Automated interpretation and accessible presentation of technical diagrams for blind people

The EU-supported TeDUB (Technical Drawings Understanding for the Blind) project is developing a software system that aims to make technical diagrams accessible to blind and visually impaired people. It consists of two separate modules: one that analyses drawings either semi-automatically or automatically, and one that presents the results of this analysis to blind people and allows them to interact with it. The system is capable of analysing and presenting diagrams from a number of formally defined domains. A diagram enters the system as one of two types: first, diagrams contained in bitmap images, which do not explicitly contain the semantic structure of their content and thus have to be interpreted by the system, and second, diagrams obtained in a semantically enriched format that already yields this structure. The TeDUB system provides blind users with an interface to navigate and annotate these diagrams using a number of input and output devices. Extensive user evaluations have been carried out and an overall positive response from the participants has shown the effectiveness of the approach.     

Optimizing Safe Yield Policy Implementation

The presented method enhances groundwater-mandated safe yield management. It is useful for settings that prevent sustained yield or integrated management. To protect hydraulically connected surface water rights, the Utah government’s Cache Valley groundwater management plan proposes that total pumping increase not exceed 84,431 m³/day. To determine how best to spatially distribute additional allowable pumping, stakeholders quantified limits defining acceptable impacts on selected water resource indicators. A new simulation–optimization (S–O) algorithm used these limits while computing optimal spatially distributed perennial yield or safe yield groundwater pumping extraction strategies. The limits prevent unacceptable decreases in: head and net flow between aquifer and surface waters (rivers, surface/subsurface drains, springs, lakes). The optimization objective function maximizes weighted pumping to provide water for 18 growing municipalities. For 16 perennial yield scenarios, computed optimal pumping increases differ in protectiveness toward senior water rights, and range from 16% to 103% of the state plan-proposed increase. Implementing a protective strategy would achieve 90% of the storage changes needed to reach equilibrium within 23 years. Indicator potentiometric heads would reach equilibrium within 10–40 years. At equilibrium, an optimal Cache Valley perennial yield strategy acceptably minimizes net annual non-pumping discharges. By comparison, multi-period 20-year transient groundwater mining optimizations allow more pumping in early years. Pumping then must decline to satisfy seepage and head constraints through year 20. Adverse seepage impact would increase for years thereafter. For situations governed by safe or perennial yield policy, equilibrium-based (steady-state) optimization is very useful. It effectively develops optimal perennial yield strategies.     

Physiological aspects of androstenone and skatole formation in the boar-A review with experimental data

The advantages of boars in fattening performance and carcass traits when compared with the other sexes are explained by testicular anabolic hormones. The steroid androstenone with a pronounced urine-like odour is the main objection against boar meat. More recently skatole (faecal odour) has been identified as another contributor to off-odour of pork. Androstenone is synthesized in the testes, secreted into the circulation and accumulated in adipose tissue due to its lipophilic property. Its biosynthesis is linked to the synthesis of anabolic testicular hormones. Therefore no practical method is available to maintain the sex-dependent anabolic potential of boars and to suppress androstenone selectively. Skatole is formed from tryptophan by specialized microbes in the colon when energy in the colon is limited. Gonadal hormones, but also growth hormone and IGF-1, favour its formation. Oestrogens, which are synthesized in high amounts in boar testes, decrease voluntary food intake, thus lowering the intestinal passage rate. Additionally oestrogens probably influence directly intestinal contractions via specific gut receptors. It appears, however, that glucocorticoids are more important. They counteract mitogenic hormones, such as IGF-1, ultimately leading to gut mucosal cell degradation. The resulting cell debris probably is the main source of tryptophan for microbial skatole formation. In contrast to androstenone, skatole formation can be easily suppressed by dietary means.     

