Do dynamic work instructions provide an advantage over static instructions in a small scale assembly task?

Recent studies exploring the effects of instructional animations on learning compared to static graphics have yielded mixed results. Few studies have explored their effectiveness in portraying procedural-motor information. Opportunities exist within an applied (manufacturing) context for instructional animations to be used to facilitate build performance on an assembly line. The present study compares build time performance across successive builds when using animation, static diagrams or text instructions to convey an assembly sequence for a handheld device. Although an immediate facilitating effect of animation was found, yielding a significantly faster build time for Build 1, this advantage had disappeared by Build 3. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Small-scale Hα jets in the solar chromosphere

Aims. High temporal and spatial resolution observations from the Rapid Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere (ROSA) multiwavelength imager on the Dunn Solar Telescope are used to study the velocities of small-scale Hα jets in an emerging solar active region.
Methods. The dataset comprises simultaneous imaging in the Hα core, Ca ii K, and G band, together with photospheric line-of-sight magnetograms. Time-distance techniques are employed to determine projected plane-of-sky velocities.
Results. The Hα images are highly dynamic in nature, with estimated jet velocities as high as 45 km s-1. These jets are one-directional, with their origin seemingly linked to underlying Ca ii K brightenings and G-band magnetic bright points.
Conclusions. It is suggested that the siphon flow model of cool coronal loops is suitable for interpreting our observations. The jets are associated with small-scale explosive events, and may provide a mass outflow from the photosphere to the corona.

Quenching small quantum gases: Genesis of the orthogonality catastrophe

We study the dynamics of two strongly interacting bosons with an additional impurity atom trapped in a harmonic potential. Using exact numerical diagonalization we are able to fully explore the dynamical evolution when the interaction between the two distinct species is suddenly switched on (quenched). We examine the behavior of the densities, the entanglement, the Loschmidt echo, and the spectral function for a large range of interspecies interactions and find that even in such small systems evidence of Anderson's orthogonality catastrophe can be witnessed.

Quiet-Sun Hα Transients and Corresponding Small-scale Transition Region and Coronal Heating

Rapid blue- and redshifted excursions (RBEs and RREs) are likely to be the on-disk counterparts of Type II spicules. Recently, heating signatures from RBEs/RREs have been detected in IRIS slit-jaw images dominated by transition region (TR) lines around network patches. Additionally, signatures of Type II spicules have been observed in Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) diagnostics. The full-disk, ever-present nature of the AIA diagnostics should provide us with sufficient statistics to directly determine how important RBEs and RREs are to the heating of the TR and corona. We find, with high statistical significance, that at least 11% of the low coronal brightenings detected in a quiet-Sun region in He ii 304 Å can be attributed to either RBEs or RREs as observed in Hα, and a 6% match of Fe IX 171 Å detected events to RBEs or RREs with very similar statistics for both types of Hα features. We took a statistical approach that allows for noisy detections in the coronal channels and provides us with a lower, but statistical significant, bound. Further, we consider matches based on overlapping features in both time and space, and find strong visual indications of further correspondence between coronal events and co-evolving but non-overlapping, RBEs and RREs.

Failure of Local Realism Revealed by Extremely-Coarse-Grained Measurements

We show that failure of local realism can be revealed to observers for whom only extremely-coarse-grained measurements are available. In our instances, Bell's inequality is violated even up to the maximum limit while both the local measurements and the initial local states under scrutiny approach the classical limit. Furthermore, we can observe failure of local realism when an inequality enforced by nonlocal realistic theories is satisfied. This suggests that locality alone may be violated while realism cannot be excluded for specific observables and states. Small-scale experimental demonstration of our examples may be possible in the foreseeable future.

Positron annihilation in large polyatomic molecules. The role of vibrational Feshbach resonances and binding

We analyse the process of rapid positron annihilation in large polyatomic molecules due to positron capture into vibrational Feshbach resonances. Resonant annihilation occurs in molecules which can bind positrons, and we analyse positron binding to alkanes using zero-range potentials. Related questions of spectra of annihilation gamma quanta and molecular fragmentation following annihilation, are discussed briefly.

Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor of Major Salivary Glands: Report of 1 Case and a Review of the Literature

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor is a rare malignant neoplasm mostly occurring in the vicinity of or within the peritoneal cavity, and is uncommon in the head and neck region. Tumor location within a major salivary gland is exceptional. We report a case of a 41-year-old Chinese man with a history of diabetes mellitus and end-stage renal failure on peritoneal dialysis with a desmoplastic small round cell tumor occurring in the left submandibular gland. Fine-needle aspiration cytology showed variably cohesive clusters of small cells with hyperchromatic nuclei and fine granular chromatin. On histology the neoplasm displayed classic features of a desmoplastic small round cell tumor with angulated nests of small round blue cells in a fibromyxoid/desmoplastic stroma. Neoplastic cells were immunoreactive for cytokeratins (AE1/3), desmin (paranuclear dot-like), WT-1 (nuclear), epithelial membrane antigen, and CD56. EWS gene translocation and EWS-WT1 gene fusion were detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, respectively. The case presented is the sixth case of and the oldest reported patient with a desmoplastic small round cell tumor occurring in a major salivary gland to date. Desmoplastic small round cell tumor should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a salivary gland neoplasm with a basaloid or small cell pattern on fine-needle aspiration cytology.

