Do vision and haptics share common representations? Implicit and explicit memory within and between modalities.

Previous assessments of verbal cross-modal priming have typically been conducted with the visual and auditory modalities. Within-modal priming is always found to be substantially larger than cross-modal priming, a finding that could reflect modality modularity, or alternatively, differences between the coding of visual and auditory verbal information (i.e., geometric vs phonological). The present experiments assessed implicit and explicit memory within and between vision and haptics, where verbal information could be coded in geometric terms. Because haptic perception of words is sequential or letter-by-letter, experiments were also conducted to isolate the effects of simultaneous versus sequential processing from the manipulation of modality. Together, the results reveal no effects of modality change on implicit or explicit tests. The authors discuss representational similarities between vision and haptics as well as image mediation as possible explanations for the results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rhythms of Life: Antecedents and Outcomes of Work-Family Balance in Employed Parents.

This study examined antecedents and outcomes of a fourfold taxonomy of work-family balance in terms of the direction of influence (work-family vs. family-work) and type of effect (conflict vs. facilitation). Respondents were full-time employed parents in India. Confirmatory factor analysis results provided evidence for the discriminant validity of M. R. Frone's (2003) fourfold taxonomy of work-family balance. Results of moderated regression analysis revealed that different processes underlie the conflict and facilitation components. Furthermore, gender had only a limited moderating influence on the relationships between the antecedents and the components of work-family balance. Last, work-family facilitation was related to the work outcomes of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DSP based inverter control for alternate energy systems

This paper presents a DSP based algorithm to control inverters used in interfacing alternate energy systems with the electric utility. Since a constant and ripple free dc bus voltage is not ensured at the output of alternate energy sources, the main aim of the proposed algorithm is to make the output of the inverter immune to the fluctuations in the dc input voltage. In this paper a modified space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) technique is proposed which will maintain the quality of the ac output of the inverter, regardless of the ripple present at the inverter input. The principle is explained qualitatively and extensive experiments have been carried out to verify and validate the proposed algorithm. A 16-bit fixed-point C2000 family DSP from Texas Instruments was used as the controller to implement the proposed control algorithm.     

Condensation on a spray of water drops: A cell model study-I. Flow description

A unit cylinder cell model with a body-fitted coordinate system is employed to analyze the hydrodynamics and heat transfer associated with steam condensation on a spray of equal sized water droplets. The droplets are assumed to be moving in the intermediate Reynolds number regime, Re_g = O(100). The distance between neighboring droplet centers is allowed to be arbitrary in the plane of motion, but the droplets are assumed to be uniformly spaced in the plane perpendicular to the direction of motion. Furthermore, once a particular configuration of the droplets is set, the subsequent spacings between the droplet centers in that configuration are taken to remain constant during the entire condensation process. The formulation entails a simultaneous numerical solution of the quasi-steady elliptic partial differential equations that describe the flow field in both the dispersed and continuous phases in each cell. In part 1 of this study, the results for the velocity, surface pressure and drag are presented. In part II of this study, the results for the condensation induced velocities, surface shear stress, the Nusselt number and the Sherwood number are provided. In both parts of the study, the interactions between neighboring drops have been examined.     

Oxidative damage to the eye lens caused by cigarette smoke and fuel smoke condensates

The degree to which a reformed U.S. health care system relies on an adequate supply of primary care physicians will determine the urgency of change in the composition of the medical workforce. In many areas of the United States, the demand for primary care physicians, particularly in managed care settings, far exceeds the supply. In contrast, reports of reduced practice opportunities for medical and surgical subspecialists in the same settings are increasing. As opportunities for and incomes of primary care physicians are enhanced, some medical subspecialists may seek retraining in primary care. This article provides a context for understanding the development of physician retraining programs, examines precedents for retraining physicians, describes four possible pathways through which medical subspecialists might acquire primary care training, and emphasizes the importance of defining the scope of practice and necessary skills for providing primary care. Obstacles to retraining appear to be economic (Who will pay? Is the cost worth the benefit?) and jurisdictional (Who will define core competencies? Who will credential programs and trainees?). The current absence of demand for such retraining programs suggests either that marketplace-induced changes will not take place or that the notion of a primary care provider shortage and an oversupply of medical subspecialists is overstated. The inclusion of physician retraining programs in proposed health reform legislation suggests that policymakers are convinced that such programs offer one viable solution to the nation's medical workforce needs.     

