang-Condell, Hannah; Kar, Aman; Sorber, Rebecca; Suhaimi, Afiq; KELT (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope)

2018-06-01

Our team at the University of Wyoming uses a 0.6 m telescope at RBO (Red Buttes Observatory) to help confirm results on potential exoplanet candidates from low resolution, wide field surveys shared by the KELT (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope) team. False positives are common in this work. We carry out transit photometry, and this method comes with special types of false positives. The most common false positive seen at the confirmation level is an EB (eclipsing binary). Low resolution images are great in detecting multiple sources for photometric dips in light curves, but they lack the precision to decipher single targets at an accurate level. For example, target star KC18C030621 needed RBO’s photometric precision to determine there was a nearby EB causing exoplanet type light curves. Identifying false positives with our telescope is important work because it helps eliminate the waste of time taken by more expensive telescopes trying to rule out negative candidate stars. It also furthers the identification of other types of photometric events, like eclipsing binaries, so they can be studied on their own.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PERMISSIBLE TRAIN SPEED ON THE CURVED TURNOUTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. M. Patlasov

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose. Turnouts play a key role in the railway transportation process. One-sided and many-sided curved turnouts were railed over the last 20 years in difficult conditions (curved sections, yard necks. They have a number of geometric features, unlike the conventional one-sided turnouts. Today the normative documents prohibit laying such turnouts in curved track sections and only partially regulate the assessment procedure of their real condition. The question of establishment the permissible train speed within the curved turnouts is still open. In this regard, authors propose to set the train speed according to the driving comfort criterion using the results of field measurements of ordinates from the baseline for the particular curved turnout. Methodology. The article considers the criteria using which one can set the permissible speed on the turnouts. It defines the complexity of their application, advantages and disadvantages. Findings. The work analyzes the speed distribution along the length of the real curved turnout for the forward and lateral directions. It establishes the change rate values of unbalanced accelerations for the existing norms of the curved track sections maintenance according to the difference in the adjacent bend versine at speeds up to 160 km/h. Originality. A method for establishing the trains’ speed limit within the curved turnouts was developed. It takes into account the actual geometric position in the plan of forward and lateral turnout directions. This approach makes it possible to establish a barrier places in plan on the turnouts limiting the train speed. Practical value. The proposed method makes it possible to objectively assess and set the trains’ permissible speed on the basis of the ordinate measurement of the forward and lateral directions of the curved turnouts from the baseline using the driving comfort criteria. The method was tested using real turnouts, which are located within the Pridneprovsk

Curved planar reformation and optimal path tracing (CROP) method for false positive reduction in computer-aided detection of pulmonary embolism in CTPA

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Chuan; Chan, Heang-Ping; Guo, Yanhui; Wei, Jun; Chughtai, Aamer; Hadjiiski, Lubomir M.; Sundaram, Baskaran; Patel, Smita; Kuriakose, Jean W.; Kazerooni, Ella A.

2013-03-01

The curved planar reformation (CPR) method re-samples the vascular structures along the vessel centerline to generate longitudinal cross-section views. The CPR technique has been commonly used in coronary CTA workstation to facilitate radiologists' visual assessment of coronary diseases, but has not yet been used for pulmonary vessel analysis in CTPA due to the complicated tree structures and the vast network of pulmonary vasculature. In this study, a new curved planar reformation and optimal path tracing (CROP) method was developed to facilitate feature extraction and false positive (FP) reduction and improve our PE detection system. PE candidates are first identified in the segmented pulmonary vessels at prescreening. Based on Dijkstra's algorithm, the optimal path (OP) is traced from the pulmonary trunk bifurcation point to each PE candidate. The traced vessel is then straightened and a reformatted volume is generated using CPR. Eleven new features that characterize the intensity, gradient, and topology are extracted from the PE candidate in the CPR volume and combined with the previously developed 9 features to form a new feature space for FP classification. With IRB approval, CTPA of 59 PE cases were retrospectively collected from our patient files (UM set) and 69 PE cases from the PIOPED II data set with access permission. 595 and 800 PEs were manually marked by experienced radiologists as reference standard for the UM and PIOPED set, respectively. At a test sensitivity of 80%, the average FP rate was improved from 18.9 to 11.9 FPs/case with the new method for the PIOPED set when the UM set was used for training. The FP rate was improved from 22.6 to 14.2 FPs/case for the UM set when the PIOPED set was used for training. The improvement in the free response receiver operating characteristic (FROC) curves was statistically significant (p<0.05) by JAFROC analysis, indicating that the new features extracted from the CROP method are useful for FP reduction.

