Experimental evidence concerning the significant information depth of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wisniewski, Wolfgang, E-mail: wolfgang.w@uni-jena.de [Otto-Schott-Institut, Jena University, Fraunhoferstr. 6, 07743 Jena (Germany); Saager, Stefan [Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP, Winterbergstraße 28, 01277 Dresden (Germany); Böbenroth, Andrea [Fraunhofer Institute for the Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, Walter-Huelse-Straße 1, 06120 Halle (Saale) (Germany); Rüssel, Christian [Otto-Schott-Institut, Jena University, Fraunhoferstr. 6, 07743 Jena (Germany)

2017-02-15

Experiments concerning the information depth of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) are performed on samples featuring an amorphous wedge on a crystalline substrate and a crystalline wedge on an amorphous substrate. The effects of the acceleration voltage and exemplary software settings on the ability to measure through an amorphous layer are presented. Changes in the EBSD-signal could be detected through a ≈142 nm thick layer of amorphous Si while orientation measurements could be performed through a ≈116 nm thick layer when using a voltage of 30 kV. The complexity of the information depth significant to a given EBSD-pattern and the multiple parameters influencing it are discussed. It is suggested that a “core information depth” is significant to high quality patterns while a larger “maximum information depth” becomes relevant when the pattern quality decreases or the sample is inhomogeneous within the information volume, i.e. in the form of partially crystalline materials or crystal layers in the nm scale. - Highlights: • Experimental evidence of the significant information depth of EBSD is presented. • Effects of the voltage and exemplary software settings are discussed. • Dependence of the significant information depth on the pattern quality is proposed. • The information depth may reach up to 142 nm in Si when using a voltage of 30 kV. • The information depth depends on the available technology.

Knowledge structure representation and automated updates in intelligent information management systems

Science.gov (United States)

Corey, Stephen; Carnahan, Richard S., Jr.

1990-01-01

A continuing effort to apply rapid prototyping and Artificial Intelligence techniques to problems associated with projected Space Station-era information management systems is examined. In particular, timely updating of the various databases and knowledge structures within the proposed intelligent information management system (IIMS) is critical to support decision making processes. Because of the significantly large amounts of data entering the IIMS on a daily basis, information updates will need to be automatically performed with some systems requiring that data be incorporated and made available to users within a few hours. Meeting these demands depends first, on the design and implementation of information structures that are easily modified and expanded, and second, on the incorporation of intelligent automated update techniques that will allow meaningful information relationships to be established. Potential techniques are studied for developing such an automated update capability and IIMS update requirements are examined in light of results obtained from the IIMS prototyping effort.

Ownership structures of principal petroleum companies in Canada: company profiles - significant events - takeovers and acquisitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1997-01-01

This reference document on ownership structures of principal petroleum companies identifies 'who owns whom' in the Canadian petroleum industry. The publication consists of three chapters. Chapter one, entitled 'Corporate Structures' includes the equity linkages between the energy enterprise and its parents and subsidiaries, names of directors and officers of the company and their ownership of voting shares. Chapter two under the title of 'Significant Events', provides company incorporation and listing data, outlining information on address of the company's head office, the nature of its business, number of employees in Canada, and stock exchanges on which the company equity is listed, stock symbol, high, low and closing prices as of December 31, 1996. Chapter three, entitled 'Takeovers and Acquisitions 1976-1997, provides a list of purchases, mergers and acquisitions and the estimated value of each, where applicable. All information included is provided by the companies themselves

Evidence for the functional significance of diazotroph community structure in soil.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Shi-Fang; Buckley, Daniel H

2009-01-01

Microbial ecologists continue to seek a greater understanding of the factors that govern the ecological significance of microbial community structure. Changes in community structure have been shown to have functional significance for processes that are mediated by a narrow spectrum of organisms, such as nitrification and denitrification, but in some cases, functional redundancy in the community seems to buffer microbial ecosystem processes. The functional significance of microbial community structure is frequently obscured by environmental variation and is hard to detect in short-term experiments. We examine the functional significance of free-living diazotrophs in a replicated long-term tillage experiment in which extraneous variation is minimized and N-fixation rates can be related to soil characteristics and diazotroph community structure. Soil characteristics were found to be primarily impacted by tillage management, whereas N-fixation rates and diazotroph community structure were impacted by both biomass management practices and interactions between tillage and biomass management. The data suggest that the variation in diazotroph community structure has a greater impact on N-fixation rates than do soil characteristics at the site. N-fixation rates displayed a saturating response to increases in diazotroph community diversity. These results show that the changes in the community structure of free-living diazotrophs in soils can have ecological significance and suggest that this response is related to a change in community diversity.

Structural mode significance using INCA. [Interactive Controls Analysis computer program

Science.gov (United States)

Bauer, Frank H.; Downing, John P.; Thorpe, Christopher J.

1990-01-01

Structural finite element models are often too large to be used in the design and analysis of control systems. Model reduction techniques must be applied to reduce the structural model to manageable size. In the past, engineers either performed the model order reduction by hand or used distinct computer programs to retrieve the data, to perform the significance analysis and to reduce the order of the model. To expedite this process, the latest version of INCA has been expanded to include an interactive graphical structural mode significance and model order reduction capability.

Statistically significant dependence of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation on secondary structure and amino acid sequence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leitner Dietmar

2005-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A reliable prediction of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation would be a useful tool for many protein structure calculation methods. We have analyzed the Protein Data Bank and show that the combined use of sequential and structural information has a predictive value for the assessment of the cis versus trans peptide bond conformation of Xaa-Pro within proteins. For the analysis of the data sets different statistical methods such as the calculation of the Chou-Fasman parameters and occurrence matrices were used. Furthermore we analyzed the relationship between the relative solvent accessibility and the relative occurrence of prolines in the cis and in the trans conformation. Results One of the main results of the statistical investigations is the ranking of the secondary structure and sequence information with respect to the prediction of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation. We observed a significant impact of secondary structure information on the occurrence of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation, while the sequence information of amino acids neighboring proline is of little predictive value for the conformation of this bond. Conclusion In this work, we present an extensive analysis of the occurrence of the cis and trans proline conformation in proteins. Based on the data set, we derived patterns and rules for a possible prediction of the proline conformation. Upon adoption of the Chou-Fasman parameters, we are able to derive statistically relevant correlations between the secondary structure of amino acid fragments and the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation.

Temporal and Statistical Information in Causal Structure Learning

Science.gov (United States)

McCormack, Teresa; Frosch, Caren; Patrick, Fiona; Lagnado, David

2015-01-01

Three experiments examined children's and adults' abilities to use statistical and temporal information to distinguish between common cause and causal chain structures. In Experiment 1, participants were provided with conditional probability information and/or temporal information and asked to infer the causal structure of a 3-variable mechanical…

Problem communication (homeostatic structuring of information)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bogdanov, N I

1982-01-01

This paper investigates the fundamental connection of intellectual and homeostatic levels of treating information which appear in information structuring. The laws obtained can be applied to artificial intelligence in studies of communication and education. 4 references.

Information structures in economics studies in the theory of markets with imperfect information

CERN Document Server

Nermuth, Manfred

1982-01-01

This book is intended as a contribution to the theory of markets with imperfect information. The subject being nearly limitless, only certain selected topics are discussed. These are outlined in the Introduction (Ch. 0). The remainder of the book is divided into three parts. All results of economic significance are contained in Parts II & III. Part I introduces the main tools for the analysis, in particular the concept of an information structure. Although most of the material presented in Part I is not original, it is hoped that the detailed and self-contained exposition will help the reader to understand not only the following pages, but also the existing technical and variegated literature on markets with imperfect information. The mathematical prerequisites needed, but not explained in the text rarely go beyond elementary calculus and probability theory. Whenever more advanced concepts are used, I have made an effort to give an intuitive explanation as well, so that the argument can also be followed o...

Risk Informed Structural Systems Integrity Management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Michael Havbro Faber

2017-01-01

The present paper is predominantly a conceptual contribution with an appraisal of major developments in risk informed structural integrity management for offshore installations together with a discussion of their merits and the challenges which still lie ahead. Starting point is taken in a selected...... overview of research and development contributions which have formed the basis for Risk Based Inspection Planning (RBI) as we know it today. Thereafter an outline of the methodical basis for risk informed structural systems integrity management, i.e. the Bayesian decision analysis is provided in summary....... The main focus is here directed on RBI for offshore facilities subject to fatigue damages. New ideas and methodical frameworks in the area of robustness and resilience modeling of structural systems are then introduced, and it is outlined how these may adequately be utilized to enhance Structural Integrity...

Significance of Operating Environment in Condition Monitoring of Large Civil Structures

OpenAIRE

Alampalli, Sreenivas

1999-01-01

Success of remote long-term condition monitoring of large civil structures and developing calibrated analytical models for damage detection, depend significantly on establishing accurate baseline signatures and their sensitivity. Most studies reported in the literature concentrated on the effect of structural damage on modal parameters without emphasis on reliability of modal parameters. Thus, a field bridge structure was studied for the significance of operating conditions in relation to bas...

University Students' Knowledge Structures and Informal Reasoning on the Use of Genetically Modified Foods: Multidimensional Analyses

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Ying-Tien

2013-10-01

This study aims to provide insights into the role of learners' knowledge structures about a socio-scientific issue (SSI) in their informal reasoning on the issue. A total of 42 non-science major university students' knowledge structures and informal reasoning were assessed with multidimensional analyses. With both qualitative and quantitative analyses, this study revealed that those students with more extended and better-organized knowledge structures, as well as those who more frequently used higher-order information processing modes, were more oriented towards achieving a higher-level informal reasoning quality. The regression analyses further showed that the "richness" of the students' knowledge structures explained 25 % of the variation in their rebuttal construction, an important indicator of reasoning quality, indicating the significance of the role of students' sophisticated knowledge structure in SSI reasoning. Besides, this study also provides some initial evidence for the significant role of the "core" concept within one's knowledge structure in one's SSI reasoning. The findings in this study suggest that, in SSI-based instruction, science instructors should try to identify students' core concepts within their prior knowledge regarding the SSI, and then they should try to guide students to construct and structure relevant concepts or ideas regarding the SSI based on their core concepts. Thus, students could obtain extended and well-organized knowledge structures, which would then help them achieve better learning transfer in dealing with SSIs.

Topic structure for information retrieval

NARCIS (Netherlands)

He, J.; Sanderson, M.; Zhai, C.; Zobel, J.; Allan, J.; Aslam, J.A.

2009-01-01

In my research, I propose a coherence measure, with the goal of discovering and using topic structures within and between documents, of which I explore its extensions and applications in information retrieval.

Accurate protein structure modeling using sparse NMR data and homologous structure information.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, James M; Sgourakis, Nikolaos G; Liu, Gaohua; Rossi, Paolo; Tang, Yuefeng; Mills, Jeffrey L; Szyperski, Thomas; Montelione, Gaetano T; Baker, David

2012-06-19

While information from homologous structures plays a central role in X-ray structure determination by molecular replacement, such information is rarely used in NMR structure determination because it can be incorrect, both locally and globally, when evolutionary relationships are inferred incorrectly or there has been considerable evolutionary structural divergence. Here we describe a method that allows robust modeling of protein structures of up to 225 residues by combining (1)H(N), (13)C, and (15)N backbone and (13)Cβ chemical shift data, distance restraints derived from homologous structures, and a physically realistic all-atom energy function. Accurate models are distinguished from inaccurate models generated using incorrect sequence alignments by requiring that (i) the all-atom energies of models generated using the restraints are lower than models generated in unrestrained calculations and (ii) the low-energy structures converge to within 2.0 Å backbone rmsd over 75% of the protein. Benchmark calculations on known structures and blind targets show that the method can accurately model protein structures, even with very remote homology information, to a backbone rmsd of 1.2-1.9 Å relative to the conventional determined NMR ensembles and of 0.9-1.6 Å relative to X-ray structures for well-defined regions of the protein structures. This approach facilitates the accurate modeling of protein structures using backbone chemical shift data without need for side-chain resonance assignments and extensive analysis of NOESY cross-peak assignments.

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun Zhang

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

Significance of Operating Environment in Condition Monitoring of Large Civil Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sreenivas Alampalli

1999-01-01

Full Text Available Success of remote long-term condition monitoring of large civil structures and developing calibrated analytical models for damage detection, depend significantly on establishing accurate baseline signatures and their sensitivity. Most studies reported in the literature concentrated on the effect of structural damage on modal parameters without emphasis on reliability of modal parameters. Thus, a field bridge structure was studied for the significance of operating conditions in relation to baseline signatures. Results indicate that in practice, civil structures should be monitored for at least one full cycle of in-service environmental changes before establishing baselines for condition monitoring or calibrating finite-element models. Boundary conditions deserve special attention.

Information Structures in Nash and Leader-Follower Strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

1981-01-01

OICkASSIPICATION/ OOWNGRAOING IS. OISTNIIIUTION STATEMINT (ao tD. esPort ) * Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. 17. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT...problems and two market models of duopoly ith this type of information structure are extensively analyzed and examined. DO jAN7, 1473 EDIION OF NV SS IS...information 3 structure is employed in both Nash games and optimal coordination problems and two market models of duopoly with this type of information

The Effect of Screen Size on Mobile Phone User Comprehension of Health Information and Application Structure: An Experimental Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Ghamdi, Ebtisam; Yunus, Faisal; Da'ar, Omar; El-Metwally, Ashraf; Khalifa, Mohamed; Aldossari, Bakheet; Househ, Mowafa

2016-01-01

This research analyzes the impact of mobile phone screen size on user comprehension of health information and application structure. Applying experimental approach, we asked randomly selected users to read content and conduct tasks on a commonly used diabetes mobile application using three different mobile phone screen sizes. We timed and tracked a number of parameters, including correctness, effectiveness of completing tasks, content ease of reading, clarity of information organization, and comprehension. The impact of screen size on user comprehension/retention, clarity of information organization, and reading time were mixed. It is assumed on first glance that mobile screen size would affect all qualities of information reading and comprehension, including clarity of displayed information organization, reading time and user comprehension/retention of displayed information, but actually the screen size, in this experimental research, did not have significant impact on user comprehension/retention of the content or on understanding the application structure. However, it did have significant impact on clarity of information organization and reading time. Participants with larger screen size took shorter time reading the content with a significant difference in the ease of reading. While there was no significant difference in the comprehension of information or the application structures, there were a higher task completion rate and a lower number of errors with the bigger screen size. Screen size does not directly affect user comprehension of health information. However, it does affect clarity of information organization, reading time and user's ability to recall information.

Research on structure-alteration zone related to uranium mineralization and its exploration significance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Xianfang; Liu Dechang; Ye Fawang; Dong Xiuzhen; Yang Xu Zhang Hongguang

2008-01-01

The paper is focused on recommending geological characteristics of structure-alteration zone which is found from image interpretation in Bashibulake District, north of Tarim Basin, expounding remote sensing information enhancement and extraction technique, analyzing image feature, genetic mechanism and discussing the relationship between uranium mineralization and structure-alteration zone. A new discovery is raised through applying remote sensing information analysis and geologic analysis, that is, the uranium deposits in Bashibulake District are controlled by structure-alteration zone. The new understanding provides a new view point for reconsidering main controlling factors and uranium mineralization distribution in the area. It is helpful for further reconnaissance and exploration in the area. (authors)

Information Entropy Measures for Stand Structural Diversity:Joint Entropy

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Lei Xiangdong; Lu Yuanchang

2004-01-01

Structural diversity is the key attribute of a stand. A set of biodiversity measures in ecology was introduced in forest management for describing stand structure, of which Shannon information entropy (Shannon index) has been the most widely used measure of species diversity. It is generally thought that tree size diversity could serve as a good proxy for height diversity. However, tree size diversity and height diversity for stand structure is not completely consistent. Stand diameter cannot reflect height information completely. Either tree size diversity or height diversity is one-dimensional information entropy measure. This paper discussed the method of multiple-dimensional information entropy measure with the concept of joint entropy. It is suggested that joint entropy is a good measure for describing overall stand structural diversity.

Standardized structure of electronic records for information exchange

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galabova, Sevdalina; Trencheva, Tereza; Trenchev, Ivan

2009-01-01

In the paper is presented the structure of the electronic record whose form is standardized in ISO 2709:2008. This International Standard describes a generalized structure, a framework designed specially for communications between data processing systems and not for use as a processing format within systems.Basic terms are defined as follows: character, data field, directory, directory map, field, field separator etc. It’s presented the general structure of a record. The application analysis of this structure shows the effective information exchange in the widest range.The purpose of this research is to find out advantages and structure of the information exchange format standardized in ISO 2709:2008. Key words: Standardized structure, electronic records, exchange formats, data field, directory, directory map, indicators, identifiers

Community structure informs species geographic distributions

KAUST Repository

Montesinos-Navarro, Alicia

2018-05-23

Understanding what determines species\\' geographic distributions is crucial for assessing global change threats to biodiversity. Measuring limits on distributions is usually, and necessarily, done with data at large geographic extents and coarse spatial resolution. However, survival of individuals is determined by processes that happen at small spatial scales. The relative abundance of coexisting species (i.e. \\'community structure\\') reflects assembly processes occurring at small scales, and are often available for relatively extensive areas, so could be useful for explaining species distributions. We demonstrate that Bayesian Network Inference (BNI) can overcome several challenges to including community structure into studies of species distributions, despite having been little used to date. We hypothesized that the relative abundance of coexisting species can improve predictions of species distributions. In 1570 assemblages of 68 Mediterranean woody plant species we used BNI to incorporate community structure into Species Distribution Models (SDMs), alongside environmental information. Information on species associations improved SDM predictions of community structure and species distributions moderately, though for some habitat specialists the deviance explained increased by up to 15%. We demonstrate that most species associations (95%) were positive and occurred between species with ecologically similar traits. This suggests that SDM improvement could be because species co-occurrences are a proxy for local ecological processes. Our study shows that Bayesian Networks, when interpreted carefully, can be used to include local conditions into measurements of species\\' large-scale distributions, and this information can improve the predictions of species distributions.

Informational laws of genome structures

Science.gov (United States)

Bonnici, Vincenzo; Manca, Vincenzo

2016-06-01

In recent years, the analysis of genomes by means of strings of length k occurring in the genomes, called k-mers, has provided important insights into the basic mechanisms and design principles of genome structures. In the present study, we focus on the proper choice of the value of k for applying information theoretic concepts that express intrinsic aspects of genomes. The value k = lg2(n), where n is the genome length, is determined to be the best choice in the definition of some genomic informational indexes that are studied and computed for seventy genomes. These indexes, which are based on information entropies and on suitable comparisons with random genomes, suggest five informational laws, to which all of the considered genomes obey. Moreover, an informational genome complexity measure is proposed, which is a generalized logistic map that balances entropic and anti-entropic components of genomes and is related to their evolutionary dynamics. Finally, applications to computational synthetic biology are briefly outlined.

Structure Of Management Information In SNMP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oancea DANIEL

2003-12-01

Full Text Available In this article we present the Structure of Management Information from SNMP, for all three versions of SNMP, as well as the main differences between them. In the first part, two version of SNMP are presented: version 1, version 2; and in the last part the third version, that uses a security model for information protection, is presented.

Reinforcing Visual Grouping Cues to Communicate Complex Informational Structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Bae, Juhee; Watson, Benjamin

2014-12-01

In his book Multimedia Learning [7], Richard Mayer asserts that viewers learn best from imagery that provides them with cues to help them organize new information into the correct knowledge structures. Designers have long been exploiting the Gestalt laws of visual grouping to deliver viewers those cues using visual hierarchy, often communicating structures much more complex than the simple organizations studied in psychological research. Unfortunately, designers are largely practical in their work, and have not paused to build a complex theory of structural communication. If we are to build a tool to help novices create effective and well structured visuals, we need a better understanding of how to create them. Our work takes a first step toward addressing this lack, studying how five of the many grouping cues (proximity, color similarity, common region, connectivity, and alignment) can be effectively combined to communicate structured text and imagery from real world examples. To measure the effectiveness of this structural communication, we applied a digital version of card sorting, a method widely used in anthropology and cognitive science to extract cognitive structures. We then used tree edit distance to measure the difference between perceived and communicated structures. Our most significant findings are: 1) with careful design, complex structure can be communicated clearly; 2) communicating complex structure is best done with multiple reinforcing grouping cues; 3) common region (use of containers such as boxes) is particularly effective at communicating structure; and 4) alignment is a weak structural communicator.

Structure and design on menus in hospitality in Serbia as a significant sales tool in tourism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kalenjuk Bojana

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Written offers represent the image of the operations of each hospitality facility, including a la carte menus that have the most important role. Proper structuring, number of meals, information about food and design, to a large extent, influence the choice of guests - tourists and their satisfaction. The implementation of appropriate scientific methodologies comprehend that the following parameters are important for the proper structuring and design of menus and the actual sale of foods, namely: guidance items and balance, diversity and composition of the offer, a description of the truth about food and information, the size and design of cover and paper, printing and color. The survey was conducted by direct and indirect collection of menus from a corresponding number of a la carte restaurants. The obtained data were subjected to analysis and synthesis, statistically processed and graphically presented in the paper. The results represent a picture of the situation in the hospitality industry in the Republic of Serbia, in terms of significant sales resources in tourism.

Multivariate information-theoretic measures reveal directed information structure and task relevant changes in fMRI connectivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Lizier, Joseph T; Heinzle, Jakob; Horstmann, Annette; Haynes, John-Dylan; Prokopenko, Mikhail

2011-02-01

The human brain undertakes highly sophisticated information processing facilitated by the interaction between its sub-regions. We present a novel method for interregional connectivity analysis, using multivariate extensions to the mutual information and transfer entropy. The method allows us to identify the underlying directed information structure between brain regions, and how that structure changes according to behavioral conditions. This method is distinguished in using asymmetric, multivariate, information-theoretical analysis, which captures not only directional and non-linear relationships, but also collective interactions. Importantly, the method is able to estimate multivariate information measures with only relatively little data. We demonstrate the method to analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging time series to establish the directed information structure between brain regions involved in a visuo-motor tracking task. Importantly, this results in a tiered structure, with known movement planning regions driving visual and motor control regions. Also, we examine the changes in this structure as the difficulty of the tracking task is increased. We find that task difficulty modulates the coupling strength between regions of a cortical network involved in movement planning and between motor cortex and the cerebellum which is involved in the fine-tuning of motor control. It is likely these methods will find utility in identifying interregional structure (and experimentally induced changes in this structure) in other cognitive tasks and data modalities.

A quantitative approach for risk-informed safety significance categorization in option-2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ha, Jun Su; Seong, Poong Hyun

2004-01-01

OPTION-2 recommends that Structures, Systems, or Components (SSCs) of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) should be categorized into four groups according to their safety significance as well as whether they are safety-related or not. With changes to the scope of SSCs covered by 10 CFR 50, safety-related components which categorized into low safety significant SSC (RISC-3 SSC) can be exempted from the existing conservative burden (or requirements). As OPTION-2 paradigm is applied, a lot of SSCs may be categorized into RISC-3 SSCs. Changes in treatment of the RISC-3 SSCs will be recommended and then finally the recommended changes shall be evaluated. Consequently, before recommending the changes in treatment, probable candidate SSCs for the changes in treatment need to be identified for efficient risk-informed regulation and application (RIRA). Hence, in this work, a validation focused on the RISC-3 SSCs is proposed to identify probable candidate SSCs. Burden to Importance Ratio (BIR) is utilized as a quantitative measure for the validation. BIR is a measure representing the extent of resources or requirements imposed on a SSC with respect to the value of the importance measure of the SSC. Therefore SSCs having high BIR can be considered as probable candidate SSCs for the changes in treatment. In addition, the final decision whether RISC-3 SSCs can be considered as probable candidate SSCs or not should be made by an expert panel. For the effective decision making, a structured mathematical decision-making process is constructed based on Belief Networks (BBN) to overcome demerits of conventional group meeting based on unstructured discussion for decision-making. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed approach, the approach is applied to 22 components selected from 512 In-Service Test (IST) components of Ulchin unit 3. The results of the application show that the proposed approach can identify probable candidate SSCs for changes in treatment. The identification of the

Report: EPA’s Information Systems and Data Are at Risk Due to Insufficient Training of Personnel With Significant Information Security Responsibilities

Science.gov (United States)

Report #14-P-0142, March 21, 2014. The EPA places its information systems and data at risk due to an organizational structure that has not specified required duties and responsibilities to ensure personnel are trained on key information security roles.

Supporting the Bronze CastingThrough Information Structuring Based on Ontology application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Górny Z.

2014-03-01

Full Text Available A significant part of the knowledge used in the production processes is represented with natural language. Yet, the use of that knowledge in computer-assisted decision-making requires the application of appropriate formal and development tools. An interesting possibility is created by the use of an ontology that is understandable both for humans and for the computer. This paper presents a proposal for structuring the information about the foundry processes, based on the definition of ontology adapted to the physical structure of the ongoing technological operations that make up the process of producing castings.

Designing quantum information processing via structural physical approximation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bae, Joonwoo

2017-10-01

In quantum information processing it may be possible to have efficient computation and secure communication beyond the limitations of classical systems. In a fundamental point of view, however, evolution of quantum systems by the laws of quantum mechanics is more restrictive than classical systems, identified to a specific form of dynamics, that is, unitary transformations and, consequently, positive and completely positive maps to subsystems. This also characterizes classes of disallowed transformations on quantum systems, among which positive but not completely maps are of particular interest as they characterize entangled states, a general resource in quantum information processing. Structural physical approximation offers a systematic way of approximating those non-physical maps, positive but not completely positive maps, with quantum channels. Since it has been proposed as a method of detecting entangled states, it has stimulated fundamental problems on classifications of positive maps and the structure of Hermitian operators and quantum states, as well as on quantum measurement such as quantum design in quantum information theory. It has developed efficient and feasible methods of directly detecting entangled states in practice, for which proof-of-principle experimental demonstrations have also been performed with photonic qubit states. Here, we present a comprehensive review on quantum information processing with structural physical approximations and the related progress. The review mainly focuses on properties of structural physical approximations and their applications toward practical information applications.

Quantification of the Value of Structural Health Monitoring Information for Fatigue Deteriorating Structural Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thöns, Sebastian; Schneider, Ronald; Faber, Michael Havbro

2015-01-01

This paper addresses the quantification of the value of structural health monitoring (SHM) before its implementation for structural systems on the basis of its Value of Information (VoI). The value of SHM is calculated utilizing the Bayesian pre-posterior decision analysis modelling the structural...... life cycle performance, the integrity management and the structural risks. The relevance and precision of SHM information for the reduction of the structural system risks and the expected cost of the structural integrity management throughout the life cycle constitutes the value of SHM...... and is quantified with this framework. The approach is focused on fatigue deteriorating structural steel systems for which a continuous resistance deterioration formulation is introduced. In a case study, the value of SHM for load monitoring is calculated for a Daniels system subjected to fatigue deterioration...

Value of Information Analysis in Structural Safety

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Konakli, Katerina; Faber, Michael Havbro

2014-01-01

of structural systems. In this context, experiments may refer to inspections or techniques of structural health monitoring. The Value of Information concept provides a powerful tool for determining whether the experimental cost is justified by the expected benefit and for identifying the optimal among different...... possible experimental schemes. This concept is elaborated through principal examples for structural components and system models. Sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate how the decision problem is influenced by the level of uncertainty that characterizes the structural properties, the amount...

Significance of structure–soil–structure interaction for closely spaced structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roy, Christine; Bolourchi, Said; Eggers, Daniel

2015-01-01

Nuclear facilities typically consist of many closely spaced structures with different sizes and depths of embedment. Seismic response of each structure could be influenced by dynamic structure–soil–structure interaction (SSSI) behavior of adjacent closely spaced structures. This paper examines the impact of SSSI on the in-structure response spectra (ISRS) and peak accelerations of a light structure adjacent to a heavy structure and of a heavy structure adjacent to a similar heavy structure for several soil cases, foundation embedment depths, and separation distances. The impacts of a heavy surface or embedded structure on adjacent ground motions were studied. The analyses demonstrated the adjacent ground motions are sensitive to foundation embedment, soil profile, response frequency, and distance from the structure. Seismic responses of a light structure located near a heavy structure are calculated either by modeling both structures subjected to free field motions, or performing a cascade analysis by considering the light structure model subjected to modified ground motions due to the heavy structure. Cascade SSSI analyses are shown to adequately account for the effect of the heavy structure on the light structure without explicitly modeling both structures together in a single analysis. To further study the influence of SSSI behavior, this paper examines dynamic response of two adjacent heavy structures and compares this response to response of a single heavy structure neglecting adjacent structures. The SSSI responses of the two heavy structures are evaluated for varying soil conditions and structure separation distances using three-dimensional linear SSI analyses and considering anti-symmetry boundary conditions. The analyses demonstrate that the SSSI response of a light or a heavy structure can be influenced by the presence of a nearby heavy structure. Although this study considers linear analysis methodology, the conclusion of SSSI influences on dynamic

Information transfer in community structured multiplex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Solé Ribalta, Albert; Granell, Clara; Gómez, Sergio; Arenas, Alex

2015-08-01

The study of complex networks that account for different types of interactions has become a subject of interest in the last few years, specially because its representational power in the description of users interactions in diverse online social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). The mathematical description of these interacting networks has been coined under the name of multilayer networks, where each layer accounts for a type of interaction. It has been shown that diffusive processes on top of these networks present a phenomenology that cannot be explained by the naive superposition of single layer diffusive phenomena but require the whole structure of interconnected layers. Nevertheless, the description of diffusive phenomena on multilayer networks has obviated the fact that social networks have strong mesoscopic structure represented by different communities of individuals driven by common interests, or any other social aspect. In this work, we study the transfer of information in multilayer networks with community structure. The final goal is to understand and quantify, if the existence of well-defined community structure at the level of individual layers, together with the multilayer structure of the whole network, enhances or deteriorates the diffusion of packets of information.

Information transfer in community structured multiplex networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Albert eSolé Ribalta

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The study of complex networks that account for different types of interactions has become a subject of interest in the last few years, specially because its representational power in the description of users interactions in diverse online social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.. The mathematical description of these interacting networks has been coined under the name of multilayer networks, where each layer accounts for a type of interaction. It has been shown that diffusive processes on top of these networks present a phenomenology that cannot be explained by the naive superposition of single layer diffusive phenomena but require the whole structure of interconnected layers. Nevertheless, the description of diffusive phenomena on multilayer networks has obviated the fact that social networks have strong mesoscopic structure represented by different communities of individuals driven by common interests, or any other social aspect. In this work, we study the transfer of information in multilayer networks with community structure. The final goal is to understand and quantify, if the existence of well-defined community structure at the level of individual layers, together with the multilayer structure of the whole network, enhances or deteriorates the diffusion of packets of information.

Significance of Shear Wall in Multi-Storey Structure With Seismic Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Bongilwar, Rajat; Harne, V. R.; Chopade, Aditya

2018-03-01

In past decades, shear walls are one of the most appropriate and important structural component in multi-storied building. Therefore, it would be very interesting to study the structural response and their systems in multi-storied structure. Shear walls contribute the stiffness and strength during earthquakes which are often neglected during design of structure and construction. This study shows the effect of shear walls which significantly affect the vulnerability of structures. In order to test this hypothesis, G+8 storey building was considered with and without shear walls and analyzed for various parameters like base shear, storey drift ratio, lateral displacement, bending moment and shear force. Significance of shear wall has been studied with the help of two models. First model is without shear wall i.e. bare frame and other another model is with shear wall considering opening also in it. For modeling and analysis of both the models, FEM based software ETABS 2016 were used. The analysis of all models was done using Equivalent static method. The comparison of results has been done based on same parameters like base shear, storey drift ratio, lateral displacement, bending moment and shear force.

Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness and Structural Design

OpenAIRE

Richard L. Daft; Robert H. Lengel

1986-01-01

This paper answers the question, "Why do organizations process information?" Uncertainty and equivocality are defined as two forces that influence information processing in organizations. Organization structure and internal systems determine both the amount and richness of information provided to managers. Models are proposed that show how organizations can be designed to meet the information needs of technology, interdepartmental relations, and the environment. One implication for managers i...

Mnemonic transmission, social contagion, and emergence of collective memory: Influence of emotional valence, group structure, and information distribution.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Hae-Yoon; Kensinger, Elizabeth A; Rajaram, Suparna

2017-09-01

Social transmission of memory and its consequence on collective memory have generated enduring interdisciplinary interest because of their widespread significance in interpersonal, sociocultural, and political arenas. We tested the influence of 3 key factors-emotional salience of information, group structure, and information distribution-on mnemonic transmission, social contagion, and collective memory. Participants individually studied emotionally salient (negative or positive) and nonemotional (neutral) picture-word pairs that were completely shared, partially shared, or unshared within participant triads, and then completed 3 consecutive recalls in 1 of 3 conditions: individual-individual-individual (control), collaborative-collaborative (identical group; insular structure)-individual, and collaborative-collaborative (reconfigured group; diverse structure)-individual. Collaboration enhanced negative memories especially in insular group structure and especially for shared information, and promoted collective forgetting of positive memories. Diverse group structure reduced this negativity effect. Unequally distributed information led to social contagion that creates false memories; diverse structure propagated a greater variety of false memories whereas insular structure promoted confidence in false recognition and false collective memory. A simultaneous assessment of network structure, information distribution, and emotional valence breaks new ground to specify how network structure shapes the spread of negative memories and false memories, and the emergence of collective memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Informational technologies in modern educational structure

Science.gov (United States)

Fedyanin, A. B.

2017-01-01

The article represents the structure of informational technologies complex that is applied in modern school education, describes the most important educational methods, shows the results of their implementation. It represents the forms and methods of educational process informative support usage, examined in respects of different aspects of their using that take into account also the psychological features of students. A range of anxious facts and dangerous trends connected with the usage and distribution of the informational technologies that are to be taken into account in the educational process of informatization is also indicated in the article. Materials of the article are based on the experience of many years in operation and development of the informational educational sphere on the basis of secondary school of the physics and mathematics specialization.

Wireless sensor placement for structural monitoring using information-fusing firefly algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Guang-Dong; Yi, Ting-Hua; Xie, Mei-Xi; Li, Hong-Nan

2017-10-01

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are promising technology in structural health monitoring (SHM) applications for their low cost and high efficiency. The limited wireless sensors and restricted power resources in WSNs highlight the significance of optimal wireless sensor placement (OWSP) during designing SHM systems to enable the most useful information to be captured and to achieve the longest network lifetime. This paper presents a holistic approach, including an optimization criterion and a solution algorithm, for optimally deploying self-organizing multi-hop WSNs on large-scale structures. The combination of information effectiveness represented by the modal independence and the network performance specified by the network connectivity and network lifetime is first formulated to evaluate the performance of wireless sensor configurations. Then, an information-fusing firefly algorithm (IFFA) is developed to solve the OWSP problem. The step sizes drawn from a Lévy distribution are adopted to drive fireflies toward brighter individuals. Following the movement with Lévy flights, information about the contributions of wireless sensors to the objective function as carried by the fireflies is fused and applied to move inferior wireless sensors to better locations. The reliability of the proposed approach is verified via a numerical example on a long-span suspension bridge. The results demonstrate that the evaluation criterion provides a good performance metric of wireless sensor configurations, and the IFFA outperforms the simple discrete firefly algorithm.

75 FR 50772 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Importation Bond Structure

Science.gov (United States)

2010-08-17

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency Information Collection Activities: Importation Bond Structure AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland... information collection requirement concerning the: Importation Bond Structure. This request for comment is...

Digital Learning Characteristics and Principles of Information Resources Knowledge Structuring

Science.gov (United States)

Belichenko, Margarita; Davidovitch, Nitza; Kravchenko, Yuri

2017-01-01

Analysis of principles knowledge representation in information systems led to the necessity of improving the structuring knowledge. It is caused by the development of software component and new possibilities of information technologies. The article combines methodological aspects of structuring knowledge and effective usage of information…

Structural information theory and visual form

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeuwenberg, E.L.J.; Kaernbach, C.; Schroeger, E.; Mueller, H.

2003-01-01

The paper attends to basic characteristics of visual form as approached by Structural information theory, or SIT, (Leeuwenberg, Van der Helm and Van Lier). The introduction provides a global survey of this approach. The main part of the paper focuses on three characteristics of SIT. Each one is made

Prognostic significance of delayed structural recovery after macular hole surgery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Ulrik C; Krøyer, Kristian; Sander, Birgit

2009-01-01

was used; however, secondary macular hole surgery had a significant influence on diameter of photoreceptor layer discontinuity at 3 months. CONCLUSIONS: Structural recovery in the form of photoreceptor layer discontinuity with a diameter of more than approximately 1500 microm 3 months after macular hole...

Protein Function Prediction Based on Sequence and Structure Information

KAUST Repository

Smaili, Fatima Z.

2016-05-25

The number of available protein sequences in public databases is increasing exponentially. However, a significant fraction of these sequences lack functional annotation which is essential to our understanding of how biological systems and processes operate. In this master thesis project, we worked on inferring protein functions based on the primary protein sequence. In the approach we follow, 3D models are first constructed using I-TASSER. Functions are then deduced by structurally matching these predicted models, using global and local similarities, through three independent enzyme commission (EC) and gene ontology (GO) function libraries. The method was tested on 250 “hard” proteins, which lack homologous templates in both structure and function libraries. The results show that this method outperforms the conventional prediction methods based on sequence similarity or threading. Additionally, our method could be improved even further by incorporating protein-protein interaction information. Overall, the method we use provides an efficient approach for automated functional annotation of non-homologous proteins, starting from their sequence.

Cognitive Structures in Vocational Information Processing and Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Nevill, Dorothy D.; And Others

1986-01-01

Tested the assumptions that the structural features of vocational schemas affect vocational information processing and career self-efficacy. Results indicated that effective vocational information processing was facilitated by well-integrated systems that processed information along fewer dimensions. The importance of schematic organization on the…

Teaching Text Structure: Examining the Affordances of Children's Informational Texts

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Cindy D.; Clark, Sarah K.; Reutzel, D. Ray

2016-01-01

This study investigated the affordances of informational texts to serve as model texts for teaching text structure to elementary school children. Content analysis of a random sampling of children's informational texts from top publishers was conducted on text structure organization and on the inclusion of text features as signals of text…

A hierarachical data structure representation for fusing multisensor information

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maren, A.J. [Tennessee Univ., Tullahoma, TN (United States). Space Inst.; Pap, R.M.; Harston, C.T. [Accurate Automation Corp., Chattanooga, TN (United States)

1989-12-31

A major problem with MultiSensor Information Fusion (MSIF) is establishing the level of processing at which information should be fused. Current methodologies, whether based on fusion at the data element, segment/feature, or symbolic levels, are each inadequate for robust MSIF. Data-element fusion has problems with coregistration. Attempts to fuse information using the features of segmented data relies on a Presumed similarity between the segmentation characteristics of each data stream. Symbolic-level fusion requires too much advance processing (including object identification) to be useful. MSIF systems need to operate in real-time, must perform fusion using a variety of sensor types, and should be effective across a wide range of operating conditions or deployment environments. We address this problem through developing a new representation level which facilitates matching and information fusion. The Hierarchical Data Structure (HDS) representation, created using a multilayer, cooperative/competitive neural network, meets this need. The HDS is an intermediate representation between the raw or smoothed data stream and symbolic interpretation of the data. it represents the structural organization of the data. Fused HDSs will incorporate information from multiple sensors. Their knowledge-rich structure aids top-down scene interpretation via both model matching and knowledge-based region interpretation.

A hierarachical data structure representation for fusing multisensor information

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maren, A.J. (Tennessee Univ., Tullahoma, TN (United States). Space Inst.); Pap, R.M.; Harston, C.T. (Accurate Automation Corp., Chattanooga, TN (United States))

1989-01-01

A major problem with MultiSensor Information Fusion (MSIF) is establishing the level of processing at which information should be fused. Current methodologies, whether based on fusion at the data element, segment/feature, or symbolic levels, are each inadequate for robust MSIF. Data-element fusion has problems with coregistration. Attempts to fuse information using the features of segmented data relies on a Presumed similarity between the segmentation characteristics of each data stream. Symbolic-level fusion requires too much advance processing (including object identification) to be useful. MSIF systems need to operate in real-time, must perform fusion using a variety of sensor types, and should be effective across a wide range of operating conditions or deployment environments. We address this problem through developing a new representation level which facilitates matching and information fusion. The Hierarchical Data Structure (HDS) representation, created using a multilayer, cooperative/competitive neural network, meets this need. The HDS is an intermediate representation between the raw or smoothed data stream and symbolic interpretation of the data. it represents the structural organization of the data. Fused HDSs will incorporate information from multiple sensors. Their knowledge-rich structure aids top-down scene interpretation via both model matching and knowledge-based region interpretation.

Axiomatic Evaluation Method and Content Structure for Information Appliances

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Yinni

2010-01-01

Extensive studies have been conducted to determine how best to present information in order to enhance usability, but not what information is needed to be presented for effective decision making. Hence, this dissertation addresses the factor structure of the nature of information needed for presentation and proposes a more effective method than…

V-amylose structural characteristics, methods of preparation, significance, and potential applications

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Obiro, WC

2012-02-01

Full Text Available , and postprandial hyperglycaemia in diabetics. Various aspects of V-amylose structure, methods of preparation, factors that affect its formation, and the significance and potential applications of the V-amylose complexes are reviewed....

Method of extracting significant trouble information of nuclear power plants using probabilistic analysis technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimada, Yoshio; Miyazaki, Takamasa

2005-01-01

In order to analyze and evaluate large amounts of trouble information of overseas nuclear power plants, it is necessary to select information that is significant in terms of both safety and reliability. In this research, a method of efficiently and simply classifying degrees of importance of components in terms of safety and reliability while paying attention to root-cause components appearing in the information was developed. Regarding safety, the reactor core damage frequency (CDF), which is used in the probabilistic analysis of a reactor, was used. Regarding reliability, the automatic plant trip probability (APTP), which is used in the probabilistic analysis of automatic reactor trips, was used. These two aspects were reflected in the development of criteria for classifying degrees of importance of components. By applying these criteria, a simple method of extracting significant trouble information of overseas nuclear power plants was developed. (author)

Characterization and visualization of RNA secondary structure Boltzmann ensemble via information theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Luan; McKerrow, Wilson H; Richards, Bryce; Phonsom, Chukiat; Lawrence, Charles E

2018-03-05

The nearest neighbor model and associated dynamic programming algorithms allow for the efficient estimation of the RNA secondary structure Boltzmann ensemble. However because a given RNA secondary structure only contains a fraction of the possible helices that could form from a given sequence, the Boltzmann ensemble is multimodal. Several methods exist for clustering structures and finding those modes. However less focus is given to exploring the underlying reasons for this multimodality: the presence of conflicting basepairs. Information theory, or more specifically mutual information, provides a method to identify those basepairs that are key to the secondary structure. To this end we find most informative basepairs and visualize the effect of these basepairs on the secondary structure. Knowing whether a most informative basepair is present tells us not only the status of the particular pair but also provides a large amount of information about which other pairs are present or not present. We find that a few basepairs account for a large amount of the structural uncertainty. The identification of these pairs indicates small changes to sequence or stability that will have a large effect on structure. We provide a novel algorithm that uses mutual information to identify the key basepairs that lead to a multimodal Boltzmann distribution. We then visualize the effect of these pairs on the overall Boltzmann ensemble.

[Construction of chemical information database based on optical structure recognition technique].

