Visual Puzzles, Figure Weights, and Cancellation: Some Preliminary Hypotheses on the Functional and Neural Substrates of These Three New WAIS-IV Subtests

In this study, five consecutive patients with focal strokes and/or cortical excisions were examined with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and Wechsler Memory Scale—Fourth Editions along with a comprehensive battery of other neuropsychological tasks. All five of the lesions were large and typically involved frontal, temporal, and/or parietal lobes and were lateralized to one hemisphere. The clinical case method was used to determine the cognitive neuropsychological correlates of mental rotation (Visual Puzzles), Piagetian balance beam (Figure Weights), and visual search (Cancellation) tasks. The pattern of results on Visual Puzzles and Figure Weights suggested that both subtests involve predominately right frontoparietal networks involved in visual working memory. It appeared that Visual Puzzles could also critically rely on the integrity of the left temporoparietal junction. The left temporoparietal junction could be involved in temporal ordering and integration of local elements into a nonverbal gestalt. In contrast, the Figure Weights task appears to critically involve the right temporoparietal junction involved in numerical magnitude estimation. Cancellation was sensitive to left frontotemporal lesions and not right posterior parietal lesions typical of other visual search tasks. In addition, the Cancellation subtest was sensitive to verbal search strategies and perhaps object-based attention demands, thereby constituting a unique task in comparison with previous visual search tasks

Design methodologies for one way spanning eccentrically loaded minimally or centrally reinforced pre-cast RC panels

AbstractThis paper examines and evaluates design methodologies applicable to pre-cast reinforced concrete (RC) panels subjected to eccentric axial load. Theoretical capacities derived from existing regulatory guidance are compared against those determined from experimental investigations, showing that slender RC walls have load capacities significantly higher than the estimates based on current design equations.A simple computational procedure incorporating lumped plasticity is presented and experimentally validated. It is shown that by utilising a non-linear hinge at the critical cross section, it is possible to effectively simulate the buckling response of the slender walls considered with a modest computational effort. The proposed design strategy emerges as a viable alternative to traditional methodologies by being able to capture the main effects of geometrical and material nonlinearities. It is therefore suggested that this approach, used in conjunction with a probabilistic, semi-empirical design procedure, will lead to design capacities more representative of actual experimental findings

Design methodologies for one way spanning eccentrically loaded minimally or centrally reinforced pre-cast RC panels

This paper examines and evaluates design methodologies applicable to pre-cast reinforced concrete (RC) panels subjected to eccentric axial load. Theoretical capacities derived from existing regulatory guidance are compared against those determined from experimental investigations, showing that slender RC walls have load capacities significantly higher than the estimates based on current design equations.A simple computational procedure incorporating lumped plasticity is presented and experimentally validated. It is shown that by utilising a non-linear hinge at the critical cross section, it is possible to effectively simulate the buckling response of the slender walls considered with a modest computational effort. The proposed design strategy emerges as a viable alternative to traditional methodologies by being able to capture the main effects of geometrical and material nonlinearities. It is therefore suggested that this approach, used in conjunction with a probabilistic, semi-empirical design procedure, will lead to design capacities more representative of actual experimental findings. © 2013 The Authors

Influence of steel fibres, used in conjunction with unconfined rebar configurations, on the structural performance of precast elements

A joint experimental and computational research program has been carried out to demonstrate the potential benefits of using Steel Fibre Reinforcement (SFR) within the design and manufacture of two key structural elements, namely slender walls and thin lintels with dapped ends, often adopted within the pre-cast concrete industry. The investigations specifically focus on the advantages of utilising SFR in conjunction with traditional bar reinforcement in an unconfined layout. This configuration allows cost savings in regards to precast manufacture and enjoys good performance in terms of durability and fire resistance, though its use is currently limited by the brittle mode of failure. The paper sets out to prove that the inclusion of SFR within the concrete matrix is capable of inducing a more ductile response in the structural members under consideration, therefore potentially making it possible to justify the adoption of such unconfined layouts in the design practice

Differential expression analysis for sequence count data

*Motivation:* High-throughput nucleotide sequencing provides quantitative readouts in assays for RNA expression (RNA-Seq), protein-DNA binding (ChIP-Seq) or cell counting (barcode sequencing). Statistical inference of differential signal in such data requires estimation of their variability throughout the dynamic range. When the number of replicates is small, error modelling is needed to achieve statistical power.

*Results:* We propose an error model that uses the negative binomial distribution, with variance and mean linked by local regression, to model the null distribution of the count data. The method controls type-I error and provides good detection power. 

*Availability:* A free open-source R software package, _DESeq_, is available from the Bioconductor project and from "http://www-huber.embl.de/users/anders/DESeq":http://www-huber.embl.de/users/anders/DESeq

Developing a model for analysis of the cooling loads of a hybrid electric vehicle by using co-simulations of verified submodels

The requirement for including the air-conditioning and the battery-cooling loads within the energy efficiency analyses of a hybrid electric vehicle is widely recognized and has promoted system-level simulations and integrated modelling, escalating the challenge of balancing the accuracy and the speed of simulations. In this paper, a hybrid electric vehicle model is created through co-simulation of the passenger cabin, the air conditioning, the battery cooling, and the powertrai. Calibration and verification of the submodels help determine their accuracy in representing the target vehicle and achieve a balance between the model fidelity and the simulation speed. The result is a model which has a higher accuracy and a higher speed than those of similar models developed previously and which provides a reliable tool for a thorough investigation of the cooling loads for different ambient conditions and different duty cycles

Symmetry Representations in the Rigged Hilbert Space Formulation of Quantum Mechanics

We discuss some basic properties of Lie group representations in rigged Hilbert spaces. In particular, we show that a differentiable representation in a rigged Hilbert space may be obtained as the projective limit of a family of continuous representations in a nested scale of Hilbert spaces. We also construct a couple of examples illustrative of the key features of group representations in rigged Hilbert spaces. Finally, we establish a simple criterion for the integrability of an operator Lie algebra in a rigged Hilbert space

Decoupled richness of generalist anaerobes and sulphate-reducing bacteria is driven bypHacross land uses in temperate soils

Sulphate‐reducing bacteria (SRB) represent a key biological component of the global sulphur (S) cycle and are common in soils, where they reduce SO42− to H2S during the anaerobic degradation of soil organic matter. The factors that regulate their distribution in soil, however, remain poorly understood. We sought to determine the ecological patterns of SRB richness within a nationwide 16S metabarcoding dataset. Across 436 sites belonging to seven contrasting temperate land uses (e.g., arable, grasslands, woodlands, heathland and bog), SRB richness was relatively low across land uses but greatest in grasslands and lowest in woodlands and peat‐rich soils. There was a shift in dominant SRB taxa from Desulfosporosinus and Desulfobulbus in arable and grassland land uses to Desulfobacca in heathland and bog sites. In contrast, richness of other generalist anaerobic bacterial taxa found in our dataset (e.g., Clostridium, Geobacter and Pelobacter) followed a known trend of declining richness linked to land‐use productivity. Overall, the richness of SRBs and anaerobes had strong positive correlations with pH and sulphate concentration and strong negative relationships with elevation, soil organic matter, total carbon and carbon‐to‐nitrogen ratio. It is likely that these results reflect the driving influence of pH and competition for optimal electron acceptors with generalist anaerobic bacteria on SRB richness