Complex Permittivity of Liquid and Granular Materials Using Waveguide Cells

The four boundary cell is an important arrangement for the measurement of complex permittivity of bulk solids and liquids. Transcendental equations for reflection and transmission are derived and previous errors in the literature are noted. This measurement method is extended to granular samples where a compression technique is introduced to minimize the dispersion in S-parameter measurements associated with interface problems.     

Feedforward adaptive noise control with multivariable gradientlattice filters

This work presents a novel feedforward adaptive noise control (ANC) algorithm based on multivariable gradient lattice filters to control acoustic noise or vibration globally. In addition, a gradient-based lattice for AR and FIR models and its transpose lattice for the multivariable ANC algorithm are derived. The filter has different forward and backward reflection coefficient matrices to provide a faster convergence than the gradient lattice algorithm when using the same reflection coefficient matrices. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in controlling broadband acoustic noise in an enclosure     

Recognition of posed and genuine facial expressions of emotion in paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenia.

Most previous research reporting emotion-recognition deficits in schizophrenia has used posed facial expressions of emotion and chronic-schizophrenia patients. In contrast, the present research examined the ability of patients with acute paranoid and nonparanoid (disorganized) schizophrenia to recognize genuine as well as posed facial expressions of emotion. Evidence of an emotion-recognition deficit in schizophrenia was replicated, but only when posed facial expressions were used. For genuine expressions of emotion, the paranoid-schizophrenia group was more accurate than controls, nonparanoid-schizophrenia patients, and depressed patients. Future research clearly needs to consider the posed versus genuine nature of the emotional stimuli used and the type of schizophrenia patients examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modelling fatigue damage accumulation in two-dimensional Voronoi honeycombs

Trabecular bone, a porous, cellular type of bone found at the ends of the long bones and within the vertebrae, is subject to cyclic compressive loading resulting from the activities of daily living. Such fatigue loading can result in fracture, especially in vertebrae of patients with osteoporosis. As an initial step in understanding compressive fatigue of trabecular bone we previously used finite-element analysis to model the progressive damage and failure of a simple, two-dimensional hexagonal honeycomb. In this study, the analysis is extended to a random, Voronoi honeycomb. Bending of the cell walls induces tensile stresses even when the overall loading is compressive. The cell walls are assumed to have a distribution of crack lengths in their tensile zones. The cracks are assumed to grow according to a Paris law and fail when the cracks reach 75% of the cell wall thickness. Failed cell walls are removed from the structure, the stress distribution recalculated and the next increment of fatigue loading are simulated. The Young's modulus of the honeycomb is calculated after each cell wall failure. Overall failure of the Voronoi structure is assumed to occur when the modulus is reduced by 5%; further loading reduces the modulus sharply. The slope of the S–N curve for the Voronoi honeycomb is the same as that for the hexagonal honeycomb. The model suggests that a random honeycomb is more sensitive to fatigue than a regular one.     

Synesthesia and memory: Color congruency, von Restorff, and false memory effects.

In the current study, we explored the influence of synesthesia on memory for word lists. We tested 10 grapheme-color synesthetes who reported an experience of color when reading letters or words. We replicated a previous finding that memory is compromised when synesthetic color is incongruent with perceptual color. Beyond this, we found that, although their memory for word lists was superior overall, synesthetes did not exhibit typical color- or semantic-defined von Restorff isolation effects (von Restorff, 1933) compared with control participants. Moreover, our synesthetes exhibited a reduced Deese–Roediger–McDermott false memory effect (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Taken as a whole, these findings are consistent with the idea that color-grapheme synesthesia can lead people to place a greater emphasis on item-specific processing and surface form characteristics of words in a list (e.g., the letters that make them up) relative to relational processing and more meaning-based processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A review of E-voting: the past,present and future

Electronic voting systems are those which depend on some electronic technology for their correct functionality. Many of them depend on such technology for the communication of election data. Depending on one or more communication channels in order to run elections poses many technical challenges with respect to verifiability, dependability, security, anonymity and trust. Changing the way in which people vote has many social and political implications. The role of election administrators and (independent) observers is fundamentally different when complex communications technology is involved in the process. Electronic voting has been deployed in many different types of election throughout the world for several decades. Despite lack of agreement on whether this has been a ‘success’, there has been—in the last few years—enormous investment in remote electronic voting (primarily as a means of exploiting the internet as the underlying communication technology).     

A combined neural network and mechanistic approach for the prediction of corrosion rate and yield strength of magnesium-rare earth alloys

Additions of Ce, La and Nd to Mg were made in binary, ternary and quaternary combinations up to ∼6 wt.%. This provided a dataset that was used in developing a neural network model for predicting corrosion rate and yield strength. Whilst yield strength increased with RE additions, corrosion rates also systematically increased, however, this depended on the type of RE element added and the combination of elements added (along with differences in intermetallic morphology). This work is permits an understanding of Mg–RE alloy performance, and can be exploited in Mg alloy design for predictable combinations of strength and corrosion resistance.     

Regardless if it is comedy,action, thriller,or biography: A review of urban crime in the 1980s cinema of Chicago

This study investigates the cinematic representation of city crime transactions in Chicago in the 1980s. The narrative nature of cinema provides an imaginative context for interpreting the physical and nonphysical dimensions of urban crimes. From a critical interpretive position, based on Peirce's semiotics, this study uses “urban cinesemiotics” as the method to select image signs, identify their associated Chicagoan objects, and interpret their design-oriented meaning. The theoretical roots of crime prevention through environmental design constitute the basis for the interpretation of movies. A total of 27 crime-related scenes from 9 Chicagoan movies made in the 1980s illustrate that most urban settings suffer from the lack of crime-preventive environmental design. In particular, natural surveillance (eyes on the street), encounter and enclosure, and border vacuums are major environmental factors that affect urban crimes in Chicago. Some crime scenes also depict why environmental design cannot influence individuals' criminal intentions necessarily nor can they solve urban safety single-handedly.