97 research outputs found
Continuous Theta-Burst Stimulation Demonstrates a Causal Role of Premotor Homunculus in Action Understanding
No full textAlthough it is well established that regions of premotor cortex (PMC) are active during action observation, it remains controversial whether they play a causal role in action understanding. In the experiment reported here, we used off-line continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) to investigate this question. Participants received cTBS over the hand and lip areas of left PMC, in separate sessions, before completing a pantomime-recognition task in which half of the trials contained pantomimed hand actions, and half contained pantomimed mouth actions. The results reveal a double dissociation: Participants were less accurate in recognizing pantomimed hand actions after receiving cTBS over the hand area than over the lip area and less accurate in recognizing pantomimed mouth actions after receiving cTBS over the lip area than over the hand area. This finding constrains theories of action understanding by showing that somatotopically organized regions of PMC contribute causally to action understanding and, thus, that the mechanisms underpinning action understanding and action performance overlap. © The Author(s) 2014
Navajo County central region transportation study : final report
No full textabstract: The purpose of this study was to develop a multi-modal transportation plan that outlines the region’s transportation priority projects and provides a plan for ultimate implementation. The transportation study was focused around identifying regional mobility needs that can accommodate the anticipated future population and employment growth. This transportation study is a joint effort of Navajo County, the City of Holbrook, the City of Winslow and the Arizona Department of Transportation to develop multi-modal transportation recommendations for the study area, Heber-Overgaard, Holbrook and Winslow over a 20-year planning horizon.Accompanied by: Executive summary (15 pages)
Synthesis and Applications of Chemically Derived Graphene:From Fundamentals to Applications
No full textThis Ph.D. thesis investigates the chemical synthesis and applications of chemically derived graphene, with focus on reducing the structural defects in graphene oxides. The first part of the thesis covers the fundamental understanding of the synthesis and structure of graphene oxide, and the second part utilizes the knowledge gained from the first part to investigate new applications of the developed graphene oxide materials. Introduction of structural defects caused by overoxidation of graphene oxide obtained via the Hummers' modified method is a well known problem, and impedes the electronic properties of reduced graphene oxide. State-of-the-art synthesis protocols for various graphene oxide materials is demonstrated in this thesis. This was achieved by careful control and systematic optimization of the synthesis parameters including reaction temperature, amount of oxidizing agent, reaction time and reaction work-up procedure. Reduction also plays an important role and it is concluded that thermal annealing introduces additional defects, while chemical reduction with trifluoro acetic acid and hydro iodic acid greatly diminishes defect formation. A binder-free and water based ink formulation based on the state-of-the-art graphene oxide is demonstrated for screen-printing of semi-transparent graphene oxide thin film electrodes printed on transparent and flexible plastic substrates. The chemical reduction with trifluoro acetic acids and hydro iodic acid allows for efficient reduction and is compatible with these plastic substrates, in contrast to thermal annealing. The reduced thin films show good conductivity and tolerance to flexing. Another graphene oxide derivative ink is also demonstrated for screen-printing of non-transparent electrodes, and exhibit remarkable low sheet-resistance of 1-10 /sq after film compression, even with binders. The synthesis of this ink is not described in details due to IPR considerations. Graphene oxide is also investigated as an anti-static agent for fluoropolymer protective coatings. The graphene oxide solution is found to mix well with the FEP and the coatings exhibits anti-static behaviours. In addition another graphene fluoropolymer blend is also investigated and shows remarkable permeability resistance against water as well as rendering the coatings anti-static. A recent two component model of graphene oxide is also investigated and the results unequivocally suggests that graphene oxide is more suitably described by a one component model
Co-Production as a Research Method:Reflections From a Collaborative Writing Workshop
No full textThe co-production turn has affected academic work, encouraging researchers not only to study coproduction in public organizations but also to pursue collaborative research practices with practitioners. The purpose of this chapter is to present a reflexive account of co-production as a research practice. The point of departure is a one-day collaborative writing workshop that embraced several aspects of ‘co-’. The workshop brought together two research projects, one on social innovation in elderly care and one on collaborative writing. Having been involved in both projects, the author reflects on issues of the writing project that caused great debate during the workshop and highlight dimensions of power,quality, and impact that arise in co-produced research. The chapter shows that the co-production turn calls into question traditional power hierarchies between theory-practice, analysis-experience, and researcher-researched. While co-production seeks to even out power hierarchies, it also generates new problems, new tensions, and new questions
Appendix S3 from: Droissart V, Dauby G, Hardy OJ, Deblauwe V, Harris DJ, Janssens S, Mackinder BA, Blach-Overgaard A, Sonké B, Sosef MSM, Stévart T, Svenning J-C, Wieringa JJ, Couvreur TLP (2018) Beyond trees: biogeographical regionalization of tropical Africa. Journal of Biogeography. DOI:10.1111/jbi.13190
No full text<p>This dataset corresponds to GIS file that were generated in the study published by Droissart, Dauby et al. in <em>Journal of Biogeography</em>:</p>
