The two‐ to three‐second time window of shot durations in movies

Movie shots of singular scenes have a preferential duration of 2 to 3 s regardless of producers, movie types, and cultural environments. This observation suggests that the temporal structure of movies matches a neural mechanism of information processing in the time domain

Single-Period Two-Product Inventory Model with Substitution

In this paper we study a single-period two -product inventory model with stochastic demands, proportional revenues and costs, substitution. We focus on full downward substitution in our study. We assume that the orders have to be placed before the demands are realized. And the problem is to decide the ordering quantity for each product. We develop a general profit maximization model for single-period two -product substitution problem, and show that it is concave and submodular. And we develop the optimization condition for the problem and rewrite the solution of the problem in a perfect form, which is similar to the solution of the newsboy problem. Then we compare the solution of this problem with the solution of newsboy problem, and proof that the profit can be improved using the substitution policy. For the optimization solution, we study the effects of the parameters, such as the purchase cost, the penalty cost, the salvage value, the sale price. And we can get some interesting properties of the solution with respect to the parameters, and so we can know some instructions to adjust the order quantities while the parameters are changed. From the properties, we can find out the parameters that have stronger effects on the order quantities, and pay more attention on them while making the ordering decision

Full-wave parallel dispersive finite-difference time-domain modeling of three-dimensional electromagnetic cloaking structures

A parallel dispersive finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for the modeling of three-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic cloaking structures is presented in this paper. The permittivity and permeability of the cloak are mapped to the Drude dispersion model and taken into account in FDTD simulations using an auxiliary differential equation (ADE) method. It is shown that the correction of numerical material parameters and the slow switching-on of source are necessary to ensure stable and convergent single-frequency simulations. Numerical results from wideband simulations demonstrate that waves passing through a three-dimensional cloak experience considerable delay comparing with the free space propagations, as well as pulse broadening and blue-shift effects

Strategies of reducing input sample volume for extracting circulating cell-free nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA in plasma

Background: Circulating cell-free (ccf) DNA in blood has been suggested as a potential biomarker in many conditions regarding early diagnosis and prognosis. However, misdiagnosis can result due to the limited DNA resources in Biobank's plasma samples or insufficient DNA targets from a predominant DNA background in genetic tests. This study explored several strategies for an efficient DNA extraction to increase DNA amount from limited plasma input. Methods: Ccf plasma DNA was extracted with three different methods, a phenol-chloroform-isoamylalcohol (PCI) method, a High Pure PCR Template Preparation Kit method and a method used for single cell PCR in this group. Subsequently, the total DNA was measured by Nanodrop and the genome equivalents (GE) of the GAPDH housekeeping gene and MTATP 8 gene were measured using a multiplex real-time quantitative PCR for the quantitative assessment of nDNA and mtDNA. Results: Instead of 400-800 μL (routine input in the laboratory), 50 μLof plasma input enabled the extraction of ccf DNA sufficient for quantitative analysis. Using the PCI method and the kit method, both nDNA and mtDNA could be successfully detected in plasma samples, but nDNA extracted using protocol for single cell PCR was not detectable in 25% of plasma samples. In comparison to the other two methods, the PCI method showed lower DNA purity, but higher concentrations and more GE of nDNA and mtDNA. Conclusions: The PCI method was more efficient than the other two methods in the extraction of ccf DNA in plasma. Limited plasma is available for ccf DNA analysi