Scientific sketching for collaborative VR visualization design

We present four studies investigating tools and methodologies for artist-scientist-technologist collaboration in designing multivariate, virtual reality (VR) visualizations. Design study 1 identifies the promise of 3D drawing-style interfaces for VR design and also establishes limitations of these tools with respect to precision and support for animation. Design study 2 explores animating artist-created visualization designs with scientific 3D fluid flow data. While results captured an accurate sense of flow that was advantageous as compared to the results of study 1, the potential for visual exploration using the design tools tested was limited. Design study 3 reveals the importance of a new 3D interface that overcomes the precision limitation found in study 1 while remaining accessible to artist collaborators. Drawing upon previous results, design study 4 engages collaborative teams in a design process that begins with traditional paper sketching and moves to animated, interactive, VR prototypes "sketched" by designers in VR using interactive 3D tools. Conclusions from these four studies identify important characteristics of effective artist-accessible VR visualization design tools and lead to a proposed formalized methodology for successful collaborative design that we expect to be useful in guiding future collaborations. We call this proposed methodology Scientific Sketching.     

Anthropogenic and climatic influences over the past three centuries on characteristics of an Adirondack lake,Eastern North America

Fourth Lake is a drainage lake at 43°N, 74°W, from which a 37‐cm long mud‐water interface core was recovered. ²¹⁰Pb dating indicates the core spans ≈340 years, from the Little Ice Age through modern global warming. Diatom accumulation responds to anthropogenic watershed disturbances, declining slightly up‐core until a peak in the late‐1800s attributable to sediment and nutrient influx from logging and enlargement of the outlet dam. A dramatic decrease occurs ≈1900 as logging and lake filling ceased, and a smaller peak ≈1960 accompanies residential development. Similar changes occur in organic carbon accumulation, which ranges from 0.0038–0.024 mg cm^?2 year^?1, with generally decreasing values up‐core, punctuated by maximum values in the late‐1800s. Expressing diatoms as concentration, however, reveals a doubling up‐core that positively correlates with changes extending beyond the watershed, including Northern Hemisphere temperature, atmospheric CO₂ concentration and solar irradiance (R = 0.627, 0.675 and 0.400, respectively). A >50% increase in % organic carbon, from 3.8% to 5.9%, also positively correlates with these larger‐scale environmental conditions (R = 0.828, 0.830 and 0.832), while negative correlations with the extrabasinal records are exhibited by magnetic susceptibility (R = ?0.654, ?0.496, and ?0.660) and clay (R = ?0.770, ?0.762, and ?0.737). These changes are consistent with decreased sediment influx and reduced dilution of biogenous sedimentary components. In contrast to total diatoms, the accumulation of planktonic genus Asterionella displays a long‐term increase up‐core. Potential explanations include increasing duration of the ice‐free season or a shift in the timing of the spring bloom and a mismatch with abundance of predator(s). Asterionella also increases as a percentage of total diatoms, being positively correlated with extrabasinal conditions (R = 0.827, 0.774 and 0.674). This change occurs at the expense of many benthic genera and, over the past century, at the expense of tychoplanktonic genus, Aulacosiera. Heavily silicified, Aulacosiera requires strong mixing to remain within the epilimnion. Thus, its decline might result from increasing stratification caused by warming.     

Nature of the Thermal pretransition of synthetic phospholipids: dimyristolyl- and dipalmitoyllecithin

The hydrated synthetic lecithins, dimyristoyl and dipalmitoyllecithins, undergo two thermal transitions, a broad low enthalpy "pretransition" prior to the sharp first-order "chain-melting" transition. Both phospholipids exhibit the same temperature-dependent structural changes associated with the thermal pretransition. At low temperatures, below the pretransition, a one-dimensional lamellar lattice is observed. The hydrocarbon chains are fully extended and tilted with respect to the plane of the lipid bilayer. The hydrocarbon chain packing displays a temperature dependence and the angle of tilt of the hydrocarbon chains decreases with increasing temperature, reaching a minimum value of 30 degrees at the pretransition temperature of both lecithins. The pretransition is associated with a structural transformation from a one-dimensional lamellar to a two-dimensional monoclinic lattice consisting of lipid lamellae distorted by a periodic ripple. The hydrocarbon chains remain tilted in the temperature range intermediate between the pretransition and chain-melting transition. The cell parameters of this two-dimensional lattice exhibit a compositional dependence. The a parameter (proportional to the lamellar repeat distance) increases with increasing water content, while the b parameter (a measure of the ripple periodicity) decreases with increasing water content. At the chain-melting transition, the hydrocarbon chains of the phospholipid melt and assume a liquid-like conformation and the lattice reverts to one-dimensional lamellar. These structural changes observed for dimyristoyl- and dipalmitoyllecithins may be a common feature of all synthetic lecithins exhibiting a thermal pretransition. The appearance of the pretransition and accompanying two-dimensional may arise from specific interactions between the choline moiety of the polar head group and the structured water matrix surrounding it.     

Urocortin 1 and 3 Impair Maternal Defense Behavior in Mice.

