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Research output, citation impact, and the most-cited recent papers from Department of National Defence (Canada). Aggregated across the NobleBlocks index of 300M+ scholarly works.
Top-cited papers from Department of National Defence
The Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) is an 18-item measure of work motivation theoretically grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). The purpose of the present research was twofold. First, the applicability of the WEIMS in different work environments was evaluated. Second, its factorial structure and psychometric properties were assessed. Two samples of workers (military: N 465; civilians: N 192) voluntarily completed questionnaires. Using the WEIMS’s 3 indexes (work self-determination index, work self-determined and nonself-determined motivation, respectively), results of regression analyses were supportive of its ability to predict positive and negative criteria in the workplace. Results also showed the adequacy of both its construct validity and internal consistency. Its factorial structure was also invariant across samples. Finally, its quasi-simplex pattern and relationships with psychological correlates further supported the self-determination continuum. Overall, these findings provide evidence for the applicability as well as the reliability and validity of the WEIMS in organisational settings. Results are discussed in regard to the applicability of self-determination theory to the workplace.
In a randomized-controlled trial, we tested 2 brief interventions designed to mitigate the effects of a “chilly climate” women may experience in engineering, especially in male-dominated fields. Participants were students entering a selective university engineering program. The social-belonging intervention aimed to protect students’ sense of belonging in engineering by providing a nonthreatening narrative with which to interpret instances of adversity. The affirmation-training intervention aimed to help students manage stress that can arise from social marginalization by incorporating diverse aspects of their self-identity in their daily academic lives. As expected, gender differences and intervention effects were concentrated in male-dominated majors (20% women). In these majors, compared with control conditions, both interventions raised women’s school-reported engineering grade-point-average (GPA) over the full academic year, eliminating gender differences. Both also led women to view daily adversities as more manageable and improved women’s academic attitudes. However, the 2 interventions had divergent effects on women’s social experiences. The social-belonging intervention helped women integrate into engineering, for instance, increasing friendships with male engineers. Affirmation-training helped women develop external resources, deepening their identification with their gender group. The results highlight how social marginalization contributes to gender inequality in quantitative fields and 2 potential remedies.
A quasi-steady analysis is made of the transverse galloping of a long prism of square section in a normal steady wind. Experimental stationary aerodynamic forces are used in the theory, which leads to an ordinary differential equation with small non-linearity for the displacement. This is solved by the first approximation method of Krylov and Bogoliubov, and it is found that some characteristics of non-linear oscillators unusual in a mechanical system are predicted, in particular the occurrence of oscillation hysteresis over a range of wind speeds. Quite accurate quantitative agreement between these predictions and wind tunnel measurements on an elastically mounted square prism is described.
CLOSURE IS the perception of an object or event which is not completely or immediately represented. Previous studies (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) have revealed marked individual differences in this perceptual ability, but have thrown little light on its development. Street's use of a Gestalt Completion Test with school children revealed no consistent or significant differences in scores attributable to age—which later prompted Thurstone (7, p. 9) to remark that the finding was of interest an indication that the test involves some factors which mature at an early age, and it may be taken as indicative of some fundamental and primitive function. The study by Verville and Cameron (9) of age and sex differences in the perception of incomplete pictures by adults revealed slight differences in reaction times and perceptual set attributable to age, but did not reveal a relationship between age and perceptual ability. Street's test comprised only thirteen items in its final form; the items were not of a single class; nor could the particular percepts be presumed to be universally familiar. Verville and Cameron used only ten items, and they were checking age differences between two groups of adults—those aged 16 to 23 and those aged 35 to 56. Both studies are open to the presumption that the tests, subjects, and procedures were not adequate to reveal an association between perceptual ability and age. The present study was undertaken to reveal, through an early age range, the likely association between closure ability and age. The procedure was designed to minimize the differential effects of prior perceptual experience through the use, on the one hand, of subjects of common social and educational background, and, on the other hand, of closure test-items representative of a single class of percepts that might be presumed to be universally familiar. In short, the aim was to correlate closure ability and age in a uni-dimensional perceptual domain.
