14,749 research outputs found
Interactive Management and Updating of Spatial Data Bases
The decision making process, whether for power plant siting, load forecasting or energy resource planning, invariably involves a blend of analytical methods and judgement. Management decisions can be improved by the implementation of techniques which permit an increased comprehension of results from analytical models. Even where analytical procedures are not required, decisions can be aided by improving the methods used to examine spatially and temporally variant data. How the use of computer aided planning (CAP) programs and the selection of a predominant data structure, can improve the decision making process is discussed
Remote sensing applications to forest vegetation classification and conifer vigor loss due to dwarf mistletoe
Criteria was established for practical remote sensing of vegetation stress and mortality caused by dwarf mistletoe infections in black spruce subboreal forest stands. The project was accomplished in two stages: (1) A fixed tower-tramway site in an infected black spruce stand was used for periodic multispectral photo coverage to establish basic film/filter/scale/season/weather parameters; (2) The photographic combinations suggested by the tower-tramway tests were used in low, medium, and high altitude aerial photography
The Complex History of Trojan Asteroids
The Trojan asteroids provide a unique perspective on the history of Solar
System. As a large population of small bodies, they record important
gravitational interactions and dynamical evolution of the Solar System. In the
past decade, significant advances have been made in understanding physical
properties, and there has been a revolution in thinking about the origin of
Trojans. The ice and organics generally presumed to be a significant part of
Trojan compositions have yet to be detected directly, though low density of the
binary system Patroclus (and possibly low density of the binary/moonlet system
Hektor) is consistent with an interior ice component. By contrast, fine-grained
silicates that appear to be similar to cometary silicates in composition have
been detected, and a color bimodality may indicate distinct compositional
groups among the Trojans. Whereas Trojans had traditionally been thought to
have formed near 5 AU, a new paradigm has developed in which the Trojans formed
in the proto-Kuiper Belt, and they were scattered inward and captured in the
Trojan swarms as a result of resonant interactions of the giant planets.
Whereas the orbital and population distributions of current Trojans are
consistent with this origin scenario, there are significant differences between
current physical properties of Trojans and those of Kuiper Belt objects. These
differences may be indicative of surface modification due to the inward
migration of objects that became the Trojans, but understanding of appropriate
modification mechanisms is poor and would benefit from additional laboratory
studies. Many open questions remain, and the future promises significant
strides in our understanding of Trojans. The time is ripe for a spacecraft
mission to the Trojans, to turn these objects into geologic worlds that can be
studied in detail to unravel their complex history.Comment: Chapter for Asteroids IV book (UA Press), accepted for publication,
33 pages, 10 figure
Which outcome expectancies are important in determining young adults intentions to use condoms with casual sexual partners?: A cross-sectional study
Background: The prevalence of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection amongst young adults represents an important public health problem in the UK. Individuals attitude towards the use of condoms has been identified as an important determinant of behavioural intentions and action. The Theory of Planned Behaviour has been widely used to explain and predict health behaviour. This posits that the degree to which an individual positively or negatively values a behaviour (termed direct attitude) is based upon consideration of the likelihood of a number of outcomes occurring (outcome expectancy) weighted by the perceived desirability of those outcomes (outcome evaluation). Outcome expectancy and outcome evaluation when multiplied form indirect attitude. The study aimed to assess whether positive outcome expectancies of unprotected sex were more important for young adults with lower safe sex intentions, than those with safer sex intentions, and to isolate optimal outcomes for targeting through health promotion campaigns. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used. Data was collected from 1051 school and university students aged 16-24 years. Measures of intention, direct attitude and indirect attitude were taken. Participants were asked to select outcome expectancies which were most important in determining whether they would use condoms with casual sexual partners. Results: People with lower safe sex intentions were more likely than those with safer sex intentions to select all positive outcome expectancies for unprotected sex as salient, and less likely to select all negative outcome expectancies as salient. Outcome expectancies for which the greatest proportion of participants in the less safe sex group held an unfavourable position were: showing that I am a caring person, making sexual experiences less enjoyable, and protecting against pregnancy. Conclusions: The findings point to ways in which the attitudes of those with less safe sex intentions could be altered in order to motivate positive behavioural change. They suggest that it would be advantageous to highlight the potential for condom use to demonstrate a caring attitude, to challenge the potential for protected sex to reduce sexual pleasure, and to target young adults risk appraisals for pregnancy as a consequence of unprotected sex with casual sexual partners
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DEveloping a Complex Intervention for DEteriorating Patients using Theoretical Modelling (DECIDE study): study protocol
AIM: To develop a theory-based complex intervention (targeting nursing staff), to enhance enablers and overcome barriers to enacting expected behaviour when monitoring patients and responding to abnormal vital signs that signal deterioration.