Lactating female mice fiercely defend offspring while exhibiting decreased fear and anxiety. Recent work (J. S. Lonstein & S. C. Gammie, 2002) found that intracerebroventricular (icv) injections of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), a putative anxiogenic peptide, inhibit maternal defense behavior. This study examines effects of CRF-related peptides, urocortin (Ucn) 1 and Ucn 3, on maternal aggression in mice. Intracerebroventricular injections of both Ucn 1 (0.2 μg) and Ucn 3 (0.5 μg) reduced aggression but not pup retrieval. c-Fos levels were elevated by intracerebroventricular injections of Ucn 1 (0.2 μg) and Ucn 3 (0.5 μg) in 2 and 6 brain regions, respectively; however, both triggered increases in bed nucleus of the stria terminalis dorsal (BNSTd) and lateral septum (LS). These findings suggest that CRF-related peptides similarly modulate maternal aggression and that BNSTd/LS may be critical sites for negative regulation of maternal aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Injury risk among children of low-income U.S.-born and immigrant mothers.

The number of immigrants in the United States is at an all time high, yet psychologists have largely ignored the domain of immigrant health. This article considers 1 aspect of immigrant health, risk for pediatric injury. A sample of over 5,000 5-year-old children from impoverished families was studied; approximately 13% had immigrant mothers. Children of immigrants had a significantly lower rate of injury in the prior year. This was particularly true of non-White children of immigrants. Three possible mediators for this finding--assistance with parenting, parenting style, and health care accessibility--were considered, but none explained the difference. The need for further research on the topic and implications of results for injury prevention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Execution of Legal Documents by Sexual Minority Individuals.

Sexual minority individuals (specifically bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered [BGLT]) have identities and relationships that are socially stigmatized and legally unrecognized. An online survey of 398 BGLT individuals was conducted concerning their execution of 5 legal planning documents: a will, powers of attorney for finances and health care, a living will, and hospital visitation authorization. We found support for the hypothesis that BGLT individuals who are in committed relationships, have disclosed their sexual orientation to immediate family, and have more income are more likely to have executed some or all of these documents. The authors discuss implications for BGLT individuals and same-sex couples, the need for policy changes and therapeutic intervention, and future directions for research in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and the Detection of Contingency in Causal Learning.

Young and older participants' ability to detect negative, random, and positive response-outcome contingencies was evaluated using both contingency estimation and response rate adaptation tasks. Age differences in contingency estimation were consistently greater for negative than positive contingencies, and these differences, though still present, were smaller when response rate adaptation was used as the measure of contingency learning. Detecting causal contingency apparently becomes more difficult with age, especially when an oven numerical estimate of contingency must be provided and when the relationship between a causal event and an outcome is negative. A model that incorporates features of both associative and rule-based approaches to contingency learning (e.g., P. C. Price & J. F. Yates, 1995; D. R. Shanks, 1995) provides the best explanation for this pattern of findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of Anxiety and Depression in Urban Youth: An Examination of the Tripartite Model.

In this study, the authors examined the validity of the tripartite model of anxiety and depression (L. A. Clark & D. Watson, 1991) in a community epidemiological sample of 467 urban African American youth. Participants completed the Baltimore How I Feel (N. S. Ialongo, S. G. Kellam, & J. Poduska, 1999), a measure of anxiety and depressive symptoms, in Grades 6 and 9. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a 3-factor model representing the tripartite model fit the data well and better than competing models. Longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis revealed configural invariance of the tripartite factor structure. However, a predicted divergence among dimensions over time was not evidenced. High correlations among the tripartite dimensions suggest that anxiety and mood symptoms may not differentiate in urban youth. Results are discussed in terms of the ethnicity and urban context of this community sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Filopodia formation induced by active mDia2/Drf3

Filopodia are rod-shaped cell surface protrusions composed of a parallel bundle of actin filaments. Since filopodia frequently emanate from lamellipodia, it has been proposed that they form exclusively by the convergence and elongation of actin filaments generated in lamellipodia networks. However, filopodia form without Arp2/3-complex, which is essential for lamellipodia formation, indicating that actin filaments in filopodia may be generated by other nucleators. Here we analyzed the effects of ectopic expression of GFP-tagged full length or a constitutively active variant of the human formin mDia2/Drf3. By contrast to the full-length molecule, which did not affect cell behaviour and was entirely cytosolic, active Drf3 lacking the C-terminal regulatory region (Drf3DeltaDAD) induced the formation of filopodia and accumulated at their tips. Low expression of Drf3DeltaDAD induced rod-shaped or tapered filopodia, whereas over-expression resulted in multiple, club-shaped filopodia. The clubs were filled with densely bundled actin filaments, whose number but not packing density decreased further away from the tip. Interestingly, clubs frequently increased in width after protrusion beyond the cell periphery, which correlated with increased amounts of Drf3DeltaDAD at their tips. These data suggest Drf3-induced filopodia form and extend by de novo nucleation of actin filaments instead of convergent elongation. Finally, Drf3DeltaDAD also induced the formation of unusual, lamellipodia-like structures, which contained both lamellipodial markers and the prominent filopodial protein fascin. Microarray analyses revealed highly variable Drf3 expression levels in different commonly used cell lines, reflecting the need for more detailed analyses of the functions of distinct formins in actin cytoskeleton turnover and different cell types.     

Female-Headed Households and Achieving Home Ownership in Australia

This paper begins by identifying the growth in female-headed households in Australia. Despite this increase, it is argued that females still lag males in terms of home ownership rates (HORs) with women in Australia facing similar ownership challenges as those experienced in the UK and the USA. In seeking to establish any dynamic change, the study analyses female home ownership rates in Australia for two points in time, 1998 and 2008. Logit models are used to predict HORs. The results indicate that factors such as household type, income and source of income have an impact on rates of ownership. The paper concludes that female-headed households in Australia show an increasing propensity to purchase which match, or even exceed, those of male-headed households.