1,568 research outputs found
An empirical investigation of post-completion error: A cognitive perspective.
Forgetting to retrieve your original after photocopying, forgetting to collect your card after a withdrawal from a cash machine, are examples of a specific type of omission error termed post-completion error (Byrne & Bovair, 1997). A post-completion error (PCE) is the omission of a "clean-up" step after the main goal of a task is fulfilled. The error phenomenon has the property of being infrequent but persistent it does not occur very often and, yet, it continues to occur now and again. This thesis is an empirical investigation of PCE to examine factors that provoke or mitigate the error. The investigation consists of two series of experiments. The first series of experiments is an extension of Byrne & Bovair's finding of the effect of high working memory demand on the increased occurrences of PCE. A novel paradigm was designed and adopted in the experiments it was found that PCE also occurs in problem-solving tasks, which impose a high demand on working memory load. Results from the experiments also suggest that the use of static visual cues may reduce the error rate. The second series of experiments investigates the effect of interruption on PCE in a procedural task paradigm. Based on the activation-based goal memory model (Altmann & Trafton, 2002) predictions were made on the effect of interruption position and duration on the error. Results show that PCE is more likely to occur with interruption occurring just before the post-completion step. Interruption occurring earlier in the task has no effect on PCE rate it was found to be the same as having no interruptions at all. Moreover, interruption as brief as 15 seconds was found to be disruptive enough to increase PCE rate. The same disruptive effect was also obtained for other non-PCEs. The scarcity and disparate nature of the existing theoretical approaches to PCE motivated a meta-theoretical analysis of PCE. The analysis has resulted in the identification of the major criteria required for an adequate account of PCE. Although a complete cognitive model of PCE is beyond the scope of the current thesis, the meta-theoretical analysis offers new insights into the understanding of PCE and aids future theoretical development. The current thesis constitutes a methodological advance in studying PCE. New factors that provoke or mitigate the occurrence of the error were identified through empirical investigations. New insights into the understanding of the error were also possible through a meta-theoretical analysis within a coherent theoretical structure
Tight Coupling Dual-Band Coupler With Large Frequency Ratio and Arbitrary Power Division Ratios Over Two Bands
To satisfy the requirements of the emerging wireless communication system, the simultaneous implementation of large frequency ratio and tight coupling is demanded for a dual-band coupler. But most of the existing dual-band coupler structures can only achieve one of them. In this paper, a new coupled line based dual-band coupler structure is proposed. The detailed theoretical analysis is conducted for different ranges of frequency ratio. It was shown that a wide frequency ratio from 1.4 to 11.7 can be achieved even for the designs which require a tight coupling of 3 dB. For higher flexibility, the same circuit topology is further investigated to implement the arbitrary power division ratios over the two bands. More importantly, the design parameters for the large frequency ratio and arbitrary power division ratio are found to be almost independent resulting in a simple design procedure. For demonstration purposes, a dual-band 3 dB coupler with a large frequency ratio of 6 is designed, fabricated and measured. Furthermore, another dual-band coupler with coupling coefficients of 3 dB and 6 dB at 2 GHz and 4 GHz is designed, fabricated and measured. Good agreement between simulation and measurement can be observed for both prototypes.11Ysciescopu
Hepatitis B virus subgenotype C2 is the most prevalent subgenotype in northeast China
AbstractThe geographical distribution of hepatitis B virus (HBV) subgenotypes and their clinical implications in patients with acute and chronic hepatitis B in the Heilung-kiang province of northeast China were investigated. Nested PCR and multiplex PCR were performed with genotype-specific primers and with subgenotype-specific primers to identify genotypes and subgenotypes from serum samples of 412 HBV infections including 69 with acute self-limited hepatitis (ASH) and 343 with chronic hepatitis (CH). A total of 361 samples were genotyped and 304 were further subgenotyped. The most common HBV genotype was C (93.63%, 338/361), with subgenotype group C2 (83.73%, 283/338) predominating. Genotype B was also found and subgenotype B2 predominated within this genotype. Out of 69 infected patients with ASH, 48 were identified as genotype C and all belonged to subgenotype C2. Of 343 infected patients with CH, 313 were genotyped and 256 were subgenotyped; amongst these, C2 (91.80%, 235/256), B2 (7.42%, 19/256) and mixed subgenotypes B2 and C2 (0.78%, 2/256) were found. In HBV subgenotype C2 infections, ASH had a higher ratio of women than CH patients. These results show that HBV subgenotypes C2 and B2 were found in Heilung-kiang province of northeast China. In ASH and CH groups, the distributions of subgenotypes were coincident with C2, the predominant subgenotype. Analysis of the association between subgenotype and the outcomes of HBV infection was inconclusive in our study
Statistical mechanics of RNA folding: importance of alphabet size
We construct a minimalist model of RNA secondary-structure formation and use
it to study the mapping from sequence to structure. There are strong,
qualitative differences between two-letter and four or six-letter alphabets.
With only two kinds of bases, there are many alternate folding configurations,
yielding thermodynamically stable ground-states only for a small set of
structures of high designability, i.e., total number of associated sequences.
