Counseling style preference of international students.

Examined, with a single-S research design, the counseling-style preference of 6 international clients and 1 White-American client within and across 4 counseling sessions. All clients first listened to an audiotape (analog) counseling session containing a problem-solving approach and a client-centered approach and rated both approaches. The clients then rated these 2 counseling styles in actual counseling sessions. In contrast to past research findings, no overall preference was found for either approach. Preferences for a particular counseling style also changed from session to session. In addition, preferences exhibited during the analog portion of the study were often different from those expressed during the actual counseling sessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Effects on Biomarkers of Tryptophan Metabolism: A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis

Abnormal activation of the kynurenine and serotonin pathways of tryptophan metabolism is linked to a host of neuropsychiatric disorders. Concurrently, noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques demonstrate high therapeutic efficacy across neuropsychiatric disorders, with indications for modulated neuroplasticity underlying such effects. We therefore conducted a scoping review with meta-analysis of eligible studies, conforming with the PRISMA statement, by searching the PubMed and Web of Science databases for clinical and preclinical studies that report the effects of NIBS on biomarkers of tryptophan metabolism. NIBS techniques reviewed were electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Of the 564 search results, 65 studies were included with publications dating back to 1971 until 2022. The Robust Bayesian Meta-Analysis on clinical studies and qualitative analysis identified general null effects by NIBS on biomarkers of tryptophan metabolism, but moderate evidence for TMS effects on elevating serum serotonin levels. We cannot interpret this as evidence for or against the effects of NIBS on these biomarkers, as there exists several confounding methodological differences in this literature. Future controlled studies are needed to elucidate the effects of NIBS on biomarkers of tryptophan metabolism, an under-investigated question with substantial implications to clinical research and practice.     

Comparing the top-down and bottom-up approaches of function point analysis: a case study

Function point analysis is a widely cited method for estimating software project size, which is an important activity of project management. At the beginning stage of planning, the top-down approach can be applied. Having obtained more systems specifications at later stages, the bottom-up approach might also be used to improve the accuracy of the estimation. However, the bottom-up approach is not a conventional way of function point analysis. There was no empirical evidence showing the difference between the fully informed top-down approach and the bottom-up approach. Through the implementation of a function point analysis system in an in-house software development department, this paper compares the results of the two approaches. This comparison study shows that the bottom-up approach does not contribute a significant added value to a fully-informed top-down approach. Therefore, the fully-informed top down approach has been chosen as a method for building a software metric database in the organization. More important, the observations and experience gained from this project may help in-house development organizations to establish their own function point analysis systems.     

Optimal timing of retina examinations for premature infants

Developments in modern neonatal intensive care have resulted in increased survival of very premature infants. Along with this increase in survival, there has been a concomitant increase in the frequency of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). We investigated the relationship between the severity and the time course of ROP as well as the optimal time for retinal examinations of premature infants of various birth weights and gestational ages. A total of 80 premature infants were enrolled for analysis. The mean postnatal age of infants at the time of diagnosis was 7.3 +/- 3.4 weeks for stage 1 retinopathy, 9.2 +/- 5.8 for stage 2 retinopathy, 9.5 +/- 3.8 for stage 3 retinopathy, 10.7 +/- 3.7 for threshold disease, and 11.7 +/- 3.2 for stage 4 retinopathy. The mean postconceptional age of infants at the time of diagnosis was 35 +/- 3 for stage 1 retinopathy, 36.4 +/- 3 for stage 2 retinopathy, 37.6 +/- 3.5 for stage 3 retinopathy, 38.4 +/- 3.5 for threshold disease, and 40 +/- 3.7 for stage 4 retinopathy. The age at the time of the initial detection of ROP was from the ninth to 10th week among infants weighing less than 1,000 g at birth and from the fifth to seventh week among those weighing 1,000 g or more at birth. However, the postconceptional age at the time of initial detection of ROP for the whole group was 36 weeks and was not influenced by birth weight or gestational age. Therefore, we suggest that postconceptional age, rather than postnatal age, should be used to decide the timing of retinal examinations for premature infants.     

Multilevel survival modelling of recurrent urinary tract infections

A multilevel survival frailty model is presented for analyzing clustered and recurrent urinary tract infections among elderly women residing in aged-care institutions. At the subject level, serial dependence is expected between recurrent events recorded on the same individual. At the cluster level, correlations of observations within the same institution are present due to the inherent residential environment and hierarchical setting. Two random components are therefore incorporated explicitly within the survival frailty model to account for the simultaneous heterogeneity and autoregressive structure. A Splus computer program is developed for the estimation of fixed effect and variance component parameters.     

