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Smoother
Kinds of Smoother Terms modified by Smoother Selected AbstractsMyasthenic crisis: Smoother sailing aheadEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 7 2009V. C. Juel No abstract is available for this article. [source] Proportional-Integral-Plus Control of an Intelligent ExcavatorCOMPUTER-AIDED CIVIL AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING, Issue 1 2004Jun Gu Previous work using LUCIE was based on the ubiquitous PI/PID control algorithm, tuned on-line, and implemented in a rather ad hoc manner. By contrast, the present research utilizes new hardware and advanced model-based control system design methods to improve the joint control and so provide smoother, more accurate movement of the excavator arm. In this article, a novel nonlinear simulation model of the system is developed for MATLAB/SIMULINK©, allowing for straightforward refinement of the control algorithm and initial evaluation. The PIP controller is compared with a conventionally tuned PID algorithm, with the final designs implemented on-line for the control of dipper angle. The simulated responses and preliminary implementation results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. [source] Differential Long-Term Stimulation of Type I versus Type III Collagen After Infrared IrradiationDERMATOLOGIC SURGERY, Issue 7 2009YOHEI TANAKA MD BACKGROUND The dermis is composed primarily of type I (soft) and type III (rigid scar-like) collagen. Collagen degradation is considered the primary cause of skin aging. Studies have proved the efficacy of infrared irradiation on collagen stimulation but have not investigated the differential long-term effects of infrared irradiation on type I and type III collagen. OBJECTIVE To determine differential long-term stimulation of type I and type III collagen after infrared (1,100,1,800 nm) irradiation. METHODS AND MATERIALS In vivo rat tissue was irradiated using the infrared device. Histology samples were analyzed for type I and III collagen stimulation, visual changes from baseline, and treatment safety up to 90 days post-treatment. RESULTS Infrared irradiation provided long-term stimulation of type I collagen and temporary stimulation of type III collagen. Treatment also created long-term smoothing of the epidermis, with no observed complications. CONCLUSIONS Infrared irradiation provides safe, consistent, long-term stimulation of type I collagen but only short-term stimulation in the more rigid type III collagen. This is preferential for cosmetic patients looking for improvement in laxity and wrinkles while seeking smoother, more youthful skin. [source] The Laser-Assisted Neck Lift: Modifications in Technique and Postoperative Care to Improve ResultsDERMATOLOGIC SURGERY, Issue 6 2002F. Richard Noodleman MD background. Conventional submental tumescent liposuction has proved disappointing for some patients with anterior neck laxity, ptotic platysma muscles, and increased subplatysmal fat. Many of these patients are facelift candidates but are unwilling to undergo this extensive procedure. We describe our hybrid approach, which offers consistently improved results and enhanced patient satisfaction. objective. To establish a sharper cervicomental angle by more completely removing subplatysmal fat. We also wished to achieve more consistent, smoother results, minimizing ripples, folds, and hematomas with a novel postoperative dressing system. methods. Extensive tumescent liposuction of the lower face, jowls, and anterior neck was performed. Following this, subplatysmal fat was removed by dissection, the platysma muscle was imbricated, and the CO2 laser utilized in a defocused, low-power mode to partially treat the dermal undersurface and underlying muscle. Our postoperative dressing included a 10 cm mineral oil polymer gel disc in the submental location, covered by tape, silicone foam, and a lower face and neck garment to provide both support and even compression over the entire neck for at least the first 24 hours. results. Results proved uniformly satisfying for most patients, even those in their senior years. Benefits included an improved cervicomental angle, a decrease in jowling, and a marked reduction in the laxity and wrinkling of the neck skin and horizontal neck creases. Problems related to postoperative rippling or folding of the redraped skin and hematoma formation were minimized. conclusion. Laser neck tightening combined with tumescent liposuction and an advanced postoperative dressing for superior support and uniform compression has resulted in consistently excellent outcomes with improved patient satisfaction. [source] A parallel multigrid solver for high-frequency electromagnetic field analyses with small-scale PC clusterELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATIONS IN JAPAN, Issue 9 2008Kuniaki Yosui Abstract Finite element analyses of electromagnetic fields are commonly used for designing various electronic devices. The scale of the analyses becomes larger and larger, therefore, a fast linear solver is needed to solve linear equations arising from the finite element method. Since a multigrid solver is the fastest linear solver for these problems, parallelization of a multigrid solver is quite a useful approach. From the viewpoint of industrial applications, an effective usage of a small-scale PC cluster is important due to initial cost for introducing parallel computers. In this paper, a distributed parallel multigrid solver for a small-scale PC cluster is developed. In high-frequency electromagnetic analyses, a special block Gauss, Seidel smoother is used for the multigrid solver instead of general smoothers such as a Gauss, Seidel or Jacobi smoother in order to improve the convergence rate. The block multicolor ordering technique is applied to parallelize the smoother. A numerical example shows that a 3.7-fold speed-up in computational time and a 3.0-fold increase in the scale of the analysis were attained when the number of CPUs was increased from one to five. