bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fuzzy model‐based fault detection for Markov jump systems
Authors: He Shuping , Liu Fei
Published: September 2008

The robust fault detection filter (RFDF) design problems are studied for nonlinear stochastic time‐delay Markov jump systems. By means of the Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy models, the fuzzy RFDF system and the dynamics of filtering error generator are constructed. Moreover, taking into account the sensitivity to faults while guaranteeing robustness against unknown inputs, theH∞filtering scheme is proposed to minimize the influences of the unknown inputs and another new performance index is introduced to enhance the sensitivity to faults. A sufficient condition is first established on the stochastic stability using stochastic Lyapunov–Krasovskii function. Then in terms of linear matrix inequalities techniques, the sufficient conditions on the existence of fuzzy RFDF are presented and proved. Finally, the design problem is formulated as a two‐objective optimization algorithm. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed RFDF can detect the faults shortly after the occurrences. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Modelling spatio‐temporal flow characteristics in groyne fields
Authors: Tritthart Michael , Liedermann Marcel , Habersack Helmut
Published: September 2008

The spatio‐temporal distribution of residence times and water ages in groyne fields plays an important role for a number of biotic processes, particularly conditioning nutrient dynamics and phytoplankton growth. Experimental determination of these parameters involves time‐consuming field work and is often limited to the water surface depending on the methodology applied. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used as efficient tool for direct modelling of residence times, limiting additional field work to collect data necessary for model calibration and validation. The objective of this study is to derive, test and apply a numerical particle‐tracing method to model these flow characteristics based on the output of a three‐dimensional hydrodynamic model for turbulent river flow. This allows for an evaluation of residence times and water ages at an arbitrary elevation within the water column. Virtual particles are released in a control volume, and their paths and travel times to and from the main stream are traced using a random‐walk approach based on the spatial distribution of turbulent kinetic energy to account for turbulent fluctuations. The modelling approach was successfully validated for the water surface using field data measured in a groyne field of the Danube River in Austria. Particle‐tracing experiments were carried out for several discharges to study the evolution of residence times and water ages with varying runoff. It was found that discharges at which overtopping of the groynes begins lead to significantly higher residence times and water ages than runoff higher or lower than this characteristic value. These findings are expected to be transferable for groyne fields of similar geometry and crest height. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Towards automatic software model checking of thousands of Linux modules—a case study with Avinux
Authors: Post Hendrik , Sinz Carsten , Küchlin Wolfgang
Published: September 2008

Modular software model checking of large real‐world systems is known to require extensive manual effort in environment modelling and preparing source code for model checking. Avinux is a tool chain that facilitates the automatic analysis of Linux and especially of Linux device drivers. The tool chain is implemented as a plugin for the Eclipse IDE, using the source code bounded model checker CBMC as its backend. Avinux supports a verification process for Linux that is built upon specification annotations with SLICx (an extension of the SLIC language), automatic data environment creation, source code transformation and simplification, and the invocation of the verification backend. In this paper technical details of the verification process are presented: Using Avinux on thousands of drivers from various Linux versions led to the discovery of six new errors. In these experiments, Avinux also reduced the immense overhead of manual code preprocessing that other projects incurred. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Agmatine: Identification and inhibition of methamphetamine, kappa opioid, and cannabinoid withdrawal in planarians
Authors: Rawls Scott M. , Gerber Kristin , Ding Zhe , Roth Christopher , Raffa Robert B.
Published: September 2008

Agmatine blocks morphine physical dependence in mammals, but its effects on withdrawal signs caused by other abused drugs have been less studied. One of the reasons is that withdrawal to some of these drugs is difficult to quantify in mammals. An alternative to mammals is planarians, a type of flatworm. Planarians possess mammalian‐like neurotransmitters and display withdrawal from amphetamines, benzodiazepines, cannabinoids, cocaine, and opioids. The withdrawal is manifested as a reduction in locomotor behavior following discontinuation of drug exposure. In the present study, our goal was to identify agmatine in planarians and to determine if planarians exposed to agmatine display withdrawal to methamphetamine, a cannabinoid receptor agonist (WIN 55,212‐2), or a κ‐opioid receptor agonist (U‐50,488H). Neurochemical experiments revealed that the concentration of agmatine in planarians was 185 ± 33.7 pmol per mg of planarian weight (dry weight). In behavioral experiments, withdrawal (i.e., reduced locomotor activity) was observed when planarians exposed to each drug (10 μM) for 60 min were placed into water. The withdrawal was attenuated when methamphetamine‐ or U‐50,488H‐exposed planarians were tested in agmatine (100 μM). Withdrawal was inhibited similarly when planarians coexposed to agmatine (100 μM) plus methamphetamine (10 μM), WIN 55,212‐2 (10 μM), or U‐50,488H (10 μM) were tested in water. Arginine, the metabolic precursor to agmatine, was ineffective. Our results identify endogenous agmatine in planarians and demonstrate that agmatine exposure blocks withdrawal to three different drugs in planarians. This suggests that a change in agmatine signaling is a common mechanism in the withdrawal caused by these drugs, at least in planarians. Synapse 62:927–934, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Risk factors for surgical‐site infections in head and neck cancer surgery
Authors: Lotfi Carlos Jorge , Cavalcanti Rita de Càssia , e Silva Adriana Maria Costa , Latorre Maria do Rosàrio Dias de Oliveira , Ribeiro Karina de Càssia Braga , Carvalho André Lopes , Kowalski Luiz Paulo
Published: September 2008

Objective

The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for surgical‐site infections (SSIs) in patients with head and neck cancer submitted to major clean‐contaminated surgery.