Influence of X and gamma radiation and bias conditions on dropout voltage of voltage regulators serial transistors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vukic, V.; Osmokrovic, P.; Stankovic, S.; Kovacevic, M.

2005-01-01

Research topic presented in this paper is degradation of characteristics of low-dropout voltage regulator's serial transistor during exposure of device to the ionizing radiation. Voltage regulators were exposed to X and γ radiation in two modes: without bias conditions, and with bias conditions and load. Tested circuits are representatives of the first and the second generation of low-dropout voltage regulators, with lateral and vertical PNP serial transistor: LM2940 and L4940. Experimental results of output voltage and serial dropout voltage change in function of total ionizing dose, during the medium-dose-rate exposure, were presented. (author) [sr

A large, high performance, curved 2D position-sensitive neutron detector

CERN Document Server

Fried, J W; Mahler, G J; Makowiecki, D S; Mead, J A; Radeka, V; Schaknowski, N A; Smith, G C; Yu, B

2002-01-01

A new position-sensitive neutron detector has been designed and constructed for a protein crystallography station at LANL's pulsed neutron source. This station will be one of the most advanced instruments at a major neutron user facility for protein crystallography, fiber and membrane diffraction. The detector, based on neutron absorption in sup 3 He, has a large sensitive area of 3000 cm sup 2 , angular coverage of 120 deg. , timing resolution of 1 mu s, rate capability in excess of 10 sup 6 s sup - sup 1 , position resolution of about 1.5 mm FWHM, and efficiency >50% for neutrons of interest in the range 1-10 A. Features that are key to these remarkable specifications are the utilization of eight independently operating segments within a single gas volume, fabrication of the detector vessel and internal segments with a radius of curvature of about 70 cm, optimized position readout based on charge division and signal shaping with gated baseline restoration, and engineering design with high-strength aluminum ...

Simulating Serial-Target Antibacterial Drug Synergies Using Flux Balance Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krueger, Andrew S.; Munck, Christian; Dantas, Gautam

2016-01-01

Flux balance analysis (FBA) is an increasingly useful approach for modeling the behavior of metabolic systems. However, standard FBA modeling of genetic knockouts cannot predict drug combination synergies observed between serial metabolic targets, even though such synergies give rise to some of t...

Asymmetrical learning between a tactile and visual serial RT task

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Abrahamse, E.L.; van der Lubbe, Robert Henricus Johannes; Verwey, Willem B.

2007-01-01

According to many researchers, implicit learning in the serial reaction-time task is predominantly motor based and therefore should be independent of stimulus modality. Previous research on the task, however, has focused almost completely on the visual domain. Here we investigated sequence learning

The Rise in Consumerism: The Year's Work in Serials, 1990.

Science.gov (United States)

Lonberger, Jana

1991-01-01

Examines major issues and trends in serials management represented in the literature published during 1990. Topics covered include the pricing crisis; publishing and scholarly communication; cancellation projects; technological developments and alternatives to print; claiming and replacement activities; acquisitions and collection development;…

The Serial Link Processor for the Fast TracKer (FTK) processor at ATLAS

CERN Document Server

Biesuz, Nicolo Vladi; The ATLAS collaboration; Luciano, Pierluigi; Magalotti, Daniel; Rossi, Enrico

2015-01-01

The Associative Memory (AM) system of the Fast Tracker (FTK) processor has been designed to perform pattern matching using the hit information of the ATLAS experiment silicon tracker. The AM is the heart of FTK and is mainly based on the use of ASICs (AM chips) designed on purpose to execute pattern matching with a high degree of parallelism. It finds track candidates at low resolution that are seeds for a full resolution track fitting. To solve the very challenging data traffic problems inside FTK, multiple board and chip designs have been performed. The currently proposed solution is named the “Serial Link Processor” and is based on an extremely powerful network of 2 Gb/s serial links. This paper reports on the design of the Serial Link Processor consisting of two types of boards, the Local Associative Memory Board (LAMB), a mezzanine where the AM chips are mounted, and the Associative Memory Board (AMB), a 9U VME board which holds and exercises four LAMBs. We report on the performance of the intermedia...

