IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUPPORTING STRUCTURE OF PLATFORM CAR FOR HIGHER EFFICIENCY OF CONTAINER TRANSPORTATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. O. Lovska

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The article is aimed to improve supporting structures of the platform car to increase the efficiency of container transportations. Methodology. In order to achieve the objective, the strength investigations of the universal platform car of the model 13-401 were conducted, strength reserves of the supporting elements were defined, and more optimal profiles of basic longitudinal beams of the frame in terms of the minimum material capacity were proposed. Decision correctness was confirmed by the strength calculation of the platform car supporting structure at basic loading operational modes and fatigue taking into account the research database of 107 cycles. It has been proposed to equip a platform car with swing fitting stops for fastening containers on the frame, which allows transportation of 20ft and 40ft containers. In order to improve container transportation efficiency along international transport corridors running through Ukraine, a platform car of articulated type has been designed on the base of the improved platform car structure. The mathematical simulation of dynamic loads of the platform car with containers (two 1CC containers at operational loading modes has been carried out, the maximum accelerations influencing the support structure have been defined, and their multiple values have been considered in computer simulation of the strength of the platform car of articulated type. Findings. The support structure of the platform car of articulated type on the basis of the standard platform car has been developed. Refined values of dynamic loads influencing supporting structure the platform car of articulated type with containers at operational loading modes have been obtained; the maximum equivalent stresses in the platform car support structure have been defined. Originality and practical value. A mathematical model of displacements for a platform car of articulated type with containers at operational loading modes of

{cross-disciplinary} Data CyberInfrastructure: A Different Approach to Developing Collaborative Earth and Environmental Science Research Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Lenhardt, W. C.; Krishnamurthy, A.; Blanton, B.; Conway, M.; Coposky, J.; Castillo, C.; Idaszak, R.

2017-12-01

An integrated science cyberinfrastructure platform is fast becoming a norm in science, particularly where access to distributed resources, access to compute, data management tools, and collaboration tools are accessible to the end-user scientist without the need to spin up these services on their own. There platforms have various types of labels ranging from data commons to science-as-a-service. They tend to share common features, as outlined above. What tends to distinguish these platforms, however, is their affinity for particular domains, NanoHub - nanomaterials, iPlant - plant biology, Hydroshare - hydrology, and so on. The challenge still remains how to enable these platforms to be more easily adopted for use by other domains. This paper will provide an overview of RENCI's approach to creating a science platform that can be more easily adopted by new communities while also endeavoring to accelerate their research. At RENCI, we started with Hydroshare, but have now worked to generalize the methodology for application to other domains. This new effort is called xDCi, or {cross-disciplinary} Data CyberInfrastructure. We have adopted a broader approach to the challenge of domain adoption and includes two key elements in addition to the technology component. The first of these is how development is operationalized. RENCI implements a DevOps model of continuous development and deployment. This greatly increases the speed by which a new platform can come online and be refined to meet domain needs. DevOps also allows for migration over time, i.e. sustainability. The second element is a concierge model. In addition to the technical elements, and the more responsive development process, RENCI also supports domain adoption of the platform by providing a concierge service— dedicated expertise- in the following areas, Information Technology, Sustainable Software, Data Science, and Sustainability. The success of the RENCI methodology is illustrated by the adoption of the

In-Space Internet-Based Communications for Space Science Platforms Using Commercial Satellite Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Kerczewski, Robert J.; Bhasin, Kul B.; Fabian, Theodore P.; Griner, James H.; Kachmar, Brian A.; Richard, Alan M.

1999-01-01

The continuing technological advances in satellite communications and global networking have resulted in commercial systems that now can potentially provide capabilities for communications with space-based science platforms. This reduces the need for expensive government owned communications infrastructures to support space science missions while simultaneously making available better service to the end users. An interactive, high data rate Internet type connection through commercial space communications networks would enable authorized researchers anywhere to control space-based experiments in near real time and obtain experimental results immediately. A space based communications network architecture consisting of satellite constellations connecting orbiting space science platforms to ground users can be developed to provide this service. The unresolved technical issues presented by this scenario are the subject of research at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Assessment of network architectures, identification of required new or improved technologies, and investigation of data communications protocols are being performed through testbed and satellite experiments and laboratory simulations.

Structured reporting platform improves CAD-RADS assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Szilveszter, Bálint; Kolossváry, Márton; Karády, Júlia; Jermendy, Ádám L; Károlyi, Mihály; Panajotu, Alexisz; Bagyura, Zsolt; Vecsey-Nagy, Milán; Cury, Ricardo C; Leipsic, Jonathon A; Merkely, Béla; Maurovich-Horvat, Pál

2017-11-01

Structured reporting in cardiac imaging is strongly encouraged to improve quality through consistency. The Coronary Artery Disease - Reporting and Data System (CAD-RADS) was recently introduced to facilitate interdisciplinary communication of coronary CT angiography (CTA) results. We aimed to assess the agreement between manual and automated CAD-RADS classification using a structured reporting platform. Five readers prospectively interpreted 500 coronary CT angiographies using a structured reporting platform that automatically calculates the CAD-RADS score based on stenosis and plaque parameters manually entered by the reader. In addition, all readers manually assessed CAD-RADS blinded to the automatically derived results, which was used as the reference standard. We evaluated factors influencing reader performance including CAD-RADS training, clinical load, time of the day and level of expertise. Total agreement between manual and automated classification was 80.2%. Agreement in stenosis categories was 86.7%, whereas the agreement in modifiers was 95.8% for "N", 96.8% for "S", 95.6% for "V" and 99.4% for "G". Agreement for V improved after CAD-RADS training (p = 0.047). Time of the day and clinical load did not influence reader performance (p > 0.05 both). Less experienced readers had a higher total agreement as compared to more experienced readers (87.0% vs 78.0%, respectively; p = 0.011). Even though automated CAD-RADS classification uses data filled in by the readers, it outperforms manual classification by preventing human errors. Structured reporting platforms with automated calculation of the CAD-RADS score might improve data quality and support standardization of clinical decision making. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Multi-Science Data Analysis Platform and the GeneROOT Use Case

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva; Rademakers, Fons

2017-01-01

This talk will cover two areas of current research in the context of knowledge sharing between CERN openlab and the life science communities. The first area covers the development and prototyping of a multi-science data analysis platform build up around CERN developed technologies like, Zenodo, REANA and CVMFS. When finished this platform will support a complete data analysis life-cycle from data discovery, to data access, to data processing to end-user data analysis. The second area covers a specific use case, where HEP specific software like ROOT is used to store and process genomics data sequences. There are a number of handcrafted genomics data formats being used, like FASTQ, SAM, BAM, CRAM, etc. They range from pure ASCII to compressed binary formats. We will compare the features of these formats with the generic capabilities of ROOT’s TTree containers. Also we will show performance numbers of typical analysis scenarios.

High Altitude Balloons as a Platform for Space Radiation Belt Science

Science.gov (United States)

Mazzino, L.; Buttenschoen, A.; Farr, Q.; Hodgson, C.; Johnson, W.; Mann, I. R.; Rae, J.; University of Alberta High Altitude Balloons (UA-HAB)

2011-12-01

The goals of the University of Alberta High Altitude Balloons Program (UA-HAB) are to i) use low cost balloons to address space radiation science, and ii) to utilise the excitement of "space mission" involvement to promote and facilitate the recruitment of undergraduate and graduate students in physics, engineering, and atmospheric sciences to pursue careers in space science and engineering. The University of Alberta High Altitude Balloons (UA-HAB) is a unique opportunity for University of Alberta students (undergraduate and graduate) to engage in the hands-on design, development, build, test and flight of a payload to operate on a high altitude balloon at around 30km altitude. The program development, including formal design and acceptance tests, reports and reviews, mirror those required in the development of an orbital satellite mission. This enables the students to gain a unique insight into how space missions are flown. UA-HAB is a one and half year program that offers a gateway into a high-altitude balloon mission through hands on experience, and builds skills for students who may be attracted to participate in future space missions in their careers. This early education will provide students with the experience necessary to better assess opportunities for pursuing a career in space science. Balloons offer a low-cost alternative to other suborbital platforms which can be used to address radiation belt science goals. In particular, the participants of this program have written grant proposal to secure funds for this project, have launched several 'weather balloon missions', and have designed, built, tested, and launched their particle detector called "Maple Leaf Particle Detector". This detector was focussed on monitoring cosmic rays and space radiation using shielded Geiger tubes, and was flown as one of the payloads from the institutions participating in the High Altitude Student Platform (HASP), organized by the Louisiana State University and the Louisiana

Structural Integrity Management for Fixed Offshore Platforms in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Narayanan Sambu Potty; Mohammad Kabir B. Mohd Akram

2009-01-01

Structural Integrity Management (SIM) is important for the protection of offshore crew, environment, business assets and company and industry reputation. API RP 2A contained guidelines for assessment of existing platforms mostly for the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). ISO 19902 SIM framework also does not specifically cater for Malaysia. There are about 200 platforms in Malaysia with 90 exceeding their design life. The Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (PCSB) uses the Asset Integrity Management ...

Design of e-Science platform for biomedical imaging research cross multiple academic institutions and hospitals

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jianguo; Zhang, Kai; Yang, Yuanyuan; Ling, Tonghui; Wang, Tusheng; Wang, Mingqing; Hu, Haibo; Xu, Xuemin

2012-02-01

More and more image informatics researchers and engineers are considering to re-construct imaging and informatics infrastructure or to build new framework to enable multiple disciplines of medical researchers, clinical physicians and biomedical engineers working together in a secured, efficient, and transparent cooperative environment. In this presentation, we show an outline and our preliminary design work of building an e-Science platform for biomedical imaging and informatics research and application in Shanghai. We will present our consideration and strategy on designing this platform, and preliminary results. We also will discuss some challenges and solutions in building this platform.

Practice and exploration: build nuclear science and technology information resources management system based on the TRS platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Jing; Meng Xu

2010-01-01

Nuclear science and technology information has played a very important role in the development of Chinese nuclear industry. In information explosion and information technology swift development's today, how to use information technology method to management and shared the nuclear information of nuclear research institutes, nuclear power plants and other nuclear-related units, become an important subject of nuclear information work. TRS information resource management platform provide a doable solution to manage and share the nuclear science and technology information. Nuclear Power Institute of China has built a nuclear science and technology information resources management system based on the TRS platform, through some steps just like system design, re-development and resource building. This management system has served for the research, testing, production and operation. (authors)

Rebalancing interests and power structures on crowdworking platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayad Al-Ani

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Crowdwork on virtual platforms is developing into a recognisable employment and business model on the internet. Despite their many differences, the platforms that have emerged over the last few years have one thing in common: a crowd of individual producers and capabilities is mobilised – in the form of labour, accommodation or durable goods – onto the market in cooperation and competition with firms from traditional industries. This study analyses the factors crowdworkers consider relevant in their work and the measures they view as helpful in improving their working relationship with platforms. It is apparent that, in the best tradition of the peer economy, this new type of worker still considers learning and fun important factors for his or her engagement. Despite these effectively intrinsic factors, workers are quite aware of their situation, which does not put them on equal terms with the platform’s algorithms and customer focus. This awareness of power disparities does not lead them, however, to reconsider their effectiveness when it comes to renegotiating terms with the platform: when specifically asked about the role of unions, the majority of crowdworkers did not expect help in self-organisation from these institutions. Considering the difficulties in regulating the market for platforms, (self- organisation of crowdworkers, however, is an important prerequisite in rebalancing the power structure dominated by platform owners and their customers. Self-organisation is something digital natives are quite familiar with and we have to assume that crowdworkers are perhaps overconfident in their abilities. And due to the novelty of this industry, this confidence has not been shaken yet by labour disputes or even by growing dissatisfaction with platforms.

Social media as a platform for science and health engagement: challenges and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Dixon, Graham

2016-01-01

Social media has become a major platform for debates on science and health. This commentary argues that while social media can present challenges to communicating important health matters, it can also provide health experts a unique opportunity to engage with and build trust among members of the public.

Structural analysis, design and evaluation of mock-up platform, monorail, and tank plate cut-out

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hundal, T.S.

1995-01-01

Platform - Structural analyses were performed for design seismic, live and dead load combinations for the freestanding platform over the partial DST mock-up section. The platform is to be used for Robotic ultrasonic inspection of the tank wall. It is a free standing structure anchored to floor slab with Hilti Kwik bolts

Helix Nebula - the Science Cloud: a public-private partnership to build a multidisciplinary cloud platform for data intensive science

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Bob; Casu, Francesco

2013-04-01

The feasibility of using commercial cloud services for scientific research is of great interest to research organisations such as CERN, ESA and EMBL, to the suppliers of cloud-based services and to the national and European funding agencies. Through the Helix Nebula - the Science Cloud [1] initiative and with the support of the European Commission, these stakeholders are driving a two year pilot-phase during which procurement processes and governance issues for a framework of public/private partnership will be appraised. Three initial flagship use cases from high energy physics, molecular biology and earth-observation are being used to validate the approach, enable a cost-benefit analysis to be undertaken and prepare the next stage of the Science Cloud Strategic Plan [2] to be developed and approved. The power of Helix Nebula lies in a shared set of services for initially 3 very different sciences each supporting a global community and thus building a common e-Science platform. Of particular relevance is the ESA sponsored flagship application SuperSites Exploitation Platform (SSEP [3]) that offers the global geo-hazard community a common platform for the correlation and processing of observation data for supersites monitoring. The US-NSF Earth Cube [4] and Ocean Observatory Initiative [5] (OOI) are taking a similar approach for data intensive science. The work of Helix Nebula and its recent architecture model [6] has shown that is it technically feasible to allow publicly funded infrastructures, such as EGI [7] and GEANT [8], to interoperate with commercial cloud services. Such hybrid systems are in the interest of the existing users of publicly funded infrastructures and funding agencies because they will provide "freedom of choice" over the type of computing resources to be consumed and the manner in which they can be obtained. But to offer such freedom-of choice across a spectrum of suppliers, various issues such as intellectual property, legal responsibility

Integrative structure modeling with the Integrative Modeling Platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Webb, Benjamin; Viswanath, Shruthi; Bonomi, Massimiliano; Pellarin, Riccardo; Greenberg, Charles H; Saltzberg, Daniel; Sali, Andrej

2018-01-01

Building models of a biological system that are consistent with the myriad data available is one of the key challenges in biology. Modeling the structure and dynamics of macromolecular assemblies, for example, can give insights into how biological systems work, evolved, might be controlled, and even designed. Integrative structure modeling casts the building of structural models as a computational optimization problem, for which information about the assembly is encoded into a scoring function that evaluates candidate models. Here, we describe our open source software suite for integrative structure modeling, Integrative Modeling Platform (https://integrativemodeling.org), and demonstrate its use. © 2017 The Protein Society.

Research on Hydrodynamic Interference Suppression of Bottom-Mounted Monitoring Platform with Fairing Structure

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhen; Zheng, Yi; Mao, Yu-feng; Wang, Ya-zhou; Yu, Yan-ting; Liu, Hong-ning

2018-03-01

In the disturbance of unsteady flow field under the sea, the monitoring accuracy and precision of the bottom-mounted acoustic monitoring platform will decrease. In order to reduce the hydrodynamic interference, the platform wrapped with fairing structure and separated from the retrieval unit is described. The suppression effect evaluation based on the correlation theory of sound pressure and particle velocity for spherical wave in infinite homogeneous medium is proposed and the difference value between them is used to evaluate the hydrodynamic restraining performance of the bottom-mounted platform under far field condition. Through the sea test, it is indicated that the platform with sparse layers fairing structure (there are two layers for the fairing, in which the inside layer is 6-layers sparse metal net, and the outside layer is 1-layer polyester cloth, and then it takes sparse layers for short) has no attenuation in the sound pressure response to the sound source signal, but obvious suppression in the velocity response to the hydrodynamic noise. The effective frequency of the fairing structure is decreased below 10 Hz, and the noise magnitude is reduced by 10 dB. With the comparison of different fairing structures, it is concluded that the tighter fairing structure can enhance the performance of sound transmission and flow restraining.

TurkPrime.com: A versatile crowdsourcing data acquisition platform for the behavioral sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Litman, Leib; Robinson, Jonathan; Abberbock, Tzvi

2017-04-01

In recent years, Mechanical Turk (MTurk) has revolutionized social science by providing a way to collect behavioral data with unprecedented speed and efficiency. However, MTurk was not intended to be a research tool, and many common research tasks are difficult and time-consuming to implement as a result. TurkPrime was designed as a research platform that integrates with MTurk and supports tasks that are common to the social and behavioral sciences. Like MTurk, TurkPrime is an Internet-based platform that runs on any browser and does not require any downloads or installation. Tasks that can be implemented with TurkPrime include: excluding participants on the basis of previous participation, longitudinal studies, making changes to a study while it is running, automating the approval process, increasing the speed of data collection, sending bulk e-mails and bonuses, enhancing communication with participants, monitoring dropout and engagement rates, providing enhanced sampling options, and many others. This article describes how TurkPrime saves time and resources, improves data quality, and allows researchers to design and implement studies that were previously very difficult or impossible to carry out on MTurk. TurkPrime is designed as a research tool whose aim is to improve the quality of the crowdsourcing data collection process. Various features have been and continue to be implemented on the basis of feedback from the research community. TurkPrime is a free research platform.

A Citizen Empowered Online Platform for Communicating Climate Science to the General Public

Science.gov (United States)

Bourqui, Michel

2014-05-01

This presentation introduces a project, currently in development, of a new online platform for the interaction between climate scientists and citizen. It consists of an open-access, multi-lingual, and peer-reviewed journal publishing climate articles in non-scientific language. It follows three main long-term objectives. The first objective is to establish an ever-growing, multi-lingual library of climate articles providing a knowledge base on climate sciences accessible for free to everyone. The targeted public includes journalists, teachers, students, local actors (e.g. in politics, economy, agriculture), and any other citizen from around the world with an interest in climate sciences. The second goal is to offer a simple and direct channel for scientists wishing to disseminate their research to the general public. A high standard of climate articles is enforced through: a) requiring that the main author is an active climate scientist, and b) an innovative peer-review process involving scientific and non-scientific referees with distinct roles. The third objective is to engage citizen into the climate science. To this aim, the journal proposes three channels. Firstly, citizens are invited to contribute to the dissemination of climate knowledge to the general public by co-authoring, peer-reviewing or translating articles. Secondly, they are offered the capacity to stimulate scientific enquiry by posting invitations for manuscripts to be written on a citizen-inspired topic. Thirdly, a match-up tool is being developed for scientists to gather non-scientists teams for conducting citizen-involving research projects. This platform is scientist-initiated and is meant to be ruled and managed by the participating individuals themselves (scientists and non-scientists) as an international association. It will be financed through country-varying flat memberships. The project is now starting. The basic ideas are drawn; a prototype internet platform has been developed and is

Database Description - AT Atlas | LSDB Archive [Life Science Database Archive metadata

Lifescience Database Archive (English)

Full Text Available 1-8540, JAPAN Platform for Drug Discovery, Informatics, and Structural Life Science Research Organization...m for Drug Discovery, Informatics, and Structural Life Science Research Organization of Information and Syst

Cubesats: Cost-effective science and technology platforms for emerging and developing nations

Science.gov (United States)

Woellert, Kirk; Ehrenfreund, Pascale; Ricco, Antonio J.; Hertzfeld, Henry

2011-02-01

The development, operation, and analysis of data from cubesats can promote science education and spur technology utilization in emerging and developing nations. This platform offers uniquely low construction and launch costs together with a comparative ubiquity of launch providers; factors that have led more than 80 universities and several emerging nations to develop programs in this field. Their small size and weight enables cubesats to “piggyback” on rocket launches and accompany orbiters travelling to Moon and Mars. It is envisaged that constellations of cubesats will be used for larger science missions. We present a brief history, technology overview, and summary of applications in science and industry for these small satellites. Cubesat technical success stories are offered along with a summary of pitfalls and challenges encountered in both developed and emerging nations. A discussion of economic and public policy issues aims to facilitate the decision-making process for those considering utilization of this unique technology.

Impacts from Partial Removal of Decommissioned Oil and Gas Platforms on Fish Biomass and Production on the Remaining Platform Structure and Surrounding Shell Mounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Claisse, Jeremy T; Pondella, Daniel J; Love, Milton; Zahn, Laurel A; Williams, Chelsea M; Bull, Ann S

2015-01-01

When oil and gas platforms become obsolete they go through a decommissioning process. This may include partial removal (from the surface to 26 m depth) or complete removal of the platform structure. While complete removal would likely eliminate most of the existing fish biomass and associated secondary production, we find that the potential impacts of partial removal would likely be limited on all but one platform off the coast of California. On average 80% of fish biomass and 86% of secondary fish production would be retained after partial removal, with above 90% retention expected for both metrics on many platforms. Partial removal would likely result in the loss of fish biomass and production for species typically found residing in the shallow portions of the platform structure. However, these fishes generally represent a small proportion of the fishes associated with these platforms. More characteristic of platform fauna are the primarily deeper-dwelling rockfishes (genus Sebastes). "Shell mounds" are biogenic reefs that surround some of these platforms resulting from an accumulation of mollusk shells that have fallen from the shallow areas of the platforms mostly above the depth of partial removal. We found that shell mounds are moderately productive fish habitats, similar to or greater than natural rocky reefs in the region at comparable depths. The complexity and areal extent of these biogenic habitats, and the associated fish biomass and production, will likely be reduced after either partial or complete platform removal. Habitat augmentation by placing the partially removed platform superstructure or some other additional habitat enrichment material (e.g., rock boulders) on the seafloor adjacent to the base of partially removed platforms provides additional options to enhance fish production, potentially mitigating reductions in shell mound habitat.

Impacts from Partial Removal of Decommissioned Oil and Gas Platforms on Fish Biomass and Production on the Remaining Platform Structure and Surrounding Shell Mounds.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeremy T Claisse

Full Text Available When oil and gas platforms become obsolete they go through a decommissioning process. This may include partial removal (from the surface to 26 m depth or complete removal of the platform structure. While complete removal would likely eliminate most of the existing fish biomass and associated secondary production, we find that the potential impacts of partial removal would likely be limited on all but one platform off the coast of California. On average 80% of fish biomass and 86% of secondary fish production would be retained after partial removal, with above 90% retention expected for both metrics on many platforms. Partial removal would likely result in the loss of fish biomass and production for species typically found residing in the shallow portions of the platform structure. However, these fishes generally represent a small proportion of the fishes associated with these platforms. More characteristic of platform fauna are the primarily deeper-dwelling rockfishes (genus Sebastes. "Shell mounds" are biogenic reefs that surround some of these platforms resulting from an accumulation of mollusk shells that have fallen from the shallow areas of the platforms mostly above the depth of partial removal. We found that shell mounds are moderately productive fish habitats, similar to or greater than natural rocky reefs in the region at comparable depths. The complexity and areal extent of these biogenic habitats, and the associated fish biomass and production, will likely be reduced after either partial or complete platform removal. Habitat augmentation by placing the partially removed platform superstructure or some other additional habitat enrichment material (e.g., rock boulders on the seafloor adjacent to the base of partially removed platforms provides additional options to enhance fish production, potentially mitigating reductions in shell mound habitat.

Internet of Things (IoT Platform for Structure Health Monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmed Abdelgawad

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Increase in the demand for reliable structural health information led to the development of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM. Prediction of upcoming accidents and estimation of useful life span of a structure are facilitated through SHM. While data sensing is the core of any SHM, tracking the data anytime anywhere is a prevailing challenge. With the advancement in information technology, the concept of Internet of Things (IoT has made it possible to integrate SHM with Internet to track data anytime anywhere. In this paper, a SHM platform embedded with IoT is proposed to detect the size and location of damage in structures. The proposed platform consists of a Wi-Fi module, a Raspberry Pi, an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC, a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC, a buffer, and piezoelectric (PZT sensors. The piezoelectric sensors are mounted as a pair in the structure. Data collected from the piezoelectric sensors will be used to detect the size and location of damage using a proposed mathematical model. Implemented on a Raspberry Pi, the proposed mathematical model will estimate the size and location of structural damage, if any, and upload the data to Internet. This data will be stored and can be checked remotely from any mobile device. The system has been validated using a real test bed in the lab.

A Network Enabled Platform for Canadian Space Science Data

Science.gov (United States)

Rankin, R.; Boteler, D. R.; Jayachandran, T. P.; Mann, I. R.; Sofko, G.; Yau, A. W.

2008-12-01

The internet is an example of a pervasive disruptive technology that has transformed society on a global scale. The term "cyberinfrastructure" refers to technology underpinning the collaborative aspect of large science projects and is synonymous with terms such as e-Science, intelligent infrastructure, and/or e- infrastructure. In the context of space science, a significant challenge is to exploit the internet and cyberinfrastructure to form effective virtual organizations (VOs) of scientists that have common or agreed- upon objectives. A typical VO is likely to include universities and government agencies specializing in types of instrumentation (ground and/or space based), which in deployment produce large quantities of space data. Such data is most effectively described by metadata, which if defined in a standard way, facilitates discovery and retrieval of data over the internet by intelligent interfaces and cyberinfrastructure. One recent and significant approach is SPASE, which is being developed by NASA as a data-standard for its Virtual Observatories (VxOs) programs. The space science community in Canada has recently formed a VO designed to complement the e-POP microsatellite mission, and new ground-based observatories (GBOs) that collect data over a large fraction of the Canadian land-mass. The VO includes members of the CGSM community (www.cgsm.ca), which is funded operationally by the Canadian Space Agency. It also includes the UCLA VMO team, and scientists in the NASA THEMIS mission. CANARIE (www.canarie.ca), the federal agency responsible for management, design and operation of Canada's research internet, has recently recognized the value of cyberinfrastucture through the creation of a Network-Enabled-Platforms (NEPs) program. An NEP for space science was funded by CANARIE in its first competition. When fully implemented, the Space Science NEP will consist of a front-end portal providing access to CGSM data. It will utilize an adaptation of the SPASE

Development of integrated platform for computational material design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kiyoshi, Matsubara; Kumi, Itai; Nobutaka, Nishikawa; Akifumi, Kato [Center for Computational Science and Engineering, Fuji Research Institute Corporation (Japan); Hideaki, Koike [Advance Soft Corporation (Japan)

2003-07-01

The goal of our project is to design and develop a problem-solving environment (PSE) that will help computational scientists and engineers develop large complicated application software and simulate complex phenomena by using networking and parallel computing. The integrated platform, which is designed for PSE in the Japanese national project of Frontier Simulation Software for Industrial Science, is defined by supporting the entire range of problem solving activity from program formulation and data setup to numerical simulation, data management, and visualization. A special feature of our integrated platform is based on a new architecture called TASK FLOW. It integrates the computational resources such as hardware and software on the network and supports complex and large-scale simulation. This concept is applied to computational material design and the project 'comprehensive research for modeling, analysis, control, and design of large-scale complex system considering properties of human being'. Moreover this system will provide the best solution for developing large and complicated software and simulating complex and large-scaled phenomena in computational science and engineering. A prototype has already been developed and the validation and verification of an integrated platform will be scheduled by using the prototype in 2003. In the validation and verification, fluid-structure coupling analysis system for designing an industrial machine will be developed on the integrated platform. As other examples of validation and verification, integrated platform for quantum chemistry and bio-mechanical system are planned.

Development of integrated platform for computational material design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kiyoshi, Matsubara; Kumi, Itai; Nobutaka, Nishikawa; Akifumi, Kato; Hideaki, Koike

2003-01-01

The goal of our project is to design and develop a problem-solving environment (PSE) that will help computational scientists and engineers develop large complicated application software and simulate complex phenomena by using networking and parallel computing. The integrated platform, which is designed for PSE in the Japanese national project of Frontier Simulation Software for Industrial Science, is defined by supporting the entire range of problem solving activity from program formulation and data setup to numerical simulation, data management, and visualization. A special feature of our integrated platform is based on a new architecture called TASK FLOW. It integrates the computational resources such as hardware and software on the network and supports complex and large-scale simulation. This concept is applied to computational material design and the project 'comprehensive research for modeling, analysis, control, and design of large-scale complex system considering properties of human being'. Moreover this system will provide the best solution for developing large and complicated software and simulating complex and large-scaled phenomena in computational science and engineering. A prototype has already been developed and the validation and verification of an integrated platform will be scheduled by using the prototype in 2003. In the validation and verification, fluid-structure coupling analysis system for designing an industrial machine will be developed on the integrated platform. As other examples of validation and verification, integrated platform for quantum chemistry and bio-mechanical system are planned

Accessorizing Building Science – A Web Platform to Support Multiple Market Transformation Programs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Madison, Michael C.; Antonopoulos, Chrissi A.; Dowson, Scott T.; Franklin, Trisha L.; Carlsen, Leif C.; Baechler, Michael C.

2014-09-28

As demand for improved energy efficiency in homes increases, builders need information on the latest findings in building science, rapidly ramping-up energy codes, and technical requirements for labeling programs. The Building America Solution Center is a Department of Energy (DOE) website containing hundreds of expert guides designed to help residential builders install efficiency measures in new and existing homes. Builders can package measures with other media for customized content. Website content provides technical support to market transformation programs such as ENERGY STAR and has been cloned and adapted to provide content for the Better Buildings Residential Program. The Solution Center uses the Drupal open source content management platform to combine a variety of media in an interactive manner to make information easily accessible. Developers designed a unique taxonomy to organize and manage content. That taxonomy was translated into web-based modules that allow users to rapidly traverse structured content with related topics, and media. We will present information on the current design of the Solution Center and the underlying technology used to manage the content. The paper will explore development of features, such as “Field Kits” that allow users to bundle and save content for quick access, along with the ability to export PDF versions of content. Finally, we will discuss development of an Android based mobile application, and a visualization tool for interacting with Building Science Publications that allows the user to dynamically search the entire Building America Library.

Immersive Virtual Reality Technologies as a New Platform for Science, Scholarship, and Education

Science.gov (United States)

Djorgovski, Stanislav G.; Hut, P.; McMillan, S.; Knop, R.; Vesperini, E.; Graham, M.; Portegies Zwart, S.; Farr, W.; Mahabal, A.; Donalek, C.; Longo, G.

2010-01-01

Immersive virtual reality (VR) and virtual worlds (VWs) are an emerging set of technologies which likely represent the next evolutionary step in the ways we use information technology to interact with the world of information and with other people, the roles now generally fulfilled by the Web and other common Internet applications. Currently, these technologies are mainly accessed through various VWs, e.g., the Second Life (SL), which are general platforms for a broad range of user activities. As an experiment in the utilization of these technologies for science, scholarship, education, and public outreach, we have formed the Meta-Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA; http://mica-vw.org), the first professional scientific organization based exclusively in VWs. The goals of MICA are: (1) Exploration, development and promotion of VWs and VR technologies for professional research in astronomy and related fields. (2) Providing and developing novel social networking venues and mechanisms for scientific collaboration and communications, including professional meetings, effective telepresence, etc. (3) Use of VWs and VR technologies for education and public outreach. (4) Exchange of ideas and joint efforts with other scientific disciplines in promoting these goals for science and scholarship in general. To this effect, we have a regular schedule of professional and public outreach events in SL, including technical seminars, workshops, journal club, collaboration meetings, public lectures, etc. We find that these technologies are already remarkably effective as a telepresence platform for scientific and scholarly discussions, meetings, etc. They can offer substantial savings of time and resources, and eliminate a lot of unnecessary travel. They are equally effective as a public outreach platform, reaching a world-wide audience. On the pure research front, we are currently exploring the use of these technologies as a venue for numerical simulations and their

TravelingGeologist: an online platform for dissemination of earth science to the masses

Science.gov (United States)

Spencer, C. J.; Hoiland, C. W.; Gunderson, K. L.