Science.gov (United States)

Lv, C Y; Li, M N; Zhang, L R; Liu, Z M

2018-04-18

To create a protocol that could be used to construct chemical information database from scientific literature quickly and automatically. Scientific literature, patents and technical reports from different chemical disciplines were collected and stored in PDF format as fundamental datasets. Chemical structures were transformed from published documents and images to machine-readable data by using the name conversion technology and optical structure recognition tool CLiDE. In the process of molecular structure information extraction, Markush structures were enumerated into well-defined monomer molecules by means of QueryTools in molecule editor ChemDraw. Document management software EndNote X8 was applied to acquire bibliographical references involving title, author, journal and year of publication. Text mining toolkit ChemDataExtractor was adopted to retrieve information that could be used to populate structured chemical database from figures, tables, and textual paragraphs. After this step, detailed manual revision and annotation were conducted in order to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the data. In addition to the literature data, computing simulation platform Pipeline Pilot 7.5 was utilized to calculate the physical and chemical properties and predict molecular attributes. Furthermore, open database ChEMBL was linked to fetch known bioactivities, such as indications and targets. After information extraction and data expansion, five separate metadata files were generated, including molecular structure data file, molecular information, bibliographical references, predictable attributes and known bioactivities. Canonical simplified molecular input line entry specification as primary key, metadata files were associated through common key nodes including molecular number and PDF number to construct an integrated chemical information database. A reasonable construction protocol of chemical information database was created successfully. A total of 174 research

Provision of a draft version for standard classification structure for information of radiation technologies through analyzing their information and derivation of its applicable requirements to the information system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jang, Sol Ah; Kim, Joo Yeon; Yoo, Ji Yup; Shin, Woo Ho; Park, Tai Jin; Song, Myung Jae

2015-01-01

Radiation technology is the one for developing new products or processes by applying radiation or for creating new functions in industry, research and medical fields, and its application is increasing consistently. For securing an advanced technology competitiveness, it is required to create a new added value by information consumer through providing an efficient system for supporting information, which is the infrastructure for research and development, contributed to its collection, analysis and use with a rapidity and structure in addition to some direct research and development. Provision of the management structure for information resources is especially crucial for efficient operating the system for supporting information in radiation technology, and then a standard classification structure of information must be first developed as the system for supporting information will be constructed. The standard classification structure has been analyzed by reviewing the definition of information resources in radiation technology, and those classification structures in similar systems operated by institute in radiation and other scientific fields. And, a draft version of the standard classification structure has been then provided as 7 large, 25 medium and 71 small classifications, respectively. The standard classification structure in radiation technology will be developed in 2015 through reviewing this draft version and experts' opinion. Finally, developed classification structure will be applied to the system for supporting information by considering the plan for constructing this system and database, and requirements for designing the system. Furthermore, this structure will be designed in the system for searching information by working to the individual need of information consumers

Provision of a draft version for standard classification structure for information of radiation technologies through analyzing their information and derivation of its applicable requirements to the information system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jang, Sol Ah; Kim, Joo Yeon; Yoo, Ji Yup; Shin, Woo Ho; Park, Tai Jin; Song, Myung Jae [Korean Association for Radiation Application, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2015-02-15

Radiation technology is the one for developing new products or processes by applying radiation or for creating new functions in industry, research and medical fields, and its application is increasing consistently. For securing an advanced technology competitiveness, it is required to create a new added value by information consumer through providing an efficient system for supporting information, which is the infrastructure for research and development, contributed to its collection, analysis and use with a rapidity and structure in addition to some direct research and development. Provision of the management structure for information resources is especially crucial for efficient operating the system for supporting information in radiation technology, and then a standard classification structure of information must be first developed as the system for supporting information will be constructed. The standard classification structure has been analyzed by reviewing the definition of information resources in radiation technology, and those classification structures in similar systems operated by institute in radiation and other scientific fields. And, a draft version of the standard classification structure has been then provided as 7 large, 25 medium and 71 small classifications, respectively. The standard classification structure in radiation technology will be developed in 2015 through reviewing this draft version and experts' opinion. Finally, developed classification structure will be applied to the system for supporting information by considering the plan for constructing this system and database, and requirements for designing the system. Furthermore, this structure will be designed in the system for searching information by working to the individual need of information consumers.

RNACompress: Grammar-based compression and informational complexity measurement of RNA secondary structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Chun

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background With the rapid emergence of RNA databases and newly identified non-coding RNAs, an efficient compression algorithm for RNA sequence and structural information is needed for the storage and analysis of such data. Although several algorithms for compressing DNA sequences have been proposed, none of them are suitable for the compression of RNA sequences with their secondary structures simultaneously. This kind of compression not only facilitates the maintenance of RNA data, but also supplies a novel way to measure the informational complexity of RNA structural data, raising the possibility of studying the relationship between the functional activities of RNA structures and their complexities, as well as various structural properties of RNA based on compression. Results RNACompress employs an efficient grammar-based model to compress RNA sequences and their secondary structures. The main goals of this algorithm are two fold: (1 present a robust and effective way for RNA structural data compression; (2 design a suitable model to represent RNA secondary structure as well as derive the informational complexity of the structural data based on compression. Our extensive tests have shown that RNACompress achieves a universally better compression ratio compared with other sequence-specific or common text-specific compression algorithms, such as Gencompress, winrar and gzip. Moreover, a test of the activities of distinct GTP-binding RNAs (aptamers compared with their structural complexity shows that our defined informational complexity can be used to describe how complexity varies with activity. These results lead to an objective means of comparing the functional properties of heteropolymers from the information perspective. Conclusion A universal algorithm for the compression of RNA secondary structure as well as the evaluation of its informational complexity is discussed in this paper. We have developed RNACompress, as a useful tool

ERP evidence on the interaction between information structure and emotional salience of words.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lin; Bastiaansen, Marcel; Yang, Yufang; Hagoort, Peter

2013-06-01

Both emotional words and words focused by information structure can capture attention. This study examined the interplay between emotional salience and information structure in modulating attentional resources in the service of integrating emotional words into sentence context. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to affectively negative, neutral, and positive words, which were either focused or nonfocused in question-answer pairs, were evaluated during sentence comprehension. The results revealed an early negative effect (90-200 ms), a P2 effect, as well as an effect in the N400 time window, for both emotional salience and information structure. Moreover, an interaction between emotional salience and information structure occurred within the N400 time window over right posterior electrodes, showing that information structure influences the semantic integration only for neutral words, but not for emotional words. This might reflect the fact that the linguistic salience of emotional words can override the effect of information structure on the integration of words into context. The interaction provides evidence for attention-emotion interactions at a later stage of processing. In addition, the absence of interaction in the early time window suggests that the processing of emotional information is highly automatic and independent of context. The results suggest independent attention capture systems of emotional salience and information structure at the early stage but an interaction between them at a later stage, during the semantic integration of words.

The impact of information technology on productivity using structural equations technique in Iran Behnoush Company

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mina Beig

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Information technology plays an important role on increasing productivity in many organizations. The primary objective of the present survey is to study the impact of information technology on productivity and find a positive and significant relationship between these two factors. Structural equations technique and LISREL software are used for analysis of the questionnaires distributed among managers and some employees of Iran Behnoush Company. Organizations try to improve their performance by investment in information technology. However, many of the previous studies indicate insignificance of the impact of information technology on productivity of the organizations. The present survey studies the impact of information technology on organizations' productivity through the collected data from the above company. Results confirm existence of a positive relationship between information technology and productivity.

Comparing data accuracy between structured abstracts and full-text journal articles: implications in their use for informing clinical decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Fontelo, Paul; Gavino, Alex; Sarmiento, Raymond Francis

2013-12-01

The abstract is the most frequently read section of a research article. The use of 'Consensus Abstracts', a clinician-oriented web application formatted for mobile devices to search MEDLINE/PubMed, for informing clinical decisions was proposed recently; however, inaccuracies between abstracts and the full-text article have been shown. Efforts have been made to improve quality. We compared data in 60 recent-structured abstracts and full-text articles from six highly read medical journals. Data inaccuracies were identified and then classified as either clinically significant or not significant. Data inaccuracies were observed in 53.33% of articles ranging from 3.33% to 45% based on the IMRAD format sections. The Results section showed the highest discrepancies (45%) although these were deemed to be mostly not significant clinically except in one. The two most common discrepancies were mismatched numbers or percentages (11.67%) and numerical data or calculations found in structured abstracts but not mentioned in the full text (40%). There was no significant relationship between journals and the presence of discrepancies (Fisher's exact p value =0.3405). Although we found a high percentage of inaccuracy between structured abstracts and full-text articles, these were not significant clinically. The inaccuracies do not seem to affect the conclusion and interpretation overall. Structured abstracts appear to be informative and may be useful to practitioners as a resource for guiding clinical decisions.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

2012-11-01

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

Active learning-based information structure analysis of full scientific articles and two applications for biomedical literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Yufan; Silins, Ilona; Stenius, Ulla; Korhonen, Anna

2013-06-01

Techniques that are capable of automatically analyzing the information structure of scientific articles could be highly useful for improving information access to biomedical literature. However, most existing approaches rely on supervised machine learning (ML) and substantial labeled data that are expensive to develop and apply to different sub-fields of biomedicine. Recent research shows that minimal supervision is sufficient for fairly accurate information structure analysis of biomedical abstracts. However, is it realistic for full articles given their high linguistic and informational complexity? We introduce and release a novel corpus of 50 biomedical articles annotated according to the Argumentative Zoning (AZ) scheme, and investigate active learning with one of the most widely used ML models-Support Vector Machines (SVM)-on this corpus. Additionally, we introduce two novel applications that use AZ to support real-life literature review in biomedicine via question answering and summarization. We show that active learning with SVM trained on 500 labeled sentences (6% of the corpus) performs surprisingly well with the accuracy of 82%, just 2% lower than fully supervised learning. In our question answering task, biomedical researchers find relevant information significantly faster from AZ-annotated than unannotated articles. In the summarization task, sentences extracted from particular zones are significantly more similar to gold standard summaries than those extracted from particular sections of full articles. These results demonstrate that active learning of full articles' information structure is indeed realistic and the accuracy is high enough to support real-life literature review in biomedicine. The annotated corpus, our AZ classifier and the two novel applications are available at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/yg244/12bioinfo.html

Information Architecture and the Comic Arts: Knowledge Structure and Access

Science.gov (United States)

Farmer, Lesley S. J.

2015-01-01

This article explains information architecture, focusing on comic arts' features for representing and structuring knowledge. Then it details information design theory and information behaviors relative to this format, also noting visual literacy. Next , applications of comic arts in education are listed. With this background, several research…

Sparse regularization for EIT reconstruction incorporating structural information derived from medical imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

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

2016-06-01

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) reconstructs the conductivity distribution of a domain using electrical data on its boundary. This is an ill-posed inverse problem usually solved on a finite element mesh. For this article, a special regularization method incorporating structural information of the targeted domain is proposed and evaluated. Structural information was obtained either from computed tomography images or from preliminary EIT reconstructions by a modified k-means clustering. The proposed regularization method integrates this structural information into the reconstruction as a soft constraint preferring sparsity in group level. A first evaluation with Monte Carlo simulations indicated that the proposed solver is more robust to noise and the resulting images show fewer artifacts. This finding is supported by real data analysis. The structure based regularization has the potential to balance structural a priori information with data driven reconstruction. It is robust to noise, reduces artifacts and produces images that reflect anatomy and are thus easier to interpret for physicians.

Risk Management of Large RC Structures within Spatial Information System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qin, Jianjun; Faber, Michael Havbro

2012-01-01

Abstract: The present article addresses the development of a spatial information system (SIS), which aims to facilitate risk management of large‐scale concrete structures. The formulation of the SIS is based on ideas developed in the context of indicator‐based risk modeling for concrete structures...... subject to corrosion and geographical information system based risk modeling concerning large‐scale risk management. The term “risk management” here refers in particular to the process of condition assessment and optimization of the inspection and repair activities. The SIS facilitates the storage...... and handling of all relevant information to the risk management. The probabilistic modeling utilized in the condition assessment takes basis in a Bayesian hierarchical modeling philosophy. It facilitates the updating of risks as well as optimizing inspection plans whenever new information about the condition...

Structural design significance of tension-tension fatigue data on composites

Science.gov (United States)

Grimes, G. C.

1977-01-01

Constant cycle tension-tension fatigue and related static tension data have been generated on six single composite material/orientation combinations and twenty-one hybrid composite material/orientation combinations. Anomalies are related to the temperature rise and stopped interval creep, whereas endurance limit stresses (runouts) are associated with static proportional limit values, when they occur, and internal damage. The significance of these room temperature-dry data on the design allowables and weight of aerodynamic structueres is discussed. Such structures are helicopter rotor blades and wing and horizontal stabilizer lower surfaces. Typical criteria for turning these data into preliminary allowables are shown, as are examples of such allowables developed from the data. These values are then compared to those that might be used if the structures were made of metal.

Value of information-based inspection planning for offshore structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Irman, Arifian Agusta; Thöns, Sebastian; Leira, Bernt J.

2017-01-01

with each inspection strategy. A simplified and generic risk-based inspection planning utilizing pre- posterior Bayesian decision analysis had been proposed by Faber et al. [1] and Straub [2]. This paper provides considerations on the theoretical background and a Value of Information analysis......-based inspection planning. The paper will start out with a review of the state-of-art RBI planning procedure based on Bayesian decision theory and its application in offshore structure integrity management. An example of the Value of Information approach is illustrated and it is pointed to further research......Asset integrity and management is an important part of the oil and gas industry especially for existing offshore structures. With declining oil price, the production rate is an important factor to be maintained that makes integrity of the structures one of the main concerns. Reliability based...

Informed consent: using a structured interview changes patients' attitudes towards informed consent.

Science.gov (United States)

Dawes, P J; O'Keefe, L; Adcock, S

1993-09-01

Patients want to know more about their condition and its proposed treatment. Gaining patients' confidence before treatment reduces the changes of their seeking legal redress for an unexpected outcome. As part of a prospective study of informed consent for surgery we have assessed the attitudes of patients towards informed consent when different types of consent interview are used. We found that most patients are happy to do as their doctor advises but think the informal consent interview is important because it gives them information; they also want to know about most, but not all, complications of the procedure. One quarter worried about the anaesthetic, about one eighth worried about 'not waking up' and similar proportions worried about complications and other things such as pain and nausea. Most patients think that the consent form is a legal document. In addition patients who had an informal interview felt obliged to sign the consent form and thought it had medicolegal implications. In contrast those who had a structured interview felt less obliged to sign the consent form and more involved in the decision to operate.

The H0 function, a new index for detecting structural/topological complexity information in undirected graphs

Science.gov (United States)

Buscema, Massimo; Asadi-Zeydabadi, Masoud; Lodwick, Weldon; Breda, Marco

2016-04-01

Significant applications such as the analysis of Alzheimer's disease differentiated from dementia, or in data mining of social media, or in extracting information of drug cartel structural composition, are often modeled as graphs. The structural or topological complexity or lack of it in a graph is quite often useful in understanding and more importantly, resolving the problem. We are proposing a new index we call the H0function to measure the structural/topological complexity of a graph. To do this, we introduce the concept of graph pruning and its associated algorithm that is used in the development of our measure. We illustrate the behavior of our measure, the H0 function, through different examples found in the appendix. These examples indicate that the H0 function contains information that is useful and important characteristics of a graph. Here, we restrict ourselves to undirected.

Breaking camouflage and detecting targets require optic flow and image structure information.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Jing Samantha; Bingham, Ned; Chen, Chang; Bingham, Geoffrey P

2017-08-01

Use of motion to break camouflage extends back to the Cambrian [In the Blink of an Eye: How Vision Sparked the Big Bang of Evolution (New York Basic Books, 2003)]. We investigated the ability to break camouflage and continue to see camouflaged targets after motion stops. This is crucial for the survival of hunting predators. With camouflage, visual targets and distracters cannot be distinguished using only static image structure (i.e., appearance). Motion generates another source of optical information, optic flow, which breaks camouflage and specifies target locations. Optic flow calibrates image structure with respect to spatial relations among targets and distracters, and calibrated image structure makes previously camouflaged targets perceptible in a temporally stable fashion after motion stops. We investigated this proposal using laboratory experiments and compared how many camouflaged targets were identified either with optic flow information alone or with combined optic flow and image structure information. Our results show that the combination of motion-generated optic flow and target-projected image structure information yielded efficient and stable perception of camouflaged targets.

Glycan structures contain information for the spatial arrangement of glycoproteins in the plasma membrane.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M Kristen Hall

Full Text Available Glycoconjugates at the cell surface are crucial for cells to communicate with each other and the extracellular microenvironment. While it is generally accepted that glycans are vectorial biopolymers, their information content is unclear. This report provides evidence that distinct N-glycan structures influence the spatial arrangement of two integral membrane glycoproteins, Kv3.1 and E-cadherin, at the adherent membrane which in turn alter cellular properties. Distinct N-glycan structures were generated by heterologous expression of these glycoproteins in parental and glycosylation mutant Chinese hamster ovary cell lines. Unlike the N-linked glycans, the O-linked glycans of the mutant cell lines are similar to those of the parental cell line. Western and lectin blots of total membranes and GFP immunopurified samples, combined with glycosidase digestion reactions, were employed to verify the glycoproteins had predominantly complex, oligomannose, and bisecting type N-glycans from Pro(-5, Lec1, and Lec10B cell lines, respectively. Based on total internal reflection fluorescence and differential interference contrast microscopy techniques, and cellular assays of live parental and glycosylation mutant CHO cells, we propose that glycoproteins with complex, oligomannose or bisecting type N-glycans relay information for localization of glycoproteins to various regions of the plasma membrane in both a glycan-specific and protein-specific manner, and furthermore cell-cell interactions are required for deciphering much of this information. These distinct spatial arrangements also impact cell adhesion and migration. Our findings provide direct evidence that N-glycan structures of glycoproteins contribute significantly to the information content of cells.

Information transfer across intra/inter-structure of CDS and stock markets

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Kyuseong; Kim, Sehyun; Kim, Soo Yong

2017-11-01

We investigate the information flow between industrial sectors in credit default swap and stock markets in the United States based on transfer entropy. Both markets have been studied with respect to dynamics and relations. Our approach considers the intra-structure of each financial market as well as the inter-structure between two markets through a moving window in order to scan a period from 2005 to 2012. We examine the information transfer with different k, especially k = 3, k = 5 and k = 7. Analysis indicates that the cases with k = 3 and k = 7 show the opposite trends but similar characteristics. Change in transfer entropy for intra-structure of CDS market precedes that of stock market in view of the entire time windows. Abrupt rise and fall in inter-structural information transfer between two markets are detected at the periods related to the financial crises, which can be considered as early warnings.

Postposing and Information Structure in English and Farsi/Persian

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shafiei Soheila

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The term postposing denotes any construction in which a phrasal constituent appears to the right of its canonical position, leaving its initial position either empty or occupied by an expletive. Ward and Birner (2004 argue that postposed constructions preserve the old-before-new information structure paradigm in English. The present paper investigates postposed constituents in Persian to find out the information structure paradigm of such constructions. The data have been taken from 34 interviews. The findings show that various constituents might undergo postposing in spoken Farsi (known as Tehrani dialect, and, in contrast to English, NPs were found to be triggered in postposed position when the referent was hearer-old.

Acoustic fine structure may encode biologically relevant information for zebra finches.

Science.gov (United States)

Prior, Nora H; Smith, Edward; Lawson, Shelby; Ball, Gregory F; Dooling, Robert J

2018-04-18

The ability to discriminate changes in the fine structure of complex sounds is well developed in birds. However, the precise limit of this discrimination ability and how it is used in the context of natural communication remains unclear. Here we describe natural variability in acoustic fine structure of male and female zebra finch calls. Results from psychoacoustic experiments demonstrate that zebra finches are able to discriminate extremely small differences in fine structure, which are on the order of the variation in acoustic fine structure that is present in their vocal signals. Results from signal analysis methods also suggest that acoustic fine structure may carry information that distinguishes between biologically relevant categories including sex, call type and individual identity. Combined, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that zebra finches can encode biologically relevant information within the fine structure of their calls. This study provides a foundation for our understanding of how acoustic fine structure may be involved in animal communication.

Technical summaries of Scotian Shelf - significant and commercial discoveries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dickey, J.E.; Bigelow, S.F.; Edens, J.A.; Brown, D.E.; Smith, B.; Makrides, C.; Mader, R.

1997-03-01

An independent assessment of the recoverable hydrocarbon resource currently held under' Significant and Commercial Discovery' status offshore Nova Scotia was presented. A generalized description of the regulatory issues regarding the discovered resources within the Scotian Basin was included. Twenty discoveries have been declared significant and two have been declared commercial, pursuant to the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Acts. Salient facts about each discovery were documented. The information included the wells drilled within the structure, significant flow tests, geological and geophysical attributes, structural cross-section and areal extent, petrophysical parameters, hydrocarbons in place and anticipated hydrocarbon recoverable resource. tabs., figs

Improvising information technology projects through the duality of structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tiko Iyamu

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Background: There is always emphasis on information technology (IT projects because of their significance in organisations. Thus, efforts and resources are reciprocally committed to ensure the successes. Still, failure of IT projects in many organisations remains high and affects competitiveness. As recourse for remedy, different techniques and approaches have been employed. However, little or no progress has been made in increasing the success rate of IT projects in many organisations. Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the factors that influence and impact IT projects, improvisation and how improvisation manifests. Method: The study was carried out using a single case study approach. Qualitative data were collected and duality of structure from the perspective of structuration theory was used as lens to guide the analysis. Results: Findings from this study reveal how reproduction of actions manifests from non-technical factors, such as cultural value, organisational structure, power relationship, human capacity, know-how and change management. These factors help to gain a more constructive and better understanding of how IT projects improvisation is influenced or impacted by non-technical factors in organisations. Conclusion: The study is intended to benefit both practitioners and academics. Some of the benefits will be gained from fresh perspectives on the complexities of IT projects improvisation, which are often caused by various seen and unforeseen non-technical factors. This includes how actions from relationship, know-how about facilities and communicative scheme are produced and reproduced.

Information structure influences depth of syntactic processing: event-related potential evidence for the Chomsky illusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lin; Bastiaansen, Marcel; Yang, Yufang; Hagoort, Peter

2012-01-01

Information structure facilitates communication between interlocutors by highlighting relevant information. It has previously been shown that information structure modulates the depth of semantic processing. Here we used event-related potentials to investigate whether information structure can modulate the depth of syntactic processing. In question-answer pairs, subtle (number agreement) or salient (phrase structure) syntactic violations were placed either in focus or out of focus through information structure marking. P600 effects to these violations reflect the depth of syntactic processing. For subtle violations, a P600 effect was observed in the focus condition, but not in the non-focus condition. For salient violations, comparable P600 effects were found in both conditions. These results indicate that information structure can modulate the depth of syntactic processing, but that this effect depends on the salience of the information. When subtle violations are not in focus, they are processed less elaborately. We label this phenomenon the Chomsky illusion.

Evolutionary significance of seed structure in Alpinioideae (Zingiberaceae): Seed Structure in Alpinioideae

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benedict, John C. [Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI (United States); Smith, Selena Y. [Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI (United States); Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI (United States); Collinson, Margaret E. [Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London (United Kingdom); Leong-Škorničková, Jana [Herbarium, Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board (Singapore); Specht, Chelsea D. [Department of Plant and Microbial Biology & University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley CA (United States); Fife, Julie L. [Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen (Switzerland); Marone, Federica [Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen (Switzerland); Xiao, Xianghui [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS); Parkinson, Dilworth Y. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)

2015-03-09

Alpinioideae is the largest of the four subfamilies of Zingiberaceae and is widely distributed throughout the New and Old World tropics. Recent molecular studies have shown that, although Alpinioideae is a strongly supported monophyletic subfamily with two distinct tribes (Alpinieae and Riedelieae), large genera, such as Alpinia and Amomum, are polyphyletic and are in need of revision. Alpinia and Amomum have been shown to form seven and three distinct clades, respectively, but, for many of these clades, traditional vegetative and floral synapomorphies have not been found. A broad survey of seeds in Alpinioideae using light microscopy and synchrotron-based X-ray tomographic microscopy has shown that many clades have distinctive seed structures that serve as distinctive apomorphies. Tribes Riedelieae and Alpinieae can be distinguished on the basis of operculum structure, with the exception of three taxa analysed. The most significant seed characters were found to be various modifications of the micropylar and chalazal ends, the cell shape of the endotesta and exotesta, and the location of an endotestal gap. A chalazal chamber and hilar rim are reported for the first time in Zingiberaceae. In addition to characterizing clades of extant lineages, these data offer insights into the taxonomic placement of many fossil zingiberalean seeds that are critical to understanding the origin and evolution of Alpinioideae and Zingiberales as a whole.(c) 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 178, 441-466..

15 CFR 50.5 - Fee structure for age search and citizenship information.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... THE CENSUS § 50.5 Fee structure for age search and citizenship information. Type of service Fee... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Fee structure for age search and citizenship information. 50.5 Section 50.5 Commerce and Foreign Trade Regulations Relating to Commerce and...

The closed-mindedness that wasn’t: Need for structure and expectancy-inconsistent information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus eKemmelmeier

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Social-cognitive researchers have typically assumed that individuals high in need for structure or need for closure tend to be closed-minded: they are motivated to resist or ignore information that is inconsistent with existing beliefs but instead they rely on category-based expectancies. The present paper argues that this conclusion is not necessarily warranted because previous studies did not allow individual differences in categorical processing to emerge and did not consider different distributions of category-relevant information. Using a person memory paradigm, Experiments 1 and 2 show that, when categorical processing is optional, high need-for-structure individuals are especially likely to use this type processing to reduce uncertainty, which results in superior recall for expectancy-inconsistent information. Experiment 2 demonstrates that such information is also more likely to be used in judgment making, leading to judgmental moderation among high need-for-structure individuals. Experiments 3 and 4 used a person memory paradigm which requires categorical processing regardless of levels of need for structure. Experiment 3 and 4 demonstrate that, whether expectancy-consistent or -inconsistent information is recalled better is a function of whether the majority of available information is compatible or incompatible with an initial category-based expectancy. Experiment 4 confirmed that the extent to which high need-for-structure individuals attend to different types of information varies with their distribution. The discussion highlights that task affordances have a critical influences on the consequences of categorical processing for memory and social judgment. Thus, high need for structure does not necessarily equate closed-mindedness.

The closed-mindedness that wasn't: need for structure and expectancy-inconsistent information.

Science.gov (United States)

Kemmelmeier, Markus

2015-01-01

Social-cognitive researchers have typically assumed that individuals high in need for structure or need for closure tend to be closed-minded: they are motivated to resist or ignore information that is inconsistent with existing beliefs but instead they rely on category-based expectancies. The present paper argues that this conclusion is not necessarily warranted because previous studies did not allow individual differences in categorical processing to emerge and did not consider different distributions of category-relevant information. Using a person memory paradigm, Experiments 1 and 2 shows that, when categorical processing is optional, high need-for-structure individuals are especially likely to use this type processing to reduce uncertainty, which results in superior recall for expectancy-inconsistent information. Experiment 2 demonstrates that such information is also more likely to be used in judgment making, leading to judgmental moderation among high need-for-structure individuals. Experiments 3 and 4 used a person memory paradigm which requires categorical processing regardless of levels of need for structure. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrate that, whether expectancy-consistent or -inconsistent information is recalled better is a function of whether the majority of available information is compatible or incompatible with an initial category-based expectancy. Experiment 4 confirmed that the extent to which high need-for-structure individuals attend to different types of information varies with their distribution. The discussion highlights that task affordances have a critical influence on the consequences of categorical processing for memory and social judgment. Thus, high need for structure does not necessarily equate closed-mindedness.

Information on Quantifiers and Argument Structure in English Learner's Dictionaries.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Thomas Hun-tak

1993-01-01

Lexicographers have been arguing for the inclusion of abstract and complex grammatical information in dictionaries. This paper examines the extent to which information about quantifiers and the argument structure of verbs is encoded in English learner's dictionaries. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (1989), the Longman Dictionary of…

Information structure design for databases a practical guide to data modelling

CERN Document Server

Mortimer, Andrew J

2014-01-01

Computer Weekly Professional Series: Information Structure Design for Databases: A Practical Guide to Data modeling focuses on practical data modeling covering business and information systems. The publication first offers information on data and information, business analysis, and entity relationship model basics. Discussions cover degree of relationship symbols, relationship rules, membership markers, types of information systems, data driven systems, cost and value of information, importance of data modeling, and quality of information. The book then takes a look at entity relationship mode

Word order and information structure in Makhuwa-Enahara

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wal, Guenever Johanna van der

2009-01-01

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

A hierarchical structure approach to MultiSensor Information Fusion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maren, A.J. (Tennessee Univ., Tullahoma, TN (United States). Space Inst.); Pap, R.M.; Harston, C.T. (Accurate Automation Corp., Chattanooga, TN (United States))

1989-01-01

A major problem with image-based MultiSensor Information Fusion (MSIF) is establishing the level of processing at which information should be fused. Current methodologies, whether based on fusion at the pixel, segment/feature, or symbolic levels, are each inadequate for robust MSIF. Pixel-level fusion has problems with coregistration of the images or data. Attempts to fuse information using the features of segmented images or data relies an a presumed similarity between the segmentation characteristics of each image or data stream. Symbolic-level fusion requires too much advance processing to be useful, as we have seen in automatic target recognition tasks. Image-based MSIF systems need to operate in real-time, must perform fusion using a variety of sensor types, and should be effective across a wide range of operating conditions or deployment environments. We address this problem through developing a new representation level which facilitates matching and information fusion. The Hierarchical Scene Structure (HSS) representation, created using a multilayer, cooperative/competitive neural network, meets this need. The MSS is intermediate between a pixel-based representation and a scene interpretation representation, and represents the perceptual organization of an image. Fused HSSs will incorporate information from multiple sensors. Their knowledge-rich structure aids top-down scene interpretation via both model matching and knowledge-based,region interpretation.

A hierarchical structure approach to MultiSensor Information Fusion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maren, A.J. [Tennessee Univ., Tullahoma, TN (United States). Space Inst.; Pap, R.M.; Harston, C.T. [Accurate Automation Corp., Chattanooga, TN (United States)

1989-12-31

A major problem with image-based MultiSensor Information Fusion (MSIF) is establishing the level of processing at which information should be fused. Current methodologies, whether based on fusion at the pixel, segment/feature, or symbolic levels, are each inadequate for robust MSIF. Pixel-level fusion has problems with coregistration of the images or data. Attempts to fuse information using the features of segmented images or data relies an a presumed similarity between the segmentation characteristics of each image or data stream. Symbolic-level fusion requires too much advance processing to be useful, as we have seen in automatic target recognition tasks. Image-based MSIF systems need to operate in real-time, must perform fusion using a variety of sensor types, and should be effective across a wide range of operating conditions or deployment environments. We address this problem through developing a new representation level which facilitates matching and information fusion. The Hierarchical Scene Structure (HSS) representation, created using a multilayer, cooperative/competitive neural network, meets this need. The MSS is intermediate between a pixel-based representation and a scene interpretation representation, and represents the perceptual organization of an image. Fused HSSs will incorporate information from multiple sensors. Their knowledge-rich structure aids top-down scene interpretation via both model matching and knowledge-based,region interpretation.

Visualization of hierarchically structured information for human-computer interaction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheon, Suh Hyun; Lee, J. K.; Choi, I. K.; Kye, S. C.; Lee, N. K. [Dongguk University, Seoul (Korea)

2001-11-01

Visualization techniques can be used to support operator's information navigation tasks on the system especially consisting of an enormous volume of information, such as operating information display system and computerized operating procedure system in advanced control room of nuclear power plants. By offering an easy understanding environment of hierarchically structured information, these techniques can reduce the operator's supplementary navigation task load. As a result of that, operators can pay more attention on the primary tasks and ultimately improve the cognitive task performance. In this report, an interface was designed and implemented using hyperbolic visualization technique, which is expected to be applied as a means of optimizing operator's information navigation tasks. 15 refs., 19 figs., 32 tabs. (Author)

ERP evidence on the interaction between information structure and emotional salience of words

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wang, L.; Bastiaansen, M.C.M.; Yang, Y.; Hagoort, P.

2013-01-01

Both emotional words and words focused by information structure can capture attention. This study examined the interplay between emotional salience and information structure in modulating attentional resources in the service of integrating emotional words into sentence context. Event-related

Factors correlating with significant differences between X-ray structures of myoglobin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rashin, Alexander A.; Domagalski, Marcin J.; Zimmermann, Michael T.; Minor, Wladek; Chruszcz, Maksymilian; Jernigan, Robert L.

2014-01-01

Conformational differences between myoglobin structures are studied. Most structural differences in whale myoglobin beyond the uncertainty threshold can be correlated with a few specific structural factors. There are always exceptions and a search for additional factors is needed. The results might have serious implications for biological insights from conformational differences. Validation of general ideas about the origins of conformational differences in proteins is critical in order to arrive at meaningful functional insights. Here, principal component analysis (PCA) and distance difference matrices are used to validate some such ideas about the conformational differences between 291 myoglobin structures from sperm whale, horse and pig. Almost all of the horse and pig structures form compact PCA clusters with only minor coordinate differences and outliers that are easily explained. The 222 whale structures form a few dense clusters with multiple outliers. A few whale outliers with a prominent distortion of the GH loop are very similar to the cluster of horse structures, which all have a similar GH-loop distortion apparently owing to intermolecular crystal lattice hydrogen bonds to the GH loop from residues near the distal histidine His64. The variations of the GH-loop coordinates in the whale structures are likely to be owing to the observed alternative intermolecular crystal lattice bond, with the change to the GH loop distorting bonds correlated with the binding of specific ‘unusual’ ligands. Such an alternative intermolecular bond is not observed in horse myoglobins, obliterating any correlation with the ligands. Intermolecular bonds do not usually cause significant coordinate differences and cannot be validated as their universal cause. Most of the native-like whale myoglobin structure outliers can be correlated with a few specific factors. However, these factors do not always lead to coordinate differences beyond the previously determined uncertainty

Factors correlating with significant differences between X-ray structures of myoglobin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rashin, Alexander A., E-mail: alexander-rashin@hotmail.com [BioChemComp Inc., 543 Sagamore Avenue, Teaneck, NJ 07666 (United States); Iowa State University, 112 Office and Lab Bldg, Ames, IA 50011-3020 (United States); Domagalski, Marcin J. [University of Virginia, 1340 Jefferson Park Avenue, Jordan Hall, Room 4223, Charlottesville, VA 22908 (United States); Zimmermann, Michael T. [Iowa State University, 112 Office and Lab Bldg, Ames, IA 50011-3020 (United States); Minor, Wladek [University of Virginia, 1340 Jefferson Park Avenue, Jordan Hall, Room 4223, Charlottesville, VA 22908 (United States); Chruszcz, Maksymilian [University of Virginia, 1340 Jefferson Park Avenue, Jordan Hall, Room 4223, Charlottesville, VA 22908 (United States); University of South Carolina, 631 Sumter Street, Columbia, SC 29208 (United States); Jernigan, Robert L. [Iowa State University, 112 Office and Lab Bldg, Ames, IA 50011-3020 (United States); BioChemComp Inc., 543 Sagamore Avenue, Teaneck, NJ 07666 (United States)

2014-02-01

Conformational differences between myoglobin structures are studied. Most structural differences in whale myoglobin beyond the uncertainty threshold can be correlated with a few specific structural factors. There are always exceptions and a search for additional factors is needed. The results might have serious implications for biological insights from conformational differences. Validation of general ideas about the origins of conformational differences in proteins is critical in order to arrive at meaningful functional insights. Here, principal component analysis (PCA) and distance difference matrices are used to validate some such ideas about the conformational differences between 291 myoglobin structures from sperm whale, horse and pig. Almost all of the horse and pig structures form compact PCA clusters with only minor coordinate differences and outliers that are easily explained. The 222 whale structures form a few dense clusters with multiple outliers. A few whale outliers with a prominent distortion of the GH loop are very similar to the cluster of horse structures, which all have a similar GH-loop distortion apparently owing to intermolecular crystal lattice hydrogen bonds to the GH loop from residues near the distal histidine His64. The variations of the GH-loop coordinates in the whale structures are likely to be owing to the observed alternative intermolecular crystal lattice bond, with the change to the GH loop distorting bonds correlated with the binding of specific ‘unusual’ ligands. Such an alternative intermolecular bond is not observed in horse myoglobins, obliterating any correlation with the ligands. Intermolecular bonds do not usually cause significant coordinate differences and cannot be validated as their universal cause. Most of the native-like whale myoglobin structure outliers can be correlated with a few specific factors. However, these factors do not always lead to coordinate differences beyond the previously determined uncertainty

Significance of agricultural row structure on the microwave emissivity of soils

Science.gov (United States)

Promes, P. M.; Jackson, T. J.; O'Neill, P. E.

1987-01-01

A series of field experiments was carried out to extend the data base available for verifying agricultural row effect models of emissivity. The row effects model was used to simulate a data base from which an algorithm could be developed to account for row effects when the scene dielectric constant and small-scale roughness are unknown. One objective of the study was to quantify the significance of row structure and to develop a practical procedure for removing the effects of periodic row structure on the microwave emissivity of a soil in order to use the emissivity values to estimate the soil moisture. A second objective was to expand the data set available for model verification through field observations using a truck-mounted 1.4-GHz microwave radiometer.

ROS-TMS and Big Sensor Box: Platforms for Informationally Structured Environment

OpenAIRE

倉爪, 亮; ユンソク, ピョ; 辻, 徳生; 河村, 晃宏

2017-01-01

This paper proposes new software and hardware platforms for an informationally structured environment named ROS-TMS and Big Sensor Box. We started the development of a management system for an informationally structured environment named TMS (Town Management System) in Robot Town Project in 2005. Since then we are continuing our efforts for the improvement of the performance and the enhancement of the functions of the TMS. Recently, we launched a new version of TMS named ROS-TMS, which resolv...

Structures data collection for The National Map using volunteered geographic information

Science.gov (United States)

Poore, Barbara S.; Wolf, Eric B.; Korris, Erin M.; Walter, Jennifer L.; Matthews, Greg D.

2012-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has historically sponsored volunteered data collection projects to enhance its topographic paper and digital map products. This report describes one phase of an ongoing project to encourage volunteers to contribute data to The National Map using online editing tools. The USGS recruited students studying geographic information systems (GIS) at the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Denver in the spring of 2011 to add data on structures - manmade features such as schools, hospitals, and libraries - to four quadrangles covering metropolitan Denver. The USGS customized a version of the online Potlatch editor created by the OpenStreetMap project and populated it with 30 structure types drawn from the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), a USGS database of geographic features. The students corrected the location and attributes of these points and added information on structures that were missing. There were two rounds of quality control. Student volunteers reviewed each point, and an in-house review of each point by the USGS followed. Nine-hundred and thirty-eight structure points were initially downloaded from the USGS database. Editing and quality control resulted in 1,214 structure points that were subsequently added to The National Map. A post-project analysis of the data shows that after student edit and peer review, 92 percent of the points contributed by volunteers met National Map Accuracy Standards for horizontal accuracy. Lessons from this project will be applied to later phases. These include: simplifying editing tasks and the user interfaces, stressing to volunteers the importance of adding structures that are missing, and emphasizing the importance of conforming to editorial guidelines for formatting names and addresses of structures. The next phase of the project will encompass the entire State of Colorado and will allow any citizen to contribute structures data. Volunteers will benefit from this

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE FORMATION FOR IT-PROJECT OF INFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Виктор Макарович ЛЕВЫКИН

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The approach for modeling the structure of IT-works project to create an information system as a forest domain ontology. The main features of information technology to manage such IT-projects.

Structural limitations of learning in a crowd: communication vulnerability and information diffusion in MOOCs

Science.gov (United States)

Gillani, Nabeel; Yasseri, Taha; Eynon, Rebecca; Hjorth, Isis

2014-09-01

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) bring together a global crowd of thousands of learners for several weeks or months. In theory, the openness and scale of MOOCs can promote iterative dialogue that facilitates group cognition and knowledge construction. Using data from two successive instances of a popular business strategy MOOC, we filter observed communication patterns to arrive at the ``significant'' interaction networks between learners and use complex network analysis to explore the vulnerability and information diffusion potential of the discussion forums. We find that different discussion topics and pedagogical practices promote varying levels of 1) ``significant'' peer-to-peer engagement, 2) participant inclusiveness in dialogue, and ultimately, 3) modularity, which impacts information diffusion to prevent a truly ``global'' exchange of knowledge and learning. These results indicate the structural limitations of large-scale crowd-based learning and highlight the different ways that learners in MOOCs leverage, and learn within, social contexts. We conclude by exploring how these insights may inspire new developments in online education.

Information Propagation in Complex Networks : Structures and Dynamics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Märtens, M.

2018-01-01

This thesis is a contribution to a deeper understanding of how information propagates and what this process entails. At its very core is the concept of the network: a collection of nodes and links, which describes the structure of the systems under investigation. The network is a mathematical model

On-Line Real-Time Management Information Systems and Their Impact Upon User Personnel and Organizational Structure in Aviation Maintenance Activities.

Science.gov (United States)

1979-12-01

ON USER PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATINAL STRUCTUREl E REAL-TIME COMPUTER-BASED MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM ARE EXPLORED MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SRVICE...PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE IN A LOGY INTO AN ORGANIZATION CAN SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACT THE ORGANIZATION#S EFFECTIVENES ONNEL AND ORGANIZATINAL ...bureau- cracy and bolster upper level leadership . His view considered the computer system informa- tion specialists as support personel only and

Super-resolution structure of DNA significantly differs in buccal cells of controls and Alzheimer's patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Angeles; Huang, David; Righolt, Amanda; Righolt, Christiaan; Kalaw, Maria Carmela; Mathur, Shubha; McAvoy, Elizabeth; Anderson, James; Luedke, Angela; Itorralba, Justine; Mai, Sabine

2017-09-01

The advent of super-resolution microscopy allowed for new insights into cellular and physiological processes of normal and diseased cells. In this study, we report for the first time on the super-resolved DNA structure of buccal cells from patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) versus age- and gender-matched healthy, non-caregiver controls. In this super-resolution study cohort of 74 participants, buccal cells were collected and their spatial DNA organization in the nucleus examined by 3D Structured Illumination Microscopy (3D-SIM). Quantitation of the super-resolution DNA structure revealed that the nuclear super-resolution DNA structure of individuals with AD significantly differs from that of their controls (p structure of AD significantly differs in mild, moderate, and severe disease with respect to the DNA-containing and DNA-free/poor spaces. We conclude that whole genome remodeling is a feature of buccal cells in AD. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Cellular Physiology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Review of Organizational Structures of Personal Information Management

OpenAIRE

Indratmo, J; Vassileva, Julita

2008-01-01

Personal information management (PIM) covers a large area of research fragmented into separate sub-areas such as file management, web bookmark organization, and email management. Consequently, it is hard to obtain a unified view of the various approaches to PIM developed in these different sub-areas. In this article, we synthesize and classify existing research on PIM based on the approach used to organize information items. We classify the organizational structures into five categories: hier...

Exploring the structure and organization of information within nursing clinical handovers.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Maree; Jefferies, Diana; Nicholls, Daniel

2012-10-01

Clinical handover is the primary source of patient information for nurses; however, inadequate information transfer compromises patient safety. We investigated the content and organization of information conveyed at 81 handovers. A structure that captures and presents the information transferred at handover emerged: identification of the patient and clinical risks, clinical history/presentation, clinical status, care plan and outcomes/goals of care (ICCCO). This approach covers essential information while allowing for prioritization of information when required. Further research into the impact of ICCCO on patient safety is in progress. © 2012 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Numerical Investigations into the Value of Information in Lifecycle Analysis of Structural Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Konakli, Katerina; Sudret, Bruno; Faber, Michael Havbro

2015-01-01

of decisions related to maintenance of structural systems. In this context, experiments may refer to inspections or structural health monitoring. The value-of-information concept comprises a powerful tool for determining whether the experimental cost is justified by the expected gained benefit during...... investigations demonstrate how the decision problem is influenced by the assumed probabilistic models, including the type of probability distribution and the degree of uncertainty reflected in the coefficient of variation, the degradation law, the quantity and quality of information, and the probabilistic...... dependencies between the components of a system. Furthermore, challenges and potentials in value-of-information analysis for structural systems are discussed....

Modeling the Informal Economy in Mexico. A Structural Equation Approach

OpenAIRE

Brambila Macias, Jose

2008-01-01

This paper uses annual data for the period 1970-2006 in order to estimate and investigate the evolution of the Mexican informal economy. In order to do so, we model the informal economy as a latent variable and try to explain it through relationships between possible cause and indicator variables using structural equation modeling (SEM). Our results indicate that the Mexican informal sector at the beginning of the 1970’s initially accounted for 40 percent of GDP while slightly decreasing to s...