This article provides a concise review of published literature pertaining to sampling and analytical methodologies, aerometric studies, source identification techniques and modeling activities for the elements arsenic, cadmium, nickel, lead, vanadium, zinc, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, mercury, manganese, selenium and antimony, and their compounds, associated with airborne particulate matter. Sampling techniques discussed include filtration and inertial separation. Analytical methodologies such as atomic absorption and atomic emission spectrometry, neutron activation analysis, and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry are summarized. Data on atmospheric levels of 14 trace elements are presented in summary form from numerous studies in remote, rural and urban areas, and generally indicate that concentrations measured at rural locations are several orders of magnitude lower than those measured for urban areas. Source identification methodologies are discussed in terms of advantages and disadvantages, and various applications are cited for the following categories: size differentiation, enrichment factors, chemical mass balance, and multivariate models. Provided that reliable trace element data are available for both the source and the receptor, chemical mass balance and multivariate methods can account for up to 80 percent of all sources contributing to the observed ambient air concentration. Wet and dry deposition processes are reviewed and environmental measurement data are provided for each element for remote, rural and urban locations. Both wet and dry deposition fluxes need to be considered for trace elements when estimating the total annual amounts of various trace elements deposited at a particular locale. Global cycles and trace element budgets are introduced in the context of the types of models currently in use. Limitations include inadequate global scale surveys of heavy metal concentrations and the lack of knowledge of sources and/or sinks.
Aircraft operators are faced with increasing requirements to extend the service life of air platforms beyond their designed life cycles, resulting in heavy maintenance and inspection burdens as well as economic pressure. Structural health monitoring (SHM) based on advanced sensor technology is potentially a cost-effective approach to meet operational requirements, and to reduce maintenance costs. Fiber optic sensor technology is being developed to provide existing and future aircrafts with SHM capability due to its unique superior characteristics. This review paper covers the aerospace SHM requirements and an overview of the fiber optic sensor technologies. In particular, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor technology is evaluated as the most promising tool for load monitoring and damage detection, the two critical SHM aspects of air platforms. At last, recommendations on the implementation and integration of FBG sensors into an SHM system are provided.
The critical strain energy release rates for interlaminar fracture of unidirectional graphite/epoxy, both from a sharp notch and as a function of crack extension, were determined experimentally for combined tensile/shear loadings. Based on well-founded compliance techniques, a substantial database was generated over the temperature range −50°C to 100°C for both dry and moisture-saturated states. The fracture energy of the unreinforced epoxy matrix material was also measured. Initiation energies for delamination increased as the proportion of shear loading increased and as the temperature was lowered but were insensitive to moisture content. The fracture resistance to crack extension increased under tensile dominated loadings with both temperature and moisture content but remained constant for high shear loadings. The applicability of various mixed-mode fracture criteria to both the present data and to available literature data is examined. The Wu fracture model was modified to take into account plane strain conditions appropriate to delamination. Crack growth resistance behavior is discussed in terms of the micromechanisms occurring close to the crack tip.
Herein, updated evidence-based recommendations for the diagnosis, assessment, prevention, and treatment of hypertension in Canadian adults are detailed. For 2014, 3 existing recommendations were modified and 2 new recommendations were added. The following recommendations were modified: (1) the recommended sodium intake threshold was changed from ≤ 1500 mg (3.75 g of salt) to approximately 2000 mg (5 g of salt) per day; (2) a pharmacotherapy treatment initiation systolic blood pressure threshold of ≥ 160 mm Hg was added in very elderly (age ≥ 80 years) patients who do not have diabetes or target organ damage (systolic blood pressure target in this population remains at < 150 mm Hg); and (3) the target population recommended to receive low-dose acetylsalicylic acid therapy for primary prevention was narrowed from all patients with controlled hypertension to only those ≥ 50 years of age. The 2 new recommendations are: (1) advice to be cautious when lowering systolic blood pressure to target levels in patients with established coronary artery disease if diastolic blood pressure is ≤ 60 mm Hg because of concerns that myocardial ischemia might be exacerbated; and (2) the addition of glycated hemoglobin (A1c) in the diagnostic work-up of patients with newly diagnosed hypertension. The rationale for these recommendation changes is discussed. In addition, emerging data on blood pressure targets in stroke patients are discussed; these data did not lead to recommendation changes at this time. The Canadian Hypertension Education Program recommendations will continue to be updated annually.
Exoenzyme S (ExoS) is an ADP-ribosyltransferase secreted by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The amino-terminal half of ExoS exhibits homology to the YopE cytotoxin of pathogenic Yersinia. Recently, YopE was found to be translocated into the host cell by a bacteria-cell contact-dependent mechanism involving the ysc-encoded type III secretion system. By using an approach in which exoS was expressed in different strains of Yersinia, including secretion and translocation mutants, we could demonstrate that ExoS was secreted and translocated into HeLa cells by a similar mechanism to that described previously for YopE. Similarly to YopE, the presence of ExoS in the host cell elicited a cytotoxic response, correlating with disruption of the actin microfilament structure. A similar cytotoxic response was also induced by a mutated form of ExoS with a more than 2000-fold reduced ADP-ribosyltransferase activity. However, the enzymatically active ExoS elicited a more definite rounding up of the HeLa cells, which also correlated with decreased viability of the cells after prolonged infection compared with cells infected with strains expressing mutated ExoS or YopE. This suggests that ExoS can act through two different mechanisms on the host cell. The expression of ExoS by Yersinia also mediated an anti-phagocytic effect on macrophages. In addition, we present evidence that extracellularly located P. aeruginosa is able to target ExoS into eukaryotic cells. Taken together, our data suggest that P. aeruginosa, by analogy with Yersinia, targets virulence proteins into the eukaryotic cytosol via a type III secretion-dependent mechanism as part of an anti-phagocytic strategy.
