WorldWideScience

Sample records for integrative functioning virtual

  1. Integration of the virtual 3D model of a control system with the virtual controller

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herbuś, K.; Ociepka, P.

    2015-11-01

    Nowadays the design process includes simulation analysis of different components of a constructed object. It involves the need for integration of different virtual object to simulate the whole investigated technical system. The paper presents the issues related to the integration of a virtual 3D model of a chosen control system of with a virtual controller. The goal of integration is to verify the operation of an adopted object of in accordance with the established control program. The object of the simulation work is the drive system of a tunneling machine for trenchless work. In the first stage of work was created an interactive visualization of functioning of the 3D virtual model of a tunneling machine. For this purpose, the software of the VR (Virtual Reality) class was applied. In the elaborated interactive application were created adequate procedures allowing controlling the drive system of a translatory motion, a rotary motion and the drive system of a manipulator. Additionally was created the procedure of turning on and off the output crushing head, mounted on the last element of the manipulator. In the elaborated interactive application have been established procedures for receiving input data from external software, on the basis of the dynamic data exchange (DDE), which allow controlling actuators of particular control systems of the considered machine. In the next stage of work, the program on a virtual driver, in the ladder diagram (LD) language, was created. The control program was developed on the basis of the adopted work cycle of the tunneling machine. The element integrating the virtual model of the tunneling machine for trenchless work with the virtual controller is the application written in a high level language (Visual Basic). In the developed application was created procedures responsible for collecting data from the running, in a simulation mode, virtual controller and transferring them to the interactive application, in which is verified the

  2. Is physiotherapy integrated virtual walking effective on pain, function, and kinesiophobia in patients with non-specific low-back pain? Randomised controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yilmaz Yelvar, Gul Deniz; Çırak, Yasemin; Dalkılınç, Murat; Parlak Demir, Yasemin; Guner, Zeynep; Boydak, Ayşenur

    2017-02-01

    According to literature, virtual reality was found to reduce pain and kinesiophobia in patients with chronic pain. The purpose of the study was to investigate short-term effect of the virtual reality on pain, function, and kinesiophobia in patients with subacute and chronic non-specific low-back pain METHODS: This randomised controlled study in which 44 patients were randomly assigned to the traditional physiotherapy (control group, 22 subjects) or virtual walking integrated physiotherapy (experimental group, 22 subjects). Before and after treatment, Visual Analog Scale (VAS), TAMPA Kinesiophobia Scale (TKS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), Timed-up and go Test (TUG), 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), and Single-Leg Balance Test were assessed. The interaction effect between group and time was assessed by using repeated-measures analysis of covariance. After treatment, both groups showed improvement in all parameters. However, VAS, TKS, TUG, and 6MWT scores showed significant differences in favor of the experimental group. Virtual walking integrated physiotherapy reduces pain and kinesiophobia, and improved function in patients with subacute and chronic non-specific low-back pain in short term.

  3. Virtual continuity of measurable functions and its applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vershik, A. M.; Zatitskii, P. B.; Petrov, F. V.

    2014-12-01

    A classical theorem of Luzin states that a measurable function of one real variable is `almost' continuous. For measurable functions of several variables the analogous statement (continuity on a product of sets having almost full measure) does not hold in general. The search for a correct analogue of Luzin's theorem leads to a notion of virtually continuous functions of several variables. This apparently new notion implicitly appears in the statements of embedding theorems and trace theorems for Sobolev spaces. In fact it reveals the nature of such theorems as statements about virtual continuity. The authors' results imply that under the conditions of Sobolev theorems there is a well-defined integration of a function with respect to a wide class of singular measures, including measures concentrated on submanifolds. The notion of virtual continuity is also used for the classification of measurable functions of several variables and in some questions on dynamical systems, the theory of polymorphisms, and bistochastic measures. In this paper the necessary definitions and properties of admissible metrics are recalled, several definitions of virtual continuity are given, and some applications are discussed. Bibliography: 24 titles.

  4. Integration of virtual control units in the total vehicle simulation; Integration virtueller Steuergeraete in die Gesamtfahrzeugsimulation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Soppa, Andreas; Lund, Christoph [Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg (Germany)

    2012-11-01

    In this article the simulation of information and energetics of vehicles with model-integration of electronic control units (ECU) in a simulation, based on the coupling of physical and control components of the total vehicle are investigated. For that simplified models of ECU's, simulating the functionally of the real ECU's, were used. The integration of virtual EUC's in models of full vehicles makes it possible to simulate the energetics for different driving cycles in a realistic way. By better simulation results an evaluation of physical components and the amount of functions are possible. In the area of the thermal management of vehicles by this analyses and optimizations of functions become possible. This article shows the advantages of embedding virtual ECU's in simulations of full vehicles. (orig.)

  5. Structure functions of longitudinal virtual photons at low virtualities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ioffe, B.L.; Shushpanov, I.A.

    1996-01-01

    The structure functions F L 1 and F L 2 of longitudinal virtual photons at low virtualities are calculated in the framework of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) in the zero and first order of ChPT. It is assumed that the virtuality of a target longitudinal photon p 2 is much less than the virtuality of the hard projectile photon Q 2 and both are less than the characteristic ChPT scale. In this approximation the structure functions are determined by the production of two pions in γγ collisions. The numerical results for F L 2 and F L 1 are presented (the upper index refers to the longitudinal polarization of the virtual target photon). The possibilities of measurements of these structure functions are briefly discussed. copyright 1996 The American Physical Society

  6. Bridging the gap: a virtual health record for integrated home care

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Hägglund

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The coexistence of different information systems that are unable to communicate is a persistent problem in healthcare and in integrated home care in particular. Theory and methods: Physically federated integration is used for design of the underlying technical architecture to implement a mobile virtual health record for integrated home care. A user centered system development approach is followed during design and development of the system. Results: A technical platform based on a service-oriented approach where database functionality and services are separated has been developed. This guarantees flexibility with regard to changed functional demands and allows third party systems to interact with the platform in a standardized way. A physically federated integration enables point-of-care documentation, integrated presentation of information from different feeder systems, and offline access to data on handheld devices. Feeder systems deliver information in XML-files that are mapped against an ideal XML schema, published as an interface for integration with the information broker, and inserted into the mediator database. Conclusions: A seamless flow of information between both different care professionals involved in integrated home care and patients and relatives is provided through mobile information access and interaction with different feeder systems using the virtual health record.

  7. INTEGRATION OF VIRTUAL ENTERPRISES USING SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miladin Stefanovic

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Virtual enterprise integration (VEI is virtually the most critical success factor for making virtual enterprise (VE a real, competitive, and widely implemented organizational an d management concept. One of possible approaches in virtual enterprise integration is employment of web services. In this paper we will present process-oriented approach for developing an SOA for VEI. The general assumption of suggested approach is that service oriented architecture is based on business service and that business services mostly correspond to exchanged documentation in a real business system. CASE tool for web service specification is also presented.

  8. Age differences in virtual environment and real world path integration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diane E Adamo

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Accurate path integration requires the integration of visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular self-motion cues and age effects associated with alterations in processing information from these systems may contribute to declines in path integration abilities. The present study investigated age-related differences in path integration in conditions that varied as a function of available sources of sensory information. Twenty-two healthy, young (23.8 ± 3.0 yrs. and 16 older (70.1 ± 6.4 yrs. adults participated in distance reproduction and triangle completion tasks performed in a virtual environment and two real world conditions: guided walking and wheelchair propulsion. For walking and wheelchair propulsion conditions, participants wore a blindfold and wore noise-blocking headphones and were guided through the workspace by the experimenter. For the virtual environment (VE condition, participants viewed self-motion information on a computer monitor and used a joystick to navigate through the environment. For triangle completion tasks, older compared to younger individuals showed greater errors in rotation estimations performed in the wheelchair condition; and for rotation and distance estimations in the VE condition. Distance reproduction tasks, in contrast, did not show any age effects. These findings demonstrate that age differences in path integration vary as a function of the available sources of information and by the complexity of outbound pathway.

  9. Integration of virtual and real scenes within an integral 3D imaging environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Jinsong; Aggoun, Amar; McCormick, Malcolm

    2002-11-01

    The Imaging Technologies group at De Montfort University has developed an integral 3D imaging system, which is seen as the most likely vehicle for 3D television avoiding psychological effects. To create real fascinating three-dimensional television programs, a virtual studio that performs the task of generating, editing and integrating the 3D contents involving virtual and real scenes is required. The paper presents, for the first time, the procedures, factors and methods of integrating computer-generated virtual scenes with real objects captured using the 3D integral imaging camera system. The method of computer generation of 3D integral images, where the lens array is modelled instead of the physical camera is described. In the model each micro-lens that captures different elemental images of the virtual scene is treated as an extended pinhole camera. An integration process named integrated rendering is illustrated. Detailed discussion and deep investigation are focused on depth extraction from captured integral 3D images. The depth calculation method from the disparity and the multiple baseline method that is used to improve the precision of depth estimation are also presented. The concept of colour SSD and its further improvement in the precision is proposed and verified.

  10. An Integrated Virtual Environment System

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Hahn, James K; Gritz, Larry; Darken, Rudolph; Geigel, Joseph; Lee, Jong W

    1993-01-01

    .... A joint research at the George Washington University and the Naval Research Laboratory is bringing together issues from these domains to study the factors that contribute to an integrated virtual environment...

  11. Neuropsychological performance and integrated evaluation for disabled people using Virtual Reality: integrated VR profile.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piccini, PierAntonio

    2002-01-01

    This chapter describes a Virtual Reality (VR) based innovative model of evaluation of the performance and potentiality of young mentally/psychically disabled subjects with learning difficulties. Using an immersive PC-based VR system, the study investigated the characteristics of 150 disabled subjects in the EU funded project "Horizon O.D.A.--Catania-1998--2000". The result is the definition of an individual neuropsychological "Integrated Profile", based on VR performance, that allows an objective functional benchmark between different subjects. This model can be used to investigate the possibility of job integration for mentally/psychically disabled subjects.

  12. Multisensory Integration in the Virtual Hand Illusion with Active Movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Woong; Li, Liang; Satoh, Satoru; Hachimura, Kozaburo

    2016-01-01

    Improving the sense of immersion is one of the core issues in virtual reality. Perceptual illusions of ownership can be perceived over a virtual body in a multisensory virtual reality environment. Rubber Hand and Virtual Hand Illusions showed that body ownership can be manipulated by applying suitable visual and tactile stimulation. In this study, we investigate the effects of multisensory integration in the Virtual Hand Illusion with active movement. A virtual xylophone playing system which can interactively provide synchronous visual, tactile, and auditory stimulation was constructed. We conducted two experiments regarding different movement conditions and different sensory stimulations. Our results demonstrate that multisensory integration with free active movement can improve the sense of immersion in virtual reality.

  13. A framework for different levels of integration of computational models into web-based virtual patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kononowicz, Andrzej A; Narracott, Andrew J; Manini, Simone; Bayley, Martin J; Lawford, Patricia V; McCormack, Keith; Zary, Nabil

    2014-01-23

    Virtual patients are increasingly common tools used in health care education to foster learning of clinical reasoning skills. One potential way to expand their functionality is to augment virtual patients' interactivity by enriching them with computational models of physiological and pathological processes. The primary goal of this paper was to propose a conceptual framework for the integration of computational models within virtual patients, with particular focus on (1) characteristics to be addressed while preparing the integration, (2) the extent of the integration, (3) strategies to achieve integration, and (4) methods for evaluating the feasibility of integration. An additional goal was to pilot the first investigation of changing framework variables on altering perceptions of integration. The framework was constructed using an iterative process informed by Soft System Methodology. The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) initiative has been used as a source of new computational models. The technical challenges associated with development of virtual patients enhanced by computational models are discussed from the perspectives of a number of different stakeholders. Concrete design and evaluation steps are discussed in the context of an exemplar virtual patient employing the results of the VPH ARCH project, as well as improvements for future iterations. The proposed framework consists of four main elements. The first element is a list of feasibility features characterizing the integration process from three perspectives: the computational modelling researcher, the health care educationalist, and the virtual patient system developer. The second element included three integration levels: basic, where a single set of simulation outcomes is generated for specific nodes in the activity graph; intermediate, involving pre-generation of simulation datasets over a range of input parameters; advanced, including dynamic solution of the model. The third element is the

  14. Multisensory Integration in the Virtual Hand Illusion with Active Movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Woong Choi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Improving the sense of immersion is one of the core issues in virtual reality. Perceptual illusions of ownership can be perceived over a virtual body in a multisensory virtual reality environment. Rubber Hand and Virtual Hand Illusions showed that body ownership can be manipulated by applying suitable visual and tactile stimulation. In this study, we investigate the effects of multisensory integration in the Virtual Hand Illusion with active movement. A virtual xylophone playing system which can interactively provide synchronous visual, tactile, and auditory stimulation was constructed. We conducted two experiments regarding different movement conditions and different sensory stimulations. Our results demonstrate that multisensory integration with free active movement can improve the sense of immersion in virtual reality.

  15. Integrating a virtual agent into the real world

    OpenAIRE

    André, Elisabeth

    2007-01-01

    Integrating a virtual agent into the real world : the virtual anatomy assistant ritchie / K. Dorfmüller-Ulhaas ... - In: Intelligent virtual agents : 7th international conference, IVA 2007, Paris, France, September 17-19, 2007 ; proceedings / Catherine Pelachaud ... (eds.). - Berlin [u.a.] : Springer, 2007. - S. 211-224. - (Lecture notes in computer science ; 4722 : Lecture notes in artificial intelligence)

  16. Integration issues in virtual enterprises supported by an architectural framework

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zwegers, Arian; Hannus, Matti; Tølle, Martin

    2001-01-01

    enterprises, especially concerning integration issues. This paper lays down an architectural framework, called VERAM, which aims to support the set-up and operation of virtual enterprises. Five different levels of integration are identified. They should all be addressed during the formation of a virtual......Nowadays, enterprises cooperate more extensively with other enterprises during the entire product life cycle. Temporary alliances between various enterprises emerge such as those in Virtual Enterprises. However, many enterprises experience difficulties in the formation and operation of virtual...

  17. Virtual Satellite Integration Environment, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Advatech Pacific proposes to develop a Virtual Satellite Integration Environment (VSIE) for the NASA Ames Mission Design Center. The VSIE introduces into NASA...

  18. Integrating virtual reality applications in nuclear safeguards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barletta, Michael; Crete, Jean-Maurice; Pickett, Susan

    2011-01-01

    Virtual reality (VR) tools have already been developed and deployed in the nuclear industry, including in nuclear power plant construction, project management, equipment and system design, and training. Recognized as powerful tools for, inter alia, integration of data, simulation of activities, design of facilities, validation of concepts and mission planning, their application in nuclear safeguards is still very limited. However, VR tools may eventually offer transformative potential for evolving the future safeguards system to be more fully information-driven. The paper focuses especially on applications in the area of training that have been underway in the Department of Safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency. It also outlines future applications envisioned for safeguards information and knowledge management, and information-analytic collaboration. The paper identifies some technical and programmatic pre-requisites for realizing the integrative potential of VR technologies. If developed with an orientation to integrating applications through compatible platforms, software, and models, virtual reality tools offer the long-term potential of becoming a real 'game changer,' enabling a qualitative leap in the efficiency and effectiveness of nuclear safeguards. The IAEA invites Member States, industry, and academia to make proposals as to how such integrating potential in the use of virtual reality technology for nuclear safeguards could be realized. (author)

  19. Integrated Data Visualization and Virtual Reality Tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dryer, David A.

    1998-01-01

    The Integrated Data Visualization and Virtual Reality Tool (IDVVRT) Phase II effort was for the design and development of an innovative Data Visualization Environment Tool (DVET) for NASA engineers and scientists, enabling them to visualize complex multidimensional and multivariate data in a virtual environment. The objectives of the project were to: (1) demonstrate the transfer and manipulation of standard engineering data in a virtual world; (2) demonstrate the effects of design and changes using finite element analysis tools; and (3) determine the training and engineering design and analysis effectiveness of the visualization system.

  20. Virtual reality training improves balance function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mao, Yurong; Chen, Peiming; Li, Le; Huang, Dongfeng

    2014-09-01

    Virtual reality is a new technology that simulates a three-dimensional virtual world on a computer and enables the generation of visual, audio, and haptic feedback for the full immersion of users. Users can interact with and observe objects in three-dimensional visual space without limitation. At present, virtual reality training has been widely used in rehabilitation therapy for balance dysfunction. This paper summarizes related articles and other articles suggesting that virtual reality training can improve balance dysfunction in patients after neurological diseases. When patients perform virtual reality training, the prefrontal, parietal cortical areas and other motor cortical networks are activated. These activations may be involved in the reconstruction of neurons in the cerebral cortex. Growing evidence from clinical studies reveals that virtual reality training improves the neurological function of patients with spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy and other neurological impairments. These findings suggest that virtual reality training can activate the cerebral cortex and improve the spatial orientation capacity of patients, thus facilitating the cortex to control balance and increase motion function.

  1. Virtual reality training improves balance function

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mao, Yurong; Chen, Peiming; Li, Le; Huang, Dongfeng

    2014-01-01

    Virtual reality is a new technology that simulates a three-dimensional virtual world on a computer and enables the generation of visual, audio, and haptic feedback for the full immersion of users. Users can interact with and observe objects in three-dimensional visual space without limitation. At present, virtual reality training has been widely used in rehabilitation therapy for balance dysfunction. This paper summarizes related articles and other articles suggesting that virtual reality training can improve balance dysfunction in patients after neurological diseases. When patients perform virtual reality training, the prefrontal, parietal cortical areas and other motor cortical networks are activated. These activations may be involved in the reconstruction of neurons in the cerebral cortex. Growing evidence from clinical studies reveals that virtual reality training improves the neurological function of patients with spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy and other neurological impairments. These findings suggest that virtual reality training can activate the cerebral cortex and improve the spatial orientation capacity of patients, thus facilitating the cortex to control balance and increase motion function. PMID:25368651

  2. Optimizing Virtual Network Functions Placement in Virtual Data Center Infrastructure Using Machine Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolodurina, I. P.; Parfenov, D. I.

    2018-01-01

    We have elaborated a neural network model of virtual network flow identification based on the statistical properties of flows circulating in the network of the data center and characteristics that describe the content of packets transmitted through network objects. This enabled us to establish the optimal set of attributes to identify virtual network functions. We have established an algorithm for optimizing the placement of virtual data functions using the data obtained in our research. Our approach uses a hybrid method of visualization using virtual machines and containers, which enables to reduce the infrastructure load and the response time in the network of the virtual data center. The algorithmic solution is based on neural networks, which enables to scale it at any number of the network function copies.

  3. Satisfaction with virtual worlds: An integrated model of experiential value

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verhagen, T.; Feldberg, J.F.M.; van den Hooff, B.J.; Meents, S.; Merikivi, J.

    2011-01-01

    Although virtual worlds increasingly attract users today, few studies have addressed what satisfies virtual world users. We therefore defined and tested an integrated model of experiential system value and virtual world satisfaction. Drawing upon expectancy-value and cognitive evaluation theories,

  4. Performance evaluation of multi-stratum resources integration based on network function virtualization in software defined elastic data center optical interconnect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Hui; Zhang, Jie; Ji, Yuefeng; Tian, Rui; Han, Jianrui; Lee, Young

    2015-11-30

    Data center interconnect with elastic optical network is a promising scenario to meet the high burstiness and high-bandwidth requirements of data center services. In our previous work, we implemented multi-stratum resilience between IP and elastic optical networks that allows to accommodate data center services. In view of this, this study extends to consider the resource integration by breaking the limit of network device, which can enhance the resource utilization. We propose a novel multi-stratum resources integration (MSRI) architecture based on network function virtualization in software defined elastic data center optical interconnect. A resource integrated mapping (RIM) scheme for MSRI is introduced in the proposed architecture. The MSRI can accommodate the data center services with resources integration when the single function or resource is relatively scarce to provision the services, and enhance globally integrated optimization of optical network and application resources. The overall feasibility and efficiency of the proposed architecture are experimentally verified on the control plane of OpenFlow-based enhanced software defined networking (eSDN) testbed. The performance of RIM scheme under heavy traffic load scenario is also quantitatively evaluated based on MSRI architecture in terms of path blocking probability, provisioning latency and resource utilization, compared with other provisioning schemes.

  5. Robotically facilitated virtual rehabilitation of arm transport integrated with finger movement in persons with hemiparesis

    OpenAIRE

    Davidow Amy; Lafond Ian; Saleh Soha; Qiu Qinyin; Fluet Gerard G; Merians Alma S; Adamovich Sergei V

    2011-01-01

    Abstract Background Recovery of upper extremity function is particularly recalcitrant to successful rehabilitation. Robotic-assisted arm training devices integrated with virtual targets or complex virtual reality gaming simulations are being developed to deal with this problem. Neural control mechanisms indicate that reaching and hand-object manipulation are interdependent, suggesting that training on tasks requiring coordinated effort of both the upper arm and hand may be a more effective me...

  6. Empirical evaluation of mapping functions for navigation in virtual reality using phones with integrated sensors

    KAUST Repository

    Benzina, Amal

    2012-01-01

    Mobile phones provide an interesting all-in-one alternative for 3D input devices in virtual environments. Mobile phones are becoming touch sensitive and spatially aware, and they are now part of our daily activities. We present Phone-Based Motion Control, a novel one-handed travel technique for a virtual environment. The technique benefits from the touch capability offered by growing number of mobile phones to change viewpoint translation in virtual environments, while the orientation of the viewpoint is controlled by built-in sensors in the mobile phone. The travel interaction separates translation (touch based translation control) and rotation (steer based rotation control), putting each set of degrees of freedom (DOF) to a separate interaction technique (separability). This paper examines, how many DOF are needed to perform the travel task as easy and comfortable as possible. It also investigates different mapping functions between the user\\'s actions on the mobile phone and the viewpoint change in the virtual environment. Therefore, four techniques are implemented: rotate by heading, rotate by roll, rotate by roll with fixed horizon and a merged rotation. Each technique has either 4 or 5 DOF and different mappings between phone and viewpoint coordinates in the virtual environment. We perform an extensive user study to explore different aspects related to the travel techniques in terms of DOF and mapping functions. Results of the user evaluation show that 4 DOF techniques seem to perform better the travel task. Even though, the results were not statistically decisive in favor of the usage of the mobile roll to control the viewpoint heading in the virtual environment despite the good results, there is a clear tendency from the users to prefer the mobile roll as the desired mapping. Copyright 2012 ACM.

  7. Design and Development of ChemInfoCloud: An Integrated Cloud Enabled Platform for Virtual Screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karthikeyan, Muthukumarasamy; Pandit, Deepak; Bhavasar, Arvind; Vyas, Renu

    2015-01-01

    The power of cloud computing and distributed computing has been harnessed to handle vast and heterogeneous data required to be processed in any virtual screening protocol. A cloud computing platorm ChemInfoCloud was built and integrated with several chemoinformatics and bioinformatics tools. The robust engine performs the core chemoinformatics tasks of lead generation, lead optimisation and property prediction in a fast and efficient manner. It has also been provided with some of the bioinformatics functionalities including sequence alignment, active site pose prediction and protein ligand docking. Text mining, NMR chemical shift (1H, 13C) prediction and reaction fingerprint generation modules for efficient lead discovery are also implemented in this platform. We have developed an integrated problem solving cloud environment for virtual screening studies that also provides workflow management, better usability and interaction with end users using container based virtualization, OpenVz.

  8. Integrated Virtual Environment Test Concepts and Objectives

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Tackett, Gregory

    2001-01-01

    ...), a series of integration and verification tests were conducted to provide development milestones for the simulation architecture and tools that would be needed for the full-up live/virtual field experiment...

  9. A Robust Optimization Based Energy-Aware Virtual Network Function Placement Proposal for Small Cell 5G Networks with Mobile Edge Computing Capabilities

    OpenAIRE

    Blanco, Bego; Taboada, Ianire; Fajardo, Jose Oscar; Liberal, Fidel

    2017-01-01

    In the context of cloud-enabled 5G radio access networks with network function virtualization capabilities, we focus on the virtual network function placement problem for a multitenant cluster of small cells that provide mobile edge computing services. Under an emerging distributed network architecture and hardware infrastructure, we employ cloud-enabled small cells that integrate microservers for virtualization execution, equipped with additional hardware appliances. We develop an energy-awa...

  10. Robotically facilitated virtual rehabilitation of arm transport integrated with finger movement in persons with hemiparesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merians, Alma S; Fluet, Gerard G; Qiu, Qinyin; Saleh, Soha; Lafond, Ian; Davidow, Amy; Adamovich, Sergei V

    2011-05-16

    Recovery of upper extremity function is particularly recalcitrant to successful rehabilitation. Robotic-assisted arm training devices integrated with virtual targets or complex virtual reality gaming simulations are being developed to deal with this problem. Neural control mechanisms indicate that reaching and hand-object manipulation are interdependent, suggesting that training on tasks requiring coordinated effort of both the upper arm and hand may be a more effective method for improving recovery of real world function. However, most robotic therapies have focused on training the proximal, rather than distal effectors of the upper extremity. This paper describes the effects of robotically-assisted, integrated upper extremity training. Twelve subjects post-stroke were trained for eight days on four upper extremity gaming simulations using adaptive robots during 2-3 hour sessions. The subjects demonstrated improved proximal stability, smoothness and efficiency of the movement path. This was in concert with improvement in the distal kinematic measures of finger individuation and improved speed. Importantly, these changes were accompanied by a robust 16-second decrease in overall time in the Wolf Motor Function Test and a 24-second decrease in the Jebsen Test of Hand Function. Complex gaming simulations interfaced with adaptive robots requiring integrated control of shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist and finger movements appear to have a substantial effect on improving hemiparetic hand function. We believe that the magnitude of the changes and the stability of the patient's function prior to training, along with maintenance of several aspects of the gains demonstrated at retention make a compelling argument for this approach to training.

  11. Innovative application of virtual display technique in virtual museum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jiankang

    2017-09-01

    Virtual museum refers to display and simulate the functions of real museum on the Internet in the form of 3 Dimensions virtual reality by applying interactive programs. Based on Virtual Reality Modeling Language, virtual museum building and its effective interaction with the offline museum lie in making full use of 3 Dimensions panorama technique, virtual reality technique and augmented reality technique, and innovatively taking advantages of dynamic environment modeling technique, real-time 3 Dimensions graphics generating technique, system integration technique and other key virtual reality techniques to make sure the overall design of virtual museum.3 Dimensions panorama technique, also known as panoramic photography or virtual reality, is a technique based on static images of the reality. Virtual reality technique is a kind of computer simulation system which can create and experience the interactive 3 Dimensions dynamic visual world. Augmented reality, also known as mixed reality, is a technique which simulates and mixes the information (visual, sound, taste, touch, etc.) that is difficult for human to experience in reality. These technologies make virtual museum come true. It will not only bring better experience and convenience to the public, but also be conducive to improve the influence and cultural functions of the real museum.

  12. Robotically facilitated virtual rehabilitation of arm transport integrated with finger movement in persons with hemiparesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Davidow Amy

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Recovery of upper extremity function is particularly recalcitrant to successful rehabilitation. Robotic-assisted arm training devices integrated with virtual targets or complex virtual reality gaming simulations are being developed to deal with this problem. Neural control mechanisms indicate that reaching and hand-object manipulation are interdependent, suggesting that training on tasks requiring coordinated effort of both the upper arm and hand may be a more effective method for improving recovery of real world function. However, most robotic therapies have focused on training the proximal, rather than distal effectors of the upper extremity. This paper describes the effects of robotically-assisted, integrated upper extremity training. Methods Twelve subjects post-stroke were trained for eight days on four upper extremity gaming simulations using adaptive robots during 2-3 hour sessions. Results The subjects demonstrated improved proximal stability, smoothness and efficiency of the movement path. This was in concert with improvement in the distal kinematic measures of finger individuation and improved speed. Importantly, these changes were accompanied by a robust 16-second decrease in overall time in the Wolf Motor Function Test and a 24-second decrease in the Jebsen Test of Hand Function. Conclusions Complex gaming simulations interfaced with adaptive robots requiring integrated control of shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist and finger movements appear to have a substantial effect on improving hemiparetic hand function. We believe that the magnitude of the changes and the stability of the patient's function prior to training, along with maintenance of several aspects of the gains demonstrated at retention make a compelling argument for this approach to training.

  13. Integrating Intelligent Structured Training with a Virtual Dismounted Environment

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Jensen, Randy; Tasoluk, Coskun; Marshall, Henry; Sims, Jason; Green, Gary

    2007-01-01

    .... This paper reviews results from the integration of an Intelligent Structured Trainer with the embedded Virtual Warrior Soldier prototype developed for the Army RDECOM Simulation and Training Technology Center...

  14. Integration Between SCORM Learning Objects and the CIEMAT Virtual Elearning Platform; Integracion de Objetos de Aprendizaje SCORM con la Plataforma de Ensenanza Virtual del CIEMAT

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bailador Ferreras, M A; Troiani, S; Gonzalez Giralda, C; Llorente Herranz, C; Marco Arboli, M L

    2010-08-06

    New information and communications technologies have made a major contribution in the way of understanding the training needs, which have been involved in the change from the traditional teaching to the use of virtual learning platforms. Thus, Ciemat, has installed a virtual platform for education, in particular MOODLE in which have been installed some virtual contents developed with Flash. The next necessary step has been how to integrate the contents with the MOODLE virtual platform, following the aim to know the assessment for learning tracking of the learners. This document provides the technological facts for the integration of the flash virtual contents and the virtual platform in order to achieve the training process is efficiently evaluated. (Author) 5 refs.

  15. Integrating Music into Math in a Virtual Reality Game: Learning Fractions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Taehyeong; Lee, Sungwoong; Ke, Fengfeng

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate future teachers' experiences and perceptions of using a virtual reality game for elementary math education. The virtual reality game was designed and developed to integrate a musical activity (beat-making) into the math learning of fractions. Five math education major students participated in this…

  16. Assuring virtual network function image integrity and host sealing in telco cloud

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lal, S.; Ravidas, S.; Oliver, I.; Taleb, T.

    In Telco cloud environment, virtual network func- tions (VNFs) can be shipped in the form of virtual machine images and hosted over commodity hardware. It is likely that these VNF images will contain highly sensitive data and mission critical network operations. For this reason, these VNF images are

  17. Integration of virtualized worker nodes in standard batch systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buege, Volker; Kunze, Marcel; Oberst, Oliver; Quast, Guenter; Scheurer, Armin; Hessling, Hermann; Kemp, Yves; Synge, Owen

    2010-01-01

    Current experiments in HEP only use a limited number of operating system flavours. Their software might only be validated on one single OS platform. Resource providers might have other operating systems of choice for the installation of the batch infrastructure. This is especially the case if a cluster is shared with other communities, or communities that have stricter security requirements. One solution would be to statically divide the cluster into separated sub-clusters. In such a scenario, no opportunistic distribution of the load can be achieved, resulting in a poor overall utilization efficiency. Another approach is to make the batch system aware of virtualization, and to provide each community with its favoured operating system in a virtual machine. Here, the scheduler has full flexibility, resulting in a better overall efficiency of the resources. In our contribution, we present a lightweight concept for the integration of virtual worker nodes into standard batch systems. The virtual machines are started on the worker nodes just before jobs are executed there. No meta-scheduling is introduced. We demonstrate two prototype implementations, one based on the Sun Grid Engine (SGE), the other using Maui/Torque as a batch system. Both solutions support local job as well as Grid job submission. The hypervisors currently used are Xen and KVM, a port to another system is easily envisageable. To better handle different virtual machines on the physical host, the management solution VmImageManager is developed. We will present first experience from running the two prototype implementations. In a last part, we will show the potential future use of this lightweight concept when integrated into high-level (i.e. Grid) work-flows.

  18. Virtual Reality Training: "Cybersickness" and Effects on Sensorimotor Functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harm, Deborah L.; Taylor, Laura C.

    2003-01-01

    The overall goal of this study is to examine the extent to which exposure to virtual reality (VR) systems produces motion sickness and disrupts sensorimotor functions. Two of the major problems in using VRs are: 1) potential "cybersickness", a form of motion sickness, and 2) maladaptive sensorimotor coordination following virtual environment (VE) training. It is likely that users will eventually adapt to any unpleasant perceptual experiences in a virtual environment. However the most critical problem for training applications is that sensorimotor coordination strategies learned in the VE may not be similar to the responses required in the real environment. This study will evaluate and compare responses to the two types of VR delivery systems (head-mounted display [HMD] and a dome-projection system [DOME]), two exposure duration periods (30 minutes or 60 minutes), and repeated exposures (3 sessions). Specific responses that we will examine include cybersickness severity and symptom patterns, and several sensorimotor functions (eye-hea.d and eye-head-hand coordination, and postural equilibrium). To date, all hardware and software acquisition, development, integration and testing has been completed. A database has been developed and tested for the input, management and storage of all questionnaire data. All data analysis scripts have been developed and tested. Data was collected from 20 subjects in a pilot study that was conducted to determine the amount of training necessary to achieve a stable performance level. Seven subjects are currently enrolled in the study designed to examine the effects of exposure to VE systems on postural control. Data has been collected from two subjects, and it is expected that the results from ten subjects will be presented.

  19. An Algorithm for Creating Virtual Controls Using Integrated and Harmonized Longitudinal Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, William B; Chen, Shyh-Huei; Saldana, Santiago; Ip, Edward H

    2018-06-01

    We introduce a strategy for creating virtual control groups-cases generated through computer algorithms that, when aggregated, may serve as experimental comparators where live controls are difficult to recruit, such as when programs are widely disseminated and randomization is not feasible. We integrated and harmonized data from eight archived longitudinal adolescent-focused data sets spanning the decades from 1980 to 2010. Collectively, these studies examined numerous psychosocial variables and assessed past 30-day alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Additional treatment and control group data from two archived randomized control trials were used to test the virtual control algorithm. Both randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessed intentions, normative beliefs, and values as well as past 30-day alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. We developed an algorithm that used percentile scores from the integrated data set to create age- and gender-specific latent psychosocial scores. The algorithm matched treatment case observed psychosocial scores at pretest to create a virtual control case that figuratively "matured" based on age-related changes, holding the virtual case's percentile constant. Virtual controls matched treatment case occurrence, eliminating differential attrition as a threat to validity. Virtual case substance use was estimated from the virtual case's latent psychosocial score using logistic regression coefficients derived from analyzing the treatment group. Averaging across virtual cases created group estimates of prevalence. Two criteria were established to evaluate the adequacy of virtual control cases: (1) virtual control group pretest drug prevalence rates should match those of the treatment group and (2) virtual control group patterns of drug prevalence over time should match live controls. The algorithm successfully matched pretest prevalence for both RCTs. Increases in prevalence were observed, although there were discrepancies between live

  20. Integration of the virtual model of a Stewart platform with the avatar of a vehicle in a virtual reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herbuś, K.; Ociepka, P.

    2016-08-01

    The development of methods of computer aided design and engineering allows conducting virtual tests, among others concerning motion simulation of technical means. The paper presents a method of integrating an object in the form of a virtual model of a Stewart platform with an avatar of a vehicle moving in a virtual environment. The area of the problem includes issues related to the problem of fidelity of mapping the work of the analyzed technical mean. The main object of investigations is a 3D model of a Stewart platform, which is a subsystem of the simulator designated for driving learning for disabled persons. The analyzed model of the platform, prepared for motion simulation, was created in the “Motion Simulation” module of a CAD/CAE class system Siemens PLM NX. Whereas the virtual environment, in which the moves the avatar of the passenger car, was elaborated in a VR class system EON Studio. The element integrating both of the mentioned software environments is a developed application that reads information from the virtual reality (VR) concerning the current position of the car avatar. Then, basing on the accepted algorithm, it sends control signals to respective joints of the model of the Stewart platform (CAD).

  1. On Virtual Integrated Model of a 6DoF Manipulator Arm for Emergency Cases Interventions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gigi Naidin

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available This research deals with a virtual integrated model for a 6DoF manipulator arm dedicated to use for emergency situations intervention. The virtual model can simulates both the entire structural and mechanical configuration of the manipulator, and the driving system with automated command unit. The basic idea supposes to develop a complex simulator for kinematical and dynamic behavior analysis of 6DoF robot manipulator, and for facilely cross correlation and comparative evaluation between essential parameters and extremely bearing cases defining the manipulator working state. The analysis was developed in Matlab© - SimScape© software. The conclusions dignify the main functional capability of the manipulator supposing the capacity of driving system and mechanical structure.

  2. Integration of immersive virtual reality in Communication Degrees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Ubaldo Cuesta Cambra

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The European Higher Education Area promotes the integration of new technologies in didactic innovation and it aims to improve skills. It has been requested by students at the Complutense University of Madrid, who have a digital native profile or millennial. This article is a study about implementation of immersive virtual reality in the practical part of the subjects related to business communication. Specifically, it applied in the subject Crisis Communication. The methodology is a survey and three focus groups for professors and students. The conclusions say that the implementation of immersive virtual reality improves the expectations and interest of students. It also improves the skills acquired and the practical part of the subjects of communication improve employment of students of the Degree, which is one of their main causes of dissatisfaction. The full implementation of mobile telephony suggests using virtual reality devices adapted to them rather than “caves” (C.A.V.E. or consoles.

  3. Coded Network Function Virtualization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Al-Shuwaili, A.; Simone, O.; Kliewer, J.

    2016-01-01

    Network function virtualization (NFV) prescribes the instantiation of network functions on general-purpose network devices, such as servers and switches. While yielding a more flexible and cost-effective network architecture, NFV is potentially limited by the fact that commercial off......-the-shelf hardware is less reliable than the dedicated network elements used in conventional cellular deployments. The typical solution for this problem is to duplicate network functions across geographically distributed hardware in order to ensure diversity. In contrast, this letter proposes to leverage channel...... coding in order to enhance the robustness on NFV to hardware failure. The proposed approach targets the network function of uplink channel decoding, and builds on the algebraic structure of the encoded data frames in order to perform in-network coding on the signals to be processed at different servers...

  4. Virtual Collaborative Simulation Environment for Integrated Product and Process Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gulli, Michael A.

    1997-01-01

    Deneb Robotics is a leader in the development of commercially available, leading edge three- dimensional simulation software tools for virtual prototyping,, simulation-based design, manufacturing process simulation, and factory floor simulation and training applications. Deneb has developed and commercially released a preliminary Virtual Collaborative Engineering (VCE) capability for Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD). This capability allows distributed, real-time visualization and evaluation of design concepts, manufacturing processes, and total factory and enterprises in one seamless simulation environment.

  5. Data Virtualization for Business Intelligence Systems Revolutionizing Data Integration for Data Warehouses

    CERN Document Server

    van der Lans, Rick

    2012-01-01

    Data virtualization can help you accomplish your goals with more flexibility and agility. Learn what it is and how and why it should be used with Data Virtualization for Business Intelligence Systems. In this book, expert author Rick van der Lans explains how data virtualization servers work, what techniques to use to optimize access to various data sources and how these products can be applied in different projects. You'll learn the difference is between this new form of data integration and older forms, such as ETL and replication, and gain a clear understanding of how data virtualization r

  6. Efficient Sustainable Operation Mechanism of Distributed Desktop Integration Storage Based on Virtualization with Ubiquitous Computing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyun-Woo Kim

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Following the rapid growth of ubiquitous computing, many jobs that were previously manual have now been automated. This automation has increased the amount of time available for leisure; diverse services are now being developed for this leisure time. In addition, the development of small and portable devices like smartphones, diverse Internet services can be used regardless of time and place. Studies regarding diverse virtualization are currently in progress. These studies aim to determine ways to efficiently store and process the big data generated by the multitude of devices and services in use. One topic of such studies is desktop storage virtualization, which integrates distributed desktop resources and provides these resources to users to integrate into distributed legacy desktops via virtualization. In the case of desktop storage virtualization, high availability of virtualization is necessary and important for providing reliability to users. Studies regarding hierarchical structures and resource integration are currently in progress. These studies aim to create efficient data distribution and storage for distributed desktops based on resource integration environments. However, studies regarding efficient responses to server faults occurring in desktop-based resource integration environments have been insufficient. This paper proposes a mechanism for the sustainable operation of desktop storage (SODS for high operational availability. It allows for the easy addition and removal of desktops in desktop-based integration environments. It also activates alternative servers when a fault occurs within a system.

  7. Virtual Networking Performance in OpenStack Platform for Network Function Virtualization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Franco Callegati

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The emerging Network Function Virtualization (NFV paradigm, coupled with the highly flexible and programmatic control of network devices offered by Software Defined Networking solutions, enables unprecedented levels of network virtualization that will definitely change the shape of future network architectures, where legacy telco central offices will be replaced by cloud data centers located at the edge. On the one hand, this software-centric evolution of telecommunications will allow network operators to take advantage of the increased flexibility and reduced deployment costs typical of cloud computing. On the other hand, it will pose a number of challenges in terms of virtual network performance and customer isolation. This paper intends to provide some insights on how an open-source cloud computing platform such as OpenStack implements multitenant network virtualization and how it can be used to deploy NFV, focusing in particular on packet forwarding performance issues. To this purpose, a set of experiments is presented that refer to a number of scenarios inspired by the cloud computing and NFV paradigms, considering both single tenant and multitenant scenarios. From the results of the evaluation it is possible to highlight potentials and limitations of running NFV on OpenStack.

  8. Network function virtualization concepts and applicability in 5G networks

    CERN Document Server

    Zhang, Ying

    2018-01-01

    A horizontal view of newly emerged technologies in the field of network function virtualization (NFV), introducing the open source implementation efforts that bring NFV from design to reality This book explores the newly emerged technique of network function virtualization (NFV) through use cases, architecture, and challenges, as well as standardization and open source implementations. It is the first systematic source of information about cloud technologies' usage in the cellular network, covering the interplay of different technologies, the discussion of different design choices, and its impact on our future cellular network. Network Function Virtualization: Concepts and Applicability in 5G Networks reviews new technologies that enable NFV, such as Software Defined Networks (SDN), network virtualization, and cloud computing. It also provides an in-depth investigation of the most advanced open source initiatives in this area, including OPNFV, Openstack, and Opendaylight. Finally, this book goes beyond li...

  9. Man-system interface based on automatic speech recognition: integration to a virtual control desk

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jorge, Carlos Alexandre F.; Mol, Antonio Carlos A.; Pereira, Claudio M.N.A.; Aghina, Mauricio Alves C., E-mail: calexandre@ien.gov.b, E-mail: mol@ien.gov.b, E-mail: cmnap@ien.gov.b, E-mail: mag@ien.gov.b [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Nomiya, Diogo V., E-mail: diogonomiya@gmail.co [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil)

    2009-07-01

    This work reports the implementation of a man-system interface based on automatic speech recognition, and its integration to a virtual nuclear power plant control desk. The later is aimed to reproduce a real control desk using virtual reality technology, for operator training and ergonomic evaluation purpose. An automatic speech recognition system was developed to serve as a new interface with users, substituting computer keyboard and mouse. They can operate this virtual control desk in front of a computer monitor or a projection screen through spoken commands. The automatic speech recognition interface developed is based on a well-known signal processing technique named cepstral analysis, and on artificial neural networks. The speech recognition interface is described, along with its integration with the virtual control desk, and results are presented. (author)

  10. Man-system interface based on automatic speech recognition: integration to a virtual control desk

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jorge, Carlos Alexandre F.; Mol, Antonio Carlos A.; Pereira, Claudio M.N.A.; Aghina, Mauricio Alves C.; Nomiya, Diogo V.

    2009-01-01

    This work reports the implementation of a man-system interface based on automatic speech recognition, and its integration to a virtual nuclear power plant control desk. The later is aimed to reproduce a real control desk using virtual reality technology, for operator training and ergonomic evaluation purpose. An automatic speech recognition system was developed to serve as a new interface with users, substituting computer keyboard and mouse. They can operate this virtual control desk in front of a computer monitor or a projection screen through spoken commands. The automatic speech recognition interface developed is based on a well-known signal processing technique named cepstral analysis, and on artificial neural networks. The speech recognition interface is described, along with its integration with the virtual control desk, and results are presented. (author)

  11. Urban water metabolism efficiency assessment: integrated analysis of available and virtual water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Chu-Long; Vause, Jonathan; Ma, Hwong-Wen; Yu, Chang-Ping

    2013-05-01

    Resolving the complex environmental problems of water pollution and shortage which occur during urbanization requires the systematic assessment of urban water metabolism efficiency (WME). While previous research has tended to focus on either available or virtual water metabolism, here we argue that the systematic problems arising during urbanization require an integrated assessment of available and virtual WME, using an indicator system based on material flow analysis (MFA) results. Future research should focus on the following areas: 1) analysis of available and virtual water flow patterns and processes through urban districts in different urbanization phases in years with varying amounts of rainfall, and their environmental effects; 2) based on the optimization of social, economic and environmental benefits, establishment of an indicator system for urban WME assessment using MFA results; 3) integrated assessment of available and virtual WME in districts with different urbanization levels, to facilitate study of the interactions between the natural and social water cycles; 4) analysis of mechanisms driving differences in WME between districts with different urbanization levels, and the selection of dominant social and economic driving indicators, especially those impacting water resource consumption. Combinations of these driving indicators could then be used to design efficient water resource metabolism solutions, and integrated management policies for reduced water consumption. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Thin SiGe virtual substrates for Ge heterostructures integration on silicon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cecchi, S.; Chrastina, D.; Frigerio, J.; Isella, G.; Gatti, E.; Guzzi, M.; Müller Gubler, E.; Paul, D. J.

    2014-01-01

    The possibility to reduce the thickness of the SiGe virtual substrate, required for the integration of Ge heterostructures on Si, without heavily affecting the crystal quality is becoming fundamental in several applications. In this work, we present 1 μm thick Si 1−x Ge x buffers (with x > 0.7) having different designs which could be suitable for applications requiring a thin virtual substrate. The rationale is to reduce the lattice mismatch at the interface with the Si substrate by introducing composition steps and/or partial grading. The relatively low growth temperature (475 °C) makes this approach appealing for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor integration. For all the investigated designs, a reduction of the threading dislocation density compared to constant composition Si 1−x Ge x layers was observed. The best buffer in terms of defects reduction was used as a virtual substrate for the deposition of a Ge/SiGe multiple quantum well structure. Room temperature optical absorption and photoluminescence analysis performed on nominally identical quantum wells grown on both a thick graded virtual substrate and the selected thin buffer demonstrates a comparable optical quality, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed approach

  13. Virtual Manufacturing Techniques Designed and Applied to Manufacturing Activities in the Manufacturing Integration and Technology Branch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shearrow, Charles A.

    1999-01-01

    One of the identified goals of EM3 is to implement virtual manufacturing by the time the year 2000 has ended. To realize this goal of a true virtual manufacturing enterprise the initial development of a machinability database and the infrastructure must be completed. This will consist of the containment of the existing EM-NET problems and developing machine, tooling, and common materials databases. To integrate the virtual manufacturing enterprise with normal day to day operations the development of a parallel virtual manufacturing machinability database, virtual manufacturing database, virtual manufacturing paradigm, implementation/integration procedure, and testable verification models must be constructed. Common and virtual machinability databases will include the four distinct areas of machine tools, available tooling, common machine tool loads, and a materials database. The machine tools database will include the machine envelope, special machine attachments, tooling capacity, location within NASA-JSC or with a contractor, and availability/scheduling. The tooling database will include available standard tooling, custom in-house tooling, tool properties, and availability. The common materials database will include materials thickness ranges, strengths, types, and their availability. The virtual manufacturing databases will consist of virtual machines and virtual tooling directly related to the common and machinability databases. The items to be completed are the design and construction of the machinability databases, virtual manufacturing paradigm for NASA-JSC, implementation timeline, VNC model of one bridge mill and troubleshoot existing software and hardware problems with EN4NET. The final step of this virtual manufacturing project will be to integrate other production sites into the databases bringing JSC's EM3 into a position of becoming a clearing house for NASA's digital manufacturing needs creating a true virtual manufacturing enterprise.

  14. The virtual photon structure functions and AdS/QCD correspondence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, Yutaka

    2010-01-01

    We study the virtual photons structure functions from gauge/string duality. If the Bjorken variable x is not small, supergravity approximation becomes good in dual string theory. We calculate the virtual photon structure functions at large 't Hooft coupling in a moderate x-region and determine x-behavior of the structure functions. We also show that the Callan-Gross relation F L =0 is satisfied to a good approximation in gravity calculation. (author)

  15. Immersive Learning Environment Using 3D Virtual Worlds and Integrated Remote Experimentation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roderval Marcelino

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This project seeks to demonstrate the use of remote experimentation and 3D virtual environments applied to the teaching-learning in the areas of exact sciences-physics. In proposing the combination of remote experimentation and 3D virtual worlds in teaching-learning process, we intend to achieve greater geographic coverage, contributing to the construction of new methodologies of teaching support, speed of access and foremost motivation for students to continue in scientific study of the technology areas. The proposed architecture is based on a model implemented fully featured open source and open hardware. The virtual world was built in OpenSim software and integrated it a remote physics experiment called "electrical panel". Accessing the virtual world the user has total control of the experiment within the 3D virtual world.

  16. IBF: An Integrated Business Framework for Virtual Communities

    OpenAIRE

    Fernando Ferri; Alessia D’Andrea; Patrizia Grifoni

    2012-01-01

    The paper provides an integrated business framework for Business-to-Business, Business-to-Consumer and Consumer-to-Consumer Virtual Communities. The framework involves internal and external factors. Internal factors that include: market analysis; products/services promotion; development of trust; social influence and Knowledge sharing, differ from the different orientations of the framework, while the external factors involve competitors and technological aspects that, while differing from th...

  17. Joint Orchestration of Cloud-Based Microservices and Virtual Network Functions

    OpenAIRE

    Kouchaksaraei, Hadi Razzaghi; Karl, Holger

    2018-01-01

    Recent studies show the increasing popularity of distributed cloud applications, which are composed of multiple microservices. Besides their known benefits, microservice architecture also enables to mix and match cloud applications and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) services (service chains), which are composed of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Provisioning complex services containing VNFs and microservices in a combined NFV/cloud platform can enhance service quality and optimise co...

  18. A Novel Virtual Node Hexahedral Element with Exact Integration and Octree Meshing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Logah Perumal

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The method presented in this work is a 3-dimensional polyhedral finite element (3D PFEM based on virtual node method. Novel virtual node polyhedral elements (termed as VPHE are developed here, particularly virtual node hexahedral element (termed as VHE. Stiffness matrices of these polyhedral elements consist of simple polynomials. Thus, a new algorithm is introduced in this paper, which enables exact integration of monomials without a need for high number of integration points and weights. The number of nodes for VHE elements is not restricted, as opposed to the conventional hexahedral elements. This feature enables formulation of transition elements (termed as T-VHE which are useful to adaptive computation. Performances of the new VHE elements in solid mechanics and conductive heat transfer phenomena are examined through numerical simulations. The new T-VHE elements are utilized in octree mesh. The VHE elements are found to produce good results and T-VHE elements help to reduce number of global nodes for the analysis.

  19. Grid Based Integration Technologies of Virtual Measurement System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, D P; He, L S; Yang, H

    2006-01-01

    This paper presents a novel integrated architecture of measurement system for the new requirements of measurement collaboration, measurement resource interconnection and transparent access etc in the wide-area and across organization in the context of a grid. The complexity of integration on a grid arises from the scale, dynamism, autonomy, and distribution of the measurement resources. The main argument of this paper is that these complexities should be made transparent to the collaborative measurement, via flexible reconfigurable mechanisms and dynamic virtualization services. The paper is started by discussing the integration-oriented measurement architecture which provides collaborative measurement services to distributed measurement resources and then the measurement mechanisms are discussed which implements the transparent access and collaboration of measurement resources by providing protocols, measurement schedule and global data driven model

  20. Virtual drug screen schema based on multiview similarity integration and ranking aggregation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Hong; Sheng, Zhen; Zhu, Ruixin; Huang, Qi; Liu, Qi; Cao, Zhiwei

    2012-03-26

    The current drug virtual screen (VS) methods mainly include two categories. i.e., ligand/target structure-based virtual screen and that, utilizing protein-ligand interaction fingerprint information based on the large number of complex structures. Since the former one focuses on the one-side information while the later one focuses on the whole complex structure, they are thus complementary and can be boosted by each other. However, a common problem faced here is how to present a comprehensive understanding and evaluation of the various virtual screen results derived from various VS methods. Furthermore, there is still an urgent need for developing an efficient approach to fully integrate various VS methods from a comprehensive multiview perspective. In this study, our virtual screen schema based on multiview similarity integration and ranking aggregation was tested comprehensively with statistical evaluations, providing several novel and useful clues on how to perform drug VS from multiple heterogeneous data sources. (1) 18 complex structures of HIV-1 protease with ligands from the PDB were curated as a test data set and the VS was performed with five different drug representations. Ritonavir ( 1HXW ) was selected as the query in VS and the weighted ranks of the query results were aggregated from multiple views through four similarity integration approaches. (2) Further, one of the ranking aggregation methods was used to integrate the similarity ranks calculated by gene ontology (GO) fingerprint and structural fingerprint on the data set from connectivity map, and two typical HDAC and HSP90 inhibitors were chosen as the queries. The results show that rank aggregation can enhance the result of similarity searching in VS when two or more descriptions are involved and provide a more reasonable similarity rank result. Our study shows that integrated VS based on multiple data fusion can achieve a remarkable better performance compared to that from individual ones and

  1. The Virtual Brain Integrates Computational Modeling and Multimodal Neuroimaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schirner, Michael; McIntosh, Anthony R.; Jirsa, Viktor K.

    2013-01-01

    Abstract Brain function is thought to emerge from the interactions among neuronal populations. Apart from traditional efforts to reproduce brain dynamics from the micro- to macroscopic scales, complementary approaches develop phenomenological models of lower complexity. Such macroscopic models typically generate only a few selected—ideally functionally relevant—aspects of the brain dynamics. Importantly, they often allow an understanding of the underlying mechanisms beyond computational reproduction. Adding detail to these models will widen their ability to reproduce a broader range of dynamic features of the brain. For instance, such models allow for the exploration of consequences of focal and distributed pathological changes in the system, enabling us to identify and develop approaches to counteract those unfavorable processes. Toward this end, The Virtual Brain (TVB) (www.thevirtualbrain.org), a neuroinformatics platform with a brain simulator that incorporates a range of neuronal models and dynamics at its core, has been developed. This integrated framework allows the model-based simulation, analysis, and inference of neurophysiological mechanisms over several brain scales that underlie the generation of macroscopic neuroimaging signals. In this article, we describe how TVB works, and we present the first proof of concept. PMID:23442172

  2. Feasibility of incorporating functionally relevant virtual rehabilitation in sub-acute stroke care: perception of patients and clinicians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demers, Marika; Chan Chun Kong, Daniel; Levin, Mindy F

    2018-03-11

    To determine user satisfaction and safety of incorporating a low-cost virtual rehabilitation intervention as an adjunctive therapeutic option for cognitive-motor upper limb rehabilitation in individuals with sub-acute stroke. A low-cost upper limb virtual rehabilitation application incorporating realistic functionally-relevant unimanual and bimanual tasks, specifically designed for cognitive-motor rehabilitation was developed for patients with sub-acute stroke. Clinicians and individuals with stroke interacted with the intervention for 15-20 or 20-45 minutes, respectively. The study had a mixed-methods convergent parallel design that included a focus group interview with clinicians working in a stroke program and semi-structured interviews and standardized assessments (Borg Perceived Exertion Scale, Short Feedback Questionnaire) for participants with sub-acute stroke undergoing rehabilitation. The occurrence of adverse events was also noted. Three main themes emerged from the clinician focus group and patient interviews: Perceived usefulness in rehabilitation, satisfaction with the virtual reality intervention and aspects to improve. All clinicians and the majority of participants with stroke were highly satisfied with the intervention and perceived its usefulness to decrease arm motor impairment during functional tasks. No participants experienced major adverse events. Incorporation of this type of functional activity game-based virtual reality intervention in the sub-acute phase of rehabilitation represents a way to transfer skills learned early in the clinical setting to real world situations. This type of intervention may lead to better integration of the upper limb into everyday activities. Implications for Rehabilitation • Use of a cognitive-motor low-cost virtual reality intervention designed to remediate arm motor impairments in sub-acute stroke is feasible, safe and perceived as useful by therapists and patients for stroke rehabilitation.

  3. Integrating neuroinformatics tools in TheVirtualBrain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woodman, M Marmaduke; Pezard, Laurent; Domide, Lia; Knock, Stuart A; Sanz-Leon, Paula; Mersmann, Jochen; McIntosh, Anthony R; Jirsa, Viktor

    2014-01-01

    TheVirtualBrain (TVB) is a neuroinformatics Python package representing the convergence of clinical, systems, and theoretical neuroscience in the analysis, visualization and modeling of neural and neuroimaging dynamics. TVB is composed of a flexible simulator for neural dynamics measured across scales from local populations to large-scale dynamics measured by electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and core analytic and visualization functions, all accessible through a web browser user interface. A datatype system modeling neuroscientific data ties together these pieces with persistent data storage, based on a combination of SQL and HDF5. These datatypes combine with adapters allowing TVB to integrate other algorithms or computational systems. TVB provides infrastructure for multiple projects and multiple users, possibly participating under multiple roles. For example, a clinician might import patient data to identify several potential lesion points in the patient's connectome. A modeler, working on the same project, tests these points for viability through whole brain simulation, based on the patient's connectome, and subsequent analysis of dynamical features. TVB also drives research forward: the simulator itself represents the culmination of several simulation frameworks in the modeling literature. The availability of the numerical methods, set of neural mass models and forward solutions allows for the construction of a wide range of brain-scale simulation scenarios. This paper briefly outlines the history and motivation for TVB, describing the framework and simulator, giving usage examples in the web UI and Python scripting.

