Sequential Components Research Articles

Sleep and memory consolidation: Motor performance and proactive interference effects in sequence learning

That post-training sleep supports the consolidation of sequential motor skills remains debated. Performance improvement and sensitivity to proactive interference are both putative measures of long-term memory consolidation. We tested sleep-dependent memory consolidation for visuo-motor sequence learning using a proactive interference paradigm. Thirty-three young adults were trained on sequence A on Day 1, then had Regular Sleep (RS) or were Sleep Deprived (SD) on the night after learning. After two recovery nights, they were tested on the same sequence A, then had to learn a novel, potentially competing sequence B. We hypothesized that proactive interference effects on sequence B due to the prior learning of sequence A would be higher in the RS condition, considering that proactive interference is an indirect marker of the robustness of sequence A, which should be better consolidated over post-training sleep. Results highlighted sleep-dependent improvement for sequence A, with faster RTs overnight for RS participants only. Moreover, the beneficial impact of sleep was specific to the consolidation of motor but not sequential skills. Proactive interference effects on learning a new material at Day 4 were similar between RS and SD participants. These results suggest that post-training sleep contributes to optimizing motor but not sequential components of performance in visuo-motor sequence learning.

Implementing antimicrobial stewardship in the Australian private hospital system: a qualitative study.

To explore organisational factors and barriers contributing to limited uptake of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in Australian private hospitals and to determine solutions for AMS implementation. A qualitative study using a series of focus group discussions was conducted in a large private hospital making use of a semistructured interview guide to facilitate discussion among clinical and non-clinical stakeholders. A thematic analysis using five sequential components that mapped and interpreted emergent themes surrounding AMS implementation was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team of researchers. Analysis revealed that autonomy of consultant specialists was perceived as being of greater significance in private hospitals compared with public hospitals. Use of an expert team providing antimicrobial prescribing advice and education without intruding on existing patient-specialist relationships was proposed by participants as an acceptable method of introducing AMS in private hospitals. There was more opportunity for nursing and pharmacist involvement, as well as empowering patients. Opportunities were identified for the hospital executive to market an AMS service as a feature that promoted excellence in patient care. Provision of advice from experts, championing by clinical leaders, marketing by hospital executives and involving nurses, pharmacists and patients should be considered during implementation of AMS in private hospitals.

Controlled Sequential Shape Changing Components by 3D Printing of Shape Memory Polymer Multimaterials

In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using 3D printing technique to create functional graded shape memory polymers (SMPs) with both spontaneous and sequential shape recovery abilities. The created SMP components, with properly assigned spatial variation of the thermodynamical property distribution, react rapidly to a thermal stimulus, and return to a specified configuration in a precisely controlled shape changing sequence. The use of the 3D printing technique enables a manufacturing routine with merits of easy implementation, large design freedom, and high printing resolution, which promises to advance immediate engineering applications for low-cost, rapid, and mass production.

IJIREEICE - Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation and Control

Transmission lines are used to transmit electric power for large distances in electrical power systems. The rapid growth of electrical power systems over the past few decades has resulted in a massive increase of the quantity of lines operative and their total length. These lines are exposed to faults as a result of lightning, short circuits, faulty equipments &human errors. This paper presents a novel approach for fault classification and faulted phase selection for Transmission lines that is dispensed with sequential reactive power components. The proposed technique has been taking a look at about two cases and every case has eighteen test cases from each end. This technique identifies single line to ground fault, double line to ground fault & double line faults for given test case systems and this is implemented using Mat Lab software package.

Educational and therapeutic behavioral approaches to providing dental care for patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition which most dentists will encounter in their practices. Contemporary educational and behavioral approaches may facilitate successful dental care. A literature review was conducted for relevant information on dental care for children with ASD. Educational principles used for children with ASD can be applied in the dental setting. Examples include: parent involvement in identifying strengths, sensitivities, and goal setting; using stories or video modeling in advance of the appointment; dividing dental treatment into sequential components; and modification of the environment to minimize sensory triggers. Patients with ASD are more capable of tolerating procedures that they are familiar with, and therefore should be exposed to new environments and stimuli in small incremental steps. By taking time to understand children with ASD as individuals and employing principles of learning, clinicians can provide high quality dental care for the majority of patients with ASD.

