Event tracking for real-time unaware sensitivity analysis (EventTracker)

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.This paper introduces a platform for online Sensitivity Analysis (SA) that is applicable in large scale real-time data acquisition (DAQ) systems. Here we use the term real-time in the context of a system that has to respond to externally generated input stimuli within a finite and specified period. Complex industrial systems such as manufacturing, healthcare, transport, and finance require high quality information on which to base timely responses to events occurring in their volatile environments. The motivation for the proposed EventTracker platform is the assumption that modern industrial systems are able to capture data in real-time and have the necessary technological flexibility to adjust to changing system requirements. The flexibility to adapt can only be assured if data is succinctly interpreted and translated into corrective actions in a timely manner. An important factor that facilitates data interpretation and information modelling is an appreciation of the affect system inputs have on each output at the time of occurrence. Many existing sensitivity analysis methods appear to hamper efficient and timely analysis due to a reliance on historical data, or sluggishness in providing a timely solution that would be of use in real-time applications. This inefficiency is further compounded by computational limitations and the complexity of some existing models. In dealing with real-time event driven systems, the underpinning logic of the proposed method is based on the assumption that in the vast majority of cases changes in input variables will trigger events. Every single or combination of events could subsequently result in a change to the system state. The proposed event tracking sensitivity analysis method describes variables and the system state as a collection of events. The higher the numeric occurrence of an input variable at the trigger level during an event monitoring interval, the greater is its impact on the final analysis of the system state. Experiments were designed to compare the proposed event tracking sensitivity analysis method with a comparable method (that of Entropy). An improvement of 10% in computational efficiency without loss in accuracy was observed. The comparison also showed that the time taken to perform the sensitivity analysis was 0.5% of that required when using the comparable Entropy based method.EPSR

Loop quantum effect and the fate of tachyon field collapse

We study the fate of gravitational collapse of a tachyon field matter. In presence of an inverse square potential a black hole forms. Loop quantum corrections lead to the avoidance of classical singularities, which is followed by an outward flux of energy.Comment: Contribution to the conference of Loops'11, Madri

“I think that’s what he’s doing”: effects of intentional reasoning on second language (L2) speech performance

This study advances our understanding of the effects of task design on task complexity and second language (L2) performance. The research reported here focused on examining the impact of degree of intentional reasoning, operationalised at two levels of task content and task instructions, on language performance and perceptions of task difficulty. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study drew on quantitative and qualitative data collected from 20 Jordanian L2 learners performing video-based oral narratives and completing retrospective questionnaires. The results suggest that intentional reasoning has a noticeable effect in generating more syntactically complex and accurate language, and also influences perceptions of task difficulty. However, a higher intentional reasoning demand is associated with less lexical diversity and inconsistent patterns of fluency. An important finding of the study is that the link between the cognitive demands and the language used to convey intentional reasoning should be carefully considered when selecting analytic measures of complexity and accuracy

Prioritizing starting states for reinforcement learning

Online, off-policy reinforcement learning algorithms are able to use an experience memory to remember and replay past experiences. In prior work, this approach was used to stabilize training by breaking the temporal correlations of the updates and avoiding the rapid forgetting of possibly rare experiences. In this work, we propose a conceptually simple framework that uses an experience memory to help exploration by prioritizing the starting states from which the agent starts acting in the environment, importantly, in a fashion that is also compatible with on-policy algorithms. Given the capacity to restart the agent in states corresponding to its past observations, we achieve this objective by (i) enabling the agent to restart in states belonging to significant past experiences (e.g., nearby goals), and (ii) promoting faster coverage of the state space through starting from a more diverse set of states. While, using a good priority measure to identify significant past transitions, we expect case (i) to more considerably help exploration in certain domains (e.g., sparse reward tasks), we hypothesize that case (ii) will generally be beneficial, even without any prioritization. We show empirically that our approach improves learning performance for both off-policy and on-policy deep reinforcement learning methods, with most notable gains in highly sparse reward tasks

Energy conditions in f(R) gravity and Brans-Dicke theories

The equivalence between f(R) gravity and scalar-tensor theories is invoked to study the null, strong, weak and dominant energy conditions in Brans-Dicke theory. We consider the validity of the energy conditions in Brans-Dicke theory by invoking the energy conditions derived from a generic f(R) theory. The parameters involved are shown to be consistent with an accelerated expanding universe.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, to appear in IJMP

The first record of bobtail squid, Euprymna hyllebergi Nateewathana, 1997 (Cephalopoda:Sepiolidae) from the Persian Gulf, Iran

The family Sepiolidae comprises over 50 species in 14 genera. They are commonly known as bobtail squids with a worldwide distribution from tropical to temperate and sub-polar latitudes of all oceans (Nateewathana, 1997; Aungtonya et al., 2011). Euprymna hyllebergi belongs to the Sepiolidae family and Sepiolinae subfamily. This species has a wide distribution in the Eastern Indian Ocean, and has been recorded up to the depth of 47 meters in Andaman Sea, Thailand (Jereb and Roper, 2005). The family Sepiolidae, includes all bobtail squids with kidney-shape fins. Little is known about their biology, but they are common in tropical, temperate and sub polar waters of all oceans (Jereb and Roper, 2010). This is the first record of the bobtail squid, E. hyllebergi from the Persian Gulf. On 27th of March 2013 during a scuba diving session in Persian Gulf (Figure 1, coordinates: 54° 49’39.5”E, 26° 26’ 55.3”N) about 200 eggs of E. hyllebergi were collected at the depth of 40 meters in northern Persian Gulf. The eggs (Fig. 2a) were transferred to the Persian Gulf Shellfishes Research Center laboratory for further incubation and hatching

