Chimpanzee choice rates in competitive games match equilibrium game theory predictions.

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Martin, Christopher Flynn; Bhui, Rahul; Bossaerts, Peter; Matsuzawa, Tetsuro; Camerer, Colin

2014-06-05

The capacity for strategic thinking about the payoff-relevant actions of conspecifics is not well understood across species. We use game theory to make predictions about choices and temporal dynamics in three abstract competitive situations with chimpanzee participants. Frequencies of chimpanzee choices are extremely close to equilibrium (accurate-guessing) predictions, and shift as payoffs change, just as equilibrium theory predicts. The chimpanzee choices are also closer to the equilibrium prediction, and more responsive to past history and payoff changes, than two samples of human choices from experiments in which humans were also initially uninformed about opponent payoffs and could not communicate verbally. The results are consistent with a tentative interpretation of game theory as explaining evolved behavior, with the additional hypothesis that chimpanzees may retain or practice a specialized capacity to adjust strategy choice during competition to perform at least as well as, or better than, humans have.

"Atypical touch perception in MTS may derive from an abnormally plastic self-representation".

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Bufalari, Ilaria; Porciello, Giuseppina; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria

2015-01-01

Mirror Touch Synesthetes (MTSs) feel touch while they observe others being touched. According to the authors, two complementary theoretical frameworks, the Threshold Theory and the Self-Other Theory, explain Mirror Touch Synesthesia (MTS). Based on the behavioral evidence that in MTSs the mere observation of touch is sufficient to elicit self-other merging (i.e., self-representation changes), a condition that in non-MTSs just elicits self-other sharing (i.e., mirroring activity without self-other blurring), and on the rTPJ anatomical alterations in MTS, we argue that MTS may derive from an abnormally plastic self-representation and atypical multisensory integrative mechanisms.

Microfungi of the Tatra Mts. 6. Fungus-like organisms: Albuginales, Peronosporales and Pythiales

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Wiesław Mułenko

2014-06-01

Full Text Available A list and the distribution of Oomycota species in the Tatra Mts (Western Carpathian Mts are presented. Revised herbarium vouchers and literature data were used for analysis. Thirty two species of oomycetes on fifty seven plant species were noted in the area, including two species of the order Albuginales (genera: Albugo and Pustula, on nine plant species, 29 species of the order Peronosporales (genera: Bremia, Hyaloperonospora, Peronospora and Plasmopara, on 49 plant species, and one species of the order Pythiales (genus: Myzocytium, on one species of algae. Twenty nine species were collected on the Polish side of the Tatra Mts and ten species were collected on the Slovak side. The oomycetes were collected at 185 localities.

Determinants of internal medicine residents' choice in the canadian R4 Fellowship Match: A qualitative study

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Kassam Narmin

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is currently a discrepancy between Internal Medicine residents' decisions in the Canadian subspecialty fellowship match (known as the R4 match and societal need. Some studies have been published examining factors that influence career choices. However, these were either demographic factors or factors pre-determined by the authors' opinion as possibly being important to incorporate into a survey. Methods A qualitative study was undertaken to identify factors that determine the residents choice in the subspecialty (R4 fellowship match using focus group discussions involving third and fourth year internal medicine residents Results Based on content analysis of the discussion data, we identified five themes: 1 Practice environment including acuity of practice, ability to do procedures, lifestyle, job prospects and income 2 Exposure in rotations and to role models 3 Interest in subspecialty's patient population and common diseases 4 Prestige and respect of subspecialty 5 Fellowship training environment including fellowship program resources and length of training Conclusions There are a variety of factors that contribute to Internal Medicine residents' fellowship choice in Canada, many of which have been identified in previous survey studies. However, we found additional factors such as the resources available in a fellowship program, the prestige and respect of a subspecialty/career, and the recent trend towards a two-year General Internal Medicine fellowship in our country.

Modelling the geomorphic history of the Tribeč Mts. and the Pohronský Inovec Mts. (Western Carpathians with the CHILD model

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Staškovanová Veronika

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Numerical models were developed in order to provide a suitable computational framework for exploring research questions related to long-term landscape evolution. We used the Channel-Hillslope Integrated Landscape Development (CHILD model to prove three hypotheses concerning the processes contributing to the neotectonic landscape evolution of the Tribeč Mts. and the Pohronský Inovec Mts. (Western Carpathians: (1 simultaneous planation and uplift; (2 temporally and spatially varying uplift; (3 exhumation of a part of the area from below Neogene sediments. Given the size of the area, its lithological variability and the insufficient knowledge of the palaeogeographical settings, using a detachment-limited model to express river incision into bedrock as well as water (rill erosion on hillslopes proved the best solution. Results of the simulations were compared with real topography through hypsographic curves and the distribution of remnants of planation surfaces. The real surface corresponds best to a combination of the hypotheses (2 and (3, with more intensive Quaternary tectonic uplift of the Pohronský Inovec Mts. and the adjacent Rázdiel part of the Tribeč Mts., and exhumation of a mature palaeosurface from below Miocene sediments in the east of the Tribeč Mts.

Detection of mitochondrial insertions in the nucleus (NuMts of Pleistocene and modern muskoxen

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MacPhee Ross DE

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Nuclear insertions of mitochondrial sequences (NuMts have been identified in a wide variety of organisms. Trafficking of genetic material from the mitochondria to the nucleus has occurred frequently during mammalian evolution and can lead to the production of a large pool of sequences with varying degrees of homology to organellar mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA sequences. This presents both opportunities and challenges for forensics, population genetics, evolutionary genetics, conservation biology and the study of DNA from ancient samples. Here we present a case in which difficulties in ascertaining the organellar mtDNA sequence from modern samples hindered their comparison to ancient DNA sequences. Results We obtained mitochondrial hypervariable region (HVR sequences from six ancient samples of tundra muskox (Ovibos moschatus that were reproducible but distinct from modern muskox sequences reported previously. Using the same PCR primers applied to the ancient specimens and the primers used to generate the modern muskox DNA sequences in a previous study, we failed to definitively identify the organellar sequence from the two modern muskox samples tested. Instead of anticipated sequence homogeneity, we obtained multiple unique sequences from both hair and blood of one modern specimen. Sequencing individual clones of a >1 kb PCR fragment from modern samples did not alleviate the problem as there was not a consistent match across the entire length of the sequences to Ovibos when compared to sequences in GenBank. Conclusion In specific taxa, due to nuclear insertions some regions of the mitochondrial genome may not be useful for the characterization of modern or ancient DNA.

Chimpanzee responding during matching to sample: control by exclusion.

OpenAIRE

Beran, Michael J; Washburn, David A

2002-01-01

Three chimpanzees performed a computerized matching-to-sample task in which samples were photographs of items and comparison stimuli were geometric symbols called lexigrams. In Experiment 1, samples were either defined (i.e., they represented items that were associated already with a specific lexigram label by the chimpanzees) or undefined (i.e., they did not have an already learned association with a specific lexigram). On each trial, the foil (incorrect) comparison could be either a defined...

Accurate Delayed Matching-to-Sample Responding without Rehearsal: An Unintentional Demonstration with Children

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Ratkos, Thom; Frieder, Jessica E.; Poling, Alan

2016-01-01

Research on joint control has focused on mediational responses, in which simultaneous stimulus control from two sources leads to the emission of a single response, such as choosing a comparison stimulus in delayed matching-to-sample. Most recent studies of joint control examined the role of verbal mediators (i.e., rehearsal) in evoking accurate…

Desain Model Manajemen Pemasaran Berbasis Layanan Jasa Pendidikan pada MTs Swasta Se-Kota Semarang

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Fatkuroji

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to develop a management model based marketing services proper education to increase the services of Private MTs in Semarang. The results showed the implementation of the model design management development based marketing services consist of three functions: (1 planning consists of (a analysis of consumer needs, b education outreach programs MTs, c a SWOT analysis of MTs, d Vision-Mission & destination MTs, e service policy MTs; (2 The implementation consists of: a the implementation of MTs service program, b a policy strategy 7P + 1, c Target & MTs market segment, d consumer satisfaction, e the relevance of the needs and services; (3 The evaluation consists of: a customer loyalty, b the interest of student enrollment to MTs.

Over-Selectivity as a Learned Response

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Reed, Phil; Petrina, Neysa; McHugh, Louise

2011-01-01

An experiment investigated the effects of different levels of task complexity in pre-training on over-selectivity in a subsequent match-to-sample (MTS) task. Twenty human participants were divided into two groups; exposed either to a 3-element, or a 9-element, compound stimulus as a sample during MTS training. After the completion of training,…

The attitude of risk taking Islamic junior high school (MTs) students in learning mathematics

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Yuni, Y.; Darhim; Turmudi

2018-05-01

This study aims to determine the risk-taking attitude of students at Islamic Junior High School (MTs) in Bekasi towards learning mathematics. This is a preliminary research to get information about risk taking attitude in order to conduct next research. Data are obtained by providing questionnaires of 20 indicators, which includes be careful in act, having peace of mind, resolute in making decisions and confident in the act. Respondents are as many as 97 students of 7th grade students of MTs and taken with random techniques from two MTs in the city of Bekasi. The research instrument was adopted from DOSPERT developed, adapted to the ability of 7th grade students of MTs. The attitude of risk taking is part of the student's responsibility attitude to the learning of mathematics, either during preparation, process or after learning mathematics. The attitude of risk taking is important to know in order to be trained continuously. Because the trained attitude of risk taking will make students succeed in learning and working later.

Pigeons exhibit higher accuracy for chosen memory tests than for forced memory tests in duration matching-to-sample.

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Adams, Allison; Santi, Angelo

2011-03-01

Following training to match 2- and 8-sec durations of feederlight to red and green comparisons with a 0-sec baseline delay, pigeons were allowed to choose to take a memory test or to escape the memory test. The effects of sample omission, increases in retention interval, and variation in trial spacing on selection of the escape option and accuracy were studied. During initial testing, escaping the test did not increase as the task became more difficult, and there was no difference in accuracy between chosen and forced memory tests. However, with extended training, accuracy for chosen tests was significantly greater than for forced tests. In addition, two pigeons exhibited higher accuracy on chosen tests than on forced tests at the short retention interval and greater escape rates at the long retention interval. These results have not been obtained in previous studies with pigeons when the choice to take the test or to escape the test is given before test stimuli are presented. It appears that task-specific methodological factors may determine whether a particular species will exhibit the two behavioral effects that were initially proposed as potentially indicative of metacognition.

Same/different concept learning by capuchin monkeys in matching-to-sample tasks.

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Valentina Truppa

Full Text Available The ability to understand similarities and analogies is a fundamental aspect of human advanced cognition. Although subject of considerable research in comparative cognition, the extent to which nonhuman species are capable of analogical reasoning is still debated. This study examined the conditions under which tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella acquire a same/different concept in a matching-to-sample task on the basis of relational similarity among multi-item stimuli. We evaluated (i the ability of five capuchin monkeys to learn the same/different concept on the basis of the number of items composing the stimuli and (ii the ability to match novel stimuli after training with both several small stimulus sets and a large stimulus set. We found the first evidence of same/different relational matching-to-sample abilities in a New World monkey and demonstrated that the ability to match novel stimuli is within the capacity of this species. Therefore, analogical reasoning can emerge in monkeys under specific training conditions.

Same/Different Concept Learning by Capuchin Monkeys in Matching-to-Sample Tasks

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Truppa, Valentina; Piano Mortari, Eva; Garofoli, Duilio; Privitera, Sara; Visalberghi, Elisabetta

2011-01-01

The ability to understand similarities and analogies is a fundamental aspect of human advanced cognition. Although subject of considerable research in comparative cognition, the extent to which nonhuman species are capable of analogical reasoning is still debated. This study examined the conditions under which tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) acquire a same/different concept in a matching-to-sample task on the basis of relational similarity among multi-item stimuli. We evaluated (i) the ability of five capuchin monkeys to learn the same/different concept on the basis of the number of items composing the stimuli and (ii) the ability to match novel stimuli after training with both several small stimulus sets and a large stimulus set. We found the first evidence of same/different relational matching-to-sample abilities in a New World monkey and demonstrated that the ability to match novel stimuli is within the capacity of this species. Therefore, analogical reasoning can emerge in monkeys under specific training conditions. PMID:21858225

The role of the medial caudate nucleus, but not the hippocampus, in a matching-to sample task for a motor response.

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Kesner, Raymond P; Gilbert, Paul E

2006-04-01

A delayed-match-to-sample task was used to assess memory for motor responses in rats with control, hippocampus, or medial caudate nucleus (MCN) lesions. All testing was conducted on a cheeseboard maze in complete darkness using an infrared camera. A start box was positioned in the centre of the maze facing a randomly determined direction on each trial. On the sample phase, a phosphorescent object was randomly positioned to cover a baited food well in one of five equally spaced positions around the circumference of the maze forming a 180-degree arc 60 cm from the box. The rat had to displace the object to receive food and return to the start box. The box was then rotated to face a different direction. An identical baited phosphorescent object was placed in the same position relative to the start box. A second identical object was positioned to cover a different unbaited well. On the choice phase, the rat must remember the motor response made on the sample phase and make the same motor response on the choice phase to receive a reward. Hippocampus lesioned and control rats improved as a function of increased angle separation used to separate the correct object from the foil (45, 90, 135, and 180 degrees) and matched the performance of controls. However, rats with MCN lesions were impaired across all separations. Results suggest that the MCN, but not the hippocampus, supports working memory and/or a process aimed at reducing interference for motor response selection based on vector angle information.

Associative symmetry in the pigeon after successive matching-to-sample training.

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Frank, Andrea J; Wasserman, Edward A

2005-09-01

If an organism is explicitly taught an A-->B association, then might it also spontaneously learn the symmetrical B-->A association? Little evidence attests to such "associative symmetry" in nonhuman animals. We report for the first time a clear case of associative symmetry in the pigeon. Experiment 1 used a successive go/no go matching-to-sample procedure, which showed all of the training and testing stimuli in one location and intermixed arbitrary and identity matching trials. We found symmetrical responding that was as robust during testing (B-->A) as during training (A-->B). In Experiment 2, we trained different pigeons using only arbitrary matching trials before symmetry testing. No symmetrical responding was found. In Experiment 3, we trained other pigeons with only arbitrary matching trials and then tested for symmetry. When these pigeons, too, did not exhibit symmetrical responding, we retrained them with intermixed identity and arbitrary matching trials. Less robust symmetrical responding was obtained here than in Experiment 1. Collectively, these results suggest that identity matching may have to be learned concurrently with arbitrary matching from the outset of training for symmetry to emerge.

The genetic alteration of MTS1/CDKN2 gene in esophageal cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zo, Jae Ill; Paik, Hee Jong; Park, Jong Ho; Kim, Mi Hee

1996-12-01

MTS1/CDKN2 gene plays a key role in cell cycle regulation, and there have been many studies about the significance of this gene in tumorigenesis. To investigate the frequency of MTS1/CDKN2 gene alteration in Korean esophageal cancer, we studied 36 esophageal cancer tissues with paired PCR analysis to detect homozygous deletion and PCR-SSCP methods to find minute mutations, if any. In the cases with abnormalities, the nucleotide sequence analysis was performed. And in cases without RB gene a alterations, direct sequence analysis was also done. There was no homozygous deletions. Mobility shift by PCR-SSCP was observed in four cases at exon 2, which showed 1 bp deletion in codon 97 of mutation in codon 100 which changed TAT (Tyr) from GAT (Asp). But there were not MTS1/CDKN2 gene alterations in cases without Rb gene alterations. Analysis of clinical data did not show any differences depending upon MTS1/CDKN2 gene alterations. Therefore the MTS1/CDKN2 gene mutations were infrequent events and do not play a major role in the group of patients examined. More study for contribution of methylation in MTS1/CDKN2 gene for inactivation of p16 should be done before evaluation and application of MTS1/CDKN2 gene in tumorigenesis and as an candidate of gene therapy. (author). 15 refs

The genetic alteration of MTS1/CDKN2 gene in esophageal cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zo, Jae Ill; Paik, Hee Jong; Park, Jong Ho; Kim, Mi Hee [Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

1996-12-01

MTS1/CDKN2 gene plays a key role in cell cycle regulation, and there have been many studies about the significance of this gene in tumorigenesis. To investigate the frequency of MTS1/CDKN2 gene alteration in Korean esophageal cancer, we studied 36 esophageal cancer tissues with paired PCR analysis to detect homozygous deletion and PCR-SSCP methods to find minute mutations, if any. In the cases with abnormalities, the nucleotide sequence analysis was performed. And in cases without RB gene a alterations, direct sequence analysis was also done. There was no homozygous deletions. Mobility shift by PCR-SSCP was observed in four cases at exon 2, which showed 1 bp deletion in codon 97 of mutation in codon 100 which changed TAT (Tyr) from GAT (Asp). But there were not MTS1/CDKN2 gene alterations in cases without Rb gene alterations. Analysis of clinical data did not show any differences depending upon MTS1/CDKN2 gene alterations. Therefore the MTS1/CDKN2 gene mutations were infrequent events and do not play a major role in the group of patients examined. More study for contribution of methylation in MTS1/CDKN2 gene for inactivation of p16 should be done before evaluation and application of MTS1/CDKN2 gene in tumorigenesis and as an candidate of gene therapy. (author). 15 refs.

Results of Rb-Sr dating of metamorphic rocks of crystalline complexes of Male Karpaty Mts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bagdasaryan, G.P.; Gukasyan, P.Kh.; Cambel, B.; Veselsky, J.

1983-01-01

The paper follows up on a recently published paper on Rb-Sr isochrone dating of granitoid rocks of the Male Karpaty Mts. Data are given on comparative statistical analysis of isochrones obtained for the Bratislava and Modra massifs (isochrone of the latter is complemented with the analyses of two new samples) and the results of age determination of metasedimentary rocks of the Pezinok-Pernek zone and the Bratislava area by the Rb-Sr isochrone. Regression analysis shows that there is no statistically significant difference between the age of the Bratislava massif (347+-4 m.y.) and the Modra massif (326+-22 m.y.) and between their initial ratios 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (i.e., they are synchronous, having the same magma source) which makes it possible to calculate uniform value for age. Whole-rock samples of metamorphic and crystalline schists (gneisses) of the Male Karpaty Mts. also determine the isochrone corresponding to the age 387+-38 m.y. (2σ) and initial ratio ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr)=0.7100+-0.00O8 (2σ). Rb-Sr isotope analyses of several pairs of biotite-crystalline schist (from which biotite was separated) point out that redistribution of Sr isotopes among the mineral phases of rocks takes place during the periplutonic metamorphism, while the whole-rock samples remain chemically closed systems. (author)

Rigorous Training of Dogs Leads to High Accuracy in Human Scent Matching-To-Sample Performance.

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Sophie Marchal

Full Text Available Human scent identification is based on a matching-to-sample task in which trained dogs are required to compare a scent sample collected from an object found at a crime scene to that of a suspect. Based on dogs' greater olfactory ability to detect and process odours, this method has been used in forensic investigations to identify the odour of a suspect at a crime scene. The excellent reliability and reproducibility of the method largely depend on rigor in dog training. The present study describes the various steps of training that lead to high sensitivity scores, with dogs matching samples with 90% efficiency when the complexity of the scents presented during the task in the sample is similar to that presented in the in lineups, and specificity reaching a ceiling, with no false alarms in human scent matching-to-sample tasks. This high level of accuracy ensures reliable results in judicial human scent identification tests. Also, our data should convince law enforcement authorities to use these results as official forensic evidence when dogs are trained appropriately.

Varieties of Stimulus Control in Matching-to-Sample: A Kernel Analysis

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Fields, Lanny; Garruto, Michelle; Watanabe, Mari

2010-01-01

Conditional discrimination or matching-to-sample procedures have been used to study a wide range of complex psychological phenomena with infrahuman and human subjects. In most studies, the percentage of trials in which a subject selects the comparison stimulus that is related to the sample stimulus is used to index the control exerted by the…

Comparing fixed sampling with minimizer sampling when using k-mer indexes to find maximal exact matches.

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Almutairy, Meznah; Torng, Eric

2018-01-01

Bioinformatics applications and pipelines increasingly use k-mer indexes to search for similar sequences. The major problem with k-mer indexes is that they require lots of memory. Sampling is often used to reduce index size and query time. Most applications use one of two major types of sampling: fixed sampling and minimizer sampling. It is well known that fixed sampling will produce a smaller index, typically by roughly a factor of two, whereas it is generally assumed that minimizer sampling will produce faster query times since query k-mers can also be sampled. However, no direct comparison of fixed and minimizer sampling has been performed to verify these assumptions. We systematically compare fixed and minimizer sampling using the human genome as our database. We use the resulting k-mer indexes for fixed sampling and minimizer sampling to find all maximal exact matches between our database, the human genome, and three separate query sets, the mouse genome, the chimp genome, and an NGS data set. We reach the following conclusions. First, using larger k-mers reduces query time for both fixed sampling and minimizer sampling at a cost of requiring more space. If we use the same k-mer size for both methods, fixed sampling requires typically half as much space whereas minimizer sampling processes queries only slightly faster. If we are allowed to use any k-mer size for each method, then we can choose a k-mer size such that fixed sampling both uses less space and processes queries faster than minimizer sampling. The reason is that although minimizer sampling is able to sample query k-mers, the number of shared k-mer occurrences that must be processed is much larger for minimizer sampling than fixed sampling. In conclusion, we argue that for any application where each shared k-mer occurrence must be processed, fixed sampling is the right sampling method.

Comparing fixed sampling with minimizer sampling when using k-mer indexes to find maximal exact matches.

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Meznah Almutairy

Full Text Available Bioinformatics applications and pipelines increasingly use k-mer indexes to search for similar sequences. The major problem with k-mer indexes is that they require lots of memory. Sampling is often used to reduce index size and query time. Most applications use one of two major types of sampling: fixed sampling and minimizer sampling. It is well known that fixed sampling will produce a smaller index, typically by roughly a factor of two, whereas it is generally assumed that minimizer sampling will produce faster query times since query k-mers can also be sampled. However, no direct comparison of fixed and minimizer sampling has been performed to verify these assumptions. We systematically compare fixed and minimizer sampling using the human genome as our database. We use the resulting k-mer indexes for fixed sampling and minimizer sampling to find all maximal exact matches between our database, the human genome, and three separate query sets, the mouse genome, the chimp genome, and an NGS data set. We reach the following conclusions. First, using larger k-mers reduces query time for both fixed sampling and minimizer sampling at a cost of requiring more space. If we use the same k-mer size for both methods, fixed sampling requires typically half as much space whereas minimizer sampling processes queries only slightly faster. If we are allowed to use any k-mer size for each method, then we can choose a k-mer size such that fixed sampling both uses less space and processes queries faster than minimizer sampling. The reason is that although minimizer sampling is able to sample query k-mers, the number of shared k-mer occurrences that must be processed is much larger for minimizer sampling than fixed sampling. In conclusion, we argue that for any application where each shared k-mer occurrence must be processed, fixed sampling is the right sampling method.

Comparing fixed sampling with minimizer sampling when using k-mer indexes to find maximal exact matches

Science.gov (United States)

Torng, Eric

2018-01-01

Bioinformatics applications and pipelines increasingly use k-mer indexes to search for similar sequences. The major problem with k-mer indexes is that they require lots of memory. Sampling is often used to reduce index size and query time. Most applications use one of two major types of sampling: fixed sampling and minimizer sampling. It is well known that fixed sampling will produce a smaller index, typically by roughly a factor of two, whereas it is generally assumed that minimizer sampling will produce faster query times since query k-mers can also be sampled. However, no direct comparison of fixed and minimizer sampling has been performed to verify these assumptions. We systematically compare fixed and minimizer sampling using the human genome as our database. We use the resulting k-mer indexes for fixed sampling and minimizer sampling to find all maximal exact matches between our database, the human genome, and three separate query sets, the mouse genome, the chimp genome, and an NGS data set. We reach the following conclusions. First, using larger k-mers reduces query time for both fixed sampling and minimizer sampling at a cost of requiring more space. If we use the same k-mer size for both methods, fixed sampling requires typically half as much space whereas minimizer sampling processes queries only slightly faster. If we are allowed to use any k-mer size for each method, then we can choose a k-mer size such that fixed sampling both uses less space and processes queries faster than minimizer sampling. The reason is that although minimizer sampling is able to sample query k-mers, the number of shared k-mer occurrences that must be processed is much larger for minimizer sampling than fixed sampling. In conclusion, we argue that for any application where each shared k-mer occurrence must be processed, fixed sampling is the right sampling method. PMID:29389989

Mentoring during Medical School and Match Outcome among Emergency Medicine Residents.

Science.gov (United States)

Dehon, Erin; Cruse, Margaret H; Dawson, Brandon; Jackson-Williams, Loretta

2015-11-01

Few studies have documented the value of mentoring for medical students, and research has been limited to more subjective (e.g., job satisfaction, perceived career preparation) rather than objective outcomes. This study examined whether having a mentor is associated with match outcome (where a student matched based on their rank order list [ROL]). We sent a survey link to all emergency medicine (EM) program coordinators to distribute to their residents. EM residents were surveyed about whether they had a mentor during medical school. Match outcome was assessed by asking residents where they matched on their ROL (e.g., first choice, fifth choice). They were also asked about rank in medical school, type of degree (MD vs. DO), and performance on standardized tests. Residents who indicated having a mentor completed the Mentorship Effectiveness Scale (MES), which evaluates behavioral characteristics of the mentor and yields a total score. We assessed correlations among these variables using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Post-hoc analysis using independent sample t-test was conducted to compare differences in the MES score between those who matched to their first or second choice vs. third or higher choice. Participants were a convenience sample of 297 EM residents. Of those, 199 (67%) reported having a mentor during medical school. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no significant correlation between having a mentor and match outcome (r=0.06, p=0.29). Match outcome was associated with class rank (r=0.13, p=0.03), satisfaction with match outcome (r= -0.37, pmentors, a t-test revealed that the MES score was significantly higher among those who matched to their first or second choice (M=51.31, SD=10.13) compared to those who matched to their third or higher choice (M=43.59, SD=17.12), t(194)=3.65, pmentor during medical school does not impact match outcome, but having an effective mentor is associated with a more favorable match outcome among medical students

DEHUMANISASI KEGIATAN BELAJAR MENGAJAR MATA PELAJARAN IPS SEMESTER II PADA MTs. AL-AZHAR TUWEL KECAMATAN BOJONG KABUPATEN TEGAL

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Dewi Amaliah Nafiati

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The objective of the study is to describe the factors which influence the dehumanization on the teaching learning process at 8th grade students in MTs. Al-Azhar Tuwel. The population of this study were 158 students which were all 8th graders in MTs. Al-Azhar Tuwel in the academic year of 2014/2015. It used proportional cluster random sampling for 25%, or there were 40 students as the samples. The data were collected by documentation, observation and questionnaire with Guttmant scale. Then, the data were classified by two techniques; quantitative and qualitative data which influence the learning of Social Science for getting the conclusion more easily.  Based on the results of data analysis, it can be concluded that dehumanization on the teaching and learning process in MTs. Al-Azhar Tuwel was high enough. The influence of dehumanization factors on the teaching and learning process were teaching method for 77.9%, curriculum factor for 85%, teacher-student relationship for 63.7%, student-teacher relationship for 67.5%, school discipline for 75.4%, homework for 65.4%, school time for 63.7%, learning equipment for 70.8%, over-standard lesson for 81% and building condition for 80%. The most dominant factor which influenced the dehumanization of teaching and learning process is curriculum for 85%. Therefore; teachers need to improve their competences and capabilities to create the more humanist teaching learning process which is appropriate to the goals of education. For achieving the goals, it is recommended for the schools administrators to improve the facilities and infrastructure for getting the more conducive teaching learning process with the representative space and facilities.

KEHARMONISAN KELUARGA DAN KENAKALAN REMAJA PADA SISWA KELAS 9 MTS NEGERI 2 PALEMBANG

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Desy Oktaviani

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The goal of this research is for examine relationship between harmony family with delinquency teenagers. The sample of this research is IX class of the MTs negeri 2 palembang consist of 173 Students. The methods used data using the Statistical Programme for Social Science (SPSS versi 20.00 for windows to test the relationship between harmony of family and delinquency teenagers. The result of Product Moment Correlation showed the number r= -0,598 with ρ = 0.000 where (ρ<0.01, it can be concluded that there is a negative relationship which is significant between harmony family and deliquency teenagers from IX class students of MTs Negeri 2 Palembang. The Negative association shows that the higher that harmony family the lower is delinquency teenagers vice verse lower is harmony family the increasingly high deliquency teenagers happened.

Tenure security, social relations and contract choice: Endogenous matching in the Chinese land rental market

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Xianlei; Zhou, Yuepeng; Shi, Xiaoping

2017-04-01

In China, land rental transactions have increased considerably since the 1990s, but there exists a high degree of segmentation and informal features. The rental transactions between partners with close social relations and the use of informal contracts remain a common phenomenon in many regions, which strongly reduce the potential of the land rental market to enhance productivity and equity. The current literature postulates that the insecurity of land property rights may restrict land transactions between members of same social relations. Studies conducted in China show that the land rentals between partners with closer social relations prefer informal contracts because these contracts are self-enforced based on trust and reputation. However, little literature has jointly examined the effect of land tenure security and social relations on joint decisions of partner and contract choice in the Chinese land rental market. Based on household data collected in Jiangxi and Liaoning provinces in 2015, this paper aims to examine the relationship between land tenure security perceptions, social relation and land rental contract choices in China. We differentiate between formal and informal contracts of land rental activities because they have different enforcement mechanisms and thus different risk-sharing strategy. With regards to social relations, we differ among relatives, villagers living in the same village and strangers according to social distance. In order to reduce estimation bias without accounting for endogenous matching between landlords and tenants, we investigate the joint partner and contract choices in the land rental market using a nested logit framework. The paper contributes to the literature on the effect of tenure security and social relations on land rental contracts by (i) taking into account endogenous matching between landlords and tenants, and estimating the joint decisions of partner and contract choice, and (ii) examining the effect of perceived

Mentoring During Medical School and Match Outcome Among Emergency Medicine Residents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erin Dehon

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Few studies have documented the value of mentoring for medical students, and research has been limited to more subjective (e.g., job satisfaction, perceived career preparation rather than objective outcomes. This study examined whether having a mentor is associated with match outcome (where a student matched based on their rank order list [ROL]. Methods: We sent a survey link to all emergency medicine (EM program coordinators to distribute to their residents. EM residents were surveyed about whether they had a mentor during medical school. Match outcome was assessed by asking residents where they matched on their ROL (e.g., first choice, fifth choice. They were also asked about rank in medical school, type of degree (MD vs. DO, and performance on standardized tests. Residents who indicated having a mentor completed the Mentorship Effectiveness Scale (MES, which evaluates behavioral characteristics of the mentor and yields a total score. We assessed correlations among these variables using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Post-hoc analysis using independent sample t-test was conducted to compare differences in the MES score between those who matched to their first or second choice vs. third or higher choice. Results: Participants were a convenience sample of 297 EM residents. Of those, 199 (67% reported having a mentor during medical school. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no significant correlation between having a mentor and match outcome (r=0.06, p=0.29. Match outcome was associated with class rank (r=0.13, p=0.03, satisfaction with match outcome (r= -0.37, p<0.001, and type of degree (r=0.12, p=0.04. Among those with mentors, a t-test revealed that the MES score was significantly higher among those who matched to their first or second choice (M=51.31, SD=10.13 compared to those who matched to their third or higher choice (M=43.59, SD=17.12, t(194=3.65, p<0.001, d=0.55. Conclusion: Simply having a mentor during medical

Matching Games with Additive Externalities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Branzei, Simina; Michalak, Tomasz; Rahwan, Talal

2012-01-01

Two-sided matchings are an important theoretical tool used to model markets and social interactions. In many real life problems the utility of an agent is influenced not only by their own choices, but also by the choices that other agents make. Such an influence is called an externality. Whereas ...

PENGARUH PENGUASAAN KONSEP TEOREMA PYTHAGORAS TERHADAP KEMAMPUAN MENYELESAIKAN SOAL-SOAL BANGUN RUANG SISI DATAR PADA SISWA KELAS VIII MTS NEGERI BALANG-BALANG

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syahrida Zaerani

2017-12-01

Abstract: This study aims to determine the impact of the mastery of Pythagoras Theorem concepts on the ability of MTs Negeri Balang-Balang grade VIII students to solve polyhedron problems. This study is a quantitative research with ex post facto design. Statistical population consists of all grade VIII students in MTs Negeri Balang-Balang which was 204 students. The number of sampling used is 102 respondents taken by simple random sampling technique. The research instrument was a test related to Pythagorean an polyhedron problems. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed as the statistical analysis. The descriptive analysis result shows that the mastery of Pythagoras Theorem concepts is within the category of ‘high’ and the ability of solving polyhedron problems is as well. The inferential statistical analysis using simple linear regression shows that there is an impact of the mastery of Pythagoras Theorem concepts on polyhedron problem solving ability of Grade VIII students of MTs Negeri Balang-Balang.

Probability matching and strategy availability

OpenAIRE

J. Koehler, Derek; Koehler, Derek J.; James, Greta

2010-01-01

Findings from two experiments indicate that probability matching in sequential choice arises from an asymmetry in strategy availability: The matching strategy comes readily to mind, whereas a superior alternative strategy, maximizing, does not. First, compared with the minority who spontaneously engage in maximizing, the majority of participants endorse maximizing as superior to matching in a direct comparison when both strategies are described. Second, when the maximizing strategy is brought...

Single-subject withdrawal designs in delayed matching-to-sample procedures

OpenAIRE

Eilifsen, Christoffer; Arntzen, Erik

2011-01-01

In most studies of delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) and stimulus equivalence, the delay has remained fixed throughout a single experimental condition. We wanted to expand on the DMTS and stimulus equivalence literature by examining the effects of using titrating delays with different starting points during the establishment of conditional discriminations prerequisite for stimulus equivalence. In Experiment 1, a variation of a single-subject withdrawal design was used. Ten adults were exposed...

Enhancement of low sampling frequency recordings for ECG biometric matching using interpolation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sidek, Khairul Azami; Khalil, Ibrahim

2013-01-01

Electrocardiogram (ECG) based biometric matching suffers from high misclassification error with lower sampling frequency data. This situation may lead to an unreliable and vulnerable identity authentication process in high security applications. In this paper, quality enhancement techniques for ECG data with low sampling frequency has been proposed for person identification based on piecewise cubic Hermite interpolation (PCHIP) and piecewise cubic spline interpolation (SPLINE). A total of 70 ECG recordings from 4 different public ECG databases with 2 different sampling frequencies were applied for development and performance comparison purposes. An analytical method was used for feature extraction. The ECG recordings were segmented into two parts: the enrolment and recognition datasets. Three biometric matching methods, namely, Cross Correlation (CC), Percent Root-Mean-Square Deviation (PRD) and Wavelet Distance Measurement (WDM) were used for performance evaluation before and after applying interpolation techniques. Results of the experiments suggest that biometric matching with interpolated ECG data on average achieved higher matching percentage value of up to 4% for CC, 3% for PRD and 94% for WDM. These results are compared with the existing method when using ECG recordings with lower sampling frequency. Moreover, increasing the sample size from 56 to 70 subjects improves the results of the experiment by 4% for CC, 14.6% for PRD and 0.3% for WDM. Furthermore, higher classification accuracy of up to 99.1% for PCHIP and 99.2% for SPLINE with interpolated ECG data as compared of up to 97.2% without interpolation ECG data verifies the study claim that applying interpolation techniques enhances the quality of the ECG data. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Probability matching and strategy availability.

Science.gov (United States)

Koehler, Derek J; James, Greta

2010-09-01

Findings from two experiments indicate that probability matching in sequential choice arises from an asymmetry in strategy availability: The matching strategy comes readily to mind, whereas a superior alternative strategy, maximizing, does not. First, compared with the minority who spontaneously engage in maximizing, the majority of participants endorse maximizing as superior to matching in a direct comparison when both strategies are described. Second, when the maximizing strategy is brought to their attention, more participants subsequently engage in maximizing. Third, matchers are more likely than maximizers to base decisions in other tasks on their initial intuitions, suggesting that they are more inclined to use a choice strategy that comes to mind quickly. These results indicate that a substantial subset of probability matchers are victims of "underthinking" rather than "overthinking": They fail to engage in sufficient deliberation to generate a superior alternative to the matching strategy that comes so readily to mind.

Choice and preparation of standard samples for X-ray spectral microanalysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gavrilenko, I.S.; Surzhko, V.F.

1989-01-01

Choice, preparation and certification of standard samples for X-ray spectral microanalysis are considered. Requirements for standard samples in terms of concentration and volume, porosity, corrosion, conductivity distribution are formulated. Stages of sample preparation process, including composition choice, heat treatment, section production, certification, are considered in detail. The choice of composition is based on studying phase equilibrium diagrams, subdivided into 6 types

Student’s Misconception of Digestive System Materials in MTs Eight Grade of Malang City and the Role of Teacher’s Pedadogic Competency in MTs

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Yuswa Istikomayanti

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Misconception research has important value in the development of students' thinking processes especially in science field. As the identification of important concepts that must be mastered by the students can be done, the teacher will easily able to emphasis the important or main concepts. This study aims to identify the students’ misconception in digestive system materials in eight grade of MTs and teacher pedagogic competence role. The survey was conducted in 8A (16 students and 8B (17 students MTs Muhammadiyah 1 and 8E (19 students Surya Buana Malang. The stages of research survey were: preparation of research goals (formulation, sample determination, preparation and instruments validation, data collection, and data analysis. The instruments used were: misconception test, student response questionnaire, learning observation guide, and teacher pedagogic competency form. The findings of the learning outcomes were discussed with the observer team, which then were assessed by using the assessment rubric and classified into the categories of student misconceptions. The results showed that the three teachers, neither certified nor uncertified were proved to be limited in overcoming misconceptions in the learning process; meanwhile, the results of students’ misconception test were mostly reach only level 3 (medium. Thus, the study of misconceptions of the digestive system material or other physiological material matter needs to get the attention of the teachers and educational practitioners.

Matching Two-dimensional Gel Electrophoresis' Spots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dos Anjos, António; AL-Tam, Faroq; Shahbazkia, Hamid Reza

2012-01-01

This paper describes an approach for matching Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis (2-DE) gels' spots, involving the use of image registration. The number of false positive matches produced by the proposed approach is small, when compared to academic and commercial state-of-the-art approaches. This ar...

Effects of drugs of abuse and cholinergic agents on delayed matching-to-sample responding in the squirrel monkey.

Science.gov (United States)

Hudzik, T J; Wenger, G R

1993-04-01

To study how drugs may disrupt short-term memory function, squirrel monkeys were trained to respond under a titrating delayed matching-to-sample schedule of reinforcement. Monkeys could respond on each of three keys in an operant chamber. At the start of each trial, the 30th response on the center key illuminated each of the side keys, one of which matched the stimulus presented on the center key (simultaneous matching). A response to the correct (matching) side key turned off all stimuli and initiated a delay, the length of which varied as a function of ongoing performance. After the delay, stimuli were randomly presented on two of the three keys. A response to the key which matched the color on the center key before the delay resulted in delivery of a food pellet (delayed matching). Incorrect simultaneous or delayed matching responses initiated a timeout. Under this procedure, diazepam and scopolamine decreased delayed matching accuracy at one or more doses that did not significantly decrease mean delay values, but only scopolamine decreased matching accuracy at a dose that did not significantly decrease response rates. Cocaine decreased mean delay values after the highest dose without affecting matching accuracy. Pentobarbital and methylscopolamine decreased matching accuracy and mean and maximum delay values after the highest doses. Nicotine and phencyclidine produced small decreases in delayed matching accuracy without affecting mean and maximum delay values. Caffeine, morphine, physostigmine and neostigmine did not alter matching performance even after doses that markedly decreased rates of responding.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Analisis Biaya Penyelenggaraan Pendidikan di Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTsN)

OpenAIRE

H. M. Djumransjah

2016-01-01

This study was focused on educational costs in the Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTsN). The data were gathered in Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTsN) Malang I by using documents and interviews, and then analyzed by a reflective approach. The results indicated that the average cost was Rp.510,443.00 per-annum/student. The budget was spent on daily operation (40.46%), maintenance (28.98%), staff honoraria (28.31%), and teaching aids or educational media (2.07%). The fund comes from central governme...

Up-regulation of metastasis-promoting S100A4 (Mts-1) in rheumatoid arthritis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Klingelhöfer, Jörg; Senolt, Ladislav; Baslund, Bo

2007-01-01

To examine the involvement of the metastasis-inducing protein S100A4 (Mts-1) in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).......To examine the involvement of the metastasis-inducing protein S100A4 (Mts-1) in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)....

A within-sample investigation of test–retest reliability in choice experiment surveys with real economic incentives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mørkbak, Morten Raun; Olsen, Søren Bøye

2015-01-01

In this paper, we investigate the level of agreement between respondents' choices in identical choice sets in a test-retest choice experiment for a market good with real economic incentives, thus investigating whether the incentivised CE method can be reliable and stable over time. Besides...... comparing choices, we also test for differences in preferences and error variance when a sample of respondents is given the exact same questionnaire twice, with a time lag of 2 weeks in between. Finally, we examine potential reasons and covariates explaining the level of agreement in choices across the 2...... weeks. Across four different tests, we find very good agreement between the two choice experiments - both with respect to overall choices and with respect to preferences. Furthermore, error variances do not differ significantly between the two surveys. The results also show that the larger the utility...