The Serial Link Processor for the Fast TracKer (FTK) processor at ATLAS

CERN Document Server

Andreani, A; The ATLAS collaboration; Beccherle, R; Beretta, M; Cipriani, R; Citraro, S; Citterio, M; Colombo, A; Crescioli, F; Dimas, D; Donati, S; Giannetti, P; Kordas, K; Lanza, A; Liberali, V; Luciano, P; Magalotti, D; Neroutsos, P; Nikolaidis, S; Piendibene, M; Sakellariou, A; Shojaii, S; Sotiropoulou, C-L; Stabile, A

2014-01-01

The Associative Memory (AM) system of the FTK processor has been designed to perform pattern matching using the hit information of the ATLAS silicon tracker. The AM is the heart of the FTK and it finds track candidates at low resolution that are seeds for a full resolution track fitting. To solve the very challenging data traffic problems inside the FTK, multiple designs and tests have been performed. The currently proposed solution is named the “Serial Link Processor” and is based on an extremely powerful network of 2 Gb/s serial links. This paper reports on the design of the Serial Link Processor consisting of the AM chip, an ASIC designed and optimized to perform pattern matching, and two types of boards, the Local Associative Memory Board (LAMB), a mezzanine where the AM chips are mounted, and the Associative Memory Board (AMB), a 9U VME board which holds and exercises four LAMBs. Special relevance will be given to the AMchip design that includes two custom cells optimized for low consumption. We repo...

The Serial Link Processor for the Fast TracKer (FTK) processor at ATLAS

CERN Document Server

Biesuz, Nicolo Vladi; The ATLAS collaboration; Luciano, Pierluigi; Magalotti, Daniel; Rossi, Enrico

2015-01-01

The Associative Memory (AM) system of the Fast Tracker (FTK) processor has been designed to perform pattern matching using the hit information of the ATLAS experiment silicon tracker. The AM is the heart of FTK and is mainly based on the use of ASICs (AM chips) designed to execute pattern matching with a high degree of parallelism. The AM system finds track candidates at low resolution that are seeds for a full resolution track fitting. To solve the very challenging data traffic problems inside FTK, multiple board and chip designs have been performed. The currently proposed solution is named the “Serial Link Processor” and is based on an extremely powerful network of 828 2 Gbit/s serial links for a total in/out bandwidth of 56 Gb/s. This paper reports on the design of the Serial Link Processor consisting of two types of boards, the Local Associative Memory Board (LAMB), a mezzanine where the AM chips are mounted, and the Associative Memory Board (AMB), a 9U VME board which holds and exercises four LAMBs. ...

FPGA based fast synchronous serial multi-wire links synchronization

Science.gov (United States)

Pozniak, Krzysztof T.

2013-10-01

The paper debates synchronization method of multi-wire, serial link of constant latency, by means of pseudo-random numbers generators. The solution was designed for various families of FPGA circuits. There were debated synchronization algorithm and functional structure of parameterized transmitter and receiver modules. The modules were realized in VHDL language in a behavioral form.

Rotation vectors for homeomorphisms of non-positively curved manifolds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lessa, Pablo

2011-01-01

Rotation vectors, as defined for homeomorphisms of the torus that are isotopic to the identity, are generalized to such homeomorphisms of any complete Riemannian manifold with non-positive sectional curvature. These generalized rotation vectors are shown to exist for almost every orbit of such a dynamical system with respect to any invariant measure with compact support. The concept is then extended to flows and, as an application, it is shown how non-null rotation vectors can be used to construct a measurable semi-conjugacy between a given flow and the geodesic flow of a manifold

Approximation by planar elastic curves

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brander, David; Gravesen, Jens; Nørbjerg, Toke Bjerge

2016-01-01

We give an algorithm for approximating a given plane curve segment by a planar elastic curve. The method depends on an analytic representation of the space of elastic curve segments, together with a geometric method for obtaining a good initial guess for the approximating curve. A gradient......-driven optimization is then used to find the approximating elastic curve....

