Ranking in incomplete blocks. The use of the technique and the interpretation of the results

It is often more convenient or expedient to obtain data in the form of rankings than in the form of scores or measurements. Analysis of such data has, however, been difficult to perform and to interpret except for the most simple experiments. The model described by Bradley and Terry¹ provides a very useful analysis in the case of ranking by paired comparisons. A method of analysis similar to the Bradley-Terry model, but dealing with ranking in incomplete blocks or complete blocks of any size, has been developed. The results of this analysis are readily interpretable and should enable more use to be made of ranking procedures.     

Notes on the Wesley Rigidity Scale: The development of a short form.

"From Wesley's original group of items, the authors selected 12 that did not seem to overlap and which they consider to be satisfactory for a rigidity measure." The items are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contingent feedback, familiarization, and infant affect: How a stranger becomes a friend.

Several lines of inquiry have led to the expectation that an infant's response to an unfamiliar adult might be influenced by the degree of control that the infant is able to exert over the situation. 24 male and 24 female infants (9.5–10.5 mo old) participated in a study in which the initial appearances of a stranger were contingent (controlled by the infant), noncontingent and frequent, or noncontingent and infrequent. Ss' subsequent reactions were assessed within the context of a stranger-approach sequence and a free-play situation. Initially, Ss responded more positively to the approaching stranger if her appearances were either controllable or frequent than if she appeared infrequently. As the stranger intruded, however, she was responded to more favorably by Ss in the contingent condition than by those in either noncontingent group. Analyses of free-play behavior yielded comparable results but only for female Ss. Results support the view that contingent feedback serves to mediate the formation of early social relationships. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

High-strength graphite fibre/lithium aluminosilicate composites

Graphite fibre/lithium aluminosilicate composites of matrix composition Li₂O Al₂O₃·nSiO₂ wheren=3, 4, and 8, have been developed with a high volume fraction of undirectionally aligned graphite fibres. Graphite fibre/ceramic matrix tapes were produced on a drumwinding apparatus and hot-pressed to final dimensions. This composite system exhibits a combination of useful properties, including high strength, low density, excellent thermal shock resistance and impact strength. Shear strength, cyclic modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity and optical and electron microscopic evaluation of microstructure are discussed. Modulus of rupture as a function of vol % fibres was studied. The high modulus of rupture and impact strength are discussed in terms of the relative properties of fibre and matrix.     

Organization and governance in construction

Transaction cost analysis provides a viable theoretical perspective for the study of organization and governance in construction. The trilateral governance of a client, engineering consultant, and contractors commonly observed in industrial construction projects is detailed. The implications of a professional relationship between the client and the consultant and a clan-type relationship between the consultant and the contractors are discussed within the context of large construction projects.     

Long Frame Sync Words for Binary PSK Telemetry

Correlation criteria have previously been established for identifying whether a given binary sequence would be a good frame sync word for phase-shift keyed telemetry. In the past, the search for a goodK-bit sync word has involved the application of these criteria to the entire set of 2^KbinaryK-tuples. It is shown that restricting this search to a much smaller subset consisting ofK-bit prefixes of pseudonoise sequences results in sync words of comparable quality, with greatly reduced computer search times for larger values ofK. As an example, this procedure is used to find good sync words of length 16-63; from a storage viewpoint, each of these sequences can be generated by a 5- or 6-bit linear feedback shift register.     

Urine extravasation secondary to upper urinary tract obstruction

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of renal salvage in a neonate with presumed spontaneous perirenal leakage of urine associated with ureteropelvic junction obstruction. Many instances of such extravasation in this age group have been described with lower urinary tract obstructions. As in the latter cases, the occurrence of extravasation secondary to upper tract obstruction need not preclude primary reconstruction.     

Characterizing the shape of anatomical structures with Poisson's equation

Poisson's equation, a fundamental partial differential equation in classical physics, has a number of properties that are interesting for shape analysis. In particular, the equipotential sets of the solution graph become smoother as the potential increases. We use the displacement map, the length of the streamlines formed by the gradient field of the solution, to measure the "complexity" (or smoothness) of the equipotential sets, and study its behavior as the potential increases. We believe that this function complexity = f(potential), which we call the shape characteristic, is a very natural way to express shape. Robust algorithms are presented to compute the solution to Poisson's equation, the displacement map, and the shape characteristic. We first illustrate our technique on two-dimensional synthetic examples and natural silhouettes. We then perform two shape analysis studies on three-dimensional neuroanatomical data extracted from magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain. In the first study, we investigate changes in the caudate nucleus in Schizotypal Personality Disorder (SPD) and confirm previously published results on this structure. In the second study, we present a data set of caudate nuclei of premature infants with asymmetric white matter injury. Our method shows structural shape differences that volumetric measurements were unable to detect.