Individual Differences in Susceptibility to False Memory in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm.

The authors addressed whether individual differences in the working memory capacity (WMC) of young adults influence susceptibility to false memories for nonpresented critical words in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott associative list paradigm. The results of 2 experiments indicated that individuals with greater WMC recalled fewer critical words than individuals with reduced WMC when participants were forewarned about the tendency of associative lists (e.g., bed, rest, . . .) to elicit illusory memories for critical words (e.g., sleep). In contrast, both high and low WMC participants used repeated study-test trials to reduce recall of critical words. These findings suggest that individual differences in WMC influence cognitive control and the ability to actively maintain task goals in the face of interfering information or habit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theoretical Correlations and Measured Correlations: Relating Recognition and Recall in Four Distributed Memory Models.

This article addresses the relation between item recognition and associative (cued) recall. Going beyond measures of performance on each task, the analysis focuses on the degree to which the contingency between successful recognition and successful recall of a studied item reflects the commonality of memory processes underlying the recognition and recall tasks. Specifically, 4 classes of distributed memory models are assessed for their ability to account for the relatively invariant correlation (≈ .5) between successive recognition and recall. Basic versions of each model either under- or overpredict the intertask correlation. Introducing variability in goodness-of-encoding and response criteria, as well as output encoding, enabled all 4 models to reproduce the moderate intertask correlation and the increase in correlation observed in 2 mixed-list experiments. This model-based analysis provides a general theoretical framework for interpreting contingencies between successive memory tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naive Beliefs in Baseball: Systematic Distortion in Perceived Time of Apex for Fly Balls.

When fielders catch fly balls they use geometric properties to optically maintain control over the ball. The strategy provides ongoing guidance without indicating precise positional information concerning where the ball is located in space. Here, the authors show that observers have striking misconceptions about what the motion of projectiles should look like from various perspectives and that they estimate when the physical apex of a fly ball occurs to be far later than actual, irrespective of baseball experience. Their estimations are consistent with the highest point they are looking at as the ball approaches, not with the physical apex. These findings introduce a new and robust effect in intuitive perception in which people confuse their perceptual perspective with the physical situation that they mentally represent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Micro-engineered first wall tungsten armor for high average power laser fusion energy systems

The high average power laser program is developing an inertial fusion energy demonstration power reactor with a solid first wall chamber. The first wall (FW) will be subject to high energy density radiation and high doses of high energy helium implantation. Tungsten has been identified as the candidate material for a FW armor. The fundamental concern is long term thermo-mechanical survivability of the armor against the effects of high temperature pulsed operation and exfoliation due to the retention of implanted helium. Even if a solid tungsten armor coating would survive the high temperature cyclic operation with minimal failure, the high helium implantation and retention would result in unacceptable material loss rates. Micro-engineered materials, such as castellated structures, plasma sprayed nano-porous coatings and refractory foams are suggested as a first wall armor material to address these fundamental concerns. A micro-engineered FW armor would have to be designed with specific geometric features that tolerate high cyclic heating loads and recycle most of the implanted helium without any significant failure. Micro-engineered materials are briefly reviewed. In particular, plasma-sprayed nano-porous tungsten and tungsten foams are assessed for their potential to accommodate inertial fusion specific loads. Tests show that nano-porous plasma spray coatings can be manufactured with high permeability to helium gas, while retaining relatively high thermal conductivities. Tungsten foams where shown to be able to overcome thermo-mechanical loads by cell rotation and deformation. Helium implantation tests have shown, that pulsed implantation and heating releases significant levels of implanted helium. Helium implantation and release from tungsten was modeled using an expanded kinetic rate theory, to include the effects of pulsed implantations and thermal cycles. Although, significant challenges remain micro-engineered materials are shown to constitute potential candidate FW armor materials.     

Design of self-regulating production control systems by Tradeoffs Programming

Self-regulating Production Control Systems (SPCSs) include production control systems such as kanban, buffered lines, base-stock, and their variations and combinations. In this work we develop and implement, for SPCS design, a new simulation-based optimization method called Tradeoffs Programming (TOP). TOP is a technique closely related to multi-objective dynamic programming that attempts to optimize inseparable problems. TOP is based on the idea that given correctly defined performance measures, many systems are nearly separable, and we can decompose the overall system using efficiency frontiers of simulated performance measures of the subsystems. We apply this technique to SPCS design and perform a number of experiments to validate and analyze our algorithm. We find TOP to be very accurate, extremely robust, and widely applicable.     

