Estimation of linear parametric models of nonGaussian discreterandom fields with application to texture synthesis

A general (possibly asymmetric noncausal and/or nonminimum phase) 2D autoregressive moving average random field model driven by an independent and identically distributed 2D nonGaussian sequence is considered. The model is restricted to be invertible, i.e., system zeros are not allowed to lie on the unit bicircle. Three performance criteria are investigated for parameter estimation of the system parameters given only the output measurements (image pixels). The proposed criteria are functions of the higher order cumulant statistics of an inverse filter output. One of these criteria is novel and the others have been considered in past only for moving average inverses and without any analysis of their consistency. In the paper strong consistency of the proposed methods under the assumption that the system order is known is proved. The convergence of the proposed parameter estimators under overparametrization is also analyzed. Experimental results involving synthesized as well as real life textures are presented to illustrate the performance of two of the considered approaches. Experimental results of synthesis of 128x128 textures visually resembling several real life textures in the Brodatz album (and other sources) are presented.     

The apolipoprotein E allele epsilon 4 is overrepresented in patients with the Lewy body variant of Alzheimer's disease

We determined apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotypes in 122 autopsied demented patients. The frequency of the ApoE epsilon 4 allele was 39.6% in Alzheimer's disease (AD), 29.0% in the Lewy body variant of AD (LBV), and 6.25% in diffuse Lewy body disease. For AD and LBV patients, the epsilon 4 frequency was significantly higher than that reported in nondemented controls (10 to 15%). Therefore, LBV and AD share ApoE epsilon 4 as a genetic risk factor, providing further evidence that these conditions overlap.     

An experimental and numerical investigation of ductile crack growth characteristics in surface cracked specimens under combined loading

Fracture mechanics tests have been performed in the upper shelf region of a steel on large surface cracked plate (SCT) specimens and on small compact tension (CT) specimens. Some of the SCT specimens were subjected to combined tension and bending in such a way that the loading was strongly non-proportional. Crack growth characteristics were compared between the specimens in order to assess possible influences of geometry and nonproportional loading. The differences observed could unambiguously be reduced to and correlated with differences in constraint. Constraint parameters were evaluated by detailed three-dimensional finite element computations and quantities for growing cracks were interpreted on the basis of deformation theory considerations, in analogy with the commonly used J _R-philosophy. It was noted that the initiation of ductile crack growth along a three-dimensional crack front appears to be independent of the degree of local constraint. However, the increase in toughness for a growing crack was markedly affected by the degree of local constraint. Some estimates of the constraints effects regarding stability considerations were also made.     

Sociopolitical effects on personality research.

Comments on L. R. Goldberg's (see record 1993-17546-001) history of the Big Five framework of personality traits and elaborated on its use. The reasons why industrial/organizational psychologists de-emphaszied the impact of personality on the job peformance in the late 1960s and 1970s and re-emphasized it in the 1980s are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tribological properties of oil-soluble polyolefins

Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 11, pp. 17–18, 23, November, 1993.     

A multivariate mixed linear model for meta-analysis.

A multivariate mixed-effects approach for meta-analysis is presented. The approach (a) incorporates as outcomes multiple effect sizes per study; (b) allows different studies to have different subsets of effect sizes; and (c) treats each study's effect sizes as random realizations from a population of possible effect sizes. Application is illustrated via reanalysis of data from studies assessing the effects of coaching on verbal and mathematical subtests of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Covariance components are estimated via restricted maximum likelihood (REML); inferences about regression coefficients and specific study effect sizes are based on their joint conditional distribution given the REML covariance component estimates. The approach can be implemented via now-standard software for unbalanced hierarchical data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Possibility of Observing Third Sound on 3He

This paper focuses on the hydrodynamics of third sound on a superfluid ³ He film. We solve the hydrodynamical equations in the limit of thick films with weak interaction with the substrate. The surface tension at the free interface is shown to have a large effect on the third sound velocity and on the attenuation for frequencies larger than 1Hz. In the case of a diffusely scattering substrate a ripplon-like dispersion relation is found for this frequency range.