Study Design

This is a prospective study conducted in a tertiary cancer center hospital.

Subjects and Methods

This study includes 258 patients submitted to a major clean‐contaminated head and neck oncologic surgery.

Results

The overall SSI rate was 38.8%. The univariate analysis showed the following significant risk factors: race, tobacco consumption, clinical stage, comorbidities, time duration of the surgical procedure, and flap reconstruction. The final model by logistic regression identified the following independent predictors for SSI: tobacco consumption (odds ratio [OR] = 2.96), presence of metastatic lymph nodes (OR = 2.05), flap reconstruction (OR = 2.20), and antimicrobial prophylaxis exceeding 48 hours (OR=1.89).

Conclusion

The high‐risk patients for SSI in head and neck oncologic surgery were those with cancer at advanced stages, those who were smokers, those presenting comorbidities, those who needed major reconstruction of the surgical wound, or those who were submitted to inadequate antibiotic prophylaxis.
A new approach to the assessment of marginal vitamin A deficiency in children in suburban Guwahati, India: hydrolysis of retinoyl glucuronide to retinoic acid
Authors: Sarma Pulin C. , Goswami Bhabesh C. , Gogoi Krishna , Bhattacharjee Harsha , Barua Arun B.
Published: September 2008

The objective of the present study was to determine marginal vitamin A deficiency (VAD) by testing the hydrolysis of retinoyl glucuronide (RAG) to retinoic acid (RA) in children. Previous studies in rats showed that hydrolysis occurred when rats were vitamin A deficient. Children (n 61) aged 3–18 years, were divided into two groups, I and II. Blood was collected from the children in Group I (n 19) who were not dosed with RAG. Children in Group II (n 42) were administered all-trans retinoyl glucuronide (RAG) orally, and blood was collected 4 h after the dose. All serum samples were analysed for retinoids and carotenoids. RA was detected in serum only when serum retinol was < 0·85 μmol/l. Thus, hydrolysis of RAG to RA occurred in children with VAD or marginal VAD. Serum retinol was < 0·35 μmol/l in twenty-one children, 0·35–0·7 μmol/l in twenty-three children, 0·7–0·9 μmol/l in eleven children and >1 μmol/l in six children. Mean serum retinol in sixty-one children was 0·522 (sd 0·315) μmol/l. Mean β-carotene (0·016 (sd 0·015) μmol/l) was far below normal compared to the level of lutein (0·176 (sd 0·10) μmol/l) in sixty-one children. A low β-carotene level might be due to a low intake of carotene but high demand for vitamin A. The RAG hydrolysis test may prove to be a useful approach for the determination of marginal VAD with no clinical or subclinical signs of VAD. High prevalence of VAD amongst certain communities in Assam cannot be ruled out.
Vitamin D status among immigrant mothers from Pakistan, Turkey and Somalia and their infants attending child health clinics in Norway
Authors: Madar Ahmed A. , Stene Lars C. , Meyer Haakon E.
Published: September 2008

High prevalences of vitamin D deficiency have been reported in non-Western immigrants moving to Western countries, including Norway, but there is limited information on vitamin D status in infants born to immigrant mothers. We aimed to describe the vitamin D status and potentially correlated factors among infants aged 6 weeks and their mothers with Pakistani, Turkish or Somali background attending child health clinics in Norway. Eighty-six healthy infants and their mothers with immigrant background were recruited at the routine 6-week check-up at nine centres between 2004 and 2006. Venous or capillary blood was collected at the clinics from the mother and infant, and serum separated for analysis of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (s-25(OH)D) and intact parathyroid hormone (s-iPTH). The mean maternal s-25(OH)D was 25·8 nmol/l, with 57 % below 25 nmol/l and 15 % below 12·5 nmol/l. Of the mothers, 26 % had s-iPTH>5·7 pmol/l. For infants, mean s-25(OH)D was 41·7 nmol/l, with 47 % below 25 nmol/l and 34 % below 12·5 nmol/l. s-25(OH)D was considerably lower in the thirty-one exclusively breast-fed infants (mean 11·1 nmol/l; P < 0·0001). Use of vitamin D supplements and education showed a positive association with maternal s-25(OH)D. There was no significant association between mother's and child's s-25(OH)D, and no significant ethnic or seasonal variation in s-25(OH)D for mothers or infants. In conclusion, there is widespread vitamin D deficiency in immigrant mothers and their infants living in Norway. Exclusively breast-fed infants who did not receive vitamin D supplements had particularly severe vitamin D deficiency.
Intergenerational programming of impaired nephrogenesis and hypertension in rats following maternal protein restriction during pregnancy
Authors: Harrison Matthew , Langley-Evans Simon C.
Published: September 2008

