Sleep deprivation,chronic exercise and muscular performance

Muscular performance was tested during 64 hours of sleep deprivation with and without intermittent excercise (treadmill walking at 28% of maximum oxygen intake). The subjects (12 males aged 22·7 ± 2·2 years) carried out a cross-over trial with an 8 week interval separating the two periods of sleep deprivation. The sleep deprivation did not change the time for a 40 m dash, isometric handgrip force or balance (stabilometer test). Vertical jump height decreased, the change being significant for simple sleep deprivation, but not for the combination of deprivation and intermittent exercise. Sleep deprivation decreased isokinetic extension force at 60° s?1, while intermittent walking decreased isokinetic extension force at both 60 and 180° ?1; however, there was no significant difference between exercise plus sleep deprivation and sleep deprivation alone at either angular velocity. We conclude that the moderate intensity of physical activity likely in industrial work has little influence upon human performance under conditions of sleep deprivation.     

Energy awareness and uncertainty in microarchitecture-level design

The authors present microarchitecture-level statistical models for characterizing process and system parameter variability, concentrating on gate length and on-chip temperature variations. To assess the effect of microarchitecture decisions on these variations, and vice versa, they propose a joint performance, power, and variability metric that distinguishes among various design choices.     

Thresholding using relaxation

If a picture contains dark objects on a light background (or vice versa), the objects can be extracted by thresholding, i.e., by classifying the pixels into ``light' and ``dark' classes. If the picture is noisy, so that the object and background gray level populations overlap, there will be errors in the thresholded output. A relaxation process can be used to reduce these errors; we classify the pixels probabilistically, and then adjust the probabilities for each pixel, based on its neighbors' probabilities, with light reinforcing light and dark dark. When this adjustment process is iterated, the dark probabilities become very high for pixels that belong to dark regions, and vice versa, so that thresholding becomes trivial.     

Influence of time of day and partial sleep loss on muscle strength in eumenorrheic females

Disrupted sleep is the most common form of sleep deprivation in travellers, shift workers, athletes the night before important competitions and among parents of infants. The influence of partial sleep loss on muscle strength might differ according to the time of testing on the following day. This study was therefore designed to assess the interaction between the effects of partial sleep loss and time of day on muscle strength in females. Eight sedentary eumenorrheic females (mean +/- SD; age 30 +/- 6 years, height 1.62 +/- 0.06 m and body mass 67 +/- 5.0 kg) took part in the study, in a counterbalanced design. Measurements of muscle strength were carried out at 06:00 and 18:00 hours after the one control night (no sleep loss) and the one night of partial sleep loss, during menses. Muscle strength measures included isokinetic (at 1.05, 3.14 rad s(-1); 90 degrees range of motion) and isometric peak torque (at 60 degrees of knee flexion) of knee extensors and flexors (dominant leg). In addition, isometric force of knee extensors with super-imposed electrical twitches (50 Hz, 250 V, 200 mus pulse width) was measured using the same procedure in order to control for motivation. Rectal temperature was measured during the 30 min before muscle strength measurements. Partial sleep loss consisted of allowing 2.5 h sleep (between 03:00 and 05:30 h), whilst in the control condition (no sleep loss) subjects retired between 22:30 and 23:30 h, rising at 05:30 hours. All measurements were conducted at just one phase of the menstrual cycle (menses) to prevent any masking effect due to different phases of the menstrual cycle. In both conditions (with and without partial sleep loss) a diurnal variation was observed in peak torque of knee flexors at 1.05 (F(1,7) = 5.5, p < 0.05) and 3.14 rad s(-1) (F(1,7) = 8.0, p < 0.05); values at 18:00 hours were 4.5 and 5.9% higher than at 06:00 hours, respectively. No significant diurnal variation was observed for the other muscle strength measures. No significant effect of partial sleep loss or interaction effect (sleep x time of day) was observed for muscle strength measures. However, the performance rhythms were in phase with the circadian rhythm in rectal temperature. Partial sleep deprivation over one night did not have any adverse effect on maximal muscle strength, nor on diurnal variations of muscle strength indices. As the effect of time of day was observed with some of the muscle strength measures, it is suggested that, in designing future studies using females, the control of time of day is essential.     

IEEE 802.16e休眠模式算法的研究和改进

IEEE 802.16e为移动站点提供了大范围的无线接入,为了减少移动站点的功率消耗,它提出了一种节能机制休眠模式.移动站点在休眠间隔后进入监听间隔,检查其间是否有数据分组到达.如果有,它将进入清醒状态接收数据,否则,继续进入休眠间隔.草案中所提出的休眠模式指数增长算法在低业务量情况下,响应时间过长.文中提出了线性增长算法解决这一问题,理论分析了该算法的两个性能指标平均响应时间和平均能量消耗.并结合仿真实验,对比了这两种算法的性能,证实了后者具有较好的性能.进一步分析了休眠模式各个参数对上述两个性能指标的影响,对参数值的选取有重要帮助.     

