The seismic kernel system — a large-scale exercise in fortran 77 portability

The portability of software has become a major commercial issue in recent times. Such portability does not come easily, as few if any computer languages are really portable in practice. An additional complicating factor, especially in the commercial environment, is that the resulting software must be efficient. This paper describes the design and successful implementation of a 500,000+ line portable FORTRAN 77 package for the processing of seismic data. The package exhibits demonstrably high efficiency on a wide variety of machines from minicomputers to the largest supercomputers. Experiences gained during this exercise throw much light on the integration of the various thought processes which occur during the software engineering cycle, especially the notion of locality.     

Differences in color naming and color salience in Vietnamese and English

The accepted model of color naming postulates that 11 “basic” color terms representing 11 common perceptual experiences show increased processing salience due to a theorized linkage between perception, visual neurophysiology, and cognition. We tested this theory, originally proposed by Berlin and Kay in 1969. Experiment 1 tested salience by comparing unconstrained color naming across two languages, English and Vietnamese. Results were compared with previous research by Berlin and Kay, Boynton and Olson, and colleagues. Experiment 2 validated our stimuli by comparing OSA, Munsell, and newly rendered “basic” exemplars using colorimetry and behavioral measures. Our results show that the relationship between the visual and verbal domains is more complex than current theory acknowledges. An interpoint distance model of color‐naming behavior is proposed as an alternative perspective on color‐naming universality and color‐category structure. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 28, 113–138, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.10131     

"I know, you know": Epistemic egocentrism in children and adults.

This article reviews the evidence and theory pertaining to a form of perspective-taking failure--a difficulty in setting aside the privileged information that one knows to be unavailable to another party. The authors argue that this bias (epistemic egocentrism, or EE) is a general feature of human cognition and has been tapped by 2 independent and largely uncommunicating research traditions: the theory-of-mind tradition in developmental psychology and, with more sensitive probes, the "heuristics and biases" tradition in the psychology of human judgment. This article sets the stage for facilitating communication between these traditions as well as for the recognition of EE's breadth and potential interdisciplinary significance. The authors propose a life-span account and a tentative taxonomy of EE; and they highlight the interdisciplinary significance of EE by discussing its implications for normative ethics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inside Front Cover: Three‐Dimensionally Ordered Gold Nanocrystal/Silica Superlattice Thin Films Synthesized via Sol–Gel Self‐Assembly (Adv. Funct. Mater. 7/2006)

The synthesis of three‐dimensionally ordered, transparent gold‐nanocrystal (NC)/silica superlattice thin films using the self‐assembly (by spin‐coating) of water‐soluble gold nanocrystal micelles and soluble silica is reported by Fan and co‐workers on p. 891. The robust, 3D NC/silica superlattice films are of interest for the development of collective optical and electronic phenomena, and, importantly, for the integration of NC arrays into device architectures. Nanocrystals and their ordered arrays hold many important applications in fields such as catalysis, surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy based sensors, memory storage, and electronic and optical nanodevices. Herein, a simple and general method to synthesize ordered, three‐dimensional, transparent gold nanocrystal/silica superlattice thin films by self‐assembly of gold nanocrystal micelles with silica or organosilsesquioxane by spin‐coating is reported. The self‐assembly process is conducted under acidic sol–gel conditions (ca. pH 2), ensuring spin‐solution homogeneity and stability and facilitating the formation of ordered and transparent gold nanocrystal/silica films. The monodisperse nanocrystals are organized within inorganic host matrices as a face‐centered cubic mesostructure, and characterized by transmission electron spectroscopy and X‐ray diffraction.     

Reduced forward operator for electromagnetic wave scattering problems

The paper describes a reduced forward operator for solving electromagnetic scattering problems using a volume integral equation in conjunction with a conjugate gradient fast Fourier transform scheme. The reduction is obtained by decoupling of the interaction between the locations in the spatial computational domain at which there is non-zero contrast and those positions at which there is zero contrast. The decoupling is achieved by multiplication of the kernel by a diagonal matrix whose entries reflect the presence or absence of contrast at the associated point. Analysis supported by numerical experiments shows that the conjugate gradient algorithm applied to the reduced system converges more rapidly than when it is applied to the original system     

Assessing Consequences of Substance Use: Psychometric Properties of the Inventory of Drug Use Consequences.

Negative consequences are an important component of the substance use change process, yet no standardized measure exists to assess consequences of use. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Inventory of Drug Use Consequences, a self-report measure assessing drinking and drug use consequences. Participants (N=252) were assessed at entry into outpatient substance abuse treatment. Items loaded strongly on 1 factor, and internal consistency of the total scale was high. Fifteen items with the highest correlations with the total scale were chosen to represent the construct. The shortened measure exhibited good internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity, and detected change over time and may be the measure of substance use consequences that is lacking in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of capital cost data. part 7: Liquid waste disposal with emphasis on physical treatment

Capital cost correlations are given for oil-water separators, equalization basins, primary clarifiers, clarifiers and clarifier mechanisms, reverse osmosis unit, ultrafiltration units, gravity filters and miroscreens. Data are included for raw sewage, intermediate and recirculation pumping stations and for preliminary treatment (or bar screens, grit removal, overflow and bypass chamber and Parshall flume), for grit removal, comminution and gas stripping. The correlations are accurate to ± 30%, expressed in Canadian dollars and adjusted to a Marshall and Swift value of 1000. Details as to what components are included in the cost are given. Data are given for the labour and material costs to create a working process module. For inflation indices, a critique of the Engineering News Record, EPA small city, Marshall and Swift, Chemical Engineering and Southam inflation indices suggested that the Marshall and Swift index is most appropriate for the construction and process equipment studied here. Concerning the currency exchange, for the equipment and processes in this study, equipment costs the same whether expressed directly in US or Canadian dollars. To put the current data into perspective, several hundred sources of cost data were analyzed. The major correlations are compared, on a consistent basis, with current data.     

Aspects of three-dimensional constrained Delaunay meshing

Presented in this paper are the theoretical aspects of node addition to a non-convex, multiboundary mesh of tetrahedral elements as used in finite element modelling. The method used is derived from Watson¹ and Shenton and Cendes² and is extended to deal with node addition on inter-material boundaries. Several situations are identified that result in an illegal insertion polyhedron (IP), these could be caused by the ‘constrained’ nature of the mesh, adjacent objects with different material properties, or degenerate node configurations. A new Delaunay algorithm is described that checks for illegal cases of the IP and then corrects them, this checking relies on the consistent ordering of the element nodes. It is shown that a particular type of illegal IP can easily be identified and corrected using this technique. The Delaunay algorithm is then applied to automatic mesh generation, and modification to the basic Delaunay algorithm is described so that previously meshed edges and faces of the current object being meshed are not deleted during the addition of subsequent nodes. This ‘protection’ method only becomes viable by recognizing the node ordering sense of the IP faces.