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 91(9): 28, 36, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10160 [source] Shoeing sound Warmblood horses with a rolled toe optimises hoof-unrollment and lowers peak loading during breakoverEQUINE VETERINARY JOURNAL, Issue 3 2006M. C. V. van Heel Summary Reasons for performing study: Overload injuries in sport horses commonly occur; shoeing techniques are believed to be important in prevention of these injuries, but there is a paucity of scientific information identifying the potential connection. Objectives: To test a horseshoe with a modified rolled toe designed to ease the process of breakover and decrease loading of lesion-prone structures of the distal limb. Methods: Twenty clinically sound Warmblood horses trotted over a track containing a pressure/force measuring system and 6 infrared cameras. The horses were measured with 2 types of shoes, standard flat shoes and shoes with a rolled toe. The shoeing procedure was randomised and horses had 2 days between measurements to adapt to the shoes. Results: Limb placement and timing characteristics, e.g. breakover duration, did not change significantly. There was an improvement in the ease of movement to roll over the toe in the shoes with a rolled toe, due mainly to a smoother hoof-unrollment pattern. The peak indicative moment decreased substantially at the onset of breakover in the shoe with the rolled toe. Conclusions: With a rolled toe the process of hoof-unrollment is smoother, which improves the coordination of this process, and lowers peak loading of the distal limb during breakover. Potential relevance: This study stresses the importance of proper shoeing in sound horses, showing that shoe modifications can optimise the loading characteristics of the distal limb and therefore might be a means to prevent sport horses from overload injuries. [source] The Kalman filter for the pedologist's tool kitEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 6 2006R. Webster Summary The Kalman filter is a tool designed primarily to estimate the values of the ,state' of a dynamic system in time. There are two main equations. These are the state equation, which describes the behaviour of the state over time, and the measurement equation, which describes at what times and in what manner the state is observed. For the discrete Kalman filter, discussed in this paper, the state equation is a stochastic difference equation that incorporates a random component for noise in the system and that may include external forcing. The measurement equation is defined such that it can handle indirect measurements, gaps in the sequence of measurements and measurement errors. The Kalman filter operates recursively to predict forwards one step at a time the state of the system from the previously predicted state and the next measurement. Its predictions are optimal in the sense that they have minimum variance among all unbiased predictors, and in this respect the filter behaves like kriging. The equations can also be applied in reverse order to estimate the state variable at all time points from a complete series of measurements, including past, present and future measurements. This process is known as smoothing. This paper describes the ,predictor,corrector' algorithm for the Kalman filter and smoother with all the equations in full, and it illustrates the method with examples on the dynamics of groundwater level in the soil. The height of the water table at any one time depends partly on the height at previous times and partly on the precipitation excess. Measurements of the height of water table and their errors are incorporated into the measurement equation to improve prediction. Results show how diminishing the measurement error increases the accuracy of the predictions, and estimates achieved with the Kalman smoother are even more accurate. Le filtre de Kalman comme outil pour le pédologue Résumé Le filtre de Kalman est un outil conçu essentiellement pour estimer les valeurs de l'état d'un système dynamique dans le temps. Il comprend deux équations principales. Celles-ci sont l'équation d'état, qui décrit l'évolution de l'état pendant le temps, et l'équation de mesure qui decrit à quel instants et de quelle façon on observe l'état. Pour le filtre discret de Kalman, décrit dans cet article, l'équation d'état est une équation stochastique différentielle qui comprend une composante aléatoire pour le bruit dans le système et qui peut inclure une force extérieure. On définit l'équation de mesure de façon à ce qu'elle puisse traiter des mesures indirectes, des vides dans des séquences de mesures et des erreurs de mesure. Le filtre de Kalman fonctionne récursivement pour prédire en avance une démarche à temps l'état du système de la démarche prédite antérieure plus l'observation prochaine. Ses prédictions sont optimales dans le