Efficient selection, storage, and retrieval of irregularly distributed elevation data

The advantages and disadvantages of various digital terrain models are discussed briefly and a new model for triangulating a set of nonuniformly distributed three-dimensional surface observations is described. An algorithm for hierarchical subdivision of a set of data points into nested triangles is proposed. The algorithm selects a subset of the data points which reduce the maximum error between a piecewise linear approximation of the surface using only the selected points and the elevations of the points not selected. The data structure used is such that for any given degree of approximation (in the maximum-error sense) only the necessary points need to be stored. Furthermore, an efficient method is available to approximate the elevation of the surface at any point not included in the original data. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated experimentally.     

Group decisions as social inference heuristics.

Three experiments investigated whether people use group decision outcomes as heuristic cues to judge group members' attitudes. In Experiment 1, Ss read a vignette in which a group's decision either was explicitly stated or in which Ss were compelled to infer the decision from other relevant information. It was hypothesized that Ss would be more likely to use the group decision outcome as an inference heuristic when the outcome was provided for them than when they were forced to generate that outcome. The results confirmed our hypothesis. In Experiment 2, a group decision was presented to Ss for whom the decision was either high or low in personal relevance. The results showed that Ss displayed a stronger correspondence bias for group decisions low in personal relevance than for ones high in personal relevance. Moreover, the decision outcome was better remembered over time than other decision-relevant information. Experiment 3 replicated this result for a nondichotomous decision outcome and also found that the more likely Ss were to remember the outcome over time, the more correspondent their inferences became. These and other data are shown to support a heuristic model of the social inference process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid proteomic patterns of sulfur mustard-exposed patients

Sulfur mustard is an alkylating agent that reacts with ocular, respiratory, cutaneous, and bone marrow tissues. Main late respiratory complications are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchiectasis, asthma, and bronchiolitis obliterans. The aim of the present study was to identify differentially expressed proteins in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of control healthy and sulfur mustard-exposed lung disease patients. The BAL protein profile of ten healthy and 30 exposed patients with mild, moderate, and severe conditions (ten males in each group) were separated with 2-D SDS-PAGE and differentially expressed protein spots were successfully identified with MALDI TOF TOF MS. Among the differentially expressed proteins we observed a significant increase in vitamin D binding protein isoforms, haptoglobin isoforms, and fibrinogen especially in exposed moderate and severe lung diseases patients (p<0.01). Moreover, compared with healthy controls, significant decreases was noted in calcyphosine, surfactant protein A, and transthyretin in these patients (p<0.01). Apolipoprotein A1 was detected in all patients' BAL fluid but none of the healthy controls. Furthermore, S100 calcium-binding protein A8 was only detected in BAL fluid of moderate and severe groups. These findings will be useful to improve current methods of monitoring and helps to identify new therapeutic targets for treatment of this complicated illness.     

Putting Sensor Data to the Service of the Smart Grid: From the Substation to the AMI

One of the requirements of a smart grid (SG) is making the electrical network and its subsystems aware of their condition. The deployment of various sensing devices plays an essential part in achieving this goal. Nevertheless, data generated by this deployment needs to be well managed so that it can be leveraged for operational improvement. Data aggregation is perceived as an important technique for managing data in the SG in general, and in its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in particular. Indeed, data aggregation techniques have been used in order to reduce communication overhead in SG networks. However, in order to fully take advantage of the aggregation process, some level of intelligence should be introduced at concentrator nodes to make the network more responsive to local conditions. Moreover, by using a more meaningful aggregation technique, entities can be accurately informed of any disturbance. This paper contributes an agent-based approach for data and energy management in an SG. It also proposes CoDA, a correlation-based data aggregation technique designed for the AMI. CoDA employs fuzzy logic to evaluate the correlation between several messages received from Smart Meters (SMs). Analysis and simulation results show the benefits of the proposed approach w.r.t. both packet concatenation and no aggregation approaches.     

VARIANT: A System for Terrain Modeling at Variable Resolution

We describe VARIANT (VAriable Resolution Interactive ANalysis of Terrain), an extensible system for processing and visualizing terrains represented through Triangulated Irregular Networks (TINs), featuring the accuracy of the representation, possibly variable over the terrain domain, as a further parameter in computation.VARIANT is based on a multiresolution terrain model, which we developed in our earlier research. Its architecture is made of a kernel, which provides primitive operations for building and querying the multiresolution model; and of application programs, which access a terrain model based on the primitives in the kernel.VARIANT directly supports basic queries (e.g., windowing, buffering, computation of elevation at a given point, or along a given line) as well as high-level operations (e.g., fly-over visualization, contour map extraction, viewshed analysis). However, the true power of VARIANT lies in the possibility of extending it with new applications that can exploit its multiresolution features in a transparent way.     

