Evaluating Three Criteria for Establishing Cue-Search Hierarchies in Inferential Judgment.

The authors identify and provide an integration of 3 criteria for establishing cue-search hierarchies in inferential judgment. Cues can be ranked by information value according to expected information gain (Bayesian criterion), cue-outcome correlation (correlational criterion), or ecological validity (accuracy criterion). All criteria significantly predicted information acquisition behavior; however, in 3 experiments, the most successful predictor was the correlational criterion (followed by the Bayesian). Although participants showed sensitivity to task constraints, searching for less information when it was more expensive (Experiment 1) and when under time constraints (Experiment 2), concomitant changes in the relative frequency of acquisition of cues with different information values were not observed. A rational analysis illustrates why such changes in the frequency of acquisition would be beneficial, and reasons for the failure to observe such behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimization of hydrothermal pretreatment of wheat straw for production of bioethanol at low water consumption without addition of chemicals

In the IBUS process (Integrated Biomass Utilization System) lignocellulosic biomass is converted into ethanol at high dry matter content without addition of chemicals and with a strong focus on energy efficiency. This study describes optimization of continuous hydrothermal pretreatment of wheat straw at pilot scale (up to 100 kg h^?1) where six different pretreatment conditions have been investigated; all pretreatment conditions have been evaluated with regards to recovery of sugars after pretreatment (both C5 and C6) and convertibility of the cellulosic part of the fibers into ethanol.The experiments show that the optimum pretreatment parameters are 195 °C for 6–12 min. At these conditions, a total of app. 70% of the hemicellulose is recovered, 93–94% of the cellulose is recovered in the fibers and app. 89% of the cellulose in the fibers can be converted into ethanol by commercial cellulase mixtures – increasing to 92% when adding a commercial xylanase.     

Recovery of arabinan in acetic acid-catalyzed hydrothermal pretreatment on corn stover

Acetic acid-catalyzed hydrothermal pretreatment was done on corn stover under 195 °C, 15 min with the acetic acid ranging from 5 × 10^?3 to 0.2 g g^?1 corn stover. After pretreatment, the water-insoluble solids (WISs) and liquors were collected respectively. Arabinan recoveries from both WIS and liquors were investigated. The results indicate that there was no detectable arabinan left in the WIS when the acetic acid of 0.1 and 0.2 g g^?1 corn stover were used in the pretreatment. The arabinan contents in the other WISs were not more than 10%. However, the arabinan found in the liquors was not covering the amount of arabinan released from the raw corn stover. For the arabinan recovery from liquor fractions, the highest of 43.57% was obtained by the pretreatment of acetic acid of 0.01 g g^?1 of corn stover and the lowest was only 26.77% when the acetic acid of 0.2 g g^?1 corn stover was used. As far as the total arabinan recovery, the pretreatment with acetic acid at 0.01 g g^?1 raw corn stover yielded the highest and it was 52.16%. This meant that almost half of the arabinose was degraded during the pretreatment process.     

Corrosion rate of steel in concrete: evaluation of confinement techniques for on-site corrosion rate measurements

Earlier on-site investigations and laboratory studies have shown that varying corrosion rates are obtained when different commercially available instruments are used. The different confinement techniques, rather than the different electrochemical techniques used in the instruments, are considered to be the main reason for the discrepancies. This paper presents a method for the quantitative assessment of confinement techniques. The assessment is based on monitoring the operation of the corrosion rate instrument and following the current distribution between the electrode assembly on the concrete surface and a segmented reinforcement bar embedded in the concrete. The applicability of the method was demonstrated for two commercially available corrosion rate instruments based on different confinement techniques. The method provided an explanation of the differences in performance of the two instruments. Correlated measurements of linear polarisation resistance and macro-cell currents allowed the determination of calibration factors. Both instruments overestimated the corrosion rate of passive reinforcement, but underestimated the corrosion rate of reinforcement with intense localised corrosion.     