Comparative analysis of serial and parallel laser patterning of Ag nanowire thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oh, Harim; Lee, Myeongkyu, E-mail: myeong@yonsei.ac.kr

2017-03-31

Highlights: • Serial and parallel laser patterning of Ag nanowire thin films is comparatively analyzed. • AgNW film can be directly patterned by a spatially-modulated pulsed Nd:YAG laser beam. • An area of 2.24 cm{sup 2} can be simultaneously patterned by a single pulse with energy of 350 mJ. - Abstract: Ag nanowire (AgNW) films solution-coated on a glass substrate were laser-patterned in two different ways. For the conventional serial process, a pulsed ultraviolet laser of 30 kHz repetition rate and ∼20 ns pulse width was employed as the laser source. For parallel patterning, the film was directly irradiated by a spatially-modulated Nd:YAG laser beam that has a low repetition rate of 10 kHz and a shorter pulse width of 5 ns. While multiple pulses with energy density ranging from 3 to 9 J/cm{sup 2} were required to pattern the film in the serial process, a single pulse with energy density of 0.16 J/cm{sup 2} completely removed AgNWs in the parallel patterning. This may be explained by the difference in patterning mechanism. In the parallel process using short pulses of 5 ns width, AgNWs can be removed in their solid state by the laser-induced thermo-elastic force, while they should be evaporated in the serial process utilizing a high-repetition rate laser. Important process parameters such as threshold energy density, speed, and available feature sizes are comparatively discussed for the two patterning.

Serial completely stirred tank reactors for improving biogas production and substance degradation during anaerobic digestion of corn stover.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, YuQian; Liu, ChunMei; Wachemo, Akiber Chufo; Yuan, HaiRong; Zou, DeXun; Liu, YanPing; Li, XiuJin

2017-07-01

Several completely stirred tank reactors (CSTR) connected in series for anaerobic digestion of corn stover were investigated in laboratory scale. Serial anaerobic digestion systems operated at a total HRT of 40days, and distribution of HRT are 10+30days (HRT10+30d), 20+20days (HRT20+20d), and 30+10days (HRT30+10d) were compared to a conventional one-step CSTR at the same HRT of 40d. The results showed that in HRT10+30d serial system, the process became very unstable at organic load of 50gTS·L -1 . The HRT20+20d and HRT30+10d serial systems improved methane production by 8.3-14.6% compared to the one-step system in all loads of 50, 70, 90gTS·L -1 . The conversion rates of total solid, cellulose, and hemicellulose were increased in serial anaerobic digestion systems compared to single system. The serial systems showed more stable process performance in high organic load. HRT30+10d system showed the best biogas production and conversions among all systems. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Bragg Curve Spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gruhn, C.R.

1981-05-01

An alternative utilization is presented for the gaseous ionization chamber in the detection of energetic heavy ions, which is called Bragg Curve Spectroscopy (BCS). Conceptually, BCS involves using the maximum data available from the Bragg curve of the stopping heavy ion (HI) for purposes of identifying the particle and measuring its energy. A detector has been designed that measures the Bragg curve with high precision. From the Bragg curve the range from the length of the track, the total energy from the integral of the specific ionization over the track, the dE/dx from the specific ionization at the beginning of the track, and the Bragg peak from the maximum of the specific ionization of the HI are determined. This last signal measures the atomic number, Z, of the HI unambiguously

Oscillating in synchrony with a metronome: serial dependence, limit cycle dynamics, and modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Torre, Kjerstin; Balasubramaniam, Ramesh; Delignières, Didier

2010-07-01

We analyzed serial dependencies in periods and asynchronies collected during oscillations performed in synchrony with a metronome. Results showed that asynchronies contain 1/f fluctuations, and the series of periods contain antipersistent dependence. The analysis of the phase portrait revealed a specific asymmetry induced by synchronization. We propose a hybrid limit cycle model including a cycle-dependent stiffness parameter provided with fractal properties, and a parametric driving function based on velocity. This model accounts for most experimentally evidenced statistical features, including serial dependence and limit cycle dynamics. We discuss the results and modeling choices within the framework of event-based and emergent timing.

Effects of serial and concurrent training on receptive identification tasks: A Systematic replication.