Genetic search: analysis using fitness moments

Genetic algorithms (GAs) are efficient and robust search methods that are being employed in a plethora of applications with extremely large search spaces. The directed search mechanism employed in GAs performs a simultaneous and balanced exploration of new regions in the search space and exploitation of already-discovered regions. This paper introduces the notion of fitness moments for analyzing the working of GAs. We show that the fitness moments in any generation may be predicted from those of the initial population. Since a knowledge of the fitness moments allows us to estimate the fitness distribution of strings, this approach provides for a method of characterizing the dynamics of GAs. In particular, the average fitness and fitness variance of the population in any generation may be predicted. We introduce the technique of fitness-based disruption of solutions for improving the performance of GAs. Using fitness moments, we demonstrate the advantages of using fitness-based disruption. We also present experimental results comparing the performance of a standard GA and two other GAs (the controlled disruption GA and the adaptive GA) that incorporate the principle of fitness-based disruption. The experimental evidence clearly demonstrates the power of fitness-based disruption     

Sensitivity oftls and minimum norm methods ofdoa estimation to errors due to either finite data or sensor gain and phase perturbations

In thedoa (direction of arrival) estimation problem, we encounter either finite data or insufficient knowledge in array characterisation or both. It is therefore important to study how the subspace-based methods perform under these conditions. In this paper, we first consider the finite data case and establish two results: (i) the total least-squares approach to the linear prediction method (which we refer to astls-flp method) is equivalent to the minimum norm (min. norm), method and (ii) thetls-fblp method yields a 3 dB lower mean-square error (mse) in thedoa estimates as compared to thetls-flp method. Next, we consider the asymptotic performance of the min. norm method in the presence of sensor gain and phase perturbations, and derive the expressions for themse in thedoa estimates assuming an uniform linear array. For the special case of a single source, we also obtain a simple and explicit expression for themse which, when compared with the corresponding result for themusic algorithm, shows that the min. norm method is more sensitive than themusic when the number of sensors exceeds 2. Computer simulations are included to support the theoretical predictions. This work is supported in part by the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, Bangalore.     

Positron Annihilation Studies of the Internal Surfaces of Selected Zeolites and the Effect of Hydration

Positron annihilation techniques have been applied to study the pore diameters and volumes of 11 crystalline and amorphous zeolites. The data, consisting of the number of counts per channel recorded on a multichannel analyzer, were analyzed by means of the POSITRONFIT program. The data were presented as four lifetimes, τ₁ to τ₄, with their associated intensities, I ₁ to I ₄. The pore volumes reported here were based on a quantum mechanical model. The derived volumes are in reasonable agreement with pore volumes obtained with X-ray and other data. The intensity of our fourth positron lifetime correlates with Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurements of the surface area of the powders. These results are consistent with two studies by other authors.     

Design and Dimensioning of a WDM Mesh Network to Groom Dynamically Varying Traffic

In this paper, we address the traffic grooming problem in WDM mesh networks when the offered traffic is characterized by a set of traffic matrices—a variant of dynamically changing traffic. We justify the need to address this problem in mesh networks and also argue for the validity of our approach to solve this problem. Our primary objective is to design the network in terms of the number of wavelengths and transceivers required to support any offered traffic matrix. We provide a simple and generic framework to minimize the number of transceivers needed in the network. Simulation results have been presented in contrast with a possible approach, to enable comparison with our solution strategy. An ILP formulation of our approach is also presented.