Contemporary floristic changes in the Karkonosze Mts.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jerzy Fabiszewski

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the transformations of species composition in the main plant communities of the Karkonosze Mts. subalpine and alpine belts during the last 35 years. The investigations of floristic changes were performed in associations: Carici (rigidae-Nardetum, Carici-Festucetum supinae, Crepidi-Calamagrostietum villose and Empetro-Vaccinietum. Signalized are also some vegetation transformations in the remaining belts. The progressing floristic degradation of plant communities in the subalpine and alpine belts consists in: (a expansion of grasses, (b decline of rare vascular plants, and (c elimination of terricolous bryophytes and lichens. In spruce forest belts declining are species connected with old-growth spruce forests like: Listera cordata and Moneses uniflora. The changes of plant communities of low mountain swards (Nardetalia caused by cessation of pasture and mowing in the cause of retreat of many rare plants, like e.g., Arnica montana. The main cause of the still lasting in the Karkonosze Mts. community transformations is the changes in soil environment connected with anthropogenic nitrogen fertilization. The large inflow of mineral nitrogen from the atmosphere (1138 mg/m2 sum for vegetation season is the reason of accelerated rate of decomposition of organic matter and intensified nitrification. The high content of nitrates in soil (5 times higher than in the Tatra Mts. swards is the reason of expansion of graminoids, mainly Deschampsia flexuosa, Calamagrostis villosa and Carex bigelowii subsp. rigida. The overfertilisation of habitats causes the retreat of rare high mountain vascular plants and the decline of terricolous bryophytes and lichens.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING CLUSTER CONNECTION TOWARDS STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY AT THE EIGHTH GRADE OF MTs DARUL IHSAN DURI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

setiawati setiawati

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui keefektifan penggunaan cluster connection terhadap penguasaan kosakata siswa pada siswa kelas 8 MTs Darul Ihsan Duri. Behubungan dengan objek penelitian, peneliti menggunakan metode eksperimen. Model penelitiannya adalah kelompok pretest--post test untuk kelas control dan eksperimen. Penelitian ini diadakan pada MTs Darul Ihsan Duri pada tahun akademik 2015/2016. Populasi penelitian ini adalah kelas 8 MTs Darul Ihsan Duri pada tahun akademik 2015/2016. Total populasi penelitian adalah 62 siswa. Sampel penelitian ini adalah kelas VIII.A sebagai kelas kontrol, dan VIII.B sebagai kelas eksperimen. Kelas VIII.A terdiri atas 31 siswa. Kelas VIII.B terdiri atas 31 siswa. Dalam menganalisis data peneliti menggunakan Independent Sample T-Test. T-Test digunakan untuk mengetahui apakah teknik cluster connection effektif terhadap penguasaaan kosakata siswa. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa penggunaan teknik cluster connection efektif terhadap penguasaaan kosakata siswa. Berdasarkan perhitungan statistic dalam menganalisis data peneliti memberikan tafsiran skor postest pada kelas eksperimen dan kelas kontrol. Dari perhitungan, t-test adalah 2.627 dan t-table adalah 2.00. karena nilai t-test (2.627 lebih tinggi dari pada t-table (2.00. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, dapat disimpulkan bahwa alternative hipotesis (Ha diterima dan hipotesis null (Ho ditolak. Ini berarti pengajaran kosakata dengan teknik cluster connection adalah efektif.   This study aimed to know The Effectiveness of Using Cluster Connection Towards The Students’ VocabularyMastery at The Eighth Graders at MTs Darul Ihsan Duri. Related to the object of the research, the researcher used experimental method. The design of the research was control and experiment group; pretest – posttest design. The research was conducted at MTs. Daru lIhsan Duri in the academic year 2015/2016. The population of this research was the eighth grade students of MTs Darul Ihsan

The metastasis-associated Mts1(S100A4) protein could act as an angiogenic factor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ambartsumian, N; Klingelhöfer, Jörg; Grigorian, M

2001-01-01

The involvement of Mts1(S100A4), a small Ca(2+)-binding protein in tumor progression and metastasis had been demonstrated. However, the mechanism by which mts1(S100A4) promoted metastasis had not been identified. Here we demonstrated that Mts1(S100A4) had significant stimulatory effect on the ang...

On the possibility of occurrence of uranium mineralization in some sedimentary formations of the Sudety Mts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miecznik, J.B.; Strzelecki, R.

1979-01-01

The Sudety Mts represent a part of the Bohemian Massif which is one of the richest uranium-bearing regions in Europe. The possibilities of occurrence of uranium in most interesting sedimentary formations of the Sudety Mts are analysed. The sedimentary formations which originated during the platform stage of evolution of these Mountains, after formation of Variscan endogenic mineralization, were recognized as perspective here. Sandstone-type uranium deposits and uraniferous black shales were assumed to be the most important in that area. Sandstone-type uranium deposits are related to continental uppermost Carboniferous (Glinik Beds - Westphalian C-D and, possibly, lowermost Stephanian) of the Central Sudety (Intra-Sudetic Depression). They closely resemble uranium deposits known from continental clastic Permo-Carboniferous sections of several parts of Europe. Westphalian D and Stephanian rocks developed in similar lithofacies in the western Sudety Mts (North-Sudetic Depression) may be also characterized by increased content of uranium. Attention is also paid to the possibilities of occurrence of uranium mineralization in shallow-marine sandstones and continental deposits of the Cenomanian as uranium deposits are known from similarly developed Cenomanian in the North Czech Upper Cretaceous Table area, i.e. in the direct neighbourhood of the Sudety Mts. Traces of uranium mineralization were found in black shales of the Lower Silurian section in the Kaczawa Mts (western Sudety Mts) and Bardo Mts (Central Sudety). The recorded concentrations (up to several hundred ppm) may be compared with uranium occurrences known from Lower Silurian sections of the Barrandian (CSSR) and Thuringia (GDR). (author)

Beyond the "science of sophomores": does the rational choice explanation of crime generalize from university students to an actual offender sample?

Science.gov (United States)

Bouffard, Jeff; Bry, Jeff; Smith, Shamayne; Bry, Rhonda

2008-12-01

Much of the criminological literature testing rational choice theory has utilized hypothetical scenarios presented to university students. Although this research generally supports rational choice theory, a common criticism is that conclusions from these studies may not generalize to samples of actual offenders. This study proceeds to examine this issue in two steps. First, a traditional sample of university students is examined to determine how various costs and benefits relate to their hypothetical likelihood of offending. Then the same data collection procedures are employed with a somewhat different sample of younger, adjudicated, and institutionalized offenders to determine whether the conclusions drawn from the student sample generalize to this offender sample. Results generally suggest that the content and process of hypothetical criminal decision making differ in the sample of known offenders relative to the university students. Limitations of the current study, as well as suggestions for future research, are discussed.

Monolayer to MTS: using SEM, HIM, TEM and SERS to compare morphology, nanosensor uptake and redox potential in MCF7 cells

Science.gov (United States)

Jamieson, L. E.; Bell, A. P.; Harrison, D. J.; Campbell, C. J.

2015-06-01

Cellular redox potential is important for the control and regulation of a vast number of processes occurring in cells. When the fine redox potential balance within cells is disturbed it can have serious consequences such as the initiation or progression of disease. It is thought that a redox gradient develops in cancer tumours where the peripheral regions are well oxygenated and internal regions, further from vascular blood supply, become starved of oxygen and hypoxic. This makes treatment of these areas more challenging as, for example, radiotherapy relies on the presence of oxygen. Currently techniques for quantitative analysis of redox gradients are limited. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanosensors (NS) have been used to detect redox potential in a quantitative manner in monolayer cultured cells with many advantages over other techniques. This technique has considerable potential for use in multicellular tumour spheroids (MTS) - a three dimensional (3D) cell model which better mimics the tumour environment and gradients that develop. MTS are a more realistic model of the in vivo cellular morphology and environment and are becoming an increasingly popular in vitro model, replacing traditional monolayer culture. Imaging techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and helium ion microscopy (HIM) were used to investigate differences in morphology and NS uptake in monolayer culture compared to MTS. After confirming NS uptake, the first SERS measurements revealing quantitative information on redox potential in MTS were performed.

Contingency discriminability and the generalized matching law describe choice on concurrent ratio schedules of wheel-running reinforcement.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W

2012-07-01

Belke (2010) showed that on concurrent ratio schedules, the difference in ratio requirements required to produce near exclusive preference for the lower ratio alternative was substantively greater when the reinforcer was wheel running than when it was sucrose. The current study replicated this finding and showed that this choice behavior can be described by the matching law and the contingency discriminability model. Eight female Long Evans rats were exposed to concurrent VR schedules of wheel-running reinforcement (30s) and the schedule value of the initially preferred alternative was systematically increased. Two rats rapidly developed exclusive preference for the lower ratio alternative, but the majority did not - even when ratios differed by 20:1. Analysis showed that estimates of slopes from the matching law and the proportion of reinforcers misattributed from the contingency discriminability model were related to the ratios at which near exclusive preference developed. The fit of these models would be consistent with misattribution of reinforcers or poor discrimination between alternatives due to the long duration of wheel running. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analisis Biaya Penyelenggaraan Pendidikan di Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTsN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. M. Djumransjah

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This study was focused on educational costs in the Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTsN. The data were gathered in Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTsN Malang I by using documents and interviews, and then analyzed by a reflective approach. The results indicated that the average cost was Rp.510,443.00 per-annum/student. The budget was spent on daily operation (40.46%, maintenance (28.98%, staff honoraria (28.31%, and teaching aids or educational media (2.07%. The fund comes from central government through developmental fund (DIP and from Parent Association (BP3 through educational support (SPP, infaq, zakat, etc

Expression of the metastasis-associated mts1 gene during mouse development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Klingelhöfer, Jörg; Ambartsumian, N S; Lukanidin, E M

1997-01-01

motility. In order to understand the function of this gene, we studied the expression of the mts1 mRNA and protein in vivo during mouse development. Both mRNA and protein were present in high concentrations from 12.5 to 18.5 days post coitum (dpc) in a variety of developing embryonic tissue of mesodermal....... In developing bone, Mts1 was expressed in invasive mesenchymal cells and in osteoclasts. The results presented here suggest that Mtsl plays an important role in mouse development during differentiation and function of macrophages and might be involved in different processes associated with mesenchymal...

Understanding rational non-adherence to medications. A discrete choice experiment in a community sample in Australia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laba Tracey-Lea

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In spite of the potential impact upon population health and expenditure, interventions promoting medication adherence have been found to be of moderate effectiveness and cost effectiveness. Understanding the relative influence of factors affecting patient medication adherence decisions and the characteristics of individuals associated with variation in adherence will lead to a better understanding of how future interventions should be designed and targeted. This study aims to explore medication-taking decisions that may underpin intentional medication non-adherence behaviour amongst a community sample and the relative importance of medication specific factors and patient background characteristics contributing to those decisions. Methods A discrete choice experiment conducted through a web-enabled online survey was used to estimate the relative importance of eight medication factors (immediate and long-term medication harms and benefits, cost, regimen, symptom severity, alcohol restrictions on the preference to continue taking a medication. To reflect more closely what usually occurs in practice, non-disease specific medication and health terms were used to mimic decisions across multiple medications and conditions.161 general community participants, matching the national Australian census data (age, gender were recruited through an online panel provider (participation rate: 10% in 2010. Results Six of the eight factors (i.e. immediate and long-term medication harms and benefits, cost, and regimen had a significant influence on medication choice. Patient background characteristics did not improve the model. Respondents with private health insurance appeared less sensitive to cost then those without private health insurance. In general, health outcomes, framed as a side-effect, were found to have a greater influence over adherence than outcomes framed as therapeutic benefits. Conclusions Medication-taking decisions are the

Understanding rational non-adherence to medications. A discrete choice experiment in a community sample in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Laba, Tracey-Lea; Brien, Jo-Anne; Jan, Stephen

2012-06-20

In spite of the potential impact upon population health and expenditure, interventions promoting medication adherence have been found to be of moderate effectiveness and cost effectiveness. Understanding the relative influence of factors affecting patient medication adherence decisions and the characteristics of individuals associated with variation in adherence will lead to a better understanding of how future interventions should be designed and targeted. This study aims to explore medication-taking decisions that may underpin intentional medication non-adherence behaviour amongst a community sample and the relative importance of medication specific factors and patient background characteristics contributing to those decisions. A discrete choice experiment conducted through a web-enabled online survey was used to estimate the relative importance of eight medication factors (immediate and long-term medication harms and benefits, cost, regimen, symptom severity, alcohol restrictions) on the preference to continue taking a medication. To reflect more closely what usually occurs in practice, non-disease specific medication and health terms were used to mimic decisions across multiple medications and conditions.161 general community participants, matching the national Australian census data (age, gender) were recruited through an online panel provider (participation rate: 10%) in 2010. Six of the eight factors (i.e. immediate and long-term medication harms and benefits, cost, and regimen) had a significant influence on medication choice. Patient background characteristics did not improve the model. Respondents with private health insurance appeared less sensitive to cost then those without private health insurance. In general, health outcomes, framed as a side-effect, were found to have a greater influence over adherence than outcomes framed as therapeutic benefits. Medication-taking decisions are the subject of rational choices, influenced by the attributes of

Bayesian deterministic decision making: A normative account of the operant matching law and heavy-tailed reward history dependency of choices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiroshi eSaito

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The decision making behaviors of humans and animals adapt and then satisfy an ``operant matching law'' in certain type of tasks. This was first pointed out by Herrnstein in his foraging experiments on pigeons. The matching law has been one landmark for elucidating the underlying processes of decision making and its learning in the brain. An interesting question is whether decisions are made deterministically or probabilistically. Conventional learning models of the matching law are based on the latter idea; they assume that subjects learn choice probabilities of respective alternatives and decide stochastically with the probabilities. However, it is unknown whether the matching law can be accounted for by a deterministic strategy or not. To answer this question, we propose several deterministic Bayesian decision making models that have certain incorrect beliefs about an environment. We claim that a simple model produces behavior satisfying the matching law in static settings of a foraging task but not in dynamic settings. We found that the model that has a belief that the environment is volatile works well in the dynamic foraging task and exhibits undermatching, which is a slight deviation from the matching law observed in many experiments. This model also demonstrates the double-exponential reward history dependency of a choice and a heavier-tailed run-length distribution, as has recently been reported in experiments on monkeys.

Coarse-to-fine region selection and matching

KAUST Repository

Yang, Yanchao

2015-10-15

We present a new approach to wide baseline matching. We propose to use a hierarchical decomposition of the image domain and coarse-to-fine selection of regions to match. In contrast to interest point matching methods, which sample salient regions to reduce the cost of comparing all regions in two images, our method eliminates regions systematically to achieve efficiency. One advantage of our approach is that it is not restricted to covariant salient regions, which is too restrictive under large viewpoint and leads to few corresponding regions. Affine invariant matching of regions in the hierarchy is achieved efficiently by a coarse-to-fine search of the affine space. Experiments on two benchmark datasets shows that our method finds more correct correspondence of the image (with fewer false alarms) than other wide baseline methods on large viewpoint change. © 2015 IEEE.

Accurate recapture identification for genetic mark–recapture studies with error-tolerant likelihood-based match calling and sample clustering

Science.gov (United States)

Sethi, Suresh; Linden, Daniel; Wenburg, John; Lewis, Cara; Lemons, Patrick R.; Fuller, Angela K.; Hare, Matthew P.

2016-01-01

Error-tolerant likelihood-based match calling presents a promising technique to accurately identify recapture events in genetic mark–recapture studies by combining probabilities of latent genotypes and probabilities of observed genotypes, which may contain genotyping errors. Combined with clustering algorithms to group samples into sets of recaptures based upon pairwise match calls, these tools can be used to reconstruct accurate capture histories for mark–recapture modelling. Here, we assess the performance of a recently introduced error-tolerant likelihood-based match-calling model and sample clustering algorithm for genetic mark–recapture studies. We assessed both biallelic (i.e. single nucleotide polymorphisms; SNP) and multiallelic (i.e. microsatellite; MSAT) markers using a combination of simulation analyses and case study data on Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) and fishers (Pekania pennanti). A novel two-stage clustering approach is demonstrated for genetic mark–recapture applications. First, repeat captures within a sampling occasion are identified. Subsequently, recaptures across sampling occasions are identified. The likelihood-based matching protocol performed well in simulation trials, demonstrating utility for use in a wide range of genetic mark–recapture studies. Moderately sized SNP (64+) and MSAT (10–15) panels produced accurate match calls for recaptures and accurate non-match calls for samples from closely related individuals in the face of low to moderate genotyping error. Furthermore, matching performance remained stable or increased as the number of genetic markers increased, genotyping error notwithstanding.

NCI-MATCH Trial Links Targeted Drugs to Mutations

Science.gov (United States)

Investigators for the nationwide trial, NCI-MATCH: Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice, announced that the trial will seek to determine whether targeted therapies for people whose tumors have specific gene mutations will be effective regardless of their cancer type. NCI-MATCH will incorporate more than 20 different study drugs or drug combinations, each targeting a specific gene mutation, in order to match each patient in the trial with a therapy that targets a molecular abnormality in their tumor.

A generalized matching law analysis of cocaine vs. food choice in rhesus monkeys: effects of candidate 'agonist-based' medications on sensitivity to reinforcement.

Science.gov (United States)

Hutsell, Blake A; Negus, S Stevens; Banks, Matthew L

2015-01-01

We have previously demonstrated reductions in cocaine choice produced by either continuous 14-day phendimetrazine and d-amphetamine treatment or removing cocaine availability under a cocaine vs. food choice procedure in rhesus monkeys. The aim of the present investigation was to apply the concatenated generalized matching law (GML) to cocaine vs. food choice dose-effect functions incorporating sensitivity to both the relative magnitude and price of each reinforcer. Our goal was to determine potential behavioral mechanisms underlying pharmacological treatment efficacy to decrease cocaine choice. A multi-model comparison approach was used to characterize dose- and time-course effects of both pharmacological and environmental manipulations on sensitivity to reinforcement. GML models provided an excellent fit of the cocaine choice dose-effect functions in individual monkeys. Reductions in cocaine choice by both pharmacological and environmental manipulations were principally produced by systematic decreases in sensitivity to reinforcer price and non-systematic changes in sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude. The modeling approach used provides a theoretical link between the experimental analysis of choice and pharmacological treatments being evaluated as candidate 'agonist-based' medications for cocaine addiction. The analysis suggests that monoamine releaser treatment efficacy to decrease cocaine choice was mediated by selectively increasing the relative price of cocaine. Overall, the net behavioral effect of these pharmacological treatments was to increase substitutability of food pellets, a nondrug reinforcer, for cocaine. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neogene volcanism in Gutai Mts. (Eastern Carpathains: a review

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Marinel Kovacs

2003-04-01

Full Text Available Two types of volcanism developed in Gutâi Mts. (inner volcanic chain of Eastern Carpathians: a felsic, extensional/“back-arc” type and an intermediate, arc type. The felsic volcanism of explosive origin, consisting of caldera-related rhyolitic ignimbrites and resedimented volcaniclastics, had taken place during Early-Middle Badenian and Early Sarmatian. The intermediate volcanism, consisting of extrusive (effusive and explosive and intrusive activity, had developed during Sarmatian and Pannonian (13.4-7.0 Ma. It is represented by typical calc-alkaline series, from basalts to rhyolites. Lava flows of basaltic andesites and andesites are predominant, often emplaced in subaqueous environment. Extrusive domes, mainly composed of dacites, are associated to the andesitic volcanic structures. The intermediate volcanism, consisting of extrusive (effusive and explosive and intrusive activity, had developed during Sarmatian and Pannonian (13.4-7.0 Ma. It is represented by typical calc-alkaline series, from basalts to rhyolites. Lava flows of basaltic andesites and andesites are predominant, often emplaced in subaqueous environment. Extrusive domes, mainly composed of dacites, are associated to the andesitic volcanic structures. The geochemical study on the volcanic rocks shows the calc-alkaline character of both felsic and intermediate volcanism and typical subduction zones geochemical signatures for the intermediate one. The felsic volcanism shows affinities with subduction-related rocks as well. The main petrogenetic process in Gutâi Mts. was crustal assimilation, strongly constrained by trace element and isotope geochemistry.

Tissue-specific posttranscriptional downregulation of expression of the S100A4(mts1) gene in transgenic animals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ambartsumian, N; Klingelhöfer, Jörg; Grigorian, M

1998-01-01

The S100A4(mts1) is a gene associated with generation of metastatic disease. In order to analyze the consequences of alteration of the pattern of expression of the S100A4(mts1) gene we obtained strains of transgenic mice bearing the S100A4(mts1) gene under the control of a ubiquitous and constitu....../or posttranslational degradation....

Price-Matching leads to the Cournot Outcome

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Batsaikhan, Mongoljin; Tumennasan, Norovsambuu

Bertrand competition that the market price in the presence of a price-matching option ranges from the monopolistic price to the Bertrand price. Our result suggests that the effect of price-matching depends on whether the output is a choice variable for the firms.......We study the effects of price-matching in a duopoly setting in which each firm selects both its price and output, simultaneously. We show that the availability of a pricematching option leads to the Cournot outcome in this setting. This result is a stark contrast to the one obtained in the standard...

KEEFEKTIFAN EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PEMBELAJARAN MATEMATIKA MTs MATERI BANGUN RUANG SISI DATAR

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Dyahsih Alin Sholihah

2015-11-01

. From the population, two classes, Class VIIIA and Class VIIIB, were selected randomly as the research sample. To test the effectiveness of the mathematics learning through the experiential learning model and conventional learning, the proportion test was carried out. Then to compare the effectiveness of the two models, the data were analyzed using T2 Hotelling’s test, and the t-test to find out which of the two models was more effective. The results of the study show that the experiential learning model is more effective than the conventional in mathematics learning in subject matter of flat side construct viewed from the learning achievement and students’ appreciationof mathematics. Keywords: experiential learning model, conventional, learning achivement, and mathematics appreciation.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING CLUSTER CONNECTION TOWARDS STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY AT THE EIGHTH GRADE OF MTs DARUL IHSAN DURI

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Setiawati

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to know The Effectiveness of Using Cluster Connection Towards The Students’ VocabularyMastery at The Eighth Graders at MTs Darul Ihsan Duri. Related to the object of the research, the researcher used experimental method. The design of the research was control and experiment group; pretest – posttest design. The research was conducted at MTs. Daru lIhsan Duri in the academic year 2015/2016. The population of this research was the eighth grade students of MTs Darul Ihsan Duri. The total population was 62 students. The sample of the research was class VIII.A as control class and class VIII.B as experimental class. Class VIII.A consisted of 31 students. Class VIII.B consisted of 31 students. In analyzing the research data, the researcher used Independent sampleT-Test. T-Test was used to know whether cluster connection technique is effective toward the students’ vocabulary mastery. The result of the research showed that using cluster connection technique was effective toward the students’ vocabulary mastery. Based on statistical calculation in data analysis, the researcher gave interpretation of posttest score in experiment class and the control class. From the calculation, t-test value was 2.627 and t-table was 2.00. Because t-test value (2.627 was higher than t-table (2.00, it could be concluded that alternative hypothesis (Ha was accepted and the null hypothesis (Ho was rejected. It means that teaching vocabulary by using cluster connection is effective

Theory of choice in bandit, information sampling and foraging tasks.

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Averbeck, Bruno B

2015-03-01

Decision making has been studied with a wide array of tasks. Here we examine the theoretical structure of bandit, information sampling and foraging tasks. These tasks move beyond tasks where the choice in the current trial does not affect future expected rewards. We have modeled these tasks using Markov decision processes (MDPs). MDPs provide a general framework for modeling tasks in which decisions affect the information on which future choices will be made. Under the assumption that agents are maximizing expected rewards, MDPs provide normative solutions. We find that all three classes of tasks pose choices among actions which trade-off immediate and future expected rewards. The tasks drive these trade-offs in unique ways, however. For bandit and information sampling tasks, increasing uncertainty or the time horizon shifts value to actions that pay-off in the future. Correspondingly, decreasing uncertainty increases the relative value of actions that pay-off immediately. For foraging tasks the time-horizon plays the dominant role, as choices do not affect future uncertainty in these tasks.

Matchings with Externalities and Attitudes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Branzei, Simina; Michalak, Tomasz; Rahwan, Talal

2013-01-01

Two-sided matchings are an important theoretical tool used to model markets and social interactions. In many real-life problems the utility of an agent is influenced not only by their own choices, but also by the choices that other agents make. Such an influence is called an externality. Whereas ...... where agents take different attitudes when reasoning about the actions of others. In particular, we study optimistic, neutral and pessimistic attitudes and provide both computational hardness results and polynomial-time algorithms for computing stable outcomes....

Choice consistency and preference stability in test-retests of discrete choice experiment and open-ended willingness to pay elicitation formats

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brouwer, R.; Logar, I.; Sheremet, O.I.

2017-01-01

This study tests the temporal stability of preferences, choices and willingness to pay (WTP) values using both discrete choice experiment (DCE) and open-ended (OE) WTP elicitation formats. The same sample is surveyed three times over the course of two years using each time the same choice sets.

Supporting Opportunities for Context-Aware Social Matching: An Experience Sampling Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mayer, Julia; Barkhuus, Louise; Hiltz, Starr Roxanne

2016-01-01

Mobile social matching systems aim to bring people together in the physical world by recommending people nearby to each other. Going beyond simple similarity and proximity matching mechanisms, we explore a proposed framework of relational, social and personal context as predictors of match...... opportunities to map out the design space of opportunistic social matching systems. We contribute insights gained from a study combining Experience Sampling Method (ESM) with 85 students of a U.S. university and interviews with 15 of these participants. A generalized linear mixed model analysis (n=1704) showed...... that personal context (mood and busyness) as well as sociability of others nearby are the strongest predictors of contextual match interest. Participant interviews suggest operationalizing relational context using social network rarity and discoverable rarity, and incorporating skill level and learning...

Budget Constraints Affect Male Rats' Choices between Differently Priced Commodities.

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van Wingerden, Marijn; Marx, Christine; Kalenscher, Tobias

2015-01-01

Demand theory can be applied to analyse how a human or animal consumer changes her selection of commodities within a certain budget in response to changes in price of those commodities. This change in consumption assessed over a range of prices is defined as demand elasticity. Previously, income-compensated and income-uncompensated price changes have been investigated using human and animal consumers, as demand theory predicts different elasticities for both conditions. However, in these studies, demand elasticity was only evaluated over the entirety of choices made from a budget. As compensating budgets changes the number of attainable commodities relative to uncompensated conditions, and thus the number of choices, it remained unclear whether budget compensation has a trivial effect on demand elasticity by simply sampling from a different total number of choices or has a direct effect on consumers' sequential choice structure. If the budget context independently changes choices between commodities over and above price effects, this should become apparent when demand elasticity is assessed over choice sets of any reasonable size that are matched in choice opportunities between budget conditions. To gain more detailed insight in the sequential choice dynamics underlying differences in demand elasticity between budget conditions, we trained N=8 rat consumers to spend a daily budget by making a number of nosepokes to obtain two liquid commodities under different price regimes, in sessions with and without budget compensation. We confirmed that demand elasticity for both commodities differed between compensated and uncompensated budget conditions, also when the number of choices considered was matched, and showed that these elasticity differences emerge early in the sessions. These differences in demand elasticity were driven by a higher choice rate and an increased reselection bias for the preferred commodity in compensated compared to uncompensated budget conditions

Budget Constraints Affect Male Rats’ Choices between Differently Priced Commodities

Science.gov (United States)

Kalenscher, Tobias

2015-01-01

Demand theory can be applied to analyse how a human or animal consumer changes her selection of commodities within a certain budget in response to changes in price of those commodities. This change in consumption assessed over a range of prices is defined as demand elasticity. Previously, income-compensated and income-uncompensated price changes have been investigated using human and animal consumers, as demand theory predicts different elasticities for both conditions. However, in these studies, demand elasticity was only evaluated over the entirety of choices made from a budget. As compensating budgets changes the number of attainable commodities relative to uncompensated conditions, and thus the number of choices, it remained unclear whether budget compensation has a trivial effect on demand elasticity by simply sampling from a different total number of choices or has a direct effect on consumers’ sequential choice structure. If the budget context independently changes choices between commodities over and above price effects, this should become apparent when demand elasticity is assessed over choice sets of any reasonable size that are matched in choice opportunities between budget conditions. To gain more detailed insight in the sequential choice dynamics underlying differences in demand elasticity between budget conditions, we trained N=8 rat consumers to spend a daily budget by making a number of nosepokes to obtain two liquid commodities under different price regimes, in sessions with and without budget compensation. We confirmed that demand elasticity for both commodities differed between compensated and uncompensated budget conditions, also when the number of choices considered was matched, and showed that these elasticity differences emerge early in the sessions. These differences in demand elasticity were driven by a higher choice rate and an increased reselection bias for the preferred commodity in compensated compared to uncompensated budget

How to make moral choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Chambers, David W

2011-01-01

Moral choice is committing to act for what one believes is right and good. It is less about what we know than about defining who we are. Three cases typical of those used in the principles or dilemmas approach to teaching ethics are presented. But they are analyzed using an alternative approach based on seven moral choice heuristics--approaches proven to increase the likelihood of locating the best course of action. The approaches suggested for analyzing moral choice situations include: (a) identify the outcomes of available alternative courses of action; (b) rule out strategies that involve deception, coercion, reneging on promises, collusion, and contempt for others; (c) be authentic (do not deceive yourself); (d) relate to others on a human basis; (e) downplay rational justifications; (f) match the solution to the problem, not the other way around; (g) execute on the best solution, do not hold out for the perfect one; and (h) take action to improve the choice after it has been made.

Best-Matched Internal Standard Normalization in Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Metabolomics Applied to Environmental Samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Boysen, Angela K; Heal, Katherine R; Carlson, Laura T; Ingalls, Anitra E

2018-01-16

The goal of metabolomics is to measure the entire range of small organic molecules in biological samples. In liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, formidable analytical challenges remain in removing the nonbiological factors that affect chromatographic peak areas. These factors include sample matrix-induced ion suppression, chromatographic quality, and analytical drift. The combination of these factors is referred to as obscuring variation. Some metabolomics samples can exhibit intense obscuring variation due to matrix-induced ion suppression, rendering large amounts of data unreliable and difficult to interpret. Existing normalization techniques have limited applicability to these sample types. Here we present a data normalization method to minimize the effects of obscuring variation. We normalize peak areas using a batch-specific normalization process, which matches measured metabolites with isotope-labeled internal standards that behave similarly during the analysis. This method, called best-matched internal standard (B-MIS) normalization, can be applied to targeted or untargeted metabolomics data sets and yields relative concentrations. We evaluate and demonstrate the utility of B-MIS normalization using marine environmental samples and laboratory grown cultures of phytoplankton. In untargeted analyses, B-MIS normalization allowed for inclusion of mass features in downstream analyses that would have been considered unreliable without normalization due to obscuring variation. B-MIS normalization for targeted or untargeted metabolomics is freely available at https://github.com/IngallsLabUW/B-MIS-normalization .

The COMT Val158 allele is associated with impaired delayed-match-to-sample performance in ADHD

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Matthews Natasha

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study explored the association between three measures of working memory ability and genetic variation in a range of catecholamine genes in a sample of children with ADHD. Methods One hundred and eighteen children with ADHD performed three working memory measures taken from the CANTAB battery (Spatial Span, Delayed-match-to-sample, and Spatial Working Memory. Associations between performance on working memory measures and allelic variation in catecholamine genes (including those for the noradrenaline transporter [NET1], the dopamine D4 and D2 receptor genes [DRD4; DRD2], the gene encoding dopamine beta hydroxylase [DBH] and catechol-O-methyl transferase [COMT] were investigated using regression models that controlled for age, IQ, gender and medication status on the day of test. Results Significant associations were found between performance on the delayed-match-to-sample task and COMT genotype. More specifically, val/val homozygotes produced significantly more errors than did children who carried a least one met allele. There were no further associations between allelic variants and performance across the other working memory tasks. Conclusions The working memory measures employed in the present study differed in the degree to which accurate task performance depended upon either the dynamic updating and/or manipulation of items in working memory, as in the spatial span and spatial working memory tasks, or upon the stable maintenance of representations, as in the delay-match–to-sample task. The results are interpreted as evidence of a relationship between tonic dopamine levels associated with the met COMT allele and the maintenance of stable working memory representations required to perform the delayed-match-to-sample-task.

Self-referent phenotype matching and its role in female mate choice in arthropods

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Carie B. WEDDLE, John HUNT, Scott K. SAKALUK

2013-04-01

Full Text Available A growing body of empirical evidence shows that females of many animal species gain benefits by mating polyandrously, and often prefer to mate with novel males over previous mates. Although a female preference for novel males has been demonstrated for multiple animal taxa, the mechanisms used by females to discriminate between novel and previous mates remain largely unknown. However, recent studies suggest that in decorated crickets Gryllodes sigillatus, females actually imbue males with their own chemical cues, known as cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs during mating, and utilize chemosensory self-referencing to recognize recent mates. Here we review evidence that self-referent phenotype matching is a widespread mechanism of recognition in arthropods, and explore how CHCs are used to facilitate mate-choice decisions. There is substantial evidence that CHCs are used as recognition cues to discriminate between species, kin, sexes, mates, individuals, and self and non-self, and are used to facilitate mate-choice decisions in a wide range of arthropod taxa. There is also evidence that CHCs are often transferred between individuals during direct physical contact, including copulation. Chemosensory self-referencing via cuticular hydrocarbons could provide a simple, but reliable mechanism for identifying individuals from previous mating encounters. This mechanism does not require any specialized cognitive abilities because an individual’s phenotype is always available for reference. Given the ubiquitous use of CHCs among arthropods, chemosensory self-referencing may be a widespread mechanism used by female arthropods to facilitate female mate-choice decisions and to enhance opportunities for polyandry [Current Zoology 59 (2: 239-248, 2013].

Product samples stimulate choice of unfamiliar healthful food products.

Science.gov (United States)

Schickenberg, B; van Assema, P; Brug, J; de Vries, N K

2011-08-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether the availability of a product sample of an unfamiliar low-fat or fruit and vegetable products stimulates choice for this product among food neophobic young adults. The study had a 2 (experimental vs. control group) by 4 (low-fat bread spread, low-fat cheese, fruit juice, fruit and vegetable juice) between subjects design with a pre-and post-experiment questionnaire. The study was conducted in restaurant rooms of several educational institutions in the Netherlands among a convenience sample of 197 food neophobic young adults aged 17-25 years. A small bite or sip-sized sample of the target product was provided as an intervention. The effect measure was choice of either an unfamiliar healthful food product or a traditional food product. Offering a sample of an unfamiliar healthful food product resulted in 51% of the participants in the experimental group choosing this product vs. 36.4% in the control group. Providing food product samples seems to be a promising strategy in healthy diet promotion programs for food neophobic young adults to increase first-time trial of unfamiliar low-fat and fruit and vegetable products. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hierarchical Stereo Matching in Two-Scale Space for Cyber-Physical System

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Eunah Choi

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Dense disparity map estimation from a high-resolution stereo image is a very difficult problem in terms of both matching accuracy and computation efficiency. Thus, an exhaustive disparity search at full resolution is required. In general, examining more pixels in the stereo view results in more ambiguous correspondences. When a high-resolution image is down-sampled, the high-frequency components of the fine-scaled image are at risk of disappearing in the coarse-resolution image. Furthermore, if erroneous disparity estimates caused by missing high-frequency components are propagated across scale space, ultimately, false disparity estimates are obtained. To solve these problems, we introduce an efficient hierarchical stereo matching method in two-scale space. This method applies disparity estimation to the reduced-resolution image, and the disparity result is then up-sampled to the original resolution. The disparity estimation values of the high-frequency (or edge component regions of the full-resolution image are combined with the up-sampled disparity results. In this study, we extracted the high-frequency areas from the scale-space representation by using difference of Gaussian (DoG or found edge components, using a Canny operator. Then, edge-aware disparity propagation was used to refine the disparity map. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms previous methods.

Hierarchical Stereo Matching in Two-Scale Space for Cyber-Physical System.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Eunah; Lee, Sangyoon; Hong, Hyunki

2017-07-21

Dense disparity map estimation from a high-resolution stereo image is a very difficult problem in terms of both matching accuracy and computation efficiency. Thus, an exhaustive disparity search at full resolution is required. In general, examining more pixels in the stereo view results in more ambiguous correspondences. When a high-resolution image is down-sampled, the high-frequency components of the fine-scaled image are at risk of disappearing in the coarse-resolution image. Furthermore, if erroneous disparity estimates caused by missing high-frequency components are propagated across scale space, ultimately, false disparity estimates are obtained. To solve these problems, we introduce an efficient hierarchical stereo matching method in two-scale space. This method applies disparity estimation to the reduced-resolution image, and the disparity result is then up-sampled to the original resolution. The disparity estimation values of the high-frequency (or edge component) regions of the full-resolution image are combined with the up-sampled disparity results. In this study, we extracted the high-frequency areas from the scale-space representation by using difference of Gaussian (DoG) or found edge components, using a Canny operator. Then, edge-aware disparity propagation was used to refine the disparity map. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms previous methods.

The two-sample problem with induced dependent censorship.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Y

1999-12-01

Induced dependent censorship is a general phenomenon in health service evaluation studies in which a measure such as quality-adjusted survival time or lifetime medical cost is of interest. We investigate the two-sample problem and propose two classes of nonparametric tests. Based on consistent estimation of the survival function for each sample, the two classes of test statistics examine the cumulative weighted difference in hazard functions and in survival functions. We derive a unified asymptotic null distribution theory and inference procedure. The tests are applied to trial V of the International Breast Cancer Study Group and show that long duration chemotherapy significantly improves time without symptoms of disease and toxicity of treatment as compared with the short duration treatment. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed tests, with a wide range of weight choices, perform well under moderate sample sizes.

Sensitivity to Measurement Errors in Studies on Prosocial Choice using a Two-Choice Paradigm

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Sikorska Julia

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Research on prosocial behaviors in primates often relies on the two-choice paradigm. Motoric lateralization is a surprisingly big problem in this field of research research, as it may influence which lever will ultimately be chosen by the actor. The results of lateralization studies on primates do not form a clear picture of that phenomenon, which makes it difficult to address the problem during research. The authors discuss possible ways of managing this confounding variable.

Sample preparation guidelines for two-dimensional electrophoresis.

Science.gov (United States)

Posch, Anton

2014-12-01

Sample preparation is one of the key technologies for successful two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE). Due to the great diversity of protein sample types and sources, no single sample preparation method works with all proteins; for any sample the optimum procedure must be determined empirically. This review is meant to provide a broad overview of the most important principles in sample preparation in order to avoid a multitude of possible pitfalls. Sample preparation protocols from the expert in the field were screened and evaluated. On the basis of these protocols and my own comprehensive practical experience important guidelines are given in this review. The presented guidelines will facilitate straightforward protocol development for researchers new to gel-based proteomics. In addition the available choices are rationalized in order to successfully prepare a protein sample for 2DE separations. The strategies described here are not limited to 2DE and can also be applied to other protein separation techniques.

Peningkatan Aktivitas, Motivasi dan Hasil Belajar IPA Biologi Peserta Didik Kelas VIIIA-1 MTsN Watampone melalui Model Pembelajaran Inkuiri Terbimbing

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Pujiati Pujiati

2016-02-01

Full Text Available ABSTRAKPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui peningkatan aktivitas belajar, motivasi belajar dan hasil belajar IPA Biologi peserta didik kelas VIIIA-1 MTsN 1 Watampone melalui model pembelajaran inkuiri terbimbing. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian tindakan kelas yang dilaksanakan di MTsN  1 Watampone Kabupaten Bone. Subjek  penelitian ini adalah peserta didik kelas VIIIA-1 dengan jumlah peserta didik 32 orang. Penelitian ini dilakukan pada semester genap tahun pelajaran 2015/2016, bulan Januari sampai bulan April 2016. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa (1 aktivitas belajar IPA Biologi peserta didik kelas VIIIA-1 MTsN 1 Watampone meningkat dari  62,25% menjadi 87,5% melalui model pembelajaran inkuiri terbimbing (2 motivasi  belajar IPA Biologi peserta didik kelas VIIIA-1 MTsN 1 Watampone meningkat dari 85,71% menjadi 87,06%  melalui model pembelajaran inkuri terbimbing (3 . Hasil   belajar IPA Biologi peserta didik kelas VIIIA-1 MTsN 1 Watampone meningkat dari 59,37% menjadi 87,5%  melalui model pembelajaran inkuri terbimbing.Kata kunci: pendekatan saintifik, keterampilan proses sains, hasil belajar kognitif biologi.ABSTRACTThis study aims to determine the increase activity, motivation and learning outcomes of science biology for VIIIA-1 Class of MTsN 1 Watampone through guided inquiry learning model. This study is classroom action research conducted in MTsN 1 Watampone, Bone. The subjects were students of Class of VIIIA-1 with the number of students is 32. This research was conducted in the second semester of 2015/2016 academic year, January to April 2016. Results showed that (1 the activity of students to learn science biology of VIIIA-1 Class of MTsN 1 Watampone increased from 62.25% to 87.5% through the inquiry guided learning model, (2 motivation to learn science biology of Students of VIIIA-1 Class of MTsN 1 Watampone increased from 85.71% to 87.06% through the inquiry guided learning model, (3 Biological science learning

Database crime to crime match rate calculation.

Science.gov (United States)

Buckleton, John; Bright, Jo-Anne; Walsh, Simon J

2009-06-01

Guidance exists on how to count matches between samples in a crime sample database but we are unable to locate a definition of how to estimate a match rate. We propose a method that does not proceed from the match counting definition but which has a strong logic.

A Fast and Robust Feature-Based Scan-Matching Method in 3D SLAM and the Effect of Sampling Strategies

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Cihan Ulas

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM plays an important role in fully autonomous systems when a GNSS (global navigation satellite system is not available. Studies in both 2D indoor and 3D outdoor SLAM are based on the appearance of environments and utilize scan-matching methods to find rigid body transformation parameters between two consecutive scans. In this study, a fast and robust scan-matching method based on feature extraction is introduced. Since the method is based on the matching of certain geometric structures, like plane segments, the outliers and noise in the point cloud are considerably eliminated. Therefore, the proposed scan-matching algorithm is more robust than conventional methods. Besides, the registration time and the number of iterations are significantly reduced, since the number of matching points is efficiently decreased. As a scan-matching framework, an improved version of the normal distribution transform (NDT is used. The probability density functions (PDFs of the reference scan are generated as in the traditional NDT, and the feature extraction - based on stochastic plane detection - is applied to the only input scan. By using experimental dataset belongs to an outdoor environment like a university campus, we obtained satisfactory performance results. Moreover, the feature extraction part of the algorithm is considered as a special sampling strategy for scan-matching and compared to other sampling strategies, such as random sampling and grid-based sampling, the latter of which is first used in the NDT. Thus, this study also shows the effect of the subsampling on the performance of the NDT.

Rancang Bangun Perangkat Eksperimen Hukum Archimedes untuk MTs LB/A Yaketunis Kelas VIII

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Rofiqoh Utami

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Blind students find difficulties whenever they are involved in the experiment of Archimedes principle as it requests an active visual role. Thus, it is very important to design a special tool for blind students so their practice of Archimedes principle become easier. This paper discusses a research finding which is an innovation of adaptive tools for blind students, such as beaker glass with Braille number, dynamometer with modification and Braille number (Braille Spring Balance and recording lesson about Archimedes principle. This research done for students MTs LB / A Yaketunis Class VIII which aims at analyzing the quality of each tool by media experts, lesson experts, and physics teacher of MTs LB/A.This research is R & D with procedural models adapted from the development of the 4-D models, namely Define, Design, Develop, and Disseminate. According to media expert assessment, beaker glass with Braille number and Braille spring balance has a very good quality with percentage of their respective 100% of the ideal score, while the assessment by lesson experts for each tool have a good quality with percentage 80% and 73.33% of the ideal score, and physics teacher of MTs LB / A assessment for each tool have a very good quality with percentage 100%. According to the media and lesson experts, the recording lesson about Archimedes principle have a good quality with percentage 80% of the ideal score, according to physics teacher MTs LB / A, the recording tool has excellent quality either with percentage 91.82% of the ideal score. This research recommends the blinds students to utilize these innovative-adaptive tools which will enable them appropriately practice Archimedes principle as non-blind students.

