Workload, control, and social support effects on serum lipids: A longitudinal study among apparently healthy employed adults.

The authors investigated the direct and interactive effects of the job demand– control–support (JDC-S) model’s components on subsequent changes in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides (TRI) separately for male and female employees. In contrast to all 14 past studies on these relationships, the authors used a longitudinal design. Study participants (N = 1,137, 66% men) were all apparently healthy employees who underwent a routine health check at 2 points in time (Time 1 and Time 2) about 22 months apart. In these analyses, the authors controlled for the Time 1 level of each criterion and for other confounders. Most of the direct and moderating effects found did not support the predictions of the JDC-S model; this finding is in agreement with the majority of past cross-sectional studies. The authors did not find any evidence supporting the existence of a reverse causation for either of the components of the JDC-S model. The authors suggest that serum lipids may not be a physiological mechanism mediating the effects of the JDC-S model on atherosclerotic diseases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generating a multiplicity of policies for agent steering in crowd simulation

Pedestrian steering algorithms range from completely procedural to entirely data‐driven, but the former grossly generalize across possible human behaviors and suffer computationally, whereas the latter are limited by the burden of ever‐increasing data samples. Our approach seeks the balanced middle ground by deriving a collection of machine‐learned policies based on the behavior of a procedural steering algorithm through the decomposition of the space of possible steering scenarios into steering contexts. The resulting algorithm scales well in the number of contexts, the use of new data sets to create new policies, and in the number of controlled agents as the policies become a simple evaluation of the rules asserted by the machine‐learning process. We also explore the use of synthetic data from an “oracle algorithm” that serves as an as‐needed source of samples, which can be stochastically polled for effective coverage. We observe that our approach produces pedestrian steering similar to that of the oracle steering algorithm, but with a significant performance boost. Runtime was reduced from hours under the oracle algorithm with 10 agents to on the order of 10 frames per second (FPS) with 3000 agents. We also analyze the nature of collisions in such a framework with no explicit collision avoidance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gap width determination by microfocus X-ray film radiography coupled with microdensitometry of the image

Microfocus X-ray film radiography was applied to image submillimetre gaps formed by an accurate micrometer. Optical density profiles of the images were measured by a microdensitometer. Gap widths as well as the focal spot size were determined. Measured width results were compared with true values and the agreement is of the order of 2% for gaps in the range of 0.05 mm to 0.20 mm.     

A Stretchable and Flexible Cardiac Tissue–Electronics Hybrid Enabling Multiple Drug Release,Sensing, and Stimulation

Replacement of the damaged scar tissue created by a myocardial infarction is the goal of cardiac tissue engineering. However, once the implanted tissue is in place, monitoring its function is difficult and involves indirect methods, while intervention necessarily requires an invasive procedure and available medical attention. To overcome this, methods of integrating electronic components into engineered tissues have been recently presented. These allow for remote monitoring of tissue function as well as intervention through stimulation and controlled drug release. Here, an improved hybrid microelectronic tissue construct capable of withstanding the dynamic environment of the beating heart without compromising electronic or mechanical functionality is reported. While the reported system is enabled to sense the function of the engineered tissue and provide stimulation for pacing, an electroactive polymer on the electronics enables it to release multiple drugs in parallel. It is envisioned that the integration of microelectronic devices into engineered tissues will provide a better way to monitor patient health from afar, as well as provide facile, more exact methods to control the healing process.     

Asymptotic global confidence regions for 3-D parametric shape estimation in inverse problems.

This paper derives fundamental performance bounds for statistical estimation of parametric surfaces embedded in R3. Unlike conventional pixel-based image reconstruction approaches, our problem is reconstruction of the shape of binary or homogeneous objects. The fundamental uncertainty of such estimation problems can be represented by global confidenceregions, which facilitate geometric inference and optimization ofthe imaging system. Compared to our previous work on global confidence region analysis for curves [two-dimensional (2-D) shapes], computation of the probability that the entire surface estimate lies within the confidence region is more challenging because a surface estimate is an inhomogeneous random field continuously indexed by a 2-D variable. We derive an asymptotic lower bound to this probability by relating it to the exceedence probability of a higher dimensional Gaussian random field, which can, in turn, be evaluated using the tube formula due to Sun. Simulation results demonstrate the tightness of the resulting bound and the usefulness of the three-dimensional global confidence region approach.     

Advanced trauma life support versus Combat Trauma Life Support courses: a comparison of cognitive knowledge decline

Post-thyroidectomy I-131 whole-body scintigraphy is an important aspect in the management of patients with thyroid cancer. The scan is used to detect residual thyroid tissue and distant functioning metastases. Extrathyroid I-131 accumulation does not always denote metastatic disease, and several potential sources of false-positive I-131 scans have been identified. This report presents four cases of benign oral disease as a cause of false-positive I-131 uptake. Benign oral disease has not been documented previously as an important source of false-positive I-131 whole-body scans.     

The atmospheric effect on the separability of field classes measured from satellites

The atmospheric effect on the upward radiance emerging from the atmosphere above a nonuniform surface results in a reduction of the separability between the surface classes by broadening the radiance probability distribution of each class, while narrowing the total radiance range. The atmospheric modulation transfer function (MTF) is used in Fourier transform analyses to simulate the atmospheric effect on the imagery of a nonuniform surface and to demonstrate the atmospheric effect on separability of field classes.