The Precedence Effect in Three Species of Birds (Melopsittacus undulatus, Serinus canaria, and Taeniopygia guttata).

The perceived locations of paired auditory images, simulating direct sounds and their echoes, have been recently studied in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus; M. L. Dent & R. J. Dooling, 2003a, 2003b). In this article, the authors extend those experiments to include measurements of the precedence effect using a discrimination paradigm in two additional bird species: canaries (Serinus canaria) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Although time courses of summing localization, localization dominance, and echo thresholds were similar across all species, budgerigars had slightly higher overall levels of discrimination. The results from these experiments add further support that the precedence effect in birds is similar to that found in other animals and that the ability to suppress echoes that might degrade localization and auditory object perception may be a general property of the vertebrate auditory system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dual command travel times and miniload system throughput with turnover-based storage

We analyze travel times for automated storage/retrieval systems. In particular, we apply our travel time model to turnover-based storage systems and determine the mean and variance of dual command travel times. We present detailed numerical results for selected rack shape factors and ABC inventory profiles. We then investigate the effect of alternative rack configurations on travel time performance measures. We also show how to determine the throughput of miniload systems with turnover-based storage and exponentially distributed pick times.     

Capacity Efficiency and Restorability of Path Protection and Rerouting in WDM Networks Subject to Dual Failures

Resilient optical networks are predominately designed to protect against single failures of fiber links. But in larger networks, operators also see dual failures. As the capacity was planned for single failures, disconnections can occur by dual failures even if enough topological connectivity is provided. In our approach the design of the network minimizes the average loss caused by dual failures, while single failures are still fully survived. High dual failure restorability is the primary aim, capacity is optimized in a second step. For WDM networks with full wavelength conversion, we formulate mixed integer linear programming models for dedicated path protection, shared (backup) path protection, and path rerouting with and without stub-release. For larger problem instances in path rerouting, we propose two heuristics. Computational results indicate that the connectivity is of much more importance for high restorability values than the overall protection capacity. Shared protection has similar restorability levels as dedicated protection while the capacity is comparable to rerouting. Rerouting surpasses the protection mechanisms in restorability and comes close to 100% dual failure survivability. Compared to single failure planning, both shared path protection and rerouting need significantly more capacity in dual failure planning.     

Measurement and numerical simulation of three‐dimensional fiber orientation states in injection‐molded short‐fiber‐reinforced plastics

To determine three‐dimensional fiber orientation states in injection‐molded short‐fiber composites, a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) is used. Since the CLSM optically sections the specimen, more than two images of the cross sections on and below the surface of the composite can be obtained. Three‐dimensional fiber orientation states can be determined by using geometric parameters of fiber images obtained from two parallel cross sections. For experiments, carbon‐fiber‐reinforced polystyrene is examined by the CLSM and geometric parameters of fibers on each cross‐sectional plane are measured by an image analysis. In order to describe fiber orientation states compactly, orientation tensors are determined at different positions of the prepared specimen. Three‐dimensional orientation states are obtained without any difficulty by determining the out‐of‐plane angles utilizing fiber images on two parallel planes acquired by the CLSM. Orientation states are different at different positions and show the shell–core structure along the thickness of the specimen. Fiber orientation tensors are predicted by a numerical analysis and the numerically predicted orientation states show good agreement with measured ones. However, some differences are found at the end of cavity. They may result from the fountain flow effects, which are not considered in the numerical analysis. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 500–509, 2003     

Child Death From Pediatric Illness: Conceptualizing Intervention From a Family/Systems and Public Health Perspective.