Science.gov (United States)

Wunderlich, Kara L; Vollmer, Timothy R

2017-07-01

The current study compared the use of serial and concurrent methods to train multiple exemplars when teaching receptive language skills, providing a systematic replication of Wunderlich, Vollmer, Donaldson, and Phillips (2014). Five preschoolers diagnosed with developmental delays or autism spectrum disorders were taught to receptively identify letters or letter sounds. Subjects learned the target stimuli slightly faster in concurrent training and a high degree of generalization was obtained following both methods of training, indicating that both the serial and concurrent methods of training are efficient and effective instructional procedures. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Learning Curve? Which One?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulo Prochno

2004-07-01

Full Text Available Learning curves have been studied for a long time. These studies provided strong support to the hypothesis that, as organizations produce more of a product, unit costs of production decrease at a decreasing rate (see Argote, 1999 for a comprehensive review of learning curve studies. But the organizational mechanisms that lead to these results are still underexplored. We know some drivers of learning curves (ADLER; CLARK, 1991; LAPRE et al., 2000, but we still lack a more detailed view of the organizational processes behind those curves. Through an ethnographic study, I bring a comprehensive account of the first year of operations of a new automotive plant, describing what was taking place on in the assembly area during the most relevant shifts of the learning curve. The emphasis is then on how learning occurs in that setting. My analysis suggests that the overall learning curve is in fact the result of an integration process that puts together several individual ongoing learning curves in different areas throughout the organization. In the end, I propose a model to understand the evolution of these learning processes and their supporting organizational mechanisms.

Contractibility of curves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janusz Charatonik

1991-11-01

Full Text Available Results concerning contractibility of curves (equivalently: of dendroids are collected and discussed in the paper. Interrelations tetween various conditions which are either sufficient or necessary for a curve to be contractible are studied.

Roc curves for continuous data

CERN Document Server

Krzanowski, Wojtek J

2009-01-01

Since ROC curves have become ubiquitous in many application areas, the various advances have been scattered across disparate articles and texts. ROC Curves for Continuous Data is the first book solely devoted to the subject, bringing together all the relevant material to provide a clear understanding of how to analyze ROC curves.The fundamental theory of ROC curvesThe book first discusses the relationship between the ROC curve and numerous performance measures and then extends the theory into practice by describing how ROC curves are estimated. Further building on the theory, the authors prese

Challenges of microtome‐based serial block‐face scanning electron microscopy in neuroscience

Science.gov (United States)

WANNER, A. A.; KIRSCHMANN, M. A.

2015-01-01

Summary Serial block‐face scanning electron microscopy (SBEM) is becoming increasingly popular for a wide range of applications in many disciplines from biology to material sciences. This review focuses on applications for circuit reconstruction in neuroscience, which is one of the major driving forces advancing SBEM. Neuronal circuit reconstruction poses exceptional challenges to volume EM in terms of resolution, field of view, acquisition time and sample preparation. Mapping the connections between neurons in the brain is crucial for understanding information flow and information processing in the brain. However, information on the connectivity between hundreds or even thousands of neurons densely packed in neuronal microcircuits is still largely missing. Volume EM techniques such as serial section TEM, automated tape‐collecting ultramicrotome, focused ion‐beam scanning electron microscopy and SBEM (microtome serial block‐face scanning electron microscopy) are the techniques that provide sufficient resolution to resolve ultrastructural details such as synapses and provides sufficient field of view for dense reconstruction of neuronal circuits. While volume EM techniques are advancing, they are generating large data sets on the terabyte scale that require new image processing workflows and analysis tools. In this review, we present the recent advances in SBEM for circuit reconstruction in neuroscience and an overview of existing image processing and analysis pipelines. PMID:25907464

Asymmetric binding in serial memory for verbal and spatial information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guerard, Katherine; Morey, Candice C.; Lagace, Sebastien; Tremblay, Sebastien

As the number of studies showing that items can be retained as bound representations in memory increases, researchers are beginning to investigate how the different features are bound together. In the present study, we examined the relative importances of the verbal and spatial features in serial

'American Psycho': a double portrait of serial yuppie Patrick Bateman

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooijman, J.; Laine, T.

