Conceptualization,measurement, and application of semantic transparency in visual notations

Numerous visual notations are present in technical and business domains. Notations have to be cognitively effective to ease the planning, documentation, and communication of the domains’ concepts. Semantic transparency (ST) is one of the elementary principles that influence notations’ cognitive effectiveness. However, the principle is criticized for not being well defined and challenges arise in the evaluations and applications of ST. Accordingly, this research’s objectives were to answer how the ST principle is defined, operationalized, and evaluated in present notations as well as applied in the design of new notations in ICT and related areas. To meet these objectives, a systematic literature review was conducted with 94 studies passing the selection process criteria. The results reject one of the three aspects, which define semantic transparency, namely “ST is achieved with the use of icons.” Besides, taxonomies of related concepts and research methods, evaluation metrics, and other findings from this study can help to conduct verifiable ST-related experiments and applications, consequently improving the visual vocabularies of notations and effectiveness of the resulting diagrams.

     

Einfluss der Wechselwirkung von Reaktion und Fluiddynamik auf das Verhalten von Strahlschlaufenreaktoren

Jet loop reactors are used as apparatus to facilitate chemical or biological reactions. This type of apparatus is characterized by an internal circulation flow, essentially driven by the injection of liquid. The nozzle can also be used to inject and disperse gas. The internal fluid dynamics and thus the reactor behavior is significantly determined by the introduced momentum and by the internal gas distribution. To describe the mutual influence of a gas-consuming reaction and the internal fluid dynamics, a simplified model based on a momentum balance and a material balance was used. From the exemplary calculations, a critical range for non-selective reactions and for fluid dynamic stability is given.     

Tetranorsesquiterpenoids as Attractants of Yucca Moths to Yucca Flowers

Journal of Chemical Ecology - The obligate pollination mutualism between Yucca and yucca moths is a classical example of coevolution. Oviposition and active pollination by female yucca moths occur...     

Influence of motion correction on the visual analysis of cardiac magnetic resonance stress perfusion imaging

Objective

Image post-processing corrects for cardiac and respiratory motion (MoCo) during cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) stress perfusion. The study analyzed its influence on visual image evaluation.

Materials and methods

Sixty-two patients with (suspected) coronary artery disease underwent a standard CMR stress perfusion exam during free-breathing. Image post-processing was performed without (non-MoCo) and with MoCo (image intensity normalization; motion extraction with iterative non-rigid registration; motion warping with the combined displacement field). Images were evaluated regarding the perfusion pattern (perfusion deficit, dark rim artifact, uncertain signal loss, and normal perfusion), the general image quality (non-diagnostic, imperfect, good, and excellent), and the reader’s subjective confidence to assess the images (not confident, confident, very confident).

Results

Fifty-three (non-MoCo) and 52 (MoCo) myocardial segments were rated as ‘perfusion deficit’, 113 vs. 109 as ‘dark rim artifacts’, 9 vs. 7 as ‘uncertain signal loss’, and 817 vs. 824 as ‘normal’. Agreement between non-MoCo and MoCo was high with no diagnostic difference per-patient. The image quality of MoCo was rated more often as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ (92 vs. 63%), and the diagnostic confidence more often as “very confident” (71 vs. 45%) compared to non-MoCo.

Conclusions

The comparison of perfusion images acquired during free-breathing and post-processed with and without motion correction demonstrated that both methods led to a consistent evaluation of the perfusion pattern, while the image quality and the reader’s subjective confidence to assess the images were rated more favorably for MoCo.

     