  4. A Robust Optimization Based Energy-Aware Virtual Network Function Placement Proposal for Small Cell 5G Networks with Mobile Edge Computing Capabilities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bego Blanco

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In the context of cloud-enabled 5G radio access networks with network function virtualization capabilities, we focus on the virtual network function placement problem for a multitenant cluster of small cells that provide mobile edge computing services. Under an emerging distributed network architecture and hardware infrastructure, we employ cloud-enabled small cells that integrate microservers for virtualization execution, equipped with additional hardware appliances. We develop an energy-aware placement solution using a robust optimization approach based on service demand uncertainty in order to minimize the power consumption in the system constrained by network service latency requirements and infrastructure terms. Then, we discuss the results of the proposed placement mechanism in 5G scenarios that combine several service flavours and robust protection values. Once the impact of the service flavour and robust protection on the global power consumption of the system is analyzed, numerical results indicate that our proposal succeeds in efficiently placing the virtual network functions that compose the network services in the available hardware infrastructure while fulfilling service constraints.

  5. Towards virtual surgery in oral cancer to predict postoperative oral functions preoperatively

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Alphen, M.J.A.; Kreeft, A.M.; van der Heijden, Ferdinand; Smeele, L.E.; Balm, A.J.M.; Balm, Alfonsus Jacobus Maria

    2013-01-01

    Our aim was to develop a dynamic virtual model of the oral cavity and oropharynx so that we could incorporate patient-specific factors into the prediction of functional loss after advanced resections for oral cancer. After a virtual resection, functional consequences can be assessed, and a more

  6. Beyond xMOOCs in healthcare education: study of the feasibility in integrating virtual patient systems and MOOC platforms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stathakarou, Natalia; Zary, Nabil; Kononowicz, Andrzej A

    2014-01-01

    Background. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are an emerging trend in online learning. However, their technology is not yet completely adjusted to the needs of healthcare education. Integration of Virtual Patients within MOOCs to increase interactivity and foster clinical reasoning skills training, has been discussed in the past, but not verified by a practical implementation. Objective. To investigate the technical feasibility of integrating MOOCs with Virtual Patients for the purpose of enabling further research into the potential pedagogical benefits of this approach. Methods. We selected OpenEdx and Open Labyrinth as representative constituents of a MOOC platform and Virtual Patient system integration. Based upon our prior experience we selected the most fundamental technical requirement to address. Grounded in the available literature we identified an e-learning standard to guide the integration. We attempted to demonstrate the feasibility of the integration by designing a "proof-of-concept" prototype. The resulting pilot implementation was subject of verification by two test cases. Results. A Single Sign-On mechanism connecting Open Labyrinth with OpenEdx and based on the IMS LTI standard was successfully implemented and verified. Conclusion. We investigated the technical perspective of integrating Virtual Patients with MOOCs. By addressing this crucial technical requirement we set a base for future research on the educational benefits of using virtual patients in MOOCs. This provides new opportunities for integrating specialized software in healthcare education at massive scale.

  7. Beyond xMOOCs in healthcare education: study of the feasibility in integrating virtual patient systems and MOOC platforms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalia Stathakarou

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Background. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs are an emerging trend in online learning. However, their technology is not yet completely adjusted to the needs of healthcare education. Integration of Virtual Patients within MOOCs to increase interactivity and foster clinical reasoning skills training, has been discussed in the past, but not verified by a practical implementation.Objective. To investigate the technical feasibility of integrating MOOCs with Virtual Patients for the purpose of enabling further research into the potential pedagogical benefits of this approach.Methods. We selected OpenEdx and Open Labyrinth as representative constituents of a MOOC platform and Virtual Patient system integration. Based upon our prior experience we selected the most fundamental technical requirement to address. Grounded in the available literature we identified an e-learning standard to guide the integration. We attempted to demonstrate the feasibility of the integration by designing a “proof-of-concept” prototype. The resulting pilot implementation was subject of verification by two test cases.Results. A Single Sign-On mechanism connecting Open Labyrinth with OpenEdx and based on the IMS LTI standard was successfully implemented and verified.Conclusion. We investigated the technical perspective of integrating Virtual Patients with MOOCs. By addressing this crucial technical requirement we set a base for future research on the educational benefits of using virtual patients in MOOCs. This provides new opportunities for integrating specialized software in healthcare education at massive scale.

  8. Integration of the SSPM and STAGE with the MPACT Virtual Facility Distributed Test Bed.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cipiti, Benjamin B. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Shoman, Nathan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2017-08-01

    The Material Protection Accounting and Control Technologies (MPACT) program within DOE NE is working toward a 2020 milestone to demonstrate a Virtual Facility Distributed Test Bed. The goal of the Virtual Test Bed is to link all MPACT modeling tools, technology development, and experimental work to create a Safeguards and Security by Design capability for fuel cycle facilities. The Separation and Safeguards Performance Model (SSPM) forms the core safeguards analysis tool, and the Scenario Toolkit and Generation Environment (STAGE) code forms the core physical security tool. These models are used to design and analyze safeguards and security systems and generate performance metrics. Work over the past year has focused on how these models will integrate with the other capabilities in the MPACT program and specific model changes to enable more streamlined integration in the future. This report describes the model changes and plans for how the models will be used more collaboratively. The Virtual Facility is not designed to integrate all capabilities into one master code, but rather to maintain stand-alone capabilities that communicate results between codes more effectively.

  9. Human brain functional MRI and DTI visualization with virtual reality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Bin; Moreland, John; Zhang, Jingyu

    2011-12-01

    Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional MRI (fMRI) are two active research areas in neuroimaging. DTI is sensitive to the anisotropic diffusion of water exerted by its macromolecular environment and has been shown useful in characterizing structures of ordered tissues such as the brain white matter, myocardium, and cartilage. The diffusion tensor provides two new types of information of water diffusion: the magnitude and the spatial orientation of water diffusivity inside the tissue. This information has been used for white matter fiber tracking to review physical neuronal pathways inside the brain. Functional MRI measures brain activations using the hemodynamic response. The statistically derived activation map corresponds to human brain functional activities caused by neuronal activities. The combination of these two methods provides a new way to understand human brain from the anatomical neuronal fiber connectivity to functional activities between different brain regions. In this study, virtual reality (VR) based MR DTI and fMRI visualization with high resolution anatomical image segmentation and registration, ROI definition and neuronal white matter fiber tractography visualization and fMRI activation map integration is proposed. Rationale and methods for producing and distributing stereoscopic videos are also discussed.

  10. Toward a 62.5 MHz analog virtual pipeline integrated data acquisition system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kleinfelder, S.A.; Levi, M.; Milgrome, O.

    1991-01-01

    Requirements of analog pipeline memories at the SSC are reviewed and the concept of virtual pipelines is introduced. Design details and test results of several new custom analog and digital integrated circuits implementing sections of the virtual multiple pipeline (VMP) scheme are provied. These include serial, random access and simultaneous read and write random access analog storage and retrieval circuits, a 100 MHz systolic variable depth digital pipeline, and a prototye 32 μs, 12 bit serial analog to digital converter. (orig.)

  11. Virtual Globe Games for Geographic Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ola Ahlqvist

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Virtual, online maps and globes allow for volunteered geographic information to capitalize on users as sensors and generate unprecedented access to information resources and services. These new "Web 2.0" applications will probably dominate development and use of virtual globes and maps in the near future. We present an experimental platform that integrates an existing virtual globe interface with added functionality as follows; an interactive layer on top of the existing map that support real time creation and manipulation of spatial interaction objects. These objects, together with the existing information delivered through the virtual globe, form a game board that can be used for educational purposes.

  12. Analytic integration of real-virtual counterterms in NNLO jet cross sections I

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aglietti, Ugo; Del Duca, Vittorio; Duhr, Claude; Somogyi, Gábor; Trócsányi, Zoltán

    2008-09-01

    We present analytic evaluations of some integrals needed to give explicitly the integrated real-virtual counterterms, based on a recently proposed subtraction scheme for next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) jet cross sections. After an algebraic reduction of the integrals, integration-by-parts identities are used for the reduction to master integrals and for the computation of the master integrals themselves by means of differential equations. The results are written in terms of one- and two-dimensional harmonic polylogarithms, once an extension of the standard basis is made. We expect that the techniques described here will be useful in computing other integrals emerging in calculations in perturbative quantum field theories.

  13. Analytic integration of real-virtual counterterms in NNLO jet cross sections II

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bolzoni, Paolo; Moch, Sven-Olaf [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen (Germany); Somogyi, Gabor [Zurich Univ. (Switzerland). Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik; Trocsanyi, Zoltan [Debrecen Univ. (Hungary); Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Debrecen (Hungary). Inst. of Nuclear Research

    2009-05-15

    We present analytic expressions of all integrals required to complete the explicit evaluation of the real-virtual integrated counterterms needed to define a recently proposed subtraction scheme for jet cross sections at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. We use the Mellin-Barnes representation of these integrals in 4-2{epsilon} dimensions to obtain the coefficients of their Laurent expansions around {epsilon}=0. These coefficients are given by linear combinations of multidimensional Mellin-Barnes integrals. We compute the coefficients of such expansions in {epsilon} both numerically and analytically by complex integration over the Mellin-Barnes contours. (orig.)

  14. Analytic integration of real-virtual counterterms in NNLO jet cross sections II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bolzoni, Paolo; Moch, Sven-Olaf; Somogyi, Gabor; Trocsanyi, Zoltan

    2009-01-01

    We present analytic expressions of all integrals required to complete the explicit evaluation of the real-virtual integrated counterterms needed to define a recently proposed subtraction scheme for jet cross sections at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. We use the Mellin-Barnes representation of these integrals in 4 - 2ε dimensions to obtain the coefficients of their Laurent expansions around ε = 0. These coefficients are given by linear combinations of multidimensional Mellin-Barnes integrals. We compute the coefficients of such expansions in ε both numerically and analytically by complex integration over the Mellin-Barnes contours.

  15. Analytic integration of real-virtual counterterms in NNLO jet cross sections II

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolzoni, Paolo; Moch, Sven-Olaf; Somogyi, Gábor; Trócsányi, Zoltán

    2009-08-01

    We present analytic expressions of all integrals required to complete the explicit evaluation of the real-virtual integrated counterterms needed to define a recently proposed subtraction scheme for jet cross sections at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. We use the Mellin-Barnes representation of these integrals in 4 - 2epsilon dimensions to obtain the coefficients of their Laurent expansions around epsilon = 0. These coefficients are given by linear combinations of multidimensional Mellin-Barnes integrals. We compute the coefficients of such expansions in epsilon both numerically and analytically by complex integration over the Mellin-Barnes contours.

  16. Analytic integration of real-virtual counterterms in NNLO jet cross sections II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bolzoni, Paolo; Moch, Sven-Olaf; Somogyi, Gabor; Trocsanyi, Zoltan; Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Debrecen

    2009-05-01

    We present analytic expressions of all integrals required to complete the explicit evaluation of the real-virtual integrated counterterms needed to define a recently proposed subtraction scheme for jet cross sections at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. We use the Mellin-Barnes representation of these integrals in 4-2ε dimensions to obtain the coefficients of their Laurent expansions around ε=0. These coefficients are given by linear combinations of multidimensional Mellin-Barnes integrals. We compute the coefficients of such expansions in ε both numerically and analytically by complex integration over the Mellin-Barnes contours. (orig.)

  17. Microsoft Virtualization Master Microsoft Server, Desktop, Application, and Presentation Virtualization

    CERN Document Server

    Olzak, Thomas; Boomer, Jason; Keefer, Robert M

    2010-01-01

    Microsoft Virtualization helps you understand and implement the latest virtualization strategies available with Microsoft products. This book focuses on: Server Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Application Virtualization, and Presentation Virtualization. Whether you are managing Hyper-V, implementing desktop virtualization, or even migrating virtual machines, this book is packed with coverage on all aspects of these processes. Written by a talented team of Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft Virtualization is the leading resource for a full installation, migration, or integration of virtual syste

  18. Performance verification of network function virtualization in software defined optical transport networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Yongli; Hu, Liyazhou; Wang, Wei; Li, Yajie; Zhang, Jie

    2017-01-01

    With the continuous opening of resource acquisition and application, there are a large variety of network hardware appliances deployed as the communication infrastructure. To lunch a new network application always implies to replace the obsolete devices and needs the related space and power to accommodate it, which will increase the energy and capital investment. Network function virtualization1 (NFV) aims to address these problems by consolidating many network equipment onto industry standard elements such as servers, switches and storage. Many types of IT resources have been deployed to run Virtual Network Functions (vNFs), such as virtual switches and routers. Then how to deploy NFV in optical transport networks is a of great importance problem. This paper focuses on this problem, and gives an implementation architecture of NFV-enabled optical transport networks based on Software Defined Optical Networking (SDON) with the procedure of vNFs call and return. Especially, an implementation solution of NFV-enabled optical transport node is designed, and a parallel processing method for NFV-enabled OTN nodes is proposed. To verify the performance of NFV-enabled SDON, the protocol interaction procedures of control function virtualization and node function virtualization are demonstrated on SDON testbed. Finally, the benefits and challenges of the parallel processing method for NFV-enabled OTN nodes are simulated and analyzed.

  19. Dutch virtual integration of healthcare information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Graaf, J C; Vlug, A E; van Boven, G J

    2007-01-01

    As information technology creates opportunities for cooperation which crosses the boundaries between healthcare institutions, it will become an integral part of the Dutch healthcare system. Along with many involved organizations in healthcare the National IT Institute for Healthcare in the Netherlands (NICTIZ) is working on the realization of a national IT infrastructure for healthcare and a national electronic patient record (EPR). An underlying national architecture is designed to enable the Dutch EPR virtually, not in a national database, nor on a patient's smartcard. The required secure infrastructure provides generic functions for healthcare applications: patient identification, authentication and authorization of healthcare professionals. The first national applications in the EPR program using a national index of where patient data is stored, are the electronic medication record and the electronic record for after hours GP services. The rollout of the electronic medication record and electronic record for after hours GP services has been started in 2007. To guarantee progress of electronic data exchange in healthcare in the Netherlands we have primarily opted for two healthcare applications: the electronic medication record and the electronic record for after hours GP services. The use of a national switch-point containing the registry of where to find what information, guarantees that the professional receives the most recent information and omits large databases to contain downloaded data. Proper authorization, authentication as well as tracing by the national switchpoint also ensures a secure environment for the communication of delicate information.

  20. The Virtual Watershed Observatory: Cyberinfrastructure for Model-Data Integration and Access

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duffy, C.; Leonard, L. N.; Giles, L.; Bhatt, G.; Yu, X.

    2011-12-01

    The Virtual Watershed Observatory (VWO) is a concept where scientists, water managers, educators and the general public can create a virtual observatory from integrated hydrologic model results, national databases and historical or real-time observations via web services. In this paper, we propose a prototype for automated and virtualized web services software using national data products for climate reanalysis, soils, geology, terrain and land cover. The VWO has the broad purpose of making accessible water resource simulations, real-time data assimilation, calibration and archival at the scale of HUC 12 watersheds (Hydrologic Unit Code) anywhere in the continental US. Our prototype for model-data integration focuses on creating tools for fast data storage from selected national databases, as well as the computational resources necessary for a dynamic, distributed watershed simulation. The paper will describe cyberinfrastructure tools and workflow that attempts to resolve the problem of model-data accessibility and scalability such that individuals, research teams, managers and educators can create a WVO in a desired context. Examples are given for the NSF-funded Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory and the European Critical Zone Observatories within the SoilTrEC project. In the future implementation of WVO services will benefit from the development of a cloud cyber infrastructure as the prototype evolves to data and model intensive computation for continental scale water resource predictions.

  1. Virtual integral holography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Venolia, Dan S.; Williams, Lance

    1990-08-01

    components of a stereo display system with user point-of-view tracking for interactive 3D, and a digital realization of integral composite display which we term virtual integral holography. The primary drawbacks of holographic display - film processing turnaround time, and the difficulties of displaying scenes in full color -are obviated, and motion parallax cues provide easy 3D interpretation even for users who cannot see in stereo.

  2. Virtual-reality displaying of workpiece by reverse modeling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Huimin; Zhang Li; Chen Zhiqiang; Zhao Ziran

    2006-01-01

    The authors first propose a suit of CT data processing system: virtual-reality-based testing of workpiece by Reverse Modeling. For reverse modeling module, the authors propose two solutions: integrating Medical CT Modeling software and using VTK library to develop independently. Then, the authors analyze the required functions and characteristics of CT-based Reverse Modeling module, and the key technologies for developing. For virtual-reality module, the authors study characteristics of CT data and the needs of CT users, and describe the required functions and key techniques as for virtual reality displaying module. The authors still analyze the problems and prospective of development. (authors)

  3. A pythonic integrated solution for virtual prototyping of cyclotrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qin Bin; Yang Jun; Xiong Yongqian; Chen Dezhi; Yu Tiaoqin; Dong Tianlin; Zhang Tianjue; Fan Mingwu

    2007-01-01

    Virtual prototyping (VP) is a novel technique in engineering, which is desired to be applied to cyclotron design and development. Some sub-prototyping components, including beam dynamics, magnet, RF system and control system of cyclotrons, have been developed separately, but an integrated platform which encapsulates these different components is required for global system optimization. Considering that the VP integrated platform is a large-scale software and has numerous loose-coupled components, this paper describes the pythonic approach to implement this platform. By mixing the high-level interpreted Python language and the compiled languages like Fortran/C/C++ in an effective method, this approach can achieve a combination of code efficiency, flexibility and compactness

  4. A Game for Energy-Aware Allocation of Virtualized Network Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberto Bruschi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Network Functions Virtualization (NFV is a network architecture concept where network functionality is virtualized and separated into multiple building blocks that may connect or be chained together to implement the required services. The main advantages consist of an increase in network flexibility and scalability. Indeed, each part of the service chain can be allocated and reallocated at runtime depending on demand. In this paper, we present and evaluate an energy-aware Game-Theory-based solution for resource allocation of Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs within NFV environments. We consider each VNF as a player of the problem that competes for the physical network node capacity pool, seeking the minimization of individual cost functions. The physical network nodes dynamically adjust their processing capacity according to the incoming workload, by means of an Adaptive Rate (AR strategy that aims at minimizing the product of energy consumption and processing delay. On the basis of the result of the nodes’ AR strategy, the VNFs’ resource sharing costs assume a polynomial form in the workflows, which admits a unique Nash Equilibrium (NE. We examine the effect of different (unconstrained and constrained forms of the nodes’ optimization problem on the equilibrium and compare the power consumption and delay achieved with energy-aware and non-energy-aware strategy profiles.

  5. Virtual photon interactions in high energy QCD

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gieseke, S.

    2001-07-01

    We study the interactions of virtual photons in the high energy limit of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The subject is discussed in terms of two closely linked applications: the calculation of the total cross section for γ * γ * -scattering and the description of DIS in the colour dipole model. We calculate virtual corrections in α s to the process γ * q → (qq)q and the tree level process γ * q → (qqg)q in the high energy limit. From this calculation we obtain one-loop corrections to the effective γ * -reggeon-qq-vertex in the helicity basis of the virtual photon and the qq-pair. The loop integrals for the virtual corrections have been performed and expressed in dimensional regularization in terms of logarithms and dilogarithms. We have convoluted the virtual one-loop matrix elements with tree level matrix elements and expressed the integrals over the phase space of the qq-pair explicitly in terms of a set of standard integrals. The real corrections have been calculated and, in case of the longitudinal polarization, expressed in factorized form. From these calculations, the impact factor of virtual photons will be determined, allowing for a first prediction of the total cross section for γ * γ * -scattering in the next-to-leading-log s approximation. The calculations in this thesis extend the photon wave function picture in the colour dipole model to next-to-leading order. For this purpose, the real corrections with a qqg final state are analyzed in transverse configuration space and interpreted as a first higher Fock component of the photon wave function. In addition, the matrix elements that have been calculated in this thesis are needed for the calculation of jet cross sections. (orig.)

  6. Impact of Virtual and Augmented Reality Based on Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Functional Neuronavigation in Glioma Surgery Involving Eloquent Areas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Guo-Chen; Wang, Fei; Chen, Xiao-Lei; Yu, Xin-Guang; Ma, Xiao-Dong; Zhou, Ding-Biao; Zhu, Ru-Yuan; Xu, Bai-Nan

    2016-12-01

    The utility of virtual and augmented reality based on functional neuronavigation and intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for glioma surgery has not been previously investigated. The study population consisted of 79 glioma patients and 55 control subjects. Preoperatively, the lesion and related eloquent structures were visualized by diffusion tensor tractography and blood oxygen level-dependent functional MRI. Intraoperatively, microscope-based functional neuronavigation was used to integrate the reconstructed eloquent structure and the real head and brain, which enabled safe resection of the lesion. Intraoperative MRI was used to verify brain shift during the surgical process and provided quality control during surgery. The control group underwent surgery guided by anatomic neuronavigation. Virtual and augmented reality protocols based on functional neuronavigation and intraoperative MRI provided useful information for performing tailored and optimized surgery. Complete resection was achieved in 55 of 79 (69.6%) glioma patients and 20 of 55 (36.4%) control subjects, with average resection rates of 95.2% ± 8.5% and 84.9% ± 15.7%, respectively. Both the complete resection rate and average extent of resection differed significantly between the 2 groups (P virtual and augmented reality based on functional neuronavigation and intraoperative MRI can facilitate resection of gliomas involving eloquent areas. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Integrating Simulated Physics and Device Virtualization in Control System Testbeds

    OpenAIRE

    Redwood , Owen; Reynolds , Jason; Burmester , Mike

    2016-01-01

    Part 3: INFRASTRUCTURE MODELING AND SIMULATION; International audience; Malware and forensic analyses of embedded cyber-physical systems are tedious, manual processes that testbeds are commonly not designed to support. Additionally, attesting the physics impact of embedded cyber-physical system malware has no formal methodologies and is currently an art. This chapter describes a novel testbed design methodology that integrates virtualized embedded industrial control systems and physics simula...

  8. Integration agent-based models and GIS as a virtual urban dynamic laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Peng; Liu, Miaolong

    2007-06-01

    Based on the Agent-based Model and spatial data model, a tight-coupling integrating method of GIS and Agent-based Model (ABM) is to be discussed in this paper. The use of object-orientation for both spatial data and spatial process models facilitates their integration, which can allow exploration and explanation of spatial-temporal phenomena such as urban dynamic. In order to better understand how tight coupling might proceed and to evaluate the possible functional and efficiency gains from such a tight coupling, the agent-based model and spatial data model are discussed, and then the relationships affecting spatial data model and agent-based process models interaction. After that, a realistic crowd flow simulation experiment is presented. Using some tools provided by general GIS systems and a few specific programming languages, a new software system integrating GIS and MAS as a virtual laboratory applicable for simulating pedestrian flows in a crowd activity centre has been developed successfully. Under the environment supported by the software system, as an applicable case, a dynamic evolution process of the pedestrian's flows (dispersed process for the spectators) in a crowds' activity center - The Shanghai Stadium has been simulated successfully. At the end of the paper, some new research problems have been pointed out for the future.

  9. Assessing upper extremity motor function in practice of virtual activities of daily living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Richard J; Lichter, Matthew D; Krepkovich, Eileen T; Ellington, Allison; White, Marga; Diamond, Paul T

    2015-03-01

    A study was conducted to investigate the criterion validity of measures of upper extremity (UE) motor function derived during practice of virtual activities of daily living (ADLs). Fourteen hemiparetic stroke patients employed a Virtual Occupational Therapy Assistant (VOTA), consisting of a high-fidelity virtual world and a Kinect™ sensor, in four sessions of approximately one hour in duration. An unscented Kalman Filter-based human motion tracking algorithm estimated UE joint kinematics in real-time during performance of virtual ADL activities, enabling both animation of the user's avatar and automated generation of metrics related to speed and smoothness of motion. These metrics, aggregated over discrete sub-task elements during performance of virtual ADLs, were compared to scores from an established assessment of UE motor performance, the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT). Spearman's rank correlation analysis indicates a moderate correlation between VOTA-derived metrics and the time-based WMFT assessments, supporting the criterion validity of VOTA measures as a means of tracking patient progress during an UE rehabilitation program that includes practice of virtual ADLs.

  10. Virtual C Machine and Integrated Development Environment for ATMS Controllers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000-04-01

    The overall objective of this project is to develop a prototype virtual machine that fits on current Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) controllers and provides functionality for complex traffic operations.;Prepared in cooperation with Utah S...

  11. Integrating eye tracking in virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation

    OpenAIRE

    Alves, Júlio Miguel Gomes Rebelo

    2014-01-01

    This thesis reports on research done for the integration of eye tracking technology into virtual reality environments, with the goal of using it in rehabilitation of patients who suffered from stroke. For the last few years, eye tracking has been a focus on medical research, used as an assistive tool  to help people with disabilities interact with new technologies  and as an assessment tool  to track the eye gaze during computer interactions. However, tracking more complex gaze behavio...

  12. Integrated visualization of simulation results and experimental devices in virtual-reality space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ohtani, Hiroaki; Ishiguro, Seiji; Shohji, Mamoru; Kageyama, Akira; Tamura, Yuichi

    2011-01-01

    We succeeded in integrating the visualization of both simulation results and experimental device data in virtual-reality (VR) space using CAVE system. Simulation results are shown using Virtual LHD software, which can show magnetic field line, particle trajectory, and isosurface of plasma pressure of the Large Helical Device (LHD) based on data from the magnetohydrodynamics equilibrium simulation. A three-dimensional mouse, or wand, determines the initial position and pitch angle of a drift particle or the starting point of a magnetic field line, interactively in the VR space. The trajectory of a particle and the stream-line of magnetic field are calculated using the Runge-Kutta-Huta integration method on the basis of the results obtained after pointing the initial condition. The LHD vessel is objectively visualized based on CAD-data. By using these results and data, the simulated LHD plasma can be interactively drawn in the objective description of the LHD experimental vessel. Through this integrated visualization, it is possible to grasp the three-dimensional relationship of the positions between the device and plasma in the VR space, opening a new path in contribution to future research. (author)

  13. [Neuropsychological evaluation of the executive functions by means of virtual reality].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Climent-Martínez, Gema; Luna-Lario, Pilar; Bombín-González, Igor; Cifuentes-Rodríguez, Alicia; Tirapu-Ustárroz, Javier; Díaz-Orueta, Unai

    2014-05-16

    Executive functions include a wide range of self regulatory functions that allow control, organization and coordination of other cognitive functions, emotional responses and behaviours. The traditional approach to evaluate these functions, by means of paper and pencil neuropsychological tests, shows a greater than expected performance within the normal range for patients whose daily life difficulties would predict an inferior performance. These discrepancies suggest that classical neuropsychological tests may not adequately reproduce the complexity and dynamic nature of real life situations. Latest developments in the field of virtual reality offer interesting options for the neuropsychological assessment of many cognitive processes. Virtual reality reproduces three-dimensional environments with which the patient interacts in a dynamic way, with a sense of immersion in the environment similar to the presence and exposure to a real environment. Furthermore, the presentation of these stimuli, as well as distractors and other variables, may be controlled in a systematic way. Moreover, more consistent and precise answers may be obtained, and an in-depth analysis of them is possible. The present review shows current problems in neuropsychological evaluation of executive functions and latest advances in the consecution of higher preciseness and validity of the evaluation by means of new technologies and virtual reality, with special mention to some developments performed in Spain.

  14. Virtual continuity of the measurable functions of several variables, and Sobolev embedding theorems

    OpenAIRE

    Vershik, Anatoly; Zatitskiy, Pavel; Petrov, Fedor

    2013-01-01

    Classical Luzin's theorem states that the measurable function of one variable is "almost" continuous. This is not so anymore for functions of several variables. The search of right analogue of the Luzin theorem leads to a notion of virtually continuous functions of several variables. This probably new notion appears implicitly in the statements like embeddings theorems and traces theorems for Sobolev spaces. In fact, it reveals their nature as theorems about virtual continuity. This notion is...

  15. Best Practices and Provisional Guidelines for Integrating Mobile, Virtual, and Videogame-Based Training and Assessments

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    videogame -based platforms, 2) role of assessments and how they can be implemented within these platforms, or 3) benefits or challenges of the...Technical Report 1334 Best Practices and Provisional Guidelines for Integrating Mobile, Virtual, and Videogame -Based Training and...Virtual, and Videogame -Based Training and Assessments 5a. CONTRACT OR GRANT NUMBER W5J9CQ-11-D-0002 5b. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 622785

  16. Integrated Flood Forecast and Virtual Dam Operation System for Water Resources and Flood Risk Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shibuo, Yoshihiro; Ikoma, Eiji; Lawford, Peter; Oyanagi, Misa; Kanauchi, Shizu; Koudelova, Petra; Kitsuregawa, Masaru; Koike, Toshio

    2014-05-01

    While availability of hydrological- and hydrometeorological data shows growing tendency and advanced modeling techniques are emerging, such newly available data and advanced models may not always be applied in the field of decision-making. In this study we present an integrated system of ensemble streamflow forecast (ESP) and virtual dam simulator, which is designed to support river and dam manager's decision making. The system consists of three main functions: real time hydrological model, ESP model, and dam simulator model. In the real time model, the system simulates current condition of river basins, such as soil moisture and river discharges, using LSM coupled distributed hydrological model. The ESP model takes initial condition from the real time model's output and generates ESP, based on numerical weather prediction. The dam simulator model provides virtual dam operation and users can experience impact of dam control on remaining reservoir volume and downstream flood under the anticipated flood forecast. Thus the river and dam managers shall be able to evaluate benefit of priori dam release and flood risk reduction at the same time, on real time basis. Furthermore the system has been developed under the concept of data and models integration, and it is coupled with Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS) - a Japanese national project for integrating and analyzing massive amount of observational and model data. Therefore it has advantage in direct use of miscellaneous data from point/radar-derived observation, numerical weather prediction output, to satellite imagery stored in data archive. Output of the system is accessible over the web interface, making information available with relative ease, e.g. from ordinary PC to mobile devices. We have been applying the system to the Upper Tone region, located northwest from Tokyo metropolitan area, and we show application example of the system in recent flood events caused by typhoons.

  17. Evaluation of gross motor function before and after virtual reality application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luiza da Silva Pereira Tannus

    Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: Recently virtual reality has been aggregated to the therapeutic possibilities for patients who need functionality gains, such as individuals with cerebral palsy (CP. Aim: to evaluate the effects of virtual reality on the gross motor function of individuals with CP. Methods: longitudinal study, realized in a special education school, with five individuals with CP (7.4 years of age ± 1.14 of both sexes, evaluated using the B, D and E dimensions of the GMFM 88, before and after the application of three Wii Fit Plus(r console games: Hula Hoop, Slide Penguin and Soccer Heading. These games were applied for four minutes per game, at the beginner level, twice a week, for twelve consecutives weeks. The normality of the sample was evaluated through the Shapiro-Wilk's test. The results obtained before and after the Wii Fit(r application were compared using descriptive statistics. Results: all the individuals obtained improvements in the dimensions evaluated after the virtual reality application, with a 5.14% general improvement, varying between 1.9% and 9.6%. The standing (D and walking, running and jumping (E dimensions were the dimensions which obtained higher improvement percentages. Conclusion: considering the study limitations, the results obtained suggest that virtual reality can promote benefits in the gross motor function of individuals with cerebral palsy.

  18. An Interactive Logistics Centre Information Integration System Using Virtual Reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, S.; Mao, B.

    2018-04-01

    The logistics industry plays a very important role in the operation of modern cities. Meanwhile, the development of logistics industry has derived various problems that are urgent to be solved, such as the safety of logistics products. This paper combines the study of logistics industry traceability and logistics centre environment safety supervision with virtual reality technology, creates an interactive logistics centre information integration system. The proposed system utilizes the immerse characteristic of virtual reality, to simulate the real logistics centre scene distinctly, which can make operation staff conduct safety supervision training at any time without regional restrictions. On the one hand, a large number of sensor data can be used to simulate a variety of disaster emergency situations. On the other hand, collecting personnel operation data, to analyse the improper operation, which can improve the training efficiency greatly.

  19. AN INTERACTIVE LOGISTICS CENTRE INFORMATION INTEGRATION SYSTEM USING VIRTUAL REALITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Hong

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The logistics industry plays a very important role in the operation of modern cities. Meanwhile, the development of logistics industry has derived various problems that are urgent to be solved, such as the safety of logistics products. This paper combines the study of logistics industry traceability and logistics centre environment safety supervision with virtual reality technology, creates an interactive logistics centre information integration system. The proposed system utilizes the immerse characteristic of virtual reality, to simulate the real logistics centre scene distinctly, which can make operation staff conduct safety supervision training at any time without regional restrictions. On the one hand, a large number of sensor data can be used to simulate a variety of disaster emergency situations. On the other hand, collecting personnel operation data, to analyse the improper operation, which can improve the training efficiency greatly.

  20. Ride comfort optimization of a multi-axle heavy motorized wheel dump truck based on virtual and real prototype experiment integrated Kriging model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bian Gong

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The optimization of hydro-pneumatic suspension parameters of a multi-axle heavy motorized wheel dump truck is carried out based on virtual and real prototype experiment integrated Kriging model in this article. The root mean square of vertical vibration acceleration, in the center of sprung mass, is assigned as the optimization objective. The constraints are the natural frequency, the working stroke, and the dynamic load of wheels. The suspension structure for the truck is the adjustable hydro-pneumatic suspension with ideal vehicle nonlinear characteristics, integrated with elastic and damping elements. Also, the hydraulic systems of two adjacent hydro-pneumatic suspension are interconnected. Considering the high complexity of the engineering model, a novel kind of meta-model called virtual and real prototype experiment integrated Kriging is proposed in this article. The interpolation principle and the construction of virtual and real prototype experiment integrated Kriging model were elucidated. Being different from traditional Kriging, virtual and real prototype experiment integrated Kriging combines the respective advantages of actual test and Computer Aided Engineering simulation. Based on the virtual and real prototype experiment integrated Kriging model, the optimization results, obtained by experimental verification, showed significant improvement in the ride comfort by 12.48% for front suspension and 11.79% for rear suspension. Compared with traditional Kriging, the optimization effect was improved by 3.05% and 3.38% respectively. Virtual and real prototype experiment integrated Kriging provides an effective way to approach the optimal solution for the optimization of high-complexity engineering problems.

  1. Effects of virtual reality programs on balance in functional ankle instability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Ki-Jong; Heo, Myoung

    2015-10-01

    [Purpose] The aim of present study was to identify the impact that recent virtual reality training programs used in a variety of fields have had on the ankle's static and dynamic senses of balance among subjects with functional ankle instability. [Subjects and Methods] This study randomly divided research subjects into two groups, a strengthening exercise group (Group I) and a balance exercise group (Group II), with each group consisting of 10 people. A virtual reality program was performed three times a week for four weeks. Exercises from the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus program were applied to each group for twenty minutes along with ten minutes of warming up and wrap-up exercises. [Results] Group II showed a significant decrease of post-intervention static and dynamic balance overall in the anterior-posterior, and mediolateral directions, compared with the pre-intervention test results. In comparison of post-intervention static and dynamic balance between Group I and Group II, a significant decrease was observed overall. [Conclusion] Virtual reality programs improved the static balance and dynamic balance of subjects with functional ankle instability. Virtual reality programs can be used more safely and efficiently if they are implemented under appropriate monitoring by a physiotherapist.

  2. Development of an integrity evaluation system on the basis of cooperative virtual reality environment for reactor pressure vessel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, J.C.; Choi, J.B.; Kim, Y.J.; Choi, Y.H.; Park, Y.W.; Yoshimura, S.

    2004-01-01

    Since early 1950's, the fracture mechanics has brought significant impact on structural integrity assessment in a wide range of industries such as power, transportation, civil and petrochemical industries, especially in nuclear power plant industries. For the last two decades, significant efforts have been devoted in developing defect assessment procedures, and as a result, various fitness-for-purpose or fitness-for-service codes have been developed. From another aspect, recent advances in IT (information technologies) bring rapid changes in various engineering fields. IT enables people to share information through network and thus provides concurrent working environment without limitations of locations. For this reason, a network system based on internet or intranet bas been appeared in various fields of business. Evaluating the integrity of critical components is one of the most critical issues in the nuclear industry. In order to evaluate the integrity of structures, a complicated and collaborative procedure is required including periodical in-service inspection, fracture mechanics analysis, etc. And thus, experts in different fields have to cooperate to resolve the integrity problem. In this paper, an integrity evaluation system on the basis of cooperative virtual reality environment for reactor pressure vessel which adopts IT into a structural integrity evaluation procedure for reactor pressure vessel is introduced. The proposed system uses virtual reality (VR) technique, virtual network computing (VNC) and knowledge based programs. This system is able to support 3-dimensional virtual reality environment and provide experts to co-operate each other by accessing related data through internet. The proposed system is expected to provide a more efficient integrity evaluation for reactor pressure vessel. (orig.)

  3. Virtual reality simulator for vitreoretinal surgery using integrated OCT data

    OpenAIRE

    Kozak, Igor; Banerjee,Pat; Luo,Jia; Luciano,Cristian

    2014-01-01

    Igor Kozak,1 Pat Banerjee,2 Jia Luo,2 Cristian Luciano21King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Vitreoretinal Division, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 2College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USAAbstract: Operative practice using surgical simulators has become a part of training in many surgical specialties, including ophthalmology. We introduce a virtual reality retina surgery simulator capable of integrating optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans from real p...

  4. Sensorial Virtualization: Coupling Gaming and Virtual Environment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Garbaya, S.; Miraoui, C.; Wendrich, Robert E.; Lim, T.; Stanescu, I.A.; Hauge, J.B.

    2014-01-01

    Virtual reality and virtualization are currently used to design complex systems and demonstrate that they represent the functionalities of real systems. However, the design refinement of the virtual environment (VE) and distributed virtual environment (DVE) are still time consuming and costly, as it

  5. Virtual NC machine model with integrated knowledge data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sidorenko, Sofija; Dukovski, Vladimir

    2002-01-01

    The concept of virtual NC machining was established for providing a virtual product that could be compared with an appropriate designed product, in order to make NC program correctness evaluation, without real experiments. This concept is applied in the intelligent CAD/CAM system named VIRTUAL MANUFACTURE. This paper presents the first intelligent module that enables creation of the virtual models of existed NC machines and virtual creation of new ones, applying modular composition. Creation of a virtual NC machine is carried out via automatic knowledge data saving (features of the created NC machine). (Author)

  6. IVSPlat 1.0: an integrated virtual screening platform with a molecular graphical interface.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Yin Xue; Huang, Yan Xin; Li, Feng Li; Wang, Hong Yan; Fan, Cong; Bao, Yong Li; Sun, Lu Guo; Ma, Zhi Qiang; Kong, Jun; Li, Yu Xin

    2012-01-05

    The virtual screening (VS) of lead compounds using molecular docking and pharmacophore detection is now an important tool in drug discovery. VS tasks typically require a combination of several software tools and a molecular graphics system. Thus, the integration of all the requisite tools in a single operating environment could reduce the complexity of running VS experiments. However, only a few freely available integrated software platforms have been developed. A free open-source platform, IVSPlat 1.0, was developed in this study for the management and automation of VS tasks. We integrated several VS-related programs into a molecular graphics system to provide a comprehensive platform for the solution of VS tasks based on molecular docking, pharmacophore detection, and a combination of both methods. This tool can be used to visualize intermediate and final results of the VS execution, while also providing a clustering tool for the analysis of VS results. A case study was conducted to demonstrate the applicability of this platform. IVSPlat 1.0 provides a plug-in-based solution for the management, automation, and visualization of VS tasks. IVSPlat 1.0 is an open framework that allows the integration of extra software to extend its functionality and modified versions can be freely distributed. The open source code and documentation are available at http://kyc.nenu.edu.cn/IVSPlat/.

  7. Integration Head Mounted Display Device and Hand Motion Gesture Device for Virtual Reality Laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rengganis, Y. A.; Safrodin, M.; Sukaridhoto, S.

    2018-01-01

    Virtual Reality Laboratory (VR Lab) is an innovation for conventional learning media which show us whole learning process in laboratory. There are many tools and materials are needed by user for doing practical in it, so user could feel new learning atmosphere by using this innovation. Nowadays, technologies more sophisticated than before. So it would carry in education and it will be more effective, efficient. The Supported technologies are needed us for making VR Lab such as head mounted display device and hand motion gesture device. The integration among them will be used us for making this research. Head mounted display device for viewing 3D environment of virtual reality laboratory. Hand motion gesture device for catching user real hand and it will be visualized in virtual reality laboratory. Virtual Reality will show us, if using the newest technologies in learning process it could make more interesting and easy to understand.

  8. Virtual Reality System with Integrated Sound Field Simulation and Reproduction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ingo Assenmacher

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available A real-time audio rendering system is introduced which combines a full room-specific simulation, dynamic crosstalk cancellation, and multitrack binaural synthesis for virtual acoustical imaging. The system is applicable for any room shape (normal, long, flat, coupled, independent of the a priori assumption of a diffuse sound field. This provides the possibility of simulating indoor or outdoor spatially distributed, freely movable sources and a moving listener in virtual environments. In addition to that, near-to-head sources can be simulated by using measured near-field HRTFs. The reproduction component consists of a headphone-free reproduction by dynamic crosstalk cancellation. The focus of the project is mainly on the integration and interaction of all involved subsystems. It is demonstrated that the system is capable of real-time room simulation and reproduction and, thus, can be used as a reliable platform for further research on VR applications.

  9. VLSI Design of Trusted Virtual Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Macarena C. Martínez-Rodríguez

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This work presents a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI design of trusted virtual sensors providing a minimum unitary cost and very good figures of size, speed and power consumption. The sensed variable is estimated by a virtual sensor based on a configurable and programmable PieceWise-Affine hyper-Rectangular (PWAR model. An algorithm is presented to find the best values of the programmable parameters given a set of (empirical or simulated input-output data. The VLSI design of the trusted virtual sensor uses the fast authenticated encryption algorithm, AEGIS, to ensure the integrity of the provided virtual measurement and to encrypt it, and a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF based on a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM to ensure the integrity of the sensor itself. Implementation results of a prototype designed in a 90-nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS technology show that the active silicon area of the trusted virtual sensor is 0.86 mm 2 and its power consumption when trusted sensing at 50 MHz is 7.12 mW. The maximum operation frequency is 85 MHz, which allows response times lower than 0.25 μ s. As application example, the designed prototype was programmed to estimate the yaw rate in a vehicle, obtaining root mean square errors lower than 1.1%. Experimental results of the employed PUF show the robustness of the trusted sensing against aging and variations of the operation conditions, namely, temperature and power supply voltage (final value as well as ramp-up time.

  10. VLSI Design of Trusted Virtual Sensors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martínez-Rodríguez, Macarena C; Prada-Delgado, Miguel A; Brox, Piedad; Baturone, Iluminada

    2018-01-25

    This work presents a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) design of trusted virtual sensors providing a minimum unitary cost and very good figures of size, speed and power consumption. The sensed variable is estimated by a virtual sensor based on a configurable and programmable PieceWise-Affine hyper-Rectangular (PWAR) model. An algorithm is presented to find the best values of the programmable parameters given a set of (empirical or simulated) input-output data. The VLSI design of the trusted virtual sensor uses the fast authenticated encryption algorithm, AEGIS, to ensure the integrity of the provided virtual measurement and to encrypt it, and a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) based on a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) to ensure the integrity of the sensor itself. Implementation results of a prototype designed in a 90-nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology show that the active silicon area of the trusted virtual sensor is 0.86 mm 2 and its power consumption when trusted sensing at 50 MHz is 7.12 mW. The maximum operation frequency is 85 MHz, which allows response times lower than 0.25 μ s. As application example, the designed prototype was programmed to estimate the yaw rate in a vehicle, obtaining root mean square errors lower than 1.1%. Experimental results of the employed PUF show the robustness of the trusted sensing against aging and variations of the operation conditions, namely, temperature and power supply voltage (final value as well as ramp-up time).

  11. Virtual anthropology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weber, Gerhard W

    2015-02-01

    methodological issues remain to be solved before results from the two domains can be fully integrated, the various overlaps and cross-fertilizations suggest the widespread appearance of a "virtual functional morphology" in the near future. © 2014 American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

  12. Virtual reality and its use as occupational therapeutic resource: an integrative review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tayane Leoncio Caiana

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Virtual Reality is defined as the interface between the user and the computer simulation of a given environment or activity, providing interaction through multiple sensory channels found in video games or computers, offering different experiences to the individual. It is a growing practice in health professions, including Occupational Therapy. Objective: To analyze how virtual reality has been used in occupational therapy processes through a search in national publications that have used this approach in recent years. Method: An integrative literature review was conducted at CAPES, LILACS, MEDLINE and SciELO databases, periodicals of Occupational Therapy (Journal of Occupational Therapy - USP and Occupational Therapy Notebooks - UFSCar, and Google Scholar (book chapters between 2004 and 2014, with the following descriptors: Occupational Therapy, Video Game, Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy, Computer Assisted Therapy, and User-Computer Interface. Results: Fifteen articles were selected in compliance with the inclusion criteria. It was observed that most works addressed Virtual Reality as an evaluative method (n = 07; 46.6%, intervening in neurological disorders (n = 10; 66.6%, used more frequently by adolescent audience (n = 07; 46.6%. The computer is the most commonly used equipment in the interventions (n = 10; 66.6%. Conclusion: Virtual Reality is an important tool in promoting health, and it is also used in various treatments. Its use has grown among occupational therapists, but it is still an area that needs to be diligently evidenced, so that it can serve as an aid to update techniques.

  13. Designing Virtual Learning Environments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Veirum, Niels Einar

    2003-01-01

    The main objective of this working paper is to present a conceptual model for media integrated communication in virtual learning environments. The model for media integrated communication is very simple and identifies the necessary building blocks for virtual place making in a synthesis of methods...

  14. Virtual Reality Training with Cognitive Load Improves Walking Function in Chronic Stroke Patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Ki Hun; Kim, Min Kyu; Lee, Hwang-Jae; Lee, Wan Hee

    2015-08-01

    Virtual reality training is considered as an effective intervention method of stroke patients, and the virtual reality system for therapeutic rehabilitation has emphasized the cognitive factors to improve walking function. The purpose of current study was to investigate the effect of virtual reality training with cognitive load (VRTCL) on walking function of chronic stroke. Chronic stroke patients were randomly assigned to the VRTCL group (11 patients, including 5 men; mean age, 60.0 years; post-stroke duration, 273.9 days) or control group (11 patients, including 2 men; mean age, 58.6 years; post-stroke duration, 263.9 days). All subjects participated in the standard rehabilitation program that consisted of physical and occupational therapies. In addition, VRTCL group participated in the VRTCL for 4 weeks (30 min per day and five times a week), while those in the control group participated in virtual reality treadmill training. Walking function under single (walking alone) and dual task (walking with cognitive tasks) conditions was assessed using an electrical walkway system. After the 4-week intervention, under both single and dual task conditions, significant improvement on walking function was observed in VRTCL and control groups (P < 0.05). In addition, in the dual task condition, greater improvement on walking function was observed in the VRTCL group, compared with the control group (P < 0.05). These findings demonstrated the efficacy of VRTCL on the walking function under the dual task condition. Therefore, we suggest that VRTCL may be an effective method for the achievement of independent walking in chronic stroke patients.

  15. BIM Based Virtual Environment for Fire Emergency Evacuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bin Wang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Recent building emergency management research has highlighted the need for the effective utilization of dynamically changing building information. BIM (building information modelling can play a significant role in this process due to its comprehensive and standardized data format and integrated process. This paper introduces a BIM based virtual environment supported by virtual reality (VR and a serious game engine to address several key issues for building emergency management, for example, timely two-way information updating and better emergency awareness training. The focus of this paper lies on how to utilize BIM as a comprehensive building information provider to work with virtual reality technologies to build an adaptable immersive serious game environment to provide real-time fire evacuation guidance. The innovation lies on the seamless integration between BIM and a serious game based virtual reality (VR environment aiming at practical problem solving by leveraging state-of-the-art computing technologies. The system has been tested for its robustness and functionality against the development requirements, and the results showed promising potential to support more effective emergency management.

  16. BIM based virtual environment for fire emergency evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Bin; Li, Haijiang; Rezgui, Yacine; Bradley, Alex; Ong, Hoang N

    2014-01-01

    Recent building emergency management research has highlighted the need for the effective utilization of dynamically changing building information. BIM (building information modelling) can play a significant role in this process due to its comprehensive and standardized data format and integrated process. This paper introduces a BIM based virtual environment supported by virtual reality (VR) and a serious game engine to address several key issues for building emergency management, for example, timely two-way information updating and better emergency awareness training. The focus of this paper lies on how to utilize BIM as a comprehensive building information provider to work with virtual reality technologies to build an adaptable immersive serious game environment to provide real-time fire evacuation guidance. The innovation lies on the seamless integration between BIM and a serious game based virtual reality (VR) environment aiming at practical problem solving by leveraging state-of-the-art computing technologies. The system has been tested for its robustness and functionality against the development requirements, and the results showed promising potential to support more effective emergency management.

  17. Effects of virtual reality training on mobility and physical function in stroke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malik, Arshad Nawaz; Masood, Tahir

    2017-10-01

    Stroke is a common disabling condition which declines the functional and mobility level. The purpose of the case series was to determine the effect of virtual reality training on sensorimotor function and mobility level in stroke patients. Ten male (40-60 year) patients of stroke (08 Infarction, 02 Haemorrhagic) were selected from Physiotherapy department of Pakistan Railway Hospital, Rawalpindi. The additional virtual reality training (15-20 minutes) was provided 03 days per week for 06weeks along with task oriented training. All patients were assessed through Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Lower Extremity (FMA-LE) and Timed Get Up and Go Test (TUG) at baseline and after 06 weeks of training. The results showed that there was significant improvement in mobility level of stroke patients. It is concluded that combination of task oriented and virtual reality training considerably improves the physical performance and mobility level in stroke patients.

  18. Virtual reality simulator for vitreoretinal surgery using integrated OCT data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kozak I

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Igor Kozak,1 Pat Banerjee,2 Jia Luo,2 Cristian Luciano21King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Vitreoretinal Division, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 2College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USAAbstract: Operative practice using surgical simulators has become a part of training in many surgical specialties, including ophthalmology. We introduce a virtual reality retina surgery simulator capable of integrating optical coherence tomography (OCT scans from real patients for practicing vitreoretinal surgery using different pathologic scenarios.Keywords: optical coherence tomography

  19. Using Virtualization to Integrate Weather, Climate, and Coastal Science Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, J. R.; Paramygin, V. A.; Figueiredo, R.; Sheng, Y.

    2012-12-01

    To better understand and communicate the important roles of weather and climate on the coastal environment, a unique publically available tool is being developed to support research, education, and outreach activities. This tool uses virtualization technologies to facilitate an interactive, hands-on environment in which students, researchers, and general public can perform their own numerical modeling experiments. While prior efforts have focused solely on the study of the coastal and estuary environments, this effort incorporates the community supported weather and climate model (WRF-ARW) into the Coastal Science Educational Virtual Appliance (CSEVA), an education tool used to assist in the learning of coastal transport processes; storm surge and inundation; and evacuation modeling. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is a next-generation, community developed and supported, mesoscale numerical weather prediction system designed to be used internationally for research, operations, and teaching. It includes two dynamical solvers (ARW - Advanced Research WRF and NMM - Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model) as well as a data assimilation system. WRF-ARW is the ARW dynamics solver combined with other components of the WRF system which was developed primarily at NCAR, community support provided by the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology (MMM) division of National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Included with WRF is the WRF Pre-processing System (WPS) which is a set of programs to prepare input for real-data simulations. The CSEVA is based on the Grid Appliance (GA) framework and is built using virtual machine (VM) and virtual networking technologies. Virtualization supports integration of an operating system, libraries (e.g. Fortran, C, Perl, NetCDF, etc. necessary to build WRF), web server, numerical models/grids/inputs, pre-/post-processing tools (e.g. WPS / RIP4 or UPS), graphical user interfaces, "Cloud"-computing infrastructure and other tools into a

  20. Working Group on Virtual Data Integration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Williams, D. N. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Palanisamy, G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); van Dam, K. K. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

    2016-02-04

    This report is the outcome of a workshop commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD) to examine current and future data infrastructure requirements foundational for achieving CESD scientific mission goals in advancing a robust, predictive understanding of Earth’s climate and environmental systems. Over the past several years, data volumes in CESD disciplines have risen sharply to unprecedented levels (tens of petabytes). Moreover, the complexity and diversity of this research data— including simulations, observations, and reanalysis— have grown significantly, posing new challenges for data capture, storage, verification, analysis, and integration. With the trends of increased data volume (in the hundreds of petabytes), more complex analysis processes, and growing cross-disciplinary collaborations, it is timely to investigate whether the CESD community has the computational and data support needed to fully realize the scientific potential of its data collections. In recognition of the challenges, a partnership is forming across CESD and among national and international agencies to examine the viability of creating an integrated, collaborative data infrastructure: a Virtual Laboratory. The overarching goal of this report is to identify the community’s key data technology requirements and high-priority development needs for sustaining and growing its scientific discovery potential. The report also aims to map these requirements to existing solutions and to identify gaps in current services, tools, and infrastructure that will need to be addressed in the short, medium, and long term to advance scientific progress.

  1. Development of virtual private network for JT-60SA CAD integration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oshima, Takayuki; Fujita, Takaaki; Seki, Masami; Kawashima, Hisato; Hoshino, Katsumichi; Shibanuma, Kiyoshi; Verrecchia, M.; Teuchner, B.

    2010-01-01

    The CAD models will be exchanged and integrated at Naka for JT-60SA, a common computer network efficiently connected between Naka site and the Garching site is needed to be established. Virtual Private Network (VPN) was introduced with LAN on computer network physically-separated from JAEA intranet area and firewall. In July 2009, a new VPN connection between the Naka and Garching sites has been successfully demonstrated using IPSec-VPN technology with a commercial and cost-effective firewall/router for security. It was found that the introduction of the Wide Area File Service (WAFS) could solve the issue of the data transmission time and enhance the usability of the VPN for design integration in JT-60SA. (author)

  2. Virtual reality training improves turning capacity and functional reach in stroke patients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malik, A.N.; Masood, T.

    2017-01-01

    Objective: To determine the added effects of virtual reality training on turning capacity, gait parameters and functional reach capacity of stroke patients compared to task oriented training alone. Methodology: A randomized control trial was conducted from February 2016 to July 2106 at Physical Rehabilitation Department Pakistan Railway Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Twenty stroke patients were selected through purposive sampling. The patients were randomly assigned through sealed envelope method into two groups; Task Oriented Training (TOT) and Virtual Reality Training (VRT) Group. The standardized tools were used for assessment. The TOT was provided for 4 days per week for 6 weeks while VRT group received additional exer-gaming training during sessions. Results: Significant improvement was observed in both groups regarding reaching forward, turning 360, gait pivot turn (p a 0.01) and FRT (p a 0.001). The two groups were statistically different from each other in terms of turning capacity, reaching forward, gait pivot turn and functional reach after 6 weeks of intervention (p a 0.05) Conclusion: Addition of virtual reality training further improves the significant improvement caused by task oriented training on turning capacity, reaching forward, gait pivot turn and functional reach in stroke patients. (author)

  3. Triggers for virtual customer integration in the development of medical equipment – from a manufacturer and a user perspective

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Füller, Johann; Faullant, Rita; Matzler, Kurt

    2010-01-01

    that looks at the motivations of customers and managers to engage in virtual product development projects. In this paper we try to identify the triggers for virtual customer integration (VCI) from the manager's as well as from the customer's perspective. Using Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior we aim...

