Results of a User Study on 2D Hurricane Visualization

We present the results from a user study looking at the ability of observers to mentally integrate wind direction and magnitude over a vector field. The data set chosen for the study is an MM5 (PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model) simulation of Hurricane Lili over the Gulf of Mexico as it approaches the southeastern United States. Nine observers participated in the study. This study investigates the effect of layering on the observer's ability to determine the magnitude and direction of a vector field. We found a tendency for observers to underestimate the magnitude of the vectors and a counter‐clockwise bias when determining the average direction of a vector field. We completed an additional study with two observers to try to uncover the source of the counter‐clockwise bias. These results have direct implications to atmospheric scientists, but may also be able to be applied to other fields that use 2D vector fields.     

Standardizing signs on bublic information in the New Coastal Area

The public information signs ( The term public information signs will be abbreviated to public signs in the following text.)in the urban areas not only offer convenience for people to move around, but also reflect the level of development and progress of those areas. It is essential to the creative development and uplifting of the New Costal Area (thereafter, NCA) to have a good understanding of its present situation with regard to its public signs, to discuss the related issues in the development, to work out a system that is up to international standard and develop its own standards in the course of implementing the national strategies on standardizing public signs.     

International Working Group for Sabotage Concerns of Transport and Storage Casks

Abstract

The International Working Group for Sabotage Concerns of Transport and Storage Casks (IWGSTSC), gathers multiple organisations from different countries (for US party Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Sandia National Laboratories; for German party Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit and Fraunhofer Institut; for the French party Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire). The goal of the IWGSTSC is to continue cooperation to improve the analytic capabilities, through information sharing and collaborative research and development plus modelling, to understand the potential adverse public health effects and environmental impacts of radiological sabotage directed at or associated with the transport and storage of civilian nuclear material or other civilian radioactive materials. The Parties may also undertake collaborative research and development in other areas of the physical protection of civilian nuclear materials or other radioactive materials. Since 2000, the IWGSTSC has conducted an extensive test programme for the assessment of the aerosol source term produced in the case of spent fuel transport sabotage by a high energy density device, after having examined several scenarios. The major goal of this programme is to produce an accurate estimate of the so called spent fuel ratio in the domain of respirable, aerosol particles produced. All the reports prepared by Sandia National Laboratories have precisely emphasised the important efforts they have made from the beginning and the amount of work already accomplished. In parallel, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), assisted by technical experts from different countries, has provided a draft document promised to become guidance for the security of radioactive or nuclear materials during transport. The IAEA document contains general guidance addressed to anyone who intends to implement or improve the security of material transports, but the text is, as of today, limited to rather general recommendations. Based on all the knowledge accumulated from past experiments and also based on the work carried out in Vienna at the IAEA, the IWGSTSC members have decided to work on the development of a method for the evaluation of the vulnerability and the source term. So for doing that, joint projects for the research, development, testing and evaluation of the consequences of the malevolent actions during transport are being pursued and are described in this paper.     

Simplified GIS based methodology to quantify risk factors for alternative route evaluation for transport of radioactive materials

Abstract

The risk associated with the transport of radioactive materials can be impacted by many factors of the transport system, as well as by the area through which the materials may travel. Informed decision making requires a quantitative evaluation of pertinent information or conditions. Geographic information systems are often used to display spatial information. The authors have developed a simplified methodology that can be used to quantify the conditions that impact risk over a segment of a transport route. The methodology aggregates the impact of a condition based on the magnitude of the impacting condition and its location with respect to the transport corridor. This paper is a proof-of-concept demonstration for the methodology for the factors of the population in the vicinity of the roadway and the highway design criteria with respect to access ramps and medians. The methodology is particularly suited to a comparison of alternative routes for decision making, where an easily implemented methodology is needed to narrow down multiple alternatives to those few requiring a more detailed analysis.     

