Consumer Attention to an Over‐the‐counter Warning in Four Different Styles of Design

The study consisted of three objectives: (a) to test the relative prominence and conspicuousness of a warning required by US law to be conspicuous; (b) to explore whether or not the conspicuousness of the said warning can be enhanced graphically; and (c) to develop preliminary data for power analysis that would guide decisions related to sample size in future studies. Seventeen subjects viewed four over‐the‐counter drug packages (each with a different style of warning) along with five other products while wearing an eye tracking device. Four styles of warning were used on the over‐the‐counter drug packages: no outline and no fill, outline and no fill, no outline and fill, and outline and fill. The surface area and the placement of the warnings were held constant across all four designs and were consistent with those on commercially available products. Collected data were broken into five zones: warning, brand name, strength, product benefit and net weight. Despite the fact that US law requires it to be conspicuous, the tested warning was significantly less noticeable than the brand name (objective one) for all dependent variables analyzed (α = 0.05). No significant difference was indicated for the varied warning designs (objective two). This could be because not much can be done to enhance prominence when constrained to the limited space that is typically used for such warnings or because of the limited sample size. Power calculations suggest that a sample size of nearly 200 subjects would be required to detect a 2.5 s mean difference at 80% confidence (objective three). Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pr（Ⅲ） and Nd（Ⅲ） Absorption Spectroscopic Probe to Investigate Interaction with Lysozyme （HEW）

Pr（ Ⅲ ） and Nd（ Ⅲ ） can be utilized as absorption spectroscopic probes to investigate the interaction of biomolecules like Lysozyme （HEW） with Ca（ Ⅱ ） in-vitro ; the most abundant metal ion in the human body system. The spectroscopic techniques involving comparative absorption, absorption difference, and quantitative intensity analysis using 4f-4f transitions are utilized for changes in the inner sphere coordination pattern of Pr（ Ⅲ ） and Nd（Ⅲ ） in solution as well as in solid state. The present study deals with an important biomolecule in human metabolism, that is, Lysozyme （HEW）. The absorption er-Condon the probab spectral parameters such as the oscillator strength （P）, the Judd-Ofelt （Tλ） intensity parameters, and the Slatinter electronic parameters are calculated using chi square methods. The obtained results are used to determine le geometry of the complex in the solution, the nature of the bond between Pr（Ⅲ）/Nd（Ⅲ） with lysozyme, and the inner sphere coordination environment of f-f transitions. The results obtained from various experimental conditions are utilized to investigate the coordination changes in the Pr（Ⅲ）/Nd（Ⅲ） complexes caused by different coordinating sites of lysozyme, normalized bite, denticity, the solvent nature, the coordination number, the nature of bond and other parameters to mimic the interaction of the Ca（ Ⅱ ） ion with such biomolecule.     

Architectural considerations for next-generation file systems

Integration – supporting multiple application classes with heterogeneous performance requirements – is an emerging trend in networks, file systems, and operating systems. We evaluate two architectural alternatives – partitioned and integrated – for designing next-generation file systems. Whereas a partitioned server employs a separate file system for each application class, an integrated file server multiplexes its resources among all application classes; we evaluate the performance of the two architectures with respect to sharing of disk bandwidth among the application classes. We show that although the problem of sharing disk bandwidth in integrated file systems is conceptually similar to that of sharing network link bandwidth in integrated services networks, the arguments that demonstrate the superiority of integrated services networks over separate networks are not applicable to file systems. Furthermore, we show that: an integrated server outperforms the partitioned server in a large operating region and has slightly worse performance in the remaining region; the capacity of an integrated server is larger than that of the partitioned server; and an integrated server outperforms the partitioned server by a factor of up to 6 in the presence of bursty workloads.     

Effect of Microfabric on Mechanical Behavior of Kaolin Clay Using Cubical True Triaxial Testing

Various aspects of the mechanical behavior of kaolin clay are discussed in light of experimental observations from a series of strain controlled true triaxial undrained tests performed on cubical kaolin clay specimens with flocculated and dispersed microfabric, using a fully automated flexible boundary experimental setup with real-time feedback control system. The laboratory procedures used to prepare flocculated and dispersed microfabric specimens are presented. Mercury intrusion porosimetry is used to evaluate the pore structure of these specimens. The influence of microfabric on the consolidation behavior of kaolin clay is evaluated based on the data obtained from K0 consolidation during constant rate of strain tests and the isotropic consolidation during true triaxial tests. Undrained tests on kaolin clay show that the following vary with microfabric of specimen: The shear stiffness, excess pore pressure generated during shear, and strength and strain to failure. For both microfabrics, the observed strength behavior using cubical triaxial testing shows a similar pattern of variation with applied stress anisotropy; hence, only a marginal influence of fabric-induced anisotropy.     

Thermal impact of an active 3-D microelectrode array implanted in the brain.

A chronically implantable, wireless neural interface device will require integrating electronic circuitry with the interfacing microelectrodes in order to eliminate wired connections. Since the integrated circuit (IC) dissipates a certain amount of power, it will raise the temperature in surrounding tissues where it is implanted. In this paper, the thermal influence of the integrated 3-D Utah electrode array (UEA) device implanted in the brain was investigated by numerical simulation using finite element analysis (FEA) and by experimental measurement in vitro as well as in vivo. The numerically calculated and experimentally measured temperature increases due to the UEA implantation were in good agreement. The experimentally validated numerical model predicted that the temperature increases linearly with power dissipation through the UEA, with a slope of 0.029 degree C/mW over the power dissipation levels expected to be used. The influences of blood perfusion, brain metabolism, and UEA geometry on tissue heating were also investigated using the numerical model.     

Adaptive value function approximation for continuous-state stochastic dynamic programming

Approximate dynamic programming (ADP) commonly employs value function approximation to numerically solve complex dynamic programming problems. A statistical perspective of value function approximation employs a design and analysis of computer experiments (DACE) approach, where the “computer experiment” yields points on the value function curve. The DACE approach has been used to numerically solve high-dimensional, continuous-state stochastic dynamic programming, and performs two tasks primarily: (1) design of experiments and (2) statistical modeling. The use of design of experiments enables more efficient discretization. However, identifying the appropriate sample size is not straightforward. Furthermore, identifying the appropriate model structure is a well-known problem in the field of statistics. In this paper, we present a sequential method that can adaptively determine both sample size and model structure. Number-theoretic methods (NTM) are used to sequentially grow the experimental design because of their ability to fill the design space. Feed-forward neural networks (NNs) are used for statistical modeling because of their adjustability in structure-complexity . This adaptive value function approximation (AVFA) method must be automated to enable efficient implementation within ADP. An AVFA algorithm is introduced, that increments the size of the state space training data in each sequential step, and for each sample size a successive model search process is performed to find an optimal NN model. The new algorithm is tested on a nine-dimensional inventory forecasting problem.     

Analysis of Sintering of a Composite with a Glass or Ceramic Matrix

A recently developed theory for sintering of bimodal powders is applied to a composite where the matrix is either a glass or a ceramic. The filler phase is assumed to be rigid and nonsintering. It is shown that glass-matrix composites should have predictable sintering behavior which follows the rule of mixtures, but ceramic-matrix composites are expected to be more difficult to sinter, and their sintering behavior may deviate considerably from the rule of mixtures, even at low concentrations of the filler phase.