Interfacing remote transaction services using UPnP

Transaction execution in mobile environments needs to be flexible, not only to support typical mobile computing characteristics, like movement, disconnections and limited resources, but also to support the variety of transactional properties that might be required by different applications. Existing models for mobile transaction management solve different aspects of transaction execution, but are not flexible enough to solve all required aspects. Instead of designing a new transaction model, we propose a middleware (MobileTSe) which utilize existing transaction models to handle various requirements for mobile transaction execution. This paper presents an approach for flexible transaction processing in mobile applications, and describes how MobileTSe makes transaction services with different properties available on mobile units. We suggest a solution with transaction service discovery and control using UPnP.     

基于加权优先级和分类匹配的图像修复方法

待修复像素优先级的计算及最佳匹配块的确定是基于纹理合成图像修复方法的两个基本环节,传统方法不仅难于确定优先级计算中的置信度,而且难于搜索到最佳匹配块.提出了一种基于加权优先级和分类匹配的图像修复方法,该方法在优先级模型中,引入指数函数和正规化函数分别优化置信度和数据项,使得计算的优先级更加客观,从而使修复顺序更加合理.基于此,将结构信息作为搜索匹配块的一个度量因子,采用分类筛选方式,选取最佳匹配块.实验结果表明,所提方法在获得良好修复效果的前提下缩短了修复时间.     

Using the community health assessment to screen for continued driving

This project used the interRAI based, community health assessment (CHA) to develop a model for identifying current elder drivers whose driving behavior should be reviewed. The assessments were completed by independent housing sites in COLLAGE, a non-profit, national senior housing consortium. Secondary analysis of data drawn from older adults in COLLAGE sites in the United States was conducted using a baseline assessment with 8042 subjects and an annual follow-up assessment with 3840 subjects. Logistic regression was used to develop a Driving Review Index (DRI) based on the most useful items from among the many measures available in the CHA assessment. Thirteen items were identified by the logistic regression to predict drivers whose driving behavior was questioned by others. In particular, three variables reference compromised decision-making abilities: general daily decisions, a recent decline in ability to make daily decisions, and ability to manage medications. Two additional measures assess cognitive status: short-term memory problem and a diagnosis of non-Alzheimers dementia. Functional measures reflect restrictions and general frailty, including receiving help in transportation, use of a locomotion appliance, having an unsteady gait, fatigue, and not going out on most days. The final three clinical measures reflect compromised vision, little interest or pleasure in things normally enjoyed, and diarrhea. The DRI focuses the review process on drivers with multiple cognitive and functional problems, including a significant segment of potentially troubled drivers who had not yet been publicly identified by others. There is a need for simple and quickly identified screening tools to identify those older adults whose driving should be reviewed. The DRI, based on the interRAI CHA, fills this void. Assessment at the individual level needs to be part of the backdrop of science as society seeks to target policy to identify high risk drivers instead of simply age-based testing.     

Relative dominance of physical versus chemical effects on the transport of adhesion-deficient bacteria in intact cores from South Oyster, Virginia