Associations between birth weight and CVD in adult life are supported by experiments showing that undernutrition in fetal life programmes blood pressure. In rats, the feeding of a maternal low-protein (MLP) diet during gestation programmes hypertension. The present study aimed to assess the potential for a nutritional insult to impact across several generations. Pregnant female Wistar (F0) rats were fed a control (CON;n10) or MLP (n10) diet throughout gestation. At delivery all animals were fed a standard laboratory chow diet. At 10 weeks of age, F1generation offspring were mated to produce a second generation (F2) without any further dietary change. The same procedure produced an F3generation. Blood pressure in all generations was determined at 4, 6 and 8 weeks of age and nephron number was determined at 10 weeks of age. F1generation MLP-exposed offspring exhibited raised (P < 0·001) systolic blood pressure (male 143 (sem4) mmHg; female 141 (sem4) mmHg) compared with CON animals (male 132 (sem3) mmHg; female 134 (sem4) mmHg). Raised blood pressure and reduced nephron number was also noted in the F2generation (P < 0·001) and this intergenerational transmission occurred via both the maternal and paternal lines, as all three possible offspring crosses (MLP × CON, CON × MLP and MLP × MLP) were hypertensive (132 (sem3) mmHg) compared with CON animals (CON × CON; 123 (sem2) mmHg). No effect was noted in the F3generation. It is concluded that fetal protein restriction may play a critical role in determining blood pressure and overall disease risk in a subsequent generation.
Agent-based modelling of foraging behaviour: the impact of spatial heterogeneity on disease risks from faeces in grazing systems
Authors: MARION G. , SMITH L. A. , SWAIN D. L. , DAVIDSON R. S. , HUTCHINGS M. R.
Published: September 2008

Many of the most pervasive disease challenges to livestock are transmitted via oral contact with faeces (or by faecal–aerosol) and the current paper focuses on how disease risk may depend on: spatial heterogeneity, animal searching behaviour, different grazing systems and faecal deposition patterns including those representative of livestock and a range of wildlife. A spatially explicit agent-based model was developed to describe the impact of empirically observed foraging and avoidance behaviours on the risk of disease presented by investigative and grazing contact with both livestock and wildlife faeces. To highlight the role of spatial heterogeneity on disease risks an analogous deterministic model, which ignores spatial heterogeneity and searching behaviour, was compared with the spatially explicit agent-based model. The models were applied to assess disease risks in temperate grazing systems. The results suggest that spatial heterogeneity is crucial in defining the disease risks to which individuals are exposed even at relatively small scales. Interestingly, however, although sensitive to other aspects of behaviour such as faecal avoidance, it was observed that disease risk is insensitive to search distance for typical domestic livestock restricted to small field plots. In contrast disease risk is highly sensitive to distributions of faecal contamination, in that contacts with highly clumped distributions of wildlife contamination are rare in comparison to those with more dispersed contamination. Finally it is argued that the model is a suitable framework to study the relative inter- and intra-specific disease risks posed to livestock under different realistic management regimes.
Fumigene: a model to study the impact of management rules and constraints on agricultural waste allocation at the farm level
Authors: CHARDON X. , RAISON C. , GALL A. LE , MORVAN T. , FAVERDIN P.
Published: September 2008

In France, many dairy farms plan the allocation of animal wastes to the fields of the farm at the beginning of every year. This decision is complex, because many factors must be taken into account at the field and farm scales, including increasingly constraining environmental regulations. To evaluate the environmental impact of waste allocation strategies, these strategies have to be translated into consistent decisions. The objective of the current study was to reproduce the decisions made by farmers, in a wide range of contexts. For this purpose, a linear programming model that could help in generating yearly waste allocations was developed. The model, called Fumigene, takes into account the farmer's preferences and environmental, agronomic and feasibility constraints. It was applied on two case farms and the simulated waste allocations were compared to those chosen by the farmers over periods of 3 and 4 years, respectively. The evaluation showed that the waste allocations generated by the model were consistent with the strategies of the farmers. Fumigene was then used in investigating the impact of taking into account the phosphorus (P) fertilization constraints instead of only the nitrogen constraints. In the case studied, balancing P fertilization over 5 years led to small changes in waste allocation. Balancing P fertilization every year caused bigger changes and led to export of a part of the wastes. In a general way, Fumigene can be coupled with environmental evaluation tools to compare the impacts of different waste allocation strategies.
Impaired conscious and preserved unconscious inhibitory processing in recent onset schizophrenia
Authors: Huddy V. C. , Aron A. R. , Harrison M. , Barnes T. R. E. , Robbins T. W. , Joyce E. M.
Published: September 2008

Background

Impairments in inhibitory function have been found in studies of cognition in schizophrenia. These have been linked to a failure to adequately maintain the task demands in working memory. As response inhibition is known to occur in both voluntary and involuntary processes, an important question is whether both aspects of response inhibition are specifically impaired in people with schizophrenia.

