Application of automated video analysis for behavioural studies: concept and experience

Lund University, Sweden, is developing a video analysis system for making long-term behavioural studies, primarily in complex urban environments. Road users are detected using the KLT (Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi) interest point tracker. Trajectories are estimated using foreground-background segmentation, whereas speed is estimated using the shape analysis of interest points. The extracted trajectories are further used for behavioural analysis. The authors present the experience from an ongoing study in Stockholm city, where the task was to find out if allowing two-way bicycle traffic on one-way streets had negative effects on safety. The video analysis system was applied to detect biking in the -wrong- direction and analyse traffic conflicts between cyclists and other road users. The manual observations done in parallel allowed validating the accuracy of system performance.     

ANN modeling applied to NO x reduction with octane in a new microreactor

A silver/alumina catalyst was tested for its NO _x reduction activity during oxygen-rich conditions and during variation in the input parameters (nitric oxide, octane and oxygen). The experimental data using the microreactor was investigated by means of artificial neural networks (ANN).     

Differential immunological aberrations in patients with primary and secondary Sj?gren''s syndrome

PURPOSE: To evaluate the dependence of fine particle dose charge (FPD charge) generated from powder inhalers on physico-chemical properties of the inhalation powder, inhaler type, deaggregation mechanism, dose number and/or retained powder. METHODS: Electrostatic charges were determined on micronized powders and aerosolized fine particle doses withdrawn from two, high efficiency, multidose powder inhalers, Turbohaler and prototype Dryhaler. The behavior of terbutaline sulfate, budesonide, albuterol (sulfate and base), beclomethasone dipropionate and lactose was assessed before and after aerosolization. RESULTS: Both inhalers conferred triboelectric FPD charges during aerosolization in the range -400 pC through +200 pC. Specific charges (charge/unit mass) on the fine particle doses of budesonide from Dryhaler were significantly less than those from Turbohaler (p < 0.01). Electrostatic charges on the potentially respirable cloud of terbutaline sulfate generated by Bricanyl Turbohaler were positive and/or negative and unpredictable. With Pulmicort Turbohaler, FPD charges on budesonide were always positive. Dryhaler was used to determine the chemical dependence of fine particle triboelectrification during the aerosolization of pure materials. A triboelectric series was constructed from the Dryhaler results ranking the powders from positive to negative as budesonide > lactose > albuterol sulfate > terbutaline sulfate > or = albuterol > or = beclomethasone dipropionate. CONCLUSIONS: While there was no evidence of FPD charge dependence upon dose number with either inhaler, FPD charges were dependent upon the powder under investigation, as well as the construction and deaggregation mechanism of the inhaler. The specific charge on the fine particle dose of budesonide from Turbohaler corresponded to approximately 200 electronic charges per particle, a value which is known to affect both total and regional aerosol deposition in the human lung. Electrostatic charge effects may be important determinants of aerosol behavior and should not be neglected.     

An assessment of the CaO-SiO2 system

An evaluation of the CaO-SiO₂ system has been made using a newly developed model, a two-sublattice model for ionic solutions. Two alternatives were tested. In the first one, three anions were assumed, O⁻², SiO₄ ⁻⁴, and SiO₃ ⁻². In the second one, SiO₃ ⁻² was omitted. A set of parameter values describing the Gibbs energy of the liquid phase and solid phases was fixed for each alternative by a computer-operated optimization procedure called PARROT. Satisfactory assessments were achieved over the whole phase diagram range with both alternatives. The main difference between them occurs at the monotectic point. A comparison between calculated properties and experimental data is given. Formerly Research Associate, Royal Institute of Technoloy     

Human fear conditioning is related to dopaminergic and serotonergic biological markers.

Biological markers for acquisition and extinction of fear conditioning were studied in 40 individuals selected for displaying either good or poor acquisiton of fear conditioning, as estimated by the skin conductance response. Participants with a short serotonin transporter (5-HTT) promoter allele or low monoamine oxidase activity in platelets (trbc-MAO) displayed better acquisition than those with only long alleles or high trbc-MAO, whereas participants with a long dopamine D4 receptor (D4DR) exon III allele showed delayed extinction compared with those with only short alleles. The findings, that D4DR exon III and 5-HTT promotor genotypes and trbc-MAO activity are related to human fear conditioning, a basic form of associative learning, are consistent with animal studies suggesting a genetic contribution to fear conditioning. The authors suggest that in humans these genetic mechanisms are partly dopaminergic and serotonergic in origin. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Monitoring struturants of fat blends with ultrasound based in‐line rheometry (ultrasonic velocity profiling with pressure difference)

Ultrasonic velocity profiling with pressure difference (UVP‐PD) was demonstrated to be a successful, non‐invasive, in‐line measurement system for instantaneous velocity and rheological flow profiling of complex, opaque fat blends. Model systems of 25% Akomic, 75% rapeseed oil; and 25% Akomic, 74% rapeseed oil and 1% Grindsted^® Crystalliser 110 were compared under real process conditions with UVP‐PD. Results indicated that the sample containing the crystalliser had twice the viscosity of the control. These in‐line results are in agreement with previous off‐line results, and offer the chance to probe the mechanics of fat blend physics under real, dynamic conditions.     

Practical Construction and Analysis of Pseudo-Randomness Primitives

We give a careful, fixed-size parameter analysis of a standard (Blum and Micali in SIAM J. Comput. 13(4):850–864, 1984; Goldreich and Levin in Proceedings of 21st ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, pp. 25–32, 1989) way to form a pseudo-random generator from a one-way function and then pseudo-random functions from said generator (Goldreich et al. in J. Assoc. Comput. Mach. 33(4):792–807, 1986) While the analysis is done in the model of exact security, we improve known bounds also asymptotically when many bits are output each round and we find all auxiliary parameters efficiently, giving a uniform result. These optimizations makes the analysis effective even for security parameters/key-sizes supported by typical block ciphers and hash functions. This enables us to construct very practical pseudo-random generators with strong properties based on plausible assumptions.     

Characterization of Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 powders synthesized by spray drying

Ce_0.9Gd_0.1O_1.95 powders were synthesized by spray drying and successive calcinations. The phase purity, BET surface area, and particle morphology of as-sprayed and calcined powders were characterized. After calcination above 300 °C, the powders were single phase and showed a BET surface area of 68 m²/g when calcined at 300 °C. The conductivity, in air, of sintered pellets was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and it was found to be comparable with literature values. The activation energy for the total conductivity was around 0.83 eV. The powder calcined at lower temperature showed better sinterability and higher total conductivity due to an increased bulk conductivity.     

瑞典多功能绿道的实际建设 挑战与机遇

探讨了瑞典南部的斯堪尼亚在建设多功能绿道时,在改善高强度管理农业区域可达性、休闲活动可能性和生物多样性等方面所面临的挑战和机遇。通过网络检索、与政府部门进行联系,与相关人员进行讨论及召开研讨会,并对绿道的生物多样性进行实地调查,指出了瑞典绿道的实际问题与改善的可能性。