Creating and detecting specious randomness

A quasi-one-dimensional, lime-dependent and non-precipitating cumulus cloud model is presented. The model has a source and three regions—a core region, an immediate environmental annular region and a far-environmental region. These regions constitute a convective cell with the bottom open to the source layer below. The source layer is replaced by a circular source located directly beneath the core region, below the cloud base and above the ground. The source emits source air of specified properties at a constant rate. If the properties are good enough and the rate of emission is high, namely, a high source strength, clouds are expected to form. Through a sensitivity test composed of more than 100 different source strengths, we have discovered that there exist two critical values for the strength of the source in producing shallow and deep cumulus clouds in a given atmosphere. If the source strength is below the lower critical value, no cloud can form. Above the upper critical value, a deep cumulus cloud is produced. In between, a shallow plume cloud is produced. These two critical values are both small and close to each other. In a given atmosphere, whether a deep or a shallow cloud develops is extremely sensitive to the variation of the source strength, when the source strength is near its critical value. An important implication of our result is that a cloud can only be shallow or deep. None can be of intermediate height, unless other factors are present, such as an inversion. Applying these results, we have offered some plausible explanations to the bimodal distribution of the final heights of the cloud tops, with respect to time as observed over mountain peaks, and with respect to space as observed over tropical oceans. Also, we have attempted to clarify the conditions for the formation of shallow and deep cumulus clouds.

Traffic model with quenched disorder

Thermal stress related to excessive insulation from bedding and clothing has been postulated to be associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The parents of 393 (81%) of the infants who died of SIDS in the post neonatal period were interviewed at home. Interviews were also completed with the parents of 1592 (88.4% of total) controls, a representative sample of all hospital births. The study was conducted in regions of the North and South Island of New Zealand in which 78% of all New Zealand births occurred in 1987-1990. Temperatures for the infant's bedroom estimated from the outside temperature and a model were used to predict the appropriate insulation for lower critical temperature (temperature below which the metabolic rate is likely to increase). Sudden infant death syndrome was associated with extra thermal insulation of > 2 tog above the lower critical value, the odds ratio (OR) was 1.70 (95% confidence interval [Cl] : 1.3-2.20) after adjusting for season. After adjusting for a number of confounding factors the CR was reduced to 1.35 (95% Cl: 0.97-1.87). Also associated with SIDS was too little thermal insulation OR = 1.67(95% Cl: 1.13-2.48; and 2.63 (95% Cl: 1.61-4.30) when adjustments were made for the confounding factors. The interaction effect between infants sleeping prone and >2 tog extra thermal insulation was significant (OR = 6.07, 95% Cl: 3.83-9.60). Infants with too little thermal insulation were at increased risk if they were not tightly wrapped (OR = 3.81, 95% Cl: 2.04-7.09). There were also small additive interaction effects if the mother smoked and the infants had > 2 tog extra thermal insulation, or they were ill and had > 4 tog extra insulation. Interaction effects between thermal insulation and other factors were not significant. More thermal insulation than was necessary to maintain the lower critical temperature increased the risk of SIDS primarily among infants in the prone sleep position, and to a lesser degree in infants whose mothers smoked and in infants who were unwell.

To report on the effects of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) instituted immediately after a cardiac arrest on cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) and cerebral tissue oxygen tension (PbrO(2)). Case report. ICU of a university hospital. A head-injured 17-year-old man submitted to multimodal neurological monitoring underwent sudden cardiac arrest and successful CPR. External chest compression, 100% oxygen ventilation, volume expansion and standard ACLS protocols. Heart rate, ECG, mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), ETCO(2), PaO(2), intracranial pressure (ICP), CPP and PbrO(2) were continuously monitored during CPR and data recorded at 15-s intervals by a dedicated personal computer. At the onset of the cardiac arrest, PbrO(2) decreased to zero. The institution of CPR resulted in a progressive increase of MABP, CPP and PbrO(2). Assuming, on the basis of previous experimental and clinical reports, 8 mmHg PbrO(2) as a possible ischaemic/hypoxic threshold value, during the first 6.5 min of CPR, PbrO(2) values were below this threshold (range 0-7 mmHg) and CPP values were <25 mmHg for 81.5% of the time. In the following 5.5 min, more efficient CPR generated CPP values >25 mmHg for 77.3% of the time. These values were associated with a PbrO(2) >8 mmHg (range 8-28 mmHg) at all times. In the clinical setting of a witnessed cardiac arrest, immediate institution of CPR can be effective in generating PbrO(2) values above a supposed ischaemic/hypoxic threshold when CPP is >25 mmHg. PbrO(2) monitoring by the Licox system is sensitive and reliable, even at low values, and can be suitable for evaluating cerebral oxygenation during experimental CPR.