DESIGN: A mixed method design including structured observations on hospital wards, field notes, brief, un-recorded interviews and semi-structured interviews to inform the development of an intervention to enhance practice.
METHODS: Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with nursing staff using a topic guide informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework. Semi-structured interviews will be transcribed verbatim and coded deductively into the 14 Theoretical Domains Framework domains and then inductively into 'belief statements'. Priority domains will be identified and mapped to appropriate behaviour change techniques. Intervention content and mode of delivery (how behaviour change techniques are operationalised) will be developed using nominal groups, during which participants (clinicians) will rank behaviour change techniques /mode of delivery combinations according to acceptability and feasibility. Findings will be synthesised to develop an intervention manual.
DISCUSSION: Despite being a priority for clinicians, researchers and policymakers for two decades, 'sub-optimal care' of the deteriorating ward patient persists. Existing interventions have been largely educational (i.e., targeting assumed knowledge deficits) with limited evidence that they change staff behaviour. Staff behaviour when monitoring and responding to abnormal vital signs is likely influenced by a range of mediators that includes barriers and enablers.
IMPACT: Systematically applying theory and evidence-based methods, will result in the specification of an intervention which is more likely to result in behaviour change and can be tested empirically in future research. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Task-Projected Hyperdimensional Computing for Multi-Task Learning
Brain-inspired Hyperdimensional (HD) computing is an emerging technique for
cognitive tasks in the field of low-power design. As a fast-learning and
energy-efficient computational paradigm, HD computing has shown great success
in many real-world applications. However, an HD model incrementally trained on
multiple tasks suffers from the negative impacts of catastrophic forgetting.
The model forgets the knowledge learned from previous tasks and only focuses on
the current one. To the best of our knowledge, no study has been conducted to
investigate the feasibility of applying multi-task learning to HD computing. In
this paper, we propose Task-Projected Hyperdimensional Computing (TP-HDC) to
make the HD model simultaneously support multiple tasks by exploiting the
redundant dimensionality in the hyperspace. To mitigate the interferences
between different tasks, we project each task into a separate subspace for
learning. Compared with the baseline method, our approach efficiently utilizes
the unused capacity in the hyperspace and shows a 12.8% improvement in averaged
accuracy with negligible memory overhead.Comment: To be published in 16th International Conference on Artificial
Intelligence Applications and Innovation
Probing the interiors of the ice giants: Shock compression of water to 700 GPa and 3.8 g/ccm
Recently there has been tremendous increase in the number of identified
extra-solar planetary systems. Our understanding of their formation is tied to
exoplanet internal structure models, which rely upon equations of state of
light elements and compounds like water. Here we present shock compression data
for water with unprecedented accuracy that shows water equations of state
commonly used in planetary modeling significantly overestimate the
compressibility at conditions relevant to planetary interiors. Furthermore, we
show its behavior at these conditions, including reflectivity and isentropic
response, is well described by a recent first-principles based equation of
state. These findings advocate this water model be used as the standard for
modeling Neptune, Uranus, and "hot Neptune" exoplanets, and should improve our
understanding of these types of planets.Comment: Accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett.; supplementary material attached
including 2 figures and 2 tables; to view attachments, please download and
extract the gzipped tar source file listed under "Other formats
Remote sensing of vigor loss in conifers due to dwarf mistletoe
The initial operation of a multiband/multidate tower-tramway test site in northeastern Minnesota for the development of specifications for subsequent multiband aerial photography of more extensive study areas was completed. Multiband/multidate configurations suggested by the tower-tramway studies were and will be flown with local equipment over the Togo test site. This site was photographed by the NASA RB57F aircraft in August and September 1971. It appears that, of all the film/filter combinations attempted to date (including optical recombining of several spectral band images via photo enhancement techniques), Ektachrome infrared film with a Wratten 12 filter is the best for detecting dwarf mistletoe, and other tree diseases as well. Using this film/filter combination, infection centers are easily detectable even on the smallest photo scale (1:100,000) obtained on the Togo site
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