The impact of natural science contextual teaching through project method to students’ achievement in MTsN Miri Sragen

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Anik Sunarsih

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study aims to describe the science learning skills among students’ who follow contextual learning through project method with experiment method. The population of this research is the students’ of class VII MTS Negeri Miri Kab. Sragen on the teaching period of 2016/2017. Cluster random sampling technique is used as sample. This research was designed using contextual teaching through project method as an independent variable. The results of this Improvement show that there is a difference in the achievement of students' learning skill that follows contextual learning through the project method with the experimental method with Fobs = 8,83 and significant number 4,04 (p <0,05. Based on these findings contextual learning through the project is one of the learning methods that provide a positive influence on improving the achievement of science learning skills. This ain increase, because CTL is can help students’ understand the material by relating the problems that exist. Project methods are used by students’ in solving problems.

The pyruvic acid analog 3-bromopyruvate interferes with the tetrazolium reagent MTS in the evaluation of cytotoxicity.

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Ganapathy-Kanniappan, Shanmugasundaram; Geschwind, Jean-Francois H; Kunjithapatham, Rani; Buijs, Manon; Syed, Labiq H; Rao, Pramod P; Ota, Shinichi; Vali, Mustafa

2010-04-01

3-Bromopyruvate (3BrPA) is a pyruvate analog known for its alkylating property. Recently, several reports have documented the antiglycolytic and anticancer effects of 3BrPA and its potential for therapeutic applications. 3BrPA-mediated cytotoxicity has been evaluated in vitro by various methods including tetrazolium salt (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide)-based assays such as MTT, MTS, and so on. However, growing body of evidences has shown that tetrazolium reagent may interfere with the test compounds. In this study, we investigated whether the tetrazolium reagent interferes with the assessment of 3BrPA cytotoxicity. The results of the tetrazolium-based MTS assay were compared with 3 distinct cell viability detection methods, that is, Trypan Blue staining, ATP depletion, and Annexin V staining in 2 different cell lines, Vx-2 and HepG2. The MTS assay data showed false positive results by indicating increased cell viability at 1 mM and 2 mM 3BrPA whereas the other cell viability assays demonstrated that both Vx-2 and HepG2 cells are not viable at the same treatment conditions. In order to validate the direct interaction of 3BrPA with MTS reagent, we tested cell-free media incubated with different concentrations of 3BrPA. The results of cell-free media showed an increase in absorbance in a dose-dependent manner confirming the interaction of MTS with 3BrPA. Thus, our data clearly demonstrate that 3BrPA interferes with the accuracy of MTS-based cytotoxicity evaluation. Hence, we suggest that employing multiple methods of biochemical as well as morphological cytotoxicity assays is critical to evaluate 3BrPA-mediated cell death.

Matching, Demand, Maximization, and Consumer Choice

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Wells, Victoria K.; Foxall, Gordon R.

2013-01-01

The use of behavioral economics and behavioral psychology in consumer choice has been limited. The current study extends the study of consumer behavior analysis, a synthesis between behavioral psychology, economics, and marketing, to a larger data set. This article presents the current work and results from the early analysis of the data. We…

Cell cycle phase dependent emergence of thymidylate synthase studied by monoclonal antibody (M-TS-4).

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Shibui, S; Hoshino, T; Iwasaki, K; Nomura, K; Jastreboff, M M

1989-05-01

A method of identifying thymidylate synthase (TS) at the cellular level was developed using anti-TS monoclonal antibody (M-TS-4), a monoclonal antibody created against purified TS from a HeLa cell line. In HeLa cells and four human glioma cell lines (U-251, U-87, 343-MGA, and SF-188), TS was identified primarily in the cytoplasm. Autoradiographic and flow cytometric studies showed that TS appeared mainly in the G1 phase and subsided early in the S phase; thus, the G1 phase can be divided into TS-positive and -negative fractions. Nuclear TS was not demonstrated unequivocally with M-TS-4, and the relationship between nuclear TS and DNA synthesis could not be determined. Although the percentage of TS-positive cells was larger than the S-phase fraction measured by autoradiography after a pulse of tritiated thymidine or by the immunoperoxidase method using BUdR, the ratios were within a similar range (1.2-1.4) in all cell lines studied. Therefore, the S-phase fraction can be estimated indirectly from the percentage of TS-positive cells measured by M-TS-4. Because the emergence of TS detected by our method is cell cycle dependent, M-TS-4 may be useful for biochemical studies of TS and for cytokinetic analysis.

The impact of two multiple-choice question formats on the problem-solving strategies used by novices and experts.

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Coderre, Sylvain P; Harasym, Peter; Mandin, Henry; Fick, Gordon

2004-11-05

Pencil-and-paper examination formats, and specifically the standard, five-option multiple-choice question, have often been questioned as a means for assessing higher-order clinical reasoning or problem solving. This study firstly investigated whether two paper formats with differing number of alternatives (standard five-option and extended-matching questions) can test problem-solving abilities. Secondly, the impact of the alternatives number on psychometrics and problem-solving strategies was examined. Think-aloud protocols were collected to determine the problem-solving strategy used by experts and non-experts in answering Gastroenterology questions, across the two pencil-and-paper formats. The two formats demonstrated equal ability in testing problem-solving abilities, while the number of alternatives did not significantly impact psychometrics or problem-solving strategies utilized. These results support the notion that well-constructed multiple-choice questions can in fact test higher order clinical reasoning. Furthermore, it can be concluded that in testing clinical reasoning, the question stem, or content, remains more important than the number of alternatives.

UPAYA MENEKAN PERILAKU FANDALISME SISWA DI LEMBAGA PENDIDIKAN ISLAM (Studi Kasus di MTs Negeri Kadur Pamekasan

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Mohammad Thoha

2015-12-01

Full Text Available One of the factors making students’ failure in learning is students’ vandalism either inside or outside the class. In facing this case, teachers and organizer of institution need certain wise approach. This article focuses on, first, how are the students vandalism images at MTs Negeri Kadur Pamekasan, and second, what are the efforts to push down the students vandalism images at MTs Negeri Kadur Pamekasan. The results showed that the images of students’ vandalism at MTs Negeri Kadur Pamekasan were: coming late into the class, not wearing uniform, not attending the class, not doing the homework, going out with close friend, being lazy in studying, smoking, colouring the hair, bringing mobile phone, going out of the school without permission, stealing and wearing earrings. The efforts done are using moral and emotional approach and spiritual approach.

Optimal decision making and matching are tied through diminishing returns.

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Kubanek, Jan

2017-08-08

How individuals make decisions has been a matter of long-standing debate among economists and researchers in the life sciences. In economics, subjects are viewed as optimal decision makers who maximize their overall reward income. This framework has been widely influential, but requires a complete knowledge of the reward contingencies associated with a given choice situation. Psychologists and ecologists have observed that individuals tend to use a simpler "matching" strategy, distributing their behavior in proportion to relative rewards associated with their options. This article demonstrates that the two dominant frameworks of choice behavior are linked through the law of diminishing returns. The relatively simple matching can in fact provide maximal reward when the rewards associated with decision makers' options saturate with the invested effort. Such saturating relationships between reward and effort are hallmarks of the law of diminishing returns. Given the prevalence of diminishing returns in nature and social settings, this finding can explain why humans and animals so commonly behave according to the matching law. The article underscores the importance of the law of diminishing returns in choice behavior.

Assessment of groundwater vulnerability to acidification in the Krusne hory Mts. (Czech Republic)

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Vostracka, B.

2003-04-01

Several decades of acid precipitation have substantially damaged natural ecosystems in some parts of the Czech Republic. Deterioration of forest quality in the Krusne hory Mts. (NW Bohemia, part of the so-called 'Black Triangle') began as a consequence of acidification at the end of 60's. The acid atmospheric deposition (wet and dry) has changed considerably the quality of groundwater. The groundwater vulnerability is analyzed in the maps using GIS. Various factors affecting acidification are depicted in the separate layers. These factors are geology, type of soils, vegetation cover, altitude, influence of morphology and prevailing direction of winds, and precipitation. Influence of each factor is represented by a corresponding weight coefficient expressing participation of the given factor in the total acidification with respect to the others. Assessment of these weight coefficients is based on the groundwater quality monitoring in the Krusne hory Mts. Chemical data provides evidence of the real spreading of acid groundwater. Acidification is characterized by a low concentration of bicarbonates that have locally almost disappeared in the apical parts of the mountain range. The pH value is very low too (about 4.5). The pH decrease is accompanied by a significant increase in the contents of Al. Concentrations of sulfates and nitrates increase substantially as well. These parameters are used for a determination of the weight coefficients of the above-mentioned individual factors. The proposed analysis of these six factors (characterizing behavior of the individual components separately) enables to derive the resulting map of the groundwater vulnerability to acidification respecting mutual interaction of the individual factors.

A multi-level approach to travel mode choice - How person characteristics and situation specific aspects determine car use in a student sample

OpenAIRE

Kløckner, Christian; Friedrichsmeier, Thomas

2011-01-01

The presented study analyses travel mode choice in a student sample on four frequent trips: To the university, to work, to the favourite leisure activity, and to the favourite shop. The decision to use the car in contrast to alternative travel modes is modelled for each individual trip using a two-level structural equation model with trip specific attributes on Level 1 and person specific attributes on Level 2. Data was gathered in an online travel survey on a student sample of the Ruhr-Unive...

Trapped field measurements on MgB{sub 2} bulk samples

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Koblischka, Michael; Karwoth, Thomas; Zeng, XianLin; Hartmann, Uwe [Institute of Experimental Physics, Saarland University, P. O. Box 151150, D-66041 Saarbruecken (Germany); Berger, Kevin; Douine, Bruno [University of Lorraine, GREEN, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy (France)

2016-07-01

Trapped field measurements were performed on bulk, polycrystalline MgB{sub 2} samples stemming from different sources with the emphasis to develop applications like superconducting permanent magnets ('supermagnets') and electric motors. We describe the setup for the trapped field measurements and the experimental procedure (field cooling, zero-field cooling, field sweep rates). The trapped field measurements were conducted using a cryocooling system to cool the bulk samples to the desired temperatures, and a low-loss cryostat equipped with a room-temperature bore and a maximum field of ±5 T was employed to provide the external magnetic field. The superconducting coil of this cryostat is operated using a bidirectional power supply. Various sweep rates of the external magnetic field ranging between 1 mT/s and 40 mT/s were used to generate the applied field. The measurements were performed with one sample and two samples stacked together. A maximum trapped field of 7 T was recorded. We discuss the results obtained and the problems arising due to flux jumping, which is often seen for the MgB{sub 2} samples cooled to temperatures below 10 K.

Personality-matching habitat choice, rather than behavioural plasticity, is a likely driver of a phenotype-environment covariance.

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Holtmann, Benedikt; Santos, Eduardo S A; Lara, Carlos E; Nakagawa, Shinichi

2017-10-11

An emerging hypothesis of animal personality posits that animals choose the habitat that best fits their personality, and that the match between habitat and personality can facilitate population differentiation, and eventually speciation. However, behavioural plasticity and the adjustment of behaviours to new environments have been a classical explanation for such matching patterns. Using a population of dunnocks ( Prunella modularis ), we empirically tested whether personality or behavioural plasticity is responsible for the non-random distribution of shy and bold individuals in a heterogeneous environment. We found evidence for bold individuals settling in areas with high human disturbance, but also that birds became bolder with increasing age. Importantly, personality primarily determines the distribution of individuals, and behavioural adjustment over time contributes very little to the observed patterns. We cannot, however, exclude a possibility of very early behavioural plasticity (a type of developmental plasticity) shaping what we refer to as 'personality'. Nonetheless, our findings highlight the role personality plays in shaping population structure, lending support to the theory of personality-mediated speciation. Moreover, personality-matching habitat choice has important implications for population management and conservation. © 2017 The Author(s).

The Effects of Heuristics and Apophenia on Probabilistic Choice.

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Ellerby, Zack W; Tunney, Richard J

2017-01-01

Given a repeated choice between two or more options with independent and identically distributed reward probabilities, overall pay-offs can be maximized by the exclusive selection of the option with the greatest likelihood of reward. The tendency to match response proportions to reward contingencies is suboptimal. Nevertheless, this behaviour is well documented. A number of explanatory accounts have been proposed for probability matching. These include failed pattern matching, driven by apophenia, and a heuristic-driven response that can be overruled with sufficient deliberation. We report two experiments that were designed to test the relative effects on choice behaviour of both an intuitive versus strategic approach to the task and belief that there was a predictable pattern in the reward sequence, through a combination of both direct experimental manipulation and post-experimental self-report. Mediation analysis was used to model the pathways of effects. Neither of two attempted experimental manipulations of apophenia, nor self-reported levels of apophenia, had a significant effect on proportions of maximizing choices. However, the use of strategy over intuition proved a consistent predictor of maximizing, across all experimental conditions. A parallel analysis was conducted to assess the effect of controlling for individual variance in perceptions of reward contingencies. Although this analysis suggested that apophenia did increase probability matching in the standard task preparation, this effect was found to result from an unforeseen relationship between self-reported apophenia and perceived reward probabilities. A Win-Stay Lose-Shift (WSLS ) analysis indicated no reliable relationship between WSLS and either intuition or strategy use.

Differential responsiveness to caffeine and perceived effects of caffeine in moderate and high regular caffeine consumers.

Science.gov (United States)

Attwood, A S; Higgs, S; Terry, P

2007-03-01

Individual differences in responsiveness to caffeine occur even within a caffeine-consuming population, but the factors that mediate differential responsiveness remain unclear. To compare caffeine's effects on performance and mood in a group of high vs moderate consumers of caffeine and to examine the potential role of subjective awareness of the effects of caffeine in mediating any differential responsiveness. Two groups of regular caffeine consumers (200 mg/day) attended two sessions at which mood and cognitive functions were measured before and 30 min after consumption of 400-mg caffeine or placebo in a capsule. Cognitive tests included visual information processing, match-to-sample visual search (MTS) and simple and choice reaction times. Post-session questionnaires asked participants to describe any perceived effect of capsule consumption. High consumers, but not moderate consumers, demonstrated significantly faster simple and choice reaction times after caffeine relative to placebo. These effects were not attributable to obvious group differences in withdrawal or tolerance because there were no group differences in baseline mood or in reports of negative affect after caffeine. Instead, the high consumers were more likely to report experiencing positive effects of caffeine, whereas the moderate consumers were more likely to report no effect. The sensitivity of caffeine consumers to the mood- and performance-enhancing effects of caffeine is related to their levels of habitual intake. High caffeine consumers are more likely than moderate consumers to perceive broadly positive effects of caffeine, and this may contribute to their levels of use.

Revictimization After Adolescent Dating Violence in a Matched, National Sample of Youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Exner-Cortens, Deinera; Eckenrode, John; Bunge, John; Rothman, Emily

2017-02-01

To assess if adolescent dating violence was associated with physical intimate partner violence victimization in adulthood, using a comprehensive propensity score to create a matched group of victims and nonvictims. Secondary analysis of waves 1 (1994-1995), 2 (1996), 3 (2001-2002) and 4 (2007-2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationally representative sample of US high schools and middle schools. Individuals aged 12-18 reporting adolescent dating violence between the wave 1 and 2 interviews (n = 732) were matched to nonvictimized participants of the same sex (n = 1,429) using propensity score matching. These participants were followed up approximately 5 (wave 3) and 12 (wave 4) years later. At both follow-up points, physical violence victimization by a current partner was assessed. Data were analyzed using path models. Compared with the matched no victimization group, individuals reporting adolescent dating violence were more likely to experience physical intimate partner violence approximately 12 years later (wave 4), through the experience of 5-year (wave 3) victimization. This path held for males and females. Results from this sample matched on key risk variables suggest that violence first experienced in adolescent relationships may become chronic, confirming adolescent dating violence as an important risk factor for adult partner violence. Findings from this study underscore the critical role of primary and secondary prevention for adolescent dating violence. Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Betting on Illusory Patterns: Probability Matching in Habitual Gamblers.

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Gaissmaier, Wolfgang; Wilke, Andreas; Scheibehenne, Benjamin; McCanney, Paige; Barrett, H Clark

2016-03-01

Why do people gamble? A large body of research suggests that cognitive distortions play an important role in pathological gambling. Many of these distortions are specific cases of a more general misperception of randomness, specifically of an illusory perception of patterns in random sequences. In this article, we provide further evidence for the assumption that gamblers are particularly prone to perceiving illusory patterns. In particular, we compared habitual gamblers to a matched sample of community members with regard to how much they exhibit the choice anomaly 'probability matching'. Probability matching describes the tendency to match response proportions to outcome probabilities when predicting binary outcomes. It leads to a lower expected accuracy than the maximizing strategy of predicting the most likely event on each trial. Previous research has shown that an illusory perception of patterns in random sequences fuels probability matching. So does impulsivity, which is also reported to be higher in gamblers. We therefore hypothesized that gamblers will exhibit more probability matching than non-gamblers, which was confirmed in a controlled laboratory experiment. Additionally, gamblers scored much lower than community members on the cognitive reflection task, which indicates higher impulsivity. This difference could account for the difference in probability matching between the samples. These results suggest that gamblers are more willing to bet impulsively on perceived illusory patterns.

Sex roles and mutual mate choice matter during mate sampling.

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Myhre, Lise Cats; de Jong, Karen; Forsgren, Elisabet; Amundsen, Trond

2012-06-01

The roles of females and males in mating competition and mate choice have lately proven more variable, between and within species, than previously thought. In nature, mating competition occurs during mate search and is expected to be regulated by the numbers of potential mates and same-sex competitors. Here, we present the first study to test how a temporal change in sex roles affects mating competition and mate choice during mate sampling. Our model system (the marine fish Gobiusculus flavescens) is uniquely suitable because of its change in sex roles, from conventional to reversed, over the breeding season. As predicted from sex role theory, courtship was typically initiated by males and terminated by females early in the breeding season. The opposite pattern was observed late in the season, at which time several females often simultaneously courted the same male. Mate-searching females visited more males early than late in the breeding season. Our study shows that mutual mate choice and mating competition can have profound effects on female and male behavior. Future work needs to consider the dynamic nature of mating competition and mate choice if we aim to fully understand sexual selection in the wild.

Two new statistics to detect answer copying

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meijer, R.R.; Sotaridona, Leonardo

2001-01-01

Two new indices to detect answer copying on a multiple-choice test, S(1) and S(2) (subscripts), are proposed. The S(1) index is similar to the K-index (P. Holland, 1996) and the K-overscore(2), (K2) index (L. Sotaridona and R. Meijer, in press), but the distribution of the number of matching

Two new indices to detect answer copying

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sotaridona, Leonardo; Meijer, R.R.

2003-01-01

Two new indices to detect answer copying on a multiple-choice test—S1 and S2—were proposed. The S1 index is similar to the K index (Holland, 1996) and the K2 index (Sotaridona & Meijer, 2002) but the distribution of the number of matching incorrect answers of the source and the copier is modeled by

Choice with frequently changing food rates and food ratios.

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Baum, William M; Davison, Michael

2014-03-01

In studies of operant choice, when one schedule of a concurrent pair is varied while the other is held constant, the constancy of the constant schedule may exert discriminative control over performance. In our earlier experiments, schedules varied reciprocally across components within sessions, so that while food ratio varied food rate remained constant. In the present experiment, we held one variable-interval (VI) schedule constant while varying the concurrent VI schedule within sessions. We studied five conditions, each with a different constant left VI schedule. On the right key, seven different VI schedules were presented in seven different unsignaled components. We analyzed performances at several different time scales. At the longest time scale, across conditions, behavior ratios varied with food ratios as would be expected from the generalized matching law. At shorter time scales, effects due to holding the left VI constant became more and more apparent, the shorter the time scale. In choice relations across components, preference for the left key leveled off as the right key became leaner. Interfood choice approximated strict matching for the varied right key, whereas interfood choice hardly varied at all for the constant left key. At the shortest time scale, visit patterns differed for the left and right keys. Much evidence indicated the development of a fix-and-sample pattern. In sum, the procedural difference made a large difference to performance, except for choice at the longest time scale and the fix-and-sample pattern at the shortest time scale. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Bias due to sample selection in propensity score matching for a supportive housing program evaluation in New York City.

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Sungwoo Lim

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: Little is known about influences of sample selection on estimation in propensity score matching. The purpose of the study was to assess potential selection bias using one-to-one greedy matching versus optimal full matching as part of an evaluation of supportive housing in New York City (NYC. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTINGS: Data came from administrative data for 2 groups of applicants who were eligible for an NYC supportive housing program in 2007-09, including chronically homeless adults with a substance use disorder and young adults aging out of foster care. We evaluated the 2 matching methods in their ability to balance covariates and represent the original population, and in how those methods affected outcomes related to Medicaid expenditures. RESULTS: In the population with a substance use disorder, only optimal full matching performed well in balancing covariates, whereas both methods created representative populations. In the young adult population, both methods balanced covariates effectively, but only optimal full matching created representative populations. In the young adult population, the impact of the program on Medicaid expenditures was attenuated when one-to-one greedy matching was used, compared with optimal full matching. CONCLUSION: Given covariate balancing with both methods, attenuated program impacts in the young adult population indicated that one-to-one greedy matching introduced selection bias.

A Two-Tier Multiple Choice Questions to Diagnose Thermodynamic Misconception of Thai and Laos Students

Science.gov (United States)

Kamcharean, Chanwit; Wattanakasiwich, Pornrat

The objective of this study was to diagnose misconceptions of Thai and Lao students in thermodynamics by using a two-tier multiple-choice test. Two-tier multiple choice questions consist of the first tier, a content-based question and the second tier, a reasoning-based question. Data of student understanding was collected by using 10 two-tier multiple-choice questions. Thai participants were the first-year students (N = 57) taking a fundamental physics course at Chiang Mai University in 2012. Lao participants were high school students in Grade 11 (N = 57) and Grade 12 (N = 83) at Muengnern high school in Xayaboury province, Lao PDR. As results, most students answered content-tier questions correctly but chose incorrect answers for reason-tier questions. When further investigating their incorrect reasons, we found similar misconceptions as reported in previous studies such as incorrectly relating pressure with temperature when presenting with multiple variables.

Matching based on biological categories in Orangutans (Pongo abelii and a Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla

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Jennifer Vonk

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Following a series of experiments in which six orangutans and one gorilla discriminated photographs of different animal species in a two-choice touch screen procedure, Vonk & MacDonald (2002 and Vonk & MacDonald (2004 concluded that orangutans, but not the gorilla, seemed to learn intermediate level category discriminations, such as primates versus non-primates, more rapidly than they learned concrete level discriminations, such as orangutans versus humans. In the current experiments, four of the same orangutans and the gorilla were presented with delayed matching-to-sample tasks in which they were rewarded for matching photos of different members of the same primate species; golden lion tamarins, Japanese macaques, and proboscis monkeys, or family; gibbons, lemurs (Experiment 1, and subsequently for matching photos of different species within the following classes: birds, reptiles, insects, mammals, and fish (Experiment 2. Members of both Great Ape species were rapidly able to match the photos at levels above chance. Orangutans matched images from both category levels spontaneously whereas the gorilla showed effects of learning to match intermediate level categories. The results show that biological knowledge is not necessary to form natural categories at both concrete and intermediate levels.

Bayesian probability estimates are not necessary to make choices satisfying Bayes’ rule in elementary situations

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Domurat, Artur; Kowalczuk, Olga; Idzikowska, Katarzyna; Borzymowska, Zuzanna; Nowak-Przygodzka, Marta

2015-01-01

This paper has two aims. First, we investigate how often people make choices conforming to Bayes’ rule when natural sampling is applied. Second, we show that using Bayes’ rule is not necessary to make choices satisfying Bayes’ rule. Simpler methods, even fallacious heuristics, might prescribe correct choices reasonably often under specific circumstances. We considered elementary situations with binary sets of hypotheses and data. We adopted an ecological approach and prepared two-stage computer tasks resembling natural sampling. Probabilistic relations were inferred from a set of pictures, followed by a choice which was made to maximize the chance of a preferred outcome. Use of Bayes’ rule was deduced indirectly from choices. Study 1 used a stratified sample of N = 60 participants equally distributed with regard to gender and type of education (humanities vs. pure sciences). Choices satisfying Bayes’ rule were dominant. To investigate ways of making choices more directly, we replicated Study 1, adding a task with a verbal report. In Study 2 (N = 76) choices conforming to Bayes’ rule dominated again. However, the verbal reports revealed use of a new, non-inverse rule, which always renders correct choices, but is easier than Bayes’ rule to apply. It does not require inversion of conditions [transforming P(H) and P(D|H) into P(H|D)] when computing chances. Study 3 examined the efficiency of three fallacious heuristics (pre-Bayesian, representativeness, and evidence-only) in producing choices concordant with Bayes’ rule. Computer-simulated scenarios revealed that the heuristics produced correct choices reasonably often under specific base rates and likelihood ratios. Summing up we conclude that natural sampling results in most choices conforming to Bayes’ rule. However, people tend to replace Bayes’ rule with simpler methods, and even use of fallacious heuristics may be satisfactorily efficient. PMID:26347676

Modeling and evaluation of HE driven shock effects in copper with the MTS model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murphy, M.J.; Lassila, D.F.

1997-01-01

Many experimental studies have investigated the effect of shock pressure on the post-shock mechanical properties of OFHC copper. These studies have shown that significant hardening occurs during shock loading due to dislocation processes and twinning. It has been demonstrated that when an appropriate initial value of the Mechanical Threshold Stress (MTS) is specified, the post-shock flow stress of OFE copper is well described by relationships derived independently for unshocked materials. In this study we consider the evolution of the MTS during HE driven shock loading processes and the effect on the subsequent flow stress of the copper. An increased post shock flow stress results in a higher material temperature due to an increase in the plastic work. An increase in temperature leads to thermal softening which reduces the flow stress. These coupled effects will determine if there is melting in a shaped charge jet or a necking instability in an EFP Ww. 'Me critical factor is the evolution path followed combined with the 'current' temperature, plastic strain, and strain rate. Preliminary studies indicate that in simulations of HE driven shock with very high resolution zoning, the MTS saturates because of the rate dependence in the evolution law. On going studies are addressing this and other issues with the goal of developing a version of the MT'S model that treats HE driven, shock loading, temperature, strain, and rate effects apriori

Medical geochemistry research in Spissko-Gemerské rudohorie Mts., Slovakia.

Science.gov (United States)

Rapant, S; Cvecková, V; Dietzová, Z; Khun, M; Letkovicová, M

2009-02-01

This study presents an assessment of the potential impact of geological contamination of the environment on the health of the population in Spissko-Gemerské rudohorie Mts. (SGR Mts.). The concentration levels of potentially toxic elements (mainly As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, Sb, and Zn) were determined in soils, groundwater, surface water, and stream sediments as well as in the food chain (locally grown vegetables). A medical study included some 30 health indicators for all 98 municipalities of the study area. The As and Sb contents in human fluids and tissues were analyzed in one municipality identified to be at the highest risk. Based on element content, environmental and health risks were calculated for respective municipalities. Out of 98 municipalities 14 were characterized with extremely high environmental risk and 10 were characterized with very high carcinogenic risk from arsenic (groundwater). Extensive statistical analysis of geochemical data (element contents in soils, groundwater, surface water, and stream sediments) and health indicators was performed. Significant correlations between element contents in the geological environment and health indicators, mainly cancer and cardiovascular diseases, were identified. Biological monitoring has confirmed the transfer of elements from the geological environment to human fluids and tissues as well as to the local food chain.

HUBUNGAN KONSEP DIRI DENGAN KOMPETENSI SOSIAL PADA SISWA KELAS VIII MTs AD-DA’WA BEKASI TAHUN PELAJARAN 2006-2007

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Neneng Yuliana

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Based on phenomena in grade 8 students in Mts. AdDa’wa Bekasi, there are few students that tend to draw themselves from interpersonal relation with students at their age outside their peer group. Many question then arise, if there were any significant reason and its correlation between their self concept and social competency. The method used for this research is a correlation model with sample population of 80 subject participant. The data required for this research then gathered with questionnaire and were measured with self concept measurement test TSCB (Tennessee Self Concept Scale from William H. Fist. Other measurement test were then created based on Krasnor Theory to measure social competency from those students. After data have been collected with we have a correlation point rs=0,598 with  thit = 6,59 > ttab =1,980 which means that H1 is approved and H0 is denied. According to result of this research, it was concluded that the assumption were proved true that there is positive relation between self concept and social competency in grade 8 students from Mts. AdDa’wa Bekasi.

Applying Matched Sampling to Evaluate a University Tutoring Program for First-Year Students

Science.gov (United States)

Walvoord, Mark E.; Pleitz, Jacob D.

2016-01-01

Our study used a case-control matching design to assess the influence of a voluntary tutoring program in improving first-year students' Grade Point Averages (GPA). To evaluate program effectiveness, we applied case-control matching to obtain 215 pairs of students with or without participation in tutoring, but matched on high school GPA and…

Application of Two-Sided Matching to Internal Labor of the Hellenic Navy

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-01

Figure 7. The NIMP Algorithm¹³ The first memorable theoretical study of two-sided matching belongs to Milton Friedman and his 1955 article, “The Role...Military Personnel” (Master’s thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, 2011). 15. Milton Friedman . “The Role of Government in Education,” in...Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June, 2009. Friedman , Milton . “The Role of Government in Education.” In Economics and the Public Interest, edited

Improving participation rates by providing choice of participation mode: two randomized controlled trials

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heijmans, N.; Lieshout, J. van; Wensing, M.J.

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Low participation rates reduce effective sample size, statistical power and can increase risk for selection bias. Previous research suggests that offering choice of participation mode can improve participation rates. However, few head-to-head trials compared choice of participation mode

MTS-MD of Biomolecules Steered with 3D-RISM-KH Mean Solvation Forces Accelerated with Generalized Solvation Force Extrapolation.

Science.gov (United States)

Omelyan, Igor; Kovalenko, Andriy

2015-04-14

We developed a generalized solvation force extrapolation (GSFE) approach to speed up multiple time step molecular dynamics (MTS-MD) of biomolecules steered with mean solvation forces obtained from the 3D-RISM-KH molecular theory of solvation (three-dimensional reference interaction site model with the Kovalenko-Hirata closure). GSFE is based on a set of techniques including the non-Eckart-like transformation of coordinate space separately for each solute atom, extension of the force-coordinate pair basis set followed by selection of the best subset, balancing the normal equations by modified least-squares minimization of deviations, and incremental increase of outer time step in motion integration. Mean solvation forces acting on the biomolecule atoms in conformations at successive inner time steps are extrapolated using a relatively small number of best (closest) solute atomic coordinates and corresponding mean solvation forces obtained at previous outer time steps by converging the 3D-RISM-KH integral equations. The MTS-MD evolution steered with GSFE of 3D-RISM-KH mean solvation forces is efficiently stabilized with our optimized isokinetic Nosé-Hoover chain (OIN) thermostat. We validated the hybrid MTS-MD/OIN/GSFE/3D-RISM-KH integrator on solvated organic and biomolecules of different stiffness and complexity: asphaltene dimer in toluene solvent, hydrated alanine dipeptide, miniprotein 1L2Y, and protein G. The GSFE accuracy and the OIN efficiency allowed us to enlarge outer time steps up to huge values of 1-4 ps while accurately reproducing conformational properties. Quasidynamics steered with 3D-RISM-KH mean solvation forces achieves time scale compression of conformational changes coupled with solvent exchange, resulting in further significant acceleration of protein conformational sampling with respect to real time dynamics. Overall, this provided a 50- to 1000-fold effective speedup of conformational sampling for these systems, compared to conventional MD

Oligomeric forms of the metastasis-related Mts1 (S100A4) protein stimulate neuronal differentiation in cultures of rat hippocampal neurons

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Novitskaya, V; Grigorian, M; Kriajevska, M

2000-01-01

protein family. The oligomeric but not the dimeric form of Mts1 strongly induces differentiation of cultured hippocampal neurons. A mutant with a single Y75F amino acid substitution, which stabilizes the dimeric form of Mts1, is unable to promote neurite extension. Disulfide bonds do not play an essential...

Bayesian probability estimates are not necessary to make choices satisfying Bayes’ rule in elementary situations

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Artur eDomurat

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This paper has two aims. First, we investigate how often people make choices conforming to Bayes’ rule when natural sampling is applied. Second, we show that using Bayes’ rule is not necessary to make choices satisfying Bayes’ rule. Simpler methods, even fallacious heuristics, might prescribe correct choices reasonably often under specific circumstances. We considered elementary situations with binary sets of hypotheses and data. We adopted an ecological approach and prepared two-stage computer tasks resembling natural sampling. Probabilistic relations were to be inferred from a set of pictures, followed by a choice between the data which was made to maximize a chance for a preferred outcome. Using Bayes’ rule was deduced indirectly from choices.Study 1 (N=60 followed a 2 (gender: female vs. male x 2 (education: humanities vs. pure sciences between-subjects factorial design with balanced cells, and a number of correct choices as a dependent variable. Choices satisfying Bayes’ rule were dominant. To investigate ways of making choices more directly, we replicated Study 1, adding a task with a verbal report. In Study 2 (N=76 choices conforming to Bayes’ rule dominated again. However, the verbal reports revealed use of a new, non-inverse rule, which always renders correct choices, but is easier than Bayes’ rule to apply. It does not require inversing conditions (transforming P(H and P(D|H into P(H|D when computing chances. Study 3 examined efficiency of the three fallacious heuristics (pre-Bayesian, representativeness, and evidence-only in producing choices concordant with Bayes’ rule. Computer-simulated scenarios revealed that the heuristics produce correct choices reasonably often under specific base rates and likelihood ratios. Summing up we conclude that natural sampling leads to most choices conforming to Bayes’ rule. However, people tend to replace Bayes’ rule with simpler methods, and even use of fallacious heuristics may

4M Overturned Pyramid (MOP) Model Utilization: Case Studies on Collision in Indonesian and Japanese Maritime Traffic Systems (MTS)

OpenAIRE

Wanginingastuti Mutmainnah; Masao Furusho

2016-01-01

4M Overturned Pyramid (MOP) model is a new model, proposed by authors, to characterized MTS which is adopting epidemiological model that determines causes of accidents, including not only active failures but also latent failures and barriers. This model is still being developed. One of utilization of MOP model is characterizing accidents in MTS, i.e. collision in Indonesia and Japan that is written in this paper. The aim of this paper is to show the characteristics of ship collision accidents...

Hubungan antara Hasil Penilaian Kinerja Guru dengan Kompetensi Guru PAI Tingkat SLTP/MTs di Pondok Pesantren Darul Ulum Jombang

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Moh. Yahya Ashari

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Penelitian ini adalah penelitian lapangan tentang hubungan antara hasil penilaian kinerja guru dengan kompetensi guru PAI tingkat SLTP/MTs di Pondok Pesantren Darul Ulum Jombang. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui apakah terdapat hubungan atau tidak antara kedua variabel tersebut. Jenis penelitian yang digunakan adalah penelitian kuantitatif dengan uji analisis statistik korelasi product moment. Dalam penelitian ini terdiri dari dua variabel, yaitu hasil penilaian kinerja guru (variabel X dan kompetensi guru PAI (variabel Y. Adapun data penelitian diperoleh dari dokumentasi data , interview dan penyebaran angket dengan bentuk tertutup. Dari hasil penelitian dapat diketahui bahwa variabel X tergolong baik, dengan hasil perhitungan sebesar 79 %. Sedangkan untuk variabel Y juga tergolong baik, dengan perolehan prosentase sebesar 85%. Dari hasil analisis statistik korelasi product moment didapatkan hasil rxy=0,98 untuk taraf kesalahan ditetapkan 5% dan N=24, maka r tabel=0,40. Dari hasil tersebut didapatkan data bahwa r hitung lebih besar dari r tabel, maka Ho ditolak dan Ha diterima. Dengan demikian dapat disimpulkan bahwa ada hubungan yang signifikan antara hasil penilaian kinerja guru dengan kompetensi guru PAI tingkat SLTP/MTs di pondok Pesantren Darul Ulum Jombang. || It’s field research that discusses the connection between teacher performance appraisal results and the competence of PAI (Islamic lessons teachers in MTs (junior high school located in Pondok Pesantren Darul Ulum Jombang. The purpose of this study was to determine the existence of a connection between two variables. This quantitative research uses statistical analysis on product moment correlation test. This research consisted of two variables, namely the assessment of teacher performance (variable X and the competence of PAI teachers (variable Y. The data obtained from documentation, interviews and questionnaires with a closed form. The results of this research is

Matching Behavior as a Tradeoff Between Reward Maximization and Demands on Neural Computation [version 2; referees: 2 approved

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Jan Kubanek

2015-10-01

Full Text Available When faced with a choice, humans and animals commonly distribute their behavior in proportion to the frequency of payoff of each option. Such behavior is referred to as matching and has been captured by the matching law. However, matching is not a general law of economic choice. Matching in its strict sense seems to be specifically observed in tasks whose properties make matching an optimal or a near-optimal strategy. We engaged monkeys in a foraging task in which matching was not the optimal strategy. Over-matching the proportions of the mean offered reward magnitudes would yield more reward than matching, yet, surprisingly, the animals almost exactly matched them. To gain insight into this phenomenon, we modeled the animals' decision-making using a mechanistic model. The model accounted for the animals' macroscopic and microscopic choice behavior. When the models' three parameters were not constrained to mimic the monkeys' behavior, the model over-matched the reward proportions and in doing so, harvested substantially more reward than the monkeys. This optimized model revealed a marked bottleneck in the monkeys' choice function that compares the value of the two options. The model featured a very steep value comparison function relative to that of the monkeys. The steepness of the value comparison function had a profound effect on the earned reward and on the level of matching. We implemented this value comparison function through responses of simulated biological neurons. We found that due to the presence of neural noise, steepening the value comparison requires an exponential increase in the number of value-coding neurons. Matching may be a compromise between harvesting satisfactory reward and the high demands placed by neural noise on optimal neural computation.

Social attribution test--multiple choice (SAT-MC) in schizophrenia: comparison with community sample and relationship to neurocognitive, social cognitive and symptom measures.

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Morris D; Fiszdon, Joanna M; Greig, Tamasine C; Wexler, Bruce E

2010-09-01

This is the first report on the use of the Social Attribution Task - Multiple Choice (SAT-MC) to assess social cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. The SAT-MC was originally developed for autism research, and consists of a 64-second animation showing geometric figures enacting a social drama, with 19 multiple choice questions about the interactions. Responses from 85 community-dwelling participants and 66 participants with SCID confirmed schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders (Scz) revealed highly significant group differences. When the two samples were combined, SAT-MC scores were significantly correlated with other social cognitive measures, including measures of affect recognition, theory of mind, self-report of egocentricity and the Social Cognition Index from the MATRICS battery. Using a cut-off score, 53% of Scz were significantly impaired on SAT-MC compared with 9% of the community sample. Most Scz participants with impairment on SAT-MC also had impairment on affect recognition. Significant correlations were also found with neurocognitive measures but with less dependence on verbal processes than other social cognitive measures. Logistic regression using SAT-MC scores correctly classified 75% of both samples. Results suggest that this measure may have promise, but alternative versions will be needed before it can be used in pre-post or longitudinal designs. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

EEG and autonomic responses during performance of matching and non-matching to sample working memory tasks with emotional content.

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Ana eGarcia

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Working memory (WM is a neural system responsible for the temporary storage of information and its utilization in problem solving. The central executive is theorized as the controller of storage functions that support WM. Neurophysiological data suggest that EEG theta and alpha oscillations in frontal and midline regions are involved in neural communication between the central executive and storage functions during WM performance. Emotion is known to modulate several memory systems, including WM, through central and peripheral pathways. However, the physiological correlations (electroencephalographic – EEG; autonomic nervous activity of the effect of emotion over WM are not well described. In this study we aimed to identify physiological responses related to emotional WM performance. EEG (21 channels, heart rate (HR and galvanic skin response (GSR recordings were obtained from 54 volunteers while performing delayed matching and non-matching to sample tasks (DMTS/DNMTS. Emotional and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System and geometric figures were used as stimuli. As expected, WM performance was accompanied by presence of theta (frontal and midline electrodes and Alpha power (parietal electrodes. Beta and gamma oscillations were concentrated in frontopolar and left temporal regions. DNMTS task was accompanied by increases in Beta power, HR and GSR compared to DMTS task. Correlation analysis showed a positive tendency for gamma in Fp2 site, ratio of LF/HF (HR low and high frequency and skin conductance in both tasks. The HR results indicate an inverse reaction related to parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system during the performance of the tasks. Taken together, our results contribute to elucidate the complex interactions between central and autonomic nervous systems in the modulation of emotional WM tasks.

Two-loop matching coefficients for heavy quark currents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kniehl, B.A.; Onishchenko, A.; Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina; Piclum, J.H.; Karlsruhe Univ.; Steinhauser, M.

2006-04-01

In this paper we consider the matching coefficients up to two loops between Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and Non-Relativistic QCD (NRQCD) for the vector, axial-vector, scalar and pseudo-scalar currents. The structure of the effective theory is discussed and analytical results are presented. Particular emphasis is put on the singlet diagrams. (Orig.)

THE REALIZATION OF E-BOOKS FOR TEACHING AS REFLECTED BY EFL TEACHERS OF ISLAMIC JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL (MTs

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Nana Priajana

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This study was aimed at processing empirical data to know the realization e-book program in EFL teaching and learning process as reflected by English teachers of Islamic Junior High School (MTs in Indonesia. It is a descriptive research of which the approach is a cross sectional survey. The result of this study was expected to be the basis for the government to re-evaluate the implementation of the national project of School Electronic Books (BSE. Based on the result of data analysis, the program of e-books should be revised as considering several factors affecting its insufficient use by the EFL teachers of MTs. The use of E-book in teaching and learning in Indonesia EFL classroom had been beyond the teachers’ outlook. It revealed that e-book and its advantages were not well recognized by many teachers of MTs in Indonesia because of lack awareness of rapid growth of technology and information in this case the use of internet. Keywords: e-book, teaching and learning, program, implementation

The Role of Hybrid Make-to-Stock (MTS) - Make-to-Order (MTO) and Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) Inventory Control Models in Food and Beverage Processing Industry

Science.gov (United States)

Najhan Mohd Nagib, Ahmad; Naufal Adnan, Ahmad; Ismail, Azianti; Halim, Nurul Hayati Abdul; Syuhadah Khusaini, Nurul

2016-11-01

The inventory model had been utilized since the early 1900s. The implementation of the inventory management model is generally to ensure that an organisation is able to fulfil customer's demand at the lowest possible cost to improve profitability. This paper focuses on reviewing previous published papers regarding inventory control model mainly in the food and beverage processing industry. The author discusses four inventory models, which are the make-to-stock (MTS), make-to-order (MTO), economic order quantity (EOQ), and hybrid of MTS-MTO models. The issues raised by the researchers on the above techniques as well as the elements need to be considered upon selection have been discussed in this paper. The main objective of the study is to highlight the important role played by these inventory control models in the food and beverage processing industry.

Why is the central area of the Alburni Mts in southern Italy so full of caves?

