Designing to Facilitate Browsing: A Look Back at the Hyperties Workstation Browser

Since browsing hypertext can present a formidable cognitive challenge, user interface design plays a major role in determining acceptability. In the Unix workstation version of Hyperties, a research-oriented prototype, we focussed on design features that facilitate browsing. We first give a general overview of Hyperties and its markup language. Customizable documents can be generated by the conditional text feature that enables dynamic and selective display of text and graphics. In addition we present: — an innovative solution to link identification: pop-out graphical buttons of arbitrary shape.

— application of pie menus to permit low cognitive load actions that reduce the distraction of common actions, such as page turning or window selection.

— multiple window selection strategies that reduce clutter and housekeeping effort. We preferred piles-of-tiles, in which standard-sized windows were arranged in a consistent pattern on the display and actions could be done rapidly, allowing users to concentrate on the contents.

     

Algorithmic issues for three-invariant hyperplastic Critical State models

Implicit stress integration and the consistent tangents are presented for Critical State hyperplasticity models which include a dependence on the third invariant of stress. An elliptical deviatoric yielding criterion [43] is incorporated within the family of geotechnical models first proposed by Collins and Hilder [8]. An alternative expression for the yield function is proposed and the consequences of different forms of that function are revealed in terms of the stability and efficiency of the stress return algorithm. Errors associated with the integration scheme are presented. It is shown how calibration of the two new material constants is achieved through examining one-dimesional consolidation tests and undrained triaxial compression data. Material point simulations of drained triaxial compression tests are then compared with established experimental results. Strain probe analyses are used to demonstrate the concepts of energy dissipation and stored plastic work along with the robustness of the integration method. Over twenty finite element boundary value problems are then simulated. These include single three-dimensional element tests, plane strain footing analyses and cavity expansion tests. The rapid convergence of the global Newton–Raphson procedure using the consistent tangent is demonstrated in small strain and finite deformation simulations.     

A Water Stable,Near‐Zero‐Strain O3‐Layered Titanium‐Based Anode for Long Cycle Sodium‐Ion Battery

Layered transition metal (TM) oxides of the stoichiometry Na_xMO₂ (M = TM) have shown great promise in sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs); however, they are extremely sensitive to moisture. To date, most reported titanium‐based layered anodes exhibit a P2‐type structure. In contrast, O3‐type compounds are rarely investigated and their synthesis is challenging due to their higher percentage of unstable Ti³⁺ than the P2 type. Here, a pure phase and highly crystalline O3‐type Na_0.73Li_0.36Ti_0.73O₂ with high performance is successfully proposed in SIBs. This material delivers a reversible capacity of 108 mAh g^?1 with a stable and safe potential of 0.75 V versus Na/Na⁺. In situ X‐ray diffraction reveals that this material does not undergo any phase transitions and exhibits a near‐zero volume change upon Na⁺ insertion/de‐insertion, which ensures exceptional long cycle life over 6000 cycles. Importantly, it is found that this O3‐Na_0.73Li_0.36Ti_0.73O₂ shows superior moisture stability, even when immersed into water, which are both elusive for conventional layered TM oxides in SIBs. It is believed that the small interlayer distance and high occupation of interlayer vacancy promise such unprecedented water stability.     

Compensating for intraoperative soft-tissue deformations using incomplete surface data and finite elements

Image-guided liver surgery requires the ability to identify and compensate for soft tissue deformation in the organ. The predeformed state is represented as a complete three-dimensional surface of the organ, while the intraoperative data is a range scan point cloud acquired from the exposed liver surface. The first step is to rigidly align the coordinate systems of the intraoperative and preoperative data. Most traditional rigid registration methods minimize an error metric over the entire data set. In this paper, a new deformation-identifying rigid registration (DIRR) is reported that identifies and aligns minimally deformed regions of the data using a modified closest point distance cost function. Once a rigid alignment has been established, deformation is accounted for using a linearly elastic finite element model (FEM) and implemented using an incremental framework to resolve geometric nonlinearities. Boundary conditions for the incremental formulation are generated from intraoperatively acquired range scan surfaces of the exposed liver surface. A series of phantom experiments is presented to assess the fidelity of the DIRR and the combined DIRR/FEM approaches separately. The DIRR approach identified deforming regions in 90% of cases under conditions of realistic surgical exposure. With respect to the DIRR/FEM algorithm, subsurface target errors were correctly located to within 4 mm in phantom experiments.     

Steve Irwin's Influence on Wildlife Conservation

The present study assesses audience involvement with popular television personality Steve Irwin, who died tragically at the peak of his career. A survey of 1,800 media consumers revealed that Irwin was perceived to be a hero and role model for wildlife conservation. News of his death spread quickly and globally, promoting interpersonal dialoguing and Internet searching. Those more highly involved with Irwin talked with more people and longer about his death, and, as hypothesized, were more likely to increase their support of wildlife conservation. The effects of involvement with Irwin spanned age groups, educational levels, ethnic groups, and gender. Implications of these findings on the international influence of popular celebrities are discussed.     

How small the contacts could be optimal for nanoscale organic transistors?

We report on a study seeking an optimized contact configuration for organic transistors that minimizes contact effects but maintains smallest contact size. We begin with the bulk access resistance in staggered transistors which results from the charge transport through the organic semiconductor film. Bulk access resistance is an intrinsic contributor to the contact resistance which has been little understood due to lack of a reliable study tool. In this work, we utilize the inner transported power inside the semiconductor film as a medium to investigate the contact resistance and the relevant contact effects. We examine the influences of the organic film thickness (t_SC), the channel length (L), the underlying charge transport and various organic semiconductor materials with variable carrier mobility. A roughly optimal contact length (L_C) of L_C0 ≈ 6t_SC is obtained. The results reveal that besides the device architecture the underlying charge transport should be also taken into account in designing organic transistors for practical application.     

Measured average cell rate‐based congestion avoidance scheme

Techniques for congestion control of available bit‐rate (ABR) traffic in ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks remain an important issue. Several congestion control schemes have been proposed to adjust the cell rates of sources with a modified or mean allowed cell rate. To make these schemes work effectively in practice, the modified or mean allowed cell rate must converge under all conditions. However, it is not easy to obtain an accurate value, and an inaccurate value could result in network performance degradation such as severe oscillations and considerable unfairness. Therefore, we propose a measured average cell rate‐based congestion avoidance for ABR traffic in ATM networks. The scheme has high throughput and achieves shorter queue lengths without congestion. With measured average cell rate, the scheme provides fast convergence to a start‐up virtual connection (VC) and rate of equalization from different initial conditions of the sources. Thus, this scheme provides better fairness among connections. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.