What artificial experts can and cannot do

One's model of skill determines what one expects from neural network modelling and how one proposes to go about enhancing expertise. We view skill acquisition as a progression from acting on the basis of a rough theory of a domain in terms of facts and rules to being able to respond appropriately to the current situation on the basis of neuron connections changed by the results of responses to the relevant aspects of many past situations. Viewing skill acquisition in this ways suggests how one can avoid the problem currently facing AI of how to train a network to make human-like generalizations. In training a network one must progress, as the human learner does, from rules and facts to wholistic responses. As to future work, from our perspective one should not try to enhance expertise as in traditional AI by attempting to construct improved theories of a domain, but rather by improving the learner's access to the relevant aspects of a domain so as to facilitate learning from experience.     

Die Arten der rißbildenden Korrosion und ihre Bedeutung für die Betriebsbereitschaft von Komponenten der Chemietechnik

Kinds of crack-producing corrosion and their significance for the availability of components of chemical plants. Interor transcrystalline cracks in metallic components of chemical plants can occur under the combined influence of mechanical stress and corrosion. Since they usually remain unrecognized before the occurrence of visible damage – leakage of a vessel or fracture of a structural part – such crack-producing corrosion processes are greatly dreaded. Based on differences in the mechanism of the process of damage, one distinguishes two groups, i. e. stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and corrosion fatigue (CF). SCC stands for an interaction between local corrosion attack and quasi-static tensile stresses (load- and/or residual stresses). CF means a combination of mechanical stresses differing in time and corrosion. Hydrogen induced SCC is a special kind of crack corrosion, initiated by atomic hydrogen absorbed in a metal. The paper describes the different systems of SCC and CF, the forms of failure, the parameters, and the possibilities of avoiding damages, especially emphasizing their significance in practice.     

Links between sexual abuse in childhood and behavioural disorders in adolescent girls: A multivariate approach.

Assessed the links between adolescent behavioral problems and childhood sexual abuse in 3 groups of girls (aged 13–19 yrs). A set of questionnaires was administered to a control group (N?=?181) and 2 clinical groups, one (N?=?62) presenting with sexual behavioral problems and the other (N?=?107) with behavioral problems of a nonsexual nature. Girls in the clinical groups who disclosed sexual abuse had experienced frequent abuse, with penetration, at an older age. Abuse revealed in the control group was less frequent, involved fondling only, and occurred at an earlier age. Considering the clinical groups alone, sexually related behavioral disorders were associated with high frequency, severity, an adolescent abuser, and a reaction of fear. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strahlendiagnostik — in der Medizin ja,für die Verfahrenstechnik nein? Ein kritischer Vergleich

Radiodiagnostics – yes in medical applications, no in process engineering? A critical comparison . There is no doubt that to date medicine has profited most from the application of radiation. There are indeed applications in engineering, including in process engineering, but if one compares the vast field of medical radiodiagnostics, including the important area of computer tomography, to the transmission measurements relying on the same fundamental principles of measurement and employed in engineering, e.g. in the determination of the density of a material, enormous differences can be found as regards both the quantity and the quality of such measurements. This becomes even more apparent if one compares the localization and functional examinations in nuclear medicine to the functional tests performed on process equipment or processes with the help of radiotracers. Whilst today diagnosis with radionuclides is quite commonplace in any major hospital, radiotracer techniques are used but rarely, if at all, in apparatus and process engineering.     

Coevolution of actin and associated proteins: an alpha-actinin-like protein in a cyanobacterium (Spirulina platensis)

Actin, together with associated proteins, such as myosin, cross-linking or capping proteins, has been observed in all eukaryotic cells. Presence of actin or actin-like proteins has also been reported in prokaryotic organisms belonging to the cyanobacteria. Our aim was first to extend the characterization of an actin-like protein to another prokaryotic cell, i.e. Spirulina, then to compare the antigenic reactivity of this new protein with that of Synechocystis and skeletal actins. We observed that some of the conserved antigenic epitopes corresponded to actin regions known to interact with cross-linking proteins. We also report for the first time that alpha-actinin and filamin purified from chicken gizzard both interact with a prokaryotic actin-like protein. Finally, we searched for the occurrence of a cross-linking protein in these cyanobacteria and identified a 105-kDa protein as an alpha-actinin-like protein using specific antibodies.     

Quantitative analysis of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs by capillary zone electrophoresis

The potential utility of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) for the separation and quantitative determination of some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) was investigated. The influence of different parameters on migration times, peak symmetry, efficiency and resolution was studied; these parameters included the nature and concentration of the anionic and cationic components of the separation buffer. A buffer consisting of 75 mM glycine adjusted to pH 9.1 with triethanolamine was found to provide a very efficient and stable electrophoretic system for the CZE analysis of NSAIDs, giving RSD values of about 0.1 and 0.5% for the within-day reproducibility of migration times and peak areas, respectively at a concentration of 25 micrograms ml-1 (n = 5). Response was linear from 2-100 micrograms ml-1 for both sulindac and tiaprofenic acid, for which the LOQ values were 2.8 and 1.9 micrograms ml-1, respectively, using UV detection at 280 nm. Accuracy for each drug was 102-103%.