2003-01-01

Kooijman and Laine analyze Mary Harron's "American Psycho," a 2000 film adaptation of the 1980s satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis in which Patrick Bateman, a narcissistic Wall Street young urban professional ("yuppie"), assumes an alternate identity as a serial killer. The authors examine the

Gelfond–Bézier curves

KAUST Repository

Ait-Haddou, Rachid; Sakane, Yusuke; Nomura, Taishin

2013-01-01

We show that the generalized Bernstein bases in Müntz spaces defined by Hirschman and Widder (1949) and extended by Gelfond (1950) can be obtained as pointwise limits of the Chebyshev–Bernstein bases in Müntz spaces with respect to an interval [a,1][a,1] as the positive real number a converges to zero. Such a realization allows for concepts of curve design such as de Casteljau algorithm, blossom, dimension elevation to be transferred from the general theory of Chebyshev blossoms in Müntz spaces to these generalized Bernstein bases that we termed here as Gelfond–Bernstein bases. The advantage of working with Gelfond–Bernstein bases lies in the simplicity of the obtained concepts and algorithms as compared to their Chebyshev–Bernstein bases counterparts.

Gelfond–Bézier curves

KAUST Repository

Ait-Haddou, Rachid

2013-02-01

We show that the generalized Bernstein bases in Müntz spaces defined by Hirschman and Widder (1949) and extended by Gelfond (1950) can be obtained as pointwise limits of the Chebyshev–Bernstein bases in Müntz spaces with respect to an interval [a,1][a,1] as the positive real number a converges to zero. Such a realization allows for concepts of curve design such as de Casteljau algorithm, blossom, dimension elevation to be transferred from the general theory of Chebyshev blossoms in Müntz spaces to these generalized Bernstein bases that we termed here as Gelfond–Bernstein bases. The advantage of working with Gelfond–Bernstein bases lies in the simplicity of the obtained concepts and algorithms as compared to their Chebyshev–Bernstein bases counterparts.

Atlas of stress-strain curves

CERN Document Server

2002-01-01

The Atlas of Stress-Strain Curves, Second Edition is substantially bigger in page dimensions, number of pages, and total number of curves than the previous edition. It contains over 1,400 curves, almost three times as many as in the 1987 edition. The curves are normalized in appearance to aid making comparisons among materials. All diagrams include metric (SI) units, and many also include U.S. customary units. All curves are captioned in a consistent format with valuable information including (as available) standard designation, the primary source of the curve, mechanical properties (including hardening exponent and strength coefficient), condition of sample, strain rate, test temperature, and alloy composition. Curve types include monotonic and cyclic stress-strain, isochronous stress-strain, and tangent modulus. Curves are logically arranged and indexed for fast retrieval of information. The book also includes an introduction that provides background information on methods of stress-strain determination, on...

Definitive radiotherapy for head-and-neck cancer with radiographically positive retropharyngeal nodes: Incomplete radiographic response does not necessarily indicate failure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liauw, Stanley L.; Mancuso, Anthony A.; Morris, Christopher G. M.S.; Amdur, Robert J.; Mendenhall, William M.

2006-01-01

Purpose: Our aim was to report the control rate of radiographically positive retropharyngeal (RP) nodes with radiation therapy (RT) and to correlate posttreatment imaging with clinical outcome. Methods and Materials: Sixteen patients treated with definitive RT for head-and-neck cancer had radiographically positive RP nodes (size >1 cm in largest axial dimension, or presence of focal enhancement, lucency, or calcification), and both pre-RT and post-RT image sets available for review. An additional 21 patients with unconfirmed radiographically positive RP nodes had post-RT imaging, which consisted of computed tomography (CT) at a median of 4 weeks after completing RT. Patients with positive post-RT RP nodes underwent observation with serial imaging. Results: Of 16 patients with pre-RT and post-RT images available for review, 9 (56%) had a radiographic complete response, and of 21 patients with unconfirmed positive RP nodes with post-RT images available for review, 14 (67%) had a radiographic complete response. In all, 14 patients with incomplete response on post-RT imaging experienced control of their disease with no further therapy, and no RP node or neck failures were noted during a median follow-up of 2.8 years. Six patients with positive post-RT RP nodes had serial imaging available for review, and none demonstrated radiographic progression of disease. Conclusions: Radiographic response at 4 weeks may not accurately reflect long-term locoregional control, as RP nodes may continue to resolve over time. The highest index of suspicion should be reserved for patients with progressive changes in size, focal lucency, or focal enhancement on serial imaging after RT

Which serial killers commit suicide? An exploratory study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lester, David; White, John

2012-11-30

In a sample of 483 serial killers, 6.2% were documented to have committed suicide. Those who committed suicide were found to come from more dysfunctional homes characterized by more psychiatric disturbance in the parents. The sexual acts involved in the murders by the suicides seemed to be more deviant in some aspects, such as committing more bizarre sexual acts or more often taping the murder. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the mean profiles of radio pulsars - II. Reconstruction of complex pulsar light curves and other new propagation effects

Science.gov (United States)

Hakobyan, H. L.; Beskin, V. S.; Philippov, A. A.

