Deterministic Consequences Research Articles

Challenges for Radio-technologists at Radiology Departments in Libya

The radiology departments have enormous obstacles providing particular services to reach an acceptable level of patient satisfaction. There is several consideration regarding radiationinduced deterministic consequences on patients and medical professionals during radiology procedures. Among the various challenges posed are; the lack of quality assurance procedures, the use of incorrect techniques, and the improper or non-usage of radiation protective tools and increase workload are the main causes of deterministic injuries. The study aimed to assess and identify the critical problems and difficulties faced by radio technologists in specific Libyan hospitals. The study's target population was Libyan radiology technologists.

Difficulties of Explorationests in decision making under complex constraints of Technical/Economical and Geopolitical environment of risk and uncertainties

The ultimate objective of Explorationests and managerial head posts is to make the right decision of exploration and development plans under Technical (Engineering) , Economic and Geopolitical major environments.This decision must respond positively to the target of exaggerating the national reserve necessities and to replace that depleted or about depleted reservoirs or fields with the best efficiency. Thus, The task of a decision maker is in the beginning to evaluate the situation of the problem he has, where certainly falls in one or more of four cases: 1) Certain deterministic consequences 2)Risky of probabilistic consequences 3)Uncertainty of unknown consequence and 4)Conflict of consequences influenced by opponents. Explorationests or manager deeply has to deal with enormous numbers of unknown variables or parameters as more complex situations by more components of risk and uncertainties, particularly the 2nd and the 3rd categories. In both cases Explorationests must develop a criterion like reserve, profits as related to his objective, then applying either a simulation method or analytical approach to reduce the level of probabilities. The probability can be defined by what is called the Expected Value concept, which for Net Present value becomes (ENPV) , which in turn could be either: An event , where a product to be obtained by multiplying the occurrence(frequency)as an outcome by the condition worth value , or : As Decision Alternative , where the probability outcome that could occur, if the decision alternative is occurred . This definition hence, is the most important tool in decision making, while the most popular simulation technique to reduce probability level is what defined as Monte Carlos simulation. It tried to apply it in this work for the western flank of the Mesopotamia, where many exploratory targets of unknown variables assumed to deal with the concept of expected value EV as: a) joint, mutual exclusives probabilistic formula P(total)=P(Tech)*P(Eco)*P(Geopol), and, or: As similar case, but as a decision making alternatives, P(total)=Sum{P(Tech)+P(Eco)+P(Geopol)}.Results of this preliminary study are promising targets, but risky to some extent, thus it seems better to explore this major target, but not to develop it, at least now.

Design basis accident analysis for the Ignitor experiment

A safety analysis study has been applied to the Ignitor machine. The main initiating events have been identified, and accident sequences have been studied. A deterministic assessment of the main accidental sequences has been performed. The consequences of the radioactive environmental releases have been assessed by means of a population dose code. This paper analyzes the deterministic consequences of two accidental sequences, serving as the “design basis accidents” because of the extent of radioactive release involved, either outside or inside the building. The two sequences with higher releases have been considered. The deterministic analysis has achieved the following results: the Ignitor machine, both during routine operation and accidental sequences, presents a negligible environmental impact and radiological risk.

Pleiotropy as the Mechanism for Evolving Novelty: Same Signal, Different Result.

In contrast to the probabilistic way of thinking about pleiotropy as the random expression of a single gene that generates two or more distinct phenotypic traits, it is actually a deterministic consequence of the evolution of complex physiology from the unicellular state. Pleiotropic novelties emerge through recombinations and permutations of cell-cell signaling exercised during reproduction based on both past and present physical and physiologic conditions, in service to the future needs of the organism for its continued survival. Functional homologies ranging from the lung to the kidney, skin, brain, thyroid and pituitary exemplify the evolutionary mechanistic strategy of pleiotropy. The power of this perspective is exemplified by the resolution of evolutionary gradualism and punctuated equilibrium in much the same way that Niels Bohr resolved the paradoxical duality of light as Complementarity.

Fuzzy logic approach to calculation of thermal hazard distances in process industries

In this paper, a general procedure to deal with uncertainties in each stage of consequence modeling is presented. In the first part of the procedure, the sources of uncertainty are identified and confirmed by sensitivity analysis for the source term, dispersion, physical effects and consequence analysis. While the second part comprises an application of the fuzzy logic system to each step of the consequence modeling. The proposed procedure is verified by the case study for a pool fire liquefied natural gas (LNG) on water. The results in terms of thermal radiation distances are compared with calculations obtained using the Monte Carlo method and with experimental data. The consequence model based on fuzzy logic approach provides less uncertain and more precise results in comparison to the deterministic consequence model.