Method

The subjects were 33 patients presenting with a first episode of psychosis (27 with schizophrenia and six with schizo-affective disorder) and 24 healthy controls. We administered two motor response tasks: voluntary response inhibition was indexed by the stop-signal task and involuntary response inhibition by the masked priming task. We also administered neuropsychological measures of IQ and executive function to explore their associations with response inhibition.

Results

Patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls showed significantly increased duration of the voluntary response inhibition process, as indexed by the stop-signal reaction time (SSRT). By contrast, there were no group differences on the pattern of priming on the masked priming task, indicative of intact involuntary response inhibition. Neuropsychological measures revealed that voluntary response inhibition is not necessarily dependent on working memory.

Conclusions

These data provide evidence for a specific impairment of voluntary response inhibition in schizophrenia.
The perfective past tense in Greek child language
Authors: STAVRAKAKI STAVROULA , CLAHSEN HARALD
Published: September 2008

This study examines the perfective past tense of Greek in an elicited production and an acceptability judgment task testing 35 adult native speakers and 154 children in six age groups (age range: 3 ; 5 to 8 ; 5) on both existing and novel verb stimuli. We found a striking contrast between sigmatic and non-sigmatic perfective past tense forms. Sigmatic forms (which have a segmentable perfective affix (-s-) in Greek) were widely generalized to different kinds of novel verbs in both children and adults and were overgeneralized to existing non-sigmatic verbs in children's productions. By contrast, non-sigmatic forms were only extended to novel verbs that were similar to existing non-sigmatic verbs, and overapplications of non-sigmatic forms to existing sigmatic verbs were extremely rare. We argue that these findings are consistent with dual-mechanism accounts of morphology.
Type-safe higher-order channels with channel locality
Authors: PARK SUNGWOO , IM HYEONSEUNG
Published: September 2008

As a means of transmitting not only data but also code encapsulated within functions, higher-order channels provide an advanced form of task parallelism in parallel computations. In the presence of mutable references, however, they pose a safety problem because references may be transmitted to remote threads where they are no longer valid. This paper presents an ML-like parallel language withtype-safehigher-order channels. By type safety, we mean that no value written to a channel contains references, or equivalently, that no reference escapes via a channel from the thread where it is created. The type system uses a typing judgment that is capable of deciding whether the value to which a term evaluates contains references or not. The use of such a typing judgment also makes it easy to achieve another desirable feature of channels,channel locality, that associates every channel with a unique thread for serving all values addressed to it. Our type system permits mutable references in sequential computations and also ensures that mutable references never interfere with parallel computations. Thus, it provides both flexibility in sequential programming and ease of implementing parallel computations.
An Improved Cryogen for Plunge Freezing
Authors: Tivol William F. , Briegel Ariane , Jensen Grant J.
Published: September 2008

The use of an alkane mixture that remains liquid at 77 K to freeze specimens has advantages over the use of a pure alkane that is solid at 77 K. It was found that a mixture of methane and ethane did not give a cooling rate adequate to produce vitreous ice, but a mixture of propane and ethane did result in vitreous ice. Furthermore, the latter mixture produced less damage to specimens mounted on a very thin, fragile holey carbon substrate.
Detection of Single Atoms and Buried Defects in Three Dimensions by Aberration-Corrected Electron Microscope with 0.5-Å Information Limit
Authors: Kisielowski C. , Freitag B. , Bischoff M. , van Lin H. , Lazar S. , Knippels G. , Tiemeijer P. , van der Stam M. , von Harrach S. , Stekelenburg M. , Haider M. , Uhlemann S. , Müller H. , Hartel P. , Kabius B. , Miller D. , Petrov I. , Olson E.A. , Donchev T. , Kenik E.A. , Lupini A.R. , Bentley J. , Pennycook S.J. , Anderson I.M. , Minor A.M. , Schmid A.K. , Duden T. , Radmilovic V. , Ramasse Q.M. , Watanabe M. , Erni R. , Stach E.A. , Denes P. , Dahmen U.
Published: September 2008

The ability of electron microscopes to analyze all the atoms in individual nanostructures is limited by lens aberrations. However, recent advances in aberration-correcting electron optics have led to greatly enhanced instrument performance and new techniques of electron microscopy. The development of an ultrastable electron microscope with aberration-correcting optics and a monochromated high-brightness source has significantly improved instrument resolution and contrast. In the present work, we report information transfer beyond 50 pm and show images of single gold atoms with a signal-to-noise ratio as large as 10. The instrument's new capabilities were exploited to detect a buried Σ3 {112} grain boundary and observe the dynamic arrangements of single atoms and atom pairs with sub-angstrom resolution. These results mark an important step toward meeting the challenge of determining the three-dimensional atomic-scale structure of nanomaterials.
Sanctions against Individuals
Authors: Eckes Christina
Published: September 2008

Rulings in the cases of OMPI, Sison and Segi – Violation of the right to a fair hearing, the duty to give reasons, and the right to judicial protection – Jurisdiction to review lists of terrorist suspects – Extension of Article 35 TEU – Preliminary rulings on common positions – Improvements of the listing procedure – New legal bases for restrictive measures under the Treaty of Lisbon – Recommendations how to reform the autonomous EU listing procedure further
European ‘Social States’ and the USA
Authors: Katrougalos George S.
Published: September 2008

