The aim of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of a non-standardised Model Requirements Analysis (MRA) used for the purpose of developing the Sustainability ...Impact Assessment Tool (SIAT). By ‘non-standardised’ we mean not strictly following a published MRA method. The underlying question we are interested in addressing is how non-standardised methods, often employed in research driven projects, compare to defined methods with more standardised structure, with regards their ability to capture model requirements effectively, and with regards their overall usability. Through describing and critically assessing the specific features of the non-standardised MRA employed, the ambition of this paper is to provide insights useful for impact assessment tool (IAT) development. Specifically, the paper will (i) characterise kinds of user requirements relevant to the functionality and design of IATs; (ii) highlight the strengths and weaknesses of non-standardised MRA for user requirements capture, analysis and reflection in the context of IAT; (iii) critically reflect on the process and outcomes of having used a non-standardised MRA in comparison with other more standardised approaches. To accomplish these aims, we first review methods available for IAT development before describing the SIAT development process, including the MRA employed. Major strengths and weaknesses of the MRA method are then discussed in terms of user identification and characterisation, organisational characterisation and embedding, and ability to capture design options for ensuring usability and usefulness. A detailed assessment on the structural differences of MRA with two advanced approaches (Integrated DSS design and goal directed design) and their role in performance of the MRA tool is used to critique the approach employed. The results show that MRA is able to bring thematic integration, establish system performance and technical thresholds as well as detailing quality and transparency guidelines. Nevertheless the discussion points out to a number of deficiencies in application - (i) a need to more effectively characterise potential users, and; (ii) a need to better foster communication among the distinguished roles in the development process. If addressed these deficiencies, SIAT non-standardised MRA could have brought out better outcomes in terms of tool usability and usefulness, and improved embedding of the tool into conditions of targeted end-users.
•Strengths and weaknesses of non-standard Model Requirements Analysis (MRA) analysed.•The exercise revealed insights on user requirements of impact assessment tools.•Major ones are thematic integration, quality assurance, technical performance and transparency.•Offers comparison with goal directed design and Integrated Design and Development approach.•Differentiates the approaches based on user characterisation, communication, usability and organisational embedding.
In electron microscopy, the maximum a posteriori (MAP) probability rule has been introduced as a tool to determine the most probable atomic structure from high-resolution annular dark-field (ADF) ...scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) images exhibiting low contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Besides ADF imaging, STEM can also be applied in the annular bright-field (ABF) regime. The ABF STEM mode allows to directly visualize light-element atomic columns in the presence of heavy columns. Typically, light-element nanomaterials are sensitive to the electron beam, limiting the incoming electron dose in order to avoid beam damage and leading to images exhibiting low CNR. Therefore, it is of interest to apply the MAP probability rule not only to ADF STEM images, but to ABF STEM images as well. In this work, the methodology of the MAP rule, which combines statistical parameter estimation theory and model-order selection, is extended to be applied to simultaneously acquired ABF and ADF STEM images. For this, an extension of the commonly used parametric models in STEM is proposed. Hereby, the effect of specimen tilt has been taken into account, since small tilts from the crystal zone axis affect, especially, ABF STEM intensities. Using simulations as well as experimental data, it is shown that the proposed methodology can be successfully used to detect light elements in the presence of heavy elements.
•The maximum a posteriori probability rule for atom column detection is extended to ABF–ADF STEM.•It enables one to detect atoms from ABF–ADF STEM images.•For this purpose, a new parametric model is proposed for describing ABF–ADF STEM images.•The relation between atom detectability and image quality is evaluated.•Reliable atom column detection is achieved from experimental STEM datasets.
Alkali metal dodecahydro-closo-dodecaborates M2B12H12 (M = K, Rb, Cs, NH4, N(CH3)4) and the perhalogenated cesium salts Cs2B12X12 (X = Cl, Br, I) are studied by solid-state 11B nuclear magnetic ...resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as well as X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry. The present work addresses the molecular dynamics of the anionic B12X122− icosahedra which is examined by variable-temperature 11B NMR line shape studies between 120 and 370 K. Characteristic line shape effects are observed which strongly depend on the actual substituent X and the counterion M+. All alkali metal dodecahydro-closo-dodecaborates M2 B12H12 exhibit at elevated temperatures 11B NMR spectra with a single isotropic line which proves the presence of an efficient molecular process, resulting in dynamic (rotational) disorder along with vanishing dipolar and quadrupolar interactions. The positional order of the boron clusters, however, remains unaffected, as shown by the XRD data. At lower temperatures, the underlying motions are frozen on the NMR timescale resulting in characteristic 11B NMR spectra with a dominant homonuclear 11B–11B dipolar splitting. The per-halogenated cesium salts Cs2B12X12 behave differently. Hence, from the experimental 11B NMR spectra at room temperature a substantial mobility is only seen for the B12Cl122− anion. Obviously, the degree of anion mobility depends on the size of the substituent X in the B12X122− clusters (X = H, Cl, Br, I). A quantitative analysis of the experimental 11B NMR spectra of the alkali metal dodecahydro-closo-dodecaborates M2 B12H12 is achieved by line shape simulations, considering B12H122− ions undergoing reorientational jumps between icosahedral sites. From the motional correlation times the activation energies are derived. It is found that a correlation exists between the activation energies, the motional correlation times and the lattice constant. Hence, the activation energies and correlation times strongly increase with decreasing size of the cation M+, which reflects an increasing sterical hindrance due to a decreasing crystallo-graphic lattice constant in the same direction.