Despite the universal and understandable distress associated with the death of a child from pediatric illness, do psychologists help surviving families in ways that match their need for assistance? Many families do not seek psychological help and cope adaptively with their loss. Indications for psychotherapy with bereaved families are based largely on experience with families who engage in treatment and who have greater distress. Other families may not receive sufficient services but are at risk for ongoing difficulties and unlikely to engage in treatment. Suggestions for intervention are made, with attention to the fit of therapeutic approaches with family needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Advanced disturbance observer design for mechanical positioning systems

Disturbance-observer (DOB)-based controller design is one of the most popular methods in the field of motion control. In this paper, the generalized disturbance compensation framework, named the robust internal-loop compensator (RIC) is introduced and an advanced design method of a DOB is proposed based on the RIC. The mixed sensitivity optimization problem, which is the main issue of DOB design, is also solved through the parametrization of the DOB in the RIC framework. Differently from conventional methods, the Q-filter is separated from the mixed sensitivity optimization problem and a systematic design law for the DOB is proposed. This guarantees the robustness and optimality of the DOB and enables the design for unstable plants.     

The role of perspective in the accessibility of goals during reading.

An implicit assumption of several causal reasoning models is that readers adopt the goals of a narrative's protagonist during text comprehension. In apparent violation of this assumption, readers participating in Experiment 1 of the present study drew inferences relevant to a protagonist's goal even when that goal was already satisfied from the perspective of the protagonist. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants were explicitly asked to view the text situation from the point of view of the protagonist. In this case, the goals of the reader and the protagonist should be the same. In these experiments, participants focused on the goals of the protagonist only when those goals had not been satisfied from the perspective of the protagonist. These results are discussed in terms of reader- and character-based perspectives and in terms of text characteristics that cue perspective taking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sulfated zirconia catalysts: Are Brønsted acid sites the source of the activity?

The thermal decomposition products of pyridinium sulfate differ from those of pyridinium sulfate supported on zirconia which in turn differs from that of pyridine adsorbed on a sulfated zirconia. Unsupported pyridinium sulfate decomposes to produce pyridine and sulfuric acid, and these subsequently react to produce oxides of carbon and sulfur. Zirconia that is sulfated and then exposed to pyridine does not release detectable amount of pyridine during heating in an inert gas; rather the pyridine undergoes oxidation reduction reactions simultaneously to release CO₂ and sulfur compounds. Pyridinium sulfate supported on zirconia decomposes upon heating to release pyridine and sulfuric acid, which reacts with the zirconia. The desorption of pyridine in one case and only CO₂/SO_x in the other case suggests that sulfated zirconia does not contain Brønsted acidity that can form pyridinium sulfate.     

Diagnosis and correction of multiple logic design errors in digitalcircuits

This paper presents a technique to correct multiple logic design errors in a gate-level netlist. A number of methods have been proposed for correcting single logic design errors. However, the extension of these methods to more than one error is still very limited. We direct our attention to circuits with a low multiplicity of errors. By assuming different error dependency scenarios, multiple errors are corrected by repeatedly applying a single error search and correction algorithm. Experimental results on correcting double-design errors and triple-design errors on ISCAS and MCNC benchmark circuits are included     

Somatic deletion of the imprinted 11p15 region in sporadic persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia of infancy is specific of focal adenomatous hyperplasia and endorses partial pancreatectomy

Sporadic persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia of infancy (PHHI) or nesidioblastosis is a heterogeneous disorder characterized by profound hypoglycemia due to inappropriate hypersecretion of insulin. An important diagnostic goal is to distinguish patients with a focal hyperplasia of islet cells of the pancreas (FoPHHI) from those with a diffuse abnormality of islets (DiPHHI) because management strategies differ significantly. 16 infants with sporadic PHHI resistant to diazoxide and who underwent pancreatectomy were investigated. Selective pancreatic venous sampling coupled with peroperative surgical examination and analysis of extemporaneous frozen sections allowed us to identify 10 cases with FoPHHI and 6 cases with DiPHHI. We show here that in cases of FoPHHI, but not those of DiPHHI, there was specific loss of maternal alleles of the imprinted chromosome region 11p15 in cells of the hyperplastic area of the pancreas but not in normal pancreatic cells. This somatic event is consistent with a proliferative monoclonal lesion. It involves disruption of the balance between monoallelic expression of several maternally and paternally expressed genes. Thus, we provide the first molecular explanation of the heterogeneity of sporadic forms of PHHI such that it is possible to perform only partial pancreatectomy, limited to the focal somatic lesion, so as to avoid iatrogenic diabetes in patients with focal adenomatous hyperplasia.