Constitutional protection of social rights – Differences between European and American legal cultures – National solidarity and market relationships – New Deal and the creation of the American Welfare State – Functions of the American State – The reflection of profound political, moral and societal choices – The concept of Sozialstaat – Positive obligations and negative freedoms – European Social Model – Social services and competition rules – The concept of solidarity and the deregulatory effect of EU law – EU citizenship – Locating of social rights in market integration
The European Arrest Warrant in the Italian Republic
Authors: Marin Luisa
Published: September 2008

Italian veto in the EU Council reversed by Berlusconi – Italian Parliament: lack of trust in other European Union member states – Italian implementing Act: in between the Framework Decision and the Italian legal order – Case-law of the Corte di Cassazione: interpretations in conformity with the Framework Decision and with the Italian constitutional order – Some reflections on consistent interpretation, the relationship between the legislature and the judiciary, and two very recent decisions of the Corte Costituzionale
Diversity of Constitutional Rights in Federal Systems
Authors: Fercot Céline
Published: September 2008

The contribution of subnational constitutions to the development of constitutional law – Subnational recognition of a diversity of fundamental rights as symbol of constitutional autonomy – Identical, less protective and more protective subnational rights – Diversity in sources, uniformity in application – Positive rights and the provision of public goods – federal courts and state courts: federal chemistry and constitutional laboratories
In Search of Sub-National Constitutionalism
Authors: Gardner James A.
Published: September 2008

Federalism as a consequence of local/cultural self-determination – Degree of autonomous human rights protection on a subnational level – Analysis in terms of two dimensions: subnational constitutionalism and contestatory federalism – Contrast between US and European models – Opposition between contestatory federalism and subsidiarity – Rise of international human rights protection diminishes importance of subnational human rights protection
European Citizens' Third-Country Family Members and Community Law
Authors: Bierbach Jeremy B.
Published: September 2008

Read carefully: A Community national leaves his or her home state (the ‘first country’) to work in a host member state (the ‘second country’). While in the second country, he or she exercises the right to family reunification with a spouse, partner or dependent who is not a national of any EU or EEA member state (a ‘third-country’ national). When the Community national returns to the first country together with the family member, what determines the family member's right of residence in the first country? Community law – in which case the Community national would continue to enjoy the right of family reunification as before? Or the national immigration law of the first country, which could potentially dictate more restrictive conditions for family reunification?
Italy
Authors: Pollicino Oreste
Published: September 2008

It is never too late. In two decisions handed down at the end of October 2007, the Italian Constitutional Court seems finally to have begun to take seriously one of the Italian Constitution's fundamental principles: the openness to international law which is embodied in Articles 10, 11 and – the provision chosen by the Constitutional Court in the judgments being examined – 117, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, which was added by the constitutional revision of 2001. In particular, the two decisions focus on the relationship between the Italian constitutional legal order and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
James Bond in Angst?
Authors: Töpper Jörn , Schwan Stephan
Published: September 2008

Current cognitive accounts of film understanding emphasize the role of processing narrative content in an elaborative manner, including the development of an appropriate situational model that relies on inferences about protagonists emotional states. The present study investigates such inferences while watching a narrative film and aims at clarifying the role of the musical leitmotif in supporting this process. Participants watched short segments from James Bond movies, which depicted situations that were likely to elicit a particular emotion in the main protagonist. The emotional reaction was not directly expressed by the protagonist but was shown on screen in a respective target sentence. In one condition (concordant), this statement matched the situation. In the other condition (nonconcordant), the statement indicated an antagonistic emotion. The reading times of the emotional target sentences were measured. After reading the target sentence, participants continued to watch the film clip by pressing a button. The results show that emotionally nonconcordant target-sentences led to longer reading times, whereas the musical leitmotif had no significant impact.
TV News – The Daily Horror?
Authors: Unz Dagmar , Schwab Frank , Winterhoff-Spurk Peter
Published: September 2008

In two studies we examined the influence of violent television news on viewers emotional experiences and facial expressions. In doing so, we considered formal and content aspects of news reports as well as viewers gratifications as independent variables. Analyses showed that violence in TV news elicits primarily negative emotions depending on the type of portrayed violence. Effects of presentation mode and of expected gratification on the viewers feelings are traceable. On the whole, fear is neither the only nor the most prominent emotion; rather, viewers seem to react to violence with other-critical moral emotions, including anger and contempt, reflecting a concern for the integrity of the social order and the disapproval of others. Emotions shown in reaction to the suffering of others, like sadness and fear, occur much more rarely. The results largely show a complex web of relations between media variables, viewers characteristics, and emotional processes.
Spreading the Word
Authors: Sanderson Jimmy
Published: September 2008