2016-12-01

To more effectively inspire the next generation of scientists, the earth science community's public outreach efforts must adapt to the changing technological and informational ecosystems in which young people interact online (e.g. blogs, social media, viral marketing, web-based education, etc.). Although there are currently a number of successful individual and institutional efforts to reach potential students through web-based outlets, many of these efforts fail to connect primary researchers directly to a lay audience, relying instead on intermediaries that tend to dilute the recruiting impact of "producer-to-consumer" interactions. Few, if any of these efforts appear to have reached a critical mass of contributing authors and subscribed followers; and there are few available detailed metrics on growth trajectories, impact, or lay reach. We offer data from the TravelingGeologist as a case study in successful direct-to-consumer science outreach and recruitment. The TravelingGeologist is a non-profit, web-based platform on which earth scientists share their experiences in the field with the expressed purpose of attracting and inspiring a new generation of scientists. The TravelingGeologist website is supplemented by various social media platforms that market the content on the main site. Because TravelingGeologist accepts contributions from a variety of earth scientists, it also provides an arena whereon research summaries and vignettes can be shared with the large lay- and expert audience. This gives contributing authors an additional opportunity to demonstrate to government institutions that fund their research projects that they are engaging in efforts to communicate their results to the wider public. Beyond the ability to inspire new students and communicate science to the general public, it is our intent that TravelingGeologist will foster communication and promote collaboration within the earth science community. We have demonstrated that through well

The structural science of functional materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Catlow, C Richard A

2018-01-01

The growing complexity of functional materials and the major challenges this poses to structural science are discussed. The diversity of structural materials science and the contributions that computation is making to the field are highlighted.

Fiscal 2000 report on result of R and D project for industrial science and technology in cooperation with universities, and R and D of platform for designing high functional material; 2000 nendo kokino zairyo seikkei platform no kenkyu kaihatsu seika hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1991-03-01

R and D was conducted concerning sophistication and high speeding in designing materials by simulation technology utilizing a new calculation method, with fiscal 2000 results compiled. In each working group, research was carried out respectively on coarse-grained molecular dynamics, dynamic average domain method, dispersed structure simulation, verification study, and platforms. Also, Tokyo University, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, examined structures and physical properties of polymeric materials at nano-scale, making comparisons with expected values by simulation. Tokyo University, Institute of Industrial Science conducted an experimental research in order to elucidate the whole picture of viscoelastic phase separation in a polymeric solution system at quantitative level. Tokyo Institute of Technology, Graduate School, made a comparison between a simulation and an experiment concerning polymer micelles by molecular association and polymerization-induced phase separation. Meantime, Kyoto University, Graduate School, carried out research on dynamics of complex phase transition of multi-component polymer mixtures and its self-assembling processes. (NEDO)

Mine or Theirs, Where Do Users Go? A Comparison of E-Journal Usage at the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center Platform versus the Elsevier ScienceDirect Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Swanson, Juleah

2015-01-01

This research provides librarians with a model for assessing and predicting which platforms patrons will use to access the same content, specifically comparing usage at the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) Electronic Journal Center (EJC) and at Elsevier's ScienceDirect from 2007 to 2013. Findings show that in the earlier years, the…

Mars in Motion: An online Citizen Science platform looking for changes on the surface of Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Sprinks, James Christopher; Wardlaw, Jessica; Houghton, Robert; Bamford, Steven; Marsh, Stuart

2016-10-01

The European FP7 iMars project has developed tools and 3D models of the Martian surface through the co-registration of NASA and ESA mission data dating from the Viking missions of the 1970s to the present day, for a much more comprehensive interpretation of the geomorphological and climatic processes that have taken and do take place. We present the Citizen Science component of the project, 'Mars in Motion', created through the Zooniverse's Panoptes framework to allow volunteers to look for and identify changes on the surface of Mars over time. 'Mars in Motion', as with many other current citizen science platforms of a planetary or other disciplinary focus, has been developed to compliment the results of automated data mining analysis software, both by validation through the creation of training data and by adding context - gathering more in-depth data on the type and metrics of change initially detected.Through the analysis of initial volunteer results collected in the second half of 2016, the accuracy and ability of untrained participants to identify geomorphological changes is considered, as well as the impact of their position in the system. Volunteer contribution, either as a filter for poor quality imagery pre-algorithm, validation of algorithmic analysis, or adding context to pre-detected change, and their awareness and interpretation of its importance, can directly influence engagement with the platform and therefore ultimately its success. Understanding the effect of the volunteer and software's role in the system on both the results of and engagement with planetary science citizen science platforms will be an important lesson for the future, especially as the next generation of planetary missions will likely collect data orders of magnitude greater in volume. To deal with the data overload, it is likely that human or software solutions alone will not be sufficient, and that a combination of the two working together in a complimentary system that combines

Platforms for Persistent Communications, Surveillance and Reconnaissance

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Campbell, William; Vehlow, Chuck; Wartell, Mike; Adler, Allen; Swan, Pete; Wynn, Bob; Beriwaln, Madhu; Collier, Darrell; Gallagher, Herb; Glaser, Gary; Scalera, Steve; Puthoff, Jolene

2008-01-01

...). The Army Science Board investigated capabilities of platforms deployed in space near space and lower altitudes and assessed tradeoffs among benefits weaknesses costs and logistics burdens associated with platform types...

ROS-TMS and Big Sensor Box: Platforms for Informationally Structured Environment

OpenAIRE

倉爪, 亮; ユンソク, ピョ; 辻, 徳生; 河村, 晃宏

2017-01-01

This paper proposes new software and hardware platforms for an informationally structured environment named ROS-TMS and Big Sensor Box. We started the development of a management system for an informationally structured environment named TMS (Town Management System) in Robot Town Project in 2005. Since then we are continuing our efforts for the improvement of the performance and the enhancement of the functions of the TMS. Recently, we launched a new version of TMS named ROS-TMS, which resolv...

Multilayered photonic integration on SOI platform using waveguide-based bridge structure

Science.gov (United States)

Majumder, Saikat; Chakraborty, Rajib

2018-06-01

A waveguide based structure on silicon on insulator platform is proposed for vertical integration in photonic integrated circuits. The structure consists of two multimode interference couplers connected by a single mode (SM) section which can act as a bridge over any other underlying device. Two more SM sections acts as input and output of the first and second multimode couplers respectively. Potential application of this structure is in multilayered photonic links. It is shown that the efficiency of the structure can be improved by making some design modifications. The entire simulation is done using effective-index based matrix method. The feature size chosen are comparable to waveguides fabricated previously so as to fabricate the proposed structure easily.

Scalable, Secure Analysis of Social Sciences Data on the Azure Platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simmhan, Yogesh; Deng, Litao; Kumbhare, Alok; Redekopp, Mark; Prasanna, Viktor

2012-05-07

Human activity and interaction data is beginning to be collected at population scales through the pervasiveness of social media and willingness of people to volunteer information. This can allow social science researchers to understand and model human behavior with better accuracy and prediction power. Political and social scientists are starting to correlate such large scale social media datasets with events that impact society as evidence abound of the virtual and physical public spaces intersecting and influencing each other [1,2]. Managers of Cyber Physical Systems such as Smart Power Grid utilities are investigating the impact of consumer behavior on power consumption, and the possibility of influencing the usage profile [3]. Data collection is also made easier through technology such as mobile apps, social media sites and search engines that directly collect data, and sensors such smart meters and room occupancy sensors that indirectly measure human activity. These technology platforms also provide a convenient framework for “human sensors” to record and broadcast data for behavioral studies, as a form of crowd sourced citizen science. This has the added advantage of engaging the broader public in STEM activities and help influence public policy.

Development of a Cloud Computing-Based Pier Type Port Structure Stability Evaluation Platform Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Jo, Byung Wan; Jo, Jun Ho; Khan, Rana Muhammad Asad; Kim, Jung Hoon; Lee, Yun Sung

2018-05-23

Structure Health Monitoring is a topic of great interest in port structures due to the ageing of structures and the limitations of evaluating structures. This paper presents a cloud computing-based stability evaluation platform for a pier type port structure using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors in a system consisting of a FBG strain sensor, FBG displacement gauge, FBG angle meter, gateway, and cloud computing-based web server. The sensors were installed on core components of the structure and measurements were taken to evaluate the structures. The measurement values were transmitted to the web server via the gateway to analyze and visualize them. All data were analyzed and visualized in the web server to evaluate the structure based on the safety evaluation index (SEI). The stability evaluation platform for pier type port structures involves the efficient monitoring of the structures which can be carried out easily anytime and anywhere by converging new technologies such as cloud computing and FBG sensors. In addition, the platform has been successfully implemented at “Maryang Harbor” situated in Maryang-Meyon of Korea to test its durability.

Improving data discoverability, accessibility, and interoperability with the Esri ArcGIS Platform at the NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC).

Science.gov (United States)

Tisdale, M.

2017-12-01

NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) is operationally using the Esri ArcGIS Platform to improve data discoverability, accessibility and interoperability to meet the diversifying user requirements from government, private, public and academic communities. The ASDC is actively working to provide their mission essential datasets as ArcGIS Image Services, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Mapping Services (WMS), and OGC Web Coverage Services (WCS) while leveraging the ArcGIS multidimensional mosaic dataset structure. Science teams at ASDC are utilizing these services through the development of applications using the Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS and the ArcGIS API for Javascript. These services provide greater exposure of ASDC data holdings to the GIS community and allow for broader sharing and distribution to various end users. These capabilities provide interactive visualization tools and improved geospatial analytical tools for a mission critical understanding in the areas of the earth's radiation budget, clouds, aerosols, and tropospheric chemistry. The presentation will cover how the ASDC is developing geospatial web services and applications to improve data discoverability, accessibility, and interoperability.

Space platform expendables resupply concept definition study. Volume 3: Work breakdown structure and work breakdown structure dictionary

Science.gov (United States)

1984-01-01

The work breakdown structure (WBS) for the Space Platform Expendables Resupply Concept Definition Study is described. The WBS consists of a list of WBS elements, a dictionary of element definitions, and an element logic diagram. The list and logic diagram identify the interrelationships of the elements. The dictionary defines the types of work that may be represented by or be classified under each specific element. The Space Platform Expendable Resupply WBS was selected mainly to support the program planning, scheduling, and costing performed in the programmatics task (task 3). The WBS is neither a statement-of-work nor a work authorization document. Rather, it is a framework around which to define requirements, plan effort, assign responsibilities, allocate and control resources, and report progress, expenditures, technical performance, and schedule performance. The WBS element definitions are independent of make-or-buy decisions, organizational structure, and activity locations unless exceptions are specifically stated.

EVALUATION OF FREE PLATFORMS FOR DELIVERY OF MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOCS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Airton ZANCANARO

2017-01-01

Full Text Available For the hosting, management and delivery of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC it is necessary a technological infrastructure that supports it. Various educational institutions do not have or do not wish to invest in such a structure, possibly because MOOCs are not yet part of official programs of universities, but initiatives by a particular teacher or a research group. Focusing on this problem, this study seeks to identify platforms that make it possible to create, host and provide courses free of charges for the offeror; find in the respective literature, the basic requirements for MOOC platforms and to evaluate the platforms based on the raised requirements. In order to identify the platforms, information was sought in scientific articles and websites dealing with the comparison of platforms and listing the existing MOOC providers. For the definition of evaluation requirements, there was a search in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, looking for the term "Massive Open Online Courses". After applying some filters, 62 works that address platforms and technology were selected for analysis. As a result there is the identification of six platforms that allow the free supply of courses, the proposal for 14 requirements for reviewing them and a frame containing the evaluation of the identified platforms. This assessment is important since it brings knowledge as a basis for selecting a platform that is the most suitable one in terms of the chosen structure and method to store, manage and deliver courses in MOOC format.

Magnetically-refreshable receptor platform structures for reusable nano-biosensor chips

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoo, Haneul; Cho, Dong-guk; Park, Juhun; Nam, Ki Wan; Cho, Young Tak; Chen, Xing; Hong, Seunghun; Lee, Dong Jun; Park, Jae Yeol

2016-01-01

We developed a magnetically-refreshable receptor platform structure which can be integrated with quite versatile nano-biosensor structures to build reusable nano-biosensor chips. This structure allows one to easily remove used receptor molecules from a biosensor surface and reuse the biosensor for repeated sensing operations. Using this structure, we demonstrated reusable immunofluorescence biosensors. Significantly, since our method allows one to place receptor molecules very close to a nano-biosensor surface, it can be utilized to build reusable carbon nanotube transistor-based biosensors which require receptor molecules within a Debye length from the sensor surface. Furthermore, we also show that a single sensor chip can be utilized to detect two different target molecules simply by replacing receptor molecules using our method. Since this method does not rely on any chemical reaction to refresh sensor chips, it can be utilized for versatile biosensor structures and virtually-general receptor molecular species. (paper)

Moving Virtual Research Environments from high maintenance Stovepipes to Multi-purpose Sustainable Service-oriented Science Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Klump, Jens; Fraser, Ryan; Wyborn, Lesley; Friedrich, Carsten; Squire, Geoffrey; Barker, Michelle; Moloney, Glenn

2017-04-01

The researcher of today is likely to be part of a team distributed over multiple sites that will access data from an external repository and then process the data on a public or private cloud or even on a large centralised supercomputer. They are increasingly likely to use a mixture of their own code, third party software and libraries, or even access global community codes. These components will be connected into a Virtual Research Environments (VREs) that will enable members of the research team who are not co-located to actively work together at various scales to share data, models, tools, software, workflows, best practices, infrastructures, etc. Many VRE's are built in isolation: designed to meet a specific research program with components tightly coupled and not capable of being repurposed for other use cases - they are becoming 'stovepipes'. The limited number of users of some VREs also means that the cost of maintenance per researcher can be unacceptably high. The alternative is to develop service-oriented Science Platforms that enable multiple communities to develop specialised solutions for specific research programs. The platforms can offer access to data, software tools and processing infrastructures (cloud, supercomputers) through globally distributed, interconnected modules. In Australia, the Virtual Geophysics Laboratory (VGL) was initially built to enable a specific set of researchers in government agencies access to specific data sets and a limited number of tools, that is now rapidly evolving into a multi-purpose Earth science platform with access to an increased variety of data, a broader range of tools, users from more sectors and a diversity of computational infrastructures. The expansion has been relatively easy, because of the architecture whereby data, tools and compute resources are loosely coupled via interfaces that are built on international standards and accessed as services wherever possible. In recent years, investments in

Structural evaluation of W-211 flexible receiver platforms and tank pit walls

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shrivastava, H.P.

1997-01-01

This document is a structural analysis of the Flexible Receiver Platforms and the tank-pit wall during removal of equipment and during a accidental drop of that equipment. The platform and the pit walls must withstand a accidental drop of a mixer and transfer pumps in specific pits in tanks 102-AP and 104-AP. A mixer pump will be removed from riser 11 in pit 2A on tank 241-AP-102. A transfer pump will be removed from riser 13 in pit 2D on tank 241-AP-102 and another transfer pump will be removed from riser 3A in pit 4A on tank 241-AP-104

Stratigraphic and structural relationships between Meso-Cenozoic Lagonegro basin and coeval carbonate platforms in southern Apennines, Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Pescatore, Tullio; Renda, Pietro; Schiattarella, Marcello; Tramutoli, Mariano

1999-12-01

Stratigraphic studies and facies analysis integrated with a new geological and structural survey of the Meso-Cenozoic units outcropping in the Campania-Lucania Apennines, southern Italy, allowed us to restore the palaeogeographic pattern and the tectonic evolution of the chain during Oligo-Miocene times. The southern Apennines are a N150°-striking and NE-verging fold-and-thrust belt mainly derived from the deformation of the African-Apulian passive margin. Four wide belts with different features have been recognized in the chain area. From east to west the following units outcrop: (a) successions characterized by basinal to marginal facies, ranging in age from Cretaceous to Miocene, tectonically lying on Plio-Pleistocene foredeep deposits; (b) successions characterized by shallow-water, basinal and shelf-margin facies, ranging in age from middle Triassic to Miocene ('Lagonegro units'), overthrust on the previous ones; (c) Triassic to Miocene carbonate platform successions ('Apenninic platform units'), overthrust on the Lagonegro units; (d) Jurassic-Cretaceous to Miocene deep-water successions (ophiolite-bearing or 'internal' units and associated siliciclastic wedges), outcropping along the Tyrrhenian belt and the Calabria-Lucania boundary, overthrust on the Apenninic platform units. All these units tectonically lie on the buried Apulian platform which is covered, at least in the eastern sector of the chain, by Pliocene to Pleistocene foredeep deposits. Stratigraphic patterns of the Cretaceous to lower Miocene Lagonegro successions are coherent with the platform margin ones. Calcareous clastics of the Lagonegro basin are in fact supplied by an adjacent western platform, as inferred by several sedimentological evidences (slump and palaeocurrent directions and decreasing grain size towards the depocentre of the basin). Tectonic relationships among the different units of the chain — with particular emphasis on the Lagonegro and Apenninic platform units of the

Online Localization of "Zooniverse" Citizen Science Projects--On the Use of Translation Platforms as Tools for Translator Education

Science.gov (United States)

Michalak, Krzysztof

2015-01-01

This paper aims at describing the way in which online translation platforms can facilitate the process of training translators. "Zooniverse," a website hosting a variety of citizen science projects in which everyone can take part, was used as an example of such a concept. The first section of this paper is focused on the history, idea…

Graphalytics: A Big Data Benchmark for Graph-Processing Platforms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Capotă (Mihai); T. Hegeman (Tim); A. Iosup (Alexandru); A. Prat; O. Erling (Orri); P.A. Boncz (Peter)

2015-01-01

htmlabstractGraphs are increasingly used in industry, governance, and science. This has stimulated the appearance of many and diverse graph-processing platforms. Although platform diversity is beneficial, it also makes it very challenging to select the best platform for an application domain or one

Graphalytics : A big data benchmark for graph-processing platforms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Capota, Mihai; Hegeman, Tim; Iosup, Alexandru; Prat-Pérez, Arnau; Erling, Orri; Boncz, Peter

2015-01-01

Graphs are increasingly used in industry, governance, and science. This has stimulated the appearance of many and diverse graph-processing platforms. Although platform di- versity is beneficial, it also makes it very challenging to select the best platform for an application domain or one of its im-

Polymer-based platform for microfluidic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Benett, William [Livermore, CA; Krulevitch, Peter [Pleasanton, CA; Maghribi, Mariam [Livermore, CA; Hamilton, Julie [Tracy, CA; Rose, Klint [Boston, MA; Wang, Amy W [Oakland, CA

2009-10-13

A method of forming a polymer-based microfluidic system platform using network building blocks selected from a set of interconnectable network building blocks, such as wire, pins, blocks, and interconnects. The selected building blocks are interconnectably assembled and fixedly positioned in precise positions in a mold cavity of a mold frame to construct a three-dimensional model construction of a microfluidic flow path network preferably having meso-scale dimensions. A hardenable liquid, such as poly (dimethylsiloxane) is then introduced into the mold cavity and hardened to form a platform structure as well as to mold the microfluidic flow path network having channels, reservoirs and ports. Pre-fabricated elbows, T's and other joints are used to interconnect various building block elements together. After hardening the liquid the building blocks are removed from the platform structure to make available the channels, cavities and ports within the platform structure. Microdevices may be embedded within the cast polymer-based platform, or bonded to the platform structure subsequent to molding, to create an integrated microfluidic system. In this manner, the new microfluidic platform is versatile and capable of quickly generating prototype systems, and could easily be adapted to a manufacturing setting.

The Geohazards Exploitation Platform: an advanced cloud-based environment for the Earth Science community

Science.gov (United States)

Manunta, Michele; Casu, Francesco; Zinno, Ivana; De Luca, Claudio; Pacini, Fabrizio; Caumont, Hervé; Brito, Fabrice; Blanco, Pablo; Iglesias, Ruben; López, Álex; Briole, Pierre; Musacchio, Massimo; Buongiorno, Fabrizia; Stumpf, Andre; Malet, Jean-Philippe; Brcic, Ramon; Rodriguez Gonzalez, Fernando; Elias, Panagiotis

2017-04-01

The idea to create advanced platforms for the Earth Observation community, where the users can find data but also state-of-art algorithms, processing tools, computing facilities, and instruments for dissemination and sharing, has been launched several years ago. The initiatives developed in this context have been supported firstly by the Framework Programmes of European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA) and, progressively, by the Copernicus programme. In particular, ESA created and supported the Grid Processing on Demand (G-POD) environment, where the users can access to advanced processing tools implemented in a GRID environment, satellite data and computing facilities. All these components are located in the same datacentre to significantly reduce and make negligible the time to move the satellite data from the archive. From the experience of G-POD was born the idea of ESA to have an ecosystem of Thematic Exploitation Platforms (TEP) focused on the integration of Ground Segment capabilities and ICT technologies to maximize the exploitation of EO data from past and future missions. A TEP refers to a computing platform that deals with a set of user scenarios involving scientists, data providers and ICT developers, aggregated around an Earth Science thematic area. Among the others, the Geohazards Exploitation Platform (GEP) aims at providing on-demand and systematic processing services to address the need of the geohazards community for common information layers and to integrate newly developed processors for scientists and other expert users. Within GEP, the community benefits from a cloud-based environment, specifically designed for the advanced exploitation of EO data. A partner can bring its own tools and processing chains, but also has access in the same workspace to large satellite datasets and shared data processing tools. GEP is currently in the pre-operations phase under a consortium led by Terradue Srl and six pilot projects concerning

Information service platform for science and technology innovation and entrepreneurship: New information service practice in the NSLC

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Ping; JIA; Yajing; LIU; Xiwen; LIU; Yu; DENG; Yue; YOU; Su; WANG; Xiaohua; PENG

2015-01-01

Purpose: This study explores new content, forms, and fields of science and technology(S&T;) innovation and entrepreneurship information services of the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(NSLC).Design/methodology/approach: We cooperated with incubator enterprises and set up an "S&T; Innovation and Entrepreneurship Information Service Platform." We designed five series of activities, including industrial information release, project financing and roadshows, entrepreneurial sharing, entrepreneurial coaching sessions, and entrepreneurial salons. Based on the implementation of these activities, we designed new NSLC library services for S&T; innovation and entrepreneurship.Findings: Since the construction of the platform, these five series of activities have attracted more than 80 business projects, 90 investors, and 30 researchers. Furthermore, more than 20 media representatives and nearly 300 entrepreneurs have participated in the activities that the NSLC has organized in the past two years. Through these activities, we have defined an S&T; innovation and entrepreneurship knowledge service model for the NSLC.Research limitations: The service practice of the NSLC is still in the demonstration phase. Due to staffing limitations of our service teams, the expansion of our service activities has been greatly restricted.Practical implications: The innovation and entrepreneurship information services of the NSLC provide a lot of material for transformation of library services for domestic and foreign special libraries.Originality/value: It is useful to transform library and business services by embedding them into ways in which we serve innovation and entrepreneurial activities. This opens up a new field of library knowledge services in China.

Mission Adaptive UAS Platform for Earth Science Resource Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Dunagan, S.; Fladeland, M.; Ippolito, C.; Knudson, M.

2015-01-01

NASA Ames Research Center has led a number of important Earth science remote sensing missions including several directed at the assessment of natural resources. A key asset for accessing high risk airspace has been the 180 kg class SIERRA UAS platform, providing mission durations of up to 8 hrs at altitudes up to 3 km. Recent improvements to this mission capability are embodied in the incipient SIERRA-B variant. Two resource mapping problems having unusual mission characteristics requiring a mission adaptive capability are explored here. One example involves the requirement for careful control over solar angle geometry for passive reflectance measurements. This challenges the management of resources in the coastal ocean where solar angle combines with sea state to produce surface glint that can obscure the ocean color signal. Furthermore, as for all scanning imager applications, the primary flight control priority to fly the UAS directly to the next waypoint should compromise with the requirement to minimize roll and crab effects in the imagery. A second example involves the mapping of natural resources in the Earth's crust using precision magnetometry. In this case the vehicle flight path must be oriented to optimize magnetic flux gradients over a spatial domain having continually emerging features, while optimizing the efficiency of the spatial mapping task. These requirements were highlighted in several recent Earth Science missions including the October 2013 OCEANIA mission directed at improving the capability for hyperspectral reflectance measurements in the coastal ocean, and the Surprise Valley Mission directed at mapping sub-surface mineral composition and faults, using high-sensitivity magentometry. This paper reports the development of specific aircraft control approaches to incorporate the unusual and demanding requirements to manage solar angle, aircraft attitude and flight path orientation, and efficient (directly geo-rectified) surface and sub

Second report of the national platform electromobility; Zweiter Bericht der Nationalen Plattform Elektromobilitaet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2011-05-15

In the National Platform Electromobility, representatives from industry, science, politics, unions and societies in Germany agreed on a systematic, market-oriented and technology-open approach to become the main supplier and main market for electromobility up to the year 2020. A central component of the targeted German mean market for electromobility is an intelligent energy system: integration of electricity from renewable energy sources, demand-oriented development of a public charging infrastructure, development of an innovative charging structure. The common goal of the National Electromobility Platform is to build a self-supporting market for electric vehicles. The National Electromobility Platform will support the implementation of these intentions and measures. The underlying assumptions are reviewed annually. Derived recommendations are adapted, if necessary. Thus the National Electromobility Platform develops an annual progress report. With the end of the market scheduling phase by 2014, especially the market acceleration, demand for public infrastructure, costs and funding approaches for market acceleration as well as research and development will be re-evaluated.

Opening the SMS platform to users : Deliverable D7.2 - RISIS project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Besselaar, P.A.A.; Khalili, A.; de Graaf, K.A.; Idrissou, O.A.K.; van Harmelen, Frank

2017-01-01

In this deliverable we describe the SMS (Semantically Mapping Science) data integration platform (http://sms.risis.eu), the technical core within the RISIS data infrastructure for Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STI). The aim of the platform is to produce richer data to be used in social

FASEB Science Research Conference on Virus Structure and Assembly

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-24

Report: FASEB Science Research Conference on Virus Structure and Assembly The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of the...Title: FASEB Science Research Conference on Virus Structure and Assembly Report Term: 0-Other Email: srcgrants@faseb.org Distribution Statement...support for the 2016 FASEB Science Research Conference on Virus Structure and Assembly which was held July 24-29, 2016 in Steamboat Springs, CO. This

The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nowak, S.; Aulich, H.; Bal, J.L.; Dimmler, B.; Garnier, A.; Jongerden, G.; Luther, J.; Luque, A.; Milner, A.; Nelson, D.; Pataki, I.; Pearsall, N.; Perezagua, E.; Pietruszko, S.; Rehak, J.; Schellekens, E.; Shanker, A.; Silvestrini, G.; Sinke, W.; Willemsen, H.

2006-05-01

The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform is one of the European Technology Platforms, a new instrument proposed by the European Commission. European Technology Platforms (ETPs) are a mechanism to bring together all interested stakeholders to develop a long-term vision to address a specific challenge, create a coherent, dynamic strategy to achieve that vision and steer the implementation of an action plan to deliver agreed programmes of activities and optimise the benefits for all parties. The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform has recently been established to define, support and accompany the implementation of a coherent and comprehensive strategic plan for photovoltaics. The platform will mobilise all stakeholders sharing a long-term European vision for PV, helping to ensure that Europe maintains and improves its industrial position. The platform will realise a European Strategic Research Agenda for PV for the next decade(s). Guided by a Steering Committee of 20 high level decision-makers representing all relevant European PV Stakeholders, the European PV Technology Platform comprises 4 Working Groups dealing with the subjects policy and instruments; market deployment; science, technology and applications as well as developing countries and is supported by a secretariat

NASA's Earth Science Gateway: A Platform for Interoperable Services in Support of the GEOSS Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Alameh, N.; Bambacus, M.; Cole, M.

2006-12-01

Nasa's Earth Science as well as interdisciplinary research and applications activities require access to earth observations, analytical models and specialized tools and services, from diverse distributed sources. Interoperability and open standards for geospatial data access and processing greatly facilitate such access among the information and processing compo¬nents related to space¬craft, airborne, and in situ sensors; predictive models; and decision support tools. To support this mission, NASA's Geosciences Interoperability Office (GIO) has been developing the Earth Science Gateway (ESG; online at http://esg.gsfc.nasa.gov) by adapting and deploying a standards-based commercial product. Thanks to extensive use of open standards, ESG can tap into a wide array of online data services, serve a variety of audiences and purposes, and adapt to technology and business changes. Most importantly, the use of open standards allow ESG to function as a platform within a larger context of distributed geoscience processing, such as the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). ESG shares the goals of GEOSS to ensure that observations and products shared by users will be accessible, comparable, and understandable by relying on common standards and adaptation to user needs. By maximizing interoperability, modularity, extensibility and scalability, ESG's architecture fully supports the stated goals of GEOSS. As such, ESG's role extends beyond that of a gateway to NASA science data to become a shared platform that can be leveraged by GEOSS via: A modular and extensible architecture Consensus and community-based standards (e.g. ISO and OGC standards) A variety of clients and visualization techniques, including WorldWind and Google Earth A variety of services (including catalogs) with standard interfaces Data integration and interoperability Mechanisms for user involvement and collaboration Mechanisms for supporting interdisciplinary and domain-specific applications ESG

Sociomaterial Practices: Challenges in Developing a Virtual Business Community Platform in Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norberto Hoppen

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Virtual business communities (VBC are virtual networks of people who share common interests and comprise online software platforms that enables the fast exchange of information, collaboration and business interactions. From 2011 to 2015, we developed a design science research to create a VBC platform for an agricultural cluster of flower growers in the South of Brazil. The goal of this platform was to help to structure and strengthen this cluster by bringing together buyers and sellers while fostering cooperation to boost cluster competitiveness and economic development in the region. However, a number of challenges surfaced during the process, which led to a failure in the VBC platform’s diffusion. We adopted a sociomaterial perspective based on the mangle of practice concept (Pickering, 1993 to investigate this failure, by analyzing the key challenges involved in developing a VBC platform in an agricultural context. As its main result, this paper reveals the mangling process during the design and application of the VBC platform and details the different instances of tuning between the participants and the technology. We observed resistance and factors that weakened cooperation and resulted in a lack of governance rules, which are key to the success of a VBC platform.

Tutoring math platform accessible for visually impaired people.

Science.gov (United States)

Maćkowski, Michał Sebastian; Brzoza, Piotr Franciszek; Spinczyk, Dominik Roland

2018-04-01

There are many problems with teaching and assessing impaired students in higher education, especially in technical science, where the knowledge is represented mostly by structural information like: math formulae, charts, graphs, etc. Developing e-learning platform for distance education solves this problem only partially due to the lack of accessibility for the blind. The proposed method is based on the decomposition of the typical mathematical exercise into a sequence of elementary sub-exercises. This allows for interactive resolving of math exercises and assessment of the correctness of exercise solutions at every stage. The presented methods were prepared and evaluated by visually impaired people and students. The article presents the accessible interactive tutoring platform for math teaching and assessment, and experience in exploring it. The results of conducted research confirm good understanding of math formulae described according to elaborated rules. Regardless of the level of complexity of the math formulae the level of math formulae understanding is higher for alternative structural description. The proposed solution enables alternative descriptions of math formulae. Based on the research results, the tool for computer-aided interactive learning of mathematics adapted to the needs of the blind has been designed, implemented and deployed as a platform for on-site and online and distance learning. The designed solution can be very helpful in overcoming many barriers that occur while teaching impaired students. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Steels from materials science to structural engineering

CERN Document Server

Sha, Wei

2013-01-01

Steels and computer-based modelling are fast growing fields in materials science as well as structural engineering, demonstrated by the large amount of recent literature. Steels: From Materials Science to Structural Engineering combines steels research and model development, including the application of modelling techniques in steels.  The latest research includes structural engineering modelling, and novel, prototype alloy steels such as heat-resistant steel, nitride-strengthened ferritic/martensitic steel and low nickel maraging steel.  Researchers studying steels will find the topics vital to their work.  Materials experts will be able to learn about steels used in structural engineering as well as modelling and apply this increasingly important technique in their steel materials research and development. 

