Quad‐Mesh Generation and Processing: A Survey

Triangle meshes have been nearly ubiquitous in computer graphics, and a large body of data structures and geometry processing algorithms based on them has been developed in the literature. At the same time, quadrilateral meshes, especially semi‐regular ones, have advantages for many applications, and significant progress was made in quadrilateral mesh generation and processing during the last several years. In this survey we discuss the advantages and problems of techniques operating on quadrilateral meshes, including surface analysis and mesh quality, simplification, adaptive refinement, alignment with features, parametrisation and remeshing.     

The affective consequences of social comparison: Either direction has its ups and downs.

Research on social comparison processes has assumed that a comparison in a given direction (upward or downward) will lead to a particular affective reaction. In contrast, the present 2 studies proposed and found that a comparison can produce either positive or negative feelings about oneself, independent of its direction. Several factors moderated the tendency to derive positive or negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. In Study 1, cancer patients low in self-esteem and with low perceived control over their symptoms and illness were more likely to see downward comparisons as having negative implications for themselves. Those low in self-esteem were also more likely to perceive upward comparisons as negative. In Study 2, individuals with high marital dissatisfaction and those who felt uncertain about their marital relationship were more likely to experience negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. The implications of these findings for social comparison theory and for the coping and adaptation literature are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of physical properties on one-dimensional downward smoldering of char: Numerical analysis

Smoldering combustion in a packed bed of carbonaceous material is a very complex process, where numerous physical and chemical parameters are involved. This study was conducted to examine the impact of several physical parameters on the behavior of natural downward smoldering. For that purpose, a one-dimensional homogeneous model has been developed. Due to the fact that drying, pyrolysis or oxidative degradation occurs significantly faster than carbon oxidation, only the latter phenomenon was taken into account. The model was evaluated by comparison of numerical simulation results with experimental observations. Sensitivity analysis calculations of different physical properties of the bed material with respect to smoldering time, smoldering front velocity and front temperature suggest that in future experiments special attention should be devoted to accurate determination of bed shrinkage, bulk carbon density, mean void size, oxygen diffusivity in fuel bed.     

Bacterial Dehydrogenases Facilitate Oxidative Inactivation and Bioremediation of Chloramphenicol

Antimicrobial resistance represents a major threat to human health and knowledge of the underlying mechanisms is therefore vital. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of oxidoreductases that inactivate the broad-spectrum antibiotic chloramphenicol via dual oxidation of the C3-hydroxyl group. Accordingly, chloramphenicol oxidation either depends on standalone glucose-methanol-choline (GMC)-type flavoenzymes, or on additional aldehyde dehydrogenases that boost overall turnover. These enzymes also enable the inactivation of the chloramphenicol analogues thiamphenicol and azidamfenicol, but not of the C3-fluorinated florfenicol. Notably, distinct isofunctional enzymes can be found in Gram-positive (e. g., Streptomyces sp.) and Gram-negative (e. g., Sphingobium sp.) bacteria, which presumably evolved their selectivity for chloramphenicol independently based on phylogenetic analyses. Mechanistic and structural studies provide further insights into the catalytic mechanisms of these biotechnologically interesting enzymes, which, in sum, are both a curse and a blessing by contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance as well as to the bioremediation of chloramphenicol.     

Designing Personalized Garments with Body Movement

The standardized sizes used in the garment industry do not cover the range of individual differences in body shape for most people, leading to ill-fitting clothes, high return rates and overproduction. Recent research efforts in both industry and academia, therefore, focus on virtual try-on and on-demand fabrication of individually fitting garments. We propose an interactive design tool for creating custom-fit garments based on 3D body scans of the intended wearer. Our method explicitly incorporates transitions between various body poses to ensure a better fit and freedom of movement. The core of our method focuses on tools to create a 3D garment shape directly on an avatar without an underlying sewing pattern, and on the adjustment of that garment's rest shape while interpolating and moving through the different input poses. We alternate between cloth simulation and rest shape adjustment based on stretch to achieve the final shape of the garment. At any step in the real-time process, we allow for interactive changes to the garment. Once the garment shape is finalized for production, established techniques can be used to parameterize it into a 2D sewing pattern or transform it into a knitting pattern.     

Believing what you feel: Using proprioceptive feedback to reduce unilateral neglect.

Unilateral spatial neglect declines when participants reach to grip the center of long metal rods compared with when they point to the perceived center, suggesting that visuomotor control systems are less affected by neglect than other representational systems (I. H. Robertson, D. Nico, & B. Hood, 1995). In this study, 16 participants with unilateral left neglect actually picked up rods, and we predicted short-term improvements in neglect because of induced conflict between a phenomenally symmetrical visual world on the one hand and a proprioceptively conveyed rightward-biased world on the other. With participants serving as their own controls, significant short-term improvements in neglect were found on 2 out of 4 neglect tasks after participants experienced proprioceptive feedback discrepant from the judgments they made on the basis of visual information alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)