Lightning flash rate is strongly influenced by cloud microphysics, such as cloud ice properties, but this relationship is poorly constrained. Here we analyze 20 years of satellite-derived lightning flash rate data and cloud water data from the ERA-Interim reanalysis above continental and ocean regions at a global scale. We find a robust modified gamma function relationship between cloud ice fraction and lightning rate. Lightning rate increases initially with increasing cloud ice fraction in stratocumulus, liquid clouds. Maximum flash rates are reached at a critical cloud ice fraction value that is associated with high top, large optical thickness, deep convective clouds. Beyond the critical value, lightning rate decreases as the ice fraction increases to values representative of cirrus, ice clouds. We find consistent critical ice fraction values over continental and oceanic regions, respectively, with a lower value over the continent due to greater cloud thickness at similar cloud top height. We suggest that our findings may help improve the accuracy of lightning forecast and hazard prediction.

Infrared image processing has been the focal point of considerable research activity in the last decade mainly because of its wide application areas in security and defense. With the aid of an existing image enhancement technique, Adaptive Unsharp Masking (AUM), proposed optimum parameters selection procedure delivers better performance in sharpness and contrast adjustment for the detection of targets in interest in objective quality metrics. In our study, we focus on the lower and upper limit threshold parameters which classify the contrast areas and therefore have significant effect on sharpening the edges for two different infrared (IR) images. The experimental results prove that changes of convergence rate of adaptive filter and positive convergence parameter versus mean square error (MSE) exhibit similar characteristics under certain lower and upper threshold values which satisfy “minimum” MSE; that is these threshold values are the most dominant criterion amongst the other parameters and they are significant.

The goals of this study were: (1) to find out how teachers evaluate the critical attitudes of junior high school students toward information on social media; (2) to find out how a proper and standardized instrument for measuring the critical attitudes of junior high school students toward information on social media is made; and (3) to find out the criticality value of junior high school students after being measured using a valid and reliable instrument. This research is a type of research and development (R&amp;D), and it uses the 10 steps of Djemari Mardapi's affective instrument development procedure. Based on the results of the study, the following conclusions can be made: (1) Teachers haven't been using proper and standard tools to measure students' critical attitudes so far. (2) The critical attitude instrument for junior high school students was made by putting together a hypothetical model with five indicators, having an expert validate it, giving it a readability test, and doing a lot of testing with 48 valid instruments (MSA &gt; 0.5) with a reliability of 0.800 and a lot of testing with 38 valid instruments (MSA &gt; 0.5) with a reliability of 0.813. (3) The results of measuring the critical attitudes of 32 students at Sentolo 4 Junior High School (SMP Negeri 4 Sentolo) obtained the following results: very high critical attitude values of 15.63%, high critical attitude values of 28.13%, low critical attitude values of 37.50%, and very low critical attitude values of 18.75%. The results of these tests show that most junior high school students are still not very critical.

This paper focuses on examining the nonlinear impact of trade openness (TO) on economic growth (EG) in the Asean-6 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, and Vietnam). In order to achieve the set research objectives, the authors estimate the research model through the fixed-effect panel threshold approach. Unlike previous studies, this paper finds that there is a nonlinear impact of TO on EG, whereby TO has two threshold values. Specifically, before the first threshold value, TO plays an important role in boosting EG. However, this impact level decreases gradually when TO exceeds this threshold value. In particular, when exceeding the second threshold value, the impact of TO on EG is still positive but has a relatively low value. The research results show that if TO increases to a high level (beyond the threshold value) without combining with other complementary policies, this does not encourage high-efficiency EG. In addition, this study also shows that EG is positively affected by domestic investment and negatively affected by financial crisis. The findings in this paper are of great importance for the Asean-6 countries as well as researchers.

Bionomic equilibrium of two-species system. I.