Estimation of body and tail distribution under extreme events for reliability analysis

In the past decades, many reliability analyses have been developed and applied to engineering fields considering uncertainties of input and output random variables as normal distributions. However, when input uncertainty is taken into the system as extreme events such as weather, temperature, environmental conditions etc., output distribution cannot be described by normal distribution. On the other hand, one of distributions to analyze reliability of a system under extreme events is generalized Pareto distribution. Generalized Pareto distribution has been developed and applied for modelling extreme events. However, conventional methods estimate only the shape and scale parameters by assuming that the location parameter is chosen by experiences focused only on the tail distribution. However, since the tail distribution affected by the body distribution and vice versa, both the body and tail distributions should be considered when the parameters of distribution are estimated. In this study, therefore, a new parameter estimation method is proposed to determine shape, scale and location parameters simultaneously by combining likelihood functions of body and tail distributions using Akaike information criterion and generalized Pareto distribution, respectively. Finally, the parameters of body and tail distributions are estimated by maximum likelihood estimation. The proposed method is verified by using mathematical examples with and without inclusion of extreme events. Results show that the proposed method can estimate parameters and distributions for body and tail distributions as well as the more accurate reliability of system under extreme events.     

An efficient model for the prediction of SMAP sea surface salinity using machine learning approaches in the Persian Gulf

ABSTRACT

Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) is a pre-eminent parameter in oceanology causing extreme climate and weather events such as floods and droughts. Therefore, knowledge discovery of SSS is increasingly becoming a fundamental problem in recent years. However, not only the inadequacy of in-situ SSS data in large ocean basins are hampering conduction of detailed analyses of patterning SSS variations but also conventional data-gathering techniques for SSS estimation are often too expensive and time-consuming to meet the amount of data required in SSS estimation studies. Conversely, the brand-new Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) mission could provide validated SSS data along with its main objective soil moisture retrieval. As a result, collecting a candidate data set of surface’s parameters as inputs to SSS with the aid of Pearson correlation and Boruta feature selection techniques, this paper aims to study the predictive skills of machine learning approaches to estimate SMAP radiometer SSS in the Persian Gulf region from April 2015 to April 2017. Thus, four machine learning methods including Support Vector Regression (SVR), artificial neural network (ANN), random forest (RF) and gradient boosting machine (GBM) were adopted to model the SSS. Two approaches of GBM and RF provided scarcely equivalent predictions for both the calibration and validation data sets that were distinguishably substantiated by experimental results and simulations, nonetheless, slightly superior results were attained with the GBM model by correlation coefficient (r) = 0.734, root mean squared error (RMSE) = 0.906 and mean absolute error (MAE) = 0.627. The findings demonstrate promising SSS estimation from SMAP, which could provide a baseline to perceive the large-scale changes in SSS.     

Detection of marine aerosol particles in coastal zones using satellite imagery

Regions of brightness variations are common in visible and near-infrared satellites images from clear coastal regions. The variations have been hypothesized to be caused by aerosol particles in the marine boundary layer. The hypothesis was tested using in situ particle measurements collected near the time of satellite overpasses. Boundary-layer particle concentrations related to the brightness variations: high concentrations existed in bright regions and vice versa. This result indicates that, in regions over the ocean free of clouds, sunglint and whitecaps, the visible and near-infrared sensors aboard certain orbiting meteorological satellites can detect variations in the concentrations of haze particles in the marine boundary layer.     

Night shift paralysis in air traffic control officers

Abstract

In an earlier paper (Folkard et al. 1984) we reported on the incidence of a temporary but incapacitating paralysis known as ‘night shift paralysis’. This appeared to be a special form of sleep paralysis that occurs when night workers manage to maintain a state of wakefulness despite considerable pressures to sleep. The incidence of this paralysis might thus be assumed to reflect the level of sleep deprivation associated with different shift systems or individuals. The present survey was designed to examine this possibility in a sample of 435 Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs) from 17 different countries who were on a variety of different work schedules. The incidence of this paralysis was found to be affected by four main factors, all of which might reasonably be assumed to influence the night-worker's level of sleep deprivation or sleepiness. These were the time of night, the number of consecutive night shifts, the requirement to work both a morning and a night shift starting on the same day and individual differences in the flexibility of sleeping habits. These results suggest that the incidence of this paralysis may indeed prove to be a useful ‘critical incident’ for comparing the level of sleep deprivation associated with different shift systems or individuals.     

