Topology-controlled volume rendering

Topology provides a foundation for the development of mathematically sound tools for processing and exploration of scalar fields. Existing topology-based methods can be used to identify interesting features in volumetric data sets, to find seed sets for accelerated isosurface extraction, or to treat individual connected components as distinct entities for isosurfacing or interval volume rendering. We describe a framework for direct volume rendering based on segmenting a volume into regions of equivalent contour topology and applying separate transfer functions to each region. Each region corresponds to a branch of a hierarchical contour tree decomposition, and a separate transfer function can be defined for it. The novel contributions of our work are: 1) a volume rendering framework and interface where a unique transfer function can be assigned to each subvolume corresponding to a branch of the contour tree, 2) a runtime method for adjusting data values to reflect contour tree simplifications, 3) an efficient way of mapping a spatial location into the contour tree to determine the applicable transfer function, and 4) an algorithm for hardware-accelerated direct volume rendering that visualizes the contour tree-based segmentation at interactive frame rates using graphics processing units (GPUs) that support loops and conditional branches in fragment programs     

Intermittent microclimate cooling during exercise-heat stress in US army chemical protective clothing

The effectiveness of intermittent, microclimate cooling for men who worked in US Army chemical protective clothing (modified mission-oriented protective posture level 3; MOPP 3) was examined. The hypothesis was that intermittent cooling on a 2 min on-off schedule using a liquid cooling garment (LCG) covering 72% of the body surface area would reduce heat strain comparably to constant cooling. Four male subjects completed three experiments at 30 degrees C, 30% relative humidity wearing the LCG under the MOPP 3 during 80 min of treadmill walking at 224 +/- 5 W . m(-2). Water temperature to the LCG was held constant at 21 degrees C. The experiments were; 1) constant cooling (CC); 2) intermittent cooling at 2-min intervals (IC); 3) no cooling (NC). Core temperature increased (1.6 +/- 0.2 degrees C) in NC, which was greater than IC (0.5 +/- 0.2 degrees C) and CC (0.5 +/- 0.3 degrees C) ( p < 0.05). Mean skin temperature was higher during NC (36.1 +/- 0.4 degrees C) than IC (33.7 +/- 0.6 degrees C) and CC (32.6 +/- 0.6 degrees C) and mean skin temperature was higher during IC than CC ( p < 0.05). Mean heart rate during NC (139 +/- 9 b . min(-1)) was greater than IC (110 +/- 10 b . min(-1)) and CC (107 +/- 9 b . min(-1)) ( p < 0.05). Cooling by conduction (K) during NC (94 +/- 4 W . m(-2)) was lower than IC (142 +/- 7 W . m(-2)) and CC (146 +/- 4 W . m(-2)) ( p < 0.05). These findings suggest that IC provided a favourable skin to LCG gradient for heat dissipation by conduction and reduced heat strain comparable to CC during exercise-heat stress in chemical protective clothing.     

Website accessibility: a cross-sector comparison

The Web has transformed the way organizations interact with clients, customers, and constituents. A large portion of these groups is often neglected, namely people with disabilities. This study compares federal government, non-profit organization (NPO), and corporate homepages accessibility to determine how accessible these websites are to people with disabilities and how they compare to each other. The results indicate that federal homepages (23%), which are mandated to be accessible, are significantly more accessible than NPO (11%) and corporate homepages (6%).

---

An empirical investigation of the novice experience with soft keyboards

An experiment with 12 participants tested text entry rates on two sizes of soft keyboards with either a Qwerty layout or a layout presenting a randomized letter arrangement after each tap. The randomized layout simulated the novice experience by requiring users to visually scan the layout for each tap to find the intended letter. Rates for the Qwerty layouts were about 20 wpm with no significant difference between the large and small size. Rates for both sizes of the randomized layouts were very low, about 5.4 wpm. This is the expected walk-up text entry rate with a soft keyboard bearing an unfamiliar layout. This empirical result allows us to reject a previous model of novice interaction that used Fitts' law for stylus movement and the Hick-Hyman law for visual scan time.     

Commentary on "Publishing opinions: A note on the usefulness of commentaries."

Comments on J. J. Christensen-Szalanski and L. R. Beach's (see record 1984-21471-001) conclusion that the attention given to commentaries and replies to articles did not justify the extra space. The author indicates that a 40% increase in space was associated with a 91% increase in citations; data do not argue against the use of commentaries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of hydrogen on mechanical properties of vanadium-niobium alloys

Mechanical properties of V-Nb alloys were investigated from 78 to about 300 K. The effects of alloying composition on the yield and flow stress are consistent with a hardening model due to the “misfit”" of one element in the matrix of the other. Additions of up to about 0.6 at. pct of hydrogen have a moderate strengthening effect on the yield stress of high vanadium alloys, but relatively little effect on the high niobium alloys. Little or no effect of adding hydrogen to any of the alloys was observed for the strain hardening coefficient. High Nb alloys were found to be much less embrittled by small additions of hydrogen than were high V alloys. In addition, the failure of severely embrittled alloys was found to be initiated intergranularly by impingement of mechanical twins on grain boundaries. It is speculated that the grain boundaries may be enriched hydrogen.     

A pilot survey of 39 Victorian WWTP effluents using a high speed luminescent umu test in conjunction with a novel GC-MS-database technique for automatic identification of micropollutants

In 2007, samples of treated effluent were collected at point of discharge to the environment from 39 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located across Victoria, Australia grouped by treatment type. Sample genotoxicity was assessed with a high-throughput luminescent umu test method using Salmonella typhimurium TL210 strain, with and without addition of a commercially available metabolic activation system. Samples were also screened using a gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric mass-structure database recognition method. A genotoxic response was observed in half of the samples tested without metabolic activation system (相似文献   

Improving the Parameterization of Approximate Subdivision Surfaces

We provide a method for improving the parameterization of patching schemes that approximate Catmull‐Clark subdivision surfaces, such that the new parameterization conforms better to that of the original subdivision surface. We create this reparameterization in real‐time using a method that only depends on the topology of the surface and is independent of the surface's geometry. Our method can handle patches with more than one extraordinary vertex and avoids the combinatorial increase in both complexity and storage associated with multiple extraordinary vertices. Moreover, the reparameterization function is easy to implement and fast.     

Selective electrodeposition of metals from simulated waste solutions

Most industrial waste streams contain a number of different heavy metals. The feasibility of selective electrodeposition of cadmium, cobalt and nickel as their pure metals (99%) from binary mixtures has been investigated. Single cation linear sweep voltamograms and nucleation potential measurements have been made and used to predict the optimum potentials and conditions for selective electro-deposition from the mixed-cation solutions. The anions used in this work are SO₄ ^2–, Cl^– and BF₄ . The optimum potential for removal by electrodeposition of Cd from a solution containing Cd(ii) and Co(ii) or Ni(ii) without codepositing Co or Ni has been evaluated from a simple diagram constructed from nucleation potential measurements. It is shown that the [Cd(ii)] remaining in the solution after exhaustive electrolysis at a fixed potential is determined by the Nernst equation, and not by the electrolysis time provided that a critical minimum time has been exceeded.