Science.gov (United States)

Cafaro, Simona; Gueguen, Erwan; Parise, Mario; Schiattarella, Marcello

2016-04-01

The Alburni Mts represent one of the most important karst area of southern Italy, with about 250 registered caves. Located in the southern Apennines, they constitute an impressive carbonate massif within the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Campania-Lucania platform. The study area is located inside the National Park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni, and is bounded by two major rivers: the Calore and Tanagro rivers. This area has been repeatedly affected during Pleistocene by the activity of a regional, partly blind, NW-SE-striking fault system responsible for several huge earthquakes. The massif is limited to the north by an important normal fault zone (Alburni Line), whereas towards the E-SE it is bounded by a complex fault system linking the Alburni Mts to the Maddalena Mts across the Auletta basin and the Vallo di Diano valley. The entire massif is structured by NW-SE trending transtensional faults delimiting half-graben basins, and offset also by NE-SW trending faults. In particular, structural and geomorphological data have shown that the central area of the calcareous ridge is characterized by a relative structural low rhombic-shaped in planimetric view. Approximately 180 karst caves of the known 250, including some of the most significant from a speleological viewpoint, are located in this area. Is this simply due to repeated exploration activity in the last 25 years in this specific sector or might it be related to geological matter? New morphometric and structural data suggest that a relevant transversal structure, consisting of a complex NE-SW fault system, responsible for the genesis of the downthrown area in the central sector of the flat-topped ridge, was able to create the tectonic framework for the development of a great number of karst caves which present peculiar features and hydrological behaviour due to such structural controls. In this contribution we present and discuss these data, aimed at contributing to increase the knowledge on an area of sure

Delayed match-to-sample early performance decrement in monkeys after 60Co irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bruner, A.; Bogo, V.; Jones, R.K.

1975-01-01

Sixteen monkeys were trained on a delayed match-to-sample task (DMTS) based on shock avoidance and irradiated with single, whole-body exposures of from 396 to 2000 rad 60 Co (midbody dose) at between 163 and 233 rad/min. Pre- to post-irradiation performance changes were assessed using a penalty-scaling measure which differentially weighted incorrect responses, response omissions, and error-omission sequences. Thirteen of the animals displayed early performance decrement, including five incapacitations, at lower doses (less than 1000 rad) than heretofore found effective. This was considered a function of task complexity, measurement sensitivity, and gamma effectiveness. The minimum effective midbody dose for inducing decrement using the DMTS task was estimated to be on the order of 500 rad. The nature of early, transient performance decrement seems to reflect more of an inability to perform than an inability to perform correctly

Monitoring Salivary Immunoglobulin A Responses to Official and Simulated Matches In Elite Young Soccer Players

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Freitas Camila G.

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the present study was to examine SIgA responses (concentration [SIgAabs] and a secretion rate [SIgArate] to official and simulated competitive matches in young soccer players. The sample was composed of 26 male soccer players (age 15.6 ± 1.1 yrs, stature 177.0 ± 6.1 cm, body mass 70.5 ± 5.7 kg. Four soccer matches (two simulated matches [SM] and two official matches [OM] were conducted. The matches consisted of two halves of 35 min with a 10 min rest interval. Each assessed player participated in only one SM and one OM. All matches were performed in the same week, during the competitive season, and at the same time of the day (9:00 am, separated by 48 h. Saliva samples were collected before and after every match. The session rating of perceived exertion was reported 30 min after each match in order to determine the internal training load (ITL. A significant decrease in SIgAabs and SIgArate after OM was observed when compared to the pre-match value. In addition, the SIgArate was higher at pre-OM when compared to pre-SM. A higher ITL for OM was observed compared to SM. The current findings indicate that OM may lead to a decrease in the main mucosal immunity function parameter of young soccer players that could increase the risk of URTI. Coaches should be aware of it in order to plan appropriate training loads and recovery procedures to avoid or minimize the likelihood of upper respiratory tract infection occurrences.

Online Job Search and Matching Quality

OpenAIRE

Constantin Mang

2012-01-01

The Internet has fundamentally changed the way workers and firms are matched on the job market. Compared to newspapers and other traditional employment resources, online job boards presumably lead to better matches by providing a wider choice of job advertisements and more sophisticated methods for finding suitable vacancies. This study investigates the association of online job search and matching quality using individual-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). My results sho...

Portfolio Optimization and Mortgage Choice

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Maj-Britt Nordfang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper studies the optimal mortgage choice of an investor in a simple bond market with a stochastic interest rate and access to term life insurance. The study is based on advances in stochastic control theory, which provides analytical solutions to portfolio problems with a stochastic interest rate. We derive the optimal portfolio of a mortgagor in a simple framework and formulate stylized versions of mortgage products offered in the market today. This allows us to analyze the optimal investment strategy in terms of optimal mortgage choice. We conclude that certain extreme investors optimally choose either a traditional fixed rate mortgage or an adjustable rate mortgage, while investors with moderate risk aversion and income prefer a mix of the two. By matching specific investor characteristics to existing mortgage products, our study provides a better understanding of the complex and yet restricted mortgage choice faced by many household investors. In addition, the simple analytical framework enables a detailed analysis of how changes to market, income and preference parameters affect the optimal mortgage choice.

Verrucaria species and other rare amphibious lichens in the Beskid Sądecki Mts

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Natalia Matura

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Ten freshwater lichen species from the Beskid Sądecki Mts are presented. Seven of them: Hydropunctaria rheitrophila, Thelidium aquaticum, T. minutulum, T. zwackhii, Verrucaria dolosa, V. elaeomelaena and V. submersella, are new to the region. Three species: Verrucaria elaeina, V. hydrophila and V. latebrosa, were previously known from single localities.

Not all choices are created equal: Task-relevant choices enhance motor learning compared to task-irrelevant choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Michael J; Ste-Marie, Diane M

2017-12-01

Lewthwaite et al. (2015) reported that the learning benefits of exercising choice (i.e., their self-controlled condition) are not restricted to task-relevant features (e.g., feedback). They found that choosing one's golf ball color (Exp. 1) or choosing which of two tasks to perform at a later time plus which of two artworks to hang (Exp. 2) resulted in better retention than did being denied these same choices (i.e., yoked condition). The researchers concluded that the learning benefits derived from choice, whether irrelevant or relevant to the to-be-learned task, are predominantly motivational because choice is intrinsically rewarding and satisfies basic psychological needs. However, the absence of a group that made task-relevant choices and the lack of psychological measures significantly weakened their conclusions. Here, we investigated how task-relevant and task-irrelevant choices affect motor-skill learning. Participants practiced a spatiotemporal motor task in either a task-relevant group (choice over feedback schedule), a task-irrelevant group (choice over the color of an arm-wrap plus game selection), or a no-choice group. The results showed significantly greater learning in the task-relevant group than in both the task-irrelevant and no-choice groups, who did not differ significantly. Critically, these learning differences were not attributed to differences in perceptions of competence or autonomy, but instead to superior error-estimation abilities. These results challenge the perspective that motivational influences are the root cause of self-controlled learning advantages. Instead, the findings add to the growing evidence highlighting that the informational value gained from task-relevant choices makes a greater relative contribution to these advantages than motivational influences do.

Modeling decisions from experience: How models with a set of parameters for aggregate choices explain individual choices

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Neha Sharma

2017-10-01

Full Text Available One of the paradigms (called “sampling paradigm” in judgment and decision-making involves decision-makers sample information before making a final consequential choice. In the sampling paradigm, certain computational models have been proposed where a set of single or distribution parameters is calibrated to the choice proportions of a group of participants (aggregate and hierarchical models. However, currently little is known on how aggregate and hierarchical models would account for choices made by individual participants in the sampling paradigm. In this paper, we test the ability of aggregate and hierarchical models to explain choices made by individual participants. Several models, Ensemble, Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT, Best Estimation and Simulation Techniques (BEAST, Natural-Mean Heuristic (NMH, and Instance-Based Learning (IBL, had their parameters calibrated to individual choices in a large dataset involving the sampling paradigm. Later, these models were generalized to two large datasets in the sampling paradigm. Results revealed that the aggregate models (like CPT and IBL accounted for individual choices better than hierarchical models (like Ensemble and BEAST upon generalization to problems that were like those encountered during calibration. Furthermore, the CPT model, which relies on differential valuing of gains and losses, respectively, performed better than other models during calibration and generalization on datasets with similar set of problems. The IBL model, relying on recency and frequency of sampled information, and the NMH model, relying on frequency of sampled information, performed better than other models during generalization to a challenging dataset. Sequential analyses of results from different models showed how these models accounted for transitions from the last sample to final choice in human data. We highlight the implications of using aggregate and hierarchical models in explaining individual choices

Laser scan of the Grimming Mts. (Austria) with the latest LiDAR VZ-4000 equipment: preliminary results

Science.gov (United States)

Bauer, Harald; Hatzenbichler, Georg; Amon, Philipp; Fallah, Mohammad; Tari, Gabor; Grasemann, Bernhard

2013-04-01

As part of a cooperation project between OMV, RIEGL and the University of Vienna the new LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) VZ-4000 laser scanner was tested at the Grimming Mts. of the Eastern Alps in Austria. The prominent Grimming Mts. lies in the eastern part of the Dachstein Massif at the southern margin of the Northern Calcareous Alps. The Grimming, with a peak of 2,351 m above sea level, is one of the highest isolated mountains in Europe. Because of its spectacular topography, the Grimming has been used as an important surface reference mark since 1822. From a structural geology standpoint, the Grimming forms a huge antiform made up of dominantly well-bedded Triassic Dachstein Limestone. Because of the relatively well exposed bedrock surfaces above the tree-line and the fairly complex internal structure, the Grimming Mts. provides an ideal target for testing new high resolution laser scan techniques and devices. The maximum distance from the scanning positions on the nearby valley floor to the mountain face was about 4,500 m and the generated point cloud has an average resolution of 25 points per square meter. The purpose of this work was to test the latest version of the high resolution LiDAR laser equipment in a setting which falls beyond the capabilities of most existing LiDAR devices. The results of the pilot study include high-resolution spatial data on bedding planes, fault planes and the thickness variations of individual beds within the Dachstein Limestone. For the first time, the data obtained can be directly used to generate the proper 3D geometry of folds and faults observed on the Grimming Mts. This leads to a modern understanding of this prominent Alpine anticline in terms of structural geology.

Perceived social environment and adolescents' well-being and adjustment: Comparing a foster care sample with a matched sample

OpenAIRE

Farruggia, SP; Greenberger, E; Chen, C; Heckhausen, J

2006-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated that former foster care youth are at risk for poor outcomes (e.g., more problem behaviors, more depression, lower self-esteem, and poor social relationships). It is not clear, however, whether these findings reflect preemancipation developmental deficits. This study used 163 preemancipation foster care youth and a matched sample of 163 comparison youth. Results showed that foster-care youth did not differ from the comparison sample on measures of well-being,...

Transfer of training from one working memory task to another: Behavioural and neural evidence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erin L. Beatty

2015-06-01

Full Text Available N-back working memory (WM tasks necessitate the maintenance and updating of dynamic rehearsal sets during performance. The delayed matching-to-sample (dMTS task is another WM task, which in turn involves the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of stimulus representations in sequential order. Because both n-back and dMTS engage WM function, we hypothesized that compared to a control task not taxing WM, training on the n-back task would be associated with better performance on dMTS by virtue of training a shared mental capacity. We tested this hypothesis by randomly assigning subjects (N = 43 to train on either the n-back (including 2-back and 3-back levels or an active control task. Following training, dMTS was administered in the fMRI scanner. The n-back group performed marginally better than the active control group on dMTS. In addition, although the n-back group improved more on the less difficult 2-back level than the more difficult 3-back level across training sessions, it was improvement on the 3-back level that accounted for 21% of the variance in dMTS performance. For the control group, improvement in training across sessions was unrelated to dMTS performance. At the neural level, greater activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, right posterior parietal cortex and the cerebellum distinguished the n-back group from the control group in the maintenance phase of dMTS. Degree of improvement on the 3-back level across training sessions was correlated with activation in right lateral prefrontal and motor cortices in the maintenance phase of dMTS. Our results suggest that although n-back training is more likely to improve performance in easier blocks, it is improvement in more difficult blocks that is predictive of performance on a target task drawing on WM. In addition, the extent to which training on a task can transfer to another task is likely due to the engagement of shared cognitive capacities and underlying neural substrates�

Alcohol intoxication at Swedish football matches: A study using biological sampling to assess blood alcohol concentration levels among spectators.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalie Durbeej

Full Text Available Alcohol use and alcohol-related problems, including accidents, vandalism and violence, at sporting events are of increased concern in Sweden and other countries. The relationship between alcohol use and violence has been established and can be explained by the level of intoxication. Given the occurrence of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems at sporting events, research has assessed intoxication levels measured through biological sampling among spectators. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the level of alcohol intoxication among spectators at football matches in the Swedish Premier Football League. Spectators were randomly selected and invited to participate in the study. Alcohol intoxication was measured with a breath analyser for Blood Alcohol Concentration levels, and data on gender, age, and recent alcohol use were gathered through a face-to-face interview. Blood Alcohol Concentration samples from 4420 spectators were collected. Almost half (46.8% had a positive Blood Alcohol Concentration level, with a mean value of 0.063%, while 8.9% had a Blood Alcohol Concentration level ≥ 0.1%, with a mean value of 0.135%. Factors that predicted a higher Blood Alcohol Concentration level included male gender (p = 0.005, lower age (p < 0.001, attending a local derby (p < 0.001, alcohol use prior to having entered the arena (p < 0.001, attending a weekend match (p < 0.001, and being a spectator at supporter sections (p < 0.001. About half of all spectators at football matches in the Swedish Premier Football League drink alcohol in conjunction with the match. Approximately one tenth have a high level of alcohol intoxication.

Landmine detection using two-tapped joint orthogonal matching pursuits

Science.gov (United States)

Goldberg, Sean; Glenn, Taylor; Wilson, Joseph N.; Gader, Paul D.

2012-06-01

Joint Orthogonal Matching Pursuits (JOMP) is used here in the context of landmine detection using data obtained from an electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensor. The response from an object containing metal can be decomposed into a discrete spectrum of relaxation frequencies (DSRF) from which we construct a dictionary. A greedy iterative algorithm is proposed for computing successive residuals of a signal by subtracting away the highest matching dictionary element at each step. The nal condence of a particular signal is a combination of the reciprocal of this residual and the mean of the complex component. A two-tap approach comparing signals on opposite sides of the geometric location of the sensor is examined and found to produce better classication. It is found that using only a single pursuit does a comparable job, reducing complexity and allowing for real-time implementation in automated target recognition systems. JOMP is particularly highlighted in comparison with a previous EMI detection algorithm known as String Match.

Human choice among five alternatives when reinforcers decay.

Science.gov (United States)

Rothstein, Jacob B; Jensen, Greg; Neuringer, Allen

2008-06-01

Human participants played a computer game in which choices among five alternatives were concurrently reinforced according to dependent random-ratio schedules. "Dependent" indicates that choices to any of the wedges activated the random-number generators governing reinforcers on all five alternatives. Two conditions were compared. In the hold condition, once scheduled, a reinforcer - worth a constant five points - remained available until it was collected. In the decay condition, point values decreased with intervening responses, i.e., rapid collection was differentially reinforced. Slopes of matching functions were higher in the decay than hold condition. However inter-subject variability was high in both conditions.

K-Ar and Ar-Ar dating of the Palaeozoic metamorphic complex from the Mid-Bosnian Schist Mts., Central Dinarides, Bosnia and Hercegovina

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pamic, J.; Balogh, K.; Hrvatovic, H.; Balen, D.; Palinkas, L.; Jurkovic, I.

2004-01-01

K-Ar and Ar-Ar whole rock and mineral ages are presented for 25 samples of metamorphic rocks from the Mid-Bosnian Schist Mts., representing one of the largest allochthonous Palaeozoic terranes incorporated within the Internal Dinarides. Four main age groups can be distinguished: 1) Variscan (∼ 343 Ma), 2) post-Variscan (288-238 Ma), 3) Early Cretaceous (mainly 121-92 Ma), and 4) Eocene (59--35 Ma) ages. Apart from this, an Oligocene (31 Ma) age was obtained on Alpine vein hyalophane. The radiometric dating indicates a polyphase metamorphic evolution of the Palaeozoic formations and suggests a pre-Carboniferous age of the volcano-sedimentary protoliths, an Early Carboniferous age of Variscan metamorphism and deformation, post-Variscan volcanism, an Early Cretaceous metamorphic overprint related to out-of-sequence thrusting of the Palaeozoic complex, and an Eocene and Oligocene metamorphic overprint related to the main Alpine compressional deformation and subsequent strike-slip faulting, and uplift of the metamorphic core. Accordingly, the Mid-Bosnian Schist Mts. can be correlated in its multistage geodynamic evolution with some Palaeozoic tectonostratigraphic units from the Austroalpine domain in the Eastern Alps. (author)

Metastasis-associated protein Mts1 (S100A4) inhibits CK2-mediated phosphorylation and self-assembly of the heavy chain of nonmuscle myosin

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kriajevska, M; Bronstein, I B; Scott, D J

2000-01-01

a regulatory role in the myosin assembly. In the presence of calcium, Mts1 binds at the C-terminal end of the myosin heavy chain close to the site of phosphorylation by protein kinase CK2 (Ser1944). In the present study, we have shown that interaction of Mts1 with the human platelet myosin or C...

Two Philosophical Errors Concerning School Choice.

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Brighouse, Harry

1997-01-01

Argues, in contrast to David Hargreaves, that libertarianism implies a mild presumption against school choice, and that notions of common good are significant to educational decision making only when deciding between sets of institutions that perform equally well at delivering their obligations. Links these issues to questions about school choice.…

Sample size reassessment for a two-stage design controlling the false discovery rate.

Science.gov (United States)

Zehetmayer, Sonja; Graf, Alexandra C; Posch, Martin

2015-11-01

Sample size calculations for gene expression microarray and NGS-RNA-Seq experiments are challenging because the overall power depends on unknown quantities as the proportion of true null hypotheses and the distribution of the effect sizes under the alternative. We propose a two-stage design with an adaptive interim analysis where these quantities are estimated from the interim data. The second stage sample size is chosen based on these estimates to achieve a specific overall power. The proposed procedure controls the power in all considered scenarios except for very low first stage sample sizes. The false discovery rate (FDR) is controlled despite of the data dependent choice of sample size. The two-stage design can be a useful tool to determine the sample size of high-dimensional studies if in the planning phase there is high uncertainty regarding the expected effect sizes and variability.

Multi-Criterion Two-Sided Matching of Public–Private Partnership Infrastructure Projects: Criteria and Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ru Liang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Two kinds of evaluative criteria are associated with Public–Private Partnership (PPP infrastructure projects, i.e., private evaluative criteria and public evaluative criteria. These evaluative criteria are inversely related, that is, the higher the public benefits; the lower the private surplus. To balance evaluative criteria in the Two-Sided Matching (TSM decision, this paper develops a quantitative matching decision model to select an optimal matching scheme for PPP infrastructure projects based on the Hesitant Fuzzy Set (HFS under unknown evaluative criterion weights. In the model, HFS is introduced to describe values of the evaluative criteria and multi-criterion information is fully considered given by groups. The optimal model is built and solved by maximizing the whole deviation of each criterion so that the evaluative criterion weights are determined objectively. Then, the match-degree of the two sides is calculated and a multi-objective optimization model is introduced to select an optimal matching scheme via a min-max approach. The results provide new insights and implications of the influence on evaluative criteria in the TSM decision.

Computer face-matching technology using two-dimensional photographs accurately matches the facial gestalt of unrelated individuals with the same syndromic form of intellectual disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Dudding-Byth, Tracy; Baxter, Anne; Holliday, Elizabeth G; Hackett, Anna; O'Donnell, Sheridan; White, Susan M; Attia, John; Brunner, Han; de Vries, Bert; Koolen, David; Kleefstra, Tjitske; Ratwatte, Seshika; Riveros, Carlos; Brain, Steve; Lovell, Brian C

2017-12-19

Massively parallel genetic sequencing allows rapid testing of known intellectual disability (ID) genes. However, the discovery of novel syndromic ID genes requires molecular confirmation in at least a second or a cluster of individuals with an overlapping phenotype or similar facial gestalt. Using computer face-matching technology we report an automated approach to matching the faces of non-identical individuals with the same genetic syndrome within a database of 3681 images [1600 images of one of 10 genetic syndrome subgroups together with 2081 control images]. Using the leave-one-out method, two research questions were specified: 1) Using two-dimensional (2D) photographs of individuals with one of 10 genetic syndromes within a database of images, did the technology correctly identify more than expected by chance: i) a top match? ii) at least one match within the top five matches? or iii) at least one in the top 10 with an individual from the same syndrome subgroup? 2) Was there concordance between correct technology-based matches and whether two out of three clinical geneticists would have considered the diagnosis based on the image alone? The computer face-matching technology correctly identifies a top match, at least one correct match in the top five and at least one in the top 10 more than expected by chance (P syndromes except Kabuki syndrome. Although the accuracy of the computer face-matching technology was tested on images of individuals with known syndromic forms of intellectual disability, the results of this pilot study illustrate the potential utility of face-matching technology within deep phenotyping platforms to facilitate the interpretation of DNA sequencing data for individuals who remain undiagnosed despite testing the known developmental disorder genes.

Training in two-tier labor markets: The role of job match quality.

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Akgündüz, Yusuf Emre; van Huizen, Thomas

2015-07-01

This study examines training investments in two-tier labor markets, focusing on the role of job match quality. Temporary workers are in general more likely than permanent workers to leave their employer and therefore are less likely to receive employer-funded training. However, as firms prefer to continue productive job matches, we hypothesize that the negative effect of holding a temporary contract on the probability to be trained diminishes with the quality of the job match. Using a recent longitudinal survey from the Netherlands, we find that temporary workers indeed participate less frequently in firm-sponsored training. However, this effect is fully driven by mismatches: holding a temporary contract does not significantly decrease the probability to receive training for workers in good job matches. Depending on match quality, a temporary job can either be a stepping stone or a dead-end. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The disruptive effects of methamphetamine on delayed-matching-to-sample performance reflect proactive interference and are reduced by SCH23390.

Science.gov (United States)

Macaskill, Anne C; Harrow, Catherine C; Harper, David N

2015-01-01

Different drugs produce different patterns of impairment on delayed matching-to-sample tasks. For example, (+/-)3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) produces an increase in proactive interference. That is, subjects are less accurate when they are required to make a response different to the one they made on the immediately previous trial. The current study assessed whether methamphetamine also produces this particular pattern of disruption in delayed matching-to-sample performance in rats. Methamphetamine primarily reduced accuracy on trials where the correct response differed from the one made on the previous trial. Thus methamphetamine, like MDMA and other stimulant-based drugs of abuse, increased proactive interference. This impairment was reduced by prior administration of the dopamine D1 antagonist SCH23390. These results further extend a general conclusion that a range of stimulant-based drugs may disrupt working memory function indirectly via a tendency to repeat previously made responses and that this disruption is related to D1 receptor activity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Teaching Identity Matching of Braille Characters to Beginning Braille Readers

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Toussaint, Karen A.; Scheithauer, Mindy C.; Tiger, Jeffrey H.; Saunders, Kathryn J.

2017-01-01

We taught three children with visual impairments to make tactile discriminations of the braille alphabet within a matching-to-sample format. That is, we presented participants with a braille character as a sample stimulus, and they selected the matching stimulus from a three-comparison array. In order to minimize participant errors, we initially…

A Frequency Matching Method for Generation of a Priori Sample Models from Training Images

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lange, Katrine; Cordua, Knud Skou; Frydendall, Jan

2011-01-01

This paper presents a Frequency Matching Method (FMM) for generation of a priori sample models based on training images and illustrates its use by an example. In geostatistics, training images are used to represent a priori knowledge or expectations of models, and the FMM can be used to generate...... new images that share the same multi-point statistics as a given training image. The FMM proceeds by iteratively updating voxel values of an image until the frequency of patterns in the image matches the frequency of patterns in the training image; making the resulting image statistically...... indistinguishable from the training image....

Sample size choices for XRCT scanning of highly unsaturated soil mixtures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Smith Jonathan C.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Highly unsaturated soil mixtures (clay, sand and gravel are used as building materials in many parts of the world, and there is increasing interest in understanding their mechanical and hydraulic behaviour. In the laboratory, x-ray computed tomography (XRCT is becoming more widely used to investigate the microstructures of soils, however a crucial issue for such investigations is the choice of sample size, especially concerning the scanning of soil mixtures where there will be a range of particle and void sizes. In this paper we present a discussion (centred around a new set of XRCT scans on sample sizing for scanning of samples comprising soil mixtures, where a balance has to be made between realistic representation of the soil components and the desire for high resolution scanning, We also comment on the appropriateness of differing sample sizes in comparison to sample sizes used for other geotechnical testing. Void size distributions for the samples are presented and from these some hypotheses are made as to the roles of inter- and intra-aggregate voids in the mechanical behaviour of highly unsaturated soils.

Identification and characterization of two novel Gammapapillomavirus genomes in skin of an immunosuppressed Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis patient.

Science.gov (United States)

Dutta, Sankhadeep; Robitaille, Alexis; Aubin, François; Fouéré, Sébastien; Galicier, Lionel; Boutboul, David; Luzi, Fabiola; Di Bonito, Paola; Tommasino, Massimo; Gheit, Tarik

2018-04-02

Two novel human gamma-papillomavirus genomes (HPV_MTS3, and HPV_MTS4) were isolated from the skin of an immunosuppressed, late-onset Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis patient and fully cloned. The L1 open reading frames of HPV_MTS3 and HPV_MTS4 were 77% and 91% identical to their closest HPV full genome isolates w18c39 and EV03c60, which belong to the species gamma-22and gamma-7 of the genus Gammapapillomavirus, respectively. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Identification of volatile and semivolatile compounds in chemical ionization GC-MS using a mass-to-structure (MTS) Search Engine with integral isotope pattern ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Wenta; Draper, William M

2013-02-21

The mass-to-structure or MTS Search Engine is an Access 2010 database containing theoretical molecular mass information for 19,438 compounds assembled from common sources such as the Merck Index, pesticide and pharmaceutical compilations, and chemical catalogues. This database, which contains no experimental mass spectral data, was developed as an aid to identification of compounds in atmospheric pressure ionization (API)-LC-MS. This paper describes a powerful upgrade to this database, a fully integrated utility for filtering or ranking candidates based on isotope ratios and patterns. The new MTS Search Engine is applied here to the identification of volatile and semivolatile compounds including pesticides, nitrosoamines and other pollutants. Methane and isobutane chemical ionization (CI) GC-MS spectra were obtained from unit mass resolution mass spectrometers to determine MH(+) masses and isotope ratios. Isotopes were measured accurately with errors of Search Engine and details performance testing with over 50 model compounds.

Effect of model choice and sample size on statistical tolerance limits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duran, B.S.; Campbell, K.

1980-03-01

Statistical tolerance limits are estimates of large (or small) quantiles of a distribution, quantities which are very sensitive to the shape of the tail of the distribution. The exact nature of this tail behavior cannot be ascertained brom small samples, so statistical tolerance limits are frequently computed using a statistical model chosen on the basis of theoretical considerations or prior experience with similar populations. This report illustrates the effects of such choices on the computations

The choice of a 'Best' assisted history matching algorithm

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hanea, R.G.; Przybysz-Jarnut, J.K.; Krymskaya, M.V.; Heemink, A.W.; Jansen, J.D.

2010-01-01

Computer-assisted history matching is the act of systematicalty adjusting a ‘prior’ reservoir model using measured data until its simulated production response closely reproduces the past behavior of the reservoir. Thereafler, the updated, ‘posterior’, model is expected to predict future reservoir

Predicting binary choices from probability phrase meanings.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallsten, Thomas S; Jang, Yoonhee

2008-08-01

The issues of how individuals decide which of two events is more likely and of how they understand probability phrases both involve judging relative likelihoods. In this study, we investigated whether derived scales representing probability phrase meanings could be used within a choice model to predict independently observed binary choices. If they can, this simultaneously provides support for our model and suggests that the phrase meanings are measured meaningfully. The model assumes that, when deciding which of two events is more likely, judges take a single sample from memory regarding each event and respond accordingly. The model predicts choice probabilities by using the scaled meanings of individually selected probability phrases as proxies for confidence distributions associated with sampling from memory. Predictions are sustained for 34 of 41 participants but, nevertheless, are biased slightly low. Sequential sampling models improve the fit. The results have both theoretical and applied implications.

Ichnological record of the Frasnian-Famennian boundary interval: two examples from the Holy Cross Mts (Central Poland)

Science.gov (United States)

Stachacz, Michał; Uchman, Alfred; Rodríguez-Tovar, Francisco J.

2017-01-01

The Frasnian-Famennian (Late Devonian) boundary interval within the carbonate-siliciclastic series in the Kowala and Płucki sections (Holy Cross Mts, Central Poland) has been analysed to evaluate the influence of the Kellwasser event on the macrobenthic tracemaker community. The Upper Kellwasser event has a lithologically variable record, as horizons of flints (Kowala) and as a bed of bituminous, black, cephalopod limestone (Płucki). Both sections show mostly laminated, unbioturbated beds of marlstones or shales just above the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, which point to events of anoxia on the sea floor. However, the first anoxic horizon occurs below the Frasnian-Famennian boundary. The trace fossils and bioturbational structures are uncommon and poorly diversified. Trichichnus and Multina are the only frequent trace fossils in some beds. Moreover, one horizon above the Frasnian-Famennian boundary contains numerous Multina and a single ? Planolites. Such poorly diversified trace fossil assemblage suggests an unfavourable environment for most of burrowing organisms and fluctuations in oxygenation from anoxic, to dysoxic conditions. The occurrence of the trace fossils and bioturbational structures as spotted and mottled ichnofabrics from the 1.3 m above the Frasnian-Famennian boundary is interpreted as an improvement in bottom water oxygen conditions after the Upper Kellwasser event.

Sampling wild species to conserve genetic diversity

Science.gov (United States)

Sampling seed from natural populations of crop wild relatives requires choice of the locations to sample from and the amount of seed to sample. While this may seem like a simple choice, in fact careful planning of a collector’s sampling strategy is needed to ensure that a crop wild collection will ...

Hippocampal lesions impair performance on a conditional delayed matching and non-matching to position task in the rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Sloan, Hazel L; Döbrössy, Màtè; Dunnett, Stephen B

2006-08-10

The hippocampus is thought to be involved in a range of cognitive processes, from the ability to acquire new memories, to the ability to learn about spatial relationships. Humans and monkeys with damage to the hippocampus are typically impaired on delayed matching to sample tasks, of which the operant delayed matching to position task (DMTP) is a rat analogue. The reported effects of hippocampal damage on DMTP vary, ranging from delay-dependent deficits to no deficit whatsoever. The present study investigates a novel memory task; the conditional delayed matching/non-matching to position task (CDM/NMTP) in the Skinner box. CDM/NMTP uses the presence of specific stimulus cues to signify whether a particular trial is matching or non-matching in nature. Thus, it incorporates both the task contingencies within one session, and supplements the requirement for remembering the side of the lever in the sample phase with attending to the stimulus and remembering the conditional discrimination for the rule. Rats were trained preoperatively and the effects of bilateral excitotoxic lesions of the hippocampus were examined on postoperative retention of the task. Rats with lesions of the hippocampus incurred a significant impairment on the task that was manifest at all delays intervals. Despite a bias towards matching during training, trials of either type were performed with equivalent accuracy and neither rule was affected differentially by the lesion. This task may prove useful in determining the cognitive roles of a range of brain areas.

Behavioral Contexts, Food-Choice Coping Strategies, and Dietary Quality of a Multiethnic Sample of Employed Parents

Science.gov (United States)

Blake, Christine E.; Wethington, Elaine; Farrell, Tracy J.; Bisogni, Carole A.; Devine, Carol M.

2012-01-01

Employed parents’ work and family conditions provide behavioral contexts for their food choices. Relationships between employed parents’ food-choice coping strategies, behavioral contexts, and dietary quality were evaluated. Data on work and family conditions, sociodemographic characteristics, eating behavior, and dietary intake from two 24-hour dietary recalls were collected in a random sample cross-sectional pilot telephone survey in the fall of 2006. Black, white, and Latino employed mothers (n=25) and fathers (n=25) were recruited from a low/moderate income urban area in upstate New York. Hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward’s method) identified three clusters of parents differing in use of food-choice coping strategies (ie, Individualized Eating, Missing Meals, and Home Cooking). Cluster sociodemographic, work, and family characteristics were compared using χ2 and Fisher’s exact tests. Cluster differences in dietary quality (Healthy Eating Index 2005) were analyzed using analysis of variance. Clusters differed significantly (P≤0.05) on food-choice coping strategies, dietary quality, and behavioral contexts (ie, work schedule, marital status, partner’s employment, and number of children). Individualized Eating and Missing Meals clusters were characterized by nonstandard work hours, having a working partner, single parenthood and with family meals away from home, grabbing quick food instead of a meal, using convenience entrées at home, and missing meals or individualized eating. The Home Cooking cluster included considerably more married fathers with nonemployed spouses and more home-cooked family meals. Food-choice coping strategies affecting dietary quality reflect parents’ work and family conditions. Nutritional guidance and family policy needs to consider these important behavioral contexts for family nutrition and health. PMID:21338739

The match-to-match variation of match-running in elite female soccer.

Science.gov (United States)

Trewin, Joshua; Meylan, César; Varley, Matthew C; Cronin, John

2018-02-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the match-to-match variation of match-running in elite female soccer players utilising GPS, using full-match and rolling period analyses. Longitudinal study. Elite female soccer players (n=45) from the same national team were observed during 55 international fixtures across 5 years (2012-2016). Data was analysed using a custom built MS Excel spreadsheet as full-matches and using a rolling 5-min analysis period, for all players who played 90-min matches (files=172). Variation was examined using co-efficient of variation and 90% confidence limits, calculated following log transformation. Total distance per minute exhibited the smallest variation when both the full-match and peak 5-min running periods were examined (CV=6.8-7.2%). Sprint-efforts were the most variable during a full-match (CV=53%), whilst high-speed running per minute exhibited the greatest variation in the post-peak 5-min period (CV=143%). Peak running periods were observed as slightly more variable than full-match analyses, with the post-peak period very-highly variable. Variability of accelerations (CV=17%) and Player Load (CV=14%) was lower than that of high-speed actions. Positional differences were also present, with centre backs exhibiting the greatest variation in high-speed movements (CV=41-65%). Practitioners and researchers should account for within player variability when examining match performances. Identification of peak running periods should be used to assist worst case scenarios. Whilst micro-sensor technology should be further examined as to its viable use within match-analyses. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Two phase sampling

CERN Document Server

Ahmad, Zahoor; Hanif, Muhammad

2013-01-01

The development of estimators of population parameters based on two-phase sampling schemes has seen a dramatic increase in the past decade. Various authors have developed estimators of population using either one or two auxiliary variables. The present volume is a comprehensive collection of estimators available in single and two phase sampling. The book covers estimators which utilize information on single, two and multiple auxiliary variables of both quantitative and qualitative nature. Th...

Automated sampling and control of gaseous simulations

KAUST Repository

Huang, Ruoguan

2013-05-04

In this work, we describe a method that automates the sampling and control of gaseous fluid simulations. Several recent approaches have provided techniques for artists to generate high-resolution simulations based on a low-resolution simulation. However, often in applications the overall flow in the low-resolution simulation that an animator observes and intends to preserve is composed of even lower frequencies than the low resolution itself. In such cases, attempting to match the low-resolution simulation precisely is unnecessarily restrictive. We propose a new sampling technique to efficiently capture the overall flow of a fluid simulation, at the scale of user\\'s choice, in such a way that the sampled information is sufficient to represent what is virtually perceived and no more. Thus, by applying control based on the sampled data, we ensure that in the resulting high-resolution simulation, the overall flow is matched to the low-resolution simulation and the fine details on the high resolution are preserved. The samples we obtain have both spatial and temporal continuity that allows smooth keyframe matching and direct manipulation of visible elements such as smoke density through temporal blending of samples. We demonstrate that a user can easily configure a simulation with our system to achieve desired results. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Temporal Dynamics of Task Switching and Abstract-Concept Learning in Pigeons

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Alexander Daniel

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The current study examined whether pigeons could learn to use abstract concepts as the basis for conditionally switching behavior as a function of time. Using a mid-session reversal task, experienced pigeons were trained to switch from matching-to-sample (MTS to non-matching-to-sample (NMTS conditional discriminations within a session. One group had prior training with MTS, while the other had prior training with NMTS. Over training, stimulus set size was progressively doubled from 3 to 6 to 12 stimuli to promote abstract concept development. Prior experience had an effect on the initial learning at each of the set sizes but by the end of training there were no group differences, as both groups showed similar within-session linear matching functions. After acquiring the 12-item set, abstract-concept learning was tested by placing novel stimuli at the beginning and end of a test session. Prior matching and non-matching experience affected transfer behavior. The matching experienced group transferred to novel stimuli in both the matching and non-matching portion of the sessions using a matching rule. The non-matching experienced group transferred to novel stimuli in both portions of the session using a non-matching rule. The representations used as the basis for mid-session reversal of the conditional discrimination behaviors and subsequent transfer behavior appears to have different temporal sources. The implications for the flexibility and organization of complex behaviors are considered.

New Hybrid Monte Carlo methods for efficient sampling. From physics to biology and statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akhmatskaya, Elena; Reich, Sebastian

2011-01-01

We introduce a class of novel hybrid methods for detailed simulations of large complex systems in physics, biology, materials science and statistics. These generalized shadow Hybrid Monte Carlo (GSHMC) methods combine the advantages of stochastic and deterministic simulation techniques. They utilize a partial momentum update to retain some of the dynamical information, employ modified Hamiltonians to overcome exponential performance degradation with the system’s size and make use of multi-scale nature of complex systems. Variants of GSHMCs were developed for atomistic simulation, particle simulation and statistics: GSHMC (thermodynamically consistent implementation of constant-temperature molecular dynamics), MTS-GSHMC (multiple-time-stepping GSHMC), meso-GSHMC (Metropolis corrected dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) method), and a generalized shadow Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, GSHmMC (a GSHMC for statistical simulations). All of these are compatible with other enhanced sampling techniques and suitable for massively parallel computing allowing for a range of multi-level parallel strategies. A brief description of the GSHMC approach, examples of its application on high performance computers and comparison with other existing techniques are given. Our approach is shown to resolve such problems as resonance instabilities of the MTS methods and non-preservation of thermodynamic equilibrium properties in DPD, and to outperform known methods in sampling efficiency by an order of magnitude. (author)

The Brown-Servranckx matching transformer for simultaneous RFQ to DTL H+ and H- matching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wadlinger, E.A.; Garnett, R.W.

1996-01-01

The issue involved in the simultaneous matching of H + and H - beams between an RFQ and DTL lies in the fact that both beams experience the same electric-field forces at a given position in the RFQ. Hence, the two beams are focused to the same correlation. However, matching to a DTL requires correlation of the opposite sign. The Brown-Servranckx quarter-wave (λ / 4) matching transformer system, which requires four quadrupoles, provides a method to simultaneously match H + and H - beams between an RFQ and a DTL. The method requires the use of a special RFQ section to obtain the Twiss parameter conditions β x = β y and α x = α y = 0 at the exit of the RFQ. This matching between the RFQ and DTL is described. (author)

The Brown-Servranckx matching transformer for simultaneous RFQ to DTL H+ and H- matching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wadlinger, E.A.; Garnett, R.W.

1996-01-01

The issue involved in simultaneous matching of H + and H - beams between an RFQ and DTL lies in the fact that both beams experience the same electric-field forces at a given position in the RFQ. Hence, the two beams are focused to the same correlation. However, matching to a DTL requires correlation of the opposite sign. The Brown-Servranckx quarter-wave (λ/4) matching transformer system, which requires four quadrupoles, provides a method to simultaneously match H + and H - beams between an RFQ and a DTL. The method requires the use of a special RFQ section to obtain the Twiss parameter conditions β x =β y and α x =α y =0 at the exit of the RFQ. This matching between the RFQ and DTL is described

Effects of brief time delays on matching-to-sample abilities in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.).

Science.gov (United States)

Truppa, Valentina; De Simone, Diego Antonio; Piano Mortari, Eva; De Lillo, Carlo

2014-09-01

Traditionally, studies of delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) tasks in nonhuman species have focused on the assessment of the limits of the retrieval of information stored in short- and long-term memory systems. However, it is still unclear if visual recognition in these tasks is affected by very brief delay intervals, which are typically used to study rapidly decaying types of visual memory. This study aimed at evaluating if tufted capuchin monkeys' ability to recognise visual stimuli in a DMTS task is affected by (i) the disappearance of the sample stimulus and (ii) the introduction of delay intervals (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0s) between the disappearance of the sample and the presentation of the comparison stimuli. The results demonstrated that the simple disappearance of the sample and the introduction of a delay of 0.5s did not affect capuchins' performance either in terms of accuracy or response time. A delay interval of 1.0s produced a significant increase in response time but still did not affect recognition accuracy. By contrast, delays of 2.0 and 3.0s determined a significant increase in response time and a reduction in recognition accuracy. These findings indicate the existence in capuchin monkeys of processes enabling a very accurate retention of stimulus features within time frames comparable to those reported for humans' sensory memory (0.5-1.0s). The extent to which such processes can be considered analogous to the sensory memory processes observed in human visual cognition is discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

N.Y.C. System School-Match Gaps Tracked

Science.gov (United States)

Sparks, Sarah D.

2013-01-01

The first round of this year's high-school-match notifications in New York City's massive, district-wide school choice process went out to students this month, sparking celebration, consternation, and a renewal of concerns about unequal access to the city's best schools. The Big Apple's school-matching system is certainly on a New York scale, with…

An experimental study on the effects of exposure to magazine advertising on children's food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Sandra C; Kervin, Lisa

2011-08-01

The present study sought to determine the feasibility of an experimental research design to investigate the effects of exposure to magazine advertising on children's food choices. Children were randomized to read either a magazine with food advertisements or a magazine with no food advertisements. They then chose two food items from the intervention 'store' to eat after the session. Data were also collected on attitudes to advertising and snack food preferences. Finally, participants' parents were provided with a self-completion survey on food choices and other variables (n 24). Three vacation care centres in regional New South Wales, Australia. Children aged 5-12 years (n 47). Children in the experimental condition were more likely to choose advertised foods than those in the control group. Interestingly, the majority reported taste and healthiness as the most important factors in snack food choices; however, when faced with the actual food choice, they predominantly chose unhealthy foods (eighty-two unhealthy and only twelve healthy items were chosen). This was the first study to assess the effects on children of exposure to food advertising within the context of reading a child-targeted magazine. Importantly, even with the small sample size and venue limitations, we found that exposure to magazine advertising influenced food choices. Children's magazines are an under-researched and poorly regulated medium, with considerable potential to influence children's food choices. The present study shows that the methodology is feasible, and future studies could replicate this with larger samples.