Effects of an electric blanket on sleep stages and body temperature in young men

The aim of this study was to investigate any effects of electric blanket on sleep stages and body temperature. Nine male subjects slept under two conditions: using the electric blanket (HB); and not using the electric blanket (C). The ambient condition was controlled at 3 degrees C relative humidity 50-80%. Electroencephalography, electrooculography (EOG) and electromyography, rectal temperature, skin temperature and microclimate temperature and humidity were recorded continuously through the night. Body weight was measured before and after sleep. The amount of stage 1 and number of stage 1 and rapid eye movement sleep decreased in HB compared to C. No significant difference was observed in other sleep stages. Rectal temperature was higher in HB compared to C. The thigh, leg and foot skin temperature was higher in HB than C. The microclimate temperature of the foot area was higher in HB compared to C. No significant difference was observed in whole body sweat loss between the conditions. These results suggest that use of an electric blanket under low ambient temperature may decrease cold stress to support sleep stability and thermoregulation during sleep.     

Effects of an electric blanket on sleep stages and body temperature in young men

The aim of this study was to investigate any effects of electric blanket on sleep stages and body temperature. Nine male subjects slept under two conditions: using the electric blanket (HB); and not using the electric blanket (C). The ambient condition was controlled at 3°C relative humidity 50?–?80%. Electroencephalography, electrooculography (EOG) and electromyography, rectal temperature, skin temperature and microclimate temperature and humidity were recorded continuously through the night. Body weight was measured before and after sleep. The amount of stage 1 and number of stage 1 and rapid eye movement sleep decreased in HB compared to C. No significant difference was observed in other sleep stages. Rectal temperature was higher in HB compared to C. The thigh, leg and foot skin temperature was higher in HB than C. The microclimate temperature of the foot area was higher in HB compared to C. No significant difference was observed in whole body sweat loss between the conditions. These results suggest that use of an electric blanket under low ambient temperature may decrease cold stress to support sleep stability and thermoregulation during sleep.     

Sleep package model mathematical model for a sleep pattern

In order to design the better sleep-wake schedule for shift workers, the mathematical model for sleep called SLEEP PACKAGE MODEL was developed. When we get three parameters; time to fall asleep (t), the length of sleep period (Ls), and the waking time (Tw) before a sleep are given, the model can predict the sleep pattern, namely NonREM-REM cycle pattern. In order to examine the ability of the model, the sleep patterns for 60 nights of 20 male young adults were recorded under the usual night condition (t=23:00, Ls=8 hrs, and Tw=16 hrs), and the recovery sleep of one university male student was recorded after the 72 hrs sleep deprivation condition (t=09:00,Ls=10 hrs, and Tw=72 hrs). The usual night sleep and the recovery sleep after sleep deprivation were predicted by the model. The estimated sleep patterns by the model were compared with the actual sleep pattern in the experiment, as the results, the estimated sleep patterns by the model is very similar to the acutal sleep patterns. So thatm the result suggests that the application of this model to human engineering field could be expected.     

Duality between frequency–shaped LQ regulation and coloured noise estimation

The idea of duality in control theory results from the striking symmetry between the properties of controllability and observability of linear systems. It is well known that the duality between the optimum regulator problem (ORP) and the optimum estimator problem (OEP) can be used to obtain properties of the OEP from the ORP and vice versa; moreover, computer programs designed for ORP_s can be used for solving OEP_s and vice versa. Emphasis is laid on the duality between a controller design technique, based on frequency–shaped performance indices, the extended optimum regulator problem, and a technique for solving the optimum state estimation problem for an LT1 system with additive coloured noise, the extended optimum estimator problem.     

Circadian characteristics influencing interindividual differences in tolerance and adjustment to shiftwork

The study was carried out to evaluate whether shiftworkers showing different long-term tolerance to shiftwork differ in their circadian adjustments and/or in some behavioural characteristics. Three groups of eight workers, engaged on three shifts in a graphic plant and matched for age and work experience, were selected according to the presence or not of complaints related to shiftwork: (1) no complaints; (2) nervous complaints (anxiety/depression, severe sleep disturbances); (3) digestive disorders (gastroduodenitis, peptic ulcer). They answered questionnaires on family conditions, health status, rigidity of sleeping habits, ability to overcome drowsiness, morningness, manifest anxiety. They also recorded several physiological parameters (oral temperature, grip strength, peak expiratory flow rate, pulse rate, sleep hours) during day and night-shifts. The data obtained indicate that the characteristics of flexibility of sleeping habits, ability to overcome drowsiness, and lower manifest anxiety, are associated with better tolerance to shiftwork. These characteristics do not seem to influence the adjustment of the circadian rhythm of oral temperature passing from day to night-shifts and vice versa. Conversely, morningness appeared to be unrelated to long-term tolerance, but did influence circadian adjustments and sleep behaviour. Among the groups, the subjects with digestive disorders showed a greater phase shift and a reduction of the amplitude on night-work, suggesting a possible relationship also between the short-term circadian adjustment and the long-term tolerance to shiftwork, as pointed out by other authors.     