<p>Droissart V, Dauby G, Hardy OJ, Deblauwe V, Harris DJ, Janssens S, Mackinder BA, Blach-Overgaard A, Sonké B, Sosef MSM, Stévart T, Svenning J-C, Wieringa JJ, Couvreur TLP (2018) Beyond trees: biogeographical regionalization of tropical Africa. <em>Journal of Biogeography. </em>DOI:10.1111/jbi.13190</p>
<p><em>Please cite the aforementioned article and the dataset herein, when using of any of these files in this dataset.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The GIS file is referred in the paper as <strong>Appendix S3</strong> and correspond to the map presented in Figure 1. Each polygons of the shapefile correspond to the main floristic bioregions and transition zones of tropical Africa delimited using bipartite network clustering analysis of 24,719 plant species.</p>
<p>The coordinate system of the ESRI shapefile is GCS_WGS_1984. Field descriptions for the associate table are:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>bionames</strong>: name of the bioregions as given in Table S1.1.</li>
<li><strong>bioreg_ID</strong>: identifier of the bioregions as given in Table S1.1 and Fig. 1. T= Transition zones</li>
<li><strong>cluster_ID</strong>: identifier of clusters delimited using bipartite network clustering on the 24,719 plant species of the RAINBIO database, as given in Table S1.1 and Fig. S2.1.</li>
</ul>
Robustness - a challenge also for the 21st century: A review of robustness phenomena in technical, biological and social systems as well as robust approaches in engineering, computer science, operations research and decision aiding
No full textNotions on robustness exist in many facets. They come from different disciplines and reflect different worldviews. Consequently, they contradict each other very often, which makes the term less applicable in a general context. Robustness approaches are often limited to specific problems for which they have been developed. This means, notions and definitions might reveal to be wrong if put into another domain of validity, i.e. context. A definition might be correct in a specific context but need not hold in another. Therefore, in order to be able to speak of robustness we need to specify the domain of validity, i.e. system, property and uncertainty of interest. As proofed by Ho et al. in an optimization context with finite and discrete domains, without prior knowledge about the problem there exists no solution what so ever which is more robust than any other. Similar to the results of the No Free Lunch Theorems of Optimization (NLFTs) we have to exploit the problem structure in order to make a solution more robust. This optimization problem is directly linked to a robustness/fragility tradeoff which has been observed in many contexts, e.g. 'robust, yet fragile' property of HOT (Highly Optimized Tolerance) systems. Another issue is that robustness is tightly bounded to other phenomena like complexity for which themselves exist no clear definition or theoretical framework. Consequently, this review rather tries to find common aspects within many different approaches and phenomena than to build a general theorem for robustness, which anyhow might not exist because complex phenomena often need to be described from a pluralistic view to address as many aspects of a phenomenon as possible. First, many different robustness problems have been reviewed from many different disciplines. Second, different common aspects will be discussed, in particular the relationship of functional and structural properties. This paper argues that robustness phenomena are also a challenge for the 21st century. It is a useful quality of a model or system in terms of the 'maintenance of some desired system characteristics despite fluctuations in the behaviour of its component parts or its environment' (s. [Carlson and Doyle, 2002], p. 2). We define robustness phenomena as solution with balanced tradeoffs and robust design principles and robustness measures as means to balance tradeoffs. --
Quantification of digital image correlation applicability related to in-situ proof load testing of bridges
No full textAdvanced crack monitoring is crucial for high precision response- and threshold evaluation when performing proof- and diagnostic load tests on existing concrete structures. Mostly, crack monitoring techniques involve one monitoring method, which provide thresholds with regard to stop criteria and characterization information. In the ongoing Danish bridge testing research program, it is hypothesized that several independent monitoring techniques are needed to reduce uncertainties related to crack detection and categorization. A number of novel monitoring methods are used in the research project. A special focus is however dedicated to two-dimensional digital image correlation (2D-DIC) and acoustic emission (AE). This paper presents initial research concerning evaluations related to digital image correlation based on sub-component beam tests performed in the DTU CasMat laboratory facility. The tested beams were prefabricated as TT-elements with a length of 6.4 m and cut into two T-beam elements. The test matrix consisted of ten beams strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) in different configurations with and without post-tensioning of the CFRP, thus resulting in different crack initiation behavior. The investigations in this paper include: (1) time of crack detection compared to visual detection, (2) time of crack detection compared to time of crack width threshold values, and (3) crack width evaluation using 2D-DIC strain correction for out-of-plane deflection. The results show that cracks can be detected prior to both visual detection and significant stiffness change. After detection, crack development can be monitored for crack width stop criteria. Crack widths can also be successfully monitored for surfaces subjected to out-of-plane movement using a geometric correction method. The methodology is hypothesized to be of significant importance in future testing of full-scale concrete slab bridges in the Danish bridge testing project.Concrete Structure
Electron transfer in keV Li<sup>+</sup> - Na(3s,3p) collisions:III. Experiments on initial orbital alignment dependence
No full textUdgivelsesdato: 14 Marc
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