Saturated proportional derivative control of flexible-joint manipulators

In this paper, the control of flexible-joint robotic manipulators while avoiding actuator saturation is investigated. Several proportional derivative controllers are developed, all of which disallow actuator saturation by guaranteeing that the applied torque is less than a specified maximum value. In particular, a Gibbs parameterization of the joint angles is included in the control laws, which allows for an increased control torque as compared to an Euler angle parameterization. An equilibrium point of the closed-loop system is proven to be asymptotically stable using the Lyapunov stability analysis. Moreover, the proposed control laws do not require any knowledge of the manipulator?s mass, stiffness, or dissipation properties, and as such, are robust to modelling errors. The proposed controllers are tested on a single-link flexible-joint manipulator experimentally and on a two-link flexible-joint manipulator in simulation, and are compared to the performance of controllers found in the literature.     

Applying Programming Language Evaluation Criteria for Model Transformation Languages

The appraisal of the status quo for the methods of evaluating model transformation languages (MTLs) manifests several shortcomings: they are often either language-specific or feature-specific, they may lack of sufficient discussion on possible values for proposed criteria, few MTLs may be applied in their evaluation, or a combination of these limitations. We have previously proposed a method which utilizes programming language (PL) criteria for evaluation of MTLs. In this paper, an improved method is proposed in which a large family of 11 major criteria with total of 46 sub-criteria, mainly inspired from PL evaluation criteria, is used to evaluate MTLs. Then, an interactive methodology is proposed that consolidates the criteria to establish a \textit{decision-support} system for MTL selection. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the criteria and the proposed methodology, six MTLs were used for studies: ATL, Kermeta, ETL, QVT-O, QVT-R, and TGG. The results of MTL evaluations corroborate that the criteria are highly effective in practice; they provide helpful insights for different users to enable them to choose the most appropriate MTL for the application at hand. With our decision-support methodology, we could have achieved evidence to imply applicability in real-world scenarios.     

Synthesis,characterization, and application of the sodium poly(styrenesulfonate) produced from waste polystyrene cups as an admixture in concrete

Wasted polystyrene (PS) plastic cups were used in the synthesis of sodium poly(styrenesulfonate) (NaPSS). The produced polyelectrolyte was water‐soluble. The viscosimetric molecular weight was 126,146 g mol^?1. The sulfonation of the polymer was estimated through FTIR spectroscopy and chemical analysis of the number of sulfonic groups. The presence of bands at 1326 and 1188 cm^?1 in the infrared spectra was characteristic for sulfonic groups. The polymer was obtained with 60.3% of sulfonation. An aqueous solution of NaPSS was used as an admixture in concrete of portland cement. The results showed that the slump increasing of the concrete was up to 300% with 0.3% content of NaPSS per weight of cement. It was possible to reduce the water content of the concrete in 13.2% using NaPSS solution as an admixture. The compressive strength gain was 23.9% after 28 days of curing. The results indicated that NaPSS, produced from waste PS cups, can be satisfactorily used either as a plasticizer or as an admixture for water reduction in concrete. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 1534–1538, 2005     

Histological and ultrastructural study of the intracellular behavior of indium in the testicular tissues

Indium, a IIIA group element of the periodic chart, has many medical uses for diagnostic and clinical investigations in humans. This element is also used in industry and in nuclear fields where released streams can contaminate environment. Consequently, indium can reach humans mainly by natural ways. In this work, we attempted to study the incidence of this element on the food intake and body and testicle weights of rat, as well as the histological and the ultrastructural consequences of its presence in testicles using conventional transmission electron microscopy. Our study showed that this element induced a significant decrease in the food intake and body and testicles weights and caused necrosis and vacuolization in germinal cells. The ultrastructural observations showed the presence of electron-dense deposits characteristic of indium in the lysosomes of Leydig and Sertoli cells as well as sufferance in mitochondria of indium-treated rats. Despite the role of lysosome in the protection of living cells, by sequestration and concentration of indium in testicle cells under insoluble form, it is probable that this element has noxious effects on food intake and body and testicles weight and induces necrosis on seminal tissues of treated rats.