Cosmological parameters from large scale structure - geometric versus shape information

CERN Document Server

Hamann, Jan; Lesgourgues, Julien; Rampf, Cornelius; Wong, Yvonne Y Y

2010-01-01

The matter power spectrum as derived from large scale structure (LSS) surveys contains two important and distinct pieces of information: an overall smooth shape and the imprint of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). We investigate the separate impact of these two types of information on cosmological parameter estimation, and show that for the simplest cosmological models, the broad-band shape information currently contained in the SDSS DR7 halo power spectrum (HPS) is by far superseded by geometric information derived from the baryonic features. An immediate corollary is that contrary to popular beliefs, the upper limit on the neutrino mass m_\

Vegetation composition and structure significantly influence green roof performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dunnett, N.; Nagase, A.; Booth, R.; Grime, P. [Sheffield Univ., Sheffield (United Kingdom). Dept. of Landscape Architecture

2005-07-01

The majority of published literature on green roofs contains little specific information on the contribution of plants to the various functions and properties of green roofs. This paper reviewed previously published material in an attempt to shed light on the role of vegetation composition in green roof systems, with specific reference to hydrology and biodiversity support. Two ongoing experiments at the University of Sheffield were then considered: (1) a comparison of quality and quantity of runoff from different types of vegetation; and (2) a comparison of flowering seasons and biodiversity support of different vegetation. Results of the studies showed that there was no general pattern of variation in runoff that could be related to vegetation complexity or taxonomic composition of the communities. During the winter months, high precipitation quickly saturated the soil and percolate losses were similar for all treatments. In the summer, throughflow losses differed between treatments in relation to the structure of the plant canopy. Differing mechanisms resulted in variations in the volume of percolate that was collected. Lower volumes of percolate were observed in herb-only monocultures of Leontdon hispidus, a species with a high water content. Tap-rooted species were seen to more effectively absorb soil moisture. The biodiversity support study focused on the study of Sedum species and Labiatae species, which suggested that mixed vegetation containing these species had a far greater likelihood of attracting wild bees to support pollination. Results of the studies indicated that green roof vegetation with greater structural and species diversity may provide different benefits than sedum-dominated roots. Further studies are needed to investigate the trade-offs between vegetation types, and green roof functions and performance in order to justify calls for a wider diversity of green roof types. 8 refs., 2 tabs., 1 fig.

Towards a Structurational Theory of Information Systems: a substantive case analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rose, Jeremy; Hackney, R. H

2003-01-01

This paper employs the analysis of an interpretive case study within a Regional Train Operating Company (RTOC) to arrive at theoretical understandings of Information Systems (IS). Giddens’ ‘structuration theory’ is developed which offers an account of structure and agency; social practices develo...

Laboratory information management system for membrane protein structure initiative--from gene to crystal.

Science.gov (United States)

Troshin, Petr V; Morris, Chris; Prince, Stephen M; Papiz, Miroslav Z

2008-12-01

Membrane Protein Structure Initiative (MPSI) exploits laboratory competencies to work collaboratively and distribute work among the different sites. This is possible as protein structure determination requires a series of steps, starting with target selection, through cloning, expression, purification, crystallization and finally structure determination. Distributed sites create a unique set of challenges for integrating and passing on information on the progress of targets. This role is played by the Protein Information Management System (PIMS), which is a laboratory information management system (LIMS), serving as a hub for MPSI, allowing collaborative structural proteomics to be carried out in a distributed fashion. It holds key information on the progress of cloning, expression, purification and crystallization of proteins. PIMS is employed to track the status of protein targets and to manage constructs, primers, experiments, protocols, sample locations and their detailed histories: thus playing a key role in MPSI data exchange. It also serves as the centre of a federation of interoperable information resources such as local laboratory information systems and international archival resources, like PDB or NCBI. During the challenging task of PIMS integration, within the MPSI, we discovered a number of prerequisites for successful PIMS integration. In this article we share our experiences and provide invaluable insights into the process of LIMS adaptation. This information should be of interest to partners who are thinking about using LIMS as a data centre for their collaborative efforts.

The influence of the chain and network information and communication structure on sustainable business development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bremmers, H.J.; Haverkamp, D.J.; Omta, S.W.F.

2005-01-01

This article links the public-private information and communication structure (IC-structure) and Ajzen¿s model of planned behaviour to explain the development of environmental management systems (EMSs). The structure of the IC-system, especially the public-private information exchange, can influence

Description of the Structural Materials Information Center being established at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oland, B.

1990-01-01

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has initiated a Structural aging Program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to identify potential structural safety issues related to continued service of nuclear power plants and to establish criteria for evaluating and resolving these issues. One of the tasks in this program focuses on the establishment of a Structural Materials Information Center where data and information on the time variation of concrete and concrete-related material properties under the influence of pertinent environmental stressors and aging factors will be collected and assembled into a database. This database will be used to assist in the prediction of potential long-term deterioration of critical structural components in nuclear power plants and to establish limits on hostile environmental exposure for these structures and materials. Materials property data and information will be collected at the Structural Materials Information Center from open literature, published references, and identifiable sources. Initially, the database will include portland cement concrete, metallic reinforcement, prestressing tendon and structural steel materials. Then, as data and information for other material systems are obtained, the database will be expanded and updated. The database will be developed and presented in two complementary formats. The Structural Materials Handbook will be published in four volumes as an expandable, hard copy handbook. The Materials Electronic Database will be developed to reflect the same information as contained in the handbook, but will be formatted for use on an IBM or IBM-compatible personal computer

[Forming of the visual cognitive structures in the monkey conditioned-reflex behaviour: the dependence on the sensory information].

Science.gov (United States)

Dudkin, K N; Chueva, I V

2008-01-01

In monkeys, changes in size and shape of figures led to a significant decrease of correct solutions in training and a considerable increase of refusals from solution of tasks as well as the time of their motor response. The invariance of differentiation in this case was achieved after additional training. The data obtained show that, based on the stimulus sensory processing in conditioned-reflex training, in the long-term memory some differentiating signs are formed: the cognitive structures (the functional neurophysiological mechanisms) maintaining the classification of visual images. With these structures, temporary conditioned connection will be established. Their formation will be determined by the type of sensory information and provided for by existence in the long-term memory of separate subsystems for spatial as well as non-spatial information.

Enhancing community detection by using local structural information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiang, Ju; Bao, Mei-Hua; Tang, Liang; Li, Jian-Ming; Hu, Ke; Chen, Benyan; Hu, Jing-Bo; Zhang, Yan; Tang, Yan-Ni; Gao, Yuan-Yuan

2016-01-01

Many real-world networks, such as gene networks, protein–protein interaction networks and metabolic networks, exhibit community structures, meaning the existence of groups of densely connected vertices in the networks. Many local similarity measures in the networks are closely related to the concept of the community structures, and may have a positive effect on community detection in the networks. Here, various local similarity measures are used to extract local structural information, which is then applied to community detection in the networks by using the edge-reweighting strategy. The effect of the local similarity measures on community detection is carefully investigated and compared in various networks. The experimental results show that the local similarity measures are crucial for the improvement of community detection methods, while the positive effect of the local similarity measures is closely related to the networks under study and applied community detection methods. (paper: interdisciplinary statistical mechanics)

An information integration system for structured documents, Web, and databases

OpenAIRE

Morishima, Atsuyuki

1998-01-01

Rapid advance in computer network technology has changed the style of computer utilization. Distributed computing resources over world-wide computer networks are available from our local computers. They include powerful computers and a variety of information sources. This change is raising more advanced requirements. Integration of distributed information sources is one of such requirements. In addition to conventional databases, structured documents have been widely used, and have increasing...

Structuring a risk-informed and performance-based process for optimization of regulation for Laguna Verde NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.

2001-01-01

This work describes the plan for a process to incorporate into the regulatory activities the risk information derived from probabilistic risk assessments, as well as information generated by the periodic evaluation of the Maintenance Rule (MR, 10CFR50.65). The current status of the Laguna Verde NPP (LVNPP) risk analysis, PSA Level 1, allows determining in a reliable way the accident scenarios and the involved systems having significant impact on safety. The determination of system's risk significance allows carrying out a prioritization of safety issues to be evaluated and inspected; for example, operational events, changes to technical specifications, design modifications, inspection priorities, etc. In addition, complementary and basic information are the results generated by the performance monitoring of structures, systems and components (SSCs) under the scope of the MR. The SSCs performance trends are indicatives to focus evaluation and inspection activities on important issues. Then, with the reportability in short periods the performance evaluations of SSCs and the incorporation of a process of risk management, the evaluation and inspection activities will be directed to those risk significant systems showing degraded performance. Therefore, based on systems performance results and risk information, it is feasible to have certain flexibility or a better balance between the regulatory requirements. Inside this process, a consensus is needed with the utility to establish quality attributes for the plant-specific PSA, as well as the rules to be followed in the use of this tool and the kind of information to be reported for MR results. (author)

Quantifying information transfer by protein domains: Analysis of the Fyn SH2 domain structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serrano Luis

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Efficient communication between distant sites within a protein is essential for cooperative biological response. Although often associated with large allosteric movements, more subtle changes in protein dynamics can also induce long-range correlations. However, an appropriate formalism that directly relates protein structural dynamics to information exchange between functional sites is still lacking. Results Here we introduce a method to analyze protein dynamics within the framework of information theory and show that signal transduction within proteins can be considered as a particular instance of communication over a noisy channel. In particular, we analyze the conformational correlations between protein residues and apply the concept of mutual information to quantify information exchange. Mapping out changes of mutual information on the protein structure then allows visualizing how distal communication is achieved. We illustrate the approach by analyzing information transfer by the SH2 domain of Fyn tyrosine kinase, obtained from Monte Carlo dynamics simulations. Our analysis reveals that the Fyn SH2 domain forms a noisy communication channel that couples residues located in the phosphopeptide and specificity binding sites and a number of residues at the other side of the domain near the linkers that connect the SH2 domain to the SH3 and kinase domains. We find that for this particular domain, communication is affected by a series of contiguous residues that connect distal sites by crossing the core of the SH2 domain. Conclusion As a result, our method provides a means to directly map the exchange of biological information on the structure of protein domains, making it clear how binding triggers conformational changes in the protein structure. As such it provides a structural road, next to the existing attempts at sequence level, to predict long-range interactions within protein structures.

Impact of Information Technology Governance Structures on Strategic Alignment

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Fitzroy R.

2013-01-01

This dissertation is a study of the relationship between Information Technology (IT) strategic alignment and IT governance structure within the organization. This dissertation replicates Asante (2010) among a different population where the prior results continue to hold, the non-experimental approach explored two research questions but include two…

An Informationally Structured Room for Robotic Assistance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tokuo Tsuji

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The application of assistive technologies for elderly people is one of the most promising and interesting scenarios for intelligent technologies in the present and near future. Moreover, the improvement of the quality of life for the elderly is one of the first priorities in modern countries and societies. In this work, we present an informationally structured room that is aimed at supporting the daily life activities of elderly people. This room integrates different sensor modalities in a natural and non-invasive way inside the environment. The information gathered by the sensors is processed and sent to a centralized management system, which makes it available to a service robot assisting the people. One important restriction of our intelligent room is reducing as much as possible any interference with daily activities. Finally, this paper presents several experiments and situations using our intelligent environment in cooperation with our service robot.

Ensuring the integrity of information resources based methods dvooznakovoho structural data encoding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

О.К. Юдін

2009-01-01

Full Text Available  Developed methods of estimation of noise stability and correction of structural code constructions to distortion in comunication of data in informatively communication systems and networks taking into account providing of integrity of informative resource.

Sleep Benefits Memory for Semantic Category Structure While Preserving Exemplar-Specific Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Schapiro, Anna C; McDevitt, Elizabeth A; Chen, Lang; Norman, Kenneth A; Mednick, Sara C; Rogers, Timothy T

2017-11-01

Semantic memory encompasses knowledge about both the properties that typify concepts (e.g. robins, like all birds, have wings) as well as the properties that individuate conceptually related items (e.g. robins, in particular, have red breasts). We investigate the impact of sleep on new semantic learning using a property inference task in which both kinds of information are initially acquired equally well. Participants learned about three categories of novel objects possessing some properties that were shared among category exemplars and others that were unique to an exemplar, with exposure frequency varying across categories. In Experiment 1, memory for shared properties improved and memory for unique properties was preserved across a night of sleep, while memory for both feature types declined over a day awake. In Experiment 2, memory for shared properties improved across a nap, but only for the lower-frequency category, suggesting a prioritization of weakly learned information early in a sleep period. The increase was significantly correlated with amount of REM, but was also observed in participants who did not enter REM, suggesting involvement of both REM and NREM sleep. The results provide the first evidence that sleep improves memory for the shared structure of object categories, while simultaneously preserving object-unique information.

A study on organizational culture, structure and information technology as three KM enablers: A case study in five Iranian medical and healthcare research centers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahdi Iran-nejad-parizi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigates organizational structure, culture, and information technology as knowledge management (KM infrastructural capabilities, and compares their significance and status quo in five medical research centers in Tehran, Iran. Objectives of this research were pursued by employing two statistical methods, regression analysis and Friedman test. Included in the study were 135 people (researchers and support staff from five medical and healthcare research centers of Tehran. A survey questionnaire including 23 questions was utilized to examine organizational structure, culture and information technology indicators. And another 12 questions examined KM effectiveness. The Friedman test indicated that in terms of their status quo, the three studied KM enablers are at different conditions, with organizational culture having the best (mean rank=1.79 and IT the worst (mean rank=2.14 status. Moreover, it was revealed by regression analysis that organizational structure is believed to have the most significant impact (Beta= 0.397 on the effectiveness of knowledge management initiatives, while information technology gained the least perceived impact (Beta= 0.176.

The Generalization of Mutual Information as the Information between a Set of Variables: The Information Correlation Function Hierarchy and the Information Structure of Multi-Agent Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, David R.

2004-01-01

The topic of this paper is a hierarchy of information-like functions, here named the information correlation functions, where each function of the hierarchy may be thought of as the information between the variables it depends upon. The information correlation functions are particularly suited to the description of the emergence of complex behaviors due to many- body or many-agent processes. They are particularly well suited to the quantification of the decomposition of the information carried among a set of variables or agents, and its subsets. In more graphical language, they provide the information theoretic basis for understanding the synergistic and non-synergistic components of a system, and as such should serve as a forceful toolkit for the analysis of the complexity structure of complex many agent systems. The information correlation functions are the natural generalization to an arbitrary number of sets of variables of the sequence starting with the entropy function (one set of variables) and the mutual information function (two sets). We start by describing the traditional measures of information (entropy) and mutual information.

Evaluating the impact of investments in information technology on structural inertia in health organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bewley, Lee W

2010-01-01

Structural inertia is the overall capacity of an organization to adapt within a market environment. This paper reviews the impact of healthcare investments in information management/information technology (IM/IT) on the strategic management concept of structural inertia. Research indicates that healthcare executives should consider the relative state of structural inertia for their firms and match them with potential IM/IT solutions. Additionally, organizations should favorably consider IM/IT solutions that are comparatively less complex.

How Investor Structure Influences the Yield, Information Dissemination Efficiency, and Liquidity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongli Che

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This essay focuses on the investor structure of the stock index futures market and uses agent-based computational finance method to discuss how the volume-synchronized probability of informed trading (VPIN affects market absolute yield, information dissemination efficiency, and liquidity with different ratios of informed traders in the market. The result shows that the higher the proportion of informed traders is, the more the volatility of the market is. Furthermore, the result indicates that when the proportion of informed traders in the stock index futures market accounts for 1/3-1/2, the transparency and liquidity of the market will be better.

Automated extraction of chemical structure information from digital raster images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shedden Kerby A

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background To search for chemical structures in research articles, diagrams or text representing molecules need to be translated to a standard chemical file format compatible with cheminformatic search engines. Nevertheless, chemical information contained in research articles is often referenced as analog diagrams of chemical structures embedded in digital raster images. To automate analog-to-digital conversion of chemical structure diagrams in scientific research articles, several software systems have been developed. But their algorithmic performance and utility in cheminformatic research have not been investigated. Results This paper aims to provide critical reviews for these systems and also report our recent development of ChemReader – a fully automated tool for extracting chemical structure diagrams in research articles and converting them into standard, searchable chemical file formats. Basic algorithms for recognizing lines and letters representing bonds and atoms in chemical structure diagrams can be independently run in sequence from a graphical user interface-and the algorithm parameters can be readily changed-to facilitate additional development specifically tailored to a chemical database annotation scheme. Compared with existing software programs such as OSRA, Kekule, and CLiDE, our results indicate that ChemReader outperforms other software systems on several sets of sample images from diverse sources in terms of the rate of correct outputs and the accuracy on extracting molecular substructure patterns. Conclusion The availability of ChemReader as a cheminformatic tool for extracting chemical structure information from digital raster images allows research and development groups to enrich their chemical structure databases by annotating the entries with published research articles. Based on its stable performance and high accuracy, ChemReader may be sufficiently accurate for annotating the chemical database with links

Physiological significance, structure and isolation of α-lactalbumin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarina Lisak Jakopović

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Along with the constant increase in the cheese milk production, the world whey production is increasing constantly too (>2 % per year. The excellent nutritional properties attributed to whey are mainly conditioned by the presence of highly valuable proteins with wide range of biological and functional properties. The main whey proteins are β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg and α-lactalbumin (α-La which are extensively used in functional foods and beverages, infant formulas, sport diets, but are a very good source of bioactive peptides too. Along with casein, β-Lg is most commonly made responsible for causing food allergies, especially in infants whose digestion system isn’t completely developed. Hence, there is a great interest for removing β-Lg prior to whey utilization in certain products. At the same time α-La was recognized as the nutritionally most valuable protein and might be regarded as an ideal ingredient for infant formulas. Thus, the aim of the present paper was to give an overview of the currently available methods for α-La isolation, and to highlight their advantages and disadvantages as well. Also, this paper reviews the most recent insights related to the structure and physiological significance of α-La.

"Information in Context": Co-Designing Workplace Structures and Systems for Organizational Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Somerville, Mary M.; Howard, Zaana

2010-01-01

Introduction: This paper discusses an "information in context" design project at Auraria Library in Denver, Colorado which aims to collaboratively create organizational structures and communication systems with and for library employees. Method: This action research project is founded within shared leadership, informed learning and…

Encoding information into precipitation structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martens, Kirsten; Bena, Ioana; Droz, Michel; Rácz, Zoltan

2008-01-01

Material design at submicron scales would be profoundly affected if the formation of precipitation patterns could be easily controlled. It would allow the direct building of bulk structures, in contrast to traditional techniques which consist of removing material in order to create patterns. Here, we discuss an extension of our recent proposal of using electrical currents to control precipitation bands which emerge in the wake of reaction fronts in A + + B – → C reaction–diffusion processes. Our main result, based on simulating the reaction–diffusion–precipitation equations, is that the dynamics of the charged agents can be guided by an appropriately designed time-dependent electric current so that, in addition to the control of the band spacing, the width of the precipitation bands can also be tuned. This makes straightforward the encoding of information into precipitation patterns and, as an amusing example, we demonstrate the feasibility by showing how to encode a musical rhythm

Full information estimations of a system of simultaneous equations with error component structure

OpenAIRE

Balestra, Pietro; Krishnakumar, Jaya

1987-01-01

In this paper we develop full information methods for estimating the parameters of a system of simultaneous equations with error component struc-ture and establish relationships between the various structural estimat

An information offering system for operation support based on plant functional structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohga, Yukiharu; Seki, Hiroshi

1995-01-01

A plant information offering system was proposed to support operators in their selection and confirmation of the required information for plant operation under transient conditions in nuclear power plants. The system features include an automatic selection method for information and a dialog input method. The former selects plant information in response to plant status changes and operators' demands. The selection is performed based on the knowledge and data as structured by the plant functional structure; i.e. a means-ends abstraction hierarchy model. In the latter, both speech and CRT touch inputs are transformed into words in Japanese to realize an arbitrary input mode combination. The words are analyzed as a sentence before transforming them into a demand for related programs. A prototype system was evaluated using a BWR simulator, assuming abnormal transients such as loss of feedwater. The contents of the offered information were checked based on emergency operation guidelines. It was confirmed that appropriate information items are automatically selected in real time. Answers are generated in reply to the operators' demands. They include information added to reflect the plant conditions. As for dialog, simple and quick input is realized by combining speech and CRT touch according to the operating situation. (author)

Reconstructing Information in Large-Scale Structure via Logarithmic Mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Szapudi, Istvan

We propose to develop a new method to extract information from large-scale structure data combining two-point statistics and non-linear transformations; before, this information was available only with substantially more complex higher-order statistical methods. Initially, most of the cosmological information in large-scale structure lies in two-point statistics. With non- linear evolution, some of that useful information leaks into higher-order statistics. The PI and group has shown in a series of theoretical investigations how that leakage occurs, and explained the Fisher information plateau at smaller scales. This plateau means that even as more modes are added to the measurement of the power spectrum, the total cumulative information (loosely speaking the inverse errorbar) is not increasing. Recently we have shown in Neyrinck et al. (2009, 2010) that a logarithmic (and a related Gaussianization or Box-Cox) transformation on the non-linear Dark Matter or galaxy field reconstructs a surprisingly large fraction of this missing Fisher information of the initial conditions. This was predicted by the earlier wave mechanical formulation of gravitational dynamics by Szapudi & Kaiser (2003). The present proposal is focused on working out the theoretical underpinning of the method to a point that it can be used in practice to analyze data. In particular, one needs to deal with the usual real-life issues of galaxy surveys, such as complex geometry, discrete sam- pling (Poisson or sub-Poisson noise), bias (linear, or non-linear, deterministic, or stochastic), redshift distortions, pro jection effects for 2D samples, and the effects of photometric redshift errors. We will develop methods for weak lensing and Sunyaev-Zeldovich power spectra as well, the latter specifically targetting Planck. In addition, we plan to investigate the question of residual higher- order information after the non-linear mapping, and possible applications for cosmology. Our aim will be to work out

75 FR 68809 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Importation Bond Structure

Science.gov (United States)

2010-11-09

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs And Border Protection Agency Information Collection Activities: Importation Bond Structure AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland... collection: 1651-0050. SUMMARY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland...

Structural insight of dopamine β-hydroxylase, a drug target for complex traits, and functional significance of exonic single nucleotide polymorphisms.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abhijeet Kapoor

Full Text Available Human dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH is an important therapeutic target for complex traits. Several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs have also been identified in DBH with potential adverse physiological effect. However, difficulty in obtaining diffractable crystals and lack of a suitable template for modeling the protein has ensured that neither crystallographic three-dimensional structure nor computational model for the enzyme is available to aid rational drug design, prediction of functional significance of SNPs or analytical protein engineering.Adequate biochemical information regarding human DBH, structural coordinates for peptidylglycine alpha-hydroxylating monooxygenase and computational data from a partial model of rat DBH were used along with logical manual intervention in a novel way to build an in silico model of human DBH. The model provides structural insight into the active site, metal coordination, subunit interface, substrate recognition and inhibitor binding. It reveals that DOMON domain potentially promotes tetramerization, while substrate dopamine and a potential therapeutic inhibitor nepicastat are stabilized in the active site through multiple hydrogen bonding. Functional significance of several exonic SNPs could be described from a structural analysis of the model. The model confirms that SNP resulting in Ala318Ser or Leu317Pro mutation may not influence enzyme activity, while Gly482Arg might actually do so being in the proximity of the active site. Arg549Cys may cause abnormal oligomerization through non-native disulfide bond formation. Other SNPs like Glu181, Glu250, Lys239 and Asp290 could potentially inhibit tetramerization thus affecting function.The first three-dimensional model of full-length human DBH protein was obtained in a novel manner with a set of experimental data as guideline for consistency of in silico prediction. Preliminary physicochemical tests validated the model. The model confirms, rationalizes and

Structural insight of dopamine β-hydroxylase, a drug target for complex traits, and functional significance of exonic single nucleotide polymorphisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Kapoor, Abhijeet; Shandilya, Manish; Kundu, Suman

2011-01-01

Human dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH) is an important therapeutic target for complex traits. Several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have also been identified in DBH with potential adverse physiological effect. However, difficulty in obtaining diffractable crystals and lack of a suitable template for modeling the protein has ensured that neither crystallographic three-dimensional structure nor computational model for the enzyme is available to aid rational drug design, prediction of functional significance of SNPs or analytical protein engineering. Adequate biochemical information regarding human DBH, structural coordinates for peptidylglycine alpha-hydroxylating monooxygenase and computational data from a partial model of rat DBH were used along with logical manual intervention in a novel way to build an in silico model of human DBH. The model provides structural insight into the active site, metal coordination, subunit interface, substrate recognition and inhibitor binding. It reveals that DOMON domain potentially promotes tetramerization, while substrate dopamine and a potential therapeutic inhibitor nepicastat are stabilized in the active site through multiple hydrogen bonding. Functional significance of several exonic SNPs could be described from a structural analysis of the model. The model confirms that SNP resulting in Ala318Ser or Leu317Pro mutation may not influence enzyme activity, while Gly482Arg might actually do so being in the proximity of the active site. Arg549Cys may cause abnormal oligomerization through non-native disulfide bond formation. Other SNPs like Glu181, Glu250, Lys239 and Asp290 could potentially inhibit tetramerization thus affecting function. The first three-dimensional model of full-length human DBH protein was obtained in a novel manner with a set of experimental data as guideline for consistency of in silico prediction. Preliminary physicochemical tests validated the model. The model confirms, rationalizes and provides

Systematizing Web Search through a Meta-Cognitive, Systems-Based, Information Structuring Model (McSIS)

Science.gov (United States)

Abuhamdieh, Ayman H.; Harder, Joseph T.

2015-01-01

This paper proposes a meta-cognitive, systems-based, information structuring model (McSIS) to systematize online information search behavior based on literature review of information-seeking models. The General Systems Theory's (GST) prepositions serve as its framework. Factors influencing information-seekers, such as the individual learning…

Computer Simulation of Atoms Nuclei Structure Using Information Coefficients of Proportionality

OpenAIRE

Labushev, Mikhail M.

2012-01-01

The latest research of the proportionality of atomic weights of chemical elements made it possible to obtain 3 x 3 matrices for the calculation of information coefficients of proportionality Ip that can be used for 3D modeling of the structure of atom nucleus. The results of computer simulation show high potential of nucleus structure research for the characterization of their chemical and physical properties.

HemeBIND: a novel method for heme binding residue prediction by combining structural and sequence information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hu Jianjun

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Accurate prediction of binding residues involved in the interactions between proteins and small ligands is one of the major challenges in structural bioinformatics. Heme is an essential and commonly used ligand that plays critical roles in electron transfer, catalysis, signal transduction and gene expression. Although much effort has been devoted to the development of various generic algorithms for ligand binding site prediction over the last decade, no algorithm has been specifically designed to complement experimental techniques for identification of heme binding residues. Consequently, an urgent need is to develop a computational method for recognizing these important residues. Results Here we introduced an efficient algorithm HemeBIND for predicting heme binding residues by integrating structural and sequence information. We systematically investigated the characteristics of binding interfaces based on a non-redundant dataset of heme-protein complexes. It was found that several sequence and structural attributes such as evolutionary conservation, solvent accessibility, depth and protrusion clearly illustrate the differences between heme binding and non-binding residues. These features can then be separately used or combined to build the structure-based classifiers using support vector machine (SVM. The results showed that the information contained in these features is largely complementary and their combination achieved the best performance. To further improve the performance, an attempt has been made to develop a post-processing procedure to reduce the number of false positives. In addition, we built a sequence-based classifier based on SVM and sequence profile as an alternative when only sequence information can be used. Finally, we employed a voting method to combine the outputs of structure-based and sequence-based classifiers, which demonstrated remarkably better performance than the individual classifier alone

The Protein Model Portal--a comprehensive resource for protein structure and model information.

Science.gov (United States)

Haas, Juergen; Roth, Steven; Arnold, Konstantin; Kiefer, Florian; Schmidt, Tobias; Bordoli, Lorenza; Schwede, Torsten

2013-01-01

The Protein Model Portal (PMP) has been developed to foster effective use of 3D molecular models in biomedical research by providing convenient and comprehensive access to structural information for proteins. Both experimental structures and theoretical models for a given protein can be searched simultaneously and analyzed for structural variability. By providing a comprehensive view on structural information, PMP offers the opportunity to apply consistent assessment and validation criteria to the complete set of structural models available for proteins. PMP is an open project so that new methods developed by the community can contribute to PMP, for example, new modeling servers for creating homology models and model quality estimation servers for model validation. The accuracy of participating modeling servers is continuously evaluated by the Continuous Automated Model EvaluatiOn (CAMEO) project. The PMP offers a unique interface to visualize structural coverage of a protein combining both theoretical models and experimental structures, allowing straightforward assessment of the model quality and hence their utility. The portal is updated regularly and actively developed to include latest methods in the field of computational structural biology. Database URL: http://www.proteinmodelportal.org.

The Protein Model Portal—a comprehensive resource for protein structure and model information

Science.gov (United States)

Haas, Juergen; Roth, Steven; Arnold, Konstantin; Kiefer, Florian; Schmidt, Tobias; Bordoli, Lorenza; Schwede, Torsten

2013-01-01

The Protein Model Portal (PMP) has been developed to foster effective use of 3D molecular models in biomedical research by providing convenient and comprehensive access to structural information for proteins. Both experimental structures and theoretical models for a given protein can be searched simultaneously and analyzed for structural variability. By providing a comprehensive view on structural information, PMP offers the opportunity to apply consistent assessment and validation criteria to the complete set of structural models available for proteins. PMP is an open project so that new methods developed by the community can contribute to PMP, for example, new modeling servers for creating homology models and model quality estimation servers for model validation. The accuracy of participating modeling servers is continuously evaluated by the Continuous Automated Model EvaluatiOn (CAMEO) project. The PMP offers a unique interface to visualize structural coverage of a protein combining both theoretical models and experimental structures, allowing straightforward assessment of the model quality and hence their utility. The portal is updated regularly and actively developed to include latest methods in the field of computational structural biology. Database URL: http://www.proteinmodelportal.org PMID:23624946

Significance and influence of information in the field of nuclear engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bree, R.

1975-01-01

Discussed in brief are: 1) Basic features of nuclear information, 2) dissemination of information (NSA), 3) development and the state of international cooperation in this field (ENDS-EURATOM, INIS), 4) restrictive measures concerning the flow of information (holding back knowledge on purpose, inefficiency and lack of computers), 5) proposals for improving the information supply, 6) dissemination of information via ZAED in the FRG. (HP/LN) [de

PROGRAM SYSTEM AND INFORMATION METADATA BANK OF TERTIARY PROTEIN STRUCTURES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. A. Nikitin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the architecture of metadata storage model for check results of three-dimensional protein structures. Concept database model was built. The service and procedure of database update as well as data transformation algorithms for protein structures and their quality were presented. Most important information about entries and their submission forms to store, access, and delivery to users were highlighted. Software suite was developed for the implementation of functional tasks using Java programming language in the NetBeans v.7.0 environment and JQL to query and interact with the database JavaDB. The service was tested and results have shown system effectiveness while protein structures filtration.

Deriving Structural Information from Experimentally Measured Data on Biomolecules.

Science.gov (United States)

van Gunsteren, Wilfred F; Allison, Jane R; Daura, Xavier; Dolenc, Jožica; Hansen, Niels; Mark, Alan E; Oostenbrink, Chris; Rusu, Victor H; Smith, Lorna J

2016-12-23

During the past half century, the number and accuracy of experimental techniques that can deliver values of observables for biomolecular systems have been steadily increasing. The conversion of a measured value Q exp of an observable quantity Q into structural information is, however, a task beset with theoretical and practical problems: 1) insufficient or inaccurate values of Q exp , 2) inaccuracies in the function Q(r→) used to relate the quantity Q to structure r→ , 3) how to account for the averaging inherent in the measurement of Q exp , 4) how to handle the possible multiple-valuedness of the inverse r→(Q) of the function Q(r→) , to mention a few. These apply to a variety of observable quantities Q and measurement techniques such as X-ray and neutron diffraction, small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering, free-electron laser imaging, cryo-electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance, infrared and Raman spectroscopy, circular dichroism, Förster resonance energy transfer, atomic force microscopy and ion-mobility mass spectrometry. The process of deriving structural information from measured data is reviewed with an eye to non-experts and newcomers in the field using examples from the literature of the effect of the various choices and approximations involved in the process. A list of choices to be avoided is provided. © 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Resistance and Security Index of Networks: Structural Information Perspective of Network Security.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Angsheng; Hu, Qifu; Liu, Jun; Pan, Yicheng

2016-06-03

Recently, Li and Pan defined the metric of the K-dimensional structure entropy of a structured noisy dataset G to be the information that controls the formation of the K-dimensional structure of G that is evolved by the rules, order and laws of G, excluding the random variations that occur in G. Here, we propose the notion of resistance of networks based on the one- and two-dimensional structural information of graphs. Given a graph G, we define the resistance of G, written , as the greatest overall number of bits required to determine the code of the module that is accessible via random walks with stationary distribution in G, from which the random walks cannot escape. We show that the resistance of networks follows the resistance law of networks, that is, for a network G, the resistance of G is , where and are the one- and two-dimensional structure entropies of G, respectively. Based on the resistance law, we define the security index of a network G to be the normalised resistance of G, that is, . We show that the resistance and security index are both well-defined measures for the security of the networks.

Resistance and Security Index of Networks: Structural Information Perspective of Network Security

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Angsheng; Hu, Qifu; Liu, Jun; Pan, Yicheng

2016-01-01

Recently, Li and Pan defined the metric of the K-dimensional structure entropy of a structured noisy dataset G to be the information that controls the formation of the K-dimensional structure of G that is evolved by the rules, order and laws of G, excluding the random variations that occur in G. Here, we propose the notion of resistance of networks based on the one- and two-dimensional structural information of graphs. Given a graph G, we define the resistance of G, written , as the greatest overall number of bits required to determine the code of the module that is accessible via random walks with stationary distribution in G, from which the random walks cannot escape. We show that the resistance of networks follows the resistance law of networks, that is, for a network G, the resistance of G is , where and are the one- and two-dimensional structure entropies of G, respectively. Based on the resistance law, we define the security index of a network G to be the normalised resistance of G, that is, . We show that the resistance and security index are both well-defined measures for the security of the networks. PMID:27255783

Resistance and Security Index of Networks: Structural Information Perspective of Network Security

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Angsheng; Hu, Qifu; Liu, Jun; Pan, Yicheng

2016-06-01

Recently, Li and Pan defined the metric of the K-dimensional structure entropy of a structured noisy dataset G to be the information that controls the formation of the K-dimensional structure of G that is evolved by the rules, order and laws of G, excluding the random variations that occur in G. Here, we propose the notion of resistance of networks based on the one- and two-dimensional structural information of graphs. Given a graph G, we define the resistance of G, written , as the greatest overall number of bits required to determine the code of the module that is accessible via random walks with stationary distribution in G, from which the random walks cannot escape. We show that the resistance of networks follows the resistance law of networks, that is, for a network G, the resistance of G is , where and are the one- and two-dimensional structure entropies of G, respectively. Based on the resistance law, we define the security index of a network G to be the normalised resistance of G, that is, . We show that the resistance and security index are both well-defined measures for the security of the networks.

Information structure and reference tracking in complex sentences

CERN Document Server

Gijn, Rik van; Matic, Dejan

2014-01-01

This paper discusses argument marking and reference tracking in Mekens complex clauses and their correlation to information structure. The distribution of pronominal arguments in Mekens simple clauses follows an absolutive pattern with main verbs. Complex clauses maintain the morphological absolutive argument marking, but show a nominative pattern with respect to argument reference tracking, since transitive and intransitive subjects function as syntactic pivots. The language extends the use of argument-marking verb morphology to control the reference of discourse participants across clauses.

Performance evaluation recommendations of nuclear power plants outdoor significant civil structures earthquake resistance. Technical documentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-06-01

The Japan Society of Civil Engineers has updated performance evaluation recommendations of nuclear power plants outdoor significant civil structures earthquake resistance in June 2005. Experimental and analytical considerations on the seismic effects evaluation criteria, such as analytical seismic models of soils for underground structures, effects of vertical motions on time-history dynamic analysis and shear fracture of reinforced concretes by cyclic loadings, were shown in this document and incorporated in new recommendations. (T. Tanaka)

Tumor-Associated Macrophages Provide Significant Prognostic Information in Urothelial Bladder Cancer.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Minna M Boström

Full Text Available Inflammation is an important feature of carcinogenesis. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs can be associated with either poor or improved prognosis, depending on their properties and polarization. Current knowledge of the prognostic significance of TAMs in bladder cancer is limited and was investigated in this study. We analyzed 184 urothelial bladder cancer patients undergoing transurethral resection of a bladder tumor or radical cystectomy. CD68 (pan-macrophage marker, MAC387 (polarized towards type 1 macrophages, and CLEVER-1/Stabilin-1 (type 2 macrophages and lymphatic/blood vessels were detected immunohistochemically. The median follow-up time was 6.0 years. High macrophage counts associated with a higher pT category and grade. Among patients undergoing transurethral resection, all studied markers apart from CLEVER-1/Stabilin-1 were associated with increased risk of progression and poorer disease-specific and overall survival in univariate analyses. High levels of two macrophage markers (CD68/MAC387+/+ or CD68/CLEVER-1+/+ groups had an independent prognostic role after transurethral resection in multivariate analyses. In the cystectomy cohort, MAC387, alone and in combination with CD68, was associated with poorer survival in univariate analyses, but none of the markers were independent predictors of outcome in multivariate analyses. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that macrophage phenotypes provide significant independent prognostic information, particularly in bladder cancers undergoing transurethral resection.

Value of information: A roadmap to quantifying the benefit of structural health monitoring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Straub, D.; Chatzi, E.; Bismut, E.

2017-01-01

The concept of value of information (VoI) enables quantification of the benefits provided by structural health monitoring (SHM) systems – in principle. Its implementation is challenging, as it requires an explicit modelling of the structural system’s life cycle, in particular of the decisions...... that are taken based on the SHM information. In this paper, we approach the VoI analysis through an influence diagram (ID), which supports the modelling process. We provide a simple example for illustration and discuss challenges associated with real-life implementation....

Structured information analysis for human reliability analysis of emergency tasks in nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jung, Won Dea; Kim, Jae Whan; Park, Jin Kyun; Ha, Jae Joo [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejeon (Korea)

2000-02-01

More than twenty HRA (Human Reliability Analysis) methodologies have been developed and used for the safety analysis in nuclear field during the past two decades. However, no methodology appears to have universally been accepted, as various limitations have been raised for more widely used ones. One of the most important limitations of conventional HRA is insufficient analysis of the task structure and problem space. To resolve this problem, we suggest SIA (Structured Information Analysis) for HRA. The proposed SIA consists of three parts. The first part is the scenario analysis that investigates the contextual information related to the given task on the basis of selected scenarios. The second is the goals-means analysis to define the relations between the cognitive goal and task steps. The third is the cognitive function analysis module that identifies the cognitive patterns and information flows involved in the task. Through the three-part analysis, systematic investigation is made possible from the macroscopic information on the tasks to the microscopic information on the specific cognitive processes. It is expected that analysts can attain a structured set of information that helps to predict the types and possibility of human error in the given task. 48 refs., 12 figs., 11 tabs. (Author)

Performance evaluation recommendations of nuclear power plants outdoor significant civil structures earthquake resistance. Performance evaluation examples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-06-01

The Japan Society of Civil Engineers has updated performance evaluation recommendations of nuclear power plants outdoor significant civil structures earthquake resistance in June 2005. Based on experimental and analytical considerations, analytical seismic models of soils for underground structures, effects of vertical motions on time-history dynamic analysis and shear fracture of reinforced concretes by cyclic loadings have been incorporated in new recommendations. This document shows outdoor civil structures earthquake resistance and endurance performance evaluation examples based on revised recommendations. (T. Tanaka)

11Li structural information from inclusive break-up measurements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernández-García J. P.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Structure information of 11Li halo nucleus has been obtained from the inclusive break-up measurements of the 11Li+208Pb reactions at energies around the Coulomb barrier (Elab = 24.3 and 29.8 MeV. The effective break-up energy and the slope of B(E1 distribution close to the threshold have been extracted from the experimental data.

Matrix structure for information-driven polarimeter design

Science.gov (United States)

Alenin, Andrey S.

Estimating the polarization of light has been shown to have merit in a wide variety of applications between UV and LWIR wavelengths. These tasks include target identification, estimation of atmospheric aerosol properties, biomedical and other applications. In all of these applications, polarization sensing has been shown to assist in discrimination ability; however, due to the nature of many phenomena, it is difficult to add polarization sensing everywhere. The goal of this dissertation is to decrease the associated penalties of using polarimetry, and thereby broaden its applicability to other areas. First, the class of channeled polarimeter systems is generalized to relate the Fourier domains of applied modulations to the resulting information channels. The quality of reconstruction is maximized by virtue of using linear system manipulations rather than arithmetic derived by hand, while revealing system properties that allow for immediate performance estimation. Besides identifying optimal systems in terms of equally weighted variance (EWV), a way to redistribute the error between all the information channels is presented. The result of this development often leads to superficial changes that can improve signal-to-noise-ration (SNR) by up to a factor of three compared to existing designs in the literature. Second, the class of partial Mueller maitrx polarimeters (pMMPs) is inspected in regards to their capacity to match the level of discrimination performance achieved by full systems. The concepts of structured decomposition and the reconstructables matrix are developed to provide insight into Mueller subspace coverage of pMMPs, while yielding a pMMP basis that allows the formation of ten classes of pMMP systems. A method for evaluating such systems while considering a multi-objective optimization of noise resilience and space coverage is provided. An example is presented for which the number of measurements was reduced to half. Third, the novel developments

Performance evaluation recommendations and manuals of nuclear power plants outdoor significant civil structures earthquake resistance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-06-01

Performance evaluation recommendations and manuals of nuclear power plants outdoor significant civil structures earthquake resistance have been updated in June 2005 by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers. Based on experimental and analytical considerations on the recommendations of May 2002, analytical seismic models of soils for underground structures, effects of vertical motions on time-history dynamic analysis and shear fracture of reinforced concretes by cyclic loadings have been evaluated and incorporated in new recommendations. (T. Tanaka)

The Transparency of Reporting Information as a Guarantee to the Sustainable Development of Corporate Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivchenko Viktoriia V.

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In the article, the author substantiates the view that one of the problematic aspects of the modern corporate reporting model is its low transparency, imperfection of the methods for generating indicators, which in turn does not allow for a comprehensive analysis of the activity of corporate structure. As a possible variant to improve the existing reporting model, it has been suggested to consider the basic concepts of sustainable development when disclosing information. In this context, corporate structures should also disclose the social and environmental aspects for a wide range of users – stakeholders. In the process of research, direct correlation between the transparency of banking information and the achievement of sustainable development has been substantiated; cautions regarding the asymmetry in information of banking institutions have been considered. Directions for further scientific research could be a study on the two-way communication system between the corporate structure and users of information; developing an integrated system of assessments of transparency and its impact on the sustainable development of corporate structure.

Investigating the Effect of New Communication and Information Technologies on Organizational Structure and Firm Performance in Service Industry: a Survey of Consultant Engineering Firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ali akbar Farghangi

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This study aims to investigate the current and desired situation of information and communication technologies (ICT, organizational structure and firm performance in Consultant Engineering Firms. To do so, a descriptive-exploratory study was performed among 252 managers and experts of consultant engineering firms in Tehran. A cluster sampling approach was used bya self-administrated questionnaire. Reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s coefficient. Using one sample t-test, paired sample t-test and regression analysis, results indicated that 1 current and desired situation of ICT, organizational structure and firm performance are acceptable, 2 there is significant difference between current and desired situation of ICT, organizational structure and firm performance, 3 ICT has a positive and significant effect on organizational structure and firm performance

Stochastic and information-thermodynamic structures of population dynamics in a fluctuating environment

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Tetsuya J.; Sughiyama, Yuki

2017-07-01

Adaptation in a fluctuating environment is a process of fueling environmental information to gain fitness. Living systems have gradually developed strategies for adaptation from random and passive diversification of the phenotype to more proactive decision making, in which environmental information is sensed and exploited more actively and effectively. Understanding the fundamental relation between fitness and information is therefore crucial to clarify the limits and universal properties of adaptation. In this work, we elucidate the underlying stochastic and information-thermodynamic structure in this process, by deriving causal fluctuation relations (FRs) of fitness and information. Combined with a duality between phenotypic and environmental dynamics, the FRs reveal the limit of fitness gain, the relation of time reversibility with the achievability of the limit, and the possibility and condition for gaining excess fitness due to environmental fluctuation. The loss of fitness due to causal constraints and the limited capacity of real organisms is shown to be the difference between time-forward and time-backward path probabilities of phenotypic and environmental dynamics. Furthermore, the FRs generalize the concept of the evolutionary stable state (ESS) for fluctuating environment by giving the probability that the optimal strategy on average can be invaded by a suboptimal one owing to rare environmental fluctuation. These results clarify the information-thermodynamic structures in adaptation and evolution.