Proximal policy optimization-based controller for chaotic systems

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms are suitable for modeling and controlling complex systems. Methods for controlling chaos, a difficult task, require improvement. In this article, we present a DRL-based control method that can control a nonlinear chaotic system without any prior knowledge of the system's equations. We use proximal policy optimization (PPO) to train an agent. The environment is a Lorenz chaotic system, and our goal is to stabilize this chaotic system as quickly as possible and minimize the error by adding extra control terms to the chaotic system. Therefore, the reward function accounts for the total triaxial error. The experimental results demonstrated that the trained agent can rapidly suppress chaos in the system, regardless of the system's random initial conditions. A comprehensive comparison of different DRL algorithms indicated that PPO is the most efficient and effective algorithm for controlling the chaotic system. Moreover, different maximum control forces were applied to determine the relationship between the control forces and controller performance. To verify the robustness of the controller, random disturbances were introduced during training and testing, and the empirical results indicated that the agent trained with random noise performed better. The chaotic system has highly nonlinear characteristics and is extremely sensitive to initial conditions, and DRL is suitable for modeling such systems.     

NURBS machining and feed rate adjustment for high-speed cutting of complex sculptured surfaces

Owing to the enormous engineering advancement in modern industry, the competition in the development of advanced manufacturing technologies has been increasingly intense as can be seen in automobile, aerospace and various industries. Not only has product quality improved tremendously, but also the demand over production speed has become higher. Therefore, high-speed and high-accuracy production has become a very important goal of modern manufacturing companies. Thanks to ever increasing computer speed and the open architecture of new controllers in computer-controlled machines, the capability and flexibility of today's CNC machines allow us to machine contoured geometry using non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) curves directly from the free-form surfaces of a complex CAD/CAM model. As a result, machining accuracy and product quality can be greatly improved while machining time is also significantly reduced. This paper proposes a post-processing approach to convert G1 NC codes from most CAD/CAM systems to NURBS NC paths for highspeed contour machining. The NURBS interpolation strategy that takes into account the optimized cutting feed rate based on machine dynamic response and curvature of the NURBS curve is also developed. Experiments show that the implemented NURBS cutting can significantly improve machining accuracy and reduce cutting time and therefore satisfies the requirements of today's highspeed and-accuracy machining needs.     

Vibration of arch bridges due to moving loads and vertical ground motions

Abstract

This paper is focused on the vibration in a two‐hinged arch bridge subjected to the combined action of moving loads and vertical ground excitations. The arch bridge is modeled as a flat‐rise parabolic arch with constant sectional properties along the horizontal axis of span, and the train loadings over it as a sequence of identical lumped loads with constant intervals. To investigate such a dynamic problem, a single span bridge with non‐homogeneous time‐dependent boundary conditions, the quasi‐static decomposition method is employed to decompose the deflection response of the arch into quasi‐static deflection and the dynamic component of deformation. Then one can analytically derive the closed form solution of quasi‐static deflection for the arch bridge shaken by vertical support excitations. Throughout the parameter studies, the present results indicate that the maximum acceleration response on the arch bridge relates to: (1) the vibration mode that has been excited, (2) the time lag until moving loads begin to enter the bridge during the acting time of earthquakes, and (3) the rise to span ratio of the arch.     

Pole‐assignment of dynamic interval systems

Abstract

A simple sufficient condition which guarantees that all the eigenvalues of an interval matrix will lie inside a circle centered at α with radius r is formulated. A design procedure of robust state feedback controllers for dynamic interval systems is demonstrated by an example.     

Frequency domain analysis for stability robustness of multivariable feedback systems

Abstract

This paper presents techniques for analyzing stability robustness of multivariable control systems. The upper bounds for each element of the allowable perturbation matrices can be obtained whether highly structural information is available or not. Approaching from testing the nonsingularity of a matrix by its eigenvalues instead of using matrix norms, the main algorithm involved is the computation of the spectral radii of certain nonnegative matrices. Due to the fact that any matrix norm is never less than the spectral radius of the same matrix, less conservative results are obtained using our criteria as compared with those obtained by utilizing matrix norms.