  4. Framework for virtual control desk projects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mol, Antonio Carlos A.; Freitas, Victor Goncalves G.; Espieito Santos, Andre Cotelli do; Aghina, Mauricio A. da C. e, E-mail: mol@ien.gov.b, E-mail: vgoncalves@ien.gov.b, E-mail: mag@ien.gov.b [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2011-07-01

    Through the recent advances of the Brazilian nuclear program, the creation of virtual control desks allows an ergonomic evaluation and technique of the same, even before its physical implementation, reducing costs and time in addition to allow the virtual training of operators. This project intends to develop a 'framework' where the components of a real control desk are available for creating a virtual desk, continuing the project control desk developed at the Laboratorio de Interface Homem Sistema do IEN (LABHIS/IEN). Through the C++ programming language integrated with the OPENGL graphics library was possible to create the desk and it's components, allowing a graphical modeling in 3D (stereo) of a virtual control desk where the operator, with the aid of GLUI user interface library, can choose what and where the components are positioned on the bench, and select the type of desk wanted from the pre-defined templates. Finally, with the control desk mounted and configured, enabling a virtual interaction with operators, making possible to reproduce its functionalities. (author)

  5. Framework for virtual control desk projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mol, Antonio Carlos A.; Freitas, Victor Goncalves G.; Espieito Santos, Andre Cotelli do; Aghina, Mauricio A. da C. e

    2011-01-01

    Through the recent advances of the Brazilian nuclear program, the creation of virtual control desks allows an ergonomic evaluation and technique of the same, even before its physical implementation, reducing costs and time in addition to allow the virtual training of operators. This project intends to develop a 'framework' where the components of a real control desk are available for creating a virtual desk, continuing the project control desk developed at the Laboratorio de Interface Homem Sistema do IEN (LABHIS/IEN). Through the C++ programming language integrated with the OPENGL graphics library was possible to create the desk and it's components, allowing a graphical modeling in 3D (stereo) of a virtual control desk where the operator, with the aid of GLUI user interface library, can choose what and where the components are positioned on the bench, and select the type of desk wanted from the pre-defined templates. Finally, with the control desk mounted and configured, enabling a virtual interaction with operators, making possible to reproduce its functionalities. (author)

  6. A New Cloud Architecture of Virtual Trusted Platform Modules

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Dongxi; Lee, Jack; Jang, Julian; Nepal, Surya; Zic, John

    We propose and implement a cloud architecture of virtual Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) to improve the usability of TPMs. In this architecture, virtual TPMs can be obtained from the TPM cloud on demand. Hence, the TPM functionality is available for applications that do not have physical TPMs in their local platforms. Moreover, the TPM cloud allows users to access their keys and data in the same virtual TPM even if they move to untrusted platforms. The TPM cloud is easy to access for applications in different languages since cloud computing delivers services in standard protocols. The functionality of the TPM cloud is demonstrated by applying it to implement the Needham-Schroeder public-key protocol for web authentications, such that the strong security provided by TPMs is integrated into high level applications. The chain of trust based on the TPM cloud is discussed and the security properties of the virtual TPMs in the cloud is analyzed.

  7. Virtual Inertia Control-Based Model Predictive Control for Microgrid Frequency Stabilization Considering High Renewable Energy Integration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thongchart Kerdphol

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Renewable energy sources (RESs, such as wind and solar generations, equip inverters to connect to the microgrids. These inverters do not have any rotating mass, thus lowering the overall system inertia. This low system inertia issue could affect the microgrid stability and resiliency in the situation of uncertainties. Today’s microgrids will become unstable if the capacity of RESs become larger and larger, leading to the weakening of microgrid stability and resilience. This paper addresses a new concept of a microgrid control incorporating a virtual inertia system based on the model predictive control (MPC to emulate virtual inertia into the microgrid control loop, thus stabilizing microgrid frequency during high penetration of RESs. The additional controller of virtual inertia is applied to the microgrid, employing MPC with virtual inertia response. System modeling and simulations are carried out using MATLAB/Simulink® software. The simulation results confirm the superior robustness and frequency stabilization effect of the proposed MPC-based virtual inertia control in comparison to the fuzzy logic system and conventional virtual inertia control in a system with high integration of RESs. The proposed MPC-based virtual inertia control is able to improve the robustness and frequency stabilization of the microgrid effectively.

  8. A Virtual Commissioning Learning Platform

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mortensen, Steffen; Madsen, Ole

    2018-01-01

    The introduction of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS), Industry 4.0 and the associated technologies requires the establishment of new competencies. Towards that goal, Aalborg University (AAU) has developed an Industry 4.0 learning factory, the AAU Smart Production Lab. The AAU Smart...... Production Lab integrates a number of Industry 4.0 technologies for learning and research purposes. One of the many techniques is virtual commissioning. Virtual commissioning uses a virtual plant model and real controllers (PLCs) enabling a full emulation of the manufacturing system for verification. Virtual...... commissioning can lower the commissioning time up to 63%, allowing faster time to market. However, virtual commission is still missing industrial impact one of the reasons being lack of competencies and integration experiences. The paper presents the setup of the virtual commissioning learning platform...

  9. The power of virtual integration: an interview with Dell Computer's Michael Dell. Interview by Joan Magretta.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dell, M

    1998-01-01

    Michael Dell started his computer company in 1984 with a simple business insight. He could bypass the dealer channel through which personal computers were then being sold and sell directly to customers, building products to order. Dell's direct model eliminated the dealer's markup and the risks associated with carrying large inventories of finished goods. In this interview, Michael Dell provides a detailed description of how his company is pushing that business model one step further, toward what he calls virtual integration. Dell is using technology and information to blur the traditional boundaries in the value chain between suppliers, manufacturers, and customers. The individual pieces of Dell's strategy--customer focus, supplier partnerships, mass customization, just-in-time manufacturing--may be all be familiar. But Michael Dell's business insight into how to combine them is highly innovative. Direct relationships with customers create valuable information, which in turn allows the company to coordinate its entire value chain back through manufacturing to product design. Dell describes how his company has come to achieve this tight coordination without the "drag effect" of ownership. Dell reaps the advantages of being vertically integrated without incurring the costs, all the while achieving the focus, agility, and speed of a virtual organization. As envisioned by Michael Dell, virtual integration may well become a new organizational model for the information age.

  10. Merging assistance function with task distribution model to enhance user performance in collaborative virtual environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khalid, S.; Alam, A.

    2016-01-01

    Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) falls under Virtual Reality (VR) where two or more users manipulate objects collaboratively. In this paper we have made some experiments to make assembly from constituents parts scattered in Virtual Environment (VE) based on task distribution model using assistance functions for checking and enhancing user performance. The CVEs subjects setting on distinct connected machines via local area network. In this perspective, we consider the effects of assistance function with oral communication on collaboration, co-presence and users performance. Twenty subjects performed collaboratively an assembly task on static and dynamic based task distribution. We examine the degree of influence of assistance function with oral communications on user's performance based on task distribution model. The results show that assistance functions with oral communication based on task distribution model not only increase user performance but also enhance the sense of copresence and awareness. (author)

  11. Functional integration over geometries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mottola, E.

    1995-01-01

    The geometric construction of the functional integral over coset spaces M/G is reviewed. The inner product on the cotangent space of infinitesimal deformations of M defines an invariant distance and volume form, or functional integration measure on the full configuration space. Then, by a simple change of coordinates parameterizing the gauge fiber G, the functional measure on the coset space M/G is deduced. This change of integration variables leads to a Jacobian which is entirely equivalent to the Faddeev--Popov determinant of the more traditional gauge fixed approach in non-abelian gauge theory. If the general construction is applied to the case where G is the group of coordinate reparameterizations of spacetime, the continuum functional integral over geometries, i.e. metrics modulo coordinate reparameterizations may be defined. The invariant functional integration measure is used to derive the trace anomaly and effective action for the conformal part of the metric in two and four dimensional spacetime. In two dimensions this approach generates the Polyakov--Liouville action of closed bosonic non-critical string theory. In four dimensions the corresponding effective action leads to novel conclusions on the importance of quantum effects in gravity in the far infrared, and in particular, a dramatic modification of the classical Einstein theory at cosmological distance scales, signaled first by the quantum instability of classical de Sitter spacetime. Finite volume scaling relations for the functional integral of quantum gravity in two and four dimensions are derived, and comparison with the discretized dynamical triangulation approach to the integration over geometries are discussed. Outstanding unsolved problems in both the continuum definition and the simplicial approach to the functional integral over geometries are highlighted

  12. Effects of a virtual reality-based exercise program on functional recovery in stroke patients: part 1.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Kyoung-Hee

    2015-06-01

    This study aimed to determine the effects of a virtual reality exercise program using the Interactive Rehabilitation and Exercise System (IREX) on the recovery of motor and cognitive function and the performance of activities of daily living in stroke patients. [Subjects] The study enrolled 10 patients diagnosed with stroke who received occupational therapy at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of Hospital A between January and March 2014. [Methods] The patients took part in the virtual reality exercise program for 30 minutes each day, three times per week, for 4 weeks. Then, the patients were re-evaluated to determine changes in upper extremity function, cognitive function, and performance of activities of daily living 4 weeks after the baseline assessment. [Results] In the experimental group, there were significant differences in the Korea-Mini Mental Status Evaluation, Korean version of the modified Barthel index, and Fugl-Meyer assessment scores between the baseline and endpoint. [Conclusion] The virtual reality exercise program was effective for restoring function in stroke patients. Further studies should develop systematic protocols for rehabilitation training with a virtual reality exercise program.

  13. Virtual Rehabilitation with Children: Challenges for Clinical Adoption [From the Field].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glegg, Stephanie

    2017-01-01

    Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality environments are increasingly being developed and used to address functional rehabilitation goals related to physical, cognitive, social, and psychological impairments. For example, a child with an acquired brain injury may participate in virtual rehabilitation to address impairments in balance, attention, turn taking, and engagement in therapy. The trend toward virtual rehabilitation first gained momentum with the adoption of commercial off-the-shelf active video gaming consoles (e.g., Nintendo Wii and XBox). Now, we are seeing the rapid emergence of customized rehabilitation-specific systems that integrate technological advances in virtual reality, visual effects, motion tracking, physiological monitoring, and robotics.

  14. Auditory-visual integration of emotional signals in a virtual environment for cynophobia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taffou, Marine; Chapoulie, Emmanuelle; David, Adrien; Guerchouche, Rachid; Drettakis, George; Viaud-Delmon, Isabelle

    2012-01-01

    Cynophobia (dog phobia) has both visual and auditory relevant components. In order to investigate the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) exposure-based treatment for cynophobia, we studied the efficiency of auditory-visual environments in generating presence and emotion. We conducted an evaluation test with healthy participants sensitive to cynophobia in order to assess the capacity of auditory-visual virtual environments (VE) to generate fear reactions. Our application involves both high fidelity visual stimulation displayed in an immersive space and 3D sound. This specificity enables us to present and spatially manipulate fearful stimuli in the auditory modality, the visual modality and both. Our specific presentation of animated dog stimuli creates an environment that is highly arousing, suggesting that VR is a promising tool for cynophobia treatment and that manipulating auditory-visual integration might provide a way to modulate affect.

  15. Virtual Ribosome - a comprehensive DNA translation tool with support for integration of sequence feature annotation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wernersson, Rasmus

    2006-01-01

    of alternative start codons. ( ii) Integration of sequences feature annotation - in particular, native support for working with files containing intron/ exon structure annotation. The software is available for both download and online use at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/VirtualRibosome/....

  16. QoS-Aware Resource Allocation for Network Virtualization in an Integrated Train Ground Communication System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Zhu

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Urban rail transit plays an increasingly important role in urbanization processes. Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC Systems, Passenger Information Systems (PIS, and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV are key applications of urban rail transit to ensure its normal operation. In existing urban rail transit systems, different applications are deployed with independent train ground communication systems. When the train ground communication systems are built repeatedly, limited wireless spectrum will be wasted, and the maintenance work will also become complicated. In this paper, we design a network virtualization based integrated train ground communication system, in which all the applications in urban rail transit can share the same physical infrastructure. In order to better satisfy the Quality of Service (QoS requirement of each application, this paper proposes a virtual resource allocation algorithm based on QoS guarantee, base station load balance, and application station fairness. Moreover, with the latest achievement of distributed convex optimization, we exploit a novel distributed optimization method based on alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM to solve the virtual resource allocation problem. Extensive simulation results indicate that the QoS of the designed integrated train ground communication system can be improved significantly using the proposed algorithm.

  17. Integration of renewable energy plants based on generic data models in the energy management of a virtual power plant; Integration von erneuerbaren Energieanlagen auf Basis generischer Datenmodelle in das Energiemanagement eines virtuellen Kraftwerks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wickert, Manuel; Slaby, Wolfgang; Hochloff, Patrick [Fraunhofer Institut fuer Windenergie und Energiesystemtechnik (IWES), Kassel (Germany); Winter, Martin [Siemens AG, Muenchen (Germany). Corporate Technology

    2012-07-01

    The integration of different types of energy resources manufactured by different vendors is one of the main challenges for virtual power plants. One of the important problems is a highly heterogeneous standardization environment for decentralized renewable energy resources. On the one hand proprietary solutions are implemented for some types of energy resources. In a future smart grid it is getting more and more important to handle decentralized energy generation. The project RegModHarz researched the dynamic integration of energy resources in virtual power plants based on generic data models. This paper introduces a concept for the integration of heterogeneous energy resources into the energy management of a virtual power plant using a uniform data model. On the assumption of a market-oriented virtual power plant the main attributes of this data model are generally identified and afterwards explained by examples. The capability of this data model is shown in a comprehensive field test with different renewable energy resources. (orig.)

  18. Virtual reality exposure therapy

    OpenAIRE

    Rothbaum, BO; Hodges, L; Kooper, R

    1997-01-01

    It has been proposed that virtual reality (VR) exposure may be an alternative to standard in vivo exposure. Virtual reality integrates real-time computer graphics, body tracking devices, visual displays, and other sensory input devices to immerse a participant in a computer- generated virtual environment. Virtual reality exposure is potentially an efficient and cost-effective treatment of anxiety disorders. VR exposure therapy reduced the fear of heights in the first control...

  19. Domains of bosonic functional integrals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Botelho, Luiz C.L.; Para Univ., Belem, PA

    1998-07-01

    We propose a mathematical framework for bosonic Euclidean quantum field functional integrals based on the theory of integration on the dual algebraic vector space of classical field sources. We present a generalization of the Minlos-Dao Xing theorem and apply it to determine exactly the domain of integration associated to the functional integral representation of the two-dimensional quantum electrodynamics Schwinger generating functional. (author)

  20. Integrating QoS and security functions in an IP-VPN gateway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Kuo-Pao; Chang, Shu-Hsin; Lin, Kuan-Ming; Pen, Mau-Jy

    2001-10-01

    IP-based Virtual Private Network becomes more and more popular. It can not only reduce the enterprise communication cost but also increase the revenue of the service provider. The common IP-VPN application types include Intranet VPN, Extranet VPN, and remote access VPN. For the large IP-VPN market, some vendors develop dedicated IP-VPN devices; while some vendors add the VPN functions into their existing network equipment such as router, access gateway, etc. The functions in the IP-VPN device include security, QoS, and management. The common security functions supported are IPSec (IP Security), IKE (Internet Key Exchange), and Firewall. The QoS functions include bandwidth control and packet scheduling. In the management component, policy-based network management is under standardization in IETF. In this paper, we discuss issues on how to integrate the QoS and security functions in an IP-VPN Gateway. We propose three approaches to do this. They are (1) perform Qos first (2) perform IPSec first and (3) reserve fixed bandwidth for IPSec. We also compare the advantages and disadvantages of the three proposed approaches.

  1. Virtual Worlds for Virtual Organizing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhoten, Diana; Lutters, Wayne

    The members and resources of a virtual organization are dispersed across time and space, yet they function as a coherent entity through the use of technologies, networks, and alliances. As virtual organizations proliferate and become increasingly important in society, many may exploit the technical architecture s of virtual worlds, which are the confluence of computer-mediated communication, telepresence, and virtual reality originally created for gaming. A brief socio-technical history describes their early origins and the waves of progress followed by stasis that brought us to the current period of renewed enthusiasm. Examination of contemporary examples demonstrates how three genres of virtual worlds have enabled new arenas for virtual organizing: developer-defined closed worlds, user-modifiable quasi-open worlds, and user-generated open worlds. Among expected future trends are an increase in collaboration born virtually rather than imported from existing organizations, a tension between high-fidelity recreations of the physical world and hyper-stylized imaginations of fantasy worlds, and the growth of specialized worlds optimized for particular sectors, companies, or cultures.

  2. Optimized R functions for analysis of ecological community data using the R virtual laboratory (RvLab).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varsos, Constantinos; Patkos, Theodore; Oulas, Anastasis; Pavloudi, Christina; Gougousis, Alexandros; Ijaz, Umer Zeeshan; Filiopoulou, Irene; Pattakos, Nikolaos; Vanden Berghe, Edward; Fernández-Guerra, Antonio; Faulwetter, Sarah; Chatzinikolaou, Eva; Pafilis, Evangelos; Bekiari, Chryssoula; Doerr, Martin; Arvanitidis, Christos

    2016-01-01

    Parallel data manipulation using R has previously been addressed by members of the R community, however most of these studies produce ad hoc solutions that are not readily available to the average R user. Our targeted users, ranging from the expert ecologist/microbiologists to computational biologists, often experience difficulties in finding optimal ways to exploit the full capacity of their computational resources. In addition, improving performance of commonly used R scripts becomes increasingly difficult especially with large datasets. Furthermore, the implementations described here can be of significant interest to expert bioinformaticians or R developers. Therefore, our goals can be summarized as: (i) description of a complete methodology for the analysis of large datasets by combining capabilities of diverse R packages, (ii) presentation of their application through a virtual R laboratory (RvLab) that makes execution of complex functions and visualization of results easy and readily available to the end-user. In this paper, the novelty stems from implementations of parallel methodologies which rely on the processing of data on different levels of abstraction and the availability of these processes through an integrated portal. Parallel implementation R packages, such as the pbdMPI (Programming with Big Data - Interface to MPI) package, are used to implement Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) parallelization on primitive mathematical operations, allowing for interplay with functions of the vegan package. The dplyr and RPostgreSQL R packages are further integrated offering connections to dataframe like objects (databases) as secondary storage solutions whenever memory demands exceed available RAM resources. The RvLab is running on a PC cluster, using version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31) on a x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit) platform, and offers an intuitive virtual environmet interface enabling users to perform analysis of ecological and microbial communities based on

  3. Molecular Rift: Virtual Reality for Drug Designers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norrby, Magnus; Grebner, Christoph; Eriksson, Joakim; Boström, Jonas

    2015-11-23

    Recent advances in interaction design have created new ways to use computers. One example is the ability to create enhanced 3D environments that simulate physical presence in the real world--a virtual reality. This is relevant to drug discovery since molecular models are frequently used to obtain deeper understandings of, say, ligand-protein complexes. We have developed a tool (Molecular Rift), which creates a virtual reality environment steered with hand movements. Oculus Rift, a head-mounted display, is used to create the virtual settings. The program is controlled by gesture-recognition, using the gaming sensor MS Kinect v2, eliminating the need for standard input devices. The Open Babel toolkit was integrated to provide access to powerful cheminformatics functions. Molecular Rift was developed with a focus on usability, including iterative test-group evaluations. We conclude with reflections on virtual reality's future capabilities in chemistry and education. Molecular Rift is open source and can be downloaded from GitHub.

  4. Rehabilitation Program Integrating Virtual Environment to Improve Orientation and Mobility Skills for People Who Are Blind.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lahav, Orly; Schloerb, David W; Srinivasan, Mandayam A

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents the integration of a virtual environment (BlindAid) in an orientation and mobility rehabilitation program as a training aid for people who are blind. BlindAid allows the users to interact with different virtual structures and objects through auditory and haptic feedback. This research explores if and how use of the BlindAid in conjunction with a rehabilitation program can help people who are blind train themselves in familiar and unfamiliar spaces. The study, focused on nine participants who were congenitally, adventitiously, and newly blind, during their orientation and mobility rehabilitation program at the Carroll Center for the Blind (Newton, Massachusetts, USA). The research was implemented using virtual environment (VE) exploration tasks and orientation tasks in virtual environments and real spaces. The methodology encompassed both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews, a questionnaire, videotape recording, and user computer logs. The results demonstrated that the BlindAid training gave participants additional time to explore the virtual environment systematically. Secondly, it helped elucidate several issues concerning the potential strengths of the BlindAid system as a training aid for orientation and mobility for both adults and teenagers who are congenitally, adventitiously, and newly blind.

  5. Catecholamine Responses to Virtual Combat: Implications for Post-Traumatic Stress and Dimensions of Functioning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krista Beth Highland

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available PTSD symptoms can result in functional impairment among service members (SMs, even in those without a clinical diagnosis. The variability in outcomes may be related to underlying catecholamine mechanisms. Individuals with PTSD tend to have elevated basal catecholamine levels, though less is known regarding catecholamine responses to trauma-related stimuli. We assessed whether catecholamine responses to a virtual combat environment impact the relationship between PTSD symptom clusters and elements of functioning. Eighty-seven clinically healthy SMs, within 2 months after deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan, completed self-report measures, viewed virtual-reality (VR combat sequences, and had sequential blood draws. Norepinephrine responses to VR combat exposure moderated the relationship between avoidance symptoms and scales of functioning including physical functioning, physical-role functioning, and vitality. Among those with high levels of avoidance, norepinephrine change was inversely associated with functional status, whereas a positive correlation was observed for those with low levels of avoidance. Our findings represent a novel use of a virtual environment to display combat-related stimuli to returning SMs to elucidate mind-body connections inherent in their responses. The insight gained improves our understanding of post-deployment symptoms and quality of life in SMs and may facilitate enhancements in treatment. Further research is needed to validate these findings in other populations and to define the implications for treatment effectiveness.

  6. Using Virtual Technology to Promote Functional Communication in Aphasia: Preliminary Evidence From Interactive Dialogues With Human and Virtual Clinicians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalinyak-Fliszar, Michelene; Martin, Nadine; Keshner, Emily; Rudnicky, Alex; Shi, Justin; Teodoro, Gregory

    2015-11-01

    We investigated the feasibility of using a virtual clinician (VC) to promote functional communication abilities of persons with aphasia (PWAs). We aimed to determine whether the quantity and quality of verbal output in dialogues with a VC would be the same or greater than those with a human clinician (HC). Four PWAs practiced dialogues for 2 sessions each with a HC and VC. Dialogues from before and after practice were transcribed and analyzed for content. We compared measures taken before and after practice in the VC and HC conditions. Results were mixed. Participants either produced more verbal output with the VC or showed no difference on this measure between the VC and HC conditions. Participants also showed some improvement in postpractice narratives. Results provide support for the feasibility and applicability of virtual technology to real-life communication contexts to improve functional communication in PWAs.

  7. Virtualization of the ATLAS software environment on a shared HPC system

    CERN Document Server

    Gamel, Anton Josef; The ATLAS collaboration

    2017-01-01

    The shared HPC cluster NEMO at the University of Freiburg has been made available to local ATLAS users through the provisioning of virtual machines incorporating the ATLAS software environment analogously to a WLCG center. This concept allows to run both data analysis and production on the HPC host system which is connected to the existing Tier2/Tier3 infrastructure. Schedulers of the two clusters were integrated in a dynamic, on-demand way. An automatically generated, fully functional virtual machine image provides access to the local user environment. The performance in the virtualized environment is evaluated for typical High-Energy Physics applications.

  8. Empirical evaluation of mapping functions for navigation in virtual reality using phones with integrated sensors

    KAUST Repository

    Benzina, Amal; Dey, Arindam; Toennis, Marcus; Klinker, Gudrun

    2012-01-01

    Mobile phones provide an interesting all-in-one alternative for 3D input devices in virtual environments. Mobile phones are becoming touch sensitive and spatially aware, and they are now part of our daily activities. We present Phone-Based Motion

  9. Crossing the Atlantic: Integrating Cross-Cultural Experiences into Undergraduate Business Courses Using Virtual Communities Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luethge, Denise J.; Raska, David; Greer, Bertie M.; O'Connor, Christina

    2016-01-01

    Today's business school academics are tasked with pedagogy that offers students an understanding of the globalization of markets and the cross-cultural communication skills needed in today's business environment. The authors describe how a virtual cross-cultural experience was integrated into an undergraduate business course and used as an…

  10. A Service-Oriented Approach for Dynamic Chaining of Virtual Network Functions over Multi-Provider Software-Defined Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barbara Martini

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Emerging technologies such as Software-Defined Networks (SDN and Network Function Virtualization (NFV promise to address cost reduction and flexibility in network operation while enabling innovative network service delivery models. However, operational network service delivery solutions still need to be developed that actually exploit these technologies, especially at the multi-provider level. Indeed, the implementation of network functions as software running over a virtualized infrastructure and provisioned on a service basis let one envisage an ecosystem of network services that are dynamically and flexibly assembled by orchestrating Virtual Network Functions even across different provider domains, thereby coping with changeable user and service requirements and context conditions. In this paper we propose an approach that adopts Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA technology-agnostic architectural guidelines in the design of a solution for orchestrating and dynamically chaining Virtual Network Functions. We discuss how SOA, NFV, and SDN may complement each other in realizing dynamic network function chaining through service composition specification, service selection, service delivery, and placement tasks. Then, we describe the architecture of a SOA-inspired NFV orchestrator, which leverages SDN-based network control capabilities to address an effective delivery of elastic chains of Virtual Network Functions. Preliminary results of prototype implementation and testing activities are also presented. The benefits for Network Service Providers are also described that derive from the adaptive network service provisioning in a multi-provider environment through the orchestration of computing and networking services to provide end users with an enhanced service experience.

  11. Department of Energy's Virtual Lab Infrastructure for Integrated Earth System Science Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, D. N.; Palanisamy, G.; Shipman, G.; Boden, T.; Voyles, J.

    2014-12-01

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD) produces a diversity of data, information, software, and model codes across its research and informatics programs and facilities. This information includes raw and reduced observational and instrumentation data, model codes, model-generated results, and integrated data products. Currently, most of this data and information are prepared and shared for program specific activities, corresponding to CESD organization research. A major challenge facing BER CESD is how best to inventory, integrate, and deliver these vast and diverse resources for the purpose of accelerating Earth system science research. This talk provides a concept for a CESD Integrated Data Ecosystem and an initial roadmap for its implementation to address this integration challenge in the "Big Data" domain. Towards this end, a new BER Virtual Laboratory Infrastructure will be presented, which will include services and software connecting the heterogeneous CESD data holdings, and constructed with open source software based on industry standards, protocols, and state-of-the-art technology.

  12. Integrating Video-Capture Virtual Reality Technology into a Physically Interactive Learning Environment for English Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jie Chi; Chen, Chih Hung; Jeng, Ming Chang

    2010-01-01

    The aim of this study is to design and develop a Physically Interactive Learning Environment, the PILE system, by integrating video-capture virtual reality technology into a classroom. The system is designed for elementary school level English classes where students can interact with the system through physical movements. The system is designed to…

  13. Virtual reality for employability skills

    OpenAIRE

    Minocha, Shailey; Tudor, Ana-Despina

    2017-01-01

    We showed a variety of virtual reality technologies, and through examples, we discussed how virtual reality technology is transforming work styles and workplaces. Virtual reality is becoming pervasive in almost all domains starting from arts, environmental causes to medical education and disaster management training, and to supporting patients with Dementia. Thus, an awareness of the virtual reality technology and its integration in curriculum design will provide and enhance employability ski...

  14. WNoDeS, a tool for integrated Grid and Cloud access and computing farm virtualization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salomoni, Davide; Italiano, Alessandro; Ronchieri, Elisabetta

    2011-12-01

    INFN CNAF is the National Computing Center, located in Bologna, Italy, of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). INFN CNAF, also called the INFN Tier-1, provides computing and storage facilities to the International High-Energy Physics community and to several multi-disciplinary experiments. Currently, the INFN Tier-1 supports more than twenty different collaborations; in this context, optimization of the usage of computing resources is essential. This is one of the main drivers behind the development of a software called WNoDeS (Worker Nodes on Demand Service). WNoDeS, developed at INFN CNAF and deployed on the INFN Tier-1 production infrastructure, is a solution to virtualize computing resources and to make them available through local, Grid or Cloud interfaces. It is designed to be fully integrated with a Local Resource Management System; it is therefore inherently scalable and permits full integration with existing scheduling, policing, monitoring, accounting and security workflows. WNoDeS dynamically instantiates Virtual Machines (VMs) on-demand, i.e. only when the need arises; these VMs can be tailored and used for purposes like batch job execution, interactive analysis or service instantiation. WNoDeS supports interaction with user requests through traditional batch or Grid jobs and also via the Open Cloud Computing Interface standard, making it possible to allocate compute, storage and network resources on a pay-as-you-go basis. User authentication is supported via several authentication methods, while authorization policies are handled via gLite Argus. WNoDeS is an ambitious solution aimed at virtualizing cluster resources in medium or large scale computing centers, with up to several thousands of Virtual Machines up and running at any given time. In this paper, we descrive the WNoDeS architecture.

  15. WNoDeS, a tool for integrated Grid and Cloud access and computing farm virtualization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salomoni, Davide; Italiano, Alessandro; Ronchieri, Elisabetta

    2011-01-01

    INFN CNAF is the National Computing Center, located in Bologna, Italy, of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). INFN CNAF, also called the INFN Tier-1, provides computing and storage facilities to the International High-Energy Physics community and to several multi-disciplinary experiments. Currently, the INFN Tier-1 supports more than twenty different collaborations; in this context, optimization of the usage of computing resources is essential. This is one of the main drivers behind the development of a software called WNoDeS (Worker Nodes on Demand Service). WNoDeS, developed at INFN CNAF and deployed on the INFN Tier-1 production infrastructure, is a solution to virtualize computing resources and to make them available through local, Grid or Cloud interfaces. It is designed to be fully integrated with a Local Resource Management System; it is therefore inherently scalable and permits full integration with existing scheduling, policing, monitoring, accounting and security workflows. WNoDeS dynamically instantiates Virtual Machines (VMs) on-demand, i.e. only when the need arises; these VMs can be tailored and used for purposes like batch job execution, interactive analysis or service instantiation. WNoDeS supports interaction with user requests through traditional batch or Grid jobs and also via the Open Cloud Computing Interface standard, making it possible to allocate compute, storage and network resources on a pay-as-you-go basis. User authentication is supported via several authentication methods, while authorization policies are handled via gLite Argus. WNoDeS is an ambitious solution aimed at virtualizing cluster resources in medium or large scale computing centers, with up to several thousands of Virtual Machines up and running at any given time. In this paper, we describe the WNoDeS architecture.

  16. Investigating Multitasking in High-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders Using the Virtual Errands Task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rajendran, Gnanathusharan; Law, Anna S.; Logie, Robert H.; van der Meulen, Marian; Fraser, Diane; Corley, Martin

    2011-01-01

    Using a modified version of the Virtual Errands Task (VET; McGeorge et al. in "Presence-Teleop Virtual Environ" 10(4):375-383, 2001), we investigated the executive ability of multitasking in 18 high-functioning adolescents with ASD and 18 typically developing adolescents. The VET requires multitasking (Law et al. in "Acta Psychol" 122(1):27-44,…

  17. Selection and impedance based model of a lithium ion battery technology for integration with virtual power plant

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Swierczynski, Maciej Jozef; Stroe, Daniel Ioan; Stan, Ana-Irina

    2013-01-01

    is to integrate lithium-ion batteries into virtual power plants; thus, the power system stability and the energy quality can be increased. The selection of the best lithium-ion battery candidate for integration with wind power plants is a key aspect for the economic feasibility of the virtual power plant...... investment. This paper presents a methodology for selection, between three candidates, of a Li-ion battery which offers long cycle lifetime at partial charge/discharge (required by many grid support applications) while providing a low cost per cycle also. For the selected Li-ion battery an impedance......-based diagnostic tool for lifetime estimation was developed and verified. This diagnostic tool can be extended into an impedance-based lifetime model that will be able to predict the remaining useful lifetime of Li-ion batteries for specific grid support applications....

  18. Recommendations for Integrating a P300-Based Brain Computer Interface in Virtual Reality Environments for Gaming

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grégoire Cattan

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available The integration of a P300-based brain–computer interface (BCI into virtual reality (VR environments is promising for the video games industry. However, it faces several limitations, mainly due to hardware constraints and constraints engendered by the stimulation needed by the BCI. The main limitation is still the low transfer rate that can be achieved by current BCI technology. The goal of this paper is to review current limitations and to provide application creators with design recommendations in order to overcome them. We also overview current VR and BCI commercial products in relation to the design of video games. An essential recommendation is to use the BCI only for non-complex and non-critical tasks in the game. Also, the BCI should be used to control actions that are naturally integrated into the virtual world. Finally, adventure and simulation games, especially if cooperative (multi-user appear the best candidates for designing an effective VR game enriched by BCI technology.

  19. Requirements of Integrated Design Teams While Evaluating Advanced Energy Retrofit Design Options in Immersive Virtual Environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xue Yang

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available One of the significant ways to save energy use in buildings is to implement advanced energy retrofits in existing buildings. Improving energy performance of buildings through advanced energy retrofitting requires a clear understanding of the cost and energy implications of design alternatives from various engineering disciplines when different retrofit options are considered. The communication of retrofit design alternatives and their energy implications is essential in the decision-making process, as it affects the final retrofit selections and hence the energy efficiency of the retrofitted buildings. The objective of the research presented here was to identify a generic list of information requirements that are needed to be shared and collectively analyzed by integrated design teams during advanced energy retrofit design review meetings held in immersive settings. While identifying such requirements, the authors used an immersive environment based iterative requirements elicitation approach. The technology was used as a means to better identify the information requirements of integrated design teams to be analyzed as a group. This paper provides findings on information requirements of integrated design teams when evaluating retrofit options in immersive virtual environments. The information requirements were identified through interactions with sixteen experts in design and energy modeling domain, and validated with another group of participants consisting of six design experts who were experienced in integrated design processes. Industry practitioners can use the findings in deciding on what information to share with integrated design team members during design review meetings that utilize immersive virtual environments.

  20. Virtual hand: a 3D tactile interface to virtual environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogowitz, Bernice E.; Borrel, Paul

    2008-02-01

    We introduce a novel system that allows users to experience the sensation of touch in a computer graphics environment. In this system, the user places his/her hand on an array of pins, which is moved about space on a 6 degree-of-freedom robot arm. The surface of the pins defines a surface in the virtual world. This "virtual hand" can move about the virtual world. When the virtual hand encounters an object in the virtual world, the heights of the pins are adjusted so that they represent the object's shape, surface, and texture. A control system integrates pin and robot arm motions to transmit information about objects in the computer graphics world to the user. It also allows the user to edit, change and move the virtual objects, shapes and textures. This system provides a general framework for touching, manipulating, and modifying objects in a 3-D computer graphics environment, which may be useful in a wide range of applications, including computer games, computer aided design systems, and immersive virtual worlds.

  1. Contribution of Prosody in Audio-Visual Integration to Emotional Perception of Virtual Characters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ekaterina Volkova

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Recent technology provides us with realistic looking virtual characters. Motion capture and elaborate mathematical models supply data for natural looking, controllable facial and bodily animations. With the help of computational linguistics and artificial intelligence, we can automatically assign emotional categories to appropriate stretches of text for a simulation of those social scenarios where verbal communication is important. All this makes virtual characters a valuable tool for creation of versatile stimuli for research on the integration of emotion information from different modalities. We conducted an audio-visual experiment to investigate the differential contributions of emotional speech and facial expressions on emotion identification. We used recorded and synthesized speech as well as dynamic virtual faces, all enhanced for seven emotional categories. The participants were asked to recognize the prevalent emotion of paired faces and audio. Results showed that when the voice was recorded, the vocalized emotion influenced participants' emotion identification more than the facial expression. However, when the voice was synthesized, facial expression influenced participants' emotion identification more than vocalized emotion. Additionally, individuals did worse on identifying either the facial expression or vocalized emotion when the voice was synthesized. Our experimental method can help to determine how to improve synthesized emotional speech.

  2. The real corrections to the virtual photon impact factor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kyrieleis, A.

    2003-10-01

    We investigate the interaction of two virtual photons in the high energy limit of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). We are motivated by two closely linked problems: the calculation of the γ * γ * total cross section, σ γ * γ * , in the framework NLO BFKL and the NLO extensions to the colour dipole picture. We calculate the squared amplitude for the process γ * + q → qqg + q in arbitrary space-time dimensions for both longitudinal and transverse photon polarisation. In transverse configuration space the result is found to factorise supporting in this way the photon wave function interpretation. This is the first step in the calculation of the qqg Fock component of the γ * wave function. The squared vertex for the transition Reggeon-γ * → qqg is extracted in order to calculate the NLO real corrections to the γ * impact factor. Together with the virtual corrections this will allow for the calculation of σ γ * γ * . The infrared divergences are dimensionally regularised and their cancellation against those from the virtual corrections is performed. After the introduction of Feynman parameters in each Feynman diagram, part of the qqg phase space integration is performed analytically. The various divergences emerging due to the independent treatment of the diagrams are regularised. A procedure is worked out to obtain for each diagram a finite phase space integral. In the case of longitudinal photon polarisation, this method is implemented in a computer program and the full phase space integration is carried out numerically. First numerical tests of the calculation are successfully performed. (orig.)

  3. A conceptualisation of the relationship between virtual experience and cybernauts' satisfaction with virtual communities

    OpenAIRE

    Bouattour , Dorra; Debos , Franck; Abdellatif , Tarek

    2015-01-01

    International audience; In this research, we developed and tested an integrated model relating individuals' satisfaction with their experiential values in virtual communities. Using a realised factorial analysis and regression, we identified the factors that influence member satisfaction in virtual communities. Adopting Mathwick et al.'s (2001) concept of experiential value, we proposed a conceptualisation of a virtual experience that fits closely with the original nomological framework advoc...

  4. Virtual Realities and the Future of Text.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marcus, Stephen

    1992-01-01

    Discusses issues surrounding virtual reality and "virtual books." Suggests that those who are exploring the territory of virtual realities are already helping to expand and enrich expectations and visions for integrating technology into reading and writing. (RS)

  5. An integrated pipeline to create and experience compelling scenarios in virtual reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Springer, Jan P.; Neumann, Carsten; Reiners, Dirk; Cruz-Neira, Carolina

    2011-03-01

    One of the main barriers to create and use compelling scenarios in virtual reality is the complexity and time-consuming efforts for modeling, element integration, and the software development to properly display and interact with the content in the available systems. Still today, most virtual reality applications are tedious to create and they are hard-wired to the specific display and interaction system available to the developers when creating the application. Furthermore, it is not possible to alter the content or the dynamics of the content once the application has been created. We present our research on designing a software pipeline that enables the creation of compelling scenarios with a fair degree of visual and interaction complexity in a semi-automated way. Specifically, we are targeting drivable urban scenarios, ranging from large cities to sparsely populated rural areas that incorporate both static components (e. g., houses, trees) and dynamic components (e. g., people, vehicles) as well as events, such as explosions or ambient noise. Our pipeline has four basic components. First, an environment designer, where users sketch the overall layout of the scenario, and an automated method constructs the 3D environment from the information in the sketch. Second, a scenario editor used for authoring the complete scenario, incorporate the dynamic elements and events, fine tune the automatically generated environment, define the execution conditions of the scenario, and set up any data gathering that may be necessary during the execution of the scenario. Third, a run-time environment for different virtual-reality systems provides users with the interactive experience as designed with the designer and the editor. And fourth, a bi-directional monitoring system that allows for capturing and modification of information from the virtual environment. One of the interesting capabilities of our pipeline is that scenarios can be built and modified on-the-fly as they are

  6. Virtual Web Services

    OpenAIRE

    Rykowski, Jarogniew

    2007-01-01

    In this paper we propose an application of software agents to provide Virtual Web Services. A Virtual Web Service is a linked collection of several real and/or virtual Web Services, and public and private agents, accessed by the user in the same way as a single real Web Service. A Virtual Web Service allows unrestricted comparison, information merging, pipelining, etc., of data coming from different sources and in different forms. Detailed architecture and functionality of a single Virtual We...

  7. A Regional Integrated Virtual Learning Environment: The AOU's Experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Said Hammad

    2004-02-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we propose to construct a Regional Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (RIVLE for the Arab Open University (AOU. AOU is a new nonprofit learning institution with branches in six Arab countries and more branches scheduled to open in the near future. The university adopts an open learning methodology. We describe the major elements of the RIVLE and their interaction. We present a generic interface between the RIVLE and the Student Information System (SIS. We focus on the characteristics of the pedagogical model in the Arab Open University context and explain why RIVLE would be a perfect fit for this model. We argue that the potential benefits of a RIVLE are realized in such a setting. We also study the possibility of extending the RIVLE to existing learning institutions in the region.

  8. The Virtual Institute for Integrative Biology (VIIB)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rivera, G.; Gonzalez-Nieto, F.; Perez-Acle, T.; Isea, R.; Holmes, D. S.

    2007-01-01

    The Virtual Institute for Integrative Biology (VII B) is a Latin American initiative for achieving global collaborative e-Science in the areas of bioinformatics, genome biology, systems biology, Metagenomic, medical applications and nanobiotechnolgy. The scientific agenda of VIIB includes: construction of databases for comparative genomic, the AlterORF database for alternate open reading frames discovery in genomes, bioinformatics services and protein simulations for biotechnological and medical applications. Human resource development has been promoted through co-sponsored students and shared teaching and seminars via video conferencing. E-Science challenges include: inter operability and connectivity concerns, high performance computing limitations, and the development of customized computational frameworks and flexible work flows to efficiently exploit shared resources without causing impediments to the user. Outreach programs include training workshops and classes for high school teachers and students and the new Adopt-a-Gene initiative. The VIIB has proved an effective way for small teams to transcend the critical mass problem, to overcome geographic limitations, to harness the power of large scale, collaborative science and improve the visibility of Latin American science It may provide a useful paradigm for developing further e-Science initiatives in Latin America and other emerging regions. (Author)

  9. Virtual health platform for medical tourism purposes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez, Debora; Ferriol, Pedro; Tous, Xisco; Cabrer, Miguel; Prats, Mercedes

    2008-01-01

    This paper introduces an overview of the Virtual Health Platform (VHP), an alternative approach to create a functional PHR system in a medical tourism environment. The proposed platform has been designed in order to be integrated with EHR infrastructures and in this way it expects to be useful and more advantageous to the patient or tourist. Use cases of the VHP and its potential benefits summarize the analysis.

  10. Virtualization for the LHCb experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bonaccorsi, E.; Brarda, L.; Chebbi, M.; Neufeld, N.; Sborzacci, F.

    2012-01-01

    The LHCb experiment, one of the 4 large particle detector at CERN, counts in its Online System more than 2000 servers and embedded systems. As a result of ever-increasing CPU performance in modern servers, many of the applications in the controls system are excellent candidates for virtualization technologies. We see virtualization as an approach to cut down cost, optimize resource usage and manage the complexity of the IT infrastructure of LHCb. Recently we have added a Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) cluster based on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers (RHEV) complementary to the existing Hyper-V cluster devoted only to the virtualization of the windows guests. This paper describes the architecture of our solution based on KVM and RHEV as along with its integration with the existing Hyper-V infrastructure and the Quattor cluster management tools and in particular how we use to run controls applications on a virtualized infrastructure. We present performance results of both the KVM and Hyper-V solutions, problems encountered and a description of the management tools developed for the integration with the Online cluster and LHCb SCADA control system based on PVSS. (authors)

  11. The Integration of Realistic Episodic Memories Relies on Different Working Memory Processes: Evidence from Virtual Navigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gaën Plancher

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Memory is one of the most important cognitive functions in a person’s life as it is essential for recalling personal memories and performing many everyday tasks. Although a huge number of studies have been conducted in the field, only a few of them investigated memory in realistic situations, due to methodological issues. The various tools that have been developed using virtual environments (VEs have gained popularity in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology because they enable to create naturalistic and controlled situations, and are thus particularly adapted to the study of episodic memory (EM, for which an ecological evaluation is of prime importance. EM is the conscious recollection of personal events combined with their phenomenological and spatiotemporal encoding contexts. Using an original paradigm in a VE, the objective of the present study was to characterize the construction of episodic memories. While the concept of working memory has become central in the understanding of a wide range of cognitive functions, its role in the integration of episodic memories has seldom been assessed in an ecological context. This experiment aimed at filling this gap by studying how EM is affected by concurrent tasks requiring working memory resources in a realistic situation. Participants navigated in a virtual town and had to memorize as many elements in their spatiotemporal context as they could. During learning, participants had either to perform a concurrent task meant to prevent maintenance through the phonological loop, or a task aimed at preventing maintenance through the visuospatial sketchpad, or no concurrent task. EM was assessed in a recall test performed after learning through various scores measuring the what, where and when of the memories. Results showed that, compared to the control condition with no concurrent task, the prevention of maintenance through the phonological loop had a deleterious impact only on the encoding of

  12. The Integration of Realistic Episodic Memories Relies on Different Working Memory Processes: Evidence from Virtual Navigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plancher, Gaën; Gyselinck, Valérie; Piolino, Pascale

    2018-01-01

    Memory is one of the most important cognitive functions in a person's life as it is essential for recalling personal memories and performing many everyday tasks. Although a huge number of studies have been conducted in the field, only a few of them investigated memory in realistic situations, due to methodological issues. The various tools that have been developed using virtual environments (VEs) have gained popularity in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology because they enable to create naturalistic and controlled situations, and are thus particularly adapted to the study of episodic memory (EM), for which an ecological evaluation is of prime importance. EM is the conscious recollection of personal events combined with their phenomenological and spatiotemporal encoding contexts. Using an original paradigm in a VE, the objective of the present study was to characterize the construction of episodic memories. While the concept of working memory has become central in the understanding of a wide range of cognitive functions, its role in the integration of episodic memories has seldom been assessed in an ecological context. This experiment aimed at filling this gap by studying how EM is affected by concurrent tasks requiring working memory resources in a realistic situation. Participants navigated in a virtual town and had to memorize as many elements in their spatiotemporal context as they could. During learning, participants had either to perform a concurrent task meant to prevent maintenance through the phonological loop, or a task aimed at preventing maintenance through the visuospatial sketchpad, or no concurrent task. EM was assessed in a recall test performed after learning through various scores measuring the what, where and when of the memories. Results showed that, compared to the control condition with no concurrent task, the prevention of maintenance through the phonological loop had a deleterious impact only on the encoding of central elements. By

  13. GIS Function Coupling for Virtual Globes, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Virtual Globe (VG) systems such as Google Earth, NASA World Winds and Microsoft Virtual Earth provide captivating animated 3D visualizations and support user queries...

  14. Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training for Young Adults with High-Functioning Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kandalaft, Michelle R.; Didehbani, Nyaz; Krawczyk, Daniel C.; Allen, Tandra T.; Chapman, Sandra B.

    2013-01-01

    Few evidence-based social interventions exist for young adults with high-functioning autism, many of whom encounter significant challenges during the transition into adulthood. The current study investigated the feasibility of an engaging Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training intervention focused on enhancing social skills, social cognition,…

  15. Virtual-Reality-Based Social Interaction Training for Children with High-Functioning Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ke, Fengfeng; Im, Tami

    2013-01-01

    Employing the multiple-baseline across-subjects design, the authors examined the implementation and potential effect of a virtual-reality-based social interaction program on the interaction and communication performance of children with high functioning autism. The data were collected via behavior observation and analysis, questionnaires, and…

  16. Development of a virtual manufacturing assembly simulation system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdulrahman M Al-Ahmari

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Assembly operations are a key component of modern manufacturing systems. Designing, planning, and conducting assembly operations represent an important part of the cost of a product. Virtual reality provides an efficient and cost-effective solution to manufacturing design, planning, and prototyping. Still there are certain issues (such as data translation, integration of various hardware and software systems, and real-time collision detection faced while applying this advanced technology to the assembly domain. For example, existing works focus on using virtual reality systems and environments mainly to design new products and to plan for assembly. Little focus has been given to develop virtual reality environments that contribute to train operators on assembly operations and to bridge the gap between design and implementation/execution of assembly. Therefore, the research work presented in this article focuses on developing a fully functional virtual manufacturing assembly simulation system that solves the issues related to virtual reality environments. The proposed system uses a virtual environment to create an interactive workbench that can be used for evaluating assembly decisions and training assembly operations. It is a comprehensive system that provides visual, auditory, tactile, as well as force feedback. The system works successfully even with large components.

  17. Virtual reality training to enhance behavior and cognitive function among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: brief report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shema-Shiratzky, Shirley; Brozgol, Marina; Cornejo-Thumm, Pablo; Geva-Dayan, Karen; Rotstein, Michael; Leitner, Yael; Hausdorff, Jeffrey M; Mirelman, Anat

    2018-05-17

    To examine the feasibility and efficacy of a combined motor-cognitive training using virtual reality to enhance behavior, cognitive function and dual-tasking in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Fourteen non-medicated school-aged children with ADHD, received 18 training sessions during 6 weeks. Training included walking on a treadmill while negotiating virtual obstacles. Behavioral symptoms, cognition and gait were tested before and after the training and at 6-weeks follow-up. Based on parental report, there was a significant improvement in children's social problems and psychosomatic behavior after the training. Executive function and memory were improved post-training while attention was unchanged. Gait regularity significantly increased during dual-task walking. Long-term training effects were maintained in memory and executive function. Treadmill-training augmented with virtual-reality is feasible and may be an effective treatment to enhance behavior, cognitive function and dual-tasking in children with ADHD.

  18. A virtual shopping test for realistic assessment of cognitive function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okahashi, Sayaka; Seki, Keiko; Nagano, Akinori; Luo, Zhiwei; Kojima, Maki; Futaki, Toshiko

    2013-06-18

    Cognitive dysfunction caused by brain injury often prevents a patient from achieving a healthy and high quality of life. By now, each cognitive function is assessed precisely by neuropsychological tests. However, it is also important to provide an overall assessment of the patients' ability in their everyday life. We have developed a Virtual Shopping Test (VST) using virtual reality technology. The objective of this study was to clarify 1) the significance of VST by comparing VST with other conventional tests, 2) the applicability of VST to brain-damaged patients, and 3) the performance of VST in relation to age differences. The participants included 10 patients with brain damage, 10 age-matched healthy subjects for controls, 10 old healthy subjects, and 10 young healthy subjects. VST and neuropsychological tests/questionnaires about attention, memory and executive function were conducted on the patients, while VST and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were conducted on the controls and healthy subjects. Within the VST, the participants were asked to buy four items in the virtual shopping mall quickly in a rational way. The score for evaluation included the number of items bought correctly, the number of times to refer to hints, the number of movements between shops, and the total time spent to complete the shopping. Some variables on VST correlated with the scores of conventional assessment about attention and everyday memory. The mean number of times referring to hints and the mean number of movements were significantly larger for the patients with brain damage, and the mean total time was significantly longer for the patients than for the controls. In addition, the mean total time was significantly longer for the old than for the young. The results suggest that VST is able to evaluate the ability of attention and everyday memory in patients with brain damage. The time of VST is increased by age.

  19. A new model for the structure function of integrated water vapor in turbulence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bobak, Justin P.; Ruf, Christopher S.

    1999-01-01

    Turbulent fluctuation of integrated water vapor in the troposphere is one of the major noise sources in radio interferometry. Processed integrated water vapor estimates from microwave radiometers colocated with interferometers have been used to set bounds on this uncertainty. The bound has been in the form of a calculated structure function, which is a measure of temporal or spatial decorrelation of fluctuations. In this paper a new model is presented for the estimation of the structure function in the absence of radiometer measurements. Using this model, the structure function can be estimated using measurements or estimates of a limited number of meteorological parameters. These parameters include boundary layer depth, surface heat and humidity fluxes, entrainment humidity flux, average virtual potential temperature in the boundary layer, and geostrophic wind speed. These parameters can be found or estimated from radiosonde and surface eddy correlation system data. The model is based on a framework of turbulence meteorology and provides excellent agreement when compared with state-of-the-art atmospheric turbulence simulations. Results of preliminary comparisons with ground truth show some excellent agreement, as well as some problems. The performance of the new model exceeds that of one current model. (c) 1999 American Geophysical Union

  20. Performance of machine-learning scoring functions in structure-based virtual screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wójcikowski, Maciej; Ballester, Pedro J; Siedlecki, Pawel

    2017-04-25

    Classical scoring functions have reached a plateau in their performance in virtual screening and binding affinity prediction. Recently, machine-learning scoring functions trained on protein-ligand complexes have shown great promise in small tailored studies. They have also raised controversy, specifically concerning model overfitting and applicability to novel targets. Here we provide a new ready-to-use scoring function (RF-Score-VS) trained on 15 426 active and 893 897 inactive molecules docked to a set of 102 targets. We use the full DUD-E data sets along with three docking tools, five classical and three machine-learning scoring functions for model building and performance assessment. Our results show RF-Score-VS can substantially improve virtual screening performance: RF-Score-VS top 1% provides 55.6% hit rate, whereas that of Vina only 16.2% (for smaller percent the difference is even more encouraging: RF-Score-VS top 0.1% achieves 88.6% hit rate for 27.5% using Vina). In addition, RF-Score-VS provides much better prediction of measured binding affinity than Vina (Pearson correlation of 0.56 and -0.18, respectively). Lastly, we test RF-Score-VS on an independent test set from the DEKOIS benchmark and observed comparable results. We provide full data sets to facilitate further research in this area (http://github.com/oddt/rfscorevs) as well as ready-to-use RF-Score-VS (http://github.com/oddt/rfscorevs_binary).

  1. Physical and cognitive effects of virtual reality integrated training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stone, Richard T; Watts, Kristopher P; Zhong, Peihan; Wei, Chen-Shuang

    2011-10-01

    The objective of this study was to evaluate the cognitive and physical impact of virtual reality (VR) integrated training versus traditional training methods in the domain of weld training. Weld training is very important in various industries and represents a complex skill set appropriate for advanced training intervention. As such, there has been a long search for the most successful and most cost-effective method for training new welders. Participants in this study were randomly assigned to one of two separate training courses taught by sanctioned American Welding Society certified welding instructors; the duration of each course was 2 weeks. After completing the training for a specific weld type, participants were given the opportunity to test for the corresponding certification. Participants were evaluated in terms of their cognitive and physical parameters, total training time exposure, and welding certification awards earned. Each of the four weld types taught in this study represented distinct levels of difficulty and required the development of specialized knowledge and skills. This study demonstrated that participants in the VR integrated training group (VR50) performed as well as, and in some cases, significantly outperformed, the traditional welding (TW) training group.The VR50 group was found to have a 41.6% increase in overall certifications earned compared with the TW group. VR technology is a valuable tool for the production of skilled welders in a shorter time and often with more highly developed skills than their traditionally trained counterparts. These findings strongly support the use ofVR integrated training in the welding industry.

  2. INTEGRATED PRODUCT AND ENTERPRISE DESIGN FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N.D. Du Preez

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presentsan overview of the challenge to integrate product and process life cycles in maintaining global competitiveness of an enterprise and proposes IEKOS as a possible solution . It provides the reader with a framework of two virtual life cycles which create a problem solving matrix for the industrial engineer. In this matrix, bordered by the virtual enterprise life cycle and the virtual product life cycles, the business functions of analyze, design deploy and operate are predominantly functions executed by the, industrial engineer. The different phases of each life cycle serves as a framework to a virtual industrial engineering toolkit providing access to detailed functions, formats, examples and a series of software and other "tools" available to the industrial engineer.
    In conclusion a brief overview is provided of the progress of the IEKOS toolkit which is under development at the department of Industrial Engineering at Stellenbosch University.

  3. Virtual Library: An essential component of virtual education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M zarghani

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: Library is one of the essential elements of universities which provide some important educational needs of students. Virtual education can not be exempted and virtual libraries are important support for virtual training programs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the viewpoint of administrators and students in virtual education centers about the virtual library, its role and resources. Methods: This study was a descriptive survey. The research instrument was a researcher made questionnaire that its validity and reliability was confirmed. The study population consisted of 19 virtual training centers in Tehran city. Out of 19 centers, simple randomized sampling was done in five Centers. The sample size was 360 students. Data collection was conducted online and descriptive statistics using SPSS 18 and Excel software were used. Results: The results showed that viewpoints of administrators and students about the mission and services of virtual libraries in some cases were similar and in some cases were different. One of the administrators’ reasons for setting up a virtual learning system was lifelong learning, and lack of knowledge about virtual libraries was the reason for inadequate use of virtual libraries. The best format of virtual library from the administrators’ and students’ viewpoint, was portal document format (PDF. Conclusion: One of the most important function of a virtual library, is lifelong learning and empowering users to provide information and educational needs. The main reason for not setting up a virtual library is t lack of knowledge about it.

  4. [Virtual + 1] * Reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beckhaus, Steffi

    Virtual Reality aims at creating an artificial environment that can be perceived as a substitute to a real setting. Much effort in research and development goes into the creation of virtual environments that in their majority are perceivable only by eyes and hands. The multisensory nature of our perception, however, allows and, arguably, also expects more than that. As long as we are not able to simulate and deliver a fully sensory believable virtual environment to a user, we could make use of the fully sensory, multi-modal nature of real objects to fill in for this deficiency. The idea is to purposefully integrate real artifacts into the application and interaction, instead of dismissing anything real as hindering the virtual experience. The term virtual reality - denoting the goal, not the technology - shifts from a core virtual reality to an “enriched” reality, technologically encompassing both the computer generated and the real, physical artifacts. Together, either simultaneously or in a hybrid way, real and virtual jointly provide stimuli that are perceived by users through their senses and are later formed into an experience by the user's mind.