Cross-Sectional Information on Pore Structure and Element Distribution of Sediment Particles by SEM and EDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Minghong Chen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The interaction between pollutants and sediment particles often occurs on the particle surface, so surface properties directly affect surface reaction. The physical and chemical processes occurring on sediment particle surfaces are microscopic processes and as such need to be studied from a microscopic perspective. In this study, field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS were adopted to observe and analyze the pore structure and element distribution of sediment particles. In particular, a special method of sample preparation was used to achieve the corresponding cross-sectional information of sediment particles. Clear images of a particle profile and pore microstructure were obtained by high-resolution SEM, while element distribution maps of sediment particles were obtained by EDS. The results provide an intuitive understanding of the internal microenvironment and external behavior of sediment particles, in addition to revealing a significant role of pore microstructure in the adsorption and desorption of pollutants. Thus, a combination of different experimental instruments and observation methods can provide real images and information on microscopic pore structure and element distribution of sediment particles. These results should help to improve our understanding of sediment dynamics and its environmental effects.

Review of "Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine."

Science.gov (United States)

Smoliar, Stephen W.

This review of the book, "Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine," by John F. Sowa, argues that anyone who plans to get involved with issues of knowledge representation should have at least a passing acquaintance with Sowa's conceptual graphs for a database interface. (Used to model the underlying semantics of…

Information and Informality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsson, Magnus; Segerstéen, Solveig; Svensson, Cathrin

2011-01-01

leaders on the basis of their possession of reliable knowledge in technical as well as organizational domains. The informal leaders engaged in interpretation and brokering of information and knowledge, as well as in mediating strategic values and priorities on both formal and informal arenas. Informal...... leaders were thus seen to function on the level of the organization as a whole, and in cooperation with formal leaders. Drawing on existing theory of leadership in creative and professional contexts, this cooperation can be specified to concern task structuring. The informal leaders in our study...... contributed to task structuring through sensemaking activities, while formal leaders focused on aspects such as clarifying output expectations, providing feedback, project structure, and diversity....

Information transfer and information modification to identify the structure of cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Faes, Luca; Nollo, Giandomenico; Krohova, Jana; Czippelova, Barbora; Turianikova, Zuzana; Javorka, Michal

2017-07-01

To fully elucidate the complex physiological mechanisms underlying the short-term autonomic regulation of heart period (H), systolic and diastolic arterial pressure (S, D) and respiratory (R) variability, the joint dynamics of these variables need to be explored using multivariate time series analysis. This study proposes the utilization of information-theoretic measures to measure causal interactions between nodes of the cardiovascular/cardiorespiratory network and to assess the nature (synergistic or redundant) of these directed interactions. Indexes of information transfer and information modification are extracted from the H, S, D and R series measured from healthy subjects in a resting state and during postural stress. Computations are performed in the framework of multivariate linear regression, using bootstrap techniques to assess on a single-subject basis the statistical significance of each measure and of its transitions across conditions. We find patterns of information transfer and modification which are related to specific cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory mechanisms in resting conditions and to their modification induced by the orthostatic stress.

Structural and functional significance of water permeation through cotransporters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zeuthen, Thomas; Gorraitz, Edurne; Her, Ka

2016-01-01

Membrane transporters, in addition to their major role as specific carriers for ions and small molecules, can also behave as water channels. However, neither the location of the water pathway in the protein nor their functional importance is known. Here, we map the pathway for water and urea...... through the intestinal sodium/glucose cotransporter SGLT1. Molecular dynamics simulations using the atomic structure of the bacterial transporter vSGLT suggest that water permeates the same path as Na+ and sugar. On a structural model of SGLT1, based on the homology structure of vSGLT, we identified...... to be due to alterations in steric hindrance to water and urea, and/or changes in protein folding caused by mismatching of side chains in the water pathway. Water permeation through SGLT1 and other transporters bears directly on the structural mechanism for the transport of polar solutes through...

Significance of Alkali-Silica reaction in nuclear safety-related concrete structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Pape, Y.; Field, K.G.; Mattus, C.H.; Naus, D.J.; Busby, J.T.; Saouma, V.; Ma, Z.J.; Cabage, J.V.; Guimaraes, M.

2015-01-01

Nuclear Power Plant license renewal up to 60 years and possible life extension beyond has established a renewed focus on long-term aging of nuclear generating stations materials, and particularly, on concrete. Large irreplaceable sections of most nuclear generating stations include concrete components. The Expanded Materials Degradation Analysis, jointly performed by the Department of Energy, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Academia and the Power Generation Industry, identified the need to develop a consistent knowledge base of alkali-silica reaction (ASR) within concrete as an urgent priority (Graves et al., 2014). ASR results in an expansion of Concrete produced by the reaction between alkali (generally from cement), reactive aggregate (like amorphous silica) and water absorption. ASR causes expansion, cracking and loss of mechanical properties. Considering that US commercial reactors in operation enter the age when ASR distress can be potentially observed and that numerous non-nuclear infrastructures (transportation, energy production) in a majority of the States have already experienced ASR-related concrete degradation, the susceptibility and significance of ASR for nuclear concrete structures must be addressed. This paper outlines an on-going research program including the investigation of the possibility of ASR in nuclear power plants, and the assessment of the residual shear bearing capacity of ASR-subjected nuclear structures. (authors)

A method for risk-informed safety significance categorization using the analytic hierarchy process and bayesian belief networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ha, Jun Su; Seong, Poong Hyun

2004-01-01

A risk-informed safety significance categorization (RISSC) is to categorize structures, systems, or components (SSCs) of a nuclear power plant (NPP) into two or more groups, according to their safety significance using both probabilistic and deterministic insights. In the conventional methods for the RISSC, the SSCs are quantitatively categorized according to their importance measures for the initial categorization. The final decisions (categorizations) of SSCs, however, are qualitatively made by an expert panel through discussions and adjustments of opinions by using the probabilistic insights compiled in the initial categorization process and combining the probabilistic insights with the deterministic insights. Therefore, owing to the qualitative and linear decision-making process, the conventional methods have the demerits as follows: (1) they are very costly in terms of time and labor, (2) it is not easy to reach the final decision, when the opinions of the experts are in conflict and (3) they have an overlapping process due to the linear paradigm (the categorization is performed twice - first, by the engineers who propose the method, and second, by the expert panel). In this work, a method for RISSC using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and bayesian belief networks (BBN) is proposed to overcome the demerits of the conventional methods and to effectively arrive at a final decision (or categorization). By using the AHP and BBN, the expert panel takes part in the early stage of the categorization (that is, the quantification process) and the safety significance based on both probabilistic and deterministic insights is quantified. According to that safety significance, SSCs are quantitatively categorized into three categories such as high safety significant category (Hi), potentially safety significant category (Po), or low safety significant category (Lo). The proposed method was applied to the components such as CC-V073, CV-V530, and SI-V644 in Ulchin Unit

A method for partitioning the information contained in a protein sequence between its structure and function.

Science.gov (United States)

Possenti, Andrea; Vendruscolo, Michele; Camilloni, Carlo; Tiana, Guido

2018-05-23

Proteins employ the information stored in the genetic code and translated into their sequences to carry out well-defined functions in the cellular environment. The possibility to encode for such functions is controlled by the balance between the amount of information supplied by the sequence and that left after that the protein has folded into its structure. We study the amount of information necessary to specify the protein structure, providing an estimate that keeps into account the thermodynamic properties of protein folding. We thus show that the information remaining in the protein sequence after encoding for its structure (the 'information gap') is very close to what needed to encode for its function and interactions. Then, by predicting the information gap directly from the protein sequence, we show that it may be possible to use these insights from information theory to discriminate between ordered and disordered proteins, to identify unknown functions, and to optimize artificially-designed protein sequences. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Communications tools in research projects to support Semi and Non Structured Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Astrid Jaime

2005-06-01

Full Text Available Innovation and thus the production of knowledge becomes a factor of competitiveness. In this context quality management could be complemented by knowledge management to aim the improvement of knowledge production by research activities process. To this end, after describing knowledge and informa-tion typologies in engineering activities, a knowledge man-agement system is proposed. The goal is to support: (1 Semi-Structured Information (e.g. reports, etc. thanks to the BASIC-Lab tool functions, which are based on attributing points of view and annotations to documents and document zones, and (2 Non-Structured Information (such as mail, dialogues, etc., thanks to MICA-Graph approach which intends to support ex-change of technical messages that concerns common resolution of research problems within project teams and to capitalise relevant knowledge. For the both approaches, prototype tools have been developed and evaluated, primarily to feed back with manufacturing knowledge in the EADS industrial envi-ronment.

A large scale analysis of information-theoretic network complexity measures using chemical structures.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthias Dehmer

Full Text Available This paper aims to investigate information-theoretic network complexity measures which have already been intensely used in mathematical- and medicinal chemistry including drug design. Numerous such measures have been developed so far but many of them lack a meaningful interpretation, e.g., we want to examine which kind of structural information they detect. Therefore, our main contribution is to shed light on the relatedness between some selected information measures for graphs by performing a large scale analysis using chemical networks. Starting from several sets containing real and synthetic chemical structures represented by graphs, we study the relatedness between a classical (partition-based complexity measure called the topological information content of a graph and some others inferred by a different paradigm leading to partition-independent measures. Moreover, we evaluate the uniqueness of network complexity measures numerically. Generally, a high uniqueness is an important and desirable property when designing novel topological descriptors having the potential to be applied to large chemical databases.

Modeling the Structure and Effectiveness of Intelligence Organizations: Dynamic Information Flow Simulation

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Behrman, Robert; Carley, Kathleen

2003-01-01

This paper describes the Dynamic Information Flow Simulation (DIFS), an abstract model for analyzing the structure and function of intelligence support organizations and the activities of entities within...

Finding the most significant common sequence and structure motifs in a set of RNA sequences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gorodkin, Jan; Heyer, L.J.; Stormo, G.D.

1997-01-01

We present a computational scheme to locally align a collection of RNA sequences using sequence and structure constraints, In addition, the method searches for the resulting alignments with the most significant common motifs, among all possible collections, The first part utilizes a simplified...

[Relationship between organisational structure and worksite health management in the information technology and communications sector].

Science.gov (United States)

Ansmann, L; Jung, J; Nitzsche, A; Pfaff, H

2012-05-01

Worksite health management (WHM) can positively influence employee health and performance. However, it has not yet been comprehensively implemented in companies. This study aims to identify the role of organisational structures in the implementation of WHM. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected on the companies' WHM and the organisational structure. Out of 522 randomly selected companies within the German information technology and communication (ITC) sector, one managing director for each company was being questioned through telephone interviews. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. The results of the study reveal that the implementation of WHM is positively correlated with a large company size (OR 2.75; 95%-CI 1.10-6.88) and with the existence of an employee representation (OR 2.48; 95%-CI 1.54-3.98). Other structural characteristics, such as the employment of a company physician, the percentage of temporary workers as well as the staff's age and sex distribution do not seem to have a significant impact on the implementation of WHM. The results indicate that the implementation of WHM can only be explained to a certain degree by organisational structures. However, the findings highlight the fact that companies with few structural resources are in particular need of tailored support when implementing WHM. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Formation of cognitive structures in conditioned-reflex behavior in monkeys: Relationship with type of visual information.

Science.gov (United States)

Dudkin, K N; Chueva, I V

2009-02-01

The characteristics of learning processes and long-term memory (LTM) were studied in rhesus macaques discriminating visual stimuli (geometrical figures of different shapes, sizes, and orientations, and with different spatial relationships between image components). Trained monkeys were tested for the ability to perform invariant recognition after stimulus transformation, i.e., changes in size, shape, number of objects, and spatial relationships. Analysis of behavioral characteristics (correct solutions, refusals to decide, motor response times) revealed differences associated with the type of visual information. When monkeys discriminated between black and white geometrical figures of different shapes and orientations, as well as black-and-white figures with different shapes or orientations, the learning time was short and transformation of the stimuli had no effect on correct solutions: there was complete transfer of learning. When monkeys discriminated figures of different sizes or complex images with different spatial relationships, the learning time was significantly greater. Changes in the size and shape of figures led to significant reductions in correct solutions and significant increases in refusals to solve the task and in motor reaction times. Invariance of discrimination in this case appeared after additional training. The results obtained here showed that in conditioned reflex learning, the sensory processing of stimuli has the result that discriminatory features are formed in LTM, i.e., cognitive structures (functional neurophysiological mechanisms), these supporting the classification of visual images. The temporal conditioned link of the executive reaction is established with these. Their formation is determined by the type of sensory information and the existence in LTM of separate subsystems for spatial and non-spatial information.

Predicting protein complexes using a supervised learning method combined with local structural information.

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Yadong; Sun, Yongqi; Qin, Chao

2018-01-01

The existing protein complex detection methods can be broadly divided into two categories: unsupervised and supervised learning methods. Most of the unsupervised learning methods assume that protein complexes are in dense regions of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks even though many true complexes are not dense subgraphs. Supervised learning methods utilize the informative properties of known complexes; they often extract features from existing complexes and then use the features to train a classification model. The trained model is used to guide the search process for new complexes. However, insufficient extracted features, noise in the PPI data and the incompleteness of complex data make the classification model imprecise. Consequently, the classification model is not sufficient for guiding the detection of complexes. Therefore, we propose a new robust score function that combines the classification model with local structural information. Based on the score function, we provide a search method that works both forwards and backwards. The results from experiments on six benchmark PPI datasets and three protein complex datasets show that our approach can achieve better performance compared with the state-of-the-art supervised, semi-supervised and unsupervised methods for protein complex detection, occasionally significantly outperforming such methods.

A cautionary note on the use of information fit indexes in covariance structure modeling with means

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wicherts, J.M.; Dolan, C.V.

2004-01-01

Information fit indexes such as Akaike Information Criterion, Consistent Akaike Information Criterion, Bayesian Information Criterion, and the expected cross validation index can be valuable in assessing the relative fit of structural equation models that differ regarding restrictiveness. In cases

Structure, context, complexity, organization: physical aspects of information and value

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Eriksson, Karl-Erik; Lindgren, Kristian; Månsson, Bengt Å

1987-01-01

... and of information theory are general enough to play such a role. The authors have been involved in studies of the handling of natural resources in human societies. There we met problems and ideas which led us to the theme of this book: a perspective and a set of concepts, useful for describing and understanding processes in which structure emerges. T...

Statistical significance of theoretical predictions: A new dimension in nuclear structure theories (I)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DUDEK, J; SZPAK, B; FORNAL, B; PORQUET, M-G

2011-01-01

In this and the follow-up article we briefly discuss what we believe represents one of the most serious problems in contemporary nuclear structure: the question of statistical significance of parametrizations of nuclear microscopic Hamiltonians and the implied predictive power of the underlying theories. In the present Part I, we introduce the main lines of reasoning of the so-called Inverse Problem Theory, an important sub-field in the contemporary Applied Mathematics, here illustrated on the example of the Nuclear Mean-Field Approach.

Reaching Agreement: The Structure & Pragmatics of Critical Care Nurses' Informal Argument

Science.gov (United States)

Hagler, Debra A.; Brem, Sarah K.

2008-01-01

The hospital critical care unit provides an authentic, high-stakes setting for studying reasoning, argumentation, and discourse. In particular, it allows examination of structural and pragmatic features of informal collaborative argument created while participants are engaged in familiar, meaningful activities central to their work. The nursing…

Networks of high mutual information define the structural proximity of catalytic sites: implications for catalytic residue identification.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Marino Buslje

Full Text Available Identification of catalytic residues (CR is essential for the characterization of enzyme function. CR are, in general, conserved and located in the functional site of a protein in order to attain their function. However, many non-catalytic residues are highly conserved and not all CR are conserved throughout a given protein family making identification of CR a challenging task. Here, we put forward the hypothesis that CR carry a particular signature defined by networks of close proximity residues with high mutual information (MI, and that this signature can be applied to distinguish functional from other non-functional conserved residues. Using a data set of 434 Pfam families included in the catalytic site atlas (CSA database, we tested this hypothesis and demonstrated that MI can complement amino acid conservation scores to detect CR. The Kullback-Leibler (KL conservation measurement was shown to significantly outperform both the Shannon entropy and maximal frequency measurements. Residues in the proximity of catalytic sites were shown to be rich in shared MI. A structural proximity MI average score (termed pMI was demonstrated to be a strong predictor for CR, thus confirming the proposed hypothesis. A structural proximity conservation average score (termed pC was also calculated and demonstrated to carry distinct information from pMI. A catalytic likeliness score (Cls, combining the KL, pC and pMI measures, was shown to lead to significantly improved prediction accuracy. At a specificity of 0.90, the Cls method was found to have a sensitivity of 0.816. In summary, we demonstrate that networks of residues with high MI provide a distinct signature on CR and propose that such a signature should be present in other classes of functional residues where the requirement to maintain a particular function places limitations on the diversification of the structural environment along the course of evolution.

Networks of high mutual information define the structural proximity of catalytic sites: implications for catalytic residue identification.

Science.gov (United States)

Marino Buslje, Cristina; Teppa, Elin; Di Doménico, Tomas; Delfino, José María; Nielsen, Morten

2010-11-04

Identification of catalytic residues (CR) is essential for the characterization of enzyme function. CR are, in general, conserved and located in the functional site of a protein in order to attain their function. However, many non-catalytic residues are highly conserved and not all CR are conserved throughout a given protein family making identification of CR a challenging task. Here, we put forward the hypothesis that CR carry a particular signature defined by networks of close proximity residues with high mutual information (MI), and that this signature can be applied to distinguish functional from other non-functional conserved residues. Using a data set of 434 Pfam families included in the catalytic site atlas (CSA) database, we tested this hypothesis and demonstrated that MI can complement amino acid conservation scores to detect CR. The Kullback-Leibler (KL) conservation measurement was shown to significantly outperform both the Shannon entropy and maximal frequency measurements. Residues in the proximity of catalytic sites were shown to be rich in shared MI. A structural proximity MI average score (termed pMI) was demonstrated to be a strong predictor for CR, thus confirming the proposed hypothesis. A structural proximity conservation average score (termed pC) was also calculated and demonstrated to carry distinct information from pMI. A catalytic likeliness score (Cls), combining the KL, pC and pMI measures, was shown to lead to significantly improved prediction accuracy. At a specificity of 0.90, the Cls method was found to have a sensitivity of 0.816. In summary, we demonstrate that networks of residues with high MI provide a distinct signature on CR and propose that such a signature should be present in other classes of functional residues where the requirement to maintain a particular function places limitations on the diversification of the structural environment along the course of evolution.

STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL MODEL OF FORMING INFORMATIONAL COMPETENCE OF TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taras Ostapchuk

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The article elaborates and analyses the structural and functional model of formation of information competence of technical university students. The system and mutual relationships between its elements are revealed. It is found out that the presence of the target structure of the proposed model, process and result-evaluative blocks ensure its functioning and the opportunity to optimize the learning process for technical school students’ information training. It is established that the formation of technical university students’ information competence based on components such as motivational value, as well as operational activity, cognitive, and reflexive one. These criteria (motivation, operational and activity, cognitive, reflective, indexes and levels (reproductive, technologized, constructive forming technical university students’ information competence are disclosed. Expediency of complex organizational and educational conditions in the stages of information competence is justified. The complex organizational and pedagogical conditions include: orientation in the organization and implementation of class work for technical university students’ positive value treatment; the issue of forming professionalism; informatization of educational and socio-cultural environment of higher technical educational institutions; orientation of technical university students’ training to the demands of European and international standards on information competence as a factor in the formation of competitiveness at the labor market; introducing a special course curriculum that will provide competence formation due to the use of information technology in professional activities. Forms (lecture, visualization, problem lecture, combined lecture, scientific online conference, recitals, excursions, etc., tools (computer lab, multimedia projector, interactive whiteboard, multimedia technology (audio, video, the Internet technologies; social networks, etc

Detection of image structures using the Fisher information and the Rao metric.

Science.gov (United States)

Maybank, Stephen J

2004-12-01

In many detection problems, the structures to be detected are parameterized by the points of a parameter space. If the conditional probability density function for the measurements is known, then detection can be achieved by sampling the parameter space at a finite number of points and checking each point to see if the corresponding structure is supported by the data. The number of samples and the distances between neighboring samples are calculated using the Rao metric on the parameter space. The Rao metric is obtained from the Fisher information which is, in turn, obtained from the conditional probability density function. An upper bound is obtained for the probability of a false detection. The calculations are simplified in the low noise case by making an asymptotic approximation to the Fisher information. An application to line detection is described. Expressions are obtained for the asymptotic approximation to the Fisher information, the volume of the parameter space, and the number of samples. The time complexity for line detection is estimated. An experimental comparison is made with a Hough transform-based method for detecting lines.

Structural deformation upon protein-protein interaction: a structural alphabet approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Juliette; Regad, Leslie; Lecornet, Hélène; Camproux, Anne-Claude

2008-02-28

In a number of protein-protein complexes, the 3D structures of bound and unbound partners significantly differ, supporting the induced fit hypothesis for protein-protein binding. In this study, we explore the induced fit modifications on a set of 124 proteins available in both bound and unbound forms, in terms of local structure. The local structure is described thanks to a structural alphabet of 27 structural letters that allows a detailed description of the backbone. Using a control set to distinguish induced fit from experimental error and natural protein flexibility, we show that the fraction of structural letters modified upon binding is significantly greater than in the control set (36% versus 28%). This proportion is even greater in the interface regions (41%). Interface regions preferentially involve coils. Our analysis further reveals that some structural letters in coil are not favored in the interface. We show that certain structural letters in coil are particularly subject to modifications at the interface, and that the severity of structural change also varies. These information are used to derive a structural letter substitution matrix that summarizes the local structural changes observed in our data set. We also illustrate the usefulness of our approach to identify common binding motifs in unrelated proteins. Our study provides qualitative information about induced fit. These results could be of help for flexible docking.

Structural deformation upon protein-protein interaction: A structural alphabet approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lecornet Hélène

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In a number of protein-protein complexes, the 3D structures of bound and unbound partners significantly differ, supporting the induced fit hypothesis for protein-protein binding. Results In this study, we explore the induced fit modifications on a set of 124 proteins available in both bound and unbound forms, in terms of local structure. The local structure is described thanks to a structural alphabet of 27 structural letters that allows a detailed description of the backbone. Using a control set to distinguish induced fit from experimental error and natural protein flexibility, we show that the fraction of structural letters modified upon binding is significantly greater than in the control set (36% versus 28%. This proportion is even greater in the interface regions (41%. Interface regions preferentially involve coils. Our analysis further reveals that some structural letters in coil are not favored in the interface. We show that certain structural letters in coil are particularly subject to modifications at the interface, and that the severity of structural change also varies. These information are used to derive a structural letter substitution matrix that summarizes the local structural changes observed in our data set. We also illustrate the usefulness of our approach to identify common binding motifs in unrelated proteins. Conclusion Our study provides qualitative information about induced fit. These results could be of help for flexible docking.

Use of Statistical Information for Damage Assessment of Civil Engineering Structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kirkegaard, Poul Henning; Andersen, P.

This paper considers the problem of damage assessment of civil engineering structures using statistical information. The aim of the paper is to review how researchers recently have tried to solve the problem. It is pointed out that the problem consists of not only how to use the statistical...

A glimpsing account of the role of temporal fine structure information in speech recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Apoux, Frédéric; Healy, Eric W

2013-01-01

Many behavioral studies have reported a significant decrease in intelligibility when the temporal fine structure (TFS) of a sound mixture is replaced with noise or tones (i.e., vocoder processing). This finding has led to the conclusion that TFS information is critical for speech recognition in noise. How the normal -auditory system takes advantage of the original TFS, however, remains unclear. Three -experiments on the role of TFS in noise are described. All three experiments measured speech recognition in various backgrounds while manipulating the envelope, TFS, or both. One experiment tested the hypothesis that vocoder processing may artificially increase the apparent importance of TFS cues. Another experiment evaluated the relative contribution of the target and masker TFS by disturbing only the TFS of the target or that of the masker. Finally, a last experiment evaluated the -relative contribution of envelope and TFS information. In contrast to previous -studies, however, the original envelope and TFS were both preserved - to some extent - in all conditions. Overall, the experiments indicate a limited influence of TFS and suggest that little speech information is extracted from the TFS. Concomitantly, these experiments confirm that most speech information is carried by the temporal envelope in real-world conditions. When interpreted within the framework of the glimpsing model, the results of these experiments suggest that TFS is primarily used as a grouping cue to select the time-frequency regions -corresponding to the target speech signal.

Review of English Language Library and Information Science Weblogs: Analyzing the Link between Weblog Types and Their Technical /Content Structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tahereh Karami

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Weblog has become well established as one of the Web 2.0 products. Given the essential nature of their job, librarians and information professionals, can use weblog as a quick and easy mean for information and knowledge sharing. The present study reviews some 150 LIS weblogs in order to examine and analyze the link between weblog types (personal, library-owned or group operated with their content and technical structure. Webometric methods were deployed for selection of the sample. The findings indicated that there is a significant correlation between the weblog types and their update frequency. The same holds between the weblog types and their content. But no such significance was observed with respect to the weblog publishing tools. The investigators believe that the links uncovered could also hold true for Iranian LIS weblogs.

SAPIENS: Spreading Activation Processor for Information Encoded in Network Structures. Technical Report No. 296.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortony, Andrew; Radin, Dean I.

The product of researchers' efforts to develop a computer processor which distinguishes between relevant and irrelevant information in the database, Spreading Activation Processor for Information Encoded in Network Structures (SAPIENS) exhibits (1) context sensitivity, (2) efficiency, (3) decreasing activation over time, (4) summation of…

Information Professionals in the Digital Age.

Science.gov (United States)

Cronin, Blaise

1998-01-01

Describes the strategic significance of information and intelligence management to socioeconomic growth. Considers implications in terms of human and structural intellectual capital development. Provides demand- and supply-side analyses of the knowledge and skills required of information professionals in the digital age. (Author)

Structure and Extensions of the User Information Satisfaction Construct

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clive Wrigley

1997-05-01

Full Text Available User Information Satisfaction (UIS remains one of the most important constructs in Information Systems research. This paper investigates the application of them UIS instrument across a number of key variables including respondent characteristics. Several findings emerge from a survey of 379 IS and non-IS managers: First, the UIS factors are stable and generalizable. Second, the level of satisfaction varies quite substantially when compared to prior UIS reports, although the IS product satisfaction dominates. Third, IS managers, not surprisingly, evaluate their systems significantly higher than non-IS managers, indicating the importance of stakeholders in evaluating Information Systems success. Finally, respondents evaluate their internal systems differently than their inter-organizational systems, indicating that in the IS evaluation process system type must be considered as a moderating variable.

Revisiting Organizations as Information Processors: Organizational Structure as a Predictor of Noise Filtering

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Fournier, Kevin L

2008-01-01

.... The results of the exploration, though mostly inconclusive, call into question both intuition and literature regarding organizational structure as well as literature in information and knowledge sharing...

Use of prosody and information structure in high functioning adults with Autism in relation to language ability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne-Marie R DePape

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Abnormal prosody is a striking feature of the speech of those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, but previous reports suggest large variability among those with ASD. Here we show that part of this heterogeneity can be explained by level of language functioning. We recorded semi-spontaneous but controlled conversations in adults with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder and measured features related to pitch and duration to determine (1 general use of prosodic features, (2 prosodic use in relation to marking information structure, specifically, the emphasis of new information in a sentence (focus as opposed to information already given in the conversational context (topic, and (3 the relation between prosodic use and level of language function. We found that, compared to typical adults, those with ASD with high language functioning generally used a larger pitch range than controls but did not mark information structure, whereas those with moderate language functioning generally used a smaller pitch range than controls but marked information structure appropriately to a large extent. Both impaired general prosodic use and impaired marking of information structure would be expected to seriously impact social communication and thereby lead to increased difficulty in personal domains, such as making and keeping friendships, and in professional domains, such as competing for employment opportunities.

Significance of fluid-structure interaction phenomena for containment response to ex-vessel steam explosions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Almstroem, H.; Sundel, T. [National Defence Research Establishment, Stockholm (Sweden); Frid, W.; Engelbrektson, A.

1998-01-01

When studying the structural response of a containment building to ex-vessel steam explosion loads, a two-step procedure is often used. In the first step of this procedure the structures are treated as rigid and the pressure-time history generated by the explosion at the rigid wall is calculated. In the second step the calculated pressure is applied to the structures. The obvious weakness of the two-step procedure is that it does not correspond to the real dynamic behaviour of the fluid-structure system. The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the relevant fluid-structure interaction phenomena. This is achieved through direct treatment of the explosion process and the structural response. The predictions of a direct and two-step treatment are compared for a BWR Mark II containment design, consisting of two concentric walls interacting with water masses in the central and annular pools. It is shown that the two-step approach leads to unrealistic energy transfer in the containment system studied, and to significant overestimation of the deflection of the containment wall. As regards the pedestal wall, the direct method analysis shows that the flexibility of this wall affects the pressure-time history considerably. Three load types have been identified for this wall namely shock load, water blow as a result of water cavitation, and hydrodynamic load. Reloading impulse due to cavitation phenomena plays an important role as it amounts to about 40% of the total impulse load. Investigation of the generality of the cavitation phenomena in the context of ex-vessel steam explosion loads was outside the scope of this work. (author)

Significance of fluid-structure interaction phenomena for containment response to ex-vessel steam explosions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Almstroem, H.; Sundel, T. (Nat. Defence Res. Establ., Tumba (Sweden)); Frid, W. (Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, SE-10658, Stockholm (Sweden)); Engelbrektson, A. (VBB/SWECO, Box 34044, SE-10026, Stockholm (Sweden))

1999-05-01

When studying the structural response of a containment building to ex-vessel steam explosion loads, a two-step procedure is often used. In the first step of this procedure the structures are treated as rigid and the pressure-time history generated by the explosion, at the rigid wall, is calculated. In the second step the calculated pressure is applied to the structures. The obvious weakness of the two-step procedure is that it does not correspond to the real dynamic behaviour of the fluid-structure system. The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the relevant fluid-structure interaction phenomena. This is achieved through direct treatment of the explosion process and the structural response. The predictions of a direct and two-step treatment are compared for a BWR Mark II containment design, consisting of two concentric walls interacting with water masses in the central and annular pools. It is shown that the two-step approach leads to unrealistic energy transfer in the containment system studied and to significant overestimation of the deflection of the containment wall. As regards the pedestal wall, the direct method analysis shows that the flexibility of this wall affects the pressure-time history considerably. Three load types have been identified for this wall namely shock load, water blow as a result of water cavitation, and hydrodynamic load. Reloading impulse due to cavitation phenomena plays an important role as it amounts to [approx]40% of the total impulse load. Investigation of the generality of the cavitation phenomena in the context of ex-vessel steam explosion loads was outside the scope of this work. (orig.) 5 refs.

Significance of fluid-structure interaction phenomena for containment response to ex-vessel steam explosions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Almstroem, H.; Sundel, T.; Frid, W.; Engelbrektson, A.

1999-01-01

When studying the structural response of a containment building to ex-vessel steam explosion loads, a two-step procedure is often used. In the first step of this procedure the structures are treated as rigid and the pressure-time history generated by the explosion, at the rigid wall, is calculated. In the second step the calculated pressure is applied to the structures. The obvious weakness of the two-step procedure is that it does not correspond to the real dynamic behaviour of the fluid-structure system. The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the relevant fluid-structure interaction phenomena. This is achieved through direct treatment of the explosion process and the structural response. The predictions of a direct and two-step treatment are compared for a BWR Mark II containment design, consisting of two concentric walls interacting with water masses in the central and annular pools. It is shown that the two-step approach leads to unrealistic energy transfer in the containment system studied and to significant overestimation of the deflection of the containment wall. As regards the pedestal wall, the direct method analysis shows that the flexibility of this wall affects the pressure-time history considerably. Three load types have been identified for this wall namely shock load, water blow as a result of water cavitation, and hydrodynamic load. Reloading impulse due to cavitation phenomena plays an important role as it amounts to ∼40% of the total impulse load. Investigation of the generality of the cavitation phenomena in the context of ex-vessel steam explosion loads was outside the scope of this work. (orig.)

Instruction in Information Structuring Improves Bayesian Judgment in Intelligence Analysts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David R. Mandel

2015-04-01

Full Text Available An experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of brief instruction in information structuring (i.e., representing and integrating information for improving the coherence of probability judgments and binary choices among intelligence analysts. Forty-three analysts were presented with comparable sets of Bayesian judgment problems before and immediately after instruction. After instruction, analysts’ probability judgments were more coherent (i.e., more additive and compliant with Bayes theorem. Instruction also improved the coherence of binary choices regarding category membership: after instruction, subjects were more likely to invariably choose the category to which they assigned the higher probability of a target’s membership. The research provides a rare example of evidence-based validation of effectiveness in instruction to improve the statistical assessment skills of intelligence analysts. Such instruction could also be used to improve the assessment quality of other types of experts who are required to integrate statistical information or make probabilistic assessments.

On the Value of Structural Health Monitoring Information for the Operation of Wind Parks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thöns, Sebastian; Faber, Michael H.; Val, Dimitri V.

2017-01-01

wind turbine systems and its components is developed accounting for the wind park functionality, i.e. power production, its operation and its cascading damage and failure scenarios. This system model facilitates to quantify the expected benefits and risks throughout the service life accounting......In the present paper, an approach for the quantification of the Value of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) Information building upon a framework for infrastructure system utility and decision analysis is developed and applied to the operation of wind parks. The quantification of the value of SHM...... facilitates a benefit and risk informed assessment and optimization of SHM strategies and encompasses models for the infrastructure functionality, the structural constituent and system risks and its management as well as the performance of SHM strategies. A wind park system model incorporating the structural...

Significance tests for functional data with complex dependence structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Staicu, Ana-Maria; Lahiri, Soumen N; Carroll, Raymond J

2015-01-01

We propose an L 2 -norm based global testing procedure for the null hypothesis that multiple group mean functions are equal, for functional data with complex dependence structure. Specifically, we consider the setting of functional data with a multilevel structure of the form groups-clusters or subjects-units, where the unit-level profiles are spatially correlated within the cluster, and the cluster-level data are independent. Orthogonal series expansions are used to approximate the group mean functions and the test statistic is estimated using the basis coefficients. The asymptotic null distribution of the test statistic is developed, under mild regularity conditions. To our knowledge this is the first work that studies hypothesis testing, when data have such complex multilevel functional and spatial structure. Two small-sample alternatives, including a novel block bootstrap for functional data, are proposed, and their performance is examined in simulation studies. The paper concludes with an illustration of a motivating experiment.

Significance tests for functional data with complex dependence structure

KAUST Repository

Staicu, Ana-Maria

2015-01-01

We propose an L (2)-norm based global testing procedure for the null hypothesis that multiple group mean functions are equal, for functional data with complex dependence structure. Specifically, we consider the setting of functional data with a multilevel structure of the form groups-clusters or subjects-units, where the unit-level profiles are spatially correlated within the cluster, and the cluster-level data are independent. Orthogonal series expansions are used to approximate the group mean functions and the test statistic is estimated using the basis coefficients. The asymptotic null distribution of the test statistic is developed, under mild regularity conditions. To our knowledge this is the first work that studies hypothesis testing, when data have such complex multilevel functional and spatial structure. Two small-sample alternatives, including a novel block bootstrap for functional data, are proposed, and their performance is examined in simulation studies. The paper concludes with an illustration of a motivating experiment.

University Students' Knowledge Structures and Informal Reasoning on the Use of Genetically Modified Foods: Multidimensional Analyses

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Ying-Tien

2013-01-01

This study aims to provide insights into the role of learners' knowledge structures about a socio-scientific issue (SSI) in their informal reasoning on the issue. A total of 42 non-science major university students' knowledge structures and informal reasoning were assessed with multidimensional analyses. With both qualitative and…

Triangle network motifs predict complexes by complementing high-error interactomes with structural information.

Science.gov (United States)

Andreopoulos, Bill; Winter, Christof; Labudde, Dirk; Schroeder, Michael

2009-06-27

A lot of high-throughput studies produce protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs) with many errors and missing information. Even for genome-wide approaches, there is often a low overlap between PPINs produced by different studies. Second-level neighbors separated by two protein-protein interactions (PPIs) were previously used for predicting protein function and finding complexes in high-error PPINs. We retrieve second level neighbors in PPINs, and complement these with structural domain-domain interactions (SDDIs) representing binding evidence on proteins, forming PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles. We find low overlap between PPINs, SDDIs and known complexes, all well below 10%. We evaluate the overlap of PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles with known complexes from Munich Information center for Protein Sequences (MIPS). PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles have ~20 times higher overlap with MIPS complexes than using second-level neighbors in PPINs without SDDIs. The biological interpretation for triangles is that a SDDI causes two proteins to be observed with common interaction partners in high-throughput experiments. The relatively few SDDIs overlapping with PPINs are part of highly connected SDDI components, and are more likely to be detected in experimental studies. We demonstrate the utility of PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles by reconstructing myosin-actin processes in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cytoskeleton, which were not obvious in the original PPIN. Using other complementary datatypes in place of SDDIs to form triangles, such as PubMed co-occurrences or threading information, results in a similar ability to find protein complexes. Given high-error PPINs with missing information, triangles of mixed datatypes are a promising direction for finding protein complexes. Integrating PPINs with SDDIs improves finding complexes. Structural SDDIs partially explain the high functional similarity of second-level neighbors in PPINs. We estimate that relatively little structural information would be sufficient

MATHEMATICAL AND INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR CALCULATION AND DESIGN OF TUBE GAS HEATERS LOCATED IN STRUCTURES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CHORNOMORETS H. Y.

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Raising of problem. For the design and construction of tube gas heaters in building structures to need solve the problems of analysis and synthesis of such heating system. The mathematical model of this system is consists of: mathematical model of the tube gas heater, mathematical model of heat distribution in the building structure and corresponding boundary conditions. To solve the tasks of analysis and synthesis must be appropriate mathematical and information support. Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to describe the developed mathematical and information support that solve the problems of analysis and synthesis of heating systems with gas tube heaters, located in building constructions.Conclusion. Mathematical support includes the development of algorithms and software for the numerical solution of problems analysis and synthesis heating system. Information support includes all the necessary parameters characterizing the thermal properties of materials which used in the heating system, and the parameters characterizing the heat exchange between the coolant and components of the heating system. It was developed algorithms for solving problems of analysis and synthesis heating system with tube gas heater located in structures to use evolutionary search algorithm and software. It was made experimental study and was obtained results allow to calculate the heat transfer from the gas-air mixture to the boundary surface of the building structure. This results and computation will provide full information support for solving problems of analysis and synthesis of the heating system. Was developed mathematical and software support, which allows to solve the problems of analysis and synthesis heating systems with gas tube heaters, located in building structures. Tube gas heaters located in the building structures allows with small capital expenditures to provide space heating. Is necessary to solve the problems of analysis (calculation and

Assessing the value of information for long-term structural health monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Pozzi, Matteo; Der Kiureghian, Armen

2011-04-01

In the field of Structural Health Monitoring, tests and sensing systems are intended as tools providing diagnoses, which allow the operator of the facility to develop an efficient maintenance plan or to require extraordinary measures on a structure. The effectiveness of these systems depends directly on their capability to guide towards the most optimal decision for the prevailing circumstances, avoiding mistakes and wastes of resources. Though this is well known, most studies only address the accuracy of the information gained from sensors without discussing economic criteria. Other studies evaluate these criteria separately, with only marginal or heuristic connection with the outcomes of the monitoring system. The concept of "Value of Information" (VoI) provides a rational basis to rank measuring systems according to a utility-based metric, which fully includes the decision-making process affected by the monitoring campaign. This framework allows, for example, an explicit assessment of the economical justifiability of adopting a sensor depending on its precision. In this paper we outline the framework for assessing the VoI, as applicable to the ranking of competitive measuring systems. We present the basic concepts involved, highlight issues related to monitoring of civil structures, address the problem of non-linearity of the cost-to-utility mapping, and introduce an approximate Monte Carlo approach suitable for the implementation of time-consuming predictive models.

Laser-induced blurring of molecular structure information in high harmonic spectroscopy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Risoud, Francois; Leveque, Camille; Labeye, Marie

2017-01-01

High harmonic spectroscopy gives access to molecular structure with Angstrom resolution. Such information is encoded in the destructive interferences occurring between the harmonic emissions from the different parts of the molecule. By solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation, either....... These findings have important consequences for molecular imaging and orbital tomography using high harmonic spectroscopy....

Risk-informed assessment of degraded containment structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spencer, B.W.; Kunsman, D.M.; Graves, H.L.

2003-01-01

As nuclear power plants age, a number of degradation mechanisms may begin to affect the ability of critical containment structures to prevent radiation release during a severe accident. A research program is underway to quantify the effects of various types of containment degradation in a risk-informed manner. In this paper, corrosion is assumed to occur in the liner of a reinforced concrete containment at a 'typical' U.S. pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant, and its effect is investigated. Latin hypercube sampling is used in conjunction with finite element models of a typical steel-lined reinforced concrete containment to generate overpressurization fragilities of the containment with and without corrosion. An existing probabilistic risk assessment model of the plant is then used with these fragilities to determine the increase in risk caused by the corrosion. (author)

Legendre transform structure and extremal properties of the relative Fisher information

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Venkatesan, R.C., E-mail: ravi@systemsresearchcorp.com [Systems Research Corporation, Aundh, Pune 411007 (India); Plastino, A., E-mail: plastino@fisica.unlp.edu.ar [IFLP, National University La Plata and National Research Council (CONICET) C.C., 727 1900 La Plata (Argentina)

2014-04-01

Variational extremization of the relative Fisher information (RFI, hereafter) is performed. Reciprocity relations, akin to those of thermodynamics are derived, employing the extremal results of the RFI expressed in terms of probability amplitudes. A time independent Schrödinger-like equation (Schrödinger-like link) for the RFI is derived. The concomitant Legendre transform structure (LTS, hereafter) is developed by utilizing a generalized RFI-Euler theorem, which shows that the entire mathematical structure of thermodynamics translates into the RFI framework, both for equilibrium and non-equilibrium cases. The qualitatively distinct nature of the present results vis-á-vis those of prior studies utilizing the Shannon entropy and/or the Fisher information measure (FIM, hereafter) is discussed. A principled relationship between the RFI and the FIM frameworks is derived. The utility of this relationship is demonstrated by an example wherein the energy eigenvalues of the Schrödinger-like link for the RFI are inferred solely using the quantum mechanical virial theorem and the LTS of the RFI.

Toward 3D structural information from quantitative electron exit wave analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borisenko, Konstantin B; Moldovan, Grigore; Kirkland, Angus I; Wang, Amy; Van Dyck, Dirk; Chen, Fu-Rong

2012-01-01

Simulations show that using a new direct imaging detector and accurate exit wave restoration algorithms allows nearly quantitative restoration of electron exit wave phase, which can be regarded as only qualitative for conventional indirect imaging cameras. This opens up a possibility of extracting accurate information on 3D atomic structure of the sample even from a single projection.

Significant relationship between soil bacterial community structure and incidence of bacterial wilt disease under continuous cropping system.

Science.gov (United States)

She, Siyuan; Niu, Jiaojiao; Zhang, Chao; Xiao, Yunhua; Chen, Wu; Dai, Linjian; Liu, Xueduan; Yin, Huaqun

2017-03-01

Soil bacteria are very important in biogeochemical cycles and play significant role in soil-borne disease suppression. Although continuous cropping is responsible for soil-borne disease enrichment, its effect on tobacco plant health and how soil bacterial communities change are yet to be elucidated. In this study, soil bacterial communities across tobacco continuous cropping time-series fields were investigated through high-throughput sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA genes. The results showed that long-term continuous cropping could significantly alter soil microbial communities. Bacterial diversity indices and evenness indices decreased over the monoculture span and obvious variations for community structures across the three time-scale tobacco fields were detected. Compared with the first year, the abundances of Arthrobacter and Lysobacter showed a significant decrease. Besides, the abundance of the pathogen Ralstonia spp. accumulated over the monoculture span and was significantly correlated with tobacco bacterial wilt disease rate. Moreover, Pearson's correlation demonstrated that the abundance of Arthrobacter and Lysobacter, which are considered to be beneficial bacteria had significant negative correlation with tobacco bacterial wilt disease. Therefore, after long-term continuous cropping, tobacco bacterial wilt disease could be ascribed to the alteration of the composition as well as the structure of the soil microbial community.

