The effects of unitization on familiarity-based source memory: Testing a behavioral prediction derived from neuroimaging data.

Performance on tests of source memory is typically based on recollection of contextual information associated with an item. However, recent neuroimaging results have suggested that the perirhinal cortex, a region thought to support familiarity-based item recognition, may support source attributions if source information is encoded as a feature of the relevant item (i.e., "unitized"). The authors hypothesized that familiarity may contribute to source memory performance if item and source information are unitized during encoding, whereas performance may rely more heavily on recollection if source information is encoded as an arbitrary contextual association. Three source recognition experiments examining receiver operating characteristics and response deadline performance indicated that familiarity makes a greater contribution to source memory if source and item information are unitized during encoding. These findings suggest that familiarity can contribute to source recognition and that its contribution depends critically on the way item and source information are initially processed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heat and mass transfer analysis in air-cooling of spherical food products

The one dimensional transient heat conduction equation, in spherical co-ordinates, is solved with convective surface boundary condition, during air-cooling. The enthalpy potential concept is used to include the cooling effect of desiccation. A calculation scheme is proposed in which, up to half the cooling time, the calculation is made with both heat and mass transfer from the product surface, thereafter it is continued with heat transfer only. The calculated temperatures for apples and potatoes are compared with the measured values available in the literature, and good agreement is observed.     

How and why do subcontractors experience different safety on high-risk work sites?

In high-risk industries such as construction, mining and energy, subcontractors play an increasingly significant role. A typical arrangement is for the site owner to hire a principal contractor who in turn hires multiple subcontractors. This means that multiple subcontractors from multiple companies can be working on the same site at the same time. There is evidence that the use of subcontractors is not only increasing, but that the accident rates for subcontractor employees are higher than those of operator/site owner employees. Existing research on subcontractors, which focuses on the role of the prime contractor in selecting and managing subcontractors, fails to explain why subcontractors continue to experience higher rates of serious injury even where subcontractor management systems are in place. The purpose of this paper is to understand how and why employees of subcontractors’ experience safety differently from employees of principal contractors. The paper does so by extensively reviewing the applicable literature and reporting on a cross-industry focus group study.     

Generation of uniform small bubbles and hydrodynamic characterization of a bubble column with high pressure jet sparger

Systems generating uniform small bubbles are used in many mineral processing and chemical operations. We investigated the generation of smaller bubbles by using a two fluid jet system. Gas holdup results are reported in terms of the effect of superficial gas and liquid velocities in relation to the pressure in a bubble column with a water jet sparger. Experiments were conducted with hydrostatic head of 80 cm, 100 cm, and 120 cm in the bubble column. The gas velocity varied from 0.122 to 1.22 cm/s, and water flow rate from 33.3 to 333 cm³/s. Experiments were conducted at pressures of 2 atms., 3 atms. 4 atms. and 5 atms., and bubble sizes were measured by a digital camera (bubble compared to a reference wire inside the bubble column). Results show that the gas holdup increases with the pressure and superficial gas velocities; and at pressures of 2, 3, 4 and 5 atms., the gas holdup increases by 8.75%, 9.166%, 10% and 10%, respectively. The maximum gas holdup of 16.4% was observed at a liquid level of 80 cm and pressure of 4 atms. Optimum conditions for generating smaller bubbles with larger gas holdup are increased liquid flow rate, low liquid level, and high gas pressure. Experimental results also indicate that the column operates in both the homogeneous and heterogeneous regimes of gas-liquid flow.     

Reversed signal propagation BDD based low‐power pass‐transistor logic synthesis

Binary decision diagrams (BDDs) are the most frequently used data structure for the representation and manipulation of Boolean functions in the area of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) CAD. In this paper, we propose the reversed‐signal‐propagation (RSP) BDD‐based low‐power pass‐transistor logic (PTL) synthesis. In RSP BDD, the signal flow direction is opposite to that of the forward BDD. So the power supply is taken as a root node and the terminal nodes 0 and 1 represent the function in its normal and complement form. We propose an efficient way to construct the multi‐output function RSP BDD and its PTL realization. Simulation results of the proposed method give lower power consumption and high performance as a result of reduced switching activity than the existing techniques. The power improvement is about 70–80% compared to the existing techniques. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A collaborative model for capacity expansion of the IC foundry industry

Collaborative project management is becoming a key means of survival for managing the integrated circuit (IC) foundry business. Starting a new IC foundry fabrication project involves complex organizational collaboration and systems integration. In the past, the lack of adequate theoretical approaches to combine parallel systems has led to poor integration of information and poor communication. This paper presents an object-oriented reference model for helping the project managers and the participants to better manage the collaborative relationship and systems integration during the expansion of new IC fabrication foundries. The tool set of the architecture of integrated information systems (ARIS) is applied to describe the interaction between the organization, events, functions, and the systems flow. An object-oriented analysis approach is used to represent the architecture of the collaborative model. A prototype Web-based platform is constructed to demonstrate the model for the capacity expansion of the IC foundry industry and show the improved communication channel.     

Automation of environmental ELISAs

ELISAs for pesticides and herbicides in environmental and agricultural samples are becoming very important in screening applications [1-3]. Traditional chromatographic methods are expensive and results need long turnaround times, making them incompatible with rapid on-site decision making. ELISA methods have been shown to meet or exceed the performance of gas chromatography—they offer rapid low-cost analysis, thereby increasing the frequency of sampling and enhancing data quality. Automated ELISA workstations allow the full benefit of these kits to be realized. Sample preparation, reagent pipetting, incubation, and photometric evaluation can be performed without user intervention. Reliability is increased through the elimination of operator error, better accuracy and precision, and often higher speed. Much larger batch sizes are possible and these systems can provide sample tracking with report generation for documentation requirements. In this paper the manual procedures and ELISA methods are compared and some critical aspects of automating these ELISA kits are discussed.     

Membrane rejection of nonspherical particles: Modeling and experiment

The rejection coefficient of nonspherical particles from ultrafiltration and microfiltration membranes has been examined from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. Modeling efforts focused on incorporating the convective hindrance factor for a capsule shaped particle in a cylindrical pore into predictions of the rejection coefficient. First, the convective hindrance factor was approximated using previously reported results for the hydrodynamic resistances experienced by a sphere in a pore. Second, computational fluid dynamics calculations predicted the convective hindrance factor for a capsule in a cylindrical pore. Results from both approaches indicate that including hydrodynamic interactions in predictions of the rejection coefficient has a greater effect for smaller particles and particles with smaller aspect ratio (i.e., close to spherical shape). Rejections of several rod‐shaped Gram negative bacteria with aspect ratio from 2 to 5 by clean track‐etched membranes were in general agreement with theoretical predictions. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 3863–3873, 2013