We agree with Pothos & Busemeyer (P&B) that formal tools can be fruitfully employed to model human judgment under uncertainty, including well-known departures from principles of classical probability. However, existing findings either contradict P&B's quantum probability approach or support it to a limited extent. The conjunction fallacy serves as a ...

Inkjet printing has evolved from an office printing application to become an important tool in industrial mass fabrication. In parallel, this technology is increasingly used in research laboratories around the world for the fabrication of entire (bio)chemical sensing devices or single functional elements of such devices. Regularly stated characteristics of ...

BACKGROUND: Since 1992, the diagnosis and classification of intellectual disability has been dependent upon three constructs: intelligence, adaptive behaviour and support needs (Luckasson et al. 1992. Mental Retardation: Definition, Classification and Systems of Support. American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Washington, DC). While the methods and instruments to measure intelligence ...

Accurately and precisely estimating free-living energy expenditure (EE) is important for monitoring energy balance and quantifying physical activity. Recently, single and multi-sensor devices have been developed that can classify physical activities, potentially resulting in improved estimates of EE. PURPOSE: To determine the validity of EE estimation of a footwear-based physical ...

Dipstick and lateral-flow formats have dominated rapid diagnostics over the last three decades. These formats gained popularity in the consumer markets due to their compactness, portability and facile interpretation without external instrumentation. However, lack of quantitation in measurements has challenged the demand of existing assay formats in consumer markets. Recently, ...

We have designed an Excel spreadsheet to facilitate the planning and execution of screenings performed manually or in semi-automation mode, following a sequential set of events. Many assays involve multiple steps, often including time-sensitive stages, thus complicating the proper implementation to ensure that all plates are treated equally to achieve ...

The identification of sites for locating new natural systems for wastewater treatment (NSWT), such as stabilization ponds and constructed wetlands, should combine multiple crucial factors (environmental, design, social and economic), and thus the implementation of multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods is required. In addition, the spatial nature of the site selection ...

Clearance monitoring includes all measures taken and measurements performed to ensure that all pertinent regulatory conditions are met for clearance of waste material. For bulk material, only a limited number of monitoring techniques are feasible for providing the necessary proof of compliance in the time frames and at costs commensurate ...

As part of a pilot program to measure subjective response to low level sonic booms, 52 residents at Edwards Air Force Base were recruited to answer questions about their reactions to low-amplitude sonic booms. Over a two-week period, participants completed brief surveys (12 items) each time they heard a sonic ...

We will discuss modeling reverberation on GPUs. An accompanying talk will discuss using GPUs to model scattering from rough surfaces. Here we discuss using GPUs to model the two sets of propagation paths, one set from the source to scatterer, the other set from the scatterer to the receiver, and ...

BACKGROUND:Current methods for monitoring ventilatory rate have limitations including poor accuracy and precision and low patient tolerance. In this study, we evaluated a new acoustic ventilatory rate monitoring technology for accuracy, precision, reliability, and the ability to detect pauses in ventilation, relative to capnometry and a reference method in postsurgical ...

Although the use of patient-specific surgical guides has gained popularity over the past decade, little research has been done to examine in an objective and qualitative way the fit of such instruments. In this study, we have developed a model to predict the stability of a guide designed to fit ...

Raman microscopy systems are becoming increasingly widespread and accessible for characterising chemical species. Microfluidic systems are also progressively finding their way into real world applications. Therefore, it is anticipated that the integration of Raman systems with microfluidics will become increasingly attractive and practical. This review aims to provide an overview ...

Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder which manifests as recurrent seizures. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are generally analyzed to study the characteristics of epileptic seizures. In this work, we propose a method for the automated classification of EEG signals into normal, interictal and ictal classes using Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT), Higher ...

Quality control (QC) is crucial for any scientific method producing data. Applying adequate QC introduces new challenges in the genomics field where large amounts of data are produced with complex technologies. For DNA microarrays, specific algorithms for QC and pre-processing including normalization have been developed by the scientific community, especially ...

Paper has been present in the world of analytical chemistry for centuries, but it seems that just a few years back it was rediscovered as a valuable substrate for sensors. We can easily list some of the countless advantages of this simple cellulosic substrate, including mechanical properties, three-dimensional fibrous structure, ...

Abstract Purpose: Assistive technologies (ATs) have tremendous potential to support occupations (i.e. meaningful daily activities) impacted by changes in cognition caused by dementia. However, little is known about what or how ATs are in use in community settings. This research created and piloted guided interviews intended to capture what ATs ...