2017-08-01

Our previous paper outlined the general aspects of the theory of radio light curve and polarization formation for pulsars. We predicted the one-to-one correspondence between the tilt of the linear polarization position angle of the the circular polarization. However, some of the radio pulsars indicate a clear deviation from that correlation. In this paper, we apply the theory of the radio wave propagation in the pulsar magnetosphere for the analysis of individual effects leading to these deviations. We show that within our theory the circular polarization of a given mode can switch its sign, without the need to introduce a new radiation mode or other effects. Moreover, we show that the generation of different emission modes on different altitudes can explain pulsars, that presumably have the X-O-X light-curve pattern, different from what we predict. General properties of radio emission within our propagation theory are also discussed. In particular, we calculate the intensity patterns for different radiation altitudes and present light curves for different observer viewing angles. In this context we also study the light curves and polarization profiles for pulsars with interpulses. Further, we explain the characteristic width of the position angle curves by introducing the concept of a wide emitting region. Another important feature of radio polarization profiles is the shift of the position angle from the centre, which in some cases demonstrates a weak dependence on the observation frequency. Here we demonstrate that propagation effects do not necessarily imply a significant frequency-dependent change of the position angle curve.

Quality control on pre-serial Bridgman production of PbWO{sub 4} scintillating crystals by means of photoelasticity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rinaldi, D., E-mail: d.rinaldi@univpm.i [Dipartimento di Fisica e Ingegneria dei Materiali e del Territorio, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona (Italy); INFN section of Perugia (Italy); Ciriaco, A. [Dipartimento di Fisica e Ingegneria dei Materiali e del Territorio, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona (Italy); Lebeau, M. [CERN PH department, 1211 Geneva 23 (Switzerland); Paone, N. [Dipartimento di Meccanica, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona (Italy)

2010-04-11

Residual internal stresses in PbWO{sub 4} (PWO) scintillating crystals grown by Bridgman method have been systematically studied. Residual stresses induced during growth play an important role in production yield. Cracking probability during mechanical processing as well as stable mechanical properties in finished crystal are closely related to internal stress levels. A regular production of good-quality crystals requires a fast and easy feed-back on growth parameters. Samples from a pre-serial production were analyzed in order to give the producer a quality feed-back for process optimization. By means of photoelasticity, we measured residual stress distribution in several sections along the growth axis and for typical positions in every section. The stress analysis revealed defects occurring during the crystallization process, attributed to dislocations, lattice disorientation and poly-crystallinity. This work had been prompted by the need for quality monitoring of a pre-serial production of PWO for the CMS experiment at CERN's LHC. Mapping stress levels inside the ingot volume and proposing a synthetic parameter to be used as a quality indicator, the resulting analysis should contribute to parameter optimization and improve the growth performance. The proposed method may be useful in conventional crystal production.

Tornado-Shaped Curves

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, Sol Sáez; de la Rosa, Félix Martínez; Rojas, Sergio

2017-01-01

In Advanced Calculus, our students wonder if it is possible to graphically represent a tornado by means of a three-dimensional curve. In this paper, we show it is possible by providing the parametric equations of such tornado-shaped curves.

Development of a serial order in speech constrained by articulatory coordination.

Science.gov (United States)

