Injection of hydrogen and vacancy-type defects during dissolution of aluminum

Formation of interfacial nanoscale voids in Al during room-temperature caustic corrosion was characterized by positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) and compared with measurements of deuterium absorption using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The hypothesis was investigated that voids are created from vacancy-hydrogen (Vac-H) defects introduced during corrosion. Evidence for both mobile and immobile forms of absorbed hydrogen was obtained, the latter present within distances of 50 nm from the metal-oxide interface, where voids were also found. During corrosion, the immobile hydrogen was found only during discrete 1-2 min intervals of time separated by periods of 1-2 min when it was not present. Model calculations suggested that this transient behavior is consistent with repeated nucleation and dissolution of clusters of Vac-H defects. Only some aspects of the time-dependence of the void concentration from PAS corresponded with that of absorbed hydrogen; the former is believed to be influenced by metallic impurities

Access to Success: A New Mentoring Model for Women in Academia

The scarcity of women leaders in academia influences policies, procedures, and expectations and in turn perpetuates a climate that deters development of future women leaders. Despite research supporting the need for institutional change to create leadership avenues for women faculty, little evidence of such change exists. The Presidential Leadership Program for University Women was developed as a proactive, integrative mentoring model to link female academics. Crucial to the program’s success are networking opportunities, peer mentoring in a group setting, and a culminating “legacy project” designed to improve the campus climate and services for women

Do Telecommunications and Air/Sea Transport Problems Limit Madagascar's Exports?

This study had its origins in the notion that Madagascar's ability to expand and diversity its exports was significantly hampered by three conditions: *high sea freight rates as a result of oligopolistic practices by a shipping conference; *Air Madagascar's monopoly on air traffic rights; and *an obsolete and often non-functional national telecommunications system. To what extent is the perception correct? For two weeks we asked this question in interviews of manufacturers, shipping agents, airline executives, ship operators, port authorities and government officials. Two weeks are clearly insufficient for a detailed study of both the transportation sector and the telecommunications system. The period may be adequate, however, for the purpose of determining the basic validity of the perceptions which prompted this study. The following, somewhat general statements reflect our conclusions. The rest of the report provides supporting detail.Center for Research on Economic Development, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100993/1/ECON434.pd

Trinocular Geometry Revisited

International audienceWhen do the visual rays associated with triplets of point correspondences converge, that is, intersect in a commπon point? Classical models of trinocular geometry based on the fundamental matrices and trifocal tensor associated with the corresponding cameras only provide partial answers to this fundamental question, in large part because of underlying, but seldom explicit, general configuration assumptions. This paper uses elementary tools from projective line geometry to provide necessary and sufficient geo- metric and analytical conditions for convergence in terms of transversals to triplets of visual rays, without any such assumptions. In turn, this yields a novel and simple minimal parameterization of trinocular geometry for cameras with non-collinear or collinear pinholes

Autonomy Infused Teleoperation with Application to BCI Manipulation

Robot teleoperation systems face a common set of challenges including latency, low-dimensional user commands, and asymmetric control inputs. User control with Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) exacerbates these problems through especially noisy and erratic low-dimensional motion commands due to the difficulty in decoding neural activity. We introduce a general framework to address these challenges through a combination of computer vision, user intent inference, and arbitration between the human input and autonomous control schemes. Adjustable levels of assistance allow the system to balance the operator's capabilities and feelings of comfort and control while compensating for a task's difficulty. We present experimental results demonstrating significant performance improvement using the shared-control assistance framework on adapted rehabilitation benchmarks with two subjects implanted with intracortical brain-computer interfaces controlling a seven degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator as a prosthetic. Our results further indicate that shared assistance mitigates perceived user difficulty and even enables successful performance on previously infeasible tasks. We showcase the extensibility of our architecture with applications to quality-of-life tasks such as opening a door, pouring liquids from containers, and manipulation with novel objects in densely cluttered environments

Constipation in the Long-Term Care Resident

An evidence-based clinical practice guideline was developed to prevent and manage constipation in the long-term care (LTC) resident. Constipation is a prevalent condition in the LTC resident. Guidelines do not address this vulnerable population. Constipation may result in poor nutritional status, quality of life along with increased health care costs and hospitalizations. A literature review was completed and evidence was evaluated and included into the initial draft recommendations. The guideline was reviewed for content validity using a Delphi Committee of clinical experts in gastroenterology, geriatrics, and pharmacy. The updated guidelines were presented to an interdisciplinary team of long-term care residents. Participants were asked to review and complete a survey regarding clinical applicability of the guideline. Thirty-one interdisciplinary members participated in the education session and 30 surveys were received. Overall, the interdisciplinary team members agreed or strongly agreed the guideline was clinically applicable. Finally, the guideline was evaluated by a group of doctoral prepared practicing nurse practitioners using the AGREE II instrument. The scores were \u3e80% in every domain, with an overall score of 91%, indicating the guideline is high in quality. Development of this guideline signifies an initial step in the management and prevention of constipation in the LTC resident

Human Interaction: A key to managing disruptive behavior in dementia.

The results are part of a larger multi-center, mixed-methods study investigating the effect of environmental design in managing disruptive behavior in dementia. The presentation focuses on data from fifteen (15) discussion groups conducted with families (N = 45) and staff (N= 59) from eight (8) dementia units. Participants were asked to identify the primary obstacles and facilitators for managing behaviors in long-term care facilities. Results stress the importance of human interaction and institutional flexibility. These will be discussed in the context of communication environments and supported by observational data obtained in five (5) of the units

Consistency of silhouettes and their duals

International audienceSilhouettes provide rich information on three-dimensional shape, since the intersection of the associated visual cones generates the "visual hull", which encloses and approximates the original shape. However, not all silhouettes can actually be projections of the same object in space: this simple observation has implications in object recognition and multi-view segmentation, and has been (often implicitly) used as a basis for camera calibration. In this paper, we investigate the conditions for multiple silhouettes, or more generally arbitrary closed image sets, to be geometrically "consistent". We present this notion as a natural generalization of traditional multi-view geometry, which deals with consistency for points. After discussing some general results, we present a "dual" formulation for consistency, that gives conditions for a family of planar sets to be sections of the same object. Finally, we introduce a more general notion of silhouette "compatibility" under partial knowledge of the camera projections, and point out some possible directions for future research