News Media Use and Adolescents' Attitudes about Nuclear Issues: An American-Soviet Comparison

Both Soviet and American youth show a great concern about the possible effects of nuclear war, with heavy media users in both countries more optimistic, but the relation was stronger among Soviet students.     

A sensing strategy for the reverse engineering of machined parts

The reverse engineering of machined parts requires sensing an existing part and producing a design (and perhaps a manufacturing process) for it. We have developed a reverse engineering system that has proven effective with a set of machined parts. This paper describes the system, presents some results, and discusses strategy for a new system.This work was supported by ARPA under ARO grant number DAAH04-93-G-0420, DARPA grant N00014-91-J-4123, NSF grant CDA 9024721, and a University of Utah Research Committee grant. All opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.     

Stability of the solutions of the observation error equations at control of the steel converter process

Consideration was given to the nonlinear observer with the feedback sensitivity function which showed itself well in estimating the carbon and silicon content in the converter melt on the basis of the nonlinear model with time-constant parameters. In the case of controlling the melt temperature by the cooling additives, the plant parameters vary in time, which requires additional studies. For the estimation error under permanent perturbations where the matrix of the linear part is time-dependent, the zero solution of the equation system was proved to be stable.     

Nonlinear suboptimal filtration of pseudorandom sequences

The critical importance of studies of alternative methods of representation and processing of signals constructed from pseudorandom sequences of maximal period is demonstrated. For the first time, it is proposed that a multidimensional nonlinear finite-difference representation of an arbitrary pseudorandom sequence be employed. A suboptimal algorithm for nonlinear discrete Kalman filtration of a pseudorandom sequence is obtained. A numerical example of filtration of a sequence formed on the basis of a given recurrence rule is considered and its efficiency is demonstrated.     

THE IMPORTANCE OF NEUTRAL EXAMPLES FOR LEARNING SENTIMENT

Most research on learning to identify sentiment ignores "neutral" examples, learning only from examples of significant (positive or negative) polarity. We show that it is crucial to use neutral examples in learning polarity for a variety of reasons. Learning from negative and positive examples alone will not permit accurate classification of neutral examples. Moreover, the use of neutral training examples in learning facilitates better distinction between positive and negative examples.     

Semantic priming in schizophrenia: An examination of spreading activation using word pronunciation and multiple SOAs.

Semantic priming in word pronunciation was examined at 5 stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) in 75 medicated and 25 unmedicated people with schizophrenia (SCZ) and in 10 depressed and 28 normal controls. At SOAs     

A cognitive-experiential approach to modelling web navigation

Flow experience, the degree to which a person feels involved in a particular activity, is an important influence on human–computer interaction. Building on Guo and Poole’s (2009) model of flow experience in Web navigation, and van Schaik and Ling's (in press) cognitive-experiential approach to modelling interaction experience, this research demonstrates the crucial role of the preconditions of flow experience in human–computer interaction. In an experiment, the preconditions of flow experience – but not flow experience proper – mediated the effects of artefact complexity, task complexity and intrinsic motivation (as a situation-specific trait) on both flow and task outcome. However, preconditions did not predict overall artefact evaluation. Within a staged model of flow experience, the broader implications of this work for human–computer interaction are explored.     

Posterior representation with a multi‐modal likelihood using the gaussian sum filter for localization in a known map

A Gaussian sum filter (GSF) with component extended Kalman filters (EKF) is proposed as an approach to localizing an autonomous vehicle in an urban environment with limited GPS availability. The GSF uses vehicle‐relative vision‐based measurements of known map features coupled with inertial navigation solutions to accomplish localization in the absence of GPS. The vision‐based measurements have multimodal measurement likelihood functions that are well represented as weighted sums of Gaussian densities. The GSF is used because of its ability to represent the posterior distribution of the vehicle pose with better efficiency (fewer terms, less computational complexity) than a corresponding bootstrap particle filter with various numbers of particles because of the interaction with measurement hypothesis tests. The expectation‐maximization algorithm is used off line to determine the representational efficiency of the particle filter in terms of an effective number of Gaussian densities. In comparison, the GSF, which uses an iterative condensation procedure after each iteration of the filter to maintain real‐time capabilities, is shown through a series of in‐depth empirical studies to more accurately maintain a representation of the posterior distribution than the particle filter using 37 min of recorded data from Cornell University's autonomous vehicle driven in an urban environment, including a 32 min GPS blackout. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Scale-up and control of droplet production in coupled microfluidic flow-focusing geometries

A single microfluidic chip consisting of six microfluidic flow-focusing devices operating in parallel was developed to investigate the feasibility of scaling microfluidic droplet generation up to production rates of hundreds of milliliters per hour. The design utilizes a single inlet channel for both the dispersed aqueous phase and the continuous oil phase from which the fluids were distributed to all six flow-focusing devices. The exit tubing for each of the six flow-focusing devices is separate and individually plumbed to each device. Within each flow-focusing device, the droplet size was monodisperse, but some droplet size variations were observed across devices. We show that by modifying the flow resistance in the outlet channel of an individual flow-focusing device it is possible to control both the droplet size and frequency of droplet production. This can be achieved through the use of valves or, as is done in this study, by changing the length of the exit tubing plumbed to the outlet of the each device. Longer exit tubing and larger flow resistance is found to lead to larger droplets and higher production frequencies. The devices can thus be individually tuned to create a monodisperse emulsion or an emulsion with a specific drop size distribution.