Comparison between Two Assessment Methods; Modified Essay Questions and Multiple Choice Questions

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Assadi S.N.* MD

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Aims Using the best assessment methods is an important factor in educational development of health students. Modified essay questions and multiple choice questions are two prevalent methods of assessing the students. The aim of this study was to compare two methods of modified essay questions and multiple choice questions in occupational health engineering and work laws courses. Materials & Methods This semi-experimental study was performed during 2013 to 2014 on occupational health students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The class of occupational health and work laws course in 2013 was considered as group A and the class of 2014 as group B. Each group had 50 students.The group A students were assessed by modified essay questions method and the group B by multiple choice questions method.Data were analyzed in SPSS 16 software by paired T test and odd’s ratio. Findings The mean grade of occupational health and work laws course was 18.68±0.91 in group A (modified essay questions and was 18.78±0.86 in group B (multiple choice questions which was not significantly different (t=-0.41; p=0.684. The mean grade of chemical chapter (p<0.001 in occupational health engineering and harmful work law (p<0.001 and other (p=0.015 chapters in work laws were significantly different between two groups. Conclusion Modified essay questions and multiple choice questions methods have nearly the same student assessing value for the occupational health engineering and work laws course.

Enhanced Choice for Viewing Cocaine Pictures in Cocaine Addiction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moeller, S.J.; Goldstein, R.; Moeller, S.J.; Maloney, T.; Parvaz, M.A.; Dunning, J.P.; Alia-Klein, N.; Woicik, P.A.; Hajcak, G.; Telang, F.; Wang, G.-J.; Volkow, N.D.; Goldstein, R.Z.

2009-01-01

Individuals with cocaine use disorder (CUD) chose cocaine over nondrug rewards. In two newly designed laboratory tasks with pictures, we document this modified choice outside of a cocaine administration paradigm. Choice for viewing cocaine, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral pictures-under explicit contingencies (choice made between two fully visible side-by-side images) and under more implicit contingencies (selections made between pictures hidden under flipped-over cards)-was examined in 20 CUD and 20 matched healthy control subjects. Subjects also provided self-reported ratings of each picture's pleasantness and arousal. Under both contingencies, CUD subjects chose to view more cocaine pictures than control subjects, group differences that were not fully explained by the self-reported picture ratings. Furthermore, whereas CUD subjects choice for viewing cocaine pictures exceeded choice for viewing unpleasant pictures (but did not exceed choice for viewing pleasant pictures, in contrast to their self-reported ratings), healthy control subjects avoided viewing cocaine pictures as frequently as, or even more than, unpleasant pictures. Finally, CUD subjects with the most cocaine viewing selections, even when directly compared with selections of the pleasant pictures, also reported the most frequent recent cocaine use. Enhanced drug-related choice in cocaine addiction can be demonstrated even for nonpharmacologic (pictorial) stimuli. This choice, which is modulated by alternative stimuli, partly transcends self-reports (possibly indicative of a disconnect in cocaine addiction between self-reports and objective behavior) to provide an objective marker of addiction severity. Neuroimaging studies are needed to establish the neural underpinnings of such enhanced cocaine-related choice.

Enhanced Choice for Viewing Cocaine Pictures in Cocaine Addiction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moeller, S.J.; Goldstein, R.; Moeller, S.J.; Maloney, T. Parvaz, M.A.; Dunning, J.P.; Alia-Klein, N.; Woicik, P.A.; Hajcak, G.; Telang, F.; Wang, G.-J.; Volkow, N.D.; Goldstein, R.Z.

2009-02-01

Individuals with cocaine use disorder (CUD) chose cocaine over nondrug rewards. In two newly designed laboratory tasks with pictures, we document this modified choice outside of a cocaine administration paradigm. Choice for viewing cocaine, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral pictures-under explicit contingencies (choice made between two fully visible side-by-side images) and under more implicit contingencies (selections made between pictures hidden under flipped-over cards)-was examined in 20 CUD and 20 matched healthy control subjects. Subjects also provided self-reported ratings of each picture's pleasantness and arousal. Under both contingencies, CUD subjects chose to view more cocaine pictures than control subjects, group differences that were not fully explained by the self-reported picture ratings. Furthermore, whereas CUD subjects choice for viewing cocaine pictures exceeded choice for viewing unpleasant pictures (but did not exceed choice for viewing pleasant pictures, in contrast to their self-reported ratings), healthy control subjects avoided viewing cocaine pictures as frequently as, or even more than, unpleasant pictures. Finally, CUD subjects with the most cocaine viewing selections, even when directly compared with selections of the pleasant pictures, also reported the most frequent recent cocaine use. Enhanced drug-related choice in cocaine addiction can be demonstrated even for nonpharmacologic (pictorial) stimuli. This choice, which is modulated by alternative stimuli, partly transcends self-reports (possibly indicative of a disconnect in cocaine addiction between self-reports and objective behavior) to provide an objective marker of addiction severity. Neuroimaging studies are needed to establish the neural underpinnings of such enhanced cocaine-related choice.

Propensity-score matching in the cardiovascular surgery literature from 2004 to 2006: a systematic review and suggestions for improvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Austin, Peter C

2007-11-01

I conducted a systematic review of the use of propensity score matching in the cardiovascular surgery literature. I examined the adequacy of reporting and whether appropriate statistical methods were used. I examined 60 articles published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, and the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2006. Thirty-one of the 60 studies did not provide adequate information on how the propensity score-matched pairs were formed. Eleven (18%) of studies did not report on whether matching on the propensity score balanced baseline characteristics between treated and untreated subjects in the matched sample. No studies used appropriate methods to compare baseline characteristics between treated and untreated subjects in the propensity score-matched sample. Eight (13%) of the 60 studies explicitly used statistical methods appropriate for the analysis of matched data when estimating the effect of treatment on the outcomes. Two studies used appropriate methods for some outcomes, but not for all outcomes. Thirty-nine (65%) studies explicitly used statistical methods that were inappropriate for matched-pairs data when estimating the effect of treatment on outcomes. Eleven studies did not report the statistical tests that were used to assess the statistical significance of the treatment effect. Analysis of propensity score-matched samples tended to be poor in the cardiovascular surgery literature. Most statistical analyses ignored the matched nature of the sample. I provide suggestions for improving the reporting and analysis of studies that use propensity score matching.

A Polygon and Point-Based Approach to Matching Geospatial Features

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Juan J. Ruiz-Lendínez

2017-12-01

Full Text Available A methodology for matching bidimensional entities is presented in this paper. The matching is proposed for both area and point features extracted from geographical databases. The procedure used to obtain homologous entities is achieved in a two-step process: The first matching, polygon to polygon matching (inter-element matching, is obtained by means of a genetic algorithm that allows the classifying of area features from two geographical databases. After this, we apply a point to point matching (intra-element matching based on the comparison of changes in their turning functions. This study shows that genetic algorithms are suitable for matching polygon features even if these features are quite different. Our results show up to 40% of matched polygons with differences in geometrical attributes. With regards to point matching, the vertex from homologous polygons, the function and threshold values proposed in this paper show a useful method for obtaining precise vertex matching.

Two related algorithms for root-to-frontier tree pattern matching

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cleophas, L.G.W.A.; Hemerik, C.; Zwaan, G.

2006-01-01

Tree pattern matching (TPM) algorithms on ordered, ranked trees play an important role in applications such as compilers and term rewriting systems. Many TPM algorithms appearing in the literature are based on tree automata. For efficiency, these automata should be deterministic, yet deterministic

Missing citations due to exact reference matching: Analysis of a random sample from WoS. Are publications from peripheral countries disadvantaged?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Donner, P.

2016-07-01

Citation counts of scientific research contributions are one fundamental data in scientometrics. Accuracy and completeness of citation links are therefore crucial data quality issues (Moed, 2005, Ch. 13). However, despite the known flaws of reference matching algorithms, usually no attempts are made to incorporate uncertainty about citation counts into indicators. This study is a step towards that goal. Particular attention is paid to the question whether publications from countries not using basic Latin script are differently affected by missed citations. The proprietary reference matching procedure of Web of Science (WoS) is based on (near) exact agreement of cited reference data (normalized during processing) to the target papers bibliographical data. Consequently, the procedure has near-optimal precision but incomplete recall - it is known to miss some slightly inaccurate reference links (Olensky, 2015). However, there has been no attempt so far to estimate the rate of missed citations by a principled method for a random sample. For this study a simple random sample of WoS source papers was drawn and it was attempted to find all reference strings of WoS indexed documents that refer to them, in particular inexact matches. The objective is to give a statistical estimate of the proportion of missed citations and to describe the relationship of the number of found citations to the number of missed citations, i.e. the conditional error distribution. The empirical error distribution is statistically analyzed and modelled. (Author)

Matching of ion sources to cyclotron inflectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baartman, R.

1988-06-01

In general, cyclotron inflectors strongly couple the two transverse subspaces. This leads to a growth in emittance projections for a beam with no initial correlation between the two transverse subspaces. Only in the case of the Mueller (hyperboloid) inflector is there no emittance growth. We have made calculations using an optimization routine to match a given beam through the axial injection system. We find that in the limit where all the emittance is due to a beam's axial angular momentum (for example, from an ECR source), matching with no emittance growth is possible even in the case of mirror or spiral inflectors. Moreover, any one of the two transverse emittances circulating in the cyclotron can be made smaller than the source emittance while maintaining the sum of the emittances constant. This is achieved by rotating the matching quadrupoles with respect to the inflector and retuning

Caution regarding the choice of standard deviations to guide sample size calculations in clinical trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Henian; Zhang, Nanhua; Lu, Xiaosun; Chen, Sophie

2013-08-01

The method used to determine choice of standard deviation (SD) is inadequately reported in clinical trials. Underestimations of the population SD may result in underpowered clinical trials. This study demonstrates how using the wrong method to determine population SD can lead to inaccurate sample sizes and underpowered studies, and offers recommendations to maximize the likelihood of achieving adequate statistical power. We review the practice of reporting sample size and its effect on the power of trials published in major journals. Simulated clinical trials were used to compare the effects of different methods of determining SD on power and sample size calculations. Prior to 1996, sample size calculations were reported in just 1%-42% of clinical trials. This proportion increased from 38% to 54% after the initial Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) was published in 1996, and from 64% to 95% after the revised CONSORT was published in 2001. Nevertheless, underpowered clinical trials are still common. Our simulated data showed that all minimal and 25th-percentile SDs fell below 44 (the population SD), regardless of sample size (from 5 to 50). For sample sizes 5 and 50, the minimum sample SDs underestimated the population SD by 90.7% and 29.3%, respectively. If only one sample was available, there was less than 50% chance that the actual power equaled or exceeded the planned power of 80% for detecting a median effect size (Cohen's d = 0.5) when using the sample SD to calculate the sample size. The proportions of studies with actual power of at least 80% were about 95%, 90%, 85%, and 80% when we used the larger SD, 80% upper confidence limit (UCL) of SD, 70% UCL of SD, and 60% UCL of SD to calculate the sample size, respectively. When more than one sample was available, the weighted average SD resulted in about 50% of trials being underpowered; the proportion of trials with power of 80% increased from 90% to 100% when the 75th percentile and the

Functional MRI of Challenging Food Choices: Forced Choice between Equally Liked High- and Low-Calorie Foods in the Absence of Hunger.

Science.gov (United States)

Charbonnier, Lisette; van der Laan, Laura N; Viergever, Max A; Smeets, Paul A M

2015-01-01

We are continuously exposed to food and during the day we make many food choices. These choices play an important role in the regulation of food intake and thereby in weight management. Therefore, it is important to obtain more insight into the mechanisms that underlie these choices. While several food choice functional MRI (fMRI) studies have been conducted, the effect of energy content on neural responses during food choice has, to our knowledge, not been investigated before. Our objective was to examine brain responses during food choices between equally liked high- and low-calorie foods in the absence of hunger. During a 10-min fMRI scan 19 normal weight volunteers performed a forced-choice task. Food pairs were matched on individual liking but differed in perceived and actual caloric content (high-low). Food choice compared with non-food choice elicited stronger unilateral activation in the left insula, superior temporal sulcus, posterior cingulate gyrus and (pre)cuneus. This suggests that the food stimuli were more salient despite subject's low motivation to eat. The right superior temporal sulcus (STS) was the only region that exhibited greater activation for high versus low calorie food choices between foods matched on liking. Together with previous studies, this suggests that STS activation during food evaluation and choice may reflect the food's biological relevance independent of food preference. This novel finding warrants further research into the effects of hunger state and weight status on STS, which may provide a marker of biological relevance.

Functional MRI of Challenging Food Choices: Forced Choice between Equally Liked High- and Low-Calorie Foods in the Absence of Hunger.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lisette Charbonnier

Full Text Available We are continuously exposed to food and during the day we make many food choices. These choices play an important role in the regulation of food intake and thereby in weight management. Therefore, it is important to obtain more insight into the mechanisms that underlie these choices. While several food choice functional MRI (fMRI studies have been conducted, the effect of energy content on neural responses during food choice has, to our knowledge, not been investigated before. Our objective was to examine brain responses during food choices between equally liked high- and low-calorie foods in the absence of hunger. During a 10-min fMRI scan 19 normal weight volunteers performed a forced-choice task. Food pairs were matched on individual liking but differed in perceived and actual caloric content (high-low. Food choice compared with non-food choice elicited stronger unilateral activation in the left insula, superior temporal sulcus, posterior cingulate gyrus and (precuneus. This suggests that the food stimuli were more salient despite subject's low motivation to eat. The right superior temporal sulcus (STS was the only region that exhibited greater activation for high versus low calorie food choices between foods matched on liking. Together with previous studies, this suggests that STS activation during food evaluation and choice may reflect the food's biological relevance independent of food preference. This novel finding warrants further research into the effects of hunger state and weight status on STS, which may provide a marker of biological relevance.

Multidimensional analysis of food-allergic children and adolescents' self-concept: A comparison with a healthy matched sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Polloni, Laura; Baldi, Ileana; Lazzarotto, Francesca; Bonaguro, Roberta; Toniolo, Alice; Gregori, Dario; Muraro, Antonella

2015-06-01

The study investigated self-concept in food-allergic youths and matched healthy controls. Global and domain-specific self-concepts were assessed in 154 participants (9-19 years) using the Multidimensional Self-Concept Scale. Statistical analysis assessed differences between the two samples and effects of asthma, dermatitis, age, and gender among patients. Significant differences were found for Total Scale score and for Competence and Physical scores. Patients showed clinically problematic self-concepts in Global, Competence, and Family domains. Age was found to be associated with the Total score. Health professionals should consider food-allergic patients' personality development. Further studies could examine disease-specific consequences and interventions. © The Author(s) 2015.

Using the MMPI-2-RF to discriminate psychometrically identified schizotypic college students from a matched comparison sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, Helen K; Bolinskey, P Kevin; Novi, Jonathan H; Hudak, Daniel V; James, Alison V; Myers, Kevin R; Schuder, Kelly M

2014-01-01

This study investigates the extent to which the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) profiles of 52 individuals making up a psychometrically identified schizotypes (SZT) sample could be successfully discriminated from the protocols of 52 individuals in a matched comparison (MC) sample. Replication analyses were performed with an additional 53 pairs of SZT and MC participants. Results showed significant differences in mean T-score values between these 2 groups across a variety of MMPI-2-RF scales. Results from discriminant function analyses indicate that schizotypy can be predicted effectively using 4 MMPI-2-RF scales and that this method of classification held up on replication. Additional results demonstrated that these MMPI-2-RF scales nominally outperformed MMPI-2 scales suggested by previous research as being indicative of schizophrenia liability. Directions for future research with the MMPI-2-RF are suggested.

Using Model, Cover, Copy, Compare, a Token Economy Program, and Discrete Trail Match to Sample Training for Teaching Functional Life Skills for a 13-Year-Old Middle School Student with Moderate Disabilities

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KATHERINE J. HOOT

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of model, cover, copy, compare (MCCC, token system, and match to sample for teaching basic functional life skills with a middle age single student with disabilities. MCCC is a student-managed strategy that teaches discrete skills through errorless correction. Match to sample is another strategy that teaches how to identify and discriminate based on a visual representation of the identical information. The effectiveness of MCCC and match to sample was evaluated using a multiple baseline design. The results indicated that MCCC and match to sample was effective in teaching a single middle age school student with disabilities his name, phone number, home address, and emergency contact name and phone number. Maintenance of the basic functional life skills was also found; except for the emergency contact name. However, even if maintenance was not conducted on the final set, emergency phone number was maintained; this is attributed to the length of teaching sessions on the final set. The MCCC and match to sample interventions were both easy to implement and employ in the special education middle school classroom.

Implementasi Kurikulum 2013 Di MTs Yaqin 1 Kwang Rundun Kecamatan Jerowaru ( Masalah dan Solusinya

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Sirajun Nasihin

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apa saja masalah yang dihadapi oleh MTs Yaqin 1 Kwang Rundun dalam upaya Implementasi Kurikulum 2013 beserta solusi yang dikembangkan untuk memecahkan masalahnya. Untuk menghimpun data penelitian, penulis mempergunakan tiga tehnik pengumpulan data yakni; observasi, wawancara, dan dokumentasi. Peneliti secara langsung menuju lokasi penelitian dimana penulis merupakan bagian integral dari yayasan penyelenggara pendidikan ini sehingga dapat dengan mudah mendapatkan akses informasi ke dalamnya. Dari penelitian yang dilakukan, penulis memperoleh kesimpulan bahwa masalah yang dihadapi dalam implementasi kurikulum 2013 di MTs Yaqin 1 Kwang Rundun adalah antara lain ; terbatasnya informasi mengenai sistem kurikulum 2013, minimnya fasilitas pembelajaran yang menjadi unsur vital yaitu buku-buku siswa, tidak tersedia sarana prasarana belajar yang utama untuk mendukung penerapannya seperti; laboratorium, alat-alat peraga, media pembelajaran dan kompetensi profesionalisme guru belum memadai”. Sedangkan solusi pemecahannya adalah membangun kerjasama dengan wali murid, komite madrasah dan stake holders sebagai bagian dari pengelolan humas sekolah untuk memberikan informasi kepada masyarakat bahwa sekolah mempunyai kebutuhan vital yang belum dijangkau, guru-guru memiliki kemauan yang kuat untuk belajar sehingga diupayakan oftimalisasi MGMP, dan kepala madrasah memiliki tekad yang kuat untuk maju sehingga dapat menyisihkan anggaran untuk pengadaan kebutuhan.

A Cross-National Analysis of the Relations of School Choice and Effectiveness Differences between Private-Dependent and Public Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Dronkers, Jaap; Avram, Silvia

2010-01-01

We apply propensity score matching to the estimation of differential school effectiveness between the publicly funded private sector and the public sector in a sample of 26 countries. This technique allows us to distinguish between school choice and school effectiveness processes and thus to account for selectivity issues involved in the…

Similarities and differences between two different types of the thermoluminescence dosimeters belonging to the LiF family

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sadek, A.M. [Ionizing Radiation Metrology Department, National Institute for Standards, Giza (Egypt); Khamis, F. [Physics Department, University of Tripoli, Tripoli (Lebanon); Polymeris, George S. [Institute of Nuclear Science, Ankara University, Besevler, Ankara (Turkey); Carinou, E. [Greek Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), Ag. Paraskevi (Greece); Kitis, G. [Nuclear Physics and Elementary Particles Physics Section, Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Makedonia (Greece)

2017-01-15

The kinetic parameters of the glow-peaks of Harshaw - LiF:Mg, Ti (TLD) and Poland - LiF:Mg,Ti (MTS) dosimeters were investigated at different dose levels using the computerized glow-curve deconvolution (CGCD) algorithm. The results showed that the glow-curve structure and the kinetic parameters of the MTS - 6 and the TLD dosimeter are identical. In addition, the glow-curve structure and the kinetic parameters of the MTS - N and MTS - 7 dosimeters. However, unusual low activation energy (∝1.67 eV) and frequency factor (∝10{sup 15} s{sup -1}) values were detected for peak 5 of MTS - N, and MTS - 7 at the 50 Gy dose-level. Moreover, unlike the activation energy and the frequency factor of peak 5 of the TLD dosimeters, the activation energy and the frequency factor of peak 5 of MTS - N and MTS - 7 are substantially dependent on the absorbed dose level. The results also showed that peak 2 of the same dosimeters has also unusual low activation energy and frequency factor values. However, these values showed high stability over the different dose levels. The explanations of these unusual behaviors of peak 5 were discussed and a correlation between peak 2 and peak 5 was pointed out. (copyright 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Changes of Frost Damage and Treeline Advance for Swiss Stone Pine in the Calimani Mts. (Eastern Carpathians, Romania

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KERN, Zoltán

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Checking the tree-ring structure of 39 living and 9 crossdated dead samples of Swissstone pine (Pinus cembra L. collected from the upper timberline of the CalimaniMts. we haveidentified 59 frost rings over the past 250 years. We found concentrated occurrence of frost events inthree decades: in the 1790s, 1810s and 1910s. No frost ring was observed in two bidecadal periods:1750-1770 and 1850-1870. Out of the analysed interval 1963-2004 is the longest period without frostring occurrence. After 1920 both frequency and severity of frost events seem to decrease compared tothe prior 170 years. We determined the altitude of highest growing stone pine individuals in theBradului Ciont–Pietrosu region in June, 2006. Individuals were sorted into tree-form or bush-likemorphological groups. Mean elevation data of the groups were corrected by an estimated constant biasof GPS measurements (-30 m. Comparing the corrected values to early 20th century inventory data65 m and 95 m upward migration was determined for treeline and boundary of bush-like occurence,respectively. The parallel results suggest that the 20th century advance of the upper forest limit wasdue to the decrease of frost stress at the zone of timberline.

Contribution to the knowledge of oribatid mites (.i.Acari: Oribatida./i.) from the Malá Kotlina, Hrubý Jeseník Mts., Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Starý, Josef

2005-01-01

Roč. 54, č. 2 (2005), s. 121-130 ISSN 0323-0627 Grant - others:CHKO Jeseníky(CZ) PPK study - 1g/83/04 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60660521 Keywords : soil oribatid mites * faunistics * Hrubý Jeseník Mts. Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour

Secondhand smoke exposure and other correlates of susceptibility to smoking: a propensity score matching approach.

Science.gov (United States)

McIntire, Russell K; Nelson, Ashlyn A; Macy, Jonathan T; Seo, Dong-Chul; Kolbe, Lloyd J

2015-09-01

Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is responsible for numerous diseases of the lungs and other bodily systems among children. In addition to the adverse health effects of SHS exposure, studies show that children exposed to SHS are more likely to smoke in adolescence. Susceptibility to smoking is a measure used to identify adolescent never-smokers who are at risk for smoking. Limited research has been conducted on the influence of SHS on susceptibility to smoking. The purpose of this study was to determine a robust measure of the strength of correlation between SHS exposure and susceptibility to smoking among never-smoking U.S. adolescents. This study used data from the 2009 National Youth Tobacco Survey to identify predictors of susceptibility to smoking in the full (pre-match) sample of adolescents and a smaller (post-match) sample created by propensity score matching. Results showed a significant association between SHS exposure and susceptibility to smoking among never-smoking adolescents in the pre-match (OR=1.47) and post-match (OR=1.52) samples. The odds ratio increase after matching suggests that the strength of the relationship was underestimated in the pre-match sample. Other significant correlates of susceptibility to smoking identified include: gender, race/ethnicity, personal income, smoke-free home rules, number of smoking friends, perception of SHS harm, perceived benefits of smoking, and exposure to pro-tobacco media messages. The use of propensity score matching procedures reduced bias in the post-match sample, and provided a more robust estimate of the influence of SHS exposure on susceptibility to smoking, compared to the pre-match sample estimates. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

EFFECTS ON THE PERFORMANCE DURING A MATCHING-TO-SAMPLE TASK DUE TO THE TYPE AND ORDER OF EXPOSITION TO THE TRANSFERENCE TESTS

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CAMILO HURTADO-PARRADO

2007-08-01

Full Text Available This study evaluated the effects of manipulating the type and order of presentation of transference tests. Twenty eightundergraduate students divided in 4 groups were exposed to a second order matching to sample procedure. Theconditions of exposition were: ascending difficulty/complexity order of the tests, descending order and two randomlyassigned orders. Results are discussed in terms of percentages of effectiveness; additionally, the latency is proposed asan alternative measure sensitive to the level of difficulty of this kind of tasks. Findings showed heterogeneity in thevelocity of acquisition of the conditional discriminations during the training phase, even though the conditions of thetask were equal for all the subjects. The exposition to the ascending and descending order seemed to affect negativelythe effective behavioral adjustment, whereas one of the randomly assigned sequences seemed to be the best condition.The order of exposition to transference tests, in interaction with a history of early acquisition in the training phase,served to understand the findings of this study and to discuss the necessity of a systematical evaluation of the factors implied in the transference tests. It is suggested to assess the validity of different kind of transference tests and theconvenience of some of them to be use in the investigation of the phenomena related to the effective and variablebehavior.

4M Overturned Pyramid (MOP Model Utilization: Case Studies on Collision in Indonesian and Japanese Maritime Traffic Systems (MTS

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Wanginingastuti Mutmainnah

2016-07-01

Full Text Available 4M Overturned Pyramid (MOP model is a new model, proposed by authors, to characterized MTS which is adopting epidemiological model that determines causes of accidents, including not only active failures but also latent failures and barriers. This model is still being developed. One of utilization of MOP model is characterizing accidents in MTS, i.e. collision in Indonesia and Japan that is written in this paper. The aim of this paper is to show the characteristics of ship collision accidents that occur both in Indonesian and Japanese maritime traffic systems. There were 22 collision cases in 2008–2012 (8 cases in Indonesia and 14 cases in Japan. The characteristics presented in this paper show failure events at every stage of the three accident development stages (the beginning of an accident, the accident itself, and the evacuation process.

Comparison of self-written waveguide techniques and bulk index matching for low-loss polymer waveguide interconnects

Science.gov (United States)

Burrell, Derek; Middlebrook, Christopher

2016-03-01

Polymer waveguides (PWGs) are used within photonic interconnects as inexpensive and versatile substitutes for traditional optical fibers. The PWGs are typically aligned to silica-based optical fibers for coupling. An epoxide elastomer is then applied and cured at the interface for index matching and rigid attachment. Self-written waveguides (SWWs) are proposed as an alternative to further reduce connection insertion loss (IL) and alleviate marginal misalignment issues. Elastomer material is deposited after the initial alignment, and SWWs are formed by injecting ultraviolet (UV) light into the fiber or waveguide. The coupled UV light cures a channel between the two differing structures. A suitable cladding layer can be applied after development. Such factors as longitudinal gap distance, UV cure time, input power level, polymer material selection and choice of solvent affect the resulting SWWs. Experimental data are compared between purely index-matched samples and those with SWWs at the fiber-PWG interface. It is shown that writing process. Successfully fabricated SWWs reduce overall processing time and enable an effectively continuous low-loss rigid interconnect.

Winter microclimatic regime of low-altitude scree slopes and its relation to topography: case study from the Ceske Stredohori Mts. (N Czech Republic)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Raška, P.; Kirchner, Karel; Raška, M.

2011-01-01

Roč. 34, č. 2 (2011), s. 235-246 ISSN 0391-9838 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30860518 Keywords : scree * microclimate * thermal regime * topography * Česke Středohoří Mts Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography Impact factor: 0.468, year: 2011 http://lsru.geography.ujep.cz/documents/raskaetal_2011b.pdf

The development and validation of a two-tiered multiple-choice instrument to identify alternative conceptions in earth science

Science.gov (United States)

Mangione, Katherine Anna

This study was to determine reliability and validity for a two-tiered, multiple- choice instrument designed to identify alternative conceptions in earth science. Additionally, this study sought to identify alternative conceptions in earth science held by preservice teachers, to investigate relationships between self-reported confidence scores and understanding of earth science concepts, and to describe relationships between content knowledge and alternative conceptions and planning instruction in the science classroom. Eighty-seven preservice teachers enrolled in the MAT program participated in this study. Sixty-eight participants were female, twelve were male, and seven chose not to answer. Forty-seven participants were in the elementary certification program, five were in the middle school certification program, and twenty-nine were pursuing secondary certification. Results indicate that the two-tiered, multiple-choice format can be a reliable and valid method for identifying alternative conceptions. Preservice teachers in all certification areas who participated in this study may possess common alternative conceptions previously identified in the literature. Alternative conceptions included: all rivers flow north to south, the shadow of the Earth covers the Moon causing lunar phases, the Sun is always directly overhead at noon, weather can be predicted by animal coverings, and seasons are caused by the Earth's proximity to the Sun. Statistical analyses indicated differences, however not all of them significant, among all subgroups according to gender and certification area. Generally males outperformed females and preservice teachers pursuing middle school certification had higher scores on the questionnaire followed by those obtaining secondary certification. Elementary preservice teachers scored the lowest. Additionally, self-reported scores of confidence in one's answers and understanding of the earth science concept in question were analyzed. There was a

Are personal values related to sustainable attribute choice

OpenAIRE

Mueller, Simone; Sirieix, Lucie; Remaud, Hervé

2011-01-01

Purpose: A cross-cultural study with large representative samples analyses to what degree Schwartz’s personal values and environmental concerns are related to consumers’ choices of wine with sustainable characteristics. Methodology: Across seven countries, the attribute importance and willingness to pay of consumer segments resulting from choice experiments are related to Schwartz’s personal value dimensions and environmental attitudes. Findings: Personal values were only weakly related to re...

A comparative study between matched and mis-matched projection/back projection pairs used with ASIRT reconstruction method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guedouar, R.; Zarrad, B.

2010-01-01

For algebraic reconstruction techniques both forward and back projection operators are needed. The ability to perform accurate reconstruction relies fundamentally on the forward projection and back projection methods which are usually, the transpose of each other. Even though the mis-matched pairs may introduce additional errors during the iterative process, the usefulness of mis-matched projector/back projector pairs has been proved in image reconstruction. This work investigates the performance of matched and mis-matched reconstruction pairs using popular forward projectors and their transposes when used in reconstruction tasks with additive simultaneous iterative reconstruction techniques (ASIRT) in a parallel beam approach. Simulated noiseless phantoms are used to compare the performance of the investigated pairs in terms of the root mean squared errors (RMSE) which are calculated between reconstructed slices and the reference in different regions. Results show that mis-matched projection/back projection pairs can promise more accuracy of reconstructed images than matched ones. The forward projection operator performance seems independent of the choice of the back projection operator and vice versa.

A comparative study between matched and mis-matched projection/back projection pairs used with ASIRT reconstruction method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guedouar, R., E-mail: raja_guedouar@yahoo.f [Higher School of Health Sciences and Techniques of Monastir, Av. Avicenne, 5060 Monastir, B.P. 128 (Tunisia); Zarrad, B., E-mail: boubakerzarrad@yahoo.f [Higher School of Health Sciences and Techniques of Monastir, Av. Avicenne, 5060 Monastir, B.P. 128 (Tunisia)

2010-07-21

For algebraic reconstruction techniques both forward and back projection operators are needed. The ability to perform accurate reconstruction relies fundamentally on the forward projection and back projection methods which are usually, the transpose of each other. Even though the mis-matched pairs may introduce additional errors during the iterative process, the usefulness of mis-matched projector/back projector pairs has been proved in image reconstruction. This work investigates the performance of matched and mis-matched reconstruction pairs using popular forward projectors and their transposes when used in reconstruction tasks with additive simultaneous iterative reconstruction techniques (ASIRT) in a parallel beam approach. Simulated noiseless phantoms are used to compare the performance of the investigated pairs in terms of the root mean squared errors (RMSE) which are calculated between reconstructed slices and the reference in different regions. Results show that mis-matched projection/back projection pairs can promise more accuracy of reconstructed images than matched ones. The forward projection operator performance seems independent of the choice of the back projection operator and vice versa.

Transverse two-stream instability in a matched plasma channel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Whlttum, D.H.

1994-01-01

A relativistic electron beam magnetically self-focused in a plasma is subject to a transverse two stream or 'hose' instability. Linear evolution is described in terms of a tune distribution characterizing the beam, and an effective transverse impedance determined by the beam and the plasma profiles. This model is compared to cloud-in-cell simulations of three-dimensional transport of a beam with a Bennett profile, through a matched plasma channel. In the limit of large skin-depth this instability appears to be the primary limitation on stable beam transport. (author)

Detailed phase matching characterization of inter-modal four-wave mixing in a two-mode fiber

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Friis, Søren Michael Mørk; Jung, Y.; Begleris, I.

2016-01-01

We experimentally characterize the phase matching properties of two inter-modal four-wave mixing processes in a graded index fiber guiding the LP01 and LP11 mode-groups.......We experimentally characterize the phase matching properties of two inter-modal four-wave mixing processes in a graded index fiber guiding the LP01 and LP11 mode-groups....

Psychiatric comorbidity in patients with two prototypes of focal versus generalized epilepsy syndromes.

Science.gov (United States)

Filho, Gerardo Maria de Araújo; Mazetto, Lenon; da Silva, Joyce Macedo; Caboclo, Luís Otávio Sales Ferreira; Yacubian, Elza Márcia Targas

2011-06-01

The frequency of psychiatric disorders (PD) in a homogeneous series of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy with mesial temporal sclerosis (TLE-MTS) compared to patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) was evaluated, aiming to determine the frequency of PD and possible differences in psychiatric diagnoses between these two epileptic syndromes. Data from 248 patients with refractory TLE-MTS and from 124 JME patients were reviewed and compared. There was a high prevalence of PD in both groups of epilepsy patients, present in 100 TLE-MTS (41%) and in 58 JME patients (46.7%). Mood (23.7%), anxiety (13.7%) and psychotic (11.6%) disorders were the most frequent diagnoses in TLE-MTS group, while mood and anxiety disorders (25% and 21%, respectively) were the most common PD among JME. Psychoses were significantly associated with TLE-MTS (p=0.01). These observations are concordant with our previous study, reforcing the existence of a possible anatomic correlation of PD and brain structures involved in both epilepsy syndromes. Copyright © 2011 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technical performance and match-to-match variation in elite football teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hongyou; Gómez, Miguel-Angel; Gonçalves, Bruno; Sampaio, Jaime

2016-01-01

Recent research suggests that match-to-match variation adds important information to performance descriptors in team sports, as it helps measure how players fine-tune their tactical behaviours and technical actions to the extreme dynamical environments. The current study aims to identify the differences in technical performance of players from strong and weak teams and to explore match-to-match variation of players' technical match performance. Performance data of all the 380 matches of season 2012-2013 in the Spanish First Division Professional Football League were analysed. Twenty-one performance-related match actions and events were chosen as variables in the analyses. Players' technical performance profiles were established by unifying count values of each action or event of each player per match into the same scale. Means of these count values of players from Top3 and Bottom3 teams were compared and plotted into radar charts. Coefficient of variation of each match action or event within a player was calculated to represent his match-to-match variation of technical performance. Differences in the variation of technical performances of players across different match contexts (team and opposition strength, match outcome and match location) were compared. All the comparisons were achieved by the magnitude-based inferences. Results showed that technical performances differed between players of strong and weak teams from different perspectives across different field positions. Furthermore, the variation of the players' technical performance is affected by the match context, with effects from team and opposition strength greater than effects from match location and match outcome.

Psocid taxocenoses structure and diversity (Insecta: Psocoptera in the forest ecosystems of the Piceeti–fageta s. lat. zone in the Western Carpathian Mts.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Otakar Holuša

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Psocid taxocenoses (Psocoptera were studied in forest ecosystems of the Western Carpathian Mts. during 1997–2001. As a study frame, vegetation tiers (= altitudinal vegetation zones were used. Lower units of forest typological system (forest type complexes were used for a classification of ecological conditions as well. Only a part of material, i.e. individuals that was found in the forest ecosystems of Piceeti-fageta s. lat. communities (= the 6th spruce-beech vegetation tier was evaluated for purpose of this work. This vegetation tier is widespread in higher parts of mountains (the Moravskoslezské Beskydy Mts. and partly in the Oravské Beskydy Mts.. 554 adults comprising 17 species were found in total in the 6th vegetation tier. As eudominant species, the following ones were found: Caecilius despaxi, Caecilius burmeisteri, Mesopsocus unipunctatus, and Stenopsocus lachlani; as dominant species, the following ones were found: Caecilius flavidus and Reuterella helvimacula. In natural geobiocenoses with the level of naturalness of 1 or 2, the following species were found: as eudominant species: Mesopsocus unipunctatus, Stenopsocus lachlani, Caecilius despaxi, Amphigerontia bifasciata and Reuterella helvimacula. Dominant species was Caecilius burmeisteri and Caecilius flavidus. Taxocenoses of psocids were evaluated by Detrended Correspondence analysis (DCA and Divisive Cluster analysis (DvClA. This material was compared to another material gained from various vegetation tiers in the Western Carpathians Mts. The characteristic species composition of psocids in the 6th vegetation tier was as follows – Cecilius despaxi – Stenopsocus lachlani – Mesopsocus unipunctatus – Reuterella helvimacula.

Desempenho de pessoas com autismo em tarefas de emparelhamento com o modelo por identidade: efeitos da organização dos estímulos Effects of stimuli organization on identity matching-to-sample performances of persons with autism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Camila Graciella Santos Gomes

2008-01-01

Full Text Available O estudo avaliou o desempenho de 20 pessoas com autismo em uma tarefa de emparelhamento por identidade sob dois procedimentos que diferiram quanto à forma de apresentação dos estímulos e à resposta de escolha. No procedimento de matching típico cada tentativa apresentava um estímulo modelo e três de comparação; no matching adaptado três modelos e três estímulos de comparação eram apresentados simultaneamente. O procedimento foi conduzido em três blocos: 10 tentativas de matching adaptado, 10 de matching típico e 20 tentativas com os dois arranjos misturados. A média de acertos foi significativamente maior no matching adaptado, mas ocorreu acentuada variabilidade inter-individual e esse arranjo favoreceu principalmente o desempenho de participantes com escores menores. A história prévia de aprendizagem dos participantes, entre outros fatores, pode ter influenciado nesses resultados, o que requer melhor avaliação, com outros controles experimentais.This study assessed the performance of 20 persons with autism in an identity matching-to-sample task, using two procedures with different stimuli arrangements and different response requirements. The typical matching procedure presented one sample stimulus and three comparison stimuli; the adapted matching displayed three sample stimuli and three comparison stimuli simultaneously. Three consecutive sets of trials were conducted: a 10-trial set of adapted matching, a 10-trial set of typical matching, and a 20-trial set intermixing both trial types in an unsystematic order. The average score of correct performance was significantly higher under the adapted matching than under the typical matching, but the inter-individual variability was large and the adapted arrangement favored mainly the performance of participants with lower scores. The participants' previous history in learning may have played a role in the way they solved the present task, but further investigation, with

STATE FARMS AND MTS OF MOSCOW REGION BEFORE AND AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrey Anatolyevich Androsov

2015-02-01

Full Text Available In the article on the basis of previously unknown archival materials for the first time in the national historiography a public way in Soviet agriculture of Moscow region in the period 1940-1942 yy. is considered. Particular attention is paid to the historiography of this problem, new methods of modern historians in the study of the rural economy of this period are marked. Different approaches in the analysis of the results of collectivization and the appearance in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics new sectors of agricultural production - the state and the collective are compared. Features of the state agricultural production plants and the legal status of their workers in the state farms and machine and tractor stations (MTS are pointed. Specific difficulties encountered in the process and as a result of the evacuation of the property of state farms and MTS, preparing for spring sowing in the implementation of the directive of All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of self-reliance are examined in details. The dedication of staff rear structures in the rescue of the property entrusted to them, the preparation of the spring sowing campaign, raising funds and manpower in extreme conditions is marked. Relationship of the status on the front and readiness of rear workers to work in the changed circumstances is traced. The difference between subjective difficulties associated with defects of command-administrative system, which prevailed in government and objective hardship arising from the outbreak of hostilities is taken into account. Much attention is paid to the description of the technical condition of the machine and tractor fleet of state farms and MTS as the main means of agricultural production. The conclusion about the causes and consequences of unavailability governance structures to conduct evacuation and preparation of the spring sowing are made.

Is dipyridamole test equivalent to exercise testing for the performing of myocardial tomo-scintigraphy? preliminary results of a systematic comparative analysis in patients having documented episodes of myocardial ischemia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

David, N.; Quiri, N.; Hassan, N.; Arsena, T.; Py, M.; Olivier, P.; Karcher, G.; Bertrand, A.; Houriez, P.; Grentzinger, A.; Angioi, M.; Danchin, N.; Juilliere, Y.

1997-01-01

Dipyridamole test is generally used rather than exercise testing when myocardial tomo-scintigraphy (MTS) is performed with patients unable to perform a maximal exercise test. However, this choice has never been validated by a systematic comparative analysis of the results provided by these two stress techniques with patients having a documented myocardial ischemia. We have included 20 patients who had a known coronary artery disease, for whom exercise test was positive at the time of an exercise MTS-TI201 performed in our department and who underwent an additional MTS-TI201 after intravenous administration of 0,56 mg/kg of dipyridamole and low-level exercise testing (40 W). The extent of perfusion abnormalities, observed after dipyvirdamole, was not significantly different from that evidenced at exercise, even in the analysis restricted to the eight patients who had a sub-maximal test (<80 % of predicted maximal heart rate) at the time of exercise-MTS (% of left ventricle: 17 ± 13 vs 15 ± 8). By contrast, there were important individual variations: a difference in defect-extent (≥ 10 % of left ventricle) was observed between the two tests for 11 patients (55 %), the largest defect being that observed at exercise in six cases, and after dipyridamole in five cases. With patients having exercise myocardial ischemia, the MTS obtained after dipyridamole are frequently very different from those performed after exercise, and the criterion of a low maximal heart rate doses not imply an underestimation of the perfusion abnormalities observed at exercise. (authors)

Match Rigging and the Career Concerns of Referees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Severgnini, Battista; Boeri, Tito

2011-01-01

This paper contributes to the literature on career concerns and corruption by drawing on extensive information on the performance of referees and records from Calciopoli, a judicial inquiry carried out in 2006 on corruption in the Italian football league. Unlike previous studies, we can analyse...... in detail the assignment of the referees to the most important matches, which is an important step in their career. Moreover, we can relate this choice to the performance of referees in previous matches and the evaluations they received in this context. We find that referees involved in match rigging were...

Matching Supernovae to Galaxies

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Susanna

2016-12-01

One of the major challenges for modern supernova surveys is identifying the galaxy that hosted each explosion. Is there an accurate and efficient way to do this that avoids investing significant human resources?Why Identify Hosts?One problem in host galaxy identification. Here, the supernova lies between two galaxies but though the centroid of the galaxy on the right is closer in angular separation, this may be a distant background galaxy that is not actually near the supernova. [Gupta et al. 2016]Supernovae are a critical tool for making cosmological predictions that help us to understand our universe. But supernova cosmology relies on accurately identifying the properties of the supernovae including their redshifts. Since spectroscopic followup of supernova detections often isnt possible, we rely on observations of the supernova host galaxies to obtain redshifts.But how do we identify which galaxy hosted a supernova? This seems like a simple problem, but there are many complicating factors a seemingly nearby galaxy could be a distant background galaxy, for instance, or a supernovas host could be too faint to spot.The authors algorithm takes into account confusion, a measure of how likely the supernova is to be mismatched. In these illustrations of low (left) and high (right) confusion, the supernova is represented by a blue star, and the green circles represent possible host galaxies. [Gupta et al. 2016]Turning to AutomationBefore the era of large supernovae surveys, searching for host galaxies was done primarily by visual inspection. But current projects like the Dark Energy Surveys Supernova Program is finding supernovae by the thousands, and the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will likely discover hundreds of thousands. Visual inspection will not be possible in the face of this volume of data so an accurate and efficient automated method is clearly needed!To this end, a team of scientists led by Ravi Gupta (Argonne National Laboratory) has recently

A functional analysis of photo-object matching skills of severely retarded adolescents.