1. Psychiatric phenomena with respect to individual behavior under stress can be considered to lie along 4 main axes—the natural history of the process, reactions and factors at various stages of the process, and the psychodynamics of the interrelationships between reactions and factors in the continuum. 2. The natural history of individual behavior in acute community disasters that have been studied has been briefly described. This appears to fall into 3 overlapping phases—a period of impact, a period of recoil, and a posttraumatic period—each of which can be characterized according to stress, time, and psychological phenomena. 3. The relevance of the natural history method for this particular investigation and for psychiatric research in general has been briefly discussed.
Nous avons utilisé une approche statistique de détection de cibles ponctuelles sur fond bruité pour caractériser la performance prévue du RSO de RADARSAT (bande C, Polarisation HH) pour la détection des navires. Cette technique sera également utilisée pour comparer la performance des divers modes et faisceaux du RSO de RADARSAT pour la détection des navires. La détection de navires de plus petite dimension est possible lorsque la vitesse du vent est plus faible, que l'angle d'incidence est plus fort ou que la résolution est plus fine. Le mode ScanSAR à faisceau étroit distal est pressenti comme étant le meilleur compromis entre la couverture spatiale et la probabilité de détection. Nous présentons une validation quantitative de ces modèles de prédiction selon les données obtenues lors d'une campagne qui a eu lieu au large de Halifax N.-E. au cours des mois de mars et avril 1996. À l'aide d'instruments sur bouées, des mesures du vent et des vagues ont été prises au moment de l'acquisition d'images RSO de RADARSAT, alors que plusieurs navires connus étaient présents dans la scène. Nous présentons des validations de plusieurs des paramètres clés du modèle et notamment les paramètres concernant notre modèle hybride de section transversale équivalente océanique en bande C, polarisation HH, de la densité de probabilité de l'image et de la signature radar des navires.
A moving ship produces a set of waves in a characteristic linear V pattern. This pattern, or some of its components, can often be detected in ocean imagery produced by satellite-borne Synthetic Ap- erture Radar (SAR) sensors operating at L-band. Some wake compo- nents, notably the turbulent wake, may extend for 5-15 km behind the ship. As ship wake detection can provide information such as ship di- rection and speed, the detection of these wakes can play an important role in satellite surveillance of shipping. Described is research done on the use of the Radon transform to automatically detect ship wakes .in Seasat ocean imagery. The objective of the research was twofold: to automatically detect ship wakes and to differentiate ship wakes from other linear ocean features produced by the underwater topography and existing sea conditions. An ADA (Automatic Detection Algorithm) based on the Radon transform was developed and applied to the Seasat imagery. The basic system performs the Radon transform of the SAR image, then detects bright and dark peaks produced in the transform by wakes (or other linear features) in the image. As the Radon trans- form essentially integrates the image intensity along every straight line through an image, each integral becomes one element in transform space. This integration process averages out the intensity fluctuations due to noise, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the feature of interest in the transform space relative to that in the original image. A number of additional processing techniques were developed and tested to improve the PD (probability of detection) and reduce the PFA (probability of false alarm). To date, the use of an ADA, which com- bines a high-pass filter followed by a normalized Radon transform and a Wiener filter, has been shown to reliably distinguish wake peaks from false alarms. Keywords-Wake, Radon, radar.