sens qu'elles minimisent la variance parmi toutes les prédictions non-biasées, et à cet égard le filtre se comporte comme le krigeage. On peut appliquer, aussi, les équations dans l'ordre inverse pour estimer la variable d'état à toutes pointes à toutes les instants d'une série complète d'observations, y compris les observations du passé, du présent et du futur. Ce processus est connu comme ,smoothing'. Cet article décrit l'algorithme ,predictor,corrector' du filtre de Kalman et le ,smoother' avec toutes les équations entières. Il illustre cette méthode avec des exemples de la dynamique du niveau de la nappe phréatique dans le sol. Le niveau de la nappe à un instant particulier dépend en partie du niveau aux instants précédents et en partie de l'excès de la précipitation. L'équation d'état fournit la relation générale entre les deux variables et les prédictions. On incorpore les mesures du niveau de la nappe et leurs erreurs pour améliorer les prédictions. Les résultats mettent en évidence que lorsqu'on diminue l'erreur de mesure la précision des prédictions augmente, et aussi que les estimations avec le ,smoother' de Kalman sont encore plus précises. [source] THE POPULATION GENETICS OF ADAPTATION ON CORRELATED FITNESS LANDSCAPES: THE BLOCK MODELEVOLUTION, Issue 6 2006H. Allen Orr Abstract Several recent theoretical studies of the genetics of adaptation have focused on the mutational landscape model, which considers evolution on rugged fitness landscapes (i.e., ones having many local optima). Adaptation in this model is characterized by several simple results. Here I ask whether these results also hold on correlated fitness landscapes, which are smoother than those considered in the mutational landscape model. In particular, I study the genetics of adaptation in the block model, a tunably rugged model of fitness landscapes. Considering the scenario in which adaptation begins from a high fitness wild-type DNA sequence, I use extreme value theory and computer simulations to study both single adaptive steps and entire adaptive walks. I show that all previous results characterizing single steps in adaptation in the mutational landscape model hold at least approximately on correlated landscapes in the block model; many entire-walk results, however, do not. [source] The stress dependent elastic properties of thermally induced microfractures in aeolian Rotliegend sandstoneGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 3 2007Colin MacBeth ABSTRACT The impact of thermally induced microfractures on the stress-sensitive elastic wave properties of aeolian Rotliegend sandstone samples is analysed. It is found that to identify the effects of the microfracture contribution accurately, a correction must first be made to account for water loss (representing a mass loss of 4,6%) from the pore throats and clays due to the heating process, despite care being taken to ensure that the thermally fractured samples re-adsorb room moisture. Both the original and thermally fractured rocks are stress-sensitive at the ultrasonic wave frequencies of the laboratory. However, a distinct shift in the estimated distribution of internal rock compliance indicates that the population of thermal microfractures differs in nature from that caused solely by core-plug extraction damage. In particular, the ratio of normal to tangential compliance is observed to be higher for the thermally generated microfractures than for the broken grain-grain contacts created by extraction unloading. This can be explained by the intragranular thermal-fracture surfaces being smoother when compared to the intergranular boundaries. Mechanical hysteresis is observed between the up- and downgoing test cycles for both the original and, to a greater extent, the thermally fractured rock. This indicates that there is compaction-induced movement of the fractures in the samples during application of stress in the laboratory. [source] HBM functional imaging analysis contest data analysis in wavelet spaceHUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 5 2006John A.D. Aston Abstract An analysis of the Functional Imaging Analysis Contest (FIAC) data is presented using spatial wavelet processing. This technique allows the image to be filtered adaptively according to the data itself, rather than relying on a predetermined filter. This adaptive filtering leads to better estimation of the parameters and contrasts in terms of mean squared error. It will be shown that by introducing a slight bias into the estimation, a large reduction in the variance can be achieved, leading to better overall mean squared error estimates. As no single filter needs to be preselected, results containing many scales of information can be found. In the FIAC data, it is shown that both small-scale and large-scale (smoother, more dispersed) effects occur. The combination of small- and large-scale effects detected in the FIAC data would be easy to miss using conventional single filter analysis. Hum Brain Mapp, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] A simple model of river meandering and its comparison to natural channelsHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 1 2002Stephen T. Lancaster Abstract We develop a new method for analysis of meandering channels based on planform sinuosity. This analysis objectively identifies three channel-reach lengths based on sinuosity measured at those lengths: the length of typical, simple bends; the length of long, often