Two Modified Semicircle Control Charts for Detecting Process Improvement

A semicircle control chart can be used in detecting both increases and decreases in the mean and/or variance. In this paper, we propose two modified semicircle charts for detecting a reduction in the process variance, a.k.a. process improvement. Each of these modified semicircle charts, namely, SC1 and SC2 has two limits, defined by the inner and outer semicircles. A process improvement is detected by the SC1 scheme if a point is plotted inside the smallest semicircle, or if two successive points are plotted between the inner and outer semicircles and by the SC2 scheme if a point plots inside the smallest semicircle or if two of three successive points plot between the inner and outer semicircles. It will be shown that the two modified semicircle charts have superior average run length (ARL) performances to the basic semicircle chart in the detection of process improvement. The ARL study is conducted by means of a simulation.     

On the convergence of stationary sequences in topology optimization

We consider structural topology optimization problems including unilateral constraints arising from non‐penetration conditions in contact mechanics. The resulting non‐convex non‐smooth problems are instances of mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints (MPEC), or bi‐level programs. Applying nested (implicit programming) algorithms to this class of problems is problematic owing to the singularity of the feasible set. We propose a perturbation strategy combining the relaxation of the equilibrium constraint with the restriction of the design domain to its regular part only. This strategy allows us to attack the problem numerically using standard non‐linear programming algorithms. We rigorously study the optimality conditions for the original singular problem as well as the convergence of stationary points and globally optimal solutions to approximating problems towards respective stationary points and globally optimal solutions to the original problem. A limited numerical benchmarking of the algorithm is performed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coordinated dispatching of proximity sensors for the surveillance of manoeuvring targets

The surveillance of a manoeuvring target with multiple sensors in a coordinated manner requires a method for selecting and positioning groups of sensors in real time. Herein, the principles of dispatching, as used for the effective operation of service vehicles, are considered. The object trajectory is first discretized into a number of demand instants (data acquisition times), to which groups of sensors are assigned, respectively. Heuristic rules are used to determine the composition of each sensor group by evaluating the potential contribution of each sensor. In the case of dynamic sensors, the position of each sensor with respect to the target is also specified. Our proposed approach aims to improve the quality of the surveillance data in three ways: (1) The assigned sensors are manoeuvred into “optimal” sensing positions, (2) the uncertainty of the measured data is mitigated through sensor fusion, and (3) the poses of the unassigned sensors are adjusted to ensure that the surveillance system can react to future object manoeuvres. If a priori target trajectory information is available, the system performance may be further improved by optimizing the initial pose of each sensor off-line. The advantages of dispatching dynamic sensors over similar static-sensor systems are demonstrated through comprehensive simulations.     

Comparing the effects of text size and format on the readibility of computer-displayed Times New Roman and Arial text

Times New Roman and Arial typefaces in 10- and 12-point, dot-matrix and anti-aliased format conditions were compared for readability (accuracy, reading speed, and accuracy/reading speed), as well as perceptions of typeface legibility, sharpness, ease of reading, and general preference. In assessing readability, the 10-point anti-aliased Arial typeface was read slower than the other type conditions. Examining perceptions of typeface legibility, sharpness, and ease of reading detected significant effects for typeface, size, and format. Overall, the 12-point dot-matrix Arial typeface was preferred to the other typefaces. Recommendations for appropriate typeface combinations for computer-displayed text are discussed.     

Towards Efficient Execution of MPI Applications on the Grid: Porting and Optimization Issues

The message passing interface (MPI) is a standard used by many parallel scientific applications. It offers the advantage of a smoother migration path for porting applications from high performance computing systems to the Grid. In this paper Grid-enabled tools and libraries for developing MPI applications are presented. The first is MARMOT, a tool that checks the adherence of an application to the MPI standard. The second is PACX-MPI, an implementation of the MPI standard optimized for Grid environments. Besides the efficient development of the program, an optimal execution is of paramount importance for most scientific applications. We therefore discuss not only performance on the level of the MPI library, but also several application specific optimizations, e.g., for a sparse, parallel equation solver and an RNA folding code, like latency hiding, prefetching, caching and topology-aware algorithms.