OpenAIRE

Dixon, L S

1981-01-01

Matching-to-sample procedures were used to assess picture representation skills of severely retarded, nonverbal adolescents. Identity matching within the classes of objects and life-size, full-color photos of the objects was first used to assess visual discrimination, a necessary condition for picture representation. Picture representation was then assessed through photo-object matching tasks. Five students demonstrated visual discrimination (identity matching) within the two classes of photo...

The Comparison of Matching Methods Using Different Measures of Balance: Benefits and Risks Exemplified within a Study to Evaluate the Effects of German Disease Management Programs on Long-Term Outcomes of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Fullerton, Birgit; Pöhlmann, Boris; Krohn, Robert; Adams, John L; Gerlach, Ferdinand M; Erler, Antje

2016-10-01

To present a case study on how to compare various matching methods applying different measures of balance and to point out some pitfalls involved in relying on such measures. Administrative claims data from a German statutory health insurance fund covering the years 2004-2008. We applied three different covariance balance diagnostics to a choice of 12 different matching methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of the German disease management program for type 2 diabetes (DMPDM2). We further compared the effect estimates resulting from applying these different matching techniques in the evaluation of the DMPDM2. The choice of balance measure leads to different results on the performance of the applied matching methods. Exact matching methods performed well across all measures of balance, but resulted in the exclusion of many observations, leading to a change of the baseline characteristics of the study sample and also the effect estimate of the DMPDM2. All PS-based methods showed similar effect estimates. Applying a higher matching ratio and using a larger variable set generally resulted in better balance. Using a generalized boosted instead of a logistic regression model showed slightly better performance for balance diagnostics taking into account imbalances at higher moments. Best practice should include the application of several matching methods and thorough balance diagnostics. Applying matching techniques can provide a useful preprocessing step to reveal areas of the data that lack common support. The use of different balance diagnostics can be helpful for the interpretation of different effect estimates found with different matching methods. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Matching Students to Schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dejan Trifunovic

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we present the problem of matching students to schools by using different matching mechanisms. This market is specific since public schools are free and the price mechanism cannot be used to determine the optimal allocation of children in schools. Therefore, it is necessary to use different matching algorithms that mimic the market mechanism and enable us to determine the core of the cooperative game. In this paper, we will determine that it is possible to apply cooperative game theory in matching problems. This review paper is based on illustrative examples aiming to compare matching algorithms in terms of the incentive compatibility, stability and efficiency of the matching. In this paper we will present some specific problems that may occur in matching, such as improving the quality of schools, favoring minority students, the limited length of the list of preferences and generating strict priorities from weak priorities.

7 CFR 27.35 - Lower class of two samples to prevail.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Lower class of two samples to prevail. 27.35 Section 27.35 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE... Micronaire Determinations § 27.35 Lower class of two samples to prevail. In case a sample drawn from one...

The general matching law describes choice on concurrent variable-interval schedules of wheel-running reinforcement.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, T W; Belliveau, J

2001-05-01

Six male Wistar rats were exposed to concurrent variable-interval schedules of wheel-running reinforcement. The reinforcer associated with each alternative was the opportunity to run for 15 s, and the duration of the changeover delay was 1 s. Results suggested that time allocation was more sensitive to relative reinforcement rate than was response allocation. For time allocation, the mean slopes and intercepts were 0.82 and 0.008, respectively. In contrast, for response allocation, mean slopes and intercepts were 0.60 and 0.03, respectively. Correction for low response rates and high rates of changing over, however, increased slopes for response allocation to about equal those for time allocation. The results of the present study suggest that the two-operant form of the matching law can be extended to wheel-running reinforcement. 'I'he effects of a low overall response rate, a short Changeover delay, and long postreinforcement pausing on the assessment of matching in the present study are discussed.

Modeling the dynamics of choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Baum, William M; Davison, Michael

2009-06-01

A simple linear-operator model both describes and predicts the dynamics of choice that may underlie the matching relation. We measured inter-food choice within components of a schedule that presented seven different pairs of concurrent variable-interval schedules for 12 food deliveries each with no signals indicating which pair was in force. This measure of local choice was accurately described and predicted as obtained reinforcer sequences shifted it to favor one alternative or the other. The effect of a changeover delay was reflected in one parameter, the asymptote, whereas the effect of a difference in overall rate of food delivery was reflected in the other parameter, rate of approach to the asymptote. The model takes choice as a primary dependent variable, not derived by comparison between alternatives-an approach that agrees with the molar view of behaviour.

Measurement of ethical food choice motives.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindeman, M; Väänänen, M

2000-02-01

The two studies describe the development of three complementary scales to the Food Choice Questionnaire developed by Steptoe, Pollard & Wardle (1995). The new items address various ethical food choice motives and were derived from previous studies on vegetarianism and ethical food choice. The items were factor analysed in Study 1 (N=281) and the factor solution was confirmed in Study 2 (N=125), in which simple validity criteria were also included. Furthermore, test-retest reliability was assessed with a separate sample of subjects (N=36). The results indicated that the three new scales, Ecological Welfare (including subscales for Animal Welfare and Environment Protection), Political Values and Religion, are reliable and valid instruments for a brief screening of ethical food choice reasons. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Rational Arithmetic Mathematica Functions to Evaluate the Two-Sided One Sample K-S Cumulative Sampling Distribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Randall Brown

2007-06-01

Full Text Available One of the most widely used goodness-of-fit tests is the two-sided one sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S test which has been implemented by many computer statistical software packages. To calculate a two-sided p value (evaluate the cumulative sampling distribution, these packages use various methods including recursion formulae, limiting distributions, and approximations of unknown accuracy developed over thirty years ago. Based on an extensive literature search for the two-sided one sample K-S test, this paper identifies an exact formula for sample sizes up to 31, six recursion formulae, and one matrix formula that can be used to calculate a p value. To ensure accurate calculation by avoiding catastrophic cancelation and eliminating rounding error, each of these formulae is implemented in rational arithmetic. For the six recursion formulae and the matrix formula, computational experience for sample sizes up to 500 shows that computational times are increasing functions of both the sample size and the number of digits in the numerator and denominator integers of the rational number test statistic. The computational times of the seven formulae vary immensely but the Durbin recursion formula is almost always the fastest. Linear search is used to calculate the inverse of the cumulative sampling distribution (find the confidence interval half-width and tables of calculated half-widths are presented for sample sizes up to 500. Using calculated half-widths as input, computational times for the fastest formula, the Durbin recursion formula, are given for sample sizes up to two thousand.

Zooplankton community composition of high mountain lakes in the Tatra Mts., the Alps in North Tyrol, and Scotland: relationship to pH, depth, organic carbon, and chlorophyll-a concentration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Skála Ivan

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The European EMERGE (European Mountain lake Ecosystems: Regionalisation, diaGnostic & socio-economic Evaluation project was a survey of high mountain lakes (above treeline across Europe using unified methods of sampling and analysis. The sampling was carried out in summer or autumn 2000, and comprised biological samples, and samples for chemical analysis. Data from three lake districts are used in this paper: the Tatra Mts. in Slovakia and Poland (45 lakes, the Alps in Tyrol in Austria (22 lakes, and Scotland (30 lakes. As it is shown by multiple regression analysis, DTOC (dissolved or total organic carbon is the key variable for most groups of zooplankton. With increasing DTOC and mostly with chlorophyll-a decreasing, pH increasing and depth decreasing, macrofitrators with coarse filter meshes are replaced by microfiltrators with fine filter meshes. Higher DTOC may increase bacterioplankton production and advantage species able to consume bacteria (microfiltrators. Other zooplankton species also differ in their preference for DTOC, chlorophyll-a, pH and depth, but DTOC being positively correlated with chlorophyll-a and pH positively correlated with depth. It may be caused by their different preference for food quality in terms of C:P ratio.

Respostas de observação na tarefa de pareamento ao modelo: analisando topografias de controle de estímulos e seus efeitos sobre a formação de equivalência

OpenAIRE

Eliana Isabel de Moraes Hamasaki

2009-01-01

Entendendo que o estudo das topografias de controle de estímulo (TCEs) pode ser beneficiado em um procedimento de discriminação condicional para a investigação de controle complexo de estímulos, em especial na formação de classes de estímulos equivalentes, o presente estudo busca investigar essa questão diretamente, por meio de um software que executa o matching-to-sample (MTS) de uma maneira modificada. Tal modificação na tarefa de MTS consiste basicamente da introdução de respostas de obser...

Body-image, quality of life and psychological distress: a comparison between kidney transplant patients and a matching healthy sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Yagil, Yaron; Geller, Shulamit; Levy, Sigal; Sidi, Yael; Aharoni, Shiri

2018-04-01

The purpose of the current study was to assess the uniqueness of the condition of kidney transplant recipients in comparison to a sample of matching healthy peers in relation to body-image dissatisfaction and identification, quality of life and psychological distress. Participants were 45 kidney transplant recipients who were under follow-up care at a Transplant Unit of a major Medical Center, and a sample of 45 matching healthy peers. Measures were taken using self-report questionnaires [Body-Image Ideals Questionnaire (BIIQ), Body Identification Questionnaire (BIQ), Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI), and the SF-12]. The major findings were the following: (i) kidney transplant recipients reported lower levels of quality of life and higher levels of PsD when compared to their healthy peers; (ii) no difference in body-image dissatisfaction was found between the two studied groups; (iii) significant correlations between body-image dissatisfaction quality of life and PsD were found only in the kidney transplant recipients. The kidney transplantation condition has a moderating effect in the association between body-image dissatisfaction PsD but not in the association between body-image dissatisfaction and quality of life; (iv) kidney transplant recipients experienced higher levels of body identification than did their healthy peers. Taken together, these findings highlight the unique condition of kidney transplant recipients, as well as the function that body-image plays within the self.

Training in two-tier labor markets : The role of job match quality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Akgündüz, Yusuf Emre; van Huizen, Thomas

2015-01-01

This study examines training investments in two-tier labor markets, focusing on the role of job match quality. Temporary workers are in general more likely than permanent workers to leave their employer and therefore are less likely to receive employer-funded training. However, as firms prefer to

Russian consumers' motives for food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Honkanen, Pirjo; Frewer, Lynn

2009-04-01

Knowledge about food choice motives which have potential to influence consumer consumption decisions is important when designing food and health policies, as well as marketing strategies. Russian consumers' food choice motives were studied in a survey (1081 respondents across four cities), with the purpose of identifying consumer segments based on these motives. These segments were then profiled using consumption, attitudinal and demographic variables. Face-to-face interviews were used to sample the data, which were analysed with two-step cluster analysis (SPSS). Three clusters emerged, representing 21.5%, 45.8% and 32.7% of the sample. The clusters were similar in terms of the order of motivations, but differed in motivational level. Sensory factors and availability were the most important motives for food choice in all three clusters, followed by price. This may reflect the turbulence which Russia has recently experienced politically and economically. Cluster profiles differed in relation to socio-demographic factors, consumption patterns and attitudes towards health and healthy food.

Concurrent identity training is not necessary for associative symmetry in successive matching.

Science.gov (United States)

Campos, Heloísa Cursi; Urcuioli, Peter J; Swisher, Melissa

2014-01-01

Pigeons demonstrate associative symmetry after successive matching training on one arbitrary and two identity relations (e.g., Urcuioli, 2008). Here, we tested whether identity matching training is necessary for this emergent effect. In Experiment 1, one group of pigeons (Dual Oddity) learned hue-form arbitrary matching and two oddity relations which shared sample and comparison elements with the arbitrary relations. A second (Control) group learned the same hue-form matching task and a second (form-hue) arbitrary task which, together with hue oddity, shared only the samples with the hue-form relations. On subsequent symmetry probe trials, four Dual Oddity pigeons exhibited higher probe-trial response rates on the reverse of the positive than negative hue-form baseline trials, demonstrating associative symmetry. None of the Control pigeons, on the other hand, exhibited associative symmetry. Experiment 2 showed that subsequently changing one of the two oddity baseline relations to identity matching in the Dual Oddity group yielded antisymmetry in three of five pigeons. These results are consistent with predictions derived from Urcuioli's (Urcuioli, 2008) theory of pigeons' stimulus class formation and demonstrate that identity training is not necessary for associative symmetry to emerge after arbitrary matching training in pigeons. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Information in small neuronal ensemble activity in the hippocampal CA1 during delayed non-matching to sample performance in rats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takahashi Susumu

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The matrix-like organization of the hippocampus, with its several inputs and outputs, has given rise to several theories related to hippocampal information processing. Single-cell electrophysiological studies and studies of lesions or genetically altered animals using recognition memory tasks such as delayed non-matching-to-sample (DNMS tasks support the theories. However, a complete understanding of hippocampal function necessitates knowledge of the encoding of information by multiple neurons in a single trial. The role of neuronal ensembles in the hippocampal CA1 for a DNMS task was assessed quantitatively in this study using multi-neuronal recordings and an artificial neural network classifier as a decoder. Results The activity of small neuronal ensembles (6-18 cells over brief time intervals (2-50 ms contains accurate information specifically related to the matching/non-matching of continuously presented stimuli (stimulus comparison. The accuracy of the combination of neurons pooled over all the ensembles was markedly lower than those of the ensembles over all examined time intervals. Conclusion The results show that the spatiotemporal patterns of spiking activity among cells in the small neuronal ensemble contain much information that is specifically useful for the stimulus comparison. Small neuronal networks in the hippocampal CA1 might therefore act as a comparator during recognition memory tasks.

LACTATE PROFILE DURING GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLING MATCH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ognjen Uljevic

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to determine and compare lactate profile of two groups of Greco-Roman wrestlers with different competences and training experience. Study was conducted on 10 wrestles that were members of Croatian national team and 10 wrestlers that were members of Wrestling club Split. Lactate samples were collected at four intervals during control fights that were held according to international wrestling rules of World wrestling federation FILA. Values of lactate increased as competition progressed, and they were highest at the end of the match for both groups of wrestlers. According to this study there were no significant differences in lactate between two groups at the end of the match, while significant differences were noted during the match. The information about lactate profile presented in this study can be used by coaches and wrestlers to develop condition programs

Energetics demands and physiological responses to boxing match and subsequent recovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Nassib, Sabri; Hammoudi-Nassib, Sarra; Chtara, Mokhtar; Mkaouer, Bessem; Maaouia, Ghazwa; Bezrati-Benayed, Ikram; Chamari, Karim

2017-01-01

Determining the physiological profile of athletes in boxing match is important for defining aspects of physical performance that are important to competitive performance. Therefore, examination of the energy pathway of high-level boxers' athletes can be very helpful for optimizing training and then improving boxing physical fitness and performance. The aim of the present study was to assess the physiological and cardiovascular responses during boxing matches and subsequent recovery. Fifteen male international level boxers (mean age 19.56±3.6 years; mean body mass 72.46±11.86 kg; mean height 176.50±7.22 cm) participated in this study. Blood samples were drawn from the antecubital vein before and after the boxing matches (T1: pre-match rest measure around 11:00 a.m., T2: measure at 3 minutes of post-match recovery; T3: measure at 60 minutes of recovery; T4: measure at 24 hours post-match - the match started around 11:30 a.m.). An analysis of glucose, triglycerides, lactate, cholesterol, creatinine, uric-acid, high density lipoprotein, and low density lipoprotein concentrations was performed for each sample. Participants did perform a maximal incremental test to measure maximal heart rate (HRmax). Heart rate responses to the matches were measured and expressed in percentage of HRmax. The average HR recorded during the match corresponded to 93±3.26% of HRmax. The levels of glucose, lactate, and cholesterol increased significantly from T1 to T2. Likewise, creatinine levels increased significantly from T1 to T2 and T3. However, the cholesterol level decreased significantly at T3 in comparison with T1. Moreover, 24-hour post-match creatinine levels were significantly lower and triglyceride levels were significantly higher compared with T1. The main results of this study revealed that the boxing matches stress the lipid metabolism system during boxing and post-match (for at least 24 hours) even if it is widely recognized boxing being mainly composed of repeated short

Automated matching of corresponding seed images of three simulator radiographs to allow 3D triangulation of implanted seeds

Science.gov (United States)

Altschuler, Martin D.; Kassaee, Alireza

1997-02-01

To match corresponding seed images in different radiographs so that the 3D seed locations can be triangulated automatically and without ambiguity requires (at least) three radiographs taken from different perspectives, and an algorithm that finds the proper permutations of the seed-image indices. Matching corresponding images in only two radiographs introduces inherent ambiguities which can be resolved only with the use of non-positional information obtained with intensive human effort. Matching images in three or more radiographs is an `NP (Non-determinant in Polynomial time)-complete' problem. Although the matching problem is fundamental, current methods for three-radiograph seed-image matching use `local' (seed-by-seed) methods that may lead to incorrect matchings. We describe a permutation-sampling method which not only gives good `global' (full permutation) matches for the NP-complete three-radiograph seed-matching problem, but also determines the reliability of the radiographic data themselves, namely, whether the patient moved in the interval between radiographic perspectives.

Balance Sheets Versus Decision Dashboards to Support Patient Treatment Choices: A Comparative Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolan, James G; Veazie, Peter J

2015-12-01

Growing recognition of the importance of involving patients in preference-driven healthcare decisions has highlighted the need to develop practical strategies to implement patient-centered shared decision-making. The use of tabular balance sheets to support clinical decision-making is well established. More recent evidence suggests that graphic, interactive decision dashboards can help people derive deeper a understanding of information within a specific decision context. We therefore conducted a non-randomized trial comparing the effects of adding an interactive dashboard to a static tabular balance sheet on patient decision-making. The study population consisted of members of the ResearchMatch registry who volunteered to participate in a study of medical decision-making. Two separate surveys were conducted: one in the control group and one in the intervention group. All participants were instructed to imagine they were newly diagnosed with a chronic illness and were asked to choose between three hypothetical drug treatments, which varied with regard to effectiveness, side effects, and out-of-pocket cost. Both groups made an initial treatment choice after reviewing a balance sheet. After a brief "washout" period, members of the control group made a second treatment choice after reviewing the balance sheet again, while intervention group members made a second treatment choice after reviewing an interactive decision dashboard containing the same information. After both choices, participants rated their degree of confidence in their choice on a 1 to 10 scale. Members of the dashboard intervention group were more likely to change their choice of preferred drug (10.2 versus 7.5%; p = 0.054) and had a larger increase in decision confidence than the control group (0.67 versus 0.075; p < 0.03). There were no statistically significant between-group differences in decisional conflict or decision aid acceptability. These findings suggest that clinical decision dashboards may

Neural correlates of cognitive dissonance and choice-induced preference change.

Science.gov (United States)

Izuma, Keise; Matsumoto, Madoka; Murayama, Kou; Samejima, Kazuyuki; Sadato, Norihiro; Matsumoto, Kenji

2010-12-21

According to many modern economic theories, actions simply reflect an individual's preferences, whereas a psychological phenomenon called "cognitive dissonance" claims that actions can also create preference. Cognitive dissonance theory states that after making a difficult choice between two equally preferred items, the act of rejecting a favorite item induces an uncomfortable feeling (cognitive dissonance), which in turn motivates individuals to change their preferences to match their prior decision (i.e., reducing preference for rejected items). Recently, however, Chen and Risen [Chen K, Risen J (2010) J Pers Soc Psychol 99:573-594] pointed out a serious methodological problem, which casts a doubt on the very existence of this choice-induced preference change as studied over the past 50 y. Here, using a proper control condition and two measures of preferences (self-report and brain activity), we found that the mere act of making a choice can change self-report preference as well as its neural representation (i.e., striatum activity), thus providing strong evidence for choice-induced preference change. Furthermore, our data indicate that the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tracked the degree of cognitive dissonance on a trial-by-trial basis. Our findings provide important insights into the neural basis of how actions can alter an individual's preferences.

Skills and the graduate recruitment process: Evidence from two discrete choice experiments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Humburg, M.; van der Velden, R.K.W.

2014-01-01

In this study we elicit employers’ preferences for a variety of CV attributes and types of skills when recruiting university graduates. Using two discrete choice experiments, we simulate the two common steps of the graduate recruitment process: 1) the selection of suitable candidates for job

Decoding the Divergent Subcellular Location of Two Highly Similar Paralogous LEA Proteins

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Marie-Hélène Avelange-Macherel

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Many mitochondrial proteins are synthesized as precursors in the cytosol with an N-terminal mitochondrial targeting sequence (MTS which is cleaved off upon import. Although much is known about import mechanisms and MTS structural features, the variability of MTS still hampers robust sub-cellular software predictions. Here, we took advantage of two paralogous late embryogenesis abundant proteins (LEA from Arabidopsis with different subcellular locations to investigate structural determinants of mitochondrial import and gain insight into the evolution of the LEA genes. LEA38 and LEA2 are short proteins of the LEA_3 family, which are very similar along their whole sequence, but LEA38 is targeted to mitochondria while LEA2 is cytosolic. Differences in the N-terminal protein sequences were used to generate a series of mutated LEA2 which were expressed as GFP-fusion proteins in leaf protoplasts. By combining three types of mutation (substitution, charge inversion, and segment replacement, we were able to redirect the mutated LEA2 to mitochondria. Analysis of the effect of the mutations and determination of the LEA38 MTS cleavage site highlighted important structural features within and beyond the MTS. Overall, these results provide an explanation for the likely loss of mitochondrial location after duplication of the ancestral gene.

An advanced traveler navigation system adapted to route choice preferences of the individual users

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Mahyar Amirgholy

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The majority of existing navigation systems only account for a single aspect of the route choice, like travel time or distance, in finding the optimal route for the trips in the network. In this research, we first identify a range of diverse factors that travelers take into account in their route choice decision in the network. A stated preference survey is conducted to show the heterogeneity in the preferences of users and its dependence to the purpose of the trips over the weekdays and weekends. Interestingly, results of the survey show that road safety is the most influential factor in the route choice decision of the average participants over weekends, exceeding even the travel time, and participants give more importance to the scenic quality of the routes for their weekend trips in comparison to their weekday trips. The results of the second part of the survey also indicate that in 27% of the cases participants choose routes other than the ones suggested by navigation systems, and 33% of the times that they take the suggested routes, they modify these routes according to their own preferences. The partial inability of existing navigation systems to suggest the routes that match the preferences of users can be attributed to ignoring (1 the diversity in influential factors and (2 the heterogeneity in preferences of the users by these systems. We propose a dynamic mixed logit route choice model to include the effects of information and learning to estimate parameters of a multivariable utility function for individual users based on their own historical route choice data over time. Finally, we present the concept of a smart navigation system that can gather the required information from real-time and online sources to suggest the routes that best match the users’ own preferences.

Motives underlying food choice: dentists, porters and dietary health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Crossley, M L; Khan, S N

2001-08-25

Differences in dental decay and disease amongst socioeconomic groups are thought to derive, in part, from variations in dietary practices and differences in education. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine whether differences in motivating factors affecting food choice could be found in a comparison of two groups at very different ends of the social spectrum: dentists and porters/cleaners. A convenience sample of 100 people (51 porters/cleaners and 49 dentists) working in the dental school at a university in the North West of England were approached to interview face-to-face and complete the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ), a previously validated measure designed to assess nine main factors relevant to peoples' food choices. A sample size of 100 was chosen because it was adequate to test validity (using a two-group Chi-square test with a 0.050 two sided significance). Findings were analysed using independent sample t-test and multiple linear regression. Results indicated significant differences between porters/cleaners and dentists in terms of their motives for food choice on six of the nine FCQ factors. These included convenience (p motivational factors affecting food choice between different social groups is important to dental practitioners who are being taught to play an increasing role in health promotion. If dental practitioners are to partake meaningfully in such a role, it is necessary for them to be aware not only of their own motives in food selection, but also of the way in which those motives may differ from those of their clients.

Cuttlefish dynamic camouflage: responses to substrate choice and integration of multiple visual cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Justine J; Mäthger, Lydia M; Barbosa, Alexandra; Buresch, Kendra C; Sogin, Emilia; Schwartz, Jillian; Chubb, Charles; Hanlon, Roger T

2010-04-07

Prey camouflage is an evolutionary response to predation pressure. Cephalopods have extensive camouflage capabilities and studying them can offer insight into effective camouflage design. Here, we examine whether cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, show substrate or camouflage pattern preferences. In the first two experiments, cuttlefish were presented with a choice between different artificial substrates or between different natural substrates. First, the ability of cuttlefish to show substrate preference on artificial and natural substrates was established. Next, cuttlefish were offered substrates known to evoke three main camouflage body pattern types these animals show: Uniform or Mottle (function by background matching); or Disruptive. In a third experiment, cuttlefish were presented with conflicting visual cues on their left and right sides to assess their camouflage response. Given a choice between substrates they might encounter in nature, we found no strong substrate preference except when cuttlefish could bury themselves. Additionally, cuttlefish responded to conflicting visual cues with mixed body patterns in both the substrate preference and split substrate experiments. These results suggest that differences in energy costs for different camouflage body patterns may be minor and that pattern mixing and symmetry may play important roles in camouflage.

The Instrument Implementation of Two-tier Multiple Choice to Analyze Students’ Science Process Skill Profile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sukarmin Sukarmin

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This research is aimed to analyze the profile of students’ science process skill (SPS by using instrument two-tier multiple choice. This is a descriptive research that describes the profile of students’ SPS. Subjects of the research were 10th-grade students from high, medium and low categorized school. Instrument two-tier multiple choice consists of 30 question that contains an indicator of SPS. The indicator of SPS namely formulating a hypothesis, designing experiment, analyzing data, applying the concept, communicating, making a conclusion. Based on the result of the research and analysis, it shows that: 1 the average of indicator achievement of science process skill at high categorized school on formulating hypothesis is 74,55%, designing experiment is 74,89%, analyzing data is 67,89%, applying concept is 52,89%, communicating is 80,22%, making conclusion is 76%, 2. the average of indicator achievement of science process skill at medium categorized school on formulating hypothesis is 53,47%, designing experiment is 59,86%, analyzing data is 42,22%, applying concept is 33,19%, communicating is 76,25%, making conclusion is 61,53%, 3 the average of indicator achievement of science process skill at low categorized school on formulating hypothesis is 51%, designing experiment is 55,17%, analyzing data is 39,17%, applying concept is 35,83%, communicating is 58,83%, making conclusion is 58%.

Geomorphological inventory of rock landforms on Mt. Kamenec in the Novohradské hory Mts. (the Czech Republic)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Rypl, J.; Kirchner, Karel; Dvořáčková, S.

2014-01-01

Roč. 9, č. 3 (2014), s. 253-260 ISSN 1842-4090 Institutional support: RVO:68145535 Keywords : Novohradské hory Mts. * large protection * Mt. Kamenec * GPS mapping * geomorphological inventory Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography Impact factor: 0.630, year: 2014 http://www.ubm.ro/sites/CJEES/viewTopic.php?topicId=464

Do Choice Experiments Generate Reliable Willingness to Pay Estimates Theory and Experimental Evidence

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

the sample if they regard the price vector as high relative to the utility of non-status quo choices. Thus, the mathematics of combinatorial choice...option with the same attributes appearing in a choice set at a higher price , or an option with the same price but worse attributes appearing in the...25 of subjects making binary choices between alternative snack foods is consistent with an optimizing model of choice with error. Such choice errors

Development of Exact Matrix-Matching Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy for the Analysis of Cu and K in Infant Formula

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Ye-Ji; Yim, Yong-Hyeon [University of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Heo, Sung Woo; Han, Myung-Sub; Lim, Youngran [Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-08-15

In the present study, we have developed an exact matrix-matching inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) as a low-cost alternative to the isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method for accurate and precise measurements of nutrient elements K and Cu in infant formula. In spite of its high precision and accuracy, ICP-OES analysis of complex samples was not reliable due to biases originating from various matrix effects. The elaborated exact matrix-matching approach tested here demonstrated its potential to minimize biases due to matrix mismatch. The exact matrix-matching ICP-OES method was successfully validated by comparing the results with those from an isotope dilution ICP-M S method. Because the model provides reliable results without significant loss of precision, it will be an excellent choice for major element analysis in a complex sample, especially when isotope dilution is not applicable due to the l ck of alternative isotopes or the high cost of enriched isotopes.

The Relationship Between Personality Types and Career Choice of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study was carried out to investigate the Relationship between Personality Types and Career Choice of Secondary School Students in Nigeria. The researchers formulated one research question and one hypothesis to guide the study. The researchers employed two sampling techniques, cluster and random sampling ...

Generalized relational matching by guinea baboons (Papio papio) in two-by-two-item analogy problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Fagot, Joël; Thompson, Roger K R

2011-10-01

Analogical reasoning is considered the hallmark of human reasoning, but some studies have demonstrated that language- and symbol-trained chimpanzees can also reason analogically. Despite the potential adaptive value of this ability, evidence from other studies strongly suggests that other nonhuman primates do not have this capacity for analogical reasoning. In our three experiments, 6 of 29 baboons acquired the ability to perform a relational matching-to-sample (RMTS) task in which pairs of shapes composed relational displays. Five of these 6 monkeys then transferred this ability to RMTS tasks using novel exemplars of identity (elements in a pair are the same) and nonidentity (elements in a pair are different) relations. This transfer occurred even on trials in which the incorrect pair shared an element with the sample pair with which it was being compared. The baboons retained this ability 12 months later. The findings from our study of symbol-naive monkeys indicate that although language and symbol training facilitate conceptual thinking in nonhuman primates, such training is not a prerequisite for analogical reasoning.

An accurate algorithm to match imperfectly matched images for lung tumor detection without markers.

Science.gov (United States)

Rozario, Timothy; Bereg, Sergey; Yan, Yulong; Chiu, Tsuicheng; Liu, Honghuan; Kearney, Vasant; Jiang, Lan; Mao, Weihua

2015-05-08

In order to locate lung tumors on kV projection images without internal markers, digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) are created and compared with projection images. However, lung tumors always move due to respiration and their locations change on projection images while they are static on DRRs. In addition, global image intensity discrepancies exist between DRRs and projections due to their different image orientations, scattering, and noises. This adversely affects comparison accuracy. A simple but efficient comparison algorithm is reported to match imperfectly matched projection images and DRRs. The kV projection images were matched with different DRRs in two steps. Preprocessing was performed in advance to generate two sets of DRRs. The tumors were removed from the planning 3D CT for a single phase of planning 4D CT images using planning contours of tumors. DRRs of background and DRRs of tumors were generated separately for every projection angle. The first step was to match projection images with DRRs of background signals. This method divided global images into a matrix of small tiles and similarities were evaluated by calculating normalized cross-correlation (NCC) between corresponding tiles on projections and DRRs. The tile configuration (tile locations) was automatically optimized to keep the tumor within a single projection tile that had a bad matching with the corresponding DRR tile. A pixel-based linear transformation was determined by linear interpolations of tile transformation results obtained during tile matching. The background DRRs were transformed to the projection image level and subtracted from it. The resulting subtracted image now contained only the tumor. The second step was to register DRRs of tumors to the subtracted image to locate the tumor. This method was successfully applied to kV fluoro images (about 1000 images) acquired on a Vero (BrainLAB) for dynamic tumor tracking on phantom studies. Radiation opaque markers were

Consumer Brand Choice: Money Allocation as a Function of Brand Reinforcing Attributes

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira-Castro, Jorge M.; Foxall, Gordon R.; Wells, Victoria K.

2010-01-01

Previous applications of the matching law to the analysis of consumer brand choice have shown that the amount of money spent purchasing a favorite brand tends to match the quantity bought of the favorite brand divided by the quantity bought of all other brands. Although these results suggest matching between spending and purchased quantity,…

Effects of age and spa treatment on match running performance over two consecutive games in highly trained young soccer players.

Science.gov (United States)

Buchheit, Martin; Horobeanu, Cosmin; Mendez-Villanueva, Alberto; Simpson, Ben M; Bourdon, Pitre C

2011-03-01

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of age and spa treatment (i.e. combined sauna, cold water immersion, and jacuzzi) on match running performance over two consecutive matches in highly trained young soccer players. Fifteen pre- (age 12.8 ± 0.6 years) and 13 post- (15.9 ± 1 y) peak height velocity (PHV) players played two matches (Matches 1 and 2) within 48 h against the same opposition, with no specific between-match recovery intervention (control). Five post-PHV players also completed another set of two consecutive matches, with spa treatment implemented after the first match. Match running performance was assessed using a global positioning system with very-high-intensity running (> 16.1-19.0 km · h(-1)), sprinting distance (>19 km · h(-1)), and peak match speed determined. Match 2 very-high-intensity running was "possibly" impaired in post-PHV players (-9 ± 33%; ± 90% confidence limits), whereas it was "very likely" improved for the pre-PHV players (+27 ± 22%). The spa treatment had a beneficial impact on Match 2 running performance, with a "likely" rating for sprinting distance (+30 ± 67%) and "almost certain" for peak match speed (+6.4 ± 3%). The results suggest that spa treatment is an effective recovery intervention for post-PHV players, while its value in pre-PHV players is questionable.

Toxicity evaluation of ZnO nanostructures on L929 fibroblast cell line using MTS assay

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bakhori, Siti Khadijah Mohd; Mahmud, Shahrom; Ann, Ling Chuo [Nano-optoelectronics Research and Technology Laboratory (NOR.), School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, USM, Pulau Pinang (Malaysia); Mohamed, Azman Seeni; Saifuddin, Siti Nazmin [Integrative Medicine Cluster, Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Bandar Putra Bertam, 13200 Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang (Malaysia); Masudi, Sam’an Malik; Mohamad, Dasmawati [Craniofacial Science Laboratory, School of Dentistry, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan (Malaysia)

2015-04-24

ZnO has wide applications in medical and dentistry apart from being used as optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, photodetectors, sensors and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Therefore, the toxicity evaluation is important to know the toxicity level on normal cell line. The toxicity of two grades ZnO nanostructures, ZnO-4 and ZnO-8 have been carried out using cytotoxicity test of MTS assay on L929 rat fibroblast cell line. Prior to that, ZnO-4 and ZnO-8 were characterized for its morphology, structure and optical properties using FESEM, X-ray diffraction, and Photoluminescence respectively. The two groups revealed difference in morphology and exhibit slightly shifted of near band edge emission of Photoluminescence other than having a similar calculated crystallite size of nanostructures. The viability of cells after 72h were obtained and the statistical significance value was calculated using SPSS v20. The p value is more than 0.05 between untreated and treated cell with ZnO. This insignificant value of p>0.05 can be summarized as a non-toxic level of ZnO-4 and ZnO-8 on the L929 cell line.

Toxicity evaluation of ZnO nanostructures on L929 fibroblast cell line using MTS assay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bakhori, Siti Khadijah Mohd; Mahmud, Shahrom; Ann, Ling Chuo; Mohamed, Azman Seeni; Saifuddin, Siti Nazmin; Masudi, Sam’an Malik; Mohamad, Dasmawati

2015-01-01

ZnO has wide applications in medical and dentistry apart from being used as optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, photodetectors, sensors and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Therefore, the toxicity evaluation is important to know the toxicity level on normal cell line. The toxicity of two grades ZnO nanostructures, ZnO-4 and ZnO-8 have been carried out using cytotoxicity test of MTS assay on L929 rat fibroblast cell line. Prior to that, ZnO-4 and ZnO-8 were characterized for its morphology, structure and optical properties using FESEM, X-ray diffraction, and Photoluminescence respectively. The two groups revealed difference in morphology and exhibit slightly shifted of near band edge emission of Photoluminescence other than having a similar calculated crystallite size of nanostructures. The viability of cells after 72h were obtained and the statistical significance value was calculated using SPSS v20. The p value is more than 0.05 between untreated and treated cell with ZnO. This insignificant value of p>0.05 can be summarized as a non-toxic level of ZnO-4 and ZnO-8 on the L929 cell line

Kappa statistic for clustered matched-pair data.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Zhao; Zhou, Ming

2014-07-10

Kappa statistic is widely used to assess the agreement between two procedures in the independent matched-pair data. For matched-pair data collected in clusters, on the basis of the delta method and sampling techniques, we propose a nonparametric variance estimator for the kappa statistic without within-cluster correlation structure or distributional assumptions. The results of an extensive Monte Carlo simulation study demonstrate that the proposed kappa statistic provides consistent estimation and the proposed variance estimator behaves reasonably well for at least a moderately large number of clusters (e.g., K ≥50). Compared with the variance estimator ignoring dependence within a cluster, the proposed variance estimator performs better in maintaining the nominal coverage probability when the intra-cluster correlation is fair (ρ ≥0.3), with more pronounced improvement when ρ is further increased. To illustrate the practical application of the proposed estimator, we analyze two real data examples of clustered matched-pair data. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Task-specific modulation of human auditory evoked responses in a delayed-match-to-sample task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng eRong

2011-05-01

Full Text Available In this study, we focus our investigation on task-specific cognitive modulation of early cortical auditory processing in human cerebral cortex. During the experiments, we acquired whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG data while participants were performing an auditory delayed-match-to-sample (DMS task and associated control tasks. Using a spatial filtering beamformer technique to simultaneously estimate multiple source activities inside the human brain, we observed a significant DMS-specific suppression of the auditory evoked response to the second stimulus in a sound pair, with the center of the effect being located in the vicinity of the left auditory cortex. For the right auditory cortex, a non-invariant suppression effect was observed in both DMS and control tasks. Furthermore, analysis of coherence revealed a beta band (12 ~ 20 Hz DMS-specific enhanced functional interaction between the sources in left auditory cortex and those in left inferior frontal gyrus, which has been shown to involve in short-term memory processing during the delay period of DMS task. Our findings support the view that early evoked cortical responses to incoming acoustic stimuli can be modulated by task-specific cognitive functions by means of frontal-temporal functional interactions.

Two sampling techniques for game meat

OpenAIRE

van der Merwe, Maretha; Jooste, Piet J.; Hoffman, Louw C.; Calitz, Frikkie J.

2013-01-01

A study was conducted to compare the excision sampling technique used by the export market and the sampling technique preferred by European countries, namely the biotrace cattle and swine test. The measuring unit for the excision sampling was grams (g) and square centimetres (cm2) for the swabbing technique. The two techniques were compared after a pilot test was conducted on spiked approved beef carcasses (n = 12) that statistically proved the two measuring units correlated. The two sampling...

The Interaction Between Schema Matching and Record Matching in Data Integration

KAUST Repository

Gu, Binbin; Li, Zhixu; Zhang, Xiangliang; Liu, An; Liu, Guanfeng; Zheng, Kai; Zhao, Lei; Zhou, Xiaofang

2016-01-01

Schema Matching (SM) and Record Matching (RM) are two necessary steps in integrating multiple relational tables of different schemas, where SM unifies the schemas and RM detects records referring to the same real-world entity. The two processes have

Preliminary Study on Keratinase from Two Indonesian Isolates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S Rahayu

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Keratinases (E.C.3.4.99.11 constitute a group of enzymes capable of disrupting the highly stable keratin structure consisting of disulphide, hydrogen, and hydrophobic bonds in the form of α-helices and β-sheets B. licheniformis MB-2 and Bacillus sp. MTS are two feather-degrading bacteria isolated from Tompaso crater at North Sulawesi and sulfuric land around Tangkuban Perahu in West Java. They were both capable of breaking down whole chicken feathers. In addition both isolates were capable of degrading other proteinous substrates rich in beta structure such as coccon, silk, human hair and fish scales. Result of fermentation experiment implied that addition of nitrogen sources (0.02% yeast extract and 0.02% tryptone to the basal medium increased keratinase production. Our experiments showed that keratinase production of Bacillus sp. MTS was higher and faster than that from B. licheniformis MB-2. Maximum extracellular keratinase activity of the enzyme derived from B. licheniformis was obtained during stationary phase at 72 h, while Bacillus sp. MTS was reached at 48 h. Disulfide reductase activity also detected in the extracellular fluid of Bacillus sp. MTS. The maximum condition for extracellular keratinase activity was 55oC and the enzyme showed two maximum pHs : pH 8.0 and pH 10. The zymogram analysis indicated sixth protein bands of 17, 25, 32, 53, 96 and 122 kD which were able to hydrolyze gelatin substrate in-situ. (Animal Production 12(1: 60-68 (2010Key Words : Bacillus, feather, keratinase, disulfide reductase

Analysis of relation between geomorphologic processes and alpine vegetation in the high mountain landscape (Tatry Mts.)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boltiziar, M.

2003-01-01

The aim was to present some information about starting of high mountains ecological monitoring and its first partial results. The research is focused on a long-term observation of vegetation changes (species composition, species spatial distribution) in relation to geomorphic processes and geo-relief attributes at meso- and micro-scale of landscape. We established in 2002 for this purpose six permanent plots (4 x 4 m) in the selected localities of High and Belianske Tatras Mts. (Author)

Simple artificial neural networks that match probability and exploit and explore when confronting a multiarmed bandit.

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Michael R W; Dupuis, Brian; Spetch, Marcia L; Kelly, Debbie M

2009-08-01

The matching law (Herrnstein 1961) states that response rates become proportional to reinforcement rates; this is related to the empirical phenomenon called probability matching (Vulkan 2000). Here, we show that a simple artificial neural network generates responses consistent with probability matching. This behavior was then used to create an operant procedure for network learning. We use the multiarmed bandit (Gittins 1989), a classic problem of choice behavior, to illustrate that operant training balances exploiting the bandit arm expected to pay off most frequently with exploring other arms. Perceptrons provide a medium for relating results from neural networks, genetic algorithms, animal learning, contingency theory, reinforcement learning, and theories of choice.

Impact of the heavy quark matching scales in PDF fits

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bertone, V. [VU Univ., Amsterdam (Netherlands). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Nikhef Theory Goup, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Britzger, D. [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Camarda, S. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Collaboration: The xFitter Developers' Team; and others

2017-07-15

We investigate the impact of displaced heavy quark matching scales in a global fit. The heavy quark matching scale μ{sub m} determines at which energy scale μ the QCD theory transitions from N{sub F} to N{sub F}+1 in the Variable Flavor Number Scheme (VFNS) for the evolution of the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) and strong coupling α{sub S}(μ). We study the variation of the matching scales, and their impact on a global PDF fit of the combined HERA data. As the choice of the matching scale μ{sub m} effectively is a choice of scheme, this represents a theoretical uncertainty; ideally, we would like to see minimal dependence on this parameter. For the transition across the charm quark (from N{sub F}=3 to 4), we find a large μ{sub m}=μ{sub c} dependence of the global fit χ{sup 2} at NLO, but this is significantly reduced at NNLO. For the transition across the bottom quark (from N{sub F}=4 to 5), we have a reduced μ{sub m}=μ{sub b} dependence of the χ{sup 2} at both NLO and NNLO as compared to the charm. This feature is now implemented in xFitter 2.0.0, an open source QCD fit framework.