Legitimation Work Within a Cross-Sector Social Partnership

This study illuminates how a cross-sector social partnership legitimizes itself toward multiple internal and external stakeholders. Within a single-case study design, we collected retrospective and real time data on the partnership between Deutsche Post DHL and The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Within this partnership, Deutsche Post DHL provides corporate volunteers that support disaster response after natural disasters on a pro bono basis. The main objects that needed legitimacy as well as the audiences from which legitimacy was mainly sought changed over time. In addition, we identified legitimation work as occurring across objects, audiences, and time. Thus, we introduce legitimation work as the purposeful effort of the legitimacy seeker to avoid certain issues while ensuring other issues that are of importance to the conferrer of legitimacy. These findings contribute to micro-level considerations within institutional theory which view legitimacy as socially constructed between legitimacy seeker and conferrer. Hence, we add another perspective on legitimation to the previously existing conceptualizations of legitimacy as a deterministic consequence of institutionalization.

Complex population dynamics in mussels arising from density-linked stochasticity.

Population fluctuations are generally attributed to the deterministic consequences of strong non-linear interactions among organisms, or the effects of random stochastic environmental variation superimposed upon the deterministic skeleton describing population change. Analysis of the population dynamics of the mussel Mytilus californianus taken in 16 plots over 18-years found no evidence that these processes explained observed strong fluctuations. Instead, population fluctuations arose because environmental stochasticity varied with abundance, which we term density-linked stochasticity. This phenomenon arises from biologically relevant mechanisms: recruitment variation and transmission of disturbance among neighboring individuals. Density-linked stochasticity is probably present frequently in populations, as it arises naturally from several general ecological processes, including stage structure variation with density, ontogenetic niche shifts, and local transmission of stochastic perturbations. More thoroughly characterizing and interpreting deviations from the mean behavior of a system will lead to better ecological prediction and improved insight into the important processes affecting populations and ecosystems.

Legitimation Work within a Cross-Sector Social Partnership

This study illuminates how a cross-sector social partnership legitimizes itself towards multiple internal and external stakeholders. Within a single-case study design, I use retrospective and real time data on the partnership between Deutsche Post DHL and The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Within this partnership, Deutsche Post DHL provides corporate volunteers that support disaster response after natural disasters on a pro bono basis. My analysis shows that the main objects that needed legitimacy as well as the audiences from which legitimacy was mainly sought changed over time. In addition, I have identified legitimation work as occurring across objects, audiences and time. Thus, I introduce legitimation work as the purposeful effort of the legitimacy seeker to avoid certain issues while ensuring other issues that are of importance to the conferrer of legitimacy. These findings contribute to micro-level considerations within institutional theory which view legitimacy as socially constructed between legitimacy seeker and conferrer. Hence, I add another perspective on legitimation to the previously existing conceptualizations of legitimacy as a deterministic consequence of institutionalization.

Accident scenarios of the TRIGA Mark II reactor in Vienna

The safety report of the TRIGA Mark II reactor in Vienna includes three accident scenarios and their deterministic dose consequences to the environment. The destruction of the cladding of the most activated fuel element, the destruction of all fuel elements and a plane crash were considered scenarios in that report. The calculations were made in 1978 with the software program named STRISK. In this paper, the program package PC Cosyma was applied on the TRIGA Mark II reactor in Vienna and the deterministic consequences of the scenarios to the environment were updated. The fission product inventories of all fuel elements were calculated with ORIGEN2. To get meteorological data of the atmospheric condition around the release area, a weather station was installed. The release parameters were taken from the safety report or were replaced by worst case parameters. This paper focuses on two accident scenarios: the destruction of the cladding of the fuel element with the highest activity content and the case of a large plane crash. The current accident scenarios show good agreement with the calculations from 1978, hence no technical modifications in the safety report of the TRIGA reactor Vienna were necessary. Even in the very worst case scenario – complete destruction of all fuel elements in a large plane crash – the expected doses in the Atominstitut's neighborhood remain moderate.

Temporal coding of continuously-varying inputs

In many neural circuits, precise patterns of spike timing contain information beyond that contained in mean firing rates. Here we illustrate a simple mechanism by which an ensemble of leaky-integrate-and-fire (LIF) neurons can represent continuously-varying input signals in a timing code. Neurons that are post-synaptic to this ensemble can reliably extract these signals (or functions thereof) in the absence of both spike time coincidence and firing rate variations. Irregular firing is often modelled phenomenologically, for example as a Poisson process with a rate that depends on synaptic input. In contrast, the irregular firing of our LIF neurons is a deterministic consequence of wide variations in applied current over the space of inputs (e.g. Figure ​Figure1A).1A). Applied current functions of this kind can arise from weighted output from a previous layer, and we discuss their establishment via Hebbian plasticity. By inclining these functions along a preferred direction, and scaling the peaks, we obtain a continuum between timing and rate codes. Figure 1 Temporal coding and decoding with LIF neurons. A, Net synaptic current (arbitrary units) experienced by an example LIF neuron, as a function of two inputs (X and Y). B, Irregular firing in 50 different neurons (each with different current functions) as ...