Military personnel often undergo sustained operations that affect vigilance and alertness. Pharmacological agents may be used to enhance vigilance. Most such agents also have thermogenic properties. Whether a new promising stimulant, modafinil (Lyons and French, Aviat. Space Environ. Med. 1991; 62:432-435), has a beneficial effect on cold tolerance in the military context, is not known. The goal of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the effect of this new drug on thermal balance and the regulation of body temperatures in neutral conditions and when challenged by a cold exposure. Nine subjects underwent three trials each: two in the cold (3 h at rest, 10 degrees C) 0.5 h after the ingestion of either placebo or modafinil (200 mg), and one in thermal neutrality with modafinil (same conditions except Tdb = 29.3 degrees C). As expected, cold produced a drop in Tre and Tsk and an increase in Vo2. Although non-significant, there was a tendency for a slightly greater drop in Tre with modafinil (0.65 degrees C vs. 0.57 degrees C with placebo). A similar tendency was found for the heat debt (S) which was greater with modafinil than with placebo (16.1 +/- 0.7 vs. 14.7 +/- 0.6 kJ.kg-1, respectively, +9.5%, p = 0.11). This tendency appears to be the combined result of a slightly lower mean heat production during the test and a slightly greater mean dry heat loss. When tested at thermal neutrality, the drug had no effect on any thermal or metabolic parameters. The results demonstrate that the ingestion of a single dose of modafinil has no significant acute effect on thermal balance in neutral conditions and on thermoregulation in normal subjects exposed to cold. However, a tendency for slightly greater cooling was noted with modafinil. It is not known whether the use of modafinil in conjunction with sleep deprivation (a likely scenario) could magnify this effect.
BACKGROUND: Trauma patients often require multiple imaging tests, including computed tomography (CT) scans. CT scanning, however, is associated with high-radiation doses. The purpose of this study was to measure the radiation doses trauma patients receive from diagnostic imaging. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted from June 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005 at a Level I trauma center in Toronto, Canada. All trauma patients who arrived directly from the scene of injury and who survived to discharge were included. Three dosimeters were placed on each patient (neck, chest, and groin) before radiologic examination. Dosimeters were removed before discharge. Surface doses in millisieverts (mSv) at the neck, chest, and groin were measured. Total effective dose, thyroid, breast, and red bone marrow organ doses were then calculated. RESULTS: Trauma patients received a mean effective dose of 22.7 mSv. The standard "linear no threshold" (LNT) model used to extrapolate from effects observed at higher dose levels suggests that this would result in approximately 190 additional cancer deaths in a population of 100,000 individuals so exposed. In addition, the thyroid received a mean dose of 58.5 mSv. Therefore, 4.4 additional fatal thyroid cancers would be expected per 100,000 persons. In all, 22% of all patients had a thyroid dose of over 100 mSv (mean, 156.3 mSv), meaning 11.7 additional fatal thyroid cancers per 100,000 persons would result in this subgroup. CONCLUSION: Trauma patients are exposed to significant radiation doses from diagnostic imaging, resulting in a small but measurable excess cancer risk. This small individual risk may become a greater public health issue as more CT examinations are performed. Unnecessary CT scans should be avoided.
The relationship between body weight (BW) and respiratory minute volume (V(m)) was reviewed by collecting a database from the literature. The data were separated into anaesthetized and non-anaesthetized groups. Only young adult terrestrial mammals were included in the final data set. This database is the largest to be reported to date, is the first to separate the anaesthetized and non-anaesthetized groups and is matched to the target population of young, fit adult humans. The data set of non-anaesthetized animals contained 142 studies representing 2616 animals and 18 species from mice at 12 g body weight to horses and a giraffe at ca. 500 kg body weight. Analysis of the data indicated a power law (allometric) relationship between the minute volume and body weight. The resulting allometric equations for the empirical relationship between minute volume and body weight are: log(10)V()(m)= -0.302 + 0.809 log(10)BW and V(m) = 0.499 BW(0.809)where V(m) is the minute volume (l min(-1)) and BW is the body weight (kg). From these equations, a minute volume of 15.5 lmin(-1)was obtained for a 70 kg human in the same physiological and/or emotional state as the animals. The results of the analyses were compared to other empirical studies in the literature, the more recent of which also indicated a scaling factor of 0.8. The relationship between minute volume and body weight is recommended for use in estimating the inhalation toxicity to young adult humans (military personnel), because this is the first study to use a large database focused exclusively upon non-anaesthetized young adult terrestrial mammals.
OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with decreased top-down emotion modulation from medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) regions, a pathophysiology accompanied by hyperarousal and hyperactivation of the amygdala. By contrast, PTSD patients with the dissociative subtype (PTSD + DS) often exhibit increased mPFC top-down modulation and decreased amygdala activation associated with emotional detachment and hypoarousal. Crucially, PTSD and PTSD + DS display distinct functional connectivity within the PFC, amygdala complexes, and the periaqueductal gray (PAG), a region related to defensive responses/emotional coping. However, differences in directed connectivity between these regions have not been established in PTSD, PTSD + DS, or controls. METHODS: To examine directed (effective) connectivity among these nodes, as well as group differences, we conducted resting-state stochastic dynamic causal modeling (sDCM) pairwise analyses of coupling between the ventromedial (vm)PFC, the bilateral basolateral and centromedial (CMA) amygdala complexes, and the PAG, in 155 participants (PTSD [n = 62]; PTSD + DS [n = 41]; age-matched healthy trauma-unexposed controls [n = 52]). RESULTS: PTSD was characterized by a pattern of predominant bottom-up connectivity from the amygdala to the vmPFC and from the PAG to the vmPFC and amygdala. Conversely, PTSD + DS exhibited predominant top-down connectivity between all node pairs (from the vmPFC to the amygdala and PAG, and from the amygdala to the PAG). Interestingly, the PTSD + DS group displayed the strongest intrinsic inhibitory connections within the vmPFC. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest the contrasting symptom profiles of PTSD and its dissociative subtype (hyper- vs. hypo-emotionality, respectively) may be driven by complementary changes in directed connectivity corresponding to bottom-up defensive fear processing versus enhanced top-down regulation. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5551-5561, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Abstract The consensus ranking problem has received much attention in the statistical literature. Given m rankings of n objects the objective is to determine a consensus ranking. The input rankings may contain ties, be incomplete, and may be weighted. Two solution concepts are discussed, the first maximizing the average weighted rank correlation of the solution ranking with the input rankings and the second minimizing the average weighted Kemeny–Snell distance. A new rank correlation coefficient called τ x is presented which is shown to be the unique rank correlation coefficient which is equivalent to the Kemeny‐Snell distance metric. The new rank correlation coefficient is closely related to Kendall's tau but differs from it in the way ties are handled. It will be demonstrated that Kendall's τ b is flawed as a measure of agreement between weak orderings and should no longer be used as a rank correlation coefficient. The use of τ x in the consensus ranking problem provides a more mathematically tractable solution than the Kemeny–Snell distance metric because all the ranking information can be summarized in a single matrix. The methods described in this paper allow analysts to accommodate the fully general consensus ranking problem with weights, ties, and partial inputs. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Waveguides and passive integrated optics elements constructed from thin metal films of finite width embedded in a homogeneous background dielectric and propagating long-range surface plasmon polaritons (LRSPPs) have been characterized experimentally at free-space optical wavelengths near 1550 nm. Straight and curved waveguides, s-bends, four-port couplers, y-junctions, and Mach-Zehnder interferometers have been carefully characterized. Additionally, rigorous models based on modal decomposition have been proposed for all of these elements and validated via comparisons with the measurements. Excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement between theory and experiment is observed for all structures over all measurement wavelengths. It is hoped that this work will help further establish this new integrated optics technology, taking it beyond demonstrators.
The performances of selection diversity receiver structures in a slow flat Rayleigh-fading environment are assessed. A number of new and interesting results are obtained. Binary digital signaling using noncoherent frequency-shift keying (NCFSK), differential phase-shift keying (DPSK), coherent phase-shift keying (CPSK), and coherent frequency-shift keying (CFSK) is considered. The traditional analysis (the traditional selection diversity model) of a selection diversity system is based on choosing the branch with the largest signal-to-noise (SNR) power ratio while assuming that the noise power is constant across all branches. However, many practical selection systems choose the branch based on a largest signal-plus-noise (S+N selection) sample of a filter output. This paper comprises accurate analyses of such S+N selection systems. Results show that S+N selection systems perform better than predicted by the traditional selection diversity model. This is because the former includes the statistical nature of the noise, whereas the latter does not. The performance difference between the two models increases as the number of diversity branches increases. For each of DPSK and CPSK, the dual diversity equal gain (EG) combining and S+N selection systems perform identically. For each of NCFSK and CFSK, receiver structures which are equivalent when there is no diversity perform differently in a diversity environment. Certain dual diversity S+N selection systems give the same performances as EG combining or square law combining. The results are contingent upon perfect cophasing for the EG combining. In systems where estimates of the combining carrier phases contain noise, S+N selection outperforms EG combining for dual diversity.
Micro-Doppler (m-D) effect is caused by moving parts of the radar target. It can cover rigid parts of a target and degrade the inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image. Separation of the patterns caused by stationary parts of the target from those caused by moving (rotating or vibrating) parts is the topic of this paper. Two techniques for separation of the rigid part from the rotating parts have been proposed. The first technique is based on time-frequency (TF) representation with sliding window and order statistics techniques. The first step in this technique is recognition of rigid parts in the range/cross-range plane. In the second step, reviewed TF representation and order statistics setup are employed to obtain signals caused by moving parts. The second technique can be applied in the case of very emphatic m-D effect. In the first step the rotating parts are recognized, based on the inverse Radon transform (RT). After masking these patterns, a radar image with the rigid body reflection can be obtained. The proposed methods are illustrated by examples