  5. Effectiveness of the Virtual Reality System Toyra on Upper Limb Function in People with Tetraplegia: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Dimbwadyo-Terrer

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a virtual reality program combined with conventional therapy in upper limb function in people with tetraplegia and to provide data about patients’ satisfaction with the virtual reality system. Thirty-one people with subacute complete cervical tetraplegia participated in the study. Experimental group received 15 sessions with Toyra® virtual reality system for 5 weeks, 30 minutes/day, 3 days/week in addition to conventional therapy, while control group only received conventional therapy. All patients were assessed at baseline, after intervention, and at three-month follow-up with a battery of clinical, functional, and satisfaction scales. Control group showed significant improvements in the manual muscle test (p = 0,043, partial η2 = 0,22 in the follow-up evaluation. Both groups demonstrated clinical, but nonsignificant, changes to their arm function in 4 of the 5 scales used. All patients showed a high level of satisfaction with the virtual reality system. This study showed that virtual reality added to conventional therapy produces similar results in upper limb function compared to only conventional therapy. Moreover, the gaming aspects incorporated in conventional rehabilitation appear to produce high motivation during execution of the assigned tasks. This trial is registered with EudraCT number 2015-002157-35.

  6. Effectiveness of the Virtual Reality System Toyra on Upper Limb Function in People with Tetraplegia: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dimbwadyo-Terrer, I; Gil-Agudo, A; Segura-Fragoso, A; de los Reyes-Guzmán, A; Trincado-Alonso, F; Piazza, S; Polonio-López, B

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a virtual reality program combined with conventional therapy in upper limb function in people with tetraplegia and to provide data about patients' satisfaction with the virtual reality system. Thirty-one people with subacute complete cervical tetraplegia participated in the study. Experimental group received 15 sessions with Toyra(®) virtual reality system for 5 weeks, 30 minutes/day, 3 days/week in addition to conventional therapy, while control group only received conventional therapy. All patients were assessed at baseline, after intervention, and at three-month follow-up with a battery of clinical, functional, and satisfaction scales. Control group showed significant improvements in the manual muscle test (p = 0,043, partial η (2) = 0,22) in the follow-up evaluation. Both groups demonstrated clinical, but nonsignificant, changes to their arm function in 4 of the 5 scales used. All patients showed a high level of satisfaction with the virtual reality system. This study showed that virtual reality added to conventional therapy produces similar results in upper limb function compared to only conventional therapy. Moreover, the gaming aspects incorporated in conventional rehabilitation appear to produce high motivation during execution of the assigned tasks. This trial is registered with EudraCT number 2015-002157-35.

  7. The Virtual Solar Observatory and the Heliophysics Meta-Virtual Observatory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurman, Joseph B.

    2007-01-01

    The Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) is now able to search for solar data ranging from the radio to gamma rays, obtained from space and groundbased observatories, from 26 sources at 12 data providers, and from 1915 to the present. The solar physics community can use a Web interface or an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows integrating VSO searches into other software, including other Web services. Over the next few years, this integration will be especially obvious as the NASA Heliophysics division sponsors the development of a heliophysics-wide virtual observatory (VO), based on existing VO's in heliospheric, magnetospheric, and ionospheric physics as well as the VSO. We examine some of the challenges and potential of such a "meta-VO."

  8. A Novel Polygonal Finite Element Method: Virtual Node Method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, X. H.; Zheng, C.; Zhang, J. H.

    2010-05-01

    Polygonal finite element method (PFEM), which can construct shape functions on polygonal elements, provides greater flexibility in mesh generation. However, the non-polynomial form of traditional PFEM, such as Wachspress method and Mean Value method, leads to inexact numerical integration. Since the integration technique for non-polynomial functions is immature. To overcome this shortcoming, a great number of integration points have to be used to obtain sufficiently exact results, which increases computational cost. In this paper, a novel polygonal finite element method is proposed and called as virtual node method (VNM). The features of present method can be list as: (1) It is a PFEM with polynomial form. Thereby, Hammer integral and Gauss integral can be naturally used to obtain exact numerical integration; (2) Shape functions of VNM satisfy all the requirements of finite element method. To test the performance of VNM, intensive numerical tests are carried out. It found that, in standard patch test, VNM can achieve significantly better results than Wachspress method and Mean Value method. Moreover, it is observed that VNM can achieve better results than triangular 3-node elements in the accuracy test.

  9. Virtual hydrology observatory: an immersive visualization of hydrology modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Simon; Cruz-Neira, Carolina; Habib, Emad; Gerndt, Andreas

    2009-02-01

    The Virtual Hydrology Observatory will provide students with the ability to observe the integrated hydrology simulation with an instructional interface by using a desktop based or immersive virtual reality setup. It is the goal of the virtual hydrology observatory application to facilitate the introduction of field experience and observational skills into hydrology courses through innovative virtual techniques that mimic activities during actual field visits. The simulation part of the application is developed from the integrated atmospheric forecast model: Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), and the hydrology model: Gridded Surface/Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis (GSSHA). Both the output from WRF and GSSHA models are then used to generate the final visualization components of the Virtual Hydrology Observatory. The various visualization data processing techniques provided by VTK are 2D Delaunay triangulation and data optimization. Once all the visualization components are generated, they are integrated into the simulation data using VRFlowVis and VR Juggler software toolkit. VR Juggler is used primarily to provide the Virtual Hydrology Observatory application with fully immersive and real time 3D interaction experience; while VRFlowVis provides the integration framework for the hydrologic simulation data, graphical objects and user interaction. A six-sided CAVETM like system is used to run the Virtual Hydrology Observatory to provide the students with a fully immersive experience.

  10. Virtual Worlds and Gamification to Increase Integration of International Students in Higher Education: An Inclusive Design Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Bo; Robb, Nigel; Eyerman, Joe; Goodman, Lizbeth

    2017-01-01

    In response to the growing trend of internationalisation in education, it is important to consider approaches to help international students integrate in their new settings. One possible approach involves the use of e-Learning tools, such as virtual worlds and gamification. To maximise the potential effectiveness of such tools, it may be…

  11. Integrals of Bessel functions

    OpenAIRE

    Babusci, D.; Dattoli, G.; Germano, B.; Martinelli, M. R.; Ricci, P. E.

    2011-01-01

    We use the operator method to evaluate a class of integrals involving Bessel or Bessel-type functions. The technique we propose is based on the formal reduction of these family of functions to Gaussians.

  12. Market integration of Virtual Power Plants

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Mette Kirschmeyer; Hansen, Lars Henrik; Bendtsen, Jan Dimon

    2013-01-01

    develop a three stage market model, which includes Day-Ahead (Spot), Intra-Day and Regulating Power Markets. This allows us to test the hypothesis that the Virtual Power Plant can generate additional profit by trading across several markets. We find that even though profits do increase as more markets...

  13. Integration of laparoscopic virtual-reality simulation into gynaecology training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burden, C; Oestergaard, J; Larsen, C R

    2011-11-01

    Surgery carries the risk of serious harm, as well as benefit, to patients. For healthcare organisations, theatre time is an expensive commodity and litigation costs for surgical specialities are very high. Advanced laparoscopic surgery, now widely used in gynaecology for improved outcomes and reduced length of stay, involves longer operation times and a higher rate of complications for surgeons in training. Virtual-reality (VR) simulation is a relatively new training method that has the potential to promote surgical skill development before advancing to surgery on patients themselves. VR simulators have now been on the market for more than 10 years and, yet, few countries in the world have fully integrated VR simulation training into their gynaecology surgical training programmes. In this review, we aim to summarise the VR simulators currently available together with evidence of their effectiveness in gynaecology, to understand their limitations and to discuss their incorporation into national training curricula. © 2011 The Authors BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology © 2011 RCOG.

  14. Measurement of deeply virtual Compton scattering using the ZEUS detector at HERA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grabowska-Bold, I.

    2004-08-01

    The cross sections for deeply virtual compton scattering in the reaction ep → e'γp' has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using integrated luminosities of 95 pb -1 of e + p and 17 pb -1 of e - p collisions. Cross sections are presented as a function of the exchanged photon virtuality, Q 2 , and the centre-of-mass energy, W, of the γ * p system in the region 5 2 2 and 40 < W < 140 GeV. The obtained results are compared to QCD-based calculations. (orig.)

  15. A Standard-Compliant Virtual Meeting System with Active Video Object Tracking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chang Yao-Jen

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an H.323 standard compliant virtual video conferencing system. The proposed system not only serves as a multipoint control unit (MCU for multipoint connection but also provides a gateway function between the H.323 LAN (local-area network and the H.324 WAN (wide-area network users. The proposed virtual video conferencing system provides user-friendly object compositing and manipulation features including 2D video object scaling, repositioning, rotation, and dynamic bit-allocation in a 3D virtual environment. A reliable, and accurate scheme based on background image mosaics is proposed for real-time extracting and tracking foreground video objects from the video captured with an active camera. Chroma-key insertion is used to facilitate video objects extraction and manipulation. We have implemented a prototype of the virtual conference system with an integrated graphical user interface to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methods.

  16. A Standard-Compliant Virtual Meeting System with Active Video Object Tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Chia-Wen; Chang, Yao-Jen; Wang, Chih-Ming; Chen, Yung-Chang; Sun, Ming-Ting

    2002-12-01

    This paper presents an H.323 standard compliant virtual video conferencing system. The proposed system not only serves as a multipoint control unit (MCU) for multipoint connection but also provides a gateway function between the H.323 LAN (local-area network) and the H.324 WAN (wide-area network) users. The proposed virtual video conferencing system provides user-friendly object compositing and manipulation features including 2D video object scaling, repositioning, rotation, and dynamic bit-allocation in a 3D virtual environment. A reliable, and accurate scheme based on background image mosaics is proposed for real-time extracting and tracking foreground video objects from the video captured with an active camera. Chroma-key insertion is used to facilitate video objects extraction and manipulation. We have implemented a prototype of the virtual conference system with an integrated graphical user interface to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methods.

  17. Virtual pools for interactive analysis and software development through an integrated Cloud environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grandi, C; Italiano, A; Salomoni, D; Melcarne, A K Calabrese

    2011-01-01

    WNoDeS, an acronym for Worker Nodes on Demand Service, is software developed at CNAF-Tier1, the National Computing Centre of the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) located in Bologna. WNoDeS provides on demand, integrated access to both Grid and Cloud resources through virtualization technologies. Besides the traditional use of computing resources in batch mode, users need to have interactive and local access to a number of systems. WNoDeS can dynamically select these computers instantiating Virtual Machines, according to the requirements (computing, storage and network resources) of users through either the Open Cloud Computing Interface API, or through a web console. An interactive use is usually limited to activities in user space, i.e. where the machine configuration is not modified. In some other instances the activity concerns development and testing of services and thus implies the modification of the system configuration (and, therefore, root-access to the resource). The former use case is a simple extension of the WNoDeS approach, where the resource is provided in interactive mode. The latter implies saving the virtual image at the end of each user session so that it can be presented to the user at subsequent requests. This work describes how the LHC experiments at INFN-Bologna are testing and making use of these dynamically created ad-hoc machines via WNoDeS to support flexible, interactive analysis and software development at the INFN Tier-1 Computing Centre.

  18. Virtual corporations, enterprise and organisation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen RÃDUT

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Virtual organisation is a strategic paradigm that is centred on the use of information and ICT to create value. Virtual organisation is presented as a metamanagement strategy that has application in all value oriented organisations. Within the concept of Virtual organisation, the business model is an ICT based construct that bridges and integrates enterprise strategic and operational concerns. Firms try to ameliorate the impacts of risk and product complexity by forming alliances and partnerships with others to spread the risk of new products and new ventures and to increase organisational competence. The result is a networked virtual organization.

  19. Performance on naturalistic virtual reality tasks depends on global cognitive functioning as assessed via traditional neurocognitive tests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliveira, Jorge; Gamito, Pedro; Alghazzawi, Daniyal M; Fardoun, Habib M; Rosa, Pedro J; Sousa, Tatiana; Picareli, Luís Felipe; Morais, Diogo; Lopes, Paulo

    2017-08-14

    This investigation sought to understand whether performance in naturalistic virtual reality tasks for cognitive assessment relates to the cognitive domains that are supposed to be measured. The Shoe Closet Test (SCT) was developed based on a simple visual search task involving attention skills, in which participants have to match each pair of shoes with the colors of the compartments in a virtual shoe closet. The interaction within the virtual environment was made using the Microsoft Kinect. The measures consisted of concurrent paper-and-pencil neurocognitive tests for global cognitive functioning, executive functions, attention, psychomotor ability, and the outcomes of the SCT. The results showed that the SCT correlated with global cognitive performance as measured with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The SCT explained one third of the total variance of this test and revealed good sensitivity and specificity in discriminating scores below one standard deviation in this screening tool. These findings suggest that performance of such functional tasks involves a broad range of cognitive processes that are associated with global cognitive functioning and that may be difficult to isolate through paper-and-pencil neurocognitive tests.

  20. Deterministic computation of functional integrals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lobanov, Yu.Yu.

    1995-09-01

    A new method of numerical integration in functional spaces is described. This method is based on the rigorous definition of a functional integral in complete separable metric space and on the use of approximation formulas which we constructed for this kind of integral. The method is applicable to solution of some partial differential equations and to calculation of various characteristics in quantum physics. No preliminary discretization of space and time is required in this method, as well as no simplifying assumptions like semi-classical, mean field approximations, collective excitations, introduction of ''short-time'' propagators, etc are necessary in our approach. The constructed approximation formulas satisfy the condition of being exact on a given class of functionals, namely polynomial functionals of a given degree. The employment of these formulas replaces the evaluation of a functional integral by computation of the ''ordinary'' (Riemannian) integral of a low dimension, thus allowing to use the more preferable deterministic algorithms (normally - Gaussian quadratures) in computations rather than traditional stochastic (Monte Carlo) methods which are commonly used for solution of the problem under consideration. The results of application of the method to computation of the Green function of the Schroedinger equation in imaginary time as well as the study of some models of Euclidean quantum mechanics are presented. The comparison with results of other authors shows that our method gives significant (by an order of magnitude) economy of computer time and memory versus other known methods while providing the results with the same or better accuracy. The funcitonal measure of the Gaussian type is considered and some of its particular cases, namely conditional Wiener measure in quantum statistical mechanics and functional measure in a Schwartz distribution space in two-dimensional quantum field theory are studied in detail. Numerical examples demonstrating the

  1. A Generalized Analytic Operator-Valued Function Space Integral and a Related Integral Equation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chang, K.S.; Kim, B.S.; Park, C.H.; Ryu, K.S.

    2003-01-01

    We introduce a generalized Wiener measure associated with a Gaussian Markov process and define a generalized analytic operator-valued function space integral as a bounded linear operator from L p into L p-ci r cumflexprime (1< p ≤ 2) by the analytic continuation of the generalized Wiener integral. We prove the existence of the integral for certain functionals which involve some Borel measures. Also we show that the generalized analytic operator-valued function space integral satisfies an integral equation related to the generalized Schroedinger equation. The resulting theorems extend the theory of operator-valued function space integrals substantially and previous theorems about these integrals are generalized by our results

  2. Analysis of the Experience of a Virtual Learning Environment Integration Into a Biochemistry Course Offered to Undergraduate Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.B. Espíndola

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available As Information and Communication Technology (ICT becomes available in educational contexts, it is important that educators experiment different ways to deal with ICT tools in the teaching -learning process at the University basic sciences level. The challenge is to integrate ICT throughout the learning subjects in order to improve the quality of the learning process to students. This paper presents the results of an experience using a Virtual Learning Management System (VLMS, named Constructore, applied in the Biochemistry discipline at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ for undergraduate medical students. Using Constructore, we developed a learning environment intended for integrating online activities and traditional course content. The course was focused on the integration of energy-yielding metabolism, exploring  metabolic adaptations in different physiological or pathological states such as starvation, diabetes and exercise. The course environment was structured with three modules, each of them presenting problem-based exercises to be answered after retrieving rele vant information in original scientific articles. Based on the analysis of  a semi-open questionnaire, the results provided evidence that the virtual environment stimulated students to critically read relevant scientific articles and to acquire skills to build and to integrate their knowledge through content association.

  3. Towards an integrated strategy for monitoring wetland inundation with virtual constellations of optical and radar satellites

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeVries, B.; Huang, W.; Huang, C.; Jones, J. W.; Lang, M. W.; Creed, I. F.; Carroll, M.

    2017-12-01

    The function of wetlandscapes in hydrological and biogeochemical cycles is largely governed by surface inundation, with small wetlands that experience periodic inundation playing a disproportionately large role in these processes. However, the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of inundation in these wetland systems are still poorly understood, resulting in large uncertainties in global water, carbon and greenhouse gas budgets. Satellite imagery provides synoptic and repeat views of the Earth's surface and presents opportunities to fill this knowledge gap. Despite the proliferation of Earth Observation satellite missions in the past decade, no single satellite sensor can simultaneously provide the spatial and temporal detail needed to adequately characterize inundation in small, dynamic wetland systems. Surface water data products must therefore integrate observations from multiple satellite sensors in order to address this objective, requiring the development of improved and coordinated algorithms to generate consistent estimates of surface inundation. We present a suite of algorithms designed to detect surface inundation in wetlands using data from a virtual constellation of optical and radar sensors comprising the Landsat and Sentinel missions (DeVries et al., 2017). Both optical and radar algorithms were able to detect inundation in wetlands without the need for external training data, allowing for high-efficiency monitoring of wetland inundation at large spatial and temporal scales. Applying these algorithms across a gradient of wetlands in North America, preliminary findings suggest that while these fully automated algorithms can detect wetland inundation at higher spatial and temporal resolutions than currently available surface water data products, limitations specific to the satellite sensors and their acquisition strategies are responsible for uncertainties in inundation estimates. Further research is needed to investigate strategies for

  4. Setting up virtual private network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang Hongmei; Zhang Chengjun

    2003-01-01

    Setting up virtual private network for business enterprise provides a low cost network foundation, increases enterprise's network function and enlarges its private scope. The text introduces virtual private network's principal, privileges and protocols that use in virtual private network. At last, this paper introduces several setting up virtual private network's technologies which based on LAN

  5. Setting up virtual private network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang Hongmei; Zhang Chengjun

    2003-01-01

    Setting up virtual private network for business enterprise provides a low cost network foundation, increases enterprise network function and enlarges its private scope. This text introduces virtual private network principal, privileges and protocols applied in virtual private network. At last, this paper introduces several setting up virtual private network technologies which is based on LAN

  6. UbiWorld: An environment integrating virtual reality, supercomputing, and design

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Disz, T.; Papka, M.E.; Stevens, R. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Mathematics and Computer Science Div.

    1997-07-01

    UbiWorld is a concept being developed by the Futures Laboratory group at Argonne National Laboratory that ties together the notion of ubiquitous computing (Ubicomp) with that of using virtual reality for rapid prototyping. The goal is to develop an environment where one can explore Ubicomp-type concepts without having to build real Ubicomp hardware. The basic notion is to extend object models in a virtual world by using distributed wide area heterogeneous computing technology to provide complex networking and processing capabilities to virtual reality objects.

  7. Virtual Reality in Schools: The Ultimate Educational Technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reid, Robert D.; Sykes, Wylmarie

    1999-01-01

    Discusses the use of virtual reality as an educational tool. Highlights include examples of virtual reality in public schools that lead to a more active learning process, simulated environments, integrating virtual reality into any curriculum, benefits to teachers and students, and overcoming barriers to implementation. (LRW)

  8. Virtual reality in surgical training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lange, T; Indelicato, D J; Rosen, J M

    2000-01-01

    Virtual reality in surgery and, more specifically, in surgical training, faces a number of challenges in the future. These challenges are building realistic models of the human body, creating interface tools to view, hear, touch, feel, and manipulate these human body models, and integrating virtual reality systems into medical education and treatment. A final system would encompass simulators specifically for surgery, performance machines, telemedicine, and telesurgery. Each of these areas will need significant improvement for virtual reality to impact medicine successfully in the next century. This article gives an overview of, and the challenges faced by, current systems in the fast-changing field of virtual reality technology, and provides a set of specific milestones for a truly realistic virtual human body.

  9. Leap Motion-based virtual reality training for improving motor functional recovery of upper limbs and neural reorganization in subacute stroke patients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Zun-rong; Wang, Ping; Xing, Liang; Mei, Li-ping; Zhao, Jun; Zhang, Tong

    2017-01-01

    Virtual reality is nowadays used to facilitate motor recovery in stroke patients. Most virtual reality studies have involved chronic stroke patients; however, brain plasticity remains good in acute and subacute patients. Most virtual reality systems are only applicable to the proximal upper limbs (arms) because of the limitations of their capture systems. Nevertheless, the functional recovery of an affected hand is most difficult in the case of hemiparesis rehabilitation after a stroke. The recently developed Leap Motion controller can track the fine movements of both hands and fingers. Therefore, the present study explored the effects of a Leap Motion-based virtual reality system on subacute stroke. Twenty-six subacute stroke patients were assigned to an experimental group that received virtual reality training along with conventional occupational rehabilitation, and a control group that only received conventional rehabilitation. The Wolf motor function test (WMFT) was used to assess the motor function of the affected upper limb; functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the cortical activation. After four weeks of treatment, the motor functions of the affected upper limbs were significantly improved in all the patients, with the improvement in the experimental group being significantly better than in the control group. The action performance time in the WMFT significantly decreased in the experimental group. Furthermore, the activation intensity and the laterality index of the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex increased in both the experimental and control groups. These results confirmed that Leap Motion-based virtual reality training was a promising and feasible supplementary rehabilitation intervention, could facilitate the recovery of motor functions in subacute stroke patients. The study has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registration number: ChiCTR-OCH-12002238). PMID:29239328

  10. Leap Motion-based virtual reality training for improving motor functional recovery of upper limbs and neural reorganization in subacute stroke patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Zun-Rong; Wang, Ping; Xing, Liang; Mei, Li-Ping; Zhao, Jun; Zhang, Tong

    2017-11-01

    Virtual reality is nowadays used to facilitate motor recovery in stroke patients. Most virtual reality studies have involved chronic stroke patients; however, brain plasticity remains good in acute and subacute patients. Most virtual reality systems are only applicable to the proximal upper limbs (arms) because of the limitations of their capture systems. Nevertheless, the functional recovery of an affected hand is most difficult in the case of hemiparesis rehabilitation after a stroke. The recently developed Leap Motion controller can track the fine movements of both hands and fingers. Therefore, the present study explored the effects of a Leap Motion-based virtual reality system on subacute stroke. Twenty-six subacute stroke patients were assigned to an experimental group that received virtual reality training along with conventional occupational rehabilitation, and a control group that only received conventional rehabilitation. The Wolf motor function test (WMFT) was used to assess the motor function of the affected upper limb; functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the cortical activation. After four weeks of treatment, the motor functions of the affected upper limbs were significantly improved in all the patients, with the improvement in the experimental group being significantly better than in the control group. The action performance time in the WMFT significantly decreased in the experimental group. Furthermore, the activation intensity and the laterality index of the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex increased in both the experimental and control groups. These results confirmed that Leap Motion-based virtual reality training was a promising and feasible supplementary rehabilitation intervention, could facilitate the recovery of motor functions in subacute stroke patients. The study has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registration number: ChiCTR-OCH-12002238).

  11. Leap Motion-based virtual reality training for improving motor functional recovery of upper limbs and neural reorganization in subacute stroke patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zun-rong Wang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Virtual reality is nowadays used to facilitate motor recovery in stroke patients. Most virtual reality studies have involved chronic stroke patients; however, brain plasticity remains good in acute and subacute patients. Most virtual reality systems are only applicable to the proximal upper limbs (arms because of the limitations of their capture systems. Nevertheless, the functional recovery of an affected hand is most difficult in the case of hemiparesis rehabilitation after a stroke. The recently developed Leap Motion controller can track the fine movements of both hands and fingers. Therefore, the present study explored the effects of a Leap Motion-based virtual reality system on subacute stroke. Twenty-six subacute stroke patients were assigned to an experimental group that received virtual reality training along with conventional occupational rehabilitation, and a control group that only received conventional rehabilitation. The Wolf motor function test (WMFT was used to assess the motor function of the affected upper limb; functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the cortical activation. After four weeks of treatment, the motor functions of the affected upper limbs were significantly improved in all the patients, with the improvement in the experimental group being significantly better than in the control group. The action performance time in the WMFT significantly decreased in the experimental group. Furthermore, the activation intensity and the laterality index of the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex increased in both the experimental and control groups. These results confirmed that Leap Motion-based virtual reality training was a promising and feasible supplementary rehabilitation intervention, could facilitate the recovery of motor functions in subacute stroke patients. The study has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registration number: ChiCTR-OCH-12002238.

  12. Construction of Intelligent Virtual Worlds Using a Grammatical Framework

    OpenAIRE

    López García, Gabriel; Gallego Sánchez, Antonio Javier; Molina-Carmona, Rafael; Compañ, Patricia

    2014-01-01

    The potential of integrating multiagent systems and virtual environments has not been exploited to its whole extent. This paper proposes a model based on grammars, called Minerva, to construct complex virtual environments that integrate the features of agents. A virtual world is described as a set of dynamic and static elements. The static part is represented by a sequence of primitives and transformations and the dynamic elements by a series of agents. Agent activation and communication is a...

  13. Building Productivity in Virtual Project Teams

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bill Hamersly

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The steady increase in project failure rates is leaving businesses searching for better integration techniques to virtualize their project environments. Through virtualization, organizations may have positive impacts on communities across geographical boundaries and resource constraints. The focus of this phenomenological study was to explore, via the experiences of successful project management practitioners, best practice strategies for integrating virtual project teams through data analysis. The conceptual framework included von Bertalanffy’s general systems theory, decomposition model of business process and project management frameworks, and the recomposition approach. Twenty-two senior project managers with more than 5 years of experience managing virtual project environments participated in semistructured telephone interviews. The van Kaam process employing normalization and bracketing approaches in data analysis resulted in the emergence of 34 thematic categories. The 10 most common themes culminated in the identification of strategies relevant for virtual project teams. The major themes pertained to 3 broad areas: (a structure that accommodates skills and technology for virtual team success, (b governance leading to efficient virtual project team management, and (c collaboration practices across diverse environments. This study involved the exploration of the experiences of the participants. Using the van Kaam method for normalization of the data and clustering like experiences into thematic statements, the study provided a plethora of new information concentrated on 10 themes that emerged.

  14. Development of a cognitive function test using virtual reality technology: examination in healthy participants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakai, Hiromi; Nagano, Akinori; Seki, Keiko; Okahashi, Sayaka; Kojima, Maki; Luo, Zhiwei

    2018-07-01

    We developed a virtual reality test to assess the cognitive function of Japanese people in near-daily-life environment, namely, a virtual shopping test (VST). In this test, participants were asked to execute shopping tasks using touch panel operations in a "virtual shopping mall." We examined differences in VST performances among healthy participants of different ages and correlations between VST and screening tests, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Everyday Memory Checklist (EMC). We included 285 healthy participants between 20 and 86 years of age in seven age groups. Therefore, each VST index tended to decrease with advancing age; differences among age groups were significant. Most VST indices had a significantly negative correlation with MMSE and significantly positive correlation with EMC. VST may be useful for assessing general cognitive decline; effects of age must be considered for proper interpretation of the VST scores.

  15. Counting master integrals. Integration by parts vs. functional equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kniehl, Bernd A.; Tarasov, Oleg V.

    2016-01-01

    We illustrate the usefulness of functional equations in establishing relationships between master integrals under the integration-by-parts reduction procedure by considering a certain two-loop propagator-type diagram as an example.

  16. Nonlocal kinetic energy functionals by functional integration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mi, Wenhui; Genova, Alessandro; Pavanello, Michele

    2018-05-01

    Since the seminal studies of Thomas and Fermi, researchers in the Density-Functional Theory (DFT) community are searching for accurate electron density functionals. Arguably, the toughest functional to approximate is the noninteracting kinetic energy, Ts[ρ], the subject of this work. The typical paradigm is to first approximate the energy functional and then take its functional derivative, δ/Ts[ρ ] δ ρ (r ) , yielding a potential that can be used in orbital-free DFT or subsystem DFT simulations. Here, this paradigm is challenged by constructing the potential from the second-functional derivative via functional integration. A new nonlocal functional for Ts[ρ] is prescribed [which we dub Mi-Genova-Pavanello (MGP)] having a density independent kernel. MGP is constructed to satisfy three exact conditions: (1) a nonzero "Kinetic electron" arising from a nonzero exchange hole; (2) the second functional derivative must reduce to the inverse Lindhard function in the limit of homogenous densities; (3) the potential is derived from functional integration of the second functional derivative. Pilot calculations show that MGP is capable of reproducing accurate equilibrium volumes, bulk moduli, total energy, and electron densities for metallic (body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic) and semiconducting (crystal diamond) phases of silicon as well as of III-V semiconductors. The MGP functional is found to be numerically stable typically reaching self-consistency within 12 iterations of a truncated Newton minimization algorithm. MGP's computational cost and memory requirements are low and comparable to the Wang-Teter nonlocal functional or any generalized gradient approximation functional.

  17. State-related functional integration and functional segregation brain networks in schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Qingbao; Sui, Jing; Kiehl, Kent A; Pearlson, Godfrey; Calhoun, Vince D

    2013-11-01

    Altered topological properties of brain connectivity networks have emerged as important features of schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to investigate how the state-related modulations to graph measures of functional integration and functional segregation brain networks are disrupted in schizophrenia. Firstly, resting state and auditory oddball discrimination (AOD) fMRI data of healthy controls (HCs) and schizophrenia patients (SZs) were decomposed into spatially independent components (ICs) by group independent component analysis (ICA). Then, weighted positive and negative functional integration (inter-component networks) and functional segregation (intra-component networks) brain networks were built in each subject. Subsequently, connectivity strength, clustering coefficient, and global efficiency of all brain networks were statistically compared between groups (HCs and SZs) in each state and between states (rest and AOD) within group. We found that graph measures of negative functional integration brain network and several positive functional segregation brain networks were altered in schizophrenia during AOD task. The metrics of positive functional integration brain network and one positive functional segregation brain network were higher during the resting state than during the AOD task only in HCs. These findings imply that state-related characteristics of both functional integration and functional segregation brain networks are impaired in schizophrenia which provides new insight into the altered brain performance in this brain disorder. © 2013.

  18. Tangible interfaces in virtual environments, case study: Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear Virtual

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Santo, Andre Cotelli do E.; Mol, Antonio Carlos A.; Pinto, Emanuele Oliveira; Melo, Joao Victor da C.; Paula, Vanessa Marcia de; Freitas, Victor Goncalves Gloria [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Machado, Daniel Mol [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao em Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra

    2015-07-01

    Virtual Reality (VR) techniques allow the creation of realistic representations of an individual. These technologies are being applied in several fields such as training, simulations, virtual experiments and new applications are constantly being found. This work aims to present an interactive system in virtual environments without the use of peripherals typically found in computers such as mouse and keyboard. Through the movement of head and hands it is possible to control and navigate the virtual character (avatar) in a virtual environment, an improvement in the man-machine integration. The head movements are recognized using a virtual helmet with a tracking system. An infrared camera detects the position of infrared LEDs located in the operator's head and places the vision of the virtual character in accordance with the operator's vision. The avatar control is performed by a system that detects the movement of the hands, using infrared sensors, allowing the user to move it in the virtual environment. This interaction system was implemented in the virtual model of the Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN), which is located on the Ilha do Fundao - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil. This three-dimensional environment, in which avatars can move and interact according to the user movements, gives a feeling of realism to the operator. The results show an interface that allows a higher degree of immersion of the operator in the virtual environment, promoting a more engaging and dynamic way of working. (author)

  19. Tangible interfaces in virtual environments, case study: Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear Virtual

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Santo, Andre Cotelli do E.; Mol, Antonio Carlos A.; Pinto, Emanuele Oliveira; Melo, Joao Victor da C.; Paula, Vanessa Marcia de; Freitas, Victor Goncalves Gloria; Machado, Daniel Mol

    2015-01-01

    Virtual Reality (VR) techniques allow the creation of realistic representations of an individual. These technologies are being applied in several fields such as training, simulations, virtual experiments and new applications are constantly being found. This work aims to present an interactive system in virtual environments without the use of peripherals typically found in computers such as mouse and keyboard. Through the movement of head and hands it is possible to control and navigate the virtual character (avatar) in a virtual environment, an improvement in the man-machine integration. The head movements are recognized using a virtual helmet with a tracking system. An infrared camera detects the position of infrared LEDs located in the operator's head and places the vision of the virtual character in accordance with the operator's vision. The avatar control is performed by a system that detects the movement of the hands, using infrared sensors, allowing the user to move it in the virtual environment. This interaction system was implemented in the virtual model of the Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN), which is located on the Ilha do Fundao - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil. This three-dimensional environment, in which avatars can move and interact according to the user movements, gives a feeling of realism to the operator. The results show an interface that allows a higher degree of immersion of the operator in the virtual environment, promoting a more engaging and dynamic way of working. (author)

  20. Integrating neuroinformatics tools in TheVirtualBrain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M Marmaduke Woodman

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available TheVirtualBrain (TVB is a neuroinformatics Python package representing theconvergence of clinical, systems, and theoretical neuroscience in the analysis,visualization and modeling of neural and neuroimaging dynamics. TVB iscomposed of a flexible simulator for neural dynamics measured across scalesfrom local populations to large-scale dynamics measured byelectroencephalography (EEG, magnetoencephalography (MEG and functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, and core analytic and visualizationfunctions, all accessible through a web browser user interface. A datatypesystem modeling neuroscientific data ties together these pieces with persistentdata storage, based on a combination of SQL & HDF5. These datatypes combinewith adapters allowing TVB to integrate other algorithms or computationalsystems. TVB provides infrastructure for multiple projects and multiple users,possibly participating under multiple roles. For example, a clinician mightimport patient data to identify several potential lesion points in thepatient's connectome. A modeler, working on the same project, tests thesepoints for viability through whole brain simulation, based on the patient'sconnectome, and subsequent analysis of dynamical features. TVB also drivesresearch forward: the simulator itself represents the culmination of severalsimulation frameworks in the modeling literature. The availability of thenumerical methods, set of neural mass models and forward solutions allows forthe construction of a wide range of brain-scale simulation scenarios. Thispaper briefly outlines the history and motivation for TVB, describing theframework and simulator, giving usage examples in the web UI and Pythonscripting.

  1. Microcanonical functional integral for the gravitational field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, J.D.; York, J.W. Jr.

    1993-01-01

    The gravitational field in a spatially finite region is described as a microcanonical system. The density of states ν is expressed formally as a functional integral over Lorentzian metrics and is a functional of the geometrical boundary data that are fixed in the corresponding action. These boundary data are the thermodynamical extensive variables, including the energy and angular momentum of the system. When the boundary data are chosen such that the system is described semiclassically by any real stationary axisymmetric black hole, then in this same approximation lnν is shown to equal 1/4 the area of the black-hole event horizon. The canonical and grand canonical partition functions are obtained by integral transforms of ν that lead to ''imaginary-time'' functional integrals. A general form of the first law of thermodynamics for stationary black holes is derived. For the simpler case of nonrelativistic mechanics, the density of states is expressed as a real-time functional integral and then used to deduce Feynman's imaginary-time functional integral for the canonical partition function

  2. ITER design, integration and assembly studies assisted by virtual reality

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Keller, D., E-mail: delphine.keller@cea.fr [CEA, IRFM, F-13108 St-Paul-Lez-Durance (France); ITER Organization, Route de Vinon-sur-Verdon, F-13115 St-Paul-Lez-Durance (France); Doceul, L.; Ferlay, F.; Jiolat, G. [CEA, IRFM, F-13108 St-Paul-Lez-Durance (France); Cordier, J.J.; Kuehn, I.; Manfreo, B.; Reich, J. [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon-sur-Verdon, F-13115 St-Paul-Lez-Durance (France)

    2013-10-15

    Highlights: ► VR technologies applied to Fusion enable to better and faster understand integration issues. ► Problems are solved and validated on a numerical mock up. ► Integration and accessibility issues can be identified in the earliest design. ► VR technologies are very helpful for assembly and maintenance operation simulations. ► New tools for real time simulations of hands-on operations are currently under development. -- Abstract: In a project like ITER where schedule, resources and cost is continuously optimized, emphasis has to be put on developing long lead items first while keeping other designs very low in definition. Hence, at a particular stage of the project, several components have to coexist in the integrated system while handling different level of maturity. Therefore, all the difficulty consists in managing the interfaces between all these components and to minimize the risk of design changes on the most advanced components. As a future exploitant, ITER is in charge of managing these interfaces and to ensure that maintenance of especially safety important class components (SIC) is feasible. These operation and maintenance constraints have to be taken into account since the earliest design of the components itselves. In this context, CEA IRFM is taking the benefit of using its virtual reality (VR) platform and simulation tools to assist ITER Organization in improving the efficiency of the inconsistencies identification and the machine sub-system design optimization. Currently, two contracts are on-going: the first one concerns the cryostat and in-vessel components; the second one concerns the overall Tokamak (TKM) and diagnostic buildings. This paper describes how VR tools applied to fusion and especially to ITER can help design and Integration with taking into account assembly and maintenance requirements at early stage in the design of complex systems.

  3. ITER design, integration and assembly studies assisted by virtual reality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keller, D.; Doceul, L.; Ferlay, F.; Jiolat, G.; Cordier, J.J.; Kuehn, I.; Manfreo, B.; Reich, J.

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: ► VR technologies applied to Fusion enable to better and faster understand integration issues. ► Problems are solved and validated on a numerical mock up. ► Integration and accessibility issues can be identified in the earliest design. ► VR technologies are very helpful for assembly and maintenance operation simulations. ► New tools for real time simulations of hands-on operations are currently under development. -- Abstract: In a project like ITER where schedule, resources and cost is continuously optimized, emphasis has to be put on developing long lead items first while keeping other designs very low in definition. Hence, at a particular stage of the project, several components have to coexist in the integrated system while handling different level of maturity. Therefore, all the difficulty consists in managing the interfaces between all these components and to minimize the risk of design changes on the most advanced components. As a future exploitant, ITER is in charge of managing these interfaces and to ensure that maintenance of especially safety important class components (SIC) is feasible. These operation and maintenance constraints have to be taken into account since the earliest design of the components itselves. In this context, CEA IRFM is taking the benefit of using its virtual reality (VR) platform and simulation tools to assist ITER Organization in improving the efficiency of the inconsistencies identification and the machine sub-system design optimization. Currently, two contracts are on-going: the first one concerns the cryostat and in-vessel components; the second one concerns the overall Tokamak (TKM) and diagnostic buildings. This paper describes how VR tools applied to fusion and especially to ITER can help design and Integration with taking into account assembly and maintenance requirements at early stage in the design of complex systems

  4. Model-based sensorimotor integration for multi-joint control: development of a virtual arm model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, D; Lan, N; Loeb, G E; Gordon, J

    2008-06-01

    An integrated, sensorimotor virtual arm (VA) model has been developed and validated for simulation studies of control of human arm movements. Realistic anatomical features of shoulder, elbow and forearm joints were captured with a graphic modeling environment, SIMM. The model included 15 musculotendon elements acting at the shoulder, elbow and forearm. Muscle actions on joints were evaluated by SIMM generated moment arms that were matched to experimentally measured profiles. The Virtual Muscle (VM) model contained appropriate admixture of slow and fast twitch fibers with realistic physiological properties for force production. A realistic spindle model was embedded in each VM with inputs of fascicle length, gamma static (gamma(stat)) and dynamic (gamma(dyn)) controls and outputs of primary (I(a)) and secondary (II) afferents. A piecewise linear model of Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO) represented the ensemble sampling (I(b)) of the total muscle force at the tendon. All model components were integrated into a Simulink block using a special software tool. The complete VA model was validated with open-loop simulation at discrete hand positions within the full range of alpha and gamma drives to extrafusal and intrafusal muscle fibers. The model behaviors were consistent with a wide variety of physiological phenomena. Spindle afferents were effectively modulated by fusimotor drives and hand positions of the arm. These simulations validated the VA model as a computational tool for studying arm movement control. The VA model is available to researchers at website http://pt.usc.edu/cel .

  5. Study on virtual instrument developing system based on intelligent virtual control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tang Baoping; Cheng Fabin; Qin Shuren

    2005-01-01

    The paper introduces a non-programming developing system of a virtual instrument (VI), i.e., a virtual measurement instrument developing system (VMIDS) based on intelligent virtual control (IVC). The background of the IVC-based VMIDS is described briefly, and the hierarchical message bus (HMB)-based software architecture of VMIDS is discussed in detail. The three parts and functions of VMIDS are introduced, and the process of non-programming developing VI is further described

  6. Study on virtual instrument developing system based on intelligent virtual control

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tang Baoping; Cheng Fabin; Qin Shuren [Test Center, College of Mechanical Engineering, Chongqing University , Chongqing 400030 (China)

    2005-01-01

    The paper introduces a non-programming developing system of a virtual instrument (VI), i.e., a virtual measurement instrument developing system (VMIDS) based on intelligent virtual control (IVC). The background of the IVC-based VMIDS is described briefly, and the hierarchical message bus (HMB)-based software architecture of VMIDS is discussed in detail. The three parts and functions of VMIDS are introduced, and the process of non-programming developing VI is further described.

  7. An architectural framework for virtual enterprise engineering

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zwegers, Arian; Hannus, Matti; Tølle, Martin

    2001-01-01

    , especially concerning integration issues. This paper aims to lay down an architectural framework to support the set-up and operation of virtual enterprises. It supports virtual enterprise engineering. The framework might also be used to identify and position issues that play a role in the set......-up and operation of virtual enterprises. As such, it is useful to classify research projects on virtual enterprises as well.......Enterprises cooperate more extensively with other enterprises during the entire product life cycle. Temporary alliances between various enterprises emerge such as those in virtual enterprises. However, many enterprises experience difficulties in the formation and operation of virtual enterprises...

  8. The Virtual Institute of Integrated Climate and Landscape Evolution Analyses - ICLEA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwab, Markus; Brauer, Achim; Błaszkiewicz, Mirosław; Raab, Thomas; Wilmking, Martin; Blume, Theresa; Iclea Team

    2014-05-01

    The GFZ, Greifswald University and the Brandenburg University of Technology together with their partner the Polish Academy of Sciences strive for focusing their research capacities and expertise in a Helmholtz Virtual Institute for Integrated Climate and Landscape Evolution Analyses (ICLEA). The Coordination Team is based at the GFZ in Potsdam and consists of a permanent scientific manager and administrative personnel. ICLEA offers young researchers an interdisciplinary and structured education and promote their early independence through coaching and mentoring. Postdoctoral rotation positions at the ICLEA partner institutions ensure mobility of young researchers and promote dissemination of information and expertise between disciplines. Training, Research and Analytical workshops between research partners of the ICLEA virtual institute are another important measure to qualify young researchers. The long-term mission of the Virtual Institute is to provide a substantiated data basis for sustained environmental maintenance based on a profound process understanding at all relevant time scales. Aim is to explore processes of climate and landscape evolution in an historical cultural landscape extending from northeastern Germany into northwestern Poland. The northern-central European lowlands will be facilitated as a natural laboratory providing an ideal case for utilizing a systematic and holistic approach. In ICLEA five complementary work packages (WP) are established according to the key research aspects. WP 1 focus on monitoring mainly hydrology and soil moisture as well as meteorological parameters. WP 2 is linking present day and future monitoring data with the most recent past through analysing satellite images. This WP will further provide larger spatial scales. WP 3-5 focus on different natural archives to obtain a broad variety of high quality proxy data. Tree rings provide sub-seasonal data for the last centuries up to few millennia, varved lake sediments

  9. MOOC as a Laboratory of Culture Shock: Helping Non-U.S. Students Integrate into All-American Virtual Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chukhlomin, Valeri; Deshpande, Anant

    2017-01-01

    "iMOOC101: Mastering American e-Learning" is a Coursera-based, free, massive online course aimed at preparing non-U.S. students to succeed in regular, for-credit, online classes in American universities. The course is also intended to help foreign-born professionals integrate into virtual work environments in U.S.-based companies. The…

  10. Quantum Virtual Machine (QVM)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2016-11-18

    There is a lack of state-of-the-art HPC simulation tools for simulating general quantum computing. Furthermore, there are no real software tools that integrate current quantum computers into existing classical HPC workflows. This product, the Quantum Virtual Machine (QVM), solves this problem by providing an extensible framework for pluggable virtual, or physical, quantum processing units (QPUs). It enables the execution of low level quantum assembly codes and returns the results of such executions.

  11. Structure-Guided Screening for Functionally Selective D2 Dopamine Receptor Ligands from a Virtual Chemical Library.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Männel, Barbara; Jaiteh, Mariama; Zeifman, Alexey; Randakova, Alena; Möller, Dorothee; Hübner, Harald; Gmeiner, Peter; Carlsson, Jens

    2017-10-20

    Functionally selective ligands stabilize conformations of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that induce a preference for signaling via a subset of the intracellular pathways activated by the endogenous agonists. The possibility to fine-tune the functional activity of a receptor provides opportunities to develop drugs that selectively signal via pathways associated with a therapeutic effect and avoid those causing side effects. Animal studies have indicated that ligands displaying functional selectivity at the D 2 dopamine receptor (D 2 R) could be safer and more efficacious drugs against neuropsychiatric diseases. In this work, computational design of functionally selective D 2 R ligands was explored using structure-based virtual screening. Molecular docking of known functionally selective ligands to a D 2 R homology model indicated that such compounds were anchored by interactions with the orthosteric site and extended into a common secondary pocket. A tailored virtual library with close to 13 000 compounds bearing 2,3-dichlorophenylpiperazine, a privileged orthosteric scaffold, connected to diverse chemical moieties via a linker was docked to the D 2 R model. Eighteen top-ranked compounds that occupied both the orthosteric and allosteric site were synthesized, leading to the discovery of 16 partial agonists. A majority of the ligands had comparable maximum effects in the G protein and β-arrestin recruitment assays, but a subset displayed preference for a single pathway. In particular, compound 4 stimulated β-arrestin recruitment (EC 50 = 320 nM, E max = 16%) but had no detectable G protein signaling. The use of structure-based screening and virtual libraries to discover GPCR ligands with tailored functional properties will be discussed.

  12. Augmenting effectiveness of control loops of a PMSG (permanent magnet synchronous generator) based wind energy conversion system by a virtually adaptive PI (proportional integral) controller

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alizadeh, Mojtaba; Kojori, Shokrollah Shokri

    2015-01-01

    Offering substantial features, PMSG (permanent magnet synchronous generator) based WECS (wind energy conversion system) is definitely one of the most reliable and efficient ways of extracting electrical power from the wind. Like other WECSs, PMSG-based WECS (PMSG WECS) encompasses two main control loops, each equipped with PI (proportional integral) controller, to control speed and currents of the system. This work develops a virtually adaptive PI controller to enhance the performance of both main control loops of a PMSG WECS. A WNN (wavelet neural network) is proposed to be added to each closed control loop in series with PI controller. Due to having a cascade connection, the transfer function of the WNN, which is a pure gain in each time step, is multiplied by PI gains. Therefore, the value of transfer function of the WNN, and consequently, both parameters of PI controller can be changed in each time step by online training of the WNN, resulting in a virtually adaptive PI controller. The performance of the proposed controller in improving efficacy of both current and speed control loops is evaluated by simulation studies and is also compared to that of PI controller, WNNC (wavelet neural network controller), and QNNC (quantum neural network controller). - Highlights: • To propose a virtually adaptive PI controller to be used in a PMSG WECS. • Both parameters of PI controller can be changed in each time step. • The proposed controller can be used as both current or speed controller. • The plant data is not required for offline training of proposed current controller.

  13. Investigating the effects of virtual social networks on entrepreneurial marketing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kambeiz Talebi

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of virtual social networks on entrepreneurial marketing. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale based on a model originally developed by Morris et al. (2002 [Morris, M. H., Schindehutte, M., & LaForge, R. W. (2002. Entrepreneurial marketing: a construct for integrating emerging entrepreneurship and marketing perspectives. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 10(4, 1-19.]. The study considers the effects of three components of virtual social network (VSN; namely structural VSN, interaction VSN and functional VSN on entrepreneurial marketing. Using structural equation modeling, the study has determined positive and meaningful effects of all three VSN components on entrepreneurial marketing.

  14. A measurement of the Q2, W and t dependences of deeply virtual Compton scattering at HERA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2009-01-01

    Deeply virtual Compton scattering, γ*p → γp, has been measured in e + p collisions at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 61.1 pb -1 . Cross sections are presented as a function of the photon virtuality, Q 2 , and photon-proton centre-of-mass energy, W, for a wide region of the phase space, Q 2 > 1.5 GeV 2 and 40 -1 , is used for the first direct measurement of the differential cross section as a function of t, where t is the square of the four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex.

  15. A measurement of the Q2, W and t dependences of deeply virtual Compton scattering at HERA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S.

    2008-12-01

    Deeply virtual Compton scattering, γ * p→γp, has been measured in e + p collisions at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 61.1 pb -1 . Cross sections are presented as a function of the photon virtuality, Q 2 , and photon-proton centre-of-mass energy, W, for a wide region of the phase space, Q 2 >1.5 GeV 2 and 40 -1 , is used for the first direct measurement of the differential cross section as a function of t, where t is the square of the four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex. (orig.)

  16. Virtual teamwork - Panoptic or Interactive Work design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Lauge Baungaard

    2012-01-01

    The emergence of virtual teamwork represents a dynamic response to globalization, the growth of communication technologies and dismantling of industrial based organizational hierarchies. These developments pose new challenges as the completion of the distributed tasks must be integrated across th...... the barriers of cultural differences, and with fewer face-to-face clues, Virtual teamwork involves demands regarding communication, trust and knowledge. The implications for future work design are immense, and still open for clarification and discussion.......The emergence of virtual teamwork represents a dynamic response to globalization, the growth of communication technologies and dismantling of industrial based organizational hierarchies. These developments pose new challenges as the completion of the distributed tasks must be integrated across...

  17. How Health Care Professionals Use Social Media to Create Virtual Communities: An Integrative Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rolls, Kaye; Hansen, Margaret; Jackson, Debra; Elliott, Doug

    2016-06-16

    Prevailing health care structures and cultures restrict intraprofessional communication, inhibiting knowledge dissemination and impacting the translation of research into practice. Virtual communities may facilitate professional networking and knowledge sharing in and between health care disciplines. This study aimed to review the literature on the use of social media by health care professionals in developing virtual communities that facilitate professional networking, knowledge sharing, and evidence-informed practice. An integrative literature review was conducted to identify research published between 1990 and 2015. Search strategies sourced electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL), snowball references, and tables of contents of 3 journals. Papers that evaluated social media use by health care professionals (unless within an education framework) using any research design (except for research protocols or narrative reviews) were included. Standardized data extraction and quality assessment tools were used. Overall, 72 studies were included: 44 qualitative (including 2 ethnographies, 26 qualitative descriptive, and 1 Q-sort) and 20 mixed-methods studies, and 8 literature reviews. The most common methods of data collection were Web-based observation (n=39), surveys (n=23), interviews (n=11), focus groups (n=2), and diaries (n=1). Study quality was mixed. Social media studied included Listservs (n=22), Twitter (n=18), general social media (n=17), discussion forums (n=7), Web 2.0 (n=3), virtual community of practice (n=3), wiki (n=1), and Facebook (n=1). A range of health care professionals were sampled in the studies, including physicians (n=24), nurses (n=15), allied health professionals (n=14), followed by health care professionals in general (n=8), a multidisciplinary clinical specialty area (n=9), and midwives (n=2). Of 36 virtual communities, 31 were monodiscipline for a discrete clinical specialty. Population uptake by the target group ranged from 1.6% to 29% (n

  18. Virtualized Network Function Orchestration System and Experimental Network Based QR Recognition for a 5G Mobile Access Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Misun Ahn

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a virtualized network function orchestration system based on Network Function Virtualization (NFV, one of the main technologies in 5G mobile networks. This system should provide connectivity between network devices and be able to create flexible network function and distribution. This system focuses more on access networks. By experimenting with various scenarios of user service established and activated in a network, we examine whether rapid adoption of new service is possible and whether network resources can be managed efficiently. The proposed method is based on Bluetooth transfer technology and mesh networking to provide automatic connections between network machines and on a Docker flat form, which is a container virtualization technology for setting and managing key functions. Additionally, the system includes a clustering and recovery measure regarding network function based on the Docker platform. We will briefly introduce the QR code perceived service as a user service to examine the proposal and based on this given service, we evaluate the function of the proposal and present analysis. Through the proposed approach, container relocation has been implemented according to a network device’s CPU usage and we confirm successful service through function evaluation on a real test bed. We estimate QR code recognition speed as the amount of network equipment is gradually increased, improving user service and confirm that the speed of recognition is increased as the assigned number of network devices is increased by the user service.

  19. Integral transform techniques for Green's function

    CERN Document Server

    Watanabe, Kazumi

    2015-01-01

    This book describes mathematical techniques for integral transforms in a detailed but concise manner. The techniques are subsequently applied to the standard partial differential equations, such as the Laplace equation, the wave equation and elasticity equations. Green’s functions for beams, plates and acoustic media are also shown, along with their mathematical derivations. The Cagniard-de Hoop method for double inversion is described in detail, and 2D and 3D elastodynamic problems are treated in full. This new edition explains in detail how to introduce the branch cut for the multi-valued square root function. Further, an exact closed form Green’s function for torsional waves is presented, as well as an application technique of the complex integral, which includes the square root function and an application technique of the complex integral.

  20. Evaluation of integrals with hypergeometric and logarithmic functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sofo Anthony

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available We provide an explicit analytical representation for a number of logarithmic integrals in terms of the Lerch transcendent function and other special functions. The integrals in question will be associated with both alternating harmonic numbers and harmonic numbers with positive terms. A few examples of integrals will be given an identity in terms of some special functions including the Riemann zeta function. In general none of these integrals can be solved by any currently available mathematical package.

  1. Weighted -Integral Representations of -Functions in

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arman H. Karapetyan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available For 1-functions , given in the complex space , integral representations of the form =(−( are obtained. Here, is the orthogonal projector of the space 2{;−||||(} onto its subspace of entire functions and the integral operator appears by means of explicitly constructed kernel Φ which is investigated in detail.

  2. A virtual reality-integrated program for improving social skills in patients with schizophrenia: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rus-Calafell, Mar; Gutiérrez-Maldonado, José; Ribas-Sabaté, Joan

    2014-03-01

    Social skills training (SST) intervention has shown its efficacy to improve social dysfunction in patients with psychosis; however the implementation of new skills into patients' everyday functioning is difficult to achieve. In this study, we report results from the application of a virtual reality (VR) integrated program as an adjunct technique to a brief social skills intervention for patients with schizophrenia. It was predicted that the intervention would improve social cognition and performance of patients as well as generalisation of the learned responses into patient's daily life. Twelve patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder completed the study. They attended sixteen individual one-hour sessions, and outcome assessments were conducted at pre-treatment, post-treatment and four-month follow-up. The results of a series of repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant improvement in negative symptoms, psychopathology, social anxiety and discomfort, avoidance and social functioning. Objective scores obtained through the use of the VR program showed a pattern of learning in emotion perception, assertive behaviours and time spent in a conversation. Most of these gains were maintained at four-month follow-up. The reported results are based on a small, uncontrolled pilot study. Although there was an independent rater for the self-reported and informant questionnaires, assessments were not blinded. The results showed that the intervention may be effective for improving social dysfunction. The use of the VR program contributed to the generalisation of new skills into the patient's everyday functioning. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Virtual Environment User Interfaces to Support RLV and Space Station Simulations in the ANVIL Virtual Reality Lab

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dumas, Joseph D., II

    1998-01-01

    Several virtual reality I/O peripherals were successfully configured and integrated as part of the author's 1997 Summer Faculty Fellowship work. These devices, which were not supported by the developers of VR software packages, use new software drivers and configuration files developed by the author to allow them to be used with simulations developed using those software packages. The successful integration of these devices has added significant capability to the ANVIL lab at MSFC. In addition, the author was able to complete the integration of a networked virtual reality simulation of the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System docking Space Station modules which was begun as part of his 1996 Fellowship. The successful integration of this simulation demonstrates the feasibility of using VR technology for ground-based training as well as on-orbit operations.

  4. A novel virtual hub approach for multisource downstream service integration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Previtali, Mattia; Cuca, Branka; Barazzetti, Luigi

    2016-08-01

    A large development of downstream services is expected to be stimulated starting from earth observations (EO) datasets acquired by Copernicus satellites. An important challenge connected with the availability of downstream services is the possibility for their integration in order to create innovative applications with added values for users of different categories level. At the moment, the world of geo-information (GI) is extremely heterogeneous in terms of standards and formats used, thus preventing a facilitated access and integration of downstream services. Indeed, different users and data providers have also different requirements in terms of communication protocols and technology advancement. In recent years, many important programs and initiatives have tried to address this issue even on trans-regional and international level (e.g. INSPIRE Directive, GEOSS, Eye on Earth and SEIS). However, a lack of interoperability between systems and services still exists. In order to facilitate the interaction between different downstream services, a new architectural approach (developed within the European project ENERGIC OD) is proposed in this paper. The brokering-oriented architecture introduces a new mediation layer (the Virtual Hub) which works as an intermediary to bridge the gaps linked to interoperability issues. This intermediation layer de-couples the server and the client allowing a facilitated access to multiple downstream services and also Open Data provided by national and local SDIs. In particular, in this paper an application is presented integrating four services on the topic of agriculture: (i) the service given by Space4Agri (providing services based on MODIS and Landsat data); (ii) Gicarus Lab (providing sample services based on Landsat datasets) and (iii) FRESHMON (providing sample services for water quality) and services from a several regional SDIs.