Bacterial transport experiments were conducted using intact sediment cores collected from sites on the Delmarva Peninsula near South Oyster, VA, to delineate the relative importance of physical and chemical heterogeneity in controlling transport of an adhesion-deficient bacterial strain. Electron microscopy revealed that the sediments consisted of quartz and feldspar with a variable amount of clay and iron and aluminum hydroxide coatings on the grains. A nonmotile, gram-negative indigenous groundwater strain, designated as Comamonas sp. DA001, was injected into the cores along with a conservative tracer bromide (Br). DA001 cells were 1.2 x 0.6 microm in size with a hydrophilic surface and a slightly negative surface charge. Bacterial breakthrough preceded that of Br. This differential advection phenomenon can be accounted for by reduction of the effective porosity for the bacteria relative to Br. The distribution of cells remaining in the core as determined by scintillation counting and phosphor imaging techniques was variable, ranging from nearly uniform concentrations throughout the core to exponentially decreasing concentrations with distance from the point of injection. The fraction of bacterial retention in the core was positively correlated with the abundance of the metal hydroxides and negatively correlated with grain size. Because grain size was inversely correlated with the abundance of the metal hydroxide coatings, it was necessary to separate the effects of grain size and mineralogy. The fraction of the bacterial retention accounting for the effect of grain size, the collision efficiency, exhibited no correlation with the abundance of the metal hydroxides, indicating that the bacterial retention was primarily controlled by grain size. Reasons for the lack of influence of mineralogy on bacterial transport include (i) the slightly negatively charged bacterial surfaces; (ii) an insufficient heterogeneity of sediment surface properties; and (iii) the masking of the positive charge of the metal hydroxide surfaces by adsorbed organic carbon (up to 1180 ppm). This study demonstrates that the laboratory-based bacterial transport experiments are effective in delineating physical versus chemical controlling factors and provide an important link to field-based bacterial transport studies.     

Long-term effects of family-based treatment of childhood obesity.

This study was a 5-year follow-up of obese children who participated in a family-based behavioral weight-control program targeting and reinforcing children and parents for weight loss (Epstein, Wing, Koeske, Andrasik, & Ossip, 1981). Children in the parent-plus-child group showed significantly greater weight reductions after 5 years (–22.7% overweight) than did children in a child-alone target group or in a no-target control group (4.3% and 8.2% overweight, respectively). One third of children in the parent-plus-child group were within 20% of normal weight in comparison with 5% of the children in the no-target control group. Height percentile decreased from the 72nd to the 60th percentile; these changes were negatively related to weight change. These children remained taller than the average child after weight loss, and children of short and medium-height parents were still relatively taller than their parents after 5 years. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of parent weight on weight loss in obese children.

Assessed the effect of parent weight (obese/nonobese parent) and parent control vs child self-control on the weight loss of 41 obese 8–12 yr olds over a 3-yr period. Children of nonobese parents had significantly greater decrease in relative weight after 1 yr, but not after 3 yrs, than children of obese parents. Locus of control was not related to treatment outcome over the 3 yrs. Results suggest that parent weight was related to weight loss, but not weight maintenance, in obese children. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues to consider in conducting nonsexist psychological research: A guide for researchers.

Discusses the operation of sexism in all areas of psychological research, from broad conceptual issues to narrow methodological concerns. It is argued that sexism, in the form of unexamined assumptions about the sexes and unequal treatment of males and females may enter psychological research at any phase of a research project. Three major types of barriers to sex-fair research are identified: excessive confidence in traditional methods of research, bias in explanatory systems, and inappropriate conceptualization and operationalization. A series of recommendations are offered to eliminate some of the most common forms of sexist bias in research and to stimulate critical discussion of practices within psychology that encourage or fail to challenge sexist bias. (103 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unique roles of antisocial personality disorder and psychopathic traits in distress tolerance.

Previous research indicates that individuals with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) evidence low distress tolerance, which signifies impaired ability to persist in goal-directed behavior during an aversive situation, and is associated with a variety of poor interpersonal and drug use outcomes. Based on theory and research indicating that psychopathic traits are associated with hypo-reactivity in emotional responding, a unique hypothesis emerges where psychopathic traits should have the opposite effect of ASPD and be related to high levels of distress tolerance. In a sample of 107 substance-dependent patients in an inner-city substance use residential treatment facility, this hypothesis was supported. ASPD was related to lower distress tolerance, while psychopathic traits were related to higher distress tolerance, with each contributing unique variance. Findings are discussed in relation to different presentations of distress tolerance as a function of psychopathic traits among those with an ASPD diagnosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of Small Additions of Fe and Heavy Deformation on the Precipitation in an Al–1.1Mg–0.5Cu–0.3Si At. Pct Alloy

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - The effect of 0.03 and 0.08 at. pct Fe additions on the formation of secondary phases in an Al–1.1Mg–0.5Cu–0.3Si at. pct alloy was...