Using immersive virtual reality and anatomically correct computer-generated characters in the forensic assessment of deviant sexual preferences

Penile plethysmography (PPG) is the gold standard for the assessment of sexual interests, especially among sex offenders of children. Nonetheless, this method faces some ethical limitations inherent to the nature of its stimuli and could benefit from the improvement of its ecological validity. The use of computer-generated characters (CGC) in virtual immersion for PPG assessment might help address these issues. A new application developed to design made-to-measure anatomically correct virtual characters compatible with the Tanner developmental stages is presented. The main purpose of this study was to determine how the virtual reality (VR) modality compares to the standard auditory modality on their capacity to generate sexual arousal profiles and deviance differentials indicative of sexual interests. The erectile responses of 22 sex offenders of children and 42 non-deviant adult males were recorded. While both stimulus modalities generated significantly different genital arousal profiles for sex offenders of children and non-deviant males, deviance differentials calculated from the VR modality allowed for significantly higher classification accuracy. Performing receiver operating characteristic analyses further assessed discriminant potential. Auditory modality yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.79 (SE = 0.059) while CGC in VR yielded an AUC of 0.90 (SE = 0.052). Overall, results suggest that the VR modality allows significantly better group classification accuracy and discriminant validity than audio stimuli, which provide empirical support for the use of this new method for PPG assessment. Additionally, the potential use of VR in interventions pertaining to self-regulation of sexual offending is addressed in conclusion.     

STRATIGRAPHY AND PETROLEUM GEOLOGY OF THE CROATIAN PART OF THE ADRIATIC BASIN

Coastal parts of Croatia are dominated by the SW‐verging Dinaric foldbelt, to the west and SW of which is the Adriatic Basin (the stable foreland). In both areas, the stratigraphic column is dominated by a thick carbonate succession ranging from Carboniferous to Miocene. Four megasequences have been identified: (i) a pre‐platform succession ranging in age from Late Carboniferous (Middle Pennsylvanian: Moscovian) to Early Jurassic (Early Toarcian; Bru?ane and Ba?ke Ostarije Formations); (ii) an Early Jurassic to Late Cretaceous platform megasequence (Mali Alan Formation); (iii) a Paleogene to Neogene post‐platform megasequence (Ra?a Formation); and (iv) a Neogene to Quaternary (Pliocene to Holocene) megasequence (Istra and Ivana Formations). A number of organic‐rich intervals with source rock potential have been identified on‐ and offshore Croatia: Middle and Upper Carboniferous, Upper Permian, Lower and Middle Triassic, Lower and Upper Jurassic, Lower and Upper Cretaceous, Eocene, and Pliocene – Pleistocene. Traps and potential plays have been identified from seismic data in the Dinaric belt and adjacent foreland. Evaporites of Permian, Triassic and Neogene (Messinian) ages form potential regional seals, and carbonates with secondary porosity form potential reservoirs. Oil and gas shows in wells in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Basin have been recorded but no oil accumulations of commercial value have yet been discovered. In the northern Adriatic offshore Croatia, Pliocene hemi‐pelagic marlstones and shales include source rocks which produce commercial volumes of biogenic gas. The gas is reservoired in unconsolidated sands of the Pleistocene Ivana Formation.     

Synthesis and characterization of copolymers of bromoacrylated methyl oleate

In this study, methyl oleate was bromoacrylated in the presence of N‐bromosuccinimide and acrylic acid in one step. Homopolymers and copolymers of bromoacrylated methyl oleate (BAMO) were synthesized by free radical bulk polymerization and photopolymerization techniques. Azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) and 2,2‐dimethoxy‐2‐phenyl‐acetophenone were used as initiators. The new monomer BAMO was characterized by FTIR, GC‐MS, ¹H, and ¹³C‐NMR spectroscopy. Styrene (STY), methylmethacrylate (MMA), and vinyl acetate (VA) were used for copolymerization. The polymers synthesized were characterized by FTIR, ¹H‐NMR, ¹³C‐NMR, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Molecular weight and polydispersities of the copolymers were determined by GPC analysis. Ten different feed ratios of the monomers STY and BAMO were used for the calculation of reactivity ratios. The reactivity ratios were determined by the Fineman–Ross and Kelen–Tudos methods using ¹H‐NMR spectroscopic data. The reactivity ratios were found to be r_sty = 0.891 (Fineman–Ross method), 0.859 (Kelen–Tudos method); r_bamo = 0.671 (Fineman–Ross method), 0.524 (Kelen–Tudos method). © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 2475–2488, 2004     

Tree Recovery in PIM Sparse Mode

A PIM–SM-built multicast tree must be restructured when the underlying unicast routing tables change. We describe the PIM–SM recovery mechanisms and evaluate the recovery performance, showing its dependence on a range of network and session parameters. Our results show that a substantial packet loss can be caused by nonreductive, benign events in the network, such as an addition of a new link. We propose and evaluate an improvement to the standard PIM–SM recovery procedure aimed to reduce the packet loss caused by the benign events. Our evaluation shows that the data loss caused by these events can be significantly decreased regardless of the topology and session parameters.     