Science Academies' Refresher Course on Theoretical Structural ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 22; Issue 8. Science Academies' Refresher Course on Theoretical Structural Geology, Crystallography, Mineralogy, Thermodynamics, Experimental Petrology and Theoretical Geophysics. Information and Announcements Volume 22 Issue 8 August 2017 ...

A multilevel control approach for a modular structured space platform

Science.gov (United States)

Chichester, F. D.; Borelli, M. T.

1981-01-01

A three axis mathematical representation of a modular assembled space platform consisting of interconnected discrete masses, including a deployable truss module, was derived for digital computer simulation. The platform attitude control system as developed to provide multilevel control utilizing the Gauss-Seidel second level formulation along with an extended form of linear quadratic regulator techniques. The objectives of the multilevel control are to decouple the space platform's spatial axes and to accommodate the modification of the platform's configuration for each of the decoupled axes.

Structure and petroleum plays of the St. Lawrence Platform and Appalachians in southern Quebec : insights from interpretation of MRNQ seismic reflection data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Castonguay, S.; Lavoie, D. [Natural Resources Canada, Quebec, PQ (Canada). Geological Survey of Canada, Quebec Division; Dietrich, J. [Natural Resources Canada, Calgary, AB (Canada). Geological Survey of Canada; Laliberte, J.Y. [Ministere des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune du Quebec, Charlesbourg, QC (Canada). Direction generale des hydrocarbures et des biocarburants

2010-09-15

This paper presented the results of a study in which 3 regional seismic reflection lines originally acquired in 1978 were reprocessed and reinterpreted using current techniques and methodologies. The profiles cross the Chambly-Fortierville syncline and provide images of the St. Lawrence Platform and the Appalachian foreland thrust belt of southern Quebec, including one that spans the entire width of the southern Quebec Appalachians. Post-stack seismic data processing and time migration were used to improve the quality of the original seismic sections, allowing interpretations that provide new information on subsurface geology, such as the recognition of complex structural patterns in platform and foreland units, the presence of a triangle zone at the structural front, and the geometry of thrust slices of platform units and Appalachian thrust beds, as well as images of the internal Humber Zone, including back-thrust faults and mega thrust wedges. The Saint-Flavien natural gas-field and other potential targets in the St. Lawrence Platform and Appalachian Foreland are imaged in the seismic profiles. The study provided new insights into the structure, geological evolution, and petroleum potential of the St. Lawrence Platform and the Appalachian foreland thrust belt of southern Quebec, including a potential, previously unrecognized Ordovician hydrothermal dolomite play. The new subsurface interpretations give a clearer view of the major structure affecting the Utica Shale, providing new insights into the limits of the unconventional shale gas play in the St. Lawrence Platform. 53 refs., 8 figs.

The universal modular platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

North, R.B.

1995-01-01

A new and patented design for offshore wellhead platforms has been developed to meet a 'fast track' requirement for increased offshore production, from field locations not yet identified. The new design uses modular construction to allow for radical changes in the water depth of the final location and assembly line efficiency in fabrication. By utilizing high strength steels and structural support from the well conductors the new design accommodates all planned production requirements on a support structure significantly lighter and less expensive than the conventional design it replaces. Twenty two platforms based on the new design were ready for installation within 18 months of the project start. Installation of the new platforms began in 1992 for drilling support and 1993 for production support. The new design has become the Company standard for all future production platforms. Large saving and construction costs have been realized through its light weight, flexibility in both positioning and water depth, and its modular construction

Globus Identity, Access, and Data Management: Platform Services for Collaborative Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ananthakrishnan, R.; Foster, I.; Wagner, R.

2016-12-01

Globus is software-as-a-service for research data management, developed at, and operated by, the University of Chicago. Globus, accessible at www.globus.org, provides high speed, secure file transfer; file sharing directly from existing storage systems; and data publication to institutional repositories. 40,000 registered users have used Globus to transfer tens of billions of files totaling hundreds of petabytes between more than 10,000 storage systems within campuses and national laboratories in the US and internationally. Web, command line, and REST interfaces support both interactive use and integration into applications and infrastructures. An important component of the Globus system is its foundational identity and access management (IAM) platform service, Globus Auth. Both Globus research data management and other applications use Globus Auth for brokering authentication and authorization interactions between end-users, identity providers, resource servers (services), and a range of clients, including web, mobile, and desktop applications, and other services. Compliant with important standards such as OAuth, OpenID, and SAML, Globus Auth provides mechanisms required for an extensible, integrated ecosystem of services and clients for the research and education community. It underpins projects such as the US National Science Foundation's XSEDE system, NCAR's Research Data Archive, and the DOE Systems Biology Knowledge Base. Current work is extending Globus services to be compliant with FEDRAMP standards for security assessment, authorization, and monitoring for cloud services. We will present Globus IAM solutions and give examples of Globus use in various projects for federated access to resources. We will also describe how Globus Auth and Globus research data management capabilities enable rapid development and low-cost operations of secure data sharing platforms that leverage Globus services and integrate them with local policy and security.

Low-cost Citizen Science Balloon Platform for Measuring Air Pollutants to Improve Satellite Retrieval Algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Potosnak, M. J.; Beck-Winchatz, B.; Ritter, P.

2016-12-01

High-altitude balloons (HABs) are an engaging platform for citizen science and formal and informal STEM education. However, the logistics of launching, chasing and recovering a payload on a 1200 g or 1500 g balloon can be daunting for many novice school groups and citizen scientists, and the cost can be prohibitive. In addition, there are many interesting scientific applications that do not require reaching the stratosphere, including measuring atmospheric pollutants in the planetary boundary layer. With a large number of citizen scientist flights, these data can be used to constrain satellite retrieval algorithms. In this poster presentation, we discuss a novel approach based on small (30 g) balloons that are cheap and easy to handle, and low-cost tracking devices (SPOT trackers for hikers) that do not require a radio license. Our scientific goal is to measure air quality in the lower troposphere. For example, particulate matter (PM) is an air pollutant that varies on small spatial scales and has sources in rural areas like biomass burning and farming practices such as tilling. Our HAB platform test flight incorporates an optical PM sensor, an integrated single board computer that records the PM sensor signal in addition to flight parameters (pressure, location and altitude), and a low-cost tracking system. Our goal is for the entire platform to cost less than $500. While the datasets generated by these flights are typically small, integrating a network of flight data from citizen scientists into a form usable for comparison to satellite data will require big data techniques.

New offshore platform in the Mexican Gulf

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beisel, T.

1982-04-01

After a construction period of only 10 months, the second steel Offshore platform was recently completed in the Mexican Gulf. The pattern for this structure was the Cognac platform. The erection of the new platform, called the 'Cerveza' platform, is described in the article.

The Science of Structural Revolutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William P. Graf

2009-06-01

Full Text Available A perspective on the very human process by which scientific paradigms change can help point the path forward in any science, or in an applied science, such as Structural Engineering. Understanding this process of change, we can examine earthquake engineering, seismic building codes and theories of structural engineering for earthquake loads. When we take this perspective, we recognize that Structural Engineering for earthquake resistance is in the midst of a number of revolutions, from paradigms embodied in current building codes in which earthquake demands are associated with forces, to a new paradigm in which earthquake demands are re-envisioned as resulting from structural displacements or drift. The new paradigm is embodied in the current national standard for the seismic rehabilitation of existing structures, ASCE 41 [2] and the emerging standards for performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE. Associated with this is the shift from design oriented towards life-safety to design for a range of performance objectives, such as life-safety, damage reduction, or immediate occupancy. With this perspective, we further recognize deficiencies in research and development. We have failed to systematically use the experimental and computational tools we possess to fill in the gaps of scientific knowledge. We have not developed and deployed appropriate frameworks to collect and share ideas and results. As one example, the formulation of performance-based codes now outstrips the knowledge-base needed to ensure that structures designed by the new tools will meet their performance objectives.

The science of structural engineering

CERN Document Server

Heyman, Jacques

1999-01-01

Structures cannot be created without engineering theory, and design rules have existed from the earliest times for building Greek temples, Roman aqueducts and Gothic cathedrals - and later, for steel skyscrapers and the frames for aircraft. This book is, however, not concerned with the description of historical feats, but with the way the structural engineer sets about his business. Galileo, in the seventeenth century, was the first to introduce recognizably modern science into the calculation of structures; he determined the breaking strength of beams. In the eighteenth century engineers move

Considerations for Achieving Cross-Platform Point Cloud Data Fusion across Different Dryland Ecosystem Structural States.

Science.gov (United States)

Swetnam, Tyson L; Gillan, Jeffrey K; Sankey, Temuulen T; McClaran, Mitchel P; Nichols, Mary H; Heilman, Philip; McVay, Jason

2017-01-01

Remotely sensing recent growth, herbivory, or disturbance of herbaceous and woody vegetation in dryland ecosystems requires high spatial resolution and multi-temporal depth. Three dimensional (3D) remote sensing technologies like lidar, and techniques like structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry, each have strengths and weaknesses at detecting vegetation volume and extent, given the instrument's ground sample distance and ease of acquisition. Yet, a combination of platforms and techniques might provide solutions that overcome the weakness of a single platform. To explore the potential for combining platforms, we compared detection bias amongst two 3D remote sensing techniques (lidar and SfM) using three different platforms [ground-based, small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), and manned aircraft]. We found aerial lidar to be more accurate for characterizing the bare earth (ground) in dense herbaceous vegetation than either terrestrial lidar or aerial SfM photogrammetry. Conversely, the manned aerial lidar did not detect grass and fine woody vegetation while the terrestrial lidar and high resolution near-distance (ground and sUAS) SfM photogrammetry detected these and were accurate. UAS SfM photogrammetry at lower spatial resolution under-estimated maximum heights in grass and shrubs. UAS and handheld SfM photogrammetry in near-distance high resolution collections had similar accuracy to terrestrial lidar for vegetation, but difficulty at measuring bare earth elevation beneath dense herbaceous cover. Combining point cloud data and derivatives (i.e., meshes and rasters) from two or more platforms allowed for more accurate measurement of herbaceous and woody vegetation (height and canopy cover) than any single technique alone. Availability and costs of manned aircraft lidar collection preclude high frequency repeatability but this is less limiting for terrestrial lidar, sUAS and handheld SfM. The post-processing of SfM photogrammetry data became the limiting factor

Printable Spacecraft: Flexible Electronic Platforms for NASA Missions. Phase One

Science.gov (United States)

Short, Kendra (Principal Investigator); Van Buren, David (Principal Investigator)

2012-01-01

Atmospheric confetti. Inchworm crawlers. Blankets of ground penetrating radar. These are some of the unique mission concepts which could be enabled by a printable spacecraft. Printed electronics technology offers enormous potential to transform the way NASA builds spacecraft. A printed spacecraft's low mass, volume and cost offer dramatic potential impacts to many missions. Network missions could increase from a few discrete measurements to tens of thousands of platforms improving areal density and system reliability. Printed platforms could be added to any prime mission as a low-cost, minimum resource secondary payload to augment the science return. For a small fraction of the mass and cost of a traditional lander, a Europa flagship mission might carry experimental printed surface platforms. An Enceladus Explorer could carry feather-light printed platforms to release into volcanic plumes to measure composition and impact energies. The ability to print circuits directly onto a variety of surfaces, opens the possibility of multi-functional structures and membranes such as "smart" solar sails and balloons. The inherent flexibility of a printed platform allows for in-situ re-configurability for aerodynamic control or mobility. Engineering telemetry of wheel/soil interactions are possible with a conformal printed sensor tape fit around a rover wheel. Environmental time history within a sample return canister could be recorded with a printed sensor array that fits flush to the interior of the canister. Phase One of the NIAC task entitled "Printable Spacecraft" investigated the viability of printed electronics technologies for creating multi-functional spacecraft platforms. Mission concepts and architectures that could be enhanced or enabled with this technology were explored. This final report captures the results and conclusions of the Phase One study. First, the report presents the approach taken in conducting the study and a mapping of results against the proposed

LOOS: an extensible platform for the structural analysis of simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Romo, Tod D; Grossfield, Alan

2009-01-01

We have developed LOOS (Lightweight Object-Oriented Structure-analysis library) as an object-oriented library designed to facilitate the rapid development of tools for the structural analysis of simulations. LOOS supports the native file formats of most common simulation packages including AMBER, CHARMM, CNS, Gromacs, NAMD, Tinker, and X-PLOR. Encapsulation and polymorphism are used to simultaneously provide a stable interface to the programmer and make LOOS easily extensible. A rich atom selection language based on the C expression syntax is included as part of the library. LOOS enables students and casual programmer-scientists to rapidly write their own analytical tools in a compact and expressive manner resembling scripting. LOOS is written in C++ and makes extensive use of the Standard Template Library and Boost, and is freely available under the GNU General Public License (version 3) LOOS has been tested on Linux and MacOS X, but is written to be portable and should work on most Unix-based platforms.

Brain structures in the sciences and humanities.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeuchi, Hikaru; Taki, Yasuyuki; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Nouchi, Rui; Kotozaki, Yuka; Nakagawa, Seishu; Miyauchi, Carlos Makoto; Iizuka, Kunio; Yokoyama, Ryoichi; Shinada, Takamitsu; Yamamoto, Yuki; Hanawa, Sugiko; Araki, Tsuyoshi; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Sassa, Yuko; Kawashima, Ryuta

2015-11-01

The areas of academic interest (sciences or humanities) and area of study have been known to be associated with a number of factors associated with autistic traits. However, despite the vast amount of literature on the psychological and physiological characteristics associated with faculty membership, brain structural characteristics associated with faculty membership have never been investigated directly. In this study, we used voxel-based morphometry to investigate differences in regional gray matter volume (rGMV)/regional white matter volume (rWMV) between science and humanities students to test our hypotheses that brain structures previously robustly shown to be altered in autistic subjects are related to differences in faculty membership. We examined 312 science students (225 males and 87 females) and 179 humanities students (105 males and 74 females). Whole-brain analyses of covariance revealed that after controlling for age, sex, and total intracranial volume, the science students had significantly larger rGMV in an anatomical cluster around the medial prefrontal cortex and the frontopolar area, whereas the humanities students had significantly larger rWMV in an anatomical cluster mainly concentrated around the right hippocampus. These anatomical structures have been linked to autism in previous studies and may mediate cognitive functions that characterize differences in faculty membership. The present results may support the ideas that autistic traits and characteristics of the science students compared with the humanities students share certain characteristics from neuroimaging perspectives. This study improves our understanding of differences in faculty membership which is the link among cognition, biological factors, disorders, and education (academia).

Morphological indicators of growth stages in carbonates platform evolution: comparison between present-day and Miocene platforms of Northern Borneo, Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Pierson, B.; Menier, D.; Ting, K. K.; Chalabi, A.

2012-04-01

Satellite images of present-day reefs and carbonate platforms of the Celebes Sea, east of Sabah, Malaysia, exhibit large-scale features indicative of the recent evolution of the platforms. These include: (1) multiple, sub-parallel reef rims at the windward margin, suggestive of back-stepping of the platform margin; (2) contraction of the platform, possibly as a result of recent sea level fluctuations; (3) colonization of the internal lagoons by polygonal reef structures and (4) fragmentation of the platforms and creation of deep channels separating platforms that used to be part of a single entity. These features are analogue to what has been observed on seismic attribute maps of Miocene carbonate platforms of Sarawak. An analysis of several growth stages of a large Miocene platform, referred to as the Megaplatform, shows that the platform evolves in function of syn-depositional tectonic movements and sea level fluctuations that result in back-stepping of the margin, illustrated by multiple reef rims, contraction of the platform, the development of polygonal structures currently interpreted as karstic in origin and fragmentation of the megaplatform in 3 sub-entities separated by deep channels that precedes the final demise of the whole platform. Comparing similar features on present-day to platforms and Miocene platforms leads to a better understanding of the growth history of Miocene platforms and to a refined predictability of reservoir and non-reservoir facies distribution.

Rigid multipodal platforms for metal surfaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michal Valášek

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In this review the recent progress in molecular platforms that form rigid and well-defined contact to a metal surface are discussed. Most of the presented examples have at least three anchoring units in order to control the spatial arrangement of the protruding molecular subunit. Another interesting feature is the lateral orientation of these foot structures which, depending on the particular application, is equally important as the spatial arrangement of the molecules. The numerous approaches towards assembling and organizing functional molecules into specific architectures on metal substrates are reviewed here. Particular attention is paid to variations of both, the core structures and the anchoring groups. Furthermore, the analytical methods enabling the investigation of individual molecules as well as monomolecular layers of ordered platform structures are summarized. The presented multipodal platforms bearing several anchoring groups form considerably more stable molecule–metal contacts than corresponding monopodal analogues and exhibit an enlarged separation of the functional molecules due to the increased footprint, as well as restrict tilting of the functional termini with respect to the metal surface. These platforms are thus ideally suited to tune important properties of the molecule–metal interface. On a single-molecule level, several of these platforms enable the control over the arrangement of the protruding rod-type molecular structures (e.g., molecular wires, switches, rotors, sensors with respect to the surface of the substrate.

Sinking offshore platform. Nedsenkbar fralandsplatform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Einstabland, T.B.; Olsen, O.

1988-12-19

The invention deals with a sinking offshore platform of the gravitational type designed for being installed on the sea bed on great depths. The platform consists of at least three inclining pillars placed on a foundation unit. The pillars are at the upper end connected to a tower structure by means of a rigid construction. The tower supports the platform deck. The rigid construction comprises a centre-positioned cylinder connected to the foundation. 11 figs.

The Effect of In-Service Training of Computer Science Teachers on Scratch Programming Language Skills Using an Electronic Learning Platform on Programming Skills and the Attitudes towards Teaching Programming

Science.gov (United States)

Alkaria, Ahmed; Alhassan, Riyadh

2017-01-01

This study was conducted to examine the effect of in-service training of computer science teachers in Scratch language using an electronic learning platform on acquiring programming skills and attitudes towards teaching programming. The sample of this study consisted of 40 middle school computer science teachers. They were assigned into two…

Teachers' Organization of Participation Structures for Teaching Science with Computer Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Subramaniam, Karthigeyan

2016-01-01

This paper describes a qualitative study that investigated the nature of the participation structures and how the participation structures were organized by four science teachers when they constructed and communicated science content in their classrooms with computer technology. Participation structures focus on the activity structures and…

A method for establishing a long duration, stratospheric platform for astronomical research

Science.gov (United States)

Fesen, Robert; Brown, Yorke

2015-10-01

During certain times of the year at middle and low latitudes, winds in the upper stratosphere move in nearly the opposite direction than the wind in the lower stratosphere. Here we present a method for maintaining a high-altitude balloon platform in near station-keeping mode that utilizes this stratospheric wind shear. The proposed method places a balloon-borne science platform high in the stratosphere connected by a lightweight, high-strength tether to a tug vehicle located in the lower or middle stratosphere. Using aerodynamic control surfaces, wind-induced aerodynamic forces on the tug can be manipulated to counter the wind drag acting on the higher altitude science vehicle, thus controlling the upper vehicle's geographic location. We describe the general framework of this station-keeping method, some important properties required for the upper stratospheric science payload and lower tug platforms, and compare this station-keeping approach with the capabilities of a high altitude airship and conventional tethered aerostat approaches. We conclude by discussing the advantages of such a platform for a variety of missions with emphasis on astrophysical research.

dataMares - An online platform for the fast, effective dissemination of science

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, A. F.; Aburto-Oropeza, O.; Moreno-Báez, M.; Giron-Nava, A.; Lopez-Sagástegui, R.; Lopez-Sagástegui, C.

2016-02-01

One of the current challenges in public policy development, especially related to natural resource management and conservation, is that there are very few tools that help easily identify and incorporate relevant scientific findings and data into public policy. This can also lead to a repetition of research efforts and the collect of information that in some cases might already exist. The key to addressing this challenge is to develop collaborative research tools, which can be used by different sectors of society including key stakeholder groups, managers, policy makers and the public. Here we present an "open science" platform capable of handling large data and disseminating results to a wide audience quickly. dataMares uses business intelligence software to allow the dynamic presentation of data quickly to a range of users online. dataMares provides Robust and up-to-date scientific information for decision-makers, resource managers, conservation practitioners, fishers, community members, and regional and national level decision-makers in a nutshell. It can also be used in the training of young scientists and allows quick and open connections with the journalism industry.

Moving People from Science Adjacent to Science Doers with Twitch.tv

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, Pamela L.; CosmoQuest

2017-10-01

The CosmoQuest community is testing the ability to attract people from playing online videogames to doing fully online citizen science by engaging people through the Twitch.tv streaming platform. Twitch.tv launched in 2011 as an online platform for video gamers to stream their gameplay while providing narrative. In its six years of regular growth, the platform has added support for people playing non-video games, and for those participating in non-game activities. As part of their expansion, in April 2017, Twitch.tv hosted a science week during which they streamed the Cosmos series and allowed different feeds provide real-time commentary. They also hosted panel discussions on a variety of science topics. CosmoQuest participated in this event and used it as a jumping off point for beginning to interact with Twitch.tv community members online. With CosmoQuest’s beta launch of Image Detectives, they expanded their use of this streaming platform to include regular “office hours”, during which team members did science with CosmoQuest’s online projects, took questions from community members, and otherwise promoted the CosmoQuest community. This presentation examines this case study, and looks at how well different kinds of Twitter engagements attracted audiences, the conversion rate from viewer to subscriber, and at how effectively CosmoQuest was able to migrate users from viewing citizen science on Twitch.tv to participating in citizen science on CosmoQuest.org.This project was supported through NASA cooperative agreement NNX17AD20A.

Science Student Role: Evidence of Social Structural Norms Specific to School Science

Science.gov (United States)

Shanahan, Marie-Claire; Nieswandt, Martina

2011-01-01

Sociocultural studies of science education have consistently recognized the dialectic nature of students' agency to create and author positions for themselves and the structural constraints that may influence them. This mixed-methods study explores one particular aspect of these potential constraints: the possibility of a social structure specific…

Lithospheric structure of the Arabian Shield and Platform from complete regional waveform modelling and surface wave group velocities

Science.gov (United States)

Rodgers, Arthur J.; Walter, William R.; Mellors, Robert J.; Al-Amri, Abdullah M. S.; Zhang, Yu-Shen

1999-09-01

Regional seismic waveforms reveal significant differences in the structure of the Arabian Shield and the Arabian Platform. We estimate lithospheric velocity structure by modelling regional waveforms recorded by the 1995-1997 Saudi Arabian Temporary Broadband Deployment using a grid search scheme. We employ a new method whereby we narrow the waveform modelling grid search by first fitting the fundamental mode Love and Rayleigh wave group velocities. The group velocities constrain the average crustal thickness and velocities as well as the crustal velocity gradients. Because the group velocity fitting is computationally much faster than the synthetic seismogram calculation this method allows us to determine good average starting models quickly. Waveform fits of the Pn and Sn body wave arrivals constrain the mantle velocities. The resulting lithospheric structures indicate that the Arabian Platform has an average crustal thickness of 40 km, with relatively low crustal velocities (average crustal P- and S-wave velocities of 6.07 and 3.50 km s^-1 , respectively) without a strong velocity gradient. The Moho is shallower (36 km) and crustal velocities are 6 per cent higher (with a velocity increase with depth) for the Arabian Shield. Fast crustal velocities of the Arabian Shield result from a predominantly mafic composition in the lower crust. Lower velocities in the Arabian Platform crust indicate a bulk felsic composition, consistent with orogenesis of this former active margin. P- and S-wave velocities immediately below the Moho are slower in the Arabian Shield than in the Arabian Platform (7.9 and 4.30 km s^-1 , and 8.10 and 4.55 km s^-1 , respectively). This indicates that the Poisson's ratios for the uppermost mantle of the Arabian Shield and Platform are 0.29 and 0.27, respectively. The lower mantle velocities and higher Poisson's ratio beneath the Arabian Shield probably arise from a partially molten mantle associated with Red Sea spreading and continental

A PLC platform-independent structural analysis on FBD programs for digital reactor protection systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Sejin; Yoo, Junbeom; Lee, Young-Jun

2017-01-01

Highlights: • FBD has been widely used to implement safety-critical software for PLC-based systems. • The safety-critical software should be developed strictly with safety programming guidelines. • There are no argued rules that have specific links to higher guidelines NUREG/CR-6463 PLC platform-independently. • This paper proposes a set of rules on the structure of FBD programs with providing specific links to higher guidelines. • This paper also provides CASE tool ‘FBD Checker’ for analyzing the structure of FBD. - Abstract: FBD (function block diagram) has been widely used to implement safety-critical software for PLC (programmable logic controller)-based digital nuclear reactor protection systems. The software should be developed strictly in accordance with safety programming guidelines such as NUREG/CR-6463. Software engineering tools of PLC vendors enable us to present structural analyses using FBD programs, but specific rules pertaining to the guidelines are enclosed within the commercial tools, and specific links to the guidelines are not clearly communicated. This paper proposes a set of rules on the structure of FBD programs in accordance with guidelines, and we develop an automatic analysis tool for FBD programs written in the PLCopen TC6 format. With the proposed tool, any FBD program that is transformed into an open format can be analyzed the PLC platform-independently. We consider a case study on FBD programs obtained from a preliminary version of a Korean nuclear power plant, and we demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed rules and analysis tool.

Reusable platform concepts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gudmestad, O.T.; Sparby, B.K.; Stead, B.L.

1993-01-01

There is an increasing need to reduce costs of offshore production facilities in order to make development of offshore fields profitable. For small fields with short production time there is in particular a need to investigate ways to reduce costs. The idea of platform reuse is for such fields particularly attractive. This paper will review reusable platform concepts and will discuss their range of application. Particular emphasis will be placed on technical limitations. Traditional concepts as jackups and floating production facilities will be discussed by major attention will be given to newly developed ideas for reuse of steel jackets and concrete structures. It will be shown how the operator for several fields can obtain considerable savings by applying such reusable platform concepts

Citizen Sensors for SHM: Towards a Crowdsourcing Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Ozer, Ekin; Feng, Maria Q.; Feng, Dongming

2015-01-01

This paper presents an innovative structural health monitoring (SHM) platform in terms of how it integrates smartphone sensors, the web, and crowdsourcing. The ubiquity of smartphones has provided an opportunity to create low-cost sensor networks for SHM. Crowdsourcing has given rise to citizen initiatives becoming a vast source of inexpensive, valuable but heterogeneous data. Previously, the authors have investigated the reliability of smartphone accelerometers for vibration-based SHM. This paper takes a step further to integrate mobile sensing and web-based computing for a prospective crowdsourcing-based SHM platform. An iOS application was developed to enable citizens to measure structural vibration and upload the data to a server with smartphones. A web-based platform was developed to collect and process the data automatically and store the processed data, such as modal properties of the structure, for long-term SHM purposes. Finally, the integrated mobile and web-based platforms were tested to collect the low-amplitude ambient vibration data of a bridge structure. Possible sources of uncertainties related to citizens were investigated, including the phone location, coupling conditions, and sampling duration. The field test results showed that the vibration data acquired by smartphones operated by citizens without expertise are useful for identifying structural modal properties with high accuracy. This platform can be further developed into an automated, smart, sustainable, cost-free system for long-term monitoring of structural integrity of spatially distributed urban infrastructure. Citizen Sensors for SHM will be a novel participatory sensing platform in the way that it offers hybrid solutions to transitional crowdsourcing parameters. PMID:26102490

Citizen Sensors for SHM: Towards a Crowdsourcing Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ekin Ozer

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an innovative structural health monitoring (SHM platform in terms of how it integrates smartphone sensors, the web, and crowdsourcing. The ubiquity of smartphones has provided an opportunity to create low-cost sensor networks for SHM. Crowdsourcing has given rise to citizen initiatives becoming a vast source of inexpensive, valuable but heterogeneous data. Previously, the authors have investigated the reliability of smartphone accelerometers for vibration-based SHM. This paper takes a step further to integrate mobile sensing and web-based computing for a prospective crowdsourcing-based SHM platform. An iOS application was developed to enable citizens to measure structural vibration and upload the data to a server with smartphones. A web-based platform was developed to collect and process the data automatically and store the processed data, such as modal properties of the structure, for long-term SHM purposes. Finally, the integrated mobile and web-based platforms were tested to collect the low-amplitude ambient vibration data of a bridge structure. Possible sources of uncertainties related to citizens were investigated, including the phone location, coupling conditions, and sampling duration. The field test results showed that the vibration data acquired by smartphones operated by citizens without expertise are useful for identifying structural modal properties with high accuracy. This platform can be further developed into an automated, smart, sustainable, cost-free system for long-term monitoring of structural integrity of spatially distributed urban infrastructure. Citizen Sensors for SHM will be a novel participatory sensing platform in the way that it offers hybrid solutions to transitional crowdsourcing parameters.

Avogadro: an advanced semantic chemical editor, visualization, and analysis platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanwell, Marcus D; Curtis, Donald E; Lonie, David C; Vandermeersch, Tim; Zurek, Eva; Hutchison, Geoffrey R

2012-08-13

The Avogadro project has developed an advanced molecule editor and visualizer designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. It offers flexible, high quality rendering, and a powerful plugin architecture. Typical uses include building molecular structures, formatting input files, and analyzing output of a wide variety of computational chemistry packages. By using the CML file format as its native document type, Avogadro seeks to enhance the semantic accessibility of chemical data types. The work presented here details the Avogadro library, which is a framework providing a code library and application programming interface (API) with three-dimensional visualization capabilities; and has direct applications to research and education in the fields of chemistry, physics, materials science, and biology. The Avogadro application provides a rich graphical interface using dynamically loaded plugins through the library itself. The application and library can each be extended by implementing a plugin module in C++ or Python to explore different visualization techniques, build/manipulate molecular structures, and interact with other programs. We describe some example extensions, one which uses a genetic algorithm to find stable crystal structures, and one which interfaces with the PackMol program to create packed, solvated structures for molecular dynamics simulations. The 1.0 release series of Avogadro is the main focus of the results discussed here. Avogadro offers a semantic chemical builder and platform for visualization and analysis. For users, it offers an easy-to-use builder, integrated support for downloading from common databases such as PubChem and the Protein Data Bank, extracting chemical data from a wide variety of formats, including computational chemistry output, and native, semantic support for the CML file format. For developers, it can be easily extended via a powerful

Avogadro: an advanced semantic chemical editor, visualization, and analysis platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanwell Marcus D

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Avogadro project has developed an advanced molecule editor and visualizer designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. It offers flexible, high quality rendering, and a powerful plugin architecture. Typical uses include building molecular structures, formatting input files, and analyzing output of a wide variety of computational chemistry packages. By using the CML file format as its native document type, Avogadro seeks to enhance the semantic accessibility of chemical data types. Results The work presented here details the Avogadro library, which is a framework providing a code library and application programming interface (API with three-dimensional visualization capabilities; and has direct applications to research and education in the fields of chemistry, physics, materials science, and biology. The Avogadro application provides a rich graphical interface using dynamically loaded plugins through the library itself. The application and library can each be extended by implementing a plugin module in C++ or Python to explore different visualization techniques, build/manipulate molecular structures, and interact with other programs. We describe some example extensions, one which uses a genetic algorithm to find stable crystal structures, and one which interfaces with the PackMol program to create packed, solvated structures for molecular dynamics simulations. The 1.0 release series of Avogadro is the main focus of the results discussed here. Conclusions Avogadro offers a semantic chemical builder and platform for visualization and analysis. For users, it offers an easy-to-use builder, integrated support for downloading from common databases such as PubChem and the Protein Data Bank, extracting chemical data from a wide variety of formats, including computational chemistry output, and native, semantic support for the CML file format

Footprints of Fascination: Digital Traces of Public Engagement with Particle Physics on CERN's Social Media Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

2016-01-01

Although the scientific community increasingly recognizes that its communication with the public may shape civic engagement with science, few studies have characterized how this communication occurs online. Social media plays a growing role in this engagement, yet it is not known if or how different platforms support different types of engagement. This study sets out to explore how users engage with science communication items on different platforms of social media, and what are the characteristics of the items that tend to attract large numbers of user interactions. Here, user interactions with almost identical items on five of CERN's social media platforms were quantitatively compared over an eight-week period, including likes, comments, shares, click-throughs, and time spent on CERN's site. The most popular items were qualitatively analyzed for content features. Findings indicate that as audience size of a social media platform grows, the total rate of engagement with content tends to grow as well. However, per user, engagement tends to decline with audience size. Across all platforms, similar topics tend to consistently receive high engagement. In particular, awe-inspiring imagery tends to frequently attract high engagement across platforms, independent of newsworthiness. To our knowledge, this study provides the first cross-platform characterization of public engagement with science on social media. Findings, although focused on particle physics, have a multidisciplinary nature; they may serve to benchmark social media analytics for assessing science communication activities in various domains. Evidence-based suggestions for practitioners are also offered. PMID:27232498

Footprints of Fascination: Digital Traces of Public Engagement with Particle Physics on CERN's Social Media Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahle, Kate; Sharon, Aviv J; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

2016-01-01

Although the scientific community increasingly recognizes that its communication with the public may shape civic engagement with science, few studies have characterized how this communication occurs online. Social media plays a growing role in this engagement, yet it is not known if or how different platforms support different types of engagement. This study sets out to explore how users engage with science communication items on different platforms of social media, and what are the characteristics of the items that tend to attract large numbers of user interactions. Here, user interactions with almost identical items on five of CERN's social media platforms were quantitatively compared over an eight-week period, including likes, comments, shares, click-throughs, and time spent on CERN's site. The most popular items were qualitatively analyzed for content features. Findings indicate that as audience size of a social media platform grows, the total rate of engagement with content tends to grow as well. However, per user, engagement tends to decline with audience size. Across all platforms, similar topics tend to consistently receive high engagement. In particular, awe-inspiring imagery tends to frequently attract high engagement across platforms, independent of newsworthiness. To our knowledge, this study provides the first cross-platform characterization of public engagement with science on social media. Findings, although focused on particle physics, have a multidisciplinary nature; they may serve to benchmark social media analytics for assessing science communication activities in various domains. Evidence-based suggestions for practitioners are also offered.

