On-line aircraft parameter identification using fourier transform regression with an application to NASA F/A-18 harv flight data

This paper applies a recently developed on-line parameter identification (PID) technique to sets of real flight data and compares the results with those of a state-of-the-art off-line PID technique. The on-line PID technique takes Linear Regression from Fourier Transformed equations and the off-line PID is based on the traditional Maximum Likelihood method. Sets of flight data from the NASA F/A-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) aircraft, which has been recorded from specifically designed maneuvers and used for off line parameter estimation, are used for this study. The emphasis is given on the accuracy and on-line measure of reliability of the estimates. The comparison is performed for both longitudinal and lateral-directional dynamics for maneuvers at angles of attack ranging α=20δ through α=40δ. Results of the two estimation processes are also compared with baseline wind tunnel estimates whenever possible.     

GigaOp DSP on FPGA

DSP algorithms such as automated target recognition and SONAR beamforming are a good match for FPGA technology due to their regular structure, available parallelism, pipeline-ability, and modest data word sizes. FPGA implementations of these applications outperformed their DSP and microprocessor counterparts by factors ranging from 10× on up with an equivalent sustained computational rate of more than 2 GOps/second per FPGA. This paper introduces a set of criteria which have a great impact on how well an application maps to FPGA technology. It then describes two applications in detail and the process of mapping each to FPGA technology. Comparisons with software implementations are made and followed by conclusions and future challenges.     

Environment for rapidly creating interactive design tools

The Garnet toolkit was specifically designed to make highly interactive graphical programs easier to design and implement. Visual, interactive, user-interface design tools clearly fall into this category. At this point, we have used the Garnet toolkit to create three different interactive design tools: Gilt, a simple interface builder for laying out widgets; Lapidary, a sophisticated design tool for constructing application-specific graphics and custom widgets; and C32, a spreadsheet interface to constraints. The features of the Garnet toolkit that made these easier to create include use of a prototype-instance object system instead of the usual class-instance model, integration of constraints with the object system, graphics model that supports automatic graphical update and saving to disk of on-screen objects, separation of specifying the graphics of objects from their behavior, automatic layout of graphical objects in a variety of styles, and a widget set that supports such commonly used operations as selection, moving and growing objects, and displaying and setting their properties.     

A design rationale for a language-based editor

This paper reviews the design issues that arise in the construction of effective language-based editors for the preparation of syntactically and static semantically correct language sentences, typically computer programs. The need for such editors to support a pluralistic view of program structure is identified, together with the need to observe the constraints on performance and storage consumption if such editors are to be accepted by professional programmers. From these basic needs, more specific requirements for the display, parsing and semantic checking components of such an editor are derived.     

Hermeneutics and psychology: A review and dialectical model.

The authors encourage psychologists to transcend the simple but often made a contrast of quantitative and qualitative epistemologies by reissuing a call to consider a hermeneutical realist perspective. The authors recognize that such calls are not new and have largely gone unheeded in the past, perhaps because of how a more radical hermeneutical perspective has been conceptualized and communicated. Rooted in P. Ricoeur's (1981) philosophy of distanciation, the authors propose a dialectic of understanding and explanation that values both quantitative and qualitative methodologies by (a) tracing the philosophical development of hermeneutics as a paradigm for knowing, (b) demonstrating useful hermeneutical applications to psychology as a whole and to some specific subdisciplines, and (c) illustrating how a hermeneutic realist approach is beneficial to the multicultural study of virtue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of assessment methods on self-efficacy and outcome expectancy ratings of assertive behavior.

The study evaluated whether alternate assessment methods contribute to variability in self-efficacy and outcome expectancy ratings for refusal of unreasonable requests. Subject assertiveness plus two methods of scene presentation (i.e., printed vs videotape) and two methods of response generation (i.e., experimenter-prepared vs. subject thought-listed) were compared in a repeated measures design. All subjects were exposed to eight request situations that were matched for legitimacy level and target person. Each situation reflected one of four combinations of assessment methods and served to elicit either an efficacy or outcome expectancy rating. For self-efficacy ratings, there was a significant interaction that indicated that the printed scene plus experimenter-prepared response condition yielded significantly higher ratings than all of the other conditions. For outcome expectancy ratings, there was a main effect for response-generation method indicating that the thought-listing method led to lower expectancy of positive outcomes. Also, consistent with past research, assertive subjects reported more positive than negative outcome expectancies. These plus other findings are discussed relative to the cognitive assessment and self-efficacy literatures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DBDigger: reorganized proteomic database identification that improves flexibility and speed

Database search identification algorithms, such as Sequest and Mascot, constitute powerful enablers for proteomic tandem mass spectrometry. We introduce DBDigger, an algorithm that reorganizes the database identification process to remove a problematic bottleneck. Typically such algorithms determine which candidate sequences can be compared to each spectrum. Instead, DBDigger determines which spectra can be compared to each candidate sequence, enabling the software to generate candidate sequences only once for each HPLC separation rather than for each spectrum. This reorganization also reduces the number of times a spectrum must be predicted for a particular candidate sequence and charge state. As a result, DBDigger can accelerate some database searches by more than an order of magnitude. In addition, the software offers features to reduce the performance degradation introduced by posttranslational modification (PTM) searching. DBDigger allows researchers to specify the sequence context in which each PTM is possible. In the case of CNBr digests, for example, modified methionine residues can be limited to occur only at the C-termini of peptides. Use of "context-dependent" PTM searching reduces the performance penalty relative to traditional PTM searching. We characterize the performance possible with DBDigger, showcasing MASPIC, a new statistical scorer. We describe the implementation of these innovations in the hope that other researchers will employ them for rapid and highly flexible proteomic database search.     

Occurrence of diabetes, hyperinsulinism and other risk factors for atherosclerosis in patients with pernicious anemia]

The anticonvulsant action of felbamate (25, 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg i.p.) was tested against motor seizures induced by pentylenetetrazol in five age-groups of rats (7, 12, 18, 25 and 90 days old). In adult rats, felbamate suppressed generalized tonic-clonic seizures leaving intact minimal clonic seizures. In all groups of rat pups felbamate exhibited a specific action against the tonic phase of generalized tonic-clonic seizures. In addition, the highest dose of felbamate was found to suppress minimal seizures in 18-day-old rats. The changes of felbamate action during ontogeny might be due to multiple mechanisms of anticonvulsant action with an uneven developmental profile.