Calculation of Excitation Function of Some Structural Fusion Material for (n, p) Reactions up to 25 MeV

Fusion serves an inexhaustible energy for humankind. Although there have been significant research and development studies on the inertial and magnetic fusion reactor technology, Furthermore, there are not radioactive nuclear waste problems in the fusion reactors. In this study, (n, p) reactions for some structural fusion materials such as ²⁷Al, ⁵¹V, ⁵²Cr, ⁵⁵Mn and ⁵⁶Fe have been investigated. The new calculations on the excitation functions of ²⁷ Al(n, p) ²⁷ Mg, ⁵¹ V(n, p) ⁵¹ Ti, ⁵² Cr(n, p) ⁵² V, ⁵⁵ Mn(n, p) ⁵⁵ Cr and ⁵⁶ Fe(n, p) ⁵⁶ Mn reactions have been carried out up to 30 MeV incident neutron energy. Statistical model calculations, based on the Hauser–Feshbach formalism, have been carried out using the TALYS-1.0 and were compared with available experimental data in the literature and with ENDF/B-VII, T = 300 K; JENDL-3.3, T = 300 K and JEFF-3.1, T = 300 K evaluated libraries.     

Effect of gamma irradiation on the properties of tyre cords

Gamma irradiation of high tenacity Nylon 6.6 (Ny 66) and polyester (PET) tyre cords was investigated. The untreated and treated tyre cords with different twist levels were irradiated at different dose rates in air. The effects of irradiation on both Ny 66 and PET cords were not found to be depending on the twist levels of the cords. The changes in the mechanical and thermal properties with absorbed dose at two different dose rates were measured. The mechanical properties were observed to deteriorate with increasing dose for Ny 66 cords, whereas remained almost unchanged for PET cords both in greige and dipped forms. Hot shrinkage value for the greige Ny 66 cords was found to be improved, i.e. decreased. This decrease was much lower for greige PET than Ny 66 cords. It is concluded that PET cord has higher radiation resistance than Ny 66 cord and the effects of high energy irradiation on tyre cords have to be taken into consideration during tyre design if pre-vulcanization with high energy radiation is to be applied.     

Fabrication of transparent polymer-matrix nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical properties from chemically modified ZrO<Subscript>2</Subscript> nanoparticles

Optically transparent nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical properties were fabricated using stable dispersions of sub 10 nm ZrO₂ nanoparticles. The ZrO₂ dispersions were mixed with a commercially available bisphenol-A-based epoxy resin (RIMR 135i) and cured with a mixture of two amine-based curing agents (RIMH 134 and RIMH 137) after complete solvent removal. The colloidal dispersions of ZrO₂ nanoparticles, synthesized through a non-aqueous approach, were obtained through a chemical modification of the ZrO₂ nanoparticle surface, employing different organic ligands through simple mixing at room temperature. Successful binding of the ligands to the surface was studied utilizing ATR–FT-IR and thermogravimetric analysis. The homogeneous distribution of the nanoparticles within the matrix was proven by SAXS and the observed high optical transmittance for ZrO₂ contents of up to 8 wt%. Nanocomposites with a ZrO₂ content of only 2 wt% showed a significant enhancement of the mechanical properties, e.g., an increase of the tensile strength and Young’s modulus by up to 11.9 and 12.5%, respectively. Also the effect of different surface bound ligands on the mechanical properties is discussed.     

A Novel Approach to Motion Control Design for Functionally Related Systems

When a complex task has to be performed by multiple systems, it imposes functional dependencies between the states and/or outputs of the systems. These functional dependencies create a system of’ virtually’ interconnected subsystems, even though they may be physically separated. The component subsystems within the overall system we call ‘functionally related systems’. This paper deals with motion control design for functionally related systems. The design is based on identifying functions. The control design is then performed by projecting the system dynamics into the function space. The main goal is to obtain unit control distribution matrix in the function space and enforce a desired dynamics for each of the identified functions.     

Visual Recommendations for Network Navigation

Understanding large, complex networks is important for many critical tasks, including decision making, process optimization, and threat detection. Existing network analysis tools often lack intuitive interfaces to support the exploration of large scale data. We present a visual recommendation system to help guide users during navigation of network data. Collaborative filtering, similarity metrics, and relative importance are used to generate recommendations of potentially significant nodes for users to explore. In addition, graph layout and node visibility are adjusted in real‐time to accommodate recommendation display and to reduce visual clutter. Case studies are presented to show how our design can improve network exploration.     

Self and mutual admittances/impedances of two parallel nonstaggered dipoles driven by 2-wire lines

A new theoretical approach to the problem of two identical, parallel, nonstaggered dipole antennas, driven by 2-wire lines is presented. This contribution is an extension of earlier work dealing with the isolated dipole antenna driven by a 2-wire line. The present simple theory is limited to coupled dipoles, the distances of which are greater than one-tenth of a wavelength.