Options for refractive index and viscosity matching to study variable density flows

Science.gov (United States)

Clément, Simon A.; Guillemain, Anaïs; McCleney, Amy B.; Bardet, Philippe M.

2018-02-01

Variable density flows are often studied by mixing two miscible aqueous solutions of different densities. To perform optical diagnostics in such environments, the refractive index of the fluids must be matched, which can be achieved by carefully choosing the two solutes and the concentration of the solutions. To separate the effects of buoyancy forces and viscosity variations, it is desirable to match the viscosity of the two solutions in addition to their refractive index. In this manuscript, several pairs of index matched fluids are compared in terms of viscosity matching, monetary cost, and practical use. Two fluid pairs are studied in detail, with two aqueous solutions (binary solutions of water and a salt or alcohol) mixed into a ternary solution. In each case: an aqueous solution of isopropanol mixed with an aqueous solution of sodium chloride (NaCl) and an aqueous solution of glycerol mixed with an aqueous solution of sodium sulfate (Na_2SO_4). The first fluid pair allows reaching high-density differences at low cost, but brings a large difference in dynamic viscosity. The second allows matching dynamic viscosity and refractive index simultaneously, at reasonable cost. For each of these four solutes, the density, kinematic viscosity, and refractive index are measured versus concentration and temperature, as well as wavelength for the refractive index. To investigate non-linear effects when two index-matched, binary solutions are mixed, the ternary solutions formed are also analyzed. Results show that density and refractive index follow a linear variation with concentration. However, the viscosity of the isopropanol and NaCl pair deviates from the linear law and has to be considered. Empirical correlations and their coefficients are given to create index-matched fluids at a chosen temperature and wavelength. Finally, the effectiveness of the refractive index matching is illustrated with particle image velocimetry measurements performed for a buoyant jet in a

Risky Choice with Heuristics: Reply to Birnbaum (2008), Johnson, Schulte-Mecklenbeck, and Willemsen (2008), and Rieger and Wang (2008)

Science.gov (United States)

Brandstatter, Eduard; Gigerenzer, Gerd; Hertwig, Ralph

2008-01-01

E. Brandstatter, G. Gigerenzer, and R. Hertwig (2006) showed that the priority heuristic matches or outperforms modifications of expected utility theory in predicting choice in 4 diverse problem sets. M. H. Birnbaum (2008) argued that sets exist in which the opposite is true. The authors agree--but stress that all choice strategies have regions of…

The hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions of precipitation in a forested watershed of the South Qinling Mts., China.

Science.gov (United States)

Bu, Hongmei; Song, Xianfang; Xia, Jun

2018-03-01

The stable isotopic compositions (δD and δ 18 O) of precipitation were firstly investigated from May 2012 to November 2013 in the Jinshui River basin of the South Qinling Mts., China. The local meteoric water lines (LMWLs) based on all daily and monthly precipitation-weighted data were defined as δD = 8.32 δ 18 O + 12.57 (r 2  = 0.957, n = 47, p precipitation-weighted values of d-excess confirmed the moisture sources and determined the temporal variations in moisture supply for the river basin. The precipitation amount and temperature effects were found to be significant, with amount gradient of - 0.06‰/mm for daily δ 18 O variability and temperature gradients of - 1.51 and - 0.44‰/°C for daily δD and d-excess variability, respectively. However, the isotopes of local precipitation during precipitation events were almost unaffected by relative humidity due to overwhelming recycled moisture at relative humidity > 85%. The results of this research provide an effective method for tracing the local water hydrologic cycle in the South Qinling Mts., China.

The Possibilities of Reducing Food Choice to Improve the Performance of College Foodservices.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirosa, Miranda; Loh, Joanne; Spence, Heather

2016-07-01

College administrative and management leaders, foodservice personnel, and student residents value social, nutritional, financial, and environmental sustainability in their dining expectations. Menu choice reduction looks promising as a strategy to achieve these goals. However, foodservice research about dominant attitudes across these stakeholders is limited. To identify qualitative views from all stakeholders about choice reduction to ensure that any changes to the meal service are not to the detriment of consumer satisfaction. A comprehensive list of 74 statements representing the spectrum of attitudes surrounding choice was generated by searching a variety of resources, including academic literature and Internet sites, and by conducting semistructured interviews with stakeholders. A final set of 42 statements resulted from researcher scrutiny for optimum balance, clarity, appropriateness, simplicity, and applicability. A new sample of participants was then asked to sort these 42 statements into a normal distribution grid from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree." A purposive convenience sample of stakeholders (staff n=5 and residents n=4) was used to identify statements about choice reduction. A second sample of stakeholders (staff n=6 and residents n=29) were recruited to sort the final 42 statements. Q methodology analysis techniques were used. This involved conducting a by-person factor analysis, using the centroid factor extraction method because of the permissiveness it allows for data exploration. A varimax factor rotation to enhance interpretability of the results identified shared viewpoints. Three dominant viewpoints toward the possibility of choice reduction in the meal service were identified. Factor 1 was "health driven" (in which healthiness was paramount). Factor 2 was "variety seekers" (in which choice had instrumental value). Factor 3 was "choice lovers" (in which choice had intrinsic value). Although participants could see a number of

Analysis of rainfall preceding debris flows on the Smědavská hora Mt., Jizerské hory Mts., Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Smolíková, J.; Blahůt, Jan; Vilímek, V.

2016-01-01

Roč. 13, č. 4 (2016), s. 683-696 ISSN 1612-510X Institutional support: RVO:67985891 Keywords : debris flow * rainfall pattern * rainfall thresholds * Jizerské hory Mts. * Czech Republic Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography Impact factor: 3.657, year: 2016

The selection of a mode of urban transportation: Integrating psychological variables to discrete choice models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cordoba Maquilon, Jorge E; Gonzalez Calderon, Carlos A; Posada Henao, John J

2011-01-01

A study using revealed preference surveys and psychological tests was conducted. Key psychological variables of behavior involved in the choice of transportation mode in a population sample of the Metropolitan Area of the Valle de Aburra were detected. The experiment used the random utility theory for discrete choice models and reasoned action in order to assess beliefs. This was used as a tool for analysis of the psychological variables using the sixteen personality factor questionnaire (16PF test). In addition to the revealed preference surveys, two other surveys were carried out: one with socio-economic characteristics and the other with latent indicators. This methodology allows for an integration of discrete choice models and latent variables. The integration makes the model operational and quantifies the unobservable psychological variables. The most relevant result obtained was that anxiety affects the choice of urban transportation mode and shows that physiological alterations, as well as problems in perception and beliefs, can affect the decision-making process.

Choice from non-choice: predicting consumer preferences from blood oxygenation level-dependent signals obtained during passive viewing.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Ifat; Lazzaro, Stephanie C; Rutledge, Robb B; Glimcher, Paul W

2011-01-05

Decision-making is often viewed as a two-stage process, where subjective values are first assigned to each option and then the option of the highest value is selected. Converging evidence suggests that these subjective values are represented in the striatum and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). A separate line of evidence suggests that activation in the same areas represents the values of rewards even when choice is not required, as in classical conditioning tasks. However, it is unclear whether the same neural mechanism is engaged in both cases. To address this question we measured brain activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging while human subjects passively viewed individual consumer goods. We then sampled activation from predefined regions of interest and used it to predict subsequent choices between the same items made outside of the scanner. Our results show that activation in the striatum and MPFC in the absence of choice predicts subsequent choices, suggesting that these brain areas represent value in a similar manner whether or not choice is required.

Physical characteristics of elite adolescent female basketball players and their relationship to match performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fort-Vanmeerhaeghe Azahara

2016-12-01

Full Text Available There were two aims of this study: first, to investigate physical fitness and match performance differences between under-16 (U16 and under-18 (U18 female basketball players, and second, to evaluate the relationship between physical fitness and game-related performances. Twenty-three young, female, elite Spanish basketball players (16.2 1.2 years participated in the study. The sample was divided into two groups: U16 and U18 players. The average scores from pre- and post-season physical fitness measurements were used for subsequent analyses. Anthropometric variables were also measured. To evaluate game performance, game-related statistics, including the number of games and minutes played, points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game, were recorded for every competitive match in one season. When anthropometric and physical performance variables were compared between groups, the U18 group demonstrated significantly (p<0.05 higher values in upper (+21.2% and lower (+27.11% limb strength compared to the U16 group. Furthermore, no significant differences between groups were observed in match performance outcomes. Only two performance variables, steals and assists per game, correlated significantly with jump capacity, speed, agility, anaerobic power, repeated sprint ability and aerobic power (p ≤ 0.005. These findings can help optimize training programs for young, elite female basketball players.

Informed Choice in Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing for Alzheimer and Other Diseases: Lessons from Two Cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Messner, Donna A

2011-01-01

Health-related direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing has been a controversial practice. Especially problematic is predictive testing for Alzheimer disease (AD), since the disease is incurable, prevention is inconclusive, and testing does not definitively predict an individual's future disease status. In this paper, I examine two contrasting cases of subjects who learn through genetic testing that they have an elevated risk of developing AD later in life. In these cases, the subject's emotional response to the result is related to how well prepared she was for the real-life personal implications of possible test results. Analysis leads to the conclusion that when groups of health-related genetic tests are offered as packages by DTC companies, informed consumer choice is rendered impossible. Moreover, I argue, this marketing approach contravenes U.S. Federal Trade Commission policies for non-deceptive commercial communications. I conclude by suggesting ways to improve the prospects for informed consumer choice in DTC testing.

Hardware architecture for projective model calculation and false match refining using random sample consensus algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Azimi, Ehsan; Behrad, Alireza; Ghaznavi-Ghoushchi, Mohammad Bagher; Shanbehzadeh, Jamshid

2016-11-01

The projective model is an important mapping function for the calculation of global transformation between two images. However, its hardware implementation is challenging because of a large number of coefficients with different required precisions for fixed point representation. A VLSI hardware architecture is proposed for the calculation of a global projective model between input and reference images and refining false matches using random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm. To make the hardware implementation feasible, it is proved that the calculation of the projective model can be divided into four submodels comprising two translations, an affine model and a simpler projective mapping. This approach makes the hardware implementation feasible and considerably reduces the required number of bits for fixed point representation of model coefficients and intermediate variables. The proposed hardware architecture for the calculation of a global projective model using the RANSAC algorithm was implemented using Verilog hardware description language and the functionality of the design was validated through several experiments. The proposed architecture was synthesized by using an application-specific integrated circuit digital design flow utilizing 180-nm CMOS technology as well as a Virtex-6 field programmable gate array. Experimental results confirm the efficiency of the proposed hardware architecture in comparison with software implementation.

Evaluating color deficiency simulation and daltonization methods through visual search and sample-to-match: SaMSEM and ViSDEM

Science.gov (United States)

Simon-Liedtke, Joschua T.; Farup, Ivar; Laeng, Bruno

2015-01-01

Color deficient people might be confronted with minor difficulties when navigating through daily life, for example when reading websites or media, navigating with maps, retrieving information from public transport schedules and others. Color deficiency simulation and daltonization methods have been proposed to better understand problems of color deficient individuals and to improve color displays for their use. However, it remains unclear whether these color prosthetic" methods really work and how well they improve the performance of color deficient individuals. We introduce here two methods to evaluate color deficiency simulation and daltonization methods based on behavioral experiments that are widely used in the field of psychology. Firstly, we propose a Sample-to-Match Simulation Evaluation Method (SaMSEM); secondly, we propose a Visual Search Daltonization Evaluation Method (ViSDEM). Both methods can be used to validate and allow the generalization of the simulation and daltonization methods related to color deficiency. We showed that both the response times (RT) and the accuracy of SaMSEM can be used as an indicator of the success of color deficiency simulation methods and that performance in the ViSDEM can be used as an indicator for the efficacy of color deficiency daltonization methods. In future work, we will include comparison and analysis of different color deficiency simulation and daltonization methods with the help of SaMSEM and ViSDEM.

A comparison of two methods to assess audience-induced changes in male mate choice

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Madlen ZIEGE; Carmen HENNIGE-SCHULZ; Frauke MUECKSCH; David BIERBACH; Ralph TIEDEMANN; Bruno STREIT; Martin PLATH

2012-01-01

Multidirectional communicative interactions in social networks can have a profound effect on mate choice behavior.Male Atlantic molly Poecilia mexicana exhibit weaker mating preferences when an audience male is presented.This could be a male strategy to reduce sperm competition risk:interacting more equally with different females may be advantageous because rivals might copy mate choice decisions.In line with this hypothesis,a previous study found males to show a strong audience effect when being observed while exercising mate choice,but not when the rival was presented only before the choice tests.Audience effects on mate choice decisions have been quantified in poeciliid fishes using association preference designs,but it remains unknown if patterns found from measuring association times translate into actual mating behavior.Thus,we createl five audience treatments simulating different forms of perceived sperm competition risk and determined focal males' mating preferences by scoring pre-mating (nipping) and mating behavior (gonopodial thrusting).Nipping did not reflect the pattern that was found when association preferences were measured,while a very similar pattern was uncovered in thrusting behavior.The strongest response was observed when the audience could eavesdrop on the focal male's behavior.A reduction in the strength of focal males' preferences was also seen after the rival male had an opportunity to mate with the focal male's preferred mate.In comparison,the reduction of mating preferences in response to an audience was greater when measuring association times than actual mating behavior.While measuring direct sexual interactions between the focal male and both stimulus females not only the male's motivational state is reflected but also females' behavior such as avoidance of male sexual harassment [Current Zoology 58 (1):84-94,2012].

A comparison of two methods to assess audience-induced changes in male mate choice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Madlen ZIEGE, Carmen HENNIGE-SCHULZ, Frauke MUECKSCH,David BIERBACH, Ralph TIEDEMANN, Bruno STREIT, Martin PLATH

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Multidirectional communicative interactions in social networks can have a profound effect on mate choice behavior. Male Atlantic molly Poecilia mexicana exhibit weaker mating preferences when an audience male is presented. This could be a male strategy to reduce sperm competition risk: interacting more equally with different females may be advantageous because rivals might copy mate choice decisions. In line with this hypothesis, a previous study found males to show a strong audience effect when being observed while exercising mate choice, but not when the rival was presented only before the choice tests. Audience effects on mate choice decisions have been quantified in poeciliid fishes using association preference designs, but it remains unknown if patterns found from measuring association times translate into actual mating behavior. Thus, we created five audience treatments simulating different forms of perceived sperm competition risk and determined focal males’ mating preferences by scoring pre-mating (nipping and mating behavior (gonopodial thrusting. Nipping did not reflect the pattern that was found when association preferences were measured, while a very similar pattern was uncovered in thrusting behavior. The strongest response was observed when the audience could eavesdrop on the focal male’s behavior. A reduction in the strength of focal males’ preferences was also seen after the rival male had an opportunity to mate with the focal male’s preferred mate. In comparison, the reduction of mating preferences in response to an audience was greater when measuring association times than actual mating behavior. While measuring direct sexual interactions between the focal male and both stimulus females not only the male’s motivational state is reflected but also females’ behavior such as avoidance of male sexual harassment [Current Zoology 58 (1: 84–94, 2012].

Visual Working Memory Enhances the Neural Response to Matching Visual Input.

Science.gov (United States)

Gayet, Surya; Guggenmos, Matthias; Christophel, Thomas B; Haynes, John-Dylan; Paffen, Chris L E; Van der Stigchel, Stefan; Sterzer, Philipp

2017-07-12

Visual working memory (VWM) is used to maintain visual information available for subsequent goal-directed behavior. The content of VWM has been shown to affect the behavioral response to concurrent visual input, suggesting that visual representations originating from VWM and from sensory input draw upon a shared neural substrate (i.e., a sensory recruitment stance on VWM storage). Here, we hypothesized that visual information maintained in VWM would enhance the neural response to concurrent visual input that matches the content of VWM. To test this hypothesis, we measured fMRI BOLD responses to task-irrelevant stimuli acquired from 15 human participants (three males) performing a concurrent delayed match-to-sample task. In this task, observers were sequentially presented with two shape stimuli and a retro-cue indicating which of the two shapes should be memorized for subsequent recognition. During the retention interval, a task-irrelevant shape (the probe) was briefly presented in the peripheral visual field, which could either match or mismatch the shape category of the memorized stimulus. We show that this probe stimulus elicited a stronger BOLD response, and allowed for increased shape-classification performance, when it matched rather than mismatched the concurrently memorized content, despite identical visual stimulation. Our results demonstrate that VWM enhances the neural response to concurrent visual input in a content-specific way. This finding is consistent with the view that neural populations involved in sensory processing are recruited for VWM storage, and it provides a common explanation for a plethora of behavioral studies in which VWM-matching visual input elicits a stronger behavioral and perceptual response. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humans heavily rely on visual information to interact with their environment and frequently must memorize such information for later use. Visual working memory allows for maintaining such visual information in the mind

An adaptive clustering algorithm for image matching based on corner feature

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhe; Dong, Min; Mu, Xiaomin; Wang, Song

2018-04-01

The traditional image matching algorithm always can not balance the real-time and accuracy better, to solve the problem, an adaptive clustering algorithm for image matching based on corner feature is proposed in this paper. The method is based on the similarity of the matching pairs of vector pairs, and the adaptive clustering is performed on the matching point pairs. Harris corner detection is carried out first, the feature points of the reference image and the perceived image are extracted, and the feature points of the two images are first matched by Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) function. Then, using the improved algorithm proposed in this paper, the matching results are clustered to reduce the ineffective operation and improve the matching speed and robustness. Finally, the Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm is used to match the matching points after clustering. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively eliminate the most wrong matching points while the correct matching points are retained, and improve the accuracy of RANSAC matching, reduce the computation load of whole matching process at the same time.

Myocardium tracking via matching distributions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ben Ayed, Ismail; Li, Shuo; Ross, Ian; Islam, Ali

2009-01-01

The goal of this study is to investigate automatic myocardium tracking in cardiac Magnetic Resonance (MR) sequences using global distribution matching via level-set curve evolution. Rather than relying on the pixelwise information as in existing approaches, distribution matching compares intensity distributions, and consequently, is well-suited to the myocardium tracking problem. Starting from a manual segmentation of the first frame, two curves are evolved in order to recover the endocardium (inner myocardium boundary) and the epicardium (outer myocardium boundary) in all the frames. For each curve, the evolution equation is sought following the maximization of a functional containing two terms: (1) a distribution matching term measuring the similarity between the non-parametric intensity distributions sampled from inside and outside the curve to the model distributions of the corresponding regions estimated from the previous frame; (2) a gradient term for smoothing the curve and biasing it toward high gradient of intensity. The Bhattacharyya coefficient is used as a similarity measure between distributions. The functional maximization is obtained by the Euler-Lagrange ascent equation of curve evolution, and efficiently implemented via level-set. The performance of the proposed distribution matching was quantitatively evaluated by comparisons with independent manual segmentations approved by an experienced cardiologist. The method was applied to ten 2D mid-cavity MR sequences corresponding to ten different subjects. Although neither shape prior knowledge nor curve coupling were used, quantitative evaluation demonstrated that the results were consistent with manual segmentations. The proposed method compares well with existing methods. The algorithm also yields a satisfying reproducibility. Distribution matching leads to a myocardium tracking which is more flexible and applicable than existing methods because the algorithm uses only the current data, i.e., does not

The 1951 Harvard student uprising against the intern match.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakayama, Don K; Hendren, W Hardy

2017-06-01

In the fall of 1951, a group of Harvard medical students led by W. Hardy Hendren, III organized a national movement against the newly instituted match that would assign graduating seniors to hospital internship programs. Before then, hospitals with intern positions to fill rushed to secure commitments from students, who in turn accepted the first decent offer that came their way. Knowing that students could not risk waiting for a better offer, hospitals pushed them into making early commitments. When some students began getting offers in their junior and sophomore years, medical schools, professional groups, and hospitals organized the National Inter-association Committee on Internships to deal with the issue. The intern match was thus organized and scheduled to take place in 1952. When the plan was announced in mid-October 1951, Hendren recognized that the proposed algorithm placed students at a disadvantage if they did not get their first choice of hospitals. Facing resistance at every step from the National Inter-association Committee on Internships and putting his standing at Harvard Medical School at risk, Hendren led a nationwide movement of medical students to change the procedure to one that favored students' choices. Their success <1 month later established in the inaugural match the fundamental ethic of today's National Resident Matching Program to favor students' preferences at every step of the process. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Physical characteristics of elite adolescent female basketball players and their relationship to match performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Fort-Vanmeerhaeghe, Azahara; Montalvo, Alicia; Latinjak, Alexander; Unnithan, Viswanath

2016-12-01

There were two aims of this study: first, to investigate physical fitness and match performance differences between under-16 (U16) and under-18 (U18) female basketball players, and second, to evaluate the relationship between physical fitness and game-related performances. Twenty-three young, female, elite Spanish basketball players (16.2 1.2 years) participated in the study. The sample was divided into two groups: U16 and U18 players. The average scores from pre- and post-season physical fitness measurements were used for subsequent analyses. Anthropometric variables were also measured. To evaluate game performance, game-related statistics, including the number of games and minutes played, points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game, were recorded for every competitive match in one season. When anthropometric and physical performance variables were compared between groups, the U18 group demonstrated significantly (pagility, anaerobic power, repeated sprint ability and aerobic power (p ≤ 0.005). These findings can help optimize training programs for young, elite female basketball players.

Color memory matching: time effect and other factors

OpenAIRE

Pérez Carpinell, Jaime; Baldoví, Rosa; Fez Saiz, Dolores de; Castro, José

1998-01-01

The methods of simultaneous and successive, or memory, color matching have been compared for 10 color reference samples distributed in two groups each performed by 50 observers (25 men and 25 women). Our results, obtained with a total of 200 Munsell color chips arrayed on 10 gray cardboard panels, indicated that: a)while by simultaneous matching the mean color differences obtained are, in most cases, lower than 1 Cielab unit, those obtained by memory are generally higer; b) the worst remember...

Performance of transmission goals in one and two-touch combined team of Ukraine on football in a friendly match in 2011 and the matches of the European Championship in 2012

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I.M. Chornobay

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study is to determine the performance of the transmission ball in one and two-touch athletes Ukrainian National Team. The material for the study included a video of friendly and official matches of the Ukrainian team at the European Championships in 2012. It is established that the team performed for the match 78 - 63 gears with one touch (replication error - 20.51% - 34.72% and 124 - 107 gears in two touches (replication error - 10.28% - 17.79%. It is noted that the lower estimate corresponds to the transmission rate of less than 100 goals in one touch of the match. Team deserves high marks, performing over 130 such programs ball per game. Ukrainian national team in 2011, served an average of 125 per game gear ball in two touches. More gear ball with one touch in 2012 Ukrainian performed in the game against England - 78 assists. It is noted that the figures obtained passes of ball team of Ukraine are the basis for the preparation of the appropriate correction for the next match.

Fast group matching for MR fingerprinting reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Cauley, Stephen F; Setsompop, Kawin; Ma, Dan; Jiang, Yun; Ye, Huihui; Adalsteinsson, Elfar; Griswold, Mark A; Wald, Lawrence L

2015-08-01

MR fingerprinting (MRF) is a technique for quantitative tissue mapping using pseudorandom measurements. To estimate tissue properties such as T1 , T2 , proton density, and B0 , the rapidly acquired data are compared against a large dictionary of Bloch simulations. This matching process can be a very computationally demanding portion of MRF reconstruction. We introduce a fast group matching algorithm (GRM) that exploits inherent correlation within MRF dictionaries to create highly clustered groupings of the elements. During matching, a group specific signature is first used to remove poor matching possibilities. Group principal component analysis (PCA) is used to evaluate all remaining tissue types. In vivo 3 Tesla brain data were used to validate the accuracy of our approach. For a trueFISP sequence with over 196,000 dictionary elements, 1000 MRF samples, and image matrix of 128 × 128, GRM was able to map MR parameters within 2s using standard vendor computational resources. This is an order of magnitude faster than global PCA and nearly two orders of magnitude faster than direct matching, with comparable accuracy (1-2% relative error). The proposed GRM method is a highly efficient model reduction technique for MRF matching and should enable clinically relevant reconstruction accuracy and time on standard vendor computational resources. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Matching Ge detector element geometry to sample size and shape: One does not fit all exclamation point

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keyser, R.M.; Twomey, T.R.; Sangsingkeow, P.

1998-01-01

For 25 yr, coaxial germanium detector performance has been specified using the methods and values specified in Ref. 1. These specifications are the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), FW.1M, FW.02M, peak-to-Compton ratio, and relative efficiency. All of these measurements are made with a 60 Co source 25 cm from the cryostat endcap and centered on the axis of the detector. These measurements are easy to reproduce, both because they are simple to set up and use a common source. These standard tests have been useful in guiding the user to an appropriate detector choice for the intended measurement. Most users of germanium gamma-ray detectors do not make measurements in this simple geometry. Germanium detector manufacturers have worked over the years to make detectors with better resolution, better peak-to-Compton ratios, and higher efficiency--but all based on measurements using the IEEE standard. Advances in germanium crystal growth techniques have made it relatively easy to provide detector elements of different shapes and sizes. Many of these different shapes and sizes can give better results for a specific application than other shapes and sizes. But, the detector specifications must be changed to correspond to the actual application. Both the expected values and the actual parameters to be specified should be changed. In many cases, detection efficiency, peak shape, and minimum detectable limit for a particular detector/sample combination are valuable specifications of detector performance. For other situations, other parameters are important, such as peak shape as a function of count rate. In this work, different sample geometries were considered. The results show the variation in efficiency with energy for all of these sample and detector geometries. The point source at 25 cm from the endcap measurement allows the results to be compared with the currently given IEEE criteria. The best sample/detector configuration for a specific measurement requires more and

The Effect of Leadership Style and Organizational Culture Toward Teacher Motivation of MTs Arrohman Jombang in Academic of 2016/2017

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khudriyah Khudriyah

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Leadership style and organizational culture in an organization has big effect toward the growth of employee motivation to work. In education as well as, the school leadership style and  organizational culture have influence of teachers’ motivation in conducting their tasks. The study is aimed to describe how far the school leadership style and  organizational culture influence teachers’ motivation to work at MTs Arrohman Jombang. This study is quantitative and questionnaire as the instrument. The result shows that the leadership style and organizational culture partially or simultaneously influence significantly on the teachers’ motivation in MTs Arrohman Jombang in academic year of 2015/2016 proved by t-test results t test > t table (3,358 > 2,023 with a significant level of t < 5% (0,002 < 0,05 and Ftest of 79,228 and a significance level of F < 5% (0.000 <0,05. Whereas, the influence of variables of leadership style and organizational culture on the teachers’ motivation was 80,2% and the rest of 19,8% is influenced by other factors

Information, switching costs, and consumer choice:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anell, Anders; Dietrichson, Jens; Maria Ellegård, Lina

Consumers of services that are financed by a third party, such as publicly financed health care or firm-sponsored health plans, are often allowed to freely choose provider. The rationale is that consumer choice may improve the matching of consumers and providers and spur quality competition...... by individuals living reasonably close to alternative providers....

A narrative approach to understand students’ identities and choices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holmegaard, Henriette Tolstrup; Ulriksen, Lars; Madsen, Lene Møller

2015-01-01

This chapter demonstrates how narrative theory in general, and narrative psychology in particular, contribute to understand how students make meaning of their choice of post-secondary studies. In particular two central ideas within the theory are unfolded; the concept of identity and the concept...... of time. The applicability of the theory is discussed using empirical examples. The chapter argues that a narrative approach provides an understanding of choice of study as continuous processes where individuals work on their identities in terms of negotiating and constructing a coherent choice...... of the chapter consequences for future research are discussed as well as how this approach to students’ choices of study contributes to our understanding of students’ science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) choices....

Impact of the heavy-quark matching scales in PDF fits

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bertone, V. [VU University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Nikhef Theory Group Science Park 105, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Britzger, D.; Geiser, A.; Glazov, A.; Zenaiev, O. [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Camarda, S. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Cooper-Sarkar, A.; Giuli, F. [University of Oxford (United Kingdom); Godat, E.; Lyonnet, F.; Olness, F. [SMU Physics, Dallas, TX (United States); Kusina, A. [Universite Grenoble Alpes, CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Grenoble (France); Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Krakow (Poland); Luszczak, A. [T. Kosciuszko Cracow University of Technology, Krakow (Poland); Placakyte, R. [Universitaet Hamburg, Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Hamburg (Germany); Radescu, V. [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Schienbein, I. [Universite Grenoble Alpes, CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Grenoble (France); Collaboration: The xFitter Developers' Team

2017-12-15

We investigate the impact of displaced heavy-quark matching scales in a global fit. The heavy-quark matching scale μ{sub m} determines at which energy scale μ the QCD theory transitions from N{sub F} to N{sub F} + 1 in the variable flavor number scheme (VFNS) for the evolution of the parton distribution functions (PDFs) and strong coupling α{sub S}(μ). We study the variation of the matching scales, and their impact on a global PDF fit of the combined HERA data. As the choice of the matching scale μ{sub m} effectively is a choice of scheme, this represents a theoretical uncertainty; ideally, we would like to see minimal dependence on this parameter. For the transition across the charm quark (from N{sub F} = 3 to 4), we find a large μ{sub m} = μ{sub c} dependence of the global fit χ{sup 2} at NLO, but this is significantly reduced at NNLO. For the transition across the bottom quark (from N{sub F} = 4 to 5), we have a reduced μ{sub m} = μ{sub b} dependence of the χ{sup 2} at both NLO and NNLO as compared to the charm. This feature is now implemented in xFitter 2.0.0, an open source QCD fit framework. (orig.)

Does the amount of school choice matter for student engagement?

Science.gov (United States)

Vaughn, Michael G.; Witko, Christopher

2013-01-01

School choice may increase student engagement by enabling students to attend schools that more closely match their needs and preferences. But this effect on engagement may depend on the characteristics of the choices available. Therefore, we consider how the amount of educational choice of different types in a local educational marketplace affects student engagement using a large, national population of 8th grade students. We find that more choice of regular public schools in the elementary and middle school years is associated with a lower likelihood that students will be severely disengaged in eighth grade, and more choices of public schools of choice has a similar effect but only in urban areas. In contrast, more private sector choice does not have such a general beneficial effect. PMID:23682202

Anxiety and Search during Food Choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Torben; Uth Thomsen, Thyra; Mukherjee, Ashkesh

2011-01-01

this type of condensed information will in fact motivate extended information search. Originality/value – This paper contributes to research in marketing on food choice and consumption: a consumption area that is important but difficult to navigate due to an increasing complexity of nutritional information......Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the effect of anxiety on information search during food choice and to test a key moderator of the effect of anxiety on search, namely attitude towards nutritional claims. Design/methodology/approach – By means of qualitative study the paper investigates...... the notion that consumers experience anxiety about health outcomes during food choice. Further, by means of structural equation modelling based on two studies with representative samples of Danish consumers, the paper investigates the effects outlined above. Findings – The authors show that anxiety during...

A coarse to fine minutiae-based latent palmprint matching.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Eryun; Jain, Anil K; Tian, Jie

2013-10-01

With the availability of live-scan palmprint technology, high resolution palmprint recognition has started to receive significant attention in forensics and law enforcement. In forensic applications, latent palmprints provide critical evidence as it is estimated that about 30 percent of the latents recovered at crime scenes are those of palms. Most of the available high-resolution palmprint matching algorithms essentially follow the minutiae-based fingerprint matching strategy. Considering the large number of minutiae (about 1,000 minutiae in a full palmprint compared to about 100 minutiae in a rolled fingerprint) and large area of foreground region in full palmprints, novel strategies need to be developed for efficient and robust latent palmprint matching. In this paper, a coarse to fine matching strategy based on minutiae clustering and minutiae match propagation is designed specifically for palmprint matching. To deal with the large number of minutiae, a local feature-based minutiae clustering algorithm is designed to cluster minutiae into several groups such that minutiae belonging to the same group have similar local characteristics. The coarse matching is then performed within each cluster to establish initial minutiae correspondences between two palmprints. Starting with each initial correspondence, a minutiae match propagation algorithm searches for mated minutiae in the full palmprint. The proposed palmprint matching algorithm has been evaluated on a latent-to-full palmprint database consisting of 446 latents and 12,489 background full prints. The matching results show a rank-1 identification accuracy of 79.4 percent, which is significantly higher than the 60.8 percent identification accuracy of a state-of-the-art latent palmprint matching algorithm on the same latent database. The average computation time of our algorithm for a single latent-to-full match is about 141 ms for genuine match and 50 ms for impostor match, on a Windows XP desktop system with 2

Inoceramid and foraminiferal record and biozonation of the Turonian and Coniacian (Upper Cretaceous) of the Mangyshlak Mts., western Kazakhstan

Science.gov (United States)

Walaszczyk, Ireneusz; Kopaevich, Ludmila F.; Beniamovski, Vladimir N.

2013-12-01

Walaszczyk, I., Kopaevich, L.F. and Beniamovski, V.N. 2013. Inoceramid and foraminiferal record and biozonation of the Turonian and Coniacian (Upper Cretaceous) of the Mangyshlak Mts., western Kazakhstan. Acta Geologica Polonica, 63 (4), 469-487. Warszawa. The Turonian and Coniacian (Upper Cretaceous) of the Mangyshlak Mts., western Kazakhstan, yielded a rich and relatively complete inoceramid bivalve record. The faunas and their succession correspond to those known from central and eastern Europe, allowing the zonation established in the latter areas to be applied in a virtually identical form. The gaps in the record of the group in Mangyshlak stem from the regional hiatuses in the geological record in the area and do not reflect any biogeographical differences between eastern and central-western Europe. Planktonic foraminifera are rare. Four successive interval range zones can be distinguished: in ascending stratigraphic order, the Helvetoglobotrunaca helvetica, Marginotruncaca pseudolinneiana, Marginotruncana coronata, and Concavotruncana concavata zones. Their correlation with the inoceramid zonation and, consequently, with the chronostratigraphic scheme, is demonstrated. The zonation and chronostratigraphic subdivision as applied in Mangyshlak may easily be applied to other areas of the peri-Caspian region (Caucasus, Tuarkyr, Kopet-Dagh, SE margin of the East-European Craton).

Willingness to pay for flexible working conditions of people with type 2 diabetes: discrete choice experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Nexo, M A; Cleal, B; Hagelund, Lise; Willaing, I; Olesen, K

2017-12-15

The increasing number of people with chronic diseases challenges workforce capacity. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) can have work-related consequences, such as early retirement. Laws of most high-income countries require workplaces to provide accommodations to enable people with chronic disabilities to manage their condition at work. A barrier to successful implementation of such accommodations can be lack of co-workers' willingness to support people with T2D. This study aimed to examine the willingness to pay (WTP) of people with and without T2D for five workplace initiatives that help individuals with type 2 diabetes manage their diabetes at work. Three samples with employed Danish participants were drawn from existing online panels: a general population sample (n = 600), a T2D sample (n = 693), and a matched sample of people without diabetes (n = 539). Participants completed discrete choice experiments eliciting their WTP (reduction in monthly salary, €/month) for five hypothetical workplace initiatives: part-time job, customized work, extra breaks with pay, and time off for medical consultations with and without pay. WTP was estimated by conditional logits models. Bootstrapping was used to estimate confidence intervals for WTP. There was an overall WTP for all initiatives. Average WTP for all attributes was 34 €/month (95% confidence interval [CI]: 27-43] in the general population sample, 32 €/month (95% CI: 26-38) in the T2D sample, and 55 €/month (95% CI: 43-71) in the matched sample. WTP for additional breaks with pay was considerably lower than for the other initiatives in all samples. People with T2D had significantly lower WTP than people without diabetes for part-time work, customized work, and time off without pay, but not for extra breaks or time off with pay. For people with and without T2D, WTP was present for initiatives that could improve management of diabetes at the workplace. WTP was lowest among people with T2D. Implementation of these

Healthy food choices are happy food choices: Evidence from a real life sample using smartphone based assessments.

Science.gov (United States)

Wahl, Deborah R; Villinger, Karoline; König, Laura M; Ziesemer, Katrin; Schupp, Harald T; Renner, Britta

2017-12-06

Research suggests that "healthy" food choices such as eating fruits and vegetables have not only physical but also mental health benefits and might be a long-term investment in future well-being. This view contrasts with the belief that high-caloric foods taste better, make us happy, and alleviate a negative mood. To provide a more comprehensive assessment of food choice and well-being, we investigated in-the-moment eating happiness by assessing complete, real life dietary behaviour across eight days using smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment. Three main findings emerged: First, of 14 different main food categories, vegetables consumption contributed the largest share to eating happiness measured across eight days. Second, sweets on average provided comparable induced eating happiness to "healthy" food choices such as fruits or vegetables. Third, dinner elicited comparable eating happiness to snacking. These findings are discussed within the "food as health" and "food as well-being" perspectives on eating behaviour.

Optimal Design of the Adaptive Normalized Matched Filter Detector using Regularized Tyler Estimators

KAUST Repository

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

2017-01-01

This article addresses improvements on the design of the adaptive normalized matched filter (ANMF) for radar detection. It is well-acknowledged that the estimation of the noise-clutter covariance matrix is a fundamental step in adaptive radar detection. In this paper, we consider regularized estimation methods which force by construction the eigenvalues of the covariance estimates to be greater than a positive regularization parameter ρ. This makes them more suitable for high dimensional problems with a limited number of secondary data samples than traditional sample covariance estimates. The motivation behind this work is to understand the effect and properly set the value of ρthat improves estimate conditioning while maintaining a low estimation bias. More specifically, we consider the design of the ANMF detector for two kinds of regularized estimators, namely the regularized sample covariance matrix (RSCM), the regularized Tyler estimator (RTE). The rationale behind this choice is that the RTE is efficient in mitigating the degradation caused by the presence of impulsive noises while inducing little loss when the noise is Gaussian. Based on asymptotic results brought by recent tools from random matrix theory, we propose a design for the regularization parameter that maximizes the asymptotic detection probability under constant asymptotic false alarm rates. Provided Simulations support the efficiency of the proposed method, illustrating its gain over conventional settings of the regularization parameter.

Optimal Design of the Adaptive Normalized Matched Filter Detector using Regularized Tyler Estimators

KAUST Repository

Kammoun, Abla

2017-10-25

This article addresses improvements on the design of the adaptive normalized matched filter (ANMF) for radar detection. It is well-acknowledged that the estimation of the noise-clutter covariance matrix is a fundamental step in adaptive radar detection. In this paper, we consider regularized estimation methods which force by construction the eigenvalues of the covariance estimates to be greater than a positive regularization parameter ρ. This makes them more suitable for high dimensional problems with a limited number of secondary data samples than traditional sample covariance estimates. The motivation behind this work is to understand the effect and properly set the value of ρthat improves estimate conditioning while maintaining a low estimation bias. More specifically, we consider the design of the ANMF detector for two kinds of regularized estimators, namely the regularized sample covariance matrix (RSCM), the regularized Tyler estimator (RTE). The rationale behind this choice is that the RTE is efficient in mitigating the degradation caused by the presence of impulsive noises while inducing little loss when the noise is Gaussian. Based on asymptotic results brought by recent tools from random matrix theory, we propose a design for the regularization parameter that maximizes the asymptotic detection probability under constant asymptotic false alarm rates. Provided Simulations support the efficiency of the proposed method, illustrating its gain over conventional settings of the regularization parameter.

Precultural vegetation in the western foothills of the Kremnické vrchy Mts in central Slovakia and its transformations by man

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Rybníček, Kamil; Rybníčková, E.

2009-01-01

Roč. 81, č. 4 (2009), s. 423-437 ISSN 0032-7786 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA206/08/0389 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60050516 Keywords : palaeoecology * upper holocene vegetation * Kremnické vrchy Mts. Subject RIV: EF - Botanics Impact factor: 2.638, year: 2009

Twenty six-week exposure to 2 amino-3 methylimidazo [4,5-f]quinoline (IQ) does not significantly increase the incidence of tumours in HMGCR/mts1 tg579 transgenic mice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Alicja; Lukanidin, E.; Ambartsumian, N.S.

2004-01-01

HMGCR/mtsl t9579 transgenic mice were designed to direct the expression of metastasis-promoting mts 1 (S100A4) gene to all the tissues. In order to test the usefulness of this mouse model for carcinogenicity tests shorter than that recommended by OECD guideline mr. 451, HMGCR/mtsl tg579 transgenic...

Dispositional Resistance to Change and Occupational Interests and Choices

Science.gov (United States)

Oreg, Shaul; Nevo, Ofra; Metzer, Hila; Leder, Naftali; Castro, Dotan

2009-01-01

Through two field studies, we examine the role that individuals' orientation toward change has in determining their occupational choices and interests. In Study 1, 139 job applicants' dispositional resistance to change (RTC) scores were associated with occupational choice, such that individuals applying for investigative and enterprising jobs…

A novel spatial Delayed Non-Match to Sample (DNMS) task in the Göttingen minipig

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Thomas Rune; Kornum, Birgitte Rahbek; Moustgaard, Anette

2009-01-01

required an average of 144 trials to reach criterion for learning the task, which is similar to macaque monkeys. We also found that pigs, in contrast to rats, do not have a natural tendency to alternate in their choices in the task. To evaluate the sensitivity to reduced memory function longer delay...

Kepemimpinan Kepala Madrasah dalam Inovasi Manajemen Pendidikan Di MTs N Diwek Jombang

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hajijah Hajijah

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The headmaster leadership is one of important factors to realize the vision, mission, goals, and objective of that school through the programs conducted planned and pushed.  The headmaster eventually is required to have adequate management and leadership ability to be able to initiative in improving the school quality. The headmaster of Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negri Diwek Jombang has done education management function, such as planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling. The efforts have been done in educational management innovation of MTsN are: a increasing the education personnel quality, b improving the discipline of teachers, c providing facilities and infrastructure. d grouping students and e creating program extracurricular and religious activities. The supporting factor is the teacher is active in assisting the implementation of innovation and the availability of infrastructure, while inhibiting factor is many teachers are not qualified.