Sustainability when capital management has stochastic consequences

Sustainability is usually defined as a requirement of each generation to manage its stocks of man-made and natural capital such that the utility that it ensures itself can be shared by all future generations. Here we extend this definition to the case where capital management does not have deterministic consequences. A characterization is offered where the sustainability of one generation's behavior can be determined by comparing its utility with the utility of the succeeding generation, provided that the latter behaves in a sustainable manner. The properties of the definition are investigated and illustrated.

New Developments in Chromosomal Analysis for Biological Dosimetry

Biological dosimetry by dicentric analysis has proved useful on many occasions. An example is given where cytogenetics combined with physical methods have been used to estimate dose in a recent serious over-exposure. The value of dose information for the physician is emphasised since dose can be related to risk of deterministic and stochastic consequences to health. A major new development, FISH, for visualising stable translocations, is discussed with respect to its applicability as a retrospective dosemeter. An example is given where a credihle estimate of dose was obtained 11 years after a uniform whole-body accidental exposure. A cautionary note is raised, illustrated by an in vitro experiment, indicating that non-uniform or partial body irradiation may cause the translocation yield to decrease with time. Finally, comments are made on the effort required and the limits of low dose resolution that FISH offers, which must he considered if the technique is to be used for retrospectively evaluating populations exposed to widespread environmental contamination by radionuclides.

Threshold functions for asymmetric Ramsey properties involving cycles

We consider the binomial random graph Gp and determine a sharp threshold function for the edge-Ramsey propertyfor all l1,…,lr, where Cl denotes the cycle of length l. As deterministic consequences of our results, we prove the existence of sparse graphs having the above Ramsey property as well as the existence of infinitely many critical graphs with respect to the property above. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 11, 245–276, 1997

Threshold functions for asymmetric Ramsey properties involving cycles

We consider the binomial random graph Gp and determine a sharp threshold function for the edge-Ramsey propertyfor all l1,…,lr, where Cl denotes the cycle of length l. As deterministic consequences of our results, we prove the existence of sparse graphs having the above Ramsey property as well as the existence of infinitely many critical graphs with respect to the property above. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 11, 245–276, 1997

10 Development of a clinical prediction model for an ordinal diagnostic outcome

For choice with deterministic consequences, the standard rationality hypothesis is ordinality, i.e., maximization of a weak preference ordering. For choice under risk (resp. uncertainty), preferences are assumed to be represented by the objectively (resp. subjectively) expected value of a von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function. For choice under risk, this implies a key independence axiom; under uncertainty, it implies some version of Savage’s sure-thing principle. This chapter investigates the extent to which ordinality, independence, and the sure thing principle can be derived from more fundamental axioms concerning behavior in decision trees. Following Cubitt (1996), these principles include dynamic consistency, separability, and reduction of sequential choice, which can be derived in turn from one consequentialist hypothesis applied to continuation subtrees as well as entire decision trees. Examples of behavior violating these principles are also reviewed, as are possible explanations of why such violations are often observed in experiments.

Marx's Critique of Economic Reason

The ArgumentIn this paper I argue first that Marx's Critique of Political Economy employs “critique” in the Kantian meaning of the term—i.e., determining the domain of legitimate application of the categories involved and maintaining that outside these borders understanding is led into error and entangled in metaphysics.According to Marx, his predecessors in political economy transgressed these boundaries of application, and therefore conceived of all different modes of production as being essentially similar to commodity production, and thus implied that commodity production and the bourgeois form of life corresponding to it are “natural” not historical and transitory. In Marx's conception there are no super-historical economic categories or laws.I argue moreover that Marx's methodology of reconstructing the “development” of socioeconomic entities and categories from their “germ” or “cell” also serves his critical intention. Whereas social theorists of the time referred with organic metaphors to human collectives (“family,” “community,” etc.), Marx referred with such metaphors to economic entities only (“commodity,”“money,” etc.). The difference is crucial, since the first carries deterministic consequences for the development of society while the latter does not: Social form and historical development in Marx are contingent and not necessary, historical and not natural, transitory and not eternal.I also stress that Marx's procedure of critique is internal. He uses only such assumptions, observations, and arguments as could in principle also be used by the scholars criticized. Nevertheless the outcome of the critique is not merely a new theory but an entirely different one — i.e., a historical conception of the discipline of political economy and of its laws.

On deterministic developments of traffic stream models

Classical deterministic (or “mechanical”) developments of traffic stream models from car-following models are criticized on the following basis. The evaluation of the constant of integration for initial conditions corresponding to speed zero and headway equal to the reciprocal of jam density ignores large numbers of possibly relevant solutions of the underlying car-following model. Some undesirable consequences, particularly the restriction to temporally and spatially constant flow conditions, of viewing traffic stream models as being deterministic consequences of car-following models are also noted. It is suggested that an approach to traffic stream models via kinetic models possibly would be more appropriate and useful.

