The Influence of l- and dl-Tryptophane and Kynurenic Acid Administration on Bile Volume and Composition

We have undertaken to determine whether kynurenic acid production or excretion in the bile (as reported by Kotake and Ichihara) might be responsible, at least in part, for the choleretic effect of tryptophane. We have also studied the influence of optical configuration of tryptophane on bile volume and on bile salt output, both of which Whipple and Smith found were increased by l-tryptophane administration

Truss Assembly and Welding by Intelligent Precision Jigging Robots

This paper describes an Intelligent Precision Jigging Robot (IPJR) prototype that enables the precise alignment and welding of titanium space telescope optical benches. The IPJR, equipped with micron accuracy sensors and actuators, worked in tandem with a lower precision remote controlled manipulator. The combined system assembled and welded a 2 m truss from stock titanium components. The calibration of the IPJR, and the difference between the predicted and the truss dimensions as-built, identified additional sources of error that should be addressed in the next generation of IPJRs in 2D and 3D

Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk factors and events associated with second-generation antipsychotic compared to antidepressant use in a non-elderly adult sample: results from a claims-based inception cohort study

This is a study of the metabolic and distal cardiovascular/cerebrovascular outcomes associated with the use of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) compared to antidepressants (ADs) in adults aged 18-65 years, based on data from Thomson Reuters MarketScan (R) Research Databases 2006-2010, a commercial U.S. claims database. Interventions included clinicians\u27 choice treatment with SGAs (allowing any comedications) versus ADs (not allowing SGAs). The primary outcomes of interest were time to inpatient or outpatient claims for the following diagnoses within one year of SGA or AD discontinuation: hypertension, ischemic and hypertensive heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and obesity. Secondary outcomes included the same diagnoses at last follow-up time point, i.e., not censoring observations at 365 days after SGA or AD discontinuation. Cox regression models, adjusted for age, gender, diagnosis of schizophrenia and mood disorders, and number of medical comorbidities, were run. Among 284,234 individuals, those within one year of exposure to SGAs versus ADs showed a higher risk of essential hypertension (adjusted hazard ratio, AHR=1.16, 95% CI: 1.12-1.21,

Performance of AAOmega: the AAT multi-purpose fibre-fed spectrograph

AAOmega is the new spectrograph for the 2dF fibre-positioning system on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. It is a bench-mounted, double-beamed design, using volume phase holographic (VPH) gratings and articulating cameras. It is fed by 392 fibres from either of the two 2dF field plates, or by the 512 fibre SPIRAL integral field unit (IFU) at Cassegrain focus. Wavelength coverage is 370 to 950nm and spectral resolution 1,000-8,000 in multi-Object mode, or 1,500-10,000 in IFU mode. Multi-object mode was commissioned in January 2006 and the IFU system will be commissioned in June 2006. The spectrograph is located off the telescope in a thermally isolated room and the 2dF fibres have been replaced by new 38m broadband fibres. Despite the increased fibre length, we have achieved a large increase in throughput by use of VPH gratings, more efficient coatings and new detectors - amounting to a factor of at least 2 in the red. The number of spectral resolution elements and the maximum resolution are both more than doubled, and the stability is an order of magnitude better. The spectrograph comprises: an f/3.15 Schmidt collimator, incorporating a dichroic beam-splitter; interchangeable VPH gratings; and articulating red and blue f/1.3 Schmidt cameras. Pupil size is 190mm, determined by the competing demands of cost, obstruction losses, and maximum resolution. A full suite of VPH gratings has been provided to cover resolutions 1,000 to 7,500, and up to 10,000 at particular wavelengths.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; presented at SPIE, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 24 - 31 May 2006, Orlando, Florida US

Recovering 6D Object Pose: A Review and Multi-modal Analysis

A large number of studies analyse object detection and pose estimation at visual level in 2D, discussing the effects of challenges such as occlusion, clutter, texture, etc., on the performances of the methods, which work in the context of RGB modality. Interpreting the depth data, the study in this paper presents thorough multi-modal analyses. It discusses the above-mentioned challenges for full 6D object pose estimation in RGB-D images comparing the performances of several 6D detectors in order to answer the following questions: What is the current position of the computer vision community for maintaining "automation" in robotic manipulation? What next steps should the community take for improving "autonomy" in robotics while handling objects? Our findings include: (i) reasonably accurate results are obtained on textured-objects at varying viewpoints with cluttered backgrounds. (ii) Heavy existence of occlusion and clutter severely affects the detectors, and similar-looking distractors is the biggest challenge in recovering instances' 6D. (iii) Template-based methods and random forest-based learning algorithms underlie object detection and 6D pose estimation. Recent paradigm is to learn deep discriminative feature representations and to adopt CNNs taking RGB images as input. (iv) Depending on the availability of large-scale 6D annotated depth datasets, feature representations can be learnt on these datasets, and then the learnt representations can be customized for the 6D problem

Precise Truss Assembly using Commodity Parts and Low Precision Welding

We describe an Intelligent Precision Jigging Robot (IPJR), which allows high precision assembly of commodity parts with low-precision bonding. We present preliminary experiments in 2D that are motivated by the problem of assembling a space telescope optical bench on orbit using inexpensive, stock hardware and low-precision welding. An IPJR is a robot that acts as the precise "jigging", holding parts of a local assembly site in place while an external low precision assembly agent cuts and welds members. The prototype presented in this paper allows an assembly agent (in this case, a human using only low precision tools), to assemble a 2D truss made of wooden dowels to a precision on the order of millimeters over a span on the order of meters. We report the challenges of designing the IPJR hardware and software, analyze the error in assembly, document the test results over several experiments including a large-scale ring structure, and describe future work to implement the IPJR in 3D and with micron precision

Men Set Their Own Cites High: Gender and Self-citation across Fields and over Time

How common is self-citation in scholarly publication, and does the practice vary by gender? Using novel methods and a data set of 1.5 million research papers in the scholarly database JSTOR published between 1779 and 2011, the authors find that nearly 10 percent of references are self-citations by a paper's authors. The findings also show that between 1779 and 2011, men cited their own papers 56 percent more than did women. In the last two decades of data, men self-cited 70 percent more than women. Women are also more than 10 percentage points more likely than men to not cite their own previous work at all. While these patterns could result from differences in the number of papers that men and women authors have published rather than gender-specific patterns of self-citation behavior, this gender gap in self-citation rates has remained stable over the last 50 years, despite increased representation of women in academia. The authors break down self-citation patterns by academic field and number of authors and comment on potential mechanisms behind these observations. These findings have important implications for scholarly visibility and cumulative advantage in academic careers.Comment: final published articl