Application of information technology in the process analysis of structural subdivisions of light industry enterprises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Тарана Тахир кызы Мусаева

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The problems of application of information technologies in the process analysis of structural subdivisions of the enterprises of light industry enterprises are considered. For the functional cost analysis in the company it was prepared a computerized structure of the workplace and its principle of operation is described. The functionality of the computerized workplace is tested for textile enterprises. The results showed that the use of information technology has good prospects at the implementation of the quality management system at the textile enterprises

Market structure and the role of consumer information in the physician services industry: an empirical test.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, H S

1996-04-01

This paper applies Panzar and Rosse's (1987) econometric test of market structure to examine two long-debated issues: What is the market structure for physician services? Do more physicians in a market area raise the search cost of obtaining consumer information and increase prices (Satterthwaite, 1979, 1985)? For primary care and general and family practice physicians, the monopolistically competitive model prevailed over the competing hypotheses--monopoly, perfect competition, and monopolistic competition characterized by consumer informational confusion. Although less conclisive, there is some evidence to support the monopolistically competitive model for surgeons and the consumer informational confusion model for internal medicine physicians.

A Summary of Information on the Behavior of the Yakima Fold Belt as a Structural Entity -- Topical Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Last, George V.; Winsor, Kelsey; Unwin, Stephen D.

2012-08-01

This document is one in a series of topical reports compiled by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to summarize technical information on selected topics important to the performance of a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) of the Hanford Site. The purpose of this report is to summarize available data and analyses relevant to the Yakima Fold Belt (YFB) that may bear on the question of whether or not the YFB behaves as a single seismotectonic province in which activity along one fold structure is representative of behavior along all other fold structures. This topic has met with a fairly high level of contention in the expert community and has the potential to result in significant impacts on an evaluation of seismic hazard at the Hanford Site. This report defines the relevant alternative conceptual models relevant to this technical issue and the arguments and data that support those models. It provides a brief description of the technical issue and principal uncertainties; a general overview on the nature of the technical issue, along with alternative conceptual models, supporting arguments and information, and uncertainties; and finally, it suggests some possible approaches for reducing uncertainties regarding this issue.

Statistical Inference on Memory Structure of Processes and Its Applications to Information Theory

Science.gov (United States)

2016-05-12

Distribution Unlimited UU UU UU UU 12-05-2016 15-May-2014 14-Feb-2015 Final Report: Statistical Inference on Memory Structure of Processes and Its Applications ...ES) U.S. Army Research Office P.O. Box 12211 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211 mathematical statistics ; time series; Markov chains; random...journals: Final Report: Statistical Inference on Memory Structure of Processes and Its Applications to Information Theory Report Title Three areas

Significant others’ perspectives on person-centered information and communication technology in stroke rehabilitation – a grounded theory study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nabsen Marwaa, Mille; Kristensen, Hanne Kaae; Ytterberg, Charlotte

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore significant others perspective on how information and communication technology (ICT) may support the rehabilitation process after stroke and enhance life quality during and after rehabilitation. Method: To capture the participants’ experiences, tw...

The Structure of the Enterprise’s Information Potential in the Context of Carrying out Strategic Analysis

OpenAIRE

Saukh Iryna V.

2017-01-01

The article is aimed at studying the structure of the enterprise’s information potential, evaluating its subsystems and the depth of strategic analysis based on the level of strategic uncertainty. It has been proven that information potential as a system includes the subsystem of incoming strategic information; the subsystem of evaluation of the information received; the subsystem for processing and transmission of strategic information. An assessment of the level of information saturation of...

On the Information in the Interest Rate Term Structure and Option Prices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jong, F.; Driessen, J.; Pelsser, A.

2004-01-01

We examine whether the information in cap and swaption prices is consistent with realized movements of the interest rate term structure. To extract an option-implied interest rate covariance matrix from cap and swaption prices, we use Libor market models as a modelling framework. We propose a

Information structure in Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kimmelman, V.

2014-01-01

This dissertation explores Information Structure in two sign languages: Sign Language of the Netherlands and Russian Sign Language. Based on corpus data and elicitation tasks we show how topic and focus are expressed in these languages. In particular, we show that topics can be marked syntactically

Testing statistical significance scores of sequence comparison methods with structure similarity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leunissen Jack AM

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In the past years the Smith-Waterman sequence comparison algorithm has gained popularity due to improved implementations and rapidly increasing computing power. However, the quality and sensitivity of a database search is not only determined by the algorithm but also by the statistical significance testing for an alignment. The e-value is the most commonly used statistical validation method for sequence database searching. The CluSTr database and the Protein World database have been created using an alternative statistical significance test: a Z-score based on Monte-Carlo statistics. Several papers have described the superiority of the Z-score as compared to the e-value, using simulated data. We were interested if this could be validated when applied to existing, evolutionary related protein sequences. Results All experiments are performed on the ASTRAL SCOP database. The Smith-Waterman sequence comparison algorithm with both e-value and Z-score statistics is evaluated, using ROC, CVE and AP measures. The BLAST and FASTA algorithms are used as reference. We find that two out of three Smith-Waterman implementations with e-value are better at predicting structural similarities between proteins than the Smith-Waterman implementation with Z-score. SSEARCH especially has very high scores. Conclusion The compute intensive Z-score does not have a clear advantage over the e-value. The Smith-Waterman implementations give generally better results than their heuristic counterparts. We recommend using the SSEARCH algorithm combined with e-values for pairwise sequence comparisons.

Optimal physiological structure of small neurons to guarantee stable information processing

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, S. Y.; Zhang, Z. Z.; Wei, D. Q.; Luo, X. S.; Tang, W. Y.; Zeng, S. W.; Wang, R. F.

2013-02-01

Spike is the basic element for neuronal information processing and the spontaneous spiking frequency should be less than 1 Hz for stable information processing. If the neuronal membrane area is small, the frequency of neuronal spontaneous spiking caused by ion channel noise may be high. Therefore, it is important to suppress the deleterious spontaneous spiking of the small neurons. We find by simulation of stochastic neurons with Hodgkin-Huxley-type channels that the leakage system is critical and extremely efficient to suppress the spontaneous spiking and guarantee stable information processing of the small neurons. However, within the physiological limit the potassium system cannot do so. The suppression effect of the leakage system is super-exponential, but that of the potassium system is quasi-linear. With the minor physiological cost and the minimal consumption of metabolic energy, a slightly lower reversal potential and a relatively larger conductance of the leakage system give the optimal physiological structure to suppress the deleterious spontaneous spiking and guarantee stable information processing of small neurons, dendrites and axons.

Anatomy of a Spin: The Information-Theoretic Structure of Classical Spin Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vikram S. Vijayaraghavan

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Collective organization in matter plays a significant role in its expressed physical properties. Typically, it is detected via an order parameter, appropriately defined for each given system’s observed emergent patterns. Recent developments in information theory, however, suggest quantifying collective organization in a system- and phenomenon-agnostic way: decomposing the system’s thermodynamic entropy density into a localized entropy, that is solely contained in the dynamics at a single location, and a bound entropy, that is stored in space as domains, clusters, excitations, or other emergent structures. As a concrete demonstration, we compute this decomposition and related quantities explicitly for the nearest-neighbor Ising model on the 1D chain, on the Bethe lattice with coordination number k = 3 , and on the 2D square lattice, illustrating its generality and the functional insights it gives near and away from phase transitions. In particular, we consider the roles that different spin motifs play (in cluster bulk, cluster edges, and the like and how these affect the dependencies between spins.

Methodology for Simulation and Analysis of Complex Adaptive Supply Network Structure and Dynamics Using Information Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua Rodewald

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Supply networks existing today in many industries can behave as complex adaptive systems making them more difficult to analyze and assess. Being able to fully understand both the complex static and dynamic structures of a complex adaptive supply network (CASN are key to being able to make more informed management decisions and prioritize resources and production throughout the network. Previous efforts to model and analyze CASN have been impeded by the complex, dynamic nature of the systems. However, drawing from other complex adaptive systems sciences, information theory provides a model-free methodology removing many of those barriers, especially concerning complex network structure and dynamics. With minimal information about the network nodes, transfer entropy can be used to reverse engineer the network structure while local transfer entropy can be used to analyze the network structure’s dynamics. Both simulated and real-world networks were analyzed using this methodology. Applying the methodology to CASNs allows the practitioner to capitalize on observations from the highly multidisciplinary field of information theory which provides insights into CASN’s self-organization, emergence, stability/instability, and distributed computation. This not only provides managers with a more thorough understanding of a system’s structure and dynamics for management purposes, but also opens up research opportunities into eventual strategies to monitor and manage emergence and adaption within the environment.

Triangle network motifs predict complexes by complementing high-error interactomes with structural information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Labudde Dirk

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A lot of high-throughput studies produce protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs with many errors and missing information. Even for genome-wide approaches, there is often a low overlap between PPINs produced by different studies. Second-level neighbors separated by two protein-protein interactions (PPIs were previously used for predicting protein function and finding complexes in high-error PPINs. We retrieve second level neighbors in PPINs, and complement these with structural domain-domain interactions (SDDIs representing binding evidence on proteins, forming PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles. Results We find low overlap between PPINs, SDDIs and known complexes, all well below 10%. We evaluate the overlap of PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles with known complexes from Munich Information center for Protein Sequences (MIPS. PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles have ~20 times higher overlap with MIPS complexes than using second-level neighbors in PPINs without SDDIs. The biological interpretation for triangles is that a SDDI causes two proteins to be observed with common interaction partners in high-throughput experiments. The relatively few SDDIs overlapping with PPINs are part of highly connected SDDI components, and are more likely to be detected in experimental studies. We demonstrate the utility of PPI-SDDI-PPI triangles by reconstructing myosin-actin processes in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cytoskeleton, which were not obvious in the original PPIN. Using other complementary datatypes in place of SDDIs to form triangles, such as PubMed co-occurrences or threading information, results in a similar ability to find protein complexes. Conclusion Given high-error PPINs with missing information, triangles of mixed datatypes are a promising direction for finding protein complexes. Integrating PPINs with SDDIs improves finding complexes. Structural SDDIs partially explain the high functional similarity of second-level neighbors in PPINs. We estimate that

Significant population genetic structure detected in the rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844) inferred from fluorescent-AFLP analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Yongshuang; Ma, Daoyuan; Xu, Shihong; Liu, Qinghua; Wang, Yanfeng; Xiao, Zhizhong; Li, Jun

2016-05-01

Oplegnathus fasciatus (rock bream) is a commercial rocky reef fish species in East Asia that has been considered for aquaculture. We estimated the population genetic diversity and population structure of the species along the coastal waters of China using fluorescent-amplified fragment length polymorphisms technology. Using 53 individuals from three populations and four pairs of selective primers, we amplified 1 264 bands, 98.73% of which were polymorphic. The Zhoushan population showed the highest Nei's genetic diversity and Shannon genetic diversity. The results of analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 59.55% of genetic variation existed among populations and 40.45% occurred within populations, which indicated that a significant population genetic structure existed in the species. The pairwise fixation index F st ranged from 0.20 to 0.63 and were significant after sequential Bonferroni correction. The topology of an unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean tree showed two significant genealogical branches corresponding to the sampling locations of North and South China. The AMOVA and STRUCTURE analyses suggested that the O. fasciatus populations examined should comprise two stocks.

Detecting Novelty and Significance

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrari, Vera; Bradley, Margaret M.; Codispoti, Maurizio; Lang, Peter J.

2013-01-01

Studies of cognition often use an “oddball” paradigm to study effects of stimulus novelty and significance on information processing. However, an oddball tends to be perceptually more novel than the standard, repeated stimulus as well as more relevant to the ongoing task, making it difficult to disentangle effects due to perceptual novelty and stimulus significance. In the current study, effects of perceptual novelty and significance on ERPs were assessed in a passive viewing context by presenting repeated and novel pictures (natural scenes) that either signaled significant information regarding the current context or not. A fronto-central N2 component was primarily affected by perceptual novelty, whereas a centro-parietal P3 component was modulated by both stimulus significance and novelty. The data support an interpretation that the N2 reflects perceptual fluency and is attenuated when a current stimulus matches an active memory representation and that the amplitude of the P3 reflects stimulus meaning and significance. PMID:19400680

An approach to knowledge structuring for advanced phases of the Technical and Management Information System (TMIS)

Science.gov (United States)

Goranson, H. T.

1986-01-01

The Technical and Management Information System (TMIS) must employ on enlightened approach to its object structure, but basic issues in conceptual structuring remain to be resolved. Sirius outlines the necessary agenda and reports on progress toward solutions.

Information Security: A Scientometric Study of the Profile, Structure, and Dynamics of an Emerging Scholarly Specialty

Science.gov (United States)

Olijnyk, Nicholas Victor

2014-01-01

The central aim of the current research is to explore and describe the profile, dynamics, and structure of the information security specialty. This study's objectives are guided by four research questions: 1. What are the salient features of information security as a specialty? 2. How has the information security specialty emerged and evolved from…

Query-Time Optimization Techniques for Structured Queries in Information Retrieval

Science.gov (United States)

Cartright, Marc-Allen

2013-01-01

The use of information retrieval (IR) systems is evolving towards larger, more complicated queries. Both the IR industrial and research communities have generated significant evidence indicating that in order to continue improving retrieval effectiveness, increases in retrieval model complexity may be unavoidable. From an operational perspective,…

The information activity of rail passenger information staff: a foundation for information system requirements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Rose

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. This paper examines the goal-directed information activity of passenger information staff, working in the dynamic environment of rail network control. The explicit aim is to define a meaningful set of information system requirements. The report shows how dynamic situations may lead us to question a number of established theories of information science. Method. Passenger information officers (PIOs were observed on duty within the rail command and control headquarters. Observation sessions totally eight hours involved the manual recording of sequential information flows and the associated activity of PIOs. A semi-structured management interview was also conducted to provide further insight into the organizational context. Analysis. A viewpoint-oriented analysis technique was used to analyse sequential data captured during observation sessions. Event sequences that represent and explain the viewpoints were identified and elaborated into detailed scenario descriptions. Results. The analysis both supports and contests a number of established theories from information science. Additionally, a range of 'mandatory' and 'desirable' system requirements are derived from the scenario and viewpoint analyses. Conclusion. Dynamic situations have a significant impact on information behaviour which is not always predicted by current theories of information science.

Physiological significance of Fuc and Sialic acid containing glycans in the body

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Ramzan Manwar Hussain

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Complex biomolecular machinery carrying diverse glycan chains are involved in a wide range of physiological activities including blood group determination, cancer recognition protein stabilization and sperm–egg interaction. Diversity of glycan chains, linked to lipids and proteins is due to isomeric and conformational modifications of various sugar residues, giving rise to unique carbohydrate structures with a wide range of anomeric linkages. This unique and significant structural diversity of naturally occurring oligosaccharide structures make them the best recognition markers for countless physiological activities. This is a challenging task to explore the relationship between biological processes and stereochemical behavior of sugar residues. Current review article is related with the physiological significance of glycans carrying fucose and/or sialic residues in complex biomolecular assemblies. Both the sugar units have a diverse range of anomery and linkages with the penultimate sugars. The existing literature and databases did not contain comprehensive information regarding structure–function relationship of glycans. Therefore, the current study is scheduled to debate on the structure–function relationship of glycans carrying Fuc and sialic acid in their backbone structures.

Accurate facade feature extraction method for buildings from three-dimensional point cloud data considering structural information

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yongzhi; Ma, Yuqing; Zhu, A.-xing; Zhao, Hui; Liao, Lixia

2018-05-01

Facade features represent segmentations of building surfaces and can serve as a building framework. Extracting facade features from three-dimensional (3D) point cloud data (3D PCD) is an efficient method for 3D building modeling. By combining the advantages of 3D PCD and two-dimensional optical images, this study describes the creation of a highly accurate building facade feature extraction method from 3D PCD with a focus on structural information. The new extraction method involves three major steps: image feature extraction, exploration of the mapping method between the image features and 3D PCD, and optimization of the initial 3D PCD facade features considering structural information. Results show that the new method can extract the 3D PCD facade features of buildings more accurately and continuously. The new method is validated using a case study. In addition, the effectiveness of the new method is demonstrated by comparing it with the range image-extraction method and the optical image-extraction method in the absence of structural information. The 3D PCD facade features extracted by the new method can be applied in many fields, such as 3D building modeling and building information modeling.

Deciphering the structure of isomeric oligosaccharides in a complex mixture by tandem mass spectrometry: Photon activation with vacuum ultra-violet brings unique information and enables definitive structure assignment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ropartz, David, E-mail: David.Ropartz@nantes.inra.fr [INRA, UR1268 Biopolymers Interactions Assemblies, F-44316 Nantes (France); Lemoine, Jérôme [Institut des Sciences Analytiques, UMR 5280, Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, F-69622 Villeurbanne cedex (France); Giuliani, Alexandre [Synchrotron SOLEIL, L’Orme des Merisiers, F-91190 Gif-sur-Yvette (France); UAR 1008 CEPIA, INRA, F-44316 Nantes (France); Bittebière, Yann [INRA, UR1268 Biopolymers Interactions Assemblies, F-44316 Nantes (France); Enjalbert, Quentin [Institut des Sciences Analytiques, UMR 5280, Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, F-69622 Villeurbanne cedex (France); Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306, Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, F-69622 Villeurbanne cedex (France); Antoine, Rodolphe; Dugourd, Philippe [Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306, Université Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, F-69622 Villeurbanne cedex (France); Ralet, Marie-Christine; Rogniaux, Hélène [INRA, UR1268 Biopolymers Interactions Assemblies, F-44316 Nantes (France)

2014-01-07

Graphical abstract: -- Highlights: •A complex mixture of methylated oligogalacturonans was fractionated by IP-RP-UHPLC. •Synchrotron-radiation in VUV range was used as an activation process for tandem MS. •VUV activation brought rich structural information compared to LE-CAD. •Resolution of more than 35 structures, including isomers, was successfully completed. -- Abstract: Carbohydrates have a wide variety of structures whose complexity and heterogeneity challenge the field of analytical chemistry. Tandem mass spectrometry, with its remarkable sensitivity and high information content, provides key advantages to addressing the structural elucidation of polysaccharides. Yet, classical fragmentation by collision-activated dissociation (CAD) in many cases fails to reach a comprehensive structural determination, especially when isomers have to be differentiated. In this work, for the first time, vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) synchrotron radiation is used as the activation process in tandem mass spectrometry of large oligosaccharides. Compared to low energy CAD (LE-CAD), photon activated dissociation brought more straightforward and valuable structural information. The outstanding feature was that complete series of informative ions were produced, with only minor neutral losses. Moreover, systematic fragmentation rules could be drawn thus facilitating the definitive assignments of fragment identities. As a result, most of the structures present in a complex mixture of oligogalacturonans could be comprehensively resolved, including many isomers differing in the position of methyl groups along the galacturonic acid backbone.

The study of features of the structural organization of the au-tomated information processing system of the collective type

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolaev, V. N.; Titov, D. V.; Syryamkin, V. I.

2018-05-01

The comparative assessment of the level of channel capacity of different variants of the structural organization of the automated information processing systems is made. The information processing time assessment model depending on the type of standard elements and their structural organization is developed.

Informal Mealtime Pedagogies: Exploring the Influence of Family Structure on Young People's Healthy Eating Dispositions

Science.gov (United States)

Quarmby, Thomas; Dagkas, Symeon

2015-01-01

Families are increasingly recognised as informal sites of learning, especially with regard to healthy eating. Through the use of Bourdieu's conceptual tools, this paper explores the role of family meals within different family structures and the informal pedagogic encounters that take place. How they help to construct young people's healthy eating…

Electronic structure of atoms: atomic spectroscopy information system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kazakov, V V; Kazakov, V G; Kovalev, V S; Meshkov, O I; Yatsenko, A S

2017-01-01

The article presents a Russian atomic spectroscopy, information system electronic structure of atoms (IS ESA) (http://grotrian.nsu.ru), and describes its main features and options to support research and training. The database contains over 234 000 records, great attention paid to experimental data and uniform filling of the database for all atomic numbers Z, including classified levels and transitions of rare earth and transuranic elements and their ions. Original means of visualization of scientific data in the form of spectrograms and Grotrian diagrams have been proposed. Presentation of spectral data in the form of interactive color charts facilitates understanding and analysis of properties of atomic systems. The use of the spectral data of the IS ESA together with its functionality is effective for solving various scientific problems and training of specialists. (paper)

Electronic structure of atoms: atomic spectroscopy information system

Science.gov (United States)

Kazakov, V. V.; Kazakov, V. G.; Kovalev, V. S.; Meshkov, O. I.; Yatsenko, A. S.

2017-10-01

The article presents a Russian atomic spectroscopy, information system electronic structure of atoms (IS ESA) (http://grotrian.nsu.ru), and describes its main features and options to support research and training. The database contains over 234 000 records, great attention paid to experimental data and uniform filling of the database for all atomic numbers Z, including classified levels and transitions of rare earth and transuranic elements and their ions. Original means of visualization of scientific data in the form of spectrograms and Grotrian diagrams have been proposed. Presentation of spectral data in the form of interactive color charts facilitates understanding and analysis of properties of atomic systems. The use of the spectral data of the IS ESA together with its functionality is effective for solving various scientific problems and training of specialists.

YAdumper: extracting and translating large information volumes from relational databases to structured flat files.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández, José M; Valencia, Alfonso

2004-10-12

Downloading the information stored in relational databases into XML and other flat formats is a common task in bioinformatics. This periodical dumping of information requires considerable CPU time, disk and memory resources. YAdumper has been developed as a purpose-specific tool to deal with the integral structured information download of relational databases. YAdumper is a Java application that organizes database extraction following an XML template based on an external Document Type Declaration. Compared with other non-native alternatives, YAdumper substantially reduces memory requirements and considerably improves writing performance.

Investigating dynamical information transfer in the brain following a TMS pulse: Insights from structural architecture.

Science.gov (United States)

Amico, Enrico; Van Mierlo, Pieter; Marinazzo, Daniele; Laureys, Steven

2015-01-01

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been used for more than 20 years to investigate connectivity and plasticity in the human cortex. By combining TMS with high-density electroencephalography (hd-EEG), one can stimulate any cortical area and measure the effects produced by this perturbation in the rest of the cerebral cortex. The purpose of this paper is to investigate changes of information flow in the brain after TMS from a functional and structural perspective, using multimodal modeling of source reconstructed TMS/hd-EEG recordings and DTI tractography. We prove how brain dynamics induced by TMS is constrained and driven by its structure, at different spatial and temporal scales, especially when considering cross-frequency interactions. These results shed light on the function-structure organization of the brain network at the global level, and on the huge variety of information contained in it.

Word order and information structure in Czech 3-and 4-year-olds' comprehension.

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Smolík, Filip

2015-01-01

Roč. 35, č. 3 (2015), s. 237-253 ISSN 0142-7237 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-26779S Institutional support: RVO:68081740 Keywords : Case marking * grammar comprehension * information structure Subject RIV: AN - Psychology Impact factor: 1.254, year: 2015

Significance tests for functional data with complex dependence structure

KAUST Repository

Staicu, Ana-Maria; Lahiri, Soumen N.; Carroll, Raymond J.

2015-01-01

We propose an L (2)-norm based global testing procedure for the null hypothesis that multiple group mean functions are equal, for functional data with complex dependence structure. Specifically, we consider the setting of functional data with a

The phylogenetic significance of fruit structures in ranunculaceae of china

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheng, X.Y.; Liu, M.; Shi, C.Q.; Ru, J.

2015-01-01

The external and internal structures of fruits from 95 taxa representing 27 Ranunculaceae genera of China were studied. The results show that Ranunculaceae could be divided into 4 groups based on the fruit types, epidermal surface, vascular bundle, mesocarp cell, and endocarp cell structures: Group 1: follicle or achene, branching or branching and anastomosing vascular bundles, mesocarp parenchyma, and endocarp with one layer of lignified cells (including Aconitum and other genera); Group 2: achene, vascular bundle branching, mesocarp lignified, endocarp with one layer of irregular and partly lignified cells (Thalictrum only); Group 3: achene, endocarp with multilayered thick-walled cells (including Adonis, Batrachium and Ranunculus); Group 4: achene, two non-branching vascular bundles, and endocarp with one layer of fibers (including Anemone, Clematis and Pulsatilla). This study show that the fruit structures of Ranunculaceae could provide morphological and anatomical evidences for molecular phylogeny. (author)

AMPLIFICATION AND COMPRESSION OF THE TEXT AND ITS TITLE AS A MEANS OF CONVEYING THE INFORMATION STRUCTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buyanova, E.V.

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This article takes stock of the basic notions of information structure. There are two communicative goals to satisfy: making the information conveyed by the discourse easier for the reader/hearer to understand; indicating what the enunciator considers to be the most important. When translating from one language into another the information structure in most cases remains unchanged. However the text in the target language may not always be completely clear to the new recipient for a number of reasons, such as social and national differences between speakers of the two languages, or lack of realia in the target language. In this case the information structure needs extension in the form of descriptions, definitions, commentaries. This results either in amplification of the text in the target language or in its compression. The present work is based on an analysis of papers from American and British journals and periodicals. The article also deals with the peculiarities of the metaphor as a means of broader text compression in the titles of newspaper articles.

Structural synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus induced by spatial experience and its implications in information processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Carasatorre, M; Ramírez-Amaya, V; Díaz Cintra, S

2016-10-01

Long-lasting memory formation requires that groups of neurons processing new information develop the ability to reproduce the patterns of neural activity acquired by experience. Changes in synaptic efficiency let neurons organise to form ensembles that repeat certain activity patterns again and again. Among other changes in synaptic plasticity, structural modifications tend to be long-lasting which suggests that they underlie long-term memory. There is a large body of evidence supporting that experience promotes changes in the synaptic structure, particularly in the hippocampus. Structural changes to the hippocampus may be functionally implicated in stabilising acquired memories and encoding new information. Copyright © 2012 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Determination of structural fluctuations of proteins from structure-based calculations of residual dipolar couplings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montalvao, Rinaldo W.; De Simone, Alfonso; Vendruscolo, Michele

2012-01-01

Residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) have the potential of providing detailed information about the conformational fluctuations of proteins. It is very challenging, however, to extract such information because of the complex relationship between RDCs and protein structures. A promising approach to decode this relationship involves structure-based calculations of the alignment tensors of protein conformations. By implementing this strategy to generate structural restraints in molecular dynamics simulations we show that it is possible to extract effectively the information provided by RDCs about the conformational fluctuations in the native states of proteins. The approach that we present can be used in a wide range of alignment media, including Pf1, charged bicelles and gels. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated by the analysis of the Q factors for RDCs not used as restraints in the calculations, which are significantly lower than those corresponding to existing high-resolution structures and structural ensembles, hence showing that we capture effectively the contributions to RDCs from conformational fluctuations.

RStrucFam: a web server to associate structure and cognate RNA for RNA-binding proteins from sequence information.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, Pritha; Mathew, Oommen K; Sowdhamini, Ramanathan

2016-10-07

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) interact with their cognate RNA(s) to form large biomolecular assemblies. They are versatile in their functionality and are involved in a myriad of processes inside the cell. RBPs with similar structural features and common biological functions are grouped together into families and superfamilies. It will be useful to obtain an early understanding and association of RNA-binding property of sequences of gene products. Here, we report a web server, RStrucFam, to predict the structure, type of cognate RNA(s) and function(s) of proteins, where possible, from mere sequence information. The web server employs Hidden Markov Model scan (hmmscan) to enable association to a back-end database of structural and sequence families. The database (HMMRBP) comprises of 437 HMMs of RBP families of known structure that have been generated using structure-based sequence alignments and 746 sequence-centric RBP family HMMs. The input protein sequence is associated with structural or sequence domain families, if structure or sequence signatures exist. In case of association of the protein with a family of known structures, output features like, multiple structure-based sequence alignment (MSSA) of the query with all others members of that family is provided. Further, cognate RNA partner(s) for that protein, Gene Ontology (GO) annotations, if any and a homology model of the protein can be obtained. The users can also browse through the database for details pertaining to each family, protein or RNA and their related information based on keyword search or RNA motif search. RStrucFam is a web server that exploits structurally conserved features of RBPs, derived from known family members and imprinted in mathematical profiles, to predict putative RBPs from sequence information. Proteins that fail to associate with such structure-centric families are further queried against the sequence-centric RBP family HMMs in the HMMRBP database. Further, all other essential

Linear versus non-linear structural information limit in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Aert, S.; Chen, J.H.; Van Dyck, D.

2010-01-01

A widely used performance criterion in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) is the information limit. It corresponds to the inverse of the maximum spatial object frequency that is linearly transmitted with sufficient intensity from the exit plane of the object to the image plane and is limited due to partial temporal coherence. In practice, the information limit is often measured from a diffractogram or from Young's fringes assuming a weak phase object scattering beyond the inverse of the information limit. However, for an aberration corrected electron microscope, with an information limit in the sub-angstrom range, weak phase objects are no longer applicable since they do not scatter sufficiently in this range. Therefore, one relies on more strongly scattering objects such as crystals of heavy atoms observed along a low index zone axis. In that case, dynamical scattering becomes important such that the non-linear and linear interaction may be equally important. The non-linear interaction may then set the experimental cut-off frequency observed in a diffractogram. The goal of this paper is to quantify both the linear and the non-linear information transfer in terms of closed form analytical expressions. Whereas the cut-off frequency set by the linear transfer can be directly related with the attainable resolution, information from the non-linear transfer can only be extracted using quantitative, model-based methods. In contrast to the historic definition of the information limit depending on microscope parameters only, the expressions derived in this paper explicitly incorporate their dependence on the structure parameters as well. In order to emphasize this dependence and to distinguish from the usual information limit, the expressions derived for the inverse cut-off frequencies will be referred to as the linear and non-linear structural information limit. The present findings confirm the well-known result that partial temporal coherence has

Developing an Interpretive Structural Modeling(ISM in order to Achieve Agility via Information Technology in Manufacturing Organization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Mohammadi

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Agility is considered the ability to respond quickly to changes and a major factor for success and survival in today's business. The purpose of this research is to offer a conceptual model using Interpretive Structural Modeling(ISM. To this end after reviewing literature and theoretical background, the indices related to achieving agility via information technology (IT have been identified and then the Interpretive Structural Model in four levels has been represented. Findings show that tendency and commitment of top managers, organizational climate and strategic planning alignment with information technology planning is the major factors affecting agility achievement via information technology (IT.

Chemical and Biological Significance of Oenothein B and Related Ellagitannin Oligomers with Macrocyclic Structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takashi Yoshida

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In 1990, Okuda et al. reported the first isolation and characterization of oenothein B, a unique ellagitannin dimer with a macrocyclic structure, from the Oenothera erythrosepala leaves. Since then, a variety of macrocyclic analogs, including trimeric–heptameric oligomers have been isolated from various medicinal plants belonging to Onagraceae, Lythraceae, and Myrtaceae. Among notable in vitro and in vivo biological activities reported for oenothein B are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, enzyme inhibitory, antitumor, antimicrobial, and immunomodulatory activities. Oenothein B and related oligomers, and/or plant extracts containing them have thus attracted increasing interest as promising targets for the development of chemopreventive agents of life-related diseases associated with oxygen stress in human health. In order to better understand the significance of this type of ellagitannin in medicinal plants, this review summarizes (1 the structural characteristics of oenothein B and related dimers; (2 the oxidative metabolites of oenothein B up to heptameric oligomers; (3 the distribution of oenotheins and other macrocyclic analogs in the plant kingdom; and (4 the pharmacological activities hitherto documented for oenothein B, including those recently found by our laboratory.

Analysis of Factors Affect to Organizational Performance In Using Accounting Information Systems Through Users Satisfaction and Integration Information Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anton Arisman

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this research is to investigate the factors affecting organizational performance in using accounting information system through users satisfaction and integration information systems. The research respondents were 447 companies that listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange. The data are gathered through consensus method and in total there are 176 responses with complete data. Structural Equation Model (SEM is used in analyzing the data and system theory is utilized in this research. The result shows that knowledge management systems and management control system have significant influence on users satisfaction and integration information systems.  Integration information system and users satisfaction has positive significant on organizational performance.

Doing the Organizational Tango: Symbiotic Relationship between Formal and Informal Organizational Structures for an Agile Organization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irena Malgorzata Ali

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on research with a broad objective to examine the relationship between two organizational entities, the formally structured organization and informal organizational structures, in a changing operational environment, more specifically during military deployments. The paper draws on organizational and complexity paradigms; based on empirical evidence obtained through qualitative techniques, it describes mechanisms that enable a symbiotic relationship between these two organizational structures in a complex operational landscape. Substantive findings provide insights into the dynamics of the interactions between these structures and illuminate the relationship between three enabling factors – accountability, responsible autonomy, and command and control arrangements – that need to be considered to fully exploit the strengths inherent in both formal and informal structures. Based on these findings, a model for enhancement of organizational agility in response to changes in a complex operational environment is described. The model is predicated on feedback and mutual adjustment of the organization, institution and individual through sensemaking; it illustrates the dynamic nature of interactions that are required for such a response.

Geometric structure and information change in phase transitions

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Eun-jin; Hollerbach, Rainer

2017-06-01

We propose a toy model for a cyclic order-disorder transition and introduce a geometric methodology to understand stochastic processes involved in transitions. Specifically, our model consists of a pair of forward and backward processes (FPs and BPs) for the emergence and disappearance of a structure in a stochastic environment. We calculate time-dependent probability density functions (PDFs) and the information length L , which is the total number of different states that a system undergoes during the transition. Time-dependent PDFs during transient relaxation exhibit strikingly different behavior in FPs and BPs. In particular, FPs driven by instability undergo the broadening of the PDF with a large increase in fluctuations before the transition to the ordered state accompanied by narrowing the PDF width. During this stage, we identify an interesting geodesic solution accompanied by the self-regulation between the growth and nonlinear damping where the time scale τ of information change is constant in time, independent of the strength of the stochastic noise. In comparison, BPs are mainly driven by the macroscopic motion due to the movement of the PDF peak. The total information length L between initial and final states is much larger in BPs than in FPs, increasing linearly with the deviation γ of a control parameter from the critical state in BPs while increasing logarithmically with γ in FPs. L scales as |lnD | and D-1 /2 in FPs and BPs, respectively, where D measures the strength of the stochastic forcing. These differing scalings with γ and D suggest a great utility of L in capturing different underlying processes, specifically, diffusion vs advection in phase transition by geometry. We discuss physical origins of these scalings and comment on implications of our results for bistable systems undergoing repeated order-disorder transitions (e.g., fitness).

Structuring heterogeneous biological information using fuzzy clustering of k-partite graphs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Theis Fabian J

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Extensive and automated data integration in bioinformatics facilitates the construction of large, complex biological networks. However, the challenge lies in the interpretation of these networks. While most research focuses on the unipartite or bipartite case, we address the more general but common situation of k-partite graphs. These graphs contain k different node types and links are only allowed between nodes of different types. In order to reveal their structural organization and describe the contained information in a more coarse-grained fashion, we ask how to detect clusters within each node type. Results Since entities in biological networks regularly have more than one function and hence participate in more than one cluster, we developed a k-partite graph partitioning algorithm that allows for overlapping (fuzzy clusters. It determines for each node a degree of membership to each cluster. Moreover, the algorithm estimates a weighted k-partite graph that connects the extracted clusters. Our method is fast and efficient, mimicking the multiplicative update rules commonly employed in algorithms for non-negative matrix factorization. It facilitates the decomposition of networks on a chosen scale and therefore allows for analysis and interpretation of structures on various resolution levels. Applying our algorithm to a tripartite disease-gene-protein complex network, we were able to structure this graph on a large scale into clusters that are functionally correlated and biologically meaningful. Locally, smaller clusters enabled reclassification or annotation of the clusters' elements. We exemplified this for the transcription factor MECP2. Conclusions In order to cope with the overwhelming amount of information available from biomedical literature, we need to tackle the challenge of finding structures in large networks with nodes of multiple types. To this end, we presented a novel fuzzy k-partite graph partitioning

Information diffusion in structured online social networks

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Pei; Zhang, Yini; Qiao, Fengcai; Wang, Hui

2015-05-01

Nowadays, due to the word-of-mouth effect, online social networks have been considered to be efficient approaches to conduct viral marketing, which makes it of great importance to understand the diffusion dynamics in online social networks. However, most research on diffusion dynamics in epidemiology and existing social networks cannot be applied directly to characterize online social networks. In this paper, we propose models to characterize the information diffusion in structured online social networks with push-based forwarding mechanism. We introduce the term user influence to characterize the average number of times that messages are browsed which is incurred by a given type user generating a message, and study the diffusion threshold, above which the user influence of generating a message will approach infinity. We conduct simulations and provide the simulation results, which are consistent with the theoretical analysis results perfectly. These results are of use in understanding the diffusion dynamics in online social networks and also critical for advertisers in viral marketing who want to estimate the user influence before posting an advertisement.

Insight into the informational-structure behavior of the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene and maleic anhydride.

Science.gov (United States)

Molina-Espíritu, Moyocoyani; Esquivel, Rodolfo O; Kohout, Miroslav; Angulo, Juan Carlos; Dobado, José A; Dehesa, Jesús S; LópezRosa, Sheila; Soriano-Correa, Catalina

2014-08-01

The course of the Diels-Alder reactions of cyclopentadiene and maleic anhydride were studied. Two reaction paths were modelled: endo- and exo-selective paths. All structures within the transient region were characterized and analyzed by means of geometrical descriptors, physicochemical parameters and information-theoretical measures in order to observe the linkage between chemical behavior and the carriage of information. We have shown that the information-theoretical characterization of the chemical course of the reaction is in complete agreement with its phenomenological behavior in passing from reactants to products. In addition, we were able to detect the main differences between the two reaction mechanisms. This type of informational analysis serves to provide tools to help understand the chemical reactivity of the two simplest Diels-Alder reactions, which permits the establishment of a connection between the quantum changes that molecular systems exert along reaction coordinates and standard physicochemical phenomenology. In the present study, we have shown that every reaction stage has a family of subsequent structures that are characterized not solely by their phenomenological behavior but also by informational properties of their electronic density distribution (localizability, order, uniformity). Moreover, we were able to describe the main differences between endo-adduct and exo-adduct pathways. With the advent of new experimental techniques, it is in principle possible to observe the structural changes in the transient regions of chemical reactions. Indeed, through this work we have provided the theoretical concepts needed to unveil the concurrent processes associated with chemical reactions.

Optimizing multiple sequence alignments using a genetic algorithm based on three objectives: structural information, non-gaps percentage and totally conserved columns.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortuño, Francisco M; Valenzuela, Olga; Rojas, Fernando; Pomares, Hector; Florido, Javier P; Urquiza, Jose M; Rojas, Ignacio

2013-09-01

Multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) are widely used approaches in bioinformatics to carry out other tasks such as structure predictions, biological function analyses or phylogenetic modeling. However, current tools usually provide partially optimal alignments, as each one is focused on specific biological features. Thus, the same set of sequences can produce different alignments, above all when sequences are less similar. Consequently, researchers and biologists do not agree about which is the most suitable way to evaluate MSAs. Recent evaluations tend to use more complex scores including further biological features. Among them, 3D structures are increasingly being used to evaluate alignments. Because structures are more conserved in proteins than sequences, scores with structural information are better suited to evaluate more distant relationships between sequences. The proposed multiobjective algorithm, based on the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm, aims to jointly optimize three objectives: STRIKE score, non-gaps percentage and totally conserved columns. It was significantly assessed on the BAliBASE benchmark according to the Kruskal-Wallis test (P algorithm also outperforms other aligners, such as ClustalW, Multiple Sequence Alignment Genetic Algorithm (MSA-GA), PRRP, DIALIGN, Hidden Markov Model Training (HMMT), Pattern-Induced Multi-sequence Alignment (PIMA), MULTIALIGN, Sequence Alignment Genetic Algorithm (SAGA), PILEUP, Rubber Band Technique Genetic Algorithm (RBT-GA) and Vertical Decomposition Genetic Algorithm (VDGA), according to the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (P 0.05) with the advantage of being able to use less structures. Structural information is included within the objective function to evaluate more accurately the obtained alignments. The source code is available at http://www.ugr.es/~fortuno/MOSAStrE/MO-SAStrE.zip.

Perceptual learning is specific to the trained structure of information.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Yamit; Daikhin, Luba; Ahissar, Merav

2013-12-01

What do we learn when we practice a simple perceptual task? Many studies have suggested that we learn to refine or better select the sensory representations of the task-relevant dimension. Here we show that learning is specific to the trained structural regularities. Specifically, when this structure is modified after training with a fixed temporal structure, performance regresses to pretraining levels, even when the trained stimuli and task are retained. This specificity raises key questions as to the importance of low-level sensory modifications in the learning process. We trained two groups of participants on a two-tone frequency discrimination task for several days. In one group, a fixed reference tone was consistently presented in the first interval (the second tone was higher or lower), and in the other group the same reference tone was consistently presented in the second interval. When following training, these temporal protocols were switched between groups, performance of both groups regressed to pretraining levels, and further training was needed to attain postlearning performance. ERP measures, taken before and after training, indicated that participants implicitly learned the temporal regularity of the protocol and formed an attentional template that matched the trained structure of information. These results are consistent with Reverse Hierarchy Theory, which posits that even the learning of simple perceptual tasks progresses in a top-down manner, hence can benefit from temporal regularities at the trial level, albeit at the potential cost that learning may be specific to these regularities.

Independent component analysis reveals new and biologically significant structures in micro array data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Veerla Srinivas

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background An alternative to standard approaches to uncover biologically meaningful structures in micro array data is to treat the data as a blind source separation (BSS problem. BSS attempts to separate a mixture of signals into their different sources and refers to the problem of recovering signals from several observed linear mixtures. In the context of micro array data, "sources" may correspond to specific cellular responses or to co-regulated genes. Results We applied independent component analysis (ICA to three different microarray data sets; two tumor data sets and one time series experiment. To obtain reliable components we used iterated ICA to estimate component centrotypes. We found that many of the low ranking components indeed may show a strong biological coherence and hence be of biological significance. Generally ICA achieved a higher resolution when compared with results based on correlated expression and a larger number of gene clusters with significantly enriched for gene ontology (GO categories. In addition, components characteristic for molecular subtypes and for tumors with specific chromosomal translocations were identified. ICA also identified more than one gene clusters significant for the same GO categories and hence disclosed a higher level of biological heterogeneity, even within coherent groups of genes. Conclusion Although the ICA approach primarily detects hidden variables, these surfaced as highly correlated genes in time series data and in one instance in the tumor data. This further strengthens the biological relevance of latent variables detected by ICA.

Phylogeographic analysis reveals significant spatial genetic structure of Incarvillea sinensis as a product of mountain building

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Shaotian

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Incarvillea sinensis is widely distributed from Southwest China to Northeast China and in the Russian Far East. The distribution of this species was thought to be influenced by the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Quaternary glaciation. To reveal the imprints of geological events on the spatial genetic structure of Incarvillea sinensis, we examined two cpDNA segments ( trnH- psbA and trnS- trnfM in 705 individuals from 47 localities. Results A total of 16 haplotypes was identified, and significant genetic differentiation was revealed (GST =0.843, NST = 0.975, P  Conclusions The results revealed that the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau likely resulted in the significant divergence between the lineage in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the other one outside this area. The diverse niches in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau created a wide spectrum of habitats to accumulate and accommodate new mutations. The features of genetic diversity of populations outside the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau seemed to reveal the imprints of extinction during the Glacial and the interglacial and postglacial recolonization. Our study is a typical case of the significance of the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Quaternary Glacial in spatial genetic structure of eastern Asian plants, and sheds new light on the evolution of biodiversity in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at the intraspecies level.

