A Study of the Factors Involved in the Liking and Disliking of the Szondi Pictures

The purpose of this study is (1) to find the independent, common factors underlying the liking and disliking of the Szondi pictures and (2) to determine if these factors can be identified by superficial aspects of the pictures

Landform and soil development on the Conasauga Group of the low-level waste disposal site at Bear Creek Valley, Tennessee

The landform and soil development study was completed on the proposed Low-Level Waste Disposal, Development and Demonstration project (LLWDDD) site in Bear Creek Valley, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The objectives of the study were to complete a detailed soil characterization of major soils on the Cambrian aged Conasauga Group, and apply the information to gain an understanding of soil and landform stability. Eight pits (nine soil profiles) were excavated, described, and sampled on major soil mapping units of the upper Pumpkin Valley Shale, Rogersville Shale, Maryville Limestone, and Nolichucky Shale geologic formations. Samples were prepared and analyzed for soil physical, chemical, and mineralogical characterization. Six of the nine soil profiles are residual. Five of the six residual soil profiles are classified as Ruptic-Ultic Dystrochrepts. The remaining residual soil profile, being very severely eroded, is a Typic Udorthent. One colluvial, one colluvial over alluvial, and one alluvial soil profile are classified as Typic Hapludults. Chemical analyses indicated that the soils were moderately acid, had cation exchange values ranging from 10 To 30 cmol(+) kg-1, and had base saturation values less than 30 percent. Magnesium was the predominant exchangeable ion found in residual soils. In highly developed soils, iron and manganese had translocated through the solum into the underlying saprolite. Most residual soils were shallow to saprolite, as a result of geologic and anthropogenically accelerated erosion. This resulted in soils with low to moderate available water holding capacity, low infiltration capacities, and high runoff rates. All soils contained clays that had low liquid and plastic limits, and low activities (shrink-swell potential). Mineralogy of saprolites was dominated by illite. Kaolinite was present in high amounts in soils and saprolites of the upper Pumpkin Valley shale. Hydroxyinterlayered vermiculite was present in high amounts in soils formed from the upper Pumpkin Valley Shale. Kaolinite and hydroxyinterlayered vermiculite was found in moderate to trace amounts in other soils on the LLWDDD site. Soil transect studies on the lower Pumpkin Valley Shale indicated that slope and permeability of soil and saprolite were factors influencing weathering and soil development. Soils on slopes greater than 45 percent seldom developed Bt horizons. Glauconitic sandstones were found to be more permeable than shales, and produced thicker soils. Because shales and sandstones alternated on the lower Pumpkin Valley Shale, soil depth to saprolite varied greatly over short distances. Broader spur ridges promoted greater soil development, contained thicker layers of colluvium, and decreased the erosion potential. Topographic reversal and alluvial accumulation revealed past climatic effects upon these soils. Of the major soils found on the LLWDDD site, soils formed on the upper Pumpkin Valley Shale were most developed, followed by soils formed on the Nolichucky Shale, Maryville Limestone, and Rogersville Shale. Permeability, slope gradient, and presence or absence of limestones were the major factors which influenced weathering and soil development of the Conasauga Group

Entity Matching for Digital World: A Modern Approach using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Entity matching is the field of research solving the problem of identifying similar records which refer to the same real-world entity In today s digital world business organizations deal with large amount of data like customers vendors manufacturers etc Entities are spread across various data sources and failure to correlate two records as one entity can lead to confusion Relationships and patterns would be missed Aggregations and calculations won t make any sense It is a significant data integration effort that often arises when data originate from different sources In such scenarios we understand the situation by linking records and then track entities from a person to a product etc There is appreciable value in integrating the data silos across various industrie

Optimization and Mathematical Modelling for Path Planning of Co-operative Intra-logistics Automated Vehicles

Small indoor Autonomous Vehicles have revolutionized the operation of pick-pack-and-ship warehouses. The challenges for path planning and co-operation in this domain stem from uncontrolled environments including workspaces shared with humans and human-operated vehicles. Solutions are needed which scale up to the largest existing sites with thousands of vehicles and beyond. These challenges might be familiar to anyone modelling road traffic control with the introduction of Autonomous Vehicles, but key differences in the level of decision autonomy lead to different approaches to conflict-resolution. This thesis proposes a decomposition of site-wide conflict-free motion planning into individual shortest paths though a roadmap representing the free space across the site, zone-based speed optimization to resolve conflicts in the vicinity of one intersection and individual path optimization for local obstacles. In numerical tests the individual path optimization based on clothoid basis functions created paths traversable by different vehicle configurations (steering rate limit, lateral acceleration limit and wheelbase) only by choosing an appropriate maximum longitudinal speed. Using two clothoid segments per convex region was sufficient to reach any goal, and the problem could be solved reliably and quickly with sequential quadratic programming due to the approximate graph method used to determine a good sequence of obstacle-free regions to the local goal. A design for zone-based intersection management, obtained by minimizing a linear objective subject to quadratic constraints was refined by the addition of a messaging interface compatible with the path adaptations based on clothoids. A new approximation of the differential constraints was evaluated in a multi-agent simulation of an elementary intersection layout. The proposed FIFO ordering heuristic converted the problem into a linear program. Interior point methods either found a solution quickly or showed that the problem was infeasible, unlike a quadratic constraint formulation with ordering flexibility. Subsequent tests on more complex multi-lane intersection geometries showed the quadratic constraint formulation converged to significantly better solutions than FIFO at the cost of longer and unpredictable search time. Both effects were magnified as the number of vehicles increased. To properly address site-wide conflict-free motion planning, it is essential that the local solutions are compatible with each other at the zone boundaries. The intersection management design was refined with new boundary constraints to ensure compatibility and smooth transitions without the need for a backup system. In numerical tests it was found that the additional boundary constraints were sufficient to ensure smooth transitions on an idealized map including two intersections

The importance of cross-disciplinary research to combat antimicrobial resistance: introducing a new pop-up journal, X-AMR.