In this study, we have adopted factors such as intellectual capital, financial ratios and corporate governance variables to construct a financial distress forecasting model by logistic regression. Furthermore, we employ the criteria of minimizing the sum of the two error probability in models I and II to determine the optimal threshold value, so as to increase the forecasting ability of a financial crisis forecasting model. We have taken 54 electronics companies listed in Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) and Over the Counter (OTC) during the periods from 2012 to 2015 to be our observation. 18 companies out of the 54 has been financially distressed in 2015. The results show that we could effectively construct a lower threshold value on the basis of the dynamic threshold value to carry out early warning (such as p = 0.32 ∼ 0.43 < p = 0.5) than those in terms of the traditional one half rule. The total error prediction probability could be reduced by 8.33% to 30.56%. In addition, the empirical evidence shows that after adding the intellectual capital variables, it could enhance the forecasting power.

Mercury's capture into the 3/2 spin–orbit resonance including the effect of core–mantle friction

The respiratory and cardiovascular variables in Chaceon fenneri and C. quinquedens were examined in animals during normoxia, animals exposed to hypoxia, and animals allowed to recover in normoxia. Chaceon fenneri was characterized by a relatively low metabolic rate (low oxygen uptake), and low ventilatory frequency. This species displayed a pattern of oxy-independent O2 uptake when exposed to hypoxia: MO2 was maintained primarily through hyperventilation. At an environmental PO2 of about 25 torr, respiratory and cardiovascular functions shut down, and the animal appeared to make the transition to exclusively anaerobic energy production. Lactate accumulated in the hemolymph during hypoxia and during recovery. Recovery was also characterized by elevated O2 uptake, and prolonged hyperventilation, indicating the repayment of an oxygen debt. Oxygen uptake in resting C. quinquedens was roughly double that in C. fenneri, and ventilatory frequency was 3-fold higher. MO2 declined in hypoxia, and hyperventilation was absent, a more typical oxy-dependent pattern of respiration. The ambient PO2 at which ventilatory and cardiovascular shutdown occurred was about 17 torr, but oxygen uptake continued at very low levels even in severe hypoxia. Lactate buildup in the hemolymph was not observed. During recovery, normal levels of O2 uptake were quickly restored, and hyperventilation was absent. Chaceon quinquedens appeared not to utilize anaerobic metabolism during hypoxia or to incur an oxygen debt. The differences in respiratory and cardiovascular responses to hypoxia in these two species appear to be due to a combination of differences in metabolic rate and body morphology.

Cable-stayed bridges are a recent development in bridge structural design in which the cables meet the bridge deck at an acute angle rather than perpendicularly. Some early cable-stayed bridges have exhibited large amplitude stay cable oscillations. One such bridge, the Fred Hartman Bridge across the Houston Ship Channel in Texas displayed two different modes of vibration: a local mode involving independent motion of individual cables and a global mode, in which the cables vibrated collectively under certain wind and rain conditions. This abrupt shift in mode as a function of a change in environmental parameters suggests chaotic behavior. Analysis of the probability density function of maximum accelerations of the cables typically showed a fractal power law distribution at lower values, but also some sharp changes in the tails. The Lorentz Map plots of the data also indicated two regimes: a dissipative one at lower acceleration values and chaotic behavior beyond a critical acceleration value. The plots also imply that the chaotic system is nearly one-dimensional. The working hypothesis is that steady winds impose additional stresses on the stay cables that push them over the boundary into the chaotic regime where random impulses from falling raindrops become amplified into cable oscillations.

Assessment of quality performance parameters for straight line calibration curves related to the spread of the abscissa values around their mean

Superfluidity---the suppression of scattering in a quantum fluid at velocities below a critical value---is one of the most striking manifestations of the collective behaviour typical of Bose-Einstein condensates. This phenomenon, akin to superconductivity in metals, has until now only been observed at prohibitively low cryogenic temperatures. For atoms, this limit is imposed by the small thermal de Broglie wavelength, which is inversely related to the particle mass. Even in the case of ultralight quasiparticles such as exciton-polaritons, superfluidity has only been demonstrated at liquid helium temperatures. In this case, the limit is not imposed by the mass, but instead by the small exciton binding energy of Wannier-Mott excitons, which places the upper temperature limit. Here we demonstrate a transition from normal to superfluid flow in an organic microcavity supporting stable Frenkel exciton-polaritons at room temperature. This result paves the way not only to table-top studies of quantum hydrodynamics, but also to room-temperature polariton devices that can be robustly protected from scattering.