Evaluating nonlinear variability of mental fatigue behavioral indices during long‐term attentive task

This study investigates the behavioral indices of attention. A simple repetitive attentive task that resulted in mental fatigue was used consecutively in four trials. In the first step, reaction time and error responses were recorded to evaluate differences among trials. During the task, subjects showed different responses to stimulations. In the second part, to recognize the strategies, multiple clustering methods such as k‐means and fuzzy c‐means were performed in which behavioral indices and nonlinear features were used. In the last section, mental behavior was identified as a result of the chaotic properties of variations in reaction time. Therefore, the Lyapunov exponent of reaction times was evaluated. Results revealed that behavioral indices could distinguish attention from the occurrence of mental fatigue in trials. In addition, the three strategies used by subjects during the test protocol were assessed. Finally, variation of indices extracted from nonlinear analysis, that is, decrease in degree of chaotic behavior determined the transition from attention to mental fatigue. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2012     

Importance Sampling for p-value Computations in Multivariate Tests

Abstract

An importance sampling procedure is developed to approximate the distribution of an arbitrary function of the eigenvalues for a matrix beta random matrix or a Wishart random matrix. The procedure is easily implemented and provides confidence intervals for the p-values of many of the commonly used test statistics in multivariate analysis. An adaptive procedure allows for the control of either absolute error or relative error in this p-value estimation through the choice of importance sample size.     

A transformed random effects model with applications

This paper proposes a transformed random effects model for analyzing non-normal panel data where both the response and (some of) the covariates are subject to transformations for inducing flexible functional form, normality, homoscedasticity, and simple model structure. We develop a maximum likelihood procedure for model estimation and inference, along with a computational device which makes the estimation procedure feasible in cases of large panels. We provide model specification tests that take into account the fact that parameter values for error components cannot be negative. We illustrate the model and methods with two applications: state production and wage distribution. The empirical results strongly favor the new model to the standard ones where either linear or log-linear functional form is employed. Monte Carlo simulation shows that maximum likelihood inference is quite robust against mild departure from normality. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of combined isotropic-kinematic hardening behavior of sheet metals

To prevent a sheet specimen from buckling subjected to a tension-compression cyclic loading, a new fixture has been developed to use with a regular tensile-compression machine. The novelty of this device lies in 4-block wedge design with pre-loaded springs. This design allows blocks to freely move in the vertical direction while providing the normal support to the entire length of the specimen during the tension-compression cycle. The entire test is easy to setup, which is another advantage of this design. In order to measure the strain accurately, the transmission type laser extensometer was utilized together with the implementation of double-side fins in the specimen. Experimental results of tension-compression tests are presented followed by a review of existing testing methods. In order to describe the accurate cyclic tension-compression behavior, the combined isotropic-kinematic hardening law based on the modified Chaboche model and the practical two-surface model based on Dafalias-Popov and Krieg models have been modified in this work, considering the permanent softening behavior during reverse loading and the non-symmetric behavior during reloading. Through tension-compression tests, the material characterization has been performed for three base materials, BH180, DP600 steels and AA6111-T4 sheets.     

Hypotheses Testing for Error-in-Variables Models

In this paper, hypotheses testing based on a corrected score function are considered. Five different testing statistics are proposed and their asymptotic distributions are investigated. It is shown that the statistics are asymptotically distributed according to the chisquare distribution or can be written as a linear combination of chisquare random variables with one degree of freedom. A small scale numerical Monte Carlo study is presented in order to compare the empirical size and power of the proposed tests. A comparative calibration example is used to illustrate the results obtained.     