[no abstract

Speech disfluencies of preschool-age children who do and do not stutter

Purpose—The goals of the present study were to investigate whether (1) the speech disfluencies of preschool-age children are normally distributed; (2) preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) differ in terms of non-stuttered disfluencies; (3) age, gender, and speechlanguage ability affect the number and type of disfluencies children produce; and (4) parents’ expressed concern that their child stutters is associated with examiners’ judgments of stuttered disfluency. Method—Four hundred and seventy two children participated, of which 228 were CWS (56 girls), and 244 CWNS (119 girls). Participants provided conversational speech samples that were analyzed for frequency of occurrence of (a) stuttered disfluencies, (b) non-stuttered disfluencies, and (c) total disfluencies. Results—Results indicated that the underlying distributions of preschool-age children’s stuttered and non-stuttered disfluency counts followed a negative binomial distribution (i.e., were not normal), with more children “piling up” at the low end [none or few disfluencies] and fewer children scoring in the upper [more severe stuttering] end of the distribution. Findings also indicated that non-stuttered disfluencies significantly predicted CWS/CWNS talker group classification, information that may be helpful to augment, but not supplant, talker group classification criteria based on stuttered disfluencies. Moreover, expressed parental concern about stuttering was strongly associated with frequency of stuttered disfluencies

Total intracorporeal robot kidney autotransplantation : case report and description of surgical technique

Introduction and Objectives: Kidney autotransplantation can be performed in patients with complex renal or ureteral pathology not suitable for in situ reconstruction, such as renal vasculature anomalies, patients with proximal or long complex ureteral strictures, or complex oncological cases. Robot-assisted surgery allows for a high-quality vascular and ureteral anastomosis and faster patient recovery. Robot-assisted kidney autotransplantation (RAKAT) is performed in two phases: nephrectomy and pelvic transplantation. In-between, extraction of the kidney allows for vascular reconstruction or kidney modification on the bench and safe cold ischemia can be established. If no bench reconstruction is needed, total intracorporeal RAKAT (tiRAKAT) is feasible. One case report in Europe has been described; however, to our knowledge no surgical video is available. Methods: A 58 year-old woman suffered from right mid- and distal ureteral stenosis following pelvic radiotherapy 10 years prior for cervical cancer. A JJ stent was placed, but she suffered from recurrent urinary tract infections, and ultimately a nephrostomy was placed. Renogram demonstrated 43% relative right kidney function. As her bladder volume was low following radiotherapy, no Boari flap was possible and the patient refused life-long nephrostomy or nephrectomy. Therefore, tiRAKAT was performed using the DaVinci Xi system. Results: We describe our surgical technique including a video. Surgical time (skin-to-skin) was 5 h and 45 min. Warm ischemia time was 4 min, cold ischemia 55 min, and rewarming ischemia 15 min. The abdominal catheter and bladder catheter were removed on the first and second postoperative day, respectively. The JJ stent was removed after 4 weeks. The patient suffered from pulmonary embolism on the second postoperative day, for which therapeutic low molecular weight heparin was started. No further complications occurred during the first 90 postoperative days. After 7 months, overall kidney function remained stable, right kidney function dropped non-significantly from 27 to 25.2 mL/min (-6.7%) on renal scintigraphy. Conclusion: We demonstrated feasibility and, for the first time, a surgical video of tiRAKAT highlighting patient positioning, trocar placement, and intracorporeal cold ischemia technique

Nontransecting anastomotic repair in urethral reconstruction : surgical and functional outcomes

Purpose: We evaluated the surgical and functional outcomes, and the effect of the learning curve of nontransecting anastomotic repair for short bulbar and posterior urethral strictures. Materials and Methods: A total of 75 patients were treated with nontransecting anastomotic repair for short bulbar strictures in 55 and for posterior strictures in 20. Surgical morbidity was scored using the Clavien-Dindo classification at 3 months. Sexual function was measured using SHIM (Sexual Health Inventory for Men) scoring preoperatively and postoperatively. Post-void dribbling before and after nontransecting anastomotic repair was also determined. To evaluate the learning curve outcomes were evaluated in patients 1 to 25, 26 to 50 and 51 to 75. Results: Median followup was 30 months. Stricture recurred in 6 patients (8%), all diagnosed within 7 months after nontransecting anastomotic repair. Median operative time was 95 minutes and median hospital stay was 2 days. In 61 patients (81.3%) no surgical morbidity was recorded. Five (6.7%), 6 (8%) and 3 patients (4%) experienced a grade 1, 2 and 3b complication, respectively. Seven of 32 (21.9%) and 2 of 42 evaluable patients (4.7%) reported de novo erectile dysfunction and post-void dribbling, respectively, 3 months after nontransecting anastomotic repair. No difference in outcomes was observed among the 3 patient groups. Conclusions: Nontransecting anastomotic repair appears to be safe without a substantial learning curve effect. Patient counseling about possible surgical complications and transient erectile dysfunction is important