Personal and Network Dynamics in Performance of Knowledge Workers: A Study of Australian Breast Radiologists

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Effect of Melissa officinalis Capsule on the Intensity of Premenstrual Syndrome Symptoms in High School Girl Students

Background: Several studies are conducted on Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS). However, a few herbal surveys exist on the treatment of PMS in Iran. Due to the sedative effects of Melissa officinalis (M. officinalis), this question comes to mind that “can it be used in the treatment of PMS symptoms?” Objectives: The current study aimed to assess the effect of M. officinalis capsule on the intensity of PMS in high-school girls. Materials and Methods: A double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled trial was performed on 100 high school girls from 2013 to 2014. The intervention group (n = 50) received 1200 mg of M. officinalis essence daily from the first to the last day of their menstrual cycle for three consecutive cycles. The second group (n = 50) received the placebo. The premenstrual symptoms screening tool was used to assess the intensity of PMS symptoms in the two groups before and one, two, and three months after the intervention. The data were analyzed using paired t-test and repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: The results of repeated measures test revealed a significant reduction (P < 0.001) in PMS symptoms. Overall, the mean score of PMS intensity in the intervention group was 42.56 + 15.73 before the intervention and changed to 32.72 ± 13.24, 30.02 ± 12.08, and 13.90 ± 10.22 at the three consecutive months after the intervention, respectively (P = 0.001). Conclusions: M. officinalis capsules were effective in reduction of the PMS symptoms. Yet, application of this medication requires further investigations

Corneal Confocal Microscopy: A novel noninvasive test to diagnose and stratify the severity of human diabetic neuropathy

OBJECTIVE: The accurate quantification of human diabetic neuropathy is important to define at-risk patients, anticipate deterioration, and assess new therapies. ---------- RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 101 diabetic patients and 17 age-matched control subjects underwent neurological evaluation, neurophysiology tests, quantitative sensory testing, and evaluation of corneal sensation and corneal nerve morphology using corneal confocal microscopy (CCM). ---------- RESULTS: Corneal sensation decreased significantly (P = 0.0001) with increasing neuropathic severity and correlated with the neuropathy disability score (NDS) (r = 0.441, P 3) defined an NFD of 6) defined a NFD cutoff of <20.8/mm2 with a sensitivity of 0.71 (0.42–0.92) and specificity of 0.64 (0.54–0.74). ---------- CONCLUSIONS: CCM is a noninvasive clinical technique that may be used to detect early nerve damage and stratify diabetic patients with increasing neuropathic severity. Established diabetic neuropathy leads to pain and foot ulceration. Detecting neuropathy early may allow intervention with treatments to slow or reverse this condition (1). Recent studies suggested that small unmyelinated C-fibers are damaged early in diabetic neuropathy (2–4) but can only be detected using invasive procedures such as sural nerve biopsy (4,5) or skin-punch biopsy (6–8). Our studies have shown that corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) can identify early small nerve fiber damage and accurately quantify the severity of diabetic neuropathy (9–11). We have also shown that CCM relates to intraepidermal nerve fiber loss (12) and a reduction in corneal sensitivity (13) and detects early nerve fiber regeneration after pancreas transplantation (14). Recently we have also shown that CCM detects nerve fiber damage in patients with Fabry disease (15) and idiopathic small fiber neuropathy (16) when results of electrophysiology tests and quantitative sensory testing (QST) are normal. In this study we assessed corneal sensitivity and corneal nerve morphology using CCM in diabetic patients stratified for the severity of diabetic neuropathy using neurological evaluation, electrophysiology tests, and QST. This enabled us to compare CCM and corneal esthesiometry with established tests of diabetic neuropathy and define their sensitivity and specificity to detect diabetic patients with early neuropathy and those at risk of foot ulceration

Study of Pulsatile Flow in Common Carotid Artery with Different Stenosis' Shapes within Various Wall Conditions

Recently, due to the development of CFD techniques, many attempts have been made to simulate the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. In recent works, various curves have been suggested to model the stenosis shape. However, little effort has been made to study the importance of the stenosis shape on the flow behavior. In this study, four types of stenosis with asteroid, Gaussian, semi-circle, and sinusoidal shapes were simulated in order to study the effect of the stenosis shape on flow behavior and diagnosis parameters. Shear stress and flow behavior were investigated in the common carotid artery with stenosis severities of 30%, 40%, and 50%. Flow was assumed to be unsteady and the inlet to be a pulsatile flow. Two cases of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids were simulated. The no-slip and permeable boundary conditions were imposed on the outer walls. To examine the effect of the location of stenosis, modeling was conducted at various locations. The results showed that the maximum shear stress occurs in the Gaussian stenosis at the opening of the stenosis. Semi-circle, sinus, and asteroid shapes had the next largest shear stress values. Additionally, the location of stenosis had a negligible effect on the maximum shear stress. However, flow resistance increased with increasing the stenosis’s distance from the beginning of the artery. This study indicates that stenosis shape highly affects the flow characteristics, and stenosis severity is not the only parameter that is important. Hence, the stenosis shape should be considered when simulating atherosclerosis