A unified framework for differential aggregations in Markovian process algebra

Fluid semantics for Markovian process algebra have recently emerged as a computationally attractive approximate way of reasoning about the behaviour of stochastic models of large-scale systems. This interpretation is particularly convenient when sequential components characterised by small local state spaces are present in many independent copies. While the traditional Markovian interpretation causes state-space explosion, fluid semantics is independent from the multiplicities of the sequential components present in the model, just associating a single ordinary differential equation (ODE) with each local state. In this paper we analyse the case of a process algebra model inducing a large ODE system. Previous work, known as exact fluid lumpability, requires two symmetries: ODE aggregation is possible for processes that i) are isomorphic and that ii) are present with the same multiplicities. We first relax the latter requirement by introducing the notion of ordinary fluid lumpability, which yields an ODE system where the sum of the aggregated variables is preserved exactly. Then, we consider approximate variants of both notions of lumpability which make nearby processes symmetric after a perturbation of their parameters. We prove that small perturbations yield nearby differential trajectories. We carry out our study in the context of a process algebra that unifies two synchronisation semantics that are well studied in the literature, useful for the modelling of computer systems and chemical networks, respectively. In both cases, we provide numerical evidence which shows that, in practice, many heterogeneous processes can be aggregated with negligible errors.

A Fault Detection and Classification Technique Based on Sequential Components

This paper presents a fault classification technique for transmission lines based on the fault sequence components, for fast and reliable operation of protective relays. First, symmetrical components of fault current and voltage signals are extracted. Next, the fault type is classified using the zero and negative sequences. To realize the faulted phases in ground faults, a criterion index based on the zero and negative sequences is defined. The imaginary part of the defined criterion index is used. This index is maximum in the faulted phase in single-phase-to-ground faults, and it is minimum in one of the faulted phases in phase-to-phase-to-ground faults. In addition, to identify ungrounded faults, a different criterion index using the positive and negative sequences is defined. The results show that the scheme provides a fast fault classification, without the need for a threshold to operate.

Biogeographic assessments: A framework for information synthesis in marine spatial planning

This paper presents the Biogeographic Assessment Framework (BAF), a decision support process for marine spatial planning (MSP), developed through two decades of close collaborations between scientists and marine managers. Spatial planning is a considerable challenge for marine stewardship agencies because of the need to synthesize information on complex socio-ecological patterns across geographically broad spatial scales. This challenge is compounded by relatively short time-frames for implementation and limited financial and technological resources. To address this pragmatically, BAF provides a rapid, flexible and multi-disciplinary approach to integrate geospatial information into formats and visualization tools readily useable for spatial planning. Central to BAF is four sequential components: (1) Planning; (2) Data Evaluation; (3) Ecosystem Characterization; and (4) Management Applications. The framework has been applied to support the development of several marine spatial plans in the United States and Territories. This paper describes the structure of the BAF framework and the associated analytical techniques. Two management applications are provided to demonstrate the utility of BAF in supporting decision making in MSP.

Designing Trusted Embedded Systems from Finite State Machines

Sequential components are crucial for a real-time embedded system as they control the system based on the system's current state and real life input. In this article, we explore the security and trust issues of sequential system design from the perspective of a finite state machine (FSM), which is the most popular model used to describe sequential systems. Specifically, we find that the traditional FSM synthesis procedure will introduce security risks and cannot guarantee trustworthiness in the implemented circuits. Indeed, we show that not only do there exist simple and effective ways to attack a sequential system, it is also possible to insert a hardware Trojan Horse into the design without introducing any significant design overhead. We then formally define the notion of trust in FSM and propose a novel approach to designing trusted circuits from the FSM specification. We demonstrate both our findings on the security threats and the effectiveness of our proposed method on Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC) sequential circuit benchmarks.