Standards-based data management facilitates data preservation, discoverability, and access for effective data reuse within research groups and across communities of researchers. Data sharing requires ...community consensus on standards for data management, such as storage and formats for digital data preservation, metadata (i.e., contextual data about the data) that should be recorded and stored, and data access. Video imaging is a valuable tool for measuring time-varying phenotypes in organismal biology, with particular application for research in functional morphology, comparative biomechanics, and animal behavior. The raw data are the videos, but videos alone are not sufficient for scientific analysis. Nearly endless videos of animals can be found on YouTube and elsewhere on the web, but these videos have little value for scientific analysis because essential metadata such as true frame rate, spatial calibration, genus and species, weight, age, etc. of organisms, are generally unknown. We have embarked on a project to build community consensus on video data management and metadata standards for organismal biology research. We collected input from colleagues at early stages, organized an open workshop, “Establishing Standards for Video Data Management,” at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in January 2017, and then collected two more rounds of input on revised versions of the standards. The result we present here is a rubric consisting of nine standards for video data management, with three levels within each standard: good, better, and best practices. The nine standards are: (1) data storage; (2) video file formats; (3) metadata linkage; (4) video data and metadata access; (5) contact information and acceptable use; (6) camera settings; (7) organism(s); (8) recording conditions; and (9) subject matter/topic. The first four standards address data preservation and interoperability for sharing, whereas standards 5–9 establish minimum metadata standards for organismal biology video, and suggest additional metadata that may be useful for some studies. This rubric was developed with substantial input from researchers and students, but still should be viewed as a living document that should be further refined and updated as technology and research practices change. The audience for these standards includes researchers, journals, and granting agencies, and also the developers and curators of databases that may contribute to video data sharing efforts. We offer this project as an example of building community consensus for data management, preservation, and sharing standards, which may be useful for future efforts by the organismal biology research community.
Abstract
The Lamiales are one of the largest orders of angiosperms, with about 22 000 species. The Scrophulariaceae, as one of their most important families, has recently been shown to be ...polyphyletic. As a consequence, this family was re-classified and several groups of former scrophulariaceous genera now belong to different families, such as the Calceolariaceae, Plantaginaceae, or Phrymaceae. In the present study, relationships of the genera CRATEROSTIGMA, LINDERNIA and its allies, hitherto classified within the Scrophulariaceae, were analyzed. Sequences of the chloroplast TRNK intron and the MATK gene (∼ 2.5 kb) were generated for representatives of all major lineages of the Lamiales and the former Scrophulariaceae. Bayesian and parsimony analyses revealed two isolated lineages, one of which consists of LINDERNIA and its allies, the other of GRATIOLA and allies. GRATIOLA was previously assumed to be related to LINDERNIA and was therefore included here. It is proposed to treat the two clades as separate families, Linderniaceae and Gratiolaceae. For the Linderniaceae, several morphological synapomorphies exist in addition to molecular data, such as conspicuous club-shaped stamen appendages.
► SIAT meta-modelling platform is able to reveal a complex land use response to a cut back in direct subsidies under CAP. ► A strong reduction in land demand for agriculture that makes it available ...for other sectors. ► Decrease in food production results in increasing price levels which in turn bring an increase in farming intensity. ► Reform evoke climate friendly, economically beneficial, socially desired and some environmentally undesired impacts in the case study regions.
Assessing the impact of macro-level policy driven land use changes on regional sustainability is an important task that can facilitate complex decision making processes of introducing reforms. The research work demonstrates the ability of Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool (SIAT), a meta-model, in conducting ex ante spatially explicit cross sectoral impact assessments of changes in common agricultural policy (CAP). The meta-model is able to appraise impacts of CAP amendments on land use and their repercussions on multiple indicators of sustainability. The presented study comprehensively analyses the possible impacts of discontinuing direct financial support to farmers under CAP. The simulations of the meta-model are able to reveal the land use changes both at EU and regional levels as well as to bring forth the subsequent changes in a number of indicators representing the regional sustainability (for five case study regions). In a nutshell, the simulations indicate that a reduction in direct support brings in general, a decrease in farmed area, an increase in forested land, less fluctuation in natural vegetation coverage, increase in abandoned arable land area and negligible changes in built-up area despite regionally diverging land use trends. The simulated changes in sustainability indicators for the study regions in consequence to these land use changes show that the discontinuation of subsidies evokes responses that are in general climate friendly (reduction in methane and N2O emissions, diminishing energy use and reduction in global warming potential), economically beneficial (increase in gross value of agriculture) and socially desired (decrease in unemployment rate) as well as environmentally harmful (increase in pesticide use). Even though the appraisals of diversity indicators such as forest deadwood and farmland birds are not conclusive for all regions, the changes are positive for the former indicator and slightly negative for the latter in general. The trade-offs among these regional sustainability indicators using their directional associations are also presented for a comprehensive assessment of the impacts.