  5. Human Factors Virtual Analysis Techniques for NASA's Space Launch System Ground Support using MSFC's Virtual Environments Lab (VEL)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Searcy, Brittani

    2017-01-01

    Using virtual environments to assess complex large scale human tasks provides timely and cost effective results to evaluate designs and to reduce operational risks during assembly and integration of the Space Launch System (SLS). NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) uses a suite of tools to conduct integrated virtual analysis during the design phase of the SLS Program. Siemens Jack is a simulation tool that allows engineers to analyze human interaction with CAD designs by placing a digital human model into the environment to test different scenarios and assess the design's compliance to human factors requirements. Engineers at MSFC are using Jack in conjunction with motion capture and virtual reality systems in MSFC's Virtual Environments Lab (VEL). The VEL provides additional capability beyond standalone Jack to record and analyze a person performing a planned task to assemble the SLS at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The VEL integrates Vicon Blade motion capture system, Siemens Jack, Oculus Rift, and other virtual tools to perform human factors assessments. By using motion capture and virtual reality, a more accurate breakdown and understanding of how an operator will perform a task can be gained. By virtual analysis, engineers are able to determine if a specific task is capable of being safely performed by both a 5% (approx. 5ft) female and a 95% (approx. 6'1) male. In addition, the analysis will help identify any tools or other accommodations that may to help complete the task. These assessments are critical for the safety of ground support engineers and keeping launch operations on schedule. Motion capture allows engineers to save and examine human movements on a frame by frame basis, while virtual reality gives the actor (person performing a task in the VEL) an immersive view of the task environment. This presentation will discuss the need of human factors for SLS and the benefits of analyzing tasks in NASA MSFC's VEL.

  6. Virtual Reality in education and for employability

    OpenAIRE

    Minocha, Shailey; Tudor, Ana-Despina

    2017-01-01

    Virtual reality is becoming pervasive in several domains - in arts and film-making, for environmental causes, in medical education, in disaster management training, in sports broadcasting, in entertainment, and in supporting patients with dementia. An awareness of virtual reality technology and its integration in curriculum design will provide and enhance employability skills for current and future workplaces.\\ud \\ud In this webinar, we will describe the evolution of virtual reality technolog...

  7. New application of functional integrals to classical mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zherebtsov, Anton; Ilinski, Kirill

    2005-01-01

    In this Letter a new functional integral representation for classical dynamics is introduced. It is achieved by rewriting the Liouville picture in terms of bosonic creation-annihilation operators and utilizing the standard derivation of functional integrals for dynamical quantities in the coherent states representation. This results in a new class of functional integrals which are exactly solvable and can be found explicitly when the underlying classical systems are integrable

  8. Effects of virtual reality for stroke individuals based on the International Classification of Functioning and Health: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palma, Gisele Carla Dos Santos; Freitas, Tatiana Beline; Bonuzzi, Giordano Márcio Gatinho; Soares, Marcos Antonio Arlindo; Leite, Paulo Henrique Wong; Mazzini, Natália Araújo; Almeida, Murilo Ruas Groschitz; Pompeu, José Eduardo; Torriani-Pasin, Camila

    2017-05-01

    This review determines the effects of virtual reality interventions for stroke subjects based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability,and Health (ICF) framework. Virtual reality is a promising tool for therapy for stroke rehabilitation, but the effects of virtual reality interventions on post-stroke patients based on the specific ICF domains (Body Structures, Body Functions, Activity, and Participation) have not been investigated. A systematic review was conducted, including trials with adults with a clinical diagnosis of a chronic, subacute, or acute stroke. Eligible trials had to include studies with an intervention protocol and follow-up, with a focus on upper limbs and/or lower limbs and/or balance. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) was used to assess the methodological quality of randomized controlled trials. Each trial was separated according to methodological quality into a high-quality trial (PEDro ≥ 6) and a low-quality trial (PEDro ≤ 6). Only high-quality trials were analyzed specifically based on the outcome of these trials. In total, 54 trials involving 1811 participants were included. Of the papers included and considered high quality, 14 trials evaluated areas of the Body Structures component, 20 trials of the Body Functions domain, 17 trials of the Activity component, and 8 trials of the Participation domain. In relation to ICF Part 2, four trials evaluated areas of the Personal Factors component and one trial evaluated domains of the Environmental Factors component. The effects of virtual reality on stroke rehabilitation based on the ICF framework are positive in Body Function and Body Structure. However, the results in the domains Activity and Participation are inconclusive. More high-quality clinical trials are needed to confirm the effectiveness of virtual reality in the domains of Activity and Participation.

  9. Philosophical analysis of virtualization educational space problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. D. Kolomiets

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Categorical imperative of the new spatial organization of education through its integration in the media space is its virtualization. It is possible in principle, given that both spaces are characterized by adaptability, ease transfer from one semiotic system to another, mobility, functionality, flexibility, allowing for their continuous restructuring. On the philosophical and educational perspective, for us it is important to note that the «idea» of media education space sets the goal of education, understanding of the complex and multi­level organization of information relations of the educational process is a simple link between empirical concepts and ideas about education space as integrity within the information society. Virtual dimension issues of educational space formed within one of the major philosophical and educational issues ­ problems of socio­cultural nature of education as a mechanism of becoming human in man. Today feature virtual philosophical analysis is understanding not just a technical phenomenon, but as a space of human existence, and therefore its educational space. It is in this sense the philosophy of education is important to apply the methodology of media philosophy in the development problems of media education space as a space of life, self­development and self­knowledge of man. Crisis and negative phenomena in postmodern education is not the result of the process of formation of modern electronic media and virtual media space. However, this specific problem requires analysis of education is in the context of new technologies of mass communication. The spread of the crisis of education in terms of media reality should be seen as a crisis of a man who fell into the information system, which is the media model and simulated education and awareness of life. Education in terms of media consumerism acts as a social technology and media culture «escape from thinking.» The transition from education information and

  10. Remote Laboratory Experiments in a Virtual Immersive Learning Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luca Berruti

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The Virtual Immersive Learning (VIL test bench implements a virtual collaborative immersive environment, capable of integrating natural contexts and typical gestures, which may occur during traditional lectures, enhanced with advanced experimental sessions. The system architecture is described, along with the motivations, and the most significant choices, both hardware and software, adopted for its implementation. The novelty of the approach essentially relies on its capability of embedding functionalities that stem from various research results (mainly carried out within the VICOM national project, and “putting the pieces together” in a well-integrated framework. These features, along with its high portability, good flexibility, and, above all, low cost, make this approach appropriate for educational and training purposes, mainly concerning measurements on telecommunication systems, at universities and research centers, as well as enterprises. Moreover, the methodology can be employed for remote access to and sharing of costly measurement equipment in many different activities. The immersive characteristics of the framework are illustrated, along with performance measurements related to a specific application.

  11. Certain Integral Transform and Fractional Integral Formulas for the Generalized Gauss Hypergeometric Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junesang Choi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available A remarkably large number of integral transforms and fractional integral formulas involving various special functions have been investigated by many authors. Very recently, Agarwal gave some integral transforms and fractional integral formulas involving the Fp(α,β(·. In this sequel, using the same technique, we establish certain integral transforms and fractional integral formulas for the generalized Gauss hypergeometric functions Fp(α,β,m(·. Some interesting special cases of our main results are also considered.

  12. Investigating the impact of nicotine on executive functions using a novel virtual reality assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jansari, Ashok S; Froggatt, Daniel; Edginton, Trudi; Dawkins, Lynne

    2013-05-01

    Nicotine is known to enhance aspects of cognitive functioning in abstinent smokers, but the effects on specific areas of executive functions and in non-smokers are inconclusive. This may be due in part to the poor sensitivity of tests used to assess executive functions. This study used a new virtual reality assessment of executive functions known as JEF (the Jansari assessment of Executive Functions) to address this issue. A 2 × 2 design manipulating group (smokers and never-smokers) and drug [nicotine (4 mg for smokers; 2 mg for never smokers) versus placebo gum]. School of Psychology; University of East London. Seventy-two participants (aged 18-54 years): 36 minimally deprived (2 hours) smokers and 36 never-smokers. Components of executive function were measured using the virtual reality paradigm JEF, which assesses eight cognitive constructs simultaneously as well as providing an overall performance measure. Univariate analyses of variance revealed that nicotine improved overall JEF performance, time-based prospective memory and event-based prospective memory in smokers (P < 0.01), but not in never-smokers. Action-based prospective memory was enhanced in both groups (P < 0.01) and never-smokers out-performed smokers on selective thinking and adaptive thinking (P < 0.01). Executive functioning and prospective memory as aspects of cognitive performance can be enhanced by nicotine gum in smokers who have abstained for as little as 2 hours. © 2012 The Authors, Addiction © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.

  13. Integrating multi-scale data to create a virtual physiological mouse heart.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Land, Sander; Niederer, Steven A; Louch, William E; Sejersted, Ole M; Smith, Nicolas P

    2013-04-06

    While the virtual physiological human (VPH) project has made great advances in human modelling, many of the tools and insights developed as part of this initiative are also applicable for facilitating mechanistic understanding of the physiology of a range of other species. This process, in turn, has the potential to provide human relevant insights via a different scientific path. Specifically, the increasing use of mice in experimental research, not yet fully complemented by a similar increase in computational modelling, is currently missing an important opportunity for using and interpreting this growing body of experimental data to improve our understanding of cardiac function. This overview describes our work to address this issue by creating a virtual physiological mouse model of the heart. We describe the similarities between human- and mouse-focused modelling, including the reuse of VPH tools, and the development of methods for investigating parameter sensitivity that are applicable across species. We show how previous results using this approach have already provided important biological insights, and how these can also be used to advance VPH heart models. Finally, we show an example application of this approach to test competing multi-scale hypotheses by investigating variations in length-dependent properties of cardiac muscle.

  14. High-performance integrated virtual environment (HIVE): a robust infrastructure for next-generation sequence data analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simonyan, Vahan; Chumakov, Konstantin; Dingerdissen, Hayley; Faison, William; Goldweber, Scott; Golikov, Anton; Gulzar, Naila; Karagiannis, Konstantinos; Vinh Nguyen Lam, Phuc; Maudru, Thomas; Muravitskaja, Olesja; Osipova, Ekaterina; Pan, Yang; Pschenichnov, Alexey; Rostovtsev, Alexandre; Santana-Quintero, Luis; Smith, Krista; Thompson, Elaine E; Tkachenko, Valery; Torcivia-Rodriguez, John; Voskanian, Alin; Wan, Quan; Wang, Jing; Wu, Tsung-Jung; Wilson, Carolyn; Mazumder, Raja

    2016-01-01

    The High-performance Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE) is a distributed storage and compute environment designed primarily to handle next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. This multicomponent cloud infrastructure provides secure web access for authorized users to deposit, retrieve, annotate and compute on NGS data, and to analyse the outcomes using web interface visual environments appropriately built in collaboration with research and regulatory scientists and other end users. Unlike many massively parallel computing environments, HIVE uses a cloud control server which virtualizes services, not processes. It is both very robust and flexible due to the abstraction layer introduced between computational requests and operating system processes. The novel paradigm of moving computations to the data, instead of moving data to computational nodes, has proven to be significantly less taxing for both hardware and network infrastructure.The honeycomb data model developed for HIVE integrates metadata into an object-oriented model. Its distinction from other object-oriented databases is in the additional implementation of a unified application program interface to search, view and manipulate data of all types. This model simplifies the introduction of new data types, thereby minimizing the need for database restructuring and streamlining the development of new integrated information systems. The honeycomb model employs a highly secure hierarchical access control and permission system, allowing determination of data access privileges in a finely granular manner without flooding the security subsystem with a multiplicity of rules. HIVE infrastructure will allow engineers and scientists to perform NGS analysis in a manner that is both efficient and secure. HIVE is actively supported in public and private domains, and project collaborations are welcomed. Database URL: https://hive.biochemistry.gwu.edu. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

  15. A measurement of the Q{sup 2}, W and t dependences of deeply virtual Compton scattering at HERA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S. [Argonne National Lab., Argonne, IL (US)] (and others)

    2008-12-15

    Deeply virtual Compton scattering, {gamma}{sup *}p{yields}{gamma}p, has been measured in e{sup +}p collisions at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 61.1 pb{sup -1}. Cross sections are presented as a function of the photon virtuality, Q{sup 2}, and photon-proton centre-of-mass energy, W, for a wide region of the phase space, Q{sup 2}>1.5 GeV{sup 2} and 40integrated luminosity of 31.3 pb{sup -1}, is used for the first direct measurement of the differential cross section as a function of t, where t is the square of the four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex. (orig.)

  16. Reconfigurable virtual electrowetting channels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banerjee, Ananda; Kreit, Eric; Liu, Yuguang; Heikenfeld, Jason; Papautsky, Ian

    2012-02-21

    Lab-on-a-chip systems rely on several microfluidic paradigms. The first uses a fixed layout of continuous microfluidic channels. Such lab-on-a-chip systems are almost always application specific and far from a true "laboratory." The second involves electrowetting droplet movement (digital microfluidics), and allows two-dimensional computer control of fluidic transport and mixing. The merging of the two paradigms in the form of programmable electrowetting channels takes advantage of both the "continuous" functionality of rigid channels based on which a large number of applications have been developed to date and the "programmable" functionality of digital microfluidics that permits electrical control of on-chip functions. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time programmable formation of virtual microfluidic channels and their continuous operation with pressure driven flows using an electrowetting platform. Experimental, theoretical, and numerical analyses of virtual channel formation with biologically relevant electrolyte solutions and electrically-programmable reconfiguration are presented. We demonstrate that the "wall-less" virtual channels can be formed reliably and rapidly, with propagation rates of 3.5-3.8 mm s(-1). Pressure driven transport in these virtual channels at flow rates up to 100 μL min(-1) is achievable without distortion of the channel shape. We further demonstrate that these virtual channels can be switched on-demand between multiple inputs and outputs. Ultimately, we envision a platform that would provide rapid prototyping of microfluidic concepts and would be capable of a vast library of functions and benefitting applications from clinical diagnostics in resource-limited environments to rapid system prototyping to high throughput pharmaceutical applications.

  17. Function integrated track system

    OpenAIRE

    Hohnecker, Eberhard

    2010-01-01

    The paper discusses a function integrated track system that focuses on the reduction of acoustic emissions from railway lines. It is shown that the combination of an embedded rail system (ERS), a sound absorbing track surface, and an integrated mini sound barrier has significant acoustic advantages compared to a standard ballast superstructure. The acoustic advantages of an embedded rail system are particularly pronounced in the case of railway bridges. Finally, it is shown that a...

  18. Astronomical Data Integration Beyond the Virtual Observatory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemson, G.; Laurino, O.

    2015-09-01

    "Data integration" generally refers to the process of combining data from different source data bases into a unified view. Much work has been devoted in this area by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA), allowing users to discover and access databases through standard protocols. However, different archives present their data through their own schemas and users must still select, filter, and combine data for each archive individually. An important reason for this is that the creation of common data models that satisfy all sub-disciplines is fraught with difficulties. Furthermore it requires a substantial amount of work for data providers to present their data according to some standard representation. We will argue that existing standards allow us to build a data integration framework that works around these problems. The particular framework requires the implementation of the IVOA Table Access Protocol (TAP) only. It uses the newly developed VO data modelling language (VO-DML) specification, which allows one to define extensible object-oriented data models using a subset of UML concepts through a simple XML serialization language. A rich mapping language allows one to describe how instances of VO-DML data models are represented by the TAP service, bridging the possible mismatch between a local archive's schema and some agreed-upon representation of the astronomical domain. In this so called local-as-view approach to data integration, “mediators" use the mapping prescriptions to translate queries phrased in terms of the common schema to the underlying TAP service. This mapping language has a graphical representation, which we expose through a web based graphical “drag-and-drop-and-connect" interface. This service allows any user to map the holdings of any TAP service to the data model(s) of choice. The mappings are defined and stored outside of the data sources themselves, which allows the interface to be used in a kind of crowd-sourcing effort

  19. The Virtual Mouse Brain: A Computational Neuroinformatics Platform to Study Whole Mouse Brain Dynamics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melozzi, Francesca; Woodman, Marmaduke M; Jirsa, Viktor K; Bernard, Christophe

    2017-01-01

    Connectome-based modeling of large-scale brain network dynamics enables causal in silico interrogation of the brain's structure-function relationship, necessitating the close integration of diverse neuroinformatics fields. Here we extend the open-source simulation software The Virtual Brain (TVB) to whole mouse brain network modeling based on individual diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI)-based or tracer-based detailed mouse connectomes. We provide practical examples on how to use The Virtual Mouse Brain (TVMB) to simulate brain activity, such as seizure propagation and the switching behavior of the resting state dynamics in health and disease. TVMB enables theoretically driven experimental planning and ways to test predictions in the numerous strains of mice available to study brain function in normal and pathological conditions.

  20. How Health Care Professionals Use Social Media to Create Virtual Communities: An Integrative Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-01-01

    Background Prevailing health care structures and cultures restrict intraprofessional communication, inhibiting knowledge dissemination and impacting the translation of research into practice. Virtual communities may facilitate professional networking and knowledge sharing in and between health care disciplines. Objectives This study aimed to review the literature on the use of social media by health care professionals in developing virtual communities that facilitate professional networking, knowledge sharing, and evidence-informed practice. Methods An integrative literature review was conducted to identify research published between 1990 and 2015. Search strategies sourced electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL), snowball references, and tables of contents of 3 journals. Papers that evaluated social media use by health care professionals (unless within an education framework) using any research design (except for research protocols or narrative reviews) were included. Standardized data extraction and quality assessment tools were used. Results Overall, 72 studies were included: 44 qualitative (including 2 ethnographies, 26 qualitative descriptive, and 1 Q-sort) and 20 mixed-methods studies, and 8 literature reviews. The most common methods of data collection were Web-based observation (n=39), surveys (n=23), interviews (n=11), focus groups (n=2), and diaries (n=1). Study quality was mixed. Social media studied included Listservs (n=22), Twitter (n=18), general social media (n=17), discussion forums (n=7), Web 2.0 (n=3), virtual community of practice (n=3), wiki (n=1), and Facebook (n=1). A range of health care professionals were sampled in the studies, including physicians (n=24), nurses (n=15), allied health professionals (n=14), followed by health care professionals in general (n=8), a multidisciplinary clinical specialty area (n=9), and midwives (n=2). Of 36 virtual communities, 31 were monodiscipline for a discrete clinical specialty. Population uptake by the

  1. Lean on Wii: physical rehabilitation with virtual reality Wii peripherals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Fraser; Annett, Michelle; Bischof, Walter F

    2010-01-01

    In recent years, a growing number of occupational therapists have integrated video game technologies, such as the Nintendo Wii, into rehabilitation programs. 'Wiihabilitation', or the use of the Wii in rehabilitation, has been successful in increasing patients' motivation and encouraging full body movement. The non-rehabilitative focus of Wii applications, however, presents a number of problems: games are too difficult for patients, they mainly target upper-body gross motor functions, and they lack support for task customization, grading, and quantitative measurements. To overcome these problems, we have designed a low-cost, virtual-reality based system. Our system, Virtual Wiihab, records performance and behavioral measurements, allows for activity customization, and uses auditory, visual, and haptic elements to provide extrinsic feedback and motivation to patients.

  2. Virtual Welded-Joint Design Integrating Advanced Materials and Processing Technologies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yang, Z.; Dong, P.; Liu, S.; Babu, S.; Olson, G.; DebRoy, T.

    2005-04-15

    The primary goal of this project is to increase the fatigue life of a welded-joint by 10 times and to reduce energy use by 25% through product performance and productivity improvements using an integrated modeling approach. The fatigue strength of a welded-joint is currently the bottleneck to design high performance and lightweight welded structures using advanced materials such as high strength steels. In order to achieve high fatigue strength in a welded-joint it is necessary to manage the weld bead shape for lower stress concentration, produce preferable residual stress distribution, and obtain the desired microstructure for improved material toughness and strength. This is a systems challenge that requires the optimization of the welding process, the welding consumable, the base material, as well as the structure design. The concept of virtual welded-joint design has been proposed and established in this project. The goal of virtual welded-joint design is to develop a thorough procedure to predict the relationship of welding process, microstructure, property, residual stress, and the ultimate weld fatigue strength by a systematic modeling approach. The systematic approach combines five sub-models: weld thermal-fluid model, weld microstructure model, weld material property model, weld residual stress model, and weld fatigue model. The systematic approach is thus based on interdisciplinary applied sciences including heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics, materials science, engineering mechanics, and material fracture mechanics. The sub-models are based on existing models with further development. The results from modeling have been validated with critical experiments. The systematic modeling approach has been used to design high fatigue resistant welds considering the combined effects of weld bead geometry, residual stress, microstructure, and material property. In particular, a special welding wire has been developed in this project to introduce

  3. Virtual screening approach to identifying influenza virus neuraminidase inhibitors using molecular docking combined with machine-learning-based scoring function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Li; Ai, Hai-Xin; Li, Shi-Meng; Qi, Meng-Yuan; Zhao, Jian; Zhao, Qi; Liu, Hong-Sheng

    2017-10-10

    In recent years, an epidemic of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H7N9 virus has persisted in China, with a high mortality rate. To develop novel anti-influenza therapies, we have constructed a machine-learning-based scoring function (RF-NA-Score) for the effective virtual screening of lead compounds targeting the viral neuraminidase (NA) protein. RF-NA-Score is more accurate than RF-Score, with a root-mean-square error of 1.46, Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.707, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient of 0.707 in a 5-fold cross-validation study. The performance of RF-NA-Score in a docking-based virtual screening of NA inhibitors was evaluated with a dataset containing 281 NA inhibitors and 322 noninhibitors. Compared with other docking-rescoring virtual screening strategies, rescoring with RF-NA-Score significantly improved the efficiency of virtual screening, and a strategy that averaged the scores given by RF-NA-Score, based on the binding conformations predicted with AutoDock, AutoDock Vina, and LeDock, was shown to be the best strategy. This strategy was then applied to the virtual screening of NA inhibitors in the SPECS database. The 100 selected compounds were tested in an in vitro H7N9 NA inhibition assay, and two compounds with novel scaffolds showed moderate inhibitory activities. These results indicate that RF-NA-Score improves the efficiency of virtual screening for NA inhibitors, and can be used successfully to identify new NA inhibitor scaffolds. Scoring functions specific for other drug targets could also be established with the same method.

  4. Structure-function relationships during segregated and integrated network states of human brain functional connectivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fukushima, Makoto; Betzel, Richard F; He, Ye; van den Heuvel, Martijn P; Zuo, Xi-Nian; Sporns, Olaf

    2018-04-01

    Structural white matter connections are thought to facilitate integration of neural information across functionally segregated systems. Recent studies have demonstrated that changes in the balance between segregation and integration in brain networks can be tracked by time-resolved functional connectivity derived from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data and that fluctuations between segregated and integrated network states are related to human behavior. However, how these network states relate to structural connectivity is largely unknown. To obtain a better understanding of structural substrates for these network states, we investigated how the relationship between structural connectivity, derived from diffusion tractography, and functional connectivity, as measured by rs-fMRI, changes with fluctuations between segregated and integrated states in the human brain. We found that the similarity of edge weights between structural and functional connectivity was greater in the integrated state, especially at edges connecting the default mode and the dorsal attention networks. We also demonstrated that the similarity of network partitions, evaluated between structural and functional connectivity, increased and the density of direct structural connections within modules in functional networks was elevated during the integrated state. These results suggest that, when functional connectivity exhibited an integrated network topology, structural connectivity and functional connectivity were more closely linked to each other and direct structural connections mediated a larger proportion of neural communication within functional modules. Our findings point out the possibility of significant contributions of structural connections to integrative neural processes underlying human behavior.

  5. Regulated functions and integrability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ján Gunčaga

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Properties of functions defined on a bounded closed interval, weaker than continuity, have been considered by many mathematicians. Functions having both sides limits at each point are called regulated and were considered by J. Dieudonné [2], D. Fraňková [3] and others (see for example S. Banach [1], S. Saks [8]. The main class of functions we deal with consists of piece-wise constant ones. These functions play a fundamental role in the integration theory which had been developed by Igor Kluvanek (see Š. Tkacik [9]. We present an outline of this theory.

  6. THE INTEGRATION OF CREATIVITY MANAGEMENT MODELS INTO UNIVERSITIES’VIRTUAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandru STRUNGĂ

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Given the access of an increasingly higher number of individuals to virtual learning networks, the issue of creativity management becomes extremely important, especially for schools and universities. In the specialized literature, participating in virtual learning communities has several advantages, including: permanent access to information, high educational performance and increased creativity, and also better-developed professional identity (North and Kumta, 2014; Boulay and van Raalte, 2014. In the Romanian literature, there are few studies that aim directly at the relationship between the participation in virtual learning networks and creativity and innovation management models, especially in higher education institutions. This paper aims to study the ways in which creativity and innovation management models can be used in virtual learning networks in order to achieve better productivity at both individual and organizational levels, taking into account several best practices from this field and their possible implementation in Romanian educational institutions.

  7. The use of agents and objects to integrate virtual enterprises

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pancerella, C.M.

    1998-01-01

    The manufacturing complex for the Department of Energy (DOE) is distributed: design laboratories, manufacturing facilities, and industrial partners. Designers must have a concurrent engineering environment to support all aspects of the cradle-to-grave product realization process across the distributed sites. Engineers must be able to analyze and simulate processes, retrieve and process heterogeneous information, both archived and current, and access multiple databases. Manufacturers must be able to coordinate activities of various manufacturing centers, which may involve a negotiation process. Furthermore, Sandia must be able to export manufacturing capabilities, such as on-machine acceptance, to outside suppliers. A key element to making this a reality is a flexible information architecture. The DOE information architecture must support a wide-area virtual enterprise, with distributed intelligent software components. The architecture must provide for asynchronous communication; multiple programming languages and operating systems; incorporation of geographically distributed manufacturing services; various hardware platforms; and heterogeneous workstations, PC`s, machine tool controllers, and special-purpose compute engines. Further, it is critical that manufacturing facilities are not isolated from design, planning, and other business activities and that information flows easily and bidirectionally between these activities. To accomplish this seamlessly, heterogeneous knowledge must be exchanged across both domain and organizational boundaries. Distributed object and software agent technologies are two methods for connecting such engineering and manufacturing systems. The two technologies have overlapping goals - interoperability and architectural support for integrating software components - though to date little or no integration of the two technologies has been made.

  8. Egocentric virtual maze learning in adult survivors of childhood abuse with dissociative disorders: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weniger, Godehard; Siemerkus, Jakob; Barke, Antonia; Lange, Claudia; Ruhleder, Mirjana; Sachsse, Ulrich; Schmidt-Samoa, Carsten; Dechent, Peter; Irle, Eva

    2013-05-30

    Present neuroimaging findings suggest two subtypes of trauma response, one characterized predominantly by hyperarousal and intrusions, and the other primarily by dissociative symptoms. The neural underpinnings of these two subtypes need to be better defined. Fourteen women with childhood abuse and the current diagnosis of dissociative amnesia or dissociative identity disorder but without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 14 matched healthy comparison subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while finding their way in a virtual maze. The virtual maze presented a first-person view (egocentric), lacked any topographical landmarks and could be learned only by using egocentric navigation strategies. Participants with dissociative disorders (DD) were not impaired in learning the virtual maze when compared with controls, and showed a similar, although weaker, pattern of activity changes during egocentric learning when compared with controls. Stronger dissociative disorder severity of participants with DD was related to better virtual maze performance, and to stronger activity increase within the cingulate gyrus and the precuneus. Our results add to the present knowledge of preserved attentional and visuospatial mnemonic functioning in individuals with DD. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Virtual Globes and Glacier Research: Integrating research, collaboration, logistics, data archival, and outreach into a single tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nolan, M.

    2006-12-01

    Virtual Globes are a paradigm shift in the way earth sciences are conducted. With these tools, nearly all aspects of earth science can be integrated from field science, to remote sensing, to remote collaborations, to logistical planning, to data archival/retrieval, to PDF paper retriebal, to education and outreach. Here we present an example of how VGs can be fully exploited for field sciences, using research at McCall Glacier, in Arctic Alaska.

  10. From virtuality to reality - Virtual screening in lead discovery and lead optimization: a medicinal chemistry perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rester, Ulrich

    2008-07-01

    Drug discovery and development is an interdisciplinary, expensive and time-consuming process. Scientific advancements during the past two decades have altered the way pharmaceutical research produces novel bio-active molecules. Advances in computational techniques and hardware solutions have enabled in silico methods, and in particular virtual screening, to speed up modern lead identification and lead optimization. Recent successes have proven the power of combining virtual screening with complementary and synergistic biophysical methods, such as X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). This review addresses key issues, challenges and recent improvements of virtual screening methods and strategies. Examples highlighting the impact of an integrated virtual screening and biophysical characterization platform in the lead identification and optimization process are presented and discussed.

  11. Virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laver, Kate E; Lange, Belinda; George, Stacey; Deutsch, Judith E; Saposnik, Gustavo; Crotty, Maria

    2017-11-20

    Virtual reality and interactive video gaming have emerged as recent treatment approaches in stroke rehabilitation with commercial gaming consoles in particular, being rapidly adopted in clinical settings. This is an update of a Cochrane Review published first in 2011 and then again in 2015. Primary objective: to determine the efficacy of virtual reality compared with an alternative intervention or no intervention on upper limb function and activity.Secondary objectives: to determine the efficacy of virtual reality compared with an alternative intervention or no intervention on: gait and balance, global motor function, cognitive function, activity limitation, participation restriction, quality of life, and adverse events. We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (April 2017), CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, and seven additional databases. We also searched trials registries and reference lists. Randomised and quasi-randomised trials of virtual reality ("an advanced form of human-computer interface that allows the user to 'interact' with and become 'immersed' in a computer-generated environment in a naturalistic fashion") in adults after stroke. The primary outcome of interest was upper limb function and activity. Secondary outcomes included gait and balance and global motor function. Two review authors independently selected trials based on pre-defined inclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. A third review author moderated disagreements when required. The review authors contacted investigators to obtain missing information. We included 72 trials that involved 2470 participants. This review includes 35 new studies in addition to the studies included in the previous version of this review. Study sample sizes were generally small and interventions varied in terms of both the goals of treatment and the virtual reality devices used. The risk of bias present in many studies was unclear due to poor reporting. Thus, while there are a large

  12. Control of grid integrated voltage source converters under unbalanced conditions: development of an on-line frequency-adaptive virtual flux-based approach

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Suul, Jon Are

    2012-03-15

    Three-Phase Voltage Source Converters (VSCs) are finding widespread applications in grid integrated power conversion systems. The control systems of such VSCs are in an increasing number of these applications required to operate during voltage disturbances and unbalanced conditions. Control systems designed for grid side voltagesensor-less operation are at the same time becoming attractive due to the continuous drive for cost reduction and increased reliability of VSCs, but are not commonly applied for operation during unbalanced conditions. Methods for voltage-sensor-less grid synchronization and control of VSCs under unbalanced grid voltage conditions will therefore be the main focus of this Thesis. Estimation methods based on the concept of Virtual Flux, considering the integral of the converter voltage in analogy to the flux of an electric machine, are among the simplest and most well known techniques for achieving voltage-sensor-less grid synchronization. Most of the established techniques for Virtual Flux estimation are, however, either sensitive to grid frequency variations or they are not easily adaptable for operation under unbalanced grid voltage conditions. This Thesis addresses both these issues by proposing a simple approach for Virtual Flux estimation by utilizing a frequency-adaptive filter based on a Second Order Generalized Integrator (SOGI). The proposed approach can be used to achieve on-line frequency-adaptive varieties of conventional strategies for Virtual Flux estimation. The main advantage is, however, that the SOGI-based Virtual Flux estimation can be arranged in a structure that achieves inherent symmetrical component sequence separation under unbalanced conditions. The proposed method for Virtual Flux estimation can be used as a general basis for voltage-sensor-less grid synchronization and control during unbalanced conditions. In this Thesis, the estimated Virtual Flux signals are used to develop a flexible strategy for control of active

  13. Simplified Virtualization in a HEP/NP Environment with Condor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strecker-Kellogg, W; Caramarcu, C; Hollowell, C; Wong, T

    2012-01-01

    In this work we will address the development of a simple prototype virtualized worker node cluster, using Scientific Linux 6.x as a base OS, KVM and the libvirt API for virtualization, and the Condor batch software to manage virtual machines. The discussion in this paper provides details on our experience with building, configuring, and deploying the various components from bare metal, including the base OS, creation and distribution of the virtualized OS images and the integration of batch services with the virtual machines. Our focus was on simplicity and interoperability with our existing architecture.

  14. Jacob: An Educational Agent in a Virtual Environment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Bosch, A.; Evers, M.J.; Nijholt, Antinus; Weigand, H.

    2000-01-01

    The Jacob Project involves the construction of a virtual environment where an animated human-like agent called Jacob gives instruction to the user. The project focuses on three issues: the software engineering aspects of building a virtual reality system, the integration of natural language

  15. Understanding Retailers’ Acceptance of Virtual Stores

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irene Y.L. Chen

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available The acceptance of e-commerce among consumers has stimulated the rise of virtual stores. Increasing traditional retailers or people who do not have sufficient capital for maintaining a brick-and-mortar store have considered using virtual stores to reach global market. In the e-commerce literature, there has been rich research evidence concerning consumers’ acceptance of virtual stores. However, rigorous academic research on retailers’ acceptance of virtual stores is relatively scarce today. This study draws upon the theory of planned behavior and information richness theory to propose an integrated theoretical model. A field survey is used to collect data from e-tailers. The data are analyzed to examine the six relationships posited in the research model. Findings of this study provide a further research avenue for e-commerce, and implications for those who are managing or considering using virtual stores.

  16. Compiling the functional data-parallel language SaC for Microgrids of Self-Adaptive Virtual Processors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Grelck, C.; Herhut, S.; Jesshope, C.; Joslin, C.; Lankamp, M.; Scholz, S.-B.; Shafarenko, A.

    2009-01-01

    We present preliminary results from compiling the high-level, functional and data-parallel programming language SaC into a novel multi-core design: Microgrids of Self-Adaptive Virtual Processors (SVPs). The side-effect free nature of SaC in conjunction with its data-parallel foundation make it an

  17. Scientific Assistant Virtual Laboratory (SAVL)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alaghband, Gita; Fardi, Hamid; Gnabasik, David

    2007-03-01

    The Scientific Assistant Virtual Laboratory (SAVL) is a scientific discovery environment, an interactive simulated virtual laboratory, for learning physics and mathematics. The purpose of this computer-assisted intervention is to improve middle and high school student interest, insight and scores in physics and mathematics. SAVL develops scientific and mathematical imagination in a visual, symbolic, and experimental simulation environment. It directly addresses the issues of scientific and technological competency by providing critical thinking training through integrated modules. This on-going research provides a virtual laboratory environment in which the student directs the building of the experiment rather than observing a packaged simulation. SAVL: * Engages the persistent interest of young minds in physics and math by visually linking simulation objects and events with mathematical relations. * Teaches integrated concepts by the hands-on exploration and focused visualization of classic physics experiments within software. * Systematically and uniformly assesses and scores students by their ability to answer their own questions within the context of a Master Question Network. We will demonstrate how the Master Question Network uses polymorphic interfaces and C# lambda expressions to manage simulation objects.

  18. Functional integral approach to classical statistical dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jensen, R.V.

    1980-04-01

    A functional integral method is developed for the statistical solution of nonlinear stochastic differential equations which arise in classical dynamics. The functional integral approach provides a very natural and elegant derivation of the statistical dynamical equations that have been derived using the operator formalism of Martin, Siggia, and Rose

  19. Virtualization of the ATLAS software environment on a shared HPC system

    CERN Document Server

    Schnoor, Ulrike; The ATLAS collaboration

    2017-01-01

    High-Performance Computing (HPC) and other research cluster computing resources provided by universities can be useful supplements to the collaboration’s own WLCG computing resources for data analysis and production of simulated event samples. The shared HPC cluster "NEMO" at the University of Freiburg has been made available to local ATLAS users through the provisioning of virtual machines incorporating the ATLAS software environment analogously to a WLCG center. The talk describes the concept and implementation of virtualizing the ATLAS software environment to run both data analysis and production on the HPC host system which is connected to the existing Tier-3 infrastructure. Main challenges include the integration into the NEMO and Tier-3 schedulers in a dynamic, on-demand way, the scalability of the OpenStack infrastructure, as well as the automatic generation of a fully functional virtual machine image providing access to the local user environment, the dCache storage element and the parallel file sys...

  20. Virtual interface environment workstations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, S. S.; Wenzel, E. M.; Coler, C.; Mcgreevy, M. W.

    1988-01-01

    A head-mounted, wide-angle, stereoscopic display system controlled by operator position, voice and gesture has been developed at NASA's Ames Research Center for use as a multipurpose interface environment. This Virtual Interface Environment Workstation (VIEW) system provides a multisensory, interactive display environment in which a user can virtually explore a 360-degree synthesized or remotely sensed environment and can viscerally interact with its components. Primary applications of the system are in telerobotics, management of large-scale integrated information systems, and human factors research. System configuration, research scenarios, and research directions are described.

  1. Integrated management systems

    CERN Document Server

    Bugdol, Marek

    2015-01-01

    Examining the challenges of integrated management, this book explores the importance and potential benefits of using an integrated approach as a cross-functional concept of management. It covers not only standardized management systems (e.g. International Organization for Standardization), but also models of self-assessment, as well as different types of integration. Furthermore, it demonstrates how processes and systems can be integrated, and how management efficiency can be increased. The major part of this book focuses on management concepts which use integration as a key tool of management processes (e.g. the systematic approach, supply chain management, virtual and network organizations, processes management and total quality management). Case studies, illustrations, and tables are also provided to exemplify and illuminate the content, as well as examples of successful and failed integrations. Providing a particularly useful resource to managers and specialists involved in the improvement of organization...

  2. A web-based platform for virtual screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Paul; Verdonk, Marcel; Hartshorn, Michael J

    2003-09-01

    A fully integrated, web-based, virtual screening platform has been developed to allow rapid virtual screening of large numbers of compounds. ORACLE is used to store information at all stages of the process. The system includes a large database of historical compounds from high throughput screenings (HTS) chemical suppliers, ATLAS, containing over 3.1 million unique compounds with their associated physiochemical properties (ClogP, MW, etc.). The database can be screened using a web-based interface to produce compound subsets for virtual screening or virtual library (VL) enumeration. In order to carry out the latter task within ORACLE a reaction data cartridge has been developed. Virtual libraries can be enumerated rapidly using the web-based interface to the cartridge. The compound subsets can be seamlessly submitted for virtual screening experiments, and the results can be viewed via another web-based interface allowing ad hoc querying of the virtual screening data stored in ORACLE.

  3. Integrating Virtual Worlds with Tangible User Interfaces for Teaching Mathematics: A Pilot Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerrero, Graciela; Ayala, Andrés; Mateu, Juan; Casades, Laura; Alamán, Xavier

    2016-10-25

    This article presents a pilot study of the use of two new tangible interfaces and virtual worlds for teaching geometry in a secondary school. The first tangible device allows the user to control a virtual object in six degrees of freedom. The second tangible device is used to modify virtual objects, changing attributes such as position, size, rotation and color. A pilot study on using these devices was carried out at the "Florida Secundaria" high school. A virtual world was built where students used the tangible interfaces to manipulate geometrical figures in order to learn different geometrical concepts. The pilot experiment results suggest that the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds allowed a more meaningful learning (concepts learnt were more durable).

  4. Integrating Virtual Worlds with Tangible User Interfaces for Teaching Mathematics: A Pilot Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Graciela Guerrero

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This article presents a pilot study of the use of two new tangible interfaces and virtual worlds for teaching geometry in a secondary school. The first tangible device allows the user to control a virtual object in six degrees of freedom. The second tangible device is used to modify virtual objects, changing attributes such as position, size, rotation and color. A pilot study on using these devices was carried out at the “Florida Secundaria” high school. A virtual world was built where students used the tangible interfaces to manipulate geometrical figures in order to learn different geometrical concepts. The pilot experiment results suggest that the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds allowed a more meaningful learning (concepts learnt were more durable.

  5. Real-geographic-scenario-based virtual social environments: integrating geography with social research

    OpenAIRE

    Min Chen; Li He; Hui Lin; Chunxiao Zhang; Mingyuan Hu

    2013-01-01

    Existing online virtual worlds, or electronic environments, are of great significance to social science research, but are somewhat lacking in rigour. One reason is that users might not participate in those virtual worlds in the way they act in real daily life, communicating with each other in familiar environments and interacting with natural phenomena under the constraints of the human–land relationship. To help solve this problem we propose the real-geographic-scenario-based virtual social ...

  6. Virtual reality exercise on a home-based phase III cardiac rehabilitation program, effect on executive function, quality of life and depression, anxiety and stress: a randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vieira, Ágata; Melo, Cristina; Machado, Jorge; Gabriel, Joaquim

    2018-02-01

    To analyse the effect of a six-month home-based phase III cardiac rehabilitation (CR) specific exercise program, performed in a virtual reality (Kinect) or conventional (booklet) environment, on executive function, quality of life and depression, anxiety and stress of subjects with coronary artery disease. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with subjects, who had completed phase II, randomly assigned to intervention group 1 (IG1), whose program encompassed the use of Kinect (n = 11); or intervention group 2 (IG2), a paper booklet (n = 11); or a control group (CG), only subjected to the usual care (n = 11). The three groups received education on cardiovascular risk factors. The assessed parameters, at baseline (M0), 3 (M1) and 6 months (M2), were executive function, control and integration in the implementation of an adequate behaviour in relation to a certain objective, specifically the ability to switch information (Trail Making Test), working memory (Verbal Digit Span test), and selective attention and conflict resolution ability (Stroop test), quality of life (MacNew questionnaire) and depression, anxiety and stress (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21). Descriptive and inferential statistical measures were used, significance level was set at .05. The IG1 revealed significant improvements, in the selective attention and conflict resolution ability, in comparison with the CG in the variable difference M0 - M2 (p = .021) and in comparison with the IG2 in the variable difference M1 - M2 and M0 - M2 (p = .001 and p = .002, respectively). No significant differences were found in the quality of life, and depression, anxiety and stress. The virtual reality format had improved selective attention and conflict resolution ability, revealing the potential of CR, specifically with virtual reality exercise, on executive function. Implications for Rehabilitation In cardiac rehabilitation, especially in phase III, it is

  7. Data Content Protection for Virtual Libraries Heritage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mihai DOINEA

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents aspects of digital content protection in virtual library systems. The legislation aspects are presented to better emphasize the need of new security mechanisms. Integrated library systems architecture is presented with focus on their main purpose, manipulating and rendering digital content to end-users. The cultural heritage stored in such systems is an important asset that needs to be protected against malicious manipulation. The characteristics of a smart virtual library, supported by an integrated library system, are analyzed and a security model is proposed for implementation, based on its particularities. The model aims to be an interface between the interactions of anonymous users with the Online Public Access Catalog of a virtual library that assures the protection of digital content. Conclusions are drawn to better support the idea of cultural persistence by the use of Information Systems.

  8. Poisson processes and a Bessel function integral

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Steutel, F.W.

    1985-01-01

    The probability of winning a simple game of competing Poisson processes turns out to be equal to the well-known Bessel function integral J(x, y) (cf. Y. L. Luke, Integrals of Bessel Functions, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1962). Several properties of J, some of which seem to be new, follow quite easily

  9. Virtual working systems to support R&D groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dew, Peter M.; Leigh, Christine; Drew, Richard S.; Morris, David; Curson, Jayne

    1995-03-01

    The paper reports on the progress at Leeds University to build a Virtual Science Park (VSP) to enhance the University's ability to interact with industry, grow its applied research and workplace learning activities. The VSP exploits the advances in real time collaborative computing and networking to provide an environment that meets the objectives of physically based science parks without the need for the organizations to relocate. It provides an integrated set of services (e.g. virtual consultancy, workbased learning) built around a structured person- centered information model. This model supports the integration of tools for: (a) navigating around the information space; (b) browsing information stored within the VSP database; (c) communicating through a variety of Person-to-Person collaborative tools; and (d) the ability to the information stored in the VSP including the relationships to other information that support the underlying model. The paper gives an overview of a generic virtual working system based on X.500 directory services and the World-Wide Web that can be used to support the Virtual Science Park. Finally the paper discusses some of the research issues that need to be addressed to fully realize a Virtual Science Park.

  10. A NEW APPROACH TO VIRTUAL EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladimir V. Kureychik

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The article discusses several approaches to training, namely the virtual. Concrete examples of virtual learning systems were described, we disclosed their features, advantages and disadvantages. A new suggested approach integrates the features of existing systems, and opens new horizons and opportunities to obtain certain skills and abilities. Introduction of a new approach to the educational process will improve the quality and effectiveness of learning. 

  11. Electroencephalographic Correlates of Sensorimotor Integration and Embodiment during the Appreciation of Virtual Architectural Environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vecchiato, Giovanni; Tieri, Gaetano; Jelic, Andrea; De Matteis, Federico; Maglione, Anton G; Babiloni, Fabio

    2015-01-01

    Nowadays there is the hope that neuroscientific findings will contribute to the improvement of building design in order to create environments which satisfy man's demands. This can be achieved through the understanding of neurophysiological correlates of architectural perception. To this aim, the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of 12 healthy subjects were recorded during the perception of three immersive virtual reality environments (VEs). Afterwards, participants were asked to describe their experience in terms of Familiarity, Novelty, Comfort, Pleasantness, Arousal, and Presence using a rating scale from 1 to 9. These perceptual dimensions are hypothesized to influence the pattern of cerebral spectral activity, while Presence is used to assess the realism of the virtual stimulation. Hence, the collected scores were used to analyze the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the EEG for each behavioral dimension in the theta, alpha and mu bands by means of time-frequency analysis and topographic statistical maps. Analysis of Presence resulted in the activation of the frontal-midline theta, indicating the involvement of sensorimotor integration mechanisms when subjects expressed to feel more present in the VEs. Similar patterns also characterized the experience of familiar and comfortable VEs. In addition, pleasant VEs increased the theta power across visuomotor circuits and activated the alpha band in areas devoted to visuospatial exploration and processing of categorical spatial relations. Finally, the de-synchronization of the mu rhythm described the perception of pleasant and comfortable VEs, showing the involvement of left motor areas and embodied mechanisms for environment appreciation. Overall, these results show the possibility to measure EEG correlates of architectural perception involving the cerebral circuits of sensorimotor integration, spatial navigation, and embodiment. These observations can help testing architectural hypotheses in order to design

  12. Virtual blood bank

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kit Fai Wong

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Virtual blood bank is the computer-controlled, electronically linked information management system that allows online ordering and real-time, remote delivery of blood for transfusion. It connects the site of testing to the point of care at a remote site in a real-time fashion with networked computers thus maintaining the integrity of immunohematology test results. It has taken the advantages of information and communication technologies to ensure the accuracy of patient, specimen and blood component identification and to enhance personnel traceability and system security. The built-in logics and process constraints in the design of the virtual blood bank can guide the selection of appropriate blood and minimize transfusion risk. The quality of blood inventory is ascertained and monitored, and an audit trail for critical procedures in the transfusion process is provided by the paperless system. Thus, the virtual blood bank can help ensure that the right patient receives the right amount of the right blood component at the right time.

  13. Man, mind, and machine: the past and future of virtual reality simulation in neurologic surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robison, R Aaron; Liu, Charles Y; Apuzzo, Michael L J

    2011-11-01

    To review virtual reality in neurosurgery, including the history of simulation and virtual reality and some of the current implementations; to examine some of the technical challenges involved; and to propose a potential paradigm for the development of virtual reality in neurosurgery going forward. A search was made on PubMed using key words surgical simulation, virtual reality, haptics, collision detection, and volumetric modeling to assess the current status of virtual reality in neurosurgery. Based on previous results, investigators extrapolated the possible integration of existing efforts and potential future directions. Simulation has a rich history in surgical training, and there are numerous currently existing applications and systems that involve virtual reality. All existing applications are limited to specific task-oriented functions and typically sacrifice visual realism for real-time interactivity or vice versa, owing to numerous technical challenges in rendering a virtual space in real time, including graphic and tissue modeling, collision detection, and direction of the haptic interface. With ongoing technical advancements in computer hardware and graphic and physical rendering, incremental or modular development of a fully immersive, multipurpose virtual reality neurosurgical simulator is feasible. The use of virtual reality in neurosurgery is predicted to change the nature of neurosurgical education, and to play an increased role in surgical rehearsal and the continuing education and credentialing of surgical practitioners. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Integration a functional approach

    CERN Document Server

    Bichteler, Klaus

    1998-01-01

    This book covers Lebesgue integration and its generalizations from Daniell's point of view, modified by the use of seminorms. Integrating functions rather than measuring sets is posited as the main purpose of measure theory. From this point of view Lebesgue's integral can be had as a rather straightforward, even simplistic, extension of Riemann's integral; and its aims, definitions, and procedures can be motivated at an elementary level. The notion of measurability, for example, is suggested by Littlewood's observations rather than being conveyed authoritatively through definitions of (sigma)-algebras and good-cut-conditions, the latter of which are hard to justify and thus appear mysterious, even nettlesome, to the beginner. The approach taken provides the additional benefit of cutting the labor in half. The use of seminorms, ubiquitous in modern analysis, speeds things up even further. The book is intended for the reader who has some experience with proofs, a beginning graduate student for example. It might...

  15. ComputerApplications and Virtual Environments (CAVE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    1993-01-01

    Virtual Reality (VR) can provide cost effective methods to design and evaluate components and systems for maintenance and refurbishment operations. The Marshall Space Flight Centerr (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama began to utilize VR for design analysis in the X-34 experimental reusable space vehicle. Analysts at MSFC's Computer Applications and Virtual Environments (CAVE) used Head Mounted Displays (HMD) (pictured), spatial trackers and gesture inputs as a means to animate or inhabit a properly sized virtual human model. These models were used in a VR scenario as a way to determine functionality of space and maintenance requirements for the virtual X-34. The primary functions of the virtual X-34 mockup was to support operations development and design analysis for engine removal, the engine compartment and the aft fuselage. This capability provided general visualization support to engineers and designers at MSFC and to the System Design Freeze Review at Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC). The X-34 program was cancelled in 2001.

  16. Periodic local MP2 method employing orbital specific virtuals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Usvyat, Denis; Schütz, Martin; Maschio, Lorenzo

    2015-01-01

    We introduce orbital specific virtuals (OSVs) to represent the truncated pair-specific virtual space in periodic local Møller-Plesset perturbation theory of second order (LMP2). The OSVs are constructed by diagonalization of the LMP2 amplitude matrices which correspond to diagonal Wannier-function (WF) pairs. Only a subset of these OSVs is adopted for the subsequent OSV-LMP2 calculation, namely, those with largest contribution to the diagonal pair correlation energy and with the accumulated value of these contributions reaching a certain accuracy. The virtual space for a general (non diagonal) pair is spanned by the union of the two OSV sets related to the individual WFs of the pair. In the periodic LMP2 method, the diagonal LMP2 amplitude matrices needed for the construction of the OSVs are calculated in the basis of projected atomic orbitals (PAOs), employing very large PAO domains. It turns out that the OSVs are excellent to describe short range correlation, yet less appropriate for long range van der Waals correlation. In order to compensate for this bias towards short range correlation, we augment the virtual space spanned by the OSVs by the most diffuse PAOs of the corresponding minimal PAO domain. The Fock and overlap matrices in OSV basis are constructed in the reciprocal space. The 4-index electron repulsion integrals are calculated by local density fitting and, for distant pairs, via multipole approximation. New procedures for determining the fit-domains and the distant-pair lists, leading to higher efficiency in the 4-index integral evaluation, have been implemented. Generally, and in contrast to our previous PAO based periodic LMP2 method, the OSV-LMP2 method does not require anymore great care in the specification of the individual domains (to get a balanced description when calculating energy differences) and is in that sense a black box procedure. Discontinuities in potential energy surfaces, which may occur for PAO-based calculations if one is not

  17. Periodic local MP2 method employing orbital specific virtuals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Usvyat, Denis, E-mail: denis.usvyat@chemie.uni-regensburg.de; Schütz, Martin, E-mail: martin.schuetz@chemie.uni-regensburg.de [Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93040 Regensburg (Germany); Maschio, Lorenzo, E-mail: lorenzo.maschio@unito.it [Dipartimento di Chimica, and Centre of Excellence NIS (Nanostructured Interfaces and Surfaces), Università di Torino, via Giuria 5, I-10125 Torino (Italy)

    2015-09-14

    We introduce orbital specific virtuals (OSVs) to represent the truncated pair-specific virtual space in periodic local Møller-Plesset perturbation theory of second order (LMP2). The OSVs are constructed by diagonalization of the LMP2 amplitude matrices which correspond to diagonal Wannier-function (WF) pairs. Only a subset of these OSVs is adopted for the subsequent OSV-LMP2 calculation, namely, those with largest contribution to the diagonal pair correlation energy and with the accumulated value of these contributions reaching a certain accuracy. The virtual space for a general (non diagonal) pair is spanned by the union of the two OSV sets related to the individual WFs of the pair. In the periodic LMP2 method, the diagonal LMP2 amplitude matrices needed for the construction of the OSVs are calculated in the basis of projected atomic orbitals (PAOs), employing very large PAO domains. It turns out that the OSVs are excellent to describe short range correlation, yet less appropriate for long range van der Waals correlation. In order to compensate for this bias towards short range correlation, we augment the virtual space spanned by the OSVs by the most diffuse PAOs of the corresponding minimal PAO domain. The Fock and overlap matrices in OSV basis are constructed in the reciprocal space. The 4-index electron repulsion integrals are calculated by local density fitting and, for distant pairs, via multipole approximation. New procedures for determining the fit-domains and the distant-pair lists, leading to higher efficiency in the 4-index integral evaluation, have been implemented. Generally, and in contrast to our previous PAO based periodic LMP2 method, the OSV-LMP2 method does not require anymore great care in the specification of the individual domains (to get a balanced description when calculating energy differences) and is in that sense a black box procedure. Discontinuities in potential energy surfaces, which may occur for PAO-based calculations if one is not

  18. A Virtual Aluminum Reduction Cell

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hongliang; Zhou, Chenn Q.; Wu, Bing; Li, Jie

    2013-11-01

    The most important component in the aluminum industry is the aluminum reduction cell; it has received considerable interests and resources to conduct research to improve its productivity and energy efficiency. The current study focused on the integration of numerical simulation data and virtual reality technology to create a scientifically and practically realistic virtual aluminum reduction cell by presenting complex cell structures and physical-chemical phenomena. The multiphysical field simulation models were first built and solved in ANSYS software (ANSYS Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA). Then, the methodology of combining the simulation results with virtual reality was introduced, and a virtual aluminum reduction cell was created. The demonstration showed that a computer-based world could be created in which people who are not analysis experts can see the detailed cell structure in a context that they can understand easily. With the application of the virtual aluminum reduction cell, even people who are familiar with aluminum reduction cell operations can gain insights that make it possible to understand the root causes of observed problems and plan design changes in much less time.