Oil and Gas Producing Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, Geographic NAD83, MMS (1998)[platforms_MMS_1998

Data.gov (United States)

Louisiana Geographic Information Center — This is a point data set for the location of over 4300 MMS administered platform structures used for oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. Groups of platform...

Teaching children the structure of science

Science.gov (United States)

Börner, Katy; Palmer, Fileve; Davis, Julie M.; Hardy, Elisha; Uzzo, Stephen M.; Hook, Bryan J.

2009-01-01

Maps of the world are common in classroom settings. They are used to teach the juxtaposition of natural and political functions, mineral resources, political, cultural and geographical boundaries; occurrences of processes such as tectonic drift; spreading of epidemics; and weather forecasts, among others. Recent work in scientometrics aims to create a map of science encompassing our collective scholarly knowledge. Maps of science can be used to see disciplinary boundaries; the origin of ideas, expertise, techniques, or tools; the birth, evolution, merging, splitting, and death of scientific disciplines; the spreading of ideas and technology; emerging research frontiers and bursts of activity; etc. Just like the first maps of our planet, the first maps of science are neither perfect nor correct. Today's science maps are predominantly generated based on English scholarly data: Techniques and procedures to achieve local and global accuracy of these maps are still being refined, and a visual language to communicate something as abstract and complex as science is still being developed. Yet, the maps are successfully used by institutions or individuals who can afford them to guide science policy decision making, economic decision making, or as visual interfaces to digital libraries. This paper presents the process and results of creating hands-on science maps for kids that teaches children ages 4-14 about the structure of scientific disciplines. The maps were tested in both formal and informal science education environments. The results show that children can easily transfer their (world) map and concept map reading skills to utilize maps of science in interesting ways.

Educational process in modern climatology within the web-GIS platform "Climate"

Science.gov (United States)

Gordova, Yulia; Gorbatenko, Valentina; Gordov, Evgeny; Martynova, Yulia; Okladnikov, Igor; Titov, Alexander; Shulgina, Tamara

2013-04-01

These days, common to all scientific fields the problem of training of scientists in the environmental sciences is exacerbated by the need to develop new computational and information technology skills in distributed multi-disciplinary teams. To address this and other pressing problems of Earth system sciences, software infrastructure for information support of integrated research in the geosciences was created based on modern information and computational technologies and a software and hardware platform "Climate» (http://climate.scert.ru/) was developed. In addition to the direct analysis of geophysical data archives, the platform is aimed at teaching the basics of the study of changes in regional climate. The educational component of the platform includes a series of lectures on climate, environmental and meteorological modeling and laboratory work cycles on the basics of analysis of current and potential future regional climate change using Siberia territory as an example. The educational process within the Platform is implemented using the distance learning system Moodle (www.moodle.org). This work is partially supported by the Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation (contract #8345), SB RAS project VIII.80.2.1, RFBR grant #11-05-01190a, and integrated project SB RAS #131.

Towards a Framework of Digital Platform Disruption

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazan, Erol; Tan, Chee-Wee; Lim, Eric T. K.

2014-01-01

Digital platforms are disruptive information technology (IT) artifacts that erode conventional business logic associated with traditional market structures. This paper presents a framework for examining the disruptive potential of digital platforms whereby we postulate that the strategic interplay...... digital platforms purposely decouple platform layers, to foster open innovation and accelerate market disruption. This paper therefore represents a first concrete step aimed at unravelling the disruptive potential of digital platforms....... of governance regimes and platform layers is deterministic of whether disruptive derivatives are permitted to flourish. This framework has been employed in a comparative case study between centralized (i.e., PayPal) and decentralized (i.e., Coinkite) digital payment platforms to illustrate its applicability...

An Extensible, Modular Architecture Coupling HydroShare and Tethys Platform to Deploy Water Science Web Apps

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, J.; Ames, D. P.; Jones, N.; Tarboton, D. G.; Li, Z.; Qiao, X.; Crawley, S.

2016-12-01

As water resources data continue to move to the web in the form of well-defined, open access, machine readable web services provided by government, academic, and private institutions, there is increased opportunity to move additional parts of the water science workflow to the web (e.g. analysis, modeling, decision support, and collaboration.) Creating such web-based functionality can be extremely time-consuming and resource-intensive and can lead the erstwhile water scientist down a veritable cyberinfrastructure rabbit hole, through an unintended tunnel of transformation to become a Cyber-Wonderland software engineer. We posit that such transformations were never the intention of the research programs that fund earth science cyberinfrastructure, nor is it in the best interest of water researchers to spend exorbitant effort developing and deploying such technologies. This presentation will introduce a relatively simple and ready-to-use water science web app environment funded by the National Science Foundation that couples the new HydroShare data publishing system with the Tethys Platform web app development toolkit. The coupled system has already been shown to greatly lower the barrier to deploying of web based visualization and analysis tools for the CUAHSI Water Data Center and for the National Weather Service's National Water Model. The design and implementation of the developed web app architecture will be presented together key examples of existing apps created using this system. In each of the cases presented, water resources students with basic programming skills were able to develop and deploy highly functional web apps in a relatively short period of time (days to weeks) - allowing the focus to remain on water science rather on cyberinfrastructure. This presentation is accompanied by an open invitation for new collaborations that use the HydroShare-Tethys web app environment.

Using decommissioned offshore oil/gas platforms for nuclear/RO desalination: the ONDP (Offshore Nuclear Desalination Platform)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagar, Ankesh

2010-01-01

Oil platforms are manmade concrete and steel giant structures standing high on ocean floor weighing anywhere between 10,000 tonnes and 150,000 tonnes or more and designed to withstand cruel forces of nature, having an average life of 70 years. With the declining petrol reserves within next 30 years, hundreds of platforms will be scheduled for decommissioning. This issue is a hot topic as oil companies tussle with environmentalists and state lawmakers over the future. The cash strapped oil companies have a legal obligation to remove each rig entirely, returning the ocean floor to its original condition. Lean times in oil industry mean a tight cash flow. Safely removing massive structures from deep waters and shipping the pile to the shores for reuse and recycling presents a technological challenge for operators. Some conceptual applications investigated to reuse them are the conversion of offshore structures into fish farms, prisons, military outposts, hotels, for Search and Rescue operations or Centers for Waste Processing and Disposal. Decommissioning oil and gas installation is exorbitantly expensive. On an average, removing a complete platform with or without pipeline in sea waters with 'clean sea approach' costs $15 million to $ 6 billion depending on location. Global warming has adversely affected world climate. Water levels in ground and reservoirs have shown drastic decrement. In future there will be need for more and more water all over the world. Fossil fuel energy based desalination is expensive and not eco-friendly so is dismantling of oil platform with its pipeline. The oil platforms are far located from population, have sufficient tank capacity and pipeline structure to store and pump water to shore. When found economically unviable these mammoth structures with modifications can be installed with 02 or more small or medium sized nuclear reactors such as KLT 40S with required module to desalinate water and co generate electricity which can be sent to

Vertical Relationships within Platform Marketplaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark J. Tremblay

2016-07-01

Full Text Available In two-sided markets a platform allows consumers and sellers to interact by creating sub-markets within the platform marketplace. For example, Amazon has sub-markets for all of the different product categories available on its site, and smartphones have sub-markets for different types of applications (gaming apps, weather apps, map apps, ridesharing apps, etc.. The network benefits between consumers and sellers depend on the mode of competition within the sub-markets: more competition between sellers lowers product prices, increases the surplus consumers receive from a sub-market, and makes platform membership more desirable for consumers. However, more competition also lowers profits for a seller which makes platform membership less desirable for a seller and reduces seller entry and the number of sub-markets available on the platform marketplace. This dynamic between seller competition within a sub-market and agents’ network benefits leads to platform pricing strategies, participation decisions by consumers and sellers, and welfare results that depend on the mode of competition. Thus, the sub-market structure is important when investigating platform marketplaces.

Mobile Prototyping Platforms for Remote Engineering Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karsten Henke

2009-08-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a low-cost mobile communication platform as a universal rapid-prototyping system, which is based on the Quadrocopter concept. At the Integrated Hardware and Software Systems Group at the Ilmenau University of Technology these mobile platforms are used to motivate bachelor and master students to study Computer Engineering sciences. This could be done by increasing their interest in technical issues, using this platform as integral part of a new ad-hoc lab to demonstrate different aspects in the area of Mobile Communication as well as universal rapid prototyping nodes to investigate different mechanisms for self-organized mobile communication systems within the International Graduate School on Mobile Communications. Beside the three fields of application, the paper describes the current architecture concept of the mobile prototyping platform as well as the chosen control mechanism and the assigned sensor systems to fulfill all the required tasks.

Identification of platform levels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Niels Henrik

2005-01-01

reduction, ability to launch a wider product portfolio without increasing resources and reduction of complexity within the whole company. To support the multiple product development process, platform based product development has in many companies such as Philips, VW, Ford etc. proven to be a very effective...... product development in one step and therefore the objective of this paper is to identify levels of platform based product development. The structure of this paper is as follows. First the applied terminology for platforms will be briefly explained and then characteristics between single and multi product...... development will be examined. Based on the identification of the above characteristics five platform levels are described. The research presented in this paper is a result of MSc, Ph.D projects at the Technical University of Denmark and consultancy projects within the organisation of Institute of Product...

Crustal structure and sedimentation history over the Alleppey platform, southwest continental margin of India: Constraints from multichannel seismic and gravity data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Unnikrishnan

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The Alleppey Platform is an important morphological feature located in the Kerala-Konkan basin off the southwest coast of India. In the present study, seismic reflection data available in the basin were used to understand the sedimentation history and also to carry out integrated gravity interpretation. Detailed seismic reflection data in the basin reveals that: (1 the Alleppey Platform is associated with a basement high in the west of its present-day geometry (as observed in the time-structure map of the Trap Top (K/T boundary, (2 the platform subsequently started developing during the Eocene period and attained the present geometry by the Miocene and, (3 both the Alleppey platform and the Vishnu fracture zone have had significant impact on the sedimentation patterns (as shown by the time-structure and the isochron maps of the major sedimentary horizons in the region. The 3-D sediment gravity effect computed from the sedimentary layer geometry was used to construct the crustal Bouguer anomaly map of the region. The 3-D gravity inversion of crustal Bouguer anomaly exhibits a Moho depression below the western border of the platform and a minor rise towards the east which then deepens again below the Indian shield. The 2-D gravity modelling across the Alleppey platform reveals the geometry of crustal extension, in which there are patches of thin and thick crust. The Vishnu Fracture Zone appears as a crustal-scale feature at the western boundary of the Alleppey platform. Based on the gravity model and the seismic reflection data, we suggest that the basement high to the west of the present day Alleppey platform remained as a piece of continental block very close to the mainland with the intervening depression filling up with sediments during the rifting. In order to place the Alleppey platform in the overall perspective of tectonic evolution of the Kerala-Konkan basin, we propose its candidature as a continental fragment.

Utah's Mobile Earth Science Outreach Vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Schoessow, F. S.; Christian, L.

2016-12-01

Students at Utah State University's College of Natural Resources have engineered the first mobile Earth Science outreach platform capable of delivering high-tech and interactive solar-powered educational resources to the traditionally-underserved, remote communities of rural Utah. By retrofitting and modifying an industrial box-truck, this project effectively created a highly mobile and energy independent "school in a box" which seeks to help change the way that Earth science is communicated, eliminate traditional barriers, and increase science accessibility - both physically and conceptually. The project's education platform is focused on developing a more effective, sustainable, and engaging platform for presenting Earth science outreach curricula to community members of all ages in an engaging fashion. Furthermore, this project affords university students the opportunity to demonstrate innovative science communication techniques, translating vital university research into educational outreach operations aimed at doing real, measurable good for local communities.

Teachers' Organization of Participation Structures for Teaching Science with Computer Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Subramaniam, Karthigeyan

2016-08-01

This paper describes a qualitative study that investigated the nature of the participation structures and how the participation structures were organized by four science teachers when they constructed and communicated science content in their classrooms with computer technology. Participation structures focus on the activity structures and processes in social settings like classrooms thereby providing glimpses into the complex dynamics of teacher-students interactions, configurations, and conventions during collective meaning making and knowledge creation. Data included observations, interviews, and focus group interviews. Analysis revealed that the dominant participation structure evident within participants' instruction with computer technology was ( Teacher) initiation-( Student and Teacher) response sequences-( Teacher) evaluate participation structure. Three key events characterized the how participants organized this participation structure in their classrooms: setting the stage for interactive instruction, the joint activity, and maintaining accountability. Implications include the following: (1) teacher educators need to tap into the knowledge base that underscores science teachers' learning to teach philosophies when computer technology is used in instruction. (2) Teacher educators need to emphasize the essential idea that learning and cognition is not situated within the computer technology but within the pedagogical practices, specifically the participation structures. (3) The pedagogical practices developed with the integration or with the use of computer technology underscored by the teachers' own knowledge of classroom contexts and curriculum needs to be the focus for how students learn science content with computer technology instead of just focusing on how computer technology solely supports students learning of science content.

Observations of fine-scale transport structure in the upper troposphere from the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, Kenneth P.; Pan, Laura L.; Campos, Teresa; Gao, Rushan

2007-09-01

The Progressive Science Mission in December 2005 was the first research use of the new NCAR High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER) aircraft. The Stratosphere-Troposphere Analyses of Regional Transport (START) component of the mission was designed to investigate the dynamical and chemical structure of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Flight 5 of the Progressive Science mission was a START flight that sampled near the tropopause in an area between the main jet stream and a large, quasi-stationary, cutoff low. The large-scale flow in this region was characterized by a hyperbolic (saddle) point. In this study the in situ measurements by HIAPER are combined with flow analyses and satellite data to investigate the quasi-isentropic stirring of trace species in the upper troposphere. As expected from theoretical considerations, strong stretching and folding deformation of the flow near the hyperbolic point resulted in rapid filamentation of air masses and sharp gradients of constituents. Calculations of the stirring using operational meteorological analyses from the NCEP Global Forecast System model produced excellent agreement with HIAPER and satellite observations of trace species. Back trajectories indicate that elevated ozone levels in some filaments likely came from a large stratospheric intrusion that occurred upstream in the jet over the north Pacific Ocean. The methods presented here can be used with operational forecasts for future flight planning.

Stratospheric Platforms for Monitoring Purposes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konigorski, D.; Gratzel, U.; Obersteiner, M.; Schneidereit, M.

2010-01-01

Stratospheric platforms are emerging systems based on challenging technology. Goal is to create a platform, payload, and mission design which is able to complement satellite services on a local scale. Applications are close to traditional satellite business in telecommunication, navigation, science, and earth observation and include for example mobile telecommunications, navigation augmentation, atmospheric research, or border control. Stratospheric platforms could potentially support monitoring activities related to safeguards, e.g. by imagery of surfaces, operational conditions of nuclear facilities, and search for undeclared nuclear activities. Stratospheric platforms are intended to be flown in an altitude band between 16 and 30 km, above 16-20 km to take advantage of usually lower winds facilitating station keeping, below 30 km to limit the challenges to achieve a reasonable payload at acceptable platform sizes. Stratospheric platforms could substitute satellites which are expensive and lack upgrade capabilities for new equipment. Furthermore they have practically an unlimited time over an area of interest. It is intended to keep the platforms operational and maintenance free on a 24/7 basis with an average deployment time of 3 years. Geostationary satellites lack resolution. Potential customers like Armed Forces, National Agencies and commercial customers have indicated interest in the use of stratospheric platforms. Governmental entities are looking for cheaper alternatives to communications and surveillance satellites and stratospheric platforms could offer the following potential advantages: Lower operational cost than satellite or UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) constellation (fleet required); Faster deployment than satellite constellation; Repositioning capability and ability to loiter as required; Persistent long-term real-time services over a fairly large regional spot; Surge capability: Able to extend capability (either monitoring or communications

Oracle Database 10g: a platform for BLAST search and Regular Expression pattern matching in life sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephens, Susie M; Chen, Jake Y; Davidson, Marcel G; Thomas, Shiby; Trute, Barry M

2005-01-01

As database management systems expand their array of analytical functionality, they become powerful research engines for biomedical data analysis and drug discovery. Databases can hold most of the data types commonly required in life sciences and consequently can be used as flexible platforms for the implementation of knowledgebases. Performing data analysis in the database simplifies data management by minimizing the movement of data from disks to memory, allowing pre-filtering and post-processing of datasets, and enabling data to remain in a secure, highly available environment. This article describes the Oracle Database 10g implementation of BLAST and Regular Expression Searches and provides case studies of their usage in bioinformatics. http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/index.html.

Biodiversity information platforms: From standards to interoperability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Walter Berendsohn

2011-11-01

Full Text Available One of the most serious bottlenecks in the scientific workflows of biodiversity sciences is the need to integrate data from different sources, software applications, and services for analysis, visualisation and publication. For more than a quarter of a century the TDWG Biodiversity Information Standards organisation has a central role in defining and promoting data standards and protocols supporting interoperability between disparate and locally distributed systems. Although often not sufficiently recognized, TDWG standards are the foundation of many popular Biodiversity Informatics applications and infrastructures ranging from small desktop software solutions to large scale international data networks. However, individual scientists and groups of collaborating scientist have difficulties in fully exploiting the potential of standards that are often notoriously complex, lack non-technical documentations, and use different representations and underlying technologies. In the last few years, a series of initiatives such as Scratchpads, the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy, and biowikifarm have started to implement and set up virtual work platforms for biodiversity sciences which shield their users from the complexity of the underlying standards. Apart from being practical work-horses for numerous working processes related to biodiversity sciences, they can be seen as information brokers mediating information between multiple data standards and protocols. The ViBRANT project will further strengthen the flexibility and power of virtual biodiversity working platforms by building software interfaces between them, thus facilitating essential information flows needed for comprehensive data exchange, data indexing, web-publication, and versioning. This work will make an important contribution to the shaping of an international, interoperable, and user-oriented biodiversity information infrastructure.

Fiscal 1999 achievement report on interuniversity coordination type research and development of industrial technology. Research and development of highly functional material designing platform; 1999 nendo kokino zairyo sekkei platform no kenkyu kaihatsu seika hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2000-03-01

For the purpose of enabling prediction of structures and properties of polymeric materials by computer-assisted experiments, studies were conducted for putting new simulation technologies to practical application. Simulation technologies underwent research and development with working groups respectively dealing with the coarse-graining molecular dynamic method, dynamic mean field method, dispersed structure simulation, study of verification, and platform. The Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University, succeeded in the development of a device enabling direct observation of crystallization under shear flow, which was for the construction of a material property database. The Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, developed a device for measuring dielectric relaxation under shear flow, by which findings were obtained concerning ion fluctuation and diffusion in a micellar system. The Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, studied pattern formation dynamics which involved viscoelastic phase separation in a polymeric solution whose composition was near critical. (NEDO)

The APECS Virtual Poster Session: a virtual platform for science communication and discussion

Science.gov (United States)

Renner, A.; Jochum, K.; Jullion, L.; Pavlov, A.; Liggett, D.; Fugmann, G.; Baeseman, J. L.; Apecs Virtual Poster Session Working Group, T.

2011-12-01

The Virtual Poster Session (VPS) of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) was developed by early career scientists as an online tool for communicating and discussing science and research beyond the four walls of a conference venue. Poster sessions often are the backbone of a conference where especially early career scientists get a chance to communicate their research, discuss ideas, data, and scientific problems with their peers and senior scientists. There, they can hone their 'elevator pitch', discussion skills and presentation skills. APECS has taken the poster session one step further and created the VPS - the same idea but independent from conferences, travel, and location. All that is needed is a computer with internet access. Instead of letting their posters collect dust on the computer's hard drive, scientists can now upload them to the APECS website. There, others have the continuous opportunity to comment, give feedback and discuss the work. Currently, about 200 posters are accessible contributed by authors and co-authors from 34 countries. Since January 2010, researchers can discuss their poster with a broad international audience including fellow researchers, community members, potential colleagues and collaborators, policy makers and educators during monthly conference calls via an internet platform. Recordings of the calls are available online afterwards. Calls so far have included topical sessions on e.g. marine biology, glaciology, or social sciences, and interdisciplinary calls on Arctic sciences or polar research activities in a specific country, e.g. India or Romania. They attracted audiences of scientists at all career stages and from all continents, with on average about 15 persons participating per call. Online tools like the VPS open up new ways for creating collaborations and new research ideas and sharing different methodologies for future projects, pushing aside the boundaries of countries and nations, conferences

VSDMIP 1.5: an automated structure- and ligand-based virtual screening platform with a PyMOL graphical user interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Cabrera, Álvaro Cortés; Gil-Redondo, Rubén; Perona, Almudena; Gago, Federico; Morreale, Antonio

2011-09-01

A graphical user interface (GUI) for our previously published virtual screening (VS) and data management platform VSDMIP (Gil-Redondo et al. J Comput Aided Mol Design, 23:171-184, 2009) that has been developed as a plugin for the popular molecular visualization program PyMOL is presented. In addition, a ligand-based VS module (LBVS) has been implemented that complements the already existing structure-based VS (SBVS) module and can be used in those cases where the receptor's 3D structure is not known or for pre-filtering purposes. This updated version of VSDMIP is placed in the context of similar available software and its LBVS and SBVS capabilities are tested here on a reduced set of the Directory of Useful Decoys database. Comparison of results from both approaches confirms the trend found in previous studies that LBVS outperforms SBVS. We also show that by combining LBVS and SBVS, and using a cluster of ~100 modern processors, it is possible to perform complete VS studies of several million molecules in less than a month. As the main processes in VSDMIP are 100% scalable, more powerful processors and larger clusters would notably decrease this time span. The plugin is distributed under an academic license upon request from the authors. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Earthdata 3.0: A Unified Experience and Platform for Earth Science Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

Plofchan, P.; McLaughlin, B. D.

2015-12-01

NASA's EOSDIS (Earth Observing System Data and Information System) as a multitude of websites and applications focused on serving the Earth Science community's extensive data needs. With no central user interface, theme, or mechanism for accessing that data, interrelated systems are confusing and potentially disruptive in users' searches for EOSDIS data holdings. In an effort to bring consistency across these systems, an effort was undertaken to develop Earthdata 3.0: a complete information architecture overhaul of the Earthdata website, a significant update to the Earthdata user experience and user interface, and an increased focus on searching across EOSDIS data holdings, including those housed and made available through DAAC websites. As part of this effort, and in a desire to unify the user experience across related websites, the Earthdata User Interface (EUI) was developed. The EUI is a collection of responsive design components and layouts geared toward creating websites and applications within the Earthdata ecosystem. Each component and layout has been designed specifically for Earth science-related projects which eliminates some of the complexities of building a website or application from the ground up. Its adoption will ensure both consistent markup and a unified look and feel for end users, thereby increasing usability and accessibility. Additionally, through the user of a Google Search Appliance, custom Clojure code, and in cooperation with DAACs, Earthdata 3.0 presents a variety of search results upon a user's keyword(s) entry. These results are not just textual links, but also direct links to downloadable datasets, visualizations of datasets and collections of data, and related articles and videos for further research. The end result of the development of the EUI and the enhanced multi-response type search is a consistent and usable platform for Earth scientists and users to navigate and locate data to further their research.

The Intellectual Structure of Research on Educational Technology in Science Education (ETiSE): A Co-citation Network Analysis of Publications in Selected Journals (2008-2013)

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Kai-Yu; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2016-01-01

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the intellectual structure of the research on educational technology in science education (ETiSE) within the most recent years (2008-2013). Based on the criteria for educational technology research and the citation threshold for educational co-citation analysis, a total of 137 relevant ETiSE papers were identified from the International Journal of Science Education, the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Science Education, and the Journal of Science Education and Technology. Then, a series of methodologies were performed to analyze all 137 source documents, including document co-citation analysis, social network analysis, and exploratory factor analysis. As a result, 454 co-citation ties were obtained and then graphically visualized with an undirected network, presenting a global structure of the current ETiSE research network. In addition, four major underlying intellectual subfields within the main component of the ETiSE network were extracted and named as: (1) technology-enhanced science inquiry, (2) simulation and visualization for understanding, (3) technology-enhanced chemistry learning, and (4) game-based science learning. The most influential co-citation pairs and cross-boundary phenomena were then analyzed and visualized in a co-citation network. This is the very first attempt to illuminate the core ideas underlying ETiSE research by integrating the co-citation method, factor analysis, and the networking visualization technique. The findings of this study provide a platform for scholarly discussion of the dissemination and research trends within the current ETiSE literature.

The development for the particle physics experiments platform in university

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang Futian; Yao Yuan; Wang Zhaoqi; Liu Yuzhe; Sang Ziru; Chen Lian; Wen Fei; Jin Ge; Liu Hongbin

2012-01-01

Nuclear science and particle physics is an important subject in physics, and it is important to launch particle physics experiments in university to training students. We design an experiments platform based on particle physics experiments in university. By employing digitalization and reconfiguration techniques in our design, we achieve all kinds of device functions with only one device. With the customized software for particular experiments and a website for teaching assistance, the platform is easy to be employed in universities. Students can accomplish a classical particle physics experiment in a modern way with the help of the platform, and they can also try new ideals. The experiments platform is ready to be used, and some of the lab sessions in USTC have already begin to use our experiments platform. (authors)

Let's consider 'structural disaster' lying behind the Fukushima nuclear accident. From the viewpoint of sociology of science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsumoto, Miwao

2015-01-01

As for the relationship between 'science and technology' and society, a huge gap exists between the question and expectation toward sociology given by ordinary people and the actual state of sociology. Sociology of science tries to provide a platform for transforming this kind of situation. What is currently talked about the Fukushima nuclear accident would be required to be revised according to the revealed fact in the future. Although there is such a limitation, what should be done at present is described from the viewpoint of sociology of science. The structure disaster is taken up from the viewpoint for not alienating the Fukushima accident, and the following five characteristics are involved in a complex manner. (1) To preserve precedent problems even if the precedents are wrong. (2) The complexity and mutual dependency of system amplify problems. (3) The informal norms of small groups hollow the official norms over a long term. (4) Stopgap measures based on ad hock presumption proliferate in face of measures against problems. (5) The secrecy principle obscures the whereabouts of responsibility throughout sectors. As for the way to operate SPEEDI (system for prediction of environmental emergency dose information) immediately after the Fukushima accident, this paper discusses the ideal way of responsibility attribution in consideration of the implication of structural disaster. In order not to invite such social conditions again as causing a serious accident due to the easy belief of unsafe conditions as safe, it is essential to create a mechanism that everyone publicly shares the issues associated with unlimited liability by means of the re-designing of the system. (A.O.)

Investigating the Users’ Approach to ICT Platforms in the City Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Caputo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The increasing relevance of technology and its impact on our everyday life requires multi- and trans-disciplinary studies in order to investigate the ways in which the Information and Communication Technology (ICT tools are affected by users’ features and by the external environment. In order to enrich existing contributions on this topic, the paper focuses its attention on the city as example of service systems, in order to investigate dimensions and dynamics that influence the city employees’ evaluation and satisfaction in the use of ICT platforms. By adopting the interpretative lens offered by Service Science and Systems Thinking, the domain of city as a service system is analysed and some hypotheses are formulated with reference to the relationships between environment, users, and ICT platform. The hypotheses are investigated through a questionnaire survey on a sample of 1032 municipalities in the Czech Republic and the results are tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The research shows that users’ features and external environment affect the evaluation and the satisfaction of city stakeholders about the use of ICT platforms by underlining the need for enlarging the study on informatics tools, in order to also include subjective variables. The findings are discussed from both theoretical and practical points of view.

Tectonic resemblance of the Indian Platform, Pakistan with the Moesian Platform, Romania and strategy for exploration of hydrocarbons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Memon, A.D.

1994-01-01

There is a remarkable tectonic resemblance between the indian Platform (Pakistan) and the Moesian Platform (Romania). As viewed in global tectonic perspective Moeslan and Indian Plates have played important role in Alpine Himalayan Orogeny; Moesian and Indian Platforms are extension of these respective plates. Characteristics features of both the platforms are block faulting which has effected not only the general tectonic framework but has also played important role in oil accumulation. Main producing rocks in the Moesian platform are Jurassic sandstones and cretaceous limestones while in the indian platform cretaceous sandstones are important reservoirs. The average geothermal gradient in the indian platform is 2.45 C/100m with the higher gradients in the central gas producing region. Geothermal gradients in the Moesian platform have an average value of 3 C/100m with higher gradients in the northern in the northern part. Some of the producing structures in both the platforms are remarkably similar, traps associated with normal faults are very important. Extensive exploration carried in the Moesian Platform makes it very important oil producing region of Romania. After the discovery of oil lower Sindh, serious exploration is being carried in the Indian platform. The paper deals with the similarities between these two important platforms. In the light of the studies of the Moesian platform, strategies or exploration of oil and gas in the Indian Platform are suggested. (author)

Robustness of Structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Faber, Michael Havbro; Vrouwenvelder, A.C.W.M.; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2011-01-01

In 2005, the Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS) together with Working Commission (WC) 1 of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) organized a workshop on robustness of structures. Two important decisions resulted from this workshop, namely...... ‘COST TU0601: Robustness of Structures’ was initiated in February 2007, aiming to provide a platform for exchanging and promoting research in the area of structural robustness and to provide a basic framework, together with methods, strategies and guidelines enhancing robustness of structures...... the development of a joint European project on structural robustness under the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) programme and the decision to develop a more elaborate document on structural robustness in collaboration between experts from the JCSS and the IABSE. Accordingly, a project titled...

How NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) is operationally using the Esri ArcGIS Platform to improve data discoverability, accessibility and interoperability to meet the diversifying government, private, public and academic communities' driven requirements.

Science.gov (United States)

Tisdale, M.

2016-12-01

NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) is operationally using the Esri ArcGIS Platform to improve data discoverability, accessibility and interoperability to meet the diversifying government, private, public and academic communities' driven requirements. The ASDC is actively working to provide their mission essential datasets as ArcGIS Image Services, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Mapping Services (WMS), OGC Web Coverage Services (WCS) and leveraging the ArcGIS multidimensional mosaic dataset structure. Science teams and ASDC are utilizing these services, developing applications using the Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS and ArcGIS API for Javascript, and evaluating restructuring their data production and access scripts within the ArcGIS Python Toolbox framework and Geoprocessing service environment. These capabilities yield a greater usage and exposure of ASDC data holdings and provide improved geospatial analytical tools for a mission critical understanding in the areas of the earth's radiation budget, clouds, aerosols, and tropospheric chemistry.

Development and case study of a science-based software platform to support policy making on air quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Yun; Lao, Yanwen; Jang, Carey; Lin, Chen-Jen; Xing, Jia; Wang, Shuxiao; Fu, Joshua S; Deng, Shuang; Xie, Junping; Long, Shicheng

2015-01-01

This article describes the development and implementations of a novel software platform that supports real-time, science-based policy making on air quality through a user-friendly interface. The software, RSM-VAT, uses a response surface modeling (RSM) methodology and serves as a visualization and analysis tool (VAT) for three-dimensional air quality data obtained by atmospheric models. The software features a number of powerful and intuitive data visualization functions for illustrating the complex nonlinear relationship between emission reductions and air quality benefits. The case study of contiguous U.S. demonstrates that the enhanced RSM-VAT is capable of reproducing the air quality model results with Normalized Mean Bias quality policy making in near real time. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Fabrication and Optimization of Bilayered Nanoporous Anodic Alumina Structures as Multi-Point Interferometric Sensing Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Nemati, Mahdieh; Santos, Abel

2018-01-01

Herein, we present an innovative strategy for optimizing hierarchical structures of nanoporous anodic alumina (NAA) to advance their optical sensing performance toward multi-analyte biosensing. This approach is based on the fabrication of multilayered NAA and the formation of differential effective medium of their structure by controlling three fabrication parameters (i.e., anodization steps, anodization time, and pore widening time). The rationale of the proposed concept is that interferometric bilayered NAA (BL-NAA), which features two layers of different pore diameters, can provide distinct reflectometric interference spectroscopy (RIfS) signatures for each layer within the NAA structure and can therefore potentially be used for multi-point biosensing. This paper presents the structural fabrication of layered NAA structures, and the optimization and evaluation of their RIfS optical sensing performance through changes in the effective optical thickness (EOT) using quercetin as a model molecule. The bilayered or funnel-like NAA structures were designed with the aim of characterizing the sensitivity of both layers of quercetin molecules using RIfS and exploring the potential of these photonic structures, featuring different pore diameters, for simultaneous size-exclusion and multi-analyte optical biosensing. The sensing performance of the prepared NAA platforms was examined by real-time screening of binding reactions between human serum albumin (HSA)-modified NAA (i.e., sensing element) and quercetin (i.e., analyte). BL-NAAs display a complex optical interference spectrum, which can be resolved by fast Fourier transform (FFT) to monitor the EOT changes, where three distinctive peaks were revealed corresponding to the top, bottom, and total layer within the BL-NAA structures. The spectral shifts of these three characteristic peaks were used as sensing signals to monitor the binding events in each NAA pore in real-time upon exposure to different concentrations of

Using the Eclipse Parallel Tools Platform to Assist Earth Science Model Development and Optimization on High Performance Computers

Science.gov (United States)

Alameda, J. C.

2011-12-01

Development and optimization of computational science models, particularly on high performance computers, and with the advent of ubiquitous multicore processor systems, practically on every system, has been accomplished with basic software tools, typically, command-line based compilers, debuggers, performance tools that have not changed substantially from the days of serial and early vector computers. However, model complexity, including the complexity added by modern message passing libraries such as MPI, and the need for hybrid code models (such as openMP and MPI) to be able to take full advantage of high performance computers with an increasing core count per shared memory node, has made development and optimization of such codes an increasingly arduous task. Additional architectural developments, such as many-core processors, only complicate the situation further. In this paper, we describe how our NSF-funded project, "SI2-SSI: A Productive and Accessible Development Workbench for HPC Applications Using the Eclipse Parallel Tools Platform" (WHPC) seeks to improve the Eclipse Parallel Tools Platform, an environment designed to support scientific code development targeted at a diverse set of high performance computing systems. Our WHPC project to improve Eclipse PTP takes an application-centric view to improve PTP. We are using a set of scientific applications, each with a variety of challenges, and using PTP to drive further improvements to both the scientific application, as well as to understand shortcomings in Eclipse PTP from an application developer perspective, to drive our list of improvements we seek to make. We are also partnering with performance tool providers, to drive higher quality performance tool integration. We have partnered with the Cactus group at Louisiana State University to improve Eclipse's ability to work with computational frameworks and extremely complex build systems, as well as to develop educational materials to incorporate into

Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant open-source web-based reporting platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinto Dos Santos, Daniel; Klos, G; Kloeckner, R; Oberle, R; Dueber, C; Mildenberger, P

2017-01-01

To develop a platform that uses structured reporting templates according to the IHE Management of Radiology Report Templates (MRRT) profile, and to implement this platform into clinical routine. The reporting platform uses standard web technologies (HTML / JavaScript and PHP / MySQL) only. Several freely available external libraries were used to simplify the programming. The platform runs on a standard web server, connects with the radiology information system (RIS) and PACS, and is easily accessible via a standard web browser. A prototype platform that allows structured reporting to be easily incorporated into the clinical routine was developed and successfully tested. To date, 797 reports were generated using IHE MRRT-compliant templates (many of them downloaded from the RSNA's radreport.org website). Reports are stored in a MySQL database and are easily accessible for further analyses. Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant platform for structured reporting is feasible using only standard web technologies. All source code will be made available upon request under a free license, and the participation of other institutions in further development is welcome. • A platform for structured reporting using IHE MRRT-compliant templates is presented. • Incorporating structured reporting into clinical routine is feasible. • Full source code will be provided upon request under a free license.

Peer-to-Peer Service Sharing Platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Magnus; Hjalmarsson, Anders; Avital, Michel

2013-01-01

The sharing economy has been growing continuously in the last decade thanks to the proliferation of internet-based platforms that allow people to disintermediate the traditional commercial channels and to share excess resources and trade with one another effectively at a reasonably low transaction...... cost. Whereas early peer-to-peer platforms were designed to enable file sharing and goods trading, we recently witness the emergence of a new breed of peer-to-peer platforms that are designed for ordinary service sharing. Ordinary services entail intangible provisions and are defined as an economic...... activity that generates immaterial benefits and does not result in ownership of material goods. Based on a structured analysis of 41 internet-based rideshare platforms, we explore and layout the unique characteristics of peer-to-peer service sharing platforms based on three distinct temporal patterns...

Open science, e-science and the new technologies: Challenges and old problems in qualitative research in the social sciences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ercilia García-Álvarez

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: As well as introducing the articles in the special issue titled "Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences", this article reviews the challenges, problems and main advances made by the qualitative paradigm in the context of the new European science policy based on open science and e-Science and analysis alternative technologies freely available in the 2.0 environment and their application to fieldwork and data analysis. Design/methodology: Theoretical review. Practical implications: The article identifies open access technologies with applications in qualitative research such as applications for smartphones and tablets, web platforms and specific qualitative data analysis software, all developed in both the e-Science context and the 2.0 environment. Social implications: The article discusses the possible role to be played by qualitative research in the open science and e-Science context and considers the impact of this new context on the size and structure of research groups, the development of truly collaborative research, the emergence of new ethical problems and quality assessment in review processes in an open environment. Originality/value: The article describes the characteristics that define the new scientific environment and the challenges posed for qualitative research, reviews the latest open access technologies available to researchers in terms of their main features and proposes specific applications suitable for fieldwork and data analysis.

Use of Force Platforms in Physics and Sport.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Kerry

2001-01-01

The subject of biomechanics is growing as athletes turn to science to improve their performance, and biomechanics interests many students and is a good area in which to investigate forces and Newton's laws. Uses force platforms to quantify such studies. (Author/ASK)

Tethered elevator and platforms as space station facilities: Systems studies and demonstrative experiments

Science.gov (United States)

1986-01-01

Several key concepts of the science and applications tethered platforms were studied. Some conclusions reached are herein listed. Tether elevator and platform could improve the space station scientific and applicative capabilities. The space elevator presents unique characteristics as microgravity facility and as a tethered platform servicing vehicle. Pointing platforms could represent a new kind of observation facility for large class of payloads. The dynamical, control and technological complexity of these concepts advised demonstrative experiments. The on-going tethered satellite system offers the opportunity to perform such experiments. And feasibility studies are in progress.

An Examination of Science Teachers' Knowledge Structures towards Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Bilici, Sedef Canbazoglu

2016-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine science teachers' knowledge structures on technology, who participated in a TPACK-based Professional Development (PD) program. The PD program was executed in the summer of 2015-2016 academic year with 24 science teachers. Data was collected with the Word Association Test (WAT). A holistic case study approach…

Earth-Base: A Free And Open Source, RESTful Earth Sciences Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Kishor, P.; Heim, N. A.; Peters, S. E.; McClennen, M.

2012-12-01

This presentation describes the motivation, concept, and architecture behind Earth-Base, a web-based, RESTful data-management, analysis and visualization platform for earth sciences data. Traditionally web applications have been built directly accessing data from a database using a scripting language. While such applications are great at bring results to a wide audience, they are limited in scope to the imagination and capabilities of the application developer. Earth-Base decouples the data store from the web application by introducing an intermediate "data application" tier. The data application's job is to query the data store using self-documented, RESTful URIs, and send the results back formatted as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). Decoupling the data store from the application allows virtually limitless flexibility in developing applications, both web-based for human consumption or programmatic for machine consumption. It also allows outside developers to use the data in their own applications, potentially creating applications that the original data creator and app developer may not have even thought of. Standardized specifications for URI-based querying and JSON-formatted results make querying and developing applications easy. URI-based querying also allows utilizing distributed datasets easily. Companion mechanisms for querying data snapshots aka time-travel, usage tracking and license management, and verification of semantic equivalence of data are also described. The latter promotes the "What You Expect Is What You Get" (WYEIWYG) principle that can aid in data citation and verification.

Cross-disciplinary Science and the Structure of Scientific Perspectives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alrøe, Hugo Fjelsted; Noe, Egon

2014-01-01

of science, focusing on the synchronic structure of scientific perspectives across disciplines and not on the diachronic, historical structure of shifting perspectives within single disciplines that has been widely discussed since Kuhn and Feyerabend. We show what kinds of cross-disciplinary disagreement...

Aligning USGS senior leadership structure with the USGS science strategy

Science.gov (United States)

,

2010-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is realigning its management and budget structure to further enhance the work of its science programs and their interdisciplinary focus areas related to the USGS Science Strategy as outlined in 'Facing Tomorrow's Challenges-U.S. Geological Survey Science in the Decade 2007-2017' (U.S. Geological Survey, 2007). In 2007, the USGS developed this science strategy outlining major natural-science issues facing the Nation and focusing on areas where natural science can make a substantial contribution to the well being of the Nation and the world. These areas include global climate change, water resources, natural hazards, energy and minerals, ecosystems, and data integration.

Science Academies' Refresher Course on Theoretical Structural ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

A course on Theoretical Structural Geology, Crystallography, Mineralogy, Thermodynamics, Exper- imental Petrology and Theoretical Geophysics will be conducted in the Jallahalli Campus under the aegis of Indian Academy of Sciences during 20th November to 4th December, 2017. University lec- turers, Research ...

Membership to innovation platforms and gender in ownership of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Membership to innovation platforms and gender in ownership of productive assets in the savannas of west Africa. ... African Crop Science Journal ... inception of the project improved with participation in the innovations of the project, in terms of ...

[Platforms are needed for innovative basic research in ophthalmology].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yi-qiang

2012-07-01

Basic research poses the cornerstone of technical innovation in all lines including medical sciences. Currently, there are shortages of professional scientists as well as technical supporting teams and facilities in the field of basic research of ophthalmology and visual science in China. Evaluation system and personnel policies are not supportive for innovative but high-risk-of-failure research projects. Discussion of reasons and possible solutions are given here to address these problems, aiming at promoting buildup of platforms hosting novel and important basic research in eye science in this country.

Nanocrystalline diamond--an excellent platform for life science applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Kloss, Frank R; Najam-Ul-Haq, Muhammed; Rainer, Matthias; Gassner, Robert; Lepperdinger, Günter; Huck, Christian W; Bonn, Günther; Klauser, Frederik; Liu, Xianjie; Memmel, Norbert; Bertel, Erminald; Garrido, Jose A; Steinmüller-Nethl, Doris

2007-12-01

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) has recently been successfully utilized in a variety of life science applications. NCD films are favorable and salubrious substrates for cells during cultivation. Therefore NCD has also been employed in tissue engineering strategies. NCD as reported in this contribution was grown by means of a modified hot-filament chemical vapor deposition technique, which results in less than 3% sp2-hybridization and yields grain sizes of 5-20 nm. After production the NCD surface was rather hydrophobic, however it could be efficiently refined to exhibit more hydrophilic properties. Changing of the surface structure was found to be an efficient means to influence growth and differentiation capacity of a variety of cells. The particular needs for any given cell type has to be proven empirically. Yet flexible features of NCD appear to be superior to plastic surfaces which can be hardly changed in quality. Besides its molecular properties, crystal structural peculiarities of NCD appear to influence cell growth as well. In our attempt to facilitate, highly specialized applications in biomedicine, we recently discovered that growth factors can be tightly bound to NCD by mere physisorption. Hence, combination of surface functionalization together with further options to coat NCD with any kind of three-dimensional structure opens up new avenues for many more applications. In fact, high through-put protein profiling of early disease stages may become possible from serum samples, because proteins bound to NCD can now be efficiently analyzed by MALDI/TOF-MS. Given these results, it is to be presumed that the physical properties and effective electrochemical characteristics of NCD will allow tailoring devices suitable for many more diagnostic as well as therapeutic applications.

Urban search mobile platform modeling in hindered access conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Barankova, I. I.; Mikhailova, U. V.; Kalugina, O. B.; Barankov, V. V.

2018-05-01

The article explores the control system simulation and the design of the experimental model of the rescue robot mobile platform. The functional interface, a structural functional diagram of the mobile platform control unit, and a functional control scheme for the mobile platform of secure robot were modeled. The task of design a mobile platform for urban searching in hindered access conditions is realized through the use of a mechanical basis with a chassis and crawler drive, a warning device, human heat sensors and a microcontroller based on Arduino platforms.

Gold nanoparticles covalently assembled onto vesicle structures as possible biosensing platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Fátima Barroso

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In this contribution a strategy is shown to covalently immobilize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs onto vesicle bilayers with the aim of using this nanomaterial as platform for the future design of immunosensors. A novel methodology for the self-assembly of AuNPs onto large unilamellar vesicle structures is described. The vesicles were formed with 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC and 1-undecanethiol (SH. After, the AuNPs photochemically synthesized in pure glycerol were mixed and anchored onto SH–DOPC vesicles. The data provided by voltammetry, spectrometry and microscopy techniques indicated that the AuNPs were successfully covalently anchored onto the vesicle bilayer and decorated vesicles exhibit a spherical shape with a size of 190 ± 10 nm. The developed procedure is easy, rapid and reproducible to start designing a possible immunosensor by using environmentally friendly procedures.

Science in Emergency Response at CDC: Structure and Functions.

Science.gov (United States)

Iskander, John; Rose, Dale A; Ghiya, Neelam D

2017-09-01

Recent high-profile activations of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Emergency Operations Center (EOC) include responses to the West African Ebola and Zika virus epidemics. Within the EOC, emergency responses are organized according to the Incident Management System, which provides a standardized structure and chain of command, regardless of whether the EOC activation occurs in response to an outbreak, natural disaster, or other type of public health emergency. By embedding key scientific roles, such as the associate director for science, and functions within a Scientific Response Section, the current CDC emergency response structure ensures that both urgent and important science issues receive needed attention. Key functions during emergency responses include internal coordination of scientific work, data management, information dissemination, and scientific publication. We describe a case example involving the ongoing Zika virus response that demonstrates how the scientific response structure can be used to rapidly produce high-quality science needed to answer urgent public health questions and guide policy. Within the context of emergency response, longer-term priorities at CDC include both streamlining administrative requirements and funding mechanisms for scientific research.

The SMART Study, a Mobile Health and Citizen Science Methodological Platform for Active Living Surveillance, Integrated Knowledge Translation, and Policy Interventions: Longitudinal Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Katapally, Tarun Reddy; Bhawra, Jasmin; Leatherdale, Scott T; Ferguson, Leah; Longo, Justin; Rainham, Daniel; Larouche, Richard; Osgood, Nathaniel

2018-03-27

Physical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, costing approximately US $67.5 billion per year to health care systems. To curb the physical inactivity pandemic, it is time to move beyond traditional approaches and engage citizens by repurposing sedentary behavior (SB)-enabling ubiquitous tools (eg, smartphones). The primary objective of the Saskatchewan, let's move and map our activity (SMART) Study was to develop a mobile and citizen science methodological platform for active living surveillance, knowledge translation, and policy interventions. This methodology paper enumerates the SMART Study platform's conceptualization, design, implementation, data collection procedures, analytical strategies, and potential for informing policy interventions. This longitudinal investigation was designed to engage participants (ie, citizen scientists) in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, in four different seasons across 3 years. In spring 2017, pilot data collection was conducted, where 317 adult citizen scientists (≥18 years) were recruited in person and online. Citizen scientists used a custom-built smartphone app, Ethica (Ethica Data Services Inc), for 8 consecutive days to provide a complex series of objective and subjective data. Citizen scientists answered a succession of validated surveys that were assigned different smartphone triggering mechanisms (eg, user-triggered and schedule-triggered). The validated surveys captured physical activity (PA), SB, motivation, perception of outdoor and indoor environment, and eudaimonic well-being. Ecological momentary assessments were employed on each day to capture not only PA but also physical and social contexts along with barriers and facilitators of PA, as relayed by citizen scientists using geo-coded pictures and audio files. To obtain a comprehensive objective picture of participant location, motion, and compliance, 6 types of sensor-based (eg, global positioning system and accelerometer) data

SPEKTROP DPU: optoelectronic platform for fast multispectral imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Graczyk, Rafal; Sitek, Piotr; Stolarski, Marcin

2010-09-01

In recent years it easy to spot and increasing need of high-quality Earth imaging in airborne and space applications. This is due fact that government and local authorities urge for up to date topological data for administrative purposes. On the other hand, interest in environmental sciences, push for ecological approach, efficient agriculture and forests management are also heavily supported by Earth images in various resolutions and spectral ranges. "SPEKTROP DPU: Opto-electronic platform for fast multi-spectral imaging" paper describes architectural datails of data processing unit, part of universal and modular platform that provides high quality imaging functionality in aerospace applications.

Fabrication and Optimization of Bilayered Nanoporous Anodic Alumina Structures as Multi-Point Interferometric Sensing Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahdieh Nemati

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Herein, we present an innovative strategy for optimizing hierarchical structures of nanoporous anodic alumina (NAA to advance their optical sensing performance toward multi-analyte biosensing. This approach is based on the fabrication of multilayered NAA and the formation of differential effective medium of their structure by controlling three fabrication parameters (i.e., anodization steps, anodization time, and pore widening time. The rationale of the proposed concept is that interferometric bilayered NAA (BL-NAA, which features two layers of different pore diameters, can provide distinct reflectometric interference spectroscopy (RIfS signatures for each layer within the NAA structure and can therefore potentially be used for multi-point biosensing. This paper presents the structural fabrication of layered NAA structures, and the optimization and evaluation of their RIfS optical sensing performance through changes in the effective optical thickness (EOT using quercetin as a model molecule. The bilayered or funnel-like NAA structures were designed with the aim of characterizing the sensitivity of both layers of quercetin molecules using RIfS and exploring the potential of these photonic structures, featuring different pore diameters, for simultaneous size-exclusion and multi-analyte optical biosensing. The sensing performance of the prepared NAA platforms was examined by real-time screening of binding reactions between human serum albumin (HSA-modified NAA (i.e., sensing element and quercetin (i.e., analyte. BL-NAAs display a complex optical interference spectrum, which can be resolved by fast Fourier transform (FFT to monitor the EOT changes, where three distinctive peaks were revealed corresponding to the top, bottom, and total layer within the BL-NAA structures. The spectral shifts of these three characteristic peaks were used as sensing signals to monitor the binding events in each NAA pore in real-time upon exposure to different

An Experimental Study of an Offshore Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brincker, Rune; Asmussen, John Christian; Andersen, Palle

of the multi-pile offshore platform is investigated by using a vibration based damage detection scheme. Changes in structural integrity are assumed to be reflected in the modal parameters estimated from only output data using an Auto-Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) model. Before the calibration of the ARMA...... model the quality of the measured data have been investigated. The estimated modal parameters and their corresponding variances are used as input to a probability based damage indicator. This indicator indicates, that since the construction of the platform, minor structural changes have taken place....

The structural bioinformatics library: modeling in biomolecular science and beyond.

Science.gov (United States)

Cazals, Frédéric; Dreyfus, Tom

2017-04-01

Software in structural bioinformatics has mainly been application driven. To favor practitioners seeking off-the-shelf applications, but also developers seeking advanced building blocks to develop novel applications, we undertook the design of the Structural Bioinformatics Library ( SBL , http://sbl.inria.fr ), a generic C ++/python cross-platform software library targeting complex problems in structural bioinformatics. Its tenet is based on a modular design offering a rich and versatile framework allowing the development of novel applications requiring well specified complex operations, without compromising robustness and performances. The SBL involves four software components (1-4 thereafter). For end-users, the SBL provides ready to use, state-of-the-art (1) applications to handle molecular models defined by unions of balls, to deal with molecular flexibility, to model macro-molecular assemblies. These applications can also be combined to tackle integrated analysis problems. For developers, the SBL provides a broad C ++ toolbox with modular design, involving core (2) algorithms , (3) biophysical models and (4) modules , the latter being especially suited to develop novel applications. The SBL comes with a thorough documentation consisting of user and reference manuals, and a bugzilla platform to handle community feedback. The SBL is available from http://sbl.inria.fr. Frederic.Cazals@inria.fr. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Robotic Fish to Aid Animal Behavior Studies and Informal Science Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Phamduy, Paul

The application of robotic fish in the fields of animal behavior and informal science learning are new and relatively untapped. In the context of animal behavior studies, robotic fish offers a consistent and customizable stimulus that could contribute to dissect the determinants of social behavior. In the realm of informal science learning, robotic fish are gaining momentum for the possibility of educating the general public simultaneously on fish physiology and underwater robotics. In this dissertation, the design and development of a number of robotic fish platforms and prototypes and their application in animal behavioral studies and informal science learning settings are presented. Robotic platforms for animal behavioral studies focused on the utilization replica or same scale prototypes. A novel robotic fish platform, featuring a three-dimensional swimming multi-linked robotic fish, was developed with three control modes varying in the level of robot autonomy offered. This platform was deployed at numerous science festivals and science centers, to obtain data on visitor engagement and experience.

E-SCIENCE: AN INTRODUCTION

OpenAIRE

, Sarhan M. Musa

2017-01-01

E-science refers to the type of scientific research that uses large-scale computing infrastructure to process very large amount of data. It is an interdisciplinary branch of science that explores and implements information technology platforms, which include computer networks, computer information technology, telecommunication, and computational methods. This paper provides a brief introduction to e-science.

Bouguer gravity trends and crustal structure of the Palmyride Mountain belt and surrounding northern Arabian platform in Syria

Science.gov (United States)

Best, John A.; Barazangi, Muawia; Al-Saad, Damen; Sawaf, Tarif; Gebran, Ali

1990-12-01

This study examines the crustal structure of the Palmyrides and the northern Arabian platform in Syria by two- and three-dimensional modeling of the Bouguer gravity anomalies. Results of the gravity modeling indicate that (1) western Syria is composed of at least two different crustal blocks, (2) the southern crustal block is penetrated by a series of crustal-scale, high-density intrusive complexes, and (3) short-wavelength gravity anomalies in the southwest part of the mountain belt are clearly related to basement structure. The crustal thickness in Syria, as modeled on the gravity profiles, is approximately 40 ±4 km, which is similar to crustal thicknesses interpreted from refraction data in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The different crustal blocks and large-scale mafic intrusions are best explained, though not uniquely, by Proterozoic convergence and suturing and early Paleozoic rifting, as interpreted in the exposed rocks of the Arabian shield. These two processes, combined with documented Mesozoic rifting and Cenozoic transpression, compose the crustal evolution of the northern Arabian platform beneath Syria.

Bouguer gravity trends and crustal structure of the Palmyride Mountain belt and surrounding northern Arabian platform in Syria

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Best, J.A.; Barazangi, M. (Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (USA)); Al-Saad, D.; Sawaf, T.; Gebran, A. (Syrian Petroleum Company, Damascus (Syria))

1990-12-01

This study examines the crustal structure of the Palmyrides and the northern Arabian platform in Syria by two- and three-dimensional modeling of the Bouguer gravity anomalies. Results of the gravity modeling indicate that (1) western Syria is composed of at least two different crustal blocks, (2) the southern crustal block is penetrated by a series of crustal-scale, high-density intrusive complexes, and (3) short-wavelength gravity anomalies in the southwest part of the mountain belt are clearly related to basement structure. The crustal thickness in Syria, as modeled on the gravity profiles, is approximately 40{plus minus}4 km, which is similar to crustal thicknesses interpreted from refraction data in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The different crustal blocks and large-scale mafic intrusions are best explained, though not uniquely, by Proterozoic convergence and suturing and early Paleozoic rifting, as interpreted in the exposed rocks of the Arabian shield. These two processes, combined with documented Mesozoic rifting and Cenozoic transpression, compose the crustal evolution of the northern Arabian platform beneath Syria.

Materials Data Science: Current Status and Future Outlook

Science.gov (United States)

Kalidindi, Surya R.; De Graef, Marc

2015-07-01

The field of materials science and engineering is on the cusp of a digital data revolution. After reviewing the nature of data science and Big Data, we discuss the features of materials data that distinguish them from data in other fields. We introduce the concept of process-structure-property (PSP) linkages and illustrate how the determination of PSPs is one of the main objectives of materials data science. Then we review a selection of materials databases, as well as important aspects of materials data management, such as storage hardware, archiving strategies, and data access strategies. We introduce the emerging field of materials data analytics, which focuses on data-driven approaches to extract and curate materials knowledge from available data sets. The critical need for materials e-collaboration platforms is highlighted, and we conclude the article with a number of suggestions regarding the near-term future of the materials data science field.

The NUCLEONICA Nuclear Science Portal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magill, Joseph; Dreher, Raymond

2009-01-01

NUCLEONICA (www.nucleonica.net) is a new nuclear science web portal which provides a customisable, integrated environment and collaboration platform using the latest internet 'Web 2.0' technology. NUCLEONICA is aimed at professionals, academics and students working in nuclear power, health physics and radiation protection, nuclear and radio-chemistry, and astrophysics. A unique feature of the portal is the wide range of user friendly web-based nuclear science applications. The portal is also ideal for education and training purposes and as a knowledge management platform to preserve nuclear knowledge built up over many decades.

RMS: a platform for managing cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional research project collaboration.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Jake; Apperson-Hansen, Carolyn; Pelfrey, Clara M; Zhang, Guo-Qiang

2014-11-30

Cross-institutional cross-disciplinary collaboration has become a trend as researchers move toward building more productive and innovative teams for scientific research. Research collaboration is significantly changing the organizational structure and strategies used in the clinical and translational science domain. However, due to the obstacles of diverse administrative structures, differences in area of expertise, and communication barriers, establishing and managing a cross-institutional research project is still a challenging task. We address these challenges by creating an integrated informatics platform to reduce the barriers to biomedical research collaboration. The Request Management System (RMS) is an informatics infrastructure designed to transform a patchwork of expertise and resources into an integrated support network. The RMS facilitates investigators' initiation of new collaborative projects and supports the management of the collaboration process. In RMS, experts and their knowledge areas are categorized and managed structurally to provide consistent service. A role-based collaborative workflow is tightly integrated with domain experts and services to streamline and monitor the life-cycle of a research project. The RMS has so far tracked over 1,500 investigators with over 4,800 tasks. The research network based on the data collected in RMS illustrated that the investigators' collaborative projects increased close to 3 times from 2009 to 2012. Our experience with RMS indicates that the platform reduces barriers for cross-institutional collaboration of biomedical research projects. Building a new generation of infrastructure to enhance cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration has become an important yet challenging task. In this paper, we share the experience of developing and utilizing a collaborative project management system. The results of this study demonstrate that a web-based integrated informatics platform can facilitate and

Instructional Support and Implementation Structure during Elementary Teachers' Science Education Simulation Use

Science.gov (United States)

Gonczi, Amanda L.; Chiu, Jennifer L.; Maeng, Jennifer L.; Bell, Randy L.

2016-01-01

This investigation sought to identify patterns in elementary science teachers' computer simulation use, particularly implementation structures and instructional supports commonly employed by teachers. Data included video-recorded science lessons of 96 elementary teachers who used computer simulations in one or more science lessons. Results…

Research on market power and market structure: A direct measure of market power of internet platform enterprises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baowen Sun

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose – This paper aims to clear whether the monopoly structure of the internet industry has produced market power and discussed the welfare change of the internet industry monopoly. Design/methodology/approach – By using new empirical industrial organization methods and taking the e-commerce market as an example, the authors measured market power and economies of scale of the internet platform companies. Findings – Internet platform enterprises have formed scale economy, but it has not had market power, and the industry still maintains high levels of competition; also, the emergence of large enterprises may increase the welfare of consumers. Originality/value – The conclusion of this paper clarified actual competition status of internet industry and provided a new foothold for regulation and ideas for the traditional industry to crack the Marshall Conflict.

An Open Data Platform For Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Boulton, G. S.; Hodson, S.

2016-12-01

The International Council for Science's Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) is collaborating with the South African Department of Science and Technology and other African regional players to create an African Open Data Platform, to be launched in December 2016. Its purpose is to coordinate and support moves in Africa to develop national science systems capacities (political, institutional, individual) that will enable them to exploit the opportunities of the digital revolution for scientific discovery, in reducing costs and increasing efficiency in business and public administration, and in new and powerful ways of addressing issues such as agricultural productivity, disease tracking and control, the production of bio-fuels, and in addressing many global problems where global solutions will only be achieved if there is global participation. Success in avoiding yet another "knowledge divide" between rich and poor depends fundamentally on the extent to which national systems of scientific priority setting, funding and institutional research management respond in a concerted way to the challenge. Although many countries are now addressing these opportunities, it is essential that developing and least developed countries, which have much to gain from the data revolution but which typically have poorly resourced national research systems, do not fail to respond to this imperative, which is also vital for the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Platform will be a basis for political commitment and innovative policy developmen, including shared investment in infrastructure. It will harvest and circulate good ideas, spread and support good practice and develop the capacities of individuals and institutions. It will promote key applications of relevance to African economies and societies, but also act as a conduit for links with international open data programmes and standards that will be vital if it is to flourish.

Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant open-source web-based reporting platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pinto dos Santos, Daniel; Klos, G.; Kloeckner, R.; Oberle, R.; Dueber, C.; Mildenberger, P. [University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Mainz (Germany)

2017-01-15

To develop a platform that uses structured reporting templates according to the IHE Management of Radiology Report Templates (MRRT) profile, and to implement this platform into clinical routine. The reporting platform uses standard web technologies (HTML / JavaScript and PHP / MySQL) only. Several freely available external libraries were used to simplify the programming. The platform runs on a standard web server, connects with the radiology information system (RIS) and PACS, and is easily accessible via a standard web browser. A prototype platform that allows structured reporting to be easily incorporated into the clinical routine was developed and successfully tested. To date, 797 reports were generated using IHE MRRT-compliant templates (many of them downloaded from the RSNA's radreport.org website). Reports are stored in a MySQL database and are easily accessible for further analyses. Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant platform for structured reporting is feasible using only standard web technologies. All source code will be made available upon request under a free license, and the participation of other institutions in further development is welcome. (orig.)

Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant open-source web-based reporting platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinto dos Santos, Daniel; Klos, G.; Kloeckner, R.; Oberle, R.; Dueber, C.; Mildenberger, P.

2017-01-01

To develop a platform that uses structured reporting templates according to the IHE Management of Radiology Report Templates (MRRT) profile, and to implement this platform into clinical routine. The reporting platform uses standard web technologies (HTML / JavaScript and PHP / MySQL) only. Several freely available external libraries were used to simplify the programming. The platform runs on a standard web server, connects with the radiology information system (RIS) and PACS, and is easily accessible via a standard web browser. A prototype platform that allows structured reporting to be easily incorporated into the clinical routine was developed and successfully tested. To date, 797 reports were generated using IHE MRRT-compliant templates (many of them downloaded from the RSNA's radreport.org website). Reports are stored in a MySQL database and are easily accessible for further analyses. Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant platform for structured reporting is feasible using only standard web technologies. All source code will be made available upon request under a free license, and the participation of other institutions in further development is welcome. (orig.)

Structure of Black Male Students Academic Achievement in Science

Science.gov (United States)

Rascoe, Barbara

Educational policies and practices have been largely unsuccessful in closing the achievement gap between Black and White students "Schwartz, 2001". This achievement gap is especially problematic for Black students in science "Maton, Hrabrowski, - Schmitt, 2000. Given the fact that the Black-White achievement gap is still an enigma, the purpose of this article is to address the Black female-Black male academic achievement gap in science majors. Addressing barriers that Black male students may experience as college science and engineering majors, this article presents marketing strategies relative to politics, emotional intelligence, and issues with respect to how science teaching, and Black male students' responses to it, are different. Many Black male students may need to experience a paradigm shift, which structures and enhances their science achievement. Paradigm shifts are necessary because exceptional academic ability and motivation are not enough to get Black males from their first year in a science, technology, education, and mathematics "STEM" major to a bachelor's degree in science and engineering. The conclusions focus on the balance of truth-slippery slopes concerning the confluence of science teachers' further ado and Black male students' theories, methods, and values that position their academic achievement in science and engineering majors.

Fresh water generators onboard a floating platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tewari, P.K.; Verma, R.K.; Misra, B.M.; Sadhulkan, H.K.

1997-01-01

A dependable supply of fresh water is essential for any ocean going vessel. The operating and maintenance personnel on offshore platforms and marine structures also require a constant and regular supply of fresh water to meet their essential daily needs. A seawater thermal desalination unit onboard delivers good quality fresh water from seawater. The desalination units developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) suitable for ocean going vessels and offshore platforms have been discussed. Design considerations of such units with reference to floating platforms and corrosive environments have been presented. The feasibility of coupling a low temperature vacuum evaporation (LTVE) desalination plant suitable for an onboard floating platform to a PHWR nuclear power plant has also been discussed. (author). 1 ref., 3 figs, 2 tabs

Cloud Based Earth Observation Data Exploitation Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Romeo, A.; Pinto, S.; Loekken, S.; Marin, A.

2017-12-01

In the last few years data produced daily by several private and public Earth Observation (EO) satellites reached the order of tens of Terabytes, representing for scientists and commercial application developers both a big opportunity for their exploitation and a challenge for their management. New IT technologies, such as Big Data and cloud computing, enable the creation of web-accessible data exploitation platforms, which offer to scientists and application developers the means to access and use EO data in a quick and cost effective way. RHEA Group is particularly active in this sector, supporting the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Exploitation Platforms (EP) initiative, developing technology to build multi cloud platforms for the processing and analysis of Earth Observation data, and collaborating with larger European initiatives such as the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). An EP is a virtual workspace, providing a user community with access to (i) large volume of data, (ii) algorithm development and integration environment, (iii) processing software and services (e.g. toolboxes, visualization routines), (iv) computing resources, (v) collaboration tools (e.g. forums, wiki, etc.). When an EP is dedicated to a specific Theme, it becomes a Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP). Currently, ESA has seven TEPs in a pre-operational phase dedicated to geo-hazards monitoring and prevention, costal zones, forestry areas, hydrology, polar regions, urban areas and food security. On the technology development side, solutions like the multi cloud EO data processing platform provides the technology to integrate ICT resources and EO data from different vendors in a single platform. In particular it offers (i) Multi-cloud data discovery, (ii) Multi-cloud data management and access and (iii) Multi-cloud application deployment. This platform has been demonstrated with the EGI Federated Cloud, Innovation Platform Testbed Poland

Computing Platforms for Big Biological Data Analytics: Perspectives and Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Zekun; Lan, Haidong; Tan, Guangming; Lu, Mian; Vasilakos, Athanasios V; Liu, Weiguo

2017-01-01

The last decade has witnessed an explosion in the amount of available biological sequence data, due to the rapid progress of high-throughput sequencing projects. However, the biological data amount is becoming so great that traditional data analysis platforms and methods can no longer meet the need to rapidly perform data analysis tasks in life sciences. As a result, both biologists and computer scientists are facing the challenge of gaining a profound insight into the deepest biological functions from big biological data. This in turn requires massive computational resources. Therefore, high performance computing (HPC) platforms are highly needed as well as efficient and scalable algorithms that can take advantage of these platforms. In this paper, we survey the state-of-the-art HPC platforms for big biological data analytics. We first list the characteristics of big biological data and popular computing platforms. Then we provide a taxonomy of different biological data analysis applications and a survey of the way they have been mapped onto various computing platforms. After that, we present a case study to compare the efficiency of different computing platforms for handling the classical biological sequence alignment problem. At last we discuss the open issues in big biological data analytics.

Cross-platform digital assessment forms for evaluating surgical skills

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Arild Wuyts Andersen

2015-04-01

Full Text Available A variety of structured assessment tools for use in surgical training have been reported, but extant assessment tools often employ paper-based rating forms. Digital assessment forms for evaluating surgical skills could potentially offer advantages over paper-based forms, especially in complex assessment situations. In this paper, we report on the development of cross-platform digital assessment forms for use with multiple raters in order to facilitate the automatic processing of surgical skills assessments that include structured ratings. The FileMaker 13 platform was used to create a database containing the digital assessment forms, because this software has cross-platform functionality on both desktop computers and handheld devices. The database is hosted online, and the rating forms can therefore also be accessed through most modern web browsers. Cross-platform digital assessment forms were developed for the rating of surgical skills. The database platform used in this study was reasonably priced, intuitive for the user, and flexible. The forms have been provided online as free downloads that may serve as the basis for further development or as inspiration for future efforts. In conclusion, digital assessment forms can be used for the structured rating of surgical skills and have the potential to be especially useful in complex assessment situations with multiple raters, repeated assessments in various times and locations, and situations requiring substantial subsequent data processing or complex score calculations.

Understanding structural conservation through materials science:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fuster-López, Laura; Krarup Andersen, Cecil

2014-01-01

with tools to avoid future problems, it should be present in all conservation-restoration training programs to help promote students’ understanding of the degradation mechanisms in cultural materials (and their correlation with chemical and biological degradation) as well as the implications behind......Mechanical properties and the structure of materials are key elements in understanding how structural interventions in conservation treatments affect cultural heritage objects. In this context, engineering mechanics can help determine the strength and stability found in art objects as it can...... provide both explanation and prediction of failure in materials. It has therefore shown to be an effective method for developing useful solutions to conservation problems. Since materials science and mechanics can help conservators predict the long term consequences of their treatments and provide them...

Design Document for Control Dewar and Vacuum Pump Platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rucinksi, R.

1997-01-01

This engineering note documents the design of the control dewar and vacuum pump platform that is to be installed on the D-Zero detector. It's purpose is twofold. Firstly it is a summary and repository of the final design calculations of the structure. Secondly, it documents that design follows the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) manual and applicable OSHA requirements with respect to walking working surfaces. The information contained in the main body of this note is supported by raw calculations included as the appendix. The platform is a truss type frame strucrure constructed primarily of rectangular steel tubing. The upper platform is for support of the control dewar (cryogenic/electrical interface for the solenoid), visible light photon counter (VLPC) cryogenic bayonet can, and infrequently, personnel during the connection and disconnection of the detector to building services. Figure 1 shows a layout of the structure as mounted on the detector and with the installed equipment. The connection of the platform to the detector is not conventional. Two main booms cantilever the structure to a location outside of the detector. The mounting location and support booms allow for the uninhibited motion of the detector components.

Life Science Research in Outer Space: New Platform Technologies for Low-Cost, Autonomous Small Satellite Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Ricco, Antonio J.; Parra, Macarena P.; Niesel, David; McGinnis, Michael; Ehrenfreund, Pascale; Nicholson, Wayne; Mancinelli, Rocco; Piccini, Matthew E.; Beasley, Christopher C.; Timucin, Linda R.;

A novel platform designed by Au core/inorganic shell structure conjugated onto MTX/LDH for chemo-photothermal therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, De-Ying; Wang, Wei-Yuan; Li, Shu-Ping; Li, Xiao-Dong; Sha, Zhao-Lin

2016-05-30

A novel platform making up of methotrexate intercalated layered double hydroxide (MTX/LDH) hybrid doped with gold nanoparticles (NPs) may have great potential both in chemo-photothermal therapy and the simultaneous drug delivery. In this paper, a promising platform of Au@PDDA-MTX/LDH was developed for anti-tumor drug delivery and synergistic therapy. Firstly, Au NPs were coated using Layer-by-Layer (LbL) technology by alternate deposition of poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) and MTX molecules, and then the resulting core-shell structures (named as Au@PDDA-MTX) were directly conjugated onto the surface of MTX/LDH hybrid by electrostatic attraction to afford Au@PDDA-MTX/LDH NPs. Here MTX was used as both the agent for surface modification and the anti-tumor drug for chemotherapy. The platform of Au@PDDA-MTX/LDH NPs not only had a high drug-loading capacity, but also showed excellent colloidal stability and interesting pH-responsive release profile. In vitro drug release studies demonstrated that MTX released from Au@PDDA-MTX/LDH was relatively slow under normal physiological pH, but it was enhanced significantly at a weak acidic pH value. Furthermore, the combined treatment of cancer cells by using Au@PDDA-MTX/LDH for synergistic hyperthermia ablation and chemotherapy was demonstrated to exhibit higher therapeutic efficacy than either single treatment alone, underscoring the great potential of the platform for cancer therapy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Footprints of Fascination: Digital Traces of Public Engagement with Particle Physics on CERN's Social Media Platforms

CERN Document Server

Kahle, Kate; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

2016-01-01

Although the scientific community increasingly recognizes that its communication with the public may shape civic engagement with science, few studies have characterized how this communication occurs online. Social media plays a growing role in this engagement, yet it is not known if or how different platforms support different types of engagement. This study sets out to explore how users engage with science communication items on different platforms of social media, and what are the characteristics of the items that tend to attract large numbers of user interactions. Here, user interactions with almost identical items on five of CERN's social media platforms were quantitatively compared over an eight-week period, including likes, comments, shares, click-throughs, and time spent on CERN's site. The most popular items were qualitatively analyzed for content features. Findings indicate that as audience size of a social media platform grows, the total rate of engagement with content tends to grow as well. However...

Agency Amidst Formidable Structures: How Girls Perform Gender in Science Class

Science.gov (United States)

Carlone, Heidi B.; Johnson, Angela; Scott, Catherine M.

2015-01-01

Larger social structures such as race, class, gender, and sexuality and classroom structures like narrowly defined participation practices constrain individuals' agency to engage in untroubled and sustained science identity work. This article explores the central dilemma of attending to structure and agency in settings where inequities are…

A comparative study on communication structures of Chinese journals in the social sciences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhou, P.; Su, X.; Leydesdorff, L.

2010-01-01

We argue that the communication structures in the Chinese social sciences have not yet been sufficiently reformed. Citation patterns among Chinese domestic journals in three subject areas—political science and Marxism, library and information science, and economics—are compared with their

HashDist: Reproducible, Relocatable, Customizable, Cross-Platform Software Stacks for Open Hydrological Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmadia, A. J.; Kees, C. E.

2014-12-01

Developing scientific software is a continuous balance between not reinventing the wheel and getting fragile codes to interoperate with one another. Binary software distributions such as Anaconda provide a robust starting point for many scientific software packages, but this solution alone is insufficient for many scientific software developers. HashDist provides a critical component of the development workflow, enabling highly customizable, source-driven, and reproducible builds for scientific software stacks, available from both the IPython Notebook and the command line. To address these issues, the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center has funded the development of HashDist in collaboration with Simula Research Laboratories and the University of Texas at Austin. HashDist is motivated by a functional approach to package build management, and features intelligent caching of sources and builds, parametrized build specifications, and the ability to interoperate with system compilers and packages. HashDist enables the easy specification of "software stacks", which allow both the novice user to install a default environment and the advanced user to configure every aspect of their build in a modular fashion. As an advanced feature, HashDist builds can be made relocatable, allowing the easy redistribution of binaries on all three major operating systems as well as cloud, and supercomputing platforms. As a final benefit, all HashDist builds are reproducible, with a build hash specifying exactly how each component of the software stack was installed. This talk discusses the role of HashDist in the hydrological sciences, including its use by the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in the development and deployment of the Proteus Toolkit as well as the Rapid Operational Access and Maneuver Support project. We demonstrate HashDist in action, and show how it can effectively support development, deployment, teaching, and

Zooniverse - A Platform for Data-Driven Citizen Science

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, A.; Lintott, C.; Bamford, S.; Fortson, L.

2011-12-01

In July 2007 a team of astrophysicists created a web-based astronomy project called Galaxy Zoo in which members of the public were asked to classify galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by their shape. Over the following year a community of more than 150,000 people classified each of the 1 million galaxies more than 50 times each. Four years later this community of 'citizen scientists' is more than 450,000 strong and is contributing their time and efforts to more than 10 Zooniverse projects each with its own science team and research case. With projects ranging from transcribing ancient greek texts (ancientlives.org) to lunar science (moonzoo.org) the challenges to the Zooniverse community have gone well beyond the relatively simple original Galaxy Zoo interface. Delivering a range of citizen science projects to a large web-based audience presents challenges on a number of fronts including interface design, data architecture/modelling and reduction techniques, web-infrastructure and software design. In this paper we will describe how the Zooniverse team (a collaboration of scientists, software developers and educators ) have developed tools and techniques to solve some of these issues.

Materials science in microelectronics I the relationships between thin film processing and structure

CERN Document Server

Machlin, Eugene

2005-01-01

Thin films play a key role in the material science of microelectronics, and the subject matter of thin-films divides naturally into two headings: processing / structure relationship, and structure / properties relationship.The first volume of Materials Science in Microelectronics focuses on the first relationship - that between processing and the structure of the thin-film. The state of the thin film's surface during the period that one monolayer exists - before being buried in the next layer - determines the ultimate structure of the thin film, and thus its properties. This

A Versatile Microarray Platform for Capturing Rare Cells

Science.gov (United States)

Brinkmann, Falko; Hirtz, Michael; Haller, Anna; Gorges, Tobias M.; Vellekoop, Michael J.; Riethdorf, Sabine; Müller, Volkmar; Pantel, Klaus; Fuchs, Harald

2015-10-01

Analyses of rare events occurring at extremely low frequencies in body fluids are still challenging. We established a versatile microarray-based platform able to capture single target cells from large background populations. As use case we chose the challenging application of detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) - about one cell in a billion normal blood cells. After incubation with an antibody cocktail, targeted cells are extracted on a microarray in a microfluidic chip. The accessibility of our platform allows for subsequent recovery of targets for further analysis. The microarray facilitates exclusion of false positive capture events by co-localization allowing for detection without fluorescent labelling. Analyzing blood samples from cancer patients with our platform reached and partly outreached gold standard performance, demonstrating feasibility for clinical application. Clinical researchers free choice of antibody cocktail without need for altered chip manufacturing or incubation protocol, allows virtual arbitrary targeting of capture species and therefore wide spread applications in biomedical sciences.

The SMART Study, a Mobile Health and Citizen Science Methodological Platform for Active Living Surveillance, Integrated Knowledge Translation, and Policy Interventions: Longitudinal Study

Science.gov (United States)

Bhawra, Jasmin; Leatherdale, Scott T; Ferguson, Leah; Longo, Justin; Rainham, Daniel; Larouche, Richard; Osgood, Nathaniel

2018-01-01

Background Physical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, costing approximately US $67.5 billion per year to health care systems. To curb the physical inactivity pandemic, it is time to move beyond traditional approaches and engage citizens by repurposing sedentary behavior (SB)–enabling ubiquitous tools (eg, smartphones). Objective The primary objective of the Saskatchewan, let’s move and map our activity (SMART) Study was to develop a mobile and citizen science methodological platform for active living surveillance, knowledge translation, and policy interventions. This methodology paper enumerates the SMART Study platform’s conceptualization, design, implementation, data collection procedures, analytical strategies, and potential for informing policy interventions. Methods This longitudinal investigation was designed to engage participants (ie, citizen scientists) in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, in four different seasons across 3 years. In spring 2017, pilot data collection was conducted, where 317 adult citizen scientists (≥18 years) were recruited in person and online. Citizen scientists used a custom-built smartphone app, Ethica (Ethica Data Services Inc), for 8 consecutive days to provide a complex series of objective and subjective data. Citizen scientists answered a succession of validated surveys that were assigned different smartphone triggering mechanisms (eg, user-triggered and schedule-triggered). The validated surveys captured physical activity (PA), SB, motivation, perception of outdoor and indoor environment, and eudaimonic well-being. Ecological momentary assessments were employed on each day to capture not only PA but also physical and social contexts along with barriers and facilitators of PA, as relayed by citizen scientists using geo-coded pictures and audio files. To obtain a comprehensive objective picture of participant location, motion, and compliance, 6 types of sensor-based (eg, global

Brief: Refloating Maureen platform for reuse in waters away from the North Sea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tilling, G.M.

1996-01-01

The Maureen platform in the U.K. sector of the North Sea is refloatable by virtue of being a steel, gravity-base structure with large oil storage tanks as legs. The fields producing into the Maureen platform will soon be depleted, and plans are to decommission the platform from its present location. The attractive disposal options all involve refloating the platform as a first step. Of these, reuse of the facility is potentially the most attractive. Once afloat, the platform becomes a towable 110,000-tonne vessel available for use in areas of the world away from the North Sea, with location determined by environmental conditions and water depth. The bulk of the weight (92,000 tonnes) is in the jacket structure; topsides weight is 18,000 tonnes. Subject to detailed tow-route and naval-stability calculations, moving the structure long distances appears to be feasible. This paper discusses the refloating and marine stability of the Maureen oil platform as a vessel under tow. Development and maintenance aspects are presented

Identifying Information Behavior in Information Search and Retrieval through Learning Activities Using an E-learning Platform Case: Interamerican School of Library and Information Science at the University of Antioquia (Medellin-Colombia)

Science.gov (United States)

Tirado, Alejandro Uribe; Munoz, Wilson Castano

2011-01-01

This text presents the future of librarian education as exemplified by the Interamerican School of Library and Information Science at the University of Antioquia (Medellin-Colombia), using an online learning platform-LMS (Moodle) and through different personalized and collaborative learning activities and tools that help students identify their…

Study on concept of web-based reactor piping design data platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Yu; Zhou Yu; Dong Jianling; Meng Yang

2005-01-01

For solving the piping design problems such as design data deficiency, designer communication inconvenience and design project inconsistence, Reactor Piping Design Database Platform, which is the main part of the Integrated Nuclear Project Research Platform, is proposed by analyzing the nuclear piping designs in detail. The functions and system structures of the platform are described in the paper for the sake of the realization of the Reactor Piping Design Database Platform. The platform is constituted by web-based management interface, AutoPlant selected as CAD software, and relation database management system (DBMS). (authors)

SeqHound: biological sequence and structure database as a platform for bioinformatics research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dumontier Michel

2002-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background SeqHound has been developed as an integrated biological sequence, taxonomy, annotation and 3-D structure database system. It provides a high-performance server platform for bioinformatics research in a locally-hosted environment. Results SeqHound is based on the National Center for Biotechnology Information data model and programming tools. It offers daily updated contents of all Entrez sequence databases in addition to 3-D structural data and information about sequence redundancies, sequence neighbours, taxonomy, complete genomes, functional annotation including Gene Ontology terms and literature links to PubMed. SeqHound is accessible via a web server through a Perl, C or C++ remote API or an optimized local API. It provides functionality necessary to retrieve specialized subsets of sequences, structures and structural domains. Sequences may be retrieved in FASTA, GenBank, ASN.1 and XML formats. Structures are available in ASN.1, XML and PDB formats. Emphasis has been placed on complete genomes, taxonomy, domain and functional annotation as well as 3-D structural functionality in the API, while fielded text indexing functionality remains under development. SeqHound also offers a streamlined WWW interface for simple web-user queries. Conclusions The system has proven useful in several published bioinformatics projects such as the BIND database and offers a cost-effective infrastructure for research. SeqHound will continue to develop and be provided as a service of the Blueprint Initiative at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. The source code and examples are available under the terms of the GNU public license at the Sourceforge site http://sourceforge.net/projects/slritools/ in the SLRI Toolkit.

Instructional support and implementation structure during elementary teachers' science education simulation use

Science.gov (United States)

Gonczi, Amanda L.; Chiu, Jennifer L.; Maeng, Jennifer L.; Bell, Randy L.

2016-07-01

This investigation sought to identify patterns in elementary science teachers' computer simulation use, particularly implementation structures and instructional supports commonly employed by teachers. Data included video-recorded science lessons of 96 elementary teachers who used computer simulations in one or more science lessons. Results indicated teachers used a one-to-one student-to-computer ratio most often either during class-wide individual computer use or during a rotating station structure. Worksheets, general support, and peer collaboration were the most common forms of instructional support. The least common instructional support forms included lesson pacing, initial play, and a closure discussion. Students' simulation use was supported in the fewest ways during a rotating station structure. Results suggest that simulation professional development with elementary teachers needs to explicitly focus on implementation structures and instructional support to enhance participants' pedagogical knowledge and improve instructional simulation use. In addition, research is needed to provide theoretical explanations for the observed patterns that should subsequently be addressed in supporting teachers' instructional simulation use during professional development or in teacher preparation programs.

Third Workshop on Teaching Computational Science (WTCS 2009)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tirado-Ramos, A.; Shiflet, A.

2009-01-01

The Third Workshop on Teaching Computational Science, within the International Conference on Computational Science, provides a platform for discussing innovations in teaching computational sciences at all levels and contexts of higher education. This editorial provides an introduction to the work

Second Workshop on Teaching Computational Science WTCS 2008

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tirado-Ramos, A.

2008-01-01

The Second Workshop on Teaching Computational Science, within the International Conference on Computational Science, provides a platform for discussing innovations in teaching computational sciences at all levels and contexts of higher education. This editorial provides an introduction to the work

Recent Progress in Optical Biosensors Based on Smartphone Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Geng, Zhaoxin; Zhang, Xiong; Fan, Zhiyuan; Lv, Xiaoqing; Su, Yue; Chen, Hongda

2017-01-01

With a rapid improvement of smartphone hardware and software, especially complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) cameras, many optical biosensors based on smartphone platforms have been presented, which have pushed the development of the point-of-care testing (POCT). Imaging-based and spectrometry-based detection techniques have been widely explored via different approaches. Combined with the smartphone, imaging-based and spectrometry-based methods are currently used to investigate a wide range of molecular properties in chemical and biological science for biosensing and diagnostics. Imaging techniques based on smartphone-based microscopes are utilized to capture microscale analysts, while spectrometry-based techniques are used to probe reactions or changes of molecules. Here, we critically review the most recent progress in imaging-based and spectrometry-based smartphone-integrated platforms that have been developed for chemical experiments and biological diagnosis. We focus on the analytical performance and the complexity for implementation of the platforms. PMID:29068375

Recent Progress in Optical Biosensors Based on Smartphone Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Geng, Zhaoxin; Zhang, Xiong; Fan, Zhiyuan; Lv, Xiaoqing; Su, Yue; Chen, Hongda

2017-10-25

With a rapid improvement of smartphone hardware and software, especially complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) cameras, many optical biosensors based on smartphone platforms have been presented, which have pushed the development of the point-of-care testing (POCT). Imaging-based and spectrometry-based detection techniques have been widely explored via different approaches. Combined with the smartphone, imaging-based and spectrometry-based methods are currently used to investigate a wide range of molecular properties in chemical and biological science for biosensing and diagnostics. Imaging techniques based on smartphone-based microscopes are utilized to capture microscale analysts, while spectrometry-based techniques are used to probe reactions or changes of molecules. Here, we critically review the most recent progress in imaging-based and spectrometry-based smartphone-integrated platforms that have been developed for chemical experiments and biological diagnosis. We focus on the analytical performance and the complexity for implementation of the platforms.

A Digital Knowledge Preservation Platform for Environmental Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Aguilar Gómez, Fernando; de Lucas, Jesús Marco; Pertinez, Esther; Palacio, Aida; Perez, David

2017-04-01

The Digital Knowledge Preservation Platform is the evolution of a pilot project for Open Data supporting the full research data life cycle. It is currently being evolved at IFCA (Instituto de Física de Cantabria) as a combination of different open tools that have been extended: DMPTool (https://dmptool.org/) with pilot semantics features (RDF export, parameters definition), INVENIO (http://invenio-software.org/ ) customized version to integrate the entire research data life cycle and Jupyter (http://jupyter.org/) as processing tool and reproducibility environment. This complete platform aims to provide an integrated environment for research data management following the FAIR+R principles: -Findable: The Web portal based on Invenio provides a search engine and all elements including metadata to make them easily findable. -Accessible: Both data and software are available online with internal PIDs and DOIs (provided by Datacite). -Interoperable: Datasets can be combined to perform new analysis. The OAI-PMH standard is also integrated. -Re-usable: different licenses types and embargo periods can be defined. -+Reproducible: directly integrated with cloud computing resources. The deployment of the entire system over a Cloud framework helps to build a dynamic and scalable solution, not only for managing open datasets but also as a useful tool for the final user, who is able to directly process and analyse the open data. In parallel, the direct use of semantics and metadata is being explored and integrated in the framework. Ontologies, being a knowledge representation, can contribute to define the elements and relationships of the research data life cycle, including DMP, datasets, software, etc. The first advantage of developing an ontology of a knowledge domain is that they provide a common vocabulary hierarchy (i.e. a conceptual schema) that can be used and standardized by all the agents interested in the domain (either humans or machines). This way of using ontologies

Payment Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjelholt, Morten; Damsgaard, Jan

2012-01-01

thoroughly and substitute current payment standards in the decades to come. This paper portrays how digital payment platforms evolve in socio-technical niches and how various technological platforms aim for institutional attention in their attempt to challenge earlier platforms and standards. The paper...... applies a co-evolutionary multilevel perspective to model the interplay and processes between technology and society wherein digital payment platforms potentially will substitute other payment platforms just like the credit card negated the check. On this basis this paper formulate a multilevel conceptual...

OTEC platform configuration and integration. Appendixes to Volume II. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Price, David

1978-07-07

Detailed information and conceptual design drawings for the SPAR and SPHERE platforms for an OTEC commercial plant are presented. A work breakdown structure and a detailed estimate of the SPAR platform weight are included. (WHK)

Suborbital Platforms as a Tool for a Symbiotic Relationship Between Scientists, Engineers, and Students

Science.gov (United States)

Chamberlin, Phillip C.

2011-01-01

Sounding rockets started in-situ space experimentation over 60 years ago with scientific experiments replacing warheads on captured V- 2 German rockets. Prior to this, and still today, suborbital platforms such as airplanes and high-altitude balloons have provided advantageous remote sensing observations advancing many areas of Earth and Space science. There is still a place for first-rate science in both stand-alone missions as well as providing complimentary measurements to the larger orbital missions. Along with the aforementioned science, the cost effectiveness and development times provided by sub-orbital platforms allows for perfect hands-on and first rate educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. This talk will give examples and discuss the mutually beneficial opportunities that scientists and students obtain in development of suborbital missions. Also discussed will be how the next generation of space vehicles should help eliminate the number one obstacle to these programs - launch opportunities.

Structuring nature´s and science´s complexity

OpenAIRE

Leiber, Theodor

2007-01-01

Structuring nature´s and science´s complexity : system laws and explanations. - In: Dynamisches Denken und Handeln : Philosophie und Wissenschaft in einer komplexen Welt ; Festschrift für Klaus Mainzer zum 60. Geburtstag / Theodor Leiber (Hg.). - Stuttgart : Hirzel, 2007. - S. 193-212

University technology platform of anticipatory learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leonid Davidovich Gitelman

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The innovative development sets large-scale and challenging tasks, which need to be addressed in the lack-of-knowledge conditions and require the coordination and integration of numerous expert structures, which are scattered around the world and have different status and competencies. One of the mechanisms of integrating the partners’ intellectual and financial resources is provided by the technology platforms. The article discusses the nature and functions of technology platforms and analyzes the experience of their application in different countries with a special emphasis on universities. The article gives an overview of the various interpretations of technology platform concepts. It also describes the development and implementation of the technological platform at the Ural Federal University (research and education centre ‘ENGEC’, which was targeted at organizing anticipatory learning in the sphere of energy engineering and high-tech industries; its mechanism and role in improving different university activities and processes are shown. This platform is based on the original methodology ‘Integrated System of Consulting, Training, and Transformation’ (ISCT, which includes authentic methods and technologies, which are used in the educational process. A significant advantage of this methodology is that it can be applied in university education as well as in corporate training integrated with innovative activities.

Journal of Earth System Science | Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Climbing ripple structure and associated storm-lamination from a Proterozoic carbonate platform succession: Their environmental and petrogenetic significance · Asru K Chaudhuri · More Details Abstract Fulltext PDF. The Mesoproterozoic Pandikunta Limestone, a shallow water carbonate platform succession in the ...

Soccer science and the Bayes community: exploring the cognitive implications of modern scientific communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Shrager, Jeff; Billman, Dorrit; Convertino, Gregorio; Massar, J P; Pirolli, Peter

2010-01-01

Science is a form of distributed analysis involving both individual work that produces new knowledge and collaborative work to exchange information with the larger community. There are many particular ways in which individual and community can interact in science, and it is difficult to assess how efficient these are, and what the best way might be to support them. This paper reports on a series of experiments in this area and a prototype implementation using a research platform called CACHE. CACHE both supports experimentation with different structures of interaction between individual and community cognition and serves as a prototype for computational support for those structures. We particularly focus on CACHE-BC, the Bayes community version of CACHE, within which the community can break up analytical tasks into "mind-sized" units and use provenance tracking to keep track of the relationship between these units. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Cross-platform digital assessment forms for evaluating surgical skills

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Steven Arild Wuyts

2015-01-01

developed for the rating of surgical skills. The database platform used in this study was reasonably priced, intuitive for the user, and flexible. The forms have been provided online as free downloads that may serve as the basis for further development or as inspiration for future efforts. In conclusion......A variety of structured assessment tools for use in surgical training have been reported, but extant assessment tools often employ paper-based rating forms. Digital assessment forms for evaluating surgical skills could potentially offer advantages over paper-based forms, especially in complex...... assessment situations. In this paper, we report on the development of cross-platform digital assessment forms for use with multiple raters in order to facilitate the automatic processing of surgical skills assessments that include structured ratings. The FileMaker 13 platform was used to create a database...

