360 research outputs found
Reverse Engineering of Computer-Based Navy Systems
The financial pressure to meet the need for change in computer-based systems through evolution rather than through revolution has spawned the discipline of reengineering. One driving factor of reengineering is that it is increasingly becoming the case that enhanced requirements placed on computer-based systems are overstressing the processing resources of the systems. Thus, the distribution of processing load over highly parallel and distributed hardware architectures has become part of the reengineering process for computer-based Navy systems.
This paper presents an intermediate representation (IR) for capturing features of computer-based systems to enable reengineering for concurrency. A novel feature of the IR is that it incorporates the mission critical software architecture, a view that enables information to be captured at five levels of granularity: the element/program level, the task level, the module/class/package level, the method/procedure level, and the statement/instruction level. An approach to reverse engineering is presented, in which the IR is captured, and is analyzed to identify potential concurrency. Thus, the paper defines concurrency metrics to guide the reengineering tasks of identifying, enhancing, and assessing concurrency, and for performing partitioning and assignment. Concurrency metrics are defined at several tiers of the mission critical software architecture. In addition to contributing an approach to reverse engineering for computer-based systems, the paper also discusses a reverse engineering analysis toolset that constructs and displays the IR and the concurrency metrics for Ada programs. Additionally, the paper contains a discussion of the context of our reengineering efforts within the United States Navy, by describing two reengineering projects focused on sussystems of the AEGIS Weapon System
Getting to the Root of Fine Motor Skill Performance in Dentistry: Brain Activity During Dental Tasks in a Virtual Reality Haptic Simulation.
BACKGROUND: There is little evidence considering the relationship between movement-specific reinvestment (a dimension of personality which refers to the propensity for individuals to consciously monitor and control their movements) and working memory during motor skill performance. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measuring oxyhemoglobin demands in the frontal cortex during performance of virtual reality (VR) psychomotor tasks can be used to examine this research gap. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the potential relationship between the propensity to reinvest and blood flow to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices of the brain. A secondary aim was to determine the propensity to reinvest and performance during 2 dental tasks carried out using haptic VR simulators. METHODS: We used fNIRS to assess oxygen demands in 24 undergraduate dental students during 2 dental tasks (clinical, nonclinical) on a VR haptic simulator. We used the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale questionnaire to assess the students' propensity to reinvest. RESULTS: Students with a high propensity for movement-specific reinvestment displayed significantly greater oxyhemoglobin demands in an area associated with working memory during the nonclinical task (Spearman correlation, rs=.49, P=.03). CONCLUSIONS: This small-scale study suggests that neurophysiological differences are evident between high and low reinvesters during a dental VR task in terms of oxyhemoglobin demands in an area associated with working memory
The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey VII. Half-Light Radii of Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies
We measure the half-light radii of globular clusters (GCs) in 43 galaxies
from the ACS Fornax Cluster Survey (ACSFCS). We use these data to extend
previous work in which the environmental dependencies of the half-light radii
of GCs in early type galaxies in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey (ACSVCS) were
studied, and a corrected mean half-light radius (corrected for the observed
environmental trends) was suggested as a reliable distance indicator. This work
both increases the sample size for the study of the environmental dependencies,
and adds leverage to the study of the corrected half-light radius as a possible
distance indicator (since Fornax lies at a larger distance than the Virgo
cluster). We study the environmental dependencies of the size of GCs using both
a Principal Component Analysis as well as 2D scaling relations. We largely
confirm the environmental dependencies shown in Jordan et al. (2005), but find
evidence that there is a residual correlation in the mean half-light radius of
GC systems with galaxy magnitude, and subtle differences in the other
correlations - so there may not be a universal correction for the half-light
radii of lower luminosity galaxy GC systems. The main factor determining the
size of a GC in an early type galaxy is the GC color. Red GCs have =
2.8+/-0.3 pc, while blue GCs have = 3.4+/-0.3 pc. We show that for bright
early-type galaxies (M_B < -19 mag), the uncorrected mean half-light radius of
the GC system is by itself an excellent distance indicator (with error ~11%),
having the potential to reach cosmologically interesting distances in the era
of high angular resolution adaptive optics on large optical telescopes.Comment: ApJ in press, 19 pages, 16 figures
Galaxy Zoo: CANDELS barred discs and bar fractions