WEB STRUCTURE MINING USING PAGERANK, IMPROVED PAGERANK – AN OVERVIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Lakshmi Praba

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Web Mining is the extraction of interesting and potentially useful patterns and information from Web. It includes Web documents, hyperlinks between documents, and usage logs of web sites. The significant task for web mining can be listed out as Information Retrieval, Information Selection / Extraction, Generalization and Analysis. Web information retrieval tools consider only the text on pages and ignore information in the links. The goal of Web structure mining is to explore structural summary about web. Web structure mining focusing on link information is an important aspect of web data. This paper presents an overview of the PageRank, Improved Page Rank and its working functionality in web structure mining.

Online Cancer Information Seeking: Applying and Extending the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Stee, Stephanie K; Yang, Qinghua

2017-10-30

This study applied the comprehensive model of information seeking (CMIS) to online cancer information and extended the model by incorporating an exogenous variable: interest in online health information exchange with health providers. A nationally representative sample from the Health Information National Trends Survey 4 Cycle 4 was analyzed to examine the extended CMIS in predicting online cancer information seeking. Findings from a structural equation model supported most of the hypotheses derived from the CMIS, as well as the extension of the model related to interest in online health information exchange. In particular, socioeconomic status, beliefs, and interest in online health information exchange predicted utility. Utility, in turn, predicted online cancer information seeking, as did information-carrier characteristics. An unexpected but important finding from the study was the significant, direct relationship between cancer worry and online cancer information seeking. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Significance of perceptually relevant image decolorization for scene classification

Science.gov (United States)

Viswanathan, Sowmya; Divakaran, Govind; Soman, Kutti Padanyl

2017-11-01

Color images contain luminance and chrominance components representing the intensity and color information, respectively. The objective of this paper is to show the significance of incorporating chrominance information to the task of scene classification. An improved color-to-grayscale image conversion algorithm that effectively incorporates chrominance information is proposed using the color-to-gray structure similarity index and singular value decomposition to improve the perceptual quality of the converted grayscale images. The experimental results based on an image quality assessment for image decolorization and its success rate (using the Cadik and COLOR250 datasets) show that the proposed image decolorization technique performs better than eight existing benchmark algorithms for image decolorization. In the second part of the paper, the effectiveness of incorporating the chrominance component for scene classification tasks is demonstrated using a deep belief network-based image classification system developed using dense scale-invariant feature transforms. The amount of chrominance information incorporated into the proposed image decolorization technique is confirmed with the improvement to the overall scene classification accuracy. Moreover, the overall scene classification performance improved by combining the models obtained using the proposed method and conventional decolorization methods.

Quantifying information transfer by protein domains: Analysis of the Fyn SH2 domain structure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lenaerts, Tom; Ferkinghoff-Borg, Jesper; Stricher, Francois

2008-01-01

instance of communication over a noisy channel. In particular, we analyze the conformational correlations between protein residues and apply the concept of mutual information to quantify information exchange. Mapping out changes of mutual information on the protein structure then allows visualizing how...... distal communication is achieved. We illustrate the approach by analyzing information transfer by the SH2 domain of Fyn tyrosine kinase, obtained from Monte Carlo dynamics simulations. Our analysis reveals that the Fyn SH2 domain forms a noisy communication channel that couples residues located......Background: Efficient communication between distant sites within a protein is essential for cooperative biological response. Although often associated with large allosteric movements, more subtle changes in protein dynamics can also induce long-range correlations. However, an appropriate formalism...

Validation of the DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ojo, Adebowale I

2017-01-01

This study is an adaptation of the widely used DeLone and McLean information system success model in the context of hospital information systems in a developing country. A survey research design was adopted in the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 442 health information management personnel in five Nigerian teaching hospitals. A structural equation modeling technique was used to validate the model's constructs. It was revealed that system quality significantly influenced use (β = 0.53, p Information quality significantly influenced use (β = 0.24, p 0.05), but it significantly influenced perceived net benefits (β = 0.21, p 0.05). The study validates the DeLone and McLean information system success model in the context of a hospital information system in a developing country. Importantly, system quality and use were found to be important measures of hospital information system success. It is, therefore, imperative that hospital information systems are designed in such ways that are easy to use, flexible, and functional to serve their purpose.

Predicting RNA Structure Using Mutual Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Freyhult, E.; Moulton, V.; Gardner, P. P.

2005-01-01

, to display and predict conserved RNA secondary structure (including pseudoknots) from an alignment. Results: We show that MIfold can be used to predict simple pseudoknots, and that the performance can be adjusted to make it either more sensitive or more selective. We also demonstrate that the overall...... package. Conclusion: MIfold provides a useful supplementary tool to programs such as RNA Structure Logo, RNAalifold and COVE, and should be useful for automatically generating structural predictions for databases such as Rfam. Availability: MIfold is freely available from http......Background: With the ever-increasing number of sequenced RNAs and the establishment of new RNA databases, such as the Comparative RNA Web Site and Rfam, there is a growing need for accurately and automatically predicting RNA structures from multiple alignments. Since RNA secondary structure...

Managing Knowledge And Information In The Sustainable Organization

Science.gov (United States)

Grecu, Valentin

2015-09-01

Knowledge and information management are essential for the success of organizations and bring significant competitive advantages. There has been significant investments in setting up technological platforms that support business processes and increase the efficiency of operational structure in many organizations through an efficient management of knowledge and information. This research highlights the importance of using knowledge and information management in order to increase the competitiveness of organizations and to foster the transition towards the sustainable organization, as nowadays an organization that wants to be competitive needs to be sustainable.

Effects of structured versus non-structured learning on achievement and attitudes of fifth graders in a public aquarium

Science.gov (United States)

Kafka, Merryl Audrey

The investigator analyzed the main effect of a structured-learning experience in an informal setting, as well as interactions between the students' learning-style variations toward the element of structure and the imposed instructional conditions. The subjects consisted of 170 students enrolled in two public schools located in Brooklyn, New York. The students were predominantly a White multi-ethnic population consisting of 118 Caucasians, 25 Hispanics, 24 Asians, and 3 African-Americans. Three randomly assigned classes (n = 81) were provided trip sheets, which directed students on how to learn new information with written questions and directives. Three randomly assigned non-structured classes (n = 89) experienced the same exhibit in a free-form manner. Science-based criterion-referenced pre- and posttests were administered, in addition to Learning Style Inventories (Dunn, Dunn, & Price, 1996) and a modified Semantic Differential Scale (Pizzo, 1981), which was used to measure attitudinal levels. The non-structured group had access to similar content information in the form of exhibit graphics, but apparently they chose not to read it as carefully or engage in the information-seeking process as intensely as the students equipped with trip sheets. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that a structured-learning experience produced significantly higher science-achievement test scores than in a non-structured-learning experience (p = .0001). In addition, there was no single learning-style variation (preference, aversion, or no preference) to structure that produced significantly higher gains than another. Furthermore, attitudinal scores were not significantly different between structured and non-structured groups, as well as among homogeneous subsets of students with learning-style variations that matched, mismatched, or indicated no-preferenced positions on the element of structure. Hence, a moderate amount of structure resulted in academic gains without

Processing information about support exchanges in close relationships: The role of a knowledge structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bulent eTuran

2016-02-01

Full Text Available People develop knowledge of interpersonal interaction patterns (e.g., prototypes and schemas, which shape how they process incoming information. One such knowledge structure based on attachment theory was examined: the secure base script (the prototypic sequence of events when an attachment figure comforts a close relationship partner in distress. In two studies (N = 53 and N = 119, participants were shown animated film clips in which geometric figures depicted the secure base script and asked to describe the animations. Both studies found that many people readily recognize the secure-base script from these minimal cues quite well, suggesting that this script is not only available in the context of specific relationships (i.e., a relationship-specific knowledge: The generalized (abstract structure of the script is also readily accessible, which would make it possible to apply it to any relationship (including new relationships. Regression analyses suggested that participants who recognized the script were more likely to (a include more animation elements when describing the animations, (b see a common theme in different animations, (c create better organized stories, and (d later recall more details of the animations. These findings suggest that access to this knowledge structure helps a person organize and remember relevant incoming information. Furthermore, in both Study 1 and Study 2, individual differences in the ready recognition of the script were associated with individual differences in having access to another related knowledge: indicators suggesting that a potential relationship partner can be trusted to be supportive and responsive at times of stress. Results of Study 2 also suggest that recognizing the script is associated with those items of an attachment measure that concern giving and receiving support. Thus, these knowledge structures may shape how people process support-relevant information in their everyday lives, potentially

Some Problems of Information-Communication Technologies Implementation in the Activity of Enterprise Structures of Education and Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander A. Galushkin

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In this article author examines some of the issues of information and communication technologies in the activity of enterprise structures of education and science. During study author analyzes views of some eminent scientists, with formulate their own point of view. The study emphasizes that the introduction of information products in the deeper stages of the structure of education and science, implementing educational programs, as a rule, is facing a number of serious difficulties. In conclusion, the author cites 3 evidence-based conclusions.

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

Science.gov (United States)

Montemurro, Marcelo A

2014-06-01

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

Information Literacy at Augustana: A Programmatic Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nancy E. Goebel

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Information literacy programs, and the factors that influence their development and structure, can vary significantly from institution to institution. Credit-bearing discipline-specific information literacy courses are a rare and valuable component of an undergraduate educational experience and form the basis of Augustana's information literacy program. This article provides an overview of the development, implementation, successes, and drawbacks of the credit-bearing discipline-specific information literacy courses at the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta (Camrose, Alberta, Canada. Additional program components including Augustana's annual information literacy workshop, information literacy awards, information literacy DVD, and marketing/branding, are discussed.

Effects of task autonomy on performance: an extended model considering motivational, informational, and structural mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Langfred, Claus W; Moye, Neta A

2004-12-01

A model explaining the relationship between task autonomy and performance is proposed that incorporates 3 different causal mechanisms. The performance benefits of task autonomy may be realized by increased motivation (motivational mechanisms), by capitalization of information asymmetries (informational mechanisms), or by better alignment with task and organizational structures (structural mechanisms). Further, it is proposed that these performance benefits are moderated by a variety of variables ranging from individual traits to organizational design. This model may provide a means for accounting for the sometimes inconsistent findings in the empirical literature exploring the relationship between autonomy and performance. The model also offers guidance in the search for additional boundary conditions as well as prescriptive guidelines for the allocation of autonomy in practice. 2004 APA, all rights reserved

Musical information processing reflecting its structure

OpenAIRE

Hiraga, Rumi

1999-01-01

In pursuit of generating expressive musical rendition with rules, the computer music project Psyche has greatly concerned musical structure. Although described implicitly, musical structure exists innately and absolutely in musical scores. This thesis demonstrates the successful introduction of musical structure to computer music systems that are related to performance synthesis. Two systems, a performance visualization system and a computer-assisted musical analysis system Daphne, are descri...

Algorithm-structured computer arrays and networks architectures and processes for images, percepts, models, information

CERN Document Server

Uhr, Leonard

1984-01-01

Computer Science and Applied Mathematics: Algorithm-Structured Computer Arrays and Networks: Architectures and Processes for Images, Percepts, Models, Information examines the parallel-array, pipeline, and other network multi-computers.This book describes and explores arrays and networks, those built, being designed, or proposed. The problems of developing higher-level languages for systems and designing algorithm, program, data flow, and computer structure are also discussed. This text likewise describes several sequences of successively more general attempts to combine the power of arrays wi

THE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL SPACE SEMANTIC STRUCTURING BASED ON ONTOLOGIC APPROACH REALIZATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yurij F. Telnov

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This article reveals principles of semantic structuring of information and educational space of objects of knowledge and scientific and educational services with use of methods of ontologic engineering. Novelty of offered approach is interface of ontology of a content and ontology of scientific and educational services that allows to carry out effective composition of services and objects of knowledge according to models of professional competences and requirements being trained. As a result of application of methods of information and educational space semantic structuring integration of use of the diverse distributed scientific and educational content by educational institutions for carrying out scientific researches, methodical development and training is provided.

Information structure and organisation in change of shift reports: An observational study of nursing hand-offs in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Foster-Hunt, Tara; Parush, Avi; Ellis, Jacqueline; Thomas, Margot; Rashotte, Judy

2015-06-01

Patient hand-offs involve the exchange of critical information. Ineffective hand-offs can result in reduced patient safety by leading to wrong treatment, delayed diagnoses or other outcomes that can negatively affect the healthcare system. The objectives of this study were to uncover the structure of the information conveyed during patient hand-offs and look for principles characterising the organisation of the information. With an observational study approach, data was gathered during the morning and evening nursing change of shift hand-offs in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. Content analysis identified a common meta-structure used for information transfer that contained categories with varying degrees of information integration and the repetition of high consequence information. Differences were found in the organisation of the hand-off structures, and these varied as a function of nursing experience. The findings are discussed in terms of the potential benefits of computerised tools which utilise standardised structure for information transfer and the implications for future education and critical care skill acquisition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Information Geometry of Positive Measures and Positive-Definite Matrices: Decomposable Dually Flat Structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shun-ichi Amari

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Information geometry studies the dually flat structure of a manifold, highlighted by the generalized Pythagorean theorem. The present paper studies a class of Bregman divergences called the (ρ,τ-divergence. A (ρ,τ -divergence generates a dually flat structure in the manifold of positive measures, as well as in the manifold of positive-definite matrices. The class is composed of decomposable divergences, which are written as a sum of componentwise divergences. Conversely, a decomposable dually flat divergence is shown to be a (ρ,τ -divergence. A (ρ,τ -divergence is determined from two monotone scalar functions, ρ and τ. The class includes the KL-divergence, α-, β- and (α, β-divergences as special cases. The transformation between an affine parameter and its dual is easily calculated in the case of a decomposable divergence. Therefore, such a divergence is useful for obtaining the center for a cluster of points, which will be applied to classification and information retrieval in vision. For the manifold of positive-definite matrices, in addition to the dually flatness and decomposability, we require the invariance under linear transformations, in particular under orthogonal transformations. This opens a way to define a new class of divergences, called the (ρ,τ -structure in the manifold of positive-definite matrices.

Understanding of the management information system based on MVC pattern

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Sida

2018-04-01

With the development of the society, people have come to realize the significance of information, not only linguistically but also in the written form. To build an effective and efficient working flow, a new subject called Management Information System (MIS) came up. MIS is an integrated discipline, which utilizes comprehensive and systematical methods to manage information, and it enhances the work efficiency through building structured information platform. This paper demonstrates the Management Information System from shallow too deep with the understanding of MVC pattern, including its basic structure and application with ASP.NET. Also some discussions about its features are made in the last section.

Remote monitoring of instrumented structures using the Internet information superhighway

Science.gov (United States)

Fuhr, Peter L.; Huston, Dryver R.; Ambrose, Timothy P.

1994-09-01

The requirements of sensor monitoring associated with instrumented civil structures poses potential logistical constraints on manpower, training, and costs. The need for frequent or even continuous data monitoring places potentially severe constraints on overall system performance given real-world factors such as available manpower, geographic separation of the instrumented structures, and data archiving as well as the training and cost issues. While the pool of available low wage, moderate skill workers available to the authors is sizable (undergraduate engineering students), the level of performance of such workers is quite variable leading to data acquisition integrity and continuity issues - matters that are not acceptable in the practical field implementation of such developed systems. In the case of acquiring data from the numerous sensors within the civil structures which the authors have instrumented (e.g., a multistory building, roadway/railway bridges, and a hydroelectric dam), we have found that many of these concerns may be alleviated through the use of an automated data acquisition system which archives the acquired information in an electronic location remotely accessible through the Internet global computer network. It is therefore a possible for the data monitoring to be performed at a remote location with the only requirements for data acquisition being Internet accessibility. A description of the developed scheme is presented as well as guiding philosophies.

Information content and acoustic structure of male African elephant social rumbles.

Science.gov (United States)

Stoeger, Angela S; Baotic, Anton

2016-06-08

Until recently, the prevailing theory about male African elephants (Loxodonta africana) was that, once adult and sexually mature, males are solitary and targeted only at finding estrous females. While this is true during the state of 'musth' (a condition characterized by aggressive behavior and elevated androgen levels), 'non-musth' males exhibit a social system seemingly based on companionship, dominance and established hierarchies. Research on elephant vocal communication has so far focused on females, and very little is known about the acoustic structure and the information content of male vocalizations. Using the source and filter theory approach, we analyzed social rumbles of 10 male African elephants. Our results reveal that male rumbles encode information about individuality and maturity (age and size), with formant frequencies and absolute fundamental frequency values having the most informative power. This first comprehensive study on male elephant vocalizations gives important indications on their potential functional relevance for male-male and male-female communication. Our results suggest that, similar to the highly social females, future research on male elephant vocal behavior will reveal a complex communication system in which social knowledge, companionship, hierarchy, reproductive competition and the need to communicate over long distances play key roles.

Understanding the nature of information seeking behavior in critical care: implications for the design of health information technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Kannampallil, Thomas G; Franklin, Amy; Mishra, Rashmi; Almoosa, Khalid F; Cohen, Trevor; Patel, Vimla L

2013-01-01

Information in critical care environments is distributed across multiple sources, such as paper charts, electronic records, and support personnel. For decision-making tasks, physicians have to seek, gather, filter and organize information from various sources in a timely manner. The objective of this research is to characterize the nature of physicians' information seeking process, and the content and structure of clinical information retrieved during this process. Eight medical intensive care unit physicians provided a verbal think-aloud as they performed a clinical diagnosis task. Verbal descriptions of physicians' activities, sources of information they used, time spent on each information source, and interactions with other clinicians were captured for analysis. The data were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative approaches. We found that the information seeking process was exploratory and iterative and driven by the contextual organization of information. While there was no significant differences between the overall time spent paper or electronic records, there was marginally greater relative information gain (i.e., more unique information retrieved per unit time) from electronic records (t(6)=1.89, p=0.1). Additionally, information retrieved from electronic records was at a higher level (i.e., observations and findings) in the knowledge structure than paper records, reflecting differences in the nature of knowledge utilization across resources. A process of local optimization drove the information seeking process: physicians utilized information that maximized their information gain even though it required significantly more cognitive effort. Implications for the design of health information technology solutions that seamlessly integrate information seeking activities within the workflow, such as enriching the clinical information space and supporting efficient clinical reasoning and decision-making, are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All

Vertical structure of predictability and information transport over the Northern Hemisphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng Ai-Xia; Wang Qi-Gang; Gong Zhi-Qiang; Feng Guo-Lin

2014-01-01

Based on nonlinear prediction and information theory, vertical heterogeneity of predictability and information loss rate in geopotential height field are obtained over the Northern Hemisphere. On a seasonal-to-interannual time scale, the predictability is low in the lower troposphere and high in the mid-upper troposphere. However, within mid-upper troposphere over the subtropics ocean area, there is a relatively poor predictability. These conclusions also fit the seasonal time scale. Moving to the interannual time scale, the predictability becomes high in the lower troposphere and low in the mid-upper troposphere, contrary to the former case. On the whole the interannual trend is more predictable than the seasonal trend. The average information loss rate is low over the mid-east Pacific, west of North America, Atlantic and Eurasia, and the atmosphere over other places has a relatively high information loss rate on all-time scales. Two channels are found steadily over the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean in subtropics. There are also unstable channels. The four-season influence on predictability and information communication are studied. The predictability is low, no matter which season data are removed and each season plays an important role in the existence of the channels, except for the winter. The predictability and teleconnections are paramount issues in atmospheric science, and the teleconnections may be established by communication channels. So, this work is interesting since it reveals the vertical structure of predictability distribution, channel locations, and the contributions of different time scales to them and their variations under different seasons. (geophysics, astronomy, and astrophysics)

Explaining the effects of a point-of-purchase nutrition-information intervention in university canteens: a structural equation modelling analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoefkens, Christine; Pieniak, Zuzanna; Van Camp, John; Verbeke, Wim

2012-09-11

The importance of canteen meals in the diet of many university students makes the provision of simple point-of-purchase (POP) nutrition information in university canteens a potentially effective way to promote healthier diets in an important group of young adults. However, modifications to environments such as the posting of POP nutrition information in canteens may not cause an immediate change in meal choices and nutrient intakes. The present study aimed at understanding the process by which the POP nutrition information achieved its effects on the meal choice and energy intake, and whether the information was more effective in changing the meal choice of subgroups of university canteen customers. The POP nutrition-information intervention used a one-group pretest-posttest design. A sample of 224 customers of two university canteens completed the baseline and 6-months follow-up surveys. A multi-group structural equation modelling analysis was used to test mediation effects of individual difference variables (liking, understanding and use of the information, subjective knowledge and attitude) on the energy intake from canteen meals, moderated by the objective nutrition knowledge and motivation to change diet. Significant relations were identified between liking of the information and its use on one hand and a positive effect in attitude towards healthy canteen meals on the other hand. Motivation to change diet and sufficient objective nutrition knowledge were required to maintain a recommended energy intake from canteen meals or to lead to a decrease in energy intake. Participants with greater objective nutrition knowledge had a greater understanding of the POP nutrition information which also resulted in a more effective use of the information. The results suggest that nutrition-information interventions may be more effective when using nutrition information that is generally liked by the target population in combination with an educational intervention to

Different continuous cropping spans significantly affect microbial community membership and structure in a vanilla-grown soil as revealed by deep pyrosequencing.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Wu; Zhao, Qingyun; Zhao, Jun; Xun, Weibing; Li, Rong; Zhang, Ruifu; Wu, Huasong; Shen, Qirong

2015-07-01

In the present study, soil bacterial and fungal communities across vanilla continuous cropping time-series fields were assessed through deep pyrosequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. The results demonstrated that the long-term monoculture of vanilla significantly altered soil microbial communities. Soil fungal diversity index increased with consecutive cropping years, whereas soil bacterial diversity was relatively stable. Bray-Curtis dissimilarity cluster and UniFrac-weighted principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) revealed that monoculture time was the major determinant for fungal community structure, but not for bacterial community structure. The relative abundances (RAs) of the Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Basidiomycota phyla were depleted along the years of vanilla monoculture. Pearson correlations at the phyla level demonstrated that Actinobacteria, Armatimonadetes, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Firmicutes had significant negative correlations with vanilla disease index (DI), while no significant correlation for fungal phyla was observed. In addition, the amount of the pathogen Fusarium oxysporum accumulated with increasing years and was significantly positively correlated with vanilla DI. By contrast, the abundance of beneficial bacteria, including Bradyrhizobium and Bacillus, significantly decreased over time. In sum, soil weakness and vanilla stem wilt disease after long-term continuous cropping can be attributed to the alteration of the soil microbial community membership and structure, i.e., the reduction of the beneficial microbes and the accumulation of the fungal pathogen.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR ENHANCING STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL PLANNING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Akram Jalal Karim

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Management Information Systems (MIS is the key factor to facilitate and attain efficient decision making in an organization. This research explores the extent to which management information systems implemented to make successful decisions at two selected financial organizations. The research examined whether the selected financial institutions of Bahrain vary as to the use of Management Information Systems leadership of decision making for strategic and tactical planning purposes. The research adapted the quantitative research design to examine two research hypotheses. A total of 190 forms were equally distributed to those who are working at different management levels at the selected organizations. The results of the research showed that MIS was primarily used to enhance strategic planning in both financial institutions. The regression analysis revealed that Tactical planning is found to have no effect on Decision Making, while Strategic planning has a clear effect on the Decision Making Effectiveness in both organizations

Classification of Hyperspectral Images by SVM Using a Composite Kernel by Employing Spectral, Spatial and Hierarchical Structure Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi Wang

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we introduce a novel classification framework for hyperspectral images (HSIs by jointly employing spectral, spatial, and hierarchical structure information. In this framework, the three types of information are integrated into the SVM classifier in a way of multiple kernels. Specifically, the spectral kernel is constructed through each pixel’s vector value in the original HSI, and the spatial kernel is modeled by using the extended morphological profile method due to its simplicity and effectiveness. To accurately characterize hierarchical structure features, the techniques of Fish-Markov selector (FMS, marker-based hierarchical segmentation (MHSEG and algebraic multigrid (AMG are combined. First, the FMS algorithm is used on the original HSI for feature selection to produce its spectral subset. Then, the multigrid structure of this subset is constructed using the AMG method. Subsequently, the MHSEG algorithm is exploited to obtain a hierarchy consist of a series of segmentation maps. Finally, the hierarchical structure information is represented by using these segmentation maps. The main contributions of this work is to present an effective composite kernel for HSI classification by utilizing spatial structure information in multiple scales. Experiments were conducted on two hyperspectral remote sensing images to validate that the proposed framework can achieve better classification results than several popular kernel-based classification methods in terms of both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Specifically, the proposed classification framework can achieve 13.46–15.61% in average higher than the standard SVM classifier under different training sets in the terms of overall accuracy.

On the Value of Monitoring Information for the Structural Integrity and Risk Management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thöns, Sebastian

2018-01-01

facilitates the assessment of the value of information associated with SHM. The principal approach for the quantification of the value of SHM is formulated by modeling the fundamental decision of performing SHM or not in conjunction with their expected utilities. The expected utilities are calculated....... The calculation of the expected utilities necessitates a comprehensive and rigorous modeling, which is introduced close to the original formulations and for which analysis characteristics and simplifications are described and derived. The framework provides the basis for the optimization of the structural risk......This article introduces an approach and framework for the quantification of the value of structural health monitoring (SHM) in the context of the structural risk and integrity management for systems.The quantification of the value of SHM builds upon the Bayesian decision and utility theory, which...

Effectiveness of a structured motivational intervention including smoking cessation advice and spirometry information in the primary care setting: the ESPITAP study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin-Lujan Francisco

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is current controversy about the efficacy of smoking cessation interventions that are based on information obtained by spirometry. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness in the primary care setting of structured motivational intervention to achieve smoking cessation, compared with usual clinical practice. Methods Design Multicentre randomized clinical trial with an intervention and a control group. Setting 12 primary care centres in the province of Tarragona (Spain. Subjects of study 600 current smokers aged between 35 and 70 years with a cumulative habit of more than 10 packs of cigarettes per year, attended in primary care for any reason and who did not meet any of the exclusion criteria for the study, randomly assigned to structured intervention or standard clinical attention. Intervention Usual advice to quit smoking by a general practitioner as well as a 20-minute personalized visit to provide detailed information about spirometry results, during which FEV1, FVC, FEF 25-75% and PEF measurements were discussed and interpreted in terms of theoretical values. Additional information included the lung age index (defined as the average age of a non-smoker with the same FEV1 as the study participant, comparing this with the chronological age to illustrate the pulmonary deterioration that results from smoking. Measurements Spirometry during the initial visit. Structured interview questionnaire administered at the primary care centre at the initial visit and at 12-month follow-up. Telephone follow-up interview at 6 months. At 12-month follow-up, expired CO was measured in patients who claimed to have quit smoking. Main variables Smoking cessation at 12 months. Analysis Data will be analyzed on the basis of "intention to treat" and the unit of analysis will be the individual smoker. Expected results Among active smokers treated in primary care we anticipate significantly higher smoking cessation in the

In the Information Age, do dementia caregivers get the information they need? Semi-structured interviews to determine informal caregivers' education needs, barriers, and preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, Kendra; Hahn, Howard; Lee, Amber J; Madison, Catherine A; Atri, Alireza

2016-09-23

Most patients with dementia or cognitive impairment receive care from family members, often untrained for this challenging role. Caregivers may not access publicly available caregiving information, and caregiver education programs are not widely implemented clinically. Prior large surveys yielded broad quantitative understanding of caregiver information needs, but do not illuminate the in-depth, rich, and nuanced caregiver perspectives that can be gleaned using qualitative methodology. We aimed to understand perspectives about information sources, barriers and preferences, through semi-structured interviews with 27 caregivers. Content analysis identified important themes. We interviewed 19 women, 8 men; mean age 58.5 years; most adult children (15) or spouses (8) of the care recipient. Dementia symptoms often developed insidiously, with delayed disease acknowledgement and caregiver self-identification. While memory loss was common, behavioral symptoms were most troublesome, often initially unrecognized as disease indicators. Emerging themes: 1.) Barriers to seeking information often result from knowledge gaps, rather than reluctance to assume the caregiver role; 2.) Most caregivers currently receive insufficient information. Caregivers are open to many information sources, settings, and technologies, including referrals to other healthcare professionals, print material, and community and internet resources, but expect the primary care provider (PCP) to recommend, endorse, and guide them to specific sources. These findings replicated and expanded on results from previous quantitative surveys and, importantly, revealed a previously unrecognized essential factor: despite receiving insufficient information, caregivers place critical value on their relationship with care recipient PCPs to receive recommendations, guidance and endorsement to sources of caregiving information. Implications include: 1.) Greater public education is needed to help caregivers identify and

Structural analysis of health-relevant policy-making information exchange networks in Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Contandriopoulos, Damien; Benoît, François; Bryant-Lukosius, Denise; Carrier, Annie; Carter, Nancy; Deber, Raisa; Duhoux, Arnaud; Greenhalgh, Trisha; Larouche, Catherine; Leclerc, Bernard-Simon; Levy, Adrian; Martin-Misener, Ruth; Maximova, Katerina; McGrail, Kimberlyn; Nykiforuk, Candace; Roos, Noralou; Schwartz, Robert; Valente, Thomas W; Wong, Sabrina; Lindquist, Evert; Pullen, Carolyn; Lardeux, Anne; Perroux, Melanie

2017-09-20

Health systems worldwide struggle to identify, adopt, and implement in a timely and system-wide manner the best-evidence-informed-policy-level practices. Yet, there is still only limited evidence about individual and institutional best practices for fostering the use of scientific evidence in policy-making processes The present project is the first national-level attempt to (1) map and structurally analyze-quantitatively-health-relevant policy-making networks that connect evidence production, synthesis, interpretation, and use; (2) qualitatively investigate the interaction patterns of a subsample of actors with high centrality metrics within these networks to develop an in-depth understanding of evidence circulation processes; and (3) combine these findings in order to assess a policy network's "absorptive capacity" regarding scientific evidence and integrate them into a conceptually sound and empirically grounded framework. The project is divided into two research components. The first component is based on quantitative analysis of ties (relationships) that link nodes (participants) in a network. Network data will be collected through a multi-step snowball sampling strategy. Data will be analyzed structurally using social network mapping and analysis methods. The second component is based on qualitative interviews with a subsample of the Web survey participants having central, bridging, or atypical positions in the network. Interviews will focus on the process through which evidence circulates and enters practice. Results from both components will then be integrated through an assessment of the network's and subnetwork's effectiveness in identifying, capturing, interpreting, sharing, reframing, and recodifying scientific evidence in policy-making processes. Knowledge developed from this project has the potential both to strengthen the scientific understanding of how policy-level knowledge transfer and exchange functions and to provide significantly improved advice

Research and design of the structure of information support of road transport

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. G. Kozlov

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The main issue is to study the interaction between the system of road transport and security of its information systems. The mechanism of this interaction is studied only on the basis of studies of the learning process. These two interacting systems through training react to each other. Due to the strong correlation between these two systems offer the development of the basics of management information support to carry out complex, without violating the integrity of the systems. As the methods of research used methods of system analysis and probability theory. The criteria for the study of the interaction of systems: full-scale technological and economic indicators. By the technological parameters include: completeness of use of the system (load, and performance of information security; to full-scale - the cost of labor, energy, materials; to the economic - the cost, payback, profit, profit. The stages of the development of the structure of information support: the definition of objectives; study of the problems and the choice of solution to the problem; agreed solutions (thematic plan; approval of decisions; Management and Implementation; verification of the effectiveness of decisions. Established shortcomings in the existing system of information support of decentralization processes interrelated technical planning; territorial, institutional and administrative divisions of organizations taking interdependent solutions; the lack of control most of the organizations operating information support for road transport; incomplete information of the absolute majority of publishing houses in the needs of motorists; duplication of the work of many publishers. There are two mechanisms of control information management system. Control enhances performance management system, improves the output characteristics of the system.

Structural biology at York Structural Biology Laboratory; laboratory information management systems for structural genomics

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Dohnálek, Jan

2005-01-01

Roč. 12, č. 1 (2005), s. 3 ISSN 1211-5894. [Meeting of Structural Biologists /4./. 10.03.2005-12.03.2005, Nové Hrady] R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) 1K05008 Keywords : structural biology * LIMS * structural genomics Subject RIV: CD - Macromolecular Chemistry

Visualizing information across multidimensional post-genomic structured and textual databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Ying; Friedman, Carol; Lussier, Yves A

2005-04-15

Visualizing relationships among biological information to facilitate understanding is crucial to biological research during the post-genomic era. Although different systems have been developed to view gene-phenotype relationships for specific databases, very few have been designed specifically as a general flexible tool for visualizing multidimensional genotypic and phenotypic information together. Our goal is to develop a method for visualizing multidimensional genotypic and phenotypic information and a model that unifies different biological databases in order to present the integrated knowledge using a uniform interface. We developed a novel, flexible and generalizable visualization tool, called PhenoGenesviewer (PGviewer), which in this paper was used to display gene-phenotype relationships from a human-curated database (OMIM) and from an automatic method using a Natural Language Processing tool called BioMedLEE. Data obtained from multiple databases were first integrated into a uniform structure and then organized by PGviewer. PGviewer provides a flexible query interface that allows dynamic selection and ordering of any desired dimension in the databases. Based on users' queries, results can be visualized using hierarchical expandable trees that present views specified by users according to their research interests. We believe that this method, which allows users to dynamically organize and visualize multiple dimensions, is a potentially powerful and promising tool that should substantially facilitate biological research. PhenogenesViewer as well as its support and tutorial are available at http://www.dbmi.columbia.edu/pgviewer/ Lussier@dbmi.columbia.edu.

Multi-information fusion sparse coding with preserving local structure for hyperspectral image classification

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Xiaohui; Zhu, Wen; Liao, Bo; Gu, Changlong; Li, Weibiao

2017-10-01

The key question of sparse coding (SC) is how to exploit the information that already exists to acquire the robust sparse representations (SRs) of distinguishing different objects for hyperspectral image (HSI) classification. We propose a multi-information fusion SC framework, which fuses the spectral, spatial, and label information in the same level, to solve the above question. In particular, pixels from disjointed spatial clusters, which are obtained by cutting the given HSI in space, are individually and sparsely encoded. Then, due to the importance of spatial structure, graph- and hypergraph-based regularizers are enforced to motivate the obtained representations smoothness and to preserve the local consistency for each spatial cluster. The latter simultaneously considers the spectrum, spatial, and label information of multiple pixels that have a great probability with the same label. Finally, a linear support vector machine is selected as the final classifier with the learned SRs as input. Experiments conducted on three frequently used real HSIs show that our methods can achieve satisfactory results compared with other state-of-the-art methods.

The significance of the neurovascular structures passing through the spinoglenoid notch

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atekin, Mustafa; Demiryiirek, Deniz; Bayramoglu, Alp; Tuccar, Eray

2003-01-01

To define the detailed anatomy of the neurovascular bundle at the spinoglenoid notch and to report the dimensions of these structures in cadavers. In the present study, the external diameters of suprascapular artery, vein and nerve were measured at the spinoglenoid region in 18 formalin fixed cadavers (36 soulders) by using a caliper. The study was carried out in the dissection laboratory of Anatomy Department of Hacettepe University ,Ankara University, Ankara and Mersin University ,Mersin,Turkey, between2002 and 2003.The average external diameter for suprascapular vein was 2.6 mmand nerve was 2.2 mm. The spinoglenoid notch was roofed by the spinoglenoid ligament and appeared as a fibroosseous foramen in all cadavers. We found that vascular structures (suprascapular artery and vein )occupied 68.5% and the suprascapular nerve occupied 31.5% of this foramen. Although the diameters of the vascular structures at the spinoglenoid notch measured by magnetic resonance imaging have been reported,to our knowledge, external diameters of these structures at the spinoglenoid notch have not been described in cadavers. We believe that detailed anatomy of suprascapular neurovascular bundle at the spinoglenoid notch should be appreciated for better understanding of risk factors possibly causing the sprascapular nerve entrapment syndrome specially for those who are involved in voilent ovehead sports activities such as volleyball and baseball. (author)

Interaction of negation with tense, modality and information structure in Standard Arabic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nasser Al-Horais

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to consider the interaction of tense, mood and focus with negation in Standard Arabic. This interaction can be observed via marking the tense and mood of the sentence, or via selecting a particular type of tense, or being associated with Information Structure. Building on this fact, the current paper provides a unified analysis, in which negation in Arabic can be accounted for without a NegP projection.

Labor Informality: General Causes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustavo Sandoval Betancour

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The article examines the main causes of labor informality in order to verify the validity of classical theories that explain unemployment in market economies and its relationship to informality. Methodologically, the project was based, in the empirical part, on international statistics, comparing the evolution of labor market structure in a combined sample of highly industrialized countries and other less industrialized ones. Empirical evidence supports the conclusion that the classical economic theory of Marxist origin is inefficient to explain the causes of unemployment in contemporary market economies, as well as it fails to satisfactorily explain informality. On the contrary, we conclude that the theory in question is more relevant to explain informality in centrally planned economies where this phenomenon has been present even more significantly than in free market economies.

Modeling cell-in-cell structure into its biological significance

OpenAIRE

He, M-f; Wang, S; Wang, Y; Wang, X-n

2013-01-01

Although cell-in-cell structure was noted 100 years ago, the molecular mechanisms of ?entering' and the destination of cell-in-cell remain largely unclear. It takes place among the same type of cells (homotypic cell-in-cell) or different types of cells (heterotypic cell-in-cell). Cell-in-cell formation affects both effector cells and their host cells in multiple aspects, while cell-in-cell death is under more intensive investigation. Given that cell-in-cell has an important role in maintainin...

Internal architecture, permeability structure, and hydrologic significance of contrasting fault-zone types

Science.gov (United States)

Rawling, Geoffrey C.; Goodwin, Laurel B.; Wilson, John L.

2001-01-01

The Sand Hill fault is a steeply dipping, large-displacement normal fault that cuts poorly lithified Tertiary sediments of the Albuquerque basin, New Mexico, United States. The fault zone does not contain macroscopic fractures; the basic structural element is the deformation band. The fault core is composed of foliated clay flanked by structurally and lithologically heterogeneous mixed zones, in turn flanked by damage zones. Structures present within these fault-zone architectural elements are different from those in brittle faults formed in lithified sedimentary and crystalline rocks that do contain fractures. These differences are reflected in the permeability structure of the Sand Hill fault. Equivalent permeability calculations indicate that large-displacement faults in poorly lithified sediments have little potential to act as vertical-flow conduits and have a much greater effect on horizontal flow than faults with fractures.

Microsatellite data suggest significant population structure and differentiation within the malaria vector Anopheles darlingi in Central and South America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Achee Nicole L

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Anopheles darlingi is the most important malaria vector in the Neotropics. An understanding of A. darlingi's population structure and contemporary gene flow patterns is necessary if vector populations are to be successfully controlled. We assessed population genetic structure and levels of differentiation based on 1,376 samples from 31 localities throughout the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon and Central America using 5–8 microsatellite loci. Results We found high levels of polymorphism for all of the Amazonian populations (mean RS = 7.62, mean HO = 0.742, and low levels for the Belize and Guatemalan populations (mean RS = 4.3, mean HO = 0.457. The Bayesian clustering analysis revealed five population clusters: northeastern Amazonian Brazil, southeastern and central Amazonian Brazil, western and central Amazonian Brazil, Peruvian Amazon, and the Central American populations. Within Central America there was low non-significant differentiation, except for between the populations separated by the Maya Mountains. Within Amazonia there was a moderate level of significant differentiation attributed to isolation by distance. Within Peru there was no significant population structure and low differentiation, and some evidence of a population expansion. The pairwise estimates of genetic differentiation between Central America and Amazonian populations were all very high and highly significant (FST = 0.1859 – 0.3901, P DA and FST distance-based trees illustrated the main division to be between Central America and Amazonia. Conclusion We detected a large amount of population structure in Amazonia, with three population clusters within Brazil and one including the Peru populations. The considerable differences in Ne among the populations may have contributed to the observed genetic differentiation. All of the data suggest that the primary division within A. darlingi corresponds to two white gene genotypes between Amazonia (genotype 1

Integrating genomic information with protein sequence and 3D atomic level structure at the RCSB protein data bank.

Science.gov (United States)

Prlic, Andreas; Kalro, Tara; Bhattacharya, Roshni; Christie, Cole; Burley, Stephen K; Rose, Peter W

2016-12-15

The Protein Data Bank (PDB) now contains more than 120,000 three-dimensional (3D) structures of biological macromolecules. To allow an interpretation of how PDB data relates to other publicly available annotations, we developed a novel data integration platform that maps 3D structural information across various datasets. This integration bridges from the human genome across protein sequence to 3D structure space. We developed novel software solutions for data management and visualization, while incorporating new libraries for web-based visualization using SVG graphics. The new views are available from http://www.rcsb.org and software is available from https://github.com/rcsb/. andreas.prlic@rcsb.orgSupplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Meniscofibular Ligament: Morphology and Functional Significance of a Relatively Unknown Anatomical Structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Natsis

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose. A relatively unknown ligamentous structure of the posterolateral corner of the knee joint, the so-called meniscofibular ligament (MFL, was investigated as regards its macroscopic morphology, its histological features, and its reaction to knee movements. Material and Methods. MFL was exposed on 21 fresh-frozen unpaired knee joints. Its microscopic morphology was examined utilizing for comparison the fibular collateral and the popliteofibular ligament. Results. MFL was encountered in 100% of the specimens as a thin striplike fibrous band extending between the lower border of the lateral meniscus and the head of the fibula. MFL was tense during knee extension and external rotation of the tibia, whereas its histological features were similar to those of fibular collateral and popliteofibular ligament. Discussion. Its precise histological nature is studied as well as its tension alterations during knee movements. The potential functional significance of the MFL with respect to its role in avoidance of lateral meniscus and lateral coronary ligament tears is discussed. Conclusions. MFL presumably provides an additional protection to the lateral meniscus during the last stages of knee extension, as well as to the lateral coronary ligament reducing the possibility of a potential rupture.

Sharing information: Mixed-methods investigation of brief experiential interprofessional

Science.gov (United States)

Cocksedge, Simon; Barr, Nicky; Deakin, Corinne

In UK health policy ‘sharing good information is pivotal to improving care quality, safety, and effectiveness. Nevertheless, educators often neglect this vital communication skill. The consequences of brief communication education interventions for healthcare workers are not yet established. This study investigated a three-hour interprofessional experiential workshop (group work, theoretical input, rehearsal) training healthcare staff in sharing information using a clear structure (PARSLEY). Staff in one UK hospital participated. Questionnaires were completed before, immediately after, and eight weeks after training, with semistructured interviews seven weeks after training. Participants (n=76) were from assorted healthcare occupations (26% non-clinical). Knowledge significantly increased immediately after training. Self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and motivation to use the structure taught were significantly increased immediately following training and at eight weeks. Respondents at eight weeks (n=35) reported their practice in sharing information had changed within seven days of training. Seven weeks after training, most interviewees (n=13) reported confidently using the PARSLEY structure regularly in varied settings. All had re-evaluated their communication practice. Brief training altered self-reported communication behaviour of healthcare staff, with sustained changes in everyday work. As sharing information is central to communication curricula, health policy, and shared decision-making, the effectiveness of brief teaching interventions has economic and educational implications.

Factors affecting the adoption of healthcare information technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Phichitchaisopa, Nisakorn; Naenna, Thanakorn

2013-01-01

In order to improve the quality and performance of healthcare services, healthcare information technology is among the most important technology in healthcare supply chain management. This study sets out to apply and test the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), to examine the factors influencing healthcare Information Technology (IT) services. A structured questionnaire was developed and distributed to healthcare representatives in each province surveyed in Thailand. Data collected from 400 employees including physicians, nurses, and hospital staff members were tested the model using structural equation modeling technique. The results found that the factors with a significant effect are performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions. They were also found to have a significant impact on behavioral intention to use the acceptance healthcare technology. In addition, in Thai provincial areas, positive significance was found with two factors: social influence on behavioral intention and facilitating conditions to direct using behavior. Based on research findings, in order for healthcare information technology to be widely adopted and used by healthcare staffs in healthcare supply chain management, the healthcare organizational management should improve healthcare staffs' behavioral intention and facilitating conditions.

