Consolidation of Long-Term Memory: Evidence and Alternatives.

Memory loss in retrograde amnesia has long been held to be larger for recent periods than for remote periods, a pattern usually referred to as the Ribot gradient. One explanation for this gradient is consolidation of long-term memories. Several computational models of such a process have shown how consolidation can explain characteristics of amnesia, but they have not elucidated how consolidation must be envisaged. Here findings are reviewed that shed light on how consolidation may be implemented in the brain. Moreover, consolidation is contrasted with alternative theories of the Ribot gradient. Consolidation theory, multiple trace theory, and semantization can all handle some findings well but not others. Conclusive evidence for or against consolidation thus remains to be found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Systematic modeling and model handling for manpower planning systems

The primary purpose of this paper is to show an efficient way of handling models and model data in a decision support system, in which it is usual to consider several variants of a model. The model data primarily consist of model-defining data, but the same approach may be used for the generated results as well. By efficient handling is meant the handling by the computer as well as by the user. For the user it is particularly important that new models can be conveniently defined as variants of existing models. The approach is introduced within the context of a decision support system for manpower planning based on Markov models. In the mean time the same approach has been used for the implementation of other decision support systems and has been found to be more generally applicable.     

Burst Detection by Water Demand Nowcasting Based on Exogenous Sensors

Bursts of drinking water pipes not only cause loss of drinking water, but also damage below and above ground infrastructure. Short-term water demand forecasting is a valuable tool in burst detection, as deviations between the forecast and actual water demand may indicate a new burst. Many of burst detection methods struggle with false positives due to non-seasonal water consumption as a result of e.g. environmental, economic or demographic exogenous influences, such as weather, holidays, festivities or pandemics. Finding a robust alternative that reduces the false positive rate of burst detection and does not rely on data from exogenous processes is essential. We present such a burst detection method, based on Bayesian ridge regression and Random Sample Consensus. Our exogenous nowcasting method relies on signals of all nearby flow and pressure sensors in the distribution net with the aim to reduce the false positive rate. The method requires neither data of exogenous processes, nor extensive historical data, but only requires one week of historical data per flow/pressure sensor. The exogenous nowcasting method is compared with a common water demand forecasting method for burst detection and shows sufficiently higher Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiencies of 82.7% - 90.6% compared to 57.9% - 77.7%, respectively. These efficiency ranges indicate a more accurate water demand prediction, resulting in more precise burst detection.

     

Molecular analysis of intact preen waxes of Calidris canutus (Aves: Scolopacidae) by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

The intact preen wax esters of the red knot Calidris canutus were studied with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and GC/MS/MS. In this latter technique, transitions from the molecular ion to fragment ions representing the fatty acid moiety of the wax esters were measured, providing additional resolution to the analysis of wax esters. The C₂₁−C₃₂ wax esters are composed of complex mixtures of hundreds of individual isomers. The odd carbon-numbered wax esters are predominantly composed of even carbon-numbered n-alcohols (C₁₄, C₁₆, and C₁₈) esterified predominantly with odd carbon-numbered 2-methyl fatty acids (C₇, C₉, C₁₁, and C₁₃), resulting in relatively simple distributions. The even carbon-numbered wax esters show a far more complex distribution due to a number of factors: (i) Their n-alcohol moieties are not dominated by even carbon-numbered n-alcohol moieties are not dominated by even carbon-numbered n-alcohols esterified with odd carbon-numbered 2-methyl fatty acids, but odd and even carbon-numbered n-alcohols participate in approximately equal amounts; (ii) odd carbon-numbered methyl-branched alcohols participate abundantly in these wax ester clusters; and (iii) with increasing molecular weight, various isomers of the 2,6-, 2,8-, and 2,10-dimethyl branched fatty acids also participate in the even carbon-numbered wax esters. The data demonstrate that there is a clear biosynthetic control on the wax ester composition although the reasons for the complex chemistry of the waxes are not yet understood.     

Static and dynamic postural loadings during computer work in females: Sitting on an office chair versus sitting on an exercise ball

Seated computer work results in prolonged static loading, which has been associated with the development of musculoskeletal disorders. A popular alternative to sitting on an office chair while performing computer work is to sit on an exercise ball. Sitting on an exercise ball might affect static and dynamic aspects of working posture. We monitored posture, muscle activation and spinal shrinkage in 10 females performing a 1-h typing task, while sitting on an office chair with armrests and while sitting on an exercise ball. Sitting on an exercise ball resulted in 33% more trunk motion and in 66% more variation in lumbar EMG. Both of these findings can be considered to be an advantage for the exercise ball. However, the fifth percentile and average lumbar EMG were also higher when sitting on an exercise ball, with 38% and 78%, respectively. In addition, more spinal shrinkage occurred when sitting on an exercise ball than when sitting on an office chair. Arm flexion was reduced, but trapezius activation was unaffected when sitting on an exercise ball. It is concluded that the advantages with respect to physical loading of sitting on an exercise ball may not outweigh the disadvantages.     