Stimulus-to-matching-stimulus interval influences N1, P2, and P3b in an equiprobable Go/NoGo task

Previous research has shown that as the stimulus-to-matching-stimulus interval (including the target-to-target interval, TTI, and nontarget-to-nontarget interval, NNI) increases, the amplitude of the P300 ERP component increases systematically. Here, we extended previous P300 research and explored TTI and NNI effects on the various ERP components elicited in an auditory equiprobable Go/NoGo task. We also examined whether a similar mechanism was underpinning interval effects in early ERP components (e.g., N1). Thirty participants completed a specially-designed variable-ISI equiprobable task whilst their EEG activity was recorded. Component amplitudes were extracted using temporal PCA with unrestricted Varimax rotation. As expected, N1, P2, and P3b amplitudes increased as TTI and NNI increased, however, Processing Negativity (PN) and Slow Wave (SW) did not show the same systematic change with interval increments. To determine the origin of interval effects in sequential processing, a multiple regression analysis was conducted on each ERP component including stimulus type, interval, and all preceding components as predictors. These analyses showed that matching-stimulus interval predicted N1, P3b, and weakly predicted P2, but not PN or SW; SW was determined by P3b only. These results suggest that N1, P3b, and to some extent, P2, are affected by a similar temporal mechanism. However, the dissimilar pattern of results obtained for sequential ERP components indicates that matching-stimulus intervals are not affecting all aspects of stimulus processing. This argues against a global mechanism, such as a pathway-specific refractory effect, and suggests that stimulus processing is occurring in parallel pathways, some of which are not affected by temporal manipulations of matching-stimulus interval.

Identifying Differences in Physician Communication Styles with a Log-Linear Transition Component Model

We consider the task of grouping doctors with respect to communication patterns exhibited in outpatient visits. We propose a novel approach toward this end in which we model speech act transitions in conversations via a log-linear model incorporating physician specific components. We train this model over transcripts of outpatient visits annotated with speech act codes and then cluster physicians in (a transformation of) this parameter space. We find significant correlations between the induced groupings and patient survey response data comprising ratings of physician communication. Furthermore, the novel sequential component model we leverage to induce this clustering allows us to explore differences across these groups. This work demonstrates how statistical AI might be used to better understand (and ultimately improve) physician communication.

Gender based participatory approach for sustainable small holder farming in developing countries

Dairying at the household level is largely the domain of women. They are contributing for more than 90% of household activities. In livestock management activities, males are contributing only about 10% in form of fodder arrangement, livestock management such as, vaccinations, artificial insemination and selling milk. Considering women’ participation in dairy production system, their different needs and widening gaps the need was felt to have a study on this aspect. The paper describes rationale and importance of the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approach. The methodology involves the following sequential components: site selection, site description and categorization, planning for PRA, diffusion of results. In this paper, the planning and implantation of integrated interventions have been made to assess women empowerment in dairy production system and improve dairy productivity. The Neeli ravi breed of buffalo was giving higher yield of milk (average 8 liters per day) over the indigenous breed (average 6-7 liters per day). Among the cow the cross bred was giving an average milk yield of 10 lt/day which was more than the 5-6 lt/day given by the indigenous breed. The occurrence of diseases was mainly June to September and the management practices were carried before their onset in May-June only. But, it should be carried out throughout the year for various diseases. The matrix ranking of technology adoptions for buffalo breeds were found to be 34 points against the 26 points for the indigenous breeds.

Modelling Behaviour on Classical Timing Tasks: Verbal Estimation, Production, and Reproduction