The Subgraph Similarity Problem

Similarity is a well known weakening of bisimilarity where one system is required to simulate the other and vice versa. It has been shown that the subgraph bisimilarity problem, a variation of the subgraph isomorphism problem where isomorphism is weakened to bisimilarity, is NP-complete. We show that the subgraph similarity problem and some related variations thereof still remain NP-complete.     

基于统计信息的Cache漏流功耗估算方法

随着工艺尺寸的缩小,漏流功耗逐渐成为制约微处理器设计的主要因素之一.Sleep Cache与Drowsy Cache是两种降低Cache漏流功耗的重要技术.基于统计信息的Cache漏流功耗估算方法(SB-CLPE)用于对Sleep Cache或Drowsy Cache进行Cache漏流功耗估算,根据该方法设计的Cache体系结构能够在程序执行过程中实时估算Cache漏流功耗.通过对所有Cache块的访问间隔时间进行统计,SB_CLPE可以估算出使用不同衰退间隔时Cache的漏流功耗,从而得到使Cache漏流功耗最低的最佳衰退间隔.实验表明,SB_CLPE对Sleep Cache的漏流功耗的估算结果与HotLeakage漏流功耗模拟器通过模拟获得的结果相比,平均偏差仅为3.16%,得到的最佳衰退间隔也可以较好吻合.使用SB_CLPE的Cache体系结构可以用于在程序执行过程中对最佳衰退间隔进行实时估算,通过动态调整衰退间隔以达到最优的功耗降低效果.     

液位控制系统的研究与设计

研制的液位实时检测系统可以自动检测液位,该控制系统是用MCS-51系列单片机及其相关硬件来实现的,通过传感器获取液位数据将每个下位机的液位信号传送至上位机,实时显示现场测量数据。液位低于设定的下限值时,系统自动打开泵上水;当水位到达设定值时,系统自动关闭水泵。经试运行表明,该控制系统设计合理、可行。     

A Model to Determine OWA Weights and Its Application in Energy Technology Evaluation

To determine the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) weights, the latent information function is developed to analyze the likelihood of occurrence for the preference value. The more likelihood a preference value is, the bigger the weight is, and vice versa. The proposed model is further extended to the situation where the preference value is an interval number by introducing a new method for interval number comparison. An example of energy technology evaluation is provided to demonstrate that the proposed approach is reasonable and simple.     

On-line inference of tube-wall temperature in an industrial olefin pyrolysis plant

A major difficulty in the efficient functioning of industrial pyrolysis is the lack of suitable on-line tube-wall temperature measurements. In this paper, an inferential scheme is developed to predict the tube-wall temperature, which is called skin temperature, in an industrial olefin pyrolysis plant. Based on a theoretically-derived model, the skin temperature is predicted from the available on-line measured process variables, such as gas temperature around the tube, fuel gas flowrate, and naphtha feed flowrate. Using the infrequently off-line measured skin temperature with the on-line measurements, adjustable parameters of the model are updated on-line according to the Kalman filter technique. The application of this scheme then is illustrated using operating data obtained from an industrial olefin pyrolysis plant. The results of the proposed scheme show that, by taking infrequent measurements of the skin temperature for model adaptation, the skin temperature can be predicted successfully for every tube in the pyrolysis over an extended time interval. Simulations suggest that as few as one or two manual measurements of the skin temperature, taken during the entire cracking operation, provide sufficient information to maintain the developed inferential system at a practical level.     

Nonsymmetric Riccati equations: Partitioned algorithms

Generalized partitioned solutions (GPS) of nonsymmetric matric Riccati equations are presented in terms of forward and backward time differential equations that are of theoretical interest and also are computationally powerful. The GPS are the natural framework for the effective change of initial conditions, and the transformation of backward Riccati equation to forward Riccati equation and vice versa.Based on the GPS, computationally effective algorithms are obtained for the numerical solution of Riccati equations. These partitioned numerical algorithms have a decomposed or “partitioned” structure. They are given exactly in terms of a set of elemental solutions which are completely decoupled, and as such computable in either a parallel or serial processing mode. The overall solution is given exactly in terms of a simple recursive operation on the elemental solutions. Except for a subinterval of the total computation interval, the partitioned numerical algorithms are integration-free for the Riccati equation with constant or periodic matrices.Most importantly based on the GPS, a computationally attractive numerical algorithm is obtained for the computation of the steady-state solution of time-invariant Riccati equations. By making use of the GPS and some simple iterative operations, the Riccati solution is obtained in an interval which is twice as long as the previous interval requiring integration only in the initial subinterval.