In adults, intussusception has been considered traditionally to have an underlying aetiology. The aim of this study was to determine CT and clinical features of small-bowel intussusceptions that ...required surgical intervention.
Adult patients were identified in whom small-bowel intussusceptions were noted on CT images. The appearance, number, type (enteroenteric versus enterocolic), length and maximum short-axis diameter of intussusceptions, and presence of bowel obstruction (short-axis diameter of proximal small bowel greater than 3 cm) were analysed. The outcome was defined as surgical (complicated) or self-limiting (uncomplicated). Associations between complicated and uncomplicated intussusceptions and patient characteristics were investigated.
Among 75 patients (56 male) with a mean age of 45 years, 103 intussusceptions were identified, of which 98 (95 per cent) were enteroenteric and 5 (5 per cent) enterocolic. Only 12 of 103 intussusceptions (12 per cent) in 12 of 75 (16 per cent) patients required surgical therapy and were considered to be complicated, with half of these having a neoplastic lead point. Length (P < 0.001), diameter (P < 0.001) and type (P = 0.002) of intussusception as well as presence of vessels (P = 0.023) within an intussusception on a CT scan, clinical symptoms (P = 0.007) and signs of bowel obstruction (P < 0.001) were associated with a surgical outcome.
Clinical symptoms, signs of bowel obstruction, type and length of intussusception, and a visible tumour within an intussusception on CT scan were critical signs of complicated intussusception, requiring surgical intervention.
Free-living amoebae are increasingly being recognized to serve as vehicles of dispersal for various bacterial human pathogens and as hosts for a variety of obligate bacterial endocytobionts. Several ...Chlamydia-like Acanthamoeba endocytobionts constituting the recently proposed family Parachlamydiaceae are of special interest as potential human pathogens. In this study coccoid bacterial endocytobionts of a Hartmannella vermiformis isolate were analysed. Infection of H. vermiformis with these bacteria resulted in prevention of cyst formation and subsequent host-cell lysis. Transfection experiments demonstrated that the parasites were not capable of propagating within other closely related free-living amoebae but were able to infect the distantly related species Dictyostelium discoideum. Electron microscopy of the parasites revealed typical morphological characteristics of the Chlamydiales, including the existence of a Chlamydia-like life-cycle, but indicated that these endocytobionts, in contrast to Chlamydia species, do not reside within a vacuole. Comparative 16S rRNA sequence analysis showed that the endocytobiont of H. vermiformis, classified as Neochlamydia hartmannellae gen. nov., sp. nov., is affiliated to the family Parachlamydiaceae. Confocal laser scanning microscopy in combination with fluorescence in situ hybridization using rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes confirmed the intracellular localization of the parasites and demonstrated the absence of other bacterial species within the Hartmannella host. These findings extend our knowledge of the phylogenetic diversity of the Parachlamydiaceae and demonstrate for the first time that these endocytobionts can naturally develop within amoebae of the genus Hartmannella.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been used to describe the maturation of the corticospinal tract in children. Ipsilateral corticospinal connections have been demonstrated with TMS in ...patients with congenital mirror movements, in patients after hemispherectomy, and in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. The goal of the study was to find out whether corticospinal ipsilateral projections in children can be demonstrated during the first decade of life as part of normal ontogeny. For this purpose, we examined 50 normal children (age range, 3–11 years) with focal TMS over the left and right hemispheres to target muscles in proximal and distal parts of the upper extremity (first dorsal interosseus, biceps brachii, and brachioradialis). To lower the stimulation threshold, we stimulated under voluntary preinnervation. In two‐thirds of the children we elicited ipsilateral motor evoked potentials (MEPs). This occurred more often in proximal than in distal muscles. The latency of the ipsilateral MEPs was about 12 to 14 msec longer than the usual contralateral response. From the age of 10, and in adults, ipsilateral MEPs could not be detected. Also considering lesion data from adult patients, the most likely explanation for the disappearance of ipsilateral corticospinal connections after the age of 10 years is an increasing transcallosal inhibitory influence during development. The presence of ipsilateral corticospinal connections appears to be a normal state in ontogeny.
Linear and nonlinear methods for brain-computer interfaces Muller, K.-R.; Anderson, C.W.; Birch, G.E.
IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering,
06/2003, Letnik:
11, Številka:
2
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
At the recent Second International Meeting on Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) held in June 2002 in Rensselaerville, NY, a formal debate was held on the pros and cons of linear and nonlinear methods ...in BCI research. Specific examples applying EEG data sets to linear and nonlinear methods are given and an overview of the various pros and cons of each approach is summarized. Overall, it was agreed that simplicity is generally best and, therefore, the use of linear methods is recommended wherever possible. It was also agreed that nonlinear methods in some applications can provide better results, particularly with complex and/or other very large data sets.
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