Biofilm Responses to Flow Regulation by Dams in Mediterranean Rivers

Dams regulate downstream hydrology and modify water quality, which in turn can impinge on the biota, especially in rivers naturally subject to large hydrological variability, such as those under Mediterranean climate. The effect of dams on biofilms was analysed in three tributaries (Cinca, Siurana and Montsant) of the Ebro River (NE Spain). We hypothesized that flow regulation would lead to lower spatial variability of biofilms on the streambed and to a decrease in their metabolic rate per unit biomass, especially during low flow periods. Biofilm characteristics were studied in five transects evenly spaced along river reaches upstream (control) and downstream (impact) of dams in each river, along with riverbed granulometry, hydraulics and water chemistry. Chlorophyll‐a, respiratory activity, photosynthetic capacity and efficiency, and extracellular enzymatic activities (β‐d ‐glucosidase, alkaline phosphatase and leucine‐amino‐peptidase) of epilithic biofilms were measured in different seasons. Spatial variability of chemical and biological variables was reduced downstream of the dams. Chlorophyll‐a concentration, photosynthetic efficiency and respiration capacity were higher in impact than in control reaches, but generally, low inorganic phosphorus concentrations resulted in comparable phosphatase activities downstream and upstream of dams. On the other hand, β‐d ‐glucosidase and leucine‐amino‐peptidase activities were higher at impact reaches. Biofilms were thicker and metabolically more active at the impact reaches, with higher ability to transform dissolved organic matter. Overall, results from this study provide evidence that dams can largely affect the structure and activity of river biofilms, with foreseeable important consequences for river ecosystem functioning. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved formalism for quantum computation based on geometric algebra—case study: Grover’s search algorithm

The Grover search algorithm is one of the two key algorithms in the field of quantum computing, and hence it is desirable to represent it in the simplest and most intuitive formalism possible. We show firstly, that Clifford’s geometric algebra, provides a significantly simpler representation than the conventional bra-ket notation, and secondly, that the basis defined by the states of maximum and minimum weight in the Grover search space, allows a simple visualization of the Grover search analogous to the precession of a spin- ${\frac{1}{2}}$ particle. Using this formalism we efficiently solve the exact search problem, as well as easily representing more general search situations. We do not claim the development of an improved algorithm, but show in a tutorial paper that geometric algebra provides extremely compact and elegant expressions with improved clarity for the Grover search algorithm. Being a key algorithm in quantum computing and one of the most studied, it forms an ideal basis for a tutorial on how to elucidate quantum operations in terms of geometric algebra—this is then of interest in extending the applicability of geometric algebra to more complicated problems in fields of quantum computing, quantum decision theory, and quantum information.     

Exploring multi-user interactions with dynamic NFC-displays

Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging technology for touch-based mobile interactions with single- and multi-tagged objects. Although the latter may allow for simultaneous and collaborative interactions, most prototypes were not designed for multiple users and were only evaluated with single-user interactions. In this paper, we investigate the design, usability and user experience of multi-user interactions on dynamic NFC-displays. These interactive surfaces use a grid of NFC-tags for the direct manipulation of projected application user interfaces. In two user studies with three prototypes for multi-user interaction, we evaluated the performance of dynamic NFC-displays, interactions among users and the interplay between mobile devices and large displays.     

Figure-ground separation by cue integration

This letter presents an improved cue integration approach to reliably separate coherent moving objects from their background scene in video sequences. The proposed method uses a probabilistic framework to unify bottom-up and top-down cues in a parallel, "democratic" fashion. The algorithm makes use of a modified Bayes rule where each pixel's posterior probabilities of figure or ground layer assignment are derived from likelihood models of three bottom-up cues and a prior model provided by a top-down cue. Each cue is treated as independent evidence for figure-ground separation. They compete with and complement each other dynamically by adjusting relative weights from frame to frame according to cue quality measured against the overall integration. At the same time, the likelihood or prior models of individual cues adapt toward the integrated result. These mechanisms enable the system to organize under the influence of visual scene structure without manual intervention. A novel contribution here is the incorporation of a top-down cue. It improves the system's robustness and accuracy and helps handle difficult and ambiguous situations, such as abrupt lighting changes or occlusion among multiple objects. Results on various video sequences are demonstrated and discussed. (Video demos are available at http://organic.usc.edu:8376/ approximately tangx/neco/index.html .).     

Rapid convergence to feature layer correspondences

We describe a neural network able to rapidly establish correspondence between neural feature layers. Each of the network's two layers consists of interconnected cortical columns, and each column consists of inhibitorily coupled subpopulations of excitatory neurons. The dynamics of the system builds on a dynamic model of a single column, which is consistent with recent experimental findings. The network realizes dynamic links between its layers with the help of specialized columns that evaluate similarities between the activity distributions of local feature cell populations, are subject to a topology constraint, and can gate the transfer of feature information between the neural layers. The system can robustly be applied to natural images, and correspondences are found in time intervals estimated to be smaller than 100 ms in physiological terms.