Factors affecting the adoption of healthcare information technology

Science.gov (United States)

Phichitchaisopa, Nisakorn; Naenna, Thanakorn

2013-01-01

In order to improve the quality and performance of healthcare services, healthcare information technology is among the most important technology in healthcare supply chain management. This study sets out to apply and test the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), to examine the factors influencing healthcare Information Technology (IT) services. A structured questionnaire was developed and distributed to healthcare representatives in each province surveyed in Thailand. Data collected from 400 employees including physicians, nurses, and hospital staff members were tested the model using structural equation modeling technique. The results found that the factors with a significant effect are performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions. They were also found to have a significant impact on behavioral intention to use the acceptance healthcare technology. In addition, in Thai provincial areas, positive significance was found with two factors: social influence on behavioral intention and facilitating conditions to direct using behavior. Based on research findings, in order for healthcare information technology to be widely adopted and used by healthcare staffs in healthcare supply chain management, the healthcare organizational management should improve healthcare staffs' behavioral intention and facilitating conditions. PMID:26417235

Differences in the impacts of formal and informal recreational trails on urban forest loss and tree structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballantyne, Mark; Pickering, Catherine Marina

2015-08-15

Recreational trails are one of the most common types of infrastructure used for nature-based activities such as hiking and mountain biking worldwide. Depending on their design, location, construction, maintenance and use, these trails differ in their environmental impacts. There are few studies, however, comparing the impacts of different trail types including between formal management-created trails and informal visitor-created trails. Although both types of trails can be found in remote natural areas, dense networks of them often occur in forests close to cities where they experience intense visitor use. To assess the relative impacts of different recreational trails in urban forests, we compared the condition of the trail surface, loss of forest strata and changes in tree structure caused by seven types of trails (total network 46.1 km) traversing 17 remnants of an endangered urban forest in Australia. After mapping and classifying all trails, we assessed their impact on the forest condition at 125 sites (15 sites per trail type, plus 15 control sites within undisturbed forest). On the trail sites, the condition of the trail surface, distance from the trail edge to four forest strata (litter, understory, midstorey and tree cover) and structure of the tree-line were assessed. Informal trails generally had poorer surface conditions and were poorly-designed and located. Per site, formal and informal trails resulted in similar loss of forest strata, with wider trails resulting in greater loss of forest. Because there were more informal trails, however, they accounted for the greatest cumulative forest loss. Structural impacts varied, with the widest informal trails and all formal hardened trails resulting in similar reductions in canopy cover and tree density but an increase in saplings. These structural impacts are likely a function of the unregulated and intense use of large informal trails, and disturbance from the construction and maintenance of formal trails

Conceptual structure within and between modalities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katia eDilkina

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Current views of semantic memory share the assumption that conceptual representations are based on multi-modal experience, which activates distinct modality-specific brain regions. This proposition is widely accepted, yet little is known about how each modality contributes to conceptual knowledge and how the structure of this contribution varies across these multiple information sources. We used verbal feature lists, features from drawings and verbal co-occurrence statistics from latent semantic analysis to examine the informational structure in four domains of knowledge: perceptual, functional, encyclopedic and verbal. The goals of the analysis were three-fold: (1 to assess the structure within individual modalities; (2 to compare structures between modalities; and (3 to assess the degree to which concepts organize categorically or randomly.Our results indicated significant and unique structure in all four modalities: perceptually, concepts organize based on prominent features such as shape, size, color and parts; functionally, they group based on use and interaction; encyclopedically, they arrange based on commonality in location or behavior; and verbally, they group associatively or relationally. Visual/perceptual knowledge gives rise to the strongest hierarchical organization and is closest to classic taxonomic structure. Information is organized somewhat similarly in the perceptual and encyclopedic domains, which differs significantly from the structure in the functional and verbal domains. Notably, the verbal modality has the most unique organization, which is not at all categorical but also not random. The idiosyncrasy and complexity of conceptual structure across modalities begs the question of how all of these modality-specific experiences are fused together into coherent, multi-faceted yet unified concepts. Accordingly, both methodological and theoretical implications of the present findings are discussed.

Significance of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations to Plastic Surgery Residency Training.

Science.gov (United States)

Simmons, Brian J; Zoghbi, Yasmina; Askari, Morad; Birnbach, David J; Shekhter, Ilya; Thaller, Seth R

2017-09-01

Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) have proven to be a powerful tool. They possess more than a 30-year track record in assessing the competency of medical students, residents, and fellows. Objective structured clinical examinations have been used successfully in a variety of medical specialties, including surgery. They have recently found their way into the subspecialty of plastic surgery. This article uses a systematic review of the available literature on OSCEs and their recent use in plastic surgery. It incorporates survey results assessing program directors' views on the use of OSCEs. Approximately 40% of programs surveyed use OSCEs to assess the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies. We found that 40% use OSCEs to evaluate specific plastic surgery milestones. Objective structured clinical examinations are usually performed annually. They cost anywhere between $100 and more than $1000 per resident. Four milestones giving residents the most difficulties on OSCEs were congenital anomalies, noncancer breast surgery, breast reconstruction, and practice-based learning and improvement. It was determined that challenges with milestones were due to lack of adequate general knowledge and surgical ward patient care, as well as deficits in professionalism and system-based problems. Programs were able to remediate weakness found by OSCEs using a variety of methods. Objective structured clinical examinations offer a unique tool to objectively assess the proficiency of residents in key areas of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies. In addition, they can be used to assess the specific milestones that plastic surgery residents must meet. This allows programs to identify and improve identified areas of weakness.

Nuclear power plant design characteristics. Structure of nuclear power plant design characteristics in the IAEA Power Reactor Information System (PRIS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-03-01

One of the IAEA's priorities has been to maintain the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) database as a viable and useful source of information on nuclear reactors worldwide. To satisfy the needs of PRIS users as much as possible, the PRIS database has included also a set of nuclear power plant (NPP) design characteristics. Accordingly, the PRIS Technical Meeting, organized in Vienna 4-7 October 2004, initiated a thorough revision of the design data area of the PRIS database to establish the actual status of the data and make improvements. The revision first concentrated on a detailed review of the design data completion and the composition of the design characteristics. Based on the results of the review, a modified set and structure of the unit design characteristics for the PRIS database has been developed. The main objective of the development has been to cover all significant plant systems adequately and provide an even more comprehensive overview of NPP unit designs stored in the PRIS database

Job-Structure and Job-Related Information

OpenAIRE

川上, 善郎

1981-01-01

The requirements of job-related information in many domain, such as personnel selection, placement, training, personnel appraisal, job evaluation, job design etc, have developed many techniques of job analysis.In this paper, several approaches to analyze the job characteristics are reviewed; (a) conventional approach, (b) worker-oriented approach, and (c) perceived job characteristics approach.In addition, new direction of job-related information is discussed.

Explaining the effects of a point-of-purchase nutrition-information intervention in university canteens: a structural equation modelling analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hoefkens Christine

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The importance of canteen meals in the diet of many university students makes the provision of simple point-of-purchase (POP nutrition information in university canteens a potentially effective way to promote healthier diets in an important group of young adults. However, modifications to environments such as the posting of POP nutrition information in canteens may not cause an immediate change in meal choices and nutrient intakes. The present study aimed at understanding the process by which the POP nutrition information achieved its effects on the meal choice and energy intake, and whether the information was more effective in changing the meal choice of subgroups of university canteen customers. Methods The POP nutrition-information intervention used a one-group pretest-posttest design. A sample of 224 customers of two university canteens completed the baseline and 6-months follow-up surveys. A multi-group structural equation modelling analysis was used to test mediation effects of individual difference variables (liking, understanding and use of the information, subjective knowledge and attitude on the energy intake from canteen meals, moderated by the objective nutrition knowledge and motivation to change diet. Results Significant relations were identified between liking of the information and its use on one hand and a positive effect in attitude towards healthy canteen meals on the other hand. Motivation to change diet and sufficient objective nutrition knowledge were required to maintain a recommended energy intake from canteen meals or to lead to a decrease in energy intake. Participants with greater objective nutrition knowledge had a greater understanding of the POP nutrition information which also resulted in a more effective use of the information. Conclusions The results suggest that nutrition-information interventions may be more effective when using nutrition information that is generally liked by the target

Structure D'Ensemble, Multiple Classification, Multiple Seriation and Amount of Irrelevant Information

Science.gov (United States)

Hamel, B. Remmo; Van Der Veer, M. A. A.

1972-01-01

A significant positive correlation between multiple classification was found, in testing 65 children aged 6 to 8 years, at the stage of concrete operations. This is interpreted as support for the existence of a structure d'ensemble of operational schemes in the period of concrete operations. (Authors)

PROJECT EVALUATION OF TECHNICAL CONDITION OF SHIP STRUCTURES WITH USE OF INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Юлия Алексеевна КАЗИМИРЕНКО

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The mechanisms for evaluation of technical conditions of ship constructions were investigated and was developed a new specialized informational and search system for the collection, analysis and processing the defects of new materials during the designing, construction, operation of ships and floating structures for transportation of goods 1, 4, 6-8 classes of danger.

Validation and calibration of structural models that combine information from multiple sources.

Science.gov (United States)

Dahabreh, Issa J; Wong, John B; Trikalinos, Thomas A

2017-02-01

Mathematical models that attempt to capture structural relationships between their components and combine information from multiple sources are increasingly used in medicine. Areas covered: We provide an overview of methods for model validation and calibration and survey studies comparing alternative approaches. Expert commentary: Model validation entails a confrontation of models with data, background knowledge, and other models, and can inform judgments about model credibility. Calibration involves selecting parameter values to improve the agreement of model outputs with data. When the goal of modeling is quantitative inference on the effects of interventions or forecasting, calibration can be viewed as estimation. This view clarifies issues related to parameter identifiability and facilitates formal model validation and the examination of consistency among different sources of information. In contrast, when the goal of modeling is the generation of qualitative insights about the modeled phenomenon, calibration is a rather informal process for selecting inputs that result in model behavior that roughly reproduces select aspects of the modeled phenomenon and cannot be equated to an estimation procedure. Current empirical research on validation and calibration methods consists primarily of methodological appraisals or case-studies of alternative techniques and cannot address the numerous complex and multifaceted methodological decisions that modelers must make. Further research is needed on different approaches for developing and validating complex models that combine evidence from multiple sources.

The Structure of the Enterprise’s Information Potential in the Context of Carrying out Strategic Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saukh Iryna V.

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The article is aimed at studying the structure of the enterprise’s information potential, evaluating its subsystems and the depth of strategic analysis based on the level of strategic uncertainty. It has been proven that information potential as a system includes the subsystem of incoming strategic information; the subsystem of evaluation of the information received; the subsystem for processing and transmission of strategic information. An assessment of the level of information saturation of the external environment together with the extent to which the information potential is used depending on the allocated criteria has beens made. A descriptive model of information potential has been developed, application of which will make possible to assess its level of development in terms of financial, based on external and internal information received, and a methodical approach to determining the depth of strategic analysis, depending on the level of strategic uncertainties in the external environment, using the matrix method (based on assessment of the ratio of impact of the environmental factors and the urgency of strategic decision-making has been suggested.

A database paradigm for the management of DICOM-RT structure sets using a geographic information system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shao, Weber; Kupelian, Patrick A; Wang, Jason; Low, Daniel A; Ruan, Dan

2014-01-01

We devise a paradigm for representing the DICOM-RT structure sets in a database management system, in such way that secondary calculations of geometric information can be performed quickly from the existing contour definitions. The implementation of this paradigm is achieved using the PostgreSQL database system and the PostGIS extension, a geographic information system commonly used for encoding geographical map data. The proposed paradigm eliminates the overhead of retrieving large data records from the database, as well as the need to implement various numerical and data parsing routines, when additional information related to the geometry of the anatomy is desired.

A database paradigm for the management of DICOM-RT structure sets using a geographic information system

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Weber; Kupelian, Patrick A.; Wang, Jason; Low, Daniel A.; Ruan, Dan

2014-03-01

We devise a paradigm for representing the DICOM-RT structure sets in a database management system, in such way that secondary calculations of geometric information can be performed quickly from the existing contour definitions. The implementation of this paradigm is achieved using the PostgreSQL database system and the PostGIS extension, a geographic information system commonly used for encoding geographical map data. The proposed paradigm eliminates the overhead of retrieving large data records from the database, as well as the need to implement various numerical and data parsing routines, when additional information related to the geometry of the anatomy is desired.

Towards Information Lasers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrei Khrennikov

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Recently, the methods of quantum theory (QT, especially quantum information and probability, started to be widely applied outside of physics: in cognitive, social and political sciences, psychology, economics, finances, decision making, molecular biology and genetics. Such models can be called quantum-like, in contrast to real quantum physical cognitive and biological models. Quantum-like means that only the information and probability structures of QT are explored. This approach matches the information interpretation of QT well (e.g., Zeilinger and Brukner, Fuchs and Mermin, D’Ariano, as well as the informational viewpoint on physics in general (e.g., Wheeler’s “it from bit” paradigm. In this paper, we propose a quantum-like model of an information laser by precessing the assumptions on the structure of state spaces of information processors, “information atoms” (i-atoms and information fields. The basic assumption is the discrete structure of state spaces related to quantization of an information analog of energy. To analyze a possible structure of the state space of i-atoms leading to the possibility to create information lasers, we have to develop a purely information version of quantum thermodynamics. We did this by placing the main attention on the derivation of the conditions for the equilibrium of information exchange between i-atoms and a quantized information field.

Developing Information Technology for Vocational Education in Contiguous Destitute Areas Significance, Problems, and Countermeasures: The Case of the Wuling Mountain Area

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jie; Xu, Fenghua

2014-01-01

Using the Wuling Mountain area as a case study, the authors discuss the significance as well as five problems of developing information technology for vocational education in contiguous destitute areas. Recommendations are provided at the end of the article. [Translated by Michelle LeSourd.

It's like a family: the significance attributed by health professionals to diabetes health education groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Melo, Lucas Pereira de

2016-08-01

This article analyzes the significance that health professionals attribute to health education groups for people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). This ethnographic study was developed with five professionals from an Expanded Family Health team that operated in five diabetes health education groups. Information was gathered using participant observations and semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed by means of a thematic coding technique. Three different categories emerged: (1) It is a way of educating them: groups as an educational and clinical monitoring forum; (2) they know I will be there for them: the groups as a resource to access the health system; and (3) this serves as a self-help group: after all, what purpose does this group serve? The conclusion reached is that the groups studied were a therapy and support hybrid that, by means of their structure, made it possible for the informants (perhaps, also for the patients) to construct other significance for the standardization of health policies and the dilemma of chronicity. Such hybridization made it possible to create outcomes for the specificities of health work in a "total life" context.

Information and information flow an introduction

CERN Document Server

Bremer, Manuel

2004-01-01

This book is conceived as an introductory text into the theory of syntactic and semantic information, and information flow. Syntactic information theory is concerned with the information contained in the very fact that some signal has a non-random structure. Semantic information theory is concerned with the meaning or information content of messages and the like. The theory of information flow is concerned with deriving some piece of information from another. The main part will take us to situation semantics as a foundation of modern approaches in information theory. We give a brief overview o

Managing Information Uncertainty in Wave Height Modeling for the Offshore Structural Analysis through Random Set

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keqin Yan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This chapter presents a reliability study for an offshore jacket structure with emphasis on the features of nonconventional modeling. Firstly, a random set model is formulated for modeling the random waves in an ocean site. Then, a jacket structure is investigated in a pushover analysis to identify the critical wave direction and key structural elements. This is based on the ultimate base shear strength. The selected probabilistic models are adopted for the important structural members and the wave direction is specified in the weakest direction of the structure for a conservative safety analysis. The wave height model is processed in a P-box format when it is used in the numerical analysis. The models are applied to find the bounds of the failure probabilities for the jacket structure. The propagation of this wave model to the uncertainty in results is investigated in both an interval analysis and Monte Carlo simulation. The results are compared in context of information content and numerical accuracy. Further, the failure probability bounds are compared with the conventional probabilistic approach.

Toward Accessing Spatial Structure from Building Information Models

Science.gov (United States)

Schultz, C.; Bhatt, M.

2011-08-01

Data about building designs and layouts is becoming increasingly more readily available. In the near future, service personal (such as maintenance staff or emergency rescue workers) arriving at a building site will have immediate real-time access to enormous amounts of data relating to structural properties, utilities, materials, temperature, and so on. The critical problem for users is the taxing and error prone task of interpreting such a large body of facts in order to extract salient information. This is necessary for comprehending a situation and deciding on a plan of action, and is a particularly serious issue in time-critical and safety-critical activities such as firefighting. Current unifying building models such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), while being comprehensive, do not directly provide data structures that focus on spatial reasoning and spatial modalities that are required for high-level analytical tasks. The aim of the research presented in this paper is to provide computational tools for higher level querying and reasoning that shift the cognitive burden of dealing with enormous amounts of data away from the user. The user can then spend more energy and time in planning and decision making in order to accomplish the tasks at hand. We present an overview of our framework that provides users with an enhanced model of "built-up space". In order to test our approach using realistic design data (in terms of both scale and the nature of the building models) we describe how our system interfaces with IFC, and we conduct timing experiments to determine the practicality of our approach. We discuss general computational approaches for deriving higher-level spatial modalities by focusing on the example of route graphs. Finally, we present a firefighting scenario with alternative route graphs to motivate the application of our framework.

The Acoustic Structure and Information Content of Female Koala Vocal Signals

Science.gov (United States)

Charlton, Benjamin D.

2015-01-01

Determining the information content of animal vocalisations can give valuable insights into the potential functions of vocal signals. The source-filter theory of vocal production allows researchers to examine the information content of mammal vocalisations by linking variation in acoustic features with variation in relevant physical characteristics of the caller. Here I used a source-filter theory approach to classify female koala vocalisations into different call-types, and determine which acoustic features have the potential to convey important information about the caller to other conspecifics. A two-step cluster analysis classified female calls into bellows, snarls and tonal rejection calls. Additional results revealed that female koala vocalisations differed in their potential to provide information about a given caller’s phenotype that may be of importance to receivers. Female snarls did not contain reliable acoustic cues to the caller’s identity and age. In contrast, female bellows and tonal rejection calls were individually distinctive, and the tonal rejection calls of older female koalas had consistently lower mean, minimum and maximum fundamental frequency. In addition, female bellows were significantly shorter in duration and had higher fundamental frequency, formant frequencies, and formant frequency spacing than male bellows. These results indicate that female koala vocalisations have the potential to signal the caller’s identity, age and sex. I go on to discuss the anatomical basis for these findings, and consider the possible functional relevance of signalling this type of information in the koala’s natural habitat. PMID:26465340

Equation of state for sub-stoichiometric urania using significant structures theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fischer, E.A.

1979-01-01

The Significant Structures Theory (SST) by Eyring was successfully used to predict the equation of state in the liquid range for a variety of materials, including UO 2 . However, all these applications assumed that the liquid evaporates congruently i.e. the composition of the vapor phase is identical to that of the condensed phase. In this paper, an attempt is made to apply SST to non-congruently evaporating materials, using hypo-stoichiometric urania as an example. To this end, additional hypotheses to those of the original SST must be made. In the SST, it is assumed that the partition function of the liquid can be expressed by suitably combining that of 'solidlike molecules', and of 'gaslike molecules'. In the present work, starting from the fact that non-stoichiometry of solid urania is connected with lattice defects (e.g. oxygen interstitials or oxygen vacancies), it is assumed that a simple oxygen defect model can be extrapolated into the liquid state. Thus, the solidlike partition function includes a defect term, which determines the O/U; the defect concentration depends on the absolute activity of oxygen. The gaslike partition function allows for UO(g) and UO 2 (g), the ratio depending also on the oxygen activity. The parameters of the theory are selected such as to obtain agreement with experimental data at the melting point. The physical requirement that the difference between liquid and gas disappears at the critical temperature necessitates an adjustment of the solidlike partition function at high temperatures. (orig.) [de

Solving crystal structures from powder data. I. The role of the prior information in the two-stage method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Altomare, A.; Carrozzini, B.; Giacovazzo, C.; Guagliardi, A.; Moliterni, A.G.G.; Rizzi, R.

1996-01-01

For pt.II see ibid., p.674-81, 1996. The principal limitation of the diffraction methods for crystal structure analysis from powder data is originated by the collapse of the three-dimensional reciprocal space into the one dimension of the powder diffraction pattern. The degradation of the information can make difficult even the solution of small crystal structures and can generate inefficiencies in the least-squares methods devoted to crystal structure refinement. In this paper, the current two-stage procedures, the first stage dedicated to powder-pattern decomposition and the second to direct phasing of powder data, are analysed. It is shown that in the first stage such procedures disregard a large amount of information that can become available during the process of crystal structure solution and analysis. The use of such information is essential for making direct-methods procedures more robust and for improving the accuracy of the least-squares techniques. The performances of EXTRA [Altomare, Burla, Cascarano, Giacovazzo, Guagliardi, Moliterni and Polidori (1995). J. Appl. Cryst. 28, 842-846], a program for full-pattern decomposition based on the Le Bail algorithm, and of SIRPOW.92 [Altomare, Burla, Cascarano, Giacovazzo, Guagliardi, Polidori and Camalli (1994). J. Appl. Cryst. 27, 435-436], a direct-methods program optimized for powder data, are discussed in order to offer to the reader a logical pathway for the analysis of the traditional techniques and for the proposition of a new approach. It is shown that pattern-decomposition programs based on the Le Bail algorithm are able to exploit the prior information in a more effective way than Pawley-method-based decomposition programs. (orig.)

Significant Structuring Resources in the Reading Practices of a Digital Classroom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annika Lantz-Andersson

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Since reading and writing digitally demand partially different competencies, there is a change in some of the premises of related educational practices. This study aims to contribute to the knowledge of educational reading practices by scrutinizing how literacy events evolve in a digital classroom where each student has a personal digital device (1:1, iPads in this study. Our study is grounded in sociocultural theories of learning and focuses on the structuring resources utilized by students, namely the notion of multiple ongoing activities and the ways in which specific resources take precedence in shaping these activities. One class of 13–14 year-old students was studied for a week across several subjects through video-recordings and observations. The findings imply that the students moved among vast array of reading practices. However, the main structuring resource is a strong focus on task-solving and the practice of schooling, which mainly builds on principles emanating from traditional text. It is only occasionally that structuring resources that also include the opportunities associated with digital technology are utilized. This indicates the importance of further studies on how educational practices could be organized to scaffold the basis of traditional reading comprehension as well as other approaches required in digital environments.

The significance of classical structures in quantum theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lowe, M.J.

1978-09-01

The implications for the quantum theory of the presence of non-linear classical solutions of the equations of motion are investigated in various model systems under the headings: (1) Canonical quantisation of the soliton in lambdaphi 4 theory in two dimensions. (2) Bound for soliton masses in two dimensional field theories. (3) The canonical quantisation of a soliton like solution in the non-linear schrodinger equation. (4) The significance of the instanton classical solution in a quantum mechanical system. (U.K.)

Non-Price Competition and the Structure of the Online Information Industry: Q-Analysis of Medical Databases and Hosts.

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, Roy

1987-01-01

Discussion of the online information industry emphasizes the effects of non-price competition on its structure and the firms involved. Q-analysis is applied to data on medical databases and hosts, changes over a three-year period are identified, and an optimum structure for the industry based on economic theory is considered. (Author/LRW)

Neglect Of Parameter Estimation Uncertainty Can Significantly Overestimate Structural Reliability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rózsás Árpád

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Parameter estimation uncertainty is often neglected in reliability studies, i.e. point estimates of distribution parameters are used for representative fractiles, and in probabilistic models. A numerical example examines the effect of this uncertainty on structural reliability using Bayesian statistics. The study reveals that the neglect of parameter estimation uncertainty might lead to an order of magnitude underestimation of failure probability.

The structure and economic significance of government guarantees in Croatia and the European Union

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marko Primorac

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In the aftermath of the financial crisis, when countries are facing difficulties in raising the amounts of revenue needed to cover the expenditure side of the budget, fiscal risks can pose a significant threat to the sustainability of public finance. This became particularly evident in the case of public enterprises and their liabilities, which often increased public debt because of difficulties in meeting their financial obligations. The aim of this paper is to evaluate fiscal risks from government guarantees in Croatia and the European Union in general. Moreover, the paper aims to analyse the dynamics of the value and structure of government guarantees in Croatia in the period from 2009 to first half of 2015. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of government guarantees on direct public debt in the context of methodological changes in the registration of public debt.

Conceptual distortions of hand structure are robust to changes in stimulus information.

Science.gov (United States)

Ambroziak, Klaudia B; Tamè, Luigi; Longo, Matthew R

2018-05-01

Previous studies showed stereotyped distortions in hand representations. People judge their knuckles as farther forward in the hand than they actually are. The cause of this bias remains unclear. We tested whether both visual and tactile information contribute to the bias. In Experiment 1, participants judged the location of their knuckles by pointing to the location on their palm with: (1) a metal baton (using vision and touch), (2) a metal baton while blindfolded (using touch), or (3) a laser pointer (using vision). Distal mislocalisations were found in all conditions. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether judgments are influenced by visual landmarks such as creases. Participants localized their knuckles on either a photograph of their palm or a silhouette. Distal mislocalisations were apparent in both conditions. These results show that distal biases are resistant to changes in stimulus information, suggesting that such mislocalisations reflect a conceptual mis-representation of hand structure. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Between information systems and physical structure of the city: New causes of climate changes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mihajlov Vladimir

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Because of the frequent and significant spatial transformations, an increasing climate change regime in urban areas occurs. In this paper a comprehensive reflection on these changes is analyzed, concerning one of the major causes - the social transformation and the growing use of information, networks and technology, used by city dwellers in everyday life. Advanced communications and the Internet provide urban concentration and decentralization, creating new spatial and geographic network, with a new allocation of space, for manufacturing and services. The consequence may be recognized in increasing individualization and social habits of city dwellers, as well as in modified way of households use, changing neighbourhoods and public spaces, transport systems, as the final outcome is the climate change. In this paper, the interdependence between information networks is emphasized - between virtual and physical environment, as well as changes in the way of life of the city, which ultimately lead to a new trigger for climate change. Users have never been more mobile in the physical space (commuting and tourist travel, while in the virtual space they are associated with the fixed points - everybody can be located, by using email or social network. Unexpectedly, the cause of the problem which is considered in this paper, is increased mobility in the real space, while city dwellers remain in one place, by using their virtual electronic connections. Thus, the role of city dwellers in creating climate change depends upon their spatial distribution and relationship towards information's and network activity. As a result, the drivers in city development are recognized on network nodes. Current crises in the global environment (economic, climate and social indicate the need to develop multi-functional environment and a greater appreciation of natural factors. Therefore, as a decisive factor for the adaptation of urban structure on climate change is the

ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION - THE FOUNDATION OF STRUCTURING FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND THEIR FUNDAMENTAL ROLE IN CREATING THE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF COMPANIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Igor ZDRAVKOSKI

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Scope of the economies of countries and manner of operation in various business entities and institutions creates the amount and importance of information as a whole. Diversity of the structure of information conceives the method and the need for its distribution to those who are interested in it. Hence, the question arises - how to get to the right information? Consumers in order to create their goals and tasks group themselves and search through the pile of information and data for anything that would enable better planning and creating a more secure future. Therefore, accounting managers perceive this very accurately and carefully conceive balance reports by inserting financial data and information that form the bedrock in their future structuring. Namely, the creating of financial statements provides disclosure of accounting and financial information for certain business transactions and actions of the company in a given period.

Theoretical and methodological significance of Information and Communication Technology in educational practice.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mooij, Ton

2016-01-01

In September 1998 the Research Network ‘ICT in Education and Training’ was initiated at the conference of the European Educational Research Association (EERA). The new network reflected the recognition and growing importance of information and communication technology (ICT) with respect to education

Structural Information Inference from Lanthanoid Complexing Systems: Photoluminescence Studies on Isolated Ions

Science.gov (United States)

Greisch, Jean Francois; Harding, Michael E.; Chmela, Jiri; Klopper, Willem M.; Schooss, Detlef; Kappes, Manfred M.

2016-06-01

The application of lanthanoid complexes ranges from photovoltaics and light-emitting diodes to quantum memories and biological assays. Rationalization of their design requires a thorough understanding of intramolecular processes such as energy transfer, charge transfer, and non-radiative decay involving their subunits. Characterization of the excited states of such complexes considerably benefits from mass spectrometric methods since the associated optical transitions and processes are strongly affected by stoichiometry, symmetry, and overall charge state. We report herein spectroscopic measurements on ensembles of ions trapped in the gas phase and soft-landed in neon matrices. Their interpretation is considerably facilitated by direct comparison with computations. The combination of energy- and time-resolved measurements on isolated species with density functional as well as ligand-field and Franck-Condon computations enables us to infer structural as well as dynamical information about the species studied. The approach is first illustrated for sets of model lanthanoid complexes whose structure and electronic properties are systematically varied via the substitution of one component (lanthanoid or alkali,alkali-earth ion): (i) systematic dependence of ligand-centered phosphorescence on the lanthanoid(III) promotion energy and its impact on sensitization, and (ii) structural changes induced by the substitution of alkali or alkali-earth ions in relation with structures inferred using ion mobility spectroscopy. The temperature dependence of sensitization is briefly discussed. The focus is then shifted to measurements involving europium complexes with doxycycline an antibiotic of the tetracycline family. Besides discussing the complexes' structural and electronic features, we report on their use to monitor enzymatic processes involving hydrogen peroxide or biologically relevant molecules such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL CONTENT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE AS A PART OF THE PROSPECTIVE MUSIC TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lyudmila Gavrilova

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to an actual problem of modern art, especially music, education – analysis of the structure and content of the professional competence of the future teachers of music. By studying the basic categories of competence approach, analyzing the research of domestic and foreign scholars, the author offers his own interpretation of the term “professional competence of the future teachers of music”. Systemic analysis of the phenomenon of competence as specific integral ability which provides efficiency of music pedagogy enabled to define professional competence of future music teachers in the context of informatization as a complex dynamic unity of three segments (pedagogy, musical proficiency, exploitation of information and communication technologies, each comprising cognitive, practical, emotive and evaluative spheres of personal development. Special accent is made on the structure and content of the information and communication competence, the importance of its formation confirmed by numerous scientists’ research. The author identifies the following components of the structure of future music teachers’ information and communication competence: - cognitive component (the necessary volume of theoretical knowledge in the area of information and communication technologies, including multimedia; - practical skills working in Information and Communication Pedagogical Environment, the ability to use multimedia educational tools for solving problems of professional activity (ready to use electronic manuals and independently develop their own computer books, skills of the online communication; - interest and positive attitude to the use of computer technology in professional musical and educational activities.

METHODS FOR ASSESSING SECURITY THREATS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION FOR THE INFORMATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. V. Belokurova

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The article discusses the different approaches to assessing the safety of confidential information-term for information and telecommunication systems of various pre-appreciable destination in the presence of internal and external threats to its integrity and availability. The difficulty of ensuring the security of confidential information from exposure to information and telecommunication systems of external and internal threats at the present time, is of particular relevance. This problem is confirmed by the analysis of available statistical information on the impact of threats on the security circulating in the information and telecommunications system. Leak confidential information, intellectual property, information, know-how is the result of significant material and moral damage caused to the owner of the restricted information. The paper presents the structure of the indicators and criteria shows that the most promising are analytical criteria. However, their use to assess the level of security of confidential information is difficult due to the lack of appropriate mathematical models. The complexity of the problem is that existing traditional mathematical models are not always appropriate for the stated objectives. Therefore, it is necessary to develop mathematical models designed to assess the security of confidential information and its impact on information and telecommunication system threats.

Team locus-of-control composition, leadership structure, information acquisition, and financial performance: A business simulation study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boone, Christophe; Van Olffen, W; van Witteloostuijn, A

2005-01-01

We argue that team information acquisition mediates the effect of the relationship of team locus-of-control composition and leadership structure on team financial performance in a decision-making context. Hypotheses were tested on 44 teams participating in an elaborate and lengthy international

Significantly Elevated Dielectric and Energy Storage Traits in Boron Nitride Filled Polymer Nano-composites with Topological Structure

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yefeng; Zhang, Jianxiong; Hu, Jianbing; Li, Shichun; Peng, Cheng

2018-03-01

Interface induced polarization has a prominent influence on dielectric properties of 0-3 type polymer based composites containing Si-based semi-conductors. The disadvantages of composites were higher dielectric loss, lower breakdown strength and energy storage density, although higher permittivity was achieved. In this work, dielectric, conductive, breakdown and energy storage properties of four nano-composites have been researched. Based on the cooperation of fluoropolymer/alpha-SiC layer and fluoropolymer/hexagonal-BN layer, it was confirmed constructing the heterogeneous layer-by-layer composite structure rather than homogeneous mono-layer structure could significantly reduce dielectric loss, promote breakdown strength and increase energy storage density. The former worked for a larger dielectric response and the latter layer acted as a robust barrier of charge carrier transfer. The best nano-composite could possess a permittivity of 43@100 Hz ( 3.3 times of polymer), loss of 0.07@100 Hz ( 37% of polymer), discharged energy density of 2.23 J/cm3@249 kV/cm ( 10 times of polymer) and discharged energy efficiency of 54%@249 kV/cm ( 5 times of polymer). This work might enlighten a facile route to achieve the promising high energy storage composite dielectrics by constructing the layer-by-layer topological structure.

The Significance of Language Study in Library and Information Science: A Comparison of Two Programs in the United States and Honduras

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, Charlotte; Faires, Debbie; Hirsh, Sandra; Carranza, Nítida

2017-01-01

This comparative case study evaluated the role of foreign language study within the Library and Information Science (LIS) curriculum of two programs in the United States and Honduras. The purpose of this research was to understand the significance and usefulness of language courses from the perspective of the students enrolled. Students who had…

Multitasking information behavior, information task switching and anxiety: An exploratory study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alexopoulou, Peggy; Kotsopoulou, Anastasia

2015-01-01

Multitasking information behavior involves multiple forms of information searching such as library and Web search. Few researchers, however, have explored multitasking information behavior and information task switching in libraries in conjunction with psychological variables. This study explored this behavior in terms of anxiety under time pressure. This was an exploratory case study. Participant searched information for three unrelated everyday life information topics during a library visit, in a timeframe of one hour. The data collection tools used were: diary, observation, interview, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory test. Participant took the Trait-anxiety test before the library visit to measure anxiety level as a personal characteristic. She also took State-anxiety test before, during and after the library visit to measure anxiety levels regarding the information seeking behavior. The results suggested that participant had high levels of anxiety at the beginning of the multitasking information behavior. The reason for that was the concern about the performance as well as the identification of the right resources. During the multitasking information behavior, participant still had anxiety to find the right information. The levels of anxiety, however, were less due to library’s good organized structure. At the end of the information seeking process, the levels of anxiety dropped significant and therefore calm and safety returned. Finally, participant searched information for topics that were more important and for which she had prior knowledge When people, under time pressure, have access to well organized information, the levels of anxiety might decrease

Multitasking information behavior, information task switching and anxiety: An exploratory study

Science.gov (United States)

Alexopoulou, Peggy; Kotsopoulou, Anastasia

2015-02-01

Multitasking information behavior involves multiple forms of information searching such as library and Web search. Few researchers, however, have explored multitasking information behavior and information task switching in libraries in conjunction with psychological variables. This study explored this behavior in terms of anxiety under time pressure. This was an exploratory case study. Participant searched information for three unrelated everyday life information topics during a library visit, in a timeframe of one hour. The data collection tools used were: diary, observation, interview, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory test. Participant took the Trait-anxiety test before the library visit to measure anxiety level as a personal characteristic. She also took State-anxiety test before, during and after the library visit to measure anxiety levels regarding the information seeking behavior. The results suggested that participant had high levels of anxiety at the beginning of the multitasking information behavior. The reason for that was the concern about the performance as well as the identification of the right resources. During the multitasking information behavior, participant still had anxiety to find the right information. The levels of anxiety, however, were less due to library's good organized structure. At the end of the information seeking process, the levels of anxiety dropped significant and therefore calm and safety returned. Finally, participant searched information for topics that were more important and for which she had prior knowledge When people, under time pressure, have access to well organized information, the levels of anxiety might decrease.

Multitasking information behavior, information task switching and anxiety: An exploratory study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alexopoulou, Peggy, E-mail: p.alexopoulou@lboro.ac.uk, E-mail: an-kotsopoulou@yahoo.com; Kotsopoulou, Anastasia, E-mail: p.alexopoulou@lboro.ac.uk, E-mail: an-kotsopoulou@yahoo.com [City Unity College, Thiseos 15-17, Athens, 105 62 (Greece)

2015-02-09

Multitasking information behavior involves multiple forms of information searching such as library and Web search. Few researchers, however, have explored multitasking information behavior and information task switching in libraries in conjunction with psychological variables. This study explored this behavior in terms of anxiety under time pressure. This was an exploratory case study. Participant searched information for three unrelated everyday life information topics during a library visit, in a timeframe of one hour. The data collection tools used were: diary, observation, interview, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory test. Participant took the Trait-anxiety test before the library visit to measure anxiety level as a personal characteristic. She also took State-anxiety test before, during and after the library visit to measure anxiety levels regarding the information seeking behavior. The results suggested that participant had high levels of anxiety at the beginning of the multitasking information behavior. The reason for that was the concern about the performance as well as the identification of the right resources. During the multitasking information behavior, participant still had anxiety to find the right information. The levels of anxiety, however, were less due to library’s good organized structure. At the end of the information seeking process, the levels of anxiety dropped significant and therefore calm and safety returned. Finally, participant searched information for topics that were more important and for which she had prior knowledge When people, under time pressure, have access to well organized information, the levels of anxiety might decrease.

The RCSB protein data bank: integrative view of protein, gene and 3D structural information.

Science.gov (United States)

Rose, Peter W; Prlić, Andreas; Altunkaya, Ali; Bi, Chunxiao; Bradley, Anthony R; Christie, Cole H; Costanzo, Luigi Di; Duarte, Jose M; Dutta, Shuchismita; Feng, Zukang; Green, Rachel Kramer; Goodsell, David S; Hudson, Brian; Kalro, Tara; Lowe, Robert; Peisach, Ezra; Randle, Christopher; Rose, Alexander S; Shao, Chenghua; Tao, Yi-Ping; Valasatava, Yana; Voigt, Maria; Westbrook, John D; Woo, Jesse; Yang, Huangwang; Young, Jasmine Y; Zardecki, Christine; Berman, Helen M; Burley, Stephen K

2017-01-04

The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB, http://rcsb.org), the US data center for the global PDB archive, makes PDB data freely available to all users, from structural biologists to computational biologists and beyond. New tools and resources have been added to the RCSB PDB web portal in support of a 'Structural View of Biology.' Recent developments have improved the User experience, including the high-speed NGL Viewer that provides 3D molecular visualization in any web browser, improved support for data file download and enhanced organization of website pages for query, reporting and individual structure exploration. Structure validation information is now visible for all archival entries. PDB data have been integrated with external biological resources, including chromosomal position within the human genome; protein modifications; and metabolic pathways. PDB-101 educational materials have been reorganized into a searchable website and expanded to include new features such as the Geis Digital Archive. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

The epidermis in Passerina/ (Thymelaeaceae: structure, function and taxonomic significance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. L. Bredenkamp

2000-02-01

Full Text Available Epidermal features were studied in all 17 species of Passerina, a genus endemic to southern Africa. Leaves in Passerina are inversely ericoid, the adaxial surface concave and the abaxial surface convex. Leaves are inversely dorsiventral and epistomatic. The adaxial epidermis is villous, with unicellular, uniseriate trichomes and relatively small thin-walled cells, promoting flexibility of leaf margins owing to turgor changes. In common with many other Thymelaeaceae, abaxial epidermal cells are large and tanniniferous with mucilaginous cell walls. The cuticle is adaxially thin, but abaxially well devel­oped, probably enabling the leaf to restrict water loss and to tolerate high light intensity and UV-B radiation. Epicuticular waxes, present in all species, comprise both soft and plate waxes. Epidermal structure proves to be taxonomically impor­tant at family, genus and species levels. Interspecific differences include arrangement of stomata and presence or absence of abaxial epidermal hair. Other diagnostic characters of the abaxial epidermal cells are arrangement,size and shape, cutic- ular ornamentation and presence or absence of wax platelets. Two groups of species on the basis of abaxial epidermal cell orientation are recognised. Many leaf epidermal features in Passerina are interpreted as structural adaptations to the Mediterranean climate of the Cape.

Significance of shock structure on supersonic jet mixing noise of axisymmetric nozzles

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Chan M.; Krejsa, Eugene A.; Khavaran, Abbas

1994-09-01

One of the key technical elements in NASA's high speed research program is reducing the noise level to meet the federal noise regulation. The dominant noise source is associated with the supersonic jet discharged from the engine exhaust system. Whereas the turbulence mixing is largely responsible for the generation of the jet noise, a broadband shock-associated noise is also generated when the nozzle operates at conditions other than its design. For both mixing and shock noise components, because the source of the noise is embedded in the jet plume, one can expect that jet noise can be predicted from the jet flowfield computation. Mani et al. developed a unified aerodynamic/acoustic prediction scheme by applying an extension of Reichardt's aerodynamic model to compute turbulent shear stresses which are utilized in estimating the strength of the noise source. Although this method produces a fast and practical estimate of the jet noise, a modification by Khavaran et al. has led to an improvement in aerodynamic solution. The most notable feature in this work is that Reichardt's model is replaced with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The major advantage of this work is that the essential, noise-related flow quantities such as turbulence intensity and shock strength can be better predicted. The predictions were limited to a shock-free design condition and the effect of shock structure on the jet mixing noise was not addressed. The present work is aimed at investigating this issue. Under imperfectly expanded conditions the existence of the shock cell structure and its interaction with the convecting turbulence structure may not only generate a broadband shock-associated noise but also change the turbulence structure, and thus the strength of the mixing noise source. Failure in capturing shock structures properly could lead to incorrect aeroacoustic predictions.

Significant impact of electrical storm on mortality in patients with structural heart disease and an implantable cardiac defibrillator.

Science.gov (United States)

Noda, Takashi; Kurita, Takashi; Nitta, Takashi; Chiba, Yasutaka; Furushima, Hiroshi; Matsumoto, Naoki; Toyoshima, Takeshi; Shimizu, Akihiko; Mitamura, Hideo; Okumura, Ken; Ohe, Tohru; Aizawa, Yoshifusa

2018-03-15

Electrical storm (E-Storm), defined as multiple episodes of ventricular arrhythmias within a short period of time, is an important clinical problem in patients with an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) including cardiac resynchronization therapy devices capable of defibrillation. The detailed clinical aspects of E-Storm in large populations especially for non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), however, remain unclear. This study was performed to elucidate the detailed clinical aspects of E-Storm, such as its predictors and prevalence among patients with structural heart disease including DCM. We analyzed the data of the Nippon Storm Study, which was a prospective observational study involving 1570 patients enrolled from 48 ICD centers. For the purpose of this study, we evaluated 1274 patients with structural heart disease, including 482 (38%) patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) and 342 (27%) patients with DCM. During a median follow-up of 28months (interquartile range: 23 to 33months), E-Storm occurred in 84 (6.6%) patients. The incidence of E-Storm was not significantly different between patients with IHD and patients with DCM (log-rank p=0.52). Proportional hazard regression analyses showed that ICD implantation for secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death (p=0.0001) and QRS width (p=0.015) were the independent risk factors for E-storm. In a comparison between patients with and without E-Storm, survival curves after adjustment for clinical characteristics showed a significant difference in mortality. E-Storm was associated with subsequent mortality in patients with structural heart disease including DCM. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Structure and further fragmentation of significant [a3 + Na - H]+ ions from sodium-cationized peptides.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Huixin; Wang, Bing; Wei, Zhonglin; Zhang, Hao; Guo, Xinhua

2015-01-01

A good understanding of gas-phase fragmentation chemistry of peptides is important for accurate protein identification. Additional product ions obtained by sodiated peptides can provide useful sequence information supplementary to protonated peptides and improve protein identification. In this work, we first demonstrate that the sodiated a3 ions are abundant in the tandem mass spectra of sodium-cationized peptides although observations of a3 ions have rarely been reported in protonated peptides. Quantum chemical calculations combined with tandem mass spectrometry are used to investigate this phenomenon by using a model tetrapeptide GGAG. Our results reveal that the most stable [a3 + Na - H](+) ion is present as a bidentate linear structure in which the sodium cation coordinates to the two backbone carbonyl oxygen atoms. Due to structural inflexibility, further fragmentation of the [a3 + Na - H](+) ion needs to overcome several relatively high energetic barriers to form [b2 + Na - H](+) ion with a diketopiperazine structure. As a result, low abundance of [b2 + Na - H](+) ion is detected at relatively high collision energy. In addition, our computational data also indicate that the common oxazolone pathway to generate [b2 + Na - H](+) from the [a3 + Na - H](+) ion is unlikely. The present work provides a mechanistic insight into how a sodium ion affects the fragmentation behaviors of peptides. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Getting meaningful informed consent from older adults: a structured literature review of empirical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugarman, J; McCrory, D C; Hubal, R C

1998-04-01

To perform a structured literature review of the published empirical research on informed consent with older adults in order to make recommendations to improve the informed consent process and to highlight areas needing further examination. Relevant literature was identified by searching electronic databases (AGELINE, BIOETHICSLINE, CancerLit, Ethics Index, Health, LegalTrac, MEDLINE, PAIS International, PsycInfo, and Sociofile). Studies were included if they were reports of primary research data about informed consent and, if patients or other subjects were used, older subjects were included in the sample. Data related to the aspect of informed consent under study (recruitment, decision-making capacity, voluntariness, disclosure of information, understanding of information, consent forms, authorization, and policies and procedures) were abstracted and entered into a specially designed database. Characterization of the population, age of subjects, setting, whether informed consent was being studied in the context of research or treatment, study design, the nature of outcome or dependent variables, independent variables (e.g., experimental conditions in a randomized controlled trial or patient/subject characteristics in a nonrandomized comparison), and results according to the aspect of informed consent under study. A total of 99 articles met all the inclusion criteria and posed 289 unique research questions covering a wide range of aspects of informed consent: recruitment (60); decision making capacity (21); voluntariness (6); disclosure (30); understanding (139); consent forms (7); authorization (11); policies (13); and other (2). In the secondary analyses of numerous studies, diminished understanding of informed consent information was associated with older age and fewer years of education. Older age was also sometimes associated with decreased participation in research. Studies of disclosure of informed consent information suggest strategies to improve

Typography, Color, and Information Structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Keyes, Elizabeth

1993-01-01

Focuses on how typography and color complement and differ from each other in signaling an underlying content structure; the synergism between typography, color, and page layout (use of white space) that aids audience understanding and use; and the characteristics of typography and of color that are most important in these contexts. (SR)

Contracts and Information Structure in a Supply Chain with Operations and Marketing Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

El Ouardighi, F.; Erickson, G.; Grass, D.

