The development of a novel, selective desulfurization process

The removal of hydrogen sulfide from natural, industrial of bio gas is an operation that is frequently encountered in process industry. Driven by tight sulfur specifications and the everlasting need for cost reduction a considerable research effort is made in this field,\ud sprouting numerous new developments in desulfurization technology.\ud The procede desulfurization process is a regenerative process that is capable of removing H2S from a gas stream without the uptake of CO2. The removal of H2S is selective since the absorption process is based on the precipitation reaction of H2S with metal ions present in an aqueous solution under the formation of metal sulfide

Online backchannel synthesis evaluation with the switching Wizard of Oz

In this paper, we evaluate a backchannel synthesis algorithm in an online conversation between a human speaker and a virtual listener. We adopt the Switching Wizard of Oz (SWOZ) approach to assess behavior synthesis algorithms online. A human speaker watches a virtual listener that is either controlled by a human listener or by an algorithm. The source switches at random intervals. Speakers indicate when they feel they are no longer talking to a human listener. Analysis of these responses reveals patterns of inappropriate behavior in terms of quantity and timing of backchannels

Ethics Renewal: Moral Principles, Boundaries, Value Studies, and More!

This presentation is intended to go beyond mandatory ethics to raise participants’ self-awareness to practice clinical mental health counseling. It fulfills 1 hour of ethics CEU requirements toward licensure renewal in a fun and interactive way. Participants will engage in active discussions and activities regarding personal beliefs and values, boundary dilemmas, moral principles, and ethical decision-making processes to promote client welfare. HIPAA, FERPA, and other key legislation will be discussed with emphasis on confidentiality

Simulating carbon exchange using a regional atmospheric model coupled to an advanced land-surface model

A large scale mismatch exists between our understanding and quantification of ecosystem atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide at local scale and continental scales. This paper will focus on the carbon exchange on the regional scale to address the following 5 question: What are the main controlling factors determining atmospheric carbon dioxide content at a regional scale? We use the Regional Atmospheric Modelling System (RAMS), coupled with a land surface scheme simulating carbon, heat and momentum fluxes (SWAPS-C), and including also sub models for urban and marine fluxes, which in principle include the main controlling mechanisms and capture the relevant dynamics 10 of the system. To validate the model, observations are used which were taken during an intensive observational campaign in the central Netherlands in summer 2002. These included flux-site observations, vertical profiles at tall towers and spatial fluxes of various variables taken by aircraft. The coupled regional model (RAMS-SWAPS-C) generally does a good job in sim15 ulating results close to reality. The validation of the model demonstrates that surface fluxes of heat, water and CO2 are reasonably well simulated. The comparison against aircraft data shows that the regional meteorology is captured by the model. Comparing spatially explicit simulated and observed fluxes we conclude that in general simulated latent heat fluxes are underestimated by the model to the observations which exhibit 20 large standard deviation for all flights. Sensitivity experiments demonstrated the relevance of the urban emissions of carbon dioxide for the carbon balance in this particular region. The same test also show the relation between uncertainties in surface fluxes and those in atmospheric concentrations

Selecting appropriate agent responses based on non-content features

This paper describes work-in-progress on a study to create models of responses of virtual agents that are selected only based on non-content features, such as prosody and facial expressions. From a corpus of human-human interactions, in which one person was playing the part of an agent and the second person a user, we extracted the turns of the user and gave these to annotators. The annotators had to select utterances from a list of phrases in the repertoire of our agent that would be a good response to the user utterance. The corpus is used to train response selection models based on automatically extracted features and on human annotations of the user-turns

Coolidge effect in pond snails: male motivation in a simultaneous hermaphrodite

Background. The simultaneously hermaphroditic pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, can mate in the male and female role, but within one copulation only one sexual role is performed at a time. Previous work has shown that male motivation is determined by the availability of seminal fluid in the prostate gland, which is detected via a nervous connection by the brain area controlling male behaviour. Based on this knowledge, patterns of sexual role alternations within mating pairs can be explained. Results. The data presented here reveal that these snails can donate and receive sperm several times within 24 hours, and that they have increased mating rates in larger groups (i.e. more mating opportunities). For mating pairs we show, by introducing novel mating partners after copulation, that animals do inseminate new partners, while they are no longer motivated to inseminate their original partners. Conclusion. Our findings provide the first direct evidence for higher motivation in a hermaphrodite to copulate when a new partner is encountered. This Coolidge effect seems to be attenuated when mucus trails are excluded, which suggests that a chemical or textural cue may be responsible for mediating this response to sperm competition. © 2007 Koene and Ter Maat; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