Oohashi, Hiroki; Watanabe, Hama; Taga, Gentaro

2013-01-01

Universal linguistic constraints seem to govern the organization of sound sequences in words. However, our understanding of the origin and development of these constraints is incomplete. One possibility is that the development of neuromuscular control of articulators acts as a constraint for the emergence of sequences in words. Repetitions of the same consonant observed in early infancy and an increase in variation of consonantal sequences over months of age have been interpreted as a consequence of the development of neuromuscular control. Yet, it is not clear how sequential coordination of articulators such as lips, tongue apex and tongue dorsum constrains sequences of labial, coronal and dorsal consonants in words over the course of development. We examined longitudinal development of consonant-vowel-consonant(-vowel) sequences produced by Japanese children between 7 and 60 months of age. The sequences were classified according to places of articulation for corresponding consonants. The analyses of individual and group data show that infants prefer repetitive and fronting articulations, as shown in previous studies. Furthermore, we reveal that serial order of different places of articulations within the same organ appears earlier and then gradually develops, whereas serial order of different articulatory organs appears later and then rapidly develops. In the same way, we also analyzed the sequences produced by English children and obtained similar developmental trends. These results suggest that the development of intra- and inter-articulator coordination constrains the acquisition of serial orders in speech with the complexity that characterizes adult language.

Phonological Similarity in Serial Recall: Constraints on Theories of Memory

Science.gov (United States)

Lewandowsky, Stephan; Farrell, Simon

2008-01-01

In short-term serial recall, similar-sounding items are remembered more poorly than items that do not sound alike. When lists mix similar and dissimilar items, performance on the dissimilar items is of considerable theoretical interest. Farrell and Lewandowsky [Farrell, S., & Lewandowsky, S. (2003). Dissimilar items benefit from phonological…

Power Efficient Design of Parallel/Serial FIR Filters in RNS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petricca, Massimo; Albicocco, Pietro; Cardarilli, Gian Carlo

2012-01-01

It is well known that the Residue Number System (RNS) provides an efficient implementation of parallel FIR filters especially when the filter order and the dynamic range are high. The two main drawbacks of RNS, need of converters and coding overhead, make a serialized implementation of the FIR...

A versatile curve-fit model for linear to deeply concave rank abundance curves

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Neuteboom, J.H.; Struik, P.C.

2005-01-01

A new, flexible curve-fit model for linear to concave rank abundance curves was conceptualized and validated using observational data. The model links the geometric-series model and log-series model and can also fit deeply concave rank abundance curves. The model is based ¿ in an unconventional way

Diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction in patients undergoing open heart surgery: a comparison of serial myocardial imaging with cardiac enzymes, electrocardiography, and vectocardiography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lowenthal, I.S.; Parisi, A.F.; Tow, D.E.; Barsamian, E.M.; Sasahara, A.A.; McCaughan, D.; Clemson, H.C.

1977-01-01

In 44 consecutive patients undergoing elective open heart surgery (OHS), serial electrocardiograms (ECG), vectorcardiograms (VCG), serum CPK, cardiac isoenzymes (CPKMB), and myocardial images using Tc-99m pyrophosphate were obtained, before and after the operation, for the detection of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Twenty-nine patients developed one or more positive tests postoperatively. Two patients had positive myocardial scintiscans; both had other evidence of infarction. Conversely, the appearance of CPKMB, or new ECG and VCG changes, occurred frequently without evidence of infarction, and were not associated with the development of a positive scintiscan. The results show that false-negative results are infrequent in patients imaged early after OHS, and that cardiac surgical procedures do not cause a high incidence of false-positive scintigrams. Consequently, radionuclide imaging for AMI offers an important adjunct for excluding acute infarction following open heart surgery

A comparison of pecking generated by serial, delay, and trace autoshaping procedures1

Science.gov (United States)

Newlin, Robert J.; LoLordo, Vincent M.

1976-01-01

Pigeons were exposed to serial, delay, and trace autoshaping procedures. In Experiment I, all conditioned stimuli (CSs) were changes in illumination of the response key. The number of trials to acquisition of the keypeck increased from serial, to 4-sec delay, 8-sec delay, and 8-sec trace procedures, in that order. In Experiment II, which used a longer intertrial interval, trials to criterion increased from 8-sec delay, to 28-sec delay, 8-sec trace, and 28-sec trace procedures, in that order. In Experiment III, two groups received serial procedures in which the first CS was either a tone or a houselight, and the second was a keylight. The tone group acquired the key peck more rapidly than the houselight group. Early in conditioning in these experiments, and when the conditioned stimulus was a change in the keylight, there was a short latency to the onset of pecking and pecking was directed at the CS. After extensive conditioning, or when the CS was relatively diffuse, pecking still occurred, but had a longer latency and was not reliably directed toward the conditioned stimulus. PMID:16811907

What serial homologs can tell us about the origin of insect wings [version 1; referees: 2 approved