The three “classical” timing tasks, verbal estimation of duration, interval production, and temporal reproduction, have been used in Psychology since the 19th century (see Lejeune & Wearden, 2009, for some examples), and are commonly used in recent studies. The tasks may owe part of their attractiveness to the fact that they are easy to carry out, make sense to experimental participants, and quickly yield (fairly) orderly data. Yet, compared with experimental procedures, which have been more recently invented, such as temporal generalization or temporal bisection, we have few (or no) theoretical models of how people perform them, and many mysteries remain. This tutorial is designed to (a) discuss the use of the classical techniques in recent work, and (b) discuss attempts (mostly my own, and mostly from as yet unpublished work) to develop theoretical models of performance, generally based on similar principles to those used to develop models of temporal generalization and bisection (e.g., Wearden, 1991, 1992; Wearden & Ferrara, 1995). These modeling attempts appear to indicate a range of unappreciated problems involved in our understanding of the classical trio of tasks. Some of these are outlined below. Verbal estimationIn verbal estimation, verbal labels in conventional time units like seconds or milliseconds are assigned to stimuli or other events. Among the questions of interest are: (i) what are the implications of “quantization” of the values used (i.e., people may say “500 ms” or “750 ms” for short stimuli, but much more rarely “473 ms”, even when the stimulus is actually 473ms long), for measures of the mean and variability of estimates? (ii) is there are role for feedback or some sort of “calibration” in verbal estimation? Interval productionInterval production can involve accurate performance-related feedback, or be “uncalibrated” (i.e., without feedback). What does each of these tell us? When feedback is used, mean times produced can track target times accurately (Wearden & McShane, 1988), but how does feedback actually improve performance? One possibility is that there is trial-by-trial adjustment based on feedback, but there are alternatives such as a “motorway lane” model, where performance is only adjusted if the feedback indicates that performance has “strayed” from some limits close to the target time. What are the implications for the mean and variability of performance of different sorts of uses of feedback? Temporal reproductionTemporal reproduction provided early demonstrations of Vierordt's Law (i.e., short durations are judged as longer than they really are whereas longer durations are judged as shorter than their real value), although (a) this is not always found in reproduction and (b) it is sometimes found in the other classical tasks as well. One issue in the modeling of temporal reproduction is the possible separation of observed behaviour into two sequential components, one involving timing the target interval, and the other involving generating and executing the motor response itself, although this is not the only approach. What role does a person's response time actually play in reproduction? Can models be developed which sometimes allow Vierordt-like effects, but do not require them?There are no special requirements for the tutorial audience, although a basic knowledge of time perception research would be an advantage.

Communicative interaction between a non-speaking child with cerebral palsy and her mother using an iPadTM

There is a rapidly increasing range of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems available for children who cannot communicate orally. Finding the best system for any one user is a challenge for the professionals and carers involved. As yet the use of portable, tablet forms of communication aid has been little researched, despite the rapid growth in their popularity. This article seeks to establish how a tablet form of AAC is exploited in day-to-day domestic interactions between a parent and a child where the child has a severe physical disability and complex communication needs. The study utilises conversation analysis (CA) as the methodology and looks in detail at sequential components of the interaction and the salience of certain interactional moves to both adult and child participants. The mother chose when and where the iPad or other forms of AAC were utilised within the day. Extracts were selected from the available data to exemplify the types of typical exchange that occurred and some key features of the iPad enhanced interaction. The analysis describes how turns are designed incorporating the iPad and discusses what is added to the communication toolkit. Asymmetries in this mother–child interaction are observed and discussed. The child typically remains a respondent to initiations by the caregiver, who in this scenario necessarily remains in control of the iPad symbol display. However, the child uses eye-gaze strategies to indicate interests that lie both within and external to those on offer on the iPad. The article reflects on the child’s agency in initiating a possible novel topic in this way.

RADAR AUTOMATIC TARGET RECOGNITION BASED ON SEQUENTIAL VANISHING COMPONENT ANALYSIS

To reduce the complexity of classifler design in radar automatic target recognition (RATR), a novel RATR method for high range resolution proflle (HRRP) is proposed. Linearly separable features are extracted with sequential vanishing component analysis (SVCA) which is implemented by flnding the generators of each approximately vanishing polynomial set, and target classiflcation is implemented with linear classiflers. Experiments are carried out on simulated vehicle target data and MSTAR database, and the results demonstrate the e-ciency of the proposed method.

Closed Sets in Occurrence Nets with Conflicts

The semantics of concurrent processes can be defined in terms of partially ordered sets. Occurrence nets, which belong to the family of Petri nets, model concurrent processes as partially ordered sets of occurrences of local states and local events. On the basis of the associated concurrency relation, a closure operator can be defined, giving rise to a lattice of closed sets. Extending previous results along this line, the present paper studies occurrence nets with forward conflicts, modelling families of processes. It is shown that the lattice of closed sets is orthomodular, and the relations between closed sets and some particular substructures of an occurrence net are studied. In particular, the paper deals with runs, modelling concurrent histories, and trails, corresponding to possible histories of sequential components. A second closure operator is then defined by means of an iterative procedure. The corresponding closed sets, here called 'dynamically closed', are shown to form a complete lattice, which in general is not orthocomplemented. Finally, it is shown that, if an occurrence net satisfies a property called B-density, which essentially says that any antichain meets any trail, then the two notions of closed set coincide, and they form a complete, algebraic orthomodular lattice.

