Developing real-life driving simulations for novice driver education

This paper will describe the technological aspects of producing live-action videos of real traffic scenarios for a new driver education training CD-ROM (CD DRIVES) aimed at novice drivers in New Zealand. CD-DRIVES was created in order to help young drivers practise crucial higher level driving skills such as eye scanning, hazard detection and risk management. We will present a roadmap of the technological advances made through hardware, software and processes used in the production and post-production stages of CD-DRIVES

On the reactions p + p -> p + Lambda + K^+ and p + p -> p + Sigma^0 + K^+ near thresholds

The cross sections for the reactions of the strange production p + p -> p + Lambda + K^+ and p + p -> p + Sigma^0 + K^+ near thresholds of the final states p Lambda K^+ and p Sigma^0 K^+ are calculated in the effective Lagrangian approach. Our approach is based on the dominant contribution of the one-pion exchange and strong interaction of the colliding protons in the initial state. The theoretical values of the cross sections agree reasonably well with the experimental data. The polarization properties of the Lambda and Sigma^0 hyperons are discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 1 Postscript figure, Latex, to appear in Eur. Phys. J

Empirical Determination of Threshold Partial Wave Amplitudes in pp→ppωp p \to p p \omega

Using the model independent irreducible tensor approach to $\omega$ production in $pp$ collisions, we show theoretically that, it is advantageous to measure experimentally the polarization of $\omega$, in addition to the proposed experimental study employing a polarized beam and a polarized target.Comment: 6 pages, 1 Table, Latex-2

A continuum model for the dynamics of the phase transition from slow-wave sleep to REM sleep

Previous studies have shown that activated cortical states (awake and rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep), are associated with increased cholinergic input into the cerebral cortex. However, the mechanisms that underlie the detailed dynamics of the cortical transition from slow-wave to REM sleep have not been quantitatively modeled. How does the sequence of abrupt changes in the cortical dynamics (as detected in the electrocorticogram) result from the more gradual change in subcortical cholinergic input? We compare the output from a continuum model of cortical neuronal dynamics with experimentally-derived rat electrocorticogram data. The output from the computer model was consistent with experimental observations. In slow-wave sleep, 0.5–2-Hz oscillations arise from the cortex jumping between “up” and “down” states on the stationary-state manifold. As cholinergic input increases, the upper state undergoes a bifurcation to an 8-Hz oscillation. The coexistence of both oscillations is similar to that found in the intermediate stage of sleep of the rat. Further cholinergic input moves the trajectory to a point where the lower part of the manifold in not available, and thus the slow oscillation abruptly ceases (REM sleep). The model provides a natural basis to explain neuromodulator-induced changes in cortical activity, and indicates that a cortical phase change, rather than a brainstem “flip-flop”, may describe the transition from slow-wave sleep to REM

Phase transitions in single neurons and neural populations: Critical slowing, anesthesia, and sleep cycles

The firing of an action potential by a biological neuron represents a dramatic transition from small-scale linear stochastics (subthreshold voltage fluctuations) to gross-scale nonlinear dynamics (birth of a 1-ms voltage spike). In populations of neurons we see similar, but slower, switch-like there-and-back transitions between low-firing background states and high-firing activated states. These state transitions are controlled by varying levels of input current (single neuron), varying amounts of GABAergic drug (anesthesia), or varying concentrations of neuromodulators and neurotransmitters (natural sleep), and all occur within a milieu of unrelenting biological noise. By tracking the altering responsiveness of the excitable membrane to noisy stimulus, we can infer how close the neuronal system (single unit or entire population) is to switching threshold. We can quantify this “nearness to switching” in terms of the altering eigenvalue structure: the dominant eigenvalue approaches zero, leading to a growth in correlated, low-frequency power, with exaggerated responsiveness to small perturbations, the responses becoming larger and slower as the neural population approaches its critical point–-this is critical slowing. In this chapter we discuss phase-transition predictions for both single-neuron and neural-population models, comparing theory with laboratory and clinical measurement

Modern Jewelry Art of Moldova

In this article the author examines some problems concerning formation of the jewelry industry in the territory of Bessarabia, Moldavian RSS and the Republic of Moldova, for the considerations that contemporary art jewelry is presented as a subject very poorly investigated, despite having an interest for historical researchers, the study art, ethnography and culturology. Are determinate some aspects of the evolution of different types of jewelry manufacturing workshops and articles Jewelry Plant Giuvaier from Chisinau, founded in 1972.jewelry art, museum collections, manufacturing, modern masters, jewelry decorations

Appreciative seminars.Appreciative teaching of Appreciative Inquiry

The introduction of appreciative intervention methods at the organizational level as a discipline in the academic curriculum of the masters program “Supervision and Social Planning” is a starting point for the development of this methodology in various areas of social practice (Sandu, 2010). The experimental educational program “Appreciative Seminars” was implemented within the discipline Appreciative intervention methods at the organizational level in the program noted above. The initiative came from Mr. Dr. Antonio Sandu, of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social and Political Sciences, “Al. I. Cuza” University in Iasi, who has supported in the academic year 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 the mentioned discipline in close collaboration with Mr. Assoc. Professor Ph. D. Stefan Cojocaru, head masters program and at the same time the one who introduced the appreciative methods in the academic curriculum from Romania.appreciative semminars, appreciative education, appreciative teaching, appreciative Inquiry.

Legitimizing the Educational Experience in the context of the Didactic Methodology

The didactic methodology reminds of the idea of an efficient functioning of the education process. In this way, the systemic perspective of the didactic methodology illustrates the way in which the educational experience transposed at the level of the teaching-learning-evaluating activity. Thus, the didactic courses of action initiated in the context of the educational reality emphasize an image that legitimizes the experience of learning itself in general. Therefore, from a pragmatic perspective, the didactic methodology represents a transposition of the educational strategies in relevant learning situations and adequate (self) training actions.didactic activity, educational methodology, didactic methodology, didactic technology, educational experience

Assessment of Professional Competences. Constructive Dimension of Human Resources Management

The present article proposes a model of how to develop a plan for evaluate professional skills, applicable to people who want to certify skills acquired in non-formal ways and also in human resource departments, that want to evaluate professional skills of its own members, with the purpose to achieve a more efficient use of human resources, and also to derulate organizational development programs that includes professional training.training, evaluation, competences

The elementary p(p,p'\pi^{+})n reaction

A detailed study of the elementary p(p,p$'\pi^{+}$)n reaction is presented using the delta isobar model. In this model, in the first step one of the two protons in the initial state gets excited to $\Delta$. This, in the second step, decays into a nucleon and a pion. For the $pp \to N\Delta$ step the parametrized form of the DWBA t-matrix of Jain and Santra, which reproduces most of the available data on $pp \to n\Delta^{++}$, is used. The cross-sections studied include the outgoing proton momentum spectra in coincidence with the pion, the outgoing pion momentum spectra and the integrated total cross-section. We find that all the calculated numbers are in good agreement with the corresponding measured cross sections.Comment: 11 pages latex, 5 figures as seperate post-script files; accepted for publication in Physical Review C (1998