This research explores peoples disclosures of emphatic interaction – the behavioral effects resulting from parasocial relationships – with National Basketball Association (NBA) team owner, Mark Cuban, while he participated on American Broadcasting Corporations (ABC) popular television show, Dancing with the Stars. An inductive coding process was conducted using constant comparative methodology on 1700 postings in response to 10 of Cubans entries posted on his blog (www.blogmaverick.com) during his time on the show. Three emphatic interaction categories emerge from data analysis: (1) emotional intensity, (2) devotion, and (3) consultation. The findings of the study suggest a parasocial interaction role reversal wherein media users are counseling celebrities rather than seeking advice from them; findings also suggest that emphatic interaction aids a fans ability to maintain preferred representations of the celebrity. Both these findings are significantly influenced by the interactive features of computer-mediated communication (CMC), which provide the accessibility to directly communicate emphatic interaction to celebrities.
Identifying Structural Features of Audio
Authors: Potter Robert F. , Lang Annie , Bolls Paul D.
Published: September 2008

This study tested the ability of nine different auditory structural features to elicit orienting responses from radio listeners. It further tested the effect of the orienting response on listeners memory for information presented immediately following the orienting-eliciting structural feature. Results show that listeners do have significant decelerating cardiac patterns suggestive of orienting for eight of the nine features. Taken as a categorical whole, these features also increase recognition memory for the information presented after their onset compared to information presented immediately before.
Estimating the daytime Equatorial Ionization Anomaly strength from electric field proxies
Authors: Stolle C. , Manoj C. , Lühr H. , Maus S. , Alken P.
Published: September 2008

The Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) is a significant feature of the low‐latitude ionosphere. During daytime, the eastward electric field drives a vertical plasma fountain at the magnetic equator creating the EIA. Since the eastward electric field is also the driving force for the Equatorial Electrojet (EEJ), the latter is positively correlated with the EIA strength. We investigate the correlation between the zonal electric field and the EIA in the Peruvian sector and compare the results with correlations of the EEJ versus EIA strength. Analyzing 5 years of Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) electron density measurements, plasma drift readings from the Jicamarca Unattended Long‐term Investigations of the Ionosphere and Atmosphere (JULIA) radar, and magnetic field observations at Huancayo and Piura, we find the EEJ strength and the zonal electric field to be suitable proxies for the EIA intensity. Both analyses reveal high correlation coefficients of cc > 0.8. A typical response time of the EIA to variations in the zonal electric field is ∼1–2 h, and it is ∼2–4 h after EEJ strength variations. Quantitative expressions are provided, which directly relate the EIA parameters to both proxies. From these relations, we infer that an EIA develops also during weak Counter Electrojets (CEJs), but no EIA forms when the vertical plasma drift is zero. For positive EEJ magnetic signatures to form, a minimum eastward electric field of 0.2 mV/m is required on average. The above‐mentioned delay between EIA and EEJ variations of ∼3 h is further confirmed by the investigation of the EIA response to transitions from CEJ to EEJ, e.g., during late morning hours.
Earthquake slip between dissimilar poroelastic materials
Authors: Dunham Eric M. , Rice James R.
Published: September 2008

A mismatch of elastic properties across a fault induces normal stress changes during spatially nonuniform in‐plane slip. Recently, Rudnicki and Rice showed that similar effects follow from a mismatch of poroelastic properties (e.g., permeability) within fluid‐saturated fringes of damaged material along the fault walls; in this case, it is pore pressure on the slip plane and hence effective normal stress that is altered during slip. The sign of both changes can be either positive or negative, and they need not agree. Both signs reverse when rupture propagates in the opposite direction. When both elastic and poroelastic properties are discontinuous across the fault, steady sliding at a constant friction coefficient, f, is unstable for arbitrarily small f if the elastic mismatch permits the existence of a generalized Rayleigh wave. Spontaneous earthquake rupture simulations on regularized slip‐weakening faults confirm that the two effects have comparable magnitudes and that the sign of the effective normal stress change cannot always be predicted solely from the contrast in elastic properties across the fault. For opposing effects, the sign of effective normal stress change reverses from that predicted by the poroelastic mismatch to that predicted by the elastic mismatch as the rupture accelerates, provided that the wave speed contrast exceeds about 5–10% (the precise value depends on the poroelastic contrast and Skempton's coefficient). For faults separating more elastically similar materials, there exists a minimum poroelastic contrast above which the poroelastic effect always determines the sign of the effective normal stress change, no matter the rupture speed.
Ocean current and temperature time series at Brothers volcano
Authors: Lavelle J. W. , Massoth G. J. , Baker E. T. , de Ronde C. E. J.
Published: September 2008