MODEL PEMBELAJARAN ASAM BASA BERBASIS SCS (SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS MELALUI KEGIATAN LABORATORIUM SEBAGAI WAHANA PENDIDIKAN SAINS SISWA MTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

malikhatul hidayah

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Tujuan  penelitian  ini  adalah  untuk    memperkenal- kan dan mengetahui efektivitas Model Pembelajaran SCS ( Science Process Skills melalui kegiatan Laboratorium Sebagai Wahana Pendidikan Sains yang cocok bagi siswa MTs agar meningkatkan: penguasaan konsep kimia, ke- mampuan berpikir kreatif, dan keterampilan  sains siswa. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode penelitian kelas, dan difokuskan pada pokok bahasan asam basa. Penelitian ini dilakukan di salah satu MTs Negeri di kota Semarang dengan subyek sebanyak 40 siswa kelas III. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini meliputi model pembelaja- ran, soal-soal tes, pedoman wawancara, pedoman obser- vasi dan angket, sedang LKS digunakan pada saat kegiatan laboratorium. Dalam model pembelajaran dikembangkan empat jenis konsep yaitu konsep kongkret, konsep yang menyatakan sifat, konsep yang melibatkan penggambaran simbol, dan konsep berdasarkan prinsip. Model pembela- jaran ini dapat meningkatkan pemahaman konsep pada setiap kelompok kemampuan siswa, mengembangkan ke- mampuan berpikir kreatif dengan hasil tertinggi pada as- pek membangun konsep di atas pengetahuan yang telah ada pada diri siswa dan terendah pada aspek memilih hal- hal yang mungkin tidak relevan, serta keterampilan sains mengatasi kurangnya waktu pembelajaran, bagian-bagian pembelajaran tertentu dapat dilaksanakan di luar jam ke- las.

Healthy food choices are happy food choices : evidence from a real life sample using smartphone based assessments

OpenAIRE

Wahl, Deborah R.; Villinger, Karoline; König, Laura M.; Ziesemer, Katrin; Schupp, Harald T.; Renner, Britta

2017-01-01

Research suggests that "healthy" food choices such as eating fruits and vegetables have not only physical but also mental health benefits and might be a long-term investment in future well-being. This view contrasts with the belief that high-caloric foods taste better, make us happy, and alleviate a negative mood. To provide a more comprehensive assessment of food choice and well-being, we investigated in-the-moment eating happiness by assessing complete, real life dietary behaviour across ei...

Effects of differential reinforcement and rules with feedback on preference for choice and verbal reports.

Science.gov (United States)

Karsina, Allen; Thompson, Rachel H; Rodriguez, Nicole M; Vanselow, Nicholas R

2012-01-01

We evaluated the effects of differential reinforcement and accurate verbal rules with feedback on the preference for choice and the verbal reports of 6 adults. Participants earned points on a probabilistic schedule by completing the terminal links of a concurrent-chains arrangement in a computer-based game of chance. In free-choice terminal links, participants selected 3 numbers from an 8-number array; in restricted-choice terminal links participants selected the order of 3 numbers preselected by a computer program. A pop-up box then informed the participants if the numbers they selected or ordered matched or did not match numbers generated by the computer but not displayed; matching in a trial resulted in one point earned. In baseline sessions, schedules of reinforcement were equal across free- and restricted-choice arrangements and a running tally of points earned was shown each trial. The effects of differentially reinforcing restricted-choice selections were evaluated using a reversal design. For 4 participants, the effects of providing a running tally of points won by arrangement and verbal rules regarding the schedule of reinforcement were also evaluated using a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline-across-participants design. Results varied across participants but generally demonstrated that (a) preference for choice corresponded more closely to verbal reports of the odds of winning than to reinforcement schedules, (b) rules and feedback were correlated with more accurate verbal reports, and (c) preference for choice corresponded more highly to the relative number of reinforcements obtained across free- and restricted-choice arrangements in a session than to the obtained probability of reinforcement or to verbal reports of the odds of winning.

Improved SURF Algorithm and Its Application in Seabed Relief Image Matching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Hong-Mei

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The matching based on seabed relief image is widely used in underwater relief matching navigation and target recognition, etc. However, being influenced by various factors, some conventional matching algorithms are difficult to obtain an ideal result in the matching of seabed relief image. SURF(Speeded Up Robust Features algorithm is based on feature points pair to achieve matching, and can get good results in the seabed relief image matching. However, in practical applications, the traditional SURF algorithm is easy to get false matching, especially when the area’s features are similar or not obvious, the problem is more seriously. In order to improve the robustness of the algorithm, this paper proposes an improved matching algorithm, which combines the SURF, and RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus algorithms. The new algorithm integrates the two algorithms advantages, firstly, the SURF algorithm is applied to detect and extract the feature points then to pre-match. Secondly, RANSAC algorithm is utilized to eliminate mismatching points, and then the accurate matching is accomplished with the correct matching points. The experimental results show that the improved algorithm overcomes the mismatching problem effectively and have better precision and faster speed than the traditional SURF algorithm.

Probabilistic seismic history matching using binary images

Science.gov (United States)

Davolio, Alessandra; Schiozer, Denis Jose

2018-02-01

Currently, the goal of history-matching procedures is not only to provide a model matching any observed data but also to generate multiple matched models to properly handle uncertainties. One such approach is a probabilistic history-matching methodology based on the discrete Latin Hypercube sampling algorithm, proposed in previous works, which was particularly efficient for matching well data (production rates and pressure). 4D seismic (4DS) data have been increasingly included into history-matching procedures. A key issue in seismic history matching (SHM) is to transfer data into a common domain: impedance, amplitude or pressure, and saturation. In any case, seismic inversions and/or modeling are required, which can be time consuming. An alternative to avoid these procedures is using binary images in SHM as they allow the shape, rather than the physical values, of observed anomalies to be matched. This work presents the incorporation of binary images in SHM within the aforementioned probabilistic history matching. The application was performed with real data from a segment of the Norne benchmark case that presents strong 4D anomalies, including softening signals due to pressure build up. The binary images are used to match the pressurized zones observed in time-lapse data. Three history matchings were conducted using: only well data, well and 4DS data, and only 4DS. The methodology is very flexible and successfully utilized the addition of binary images for seismic objective functions. Results proved the good convergence of the method in few iterations for all three cases. The matched models of the first two cases provided the best results, with similar well matching quality. The second case provided models presenting pore pressure changes according to the expected dynamic behavior (pressurized zones) observed on 4DS data. The use of binary images in SHM is relatively new with few examples in the literature. This work enriches this discussion by presenting a new

PATTERN CLASSIFICATION APPROACHES TO MATCHING BUILDING POLYGONS AT MULTIPLE SCALES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. Zhang

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Matching of building polygons with different levels of detail is crucial in the maintenance and quality assessment of multi-representation databases. Two general problems need to be addressed in the matching process: (1 Which criteria are suitable? (2 How to effectively combine different criteria to make decisions? This paper mainly focuses on the second issue and views data matching as a supervised pattern classification. Several classifiers (i.e. decision trees, Naive Bayes and support vector machines are evaluated for the matching task. Four criteria (i.e. position, size, shape and orientation are used to extract information for these classifiers. Evidence shows that these classifiers outperformed the weighted average approach.

Utility-free heuristic models of two-option choice can mimic predictions of utility-stage models under many conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven T Piantadosi

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Economists often model choices as if decision-makers assign each option a scalar value variable, known as utility, and then select the option with the highest utility. It remains unclear whether as-if utility models describe real mental and neural steps in choice. Although choices alone cannot prove the existence of a utility stage in choice, utility transformations are often taken to provide the most parsimonious or psychologically plausible explanation for choice data. Here, we show that it is possible to mathematically transform a large set of common utility-stage two-option choice models (specifically ones in which dimensions are linearly separable into a psychologically plausible heuristic model (specifically, a dimensional prioritization heuristic that has no utility computation stage. We then show that under a range of plausible assumptions, both classes of model predict similar neural responses. These results highlight the difficulties in using neuroeconomic data to infer the existence of a value stage in choice.

Physical characteristics of elite adolescent female basketball players and their relationship to match performance

Science.gov (United States)

Montalvo, Alicia; Latinjak, Alexander; Unnithan, Viswanath

2016-01-01

Abstract There were two aims of this study: first, to investigate physical fitness and match performance differences between under-16 (U16) and under-18 (U18) female basketball players, and second, to evaluate the relationship between physical fitness and game-related performances. Twenty-three young, female, elite Spanish basketball players (16.2 1.2 years) participated in the study. The sample was divided into two groups: U16 and U18 players. The average scores from pre- and post-season physical fitness measurements were used for subsequent analyses. Anthropometric variables were also measured. To evaluate game performance, game-related statistics, including the number of games and minutes played, points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game, were recorded for every competitive match in one season. When anthropometric and physical performance variables were compared between groups, the U18 group demonstrated significantly (pjump capacity, speed, agility, anaerobic power, repeated sprint ability and aerobic power (p ≤ 0.005). These findings can help optimize training programs for young, elite female basketball players. PMID:28149421

An improved perfectly matched layer for the eigenmode expansion technique

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gregersen, Niels; Mørk, Jesper

2008-01-01

be suppressed by introducing a perfectly matched layer (PML) using e.g. complex coordinate stretching of the cylinder radius. However, the traditional PML suffers from an artificial field divergence limiting its usefulness. We show that the choice of a constant cylinder radius leads to mode profiles...

Two tree-formation methods for fast pattern search using nearest-neighbour and nearest-centroid matching

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schomaker, Lambertus; Mangalagiu, D.; Vuurpijl, Louis; Weinfeld, M.; Schomaker, Lambert; Vuurpijl, Louis

2000-01-01

This paper describes tree­based classification of character images, comparing two methods of tree formation and two methods of matching: nearest neighbor and nearest centroid. The first method, Preprocess Using Relative Distances (PURD) is a tree­based reorganization of a flat list of patterns,

Does player unavailability affect football teams' match physical outputs? A two-season study of the UEFA champions league.

Science.gov (United States)

Windt, Johann; Ekstrand, Jan; Khan, Karim M; McCall, Alan; Zumbo, Bruno D

2018-05-01

Player unavailability negatively affects team performance in elite football. However, whether player unavailability and its concomitant performance decrement is mediated by any changes in teams' match physical outputs is unknown. We examined whether the number of players injured (i.e. unavailable for match selection) was associated with any changes in teams' physical outputs. Prospective cohort study. Between-team variation was calculated by correlating average team availability with average physical outputs. Within-team variation was quantified using linear mixed modelling, using physical outputs - total distance, sprint count (efforts over 20km/h), and percent of distance covered at high speeds (>14km/h) - as outcome variables, and player unavailability as the independent variable of interest. To control for other factors that may influence match physical outputs, stage (group stage/knockout), venue (home/away), score differential, ball possession (%), team ranking (UEFA Club Coefficient), and average team age were all included as covariates. Teams' average player unavailability was positively associated with the average number of sprints they performed in matches across two seasons. Multilevel models similarly demonstrated that having 4 unavailable players was associated with 20.8 more sprints during matches in 2015/2016, and with an estimated 0.60-0.77% increase in the proportion of total distance run above 14km/h in both seasons. Player unavailability had a possibly positive and likely positive association with total match distances in the two respective seasons. Having more players injured and unavailable for match selection was associated with an increase in teams' match physical outputs. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Short-term predictive capacity of two different triage systems in patients with acute heart failure: TRICA-EAHFE study.

Science.gov (United States)

Miró, Òscar; Tost, Josep; Herrero, Pablo; Jacob, Javier; Martín-Sánchez, Francisco Javier; Gil, Víctor; Fernández-Pérez, Cristina; Escoda, Rosa; Llorens, Pere

2016-12-01

To evaluate whether prioritization of patients with acute heart failure (AHF) in the Andorran Triage Model/Spanish Triage System (MAT/SET) and the Manchester Triage System (MTS) also allows the identification of different profiles of outcome and prognosis and determine whether either system has a better predictive capacity of outcomes. Patients with AHF included in the Spanish EAHFE registry from hospitals using the MAT/SET or MTS were selected and divided according to the triage system used. Outcome variables included hospital admission, length of stay, death during admission, 3, 7, and 30-day all-cause mortality, and emergency department (ED) reconsultation at 30 days. The results were compared according to the level of priority and the triage system used. We included 3837 patients (MAT/SET=2474; MTS=1363) classified as follows: 4.0% level 1; 34.7% level 2; 55.1% level 3; and 6.3% levels 4-5. Both systems associated greater priority with higher rates of admission and mortality; the MTS associated greater priority with greater ED reconsultation and the MAT/SET found greater priority to be associated with less ED reconsultation. The discriminative capacity of the two scales for adverse outcomes was statistically significant, albeit poor, for almost all the outcome events and it was of scarce clinical relevance (Area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic between 0.458 and 0.661). The prediction of the outcome of patients with AHF determined with the MAT/SET or MTS showed scarce differences between the two systems, and their discriminative capacity does not seem to be clinically relevant.

Matching health information seekers' queries to medical terms.

Science.gov (United States)

Soualmia, Lina F; Prieur-Gaston, Elise; Moalla, Zied; Lecroq, Thierry; Darmoni, Stéfan J

2012-01-01

The Internet is a major source of health information but most seekers are not familiar with medical vocabularies. Hence, their searches fail due to bad query formulation. Several methods have been proposed to improve information retrieval: query expansion, syntactic and semantic techniques or knowledge-based methods. However, it would be useful to clean those queries which are misspelled. In this paper, we propose a simple yet efficient method in order to correct misspellings of queries submitted by health information seekers to a medical online search tool. In addition to query normalizations and exact phonetic term matching, we tested two approximate string comparators: the similarity score function of Stoilos and the normalized Levenshtein edit distance. We propose here to combine them to increase the number of matched medical terms in French. We first took a sample of query logs to determine the thresholds and processing times. In the second run, at a greater scale we tested different combinations of query normalizations before or after misspelling correction with the retained thresholds in the first run. According to the total number of suggestions (around 163, the number of the first sample of queries), at a threshold comparator score of 0.3, the normalized Levenshtein edit distance gave the highest F-Measure (88.15%) and at a threshold comparator score of 0.7, the Stoilos function gave the highest F-Measure (84.31%). By combining Levenshtein and Stoilos, the highest F-Measure (80.28%) is obtained with 0.2 and 0.7 thresholds respectively. However, queries are composed by several terms that may be combination of medical terms. The process of query normalization and segmentation is thus required. The highest F-Measure (64.18%) is obtained when this process is realized before spelling-correction. Despite the widely known high performance of the normalized edit distance of Levenshtein, we show in this paper that its combination with the Stoilos algorithm improved

INVASIVE ALIEN PLANTS ON DECAYING WOOD AND ON TREE-FALL DISTURBANCES IN FORESTS IN THE KARKONOSZE MTS (SUDETEN, SW POLAND

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monika Staniaszek-Kik

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Three invasive anthropophytes, i.e. two vascular plants Digitalis purpurea L. and Impatiens parviflora DC. as well as one moss Orthodontium lineare Schwägr, were recorded on decaying wood and tree-fall disturbances (pit-mound-root plate complex. It contributes only 1.9% to the flora of analyzed habitats (1.1% of moss flora, 2.9% of vascular plant flora and 3.5% of neophytes known in Sudeten Mts. They grew, sporadically and with a low frequency, on 3.5% of studied objects (on 3.1% of decaying logs and stumps and 5.6% of tree-fall disturbances in all types of forest communities in the area of Karkonosze National Park and in the vicinity. Nowadays, invasive neophytes do not pose a threat to diversity of endangered epixylic flora. Described habitats seem to be resistant to penetration by anthropophytes.

Two sampling techniques for game meat

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Maretha van der Merwe

2013-03-01

Full Text Available A study was conducted to compare the excision sampling technique used by the export market and the sampling technique preferred by European countries, namely the biotrace cattle and swine test. The measuring unit for the excision sampling was grams (g and square centimetres (cm2 for the swabbing technique. The two techniques were compared after a pilot test was conducted on spiked approved beef carcasses (n = 12 that statistically proved the two measuring units correlated. The two sampling techniques were conducted on the same game carcasses (n = 13 and analyses performed for aerobic plate count (APC, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, for both techniques. A more representative result was obtained by swabbing and no damage was caused to the carcass. Conversely, the excision technique yielded fewer organisms and caused minor damage to the carcass. The recovery ratio from the sampling technique improved 5.4 times for APC, 108.0 times for E. coli and 3.4 times for S. aureus over the results obtained from the excision technique. It was concluded that the sampling methods of excision and swabbing can be used to obtain bacterial profiles from both export and local carcasses and could be used to indicate whether game carcasses intended for the local market are possibly on par with game carcasses intended for the export market and therefore safe for human consumption.

Two sampling techniques for game meat.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Merwe, Maretha; Jooste, Piet J; Hoffman, Louw C; Calitz, Frikkie J

2013-03-20

A study was conducted to compare the excision sampling technique used by the export market and the sampling technique preferred by European countries, namely the biotrace cattle and swine test. The measuring unit for the excision sampling was grams (g) and square centimetres (cm2) for the swabbing technique. The two techniques were compared after a pilot test was conducted on spiked approved beef carcasses (n = 12) that statistically proved the two measuring units correlated. The two sampling techniques were conducted on the same game carcasses (n = 13) and analyses performed for aerobic plate count (APC), Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, for both techniques. A more representative result was obtained by swabbing and no damage was caused to the carcass. Conversely, the excision technique yielded fewer organisms and caused minor damage to the carcass. The recovery ratio from the sampling technique improved 5.4 times for APC, 108.0 times for E. coli and 3.4 times for S. aureus over the results obtained from the excision technique. It was concluded that the sampling methods of excision and swabbing can be used to obtain bacterial profiles from both export and local carcasses and could be used to indicate whether game carcasses intended for the local market are possibly on par with game carcasses intended for the export market and therefore safe for human consumption.

Un estudio al impacto de las iniciativas de mejora de las cadenas de suministro y de fabricación en empresas que aplican MTO y MTS

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Ariel L. Lituve

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Las empresas manufactureras tienen como objetivo mejorar los procesos internos y externos para incrementar la ventaja competitiva. Estos procesos incluyen prácticas de manufactura esbelta, de racionalización de proveedores y de integración logística. En este trabajo, se analizan estas prácticas y su impacto en el desempeño del negocio y, en particular, se exploran las diferencias entre las empresas que aplican make-to-order –MTO– y make-to-stock –MTS–, con los datos recolectados de 216 empresas manufactureras de Australia. En los resultados se encontró una clara diferencia del enfoque de mejora entre las empresas MTO y las MTS. Las MTO muestran un impacto significativo de la integración logística en el desempeño empresarial, pero no de las prácticas de manufactura esbelta y de racionalización de proveedores. La situación se revierte completamente para las empresas MTS que, aunque logran efectos significativos en las prácticas internas de manufactura esbelta y en la racionalización de proveedores, no lo logran en la integración logística. Además, que la distinción entre empresas MTO y MTS es importante cuando se analizan las iniciativas para mejorar las cadenas de fabricación y de suministro.

Source-to-accelerator quadrupole matching section for a compact linear accelerator

Science.gov (United States)

Seidl, P. A.; Persaud, A.; Ghiorso, W.; Ji, Q.; Waldron, W. L.; Lal, A.; Vinayakumar, K. B.; Schenkel, T.

2018-05-01

Recently, we presented a new approach for a compact radio-frequency (RF) accelerator structure and demonstrated the functionality of the individual components: acceleration units and focusing elements. In this paper, we combine these units to form a working accelerator structure: a matching section between the ion source extraction grids and the RF-acceleration unit and electrostatic focusing quadrupoles between successive acceleration units. The matching section consists of six electrostatic quadrupoles (ESQs) fabricated using 3D-printing techniques. The matching section enables us to capture more beam current and to match the beam envelope to conditions for stable transport in an acceleration lattice. We present data from an integrated accelerator consisting of the source, matching section, and an ESQ doublet sandwiched between two RF-acceleration units.

Malakofauna pohoria Bachureň (východné Slovensko Malacofauna of the Bachureň Mts. (Eastern Slovakia

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Jozef Šteffek

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The Bachureň Mts. are the least known orographic unit of Slovakia from the malacological point of view, therefore it was important to fill this gap in the faunistic research of malacofauna in Slovakia. In order to achieve the maximum mollusc diversity of the Bachureň Mts., various habitat types were the subject of interest. Field work was conducted in the years 2009–2011 at 78 sites. Altogether 108 mollusc species were recorded. In total, nearly 20 000 specimens were collected and identified. Half of all recorded species were representatives of woodland species s. l. From zoogeographical point of view, species with cosmopolitan, Euro-Siberian and Central European distribution made up the highest proportion. Carpathian species were numerous as well. Across the whole mountain, West Carpathian species (Petasina unidentata, Plicuteria lubomirskii and Trochulus villosulus encountered the species with centre in eastern part of the Carpathians (Perforatella dibothrion, Pseudalinda stabilis, Oxychilus orientalis and Vestia gulo. On the basis of spatial distribution of sensitive species indicating undisturbance of habitats, the most valuable biotopes showed to be springs, wetlands and riparian vegetation along the upper parts of the streams with Acicula parcelineata, Bulgarica cana, Macrogastra latestriata, Vertigo angustior, V. antivertigo, V. substriata, and Cochlicopa nitens. Valuable biotopes were dolomite rocks with the occurrence of relict steppe with Pupilla triplicata and well-preserved scree woodlands with V. substriata and B. cana as well.

Utilizing the Zero-One Linear Programming Constraints to Draw Multiple Sets of Matched Samples from a Non-Treatment Population as Control Groups for the Quasi-Experimental Design

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yuan H.; Yang, Yu N.; Tompkins, Leroy J.; Modarresi, Shahpar

2005-01-01

The statistical technique, "Zero-One Linear Programming," that has successfully been used to create multiple tests with similar characteristics (e.g., item difficulties, test information and test specifications) in the area of educational measurement, was deemed to be a suitable method for creating multiple sets of matched samples to be…

The Diffusion Decision Model: Theory and Data for Two-Choice Decision Tasks

OpenAIRE

Ratcliff, Roger; McKoon, Gail

2008-01-01

The diffusion decision model allows detailed explanations of behavior in two-choice discrimination tasks. In this article, the model is reviewed to show how it translates behavioral data—accuracy, mean response times, and response time distributions—into components of cognitive processing. Three experiments are used to illustrate experimental manipulations of three components: stimulus difficulty affects the quality of information on which a decision is based; instructions emphasizing either ...

Comparison of accuracies of an intraoral spectrophotometer and conventional visual method for shade matching using two shade guide systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Parameswaran, Vidhya; Anilkumar, S; Lylajam, S; Rajesh, C; Narayan, Vivek

2016-01-01

This in vitro study compared the shade matching abilities of an intraoral spectrophotometer and the conventional visual method using two shade guides. The results of previous investigations between color perceived by human observers and color assessed by instruments have been inconclusive. The objectives were to determine accuracies and interrater agreement of both methods and effectiveness of two shade guides with either method. In the visual method, 10 examiners with normal color vision matched target control shade tabs taken from the two shade guides (VITAPAN Classical™ and VITAPAN 3D Master™) with other full sets of the respective shade guides. Each tab was matched 3 times to determine repeatability of visual examiners. The spectrophotometric shade matching was performed by two independent examiners using an intraoral spectrophotometer (VITA Easyshade™) with five repetitions for each tab. Results revealed that visual method had greater accuracy than the spectrophotometer. The spectrophotometer; however, exhibited significantly better interrater agreement as compared to the visual method. While VITAPAN Classical shade guide was more accurate with the spectrophotometer, VITAPAN 3D Master shade guide proved better with visual method. This in vitro study clearly delineates the advantages and limitations of both methods. There were significant differences between the methods with the visual method producing more accurate results than the spectrophotometric method. The spectrophotometer showed far better interrater agreement scores irrespective of the shade guide used. Even though visual shade matching is subjective, it is not inferior and should not be underrated. Judicious combination of both techniques is imperative to attain a successful and esthetic outcome.

An Incentive Theory of Matching

OpenAIRE

Brown, Alessio J. G.; Merkl, Christian; Snower, Dennis J.

2010-01-01

This paper examines the labour market matching process by distinguishing its two component stages: the contact stage, in which job searchers make contact with employers and the selection stage, in which they decide whether to match. We construct a theoretical model explaining two-sided selection through microeconomic incentives. Firms face adjustment costs in responding to heterogeneous variations in the characteristics of workers and jobs. Matches and separations are described through firms'...

Magnetometric method as a tool of measuring pollution of forest soils by heavy metals - example of the Orlické hory Mts

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Semelová, V.; Fialová, Hana; Kapička, Aleš; Kacálek, D.

2009-01-01

Roč. 55, č. 4 (2009), s. 385-393 ISSN 0323-1046 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA205/07/0941 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30120515 Keywords : atmospheric deposition * forest soils * magnetic susceptibility * heavy metals * Orlické hory Mts. Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography

Effects of air pollution and climatic factors on Norway spruce forests in the Orlicke hory Mts. (Czech Republic), 1979-2014

Science.gov (United States)

Stanislav Vacek; Iva Hunova; Zdenek Vacek; Pavla Hejcmanova; Vilem Podrazsky; Jan Kral; Tereza Putalova; W. Keith Moser

2015-01-01

The area of the Orlicke hory Mts. has been characterised by decline and disturbances of Norway spruce (Picea abies/L./Karst.) stands since the 1980s. Currently, only three permanent research plots have been preserved from the original sixteen established plots in this region. In the present study, the health status, as indicated by defoliation, mortality, and...

Comparing two sampling methods to engage hard-to-reach communities in research priority setting

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Melissa A. Valerio

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Effective community-partnered and patient-centered outcomes research needs to address community priorities. However, optimal sampling methods to engage stakeholders from hard-to-reach, vulnerable communities to generate research priorities have not been identified. Methods In two similar rural, largely Hispanic communities, a community advisory board guided recruitment of stakeholders affected by chronic pain using a different method in each community: 1 snowball sampling, a chain- referral method or 2 purposive sampling to recruit diverse stakeholders. In both communities, three groups of stakeholders attended a series of three facilitated meetings to orient, brainstorm, and prioritize ideas (9 meetings/community. Using mixed methods analysis, we compared stakeholder recruitment and retention as well as priorities from both communities’ stakeholders on mean ratings of their ideas based on importance and feasibility for implementation in their community. Results Of 65 eligible stakeholders in one community recruited by snowball sampling, 55 (85 % consented, 52 (95 % attended the first meeting, and 36 (65 % attended all 3 meetings. In the second community, the purposive sampling method was supplemented by convenience sampling to increase recruitment. Of 69 stakeholders recruited by this combined strategy, 62 (90 % consented, 36 (58 % attended the first meeting, and 26 (42 % attended all 3 meetings. Snowball sampling recruited more Hispanics and disabled persons (all P < 0.05. Despite differing recruitment strategies, stakeholders from the two communities identified largely similar ideas for research, focusing on non-pharmacologic interventions for management of chronic pain. Ratings on importance and feasibility for community implementation differed only on the importance of massage services (P = 0.045 which was higher for the purposive/convenience sampling group and for city improvements

Utility-free heuristic models of two-option choice can mimic predictions of utility-stage models under many conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Piantadosi, Steven T.; Hayden, Benjamin Y.

2015-01-01

Economists often model choices as if decision-makers assign each option a scalar value variable, known as utility, and then select the option with the highest utility. It remains unclear whether as-if utility models describe real mental and neural steps in choice. Although choices alone cannot prove the existence of a utility stage, utility transformations are often taken to provide the most parsimonious or psychologically plausible explanation for choice data. Here, we show that it is possible to mathematically transform a large set of common utility-stage two-option choice models (specifically ones in which dimensions are can be decomposed into additive functions) into a heuristic model (specifically, a dimensional prioritization heuristic) that has no utility computation stage. We then show that under a range of plausible assumptions, both classes of model predict similar neural responses. These results highlight the difficulties in using neuroeconomic data to infer the existence of a value stage in choice. PMID:25914613

The New Orleans OneApp: Centralized Enrollment Matches Students and Schools of Choice

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Douglas N.; Valant, Jon; Gross, Betheny

2015-01-01

In most of the U.S., the process for assigning children to public schools is straightforward: take a student's home address, determine which school serves that address, and assign the student accordingly. However, states and cities are increasingly providing families with school choices. A key question facing policymakers is exactly how to place…

Template matching for auditing hospital cost and quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Silber, Jeffrey H; Rosenbaum, Paul R; Ross, Richard N; Ludwig, Justin M; Wang, Wei; Niknam, Bijan A; Mukherjee, Nabanita; Saynisch, Philip A; Even-Shoshan, Orit; Kelz, Rachel R; Fleisher, Lee A

2014-10-01

Develop an improved method for auditing hospital cost and quality. Medicare claims in general, gynecologic and urologic surgery, and orthopedics from Illinois, Texas, and New York between 2004 and 2006. A template of 300 representative patients was constructed and then used to match 300 patients at hospitals that had a minimum of 500 patients over a 3-year study period. From each of 217 hospitals we chose 300 patients most resembling the template using multivariate matching. The matching algorithm found close matches on procedures and patient characteristics, far more balanced than measured covariates would be in a randomized clinical trial. These matched samples displayed little to no differences across hospitals in common patient characteristics yet found large and statistically significant hospital variation in mortality, complications, failure-to-rescue, readmissions, length of stay, ICU days, cost, and surgical procedure length. Similar patients at different hospitals had substantially different outcomes. The template-matched sample can produce fair, directly standardized audits that evaluate hospitals on patients with similar characteristics, thereby making benchmarking more believable. Through examining matched samples of individual patients, administrators can better detect poor performance at their hospitals and better understand why these problems are occurring. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Modelling relationships between match events and match outcome in elite football.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hongyou; Hopkins, Will G; Gómez, Miguel-Angel

2016-08-01

Identifying match events that are related to match outcome is an important task in football match analysis. Here we have used generalised mixed linear modelling to determine relationships of 16 football match events and 1 contextual variable (game location: home/away) with the match outcome. Statistics of 320 close matches (goal difference ≤ 2) of season 2012-2013 in the Spanish First Division Professional Football League were analysed. Relationships were evaluated with magnitude-based inferences and were expressed as extra matches won or lost per 10 close matches for an increase of two within-team or between-team standard deviations (SD) of the match event (representing effects of changes in team values from match to match and of differences between average team values, respectively). There was a moderate positive within-team effect from shots on target (3.4 extra wins per 10 matches; 99% confidence limits ±1.0), and a small positive within-team effect from total shots (1.7 extra wins; ±1.0). Effects of most other match events were related to ball possession, which had a small negative within-team effect (1.2 extra losses; ±1.0) but a small positive between-team effect (1.7 extra wins; ±1.4). Game location showed a small positive within-team effect (1.9 extra wins; ±0.9). In analyses of nine combinations of team and opposition end-of-season rank (classified as high, medium, low), almost all between-team effects were unclear, while within-team effects varied depending on the strength of team and opposition. Some of these findings will be useful to coaches and performance analysts when planning training sessions and match tactics.

Object-based connectedness facilitates matching

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koning, A.R.; Lier, R.J. van

2003-01-01

In two matching tasks, participants had to match two images of object pairs. Image-based (113) connectedness refers to connectedness between the objects in an image. Object-based (OB) connectedness refers to connectedness between the interpreted objects. In Experiment 1, a monocular depth cue

Human Toddlers’ Attempts to Match Two Simple Behaviors Provide No Evidence for an Inherited, Dedicated Imitation Mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Susan S.

2012-01-01

Influential theories of imitation have proposed that humans inherit a neural mechanism – an “active intermodal matching “ (AIM) mechanism or a mirror neuron system - that functions from birth to automatically match sensory input from others’ actions to motor programs for performing those same actions, and thus produces imitation. To test these proposals, 160 1- to 2½-year-old toddlers were asked to imitate two simple movements– bending the arm to make an elbow, and moving the bent elbow laterally. Both behaviors were almost certain to be in each child’s repertoire, and the lateral movement was goal-directed (used to hit a plastic cup). Thus, one or both behaviors should have been imitable by toddlers with a functioning AIM or mirror neuron system. Each child saw the two behaviors repeated 18 times, and was encouraged to imitate. Children were also asked to locate their own elbows. Almost no children below age 2 imitated either behavior. Instead, younger children gave clear evidence of a developmental progression, from reproducing only the outcome of the models’ movements (hitting the object), through trying (but failing) to reproduce the model’s arm posture and/or the arm-cup relations they had seen, to accurate imitation of arm bending by age 2 and of both movements by age 2½. Across age levels, almost all children who knew the word ‘elbow’ imitated both behaviors: very few who did not know the word imitated either behavior. The evidence is most consistent with a view of early imitation as the product of a complex system of language, cognitive, social, and motor competencies that develop in infancy. The findings do not rule out a role for an inherited neural mechanism, but they suggest that such a system would not by itself be sufficient to explain imitation at any age. PMID:23251500

Human toddlers' attempts to match two simple behaviors provide no evidence for an inherited, dedicated imitation mechanism.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan S Jones

Full Text Available Influential theories of imitation have proposed that humans inherit a neural mechanism - an "active intermodal matching " (AIM mechanism or a mirror neuron system - that functions from birth to automatically match sensory input from others' actions to motor programs for performing those same actions, and thus produces imitation. To test these proposals, 160 1- to 2½-year-old toddlers were asked to imitate two simple movements- bending the arm to make an elbow, and moving the bent elbow laterally. Both behaviors were almost certain to be in each child's repertoire, and the lateral movement was goal-directed (used to hit a plastic cup. Thus, one or both behaviors should have been imitable by toddlers with a functioning AIM or mirror neuron system. Each child saw the two behaviors repeated 18 times, and was encouraged to imitate. Children were also asked to locate their own elbows. Almost no children below age 2 imitated either behavior. Instead, younger children gave clear evidence of a developmental progression, from reproducing only the outcome of the models' movements (hitting the object, through trying (but failing to reproduce the model's arm posture and/or the arm-cup relations they had seen, to accurate imitation of arm bending by age 2 and of both movements by age 2½. Across age levels, almost all children who knew the word 'elbow' imitated both behaviors: very few who did not know the word imitated either behavior. The evidence is most consistent with a view of early imitation as the product of a complex system of language, cognitive, social, and motor competencies that develop in infancy. The findings do not rule out a role for an inherited neural mechanism, but they suggest that such a system would not by itself be sufficient to explain imitation at any age.

Match Analysis in Volleyball: a systematic review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Silva

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The present article aims to review the available literature on match analysis in adult male Volleyball. Specific key words "performance analysis", "match analysis", "game analysis", "notational analysis", "tactical analysis", "technical analysis", "outcome" and "skills" were used to search relevant databases (PubMed, Web of Science, SportDiscus, Academic Search Complete and the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport. The research was conducted according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta analyses guidelines. Of 3407 studies initially identified, only 34 were fully reviewed, and their outcome measures extracted and analyzed. Studies that fit all inclusion criteria were organized into two levels of analysis, according to their research design (comparative or predictive and depending on the type of variables analyzed (skills and their relationship with success, play position and match phase. Results show that from a methodological point of view, comparative studies where currently complemented with some predictive studies. This predictive approach emerged with the aim to identify the relationship between variables, considering their possible interactions and consequently its effect on team performance, contributing to a better understanding of Volleyball game performance through match analysis. Taking into account the limitations of the reviewed studies, future research should provide comprehensive operational definitions for the studied variables, using more recent samples, and consider integrating the player positions and match phase contexts into the analysis of Volleyball.

Contraceptive method choice and use by married women of reproductive age in two Districts of East Harerge.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubiwak, Rahel; Seme, Assefa

2014-01-01

Contraceptive method mix and choice is not uniform across all countries. Literatures have shown that a significant variation exists in contraceptive method mix among regions and countries. In Africa most mothers rely on short-term contraceptives such as pills and injectables or traditional methods while in Asia and Latin America permanent methods mainly male and female sterilizations are commonly used. Though long-term methods of contraception are recommended for its effectiveness and efficiencies in countries like Ethiopia where high fertility rate is a concern, its choice and utilization remains low. The main objective of the study was to assess factors influencing contraceptive method choice and use among married women of reproductive age in rural Districts of East Harerge Zone of Oromia Region. A community-based cross-sectional study using both quantitative and qualitative methods was conducted among 473 married women of reproductive age in two rural districts of East Harerge Zone. A systematic random sampling method was used to select the study participants from the list of all married women who have been using contraceptives in the project sites. Data was collected using structured and pretested questionnaires. Data entry and analysis was done using EPI Info version 6.04d and SPSS for Windows version 15, respectively. Frequencies and proportions were used for description while odds ratio with 95% CI was used to determine the strength and significance of association between independent and outcome variables. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to control confounding variables. A total of 473 currently married women who were using modern contraceptives were interviewed for the survey. About 6 in ten (58.8%) were in the age range of 25-34 years with the mean (+/- SD) age of 29.5 (+/- 5.7) years. About three-fourth (74%) were short-term contraceptive method users while only 26% were long-term contraceptive method users. Duration of family planning use

Motherhood: From rights to choices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renata Salecl

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Motherhood has been perceived as choice in the developed world after the liberalisation of abortion. However, this choice can be extremely anxiety provoking for women, especially in times when the ideology of choice dominates our lives in all possible ways. The paper shows how psychotherapy and psychoanalysis look at this anxiety, it reflects on how family relations are often the traumatic kernel behind this choice, and how the changes that women experience in today's times contribute to the increase of anxiety related to reproduction.

On the tautology of the matching law in consumer behavior analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Curry, Bruce; Foxall, Gordon R; Sigurdsson, Valdimar

2010-05-01

Matching analysis has often attracted the criticism that it is formally tautological and hence empirically unfalsifiable, a problem that particularly affects translational attempts to extend behavior analysis into new areas. An example is consumer behavior analysis where application of matching in natural settings requires the inference of ratio-based relationships between amount purchased and amount spent. This gives rise to the argument that matching is an artifact of the way in which the alleged independent and dependent variables are defined and measured. We argue that the amount matching law would be tautological only in extreme circumstances (those in which prices or quantities move strictly in proportion); this is because of the presence of an error term in the matching function which arises from aggregation, particularly aggregation over brands. Cost matching is a viable complement of amount matching which avoids this tautology but a complete explanation of consumer choice requires a viable measure of amount matching also. This necessitates a more general solution to the problem of tautology in matching. In general, the fact that there remain doubts about the functional form of the matching equation itself implies the absence of a tautology. In proposing a general solution to the problem of assumed tautology in matching, the paper notes the experiences of matching researchers in another translation field, sports behavior. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Survival or Mortality : Does Risk Attribute Framing Influence Decision-Making Behavior in a Discrete Choice Experiment?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veldwijk, Jorien; Essers, Brigitte A B; Lambooij, Mattijs S; Dirksen, Carmen D; Smit, Henriette A; de Wit, G Ardine

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To test how attribute framing in a discrete choice experiment (DCE) affects respondents' decision-making behavior and their preferences. METHODS: Two versions of a DCE questionnaire containing nine choice tasks were distributed among a representative sample of the Dutch population aged 55

Healthy Choices for Every Body Adult Curriculum Improves Participants' Food Resource Management Skills and Food Safety Practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Adedokun, Omolola A; Plonski, Paula; Jenkins-Howard, Brooke; Cotterill, Debra B; Vail, Ann

2018-04-03

To evaluate the impact of the University of Kentucky's Healthy Choices for Every Body (HCEB) adult nutrition education curriculum on participants' food resource management (FRM) skills and food safety practices. A quasi-experimental design was employed using propensity score matching to pair 8 intervention counties with 8 comparison counties. Independent-samples t tests and ANCOVA models compared gains in FRM skills and food safety practices between the intervention and comparison groups (n = 413 and 113, respectively). Propensity score matching analysis showed a statistical balance and similarities between the comparison and intervention groups. Food resource management and food safety gain scores were statistically significantly higher for the intervention group (P food safety practices of participants. Copyright © 2018 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Spatial heavy metals Zn and Cr distribution in soil samples taken from Tatra Mountains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stobinski, M.; Misiak, R.; Kubica, B.

2008-03-01

The basic issue of presented report is showing the spatial heavy metals (Zn and Cr) distribution in soil samples taken from High Mts area. The expertise was done using two analytical techniques: AAS (atomic absorption spectroscopy) and micro-PIXIE (proton induced X-ray emission).Given heavy metals concentration were originated either from soil surface (10 cm depth) or from the whole soil profile. Our evaluation indicates that the Zn and Cr levels measured for mountains region were comparable to the data presented by other authors. Furthermore, the amount of heavy metals is strongly correlated with its natural concentration in parental rock.We also observed that zinc was prone to accumulate in surface, rich in organic matter, soil levels. (author)

Tactical decisions for changeable cuttlefish camouflage: visual cues for choosing masquerade are relevant from a greater distance than visual cues used for background matching.

Science.gov (United States)

Buresch, Kendra C; Ulmer, Kimberly M; Cramer, Corinne; McAnulty, Sarah; Davison, William; Mäthger, Lydia M; Hanlon, Roger T

2015-10-01

Cuttlefish use multiple camouflage tactics to evade their predators. Two common tactics are background matching (resembling the background to hinder detection) and masquerade (resembling an uninteresting or inanimate object to impede detection or recognition). We investigated how the distance and orientation of visual stimuli affected the choice of these two camouflage tactics. In the current experiments, cuttlefish were presented with three visual cues: 2D horizontal floor, 2D vertical wall, and 3D object. Each was placed at several distances: directly beneath (in a circle whose diameter was one body length (BL); at zero BL [(0BL); i.e., directly beside, but not beneath the cuttlefish]; at 1BL; and at 2BL. Cuttlefish continued to respond to 3D visual cues from a greater distance than to a horizontal or vertical stimulus. It appears that background matching is chosen when visual cues are relevant only in the immediate benthic surroundings. However, for masquerade, objects located multiple body lengths away remained relevant for choice of camouflage. © 2015 Marine Biological Laboratory.

Concurrent variable-interval variable-ratio schedules in a dynamic choice environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Matthew C; Baum, William M

2017-11-01

Most studies of operant choice have focused on presenting subjects with a fixed pair of schedules across many experimental sessions. Using these methods, studies of concurrent variable- interval variable-ratio schedules helped to evaluate theories of choice. More recently, a growing literature has focused on dynamic choice behavior. Those dynamic choice studies have analyzed behavior on a number of different time scales using concurrent variable-interval schedules. Following the dynamic choice approach, the present experiment examined performance on concurrent variable-interval variable-ratio schedules in a rapidly changing environment. Our objectives were to compare performance on concurrent variable-interval variable-ratio schedules with extant data on concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules using a dynamic choice procedure and to extend earlier work on concurrent variable-interval variable-ratio schedules. We analyzed performances at different time scales, finding strong similarities between concurrent variable-interval variable-interval and concurrent variable-interval variable- ratio performance within dynamic choice procedures. Time-based measures revealed almost identical performance in the two procedures compared with response-based measures, supporting the view that choice is best understood as time allocation. Performance at the smaller time scale of visits accorded with the tendency seen in earlier research toward developing a pattern of strong preference for and long visits to the richer alternative paired with brief "samples" at the leaner alternative ("fix and sample"). © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Choice of Sample Split in Out-of-Sample Forecast Evaluation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Peter Reinhard; Timmermann, Allan

, while conversely the power of forecast evaluation tests is strongest with long out-of-sample periods. To deal with size distortions, we propose a test statistic that is robust to the effect of considering multiple sample split points. Empirical applications to predictabil- ity of stock returns......Out-of-sample tests of forecast performance depend on how a given data set is split into estimation and evaluation periods, yet no guidance exists on how to choose the split point. Empirical forecast evaluation results can therefore be difficult to interpret, particularly when several values...... and inflation demonstrate that out-of-sample forecast evaluation results can critically depend on how the sample split is determined....