compound bends; and the length of several bends in sequence that often evolve from compound bends to form multibend loops. These lengths, when normalized by channel width, tend to fall into distinct and clustered ranges for different natural channels. Mean sinuosity at these lengths also falls into distinct ranges. That range is largest for the third and greatest length, indicating that, for some streams, multibend loops are important for planform sinuosity, whereas for other streams, multibend loops are less important. The role of multibend loops is seldom addressed in the literature, and they are not well predicted by previous modelling efforts. Also neglected by previous modelling efforts is bank,flow interaction and its role in meander evolution. We introduce a simple river meandering model based on topographic steering that has more in common with cellular approaches to channel braiding and landscape evolution modelling than to rigorous, physics-based analyses of river meandering. The model is sufficient to produce reasonable meandering channel evolution and predicts compound bend and multibend loop formation similar to that observed in nature, in both mechanism and importance for planform sinuosity. In the model, the tendency to form compound bends is sensitive to the relative magnitudes of two lengths governing meander evolution: (i) the distance between the bend cross-over and the zone of maximum bank shear stress, and (ii) the bank shear stress dissipation length related to bank roughness. In our simple model, the two lengths are independent. This sensitivity implies that the tendency for natural channels to form compound bends may be greater when the banks are smoother. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Cleaning effectiveness of root canal irrigation with electrochemically activated anolyte and catholyte solutions: a pilot studyINTERNATIONAL ENDODONTIC JOURNAL, Issue 6 2000A. M. Solovyeva Abstract Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of electrochemically activated (ECA) anolyte and catholyte solutions to clean root canals during conventional root canal preparation. Methodology Twenty extracted single-rooted human mature permanent teeth were allocated randomly into four groups of five teeth. The pulp chambers were accessed and the canals prepared by hand with conventional stainless steel endodontic instruments using a double-flared technique. One or other of the following irrigants was used during preparation: distilled water, 3% NaOCl, anolyte neutral cathodic (ANC) (300 mg L,1 of active chlorine), and a combination of anolyte neutral cathodic (ANC) (300 mg L,1 of active chlorine) and catholyte. The teeth were split longitudinally and the canal walls examined for debris and smear layer by scanning electron microscopy. SEM photomicrographs were taken separately in the coronal, middle and apical parts of canal at magnification of ×800 to evaluate the debridement of extra-cellular matrix and at a magnification of ×2500 to evaluate the presence of smear layer. Results Irrigation with distilled water did not remove debris in the apical part of canals and left a continuous and firm smear layer overlying compressed low-mineralized predentine. All chemically active irrigants demonstrated improved cleaning potential compared to distilled water. The quality of loose debris elimination was similar for NaOCl and the anolyte ANC solution. The combination of anolyte ANC and catholyte resulted in improved cleaning, particularly in the apical third of canals. The evaluation of smear layer demonstrated that none of the irrigants were effective in its total removal; however, chemically active irrigants affected its surface and thickness. Compared to NaOCl, the ECA solutions left a thinner smear layer with a smoother and more even surface. NaOCl enhanced the opening of tubules predominantly in the coronal and middle thirds of canals, whereas combination of ANC and catholyte resulted in more numerous open dentine tubules throughout the whole length of canals. Conclusions Irrigation with electrochemically activated solutions cleaned root canal walls and may be an alternative to NaOCl in conventional root canal treatment. Further investigation of ECA solutions for root canal irrigation is warranted. [source] Toward large scale F.E. computation of hot forging process using iterative solvers, parallel computation and multigrid algorithmsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 5-6 2001K. Mocellin Abstract The industrial simulation code Forge3® is devoted to three-dimensional metal forming applications. This finite element software is based on an implicit approach. It is able to carry out the large deformations of viscoplastic incompressible materials with unilateral contact conditions. The finite element discretization is based on a stable mixed velocity,pressure formulation and tetrahedral unstructured meshes. Central to the Newton iterations dealing with the non-linearities, a preconditioned conjugate residual method (PCR) is used. The parallel version of the code uses an SPMD programming model and several results on complex applications have been published. In order to reduce the CPU time computation, a new solver has been developed which is based on multigrid theory. A detailed presentation of the different elements of the method is given: the geometrical approach based on embedded meshes, the direct resolution of the velocity,pressure system, the use of PCR method as an original smoother and for solving the coarse problem, the full multigrid method and the required preconditioning by an incomplete Cholesky factorization for problems with complex contact conditions. By considering different forging cases, the theoretical properties of the multigrid method are numerically verified, optimizations of the solver are presented and finally, the results obtained on several industrial problems are given, showing the efficiency of the new solver that provides speed-up larger than 5. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The variational Kalman filter and an efficient implementation using limited memory BFGSINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN FLUIDS, Issue 3 2010H. Auvinen Abstract In the field of state space estimation and data assimilation, the Kalman filter (KF) and the extended Kalman filter (EKF) are among the most reliable methods used. However, KF and EKF require the storage of, and operations with, matrices of size n×n, where n is the size of the state space. Furthermore, both methods include inversion operations for m×m matrices, where m is the size of the observation space. Thus, KF methods become impractical as the dimension of the system increases. In this paper, we introduce a variational Kalman filter (VKF) method to provide a low storage, and computationally efficient, approximation of the KF and EKF methods. Furthermore, we introduce a variational Kalman smoother (VKS) method to approximate the fixed-lag Kalman smoother (FLKS) method. Instead of using the KF formulae, we solve the underlying maximum a posteriori optimization problem using the limited memory Broyden,Fletcher,Goldfarb,Shanno (LBFGS) method. Moreover, the LBFGS optimization method is used to obtain a low storage approximation of state estimate covariances and prediction error covariances. A detailed description of the VKF and VKS methods with LBFGS is given. The methodology is tested on linear and nonlinear test examples. The simulated results of the VKF method are presented and compared with KF and EKF, respectively. The convergence of BFGS/LBFGS methods is tested and demonstrated numerically. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Multiple semi-coarsened multigrid method with application to large eddy simulationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN FLUIDS, Issue 5 2006F. E. Ham Abstract The Multiple Semi-coarsened Grid (MSG) multigrid method of Mulder (J. Comput. Phys. 1989; 83:303,323) is developed as a solver for fully implicit discretizations of the time-dependent incompressible Navier,Stokes equations. The method is combined with the Symmetric Coupled Gauss,Seidel (SCGS) smoother of Vanka (Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 1986; 55:321,338) and its robustness demonstrated by performing a number of large-eddy simulations, including bypass transition on a flat plate and the turbulent thermally-driven cavity flow. The method is consistently able to reduce the non-linear residual by 5 orders of magnitude in 40,80 work units for problems with significant and varying coefficient anisotropy. Some discussion of the parallel implementation of the method is also included. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Online pattern recognition based on a generalized hidden Markov model for intraoperative vital sign monitoringINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADAPTIVE CONTROL AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, Issue 5 2010Ping Yang Abstract The trend patterns of vital signs provide significant insight into the interpretation of intraoperative physiological measurements. We have modeled the trend signal of a vital sign parameter as a generalized hidden Markov model (also known as a hidden semi-Markov model). This model treats a time series as a sequence of predefined patterns and describes the transition between these patterns as a first-order Markov process and the intra-segmental variations as different dynamic linear systems. Based on this model, a switching Kalman smoother combines a Bayesian inference process with a fixed-point Kalman smoother in order to estimate the unconditional true signal values and generates the probability of occurrence for each pattern online. The probabilities of pattern transitions are tested against a threshold to detect change points. A second-order generalized pseudo-Bayesian algorithm is used to summarize the state propagation over time and reduces the computational overhead. The memory complexity is reduced using linked tables. The algorithm was tested on 30 simulated signals and 10 non-invasive-mean-blood-pressure trend signals collected at a local hospital. In the simulated test, the algorithm achieved a high accuracy of signal estimation and pattern recognition. In the test on clinical data, the change directions of 45 trend segments, out of the 54 segments annotated by an expert, were correctly detected with the best performing threshold, and with the introduction of only 8 false-positive detections. The proposed method can detect the changes of trend patterns in a time series online, while generating quantitative evaluation of the significance of detection. This method is promising for physiological monitoring as the method not only generates early alerts, but also summarizes the temporal contextual information for a high-level decision support system. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Local environmental effects and spatial effects in macroecological studies using mapped abundance classes: the case of the rook Corvus frugilegus in ScotlandJOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2006A. GIMONA Summary 1The study of the spatial pattern of species abundance is complicated by statistical problems, such as spatial autocorrelation of the abundance data, which lead to the confusion of environmental effects and dispersal. 2Atlas-derived data for the rook in Scotland are used as a case study to propose an approach for assessing the likely contribution of dispersal and local environmental effects, based on a Bayesian Conditional Autoregressive (CAR) approach. 3The availability of moist grasslands is a key factor explaining the spatial pattern of abundance. This is influenced by a combination of climatic and soil-related factors. A direct link to soil properties is for the first time reported for the wide-scale distribution of a bird species. In addition, for this species, dispersal seems to contribute significantly to the spatial pattern and produces a smoother than expected decline in abundance at the north-western edge of its distribution range. Areas where dispersal is most likely to be important are highlighted. 4The approach described can help ecologists make more efficient use of atlas data for the investigation of the structure of species abundance, and can highlight potential sink areas at the landscape and regional scale. 5Bayesian spatial models can deal with data autocorrelation in atlas-type data, while clearly communicating uncertainty through the estimation of the full posterior probability distribution of all parameters. [source] Testing against smooth stochastic trendsJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 3 2001Jukka Nyblom A trend estimated from an unobserved components model tends to be smoother when it is modelled as an integrated random walk rather than a random walk with drift. This article derives a test of the null hypothesis that the trend is deterministic against the alternative that it is an integrated random walk. It is assumed that the other component in the model is normally distributed white noise. Critical values are tabulated, the asymptotic distribution is derived and the performance of the test is compared with the test against a trend specified as a random walk with drift. The test is extended to allow for serially correlated and evolving seasonal components. When there is a stationary process containing a single autoregressive unit root close to one, a bounds test can be applied. In the case of a first-order autoregressive disturbance, it is shown that a consistent test can still be obtained by carrying out estimation of the nuisance parameters under the null hypothesis. The overall conclusion is that the most effective test against an integrated random walk is a parametric one based on the random walk plus drift test statistic, constructed from innovations, with the nuisance parameters estimated in the unrestricted model. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Band-related leg injuries in an Australian passerine and their possible causesJOURNAL OF FIELD ORNITHOLOGY, Issue 2 2006Kate Splittgerber ABSTRACT We examined the extent and causes of band-related leg injuries in an Australian passerine, the Bell Miner (Manorina melanophrys). Eight percent of banded birds exhibited leg injuries, and most were birds with two plastic color bands on a tarsus. Leg injuries typically followed the accumulation of shed tarsal scales under the color bands. Color bands used on Bell Miners were tighter on the tarsus than the metal band and also tighter than the color bands used on Superb Fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus), a commonly banded species with no reported leg injuries. The tendency for scales to accumulate under two plastic color bands appeared to be influenced by the diameter of a band relative to the size of a bird's tarsus (with looser bands less likely to cause accumulation) and the material used to make the band (with smoother surfaces less likely to cause accumulation). Celluloid color bands had rougher internal surfaces than either Darvic or metal bands. In addition, both celluloid and Darvic color bands generated static electricity capable of attracting tarsal scales. Scales that accumulated under bands provided an environment where potentially harmful fungi became established, potentially contributing to the severity of leg injuries. Our results suggest that, when selecting an appropriate band size for a bird, the diameter of the tarsus at its midpoint should occupy only between 60% and 65% of the internal diameter of the band and, when possible, a single, bicolored, anodized aluminum alloy band should be used instead of multiple plastic color bands. SINOPSIS Examinamos la causa y la extensión de lesiones en las patas causadas por anillas en Manorina melanophrys, en Australia. Un 8% de las aves mostraron lesiones en las patas, la mayoría aves con dos anillas plásticas. Las lesiones causaron la acumulación de escamas tarsales mudadas, bajo la anilla. Se encontraron que las anillas plásticas ejercían mas presión o estaban más ajustadas que las anillas de metal y que estaban más apretadas que en Malurus cyaneus, una especie comúnmente anillada y en donde no encontramos lesiones. La tendencia de acumulación de escamas bajo las dos anillas plásticas, parece ser influenciada por el diámetro de la