Organizing principles for single-joint movements. II. A speed-sensitive strategy.

1. Normal human subjects made discrete flexions of the elbow over a fixed distance in the horizontal plane from a stationary initial position to a visually defined target. We measured joint angle, acceleration, and electromyograms (EMGs) from two agonist and two antagonist muscles. 2. Changes in movement speed were elicited either by explicit instruction to the subject or by adjusting the target width. Instructions always required accurately stopping in the target zone. 3. Peak inertial torques and accelerations, movement times, and integrated EMGs were all highly correlated with speed. We show that inertial torque can be used as a linking variable that is almost sufficient to explain all correlations between the task, the EMG, and movement kinematics. 4. When subjects perform tasks that require control of movement speed, they adjust the rate at which torque is developed by the muscles. This rate is modulated by the way in which the muscles are activated. The rate at which joint torque develops is correlated with the rate at which the agonist EMG rises as well as with integrated EMG. 5. The antagonist EMG shows two components. The latency of the first is 30-50 ms and independent of movement dynamics. The latency of the second component is proportional to movement time. The rate of rise and area of both components scale with torque. 6. We propose organizing principles for the control of single-joint movements in which tasks are performed by one of two strategies. These are called speed-insensitive and speed-sensitive strategies. 7. A model is proposed in which movements made under a speed-sensitive strategy are executed by controlling the intensity of an excitation pulse delivered to the motoneuron pool. The effect is to regulate the rate at which joint torque, and consequently acceleration, increases. 8. Movements of variable distance, speed, accuracy, and load are shown to be controlled by one of two consistent sets of rules for muscle activation. These rules apply to the control of both the agonist and antagonist muscles. Rules of activation lead to distinguishable patterns of EMG and torque development. All observable changes in movement kinematics are explained as deterministic consequences of these effects.

Probabilistic Analysis of Liquid-Metal Fast Breeder Reactor Accident Consequences with Response Surface Techniques

Response surface techniques are presented for obtaining the probability distributions of selected consequences of a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor hypothetical core disruptive accident. The uncertainties of the consequences are considered as a variability of the system and model input parameters used in the accident analysis. Probability distributions are assigned to the input parameters, and parameter values are systematically chosen from these distributions. These input parameters are then used in deterministic consequence analyses that are performed by fast-running analogs of the comprehensive mechanistic accident analysis codes. The results of these deterministic consequence analyses are used to generate the coefficients for response surface functions that approximate the consequences in terms of the selected input parameters. These approximating functions are then used to generate the probability distributions of the consequences with random sampling being used to obtain values for the accident parameters from their distributions.Two different schemes are presented for selecting the knot-point values of the input parameters. The first generates a single second-order polynomial for the entire parameter space; the second generates separate polynomials for specified regions of the parameter space. A technique to handle nonindependent or correlated input parameters is presented. Finally, the calculation of conditional distributions of the consequences and the use of these distributions to define importance distributions of the input parameters are presented. The use of these procedures is illustrated by applications to a postulated loss-of-flow transient with failure to scram in a Clinch River Breeder-type reactor.

P. W. Bridgman, in revolt against formalism

In the mine of recent American philosophy runs a rich and unique vein of many ores. Professor M. G. White in this book Social Thought in America* has searched these and has found among them a congru ence which he has called "the revolt against formalism." He has shown that those who work this vein with most vigour were and are, by and large, a small band of great and robust amateurs in philosophy includ ing Thorstein Veblen, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Beard and James Harvey Robinson. Despite obvious divergences of interest and profession these men are held together by a common temper which perhaps can best be labelled "pragmatism/' That is, each in his partic ular discipline has been concerned with razing the mildewed block structures of the past, and putting in their stead a new architecture moulded to the stern requirements of practical life. Though Profes sor White has not chosen to do so, I think we may add to the above group of names that of Percy Williams Bridgman, and I shall be con cerned, explicitly and implicitly, in this essay with articulating this hypothesis. It has become rather a common place that the Newtonian world picture dominated the structure of science and philosophy from the 17th Century until Maxwell and Einstein. The mechanistic and deter ministic consequences of Newtonian mechanics have long been re cognized and much discussed, but there is another corrolary which is noticed more rarely, a corrolary which can perhaps be called "New tonian formalism". Specifically what I mean is this. Among the three classic laws of motion of Newton is the famous law of inertia which states that a body at rest shall remain at rest while a body in motion shall, if no force acts, remain in uniform motion, in a straight line, to the infinite. This apparently harmless and intuitive law had for an * Footnotes are to be found at the end of the essay.