Innovative Technologies in Science Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Guerra, Cecilia; Pombo, Lucia; Moreira, Antonio

2011-01-01

Technology plays a crucial role in pupils' and primary teachers' lives nowadays and its use can facilitate change towards an innovative school environment. The internet, for example, can act as a platform to foster science teaching and offers a variety of opportunities for effective science learning and engaging and motivating children. But…

REVEAL: Software Documentation and Platform Migration

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Michael A.; Veibell, Victoir T.; Freudinger, Lawrence C.

2008-01-01

The Research Environment for Vehicle Embedded Analysis on Linux (REVEAL) is reconfigurable data acquisition software designed for network-distributed test and measurement applications. In development since 2001, it has been successfully demonstrated in support of a number of actual missions within NASA s Suborbital Science Program. Improvements to software configuration control were needed to properly support both an ongoing transition to operational status and continued evolution of REVEAL capabilities. For this reason the project described in this report targets REVEAL software source documentation and deployment of the software on a small set of hardware platforms different from what is currently used in the baseline system implementation. This report specifically describes the actions taken over a ten week period by two undergraduate student interns and serves as a final report for that internship. The topics discussed include: the documentation of REVEAL source code; the migration of REVEAL to other platforms; and an end-to-end field test that successfully validates the efforts.

Abundance of Corals on Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Kolian, Stephan R.; Sammarco, Paul W.; Porter, Scott A.

2017-08-01

Scleractinian, octocoral, and antipatharian corals have colonized many of the offshore oil and gas platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico. We surveyed 25 offshore oil and gas platforms for these cnidarians. Few to no corals were detected on inshore, shallow-water structures at data suggest that the offshore platforms located in waters of >25-30 m in the study area are often colonized by these corals. We recommend that structures located in deeper waters should be surveyed for coral and, if the populations are substantial, consider alternate uses for the retired platforms, and leaving them in place, when feasible.

Recent Progress in Optical Biosensors Based on Smartphone Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaoxin Geng

2017-10-01

Full Text Available With a rapid improvement of smartphone hardware and software, especially complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS cameras, many optical biosensors based on smartphone platforms have been presented, which have pushed the development of the point-of-care testing (POCT. Imaging-based and spectrometry-based detection techniques have been widely explored via different approaches. Combined with the smartphone, imaging-based and spectrometry-based methods are currently used to investigate a wide range of molecular properties in chemical and biological science for biosensing and diagnostics. Imaging techniques based on smartphone-based microscopes are utilized to capture microscale analysts, while spectrometry-based techniques are used to probe reactions or changes of molecules. Here, we critically review the most recent progress in imaging-based and spectrometry-based smartphone-integrated platforms that have been developed for chemical experiments and biological diagnosis. We focus on the analytical performance and the complexity for implementation of the platforms.

Inspection of Pole-Like Structures Using a Visual-Inertial Aided VTOL Platform with Shared Autonomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sa, Inkyu; Hrabar, Stefan; Corke, Peter

2015-09-02

This paper presents an algorithm and a system for vertical infrastructure inspection using a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle and shared autonomy. Inspecting vertical structures such as light and power distribution poles is a difficult task that is time-consuming, dangerous and expensive. Recently, micro VTOL platforms (i.e., quad-, hexa- and octa-rotors) have been rapidly gaining interest in research, military and even public domains. The unmanned, low-cost and VTOL properties of these platforms make them ideal for situations where inspection would otherwise be time-consuming and/or hazardous to humans. There are, however, challenges involved with developing such an inspection system, for example flying in close proximity to a target while maintaining a fixed stand-off distance from it, being immune to wind gusts and exchanging useful information with the remote user. To overcome these challenges, we require accurate and high-update rate state estimation and high performance controllers to be implemented onboard the vehicle. Ease of control and a live video feed are required for the human operator. We demonstrate a VTOL platform that can operate at close-quarters, whilst maintaining a safe stand-off distance and rejecting environmental disturbances. Two approaches are presented: Position-Based Visual Servoing (PBVS) using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and estimator-free Image-Based Visual Servoing (IBVS). Both use monocular visual, inertia, and sonar data, allowing the approaches to be applied for indoor or GPS-impaired environments. We extensively compare the performances of PBVS and IBVS in terms of accuracy, robustness and computational costs. Results from simulations Sensors 2015, 15 22004 and indoor/outdoor (day and night) flight experiments demonstrate the system is able to successfully inspect and circumnavigate a vertical pole.

Inspection of Pole-Like Structures Using a Visual-Inertial Aided VTOL Platform with Shared Autonomy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inkyu Sa

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an algorithm and a system for vertical infrastructure inspection using a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL unmanned aerial vehicle and shared autonomy. Inspecting vertical structures such as light and power distribution poles is a difficult task that is time-consuming, dangerous and expensive. Recently, micro VTOL platforms (i.e., quad-, hexa- and octa-rotors have been rapidly gaining interest in research, military and even public domains. The unmanned, low-cost and VTOL properties of these platforms make them ideal for situations where inspection would otherwise be time-consuming and/or hazardous to humans. There are, however, challenges involved with developing such an inspection system, for example flying in close proximity to a target while maintaining a fixed stand-off distance from it, being immune to wind gusts and exchanging useful information with the remote user. To overcome these challenges, we require accurate and high-update rate state estimation and high performance controllers to be implemented onboard the vehicle. Ease of control and a live video feed are required for the human operator. We demonstrate a VTOL platform that can operate at close-quarters, whilst maintaining a safe stand-off distance and rejecting environmental disturbances. Two approaches are presented: Position-Based Visual Servoing (PBVS using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF and estimator-free Image-Based Visual Servoing (IBVS. Both use monocular visual, inertia, and sonar data, allowing the approaches to be applied for indoor or GPS-impaired environments. We extensively compare the performances of PBVS and IBVS in terms of accuracy, robustness and computational costs. Results from simulations Sensors 2015, 15 22004 and indoor/outdoor (day and night flight experiments demonstrate the system is able to successfully inspect and circumnavigate a vertical pole.

Inspection of Pole-Like Structures Using a Visual-Inertial Aided VTOL Platform with Shared Autonomy

Science.gov (United States)

Sa, Inkyu; Hrabar, Stefan; Corke, Peter

2015-01-01

This paper presents an algorithm and a system for vertical infrastructure inspection using a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle and shared autonomy. Inspecting vertical structures such as light and power distribution poles is a difficult task that is time-consuming, dangerous and expensive. Recently, micro VTOL platforms (i.e., quad-, hexa- and octa-rotors) have been rapidly gaining interest in research, military and even public domains. The unmanned, low-cost and VTOL properties of these platforms make them ideal for situations where inspection would otherwise be time-consuming and/or hazardous to humans. There are, however, challenges involved with developing such an inspection system, for example flying in close proximity to a target while maintaining a fixed stand-off distance from it, being immune to wind gusts and exchanging useful information with the remote user. To overcome these challenges, we require accurate and high-update rate state estimation and high performance controllers to be implemented onboard the vehicle. Ease of control and a live video feed are required for the human operator. We demonstrate a VTOL platform that can operate at close-quarters, whilst maintaining a safe stand-off distance and rejecting environmental disturbances. Two approaches are presented: Position-Based Visual Servoing (PBVS) using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and estimator-free Image-Based Visual Servoing (IBVS). Both use monocular visual, inertia, and sonar data, allowing the approaches to be applied for indoor or GPS-impaired environments. We extensively compare the performances of PBVS and IBVS in terms of accuracy, robustness and computational costs. Results from simulations and indoor/outdoor (day and night) flight experiments demonstrate the system is able to successfully inspect and circumnavigate a vertical pole. PMID:26340631

Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences JAFS is a platform for scientists dealing with agriculture, food science and related technological and socioeconomic issues with focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Articles on these areas are published after critical peer review. JAFS targets researchers and policy makers.

Product Platform Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Munk, Lone

The aim of this research is to improve understanding of platform-based product development by studying platform performance in relation to internal effects in companies. Platform-based product development makes it possible to deliver product variety and at the same time reduce the needed resources...... engaging in platform-based product development. Similarly platform assessment criteria lack empirical verification regarding relevance and sufficiency. The thesis focuses on • the process of identifying and estimating internal effects, • verification of performance of product platforms, (i...... experienced representatives from the different life systems phase systems of the platform products. The effects are estimated and modeled within different scenarios, taking into account financial and real option aspects. The model illustrates and supports estimation and quantification of internal platform...

African Journal of Political Science

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The AJPS is published by the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), with the aim of providing a platform for African perspectives on issues of politics, economy and society in Africa. It is published 2 times a year - in June and December, and targeted at the social science community, policy-makers, and university ...

Initiation of a European Radiation Protection Training and Education Plataforma (EUTERP Platform)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steen, J. van der; Fraaisma, F. S.; Marco Arboli, M.

2004-01-01

The European Commission, D.-G. Transport and Energy, has launched an initiative to establish a European Radiation Protection Training and Education Platform. To this end, a feasibility study is being carried out at the moment. The objective of this feasibility study is to initiate the necessary steps towards the creation of the Platform. It will make recommendations, based on the summary and conclusions obtained as a result of the exchange of information and experience between all involved radiation protection training and education bodies. The project will identify how the future Platform should be initiated and developed in order to achieve the expected results. This paper describes the objectives of the study and the objectives, composition and possible structure of the EUTERP Platform. A workshop will be held from 20-21 May at CIEMAT, Madrid, to identify the work programme and possibilities for the structure of the Platform. The preliminary results of the workshop will be presented in this presentation. (Author)

MetNet - In situ observational Network and Orbital platform to investigate the Martian environment

Science.gov (United States)

Harri, Ari-Matti; Leinonen, Jussi; Merikallio, Sini; Paton, Mark; Haukka, Harri; Polkko, Jouni

2007-09-01

MetNet Mars Mission is an in situ observational network and orbital platform mission to investigate the Martian environment and it has been proposed to European Space Agency in response to Call for proposals for the first planning cycle of Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 D/SCI/DJS/SV/val/21851. The MetNet Mars Mission is to be implemented in collaboration with ESA, FMI, LA, IKI and the payload providing science teams. The scope of the MetNet Mission is to deploy 16 MetNet Landers (MNLs) on the Martian surface by using inflatable descent system structures accompanied by an atmospheric sounder and data relay onboard the MetNet Orbiter (MNO), which is based on ESA Mars Express satellite platform. The MNLs are attached on the three sides of the satellite and most of the MNLs are deployed to Mars separately a few weeks prior to the arrival to Mars. The MetNet Orbiter will perform continuous atmospheric soundings thus complementing the accurate in situ observations at the Martian ground produced by the MetNet observation network, as well as the orbiter will serve as the primary data relay between the MetNet Landers and the Earth. The MNLs are equipped with a versatile science payload focused on the atmospheric science of Mars. Detailed characterisation of the Martian atmospheric circulation patterns, boundary layer phenomena, and climatological cycles, as well as interior investigations, require simultaneous in situ meteorological, seismic and magnetic measurements from networks of stations on the Martian surface. MetNet Mars Mission will also provide a crucial support for the safety of large landing missions in general and manned Mars missions in particular. Accurate knowledge of atmospheric conditions and weather data is essential to guarantee safe landings of the forthcoming Mars mission elements.

Lessons learned in deploying a cloud-based knowledge platform for the Earth Science Information Partners Federation (ESIP)

Science.gov (United States)

Pouchard, L. C.; Depriest, A.; Huhns, M.

2012-12-01

Ontologies and semantic technologies are an essential infrastructure component of systems supporting knowledge integration in the Earth Sciences. Numerous earth science ontologies exist, but are hard to discover because they tend to be hosted with the projects that develop them. There are often few quality measures and sparse metadata associated with these ontologies, such as modification dates, versioning, purpose, number of classes, and properties. Projects often develop ontologies for their own needs without considering existing ontology entities or derivations from formal and more basic ontologies. The result is mostly orthogonal ontologies, and ontologies that are not modular enough to reuse in part or adapt for new purposes, in spite of existing, standards for ontology representation. Additional obstacles to sharing and reuse include a lack of maintenance once a project is completed. The obstacles prevent the full exploitation of semantic technologies in a context where they could become needed enablers for service discovery and for matching data with services. To start addressing this gap, we have deployed BioPortal, a mature, domain-independent ontology and semantic service system developed by the National Center for Biomedical Ontologies (NCBO), on the ESIP Testbed under the governance of the ESIP Semantic Web cluster. ESIP provides a forum for a broad-based, distributed community of data and information technology practitioners and stakeholders to coordinate their efforts and develop new ideas for interoperability solutions. The Testbed provides an environment where innovations and best practices can be explored and evaluated. One objective of this deployment is to provide a community platform that would harness the organizational and cyber infrastructure provided by ESIP at minimal costs. Another objective is to host ontology services on a scalable, public cloud and investigate the business case for crowd sourcing of ontology maintenance. We deployed the

Science Inquiry into Local Animals: Structure and Function Explored through Model Making

Science.gov (United States)

Rule, Audrey C.; Tallakson, Denise A.; Glascock, Alex L.; Chao, Astoria

2015-01-01

This article describes an arts- and spatial thinking skill--integrated inquiry project applied to life science concepts from the Next Generation Science Standards for fourth grade students that focuses on two unifying or crosscutting themes: (1) structure (or "form") and function and (2) use of models. Students made observations and…

Teacher Education: Modes of Communication within Asynchronous and Synchronous Communication Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Madden, Lauren; Jones, Gail; Childers, Gina

2017-01-01

New tools for teaching with distance education afford students with a variety of modes of communication. This study examined students' interactions during an online science education course. All interactions that took place with Elluminate Chat, Elluminate Voice, and Moodle learning platforms were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Interactions…

The Platformization of the Web: Making Web Data Platform Ready

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Helmond, A.

2015-01-01

In this article, I inquire into Facebook’s development as a platform by situating it within the transformation of social network sites into social media platforms. I explore this shift with a historical perspective on, what I refer to as, platformization, or the rise of the platform as the dominant

The Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE high performance computing infrastructure: applications in neuroscience and neuroinformatics research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wojtek James eGoscinski

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE is a national imaging and visualisation facility established by Monash University, the Australian Synchrotron, the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO, and the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC, with funding from the National Computational Infrastructure and the Victorian Government. The MASSIVE facility provides hardware, software and expertise to drive research in the biomedical sciences, particularly advanced brain imaging research using synchrotron x-ray and infrared imaging, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, x-ray computer tomography (CT, electron microscopy and optical microscopy. The development of MASSIVE has been based on best practice in system integration methodologies, frameworks, and architectures. The facility has: (i integrated multiple different neuroimaging analysis software components, (ii enabled cross-platform and cross-modality integration of neuroinformatics tools, and (iii brought together neuroimaging databases and analysis workflows. MASSIVE is now operational as a nationally distributed and integrated facility for neuroinfomatics and brain imaging research.

A Framework for Evaluating Science and Technology Electronic Reference Books: A Comparison of Five Platforms in Chemistry

Science.gov (United States)

Lafferty, Meghan

2009-01-01

This article examines what is desirable in online reference books in science and technology and outlines a framework for evaluating their interfaces. The framework considers factors unique to these subject areas like chemical structures and numerical data. Criteria in three categories, navigability, searchability, and results, were applied to five…

Secure Ad Hoc Networking on an Android Platform

Science.gov (United States)

2014-05-01

Loscocco & Smalley 2001]. SE Android applies the same concept to Android , in order to: • confine privileged daemons • sandbox and isolate applications more...Science and Technology Organisation DSTO–TN–1390 ABSTRACT This document describes and analyses a suite of applications for the Android platform that... applications , and en- forcing for root level applications only. In addition to the implicit protections provided by SE Android , we utilised SE Android’s

Structure and dynamics of European sports science textual contents: Analysis of ECSS abstracts (1996-2014).

Science.gov (United States)

Hristovski, Robert; Aceski, Aleksandar; Balague, Natalia; Seifert, Ludovic; Tufekcievski, Aleksandar; Cecilia, Aguirre

2017-02-01

The article discusses general structure and dynamics of the sports science research content as obtained from the analysis of 21998 European College of Sport Science abstracts belonging to 12 science topics. The structural analysis showed intertwined multidisciplinary and unifying tendencies structured along horizontal (scope) and vertical (level) axes. Methodological (instrumental and mode of inquiry) integrative tendencies are dominant. Theoretical integrative tendencies are much less detectable along both horizontal and vertical axes. The dynamic analysis of written abstracts text content over the 19 years reveals the contextualizing and guiding role of thematic skeletons of each sports science topic in forming more detailed contingent research ideas and the role of the latter in stabilizing and procreating the former. This circular causality between both hierarchical levels and functioning on separate characteristic time scales is crucial for understanding how stable research traditions self-maintain and self-procreate through innovative contingencies. The structure of sports science continuously rebuilds itself through use and re-use of contingent research ideas. The thematic skeleton ensures its identity and the contingent conceptual sets its flexibility and adaptability to different research or applicative problems.

Citizen Science for Mining the Biomedical Literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ginger Tsueng

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Biomedical literature represents one of the largest and fastest growing collections of unstructured biomedical knowledge. Finding critical information buried in the literature can be challenging. To extract information from free-flowing text, researchers need to: 1. identify the entities in the text (named entity recognition, 2. apply a standardized vocabulary to these entities (normalization, and 3. identify how entities in the text are related to one another (relationship extraction. Researchers have primarily approached these information extraction tasks through manual expert curation and computational methods. We have previously demonstrated that named entity recognition (NER tasks can be crowdsourced to a group of non-experts via the paid microtask platform, Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT, and can dramatically reduce the cost and increase the throughput of biocuration efforts. However, given the size of the biomedical literature, even information extraction via paid microtask platforms is not scalable. With our web-based application Mark2Cure (http://mark2cure.org, we demonstrate that NER tasks also can be performed by volunteer citizen scientists with high accuracy. We apply metrics from the Zooniverse Matrices of Citizen Science Success and provide the results here to serve as a basis of comparison for other citizen science projects. Further, we discuss design considerations, issues, and the application of analytics for successfully moving a crowdsourcing workflow from a paid microtask platform to a citizen science platform. To our knowledge, this study is the first application of citizen science to a natural language processing task.

An Ultra-Efficient Nonlinear Platform: AlGaAs-On-Insulator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pu, Minhao; Ottaviano, Luisa; Semenova, Elizaveta

The combination of nonlinear and integrated photonics enables applications including optical signal processing, multi-wavelength lasers, metrology, spectroscopy, and quantum information science. Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) has emerged as a promising platform [1, 2] due to its high material...... nonlinearity and its compatibility with the CMOS industry. However, silicon suffers two-photon absorption (TPA) in the telecommunication wavelength band around 1.55 µm, which hampers its applications. Different platforms have been proposed to avoid TPA in the telecom wavelength range such as Si3N4 and Hydex [3...... a nonlinear index (n2) on the order of 10−17 W/m2 and a high refractive index (n ≈3.3), a large transparency window (from near- to mid-infrared), and the ability to engineer the material bandgap to mitigate TPA [5]. In this presentation, we introduce AlGaAson-insulator (AlGaAsOI) platform which combines both...

Comparison Of Hybrid Sorting Algorithms Implemented On Different Parallel Hardware Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dominik Zurek

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Sorting is a common problem in computer science. There are lot of well-known sorting algorithms created for sequential execution on a single processor. Recently, hardware platforms enable to create wide parallel algorithms. We have standard processors consist of multiple cores and hardware accelerators like GPU. The graphic cards with their parallel architecture give new possibility to speed up many algorithms. In this paper we describe results of implementation of a few different sorting algorithms on GPU cards and multicore processors. Then hybrid algorithm will be presented which consists of parts executed on both platforms, standard CPU and GPU.

Science Spots AR: A Platform for Science Learning Games with Augmented Reality

Science.gov (United States)

Laine, Teemu H.; Nygren, Eeva; Dirin, Amir; Suk, Hae-Jung

2016-01-01

Lack of motivation and of real-world relevance have been identified as reasons for low interest in science among children. Game-based learning and storytelling are prominent methods for generating intrinsic motivation in learning. Real-world relevance requires connecting abstract scientific concepts with the real world. This can be done by…

Fatigue analysis of assembled marine floating platform for special purposes under complex water environments

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Guang-ying; Yao, Yun-long

2018-03-01

In this paper, the fatigue lives of a new type of assembled marine floating platform for special purposes were studied. Firstly, by using ANSYS AQWA software, the hydrodynamic model of the platform was established. Secondly, the structural stresses under alternating change loads were calculated under complex water environments, such as wind, wave, current and ice. The minimum fatigue lives were obtained under different working conditions. The analysis results showed that the fatigue life of the platform structure can meet the requirements

Development of a web geoservices platform for School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India

Science.gov (United States)

Satheendran, S.; John, C. M.; Fasalul, F. K.; Aanisa, K. M.

2014-11-01

Web geoservices is the obvious graduation of Geographic Information System in a distributed environment through a simple browser. It enables organizations to share domain-specific rich and dynamic spatial information over the web. The present study attempted to design and develop a web enabled GIS application for the School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India to publish various geographical databases to the public through its website. The development of this project is based upon the open source tools and techniques. The output portal site is platform independent. The premier webgis frame work `Geomoose' is utilized. Apache server is used as the Web Server and the UMN Map Server is used as the map server for this project. It provides various customised tools to query the geographical database in different ways and search for various facilities in the geographical area like banks, attractive places, hospitals, hotels etc. The portal site was tested with the output geographical database of 2 projects of the School such as 1) the Tourism Information System for the Malabar region of Kerala State consisting of 5 northern districts 2) the geoenvironmental appraisal of the Athirappilly Hydroelectric Project covering the entire Chalakkudy river basin.

Determination of current loads of floating platform for special purposes

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Guang-ying; Yao, Yun-long; Zhao, Chen-yao

2017-08-01

This article studied a new floating offshore platform for special purposes, which was assembled by standard floating modules. The environmental load calculation of the platform is an important part of the research of the ocean platform, which has always been paid attention to by engineers. In addition to wave loads, the wind loads and current loads are also important environmental factors that affect the dynamic response of the offshore platform. The current loads on the bottom structure should not be ignored. By Fluent software, the hydrostatic conditions and external current loads of the platform were calculated in this paper. The coefficient which is independent of the current velocity, namely, current force coefficient, can be fitted through current loads, which can be used for the consequent hydrodynamic and mooring analyses.

The Science and Applications Tethered Platform (SATP) project

Science.gov (United States)

Merlina, P.

1986-01-01

The capabilities of tether systems in orbit are going to be demonstrated by the first planned flights of the Tethered Satellite System (TSS). These test flights will investigate the properties of tether systems as low altitude atmospheric research facilities and as electric power generators. Studies are being conducted with the purpose of testing a variety of concepts and approaches. A comparative analysis of results will allow the choosing of the most promising ideas for further development. The broad range of applications presently under study include applications in electrodynamics, transportation, microgravity in addition to basic research. The SATP project definition study is now about midway through its first phase. The analyses conducted have led to an appraisal of users interest in the project and to a deeper understanding of the problems associated with large, long-lived tether systems in space. In addition, two specialized platform designs, devoted to microgravity and precise pointing applications, are being studied because of their potential usefulness and the promise of technical feasibility.

The Structure-Agency Dialectic in Contested Science Spaces: "Do Earthworms Eat Apples?"

Science.gov (United States)

Kane, Justine M.

2015-01-01

Focusing on a group of African American third graders who attend a high-poverty urban school, I explore the structure-agency dialectic within contested spaces situated in a dialogically oriented science classroom. Contested spaces entail the moments in which the students challenge each other's and their teacher's science ideas and, in the process,…

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Integrated Centrifugal Microfluidics Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Durucan, Onur

This PhD thesis demonstrates (i) centrifugal microfluidics disc platform integrated with Au capped nanopillar (NP) substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based sensing, and (ii) novel sample analysis concepts achieved by synergistical combination of sensing techniques and minia......This PhD thesis demonstrates (i) centrifugal microfluidics disc platform integrated with Au capped nanopillar (NP) substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based sensing, and (ii) novel sample analysis concepts achieved by synergistical combination of sensing techniques...... dense array of NP structures. Furthermore, the wicking assisted nanofiltration procedure was accomplished in centrifugal microfluidics platform and as a result additional sample purification was achieved through the centrifugation process. In this way, the Au coated NP substrate was utilized...

A platform for quality management in research institutes (part II

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Klembalska Agnieszka

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In the recent years there has been a particularly strong pressure on changing old structures and management models in research institutes. Contemporary research institutes are scientific units which are commercial in character – almost 80% of funds come from companies and contractual research activity and services. They are the basic sector of science aiming at cooperation with the economy, applied and innovative research. In order to maintain the current and start new cooperation it is necessary to pay particular attention to maintaining, improving and exposing high level of quality of conducted activity. Taking into consideration the necessity of carrying out ever more complex research projects, conducting activity requiring fast reaction to change, risk analysis, which is assessed every year by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education – it seems that it is necessary to apply tools supporting the assessment of quality. In the proposed three-aspect perspective the following scopes of activity are emphasized: implemented quality management systems, area of scientific information and the sphere of cooperation with the client. This article constitutes the continuation of the subjects discussed in the first part – an extension of issues associated with the scope of responsibilities of particular Sections of the proposed Quality Management Platform in research institutes.

Search and rescue in collapsed structures: engineering and social science aspects.

Science.gov (United States)

El-Tawil, Sherif; Aguirre, Benigno

2010-10-01

This paper discusses the social science and engineering dimensions of search and rescue (SAR) in collapsed buildings. First, existing information is presented on factors that influence the behaviour of trapped victims, particularly human, physical, socioeconomic and circumstantial factors. Trapped victims are most often discussed in the context of structural collapse and injuries sustained. Most studies in this area focus on earthquakes as the type of disaster that produces the most extensive structural damage. Second, information is set out on the engineering aspects of urban search and rescue (USAR) in the United States, including the role of structural engineers in USAR operations, training and certification of structural specialists, and safety and general procedures. The use of computational simulation to link the engineering and social science aspects of USAR is discussed. This could supplement training of local SAR groups and USAR teams, allowing them to understand better the collapse process and how voids form in a rubble pile. A preliminary simulation tool developed for this purpose is described. © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2010.

Chaos, patterns, coherent structures, and turbulence: Reflections on nonlinear science.

Science.gov (United States)

Ecke, Robert E

2015-09-01

The paradigms of nonlinear science were succinctly articulated over 25 years ago as deterministic chaos, pattern formation, coherent structures, and adaptation/evolution/learning. For chaos, the main unifying concept was universal routes to chaos in general nonlinear dynamical systems, built upon a framework of bifurcation theory. Pattern formation focused on spatially extended nonlinear systems, taking advantage of symmetry properties to develop highly quantitative amplitude equations of the Ginzburg-Landau type to describe early nonlinear phenomena in the vicinity of critical points. Solitons, mathematically precise localized nonlinear wave states, were generalized to a larger and less precise class of coherent structures such as, for example, concentrated regions of vorticity from laboratory wake flows to the Jovian Great Red Spot. The combination of these three ideas was hoped to provide the tools and concepts for the understanding and characterization of the strongly nonlinear problem of fluid turbulence. Although this early promise has been largely unfulfilled, steady progress has been made using the approaches of nonlinear science. I provide a series of examples of bifurcations and chaos, of one-dimensional and two-dimensional pattern formation, and of turbulence to illustrate both the progress and limitations of the nonlinear science approach. As experimental and computational methods continue to improve, the promise of nonlinear science to elucidate fluid turbulence continues to advance in a steady manner, indicative of the grand challenge nature of strongly nonlinear multi-scale dynamical systems.

Science, School Science, and School: Looking at Science Learning in Classrooms from the Perspective of Basil Bernstein's Theory of the Structure of Pedagogic Discourse

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Ralph Ian

This analytic paper asks one question: How does Basil Bernstein's concept of the structure of pedagogic discourse (SPD) contribute to our understanding of the role of teacher-student interactions in science learning in the classroom? Applying Bernstein's theory of the SPD to an analysis of current research in science education explores the structure of Bernstein's theory as a tool for understanding the challenges and questions related to current concerns about classroom science learning. This analysis applies Bernstein's theory of the SPD as a heuristic through a secondary reading of selected research from the past fifteen years and prompts further consideration of Bernstein's ideas. This leads to a reevaluation of the categories of regulative discourse (RD) and instructional discourse (ID) as structures that frame learning environments and the dynamics of student-teacher interactions, which determine learning outcomes. The SPD becomes a simple but flexible heuristic, offering a useful deconstruction of teaching and learning dynamics in three different classroom environments. Understanding the framing interactions of RD and ID provides perspectives on the balance of agency and expectation, suggesting some causal explanations for the student learning outcomes described by the authors. On one hand, forms of open inquiry and student-driven instruction may lack the structure to ensure the appropriation of desired forms of scientific thinking. On the other hand, well-designed pathways towards the understanding of fundamental concepts in science may lack the forms of more open-ended inquiry that develop transferable understanding. Important ideas emerge about the complex dynamics of learning communities, the materials of learning, and the dynamic role of the teacher as facilitator and expert. Simultaneously, the SPD as a flexible heuristic proves ambiguous, prompting a reevaluation of Bernstein's organization of RD and ID. The hierarchical structure of pedagogic

PLATFORM DEFORMATION PHASE CORRECTION FOR THE AMiBA-13 COPLANAR INTERFEROMETER

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liao, Yu-Wei; Lin, Kai-Yang; Huang, Yau-De; Ho, Paul T. P.; Chen, Ming-Tang; Locutus Huang, Chih-Wei; Koch, Patrick M.; Nishioka, Hiroaki; Umetsu, Keiichi; Han, Chih-Chiang; Li, Chao-Te; Martin-Cocher, Pierre; Oshiro, Peter [Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China); Proty Wu, Jiun-Huei; Cheng, Tai-An; Fu, Szu-Yuan; Wang, Fu-Cheng [Department of Physics, Institute of Astrophysics, and Center for Theoretical Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China); Liu, Guo-Chin [Department of Physics, Tamkang University, 251-37 Tamsui, New Taipei City, Taiwan (China); Molnar, Sandor M. [Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China); Chang, Yu-Yen, E-mail: ywliao@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw, E-mail: jhpw@phys.ntu.edu.tw [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)

2013-05-20

We present a new way to solve the platform deformation problem of coplanar interferometers. The platform of a coplanar interferometer can be deformed due to driving forces and gravity. A deformed platform will induce extra components into the geometric delay of each baseline and change the phases of observed visibilities. The reconstructed images will also be diluted due to the errors of the phases. The platform deformations of The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) were modeled based on photogrammetry data with about 20 mount pointing positions. We then used the differential optical pointing error between two optical telescopes to fit the model parameters in the entire horizontal coordinate space. With the platform deformation model, we can predict the errors of the geometric phase delays due to platform deformation with a given azimuth and elevation of the targets and calibrators. After correcting the phases of the radio point sources in the AMiBA interferometric data, we recover 50%-70% flux loss due to phase errors. This allows us to restore more than 90% of a source flux. The method outlined in this work is not only applicable to the correction of deformation for other coplanar telescopes but also to single-dish telescopes with deformation problems. This work also forms the basis of the upcoming science results of AMiBA-13.