  19. Integrals of products of spherical functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Veverka, O.

    1975-01-01

    Various branches of mathematical physics use integral formulas of the products of spherical functions. In quantum mechanics and in transport theory the integrals ∫sub((4π))dΩ vectorYsub(s)sup(t)(Ω vector)Ysub(l)sup(k)(Ω vector)Ysub(n)sup(m)(Ω vector), ∫sub(-1)sup(1)dμPsub(s)sup(t)(μ)Psub(l)sup(k)(μ)Psub(n)sup(m)(μ), ∫sub(-1)sup(1)dμPsub(s)(μ)Psub(l)(μ)Psub(n)(μ) are generally applied, where Ysub(α)sup(β)(Ω vector) are spherical harmonics, Psub(α)sup(β)(μ) are associated Legendre functions, and Psub(α)(μ) are Legendre polynomials. In the paper, the general procedure of calculating the integrals of the products of any combination of spherical functions is given. The procedure is referred to in a report on the boundary conditions for the cylindrical geometry in neutron transport theory for both the outer and inner cylindrical boundaries. (author)

  20. Real-time virtual EAST physical experiment system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, Dan, E-mail: lidan@ipp.ac.cn [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui (China); Xiao, B.J., E-mail: bjxiao@ipp.ac.cn [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui (China); School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui (China); Xia, J.Y., E-mail: jyxia@ipp.ac.cn [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui (China); Yang, Fei, E-mail: fyang@ipp.ac.cn [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui (China); Department of Computer Science, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui (China)

    2014-05-15

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • 3D model of experimental advanced superconducting tokamak is established. • Interaction behavior is created that the users can get information from database. • The system integrates data acquisition, plasma shape visualization and simulation. • Browser-oriented system is web-based and more interactive, immersive and convenient. • The system provides the framework for virtual physical experimental environment. - Abstract: As a large fusion reaction device, experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST)’s internal structure is complicated and not easily accessible. Moreover, various diagnostic systems and complicated configuration bring about the inconveniency to the scientists who are unfamiliar with the system but interested in the data. We propose a virtual system to display the 3D model of EAST facility and enable people to view its inner structure and get access to the information of its components in various view sights. We would also provide most of the diagnostic configuration details together with their signal names and physical properties. Compared to the previous ways of viewing information by reference to collected drawings and videos, virtual EAST system is more interactive and immersive. We constructed the browser-oriented virtual EAST physical experiment system, integrated real-time experiment data acquisition, plasma shape visualization and experiment result simulation in order to reproduce physical experiments in a web browser. This system used B/S (Browser/Server) structure in combination with the technology of virtual reality – VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and Java 3D. In order to avoid the bandwidth limit across internet, we balanced the rendering speed and the precision of the virtual model components. Any registered user can view the experimental information visually and efficiently by logining the system through a web browser. The establishment of the system provides the

  1. Real-time virtual EAST physical experiment system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Dan; Xiao, B.J.; Xia, J.Y.; Yang, Fei

    2014-01-01

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • 3D model of experimental advanced superconducting tokamak is established. • Interaction behavior is created that the users can get information from database. • The system integrates data acquisition, plasma shape visualization and simulation. • Browser-oriented system is web-based and more interactive, immersive and convenient. • The system provides the framework for virtual physical experimental environment. - Abstract: As a large fusion reaction device, experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST)’s internal structure is complicated and not easily accessible. Moreover, various diagnostic systems and complicated configuration bring about the inconveniency to the scientists who are unfamiliar with the system but interested in the data. We propose a virtual system to display the 3D model of EAST facility and enable people to view its inner structure and get access to the information of its components in various view sights. We would also provide most of the diagnostic configuration details together with their signal names and physical properties. Compared to the previous ways of viewing information by reference to collected drawings and videos, virtual EAST system is more interactive and immersive. We constructed the browser-oriented virtual EAST physical experiment system, integrated real-time experiment data acquisition, plasma shape visualization and experiment result simulation in order to reproduce physical experiments in a web browser. This system used B/S (Browser/Server) structure in combination with the technology of virtual reality – VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and Java 3D. In order to avoid the bandwidth limit across internet, we balanced the rendering speed and the precision of the virtual model components. Any registered user can view the experimental information visually and efficiently by logining the system through a web browser. The establishment of the system provides the

  2. Integrating Spherical Panoramas and Maps for Visualization of Cultural Heritage Objects Using Virtual Reality Technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koeva, Mila; Luleva, Mila; Maldjanski, Plamen

    2017-04-11

    Development and virtual representation of 3D models of Cultural Heritage (CH) objects has triggered great interest over the past decade. The main reason for this is the rapid development in the fields of photogrammetry and remote sensing, laser scanning, and computer vision. The advantages of using 3D models for restoration, preservation, and documentation of valuable historical and architectural objects have been numerously demonstrated by scientists in the field. Moreover, 3D model visualization in virtual reality has been recognized as an efficient, fast, and easy way of representing a variety of objects worldwide for present-day users, who have stringent requirements and high expectations. However, the main focus of recent research is the visual, geometric, and textural characteristics of a single concrete object, while integration of large numbers of models with additional information-such as historical overview, detailed description, and location-are missing. Such integrated information can be beneficial, not only for tourism but also for accurate documentation. For that reason, we demonstrate in this paper an integration of high-resolution spherical panoramas, a variety of maps, GNSS, sound, video, and text information for representation of numerous cultural heritage objects. These are then displayed in a web-based portal with an intuitive interface. The users have the opportunity to choose freely from the provided information, and decide for themselves what is interesting to visit. Based on the created web application, we provide suggestions and guidelines for similar studies. We selected objects, which are located in Bulgaria-a country with thousands of years of history and cultural heritage dating back to ancient civilizations. The methods used in this research are applicable for any type of spherical or cylindrical images and can be easily followed and applied in various domains. After a visual and metric assessment of the panoramas and the evaluation of

  3. Virtual water maze learning in human increases functional connectivity between posterior hippocampus and dorsal caudate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woolley, Daniel G; Mantini, Dante; Coxon, James P; D'Hooge, Rudi; Swinnen, Stephan P; Wenderoth, Nicole

    2015-04-01

    Recent work has demonstrated that functional connectivity between remote brain regions can be modulated by task learning or the performance of an already well-learned task. Here, we investigated the extent to which initial learning and stable performance of a spatial navigation task modulates functional connectivity between subregions of hippocampus and striatum. Subjects actively navigated through a virtual water maze environment and used visual cues to learn the position of a fixed spatial location. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were collected before and after virtual water maze navigation in two scan sessions conducted 1 week apart, with a behavior-only training session in between. There was a large significant reduction in the time taken to intercept the target location during scan session 1 and a small significant reduction during the behavior-only training session. No further reduction was observed during scan session 2. This indicates that scan session 1 represented initial learning and scan session 2 represented stable performance. We observed an increase in functional connectivity between left posterior hippocampus and left dorsal caudate that was specific to scan session 1. Importantly, the magnitude of the increase in functional connectivity was correlated with offline gains in task performance. Our findings suggest cooperative interaction occurs between posterior hippocampus and dorsal caudate during awake rest following the initial phase of spatial navigation learning. Furthermore, we speculate that the increase in functional connectivity observed during awake rest after initial learning might reflect consolidation-related processing. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Pair Correlation Function Integrals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wedberg, Nils Hejle Rasmus Ingemar; O'Connell, John P.; Peters, Günther H.J.

    2011-01-01

    We describe a method for extending radial distribution functions obtained from molecular simulations of pure and mixed molecular fluids to arbitrary distances. The method allows total correlation function integrals to be reliably calculated from simulations of relatively small systems. The long......-distance behavior of radial distribution functions is determined by requiring that the corresponding direct correlation functions follow certain approximations at long distances. We have briefly described the method and tested its performance in previous communications [R. Wedberg, J. P. O’Connell, G. H. Peters......, and J. Abildskov, Mol. Simul. 36, 1243 (2010); Fluid Phase Equilib. 302, 32 (2011)], but describe here its theoretical basis more thoroughly and derive long-distance approximations for the direct correlation functions. We describe the numerical implementation of the method in detail, and report...

  5. An effective docking strategy for virtual screening based on multi-objective optimization algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kang Ling

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Development of a fast and accurate scoring function in virtual screening remains a hot issue in current computer-aided drug research. Different scoring functions focus on diverse aspects of ligand binding, and no single scoring can satisfy the peculiarities of each target system. Therefore, the idea of a consensus score strategy was put forward. Integrating several scoring functions, consensus score re-assesses the docked conformations using a primary scoring function. However, it is not really robust and efficient from the perspective of optimization. Furthermore, to date, the majority of available methods are still based on single objective optimization design. Results In this paper, two multi-objective optimization methods, called MOSFOM, were developed for virtual screening, which simultaneously consider both the energy score and the contact score. Results suggest that MOSFOM can effectively enhance enrichment and performance compared with a single score. For three different kinds of binding sites, MOSFOM displays an excellent ability to differentiate active compounds through energy and shape complementarity. EFMOGA performed particularly well in the top 2% of database for all three cases, whereas MOEA_Nrg and MOEA_Cnt performed better than the corresponding individual scoring functions if the appropriate type of binding site was selected. Conclusion The multi-objective optimization method was successfully applied in virtual screening with two different scoring functions that can yield reasonable binding poses and can furthermore, be ranked with the potentially compromised conformations of each compound, abandoning those conformations that can not satisfy overall objective functions.

  6. A VIRTUAL GLOBE-BASED MULTI-RESOLUTION TIN SURFACE MODELING AND VISUALIZETION METHOD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    X. Zheng

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The integration and visualization of geospatial data on a virtual globe play an significant role in understanding and analysis of the Earth surface processes. However, the current virtual globes always sacrifice the accuracy to ensure the efficiency for global data processing and visualization, which devalue their functionality for scientific applications. In this article, we propose a high-accuracy multi-resolution TIN pyramid construction and visualization method for virtual globe. Firstly, we introduce the cartographic principles to formulize the level of detail (LOD generation so that the TIN model in each layer is controlled with a data quality standard. A maximum z-tolerance algorithm is then used to iteratively construct the multi-resolution TIN pyramid. Moreover, the extracted landscape features are incorporated into each-layer TIN, thus preserving the topological structure of terrain surface at different levels. In the proposed framework, a virtual node (VN-based approach is developed to seamlessly partition and discretize each triangulation layer into tiles, which can be organized and stored with a global quad-tree index. Finally, the real time out-of-core spherical terrain rendering is realized on a virtual globe system VirtualWorld1.0. The experimental results showed that the proposed method can achieve an high-fidelity terrain representation, while produce a high quality underlying data that satisfies the demand for scientific analysis.

  7. Virtual Plant Tissue: Building Blocks for Next-Generation Plant Growth Simulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dirk De Vos

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Motivation: Computational modeling of plant developmental processes is becoming increasingly important. Cellular resolution plant tissue simulators have been developed, yet they are typically describing physiological processes in an isolated way, strongly delimited in space and time.Results: With plant systems biology moving toward an integrative perspective on development we have built the Virtual Plant Tissue (VPTissue package to couple functional modules or models in the same framework and across different frameworks. Multiple levels of model integration and coordination enable combining existing and new models from different sources, with diverse options in terms of input/output. Besides the core simulator the toolset also comprises a tissue editor for manipulating tissue geometry and cell, wall, and node attributes in an interactive manner. A parameter exploration tool is available to study parameter dependence of simulation results by distributing calculations over multiple systems.Availability: Virtual Plant Tissue is available as open source (EUPL license on Bitbucket (https://bitbucket.org/vptissue/vptissue. The project has a website https://vptissue.bitbucket.io.

  8. Intersecting Virtual Patients and Microbiology: Fostering a culture of learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCarthy, David; O'Gorman, Ciaran; Gormley, Gerard

    2015-10-01

    The use and integration of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) resources in medical education has attracted considerable commentary and support. "Virtual Patients" are one such resource. Whilst evidence exists supporting the benefits of these resources, there has not been specific consideration of their implications for teaching microbiology; nor attention paid to both the internal and external factors that influence learner engagement with virtual patients. The principle aims of this study are to identify factors that explicitly and implicitly influence the student's interaction with a microbiology virtual patient resource and how these interactions reflect upon the use of the resource. A mixed method quantitative (online questionnaire; n=161) and qualitative (student focus groups; N=11) study was undertaken amongst third year medical students enrolled at Queen's University Belfast in the academic year 2012-2013. The results supported prior evidence that virtual patients are a useful learning tool (mean score of 5.09 out of 7) that helped them to integrate microbiology principles with clinical experiences. How students used the virtual patients and the depth of the subsequent benefits was dependent upon their perception of the importance of the resource. This was influenced by a number of factors including how the resources were presented and positioned within the curriculum, whether they were formally examined or timetabled and the importance attributed by peers who had already completed the examinations. Integration of virtual patients into the microbiology curriculum is widely endorsed and may even be considered superior to other methods of teaching. How students use these resources is dependent upon a positive perception of their importance. Educators should be aware of the factors that shape this perception when integrating TEL resources into curricula.

  9. Tienda virtual de comercio móvil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dinael Guevara-Ibarra

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Group Research and Development in Telecommunications GIDT developed the project of creating the platform of Virtual Store to be accessed by mobile devices through the Wireless Application Protocol (Wireless Applications Protocol , WAP , with the feature of sending messages the phones the clients; these messages are automatically created by the application. Elaborate platform Virtual Store integrates cellular mobile communications to electronic commerce , allowing users telephony Mobile phone consultations and procurement procedures from the cell phone . This article sets out the framework , the description, the procedure and the conclusions on the implementation of a virtual store selling books called WAP Books, as a specific application of a Virtual Store platform for mobile devices.

  10. The Role of Semantics in Next-Generation Online Virtual World-Based Retail Store

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Geetika; Anantaram, C.; Ghosh, Hiranmay

    Online virtual environments are increasingly becoming popular for entrepreneurship. While interactions are primarily between avatars, some interactions could occur through intelligent chatbots. Such interactions require connecting to backend business applications to obtain information, carry out real-world transactions etc. In this paper, we focus on integrating business application systems with virtual worlds. We discuss the probable features of a next-generation online virtual world-based retail store and the technologies involved in realizing the features of such a store. In particular, we examine the role of semantics in integrating popular virtual worlds with business applications to provide natural language based interactions.

  11. Integrating Virtual Reality (VR) into traditional instructional design ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Most technical programs in Nigeria's tertiary institutions lack the desired laboratories to impact technical skills to the students. This has led to the production of pseudo-illustrates as graduates and this accounts for reasons why many employers are saying Nigerian graduates are not employable. Virtual Reality (VR) can ...

  12. Virtual Reality Laboratory

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Laboratory Consortium — FUNCTION: Performs basic and applied research in interactive 3D computer graphics, including visual analytics, virtual environments, and augmented reality (AR). The...

  13. The Virtual UNICOS Process Expert: integration of Artificial Intelligence tools in Control Systems

    CERN Multimedia

    Vilches Calvo, I; Barillere, R

    2009-01-01

    UNICOS is a CERN framework to produce control applications. It provides operators with ways to interact with all process items from the most simple (e.g. I/O channels) to the most abstract objects (e.g. a part of the plant). This possibility of fine grain operation is particularly useful to recover from abnormal situations if operators have the required knowledge. The Virtual UNICOS Process Expert project aims at providing operators with means to handle difficult operation cases for which the intervention of process experts is usually requested. The main idea of project is to use the openness of the UNICOS-based applications to integrate tools (e.g. Artificial Intelligence tools) which will act as Process Experts to analyze complex situations, to propose and to execute smooth recovery procedures.

  14. Virtual care

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kamp, Annette; Aaløkke Ballegaard, Stinne

    of retrenchment, promising better quality, empowerment of citizens and work that is smarter and more qualified. Through ethnographic field studies we study the introduction of virtual home care in Danish elderly care, focusing on the implications for relational work and care relations. Virtual home care entails...... the performance of specific home care services by means of video conversations rather than physical visits in the citizens’ homes. As scholars within the STS tradition maintain, technologies do not simply replace a human function; they rather transform care work, redistributing tasks between citizens, technology...... point out how issues of trust and surveillance, which are always negotiated in care relations, are in fact accentuated in this kind of virtual care work. Moreover, we stress that the contemporary institutional context, organization and time schedules have a vast impact on the practices developed....

  15. Virtual experiment instrument of nuclear pulse measuring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shan Jian; Zhao Xiuliang; Yu Hong; Zhang Meiqin

    2009-01-01

    Study on the scheme of application of virtual instrument(VI) technique in measuring of nuclear pulse. The system of Counter based on technology of LabVIEW and NI company's products USB-6009-DAQ is developed. Virtual nuclear instrument-Virtual Counter is realized. This system extends the application of technology of virtual instrument. The experimental results indicate that the system of Counter had the good counting measuring function of Nuclear Pulse. (authors)

  16. Functional representations of integrable hierarchies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dimakis, Aristophanes; Mueller-Hoissen, Folkert

    2006-01-01

    We consider a general framework for integrable hierarchies in Lax form and derive certain universal equations from which 'functional representations' of particular hierarchies (such as KP, discrete KP, mKP, AKNS), i.e. formulations in terms of functional equations, are systematically and quite easily obtained. The formalism genuinely applies to hierarchies where the dependent variables live in a noncommutative (typically matrix) algebra. The obtained functional representations can be understood as 'noncommutative' analogues of 'Fay identities' for the KP hierarchy

  17. A Practical Software Architecture for Virtual Universities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiang, Peifeng; Shi, Yuanchun; Qin, Weijun

    2006-01-01

    This article introduces a practical software architecture called CUBES, which focuses on system integration and evolvement for online virtual universities. The key of CUBES is a supporting platform that helps to integrate and evolve heterogeneous educational applications developed by different organizations. Both standardized educational…

  18. Modelling Virtual Camera Behaviour Through Player Gaze

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Picardi, Andrea; Burelli, Paolo; Yannakakis, Georgios N.

    2012-01-01

    industry and game AI research focus on the devel- opment of increasingly sophisticated systems to automate the control of the virtual camera integrating artificial intel- ligence algorithms within physical simulations. However, in both industry and academia little research has been carried out......In a three-dimensional virtual environment, aspects such as narrative and interaction largely depend on the placement and animation of the virtual camera. Therefore, virtual camera control plays a critical role in player experience and, thereby, in the overall quality of a computer game. Both game...... on the relationship between virtual camera, game-play and player behaviour. We run a game user experiment to shed some light on this relationship and identify relevant dif- ferences between camera behaviours through different game sessions, playing behaviours and player gaze patterns. Re- sults show that users can...

  19. Cooperation, Coordination, and Trust in Virtual Teams: Insights from Virtual Games

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korsgaard, M. Audrey; Picot, Arnold; Wigand, Rolf T.; Welpe, Isabelle M.; Assmann, Jakob J.

    This chapter considers fundamental concepts of effective virtual teams, illustrated by research on Travian, a massively multiplayer online strategy game wherein players seek to build empires. Team inputs are the resources that enable individuals to work interdependently toward a common goal, including individual and collective capabilities, shared knowledge structures, and leadership style. Team processes, notably coordination and cooperation, transform team inputs to desired collective outcomes. Because the members of virtual teams are geographically dispersed, relying on information and communication technology, three theories are especially relevant for understanding how they can function effectively: social presence theory, media richness theory, and media synchronicity theory. Research in settings like Travian can inform our understanding of structures, processes, and performance of virtual teams. Such research could provide valuable insight into the emergence and persistence of trust and cooperation, as well as the impact of different communication media for coordination and information management in virtual organizations.

  20. Photographic Records Showing the Variations of the Virtual Height of Reflection as a Function of the Radio Frequency

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The standard (analog) ionosonde produces photographic records known as ionograms, which show the variations of the virtual height of reflection as a function of the...

  1. Pre-Service Teachers Designing Virtual World Learning Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacka, Lisa; Booth, Kate

    2012-01-01

    Integrating Information Technology Communications in the classroom has been an important part of pre-service teacher education for over a decade. The advent of virtual worlds provides the pre-service teacher with an opportunity to study teaching and learning in a highly immersive 3D computer-based environment. Virtual worlds also provide a place…

  2. Data And Informatics Working Group On Virtual Data Integration Workshop Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Williams, D. N. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Palanisamy, G. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Dam, K. K. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

    2015-10-13

    This report is the outcome of a workshop that was commissioned by the Department of Energy’s Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD) to examine current and future data infrastructure requirements that would be foundational to achieving CESD’s scientific mission goals. Over the past several years, data volumes in CESD disciplines have risen sharply to unprecedented levels (tens of petabytes). So too has the complexity and diversity of the research data (simulation, observation, and reanalysis) needing to be captured, stored, verified, analyzed, and integrated. With the trends of increased data volume (in the hundreds of petabytes), more complex analysis processes, and growing crossdisciplinary collaborations, it is timely to investigate whether the CESD community has the right computational and data support to realize the full scientific potential from its data collections. In recognition of the challenges, a partnership is forming across CESD and with national and international agencies to investigate the viability of creating an integrated, collaborative data infrastructure: a virtual laboratory. The overarching goal of this report is to identify the community’s key data technology requirements and high-priority development needs for sustaining and growing their scientific discovery potential. The report also aims to map these requirements to existing solutions and to identify gaps in current services, tools, and infrastructure that will need to be addressed in the short, medium, and long term so as not to impede scientific progress

  3. Tele Hyper Virtuality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terashima, Nobuyoshi

    1994-01-01

    In the future, remote images sent over communication lines will be reproduced in virtual reality (VR). This form of virtual telecommunications, which will allow observers to engage in an activity as though it were real, is the focus of considerable attention. Taken a step further, real and unreal objects will be placed in a single space to create an extremely realistic environment. Here, imaginary and other life forms as well as people and animals in remote locations will gather via telecommunication lines that create a common environment where life forms can work and interact together. Words, gestures, diagrams and other forms of communication will be used freely in performing work. Actual construction of a system based on this new concept will not only provide people with experiences that would have been impossible in the past, but will also inspire new applications in which people will function in environments where it would have been difficult if not impossible for them to function until now. This paper describes Tele Hyper Virtuality concept, its definition, applications, the key technologies to accomplish it and future prospects.

  4. Managing Virtual Product Development team: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amir Mohammad Colabi

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Although there are many potential benefits associated with the use of virtual product development teams, exploiting these benefits requires an appropriate management. Managing virtual product development team is a critical issue as many of these teams fail to accomplish their goals. Review of previous literature shows that body of knowledge in managing virtual product development teams is fragmented and inconsistent. The main objective of this paper is to categorize the previous research on the subject of virtual product development team management in order to integrate the research into a thematic model and to enable recommendations for future research. So, this study reviews and summarizes empirical research in the field, also conceptual and qualitative papers, experiences, reports and explorative case studies. Results show that there are three fields of research in this area, including: Virtual production and Virtual team in Product Development, Managing virtual team in R&D[1] and product development, Managing global virtual product development teams. In order to organize previous studies in this area, a thematic map is proposed which shows the structure and sequence of research. Finally, a comprehensive discussion on the future directions in this field is proposed.

  5. Generalized fractional integration of the \\overline{H}-function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Praveen Agarwal

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available A significantly large number of earlier works on the subject of fractional calculus give interesting account of the theory and applications of fractional calculus operators in many different areas of mathematical analysis (such as ordinary and partial differential equations, integral equations, special functions, summation of series, et cetera. In the present paper, we study and develop the generalized fractional integral operators given by Saigo. First, we establish two Theorems that give the images of the product of H-function and a general class of polynomials inSaigo operators. On account of the general nature of the Saigo operators, H-function and a general class of polynomials a large number of new and known Images involving Riemann-Liouville and Erdélyi-Kober fractional integral operators and several special functions notably generalized Wright hypergeometric function, generalized Wright-Bessel function, the polylogarithm and Mittag-Leffler functions follow as special cases of our main findings.

  6. Logistics competencies of polish companies as a factor of development of virtual supply chains

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Problems of virtual organizations have not been well elaborated yet. There are many different concepts in that area. The concept of virtual organization can be formulated on the basis of its characteristic features. Generally, the following features have been indicated: temporary character, focusing on customers, geographical dispersion, intensive use of computer technologies, network organization and use of core competencies of the members. An example of virtual organization could be found in, so called, virtual supply chain, which demonstrates high degree of flexibility and is capable of easy adjustment to dynamic markets. Advanced logistics competencies of companies functioning in that supply chain and their ability to integrate closely with suppliers and customers become the basis of virtual supply chains operations. This paper presents the results of research in the group of Polish companies. As the result of the research more specific picture of the abilities of companies for their operation in virtual (extra-flexible supply chains has been presented. From the point of view of the use of alternative tools for logistics management, logistics providers seem to be the group of firms being the most opened for cooperation. It results directly from the profile of their market operations. Finally, a conclusion might be drawn that a growth of flexibility of virtual supply chains demands more profound specialization of companies constituting links of those chains.

  7. Special Experiences for Exceptional Students: Integrating Virtual Reality into Special Education Classrooms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Erez Cedric

    This paper discusses some of the potential benefits and hazards that virtual reality holds for exceptional children in the special education system. Topics addressed include (1) applications of virtual reality, including developing academic skills via cyberspace, vocational training, and social learning in cyberspace; (2) telepresence and distance…

  8. Integral equations of hadronic correlation functions a functional- bootstrap approach

    CERN Document Server

    Manesis, E K

    1974-01-01

    A reasonable 'microscopic' foundation of the Feynman hadron-liquid analogy is offered, based on a class of models for hadron production. In an external field formalism, the equivalence (complementarity) of the exclusive and inclusive descriptions of hadronic reactions is specifically expressed in a functional-bootstrap form, and integral equations between inclusive and exclusive correlation functions are derived. Using the latest CERN-ISR data on the two-pion inclusive correlation function, and assuming rapidity translational invariance for the exclusive one, the simplest integral equation is solved in the 'central region' and an exclusive correlation length in rapidity predicted. An explanation is also offered for the unexpected similarity observed between pi /sup +/ pi /sup -/ and pi /sup -/ pi /sup -/ inclusive correlations. (31 refs).

  9. Virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laver, Kate E; George, Stacey; Thomas, Susie; Deutsch, Judith E; Crotty, Maria

    2011-09-07

    Virtual reality and interactive video gaming have emerged as new treatment approaches in stroke rehabilitation. In particular, commercial gaming consoles are being rapidly adopted in clinical settings; however, there is currently little information about their effectiveness. To evaluate the effects of virtual reality and interactive video gaming on upper limb, lower limb and global motor function after stroke. We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (March 2010), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library 2010, Issue 1), MEDLINE (1950 to March 2010), EMBASE (1980 to March 2010) and seven additional databases. We also searched trials registries, conference proceedings, reference lists and contacted key researchers in the area and virtual reality equipment manufacturers. Randomised and quasi-randomised trials of virtual reality ('an advanced form of human-computer interface that allows the user to 'interact' with and become 'immersed' in a computer-generated environment in a naturalistic fashion') in adults after stroke. The primary outcomes of interest were: upper limb function and activity, gait and balance function and activity and global motor function. Two review authors independently selected trials based on pre-defined inclusion criteria, extracted data and assessed risk of bias. A third review author moderated disagreements when required. The authors contacted all investigators to obtain missing information. We included 19 trials which involved 565 participants. Study sample sizes were generally small and interventions and outcome measures varied, limiting the ability to which studies could be compared. Intervention approaches in the included studies were predominantly designed to improve motor function rather than cognitive function or activity performance. The majority of participants were relatively young and more than one year post stroke. results were statistically significant for arm function (standardised

  10. Enabling Virtual Sensing as a Service

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Li

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available In many situations, placing a physical sensor in the ideal position in or on the human body to acquire sensing data is incredibly difficult. Virtual sensors, in contrast to physical sensors, can provide indirect measurements by making use of other available sensor data. In this paper, we demonstrate a virtual sensing application developed as a service on top of a cloud-based health sensor data management platform called Wiki-Health. The proposed application “implants” virtual sensors in the human body by integrating environmental, geographic and personal sensor data with physiological models to compute temperature estimations of various parts of the body. The feasibility of the proposed virtual sensing service is supported by a case study. The ability to share computational models relevant to do calculations on measured data on the go is also discussed.

  11. Construction of functional linkage gene networks by data integration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linghu, Bolan; Franzosa, Eric A; Xia, Yu

    2013-01-01

    Networks of functional associations between genes have recently been successfully used for gene function and disease-related research. A typical approach for constructing such functional linkage gene networks (FLNs) is based on the integration of diverse high-throughput functional genomics datasets. Data integration is a nontrivial task due to the heterogeneous nature of the different data sources and their variable accuracy and completeness. The presence of correlations between data sources also adds another layer of complexity to the integration process. In this chapter we discuss an approach for constructing a human FLN from data integration and a subsequent application of the FLN to novel disease gene discovery. Similar approaches can be applied to nonhuman species and other discovery tasks.

  12. Virtual Globes, where we were, are and will be

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dehn, J.; Webley, P. W.; Worden, A. K.

    2016-12-01

    Ten years ago, Google Earth was new, and the first "Virtual Globes" session was held at AGU. Only a few of us realized the potential of this technology at the time, but the idea quickly caught on. At that time a virtual globe came in two flavors, first a complex GIS system that was utterly impenetrable for the public, or a more accessible version with limited functionality and layers that was available on a desktop computer with a good internet connection. Google Earth's use of the Keyhole Markup Language opened the door for scientists and the public to share data and visualizations across disciplines and revolutionized how everyone uses geographic data. In the following 10 years, KML became more advanced, virtual globes moved to mobile and handheld platforms, and the Google Earth engine allowed for more complex data sharing among scientists. Virtual globe images went from a rare commodity to being everywhere in our lives, from weather forecasts, in our cars, on our smart-phones and shape how we receive and process data. This is a fantastic tool for education and with newer technologies can reach the the remote corners of the world and developing countries. New and emerging technologies allow for augmented reality to be merged with the globes, and for real-time data integration with sensors built into mobile devices or add-ons. This presentation will follow the history of virtual globes in the geosciences, show how robust technologies can be used in the field and classroom today, and make some suggestions for the future.

  13. 3-D thermal weight function method and multiple virtual crack extension technique for thermal shock problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu Yanlin; Zhou Xiao; Qu Jiadi; Dou Yikang; He Yinbiao

    2005-01-01

    An efficient scheme, 3-D thermal weight function (TWF) method, and a novel numerical technique, multiple virtual crack extension (MVCE) technique, were developed for determination of histories of transient stress intensity factor (SIF) distributions along 3-D crack fronts of a body subjected to thermal shock. The TWF is a universal function, which is dependent only on the crack configuration and body geometry. TWF is independent of time during thermal shock, so the whole history of transient SIF distributions along crack fronts can be directly calculated through integration of the products of TWF and transient temperatures and temperature gradients. The repeated determinations of the distributions of stresses (or displacements) fields for individual time instants are thus avoided in the TWF method. An expression of the basic equation for the 3-D universal weight function method for Mode I in an isotropic elastic body is derived. This equation can also be derived from Bueckner-Rice's 3-D WF formulations in the framework of transformation strain. It can be understood from this equation that the so-called thermal WF is in fact coincident with the mechanical WF except for some constants of elasticity. The details and formulations of the MVCE technique are given for elliptical cracks. The MVCE technique possesses several advantages. The specially selected linearly independent VCE modes can directly be used as shape functions for the interpolation of unknown SIFs. As a result, the coefficient matrix of the final system of equations in the MVCE method is a triple-diagonal matrix and the values of the coefficients on the main diagonal are large. The system of equations has good numerical properties. The number of linearly independent VCE modes that can be introduced in a problem is unlimited. Complex situations in which the SIFs vary dramatically along crack fronts can be numerically well simulated by the MVCE technique. An integrated system of programs for solving the

  14. Management of virtualized infrastructure for physics databases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Topurov, Anton; Gallerani, Luigi; Chatal, Francois; Piorkowski, Mariusz

    2012-01-01

    Demands for information storage of physics metadata are rapidly increasing together with the requirements for its high availability. Most of the HEP laboratories are struggling to squeeze more from their computer centers, thus focus on virtualizing available resources. CERN started investigating database virtualization in early 2006, first by testing database performance and stability on native Xen. Since then we have been closely evaluating the constantly evolving functionality of virtualisation solutions for database and middle tier together with the associated management applications – Oracle's Enterprise Manager and VM Manager. This session will detail our long experience in dealing with virtualized environments, focusing on newest Oracle OVM 3.0 for x86 and Oracle Enterprise Manager functionality for efficiently managing your virtualized database infrastructure.

  15. Virtually optimized insoles for offloading the diabetic foot: A randomized crossover study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Telfer, S; Woodburn, J; Collier, A; Cavanagh, P R

    2017-07-26

    Integration of objective biomechanical measures of foot function into the design process for insoles has been shown to provide enhanced plantar tissue protection for individuals at-risk of plantar ulceration. The use of virtual simulations utilizing numerical modeling techniques offers a potential approach to further optimize these devices. In a patient population at-risk of foot ulceration, we aimed to compare the pressure offloading performance of insoles that were optimized via numerical simulation techniques against shape-based devices. Twenty participants with diabetes and at-risk feet were enrolled in this study. Three pairs of personalized insoles: one based on shape data and subsequently manufactured via direct milling; and two were based on a design derived from shape, pressure, and ultrasound data which underwent a finite element analysis-based virtual optimization procedure. For the latter set of insole designs, one pair was manufactured via direct milling, and a second pair was manufactured through 3D printing. The offloading performance of the insoles was analyzed for forefoot regions identified as having elevated plantar pressures. In 88% of the regions of interest, the use of virtually optimized insoles resulted in lower peak plantar pressures compared to the shape-based devices. Overall, the virtually optimized insoles significantly reduced peak pressures by a mean of 41.3kPa (p<0.001, 95% CI [31.1, 51.5]) for milled and 40.5kPa (p<0.001, 95% CI [26.4, 54.5]) for printed devices compared to shape-based insoles. The integration of virtual optimization into the insole design process resulted in improved offloading performance compared to standard, shape-based devices. ISRCTN19805071, www.ISRCTN.org. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Designing a Virtual-Reality-Based, Gamelike Math Learning Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Xinhao; Ke, Fengfeng

    2016-01-01

    This exploratory study examined the design issues related to a virtual-reality-based, gamelike learning environment (VRGLE) developed via OpenSimulator, an open-source virtual reality server. The researchers collected qualitative data to examine the VRGLE's usability, playability, and content integration for math learning. They found it important…

  17. Virtual Machine Logbook - Enabling virtualization for ATLAS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yao Yushu; Calafiura, Paolo; Leggett, Charles; Poffet, Julien; Cavalli, Andrea; Frederic, Bapst

    2010-01-01

    ATLAS software has been developed mostly on CERN linux cluster lxplus or on similar facilities at the experiment Tier 1 centers. The fast rise of virtualization technology has the potential to change this model, turning every laptop or desktop into an ATLAS analysis platform. In the context of the CernVM project we are developing a suite of tools and CernVM plug-in extensions to promote the use of virtualization for ATLAS analysis and software development. The Virtual Machine Logbook (VML), in particular, is an application to organize work of physicists on multiple projects, logging their progress, and speeding up ''context switches'' from one project to another. An important feature of VML is the ability to share with a single 'click' the status of a given project with other colleagues. VML builds upon the save and restore capabilities of mainstream virtualization software like VMware, and provides a technology-independent client interface to them. A lot of emphasis in the design and implementation has gone into optimizing the save and restore process to makepractical to store many VML entries on a typical laptop disk or to share a VML entry over the network. At the same time, taking advantage of CernVM's plugin capabilities, we are extending the CernVM platform to help increase the usability of ATLAS software. For example, we added the ability to start the ATLAS event display on any computer running CernVM simply by clicking a button in a web browser. We want to integrate seamlessly VML with CernVM unique file system design to distribute efficiently ATLAS software on every physicist computer. The CernVM File System (CVMFS) download files on-demand via HTTP, and cache it locally for future use. This reduces by one order of magnitude the download sizes, making practical for a developer to work with multiple software releases on a virtual machine.

  18. Virtual universities: factors of success and prospects of development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Вадим Валерьевич Гриншкун

    2018-12-01

    Full Text Available This article is devoted to the peculiarities of the formation and functioning of virtual universities, emerging in recent years in different countries of the world. The main approaches to their creation and financing are described. It is noted that along with public virtual universities, private universities are developing, including corporate virtual universities. The main models of virtual universities are classified, including the consortium model, the traditional model of the university with electronic education for individual educational programs, the model of educational organizations of distance learning and the actual virtual university model. Successful models of functioning of virtual universities in Great Britain, USA, Italy, South Korea, Russia and other countries are described. In the widespread model of the consortium, educational organizations jointly develop online courses, provide access to the repository of courses for students of these universities, and also have the opportunity to transfer courses to students of organizations that are members of the consortium. The main factors influencing the development of virtual universities are singled out. Along with successful examples of the implementation of the model of a consortium of educational organizations, negative examples of the functioning of such associations of higher education institutions are presented in the article. In conclusion, the main directions of the development of virtual universities are determined.

  19. Sounds of silence: How to animate virtual worlds with sound

    Science.gov (United States)

    Astheimer, Peter

    1993-01-01

    Sounds are an integral and sometimes annoying part of our daily life. Virtual worlds which imitate natural environments gain a lot of authenticity from fast, high quality visualization combined with sound effects. Sounds help to increase the degree of immersion for human dwellers in imaginary worlds significantly. The virtual reality toolkit of IGD (Institute for Computer Graphics) features a broad range of standard visual and advanced real-time audio components which interpret an object-oriented definition of the scene. The virtual reality system 'Virtual Design' realized with the toolkit enables the designer of virtual worlds to create a true audiovisual environment. Several examples on video demonstrate the usage of the audio features in Virtual Design.

  20. Virtually teaching virtual leadership

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henriksen, Thomas Duus; Nielsen, Rikke Kristine; Børgesen, Kenneth

    2017-01-01

    This paper seeks to investigate the challenges to virtual collaboration and leadership on basis of findings from a virtual course on collaboration and leadership. The course used for this experiment was designed as a practical approach, which allowed participants to experience curriculum phenomena....... This experimental course provided insights into the challenges involved in virtual processes, and those experiences where used for addressing the challenges that virtual leadership is confronted with. Emphasis was placed on the reduction of undesired virtual distance and its consequences through affinity building....... We found that student scepticism appeared when a breakdown resulted in increasing virtual distance, and raises questions on how leaders might translate or upgrade their understandings of leadership to handling such increased distance through affinity building....

  1. Development of an integrated closed loop control system with virtual reality monitoring for Prototype Robotic Articulated System (PRAS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rastogi, Naveen; Dutta, Pramit; Gotewal, K.K.

    2015-01-01

    The Prototype Robotic Articulated System (PRAS) is a servo driven 4 degrees of freedom robotic arm capable of handling of upto 5 kg payload. A virtual reality based monitoring application has been developed in blender and was intergrated with the control system to read the joint values of the robotic arm at 10Hz and update the CAD model to visualize the robotic operations remotely. This paper presents the design details and implementation results of the integrated control system for PRAS

  2. Can virtual science foster real skills? A study of inquiry skills in a virtual world

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dodds, Heather E.

    Online education has grown into a part of the educational market answering the demand for learning at the learner's choice of time and place. Inquiry skills such as observing, questioning, collecting data, and devising fair experiments are an essential element of 21st-century online science coursework. Virtual immersive worlds such as Second Life are being used as new frontiers in science education. There have been few studies looking specifically at science education in virtual worlds that foster inquiry skills. This quantitative quasi-experimental nonrandomized control group pretest and posttest study explored what affect a virtual world experience had on inquiry skills as measured by the TIPS (Test of Integrated Process Skills) and TIPS II (Integrated Process Skills Test II) instruments. Participants between the ages of 18 and 65 were recruited from educator mailing lists and Second Life discussion boards and then sorted into the experimental group, which received instructions to utilize several displays in Mendelian genetics at the Genome Island location within Second Life, or the control group, which received text-based PDF documents of the same genetics course content. All participants, in the form of avatars, were experienced Second Life residents to reduce any novelty effect. This study found a greater increase in inquiry skills in the experimental group interacting using a virtual world to learn science content (0.90 points) than a control group that is presented only with online text-based content (0.87 points). Using a mixed between-within ANOVA (analysis of variance), with an alpha level of 0.05, there was no significant interaction between the control or experimental groups and inquiry skills, F (1, 58) = .783, p = .380, partial eta squared = .013, at the specified .05 alpha level suggesting no significant difference as a result of the virtual world exercise. However, there is not enough evidence to state that there was no effect because there was a

  3. Evolving Capabilities for Virtual Globes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glennon, A.

    2006-12-01

    Though thin-client spatial visualization software like Google Earth and NASA World Wind enjoy widespread popularity, a common criticism is their general lack of analytical functionality. This concern, however, is rapidly being addressed; standard and advanced geographic information system (GIS) capabilities are being developed for virtual globes--though not centralized into a single implementation or software package. The innovation is mostly originating from the user community. Three such capabilities relevant to the earth science, education, and emergency management communities are modeling dynamic spatial phenomena, real-time data collection and visualization, and multi-input collaborative databases. Modeling dynamic spatial phenomena has been facilitated through joining virtual globe geometry definitions--like KML--to relational databases. Real-time data collection uses short scripts to transform user-contributed data into a format usable by virtual globe software. Similarly, collaborative data collection for virtual globes has become possible by dynamically referencing online, multi-person spreadsheets. Examples of these functions include mapping flows within a karst watershed, real-time disaster assessment and visualization, and a collaborative geyser eruption spatial decision support system. Virtual globe applications will continue to evolve further analytical capabilities, more temporal data handling, and from nano to intergalactic scales. This progression opens education and research avenues in all scientific disciplines.

  4. Collaborative Virtual 3D Environment for Internet-Accessible Physics Experiments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bettina Scheucher

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract—Immersive 3D worlds have increasingly raised the interest of researchers and practitioners for various learning and training settings over the last decade. These virtual worlds can provide multiple communication channels between users and improve presence and awareness in the learning process. Consequently virtual 3D environments facilitate collaborative learning and training scenarios. In this paper we focus on the integration of internet-accessible physics experiments (iLabs combined with the TEALsim 3D simulation toolkit in Project Wonderland, Sun's toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within such a collaborative environment these tools provide the opportunity for teachers and students to work together as avatars as they control actual equipment, visualize physical phenomenon generated by the experiment, and discuss the results. In particular we will outline the steps of integration, future goals, as well as the value of a collaboration space in Wonderland's virtual world.

  5. Virtualization for Cost-Effective Teaching of Assembly Language Programming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cadenas, José O.; Sherratt, R. Simon; Howlett, Des; Guy, Chris G.; Lundqvist, Karsten O.

    2015-01-01

    This paper describes a virtual system that emulates an ARM-based processor machine, created to replace a traditional hardware-based system for teaching assembly language. The virtual system proposed here integrates, in a single environment, all the development tools necessary to deliver introductory or advanced courses on modern assembly language…

  6. ZEROES OF GENERALIZED FRESNEL COMPLEMENTARY INTEGRAL FUNCTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaime Lobo Segura

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Theoretical upper and lower bounds are established for zeroes of a parametric family of functions which are defined by integrals of the same type as the Fresnel complementary integral. Asymptotic properties for these bounds are obtained as well as monotony properties of the localization intervals. Given the value of the parameter an analytical-numerical procedure is deduced to enclose all zeros of a given function with an a priori error.

  7. Measurement of the virtual-photon asymmetry A{sub 2} and the spin-structure function g{sub 2} of the proton

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Airapetian, A. [Giessen Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.; Michigian Univ., Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Randall Lab. of Physics; Akopov, N. [Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan (Armenia); Akopov, Z. [DESY Hamburg (DE)] (and others)

    2011-12-15

    A measurement of the virtual-photon asymmetry A{sub 2}(x,Q{sup 2}) and of the spin-structure function g{sub 2}(x,Q{sup 2}) of the proton are presented for the kinematic range 0.004integral of g{sub 2}(x) converges to the null result of the Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule. The x{sup 2} moment of the twist-3 contribution to g{sub 2}(x) is found to be compatible with zero. (orig.)

  8. Development of a Virtual Technology Coach to Support Technology Integration for K-12 Educators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugar, William; van Tryon, Patricia J. Slagter

    2014-01-01

    In an effort to develop a virtual technology coach for K-12 educators, this article analyzed survey results from sixty teachers with regards to specific resources that a technology coach could provide within a virtual environment. A virtual technology coach was proposed as a possible solution to provide continual professional development for…

  9. Numerical evaluation of integrals containing a spherical Bessel function by product integration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lehman, D.R.; Parke, W.C.; Maximon, L.C.

    1981-01-01

    A method is developed for numerical evaluation of integrals with k-integration range from 0 to infinity that contain a spherical Bessel function j/sub l/(kr) explicitly. The required quadrature weights are easily calculated and the rate of convergence is rapid: only a relatively small number of quadrature points is needed: for an accurate evaluation even when r is large. The quadrature rule is obtained by the method of product integration. With the abscissas chosen to be those of Clenshaw--Curtis and the Chebyshev polynomials as the interpolating polynomials, quadrature weights are obtained that depend on the spherical Bessel function. An inhomogenous recurrence relation is derived from which the weights can be calculated without accumulation of roundoff error. The procedure is summarized as an easily implementable algorithm. Questions of convergence are discussed and the rate of convergence demonstrated for several test integrals. Alternative procedures are given for generating the integration weights and an error analysis of the method is presented

  10. The Virtual Tablet: Virtual Reality as a Control System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chronister, Andrew

    2016-01-01

    hardware, write software to incorporate each piece of position or orientation data into a coherent description of the object's location in space, place the virtual analogue accordingly, and project the control interface onto it, resulting in a functioning object which has both a physical and a virtual presence. Additionally, the virtual environment was enhanced with two live video feeds from cameras mounted on the robotic device being used as an example target of the virtual interface. The working VT allows users to naturally interact with a control interface with little to no training and without the issues found in previous efforts.

  11. Restoring a smooth function from its noisy integrals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goulko, Olga; Prokof'ev, Nikolay; Svistunov, Boris

    2018-05-01

    Numerical (and experimental) data analysis often requires the restoration of a smooth function from a set of sampled integrals over finite bins. We present the bin hierarchy method that efficiently computes the maximally smooth function from the sampled integrals using essentially all the information contained in the data. We perform extensive tests with different classes of functions and levels of data quality, including Monte Carlo data suffering from a severe sign problem and physical data for the Green's function of the Fröhlich polaron.

  12. Generating functional for mesonic ChPT with virtual photons in a general covariant gauge

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Agadjanov, Andria; Agadjanov, Dimitri; Khelashvili, Anzor; Rusetsky, Akaki

    2013-01-01

    The divergent part of the one-loop effective action in Chiral Perturbation Theory with virtual photons has been evaluated in an arbitrary covariant gauge. The differential operator that emerges in the functional determinant is of non-minimal type, for which the standard heat kernel methods are not directly applicable. Both the SU(2) and SU(3) cases have been worked out. A comparison with existing results in the literature is given. (orig.)

  13. Jets in DIS and the virtual photon structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maxfield, Stephen

    2001-01-01

    Single-inclusive jet cross sections in deep-inelastic scattering for photon virtualities 5 2 2 are measured in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.9 pb-1 as a function of the jet transverse energy E T , of the ratio E T 2 /Q 2 and of the Bjorken scaling variable x Bj . Data are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations using the squared four momentum transfer Q 2 and the squared jet E T as renormalisation scale. Neither choice is able to describe the data over the full phase space region, in particular in the forward region towards the proton remnant. Possible explanations of this discrepancies are discussed. Dijet event rates, R 2 , have also been measured for deep inelastic scattering in the low x Bj and low Q 2 . R 2 is measured as a function of both x Bj and Q 2 extending a single differential analysis recently published by H1. This allows a more detailed study of jet production at low x Bj in a regime where both scales, Q 2 and jet E T 2 , are comparable. The data are confronted with next-to-leading order QCD calculations including both point-like and non-pointlike structure of the virtual photon

  14. Virtual Inertia: Current Trends and Future Directions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ujjwol Tamrakar

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The modern power system is progressing from a synchronous machine-based system towards an inverter-dominated system, with large-scale penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs like wind and photovoltaics. RES units today represent a major share of the generation, and the traditional approach of integrating them as grid following units can lead to frequency instability. Many researchers have pointed towards using inverters with virtual inertia control algorithms so that they appear as synchronous generators to the grid, maintaining and enhancing system stability. This paper presents a literature review of the current state-of-the-art of virtual inertia implementation techniques, and explores potential research directions and challenges. The major virtual inertia topologies are compared and classified. Through literature review and simulations of some selected topologies it has been shown that similar inertial response can be achieved by relating the parameters of these topologies through time constants and inertia constants, although the exact frequency dynamics may vary slightly. The suitability of a topology depends on system control architecture and desired level of detail in replication of the dynamics of synchronous generators. A discussion on the challenges and research directions points out several research needs, especially for systems level integration of virtual inertia systems.

  15. Integrating individual movement behaviour into dispersal functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heinz, Simone K; Wissel, Christian; Conradt, Larissa; Frank, Karin

    2007-04-21

    Dispersal functions are an important tool for integrating dispersal into complex models of population and metapopulation dynamics. Most approaches in the literature are very simple, with the dispersal functions containing only one or two parameters which summarise all the effects of movement behaviour as for example different movement patterns or different perceptual abilities. The summarising nature of these parameters makes assessing the effect of one particular behavioural aspect difficult. We present a way of integrating movement behavioural parameters into a particular dispersal function in a simple way. Using a spatial individual-based simulation model for simulating different movement behaviours, we derive fitting functions for the functional relationship between the parameters of the dispersal function and several details of movement behaviour. This is done for three different movement patterns (loops, Archimedean spirals, random walk). Additionally, we provide measures which characterise the shape of the dispersal function and are interpretable in terms of landscape connectivity. This allows an ecological interpretation of the relationships found.

  16. Hypergeometric Functions with Integral Parameter Differences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karlsson, Per W.

    1971-01-01

    For a generalized hypergeometric function pFq(z) with positive integral differences between certain numerator and denominator parameters, a formula expressing the pFq(z) as a finite sum of lower-order functions is proved. From this formula, Minton's two summation theorems for p = q + 1, z = 1...

  17. Synchronic tutoring of a virtual community

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Simons, P.R.J.; Ligorio, M.B.; Talamo, A.

    2002-01-01

    The role of tutors has changed over time, depending on models of learning and on the technology available. This article discusses the evolution of the tutor role and presents a new model concerning the tutoring functions in a synchronous virtual community. The definition of a virtual community

  18. Creating Virtual Exhibitions for Educational and Cultural Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriela DUMITRESCU

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents different tools and mechanisms to implement a virtual exhibition in different cultural areas, such as museums and libraries. Quality characteristics of virtual exhibitions are identified and described. The possibility to create native mobile applications for virtual exhibitions presentation is analyzed. The functional flow of creating a virtual exhibition is presented and discussed. The Seals - History Treasure exhibition is presented and significant historical documents are revealed.

  19. Cognitive load in distributed and massed practice in virtual reality mastoidectomy simulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andersen, Steven Arild Wuyts; Mikkelsen, Peter Trier; Konge, Lars; Cayé-Thomasen, Per; Sørensen, Mads Sølvsten

    2016-02-01

    Cognitive load theory states that working memory is limited. This has implications for learning and suggests that reducing cognitive load (CL) could promote learning and skills acquisition. This study aims to explore the effect of repeated practice and simulator-integrated tutoring on CL in virtual reality (VR) mastoidectomy simulation. Prospective trial. Forty novice medical students performed 12 repeated virtual mastoidectomy procedures in the Visible Ear Simulator: 21 completed distributed practice with practice blocks spaced in time and 19 participants completed massed practice (all practices performed in 1 day). Participants were randomized for tutoring with the simulator-integrated tutor function. Cognitive load was estimated by measuring reaction time in a secondary task. Data were analyzed using linear mixed models for repeated measurements. The mean reaction time increased by 37% during the procedure compared with baseline, demonstrating that the procedure placed substantial cognitive demands. Repeated practice significantly lowered CL in the distributed practice group but not in massed practice group. In addition, CL was found to be further increased by 10.3% in the later and more complex stages of the procedure. The simulator-integrated tutor function did not have an impact on CL. Distributed practice decreased CL in repeated VR mastoidectomy training more consistently than was seen in massed practice. This suggests a possible effect of skills and memory consolidation occurring over time. To optimize technical skills learning, training should be organized as time-distributed practice rather than as a massed block of practice, which is common in skills-training courses. N/A. © 2015 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

  20. Computer-aided training sensorimotor cortex functions in humans before the upper limb transplantation using virtual reality and sensory feedback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurzynski, Marek; Jaskolska, Anna; Marusiak, Jaroslaw; Wolczowski, Andrzej; Bierut, Przemyslaw; Szumowski, Lukasz; Witkowski, Jerzy; Kisiel-Sajewicz, Katarzyna

    2017-08-01

    One of the biggest problems of upper limb transplantation is lack of certainty as to whether a patient will be able to control voluntary movements of transplanted hands. Based on findings of the recent research on brain cortex plasticity, a premise can be drawn that mental training supported with visual and sensory feedback can cause structural and functional reorganization of the sensorimotor cortex, which leads to recovery of function associated with the control of movements performed by the upper limbs. In this study, authors - based on the above observations - propose the computer-aided training (CAT) system, which generating visual and sensory stimuli, should enhance the effectiveness of mental training applied to humans before upper limb transplantation. The basis for the concept of computer-aided training system is a virtual hand whose reaching and grasping movements the trained patient can observe on the VR headset screen (visual feedback) and whose contact with virtual objects the patient can feel as a touch (sensory feedback). The computer training system is composed of three main components: (1) the system generating 3D virtual world in which the patient sees the virtual limb from the perspective as if it were his/her own hand; (2) sensory feedback transforming information about the interaction of the virtual hand with the grasped object into mechanical vibration; (3) the therapist's panel for controlling the training course. Results of the case study demonstrate that mental training supported with visual and sensory stimuli generated by the computer system leads to a beneficial change of the brain activity related to motor control of the reaching in the patient with bilateral upper limb congenital transverse deficiency. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. [Virtual microscopy in pathology teaching and postgraduate training (continuing education)].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sinn, H P; Andrulis, M; Mogler, C; Schirmacher, P

    2008-11-01

    As with conventional microscopy, virtual microscopy permits histological tissue sections to be viewed on a computer screen with a free choice of viewing areas and a wide range of magnifications. This, combined with the possibility of linking virtual microscopy to E-Learning courses, make virtual microscopy an ideal tool for teaching and postgraduate training in pathology. Uses of virtual microscopy in pathology teaching include blended learning with the presentation of digital teaching slides in the internet parallel to presentation in the histology lab, extending student access to histology slides beyond the lab. Other uses are student self-learning in the Internet, as well as the presentation of virtual slides in the classroom with or without replacing real microscopes. Successful integration of virtual microscopy depends on its embedding in the virtual classroom and the creation of interactive E-learning content. Applications derived from this include the use of virtual microscopy in video clips, podcasts, SCORM modules and the presentation of virtual microscopy using interactive whiteboards in the classroom.

  2. Cloudified Mobility and Bandwidth Prediction in Virtualized LTE Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhao, Zongliang; Karimzadeh Motallebi Azar, Morteza; Braun, Torsten; Pras, Aiko; van den Berg, Hans Leo

    Network Function Virtualization involves implementing network functions (e.g., virtualized LTE component) in software that can run on a range of industry standard server hardware, and can be migrated or instantiated on demand. A prediction service hosted on cloud infrastructures enables consumers to

  3. Exact series expansions, recurrence relations, properties and integrals of the generalized exponential integral functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Altac, Zekeriya

    2007-01-01

    Generalized exponential integral functions (GEIF) are encountered in multi-dimensional thermal radiative transfer problems in the integral equation kernels. Several series expansions for the first-order generalized exponential integral function, along with a series expansion for the general nth order GEIF, are derived. The convergence issues of these series expansions are investigated numerically as well as theoretically, and a recurrence relation which does not require derivatives of the GEIF is developed. The exact series expansions of the two dimensional cylindrical and/or two-dimensional planar integral kernels as well as their spatial moments have been explicitly derived and compared with numerical values

  4. Virtual age of non-repairable objects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Finkelstein, Maxim

    2009-01-01

    Two definitions of virtual age are considered. The first one is based on the fact that a system's deterioration depends on an environment. In a more severe environment deterioration is more intensive and, therefore, the corresponding virtual age is larger than the calendar age. The second approach defines virtual age at the moment of switching from one regime to another. It is shown that both definitions coincide only for the linear scale transformation in the lifetime distribution functions

  5. Investigating the Possibility of Adaptation and Personalization in Virtual Environments

    OpenAIRE

    Octavia, Johanna Renny; RAYMAEKERS, Chris; CONINX, Karin

    2009-01-01

    The complex nature of virtual environments customarily hinders users to interact in a natural, intuitive and optimal way. Different user characteristics are hardly taken into account when designing 3D user interfaces for virtual environments. We envision that user interaction in virtual environments can be enhanced by integrating adaptation and personalization into 3D user interfaces. Through our research, we aim to provide adaptive and personalized 3D user interfaces for enhancing user inter...

  6. Imparting Individuality to Virtual Humans

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Egges, A.; Kshirsagar, V.; Magnenat-Thalmann, N.

    2002-01-01

    In this paper, we present an integrated method of linking personality and emotion with the response generation and expression synthesis of Virtual Humans. The characters are powered by a dialogue system that consists of a large set of basic interactions between user and computer. These

  7. Sound For Animation And Virtual Reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hahn, James K.; Docter, Pete; Foster, Scott H.; Mangini, Mark; Myers, Tom; Wenzel, Elizabeth M.; Null, Cynthia (Technical Monitor)

    1995-01-01

    Sound is an integral part of the experience in computer animation and virtual reality. In this course, we will present some of the important technical issues in sound modeling, rendering, and synchronization as well as the "art" and business of sound that are being applied in animations, feature films, and virtual reality. The central theme is to bring leading researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to share their experiences in this interdisciplinary field. The course will give the participants an understanding of the problems and techniques involved in producing and synchronizing sounds, sound effects, dialogue, and music. The problem spans a number of domains including computer animation and virtual reality. Since sound has been an integral part of animations and films much longer than for computer-related domains, we have much to learn from traditional animation and film production. By bringing leading researchers and practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines, the course seeks to give the audience a rich mixture of experiences. It is expected that the audience will be able to apply what they have learned from this course in their research or production.