Time series of currents and temperatures were acquired near surface and at depth on three moorings above Brothers volcano (34° 52.25′S, 179° 04′E), ∼25 km west of the Kermadec Ridge and ∼300 km northeast of the North Island, New Zealand, from September 2004 to May 2005. Ocean current time series were previously unavailable within 300 km of this site, and few such measurements exist anywhere near magmatically or hydrothermally active volcanoes such as Brothers. Energy in near surface currents (163–527 m depth) was primarily subtidal (64%). Subtidal motions to 527 m depth are shown to be reasonably well correlated with geostrophic currents derived from satellite sea level anomalies. Although the moorings were separated laterally by only 11 km, the upper current meters also recorded significant differences in M2 tidal currents, indicating the presence of significant internal tides at this site. Below volcano summit depth (1220 m), the kinetic energy of currents was primarily tidal (54%). Longer period currents at depth evidenced the influence of volcano topography. Temperature time series showed a 3‐month period of sharply decreased temperature that extended in depth from 163 m to at least 1260 m. Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sea surface temperature data show colder surface water immediately above and north of Brothers over the same time period. These data together with the velocity records suggest an anomalous, deep, cold water mass arrived and lingered over Brothers for 3 months in the austral late spring and early summer of 2004–2005.
Evaluation of the algorithms and parameterizations for ground thawing and freezing simulation in permafrost regions
Authors: Zhang Yinsuo , Carey Sean K. , Quinton William L.
Published: September 2008

Ground thawing and freezing depths (GTFDs) strongly influence the hydrology and energy balances of permafrost regions. Current methods to simulate GTFD differ in algorithm type, soil parameterization, representation of latent heat, and unfrozen water content. In this study, five algorithms (one semiempirical, two analytical, and two numerical), three soil thermal conductivity parameterizations, and three unfrozen water parameterizations were evaluated against detailed field measurements at four field sites in Canada's discontinuous permafrost region. Key findings include: (1) de Vries' parameterization is recommended to determine the thermal conductivity in permafrost soils; (2) the three unfrozen water parameterization methods exhibited little difference in terms of GTFD simulations, yet the segmented linear function is the simplest to be implemented; (3) the semiempirical algorithm reasonably simulates thawing at permafrost sites and freezing at seasonal frost sites with site‐specific calibration. However, large interannual and intersite variations in calibration coefficients limit its applicability for dynamic analysis; (4) when driven by surface forcing, analytical algorithms performed marginally better than the semiempirical algorithm. The inclusion of bottom forcing improved analytical algorithm performance, yet their results were still poor compared with those achieved by numerical algorithms; (5) when supplied with the optimal inputs, soil parameterizations, and model configurations, the numerical algorithm with latent heat treated as an apparent heat capacity achieved the best GTFD simulations among all algorithms at all sites. Replacing the observed bottom temperature with a zero heat flux boundary condition did not significantly reduce simulation accuracy, while assuming a saturated profile caused large errors at several sites.
Estimation of regional emissions of nitrous oxide from 1997 to 2005 using multinetwork measurements, a chemical transport model, and an inverse method
Authors: Huang J. , Golombek A. , Prinn R. , Weiss R. , Fraser P. , Simmonds P. , Dlugokencky E. J. , Hall B. , Elkins J. , Steele P. , Langenfelds R. , Krummel P. , Dutton G. , Porter L.
Published: September 2008

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important ozone‐depleting gas and greenhouse gas with multiple uncertain emission processes. Global nitrous oxide observations, the Model of Atmospheric Transport and Chemistry (MATCH) and an inverse method were used to optimally estimate N2O emissions from twelve source regions around the globe. MATCH was used with forecast center reanalysis winds at T62 resolution (192 longitude by 94 latitude surface grid, and 28 vertical levels) from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 2006. The average concentrations of N2O in the lowest four layers of the model were then compared with the monthly mean observations from four national/international networks measuring at 65 surface sites. A 12‐month‐running‐mean smoother was applied to both the model results and the observations, due to the fact that the model was not able to reproduce the very small observed seasonal cycles. The inverse method was then used to solve for the time‐averaged regional emissions of N2O for two time periods (1 January 1997 to 31 December 2001 and 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2005). The best estimate inversions assume that the model stratospheric destruction rates, which lead to a global N2O lifetime of 125 years, are correct. It also assumes normalized emission spatial distributions within each region from Bouwman et al. (1995). We conclude that global N2O emissions with 66% probability errors are 16.3−1.2+1.5 and 15.4−1.3+1.7 TgN (N2O) a−1, for 1997–2001 and 2001–2005 respectively. Emissions from the equator to 30°N increased significantly from the initial Bouwman et al. (1995) estimates while emissions from southern oceans (30°S–90°S) decreased significantly. The quoted uncertainties include both the measurement errors and modeling uncertainties estimated using a separate flexible 12‐box model. We also found that 23 ± 4% of the N2O global total emissions come from the ocean, which is slightly smaller than the Bouwman et al. (1995) estimate. For the estimation of emissions from the twelve model regions, we conclude that, relative to Bouwman et al. (1995), land emissions from South America, Africa, and China/Japan/South East Asia are larger, while land emissions from Australia/New Zealand are smaller. Our study also shows a shift of the oceanic sources from the extratropical to the tropical oceans relative to Bouwman et al. (1995). Between the periods 1997–2001 and 2002–2005, emissions increased in China/Japan/South East Asia, 0°–30°N oceans, and North West Asia and decreased in Australia/New Zealand, 30°S–90°S oceans, 30°N–90°N oceans, and Africa. The lower tropical ocean emissions in 1997–2001 relative to 2002–2005 could result from the effects of the 1997–1998 El Nino in the earlier period.
Analysis of clear‐sky Antarctic snow albedo using observations and radiative transfer modeling
Authors: Kuipers Munneke Peter , Reijmer Carleen H. , van den Broeke Michiel R. , König‐Langlo Gert , Stammes Piet , Knap Wouter H.
Published: September 2008