anilla, con respecto al grosor del tarso del ave y del material con que estuvo echo la anilla. Encontramos que las anillas de celuloide tienen una superficie interna más áspera que las anillas de metal. Además, ambos tipos de anillas, generan estática capaz de atraer las escama de la pata. Las partículas de escama que se acumulan bajo una anilla proveen de una buena base para que se crezcan hongos, que contribuyen a la gravedad de la lesión en la pata. Sugerimos que se deben seleccionar anillas apropiadas en tamaño en donde el diámetro del tarso en la parte media de la pata, ocupe entre el 60,65% del diámetro interno de la anilla. También, que cuando sea posible, se utilice una sola anilla de metal pintada con dos colores, en vez de dos anillas plásticas. [source] COATING CHARACTERISTICS OF FRIED CHICKEN BREASTS PREPARED WITH DIFFERENT PARTICLE SIZE BREADINGJOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION, Issue 1 2002MOHAMAD YUSOF MASKAT Characteristics of coatings formed from breading of different particle sizes were investigated in breaded, fried chicken breasts. Breading was divided into three categories namely, small (particle size , U.S. No. 60 mesh), medium (particle size between U.S. No. 20 and U.S. No. 60 mesh) and large (particle size > U.S. No. 20 mesh). Chicken breasts were battered, breaded and deep-fat fried for 240 s at 160C. Smaller breading particle size produced smoother and more uniform coatings. Compressive force at 80% strain was 14.3, 85.6 and 130.5 N for small medium and large particle size breading, respectively. With larger breading particle size, L* and a* color values increased, while b* values showed no significant change. Acoustical data taken during compression of coatings did not show any significant differences due to different breading particle sizes. [source] Quality and Antioxidative Activity of Black Soybean Tofu as Affected by Bean CultivarJOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE, Issue 2 2002M.C. Shih ABSTRACT: Two black soybeans, green-cotyledon (T3) and yellow-cotyledon (T5), were compared for possible tofu manufacturing. The tofu made by T5 black soybean has a higher yield, a higher protein content, and a harder, smoother, and lighter surface. The antioxidative activity in the T5 black soybean tofu was similar to the T3 black soybean tofu. The T5 black soybean should be a better cultivar for tofu processing than the T3 black soybean. [source] MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SHREDDED WHEATJOURNAL OF TEXTURE STUDIES, Issue 5 2008J.B. LAURINDO ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to evaluate a methodology for mechanical characterization of brittle foods with strong anisotropy. Spoon-sized pieces of three commercial brands of dry shredded wheat were chosen for the demonstration. They were compressed along their three principal axes, individually and grouped in the same orientation. The force-displacement curves in the three directions were all irregular and irreproducible but had discernible features characteristic of the specimen's orientation. When tested as constrained groups, these features could change, depending on the compression direction, reflecting on the contribution of the broken structure's remnants to the specimen's mechanical resistance. The assemblies' force-displacement curves were all smoother than those of the individual particles, a result of the "averaging effect." The overall force level could not be predicted from the number of pieces because of differences in the specimens' post-failure response to added deformation. The jaggedness of the normalized (dimensionless) force oscillations record was quantified in terms of an apparent Kolmogorov (fractal) dimension, determined with the box counting algorithm. Its value strongly depended on the smoothing model's goodness fit if the fit was too close, but not if it only captured the general shape of the force-displacement curve. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Despite the irregular and irreproducible mechanical signature of shredded wheat and the dependence on the specimens' orientation, it is still possible to characterize the products' mechanical properties in a way that distinguishes between their overall strength and brittleness. The described method could help to quantify textural differences between these and other brittle food products, and probably identify the conditions under which crunchiness would be maintained or lost. [source] Surface Finishing of Alumina Ceramics by Means of Abrasive Jet MachiningJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 5 2002Manabu Wakuda Abrasive jet machining (AJM) is proposed as a new approach to surface finishing of structural ceramics. The effect of AJM on the material removal behavior of a commercially available alumina ceramic, and its effect on mechanical properties, was characterized and compared with identical material subjected to conventional finishing processes. Conventional grinding of the ceramic resulted in a surface that was dominated by intergranular fracture, whereas, during AJM, impact by the abrasives led to material removal in a manner resembling ductile behavior, and the resulting surface appearance was much smoother. A significant improvement in flexural strength was attained, compared with the strength of both the ground and lapped samples, because of an induced compressive residual stress. [source] Failure time regression with continuous