Differences in cytocompatibility,dynamics of the oxide layers’ formation,and nickel release between superelastic and thermo-activated nickel–titanium archwires

Superelastic (SE) and thermo-activated (TA) nickel–titanium (NiTi) archwires are used in everyday orthodontic practice, based on their acceptable biocompatibility and well-defined shape memory properties. However, the differences in their surface microstructure and cytotoxicity have not been clearly defined, and the standard cytotoxicity tests are too robust to detect small differences in the cytotoxicity of these alloys, all of which can lead to unexpected adverse reactions in some patients. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that the differences in manufacture and microstructure of commercially available SE and TA archwires may influence their biocompatibility. The archwires were studied as-received and after conditioning for 24 h or 35 days in a cell culture medium under static conditions. All of the tested archwires, including their conditioned medium (CM), were non-cytotoxic for L929 cells, but Rematitan SE (both as received and conditioned) induced the apoptosis of rat thymocytes in a direct contact. In contrast, TruFlex SE and Equire TA increased the proliferation of thymocytes. The cytotoxic effect of Rematitan SE correlated with the higher release of Ni ions in CM, higher concentration of surface Ni and an increased oxygen layer thickness after the conditioning. In conclusion, the apoptosis assay on rat thymocytes, in contrast to the less sensitive standard assay on L929 cells, revealed that Rematitan SE was less cytocompatible compared to other archwires and the effect was most probably associated with a higher exposition of the cells to Ni on the surface of the archwire, due to the formation of unstable oxide layer.     

Visualizing and fuzzy filtering for discovering temporal trajectories of association rules

We propose a user-centric rule filtering method that allows to identify association rules that exhibit a certain user-specified temporal behavior with respect to rule evaluation measures. The method can considerably reduce the number of association rules that have to be assessed manually after a rule induction. This is especially necessary if the rule set contains many rules as it is the case for the task of finding rare patterns inside the data. For the proposed method, we will reuse former work on the visualization of association rules [M. Steinbrecher, R. Kruse, Visualization of possibilistic potentials, in: Foundations of Fuzzy Logic and Soft Computing, in: Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci., vol. 4529, Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg, 2007, pp. 295–303] and use an extension of it to motivate and assess the presented filtering technique. We put the focus on rules that are induced from a data set that contains a temporal variable and build our approach on the requirement that temporally ordered sets of association rules are available, i.e., one set for every time frame. To illustrate this, we propose an ad-hoc learning method along the way. The actual rule filtering is accomplished by means of fuzzy concepts. These concepts use linguistic variables to partition rule-related domains of interest, such as the confidence change rate. The original rule sets are then matched against these user concepts and result in only those rules that match the respective concepts to a predefined extent. We provide empirical evidence by applying the proposed methods to hand-crafted as well as real-world data sets and critically discuss the current state and further prospects.     

团分划问题的固定参数算法研究

图论中的团分划问题属于NP-完全问题,难以在多项式时间内解决。为此,对团分划问题的固定参数算法进行研究,提出一个针对K4-free图的新归约法则,结合深度限制搜索树技术对K4-free图中的团分划固定参数可解类算法做出改进。实验结果表明,与原算法相比,在稀疏图的情况下改进算法效率提高了30%。     

Beziehungen zwischen Struktur und Geschmack bei Aminos?uren mit cyclischen Seitenketten

Zusammenfassung 1-Aminocycloalkan-l-carbonsäuren mit Ringgrößen von 4–11 (ohne 10) wurden synthetisiert und auf ihre Geschmackseigenschaften untersucht. Süßer Geschmack tritt vom 4-Ring bis zum 8-Ring auf, beim 6-Ring ist der Schwellenwert minimal (c _Ssü=1–3 mmol/l). Bitter sind die Verbindungen vom 5-Ring bis zum 9-Ring, das Minimum des Schwellenwertes liegt beim 8-Ring (c _sbi=2–5 mmol/l). Die größeren Ringe sind bis zu Konzentrationen von 20 mmol/l ohne Geschmack. Beim 6-Ring löscht eine 2-Methylgruppe jeden Geschmackseindruck, während die 3- und 4-Methylverbindungen süß und bitter sind. Die 4-Äthylverbindung ist bitter aber nicht süß, die 4-tert.-Butylverbindung ist ohne Geschmack. 1-Aminonorbornan-1-carbonsäure ist süß (c _Ssü 50 mmol/l) und bitter (c _sbi=5–7mmo1/1), wobei der Schwellenwert für bitter fast eine Zehnerpotenz kleiner ist. tert.-Leucin ist ohne Geschmack. Die Ergebnisse werden im Zusammenhang mit früheren Untersuchungen an offenkettigen Aminosäuren diskutiert und in Modelle über sterische Voraussetzungen für Geschmack eingeordnet.

