Modeling psychotherapy outcome as an event in time: An application of multistage analysis.

Standard survival analysis (SA) and multistate analysis (MSA) are methods for modeling categorical psychotherapy outcome events over time. The underlying principles, mathematical details, and indications for using each technique are discussed, and data from an anorexia nervosa psychotherapy outcome study comparing psychodynamic psychotherapy with psychodynamic psychotherapy plus cognitive–behavioral techniques are used to illustrate the use of SA and MSA techniques. MSA includes multiple competing outcome states in a single model. A single MSA model includes reaching target weight and treatment dropout before reaching target weight as competing events. It is concluded that MSA is an informative analytic technique in the domain of psychotherapy research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hardware Implementation of Successive-Cancellation Decoders for Polar Codes

The recently-discovered polar codes are seen as a major breakthrough in coding theory; they provably achieve the theoretical capacity of discrete memoryless channels using the low-complexity successive cancellation decoding algorithm. Motivated by recent developments in polar coding theory, we propose a family of efficient hardware implementations for successive cancellation (SC) polar decoders. We show that such decoders can be implemented with O(N) processing elements and O(N) memory elements. Furthermore, we show that SC decoding can be implemented in the logarithmic domain, thereby eliminating costly multiplication and division operations, and reducing the complexity of each processing element greatly. We also present a detailed architecture for an SC decoder and provide logic synthesis results confirming the linear complexity growth of the decoder as the code length increases.     

Pictorial depth increases body sway.

This study examines the effects of pictorial depth on postural stability. In our first experiment, two abstract paintings by Maria Elena Vieira Da Silva (1908–1992) were used. Viewing the unaltered paintings induced greater body sway in participants than the cubist transformations of the same paintings in which depth cues were neutralized. In our second experiment, a Renaissance painting by Piero Della Francesca (c.1415–1492) was used due to its powerful representation of perspective and of sense of a recessed space in the visual field. Participants fixated either the recessed or the foregrounded area of the painting. Body sway was higher in the former case. Thus, body sway can even be modulated within the same painting according to variations of local depth information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigations on possibilities of inline inspection of high aspect ratio microstructures

LIGA is the basic idea of promising developments for the manufacturing of microelectromechanical system parts containing high aspect ratio microstructures. Aim of the work is a brief discussion of the starting-points for inline process inspection within a direct LIGA technology using deep X-ray lithography for the production of micromechanical gear wheels with critical dimensions of ∼35 μm width at ∼1 mm height as well as to show methodic and technical measuring possibilities. Firstly, results of the determination of residual solvent content distribution within ultra-thick SU-8 films are shown obtained from refracted near field optical measurements. Furthermore, the capability of X-ray computer tomographic imaging is discussed and measurements for the determination of the three-dimensional shape of high aspect ratio microstructures are practically demonstrated with microscopic and interferometric optical methods. Finally, first results demonstrate the potential of the optical coherence tomography for several further important measurement tasks, among others, e.g. for the imaging of the distribution of mechanical stress at the resist–substrate interface. The results show that much information which is essential in the LIGA process can be achieved with recently available measurement methods. However, further development of non-destructive measurement techniques would be desirable for an effective inline process control of mass production of micromechanical parts. This work is a summary of the poster “Residual Solvent Content Distribution in Ultra-Thick SU-8 Films and Its Influence on the Imaging Quality” and of the presentation “Possibilities of Inline Process Inspection of High Aspect Ratio LIGA Micro Structures” to the High Aspect Ratio Micro Structure Technology workshop HARMST 2005 held in Gyeongju (Republic of Korea), June 10–13, 2005.     

Using the Concept of Intelligent Agents in Fault Management of Distributed Services

This paper proposes the application of conceptsfrom the area of intelligent agents to overcomedeficiencies of existing management architecturesregarding distribution of functionality and flexibility. Its main contribution is the proposal of amethodology for a flexible, distributed realization ofcomplex management tasks. The main application areas aredistributed services which are complex pieces of software, distributed across variousheterogeneous end systems in a network. Mostly, theyrely on the provision of other services as well. Theapproach relies on well-known concepts, such ascooperative distributed problem solving and intelligentagents, and offers a framework to combine these twoconcepts, providing a step on the roadmap to a flexible,distributed management architecture. The assessment of the approach is displayed throughout thepaper by scenarios from the area of nontime criticalfault management.     

Density-Dependence of Surface Transport in Tellurium-Enriched Nanograined Bulk Bi2Te3

Three-dimensional topological insulators (3D TI) exhibit conventional parabolic bulk bands and protected Dirac surface states. A thorough investigation of the different transport channels provided by the bulk and surface carriers using macroscopic samples may provide a path toward accessing superior surface transport properties. Bi₂Te₃ materials make promising 3D TI models; however, due to their complicated defect chemistry, these materials have a high number of charge carriers in the bulk that dominate the transport, even as nanograined structures. To partially control the bulk charge carrier density, herein the synthesis of Te-enriched Bi₂Te₃ nanoparticles is reported. The resulting nanoparticles are compacted into nanograined pellets of varying porosity to tailor the surface-to-volume ratio, thereby emphasizing the surface transport channels. The nanograined pellets are characterized by a combination of resistivity, Hall- and magneto-conductance measurements together with (THz) time-domain reflectivity measurements. Using the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka (HLN) model, a characteristic coherence length of ≈200 nm is reported that is considerably larger than the diameter of the nanograins. The different contributions from the bulk and surface carriers are disentangled by THz spectroscopy, thus emphasizing the dominant role of the surface carriers. The results strongly suggest that the surface transport carriers have overcome the hindrance imposed by nanoparticle boundaries.     

Empirical model for the quantitative prediction of losses of radial fans based on CFD calculations

In a classical layout process of a fan the quantity of losses is estimated as a sum and expressed in the overall efficiency rate η. However the characteristic of the pressure rise, the losses and the efficiency rate beside the design point is not known. Against this background a numerical model was developed to calculate quantitative values of occurring losses at radial fan impellers at an early stage in the design process. It allows to estimate the pressure rise and efficiency rate of a given fan geometry at and beside the design point. The physics of losses are described in literature, but obtaining quantitative values is still a challenge. As common in hydraulic theory the losses are calculated with analytic formulas supported by coefficients and efficiency rates, which have to be determined empirically. This paper shows the method how to determine the coefficients for a given radial fan. Therefore a representative radial fan with backward curved blades was designed in reference to classical design guidelines. Performance measuring was done conform to ISO 5801. The flow was calculated at 8 different operation points using CFD methods. The RANS equations are solved by using the SST-k-omega turbulence model. The flow domain consists of one blade section including inlet channel and outflow chamber. Spatial discretization is done by a block-structured mesh of approx. 1.8 million cells. Performance data show a very good agreement between measurement and calculation.     

Investigations on the flow field in an unshrouded pump impeller geometry

Transient CFD simulations are performed to investigate the flow behaviour inside an unshrouded pump using the SAS method. Two blade designs are compared at two different tip clearances and the results are validated by measurements. The detected vortex structure is visualized by the normalized helicity, further discussed regarding its development and behaviour and finally implicated to the efficiency of the two different blade designs.