When recognition memory fails: The use of an elimination strategy by young children.

Two experiments explored the response strategies of young children in the case of the evident failure of recognition memory. 20 4-yr-olds and 20 7-yr-olds were shown a series of pictorial paired associates. At test, Ss had to choose from a set of 4 items the response that had been paired with a particular stimulus during study. The response set consisted of 3 response items paired with a stimulus during study, and 1 new item. In addition to testing the pairs seen during study, 4 new stimulus–response pairs were tested in the same manner. Response choices for these new stimuli, as well as for the stimuli seen during study, allowed an assessment of the strategies used by Ss in the situation where recognition memory has apparently failed. Results show that Ss of both ages employed a reasoning-by-exclusion elimination strategy in responding to the stimuli. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

NMR investigation on the occurrence of Na species in porous carbons prepared by NaOH activation

A detailed investigation was conducted about the process of alkali activation of charred rice hulls using NaOH. A carbon-rich precursor was initially prepared from the pyrolysis of rice hulls under N₂ atmosphere, part of it being leached with HF to remove silica. The precursor was then mixed with NaOH, heat-treated at activation temperatures from 600 to 800 °C, and part of the product was finally washed with distilled water. Thermogravimetric curves under O₂ flux showed a strong reduction in the ash content of the activated samples, indicating the consumption of silica during the activation process. From X-ray diffractometry, ²⁹Si, and ²³Na NMR spectroscopy, it was possible to identify the formation of sodium carbonate and silicates in the non-washed samples. After washing, all these compounds were removed and specific surface area measurements indicated a substantial porosity development, with larger surface area values obtained for the samples prepared from the HF-leached precursor. The use of ²³Na NMR spectroscopy indicated the retention of sodium in the washed samples, in a chemical environment distinct from carbonates and silicates. The shapes and positions of the observed resonance lines pointed to a disordered environment, associated with oxygenated surface groups within the porous structure of the activated carbons.     

Nucleation and successive microstructure evolution: simulation approaches for a comprehensive picture from the atomistic to the microscale

What determines the mechanical material properties of a material sample after solidification is strongly tied to its microstructure. Nevertheless, the precise laws governing the initial stage of this structuring process, i.e. nucleation and the successive transiental microstructure evolution scenarios remain far from being fully understood even today. Here we show how the phase-field method, which originally established itself to tackle the free boundary problem given by microstructure evolution, can also be employed to investigate the energetics of heterogeneous nucleation in a solidifying sample. Moreover it is demonstrated, how the phase-field crystal method can shade more light in open questions regarding a quantitative formulation of nucleation statistics to thereupon simulate the phase transition phenomena in solidification from nucleation to crystallization in larger domains quantitatively. Finally we discuss how both methods can be joined to study nucleation from the atomic to the microscale.     

Grid Service Orchestration Using the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)

Modern scientific applications often need to be distributed across Grids. Increasingly applications rely on services, such as job submission, data transfer or data portal services. We refer to such services as Grid services. While the invocation of Grid services could be hard coded in theory, scientific users want to orchestrate service invocations more flexibly. In enterprise applications, the orchestration of web services is achieved using emerging orchestration standards, most notably the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). We describe our experience in orchestrating scientific workflows using BPEL. We have gained this experience during an extensive case study that orchestrates Grid services for the automation of a polymorph prediction application. Using this example, we explain the extent with which the BPEL language supports the definition of scientific workflows. We then describe the reliability, performance and scalability that can be achieved by executing a complex scientific workflow with ActiveBPEL, an industrial strength but freely available BPEL engine. *The work has been funded by the UK EPSRC through grants GR/R97207/01 (e-Materials) and GR/S90843/01 (OMII Managed Programme).     

Model validation study of carbon monoxide transport due to portable electric generator operation in an attached garage

A series of tests was conducted to characterize the indoor carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations resulting from portable electric generators operating in the attached garage of a test house under various use and environmental conditions. An extensive model validation effort using the multizone airflow and indoor air quality (IAQ) model CONTAM was carried out using the data from seven tests with a generator operating in the attached garage to compare predicted CO concentrations with measured values. The agreement between the measurements and predictions of the O₂ concentrations in the garage and the average CO concentration for the house zones was excellent for the data set as a whole. The agreement was somewhat worse for the garage CO concentrations. Overall, the house zone average and garage CO concentration predictions and measurements were within about 20% and 30%, respectively, when averaged over all cases.     