Conrad et al. (Reports, 10 August 2012, p. 742) reported a doubling of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) occupancy at X-linked promoters to support 5' recruitment as the key mechanism for dosage compensation in Drosophila. However, they employed an erroneous data-processing step, overestimating Pol II differences. Reanalysis of the data ...

Abstract Purpose: To determine if a brain-computer interface (BCI) could be used as a plug-and-play input device to operate commercial assistive technology (AT), and to quantify the performance impact of such operation. Method: Using a hardware device designed in our lab, participants (11 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, 22 controls) were ...

OBJECTIVES: To: 1) describe the distribution of the public sector rheumatologists; 2) identify variables on which the workload in Rheumatology depends; and 3) build a predictive model on the need of rheumatologists for the next 10 years, in the Community of Madrid (CM). METHODOLOGY: The information was obtained through structured ...

This study was designed to compare the sperm nuclear morphometric subpopulations of four species of domestic artiodactyls (cattle, sheep, goat and pigs). Samples from 20 males of each species were collected. After semen collection, sperm concentration and motility were measured and samples prepared for morphometric determinations. Smears were fixed with ...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Numerous prenatal, systemic, or local procedures have been described that have created an experimental scoliosis within different animal species. Compression-based fusionless scoliosis correction devices have been used to induce scoliosis (inverse approach) as an indication for their potential corrective efficacy in large animals. Deformities that most closely approximate ...

The interactions between fundamental life molecules, people and social organisations build complex architectures that often result in undesired behaviours. Despite all of the advances made in our understanding of network structures over the past decade, similar progress has not been achieved in the controllability of real-world networks. In particular, an ...

Synthetic biology and systems biology are often highlighted as antagonistic strategies for dealing with the overwhelming complexity of biology (engineering versus understanding; tinkering in the lab versus modelling in the computer). However, a closer view of contemporary engineering methods (inextricably interwoven with mathematical modelling and simulation) and of the situation ...

OBJECTIVE: As healthcare systems continue to expand and interconnect with each other through patient sharing, administrators, policy makers, infection control specialists, and other decision makers may have to take account of the entire healthcare 'ecosystem' in infection control. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We developed a software tool, the Regional Healthcare Ecosystem ...

Integrating theories of proactive motivation, team innovation climate, and motivation in teams, we developed and tested a multilevel model of motivators of innovative performance in teams. Analyses of multisource data from 428 members of 95 research and development (R&D) teams across 33 Chinese firms indicated that team-level support for innovation ...

The formation of Pt-Ru nanoclusters (NCs) by sequential deposition of Pt and Ru on a periodically rumpled graphene sheet supported on Ru(0001) is analyzed by atomistic-level modeling and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. The "coarse-scale" periodic variation of the adsorption energy of metal adatoms across the graphene sheet directs the assembly ...

MOTIVATION: The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) is currently supported by over 230 software tools, among which 160 support numerical integration of ordinary differential equation (ODE) models. Although SBML is a widely accepted standard within this field, there is still no language-neutral library which supports all features of SBML for ...

Objective:This report describes a multidisciplinary design project conducted in an academic setting reflecting a systems-oriented, human-centered philosophy in the design of neonatal incubator technologies.Study Design:Graduate students in Architectural Design and Human Factors Engineering courses collaborated in a design effort that focused on supporting the needs of three user groups of ...

PURPOSEAIM: This purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability, minimal detectable change (MDC), and concurrent validity of active spinal mobility measurements using a gravity-based bubble inclinometer and iPhone® application. The procedures used in this investigation for measuring spinal mobility yielded good intrarater and interrater reliability with Intraclass Correlation ...

Three-component systems are often more complex than their two-component counterparts. Although the reversible association of three components in solution is critical for a vast array of chemical and biological processes, no general physical picture of such systems has emerged. Here we have developed a general, comprehensive framework for understanding ternary ...

Support vector machines (SVMs) have been proved to be an effective approach to speaker verification. An appropriate selection of the kernel function is a key issue in SVM-based classification. In this letter, a new SVM-based speaker verification method utilizing weighted kernels in the Gaussian mixture model supervector space is proposed. ...

In the paraxial form of the Debye integral for focusing, higher order defocus terms are ignored, which can result in errors in dealing with aberrations, even for low numerical aperture. These errors can be avoided by using a different integration variable. The aberrations of a glass slab, such as a ...

Abstract The ubiquity and portability of mobile devices provide additional opportunities for information retrieval. People can easily access mobile applications anytime and anywhere when they need to acquire specific context-aware recommendations (contextual offer) from their friends. This study, thus, represents an initial attempt to understand users' acceptance of a mobile-based ...