covariates measured with errorJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES B (STATISTICAL METHODOLOGY), Issue 4 2000Halbo Zhou We consider failure time regression analysis with an auxiliary variable in the presence of a validation sample. We extend the nonparametric inference procedure of Zhou and Pepe to handle a continuous auxiliary or proxy covariate. We estimate the induced relative risk function with a kernel smoother and allow the selection probability of the validation set to depend on the observed covariates. We present some asymptotic properties for the kernel estimator and provide some simulation results. The method proposed is illustrated with a data set from an on-going epidemiologic study. [source] Estimability of the linear effects in state space models with an unknown initial conditionJOURNAL OF TIME SERIES ANALYSIS, Issue 3 2010Rajesh Selukar In the case of state space models with an unknown initial condition, the diffuse Kalman smoother can be used to obtain smoothed state estimates. When the full initial state is not estimable because the available data are insufficient, some linear combinations of the states can still be estimable. This brief note provides a simple method to determine whether a linear combination of a state is estimable. [source] Maximum Likelihood Estimation of VARMA Models Using a State-Space EM AlgorithmJOURNAL OF TIME SERIES ANALYSIS, Issue 5 2007Konstantinos Metaxoglou Abstract., We introduce a state-space representation for vector autoregressive moving-average models that enables maximum likelihood estimation using the EM algorithm. We obtain closed-form expressions for both the E- and M-steps; the former requires the Kalman filter and a fixed-interval smoother, and the latter requires least squares-type regression. We show via simulations that our algorithm converges reliably to the maximum, whereas gradient-based methods often fail because of the highly nonlinear nature of the likelihood function. Moreover, our algorithm converges in a smaller number of function evaluations than commonly used direct-search routines. Overall, our approach achieves its largest performance gains when applied to models of high dimension. We illustrate our technique by estimating a high-dimensional vector moving-average model for an efficiency test of California's wholesale electricity market. [source] Single-phase flow in composite poroelastic mediaMATHEMATICAL METHODS IN THE APPLIED SCIENCES, Issue 2 2002R. E. Showalter The mathematical formulation and analysis of the Barenblatt,Biot model of elastic deformation and laminar flow in a heterogeneous porous medium is discussed. This describes consolidation processes in a fluid-saturated double-diffusion model of fractured rock. The model includes various degenerate cases, such as incompressible constituents or totally fissured components, and it is extended to include boundary conditions arising from partially exposed pores. The quasi-static initial,boundary problem is shown to have a unique weak solution, and this solution is strong when the data are smoother. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The role of doctoral programs in preparing faculty for multiple roles in the academyNEW DIRECTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION, Issue 124 2003Bruce W. Speck The transition from faculty to administration roles, as well as full-orbed faculty positions, would be smoother if doctoral programs were expanded to include a focus on collegiality and service. [source] A hybrid domain decomposition method based on aggregationNUMERICAL LINEAR ALGEBRA WITH APPLICATIONS, Issue 4 2004*Article first published online: 19 APR 200, Yu. Vassilevski Abstract A new two-level black-box preconditioner based on the hybrid domain decomposition technique is proposed and studied. The preconditioner is a combination of an additive Schwarz preconditioner and a special smoother. The smoother removes dependence of the condition number on the number of subdomains and variations of the diffusion coefficient and leaves minor sensitivity to the problem size. The algorithm is parallel and pure algebraic which makes it a convenient framework for the construction parallel black-box preconditioners on unstructured meshes. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Multigrid approaches to non-linear diffusion problems on unstructured meshesNUMERICAL LINEAR ALGEBRA WITH APPLICATIONS, Issue 8 2001Dimitri J. Mavriplis Abstract The efficiency of three multigrid methods for solving highly non-linear diffusion problems on two-dimensional unstructured meshes is examined. The three multigrid methods differ mainly in the manner in which the non-linearities of the governing equations are handled. These comprise a non-linear full approximation storage (FAS) multigrid method which is used to solve the non-linear equations directly, a linear multigrid method which is used to solve the linear system arising from a Newton linearization of the non-linear system, and a hybrid scheme which is based on a non-linear FAS multigrid scheme, but employs a linear solver on each level as a smoother. Results indicate that, in the asymptotic convergence region, all methods are equally effective at converging the non-linear residual in a given number of multigrid cycles, but that the linear solver is more efficient in cpu time due to the lower cost of linear versus non-linear grid sweeps. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||