In contrast, sequences made from four bases, as found in nature, or six bases
have far fewer competing folding configurations, resulting in a much greater
average stability of the ground state.Comment: 7 figures; uses revtex
Superconducting Properties of MgCNi3 Films
We report the magnetotransport properties of thin polycrystalline films of
the recently discovered non-oxide perovskite superconductor MgCNi3. CNi3
precursor films were deposited onto sapphire substrates and subsequently
exposed to Mg vapor at 700 C. We report transition temperatures (Tc) and
critical field values (Hc2) of MgCNi3 films ranging in thickness from 7.5 nm to
100 nm. Films thicker than ~40 nm have a Tc ~ 8 K, and an upper critical field
Hc2 ~ 14 T, which are both comparable to that of polycrystalline powders. Hall
measurements in the normal state give a carrier density, n =-4.2 x 10^22 cm^-3,
that is approximately 4 times that reported for bulk samples.Comment: submitted to PR
EGAM Induced by Energetic-electrons and Nonlinear Interactions among EGAM, BAEs and Tearing Modes in a Toroidal Plasma
In this letter, it is reported that the first experimental results are
associated with the GAM induced by energetic electrons (eEGAM) in HL-2A Ohmic
plasma. The energetic-electrons are generated by parallel electric fields
during magnetic reconnection associated with tearing mode (TM). The eEGAM
localizes in the core plasma, i.e. in the vicinity of q=2 surface, and is very
different from one excited by the drift-wave turbulence in the edge plasma. The
analysis indicated that the eEGAM is provided with the magnetic components,
whose intensities depend on the poloidal angles, and its mode numbers are
jm/nj=2/0. Further, there exist intense nonlinear interactions among eEGAM,
BAEs and strong tearing modes (TMs). These new findings shed light on the
underlying physics mechanism for the excitation of the low frequency (LF)
Alfv\'enic and acoustic uctuations.Comment: 5 pages,4 figure
Thermopower and thermal conductivity of superconducting perovskite
The thermopower and thermal conductivity of superconducting perovskite
( 8 K) have been studied. The thermopower is negative
from room temperature to 10 K. Combining with the negative Hall coefficient
reported previously, the negative thermopower definetly indicates that the
carrier in is electron-type. The nonlinear temperature dependence of
thermopower below 150 K is explained by the electron-phonon interaction
renormalization effects. The thermal conductivity is of the order for
intermetallics, larger than that of borocarbides and smaller than . In
the normal state, the electronic contribution to the total thermal conductivity
is slightly larger than the lattice contribution. The transverse
magnetoresistance of is also measured. It is found that the classical
Kohler's rule is valid above 50 K. An electronic crossover occures at , resulting in the abnormal behavior of resistivity, thermopower, and
magnetoresistance below 50 K.Comment: Revised on 12 September 2001, Phys. Rev. B in pres
Tolerogenic dendritic cells protect against acute kidney injury
Ischemia reperfusion injury is a common precipitant of acute kidney injury that occurs following disrupted perfusion to the kidney. This includes blood loss and hemodynamic shock, as well as during retrieval for deceased donor kidney transplantation. Acute kidney injury is associated with adverse long-term clinical outcomes and requires effective interventions that can modify the disease process. Immunomodulatory cell therapies such as tolerogenic dendritic cells remain a promising tool, and here we tested the hypothesis that adoptively transferred tolerogenic dendritic cells can limit kidney injury. The phenotypic and genomic signatures of bone marrow–derived syngeneic or allogeneic, Vitamin-D3/IL-10–conditioned tolerogenic dendritic cells were assessed. These cells were characterized by high PD-L1:CD86, elevated IL-10, restricted IL-12p70 secretion and a suppressed transcriptomic inflammatory profile. When infused systemically, these cells successfully abrogated kidney injury without modifying infiltrating inflammatory cell populations. They also provided protection against ischemia reperfusion injury in mice pre-treated with liposomal clodronate, suggesting the process was regulated by live, rather than reprocessed cells. Co-culture experiments and spatial transcriptomic analysis confirmed reduced kidney tubular epithelial cell injury. Thus, our data provide strong evidence that peri-operatively administered tolerogenic dendritic cells have the ability to protect against acute kidney injury and warrants further exploration as a therapeutic option. This technology may provide a clinical advantage for bench-to-bedside translation to affect patient outcomes
Towards a Linear-Scaling DFT Technique: The Density Matrix Approach
A recently proposed linear-scaling scheme for density-functional
pseudopotential calculations is described in detail. The method is based on a
formulation of density functional theory in which the ground state energy is
determined by minimization with respect to the density matrix, subject to the
condition that the eigenvalues of the latter lie in the range [0,1].
Linear-scaling behavior is achieved by requiring that the density matrix should
vanish when the separation of its arguments exceeds a chosen cutoff. The
limitation on the eigenvalue range is imposed by the method of Li, Nunes and
Vanderbilt. The scheme is implemented by calculating all terms in the energy on
a uniform real-space grid, and minimization is performed using the
conjugate-gradient method. Tests on a 512-atom Si system show that the total
energy converges rapidly as the range of the density matrix is increased. A
discussion of the relation between the present method and other linear-scaling
methods is given, and some problems that still require solution are indicated.Comment: REVTeX file, 27 pages with 4 uuencoded postscript figure
A Self-Consistent First-Principles Technique Having Linear Scaling
An algorithm for first-principles electronic structure calculations having a
computational cost which scales linearly with the system size is presented. Our
method exploits the real-space localization of the density matrix, and in this
respect it is related to the technique of Li, Nunes and Vanderbilt. The density
matrix is expressed in terms of localized support functions, and a matrix of
variational parameters, L, having a finite spatial range. The total energy is
minimized with respect to both the support functions and the elements of the L
matrix. The method is variational, and becomes exact as the ranges of the
support functions and the L matrix are increased. We have tested the method on
crystalline silicon systems containing up to 216 atoms, and we discuss some of
these results.Comment: 12 pages, REVTeX, 2 figure
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