Influence from production parameters on the surface roughness of a machined short fibre reinforced thermoplastic

Machining is a relatively new manufacturing method for short fibre reinforced thermoplastics (SFRTP), and the theory and experience from other materials cannot be directly applied. It is therefore necessary to set up new guidelines for how to ensure a satisfactory result from the machining. Experiments were carried out to study how the surface roughness of a SFRTP, machined by turning, was influenced by variations of the feed rate, the cutting speed, the tool radius, the fibre orientation and the interactions between them. The roughness increased for an increasing feed rate and a decreasing tool radius. These parameters interacted, which shows the difficulty of deciding the setting of the production parameters by trial-and-error. Interaction also results in more complicated guidelines for the machining. A slight influence on the roughness was found for low cutting speeds, whereas higher speeds had no significant influence. The roughness was found to be independent of the fibre orientation. The overall conclusion was that it seemed to be possible to set up guidelines for an optimal machining of SFRTP. These recommendations differ from the theoretical ones applicable for the machining of metals.     

Genetic Variants in the Apoptosis Gene BCL2L1 Improve Response to Interferon-Based Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Genotype 3 Infection

Genetic variation upstream of the apoptosis pathway has been associated with outcome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We investigated genetic polymorphisms in the intrinsic apoptosis pathway to assess their influence on sustained virological response (SVR) to pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin (pegIFN/RBV) treatment of HCV genotypes 1 and 3 infections. We conducted a candidate gene association study in a prospective cohort of 201 chronic HCV-infected individuals undergoing treatment with pegIFN/RBV. Differences between groups were compared in logistic regression adjusted for age, HCV viral load and interleukin 28B genotypes. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in the B-cell lymphoma 2-like 1 (BCL2L1) gene were significantly associated with SVR. SVR rates were significantly higher for carriers of the beneficial rs1484994 CC genotypes. In multivariate logistic regression, the rs1484994 SNP combined CC + TC genotypes were associated with a 3.4 higher odds ratio (OR) in SVR for the HCV genotype 3 (p = 0.02). The effect estimate was similar for genotype 1, but the association did not reach statistical significance. In conclusion, anti-apoptotic SNPs in the BCL2L1 gene were predictive of SVR to pegIFN/RBV treatment in HCV genotypes 1 and 3 infected individuals. These SNPs may be used in prediction of SVR, but further studies are needed.     

Multiconjugate adaptive optics for large telescopes: analytical control of the mirror shapes

We present an analytical algorithm for deriving the shapes of the deformable mirrors to be used for multiconjugate adaptive correction on a large telescope. The algorithm is optimal in the limit where the overlap of the wave-front contributions from relevant atmospheric layers probed by the guide stars is close to the size of the pupil. The fundamental principle for correction is based on a minimization of the sum of the residual power spectra of the phase fluctuations seen by the guide stars after correction. On the basis of the expressions for the mirror shapes, so-called layer transfer functions describing the distribution of the correction of a single atmospheric layer among the deformable mirrors and the resulting correction of that layer have been derived. It is shown that for five guide stars distributed in a regular cross, two- and three-mirror correction will be possible only up to a maximum frequency defined by the largest separation of the conjugate altitudes of the mirrors and by the angular separation of the guide stars. The performance of the algorithm is investigated in the K band by using a standard seven-layer atmosphere. We present results obtained for two guide-star configurations: a continuous distribution within a given angular radius and a five-star cross pattern with a given angular arm length. The wave-front fluctuations are subjected to correction using one, two, and three deformable mirrors. The needed mirror dynamic range is derived as required root-mean-square stroke and actuator pitch. Finally the performance is estimated in terms of the Strehl ratio obtained by the correction as a function of field angle. No noise has been included in the present analysis, and the guide stars are assumed to be at infinity.     

Fragmented publishing: a large-scale study of health science

Scientometrics - Fragmented or multiple publishing is generally considered negative, as authors may inflate their number of articles through duplicate publications and salami publications. However,...     

Advancing large-scale R&D projects towards grand challenges through involvement of organizational knowledge integrators

Public and private funding bodies make massive investments in research to address the grand challenges of the world. These require collective research efforts of a large number of partners to generate knowledge and ultimately create technologies to meet today’s grand challenges. Surprisingly, little research is conducted on how to design the research consortia appropriately that actually result in the development of new technologies. This article argues that when organisational knowledge integrators are involved in large-scale projects, they ensure that the research findings of earlier technology development efforts in a project are pulled towards innovation outcomes through their own position in the innovation value chain. This article uses a data-set with 376 collaborative R&D projects within energy technologies. Most importantly, this article confirms the existence of organisational knowledge integrators and the positive effects on project outcomes. These results are discussed with implications drawn for both applicants and funding bodies for future projects.