XML Specification for Complex Digital Logic Components

Considering that the digital system design is a complex task, in order to meet some requirements such as effec- tive performance, low costs and high reliability, and improve the development quality and efficiency, design activities need to be carried out under a precise description for completing the design cycle. This paper presents the XML specifica- tion method, and defines a subset of XML syntax for the complex digital logic component model. In this method, the logic mapping table is used to describe combinational logic components, state-oriented finite state machine to describe the be- havior models of sequential logic components, and structure-oriented connector to describe structure models of composite hardware components.

Regulatory Flexibility

People respond to stressful events in different ways, depending on the event and on the regulatory strategies they choose. Coping and emotion regulation theorists have proposed dynamic models in which these two factors, the person and the situation, interact over time to inform adaptation. In practice, however, researchers have tended to assume that particular regulatory strategies are consistently beneficial or maladaptive. We label this assumption the fallacy of uniform efficacy and contrast it with findings from a number of related literatures that have suggested the emergence of a broader but as yet poorly defined construct that we refer to as regulatory flexibility. In this review, we articulate this broader construct and define both its features and limitations. Specifically, we propose a heuristic individual differences framework and review research on three sequential components of flexibility for which propensities and abilities vary: sensitivity to context, availability of a diverse repertoire of regulatory strategies, and responsiveness to feedback. We consider the methodological limitations of research on each component, review questions that future research on flexibility might address, and consider how the components might relate to each other and to broader conceptualizations about stability and change across persons and situations.

Exact fluid lumpability in Markovian process algebra

Quantitative analysis by means of discrete-state stochastic processes is hindered by the well-known phenomenon of state-space explosion, whereby the size of the state space may have an exponential growth with the number of agents of the system under scrutiny. When the stochastic process underlies a Markovian process algebra model, this problem may be alleviated by suitable notions of behavioural equivalence that induce lumping at the underlying continuous-time Markov chain, establishing an exact relation between a potentially much smaller aggregated chain and the original one. For the analysis of massively parallel systems, however, lumping techniques may not be sufficient to yield a computationally tractable problem. Recently, much work has been directed towards forms of fluid techniques that provide a set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) approximating the expected path of the stochastic process. Unfortunately, even fluid models of realistic systems may be too large for feasible analysis. This paper studies a behavioural relation for process algebra with fluid semantics, called projected label equivalence, which is shown to yield an exactly fluid lumpable model, i.e., an aggregated ODE system which can be related to the original one without any loss of information. Project label equivalence relates sequential components of a process term. In general, for any two sequential components that are related in the fluid sense, nothing can be said about their relationship from the stochastic viewpoint. We define and study a notion of well-posedness which allows us to relate fluid lumpability to the stochastic notion of semi-isomorphism, which is a weaker version of the common notion of isomorphism between the doubly labelled transition systems at the basis of the Markovian interpretation.

A mixed‐method study exploring suffering and alleviation in participants attending a chronic pain management programme

To explore and describe the suffering of patients that arises from chronic pain, and the alleviation of this suffering within a chronic pain management programme. In this mixed-method study, we examined how quantitative findings can be integrated to answer a complex research question and expand qualitative findings. Suffering and grief often follow chronic pain and can involve a number of experiences. Therefore, understanding and explaining the chronic pain experience must incorporate subjective experiences and phenomenological dimensions. A qualitatively driven multiple mixed-method design. The qualitative core was supplemented with three quantitative sequential components and integrated after analyses in a result narrative. Thirty-four consecutive outpatients were recruited to an eight-week pain management programme that was founded on cognitive behavioural therapy. The qualitative core component consisted of asking the participants about their experiences of the programme after the completion and again after six months. Two quantitative questionnaires, measuring living with pain and grief and loss were administered at pretest, post-test and six-month follow-up. Satisfaction with the programme was measured after its completion. Both the qualitative reports and the quantitative data showed that the programme had been valuable and alleviated the participants' suffering. The written reports described the importance of group processes, increased self-understanding and other aspects that were meaningful to the participants. The quantitative data provided additional information about what and how the programme had been important to the participants. The findings clearly indicate that suffering can be alleviated by attending such programme as several key shifts in perspectives took place, and allowed them to move towards a better life. By attending such programme, patients may learn about cognitive and behavioural factors that contribute to chronic pain and suffering and how alleviation is possible through change of focus and active involvement.