The infrared infiltration and joining of advanced material

JOM - Infrared processing is a newly developed technique for materials processing. Key features include rapid processing, simplicity, and low cost. Because of the rapid processing, very little...     

Heuristics for rapidly four-coloring large planar graphs

We present several algorithms for rapidly four-coloring large planar graphs and discuss the results of extensive experimentation with over 140 graphs from two distinct classes of randomly generated instances having up to 128,000 vertices. Although the algorithms can potentially require exponential time, the observed running times of our more sophisticated algorithms are linear in the number of vertices over the range of sizes tested. The use of Kempe chaining and backtracking together with a fast heuristic which usually, but not always, resolves impasses gives us hybrid algorithms that: (1) successfully four-color all our test graphs, and (2) in practice run, on average, only twice as slow as the well-known, nonexact, simple to code, Θ(n) saturation algorithm of Brélaz.     

Multifactorial assessment of bulimia nervosa.

Investigated a multifactorial approach to the assessment of bulimia nervosa by means of hierarchical factor analysis. 245 bulimia nervosa patients and 68 patients with either anorexia nervosa or eating disorders not otherwise specified were administered a self-report battery that was organized into 21 dimensions relevant to eating disorder patients. When dimensions from this battery were subjected to hierarchical factor analysis, support for bulimia nervosa as a unique diagnostic category was obtained. However, the emergence of 3 secondary factors and 6 primary factors suggests that bulimia nervosa can also be described more complexly. The emergence of a multifactorial model of bulimia nervosa that incorporates several existing unidimensional models suggests the potential for both divergent and complicated clinical presentation in bulimia nervosa patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated attention and prepulse inhibition of startle in rats: Using conditioned reinforcers as prepulses.

In humans, prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle is greater during attended prestimuli than it is during ignored prestimuli, whereas in rats, most work has focused on passive PPI, which does not require attention. In the work described in this article, researchers developed a paradigm to assess attentional modification of PPI in rats using motivationally salient prepulses. Water-deprived rats were either conditioned to attend to a conditioned stimulus (CS; 1-s, 7-dB increase in white noise) paired with water (CS+ group), or they received uncorrelated presentations of white noise and water (CSo group). After 10 conditioning sessions, startle probes (50 ms, 115 dB) were introduced, with the CS serving as a continuous prepulse. Three experiments examined PPI across a range of prepulse intensities (4-10 dB) and stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs; 30-960 ms). PPI was consistently reduced in the CS+ group, particularly with a 10-dB prepulse and a 60-ms SOA. Thus, PPI in rats differed between attended and ignored prestimuli, but the effect was reversed in the results of research with humans. A fourth study eliminated the group difference by reversing the CS-water contingency. Methodological and motivational hypotheses regarding the current findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Berlekamp-Massey Algorithm revisited

We propose a slight modification of the Berlekamp-Massey Algorithm for obtaining the minimal polynomial of a given linearly recurrent sequence. Such a modification enables to explain it in a simpler way and to adapt it to lazy evaluation. partially supported by the Galois Theory and Explicit Methods in Arithmetic Project HPRN-CT-2000-00114 partially supported by the European Union funded project RAAG CT-2001-00271     

Recognizing, assessing, and intervening with problems of professional competence.

Working collaboratively, psychologist educators and trainers at the doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral levels; credentialers; practitioners; and students offer 8 proposals for psychologists to consider in recognizing, assessing, and intervening with problems of professional competence in students and practicing professionals. In the proposals, the authors address the following topics: definitions and categories; preparing the system; self-assessment; remediation; diversity; communication across various levels of the system; confidentiality; and ethical, regulatory, and legal underpinnings. They also propose future directions for the assessment of problems in professional competence in both students and practicing psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Computer aided kinetic modeling with KMT and KME

The complexity of many chemical and refining reaction systems and the thus-derived tedious and time-consuming process of building the associated kinetic models have been major obstacles in the use of fundamental kinetics in the solution of chemical engineering problems. This review summarizes work aimed at removing theses obstacles. Our recent work that has led to the enhancement of the Kinetic Modeler's Toolbox (KMT) and the development of the Kinetic Model Editor (KME) presents an end-to-end solution to the kinetic modeling process, including automated feedstock modeling, reaction network construction, kinetic rate estimation, model programming, process system configurations, model customizations, compilations, model execution and results analysis.     

Simulation of Facial Muscle Actions Based on Rational Free Form Deformations

This paper describes interactive facilities for simulating abstract muscle actions using Rational Free Form Deformations (RFFD). The particular muscle action is simulated as the displacement of the control points of the control-unit for an RFFD defined on a region of interest. One or several simulated muscle actions constitute a Minimum Perceptible Action (MPA), which is defined as the atomic action unit, similar to Action Unit (AU) of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), to build an expression.