  8. Virtual Reality Rehabilitation With Functional Electrical Stimulation Improves Upper Extremity Function in Patients With Chronic Stroke: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Stephanie Hyeyoung; Lee, Ji-Yeong; Kim, Mi-Young; Jeon, Yu-Jin; Kim, Suyoung; Shin, Joon-Ho

    2018-03-02

    To compare virtual reality (VR) combined with functional electrical stimulation (FES) with cyclic FES for improving upper extremity function and health-related quality of life in patients with chronic stroke. A pilot, randomized, single-blind, controlled trial. Stroke rehabilitation inpatient unit. Participants (N=48) with hemiplegia secondary to a unilateral stroke for >3 months and with a hemiplegic wrist extensor Medical Research Council scale score ranging from 1 to 3. FES was applied to the wrist extensors and finger extensors. A VR-based wearable rehabilitation device was used combined with FES and virtual activity-based training for the intervention group. The control group received cyclic FES only. Both groups completed 20 sessions over a 4-week period. Primary outcome measures were changes in Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity and Wolf Motor Function Test scores. Secondary outcome measures were changes in Box and Block Test, Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test, and Stroke Impact Scale scores. Assessments were performed at baseline (t0) and at 2 weeks (t1), 4 weeks (t4), and 8 weeks (t8). Between-group comparisons were evaluated using a repeated-measures analysis of variance. Forty-one participants were included in the analysis. Compared with FES alone, VR-FES produced a substantial increase in Fugl-Meyer Assessment-distal score (P=.011) and marginal improvement in Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test-gross score (P=.057). VR-FES produced greater, although nonsignificant, improvements in all other outcome measures, except in the Stroke Impact Scale-activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living score. FES with VR-based rehabilitation may be more effective than cyclic FES in improving distal upper extremity gross motor performance poststroke. Copyright © 2018 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Cochrane review: virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laver, K; George, S; Thomas, S; Deutsch, J E; Crotty, M

    2012-09-01

    Virtual reality and interactive video gaming are innovative therapy approaches in the field of stroke rehabilitation. The primary objective of this review was to determine the effectiveness of virtual reality on motor function after stroke. The impact on secondary outcomes including activities of daily living was also assessed. Randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials that compared virtual reality with an alternative or no intervention were included in the review. The authors searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, electronic databases, trial registers, reference lists, Dissertation Abstracts, conference proceedings and contacted key researchers and virtual reality manufacturers. Search results were independently examined by two review authors to identify studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Nineteen studies with a total of 565 participants were included in the review. Variation in intervention approaches and outcome data collected limited the extent to which studies could be compared. Virtual reality was found to be significantly more effective than conventional therapy in improving upper limb function (standardised mean difference, SMD) 0.53, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.25 to 0.81)) based on seven studies, and activities of daily living (ADL) function (SMD 0.81, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.22) based on three studies. No statistically significant effects were found for grip strength (based on two studies) or gait speed (based on three studies). Virtual reality appears to be a promising approach however, further studies are required to confirm these findings.

  10. Machinima interventions: innovative approaches to immersive virtual world curriculum integration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew John Middleton

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The educational value of Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs seems to be in their social immersive qualities and as an accessible simulation technology. In contrast to these synchronous applications this paper discusses the use of educational machinima developed in IVW virtual film sets. It also introduces the concept of media intervention, proposing that digital media works best when simply developed for deployment within a blended curriculum to inform learning activity, and where the media are specifically designed to set challenges, seed ideas, or illustrate problems. Machinima, digital films created in IVWs, or digital games offer a rich mechanism for delivering such interventions. Scenes are storyboarded, constructed, shot and edited using techniques similar to professional film production, drawing upon a cast of virtual world avatars controlled through a human–computer interface, rather than showing real-life actors. The approach enables academics or students to make films using screen capture software and desktop editing tools. In student-generated production models the learning value may be found in the production process itself. This paper discusses six case studies and several themes from research on ideas for educational machinima including: access to production; creativity in teaching and learning; media intervention methodology; production models; reusability; visualisation and simulation.

  11. Simulation based energy-resource efficient manufacturing integrated with in-process virtual management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katchasuwanmanee, Kanet; Cheng, Kai; Bateman, Richard

    2016-09-01

    As energy efficiency is one of the key essentials towards sustainability, the development of an energy-resource efficient manufacturing system is among the great challenges facing the current industry. Meanwhile, the availability of advanced technological innovation has created more complex manufacturing systems that involve a large variety of processes and machines serving different functions. To extend the limited knowledge on energy-efficient scheduling, the research presented in this paper attempts to model the production schedule at an operation process by considering the balance of energy consumption reduction in production, production work flow (productivity) and quality. An innovative systematic approach to manufacturing energy-resource efficiency is proposed with the virtual simulation as a predictive modelling enabler, which provides real-time manufacturing monitoring, virtual displays and decision-makings and consequentially an analytical and multidimensional correlation analysis on interdependent relationships among energy consumption, work flow and quality errors. The regression analysis results demonstrate positive relationships between the work flow and quality errors and the work flow and energy consumption. When production scheduling is controlled through optimization of work flow, quality errors and overall energy consumption, the energy-resource efficiency can be achieved in the production. Together, this proposed multidimensional modelling and analysis approach provides optimal conditions for the production scheduling at the manufacturing system by taking account of production quality, energy consumption and resource efficiency, which can lead to the key competitive advantages and sustainability of the system operations in the industry.

  12. Tool or Toy? Virtual Globes in Landscape Planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen R. J. Sheppard

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Virtual globes, i.e., geobrowsers that integrate multi-scale and temporal data from various sources and are based on a globe metaphor, have developed into serious tools that practitioners and various stakeholders in landscape and community planning have started using. Although these tools originate from Geographic Information Systems (GIS, they have become a different, potentially interactive and public tool set, with their own specific limitations and new opportunities. Expectations regarding their utility as planning and community engagement tools are high, but are tempered by both technical limitations and ethical issues [1,2]. Two grassroots campaigns and a collaborative visioning process, the Kimberley Climate Adaptation Project case study (British Columbia, illustrate and broaden our understanding of the potential benefits and limitations associated with the use of virtual globes in participatory planning initiatives. Based on observations, questionnaires and in-depth interviews with stakeholders and community members using an interactive 3D model of regional climate change vulnerabilities, potential impacts, and possible adaptation and mitigation scenarios in Kimberley, the benefits and limitations of virtual globes as a tool for participatory landscape planning are discussed. The findings suggest that virtual globes can facilitate access to geospatial information, raise awareness, and provide a more representative virtual landscape than static visualizations. However, landscape is not equally representative at all scales, and not all types of users seem to benefit equally from the tool. The risks of misinterpretation can be managed by integrating the application and interpretation of virtual globes into face-to-face planning processes.

  13. A Tutoring Wizard Guiding Tutorial Work in the Virtual University.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mittrach, Silke; Schlageter, Gunter

    The Virtual University is an Internet-based learning environment developed at the University of Hagen (Germany). Complex teaching activities based on new concepts integrating net-based communication and cooperation facilities take place in the Virtual University. Experiences show that there is a threshold, especially for tutors in non-computer…

  14. Virtual Agonist-antagonist Mechanisms Produce Biological Muscle-like Functions: An Application for Robot Joint Control

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xiong, Xiaofeng; Wörgötter, Florentin; Manoonpong, Poramate

    2014-01-01

    Purpose – Biological muscles of animals have a surprising variety of functions, i.e., struts, springs, and brakes. According to this, the purpose of this paper is to apply virtual agonist-antagonist mechanisms to robot joint control allowing for muscle-like functions and variably compliant joint......, variably compliant joint motions can be produced without mechanically bulky and complex mechanisms or complex force/toque sensing at each joint. Moreover, through tuning the damping coefficient of the VAAM, the functions of the VAAM are comparable to biological muscles. Originality/value – The model (i.......e., VAAM) provides a way forward to emulate muscle-like functions that are comparable to those found in physiological experiments of biological muscles. Based on these muscle-like functions, the robotic joints can easily achieve variable compliance that does not require complex physical components...

  15. Synthetic vision and memory model for virtual human - biomed 2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Yue; Kang, Jinsheng; Wright, David

    2010-01-01

    This paper describes the methods and case studies of a novel synthetic vision and memory model for virtual human. The synthetic vision module simulates the biological / optical abilities and limitations of the human vision. The module is based on a series of collision detection between the boundary of virtual humans field of vision (FOV) volume and the surface of objects in a recreated 3D environment. The memory module simulates a short-term memory capability by employing a simplified memory structure (first-in-first-out stack). The synthetic vision and memory model has been integrated into a virtual human modelling project, Intelligent Virtual Modelling. The project aimed to improve the realism and autonomy of virtual humans.

  16. Reconciling Virtual Classes with Genericity

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ernst, Erik

    2006-01-01

    is functional abstraction, yielding more precise knowledge about the outcome; the prime ex- ample is type parameterized classes. This paper argues that they should be clearly separated to work optimally. We have applied this design philosophy to a lan- guage based on an extension mechanism, namely virtual...... classes. As a result, a kind of type parameters have been introduced, but they are simple and only used where they excel. Conversely, final definitions of virtual classes have been re- moved from the language, thus making virtual classes more flexible. The result- ing language presents a clearer and more...

  17. Adler-Bardeen Theorem for the Axial Anomaly and the First Moment of the Polarized Virtual Photon Structure Function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ueda, Takahiro; Sasaki, Ken; Uematsu, Tsuneo

    2007-01-01

    The Adler-Bardeen theorem for the axial anomaly is extensively used to calculate the next-to-next-to-leading order (αα s 2 ) corrections to the first moment of the polarized virtual photon structure function g 1 γ (x,P 2 ,Q 2 )

  18. A VIRTUAL REALITY EXPOSURE THERAPY FOR PTSD PATIENTS CONTROLLED BY A FUZZY LOGIC SYSTEM

    OpenAIRE

    Rosa Maria Esteves Moreira da Costa; Fernando Moraes de Oliveira; Regina Serrão Lanzillotti; Raquel Gonçalves; Luis Alfredo Vidal de Carvalho

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes the main characteristics of two integrated systems that explore Virtual Reality technology and Fuzzy Logic to support and to control the assessment of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder during the Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy. The integration of different technologies, the development methodology and the test procedures are described throughout the paper.

  19. Virtual reality as a comprehensive learning tool; Realidad virtual como una herramienta de aprendizaje integral

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Perez Ramirez, Miguel [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca, Morelos (Mexico); Ontiveros Hernandez, Norma Josefina [Instituto Tecnologico de Zacatepec, Zacatepec, Morelos (Mexico)

    2011-07-01

    This article presents some of the experiences with developing systems based on non-immersive virtual reality (VR). It discusses the factors that make VR a tool for creating content and learning contexts so that instruction is more efficient. VR systems enable risk-free training even when activities involve high risks, such as procedures for maintenance of medium voltage power lines. In addition, these systems have been designed to record student progress, among other things. [Spanish] Se presentan aqui algunas experiencias en el desarrollo de sistemas basados en realidad virtual (RV) no inmersiva. Se discute acerca de los factores que hacen de la RV una herramienta para crear contenido y con textos de aprendizaje, de tal modo que la instruccion pueda ser mas eficiente. Los sistemas de RV permiten el entrenamiento sin riesgos, aun cuando las actividades involucradas sean de alto riesgo, como es el caso de los procedimientos de mantenimiento a lineas energizadas de media tension. Por otro lado, estos sistemas tambien han sido habilitados para registrar el progreso de los estudiantes, entre otras cosas.

  20. Mosco convergence of integral functionals and its applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tolstonogov, Aleksandr A

    2009-01-01

    Questions relating to the Mosco convergence of integral functionals defined on the space of square integrable functions taking values in a Hilbert space are investigated. The integrands of these functionals are time-dependent proper, convex, lower semicontinuous functions on the Hilbert space. The results obtained are applied to the analysis of the dependence on the parameter of solutions of evolution equations involving time-dependent subdifferential operators. For example a parabolic inclusion is considered, where the right-hand side contains a sum of the p-Laplacian and the subdifferential of the indicator function of a time-dependent closed convex set. The convergence as p→+∞ of solutions of this inclusion is investigated. Bibliography: 20 titles.

  1. Self-adaptive numerical integrator for analytic functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garribba, S.; Quartapelle, L.; Reina, G.

    1978-01-01

    A new adaptive algorithm for the integration of analytical functions is presented. The algorithm processes the integration interval by generating local subintervals whose length is controlled through a feedback loop. The control is obtained by means of a relation derived on an analytical basis and valid for an arbitrary integration rule: two different estimates of an integral are used to compute the interval length necessary to obtain an integral estimate with accuracy within the assigned error bounds. The implied method for local generation of subintervals and an effective assumption of error partition among subintervals give rise to an adaptive algorithm provided with a highly accurate and very efficient integration procedure. The particular algorithm obtained by choosing the 6-point Gauss-Legendre integration rule is considered and extensive comparisons are made with other outstanding integration algorithms

  2. VIRTUALIZATION TECHNICAL THINKING WITHIN THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Lis

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the possibilities of virtualization technical thinking within the information technology. This question expresses the need for virtualization of existing information systems to improve the conduct of business by the company. In resulting virtualization of the technical-computer thought on against existing needs of the functioning of 16-bit systems in 64-bit systems. Enables cost-effective use of excess capacity existing computing resources.

  3. δ'-function perturbations and Neumann boundary-conditions by path integration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grosche, C.

    1994-02-01

    δ'-function perturbations and Neumann boundary conditions are incorporated into the path integral formalism. The starting point is the consideration of the path integral representation for the one dimensional Dirac particle together with a relativistic point interaction. The non-relativistic limit yields either a usual δ-function or a δ'-function perturbation; making their strengths infinitely repulsive one obtains Dirichlet, respectively Neumann boundary conditions in the path integral. (orig.)

  4. Virtual manufacturing in reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papstel, Jyri; Saks, Alo

    2000-10-01

    SMEs play an important role in manufacturing industry. But from time to time there is a shortage in resources to complete the particular order in time. Number of systems is introduced to produce digital information in order to support product and process development activities. Main problem is lack of opportunity for direct data transition within design system modules when needed temporary extension of design capacity (virtuality) or to implement integrated concurrent product development principles. The planning experience in the field is weakly used as well. The concept of virtual manufacturing is a supporting idea to solve this problem. At the same time a number of practical problems should be solved like information conformity, data transfer, unified technological concepts acceptation etc. In the present paper the proposed ways to solve the practical problems of virtual manufacturing are described. General objective is to introduce the knowledge-based CAPP system as missing module for Virtual Manufacturing in the selected product domain. Surface-centered planning concept based on STEP- based modeling principles, and knowledge-based process planning methodology will be used to gain the objectives. As a result the planning module supplied by design data with direct access, and supporting advising environment is expected. Mould producing SME would be as test basis.

  5. Virtual goods recommendations in virtual worlds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Kuan-Yu; Liao, Hsiu-Yu; Chen, Jyun-Hung; Liu, Duen-Ren

    2015-01-01

    Virtual worlds (VWs) are computer-simulated environments which allow users to create their own virtual character as an avatar. With the rapidly growing user volume in VWs, platform providers launch virtual goods in haste and stampede users to increase sales revenue. However, the rapidity of development incurs virtual unrelated items which will be difficult to remarket. It not only wastes virtual global companies' intelligence resources, but also makes it difficult for users to find suitable virtual goods fit for their virtual home in daily virtual life. In the VWs, users decorate their houses, visit others' homes, create families, host parties, and so forth. Users establish their social life circles through these activities. This research proposes a novel virtual goods recommendation method based on these social interactions. The contact strength and contact influence result from interactions with social neighbors and influence users' buying intention. Our research highlights the importance of social interactions in virtual goods recommendation. The experiment's data were retrieved from an online VW platform, and the results show that the proposed method, considering social interactions and social life circle, has better performance than existing recommendation methods.

  6. Virtualization in control system environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen, L.R.; Liu, D.K.; Wan, T.M.

    2012-01-01

    In large scale distributed control system, there are lots of common service composed an environment for the entire control system, such as the server system for the common software base library, application server, archive server and so on. This paper gives a description of a virtualization realization for control system environment including the virtualization for server, storage, network system and application for the control system. With a virtualization instance of the EPICS based control system environment that was built by the VMware vSphere v4, we tested the whole functionality of this virtualization environment in the SSRF control system, including the common server of the NFS, NIS, NTP, Boot and EPICS base and extension library tools, we also have applied virtualization to application servers such as the Archive, Alarm, EPICS gateway and all of the network based IOC. Specially, we test the high availability and VMotion for EPICS asynchronous IOC successful under the different VLAN configuration of the current SSRF control system network. (authors)

  7. A framework for organizing cancer-related variations from existing databases, publications and NGS data using a High-performance Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Tsung-Jung; Shamsaddini, Amirhossein; Pan, Yang; Smith, Krista; Crichton, Daniel J; Simonyan, Vahan; Mazumder, Raja

    2014-01-01

    Years of sequence feature curation by UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot, PIR-PSD, NCBI-CDD, RefSeq and other database biocurators has led to a rich repository of information on functional sites of genes and proteins. This information along with variation-related annotation can be used to scan human short sequence reads from next-generation sequencing (NGS) pipelines for presence of non-synonymous single-nucleotide variations (nsSNVs) that affect functional sites. This and similar workflows are becoming more important because thousands of NGS data sets are being made available through projects such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and researchers want to evaluate their biomarkers in genomic data. BioMuta, an integrated sequence feature database, provides a framework for automated and manual curation and integration of cancer-related sequence features so that they can be used in NGS analysis pipelines. Sequence feature information in BioMuta is collected from the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC), ClinVar, UniProtKB and through biocuration of information available from publications. Additionally, nsSNVs identified through automated analysis of NGS data from TCGA are also included in the database. Because of the petabytes of data and information present in NGS primary repositories, a platform HIVE (High-performance Integrated Virtual Environment) for storing, analyzing, computing and curating NGS data and associated metadata has been developed. Using HIVE, 31 979 nsSNVs were identified in TCGA-derived NGS data from breast cancer patients. All variations identified through this process are stored in a Curated Short Read archive, and the nsSNVs from the tumor samples are included in BioMuta. Currently, BioMuta has 26 cancer types with 13 896 small-scale and 308 986 large-scale study-derived variations. Integration of variation data allows identifications of novel or common nsSNVs that can be prioritized in validation studies. Database URL: BioMuta: http

  8. Designing Shared Virtual Reality Gaming Experiences in Local Multi-platform Games

    OpenAIRE

    Liszio , Stefan; Masuch , Maic

    2016-01-01

    Part 4: Short Papers; International audience; Designing multiplayer virtual reality games is a challenging task since immersion is easily destroyed by real world influences. However, providing fun and social virtual reality experiences is inevitable for establishing virtual reality gaming as a convincing new medium. We propose a design approach to integrate social interactions into the game design while retaining immersion, and present design methods to implement this approach. Furthermore, w...

  9. Market Integration of Virtual Power Plants

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Mette Kirschmeyer

    increasingly challenging due to the intrinsic variability of production technologies such as photovoltaics and wind turbines. In a Smart Grid system the balancing task will therefore be handled by mobilizing flexibility on the consumption side. This Thesis assumes that the Smart Grid should be commercially......Global efforts to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide drives the introduction of renewable power production technologies into the existing power system. The real-time balance between production and consumption must, however, still be maintained at all times. Unfortunately, this is becoming....... It does however significantly sharpen the discussion of the flexibility concept and provides a categorization of flexible systems. This Thesis also investigates what value can be created from the different types of flexibility by assuming that the Virtual Power Plant will generate profit by trading...

  10. Multi-viewpoint Image Array Virtual Viewpoint Rapid Generation Algorithm Based on Image Layering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Lu; Piao, Yan

    2018-04-01

    The use of multi-view image array combined with virtual viewpoint generation technology to record 3D scene information in large scenes has become one of the key technologies for the development of integrated imaging. This paper presents a virtual viewpoint rendering method based on image layering algorithm. Firstly, the depth information of reference viewpoint image is quickly obtained. During this process, SAD is chosen as the similarity measure function. Then layer the reference image and calculate the parallax based on the depth information. Through the relative distance between the virtual viewpoint and the reference viewpoint, the image layers are weighted and panned. Finally the virtual viewpoint image is rendered layer by layer according to the distance between the image layers and the viewer. This method avoids the disadvantages of the algorithm DIBR, such as high-precision requirements of depth map and complex mapping operations. Experiments show that, this algorithm can achieve the synthesis of virtual viewpoints in any position within 2×2 viewpoints range, and the rendering speed is also very impressive. The average result proved that this method can get satisfactory image quality. The average SSIM value of the results relative to real viewpoint images can reaches 0.9525, the PSNR value can reaches 38.353 and the image histogram similarity can reaches 93.77%.

  11. Conceptual design of the Virtual Engineering System for High Level Radioactive Waste Geological Disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-06-01

    The Virtual Engineering System for the High Level Radioactive Waste Geological Disposal (hereafter the VE) adopts such computer science technologies as advanced numerical simulation technology with special emphasis upon computer graphics, massive parallel computing, high speed networking, knowledge engineering, database technology to virtually construct the natural and the part of social environment of disposal site in syberspace to realize the disposal OS as its final target. The principle of tile VE is to provide for a firm business standpoint after The 2000 Report by JNC and supply decision support system which promotes various evaluations needed to be done from the year of 2000 to the licensing application for disposal to the government. The VE conceptual design was performed in the year of 1998. The functions of the VE are derived from the analysis of work scope of implementing organization in each step of geological waste disposal: the VE functions need the safety performance assessment, individual process analysis, facility designing, cost evaluation, site surveillance, research and development, public acceptance. Then the above functions are materialized by integrating such individual system as geology database, groundwater database, safety performance assessment system, coupled phenomena analysis system, decision support system, cost evaluation system, and public acceptance system. The integration method of the systems was studied. The concept of the integration of simulators has also been studied from the view point of CAPASA program. Parallel computing, networking, and computer graphic for high speed massive scientific calculation were studied in detail as the element technology to achieve the VE. Based on studies stated above, the concept of the waste disposal project and subjects that arise from 1999 to licensing application are decided. (author)

  12. Simulacra and virtualization technologies in information society

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vadim A. Emelin

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available In this paper virtualization and simulation technologies in the context of higher mental functions in information society are observed. The category of “simulacrum” considered within the representative model (Plato and unrepresentative model (Deleuze, Baudrillard is considered as a key factor for the theoretical analysis of virtual reality. Virtual reality is described as a space of simulacra, special signs that, unlike signs-copies do not fix any similarity, but fix dissimilarity with reference reality generating a sequence of simulations. A problem of subjectivity is highlighted, containing the merger of the subject and simulacrum in virtual reality. Thus, staying in a real world physically, the subject transits into a virtual world mentally. There it is endowed by a new virtual body, that has nothing in common with the subject’s corporeality. There are traps for technological simulacra related to the development of phantom reality and to the possibilities of combining virtual and true reality. Nowadays, technologies are becoming such power that is capable if erasing the border between a signifier and the signified. “Virtual” events play the leading role in information space. However, they generate real consequences, again acquiring real reflections and making an endless chain of switches between the real and the virtual events. As an example of destructive simulation, the use of virtual technologies for conducting military actions or for creating and promoting news events in mass media is given. It is stated that have become an inseparable part of cultural and historical reality of information society. It is indistinguishability of virtual and real entity that is defined as a reason of transformational processes of not only the identity but also of higher mental functions.

  13. A VIRTUAL REALITY EXPOSURE THERAPY FOR PTSD PATIENTS CONTROLLED BY A FUZZY LOGIC SYSTEM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosa Maria Esteves Moreira da Costa

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the main characteristics of two integrated systems that explore Virtual Reality technology and Fuzzy Logic to support and to control the assessment of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder during the Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy. The integration of different technologies, the development methodology and the test procedures are described throughout the paper.

  14. A virtual reality exposure therapy for PTSD patients controlled by a fuzzy logic system

    OpenAIRE

    Oliveira, F. M.; Lanzillotti, R. S.; Da Costa, R. M. E. M.; Gonçalves, R.; Ventura, P.; Carvalho, L. A. V. de

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes the main characteristics of two integrated systems that explore Virtual Reality technology and Fuzzy Logic to support and to control the assessment of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder during the Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy. The integration of different technologies, the development methodology and the test procedures are described throughout the paper. Peer Reviewed

  15. Rapid prototyping 3D virtual world interfaces within a virtual factory environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kosta, Charles Paul; Krolak, Patrick D.

    1993-01-01

    On-going work into user requirements analysis using CLIPS (NASA/JSC) expert systems as an intelligent event simulator has led to research into three-dimensional (3D) interfaces. Previous work involved CLIPS and two-dimensional (2D) models. Integral to this work was the development of the University of Massachusetts Lowell parallel version of CLIPS, called PCLIPS. This allowed us to create both a Software Bus and a group problem-solving environment for expert systems development. By shifting the PCLIPS paradigm to use the VEOS messaging protocol we have merged VEOS (HlTL/Seattle) and CLIPS into a distributed virtual worlds prototyping environment (VCLIPS). VCLIPS uses the VEOS protocol layer to allow multiple experts to cooperate on a single problem. We have begun to look at the control of a virtual factory. In the virtual factory there are actors and objects as found in our Lincoln Logs Factory of the Future project. In this artificial reality architecture there are three VCLIPS entities in action. One entity is responsible for display and user events in the 3D virtual world. Another is responsible for either simulating the virtual factory or communicating with the real factory. The third is a user interface expert. The interface expert maps user input levels, within the current prototype, to control information for the factory. The interface to the virtual factory is based on a camera paradigm. The graphics subsystem generates camera views of the factory on standard X-Window displays. The camera allows for view control and object control. Control or the factory is accomplished by the user reaching into the camera views to perform object interactions. All communication between the separate CLIPS expert systems is done through VEOS.

  16. Lectures on functional analysis and the Lebesgue integral

    CERN Document Server

    Komornik, Vilmos

    2016-01-01

    This textbook, based on three series of lectures held by the author at the University of Strasbourg, presents functional analysis in a non-traditional way by generalizing elementary theorems of plane geometry to spaces of arbitrary dimension. This approach leads naturally to the basic notions and theorems. Most results are illustrated by the small ℓp spaces. The Lebesgue integral, meanwhile, is treated via the direct approach of Frigyes Riesz, whose constructive definition of measurable functions leads to optimal, clear-cut versions of the classical theorems of Fubini-Tonelli and Radon-Nikodým. Lectures on Functional Analysis and the Lebesgue Integral presents the most important topics for students, with short, elegant proofs. The exposition style follows the Hungarian mathematical tradition of Paul Erdős and others. The order of the first two parts, functional analysis and the Lebesgue integral, may be reversed. In the third and final part they are combined to study various spaces of continuous and integ...

  17. Work in the virtual enterprise-creating identities, building trust, and sharing knowledge

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Lauge Baungaard; Wangel, Arne

    2006-01-01

    for an exploratory, sociotechnical research approach combining the dimensions of context, subject and action with the twin objectives of contributing to the enhancement of collaborative capabilities in virtual teams as well as improving the insights into the nature of virtual work....... of the network must be integrated across the barriers of missing face-to-face clues and cultural differences. The social integration of the virtual network involves the creation of identities of the participating nodes, the building of trust between them, and the sharing of tacit and explicit knowledge among...... them. The conventional organisation already doing well in these areas seems to have an edge when going virtual. The paper argues that the whole question of management and control must be reconsidered due to the particular circumstances in the ‘Network Society’. The paper outlines a suggestion...

  18. Virtual drug discovery: beyond computational chemistry?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilardoni, Francois; Arvanites, Anthony C

    2010-02-01

    This editorial looks at how a fully integrated structure that performs all aspects in the drug discovery process, under one company, is slowly disappearing. The steps in the drug discovery paradigm have been slowly increasing toward virtuality or outsourcing at various phases of product development in a company's candidate pipeline. Each step in the process, such as target identification and validation and medicinal chemistry, can be managed by scientific teams within a 'virtual' company. Pharmaceutical companies to biotechnology start-ups have been quick in adopting this new research and development business strategy in order to gain flexibility, access the best technologies and technical expertise, and decrease product developmental costs. In today's financial climate, the term virtual drug discovery has an organizational meaning. It represents the next evolutionary step in outsourcing drug development.

  19. Research on virtual Guzheng based on Kinect

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shuyao; Xu, Kuangyi; Zhang, Heng

    2018-05-01

    There are a lot of researches on virtual instruments, but there are few on classical Chinese instruments, and the techniques used are very limited. This paper uses Unity 3D and Kinect camera combined with virtual reality technology and gesture recognition method to design a virtual playing system of Guzheng, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, with demonstration function. In this paper, the real scene obtained by Kinect camera is fused with virtual Guzheng in Unity 3D. The depth data obtained by Kinect and the Suzuki85 algorithm are used to recognize the relative position of the user's right hand and the virtual Guzheng, and the hand gesture of the user is recognized by Kinect.

  20. Virtual Sensor Test Instrumentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Roy

    2011-01-01

    Virtual Sensor Test Instrumentation is based on the concept of smart sensor technology for testing with intelligence needed to perform sell-diagnosis of health, and to participate in a hierarchy of health determination at sensor, process, and system levels. A virtual sensor test instrumentation consists of five elements: (1) a common sensor interface, (2) microprocessor, (3) wireless interface, (4) signal conditioning and ADC/DAC (analog-to-digital conversion/ digital-to-analog conversion), and (5) onboard EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) for metadata storage and executable software to create powerful, scalable, reconfigurable, and reliable embedded and distributed test instruments. In order to maximize the efficient data conversion through the smart sensor node, plug-and-play functionality is required to interface with traditional sensors to enhance their identity and capabilities for data processing and communications. Virtual sensor test instrumentation can be accessible wirelessly via a Network Capable Application Processor (NCAP) or a Smart Transducer Interlace Module (STIM) that may be managed under real-time rule engines for mission-critical applications. The transducer senses the physical quantity being measured and converts it into an electrical signal. The signal is fed to an A/D converter, and is ready for use by the processor to execute functional transformation based on the sensor characteristics stored in a Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS). Virtual sensor test instrumentation is built upon an open-system architecture with standardized protocol modules/stacks to interface with industry standards and commonly used software. One major benefit for deploying the virtual sensor test instrumentation is the ability, through a plug-and-play common interface, to convert raw sensor data in either analog or digital form, to an IEEE 1451 standard-based smart sensor, which has instructions to program sensors for a wide variety of

  1. Effect of a rehabilitation program using virtual reality for balance and functionality of chronic stroke patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wagner Henrique Souza Silva

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available AbstractThis study aimed to investigate the effect of a rehabilitation program using virtual reality (VR in addition to conventional therapy for improvement of balance (BERG scale and functional independence (FIM scale in chronic stroke patients. Ten individuals, mean age of 51.4 (± 6.7 years, participated of eight 60-minute sessions comprising kinesiotherapy (15min, Nintendo Wii (30min and Learning transfer (15min exercises. After training, nonparametric statistical analysis showed significant improvement in total FIM (p= .01 and BERG scores (p= .00, and in some of their subitems: FIM - dressing lower body (p= .01, transfer to bathtub/shower (p= .02 and locomotion: stairs (p= .03; BERG - reaching forward with outstretched arm (p= .01, retrieving object from the floor (p= .04, turning 360º (p= .01, placing alternate foot on step (p≤ .01, standing with one foot in front (p= .01, and one leg stand (p= .03. These findings suggest a positive influence of virtual reality exercises adjunct to conventional therapy on rehabilitation of balance and functionality post stroke, and indicate the feasibility of the proposed VR-based rehabilitation program.

  2. Phase-space path-integral calculation of the Wigner function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samson, J H

    2003-01-01

    The Wigner function W(q, p) is formulated as a phase-space path integral, whereby its sign oscillations can be seen to follow from interference between the geometrical phases of the paths. The approach has similarities to the path-centroid method in the configuration-space path integral. Paths can be classified by the midpoint of their ends; short paths where the midpoint is close to (q, p) and which lie in regions of low energy (low P function of the Hamiltonian) will dominate, and the enclosed area will determine the sign of the Wigner function. As a demonstration, the method is applied to a sequence of density matrices interpolating between a Poissonian number distribution and a number state, each member of which can be represented exactly by a discretized path integral with a finite number of vertices. Saddle-point evaluation of these integrals recovers (up to a constant factor) the WKB approximation to the Wigner function of a number state

  3. Realistic terrain visualization based on 3D virtual world technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Fengru; Lin, Hui; Chen, Bin; Xiao, Cai

    2010-11-01

    The rapid advances in information technologies, e.g., network, graphics processing, and virtual world, have provided challenges and opportunities for new capabilities in information systems, Internet applications, and virtual geographic environments, especially geographic visualization and collaboration. In order to achieve meaningful geographic capabilities, we need to explore and understand how these technologies can be used to construct virtual geographic environments to help to engage geographic research. The generation of three-dimensional (3D) terrain plays an important part in geographical visualization, computer simulation, and virtual geographic environment applications. The paper introduces concepts and technologies of virtual worlds and virtual geographic environments, explores integration of realistic terrain and other geographic objects and phenomena of natural geographic environment based on SL/OpenSim virtual world technologies. Realistic 3D terrain visualization is a foundation of construction of a mirror world or a sand box model of the earth landscape and geographic environment. The capabilities of interaction and collaboration on geographic information are discussed as well. Further virtual geographic applications can be developed based on the foundation work of realistic terrain visualization in virtual environments.

  4. Modeling Dynamic Perceptual Attention in Complex Virtual Environments

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Kim, Youngjun; van Velsen, Martin; Hill, Jr, Randall W

    2005-01-01

    An important characteristic of a virtual human is the ability to direct its perceptual attention to entities and areas in a virtual environment in a manner that appears believable and serves a functional purpose...

  5. Virtual reality 3D echocardiography in the assessment of tricuspid valve function after surgical closure of ventricular septal defect

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    G. Bol-Raap (Goris); A.H.J. Koning (Anton); T.V. Scohy (Thierry); A.D.J. ten Harkel (Arend); F.J. Meijboom (Folkert); A.P. Kappetein (Arie Pieter); P.J. van der Spek (Peter); A.J.J.C. Bogers (Ad)

    2007-01-01

    textabstractBackground. This study was done to investigate the potential additional role of virtual reality, using three-dimensional (3D) echocardiographic holograms, in the postoperative assessment of tricuspid valve function after surgical closure of ventricular septal defect (VSD). Methods. 12

  6. Virtual marketing in virtual enterprises

    OpenAIRE

    Ale Ebrahim, Nader; Fattahi, Hamaid Ali; Golnam, Arash

    2008-01-01

    Virtualization caused tremendous evolution in the economics of marketing channels, patterns of physical distribution and the structure of distributors and developed a new concept that is known as virtual marketing (VM). VM combines the powerful technologies of interactive marketing and virtual reality. Virtual enterprise (VE) refers to an organization not having a clear physical locus. In other words, VE is an organization distributed geographically and whose work is coordinated through e...

  7. Gene2Function: An Integrated Online Resource for Gene Function Discovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yanhui Hu

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available One of the most powerful ways to develop hypotheses regarding the biological functions of conserved genes in a given species, such as humans, is to first look at what is known about their function in another species. Model organism databases and other resources are rich with functional information but difficult to mine. Gene2Function addresses a broad need by integrating information about conserved genes in a single online resource.

  8. Virtual Presenters: Towards Interactive Virtual Presentations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijholt, Antinus; Cappellini, V.; Hemsley, J.

    2005-01-01

    We discuss having virtual presenters in virtual environments that present information to visitors of these environments. Some current research is surveyed and we will look in particular to our research in the context of a virtual meeting room where a virtual presenter uses speech, gestures, pointing

  9. Asymmetric training using virtual reality reflection equipment and the enhancement of upper limb function in stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, DongJin; Lee, MyungMo; Lee, KyoungJin; Song, ChangHo

    2014-07-01

    Asymmetric movements with both hands contributed to the improvement of spatially coupled motion. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of an asymmetric training program using virtual reality reflection equipment on upper limb function in stroke patients. Twenty-four stroke patients were randomly allocated to an experimental group (n=12) or a control group (n=12). Both groups participated in conventional physical therapy for 2×30 min/d, 5 d/wk, for 4 weeks. The experimental group also participated in an asymmetric training program using virtual reality reflection equipment, and the control group participated in a symmetric training program. Both asymmetric and symmetric programs were conducted for 30 min/d, 5 d/wk, for 4 weeks. To compare upper limb function before and after intervention, the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), the Box and Block Test (BBT), grip strength, range of motion (ROM), and spasticity were assessed. Both groups showed significant increases in upper limb function, excepting spasticity, after intervention (Pinteraction was demonstrated only for shoulder/elbow/wrist items of FMA, BBT, grip strength, and ROM of wrist flexion, extension, and ulnar deviation (Pvirtual reality reflection equipment is an effective intervention method for improving upper limb function in stroke patients. We consider that an additional study based on a program using virtual reflection, which is more functional than performing simple tasks, and consisting of tasks relevant to the activities of daily living be conducted. Copyright © 2014 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. WebVR: an interactive web browser for virtual environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barsoum, Emad; Kuester, Falko

    2005-03-01

    The pervasive nature of web-based content has lead to the development of applications and user interfaces that port between a broad range of operating systems and databases, while providing intuitive access to static and time-varying information. However, the integration of this vast resource into virtual environments has remained elusive. In this paper we present an implementation of a 3D Web Browser (WebVR) that enables the user to search the internet for arbitrary information and to seamlessly augment this information into virtual environments. WebVR provides access to the standard data input and query mechanisms offered by conventional web browsers, with the difference that it generates active texture-skins of the web contents that can be mapped onto arbitrary surfaces within the environment. Once mapped, the corresponding texture functions as a fully integrated web-browser that will respond to traditional events such as the selection of links or text input. As a result, any surface within the environment can be turned into a web-enabled resource that provides access to user-definable data. In order to leverage from the continuous advancement of browser technology and to support both static as well as streamed content, WebVR uses ActiveX controls to extract the desired texture skin from industry strength browsers, providing a unique mechanism for data fusion and extensibility.

  11. World Wind: NASA's Virtual Globe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hogan, P.

    2007-12-01

    infrastructure. The open-source community plays a crucial role in advancing virtual globe technology. This world community identifies, tracks and resolves technical problems, suggests new features and source code modifications, and often provides high-resolution data sets and other types of user-generated content, all while extending the functionality of virtual globe technology. NASA World Wind is one example of open source virtual globe technology that provides the world with the ability to build any desired functionality and make any desired data accessible.

  12. Getting a handle on virtual tools: An examination of the neuronal activity associated with virtual tool use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rallis, Austin; Fercho, Kelene A; Bosch, Taylor J; Baugh, Lee A

    2018-01-31

    Tool use is associated with three visual streams-dorso-dorsal, ventro-dorsal, and ventral visual streams. These streams are involved in processing online motor planning, action semantics, and tool semantics features, respectively. Little is known about the way in which the brain represents virtual tools. To directly assess this question, a virtual tool paradigm was created that provided the ability to manipulate tool components in isolation of one another. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), adult participants performed a series of virtual tool manipulation tasks in which vision and movement kinematics of the tool were manipulated. Reaction time and hand movement direction were monitored while the tasks were performed. Functional imaging revealed that activity within all three visual streams was present, in a similar pattern to what would be expected with physical tool use. However, a previously unreported network of right-hemisphere activity was found including right inferior parietal lobule, middle and superior temporal gyri and supramarginal gyrus - regions well known to be associated with tool processing within the left hemisphere. These results provide evidence that both virtual and physical tools are processed within the same brain regions, though virtual tools recruit bilateral tool processing regions to a greater extent than physical tools. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Research and Progress on Virtual Cloud Laboratory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Jian Wei

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, cloud computing technology has experienced continuous development and improvement, and has gradually expanded to the education sector. First, this paper will introduce the background knowledge of the current virtual cloud laboratory; by comparing the advantages and disadvantages between traditional laboratory and virtual cloud laboratory, and comparing the application, advantages and disadvantages, and development trend of OpenStack technology and VMWare technology in safety, performance, design, function, use case, and value of virtual cloud laboratory, this paper concludes that application based on OpenStack virtual cloud laboratory in universities and research institutes and other departments is essential.

  14. Modularization, inter-functional integration and operational performance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Boer, Henrike Engele Elisabeth; Boer, Harry

    2014-01-01

    for firms to indeed use product modularity beneficially, in particular inter-functional integration between manufacturing and purchasing, design and sales, respectively. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the direct performance effects of modularization, as well as the mediating effects of the three...... forms of integration in the modularization-performance relationship....

  15. BIOCHEMISTRY IN THE SPECIALTY IN VISUAL FUNCTION, AND VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS IN THE CICS UMA-IPN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Blanca Elisa Pérez-Magaña

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The higher education and postgraduate in Mexico." delivered at the National Polytechnic Institute is located in a period of constant modification and sustained that has led to the creation of new pedagogical proposals aimed at the promotion of learning emphasizing virtual education. The development of ICT (Information Technologies and Communication in the last few years has favored the emergence and consolidation of degrees, diplomas, Specialties, Master's Degrees among other, using the distance learning based on a web environment. This work analyzes the importance that had the Biochemistry course taught in the specialty of Visual Function in the CICS and UMA that allowed both to the students as the teachers try to virtually eliminate the disadvantages theoretical to traditional teaching. The results obtained in addition to the skills and competences acquired the students were highly successful, and it is hoped to be able to continue implementing such environments in other specialties and master's degrees.

  16. Integration of Information Technologies in Enterprise Application Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iulia SURUGIU

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Healthcare enterprises are disconnected. In the era of integrated information systems and Internet explosion, the necessity of information systems integration reside from business process evolution, on the one hand, and from information technology tendencies, on the other hand. In order to become more efficient and adaptive to change, healthcare organizations are tremendously preoccupied of business process automation, flexibility and complexity. The need of information systems integration arise from these goals, explaining, at the same time, the special interest in EAI. Extensible software integration architectures and business orientation of process modeling and information systems functionalities, the same as open-connectivity, accessibility and virtualization lead to most suitable integration solutions: SOA and BPM architectural styles in a cloud computing environment.

  17. Virtual learning networks for sustainable development

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Kraker, Joop; Cörvers, Ron

    2010-01-01

    Sustainable development is a participatory, multi-actor process. In this process, learning plays a major role as participants have to exchange and integrate a diversity of perspectives and types of knowledge and expertise in order to arrive at innovative, jointly supported solutions. Virtual

  18. Analytical evaluation of integrals over Coulomb wave functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nesbet, R.K.

    1988-01-01

    Indefinite integrals of products of Coulomb wave functions over the interval (r, ∞) can be evaluated by conversion to continued fractions. Examples are given of normalization and dipole transition integrals required in photoionization calculations. (orig.)

  19. Virtualized endoscope system. An application of virtual reality technology to diagnostic aid

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, Kensaku; Urano, Akihiro; Toriwaki, Jun-ichiro; Hasegawa, Jun-ichi; Anno, Hirofumi; Katada, Kazuhiro.

    1996-01-01

    In this paper we propose a new medical image processing system called 'Virtualized Endoscope System (VES)', which can examine the inside of a virtualized human body. The virtualized human body is a 3-D digital image which is taken by such as X-ray CT scanner or MRI scanner. VES consists of three modules; (1) imaging, (2) segmentation and reconstruction and (3) interactive operation. The interactive operation module has following three major functions; (a) display of, (b) measurement from, and (c) manipulation to the virtualized human body. The user of the system can observe freely both the inside and the outside of a target organ from any point and any direction freely, and can perform necessary measurement interactively concerning angle and length at any time during observation. VES enables to observe repeatedly an area where the real endoscope can not enter without pain from any direction which the real endoscope can not. We applied this system to real 3-D X-ray CT images and obtained good result. (author)

  20. FUNPACK-2, Subroutine Library, Bessel Function, Elliptical Integrals, Min-max Approximation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cody, W.J.; Garbow, Burton S.

    1975-01-01

    1 - Description of problem or function: FUNPACK is a collection of FORTRAN subroutines to evaluate certain special functions. The individual subroutines are (Identification/Description): NATSI0 F2I0 Bessel function I 0 ; NATSI1 F2I1 Bessel function I 1 ; NATSJ0 F2J0 Bessel function J 0 ; NATSJ1 F2J1 Bessel function J 1 ; NATSK0 F2K0 Bessel function K 0 ; NATSK1 F2K1 Bessel function K 1 ; NATSBESY F2BY Bessel function Y ν ; DAW F1DW Dawson's integral; DELIPK F1EK Complete elliptic integral of the first kind; DELIPE F1EE Complete elliptic integral of the second kind; DEI F1EI Exponential integrals; NATSPSI F2PS Psi (logarithmic derivative of gamma function); MONERR F1MO Error monitoring package . 2 - Method of solution: FUNPACK uses evaluation of min-max approximations

  1. Microsurgery Simulator of Cerebral Aneurysm Clipping with Interactive Cerebral Deformation Featuring a Virtual Arachnoid.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shono, Naoyuki; Kin, Taichi; Nomura, Seiji; Miyawaki, Satoru; Saito, Toki; Imai, Hideaki; Nakatomi, Hirofumi; Oyama, Hiroshi; Saito, Nobuhito

    2018-05-01

    A virtual reality simulator for aneurysmal clipping surgery is an attractive research target for neurosurgeons. Brain deformation is one of the most important functionalities necessary for an accurate clipping simulator and is vastly affected by the status of the supporting tissue, such as the arachnoid membrane. However, no virtual reality simulator implementing the supporting tissue of the brain has yet been developed. To develop a virtual reality clipping simulator possessing interactive brain deforming capability closely dependent on arachnoid dissection and apply it to clinical cases. Three-dimensional computer graphics models of cerebral tissue and surrounding structures were extracted from medical images. We developed a new method for modifiable cerebral tissue complex deformation by incorporating a nonmedical image-derived virtual arachnoid/trabecula in a process called multitissue integrated interactive deformation (MTIID). MTIID made it possible for cerebral tissue complexes to selectively deform at the site of dissection. Simulations for 8 cases of actual clipping surgery were performed before surgery and evaluated for their usefulness in surgical approach planning. Preoperatively, each operative field was precisely reproduced and visualized with the virtual brain retraction defined by users. The clear visualization of the optimal approach to treating the aneurysm via an appropriate arachnoid incision was possible with MTIID. A virtual clipping simulator mainly focusing on supporting tissues and less on physical properties seemed to be useful in the surgical simulation of cerebral aneurysm clipping. To our knowledge, this article is the first to report brain deformation based on supporting tissues.

  2. Virtual reality in the operating room of the future.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Müller, W; Grosskopf, S; Hildebrand, A; Malkewitz, R; Ziegler, R

    1997-01-01

    In cooperation with the Max-Delbrück-Centrum/Robert-Rössle-Klinik (MDC/RRK) in Berlin, the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics is currently designing and developing a scenario for the operating room of the future. The goal of this project is to integrate new analysis, visualization and interaction tools in order to optimize and refine tumor diagnostics and therapy in combination with laser technology and remote stereoscopic video transfer. Hence, a human 3-D reference model is reconstructed using CT, MR, and anatomical cryosection images from the National Library of Medicine's Visible Human Project. Applying segmentation algorithms and surface-polygonization methods a 3-D representation is obtained. In addition, a "fly-through" the virtual patient is realized using 3-D input devices (data glove, tracking system, 6-DOF mouse). In this way, the surgeon can experience really new perspectives of the human anatomy. Moreover, using a virtual cutting plane any cut of the CT volume can be interactively placed and visualized in realtime. In conclusion, this project delivers visions for the application of effective visualization and VR systems. Commonly known as Virtual Prototyping and applied by the automotive industry long ago, this project shows, that the use of VR techniques can also prototype an operating room. After evaluating design and functionality of the virtual operating room, MDC plans to build real ORs in the near future. The use of VR techniques provides a more natural interface for the surgeon in the OR (e.g., controlling interactions by voice input). Besides preoperative planning future work will focus on supporting the surgeon in performing surgical interventions. An optimal synthesis of real and synthetic data, and the inclusion of visual, aural, and tactile senses in virtual environments can meet these requirements. This Augmented Reality could represent the environment for the surgeons of tomorrow.

  3. Continuous imaging space in three-dimensional integral imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Lei; Yang Yong; Wang Jin-Gang; Zhao Xing; Fang Zhi-Liang; Yuan Xiao-Cong

    2013-01-01

    We report an integral imaging method with continuous imaging space. This method simultaneously reconstructs real and virtual images in the virtual mode, with a minimum gap that separates the entire imaging space into real and virtual space. Experimental results show that the gap is reduced to 45% of that in a conventional integral imaging system with the same parameters. (electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics)

  4. Play with online virtual pets as a method to improve mirror neuron and real world functioning in autistic children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altschuler, Eric Lewin

    2008-01-01

    Autism is a severe disease with no known cause and no cure or treatment. Recently, ourselves and subsequently others found that so-called "mirror neurons" - neurons that respond not only when a person moves, but upon observation of movement in another - are dysfunctional in autistic children. Here I suggest an easy, simple, inexpensive and fun method to improve mirror neuron functioning in autistic children, increase appreciation in autistic children for the theory of mind and thinking of others, and most importantly hopefully to improve real world functioning: play with virtual online pets that are the "embodiment" of a stuffed animal the child has. Adoption and then care and play with online pets forces, in a fun way, one to think about the world through the eyes and needs of the pet. A simple method to test this play with online virtual pet therapy is described.

  5. Algoritmo del murciélago virtual en el desarrollo de la Integral de Duhamel para sistemas estructurales con un grado de libertad

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergio Vanegas

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available En este artículo se propone el uso del algoritmo de optimización de murciélagos virtuales para resolver la Integral de Duhamel en sistemas dinámicos con un grado de libertad. Se desarrollaron ejercicios a titulo demostrativo, para el cálculo de máximos globales. Los resultados fueron muy comparables, tanto en precisión, como en exactitud frente a aquellos obtenidos por otros métodos de cálculo. Se utilizó igualmente el acelerograma del sismo de Chile (2010, para el que se reporta la respuesta dinámica y el desplazamiento máximo. Se variaron para estos ejemplos la cantidad de murciélagos virtuales notándose su influencia sobre el tiempo de computación.

  6. Virtual reality 3D echocardiography in the assessment of tricuspid valve function after surgical closure of ventricular septal defect

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kappetein A Pieter

    2007-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background This study was done to investigate the potential additional role of virtual reality, using three-dimensional (3D echocardiographic holograms, in the postoperative assessment of tricuspid valve function after surgical closure of ventricular septal defect (VSD. Methods 12 data sets from intraoperative epicardial echocardiographic studies in 5 operations (patient age at operation 3 weeks to 4 years and bodyweight at operation 3.8 to 17.2 kg after surgical closure of VSD were included in the study. The data sets were analysed as two-dimensional (2D images on the screen of the ultrasound system as well as holograms in an I-space virtual reality (VR system. The 2D images were assessed for tricuspid valve function. In the I-Space, a 6 degrees-of-freedom controller was used to create the necessary projectory positions and cutting planes in the hologram. The holograms were used for additional assessment of tricuspid valve leaflet mobility. Results All data sets could be used for 2D as well as holographic analysis. In all data sets the area of interest could be identified. The 2D analysis showed no tricuspid valve stenosis or regurgitation. Leaflet mobility was considered normal. In the virtual reality of the I-Space, all data sets allowed to assess the tricuspid leaflet level in a single holographic representation. In 3 holograms the septal leaflet showed restricted mobility that was not appreciated in the 2D echocardiogram. In 4 data sets the posterior leaflet and the tricuspid papillary apparatus were not completely included. Conclusion This report shows that dynamic holographic imaging of intraoperative postoperative echocardiographic data regarding tricuspid valve function after VSD closure is feasible. Holographic analysis allows for additional tricuspid valve leaflet mobility analysis. The large size of the probe, in relation to small size of the patient, may preclude a complete data set. At the moment the requirement of an I

  7. Cognitive load in distributed and massed practice in virtual reality mastoidectomy simulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Steven Arild Wuyts; Mikkelsen, Peter Trier; Konge, Lars

    2016-01-01

    -integrated tutoring on CL in virtual reality (VR) mastoidectomy simulation. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective trial. METHODS: Forty novice medical students performed 12 repeated virtual mastoidectomy procedures in the Visible Ear Simulator: 21 completed distributed practice with practice blocks spaced in time and 19...

  8. Enhancing tourism with augmented and virtual reality

    OpenAIRE

    Jenny, Sandra

    2017-01-01

    Augmented and virtual reality are on the advance. In the last twelve months, several interesting devices have entered the market. Since tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world and has become one of the major players in international commerce, the aim of this thesis was to examine how tourism could be enhanced with augmented and virtual reality. The differences and functional principles of augmented and virtual reality were investigated, general uses were described ...

  9. A novel semi-immersive virtual reality visuo-motor task activates ventrolateral prefrontal cortex: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basso Moro, Sara; Carrieri, Marika; Avola, Danilo; Brigadoi, Sabrina; Lancia, Stefania; Petracca, Andrea; Spezialetti, Matteo; Ferrari, Marco; Placidi, Giuseppe; Quaresima, Valentina

    2016-06-01

    Objective. In the last few years, the interest in applying virtual reality systems for neurorehabilitation is increasing. Their compatibility with neuroimaging techniques, such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), allows for the investigation of brain reorganization with multimodal stimulation and real-time control of the changes occurring in brain activity. The present study was aimed at testing a novel semi-immersive visuo-motor task (VMT), which has the features of being adopted in the field of neurorehabilitation of the upper limb motor function. Approach. A virtual environment was simulated through a three-dimensional hand-sensing device (the LEAP Motion Controller), and the concomitant VMT-related prefrontal cortex (PFC) response was monitored non-invasively by fNIRS. Upon the VMT, performed at three different levels of difficulty, it was hypothesized that the PFC would be activated with an expected greater level of activation in the ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC), given its involvement in the motor action planning and in the allocation of the attentional resources to generate goals from current contexts. Twenty-one subjects were asked to move their right hand/forearm with the purpose of guiding a virtual sphere over a virtual path. A twenty-channel fNIRS system was employed for measuring changes in PFC oxygenated-deoxygenated hemoglobin (O2Hb/HHb, respectively). Main results. A VLPFC O2Hb increase and a concomitant HHb decrease were observed during the VMT performance, without any difference in relation to the task difficulty. Significance. The present study has revealed a particular involvement of the VLPFC in the execution of the novel proposed semi-immersive VMT adoptable in the neurorehabilitation field.

  10. A pilot Virtual Observatory (pVO) for integrated catchment science - Demonstration of national scale modelling of hydrology and biogeochemistry (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freer, J. E.; Bloomfield, J. P.; Johnes, P. J.; MacLeod, C.; Reaney, S.

    2010-12-01

    There are many challenges in developing effective and integrated catchment management solutions for hydrology and water quality issues. Such solutions should ideally build on current scientific evidence to inform policy makers and regulators and additionally allow stakeholders to take ownership of local and/or national issues, in effect bringing together ‘communities of practice’. A strategy being piloted in the UK as the Pilot Virtual Observatory (pVO), funded by NERC, is to demonstrate the use of cyber-infrastructure and cloud computing resources to investigate better methods of linking data and models and to demonstrate scenario analysis for research, policy and operational needs. The research will provide new ways the scientific and stakeholder communities come together to exploit current environmental information, knowledge and experience in an open framework. This poster presents the project scope and methodologies for the pVO work dealing with national modelling of hydrology and macro-nutrient biogeochemistry. We evaluate the strategies needed to robustly benchmark our current predictive capability of these resources through ensemble modelling. We explore the use of catchment similarity concepts to understand if national monitoring programs can inform us about the behaviour of catchments. We discuss the challenges to applying these strategies in an open access and integrated framework and finally we consider the future for such virtual observatory platforms for improving the way we iteratively improve our understanding of catchment science.

  11. Exploring barriers and facilitators to the clinical use of virtual reality for post-stroke unilateral spatial neglect assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ogourtsova, Tatiana; Archambault, Philippe S; Lamontagne, Anouk

    2017-11-07

    Hemineglect, defined as a failure to attend to the contralesional side of space, is a prevalent and disabling post-stroke deficit. Conventional hemineglect assessments lack sensitivity as they contain mainly non-functional tasks performed in near-extrapersonal space, using static, two-dimensional methods. This is of concern given that hemineglect is a strong predictor for functional deterioration, limited post-stroke recovery, and difficulty in community reintegration. With the emerging field of virtual reality, several virtual tools have been proposed and have reported better sensitivity in neglect-related deficits detection than conventional methods. However, these and future virtual reality-based tools are yet to be implemented in clinical practice. The present study aimed to explore the barriers/facilitators perceived by clinicians in the use of virtual reality for hemineglect assessment; and to identify features of an optimal virtual assessment. A qualitative descriptive process, in the form of focus groups, self-administered questionnaire and individual interviews was used. Two focus groups (n = 11 clinicians) were conducted and experts in the field (n = 3) were individually interviewed. Several barriers and facilitators, including personal, institutional, client suitability, and equipment factors, were identified. Clinicians and experts in the field reported numerous features for the virtual tool optimization. Factors identified through this study lay the foundation for the development of a knowledge translation initiative towards an implementation of a virtual assessment for hemineglect. Addressing the identified barriers/facilitators during implementation and incorporating the optimal features in the design of the virtual assessment could assist and promote its eventual adoption in clinical settings. Implications for rehabilitation A multimodal and active knowledge translation intervention built on the presently identified modifiable factors is

  12. A Capacity Supply Model for Virtualized Servers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander PINNOW

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with determining the capacity supply for virtualized servers. First, a server is modeled as a queue based on a Markov chain. Then, the effect of server virtualization on the capacity supply will be analyzed with the distribution function of the server load.