The effect of multiple modalities on the perception of a listening agent

Listening agents are IVAs that display attentive listening behavior to a human speaker. The research into listening agents has mainly focused on (1) automatically timing listener responses; and (2) investigating the perceptual quality of listening behavior. Both issues have predominantly been addressed in an offline fashion, e.g. based on controlled animations that were rated by human observers. This allows for the systematic investigation of variables such as the quantity, type and timing of listening behaviors. However, there is a trade-off between the control and the realism of the stimuli. The display of head movement and facial expressions makes the animated listening behavior more realistic but hinders the investigation of specific behavior such as the timing of a backchannel. To migitate these problems, the Switching Wizard of Oz (SWOZ) framework was introduced in [1]. In online speaker-listener dialogs, a human listener and a behavior synthesis algorithm simultaneously generate backchannel timings. The listening agent is animated based on one of the two sources, which is switched at random time intervals. Speakers are asked to press a button whenever they think the behavior is not human-like. As both human and algorithm have the same limited means of expression, these judgements can solely be based on aspects of the behavior such as the quantity and timing of backchannels. In [1], the listening agent only showed head nods. In the current experiment, we investigate the effect of adding facial expressions. Facial expressions such as smiles and frowns are known to function as backchannels as they can be regarded as a signal of understanding and attention

Randomized quasi-optimal local approximation spaces in time

We target time-dependent partial differential equations (PDEs) with heterogeneous coefficients in space and time. To tackle these problems, we construct reduced basis/ multiscale ansatz functions defined in space that can be combined with time stepping schemes within model order reduction or multiscale methods. To that end, we propose to perform several simulations of the PDE for few time steps in parallel starting at different, randomly drawn start points, prescribing random initial conditions; applying a singular value decomposition to a subset of the so obtained snapshots yields the reduced basis/ multiscale ansatz functions. This facilitates constructing the reduced basis/ multiscale ansatz functions in an embarrassingly parallel manner. In detail, we suggest using a data-dependent probability distribution based on the data functions of the PDE to select the start points. Each local in time simulation of the PDE with random initial conditions approximates a local approximation space in one time point that is optimal in the sense of Kolmogorov. The derivation of these optimal local approximation spaces which are spanned by the left singular vectors of a compact transfer operator that maps arbitrary initial conditions to the solution of the PDE in a later point of time, is one other main contribution of this paper. By solving the PDE locally in time with random initial conditions, we construct local ansatz spaces in time that converge provably at a quasi-optimal rate and allow for local error control. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed method can outperform existing methods like the proper orthogonal decomposition even in a sequential setting and is well capable of approximating advection-dominated problems

Regional atmospheric feedbacks over land and coastal areas

De afgelopen jaren is er een grotere vraag ontstaan naar klimaat- en weergegevens op lokaal niveau, nu en in de toekomst. Van regionale klimaatmodellen wordt verwacht dat zij dit kunnen geven met verbeterde informatie wat betreft extremen. Heterogeniteit moet daartoe verder uitgewerkt worden. Vier verschillende voorbeelden worden behandeld om het begrip te verbeteren van de processen en de terugkoppelingen op lokaal/regionaal niveau. Terugkoppelingen tussen aardoppervlak en de atmosfeer. Drie voorbeelden stammen uit Nederland (gematigd klimaat), de vierde is afkomstig uit het (semi-)aride Saoedi Arabië. Dit proefschrift doet aanbevelingen om regionale atmosferische modellen te verbeteren

REDUCING SYMPTOMS OF SOCIAL ANXIETY IN A YOUNG ADULT: A CASE STUDY ON REATTACH

Introduction: ReAttach is a new, multi-modal psychological intervention based on the theoretical principles of arousal regulation, information processing and schema therapy. Practical research indicates that ReAttach significantly reduces psychological problems in both adults and children. Theories on ReAttach state that this is done by creating functional schemas, which in turn create more effective coping styles in clients and decrease psychological distress. Objectives: This article aims to provide a better understanding of ReAttach theory and give insight in the treatment process. Methods: This is done by linking theory to the treatment process of a young adult (N=1) with symptoms of social anxiety. Results: The psychological distress in the client decreased from 32 (serious problems) to 12 (no problems). Conclusion: ReAttach decreased symptoms of anxiety in the young adult and the theoretical principles of arousal regulation, information processing and schema therapy seem applicable to the case