PSP对癌症病人化/放疗毒性反应的数据统计分析

按WHO抗癌药急性及亚急性毒性分级标准 ,对 650例化、放疗肿瘤患者分别作了治疗前后毒性反应的总分值统计。结果加服PSP组 ( 557例 )的疗后总分值为837,低于疗前的 962 ;而 93例阳性对照组 (加服鲨肝醇 )疗前总分为 157,疗后为 2 4 1,疗后总分高于疗前。用Wilcoxon两样本秩和统计法检验 ,PSP组和对照组间具有极显著差异 ,表明PSP对比、放疗药物引起的毒副反应有明显降低效应。     

Environmental Effects on the Mechanical Properties of Glass-FRP and Aramid-FRP Rebars

In the paper, the experimental results on the effect of temperature and moisture on the mechanical properties of FRP (Fiber-Reinforced Polymer) reinforcements are presented. FRP rebars made from glass and aramid fibers were subjected to cyclic thermal actions at temperatures ranging between 20 and 70°C, typical of natural hot-climate environments. Tensile tests were also carried out on FRP rebars. The effect of moisture was investigated by cyclic wetting and drying the FRP rebars under laboratory conditions before their testing in tension. Finally, the elastic modulus and tensile strength of the FRP rebars exposed to these cyclic actions were compared with those obtained for unexposed ones, in order to evaluate the mechanical damage caused by environmental conditions.     

Synchronous vibration parameters identification by tip timing measurements

The Blade Tip Timing (BTT) measurement system is a technique to measure vibration parameters of a rotating bladed disk. In particular for synchronous vibrations the BTT provides signals versus the rotation speed of the disk starting from the measurement of the time of arrival (TOA) of each blade under the tip timing probes. The signals must be post processed in order to obtain the interesting parameters of each blade vibration. The paper presents a method to extract the main parameters (amplitude and frequency) in resonance condition from the tip timing measurements. The proposed method is a revision of the already existing well known Two-Parameter Plot (2PP) method which requires a minimum of two probes. Improvements to the existing 2PP method are here suggested mainly in the part of engine order identification.The proposed method is then applied to the BTT measured signals coming from a rotating bladed disk excited at different engine orders. At the same time on the disk the vibration of one blade was detected by strain gauges. The strain gauges were calibrated and they provide the reference values of the vibration parameters. The vibration parameters derived by the proposed method are in agreement with those obtained by the strain gauges methodology.     

Assessment of Digital Image Correlation as a method of obtaining deformations of a structure under fluid load

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is employed for the measurement of full-field deformation during fluid–structure interaction experiments in a wind tunnel. The methodology developed for the wind tunnel environment is quantitatively assessed. The static deformation error of the system is shown to be less than 0.8% when applied to a curved aerofoil specimen moved through known displacements using a micrometre. Enclosed camera fairings were shown to be required to minimise error due to wind induced camera vibration under aerodynamic loading. The methodology was demonstrated using a high performance curved foil, from a NACRA F20 sailing catamaran, tested within the University of Southampton RJ Mitchell, 3.5 mx2.4 m, wind tunnel. The aerodynamic forces induced in the wind tunnel are relatively small, compared with typical hydrodynamic loading, resulting in small deformations. The coupled deflection and blade twist is evaluated over the tip region (80–100% Span, measured from the root) for a range of wind speeds and angles of attack. Steady deformations at low angles of attack were shown to be well captured however unsteady deformations at higher angles of attack were observed as an increase in variability due to hardware limitations in the current DIC system. It is concluded that higher DIC sample rates are required to assess unsteady deformations in the future. The full field deformation data reveals limited blade twist for low angles of attack, below the stall angle. For larger angles, however, there is a tendency to reduce the effective angle of attack at the tip of the structure, combined with an unsteady structural response. This capability highlights the benefits of the presented methodology over fixed-point measurements as the three dimensional foil deflections can be assessed over a large tip region. In addition, the methodology demonstrates that very small deformations and twist angles can be resolved.     

差分吸收激光雷达回波信号统计模型的研究

差分吸收激光雷达回波信号统计模型是研究差分吸收激光雷达系统的基础,但是现有的统计模型中均没有考虑大气湍流导致的激光闪烁对回波信号的影响。针对已有统计模型的缺陷和应用需要,综合考虑了大气湍流导致的激光闪烁、目标反射斑纹、接收噪声以及发射功率波动对回波信号统计特性的影响,提出了一种改进的长程差分吸收激光雷达回波信号统计模型,分析了该模型的统计特性。仿真结果表明大气湍流导致的激光闪烁对回波信号统计特性的影响十分显著,同时也验证了该统计模型比已有统计模型更精确、更符合实际。