Dynamic analysis of structures using the rank force method

The application of the finite element rank force method for the dynamic analysis of redundant structures is presented. The applied loading consists of discrete and distributed loads. Both forced and free vibrations are considered, the latter yielding latent vectors corresponding to dynamic redundancies. It is shown that the dynamic properties of an element are given by a static flexibility matrix, an inverse mass matrix, a damping parameter and a displacement vector representing the effect of the applied distributed loading.     

Client perceptions of therapists: A study of the therapeutic relation.

A study was designed to identify the main ways that clients perceive their psychotherapists. An inventory of 65 statements was constructed to measure 8 postulated interpersonal behavior patterns. The inventory was administered to 523 patients in treatment for at least 3 mo. A factor analysis disclosed 5 dimensions of perceived therapist behaviors. The dimensions were labeled Accepting, Understanding, Authoritarian, Independence-Encouraging, and Critical-Hostile. The findings were shown to be consistent with constructs proposed by Fiedler, Apfelbaum, and Rausch and Bordin. Patient and therapist ratings of improvement were found to relate significantly to therapist Acceptance and Understanding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Operant conditioning in a quasi-therapy setting.

In 6 recorded interviews with student volunteers, S was asked to talk about himself. E differentially reinforced ("mm-hm" with a nod) positive or negative self-references, or reinforced not at all. Conditioning occurred re reinforcement of negative statement, not under conditions of reinforcement of positive references or nonreinforcement. No relationship was found between initial level of anxiety or emotional adjustment and conditionability. General, but not statistically significant, trends towards reduction of anxiety or improvement in adjustment were noted. Most Ss were unaware of therapist's manipulation of his verbalizations. Conclusion: a patient's verbalizations can be influenced by therapist's communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concerning Kendall's tau, a nonparametric correlation coefficient.

There are a number of circumstances in which the use of the Pearson product-moment correlation is inappropriate and a rank order procedure (Tau) is required. The advantages of Tau over Spearman's rho technique are discussed. Definitional and computational formulae of Tau, tests of significance, the confidence limits of Tau, and the relationship between Tau and the product-moment correlation, are presented. Additional useful formulae are included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Knowledge based formation of re-configurable assembly cells

When developing assembly cells with highly complex modular structures, designers need to translate user requirements into a set of design rules and potential cell configurations. The success in matching user requirements to potential products is dependent on how well the functional and non-functional customer requirements can be understood and translated into cell features (design rules, processes and module types). This paper reports on a knowledge based methodology for forming customisable re-configurable assembly cells. The approach is based on matching user requirements to existing supplier knowledge in terms of design rules and principles, modules offered by different vendors, new emerging technologies and existing own and competitors’ products. The decision making includes requirements analysis, generating assembly processing alternatives and evaluating and selecting assembly modules and cells. The proposed approach aims to assist decision making in assembly system design by enabling users and suppliers to jointly participate in an interactive and iterative process of forming re-configurable assembly cells.     

Healthcare Systems and Other Applications

This paper presents healthcare systems and their applications namely helping people with dementia navigate their day, empowering the elderly and the cognitively disabled, context awareness in residence for elders, RFID-based nutritional assistance, a computer-based library for the blind, an NLP-based tool for assisting people with autism, making smart clothing smarter, PAS: a wireless-enabled personal assistance system for independent living     

A comparative study on face detection and tracking algorithms

Face localization is the first stage in many vision based applications and in human-computer interaction. The problem is to define the face location of a person in a color image. The four boosted classifiers embbeded in OpenCV, based on Haar-like features, are compared in terms of speed and efficiency. Skin color distribution is estimated using a non parametric approach. To avoid drifting in color estimate, this model is not updated during the sequence but renewed whenever the face is detected again, that gives the ability to our system to cope with different lighting conditions in a more robust way. Skin color model is then used to localize the face represented by an ellipse: connected component segmentation and a statistical approach, namely the coupled Camshift of Bradsky, are compared in terms of efficiency and speed. The pursuit algorithms are tested on various video sequences, corresponding to various scenarios in terms of illumination, face pose, face size and background complexity (distractor effects).     

A comparison of pruning criteria for probability trees

Probability trees are decision trees that predict class probabilities rather than the most likely class. The pruning criterion used to learn a probability tree strongly influences the size of the tree and thereby also the quality of its probability estimates. While the effect of pruning criteria on classification accuracy is well-studied, only recently has there been more interest in the effect on probability estimates. Hence, it is currently unclear which pruning criteria for probability trees are preferable under which circumstances. In this paper we survey six of the most important pruning criteria for probability trees, and discuss their theoretical advantages and disadvantages. We also perform an extensive experimental study of the relative performance of these pruning criteria. The main conclusion is that overall a pruning criterion based on randomization tests performs best because it is most robust to extreme data characteristics (such as class skew or a high number of classes). We also identify and explain several shortcomings of the other pruning criteria.     

Lower Bounds for the Determinantal Complexity of Explicit Low Degree Polynomials

The determinantal complexity of a polynomial f(x ₁,x ₂,…,x _n ) is the minimum m such that f=det  _m (L(x ₁,x ₂,…,x _n )), where L(x ₁,x ₂,…,x _n ) is a matrix whose entries are affine forms in the x _i s over some field $\mbox {$\mbox {.     

Self-tuning in master–slave synchronization of high-precision stage systems

For synchronization of high-precision stage systems, in particular the synchronization between a wafer and a reticle stage system of a wafer scanner, a master–slave controller design is presented. The design consists of a synchronization controller based on FIR filters and a data-driven self-tuning approach is used to find the coefficients of these filters. In the context of Lur'e systems, i.e. the reticle stage slave system has a variable gain controller with saturation nonlinearity, a part of the gradients needed for self-tuning is obtained from reconstruction using closed-loop nonlinear models. The remaining part is given by sampled data obtained primarily from time-series measurements. Performance with the synchronization controller is shown to be bounded by a waterbed effect: low-frequency suppression comes at the price of high-frequency amplification. For the considered Lur'e stage systems the ability of the self-tuning to induce improved tracking is discussed in view of this waterbed effect for either simulation results or experimental results.