Biological Insights Into Robotics: Honeybee Foraging Behavior by a Waggle Dance

A honeybee informs her nestmates of flower locations by a unique behavior called a 'waggle dance'. We regard this behavior as a good model of the 'propagation and sharing of knowledge' to maintain a society. We have attempted to reveal how this dance benefits the colony using mathematical models and computer simulation based on parameters obtained from observations of bee behavior. Our simulation indicated that the most successful forages were made by a putative bee colony that used the dance to communicate. Video analysis of worker honeybee behavior in the field showed that a bee does not dance in a single, random place in the hive, but waggles several times in one place and several times in another. The orientation and duration of waggle runs varied from run to run, within ranges of ±15° and ±15%, respectively. We also found that most of the bees that listened to the waggle dance turned away from the dancer after listening to one or two runs. These data suggest that honeybees use the waggle dance as a method of communication, but that they must base their forages on ambiguous information about the location of a food source.     

Information-theoretic framework for unsupervised activity classification

This article presents a mathematical framework based on information theory to compare multivariate sensory streams. Central to this approach is the notion of configuration: a set of distances between information sources, statistically evaluated for a given time span. As information distances capture simultaneously effects of physical closeness, intermodality, functional relationship and external couplings, a configuration can be interpreted as a signature for specific patterns of activity. This provides ways for comparing activity sequences by viewing them as points in an activity space. Results of experiments with an autonomous robot illustrate how this framework can be used to perform unsupervised activity classification.     

The Translation of Colours into Black-and-White Photographs

Usual chromatic sensitization of black-and-white films attempts to translate a completely natural subject, rich in tone values and colours. into a monochrome representation. To remind an observer of the subject is only possible when taking both into account. A theoretical spectral sensitivity like that of the eye, neither at normal nor at increased contrast, is satisfactory in spite of the apparent obviousness of its choice, because the exact rendering of relative luminosities must be disturbed if objects of different hue, but of equal visual luminosity, are to be distinguished. The usual chromatic sensitivity of block-and-white films is sotisfactary; it might be improved further by slightly reducing the sensitivity to blue light, and increasing that to green light.     

MODELING METHOD OF 4D INFORMATION MODEL FOR COOPERATIVE DESIGN OF MECHANICAL PRODUCTS

The continuous developing features in the design of mechanical product and based on 3D entity model is aimed at, and the extension of the 4-dimensional model with the process of designing, the knowledge described model on the level of semantic understanding and summarizing the designing process and the way of discovering knowledge from multi-information model are studied. On the basis of designing the broad sensed collaborative system, through discussion of the relationship between the implicit knowledge of the users and the designing knowledge as well as commanding all the designing links, taking advantage of the way of concluding and deducting in the concept of the designers, the synthetic knowledge unit formed in the dynamic process from the conception design to the last design is schemed out, and the knowledge discovered principle in the dynamic designing process of the mechanical products and the key technology in its implementation under the milieu of network is brought forward.     

SPOT WELDING QUALITY FUZZY CONTROL SYSTEM BASED ON MULTISENSOR INFORMATION FUSION

The multisensor information fusion technology is adopted for real time measuring the four parameters which are connected closely with the weld nugget size(welding current,electrode displacement,dynamic resistance,welding time),thus much more original information is obtained.In this way,the difficulty caused by measuring indirectly weld nugget size can be decreased in spot welding quality control,and the stability of spot welding quality can be improved.According to this method,two-dimensional fuzzy controllers are designed with the information fusion result as input and the thyristor control signal as output.The spot welding experimental results indicate that the spot welding quality intelligent control method based on multisensor information fusion technology can compensate the influence caused by variable factors in welding process and ensure the stability of welding quality.     

移动IPv6中IPSec的优化方案

移动IPv6是新一代互联网移动通信协议,一经定义便被3G标准技术框架所采纳和推广。但因其移动性、无线链路接入及协议自身的复杂性等特点,移动IPv6也带来了一系列新的安全问题。从其工作机制出发揭示了移动IPv6的安全漏洞,总结了其自身提供的安全措施。其中IPSec是作为一种安全机制被引入IPv6并强制实施。重点分析了IPSec和移动IPv6融合时存在的问题,有针对性地给出了在移动IPv6中应用IPSec的两种优化方案。