The formation of bars in disc galaxies is a tracer of the dynamical maturity of the population. Previous studies have found that the incidence of bars in discs decreases from the local Universe to z ~ 1, and by z > 1 simulations predict that bar features in dynamically mature discs should be extremely rare. Here, we report the discovery of strong barred structures in massive disc galaxies at z ~ 1.5 in deep rest-frame optical images from the Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. From within a sample of 876 disc galaxies identified by visual classification in Galaxy Zoo, we identify 123 barred galaxies. Selecting a subsample within the same region of the evolving galaxy luminosity function (brighter than L*), we find that the bar fraction across the redshift range 0.5 ≤ z ≤ 2 (fbar = 10.7+6.3 -3.5 per cent after correcting for incompleteness) does not significantly evolve.We discuss the implications of this discovery in the context of existing simulations and our current understanding of the way disc galaxies have evolved over the last 11 billion yearsPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Using imputation to provide harmonized longitudinal measures of cognition across AIBL and ADNI
To improve understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, large observational studies are needed to increase power for more nuanced analyses. Combining data across existing observational studies represents one solution. However, the disparity of such datasets makes this a non-trivial task. Here, a machine learning approach was applied to impute longitudinal neuropsychological test scores across two observational studies, namely the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study (AIBL) and the Alzheimer\u27s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) providing an overall harmonised dataset. MissForest, a machine learning algorithm, capitalises on the underlying structure and relationships of data to impute test scores not measured in one study aligning it to the other study. Results demonstrated that simulated missing values from one dataset could be accurately imputed, and that imputation of actual missing data in one dataset showed comparable discrimination (p \u3c 0.001) for clinical classification to measured data in the other dataset. Further, the increased power of the overall harmonised dataset was demonstrated by observing a significant association between CVLT-II test scores (imputed for ADNI) with PET Amyloid-β in MCI APOE-ε4 homozygotes in the imputed data (N = 65) but not for the original AIBL dataset (N = 11). These results suggest that MissForest can provide a practical solution for data harmonization using imputation across studies to improve power for more nuanced analyses
Grand Design and Flocculent Spirals in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G)
Spiral arm properties of 46 galaxies in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar
Structure in Galaxies (S4G) were measured at 3.6mu, where extinction is small
and the old stars dominate. The sample includes flocculent, multiple arm, and
grand design types with a wide range of Hubble and bar types. We find that most
optically flocculent galaxies are also flocculent in the mid-IR because of star
formation uncorrelated with stellar density waves, whereas multiple arm and
grand design galaxies have underlying stellar waves. Arm-interarm contrasts
increase from flocculent to multiple arm to grand design galaxies and with
later Hubble types. Structure can be traced further out in the disk than in
previous surveys. Some spirals peak at mid-radius while others continuously
rise or fall, depending on Hubble and bar type. We find evidence for regular
and symmetric modulations of the arm strength in NGC 4321. Bars tend to be
long, high amplitude, and flat-profiled in early type spirals, with arm
contrasts that decrease with radius beyond the end of the bar, and they tend to
be short, low amplitude, and exponential-profiled in late Hubble types, with
arm contrasts that are constant or increase with radius. Longer bars tend to
have larger amplitudes and stronger arms.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, ApJ in pres
Pharmacokinetic modeling of R and S-Methadone and their metabolites to study the effects of various covariates in post-operative children
Methadone is a synthetic opioid used as an analgesic and for the treatment of opioid abuse disorder. The analgesic dose in the pediatric population is not well-defined. The pharmacokinetics (PKs) of methadone is highly variable due to the variability in alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (AAG) and genotypic differences in drug-metabolizing enzymes. Additionally, the R and S enantiomers of methadone have unique PK and pharmacodynamic properties. This study aims to describe the PKs of R and S methadone and its metabolite 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP) in pediatric surgical patients and to identify sources of inter- and intra-individual variability. Children aged 8-17.9 years undergoing orthopedic surgeries received intravenous methadone 0.1 mg/kg intra-operatively followed by oral methadone 0.1 mg/kg postoperatively every 12 h. Pharmacokinetics of R and S methadone and EDDP were determined using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry assays and the data were modeled using nonlinear mixed-effects modeling in NONMEM. R and S methadone PKs were well-described by two-compartment disposition models with first-order absorption and elimination. EDDP metabolites were described by one compartment disposition models with first order elimination. Clearance of both R and S methadone were allometrically scaled by bodyweight. CYP2B6 phenotype was a determinant of the clearance of both the enantiomers in an additive gene model. The intronic CYP3A4 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2246709 was associated with decreased clearance of R and S methadone. Concentrations of AAG and the SNP of AAG rs17650 independently increased the volume of distribution of both the enantiomers. The knowledge of these important covariates will aid in the optimal dosing of methadone in children
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