The influence of viewing distance on subjective impairment assessment

In this paper, the influence of viewing distance on subjective assessment of the impairment in video sequences is investigated. Subjective tests using the double-stimulus impairment scale variant II (DSIS II) method have been conducted at viewing distances of 5H (where H stands for the screen height) and 3H, respectively. Several statistical measures have been used to analyze the influence, including correlations and ANOVA (analysis of variance) tests. The results reveal that there is a very high correlation between the subjective scores, the variances are similar under the two viewing distances, the means of subjective data at these two viewing distances are the same, and there is no interaction between the viewing distance and the other two factors, i.e., the codec system and the source sequence. Throughout the tests, there is no evidence that a closer viewing distance such as 3H will vary the subjective test result statistically significantly.     

The spatial distribution and spectral characteristics of field-induced electron emission sites on broad-area high voltage electrodes

Instrumental techniques are described for displaying (a) the spatial distribution of field emission sites on planar high voltage electrodes and (b) the emission current pattern within an individual site. Typically, emission ‘sites‘ are generally composed of three or more ‘sub-sites’ that become temporally unstable at current > 10^?7 A. The electron energy spectra of sub-sites are characteristically single peaked, whose half-widths (FWHM) initially vary linearly with applied field: from changes in spectral area with field, substantially linear sub-site F-N plots have been obtained having β values in the range 300–500.     

Unicode Steganographic Exploits: Maintaining Enterprise Border Security

Unicode is rapidly becoming the preferred means for representing symbols used in creating multimedia content, especially for information that's presented in multiple languages. This article discusses a unicode vulnerability that makes such content susceptible to being used for creation of covert channel communications. We also developed a solution architecture, the unified secure message augmentation (USMA) service. The USMA service incorporates rules (in an XML vocabulary) that we can apply to unicode transmissions that will detect an attempt to transmit a potential exploit, alert network managers to the presence of the unicode anomaly, and take action to mitigate the exploit.     

Fetal heart rate following coelocentesis

For psychological reasons, coelocentesis was performed in 20 women prior to termination of pregnancy, at 6-11 weeks of gestation. The fetal heart rate (FHR) was measured immediately before the procedure and at 1, 5, and 10 min afterward. There was no significant difference between FHR before coelocentesis compared to the values at 1 min (mean = 158, range 114-178; z = -0.629, P = 0.529), 5 min (mean = 160, range 121-179; z = -0.191, P = 0.848), or 10 min (mean 159, range 117-183; z = -0.214, P = 0.83) after the procedure. These findings suggest that coelocentesis does not have a major effect on the fetal cardiovascular system.     

Designing the world we live in

Engineering designers, who decide the physical shape and technical features of the built world, tend to forget that their predecessors have been making design decisions for hundreds of years. This paper gives several historical examples of design experience which can supply useful insights today, because the essential nature of engineering has not changed.Adapted from: Eugene S. Ferguson,Engineering and the Mind's Eye. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1992     

Measurement and prediction of pressure drop in two-phase flow

Experimental data for air–water two-phase co-current flow in two different pipe diameters were used to test the prediction of pressure drop by a number of existing theories and correlations. Several models are shown to be useful for prediction, particularly with the stratified regimes which have proved difficult to handle in the past. The model suggested by Olujic proved to be of particular value.     

Consumption of reduced-fat products: effects on parameters of anti-oxidative capacity

Plasma levels of fibrinogen, factor VIIc and prothrombin fragment F1 + 2, a marker of thrombin generation in vivo, were studied in 68 subjects with serum total cholesterol (TC) levels between 135 and 349 mg/dl but without clinical evidence of cardiovascular disease and other atherosclerotic risk factors. F1 + 2 plasma levels were directly correlated with TC (p < 0.0004), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; p < 0.0018) and factor VIIc (p < 0.024). Thirty-five subjects with TC greater than 249 mg/dl (median value of the whole group) showed higher levels of F1 + 2 (p < 0.0001) and fibrinogen (p < 0.0015) than those with TC lower than 249 mg/dl. In subjects with TC > 249 mg/dl and F1 + 2 > 1.2 nM (median value of the whole group), a cholesterol-lowering drug (simvastatin) was able to reduce F1 + 2 (p < 0.009) as well as TC and LDL-C. This study shows a relationship between serum cholesterol and the rate of thrombin generation supporting the hypothesis that a hypercoagulable state may occur in hypercholesterolemic subjects before the onset of clinical evidence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.     

The short-term effect of a smoking prevention program for the upper graders of elementary schools--the results of intervention study for two years with quasi-experimental design

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the short-term effect of a smoking prevention program for Japanese elementary school-children in the fifth and sixth grades. The program was developed with concepts found in the Know Your Body Program and the conclusions of a National Cancer Institute-convened Expert Advisory Panel, and focused on teaching about the short-term effects of smoking and on resistance to social pressures to smoke. The study was conducted with a quasi-experimental design. An intervention group (52 boys and 54 girls) received three sessions for both the fifth grade in 1992 and the sixth grade in 1993. Moreover, the intervention group received a pre-test before the first session and a post-test after the third session in each grade. A comparison group (102 boys and 91 girls) received the same tests at the same time as the intervention group, but did not receive any program on smoking prevention. The short-term effect of the program were evaluated using the results of the pre-test in the fifth grade and of the post-test in the sixth grade in both groups. The results were as follows: 1) Remarkable short-term effects of the intervention were seen in respect to awareness of the importance of not smoking in girls, and also in the knowledge of the short-term effects of smoking in both sexes. 2) The intervention was not effective with respect to intention to smoke at the age of 20 and self-efficacy of refusing to smoke in both sexes. 3) The short-term effects were not clear in the smoking behavior in both sexes because the rates of ever smokers and of monthly smokers were almost the same for two years between the intervention group and the comparison group. 4) The smoking behaviors of children, their parents and their best friends had little influence on the results of the post-test in the sixth grade.