A radiative transfer model for studying spectral and broadband snow surface albedo has been applied to radiation data (1998–2001) from different climate regimes in Antarctica. The model makes use of the doubling‐adding method for radiative transfer, combined with the correlated k‐distribution technique to account for atmospheric gas absorption. Snow layers are described by scattering phase functions for irregular hexagonal plate‐shaped ice crystals. Multiple scattering is included, as well as the option to include soot in the snowpack, as well as clouds. Sensitivity experiments show that the model is capable of calculating spectral and broadband albedos as a function of solar zenith angle and effective snow grain radius re. The novel approach of applying the model to multiple‐year field data of clear‐sky albedo from five locations in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, reveals that seasonal clear‐sky albedo variations (0.77–0.88) are dominantly caused by strong spatial and temporal variations in re. Summer season averages of re range from 22 μm on the Antarctic plateau to 64 μm on the ice shelf. Maximum monthly values of re are 40–150% higher. Other factors influencing clear‐sky broadband albedo are the seasonal cycle in solar zenith angle (at most 0.02 difference in summer and spring/autumn albedo) and the spatial variation in optical thickness of the cloudless atmosphere (0.01 difference between ice shelves and plateau). The seasonal cycle in optical thickness of the atmosphere was found to be of minor importance (<0.005 between summer and spring/autumn).
A nonsteady‐state firn‐densification model for the percolation zone of a glacier
Authors: Reeh Niels
Published: September 2008

A simple steady status firm‐densification model is modified to account for short‐term time variations of accumulation rate and surface temperature. The temporal surface‐elevation‐ and mass changes at two sites in the percolation zone of an ice sheet in response to various climate histories are determined. It is shown that a straight‐forward translation of observed short‐term ice sheet surface‐elevation variations into mass changes may be completely misleading, particularly for the percolation zone of the ice sheet, where temperature driven variations of melting/refreezing rates have a strong impact on near surface density. In the lower percolation zone, the mass change associated with a temperature anomaly in respect to the mean climate may for example amount to as little as 10 percent of the observed, simultaneous surface elevation change. Moreover, significant surface elevation change may occur even in periods of constant surface climate, and consequently unchanged mass balance, as a delayed response to previous changes of the local surface climate. Forcing the model with cyclic temperature variations mimicking fluctuations of West Greenland instrumental temperature records during the past hundred years, shows that surface elevation may increase by as much as 1 m in 5 years in periods with no mass change at all. In the lower percolation zone, temperature induced density changes rather than fluctuations of accumulation rate are the dominant cause of short‐term surface elevation changes in contrast to the situation in the higher percolation zone, where short‐term surface‐elevation change is dominated by fluctuations of accumulation rate.
Cross Entropy multiobjective optimization for water distribution systems design
Authors: Perelman Lina , Ostfeld Avi , Salomons Elad
Published: September 2008

A methodology extending the Cross Entropy combinatorial optimization method originating from an adaptive algorithm for rare events simulation estimation, to multiobjective optimization of water distribution systems design is developed and demonstrated. The single objective optimal design problem of a water distribution system is commonly to find the water distribution system component characteristics that minimize the system capital and operational costs such that the system hydraulics is maintained and constraints on quantities and pressures at the consumer nodes are fulfilled. The multiobjective design goals considered herein are the minimization of the network capital and operational costs versus the minimization of the maximum pressure deficit of the network demand nodes. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using two sample applications from the research literature and is compared to the NSGA‐II multiobjective scheme. The method was found to be robust in that it produced very similar Pareto fronts in almost all runs. The suggested methodology provided improved results in all trails compared to the NSGA‐II algorithm.
Stereo observations of polar stratospheric clouds
Authors: Mueller Kevin J. , Di Girolamo Larry , Fromm Mike , Palm Steven P.
Published: September 2008

We present the first observations of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) within near‐infrared (NIR) satellite images by using the Multi‐angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) to stereoscopically identify clouds with altitudes above the tropopause. Rather than using the operational MISR stereo product, a tailored stereo height algorithm operating upon MISR's most oblique viewing cameras is employed to identify PSC. Cloud top heights retrieved by this algorithm for scenes observed during the 2003 Antarctic Spring exhibit bias relative to the satellite‐borne lidar, GLAS, of −0.60 ± 1.71 km for low (1–5 km altitude) tropospheric clouds, −0.35 ± 1.48 km for high (>5 km altitude) tropospheric clouds, and 0.77 ± 1.86 km for low (<18 km altitude) stratospheric clouds. During this period, MISR captured a Sep. 30th intensification of PSC spanning over 1 million sq. km and occurring as the apparent result of synoptic scale isentropic uplift associated with a potential vorticity anomaly tied to planetary waves, but likely also strengthened by a nearby tropospheric depression.