A Method for Conceptualising Legal Domains. An Example from the Dutch Unemployment Benefits Act

There has been much talk of the need to build intermediate models of the expertise required preparatory to constructing a knowledge-based system in the legal domain. Such models offer advantages for verification, validation, maintenance and reuse. As yet, however, few such models have been reported at a useful level of detail. In this paper we describe a method for conceptualising legal domains as well as its application to a substantial fragment of the Dutch Unemployment Benefits Act (DUBA).We first discuss the intermediate models (called expertise models), then present a three-stage method for their construction, drawing on the CommonKADS work in knowledge acquisition, conceptual models of statute law, and the KANT method of knowledge analysis. Subsequently, we describe how these techniques were applied to the DUBA, and provide detailed examples of the resulting model. Finally, conclusions on the framework and guidelines are given as well as means of recording and presenting the various design choices.     

Fine-tuning Food Safety Objectives and risk assessment

Food Safety Objectives (FSOs) have been proposed as a practical tool to translate public health targets for food safety into tolerable levels of pathogens in a food product. The FSO concept is subject to intensive debate, and has not been developed in detail. We evaluate the proposed definition of FSOs and their implementation from the perspective of Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment (QMRA). The relationship between QMRA and FSOs is illustrated by a model for the public health risk of Shiga-producing Escherichia coli in steak tartare. We conclude that the proposed definition of FSOs needs to be modified to properly account for variability in and uncertainty about the contamination of food with pathogenic microorganisms and emphasize that both prevalence and concentration of pathogens must be considered. For this purpose, we propose the P-D equivalence curve, a simple graphical tool to separate "tolerable" from "non-tolerable" combinations of prevalence and concentration (dose).     

Increasing X-ray image interpretation competency of cargo security screeners

X-ray screening of containers and unit load devices in the area of cargo shipping is becoming an essential and common feature at ports and airports all over the world. The detection of prohibited items in X-ray images is a challenging task for screening officers as they need to know which items are prohibited and what they look like in X-ray images. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether X-ray image interpretation competency of cargo security screeners can be increased by computer-based training. More specifically, effects of training were investigated by conducting tests before training started and after approximately three months of training. Moreover, it was examined whether viewing X-ray images in pseudo color would lead to a better detection performance compared to when X-ray images are shown in greyscale. Recurrent computer-based training resulted in large performance increases after three months. No significant difference in detection performance could be found for tests when using X-ray images in greyscale vs. pseudo color.     

Design methodology for barrier‐based two phase flow distributor

The barrier‐based distributor is a multiphase flow distributor for a multichannel microreactor which assures flow uniformity and prevents channeling between the two phases. For N number of reaction channels, the barrier‐based distributor consists of a gas manifold, a liquid manifold, N barrier channels for the gas, N barrier channels for the liquid, and N mixers for mixing the phases before the reaction channels. The flow distribution is studied numerically using a method based on the hydraulic resistive networks (RN). The single phase hydraulic RN model (Commenge et al., 2002;48:345–358) is extended for two phases gas‐liquid Taylor flow. For Re_GL <30, the accuracy for the model was above 90%. The developed‐model was used to study the effects of fabrication tolerance and barrier channel dimensions. A design methodology has been proposed as an algorithm to determine the required hydraulic resistance in the barrier channels and their dimensions. This methodology is demonstrated using a numerical example. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012     

Hydrodynamical particle containment in a rotor‐stator spinning disk device

A novel type of rotor‐stator spinning disk device is proposed which allows for the entrapment of solid particles solely by hydrodynamic means. In this new configuration, the solid rotating disk is replaced with two conjoined rotors with a variable gap spacing. Liquid is fed through the top stator and can flow out again through the rotor‐rotor interior and the hollow rotation axis. Moreover, the volume between the two rotors is optionally filled with a highly porous reticulated carbon foam. It was found that particle containment was strongly improved by the presence of this reticulated foam as it hinders the buildup of centripetal boundary layer flow near the disks in the interior of the rotor‐rotor assembly. These centripetal boundary layers drag along particles resulting in a loss of containment. Experiments utilizing glass beads showed that particles with a diameter down to 17.8 µm can be completely entrapped when a carbon foam is placed between the two conjoined disks at rotor speeds up to the maximum investigated value of 178 rad s^?1. Additionally, the rotor‐rotor gap did not have an effect on the particle entrapment level when the reticulated carbon foam was omitted and can be ascribed to the build‐up of boundary layers, which is independent of rotor‐rotor distance. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 3656–3665, 2015