Comparing large graphs efficiently by margins of feature vectors

Measuring the structural similarity of graphs is a challenging and outstanding problem. Most of the classical approaches of the so-called exact graph matching methods are based on graph or subgraph isomorphic relations of the underlying graphs. In contrast to these methods in this paper we introduce a novel approach to measure the structural similarity of directed and undirected graphs that is mainly based on margins of feature vectors representing graphs. We introduce novel graph similarity and dissimilarity measures, provide some properties and analyze their algorithmic complexity. We find that the computational complexity of our measures is polynomial in the graph size and, hence, significantly better than classical methods from, e.g. exact graph matching which are NP-complete. Numerically, we provide some examples of our measure and compare the results with the well-known graph edit distance. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Association Testing of Previously Reported Variants in a Large Case-Control Meta-analysis of Diabetic Nephropathy

We formed the GEnetics of Nephropathy–an International Effort (GENIE) consortium to examine previously reported genetic associations with diabetic nephropathy (DN) in type 1 diabetes. GENIE consists of 6,366 similarly ascertained participants of European ancestry with type 1 diabetes, with and without DN, from the All Ireland-Warren 3-Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes U.K. and Republic of Ireland (U.K.-R.O.I.) collection and the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study (FinnDiane), combined with reanalyzed data from the Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes U.S. Study (U.S. GoKinD). We found little evidence for the association of the EPO promoter polymorphism, rs161740, with the combined phenotype of proliferative retinopathy and end-stage renal disease in U.K.-R.O.I. (odds ratio [OR] 1.14, P = 0.19) or FinnDiane (OR 1.06, P = 0.60). However, a fixed-effects meta-analysis that included the previously reported cohorts retained a genome-wide significant association with that phenotype (OR 1.31, P = 2 × 10-9). An expanded investigation of the ELMO1 locus and genetic regions reported to be associated with DN in the U.S. GoKinD yielded only nominal statistical significance for these loci. Finally, top candidates identified in a recent meta-analysis failed to reach genome-wide significance. In conclusion, we were unable to replicate most of the previously reported genetic associations for DN, and significance for the EPO promoter association was attenuated.

Notes from Some Small Countries: A Study of the 'New Punitiveness' in Ireland, Scotland and New Zealand

In recent years there has been a remarkable surge of interest in the concept of punitiveness in theoretical criminology. Accounts serve to emphasise rupture over continuity, drawing attention to the increased focus on managerialism, risk and expressive penal policies in countries such as England and the US. Criticisms of these accounts have drawn attention to the weak empirical base for such assertions and the continued relevance of local cultural, historical and political conditions in mediating the effect of more punitive trends. In light of the relative neglect of smaller jurisdictions in this literature it was decided to locate these debates in three small common law jurisdictions, namely, Ireland, Scotland and New Zealand over the period 1976-2006 with a view to assessing the empirical evidence for penal change. This was done using a broader definition of punitiveness than normally employed incorporating indices relating to the ‘front end’ (eg police powers) as well as the ‘back end’ (eg prison and probation) of the criminal justice system. Data were collected on the three case studies using a multi-method approach involving examination of extensive quantitative data, interviews with key criminal justice stakeholders and documentary analysis. The data provide some support for the ‘new punitiveness’ thesis in these countries through a pattern of increased legislative activity aimed at controlling violent and sexual offenders and significant increases in the lengths of sentences imposed. However, analysis of qualitative data and a larger number of variables reveals distinctly different patterns of punitiveness over the thirty year period in the three countries. It is argued that the study holds important lessons for comparative criminology into the ‘new punitiveness’. There is a need for qualitative as well as quantitative data; for multiple rather than singular indices across a wide range of areas (juvenile justice, prison conditions, etc); and for ‘front end’ as well as ‘back end’ indices.

Inverse Gaussian Modeling of Turbulence-Induced Fading in Free-Space Optical Systems

We propose the inverse Gaussian distribution, as a less complex alternative to the classical log-normal model, to describe turbulence-induced fading in free-space optical (FSO) systems operating in weak turbulence conditions and/or in the presence of aperture averaging effects. By conducting goodness of fit tests, we define the range of values of the scintillation index for various multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) FSO configurations, where the two distributions approximate each other with a certain significance level. Furthermore, the bit error rate performance of two typical MIMO FSO systems is investigated over the new turbulence model; an intensity-modulation/direct detection MIMO FSO system with Q-ary pulse position modulation that employs repetition coding at the transmitter and equal gain combining at the receiver, and a heterodyne MIMO FSO system with differential phase-shift keying and maximal ratio combining at the receiver. Finally, numerical results are presented that validate the theoretical analysis and provide useful insights into the implications of the model parameters on the overall system performance. © 2011 IEEE.

Familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia as a differential diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism:studies in a large kindred and a review of surgical experience in the condition

We have studied 46 members of a large kindred with familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia (FHH) after a neck exploration failed to cure hypercalcaemia in an asymptomatic patient. Serum calcium, serum phosphate, plasma parathormone and vitamin D metabolites do not distinguish affected members from patients with hyperparathyroidism. Because of the continuing debate as to whether or not FHH is a variant of, or distinct from, hyperparathyroidism, we have carried out a review of surgical experience with subtotal parathyroidectomy in hyperparathyroidism secondary to parathyroid hyperplasia and in FHH. Whereas the procedure is successful in 90 per cent of the former cases only one case of FHH has been cured by it. This provides evidence for the two conditions being aetiologically distinct. Before patients with asymptomatic hypercalcaemia are referred for parathyroid surgery the calcium:creatinine clearance ratio should be measured using a 2 h urine sample collected after an overnight fast and a fasting blood sample. If this ratio is less than 0.01 then screening of first degree relations should be undertaken before any parathyroid surgery is performed. Unnecessary surgery can therefore be avoided.