2016-01-01

and the consumer price. The state of the game is summarized in the firms' backlogs and the manufacturer's advertising goodwill. Depending on whether the supply chain members have and share state information, they may either make decisions contingent on the current state of the game (feedback Nash strategy......The objective of the paper is to study how wholesale price and revenue sharing contracts affect operations and marketing decisions in a supply chain under different dynamic informational structures. We suggest a differential game model of a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a single...... retailer that agree on the contract parameters at the outset of the game. The model includes key operational and marketing activities related to a single product in the supply chain. The manufacturer sets a production rate and the rate of advertising efforts while the retailer chooses a purchase rate...

Experimental shielding evaluation of the radiation protection provided by the structurally significant components of residential structures.

Science.gov (United States)

Dickson, E D; Hamby, D M

2014-03-01

The human health and environmental effects following a postulated accidental release of radioactive material to the environment have been a public and regulatory concern since the early development of nuclear technology. These postulated releases have been researched extensively to better understand the potential risks for accident mitigation and emergency planning purposes. The objective of this investigation is to provide an updated technical basis for contemporary building shielding factors for the US housing stock. Building shielding factors quantify the protection from ionising radiation provided by a certain building type. Much of the current data used to determine the quality of shielding around nuclear facilities and urban environments is based on simplistic point-kernel calculations for 1950s era suburbia and is no longer applicable to the densely populated urban environments realised today. To analyse a building's radiation shielding properties, the ideal approach would be to subject a variety of building types to various radioactive sources and measure the radiation levels in and around the building. While this is not entirely practicable, this research analyses the shielding effectiveness of ten structurally significant US housing-stock models (walls and roofs) important for shielding against ionising radiation. The experimental data are used to benchmark computational models to calculate the shielding effectiveness of various building configurations under investigation from two types of realistic environmental source terms. Various combinations of these ten shielding models can be used to develop full-scale computational housing-unit models for building shielding factor calculations representing 69.6 million housing units (61.3%) in the United States. Results produced in this investigation provide a comparison between theory and experiment behind building shielding factor methodology.

Experimental shielding evaluation of the radiation protection provided by the structurally significant components of residential structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dickson, E D; Hamby, D M

2014-01-01

The human health and environmental effects following a postulated accidental release of radioactive material to the environment have been a public and regulatory concern since the early development of nuclear technology. These postulated releases have been researched extensively to better understand the potential risks for accident mitigation and emergency planning purposes. The objective of this investigation is to provide an updated technical basis for contemporary building shielding factors for the US housing stock. Building shielding factors quantify the protection from ionising radiation provided by a certain building type. Much of the current data used to determine the quality of shielding around nuclear facilities and urban environments is based on simplistic point-kernel calculations for 1950s era suburbia and is no longer applicable to the densely populated urban environments realised today. To analyse a building’s radiation shielding properties, the ideal approach would be to subject a variety of building types to various radioactive sources and measure the radiation levels in and around the building. While this is not entirely practicable, this research analyses the shielding effectiveness of ten structurally significant US housing-stock models (walls and roofs) important for shielding against ionising radiation. The experimental data are used to benchmark computational models to calculate the shielding effectiveness of various building configurations under investigation from two types of realistic environmental source terms. Various combinations of these ten shielding models can be used to develop full-scale computational housing-unit models for building shielding factor calculations representing 69.6 million housing units (61.3%) in the United States. Results produced in this investigation provide a comparison between theory and experiment behind building shielding factor methodology. (paper)

Analysis of informational redundancy in the protein-assembling machinery

Science.gov (United States)

Berkovich, Simon

2004-03-01

Entropy analysis of the DNA structure does not reveal a significant departure from randomness indicating lack of informational redundancy. This signifies the absence of a hidden meaning in the genome text and supports the 'barcode' interpretation of DNA given in [1]. Lack of informational redundancy is a characteristic property of an identification label rather than of a message of instructions. Yet randomness of DNA has to induce non-random structures of the proteins. Protein synthesis is a two-step process: transcription into RNA with gene splicing and formation a structure of amino acids. Entropy estimations, performed by A. Djebbari, show typical values of redundancy of the biomolecules along these pathways: DNA gene 4proteins 15-40in gene expression, the RNA copy carries the same information as the original DNA template. Randomness is essentially eliminated only at the step of the protein creation by a degenerate code. According to [1], the significance of the substitution of U for T with a subsequent gene splicing is that these transformations result in a different pattern of RNA oscillations, so the vital DNA communications are protected against extraneous noise coming from the protein making activities. 1. S. Berkovich, "On the 'barcode' functionality of DNA, or the Phenomenon of Life in the Physical Universe", Dorrance Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, 2003

MODELING OF TECHNICAL CHANNELS OF INFORMATION LEAKAGE AT DISTRIBUTED CONTROL OBJECTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksander Vladimirovich Karpov

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The significant increase in requirements for distributed control objects’ functioning can’t be realized only at the expense of the widening and strengthening of security control measures. The first step in ensuring the information security at such objects is the analysis of the conditions of their functioning and modeling of technical channels of information leakage. The development of models of such channels is essentially the only method of complete study of their opportunities and it is pointed toward receiving quantitative assessments of the safe operation of compound objects. The evaluation data are necessary to make a decision on the degree of the information security from a leak according to the current criterion. The existing models are developed for the standard concentrated objects and allow to evaluate the level of information security from a leak on each of channels separately, what involves the significant increase in the required protective resource and time of assessment of information security on an object in general. The article deals with a logical-and-probabilistic method of a security assessment of structurally-compound objects. The model of a security leak on the distributed control objects is cited as an example. It is recommended to use a software package of an automated structurally-logistical modeling of compound systems, which allows to evaluate risk of information leakage in the loudspeaker. A possibility of information leakage by technical channels is evaluated and such differential characteristics of the safe operation of the distributed control objects as positive and negative contributions of the initiating events and conditions, which cause a leak are calculated. Purpose. The aim is a quantitative assessment of data risk, which is necessary for justifying the rational composition of organizational and technical protection measures, as well as a variant of the structure of the information security system from a

A Structural Contingency Theory Model of Library and Technology Partnerships within an Academic Library Information Commons

Science.gov (United States)

Tuai, Cameron K.

2011-01-01

The integration of librarians and technologists to deliver information services represents a new and potentially costly organizational challenge for many library administrators. To understand better how to control the costs of integration, the research presented here will use structural contingency theory to study the coordination of librarians…

Report: ECHO Data Quality Audit – Phase I Results: The Integrated Compliance Information System Needs Security Controls to Protect Significant Non-Compliance Data

Science.gov (United States)

Report #09-P-0226, August 31, 2009. End users of the Permit Compliance System and Integrated Compliance Information System National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System can override the Significant Non-Compliance data field without more access controls.

A study on the water permeability of concrete structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loadsman, R.V.C.; Acres, D.H.; Stokes, C.J.; Wadeson, L.

1988-03-01

This report forms part of the DoE's research programme on the disposal of nuclear waste. The information available on the permeability of concrete and the effects of various factors on this value are reviewed. The effect of defects on the overall permeability of concrete structures is examined and the recorded performance of a range of existing concrete structures is considered with identification of some of the factors that are significant in practice. Deficiencies in the information available on this subject are identified and recommendations for further work are made including a list of structures suitable for future monitoring. (author)

Structural Characteristics of Paleozoic and Geological Significance of Oil and Gas of Dongpu Depression

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

杨世刚

2003-01-01

The Dongpu depression has experienced a complicated evolution of structure since Mesozoic. The Paleozoic carbonate rock has been strongly reformed and the buried hills with different characteristics of structure are developed in the depression. There exist lots of groups of fault structures with strikes of NNE(or NE),NW, near NS and EW etc., of which the faults with strikes of NNE and NW play an important controlling role on present-day structural framework of the depression. The faults with near NS-striking and EW-striking deeply affect the establishment of structural framework of basement of the depression. Although most of the fractures are filled by calcite and other minerals, under the action of later structural stress, the earlier fractures could change their features into tensional ones. Therefore, much attention should be paid to the exploration and exploitation of Paleozoic oil and gas in Dongpu depression.

Genome-wide identification of significant aberrations in cancer genome.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Xiguo; Yu, Guoqiang; Hou, Xuchu; Shih, Ie-Ming; Clarke, Robert; Zhang, Junying; Hoffman, Eric P; Wang, Roger R; Zhang, Zhen; Wang, Yue

2012-07-27

Somatic Copy Number Alterations (CNAs) in human genomes are present in almost all human cancers. Systematic efforts to characterize such structural variants must effectively distinguish significant consensus events from random background aberrations. Here we introduce Significant Aberration in Cancer (SAIC), a new method for characterizing and assessing the statistical significance of recurrent CNA units. Three main features of SAIC include: (1) exploiting the intrinsic correlation among consecutive probes to assign a score to each CNA unit instead of single probes; (2) performing permutations on CNA units that preserve correlations inherent in the copy number data; and (3) iteratively detecting Significant Copy Number Aberrations (SCAs) and estimating an unbiased null distribution by applying an SCA-exclusive permutation scheme. We test and compare the performance of SAIC against four peer methods (GISTIC, STAC, KC-SMART, CMDS) on a large number of simulation datasets. Experimental results show that SAIC outperforms peer methods in terms of larger area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics curve and increased detection power. We then apply SAIC to analyze structural genomic aberrations acquired in four real cancer genome-wide copy number data sets (ovarian cancer, metastatic prostate cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, glioblastoma). When compared with previously reported results, SAIC successfully identifies most SCAs known to be of biological significance and associated with oncogenes (e.g., KRAS, CCNE1, and MYC) or tumor suppressor genes (e.g., CDKN2A/B). Furthermore, SAIC identifies a number of novel SCAs in these copy number data that encompass tumor related genes and may warrant further studies. Supported by a well-grounded theoretical framework, SAIC has been developed and used to identify SCAs in various cancer copy number data sets, providing useful information to study the landscape of cancer genomes. Open-source and platform-independent SAIC software is

Examining How Overweight Adolescents Process Social Information: The Significance of Friendship Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Bowker, Julie C.; Spencer, Sarah V.; Salvy, Sarah-Jeanne

2010-01-01

The current study examines the social information processing and coping styles (SIP) of overweight and average weight adolescents, and whether the associations between friendship quality and SIP differ for these two groups (N = 156, M age = 12.79). On the basis of height and weight assessments, overweight (n = 70) and average weight (n = 86)…

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

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

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

2012-05-15

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

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

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghasemi, Jahan B.; Zolfonoun, Ehsan

2012-01-01

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

A Planning Process Addresses an Organizational and Support Crisis in Information Technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Keith R.; Davenport, Richard W.

1996-01-01

An institutionwide strategic planning effort at Central Michigan University, in response to a need for rapid and significant changes in its information technology infrastructure, is outlined. The effort resulted in a matrix governance structure for information technology that acknowledges the value of both distributed support and a strong central…

Evidence of significant covalent bonding in Au(CN)(2)(-).

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xue-Bin; Wang, Yi-Lei; Yang, Jie; Xing, Xiao-Peng; Li, Jun; Wang, Lai-Sheng

2009-11-18

The Au(CN)(2)(-) ion is the most stable Au compound known for centuries, yet a detailed understanding of its chemical bonding is still lacking. Here we report direct experimental evidence of significant covalent bonding character in the Au-C bonds in Au(CN)(2)(-) using photoelectron spectroscopy and comparisons with its lighter congeners, Ag(CN)(2)(-) and Cu(CN)(2)(-). Vibrational progressions in the Au-C stretching mode were observed for all detachment transitions for Au(CN)(2)(-), in contrast to the atomic-like transitions for Cu(CN)(2)(-), revealing the Au-C covalent bonding character. In addition, rich electronic structural information was obtained for Au(CN)(2)(-) by employing 118 nm detachment photons. Density functional theory and high-level ab initio calculations were carried out to understand the photoelectron spectra and obtain insight into the nature of the chemical bonding in the M(CN)(2)(-) complexes. Significant covalent character in the Au-C bonding due to the strong relativistic effects was revealed in Au(CN)(2)(-), consistent with its high stability.

Recognition techniques for extracting information from semistructured documents

Science.gov (United States)

Della Ventura, Anna; Gagliardi, Isabella; Zonta, Bruna

2000-12-01

Archives of optical documents are more and more massively employed, the demand driven also by the new norms sanctioning the legal value of digital documents, provided they are stored on supports that are physically unalterable. On the supply side there is now a vast and technologically advanced market, where optical memories have solved the problem of the duration and permanence of data at costs comparable to those for magnetic memories. The remaining bottleneck in these systems is the indexing. The indexing of documents with a variable structure, while still not completely automated, can be machine supported to a large degree with evident advantages both in the organization of the work, and in extracting information, providing data that is much more detailed and potentially significant for the user. We present here a system for the automatic registration of correspondence to and from a public office. The system is based on a general methodology for the extraction, indexing, archiving, and retrieval of significant information from semi-structured documents. This information, in our prototype application, is distributed among the database fields of sender, addressee, subject, date, and body of the document.

Ageing of significant to safety structure elements of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maksimovas, G.; Ramanauskiene, A.; Ziliukas, A.

1999-01-01

The paper analyzes the ageing problems of structure elements in nuclear power plants. The standard documents and principal parts of the ageing evaluation program are presented. The ageing evaluation model is being worked out and degradation mechanisms of different atomic reactor materials are being compared. (author)

Information security risk management for computerized health information systems in hospitals: a case study of Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Zarei, Javad; Sadoughi, Farahnaz

2016-01-01

In recent years, hospitals in Iran - similar to those in other countries - have experienced growing use of computerized health information systems (CHISs), which play a significant role in the operations of hospitals. But, the major challenge of CHIS use is information security. This study attempts to evaluate CHIS information security risk management at hospitals of Iran. This applied study is a descriptive and cross-sectional research that has been conducted in 2015. The data were collected from 551 hospitals of Iran. Based on literature review, experts' opinion, and observations at five hospitals, our intensive questionnaire was designed to assess security risk management for CHISs at the concerned hospitals, which was then sent to all hospitals in Iran by the Ministry of Health. Sixty-nine percent of the studied hospitals pursue information security policies and procedures in conformity with Iran Hospitals Accreditation Standards. At some hospitals, risk identification, risk evaluation, and risk estimation, as well as risk treatment, are unstructured without any specified approach or methodology. There is no significant structured approach to risk management at the studied hospitals. Information security risk management is not followed by Iran's hospitals and their information security policies. This problem can cause a large number of challenges for their CHIS security in future. Therefore, Iran's Ministry of Health should develop practical policies to improve information security risk management in the hospitals of Iran.

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahmood Gholami

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

A fast and robust iterative algorithm for prediction of RNA pseudoknotted secondary structures

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Improving accuracy and efficiency of computational methods that predict pseudoknotted RNA secondary structures is an ongoing challenge. Existing methods based on free energy minimization tend to be very slow and are limited in the types of pseudoknots that they can predict. Incorporating known structural information can improve prediction accuracy; however, there are not many methods for prediction of pseudoknotted structures that can incorporate structural information as input. There is even less understanding of the relative robustness of these methods with respect to partial information. Results We present a new method, Iterative HFold, for pseudoknotted RNA secondary structure prediction. Iterative HFold takes as input a pseudoknot-free structure, and produces a possibly pseudoknotted structure whose energy is at least as low as that of any (density-2) pseudoknotted structure containing the input structure. Iterative HFold leverages strengths of earlier methods, namely the fast running time of HFold, a method that is based on the hierarchical folding hypothesis, and the energy parameters of HotKnots V2.0. Our experimental evaluation on a large data set shows that Iterative HFold is robust with respect to partial information, with average accuracy on pseudoknotted structures steadily increasing from roughly 54% to 79% as the user provides up to 40% of the input structure. Iterative HFold is much faster than HotKnots V2.0, while having comparable accuracy. Iterative HFold also has significantly better accuracy than IPknot on our HK-PK and IP-pk168 data sets. Conclusions Iterative HFold is a robust method for prediction of pseudoknotted RNA secondary structures, whose accuracy with more than 5% information about true pseudoknot-free structures is better than that of IPknot, and with about 35% information about true pseudoknot-free structures compares well with that of HotKnots V2.0 while being significantly faster. Iterative HFold and all data used in

Capturing value from external NPD collaboration — the significant role of market information processing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tandrup, Thomas

. By including customers, suppliers, competitors, universities, and other external experts in the development process, firms gain access to information, knowledge, and ideas that otherwise would have been out of reach. Extensive previous research has documented the beneficial effects of collaborating with many...... sources.This study contributes to the existing knowledge of firms’ use of external sources in new product development. A model is presented that tests the effectiveness of external collaboration when multiple external sources have to be managed simultaneously. Also, firms’ ability to process information...... of determining whether it is any more difficult to collaborate with external sources and process information about products that are completely new to the market.This thesis presents a model that points out how difficult it is to collaborate with many external sources unless the firm has the right formal...

Information theory based approaches to cellular signaling.

Science.gov (United States)

Waltermann, Christian; Klipp, Edda

2011-10-01

Cells interact with their environment and they have to react adequately to internal and external changes such changes in nutrient composition, physical properties like temperature or osmolarity and other stresses. More specifically, they must be able to evaluate whether the external change is significant or just in the range of noise. Based on multiple external parameters they have to compute an optimal response. Cellular signaling pathways are considered as the major means of information perception and transmission in cells. Here, we review different attempts to quantify information processing on the level of individual cells. We refer to Shannon entropy, mutual information, and informal measures of signaling pathway cross-talk and specificity. Information theory in systems biology has been successfully applied to identification of optimal pathway structures, mutual information and entropy as system response in sensitivity analysis, and quantification of input and output information. While the study of information transmission within the framework of information theory in technical systems is an advanced field with high impact in engineering and telecommunication, its application to biological objects and processes is still restricted to specific fields such as neuroscience, structural and molecular biology. However, in systems biology dealing with a holistic understanding of biochemical systems and cellular signaling only recently a number of examples for the application of information theory have emerged. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Systems Biology of Microorganisms. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CEFR information management system solution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Fei; Zhao Jia'ning

2011-01-01

Based on finished information resources planning scheme for China sodium cooled experimental fast breeder reactor and the advanced information resources management solution concepts were applied, we got the building solution of CEFR information management systems. At the same time, the technical solutions of systems structures, logic structures, physical structures, development platforms and operation platforms for information resources management system in fast breeder reactors were developed, which provided programmatic introductions for development works in future. (authors)

Prior information in structure estimation

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kárný, Miroslav; Nedoma, Petr; Khailova, Natalia; Pavelková, Lenka

2003-01-01

Roč. 150, č. 6 (2003), s. 643-653 ISSN 1350-2379 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IBS1075102; GA AV ČR IBS1075351; GA ČR GA102/03/0049 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z1075907 Keywords : prior knowledge * structure estimation * autoregressive models Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory Impact factor: 0.745, year: 2003 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/historie/karny-0411258.pdf

Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Structures

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Homeland Security — The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is the Federal standard for geographic nomenclature. The U.S. Geological Survey developed the GNIS for the U.S. Board...

The Impact of Complexity, Rate of Change and Information Availability on the Production Planning and Control Structure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.F. van Assen (Marcel); S.L. van de Velde (Steef)

2003-01-01

textabstractThe organizational theory literature argues that the more uncertain the environment, the more likely the firm’s operational decision structure is decentralized. However, it remains unclear which uncertainty dimensions (i.e. complexity, rate of change and lack of information) impacts the

Assessment of inservice conditions of safety-related nuclear plant structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashar, H.; Bagchi, G.

1995-06-01

The report is a compilation from a number of sources of information related to the condition Of structures and civil engineering features at operating nuclear power plants in the United States. The most significant information came from the hands-on inspection of the six old plants (licensed prior to 1977) performed by the staff of the Civil Engineering and Geosciences Branch (ECGB) in the Division of Engineering of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. For the containment structures, most of the information related to the degraded conditions came from the licensees as part of the Licensing Event Report System (10 CFR 50.73), or as part of the requirement under limiting condition of operation of the plant-specific Technical Specifications. Most of the information related to the degradation of other Structures and civil engineering features was extracted from the industry survey, the reported incidents, and the plant visits. The report discusses the condition of the structures and civil engineering features at operating nuclear power plants and provides information that would help detect, alleviate, and correct the degraded conditions of the structures and civil engineering features

Influence of computer technology on the automation of oil and gas fields and on the companies' information structures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Graf, H.G.

1984-02-01

Exemplified by a Direct Digital Control System, the fundamentals of process automation are demonstrated. Description of the so-called ''General-purpose computers'' and their peripherals which are used in the mineral oil industry. Explanation of individual types of information processing such as data, process and text processing. Broad outline of typical applications of EDP Systems in the mineral oil/natural gas producing industries. Further chapters deal with the incompany information structure and with economic shaping of the information system.

Inequalities for quantum skew information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Audenaert, Koenraad; Cai, Liang; Hansen, Frank

2008-01-01

relation on the set of functions representing quantum Fisher information that renders the set into a lattice with an involution. This order structure generates new inequalities for the metric adjusted skew informations. In particular, the Wigner-Yanase skew information is the maximal skew information...... with respect to this order structure in the set of Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew informations....

Identification of similar regions of protein structures using integrated sequence and structure analysis tools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heiland Randy

2006-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Understanding protein function from its structure is a challenging problem. Sequence based approaches for finding homology have broad use for annotation of both structure and function. 3D structural information of protein domains and their interactions provide a complementary view to structure function relationships to sequence information. We have developed a web site http://www.sblest.org/ and an API of web services that enables users to submit protein structures and identify statistically significant neighbors and the underlying structural environments that make that match using a suite of sequence and structure analysis tools. To do this, we have integrated S-BLEST, PSI-BLAST and HMMer based superfamily predictions to give a unique integrated view to prediction of SCOP superfamilies, EC number, and GO term, as well as identification of the protein structural environments that are associated with that prediction. Additionally, we have extended UCSF Chimera and PyMOL to support our web services, so that users can characterize their own proteins of interest. Results Users are able to submit their own queries or use a structure already in the PDB. Currently the databases that a user can query include the popular structural datasets ASTRAL 40 v1.69, ASTRAL 95 v1.69, CLUSTER50, CLUSTER70 and CLUSTER90 and PDBSELECT25. The results can be downloaded directly from the site and include function prediction, analysis of the most conserved environments and automated annotation of query proteins. These results reflect both the hits found with PSI-BLAST, HMMer and with S-BLEST. We have evaluated how well annotation transfer can be performed on SCOP ID's, Gene Ontology (GO ID's and EC Numbers. The method is very efficient and totally automated, generally taking around fifteen minutes for a 400 residue protein. Conclusion With structural genomics initiatives determining structures with little, if any, functional characterization

The Protein Information Management System (PiMS): a generic tool for any structural biology research laboratory.

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Chris; Pajon, Anne; Griffiths, Susanne L; Daniel, Ed; Savitsky, Marc; Lin, Bill; Diprose, Jonathan M; da Silva, Alan Wilter; Pilicheva, Katya; Troshin, Peter; van Niekerk, Johannes; Isaacs, Neil; Naismith, James; Nave, Colin; Blake, Richard; Wilson, Keith S; Stuart, David I; Henrick, Kim; Esnouf, Robert M

2011-04-01

The techniques used in protein production and structural biology have been developing rapidly, but techniques for recording the laboratory information produced have not kept pace. One approach is the development of laboratory information-management systems (LIMS), which typically use a relational database schema to model and store results from a laboratory workflow. The underlying philosophy and implementation of the Protein Information Management System (PiMS), a LIMS development specifically targeted at the flexible and unpredictable workflows of protein-production research laboratories of all scales, is described. PiMS is a web-based Java application that uses either Postgres or Oracle as the underlying relational database-management system. PiMS is available under a free licence to all academic laboratories either for local installation or for use as a managed service.

The Protein Information Management System (PiMS): a generic tool for any structural biology research laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morris, Chris; Pajon, Anne; Griffiths, Susanne L.; Daniel, Ed; Savitsky, Marc; Lin, Bill; Diprose, Jonathan M.; Wilter da Silva, Alan; Pilicheva, Katya; Troshin, Peter; Niekerk, Johannes van; Isaacs, Neil; Naismith, James; Nave, Colin; Blake, Richard; Wilson, Keith S.; Stuart, David I.; Henrick, Kim; Esnouf, Robert M.

2011-01-01

The Protein Information Management System (PiMS) is described together with a discussion of how its features make it well suited to laboratories of all sizes. The techniques used in protein production and structural biology have been developing rapidly, but techniques for recording the laboratory information produced have not kept pace. One approach is the development of laboratory information-management systems (LIMS), which typically use a relational database schema to model and store results from a laboratory workflow. The underlying philosophy and implementation of the Protein Information Management System (PiMS), a LIMS development specifically targeted at the flexible and unpredictable workflows of protein-production research laboratories of all scales, is described. PiMS is a web-based Java application that uses either Postgres or Oracle as the underlying relational database-management system. PiMS is available under a free licence to all academic laboratories either for local installation or for use as a managed service

The Protein Information Management System (PiMS): a generic tool for any structural biology research laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morris, Chris [STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Pajon, Anne [Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD (United Kingdom); Griffiths, Susanne L. [University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD (United Kingdom); Daniel, Ed [STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Savitsky, Marc [University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN (United Kingdom); Lin, Bill [STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Diprose, Jonathan M. [University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN (United Kingdom); Wilter da Silva, Alan [Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD (United Kingdom); Pilicheva, Katya [University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN (United Kingdom); Troshin, Peter [STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Niekerk, Johannes van [University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 5EH, Scotland (United Kingdom); Isaacs, Neil [University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland (United Kingdom); Naismith, James [University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9ST, Scotland (United Kingdom); Nave, Colin; Blake, Richard [STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Wilson, Keith S. [University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD (United Kingdom); Stuart, David I. [University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN (United Kingdom); Henrick, Kim [Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD (United Kingdom); Esnouf, Robert M., E-mail: robert@strubi.ox.ac.uk [University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN (United Kingdom); STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD (United Kingdom)

2011-04-01

The Protein Information Management System (PiMS) is described together with a discussion of how its features make it well suited to laboratories of all sizes. The techniques used in protein production and structural biology have been developing rapidly, but techniques for recording the laboratory information produced have not kept pace. One approach is the development of laboratory information-management systems (LIMS), which typically use a relational database schema to model and store results from a laboratory workflow. The underlying philosophy and implementation of the Protein Information Management System (PiMS), a LIMS development specifically targeted at the flexible and unpredictable workflows of protein-production research laboratories of all scales, is described. PiMS is a web-based Java application that uses either Postgres or Oracle as the underlying relational database-management system. PiMS is available under a free licence to all academic laboratories either for local installation or for use as a managed service.

Some structural determinants of melody recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Boltz, M

1991-05-01

Sophisticated musicians were asked to recall, using musical notation, a set of unfamiliar folk tunes that varied in rhythmic structure and referents of tonality. The results showed that memory was facilitated by tonic triad members marking phrase endings, but only when their presence was highlighted by a corresponding pattern of temporal accents. Conversely, recall significantly declined when tonal information was either absent or obscured by rhythmic structure. Error analyses further revealed that the retention of overall pitch contour and information at phrase ending points varied as a function of these manipulations. The results are discussed in terms of a framework that links the acts of perceiving and remembering to a common attentional scheme.

Community structure informs species geographic distributions

KAUST Repository

Montesinos-Navarro, Alicia; Estrada, Alba; Font, Xavier; Matias, Miguel G.; Meireles, Catarina; Mendoza, Manuel; Honrado, Joao P.; Prasad, Hari D.; Vicente, Joana R.; Early, Regan

2018-01-01

spatial resolution. However, survival of individuals is determined by processes that happen at small spatial scales. The relative abundance of coexisting species (i.e. 'community structure') reflects assembly processes occurring at small scales

The causal structure of utility conditionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Bonnefon, Jean-François; Sloman, Steven A

2013-01-01

The psychology of reasoning is increasingly considering agents' values and preferences, achieving greater integration with judgment and decision making, social cognition, and moral reasoning. Some of this research investigates utility conditionals, ''if p then q'' statements where the realization of p or q or both is valued by some agents. Various approaches to utility conditionals share the assumption that reasoners make inferences from utility conditionals based on the comparison between the utility of p and the expected utility of q. This article introduces a new parameter in this analysis, the underlying causal structure of the conditional. Four experiments showed that causal structure moderated utility-informed conditional reasoning. These inferences were strongly invited when the underlying structure of the conditional was causal, and significantly less so when the underlying structure of the conditional was diagnostic. This asymmetry was only observed for conditionals in which the utility of q was clear, and disappeared when the utility of q was unclear. Thus, an adequate account of utility-informed inferences conditional reasoning requires three components: utility, probability, and causal structure. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

EUFODOS: European Forest Downstream Services - Improved Information on Forest Structure and Damage

Science.gov (United States)

Hirschmugl, M.; Gallaun, H.; Wack, R.; Granica, K.; Schardt, M.

2013-05-01

Forests play a key role in the European economy and environment. This role incorporates ecological functions which can be affected by the occurrence of insect infestations, forest fire, heavy snowfall or windfall events. Local or Regional Authorities (LRAs) thus require detailed information on the degradation status of their forests to be able to take appropriate measures for their forest management plans. In the EUFODOS project, state-of-the-art satellite and laser scanning technologies are used to provide forest authorities with cost-effective and comprehensive information on forest structure and damage. One of the six test sites is located in the Austrian province of Styria where regional forest authorities have expressed a strong need for detailed forest parameters in protective forest. As airborne laser-scanning data is available, it will be utilized to derive detailed forest parameters such as the upper forest border line, tree height, growth classes, forest density, vertical structure or volume. At the current project status, the results of (i) the forest border line, (ii) the segmentation of forest stands and (iii) the tree top detection are available and presented including accuracy assessment and interim results are shown for timber volume estimations. The final results show that the forest border can be mapped operationally with an overall accuracy of almost 99% from LiDAR data. For the segmentation of forest stands, a comparison of the automatically derived result with visual-manual delineation showed in general a more detailed segmentation result, but for all visual-manual segments a congruence of 87% within a 4 m buffer. Tree top detections were compared to stem numbers estimated based on angle-count samplings in a field campaign, which led to a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.79.

Salt supply to and significance of asymmetric salt diapirs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koyi, H.; Burliga, S.; Chemia, Zurab

2012-01-01

Salt diapirs can be asymmetric both internally and externally reflecting their evolution history. As such, this asymmetry bear a significant amount of information about the differential loading (± lateral forces) and in turn the salt supply that have shaped the diapir. In two dimensions......, In this study we compare results of analogue and numerical models of diapirs with two natural salt diapris (Klodawa and Gorleben diapirs) to explain their salt supply and asymmetric evolution. In a NW-SE section, the Gorleben salt diapir possesses an asymmetric external geometry represented by a large...... southeastern overhang due to salt extrusion during Middle Cretaceous followed by its burial in Tertiary. This external asymmetry is also reflected in the internal configuration of the diapir which shows different rates of salt flow on the two halves of the structure. The asymmetric external and internal...

The Effects of Information Technology on Library and Documentation Centers: A Review of Social, Structural, Managerial and Functional Aspects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mesut Kurulgan

2013-11-01

Full Text Available In the context of protecting academic and cultural heritage, the purpose of libraries and information and documentation centers is to research, document, and archive and to transfer to future generations, domestically and internationally, a society ’s culture. This study examines the structural, functional and administrative innovations that have resulted from the implementation of information technology (IT in libraries since the 1990 ’s. The study also mentions how IT can be used in an efficient way in libraries and information and documentation centers.

Factoring local sequence composition in motif significance analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Patrick; Keich, Uri

2008-01-01

We recently introduced a biologically realistic and reliable significance analysis of the output of a popular class of motif finders. In this paper we further improve our significance analysis by incorporating local base composition information. Relying on realistic biological data simulation, as well as on FDR analysis applied to real data, we show that our method is significantly better than the increasingly popular practice of using the normal approximation to estimate the significance of a finder's output. Finally we turn to leveraging our reliable significance analysis to improve the actual motif finding task. Specifically, endowing a variant of the Gibbs Sampler with our improved significance analysis we demonstrate that de novo finders can perform better than has been perceived. Significantly, our new variant outperforms all the finders reviewed in a recently published comprehensive analysis of the Harbison genome-wide binding location data. Interestingly, many of these finders incorporate additional information such as nucleosome positioning and the significance of binding data.

Organizational Structure and Dynamic Information Awareness in Command Teams

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Baker, Keith; Entin, Elliot E; See, Katrina; Baker, Bonnie S; Downes-Martin, Stephen; Cecchetti, Jon

2004-01-01

...) structures for the future. One such C2 structure is FORCEnet. Modeling of various FORCEnet-derived structures produced a prediction that a C2 structure that includes an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR...

Efficient structure from motion on large scenes using UAV with position and pose information

Science.gov (United States)

Teng, Xichao; Yu, Qifeng; Shang, Yang; Luo, Jing; Wang, Gang

2018-04-01

In this paper, we exploit prior information from global positioning systems and inertial measurement units to speed up the process of large scene reconstruction from images acquired by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. We utilize weak pose information and intrinsic parameter to obtain the projection matrix for each view. As compared to unmanned aerial vehicles' flight altitude, topographic relief can usually be ignored, we assume that the scene is flat and use weak perspective camera to get projective transformations between two views. Furthermore, we propose an overlap criterion and select potentially matching view pairs between projective transformed views. A robust global structure from motion method is used for image based reconstruction. Our real world experiments show that the approach is accurate, scalable and computationally efficient. Moreover, projective transformations between views can also be used to eliminate false matching.

Chemical Bonding and Structural Information of Black CarbonReference Materials and Individual Carbonaceous AtmosphericAerosols

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hopkins, Rebecca J.; Tivanski, Alexei V.; Marten, Bryan D.; Gilles, Mary K.

2007-04-25

The carbon-to-oxygen ratios and graphitic nature of a rangeof black carbon standard reference materials (BC SRMs), high molecularmass humic-like substances (HULIS) and atmospheric particles are examinedusing scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) coupled with nearedge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. UsingSTXM/NEXAFS, individual particles with diameter>100 nm are studied,thus the diversity of atmospheric particles collected during a variety offield missions is assessed. Applying a semi-quantitative peak fittingmethod to the NEXAFS spectra enables a comparison of BC SRMs and HULIS toparticles originating from anthropogenic combustion and biomass burns,thus allowing determination of the suitability of these materials forrepresenting atmospheric particles. Anthropogenic combustion and biomassburn particles can be distinguished from one another using both chemicalbonding and structural ordering information. While anthropogeniccombustion particles are characterized by a high proportion ofaromatic-C, the presence of benzoquinone and are highly structurallyordered, biomass burn particles exhibit lower structural ordering, asmaller proportion of aromatic-C and contain a much higher proportion ofoxygenated functional groups.

Information security risk management for computerized health information systems in hospitals: a case study of Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Zarei, Javad; Sadoughi, Farahnaz

2016-01-01

Background In recent years, hospitals in Iran – similar to those in other countries – have experienced growing use of computerized health information systems (CHISs), which play a significant role in the operations of hospitals. But, the major challenge of CHIS use is information security. This study attempts to evaluate CHIS information security risk management at hospitals of Iran. Materials and methods This applied study is a descriptive and cross-sectional research that has been conducted in 2015. The data were collected from 551 hospitals of Iran. Based on literature review, experts’ opinion, and observations at five hospitals, our intensive questionnaire was designed to assess security risk management for CHISs at the concerned hospitals, which was then sent to all hospitals in Iran by the Ministry of Health. Results Sixty-nine percent of the studied hospitals pursue information security policies and procedures in conformity with Iran Hospitals Accreditation Standards. At some hospitals, risk identification, risk evaluation, and risk estimation, as well as risk treatment, are unstructured without any specified approach or methodology. There is no significant structured approach to risk management at the studied hospitals. Conclusion Information security risk management is not followed by Iran’s hospitals and their information security policies. This problem can cause a large number of challenges for their CHIS security in future. Therefore, Iran’s Ministry of Health should develop practical policies to improve information security risk management in the hospitals of Iran. PMID:27313481

A Novel Riemannian Metric Based on Riemannian Structure and Scaling Information for Fixed Low-Rank Matrix Completion.

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Shasha; Xiong, Lin; Jiao, Licheng; Feng, Tian; Yeung, Sai-Kit

2017-05-01

Riemannian optimization has been widely used to deal with the fixed low-rank matrix completion problem, and Riemannian metric is a crucial factor of obtaining the search direction in Riemannian optimization. This paper proposes a new Riemannian metric via simultaneously considering the Riemannian geometry structure and the scaling information, which is smoothly varying and invariant along the equivalence class. The proposed metric can make a tradeoff between the Riemannian geometry structure and the scaling information effectively. Essentially, it can be viewed as a generalization of some existing metrics. Based on the proposed Riemanian metric, we also design a Riemannian nonlinear conjugate gradient algorithm, which can efficiently solve the fixed low-rank matrix completion problem. By experimenting on the fixed low-rank matrix completion, collaborative filtering, and image and video recovery, it illustrates that the proposed method is superior to the state-of-the-art methods on the convergence efficiency and the numerical performance.

A study of symbol segmentation method for handwritten mathematical formula recognition using mathematical structure information

OpenAIRE

Toyozumi, Kenichi; Yamada, Naoya; Kitasaka, Takayuki; Mori, Kensaku; Suenaga, Yasuhito; Mase, Kenji; Takahashi, Tomoichi

2004-01-01

Symbol segmentation is very important in handwritten mathematical formula recognition, since it is the very first portion of the recognition, since it is the very first portion of the recognition process. This paper proposes a new symbol segmentation method using mathematical structure information. The base technique of symbol segmentation employed in theexisting methods is dynamic programming which optimizes the overall results of individual symbol recognition. The new method we propose here...

Database structure and file layout of Nuclear Power Plant Database. Database for design information on Light Water Reactors in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Nobuo; Izumi, Fumio.

1995-12-01

The Nuclear Power Plant Database (PPD) has been developed at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) to provide plant design information on domestic Light Water Reactors (LWRs) to be used for nuclear safety research and so forth. This database can run on the main frame computer in the JAERI Tokai Establishment. The PPD contains the information on the plant design concepts, the numbers, capacities, materials, structures and types of equipment and components, etc, based on the safety analysis reports of the domestic LWRs. This report describes the details of the PPD focusing on the database structure and layout of data files so that the users can utilize it efficiently. (author)

Investor relations and information asymmetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandrielem da Silva Rodrigues

2017-03-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Companies invest significant volumes of resources in investor relations (IR departments. The professionals working in the IR department are responsible for communication between the company and the market, so that the information generated is widely disseminated and understood by investors. In this context, this research aims to investigate whether there is evidence that the IR activity decreases information asymmetry between the company and the market. Specifically, we evaluate the hypothesis that Brazilian companies with IR websites classified as more informative have a reduced bid-ask spread (proxy for asymmetry. Therefore, this paper classifies the informative content from IR websites of Brazilian companies for the years 2013 and 2014 and relates the outcomes obtained with information asymmetry metrics. Initially, the estimation considers the pooled ordinary least squares (POLS model and, at a second moment, in order to mitigate potential endogeneity problems, the pooled two-stage least squares (2SLS model is used. The results indicate that more informative IR websites are able to decrease the bid-ask spread of Brazilian listed companies. This finding strongly encourages companies to provide information to stakeholders on well-structured IR websites of their own.

An Alternative Organizational Structure to Address the Technology Requirements in Health Science Library Information in the '80's

Science.gov (United States)

Winant, Richard M.

1983-01-01

Virginia Commonwealth University's University Library Services offers through its organizational structure an opportunity for librarians to work directly with media experts. University Library Services envisions the future librarian as an information manager, information specialist, and teacher. In joining together Technical Services, Public Services, Collection Management, Special Collections, Learning Resource Centers, Media Production Center, AV Services, TV Services, Engineering and Telecommunications, the librarian is in an environment which gives the opportunity for growth and support by media expertise.

Obligation for the reporting of events and internal organization structure for information of the authorities by the utility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mueller, H.J.; Scheer, J.

1997-01-01

The obligation of the utilities for the reporting of events to the authorities responsible for nuclear regulation and safety of the public is shown in this report. As an example the nuclear power plants of PreussenElektra Brokdorf and Stade are taken. The internal organization structure and the ways of communication to the authorities are discribed. Furthermore, the outlook and structure of the report which is used for alarm and information of the authorities is shown. (orig.) [de

Factors Influencing Laboratory Information System Effectiveness Through Strategic Planning in Shiraz Teaching Hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Bahador, Fateme; Sharifian, Roxana; Farhadi, Payam; Jafari, Abdosaleh; Nematolahi, Mohtram; Shokrpour, Nasrin

This study aimed to develop and test a research model that examined 7effective factors on the effectiveness of laboratory information system (LIS) through strategic planning. This research was carried out on total laboratory staff, information technology staff, and laboratory managers in Shiraz (a city in the south of Iran) teaching hospitals by structural equation modeling approach in 2015. The results revealed that there was no significant positive relationship between decisions based on cost-benefit analysis and LIS functionality with LIS effectiveness, but there was a significant positive relationship between other factors and LIS effectiveness. As expected, high levels of strategic information system planning result in increasing LIS effectiveness. The results also showed that the relationship between cost-benefit analysis, LIS functionality, end-user involvement, and information technology-business alignment with strategic information system planning was significant and positive.

Design of the Information Science and Systems (IS Curriculum in a Computer and Information Sciences Department

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Behrooz Seyed-Abbassi

2004-12-01

Full Text Available Continuous technological changes have resulted in a rapid turnover of knowledge in the computing field. The impact of these changes directly affects the computer-related curriculum offered by educational institutions and dictates that curriculum must evolve to keep pace with technology and to provide students with the skills required by businesses. At the same time, accreditations of curricula from reviewing organizations provide additional guidelines and standardization for computing science as well as information science programs. One of the areas significantly affected by these changes is the field of information systems. This paper describes the evaluation and course structure for the undergraduate information science and systems program in the Computer and Information Sciences Department at the University of North Florida. A list of the major required and elective courses as well as an overview of the challenges encountered during the revision of the curriculum is given.

Information Security Role Model for Staff of Banking Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)