  13. Integration of functions in logic database systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lambrichts, E.; Nees, P.; Paredaens, J.; Peelman, P.; Tanca, L.

    1990-01-01

    We extend Datalog, a logic programming language for rule-based systems, by respectively integrating types, negation and functions. This extention of Datalog is called MilAnt. Furthermore, MilAnt consistency is defined as a stronger form of consistency for functions. It is known that consistency for

  14. Zeroes of functions of Fresnel complementary integral type

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mario Alberto Villalobos Arias

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Theoretical upper and lower bounds are established for zeroes of a parametric family of functions which are defined by integrals of the same type as  the Fresnel complementary integral. Asymptotic properties for these bounds are obtained as well as monotony properties of the localization  intervals.  Given the value of the parameter an analytical-numerical procedure is deduced to enclose all  zeros of a given function with an a priori error.

  15. Virtual Golden Foods Corporation: Generic Skills in a Virtual Crisis Environment (A Pilot Study)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Godat, Meredith

    2007-01-01

    Workplace learning in a crisis-rich environment is often difficult if not impossible to integrate into programs so that students are able to experience and apply crisis management practices and principles. This study presents the results of a pilot project that examined the effective use of a virtual reality (VR) environment as a tool to teach…

  16. Finding new relationships between hypergeometric functions by evaluating Feynman integrals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kniehl, Bernd A. [Santa Barbara Univ., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Theoretical Physics; Tarasov, Oleg V. [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). 2. Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik

    2011-08-15

    Several new relationships between hypergeometric functions are found by comparing results for Feynman integrals calculated using different methods. A new expression for the one-loop propagator-type integral with arbitrary masses and arbitrary powers of propagators is derived in terms of only one Appell hypergeometric function F{sub 1}. From the comparison of this expression with a previously known one, a new relation between the Appell functions F{sub 1} and F{sub 4} is found. By comparing this new expression for the case of equal masses with another known result, a new formula for reducing the F{sub 1} function with particular arguments to the hypergeometric function {sub 3}F{sub 2} is derived. By comparing results for a particular one-loop vertex integral obtained using different methods, a new relationship between F{sub 1} functions corresponding to a quadratic transformation of the arguments is established. Another reduction formula for the F{sub 1} function is found by analysing the imaginary part of the two-loop self-energy integral on the cut. An explicit formula relating the F{sub 1} function and the Gaussian hypergeometric function {sub 2}F{sub 1} whose argument is the ratio of polynomials of degree six is presented. (orig.)

  17. Does the Inclusion of Virtual Reality Games within Conventional Rehabilitation Enhance Balance Retraining after a Recent Episode of Stroke?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. S. Rajaratnam

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This randomised controlled and double-blinded pilot study evaluated if interactive virtual reality balance related games integrated within conventional rehabilitation sessions resulted in more superior retraining of dynamic balance compared to CR after stroke. 19 subjects diagnosed with a recent episode of stroke were recruited from a local rehabilitation hospital and randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. Subjects in the control groups underwent 60 minutes of conventional rehabilitation while those in the experimental groups underwent 40 minutes of convention rehabilitation and 20 minutes of self-directed virtual reality balanced rehabilitation. Functional Reach Test, Timed Up and Go, Modified Barthel Index, Berg Balance Scale, and Centre of Pressure of subjects in both groups were evaluated before and on completion of the rehabilitation sessions. Results indicate that the inclusion of interactive virtual reality balance related games within conventional rehabilitation can lead to improved functional mobility and balance after a recent episode of stroke without increasing treatment time that requires more health professional manpower.

  18. A LEGO paradigm for virtual accelerator concept

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andrianov, S.; Ivanov, A.; Podzyvalov, E.

    2012-01-01

    The paper considers basic features of a Virtual Accelerator concept based on LEGO paradigm. This concept involves three types of components: different mathematical models for accelerator design problems, integrated beam simulation packages (i. e. COSY, MAD, OptiM and others), and a special class of virtual feedback instruments similar to real control systems (EPICS). All of these components should inter-operate for more complete analysis of control systems and increased fault tolerance. The Virtual Accelerator is an information and computing environment which provides a framework for analysis based on these components that can be combined in different ways. Corresponding distributed computing services establish interaction between mathematical models and low level control system. The general idea of the software implementation is based on the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) that allows using cloud computing technology and enables remote access to the information and computing resources. The Virtual Accelerator allows a designer to combine powerful instruments for modeling beam dynamics in a friendly way including both self-developed and well-known packages. In the scope of this concept the following is also proposed: the control system identification, analysis and result verification, visualization as well as virtual feedback for beam line operation. The architecture of the Virtual Accelerator system itself and results of beam dynamics studies are presented. (authors)

  19. Use of virtual reality gaming systems for children who are critically ill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salem, Yasser; Elokda, Ahmed

    2014-01-01

    Children who are critically ill are frequently viewed as "too sick" to tolerate physical activity. As a result, these children often fail to develop strength or cardiovascular endurance as compared to typically developing children. Previous reports have shown that early participation in physical activity in is safe and feasible for patients who are critically ill and may result in a shorter length of stay and improved functional outcomes. The use of the virtual reality gaming systems has become a popular form of therapy for children with disabilities and has been supported by a growing body of evidence substantiating its effectiveness with this population. The use of the virtual reality gaming systems in pediatric rehabilitation provides the children with opportunity to participate in an exercise program that is fun, enjoyable, playful, and at the same time beneficial. The integration of those systems in rehabilitation of children who are critically ill is appealing and has the potential to offer the possibility of enhancing physical activities. The lack of training studies involving children who are critically ill makes it difficult to set guidelines on the recommended physical activities and virtual reality gaming systems that is needed to confer health benefits. Several considerations should be taken into account before recommended virtual reality gaming systems as a training program for children who are critically ill. This article highlighted guidelines, limitations and challenges that need to be considered when designing exercise program using virtual reality gaming systems for critically ill children. This information is helpful given the popular use of virtual reality gaming systems in rehabilitation, particularly in children who are critically ill.

  20. Understanding integrated care: a comprehensive conceptual framework based on the integrative functions of primary care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valentijn, Pim P; Schepman, Sanneke M; Opheij, Wilfrid; Bruijnzeels, Marc A

    2013-01-01

    Primary care has a central role in integrating care within a health system. However, conceptual ambiguity regarding integrated care hampers a systematic understanding. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that combines the concepts of primary care and integrated care, in order to understand the complexity of integrated care. The search method involved a combination of electronic database searches, hand searches of reference lists (snowball method) and contacting researchers in the field. The process of synthesizing the literature was iterative, to relate the concepts of primary care and integrated care. First, we identified the general principles of primary care and integrated care. Second, we connected the dimensions of integrated care and the principles of primary care. Finally, to improve content validity we held several meetings with researchers in the field to develop and refine our conceptual framework. The conceptual framework combines the functions of primary care with the dimensions of integrated care. Person-focused and population-based care serve as guiding principles for achieving integration across the care continuum. Integration plays complementary roles on the micro (clinical integration), meso (professional and organisational integration) and macro (system integration) level. Functional and normative integration ensure connectivity between the levels. The presented conceptual framework is a first step to achieve a better understanding of the inter-relationships among the dimensions of integrated care from a primary care perspective.

  1. The Development Of Virtual Educational Environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ken STEVENS

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available The introduction of inter-school electronic networks has added a new dimension to education in Canada that has many implications for students who attend schools in rural communities. Collaborative internet-based teaching and learning and the creation of virtual classes within regional intranets now complement traditional on-site instruction in many schools that are located beyond major centres of population. Five stages in the advent of virtual educational environments can be identified starting with the introduction of computers in schools as a foundation for the development of collaborative teaching and learning environments. Inter-school collaboration in rural Canada and the extension of curriculum options for senior students has, in turn, provided a basis for the integration of virtual classes and traditional face to face instruction. Instruction in classes that are electronically-linked to other classes requires different skills from traditional face to face teaching and the development of new strategies and protocols. The implications of open and flexible teaching and learning for the future organization of classes, the preparation of teachers, articulation with higher education and in particular, regional economic development are now significant educational policy issues. The linking of virtual and face to face classes through cybercells is a possible next step in the development of virtual educational environments.

  2. Virtual teamwork in the context of technological and cultural transformation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birgit FernUniversität Hagen

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Megatrends affect all individuals and organizations in our society. Mobility and flexibility are examples of megatrends that influence our everyday lives and also intensely alter the ways we work. The deployment of virtual teams meets the new chances emerging with these trends. Employees aspire to work virtually due to benefits, such as flexibility regarding the locations and hours for working. Organizations deploy virtual teams to remain competitive regarding new technological opportunities, employee retention and cost efficiency in an increasingly digital environment. Organizations can guide their change towards virtuality by building on the knowledge of practice as well as scientific insights regarding the deployment of virtual teams. In order to provide a holistic view on the structures and processes affected by such a change and thus provide guidance, a framework for analyzing and planning organizational change is adapted to virtual teamwork and presented in this paper. The framework shows that the deployment of virtual teams affects the whole organization. This comprehensive view on the implementation of virtual teamwork allows an integration of virtual teams and focusses on their performance. The adapted framework furthermore provides links for further in-depth research in this field.

  3. Human Systems Integration: Requirements and Functional Decomposition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berson, Barry; Gershzohn, Gary; Boltz, Laura; Wolf, Russ; Schultz, Mike

    2005-01-01

    This deliverable was intended as an input to the Access 5 Policy and Simulation Integrated Product Teams. This document contains high-level pilot functionality for operations in the National Airspace System above FL430. Based on the derived pilot functions the associated pilot information and control requirements are given.

  4. Agent-based Integration of Complex and Heterogeneous Distributed Energy Resources in Virtual Power Plants

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clausen, Anders; Umair, Aisha; Demazeau, Yves

    2017-01-01

    A Virtual Power Plant aggregates several Distributed Energy Resources in order to expose them as a single, controllable entity. This enables smaller Distributed Energy Resources to take part in Demand Response programs which traditionally only targeted larger consumers. To date, models for Virtual...

  5. The Integrated Model of (Dys- Functionality: Reconstructing Patterns of Gaming as Self-Medication in Biographical Interviews with Video Game Addicts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paula Bleckmann

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available We aim to build a new theory of highly committed problematic video gaming based on rich qualitative data and to compare it to existing theories. To do this, we used hermeneutic analytical methods and grounded theory methodology to analyze 125 hours of recording from 42 biographical interviews, 23 of them with long-term follow-up. Participants were addicted (ex- gamers according to screening instruments, aged 16 to 44, 29 males and 13 females. The integrated (dys- functionality model shows in-game behavior of participants to be dysfunctional in that it hinders advancement in several distinguishable real-life biographical quests (for success, for belonging, and for autonomy and at the same time functional in that it matches these quests. The model integrates two seemingly irreconcilable research traditions: The addiction/disease model in medical-psychological research investigates dysfunctionality of gaming in pathological gamers. Game studies focus on functionality of in-game behavior and establish gamer typologies based on gaming motives. By adding the biographical context to game studies, but keeping the gamer's perspective, we show that gamers whose lives become dominated by gaming may know what they want and "virtually" get it, but still not "really" get it in the long term. "Compensatory" gaming does not, thus, equal unproblematic or "non-addicted" gaming. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs150387

  6. Integral transforms of the quantum mechanical path integral: Hit function and path-averaged potential

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, James P.; Gerber, Urs; Schubert, Christian; Trejo, Maria Anabel; Weber, Axel

    2018-04-01

    We introduce two integral transforms of the quantum mechanical transition kernel that represent physical information about the path integral. These transforms can be interpreted as probability distributions on particle trajectories measuring respectively the relative contribution to the path integral from paths crossing a given spatial point (the hit function) and the likelihood of values of the line integral of the potential along a path in the ensemble (the path-averaged potential).

  7. Homeland security and virtual reality: building a Strategic Adaptive Response System (STARS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swift, Christopher; Rosen, Joseph M; Boezer, Gordon; Lanier, Jaron; Henderson, Joseph V; Liu, Alan; Merrell, Ronald C; Nguyen, Sinh; Demas, Alex; Grigg, Elliot B; McKnight, Matthew F; Chang, Janelle; Koop, C Everett

    2005-01-01

    The advent of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) underscored the need to improve the U.S. disaster response paradigm. Existing systems involve numerous agencies spread across disparate functional and geographic jurisdictions. The current architecture remains vulnerable to sophisticated terrorist strikes. To address these vulnerabilities, we must continuously adapt and improve our Homeland Security architecture. Virtual Reality (VR) technologies will help model those changes and integrate technologies. This paper provides a broad overview of the strategic threats, together with a detailed examination of how specific VR technologies could be used to ensure successful disaster responses.

  8. iConnect CKD - Virtual Medical Consulting: a web-based Chronic Kidney Disease, Hypertension and Diabetes Integrated Care Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katz, Ivor J; Pirabhahar, Saiyini; Williamson, Paula; Raghunath, Vishwas; Brennan, Frank; O'Sullivan, Anthony; Youssef, George; Lane, Cathie; Jacobson, Gary; Feldman, Peter; Kelly, John

    2017-05-04

    Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients overwhelm specialist services and can potentially be managed in the primary care (PC). Opportunistic screening of high risk (HR) patients and follow-up in PC is the most sustainable model of care. A 'virtual consultation' (VC) model instead of traditional face to face (F2F) consultations was used, aiming to assess efficacy and safety of the model. Seventy patients were recruited from PC sites and hospital clinics, and followed for one year. The HR patients (eGFR 30 mg/mmol/L) were randomised to either VC or F2F. Patients were monitored 6 monthly by a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS). The specialist team provided virtual or clinical support and included a Nephrologist, Endocrinologist, Cardiologist and Renal 'Palliative' Supportive Care. Sixty one (87%) patients were virtually tracked or consulted with 14 (23%) being HR. At 12 months there was no difference in outcomes between VC and F2F patients. All patients were successfully monitored. GPs reported high level of satisfaction and supported the model, but found software integration challenging. Patients found the system attractive and felt well managed. Specialist consults occurred within a week and if a second specialist opinion was required it took another two weeks. The program demonstrated safe, expedited and efficient follow up with a clinical and web based program. Support from the GPs and patients was encouraging, despite logistical issues. Ongoing evaluation of VC services will continue and feasibility to larger networks and more chronic diseases remains the long term goal. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  9. ABOUT MODERN TECHNICAL GRAPHICS USING IN THE VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING

    OpenAIRE

    GHERGHINA George; POPA Dragos; BOGDAN Mihaela; GLUGA Cristian

    2008-01-01

    The paper presents aspects concerning the using of modern technical graphics elements in the virtual prototyping. The virtual prototyping is a process which uses a virtual prototype in place of physical prototype for the testing and the evaluation of specific features of designed product. The virtual prototype is created by computer such as it could assign the specific features as close as possible to the real conditions which permit its function simulation in the conditions for which is desi...

  10. Virtual timers in hierarchical real-time systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heuvel, van den M.M.H.P.; Holenderski, M.J.; Cools, W.A.; Bril, R.J.; Lukkien, J.J.; Zhu, D.

    2009-01-01

    Hierarchical scheduling frameworks (HSFs) provide means for composing complex real-time systems from welldefined subsystems. This paper describes an approach to provide hierarchically scheduled real-time applications with virtual event timers, motivated by the need for integrating priority

  11. Development and application of virtual reality for man/systems integration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Marcus

    1991-01-01

    While the graphical presentation of computer models signified a quantum leap over presentations limited to text and numbers, it still has the problem of presenting an interface barrier between the human user and the computer model. The user must learn a command language in order to orient themselves in the model. For example, to move left from the current viewpoint of the model, they might be required to type 'LEFT' at a keyboard. This command is fairly intuitive, but if the viewpoint moves far enough that there are no visual cues overlapping with the first view, the user does not know if the viewpoint has moved inches, feet, or miles to the left, or perhaps remained in the same position, but rotated to the left. Until the user becomes quite familiar with the interface language of the computer model presentation, they will be proned to lossing their bearings frequently. Even a highly skilled user will occasionally get lost in the model. A new approach to presenting type type of information is to directly interpret the user's body motions as the input language for determining what view to present. When the user's head turns 45 degrees to the left, the viewpoint should be rotated 45 degrees to the left. Since the head moves through several intermediate angles between the original view and the final one, several intermediate views should be presented, providing the user with a sense of continuity between the original view and the final one. Since the primary way a human physically interacts with their environment should monitor the movements of the user's hands and alter objects in the virtual model in a way consistent with the way an actual object would move when manipulated using the same hand movements. Since this approach to the man-computer interface closely models the same type of interface that humans have with the physical world, this type of interface is often called virtual reality, and the model is referred to as a virtual world. The task of this summer

  12. Towards a digital body: the virtual arm illusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available The integration of the human brain with computers is an interesting new area of applied neuroscience, where one application is replacement of a person’s real body by a virtual representation. Here we demonstrate that a virtual limb can be made to feel part of your body if appropriate multisensory correlations are provided. We report an illusion that is invoked through tactile stimulation on a person’s hidden real right hand with synchronous virtual visual stimulation on an aligned 3D stereo virtual arm projecting horizontally out of their shoulder. An experiment with 21 male participants showed displacement of ownership towards the virtual hand, as illustrated by questionnaire responses and proprioceptive drift. A control experiment with asynchronous tapping was carried out with a different set of 20 male participants who did not experience the illusion. After 5 minutes of stimulation the virtual arm rotated. Evidence suggests that the extent of the illusion was also correlated with the degree of muscle activity onset in the right arm as measured by EMG during this period that the arm was rotating, for the synchronous but not the asynchronous condition. A completely virtual object can therefore be experienced as part of one’s self, which opens up the possibility that an entire virtual body could be felt as one’s own in future virtual reality applications or online games, and be an invaluable tool for the understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying body ownership.

  13. Developing a Virtual Rock Deformation Laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, W.; Ougier-simonin, A.; Lisabeth, H. P.; Banker, J. S.

    2012-12-01

    Experimental rock physics plays an important role in advancing earthquake research. Despite its importance in geophysics, reservoir engineering, waste deposits and energy resources, most geology departments in U.S. universities don't have rock deformation facilities. A virtual deformation laboratory can serve as an efficient tool to help geology students naturally and internationally learn about rock deformation. Working with computer science engineers, we built a virtual deformation laboratory that aims at fostering user interaction to facilitate classroom and outreach teaching and learning. The virtual lab is built to center around a triaxial deformation apparatus in which laboratory measurements of mechanical and transport properties such as stress, axial and radial strains, acoustic emission activities, wave velocities, and permeability are demonstrated. A student user can create her avatar to enter the virtual lab. In the virtual lab, the avatar can browse and choose among various rock samples, determine the testing conditions (pressure, temperature, strain rate, loading paths), then operate the virtual deformation machine to observe how deformation changes physical properties of rocks. Actual experimental results on the mechanical, frictional, sonic, acoustic and transport properties of different rocks at different conditions are compiled. The data acquisition system in the virtual lab is linked to the complied experimental data. Structural and microstructural images of deformed rocks are up-loaded and linked to different deformation tests. The integration of the microstructural image and the deformation data allows the student to visualize how forces reshape the structure of the rock and change the physical properties. The virtual lab is built using the Game Engine. The geological background, outstanding questions related to the geological environment, and physical and mechanical concepts associated with the problem will be illustrated on the web portal. In

  14. Getting with the times: a narrative review of the literature on group decision making in virtual environments and implications for promotions committees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acai, Anita; Sonnadara, Ranil R; O'Neill, Thomas A

    2018-05-24

    Concerns around the time and administrative burden of trainee promotion processes have been reported, making virtual meetings an attractive option for promotions committees in undergraduate and postgraduate medicine. However, whether such meetings can uphold the integrity of decision-making processes has yet to be explored. This narrative review aimed to summarize the literature on decision making in virtual teams, discuss ways to improve the effectiveness of virtual teams, and explore their implications for practice. In August 2017, the Web of Science platform was searched with the terms 'decision making' AND 'virtual teams' for articles published within the last 20 years. The search yielded 336 articles, which was narrowed down to a final set of 188 articles. A subset of these, subjectively deemed to be of high-quality and relevant to the work of promotions committees, was included in this review. Virtual team functioning was explored with respect to team composition and development, idea generation and selection, group memory, and communication. While virtual teams were found to potentially offer a number of key benefits over face-to-face meetings including convenience and scheduling flexibility, inclusion of members at remote sites, and enhanced idea generation and external storage, these benefits must be carefully weighed against potential challenges involving planning and coordination, integration of perspectives, and relational conflict among members, all of which can potentially reduce decision-making quality. Avenues to address these issues and maximize the outcomes of virtual promotions meetings are offered in light of the evidence.

  15. Dynamic Virtual Credit Card Numbers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molloy, Ian; Li, Jiangtao; Li, Ninghui

    Theft of stored credit card information is an increasing threat to e-commerce. We propose a dynamic virtual credit card number scheme that reduces the damage caused by stolen credit card numbers. A user can use an existing credit card account to generate multiple virtual credit card numbers that are either usable for a single transaction or are tied with a particular merchant. We call the scheme dynamic because the virtual credit card numbers can be generated without online contact with the credit card issuers. These numbers can be processed without changing any of the infrastructure currently in place; the only changes will be at the end points, namely, the card users and the card issuers. We analyze the security requirements for dynamic virtual credit card numbers, discuss the design space, propose a scheme using HMAC, and prove its security under the assumption the underlying function is a PRF.

  16. Subliminal Cueing of Selection Behavior in a Virtual Environment

    OpenAIRE

    Aranyi, Gabor; Kouider, Sid; Lindsay, Alan; Prins, Hielke; Ahmed, Imtiaj; Jacucci, Giulio; Negri, Paolo; Gamberini, Luciano; Pizzi, David; Cavazza, Marc

    2014-01-01

    The performance of current graphics engines makes it possible to incorporate subliminal cues within virtual environments (VEs), providing an additional way of communication,\\ud fully integrated with the exploration of a virtual scene. In order to advance the application of subliminal information in this area, it is necessary to explore how techniques\\ud previously reported as rendering information subliminal in the psychological literature can be successfully implemented in VEs. Previous lite...

  17. Culture-related differences in aspects of behavior for virtual characters across Germany and Japan

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Endrass, Birgit; André, Elisabeth; Rehm, Matthias

    2011-01-01

    Integrating culture as a parameter into the behavioral models of virtual characters in order to simulate cultural differences is becoming more and more popular. But do these differences affect the user's perception? In the work described in this paper, we integrated aspects of non-verbal behavior...... as well as communication management behavior into the behavior of virtual characters for the two cultures of Germany and Japan. We give a literature review pointing out the expected differences in these two cultures and describe the analysis of a multi-modal corpus including video recordings of German...... and Japanese interlocutors. After integrating our findings into a demonstrator featuring a German and a Japanese scenario, we presented the virtual scenarios to human observers of the two target cultures in order to find out their preferences....

  18. Virtual photon spectra for finite nuclei

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wolynec, E.; Martins, M.N.

    1988-01-01

    The experimental results of an isochromat of the virtual photon spectrum, obtained by measuring the number of ground-state protons emitted by the 16.28 MeV isobaric analogue state in 90 Zr as a function of electron incident energy in the range 17-105 MeV, are compared with the values predicted by a calculation of the E1 DWBA virtual photon spectra for finite nuclei. It is found that the calculations are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. The DWBA virtual photon spectra for finite nuclei for E2 and M1 multipoles are also assessed. (author) [pt

  19. Facilitating 3D Virtual World Learning Environments Creation by Non-Technical End Users through Template-Based Virtual World Instantiation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Chang; Zhong, Ying; Ozercan, Sertac; Zhu, Qing

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents a template-based solution to overcome technical barriers non-technical computer end users face when developing functional learning environments in three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVW). "iVirtualWorld," a prototype of a platform-independent 3DVW creation tool that implements the proposed solution, facilitates 3DVW…

  20. Culture-specific communication management for virtual agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Endrass, Birgit; Rehm, Matthias; André, Elisabeth

    2009-01-01

    Human interaction depends on several individual factors such as personality, social relations, age or gender. But also the society we live in influences our behaviour. Thus culture affects the way communication is led. As virtual agents interact in a more and more human-like manner, culture......, the use of pauses in speech as well as the occurrence of overlapping speech was analyzed and integrated into a demonstrator using virtual agents. In a preliminary study, we investigated whether subjects perceive a difference between agent dialogs that are in line with culture-specific findings and agent...

  1. An array of virtual Frisch-grid CdZnTe detectors and a front-end application-specific integrated circuit for large-area position-sensitive gamma-ray cameras

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bolotnikov, A. E., E-mail: bolotnik@bnl.gov; Ackley, K.; Camarda, G. S.; Cherches, C.; Cui, Y.; De Geronimo, G.; Fried, J.; Hossain, A.; Mahler, G.; Maritato, M.; Roy, U.; Salwen, C.; Vernon, E.; Yang, G.; James, R. B. [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11793 (United States); Hodges, D. [University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas 79968 (United States); Lee, W. [Korea University, Seoul 136-855 (Korea, Republic of); Petryk, M. [SUNY Binghamton, Vestal, New York 13902 (United States)

    2015-07-15

    We developed a robust and low-cost array of virtual Frisch-grid CdZnTe detectors coupled to a front-end readout application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for spectroscopy and imaging of gamma rays. The array operates as a self-reliant detector module. It is comprised of 36 close-packed 6 × 6 × 15 mm{sup 3} detectors grouped into 3 × 3 sub-arrays of 2 × 2 detectors with the common cathodes. The front-end analog ASIC accommodates up to 36 anode and 9 cathode inputs. Several detector modules can be integrated into a single- or multi-layer unit operating as a Compton or a coded-aperture camera. We present the results from testing two fully assembled modules and readout electronics. The further enhancement of the arrays’ performance and reduction of their cost are possible by using position-sensitive virtual Frisch-grid detectors, which allow for accurate corrections of the response of material non-uniformities caused by crystal defects.

  2. Strategies for combining physics videos and virtual laboratories in the training of physics teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickman, Adriana; Vertchenko, Lev; Martins, Maria Inés

    2007-03-01

    Among the multimedia resources used in physics education, the most prominent are virtual laboratories and videos. On one hand, computer simulations and applets have very attractive graphic interfaces, showing an incredible amount of detail and movement. On the other hand, videos, offer the possibility of displaying high quality images, and are becoming more feasible with the increasing availability of digital resources. We believe it is important to discuss, throughout the teacher training program, both the functionality of information and communication technology (ICT) in physics education and, the varied applications of these resources. In our work we suggest the introduction of ICT resources in a sequence integrating these important tools in the teacher training program, as opposed to the traditional approach, in which virtual laboratories and videos are introduced separately. In this perspective, when we introduce and utilize virtual laboratory techniques we also provide for its use in videos, taking advantage of graphic interfaces. Thus the students in our program learn to use instructional software in the production of videos for classroom use.

  3. On solvability of some quadratic functional-integral equation in Banach algebra

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Darwish, M.A.

    2007-08-01

    Using the technique of a suitable measure of non-compactness in Banach algebra, we prove an existence theorem for some functional-integral equations which contain, as particular cases, a lot of integral and functional-integral equations that arise in many branches of nonlinear analysis and its applications. Also, the famous Chandrasekhar's integral equation is considered as a special case. (author)

  4. Integrative NMR for biomolecular research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Woonghee; Cornilescu, Gabriel; Dashti, Hesam; Eghbalnia, Hamid R.; Tonelli, Marco; Westler, William M.; Butcher, Samuel E.; Henzler-Wildman, Katherine A.; Markley, John L.

    2016-01-01

    NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique for determining structural and functional features of biomolecules in physiological solution as well as for observing their intermolecular interactions in real-time. However, complex steps associated with its practice have made the approach daunting for non-specialists. We introduce an NMR platform that makes biomolecular NMR spectroscopy much more accessible by integrating tools, databases, web services, and video tutorials that can be launched by simple installation of NMRFAM software packages or using a cross-platform virtual machine that can be run on any standard laptop or desktop computer. The software package can be downloaded freely from the NMRFAM software download page ( http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/download-packages.html http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/download_packages.html ), and detailed instructions are available from the Integrative NMR Video Tutorial page ( http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/integrative.html http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/integrative.html ).

  5. Integrative NMR for biomolecular research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Woonghee, E-mail: whlee@nmrfam.wisc.edu; Cornilescu, Gabriel; Dashti, Hesam; Eghbalnia, Hamid R.; Tonelli, Marco; Westler, William M.; Butcher, Samuel E.; Henzler-Wildman, Katherine A.; Markley, John L., E-mail: markley@nmrfam.wisc.edu [University of Wisconsin-Madison, National Magnetic Resonance Facility at Madison and Biochemistry Department (United States)

    2016-04-15

    NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique for determining structural and functional features of biomolecules in physiological solution as well as for observing their intermolecular interactions in real-time. However, complex steps associated with its practice have made the approach daunting for non-specialists. We introduce an NMR platform that makes biomolecular NMR spectroscopy much more accessible by integrating tools, databases, web services, and video tutorials that can be launched by simple installation of NMRFAM software packages or using a cross-platform virtual machine that can be run on any standard laptop or desktop computer. The software package can be downloaded freely from the NMRFAM software download page ( http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/download-packages.html http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/download{sub p}ackages.html ), and detailed instructions are available from the Integrative NMR Video Tutorial page ( http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/integrative.html http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/integrative.html ).

  6. Enhancing Mathematical Communication for Virtual Math Teams

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gerry Stahl

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available The Math Forum is an online resource center for pre-algebra, algebra, geometry and pre-calculus. Its Virtual Math Teams (VMT service provides an integrated web-based environment for small teams of people to discuss math and to work collaboratively on math problems or explore interesting mathematical micro-worlds together. The VMT Project studies the online math discourse that takes place during sessions of virtual math teams working on open-ended problem-solving tasks. In particular, it investigates methods of group cognition that are employed by teams in this setting. The VMT environment currently integrates social networking, synchronous text chat, a shared whiteboard for drawing, web browsers and an asynchronous wiki for exchanging findings within the larger community. A simple version of MathML is supported in the whiteboard, chat and wiki for displaying mathematical expressions. The VMT Project is currently integrating the dynamic mathematics application, GeoGebra, into its collaboration environment. This will create a multi-user version of GeoGebra, which can be used in concert with the chat, web browsers, curricular topics and wiki repository.

  7. Designing and Inhabiting Virtual Environments: Bridging the gap between physical and virtual

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matevž Juvančič

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Bringing the trilogy of the Erasmus intensive programme together in 2010, the Faculty of Architecture organised the third workshop in the series “Designing and Inhabiting Virtual Environments - DIVE”, addressing an elusive issue: “Bridging the gap between the physical and virtual” with the reference site of Križanke. During the 10-day intensive workshop, the participants developed a theoretical discussion based on a series of lectures, and afterwards pursued analyses of the reference site and designed spatial interventions with an emphasis on respecting the fragile nature of the site. From the very beginning to the end of their work, the participants analysed the boundaries between physical and virtual reality, examined the pros and cons of each, and sought possible integrations of both entities within a seamless and effective conceptual and actual representation.

  8. The ecological and construct validity of a newly developed measure of executive function: the Virtual Library Task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renison, Belinda; Ponsford, Jennie; Testa, Renee; Richardson, Barry; Brownfield, Kylie

    2012-05-01

    Virtual reality (VR) assessment paradigms have the potential to address the limited ecological validity of pen and paper measures of executive function (EF) and the pragmatic and reliability issues associated with functional measures. To investigate the ecological validity and construct validity of a newly developed VR measure of EF, the Virtual Library Task (VLT); a real life analogous task--the Real Library Task (RLT); and five neuropsychological measures of EF were administered to 30 patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 30 healthy Controls. Significant others for each participant also completed the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX), which is a behavioral rating scale of everyday EF. Performances on the VLT and the RLT were significantly positively correlated indicating that VR performance is similar to real world performance. The TBI group performed significantly worse than the Control group on the VLT and the Modified Six Elements Test (MSET) but the other four neuropsychological measures of EF failed to differentiate the groups. Both the MSET and the VLT significantly predicted everyday EF suggesting that they are both ecologically valid tools for the assessment of EF. The VLT has the advantage over the MSET of providing objective measurement of individual components of EF.

  9. Virtual Class Support at the Virtual Machine Level

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Anders Bach; Ernst, Erik

    2009-01-01

    This paper describes how virtual classes can be supported in a virtual machine.  Main-stream virtual machines such as the Java Virtual Machine and the .NET platform dominate the world today, and many languages are being executed on these virtual machines even though their embodied design choices...... conflict with the design choices of the virtual machine.  For instance, there is a non-trivial mismatch between the main-stream virtual machines mentioned above and dynamically typed languages.  One language concept that creates an even greater mismatch is virtual classes, in particular because fully...... general support for virtual classes requires generation of new classes at run-time by mixin composition.  Languages like CaesarJ and ObjectTeams can express virtual classes restricted to the subset that does not require run-time generation of classes, because of the restrictions imposed by the Java...

  10. Workshop on APEC virtual center for environmental technology exchange; APEC kankyo gijutsu koryu virtual center workshop hokokusho

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1999-07-01

    At the 'policy maker workshop of the virtual center of APEC technology exchange' held in November 1997 in Osaka, Japan, it was agreed to organize study groups to discuss the scope of information provided by the virtual center, and to make common the classification systems and retrieval functions. In addition, the necessity was confirmed on international cooperation to promote establishment of virtual centers in different countries and territories. On the first day, Professor Ueda at the Kyoto University gave the basic lecture entitled 'global environment preservation and environmental technology transfer: problems and prospects'. Mr. Dan, the workshop manager gave the basic proposal entitled 'the future directionality of environmental technology exchange inside the APEC territories by using Internet'. Based on the basic proposal made on the first day, reports and discussions were given in the following sessions, where confirmation was made on the future directions. S1: establishment of the virtual centers in other countries and territories; S2: assurance of interchangeability of classification systems and retrieval functions in providing information, and S3: presentation of examples of inter-territorial exchange and the future directionality. (NEDO)

  11. Workshop on APEC virtual center for environmental technology exchange; APEC kankyo gijutsu koryu virtual center workshop hokokusho

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1999-07-01

    At the 'policy maker workshop of the virtual center of APEC technology exchange' held in November 1997 in Osaka, Japan, it was agreed to organize study groups to discuss the scope of information provided by the virtual center, and to make common the classification systems and retrieval functions. In addition, the necessity was confirmed on international cooperation to promote establishment of virtual centers in different countries and territories. On the first day, Professor Ueda at the Kyoto University gave the basic lecture entitled 'global environment preservation and environmental technology transfer: problems and prospects'. Mr. Dan, the workshop manager gave the basic proposal entitled 'the future directionality of environmental technology exchange inside the APEC territories by using Internet'. Based on the basic proposal made on the first day, reports and discussions were given in the following sessions, where confirmation was made on the future directions. S1: establishment of the virtual centers in other countries and territories; S2: assurance of interchangeability of classification systems and retrieval functions in providing information, and S3: presentation of examples of inter-territorial exchange and the future directionality. (NEDO)

  12. Virtual Prototyping: Concept to Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    1994-03-01

    is Complex and Highly IntegratedCcpt D-i% sydem L-1. andgenu Armament Fanc Vtual Po t eS m (1xamp vle•sof BSynthtcEE (I/0Orm)(GENtEL)(Envkonment...90-1, University of Washington, 10 September 1990) Bylinsky, Gene . "The Marvels of ’Virtual Reality."’ Fortune (3 June 1991):138. Carrabine, Laura

  13. Converged Optical Network and Data Center Virtual Infrastructure Planning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Georgakilas, Konstantinos; Tzanakaki, Anna; Anastasopoulos, Markos

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a detailed study of planning virtual infrastructures (VIs) over a physical infrastructure comprising integrated optical network and data center resources with the aim of enabling sharing of physical resources among several virtual operators and services. Through the planning...... process, the VI topology and virtual resources are identified and mapped to the physical resources. Our study assumes a practical VI demand model without any in advance global knowledge of the VI requests that are handled sequentially. Through detailed integer linear program modeling, two objective...... functions—one that minimizes the overall power consumption of the infrastructure and one that minimizes the wavelength utilization—are compared. Both are evaluated for the virtual wavelength path and wavelength path optical network architectures. The first objective results in power consumption savings...

  14. Optimal dispatch strategy for the agile virtual power plant

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Mette Højgaard; Bendtsen, Jan Dimon; Stoustrup, Jakob

    2012-01-01

    The introduction of large ratios of renewable energy into the existing power system is complicated by the inherent variability of production technologies, which harvest energy from wind, sun and waves. Fluctuations of renewable power production can be predicted to some extent, but the assumption...... of perfect prediction is unrealistic. This paper therefore introduces the Agile Virtual Power Plant. The Agile Virtual Power Plant assumes that the base load production planning based on best available knowledge is already given, so imbalances cannot be predicted. Consequently the Agile Virtual Power Plant...... attempts to preserve maneuverability (stay agile) rather than optimize performance according to predictions. In this paper the imbalance compensation problem for an Agile Virtual Power Plant is formulated. It is proved formally, that when local units are power and energy constrained integrators a dispatch...

  15. The Virtual Desktop: Options and Challenges in Selecting a Secure Desktop Infrastructure Based on Virtualization

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-01

    the virtual desktop environment still functions for the users associated with it. Users can access the virtual desktop through the local network and...technologie de virtualisation du poste de travail peut contribuer à combler les besoins de partage de l’information sécuritaire au sein du MDN. Le... virtualisation . Il englobe un aperçu de la virtualisation d’un poste de travail, y compris un examen approfondi de deux architectures différentes : le

  16. Hirarchical emotion calculation model for virtual human modellin - biomed 2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Yue; Wright, David

    2010-01-01

    This paper introduces a new emotion generation method for virtual human modelling. The method includes a novel hierarchical emotion structure, a group of emotion calculation equations and a simple heuristics decision making mechanism, which enables virtual humans to perform emotionally in real-time according to their internal and external factors. Emotion calculation equations used in this research were derived from psychologic emotion measurements. Virtual humans can utilise the information in virtual memory and emotion calculation equations to generate their own numerical emotion states within the hierarchical emotion structure. Those emotion states are important internal references for virtual humans to adopt appropriate behaviours and also key cues for their decision making. A simple heuristics theory is introduced and integrated into decision making process in order to make the virtual humans decision making more like a real human. A data interface which connects the emotion calculation and the decision making structure together has also been designed and simulated to test the method in Virtools environment.

  17. Functional integral representation of the nuclear many-body grand partition function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kerman, A.K.; Troudet, T.

    1984-01-01

    A local functional integral formulation of the nuclear many-body problem is proposed which is a generalization of the method previously developed. Its most interesting feature is that it allows an expansion of the many-body evolution operator around any arbitrary mean-field which takes into account the pairing correlations between the nucleons. This is explicitly illustrated for the nuclear many-body grand partition function for which special attention is paid to the static temperature-dependent Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov (H.F.B.) approximation. Indeed, the temperature-dependent H.F.B. configuration appears to be the optimal choice from a variational point of view among all the possible independent quasi-particle motion approximations. An analytic approximation of the energy level density rho (E,A) is given using explicitly the arbitrariness in the choice of the mean-field and a possible numerical application is proposed. Finally, a new compact formulation of our functional integral that might be useful for future Monte Carlo calculations is proposed

  18. Social interactions in virtual reality exposure therapy: a proof-of-concept pilot study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Morina, N.; Brinkman, W.P.; Hartanto, D.; Kampmann, I.L.; Emmelkamp, P.G.M.

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Research on virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) has demonstrated good treatment efficacy with regards to several anxiety disorders. Yet, there is lack of knowledge about the value of integrating interaction between clients and virtual humans in VRET. Such interaction

  19. An Audio Architecture Integrating Sound and Live Voice for Virtual Environments

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Krebs, Eric

    2002-01-01

    The purpose behind this thesis was to design and implement audio system architecture, both in hardware and in software, for use in virtual environments The hardware and software design requirements...

  20. Audiovisual Integration in High Functioning Adults with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keane, Brian P.; Rosenthal, Orna; Chun, Nicole H.; Shams, Ladan

    2010-01-01

    Autism involves various perceptual benefits and deficits, but it is unclear if the disorder also involves anomalous audiovisual integration. To address this issue, we compared the performance of high-functioning adults with autism and matched controls on experiments investigating the audiovisual integration of speech, spatiotemporal relations, and…

  1. Machine-learning scoring functions to improve structure-based binding affinity prediction and virtual screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ain, Qurrat Ul; Aleksandrova, Antoniya; Roessler, Florian D; Ballester, Pedro J

    2015-01-01

    Docking tools to predict whether and how a small molecule binds to a target can be applied if a structural model of such target is available. The reliability of docking depends, however, on the accuracy of the adopted scoring function (SF). Despite intense research over the years, improving the accuracy of SFs for structure-based binding affinity prediction or virtual screening has proven to be a challenging task for any class of method. New SFs based on modern machine-learning regression models, which do not impose a predetermined functional form and thus are able to exploit effectively much larger amounts of experimental data, have recently been introduced. These machine-learning SFs have been shown to outperform a wide range of classical SFs at both binding affinity prediction and virtual screening. The emerging picture from these studies is that the classical approach of using linear regression with a small number of expert-selected structural features can be strongly improved by a machine-learning approach based on nonlinear regression allied with comprehensive data-driven feature selection. Furthermore, the performance of classical SFs does not grow with larger training datasets and hence this performance gap is expected to widen as more training data becomes available in the future. Other topics covered in this review include predicting the reliability of a SF on a particular target class, generating synthetic data to improve predictive performance and modeling guidelines for SF development. WIREs Comput Mol Sci 2015, 5:405-424. doi: 10.1002/wcms.1225 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

  2. Visual-motor integration functioning in a South African middle ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Visual-motor integration functioning has been identified as playing an integral role in different aspects of a child's development. Sensory-motor development is not only foundational to the physical maturation process, but is also imperative for progress with formal learning activities. Deficits in visual-motor integration have ...

  3. Experimental study of virtual impactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yule, T.J.; Broniarck, C.G.

    1979-01-01

    Virtual impactors are currently being used in a number of instruments to separate an aerosol into different size ranges. The virtual impactor is a variation of the standard impactor in which the impaction surface is replaced by an orifice into which particles can pass and be collected or counted. We have made an experimental study of the collection characteristics of virtual impactors. The parameters varied included: acceleration nozzle-to-collection probe distance, the ratio of the collection probe-to-acceleration nozzle diameters, and the ratio of collection probe-to-inlet flows. Measurements were also made with different collection probe geometries. It was found that it is possible to parameterize much of the data by introduction of the Stokes number and an effective minor flow collection efficiency. One disadvantage of the virtual impactor is that in the transition region particles are collected on the inside walls of the collection probe near the probe tip. The amount that is collected is a sensitive function of the probe geometry

  4. A Virtual Inertia Control Strategy for DC Microgrids Analogized with Virtual Synchronous Machines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wu, Wenhua; Chen, Yandong; Luo, An

    2017-01-01

    In a DC microgrid (DC-MG), the dc bus voltage is vulnerable to power fluctuation derived from the intermittent distributed energy or local loads variation. In this paper, a virtual inertia control strategy for DC-MG through bidirectional grid-connected converters (BGCs) analogized with virtual...... synchronous machine (VSM) is proposed to enhance the inertia of the DC-MG, and to restrain the dc bus voltage fluctuation. The small-signal model of the BGC system is established, and the small-signal transfer function between the dc bus voltage and the dc output current of the BGC is deduced. The dynamic...... for the BGC is introduced to smooth the dynamic response of the dc bus voltage. By analyzing the control system stability, the appropriate virtual inertia control parameters are selected. Finally, simulations and experiments verified the validity of the proposed control strategy....

  5. On- and off-shell Jost functions and their integral representations

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    interaction. The above equation involves certain tedious indefinite integrals. To circumvent these difficulties in analytical calculations, the irregular Green's function for Coulomb–. Yamaguchi potential is expressed in terms of pure Coulomb irregular Green's function and their integral transforms as. G(I )(r, r ) = GC(I)(r, r ) +.

  6. Cognitive training on stroke patients via virtual reality-based serious games.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gamito, Pedro; Oliveira, Jorge; Coelho, Carla; Morais, Diogo; Lopes, Paulo; Pacheco, José; Brito, Rodrigo; Soares, Fabio; Santos, Nuno; Barata, Ana Filipa

    2017-02-01

    Use of virtual reality environments in cognitive rehabilitation offers cost benefits and other advantages. In order to test the effectiveness of a virtual reality application for neuropsychological rehabilitation, a cognitive training program using virtual reality was applied to stroke patients. A virtual reality-based serious games application for cognitive training was developed, with attention and memory tasks consisting of daily life activities. Twenty stroke patients were randomly assigned to two conditions: exposure to the intervention, and waiting list control. The results showed significant improvements in attention and memory functions in the intervention group, but not in the controls. Overall findings provide further support for the use of VR cognitive training applications in neuropsychological rehabilitation. Implications for Rehabilitation Improvements in memory and attention functions following a virtual reality-based serious games intervention. Training of daily-life activities using a virtual reality application. Accessibility to training contents.

  7. Neuroprosthetics and Solutions for Restoring Sensorimotor Functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-12-01

    prosthetic feet. 15. SUBJECT TERMS neural interface, neural prosthesis , biocompatibility, virtual reality, amputee, sensory feedback 16. SECURITY...limbs. By providing a communication link between the prosthesis and the user’s nervous system, our goal is to integrate the prosthetic limb as a...neuroprosthetic control. This new class of prosthetic devices will literally look, feel , and function like natural limbs, but their internal

  8. Python Integration with a Functional DBMS

    OpenAIRE

    Zou, Hanzheng

    2009-01-01

    Python is an Object Oriented programming language and widely used nowadays. This report describes how to extend a functional database system Amos II for integration with Python. Several possibilities are analyzed to combine the Amos II C external interfaces with those of Python. Based on these discussions, new functionality has been added to the Python language by implementing a Python C external module. A basic API called PyAmos, interfacing Python and Amos II, is proposed and implemented in...

  9. Using virtual worlds as collaborative environments for innovation and design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ehsani, Ehsan; Chase, Scott Curland

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we discuss observations and lessons learned in conducting architectural design projects in virtual worlds. By integrating a community of users in virtual worlds into a collaborative architectural design process, organisations can tap the community's creativity and intelligence throu....... Here we propose four modes of collaboration, based on the choices for degree of openness and governance structure, which are illustrated by four case studies....

  10. Choquet Integral of Fuzzy-Number-Valued Functions: The Differentiability of the Primitive with respect to Fuzzy Measures and Choquet Integral Equations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zengtai Gong

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with the Choquet integral of fuzzy-number-valued functions based on the nonnegative real line. We firstly give the definitions and the characterizations of the Choquet integrals of interval-valued functions and fuzzy-number-valued functions based on the nonadditive measure. Furthermore, the operational schemes of above several classes of integrals on a discrete set are investigated which enable us to calculate Choquet integrals in some applications. Secondly, we give a representation of the Choquet integral of a nonnegative, continuous, and increasing fuzzy-number-valued function with respect to a fuzzy measure. In addition, in order to solve Choquet integral equations of fuzzy-number-valued functions, a concept of the Laplace transformation for the fuzzy-number-valued functions in the sense of Choquet integral is introduced. For distorted Lebesgue measures, it is shown that Choquet integral equations of fuzzy-number-valued functions can be solved by the Laplace transformation. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the main results at the end of the paper.

  11. Virtual interface environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, Scott S.

    1986-01-01

    A head-mounted, wide-angle, stereoscopic display system controlled by operator position, voice and gesture has been developed for use as a multipurpose interface environment. The system provides a multisensory, interactive display environment in which a user can virtually explore a 360-degree synthesized or remotely sensed environment and can viscerally interact with its components. Primary applications of the system are in telerobotics, management of large-scale integrated information systems, and human factors research. System configuration, application scenarios, and research directions are described.

  12. High-Performance Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE) Tools and Applications for Big Data Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simonyan, Vahan; Mazumder, Raja

    2014-09-30

    The High-performance Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE) is a high-throughput cloud-based infrastructure developed for the storage and analysis of genomic and associated biological data. HIVE consists of a web-accessible interface for authorized users to deposit, retrieve, share, annotate, compute and visualize Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) data in a scalable and highly efficient fashion. The platform contains a distributed storage library and a distributed computational powerhouse linked seamlessly. Resources available through the interface include algorithms, tools and applications developed exclusively for the HIVE platform, as well as commonly used external tools adapted to operate within the parallel architecture of the system. HIVE is composed of a flexible infrastructure, which allows for simple implementation of new algorithms and tools. Currently, available HIVE tools include sequence alignment and nucleotide variation profiling tools, metagenomic analyzers, phylogenetic tree-building tools using NGS data, clone discovery algorithms, and recombination analysis algorithms. In addition to tools, HIVE also provides knowledgebases that can be used in conjunction with the tools for NGS sequence and metadata analysis.

  13. High-Performance Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE Tools and Applications for Big Data Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vahan Simonyan

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The High-performance Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE is a high-throughput cloud-based infrastructure developed for the storage and analysis of genomic and associated biological data. HIVE consists of a web-accessible interface for authorized users to deposit, retrieve, share, annotate, compute and visualize Next-generation Sequencing (NGS data in a scalable and highly efficient fashion. The platform contains a distributed storage library and a distributed computational powerhouse linked seamlessly. Resources available through the interface include algorithms, tools and applications developed exclusively for the HIVE platform, as well as commonly used external tools adapted to operate within the parallel architecture of the system. HIVE is composed of a flexible infrastructure, which allows for simple implementation of new algorithms and tools. Currently, available HIVE tools include sequence alignment and nucleotide variation profiling tools, metagenomic analyzers, phylogenetic tree-building tools using NGS data, clone discovery algorithms, and recombination analysis algorithms. In addition to tools, HIVE also provides knowledgebases that can be used in conjunction with the tools for NGS sequence and metadata analysis.

  14. Virtual reality and neuropsychological assessment: The reliability of a virtual kitchen to assess daily-life activities in victims of traumatic brain injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Besnard, Jeremy; Richard, Paul; Banville, Frederic; Nolin, Pierre; Aubin, Ghislaine; Le Gall, Didier; Richard, Isabelle; Allain, Phillippe

    2016-01-01

    Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes impairments affecting instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). However, few studies have considered virtual reality as an ecologically valid tool for the assessment of IADL in patients who have sustained a TBI. The main objective of the present study was to examine the use of the Nonimmersive Virtual Coffee Task (NI-VCT) for IADL assessment in patients with TBI. We analyzed the performance of 19 adults suffering from TBI and 19 healthy controls (HCs) in the real and virtual tasks of making coffee with a coffee machine, as well as in global IQ and executive functions. Patients performed worse than HCs on both real and virtual tasks and on all tests of executive functions. Correlation analyses revealed that NI-VCT scores were related to scores on the real task. Moreover, regression analyses demonstrated that performance on NI-VCT matched real-task performance. Our results support the idea that the virtual kitchen is a valid tool for IADL assessment in patients who have sustained a TBI.

  15. Virtual Reality Based Collaborative Design by Children with High-Functioning Autism: Design-Based Flexibility, Identity, and Norm Construction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ke, Fengfeng; Lee, Sungwoong

    2016-01-01

    This exploratory case study examined the process and potential impact of collaborative architectural design and construction in an OpenSimulator-based virtual reality (VR) on the social skills development of children with high-functioning autism (HFA). Two children with a formal medical diagnosis of HFA and one typically developing peer, aged…

  16. Virtual surgical telesimulations in otolaryngology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Navarro Newball, Andrés A; Hernández, Carlos J; Velez, Jorge A; Munera, Luis E; García, Gregorio B; Gamboa, Carlos A; Reyes, Antonio J

    2005-01-01

    Distance learning can be enhanced with the use of virtual reality; this paper describes the design and initial validation of a Web Environment for Surgery Skills Training on Otolaryngology (WESST-OT). WESST-OT was created aimed to help trainees to gain the skills required in order to perform the Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery procedure (FESS), since training centers and specialist in this knowledge are scarce in Colombia; also, it is part of a web based educational cycle which simulates the stages of a real procedure. WESST-OT is one from the WESST family of telesimulators which started to be developed from an architecture proposed at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference 2002; also, it is a step towards the use of virtual reality technologies in Latin America.

  17. Virtual reality devices integration in scientific visualization software in the VtkVRPN framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Journe, G.; Guilbaud, C.

    2005-01-01

    A high-quality scientific visualization software relies on ergonomic navigation and exploration. Those are essential to be able to perform an efficient data analysis. To help solving this issue, management of virtual reality devices has been developed inside the CEA 'VtkVRPN' framework. This framework is based on VTK, a 3D graphical library, and VRPN, a virtual reality devices management library. This document describes the developments done during a post-graduate training course. (authors)

  18. Modelling of multidimensional quantum systems by the numerical functional integration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lobanov, Yu.Yu.; Zhidkov, E.P.

    1990-01-01

    The employment of the numerical functional integration for the description of multidimensional systems in quantum and statistical physics is considered. For the multiple functional integrals with respect to Gaussian measures in the full separable metric spaces the new approximation formulas exact on a class of polynomial functionals of a given summary degree are constructed. The use of the formulas is demonstrated on example of computation of the Green function and the ground state energy in multidimensional Calogero model. 15 refs.; 2 tabs

  19. Virtual radiology rounds: adding value in the digital era

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fefferman, Nancy R.; Strubel, Naomi A.; Prithiani, Chandan; Chakravarti, Sujata; Caprio, Martha; Recht, Michael P.

    2016-01-01

    To preserve radiology rounds in the changing health care environment, we have introduced virtual radiology rounds, an initiative enabling clinicians to remotely review imaging studies with the radiologist. We describe our initial experience with virtual radiology rounds and referring provider impressions. Virtual radiology rounds, a web-based conference, use remote sharing of radiology workstations. Participants discuss imaging studies by speakerphone. Virtual radiology rounds were piloted with the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the Congenital Cardiovascular Care Unit (CCVCU). Providers completed a survey assessing the perceived impact and overall value of virtual radiology rounds on patient care using a 10-point scale. Pediatric radiologists participating in virtual radiology rounds completed a survey assessing technical, educational and clinical aspects of this methodology. Sixteen providers responded to the survey; 9 NICU and 7 CCVCU staff (physicians, nurse practitioners and fellows). Virtual radiology rounds occurred 4-5 sessions/week with an average of 6.4 studies. Clinicians rated confidence in their own image interpretation with a 7.4 average rating for NICU and 7.5 average rating for CCVCU. Clinicians unanimously rated virtual radiology rounds as adding value. NICU staff preferred virtual radiology rounds to traditional rounds and CCVCU staff supported their new participation in virtual radiology rounds. Four of the five pediatric radiologists participating in virtual radiology rounds responded to the survey reporting virtual radiology rounds to be easy to facilitate (average rating: 9.3), to moderately impact interpretation of imaging studies (average rating: 6), and to provide substantial educational value for radiologists (average rating: 8.3). All pediatric radiologists felt strongly that virtual radiology rounds enable increased integration of the radiologist into the clinical care team (average rating: 8.8). Virtual radiology rounds are a

  20. Virtual radiology rounds: adding value in the digital era

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fefferman, Nancy R.; Strubel, Naomi A.; Prithiani, Chandan; Chakravarti, Sujata; Caprio, Martha; Recht, Michael P. [New York University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology, New York, NY (United States)

    2016-11-15

    To preserve radiology rounds in the changing health care environment, we have introduced virtual radiology rounds, an initiative enabling clinicians to remotely review imaging studies with the radiologist. We describe our initial experience with virtual radiology rounds and referring provider impressions. Virtual radiology rounds, a web-based conference, use remote sharing of radiology workstations. Participants discuss imaging studies by speakerphone. Virtual radiology rounds were piloted with the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the Congenital Cardiovascular Care Unit (CCVCU). Providers completed a survey assessing the perceived impact and overall value of virtual radiology rounds on patient care using a 10-point scale. Pediatric radiologists participating in virtual radiology rounds completed a survey assessing technical, educational and clinical aspects of this methodology. Sixteen providers responded to the survey; 9 NICU and 7 CCVCU staff (physicians, nurse practitioners and fellows). Virtual radiology rounds occurred 4-5 sessions/week with an average of 6.4 studies. Clinicians rated confidence in their own image interpretation with a 7.4 average rating for NICU and 7.5 average rating for CCVCU. Clinicians unanimously rated virtual radiology rounds as adding value. NICU staff preferred virtual radiology rounds to traditional rounds and CCVCU staff supported their new participation in virtual radiology rounds. Four of the five pediatric radiologists participating in virtual radiology rounds responded to the survey reporting virtual radiology rounds to be easy to facilitate (average rating: 9.3), to moderately impact interpretation of imaging studies (average rating: 6), and to provide substantial educational value for radiologists (average rating: 8.3). All pediatric radiologists felt strongly that virtual radiology rounds enable increased integration of the radiologist into the clinical care team (average rating: 8.8). Virtual radiology rounds are a