Paper-based microfluidic devices have been widely investigated in recent years. Among various detection techniques, colorimetric method plays a very important role in paper-based microfluidic devices. The limitation, however, is also clear: they generally require highly sensitive indicators. In this work, we have developed a novel enrichment-based paper test for the ...

This review surveys selected methods of manufacture and applications of microdevices-miniaturized functional devices capable of handling cell and tissue cultures or producing particles-and discusses their potential relevance to nanomedicine. Many characteristics of microdevices such as miniaturization, increased throughput, and the ability to mimic organ-specific microenvironments are promising for the rapid, ...

The recent interest for measuring (220)Rn activity in air and the following development of the corresponding measurement techniques require the improvement of standards for the calibration and characterization of the measurement devices. Due to the short half-life of the (220)Rn, the adopted techniques for the production of (222)Rn sources are ...

In the event of a rogue nuclear attack or interception of illicit nuclear materials, timely forensic investigations are critical for accurate source attribution. Uranium (U) and plutonium (Pu) isotopic ratios of intercepted materials or post-detonation samples are, perhaps, the most valuable evidence in modern nuclear forensics. These ratios simultaneously provide ...

By minimizing the zero-norm of the separating hyperplane, the support feature machine (SFM) finds the smallest subspace (the least number of features) of a data set such that within this subspace, two classes are linearly separable without error. This way, the dimensionality of the data is more efficiently reduced than ...

In order to calibrate measurement devices for the activity concentration of Rn-222 (radon) in air below 1000Bq/m(3), a constant for long time (>5d), homogeneous reference atmosphere is created by a certified activity in a certified volume. The PTB developed this reference atmosphere from 150Bq/m(3) to 2000Bq/m(3) based on the precisely ...

Can markets assist by providing support for ecological restoration, and if so, under what conditions? The first step in addressing this question is to develop a consistent methodology for economic evaluation of ecological restoration projects. A risk analysis process was followed in which a system dynamics model was constructed for ...

There has been growing interest in developing more effective learning machines for tensor classification. At present, most of the existing learning machines, such as support tensor machine (STM), involve non-convex optimization problems and need to resort to iterative techniques. Obviously, it is very time-consuming and may suffer from local minima. ...

Heart failure is a leading cause of death in human populations, and as people live longer, it is becoming an increasingly prominent problem. Because of the insufficient numbers of donor hearts, physicians and engineers are turning to mechanical circulatory support in the form of ventricular assist devices (VADs). Their clinical ...

Abstract Background: Predictable delivery of aerosol medication for a given patient and drug-device combination is crucial, both for therapeutic effect and to avoid toxicity. The gold standard for measuring pulmonary drug deposition (PDD) is gamma scintigraphy. However, these techniques expose patients to radiation, are complicated, and are relevant for only ...

The purpose of this work is to develop a virtual source model (VSM) for the 50 kV INTRABEAM® device for Monte Carlo (MC) dose calculation. The geometry of the device was modelled in Geant4. A phase space file (PSF) was computed by simulating the interactions of monoenergetic primary electrons with the ...

MrBayes, using Metropolis coupled Markov chain Monte Carlo [MCMCMC, or (MC)(3) for short], is a popular program for Bayesian inference. As a leading method of using DNA data to infer phylogeny, now the (MC)(3) Bayesian algorithm and its improved and parallel versions are all not fast enough for Biologists to ...

D-optimal designs for nonlinear models are often minimally supported. They have been frequently criticized for their inability to test for lack of fit. We construct alternative designs to address this issue for some commonly used sigmoid curves, including logistic, probit, and Gompertz models with two, three, or four parameters. For ...

Background: Long-term cohort studies and lung function laboratories are confronted with the need for replacement of spirometers. Lack of agreement between spirometers might affect the longitudinal comparison of data, notably when replacing conventional by portable spirometers. Objectives: To compare the handheld EasyOne (EO) with the conventional SensorMedics (SM) spirometer, and ...

Assisted wheelchair navigation is of key importance for persons with severe disabilities. The problem has been solved in different ways, usually based on the shared control paradigm. This paradigm consists of giving the user more or less control on a need basis. Naturally, these approaches require personalization: each wheelchair user ...

Successful anatomic fitting of a total artificial heart (TAH) is vital to achieve optimal pump hemodynamics after device implantation. Although many anatomic fitting studies have been completed in humans prior to clinical trials, few reports exist that detail the experience in animals for in vivo device evaluation. Optimal hemodynamics are ...