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Relationsships between structure and taste in amino acids with cyclic side chains

Summary 1-Aminocycloalkane-1-carboxylic acids with ring sizes of 4–11 (excluding 10) were synthesized and tested for their taste properties. The compounds with 4- to 8-membered rings are sweet, with threshold values going through a minimum for the 6-membered ring (c _tsw = l-3 mM/l). The compounds with 5- to 9-membered rings are bitter. Here the threshold value reaches a minimum for the 8-membered ring (c _tbi=2–5 mM/l). The larger rings are without taste up to concentrations of 20 mmol/l. With the 6-membered ring a 2-methyl group abolishes any taste impression, whereas the 3- and 4-methyl compounds are sweet and bitter. The 4-ethyl compound is bitter but not sweet, the 4-tert.-butyl compound has no taste. 1-Aminonorbornane-l-carboxylic acid is sweet (c _tsw 50mM/l) and bitter (c _tbi= 5–7 mM/l), withc _tbi being significantly smaller thanc _tsw. tert-Leucine is without taste. The results are discussed in relation to previous investigations into steric prerequisites for taste in the amino acid series.

     

The Mahomet Aquifer

Abstract

Emerging intrastate transboundary issues focus on use of the Mahomet aquifer, which underlies about fifteen counties and many other political entities in east-central Illinois. This sand and gravel aquifer in the lower part of the buried Mahomet Bedrock Valley ranges between four and fourteen miles wide and from about 50 to 200 feet thick. Much of the region's rural population, several large communities, and many small towns obtain water from the Mahomet aquifer, as do industrial, agricultural, and commercial users. Increased development of the Mahomet aquifer to meet growing demands for water has caused conflicts over real or perceived adverse effects. One result has been the creation of fifteen resource protection zones and twelve water authorities. For groundwater supplies, resource protection zones help municipalities protect water-supply wells from potential adverse impacts. Many resource protection zones overlap one another, however, so this situation could lead to disputes over use of the resource. The reason that several of the twelve water authorities were organized was to meet a challenge perceived from a demand to be placed on the aquifer, in other words, a potential for conflict of use. Complicating the situation is that some of the water authorities overlap the resource protection zones. This could lead to disputes not only about water use, but also over which jurisdiction has the authority to settle a dispute. The Mahomet Aquifer Consortium was recently organized by concerned people representing diverse groundwater interests at the local level, including the private sector, professional organizations, and various governmental units. The consortium brings together representatives of some groups that typically did not communicate with each other in the past. The consortium may provide a forum through which emerging transboundary issues pertaining to use of the Mahomet aquifer can be addressed. Because the consortium is a voluntary organization that relies on consensus building, the success it may achieve in resolving future conflicts over groundwater use from the Mahomet aquifer remains to be seen.     

Observation of a half-quantum-flux periodicity pattern in an rf SQUID with small critical currents

We have found experimentally that rf SQUID's working in a nonhysteretic mode with small critical currents give exactly at resonance and at very low rf bias a triangular pattern with a period equal to half of one elementary quantum of magnetic flux. We discuss a possible explanation of this peculiar result.     

Stress Generation, Avoidance Coping, and Depressive Symptoms: A 10-Year Model.

This study examined (a) the role of avoidance coping in prospectively generating both chronic and acute life stressors and (b) the stress-generating role of avoidance coping as a prospective link to future depressive symptoms. Participants were 1,211 late-middle-aged individuals (500 women and 711 men) assessed 3 times over a 10-year period. As predicted, baseline avoidance coping was prospectively associated with both more chronic and more acute life stressors 4 years later. Furthermore, as predicted, these intervening life stressors linked baseline avoidance coping and depressive symptoms 10 years later, controlling for the influence of initial depressive symptoms. These findings broaden knowledge about the stress-generation process and elucidate a key mechanism through which avoidance coping is linked to depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)