Evolutionary algorithms for real world applications [Application Notes]

In this section, we will report on three applications of evolutionary algorithms (EA) in real world parameter optimization. These applications show how the principles, such as robustness and representation independence, make it possible to extend the scope of optimization algorithms available so far and find answers to problems where classical solution methods fail.Evolutionary algorithms are today a state-of-the-art methodology in solving hard optimization problems, and are regularly being used in industries such as automotive and aerospace. In fact, these algorithms have revolutionized the way hard problems are being solved today. The pioneers of evolutionary computation, including Larry Fogel as one the key founders of the field, have been laying the foundations with their creativity and visionary approach toward science.     

Leiomyosarcoma of the inferior vena cava

BACKGROUND: The inferior vena cava is an uncommon location for leiomyosarcoma, a malignant tumor which develops from the smooth muscle tissue of the media. CASE REPORT: A 76-year-old woman was hospitalized for swelling of the lower limbs. Ultrasonography, computed tomography of the abdomen and magnetic resonance imaging showed tumoral invasion of the inferior vena cava extending to the atrium. Histology examination of a tumoral fragment obtained by transjugular catheterism affirmed the diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma. DISCUSSION: Prognosis of leiomyosarcoma of the inferior vena cava is very poor. No medical or surgical treatment has given satisfactory results. Two factors would explain the poor prognosis: the tumoral localization and the low degree of tumoral differentiation. Clinical presentation and imaging findings suggest the diagnosis which must be confirmed by pathology examination of a tumoral biopsy specimen.     

The Leu33/Pro polymorphism (PlA1/PlA2) of the glycoprotein IIIa (GPIIIa) receptor is not related to myocardial infarction in the ECTIM Study. Etude Cas-Temoins de l''Infarctus du Myocarde

The GPIIb/IIIa receptor complex may contribute to acute coronary syndromes by mediating platelet aggregation. The Leu33/Pro polymorphism (PlA1/PlA2) of the GPIIIa has recently been shown to be associated with CHD in a small case-control study. We have investigated this polymorphism in a large multicenter study of patients with myocardial infarction and controls and found no difference in the distribution of allele and genotype frequencies between cases and controls.     

XMIDDLE: A Data-Sharing Middleware for Mobile Computing

An increasing number of distributed applications will be written for mobilehosts, such as laptop computers, third generation mobile phones, personaldigital assistants, watches and the like. Application engineers have to dealwith a new set of problems caused by mobility, such as low bandwidth, contextchanges or loss of connectivity. During disconnection, users will typicallyupdate local replicas of shared data independently from each other. Theresulting inconsistent replicas need to be reconciled upon re-connection. Tosupport building mobile applications that use both replication andreconciliation over ad-hoc networks, we have designed xmiddle, a mobilecomputing middleware. In this paper we describe xmiddle and show how it usesreflection capabilities to allow application engineers to influencereplication and reconciliation techniques. xmiddle enables the transparentsharing of XML documents across heterogeneous mobile hosts, allowing on-lineand off-line access to data. We describe xmiddle using a collaborativee-shopping case study on mobile clients.     

Phase-Field Modeling of the Coarsening in Multi-component Systems

A thermodynamically consistent method for the investigation of the coarsening behavior and in particular for the prediction of the secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) in multi-component alloys is proposed which is based on the numerical simulation by means of a phase-field model. Existing variants of the phase-field model equations for multi-component systems were considered and their advantages and disadvantages were discussed. For the investigation of the coarsening behavior the variant described by the mixture composition and the entropy change was chosen. The method is applied to a high-alloy tool steel where it was found that elements such as C, Si, Mn decrease the SDAS whereas Cr increases. The resulting dependencies of the SDAS on alloy composition were compared to the analytical prediction of the coarsening model. For this aim the analytical model of the coarsening behavior in multi-component alloys [Rappaz and Boettinger, Acta Mater. 47 (1990)] was extended by taking into account the cross dependencies between the components in multi-component diffusion and the case of slow diffusion in the solid phase. The equilibrium parameters used in the phase-field model and in the analytical model were obtained from Thermo-Calc through global equilibrium calculations using the database TCFE7. The difference between both methods was found to be smaller than 2 pct in the investigated composition region.