PLATFORM DEFORMATION PHASE CORRECTION FOR THE AMiBA-13 COPLANAR INTERFEROMETER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liao, Yu-Wei; Lin, Kai-Yang; Huang, Yau-De; Ho, Paul T. P.; Chen, Ming-Tang; Locutus Huang, Chih-Wei; Koch, Patrick M.; Nishioka, Hiroaki; Umetsu, Keiichi; Han, Chih-Chiang; Li, Chao-Te; Martin-Cocher, Pierre; Oshiro, Peter; Proty Wu, Jiun-Huei; Cheng, Tai-An; Fu, Szu-Yuan; Wang, Fu-Cheng; Liu, Guo-Chin; Molnar, Sandor M.; Chang, Yu-Yen

2013-01-01

We present a new way to solve the platform deformation problem of coplanar interferometers. The platform of a coplanar interferometer can be deformed due to driving forces and gravity. A deformed platform will induce extra components into the geometric delay of each baseline and change the phases of observed visibilities. The reconstructed images will also be diluted due to the errors of the phases. The platform deformations of The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) were modeled based on photogrammetry data with about 20 mount pointing positions. We then used the differential optical pointing error between two optical telescopes to fit the model parameters in the entire horizontal coordinate space. With the platform deformation model, we can predict the errors of the geometric phase delays due to platform deformation with a given azimuth and elevation of the targets and calibrators. After correcting the phases of the radio point sources in the AMiBA interferometric data, we recover 50%-70% flux loss due to phase errors. This allows us to restore more than 90% of a source flux. The method outlined in this work is not only applicable to the correction of deformation for other coplanar telescopes but also to single-dish telescopes with deformation problems. This work also forms the basis of the upcoming science results of AMiBA-13.

Platform Deformation Phase Correction for the AMiBA-13 Coplanar Interferometer

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Yu-Wei; Lin, Kai-Yang; Huang, Yau-De; Proty Wu, Jiun-Huei; Ho, Paul T. P.; Chen, Ming-Tang; Locutus Huang, Chih-Wei; Koch, Patrick M.; Nishioka, Hiroaki; Cheng, Tai-An; Fu, Szu-Yuan; Liu, Guo-Chin; Molnar, Sandor M.; Umetsu, Keiichi; Wang, Fu-Cheng; Chang, Yu-Yen; Han, Chih-Chiang; Li, Chao-Te; Martin-Cocher, Pierre; Oshiro, Peter

2013-05-01

We present a new way to solve the platform deformation problem of coplanar interferometers. The platform of a coplanar interferometer can be deformed due to driving forces and gravity. A deformed platform will induce extra components into the geometric delay of each baseline and change the phases of observed visibilities. The reconstructed images will also be diluted due to the errors of the phases. The platform deformations of The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) were modeled based on photogrammetry data with about 20 mount pointing positions. We then used the differential optical pointing error between two optical telescopes to fit the model parameters in the entire horizontal coordinate space. With the platform deformation model, we can predict the errors of the geometric phase delays due to platform deformation with a given azimuth and elevation of the targets and calibrators. After correcting the phases of the radio point sources in the AMiBA interferometric data, we recover 50%-70% flux loss due to phase errors. This allows us to restore more than 90% of a source flux. The method outlined in this work is not only applicable to the correction of deformation for other coplanar telescopes but also to single-dish telescopes with deformation problems. This work also forms the basis of the upcoming science results of AMiBA-13.

The Square Kilometre Array Science Data Processor. Preliminary compute platform design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Broekema, P.C.; Nieuwpoort, R.V. van; Bal, H.E.

2015-01-01

The Square Kilometre Array is a next-generation radio-telescope, to be built in South Africa and Western Australia. It is currently in its detailed design phase, with procurement and construction scheduled to start in 2017. The SKA Science Data Processor is the high-performance computing element of the instrument, responsible for producing science-ready data. This is a major IT project, with the Science Data Processor expected to challenge the computing state-of-the art even in 2020. In this paper we introduce the preliminary Science Data Processor design and the principles that guide the design process, as well as the constraints to the design. We introduce a highly scalable and flexible system architecture capable of handling the SDP workload

Researching intimacy through social media: A cross-platform approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Miguel

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of how to study the way people build intimacy and manage privacy through social media interaction. It explores the research design and methodology of a research project based on a multi-sited case study composed of three different social media platforms: Badoo, CouchSurfing, and Facebook. This cross-platform approach is useful to observe how intimacy is often negotiated across different platforms. The research project focuses on the cities of Leeds (UK and Barcelona (Spain. In particular, this article discusses the methods used to recruit participants and collect data for that study - namely, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and user profiles analysis. This cross-platform approach and multi-method research design is helpful to investigate the nature of intimacy practices facilitated by social media at several levels: online/offline, across different platforms, among different types of relationships, within both new and existing relationships, and in different locations

PAVICS: A Platform for the Analysis and Visualization of Climate Science

Science.gov (United States)

Gauvin St-Denis, B.; Landry, T.; Huard, D. B.; Byrns, D.; Chaumont, D.; Foucher, S.

2016-12-01

Climate service providers are boundary organizations working at the interface of climate science research and users of climate information. Users include academics in other disciplines looking for credible, customized future climate scenarios, government planners, resource managers, asset owners, as well as service utilities. These users are looking for relevant information regarding the impacts of climate change as well as informing decisions regarding adaptation options. As climate change concerns become mainstream, the pressure on climate service providers to deliver tailored, high quality information in a timely manner increases rapidly. To meet this growing demand, Ouranos, a climate service center located in Montreal, is collaborating with the Centre de recherche informatique de Montreal (CRIM) to develop a climate data analysis web-based platform interacting with RESTful services covering data access and retrieval, geospatial analysis, bias correction, distributed climate indicator computing and results visualization. The project, financed by CANARIE, relies on the experience of the UV-CDAT and ESGF-CWT teams, as well as on the Birdhouse framework developed by the German Climate Research Center (DKRZ) and French IPSL. Climate data is accessed through OPEnDAP, while computations are carried through WPS. Regions such as watersheds or user-defined polygons, used as spatial selections for computations, are managed by GeoServer, also providing WMS, WFS and WPS capabilities. The services are hosted on independent servers communicating by high throughput network. Deployment, maintenance and collaboration with other development teams are eased by the use of Docker and OpenStack VMs. Web-based tools are developed with modern web frameworks such as React-Redux, OpenLayers 3, Cesium and Plotly. Although the main objective of the project is to build a functioning, usable data analysis pipeline within two years, time is also devoted to explore emerging technologies and

Portable fiber-optic taper coupled optical microscopy platform

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Weiming; Yu, Yan; Huang, Hui; Ou, Jinping

2017-04-01

The optical fiber taper coupled with CMOS has advantages of high sensitivity, compact structure and low distortion in the imaging platform. So it is widely used in low light, high speed and X-ray imaging systems. In the meanwhile, the peculiarity of the coupled structure can meet the needs of the demand in microscopy imaging. Toward this end, we developed a microscopic imaging platform based on the coupling of cellphone camera module and fiber optic taper for the measurement of the human blood samples and ascaris lumbricoides. The platform, weighing 70 grams, is based on the existing camera module of the smartphone and a fiber-optic array which providing a magnification factor of 6x.The top facet of the taper, on which samples are placed, serves as an irregular sampling grid for contact imaging. The magnified images of the sample, located on the bottom facet of the fiber, are then projected onto the CMOS sensor. This paper introduces the portable medical imaging system based on the optical fiber coupling with CMOS, and theoretically analyzes the feasibility of the system. The image data and process results either can be stored on the memory or transmitted to the remote medical institutions for the telemedicine. We validate the performance of this cell-phone based microscopy platform using human blood samples and test target, achieving comparable results to a standard bench-top microscope.

Design of platform for removing screws from LCD display shields

Science.gov (United States)

Tu, Zimei; Qin, Qin; Dou, Jianfang; Zhu, Dongdong

2017-11-01

Removing the screws on the sides of a shield is a necessary process in disassembling a computer LCD display. To solve this issue, a platform has been designed for removing the screws on display shields. This platform uses virtual instrument technology with LabVIEW as the development environment to design the mechanical structure with the technologies of motion control, human-computer interaction and target recognition. This platform removes the screws from the sides of the shield of an LCD display mechanically thus to guarantee follow-up separation and recycle.

Computational Science and Innovation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dean, David Jarvis

2011-01-01

Simulations - utilizing computers to solve complicated science and engineering problems - are a key ingredient of modern science. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is a world leader in the development of high-performance computing (HPC), the development of applied math and algorithms that utilize the full potential of HPC platforms, and the application of computing to science and engineering problems. An interesting general question is whether the DOE can strategically utilize its capability in simulations to advance innovation more broadly. In this article, I will argue that this is certainly possible.

Cross-Platform Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Cristina ENACHE

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Cross-platform - a concept becoming increasingly used in recent years especially in the development of mobile apps, but this consistently over time and in the development of conventional desktop applications. The notion of cross-platform software (multi-platform or platform-independent refers to a software application that can run on more than one operating system or computing architecture. Thus, a cross-platform application can operate independent of software or hardware platform on which it is execute. As a generic definition presents a wide range of meanings for purposes of this paper we individualize this definition as follows: we will reduce the horizon of meaning and we use functionally following definition: a cross-platform application is a software application that can run on more than one operating system (desktop or mobile identical or in a similar way.

Platform Performance and Challenges - using Platforms in Lego Company

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Munk, Lone; Mortensen, Niels Henrik

2009-01-01

needs focus on the incentive of using the platform. This problem lacks attention in literature, as well as industry, where assessment criteria do not cover this aspect. Therefore, we recommend including user incentive in platform assessment criteria to these challenges. Concrete solution elements...... ensuring user incentive in platforms is an object for future research...

Levels of prospective science teachers’ ability to structure 5E model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kaçan Sibel Demir

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The research was conducted with 3rd year prospective science students, who study at the science teaching department of a university in Istanbul province. For that purpose, 34 prospective science teachers cooperated and participated in the study. In the study, the prospective teachers were asked to select a certain subject and plan that subject in accordance with the 5E model. Therefore, the objective of the study is to determine the levels of prospective science teachers’ ability to structure the 5E model. The data retrieved from the study were analyzed ad compared through content analysis and percentages. The results of the study suggest that some prospective teachers are not sufficient at each phase of the 5E model, thereby the researchers made suggestions for that situation.

Platform Constellations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staykova, Kalina Stefanova; Damsgaard, Jan

2016-01-01

This research paper presents an initial attempt to introduce and explain the emergence of new phenomenon, which we refer to as platform constellations. Functioning as highly modular systems, the platform constellations are collections of highly connected platforms which co-exist in parallel and a......’ acquisition and users’ engagement rates as well as unlock new sources of value creation and diversify revenue streams....

Low Cost ZigBee Protocol Based Laboratory Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alvaro Romero-Acero

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a low cost wireless communication platform, based on the ZigBee protocol. It is designed with the purpose to strengthen the use of information technology in the classroom. Guides laboratory practices are focused on developing undergraduate engineering students to the area of telecommunications. The platform structure is composed of: Labs custom designed, web tools embedded wireless communication system for data acquisition in real time, and the Human Machine Interface (HMI, which records analog data and digital. 

The Science DMZ: A Network Design Pattern for Data-Intensive Science

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dart, Eli; Rotman, Lauren; Tierney, Brian; Hester, Mary; Zurawski, Jason

2013-08-13

The ever-increasing scale of scientific data has become a significant challenge for researchers that rely on networks to interact with remote computing systems and transfer results to collaborators worldwide. Despite the availability of high-capacity connections, scientists struggle with inadequate cyberinfrastructure that cripples data transfer performance, and impedes scientific progress. The Science DMZ paradigm comprises a proven set of network design patterns that collectively address these problems for scientists. We explain the Science DMZ model, including network architecture, system configuration, cybersecurity, and performance tools, that creates an optimized network environment for science. We describe use cases from universities, supercomputing centers and research laboratories, highlighting the effectiveness of the Science DMZ model in diverse operational settings. In all, the Science DMZ model is a solid platform that supports any science workflow, and flexibly accommodates emerging network technologies. As a result, the Science DMZ vastly improves collaboration, accelerating scientific discovery.

Elements of the geological structure of the Western Siberian platform determined from a review of fine-scale satellite photographs in oil and gas prospecting research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Borovskii, V V; Klopov, A L; Peskovskii, I D; Podsosova, L L

1980-01-01

Dislocations with breaks in continuity and annular objects are identified on fine-scale satellite photographs within the region of the Western Siberian platform. Based on an integrated interpretation of the geological and geophysical data, it is predicted that there exists a relation between the annular objects and the geological structure of deep portions of the earth's crust, the pre-Jurassic basement, and certain levels of the platform mantle. Procedural techniques for the use of magnetic and gravitional data for the purpose of obtaining information about the geological nature of the identified objects are considered.

Information-computational platform for collaborative multidisciplinary investigations of regional climatic changes and their impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Gordov, Evgeny; Lykosov, Vasily; Krupchatnikov, Vladimir; Okladnikov, Igor; Titov, Alexander; Shulgina, Tamara

2013-04-01

Analysis of growing volume of related to climate change data from sensors and model outputs requires collaborative multidisciplinary efforts of researchers. To do it timely and in reliable way one needs in modern information-computational infrastructure supporting integrated studies in the field of environmental sciences. Recently developed experimental software and hardware platform Climate (http://climate.scert.ru/) provides required environment for regional climate change related investigations. The platform combines modern web 2.0 approach, GIS-functionality and capabilities to run climate and meteorological models, process large geophysical datasets and support relevant analysis. It also supports joint software development by distributed research groups, and organization of thematic education for students and post-graduate students. In particular, platform software developed includes dedicated modules for numerical processing of regional and global modeling results for consequent analysis and visualization. Also run of integrated into the platform WRF and «Planet Simulator» models, modeling results data preprocessing and visualization is provided. All functions of the platform are accessible by a user through a web-portal using common graphical web-browser in the form of an interactive graphical user interface which provides, particularly, capabilities of selection of geographical region of interest (pan and zoom), data layers manipulation (order, enable/disable, features extraction) and visualization of results. Platform developed provides users with capabilities of heterogeneous geophysical data analysis, including high-resolution data, and discovering of tendencies in climatic and ecosystem changes in the framework of different multidisciplinary researches. Using it even unskilled user without specific knowledge can perform reliable computational processing and visualization of large meteorological, climatic and satellite monitoring datasets through

Citizen Science and the Modern Web

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2014-01-01

Beginning as a research project to help scientists communicate, the Web has transformed into a ubiquitous medium. As the sciences continue to transform, new techniques are needed to analyze the vast amounts of data being produced by large experiments. The advent of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey increased throughput of astronomical data, giving rise to Citizen Science projects such as Galaxy Zoo. The Web is no longer exclusively used by researchers, but rather, a place where anyone can share information, or even, partake in citizen science projects. As the Web continues to evolve, new and open technologies enable web applications to become more sophisticated. Scientific toolsets may now target the Web as a platform, opening an application to a wider audience, and potentially citizen scientists. With the latest browser technologies, scientific data may be consumed and visualized, opening the browser as a new platform for scientific analysis.

Identifying behaviors that generate positive interactions between museums and people on a social media platform: An analysis of 27 science museums on Twitter

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Stacy Christine

The aim of this study was to provide a detailed examination of how science museums use Twitter and suggest changes these museums should make to improve their current approach on this social media platform. Previous studies have identified the types of content museums are creating on social media, but none have quantitatively investigated the specific types of content most likely to generate interaction and engagement with a social media audience. A total of 5,278 tweets from 27 science museums were analyzed to determine what type of tweet yields the greatest impact measured in retweets and favorites. 1,453 of those tweets were selected for additional qualitative analysis. The results indicate that tweets with educational content, links, and hashtags lead to the greatest number of retweets and favorites. The results also indicate that the majority of tweets posted by museums do not generate interaction and engagement with a social media audience. A model for existing museums to improve their use of Twitter was created using the results of this study.

Journal of Earth System Science | Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Journal of Earth System Science; Volume 116; Issue 6. Volume 116, Issue 6. December 2007, pages 465-597. pp 465-467. Editorial · T N Narasimhan · More Details Fulltext PDF. pp 469-495. Late Devonian and Triassic basalts from the southern continental margin of the East European Platform, tracers of ...

Continuous Platform Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Ole Fiil

low risks and investments but also with relatively fuzzy results. When looking for new platform projects, it is important to make sure that the company and market is ready for the introduction of platforms, and to make sure that people from marketing and sales, product development, and downstream......, but continuous product family evolution challenges this strategy. The concept of continuous platform development is based on the fact that platform development should not be a one-time experience but rather an ongoing process of developing new platforms and updating existing ones, so that product family...

New Design Concept for a Lifting Platform Made of Composite Material

Science.gov (United States)

Solazzi, L.; Scalmana, R.

2013-08-01

Elevating work platforms are hoists equipment that are increasingly used in many applications, like in the construction industry and in the maintenance field. The maintenance of the hub of the wind turbines, for example, can be done through the use of a working platform; these structures have to reach great heights and obviously they have to satisfy the constraints induced by the highway standards, like the maximum axle load and the maximum overall dimensions. To satisfy these requests the material of the structures changed from the classic structural steel (S235 JR, S275 JR or S355JR) to high strength steel (S700 to S1100 or more), characterized by a significantly higher specific resistance. The idea of this paper is to use a composite material for the construction of the arms of an elevating platform in order to reduce the global weight of the machine. The analyses on the new kind of platform show the technical possibility to change the material of the arms with composite materials and this produces a significant reduction of the weight of the machine components, about 50 %. Being a feasibility study, still remain open some problems such as the mechanical behavior of the used composite materials (fatigue, environment effects, etc.).

Initiating New Prospects of Rural Science Popularization in the Digital Media Era

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun Li

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The development of digital media has brought a new challenge to existing science popularization in the rural areas. In this paper, new experience of rural science popularization on both traditional and digital media in Zhejiang province was introduced. We proposed several strategies for rural science popularization in the digital media era: First, we should strengthen the utilization of traditional platforms such as print media and broadcast and TV media. Then, digital media based on Internet should also be used for science popularization. Last but not least, we should also try to use “the fifth media” to upgrade existing platforms and create new Internet media channels.

Structure of the SPRY domain of the human RNA helicase DDX1, a putative interaction platform within a DEAD-box protein

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kellner, Julian N.; Meinhart, Anton, E-mail: anton.meinhart@mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de [Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg (Germany)

2015-08-25

The structure of the SPRY domain of the human RNA helicase DDX1 was determined at 2.0 Å resolution. The SPRY domain provides a putative protein–protein interaction platform within DDX1 that differs from other SPRY domains in its structure and conserved regions. The human RNA helicase DDX1 in the DEAD-box family plays an important role in RNA processing and has been associated with HIV-1 replication and tumour progression. Whereas previously described DEAD-box proteins have a structurally conserved core, DDX1 shows a unique structural feature: a large SPRY-domain insertion in its RecA-like consensus fold. SPRY domains are known to function as protein–protein interaction platforms. Here, the crystal structure of the SPRY domain of human DDX1 (hDSPRY) is reported at 2.0 Å resolution. The structure reveals two layers of concave, antiparallel β-sheets that stack onto each other and a third β-sheet beneath the β-sandwich. A comparison with SPRY-domain structures from other eukaryotic proteins showed that the general β-sandwich fold is conserved; however, differences were detected in the loop regions, which were identified in other SPRY domains to be essential for interaction with cognate partners. In contrast, in hDSPRY these loop regions are not strictly conserved across species. Interestingly, though, a conserved patch of positive surface charge is found that may replace the connecting loops as a protein–protein interaction surface. The data presented here comprise the first structural information on DDX1 and provide insights into the unique domain architecture of this DEAD-box protein. By providing the structure of a putative interaction domain of DDX1, this work will serve as a basis for further studies of the interaction network within the hetero-oligomeric complexes of DDX1 and of its recruitment to the HIV-1 Rev protein as a viral replication factor.

ArXives of Earth science

Science.gov (United States)

2018-03-01

Preprint servers afford a platform for sharing research before peer review. We are pleased that two dedicated preprint servers have opened for the Earth sciences and welcome submissions that have been posted there first.

Study on integrated design and analysis platform of NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Dongsen; Gao Zuying; Zhou Zhiwei

2001-01-01

Many calculation software have been developed to nuclear system's design and safety analysis, such as structure design software, fuel design and manage software, thermal hydraulic analysis software, severe accident simulation software, etc. This study integrates those software to a platform, develops visual modeling tool for Retran, NGFM90. And in this platform, a distribution calculation method is also provided for couple calculation between different software. The study will improve the design and analysis of NPP

Three-legged platform in a plastic limit state

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lagoni, P

1990-06-01

This document provides structural description, formulars and a sample analysis of a platform supported by three piles and subject to loads that causes plastic deformation of the foundation (plastic limit state analysis). (au)

Direct2Experts: a pilot national network to demonstrate interoperability among research-networking platforms

OpenAIRE

Weber, Griffin M; Barnett, William; Conlon, Mike; Eichmann, David; Kibbe, Warren; Falk-Krzesinski, Holly; Halaas, Michael; Johnson, Layne; Meeks, Eric; Mitchell, Donald; Schleyer, Titus; Stallings, Sarah; Warden, Michael; Kahlon, Maninder

2011-01-01

Research-networking tools use data-mining and social networking to enable expertise discovery, matchmaking and collaboration, which are important facets of team science and translational research. Several commercial and academic platforms have been built, and many institutions have deployed these products to help their investigators find local collaborators. Recent studies, though, have shown the growing importance of multiuniversity teams in science. Unfortunately, the lack of a standard dat...

The Components of Abstracts: the Logical Structure of Abstractsin the Area of Technical Sciences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nina Jamar

2014-04-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACTPurpose: The main purpose of this research was to find out what kind of structure would be the most appropriate for abstracts in the area of technical sciences, and on the basis of these findings develop guidelines for their writing.Methodology/approach: First, the components of abstracts published in journals were analyzed. Then the prototypes and recommended improved abstracts were presented. Third, the satisfaction of the readers with the different forms of abstracts was examined. According to the results of these three parts of the research, the guidelines for writing abstracts in the area of technical sciences were developed.Results: The results showed that it is possible to determine the optimum structure for abstracts from the area of technical sciences. This structure should follow the known IMRD format or BMRC structure according to the coding scheme.Research limitations: The presented research included in the analysis only abstracts from several areas that represent technical studies. In order to develop the guidelines for writing abstracts more broadly, the research should be extended with at least one more area from the natural sciences and two areas from social sciences and humanities.Original/practical implications: It is important to emphasize that even if the guidelines for writing abstracts by the individual journal exist, authors do not always take them into account. Therefore, it is important that the abstracts that are actually published in journals were analysed. It is also important that with the development of guidelines for writing abstracts the opinion of researchers was also taken into account.

Selling science 2.0: What scientific projects receive crowdfunding online?

Science.gov (United States)

Schäfer, Mike S; Metag, Julia; Feustle, Jessica; Herzog, Livia

2016-09-19

Crowdfunding has emerged as an additional source for financing research in recent years. The study at hand identifies and tests explanatory factors influencing the success of scientific crowdfunding projects by drawing on news value theory, the "reputation signaling" approach, and economic theories of online payment. A standardized content analysis of 371 projects on English- and German-language platforms reveals that each theory provides factors influencing crowdfunding success. It shows that projects presented on science-only crowdfunding platforms have a higher success rate. At the same time, projects are more likely to be successful if their presentation includes visualizations and humor, the lower their targeted funding is, the less personal data potential donors have to relinquish and the more interaction between researchers and donors is possible. This suggests that after donors decide to visit a scientific crowdfunding platform, factors unrelated to science matter more for subsequent funding decisions, raising questions about the potential and implications of crowdfunding science. © The Author(s) 2016.

Jupyter Notebooks for Earth Sciences: An Interactive Training Platform for Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Igel, H.; Chow, B.; Donner, S.; Krischer, L.; van Driel, M.; Tape, C.

2017-12-01

We have initiated a community platform (http://www.seismo-live.org) where Python-based Jupyter notebooks (https://jupyter.org) can be accessed and run without necessary downloads or local software installations. The increasingly popular Jupyter notebooks allow the combination of markup language, graphics, and equations with interactive, executable Python code examples. Jupyter notebooks are a powerful and easy-to-grasp tool for students to develop entire projects, scientists to collaborate and efficiently interchange evolving workflows, and trainers to develop efficient practical material. Utilizing the tmpnb project (https://github.com/jupyter/tmpnb), we link the power of Jupyter notebooks with an underlying server, such that notebooks can be run from anywhere, even on smart phones. We demonstrate the potential with notebooks for 1) learning the programming language Python, 2) basic signal processing, 3) an introduction to the ObsPy library (https://obspy.org) for seismology, 4) seismic noise analysis, 5) an entire suite of notebooks for computational seismology (the finite-difference method, pseudospectral methods, finite/spectral element methods, the finite-volume and the discontinuous Galerkin methods, Instaseis), 6) rotational seismology, 7) making results in papers fully reproducible, 8) a rate-and-state friction toolkit, 9) glacial seismology. The platform is run as a community project using Github. Submission of complementary Jupyter notebooks is encouraged. Extension in the near future include linear(-ized) and nonlinear inverse problems.

Selected Problems of Sensitivity and Reliability of a Jack-Up Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rozmarynowski Bogdan

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with sensitivity and reliability applications to numerical studies of an off-shore platform model. Structural parameters and sea conditions are referred to the Baltic jack-up drilling platform. The sudy aims at the influence of particular basic variables on static and dynamic response as well as the probability of failure due to water waves and wind loads. The paper presents the sensitivity approach to a generalized eigenvalue problem and evaluation of the performace functions. The first order time-invariant problems of structural reliability analysis are under concern.

The Science DMZ: A Network Design Pattern for Data-Intensive Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eli Dart

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The ever-increasing scale of scientific data has become a significant challenge for researchers that rely on networks to interact with remote computing systems and transfer results to collaborators worldwide. Despite the availability of high-capacity connections, scientists struggle with inadequate cyberinfrastructure that cripples data transfer performance, and impedes scientific progress. The Science DMZ paradigm comprises a proven set of network design patterns that collectively address these problems for scientists. We explain the Science DMZ model, including network architecture, system configuration, cybersecurity, and performance tools, that creates an optimized network environment for science. We describe use cases from universities, supercomputing centers and research laboratories, highlighting the effectiveness of the Science DMZ model in diverse operational settings. In all, the Science DMZ model is a solid platform that supports any science workflow, and flexibly accommodates emerging network technologies. As a result, the Science DMZ vastly improves collaboration, accelerating scientific discovery.

Validation of the iPhone app using the force platform to estimate vertical jump height.

Science.gov (United States)

Carlos-Vivas, Jorge; Martin-Martinez, Juan P; Hernandez-Mocholi, Miguel A; Perez-Gomez, Jorge

2018-03-01

Vertical jump performance has been evaluated with several devices: force platforms, contact mats, Vertec, accelerometers, infrared cameras and high-velocity cameras; however, the force platform is considered the gold standard for measuring vertical jump height. The purpose of this study was to validate an iPhone app called My Jump, that measures vertical jump height by comparing it with other methods that use the force platform to estimate vertical jump height, namely, vertical velocity at take-off and time in the air. A total of 40 sport sciences students (age 21.4±1.9 years) completed five countermovement jumps (CMJs) over a force platform. Thus, 200 CMJ heights were evaluated from the vertical velocity at take-off and the time in the air using the force platform, and from the time in the air with the My Jump mobile application. The height obtained was compared using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Correlation between APP and force platform using the time in the air was perfect (ICC=1.000, PJump, is an appropriate method to evaluate the vertical jump performance; however, vertical jump height is slightly overestimated compared with that of the force platform.

Semantic Web-Based Services for Supporting Voluntary Collaboration among Researchers Using an Information Dissemination Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanmin Jung

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Information dissemination platforms for supporting voluntary collaboration among researchers should assure that controllable and verified information is being disseminated. However, previous related studies on this field narrowed their research scopes into information type and information specification. This paper focuses on the verification and the tracing of information using an information dissemination platform and other Semantic Web-based services. Services on our platform include information dissemination services to support reliable information exchange among researchers and knowledge service to provide unrevealed information. The latter is also divided into the two: knowledgization using ontology and inference using a Semantic Web-based inference engine. This paper discusses how this platform supports instant knowledge addition and inference. We demonstrate our approach by constructing an ontology for national R&D reference information using 37,656 RDF triples from about 2,300 KISTI (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information outcomes. Three knowledge services including 'Communities of Practice', 'Researcher Tracing,' and 'Research Map' were implemented on our platform using a Jena framework. Our study shows that information dissemination platforms will make a meaningful contribution to the possibility of realizing a practical Semantic Web-based information dissemination platform.

A Comparative Analysis of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria CONACHE

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The MOOC platforms have known a considerable development in recent years due to the enlargement of online space and the shifting between traditional to virtual activities. These plat-forms made it possible for people almost everywhere to take online academic courses offered by top universities via open access to web and with unlimited participation. Thus, it came naturally to us to address the question what makes them so successful? The purpose of this paper is to report comparatively MOOC platforms in terms of features, based on the user’s implication and demands. First, we chose four relevant lifelong learning platforms and then we structured three main categories for the platforms' qualification, depending on which we built our theory regarding the comparison between them. Our analysis consists of three sets of criteria: business model, course design and popularity among online users. Starting from this perspective, we built a range of representative factors for which we highlighted the major aspects for each plat-form in our comparative research

Stratigraphic and sedimentary evidences for development of Aptian intrashelf basin in the structural Zagros zone, northern Fars Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neda Khoshfam

2016-12-01

Therefore despite previous visions, the Fars platform was not a monolith shallow platform. In addition, except Kazhdumi intrashelf basin, there were other deep and local intrashelf basins which were developed within the Fars platform.

Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Space Science's Past, Present, and Future on the International Space Station (ISS)

Science.gov (United States)

Spivey, Reggie A.; Spearing, Scott F.; Jordan, Lee P.; McDaniel S. Greg

2012-01-01

The Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) is a double rack facility designed for microgravity investigation handling aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The unique design of the facility allows it to accommodate science and technology investigations in a "workbench" type environment. MSG facility provides an enclosed working area for investigation manipulation and observation in the ISS. Provides two levels of containment via physical barrier, negative pressure, and air filtration. The MSG team and facilities provide quick access to space for exploratory and National Lab type investigations to gain an understanding of the role of gravity in the physics associated research areas. The MSG is a very versatile and capable research facility on the ISS. The Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) on the International Space Station (ISS) has been used for a large body or research in material science, heat transfer, crystal growth, life sciences, smoke detection, combustion, plant growth, human health, and technology demonstration. MSG is an ideal platform for gravity-dependent phenomena related research. Moreover, the MSG provides engineers and scientists a platform for research in an environment similar to the one that spacecraft and crew members will actually experience during space travel and exploration. The MSG facility is ideally suited to provide quick, relatively inexpensive access to space for National Lab type investigations.

Application of GNSS Methods for Monitoring Offshore Platform Deformation

Science.gov (United States)

Myint, Khin Cho; Nasir Matori, Abd; Gohari, Adel

2018-03-01

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has become a powerful tool for high-precision deformation monitoring application. Monitoring of deformation and subsidence of offshore platform due to factors such as shallow gas phenomena. GNSS is the technical interoperability and compatibility between various satellite navigation systems such as modernized GPS, Galileo, reconstructed GLONASS to be used by civilian users. It has been known that excessive deformation affects platform structurally, causing loss of production and affects the efficiency of the machinery on board the platform. GNSS have been proven to be one of the most precise positioning methods where by users can get accuracy to the nearest centimeter of a given position from carrier phase measurement processing of GPS signals. This research is aimed at using GNSS technique, which is one of the most standard methods to monitor the deformation of offshore platforms. Therefore, station modeling, which accounts for the spatial correlated errors, and hence speeds up the ambiguity resolution process is employed. It was found that GNSS combines the high accuracy of the results monitoring the offshore platforms deformation with the possibility of survey.

Structure and dynamics of the microbial communities underlying the carboxylate platform for biofuel production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hollister, Emily B.; Gentry, Terry J. [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences; Forrest, Andrea K.; Holtzapple, Mark T. [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering; Wilkinson, Heather H.; Ebbole, Daniel J. [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Plant Pathology and Microbiology; Malfatti, Stephanie A.; Tringe, Susannah G. [DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA (United States)

2010-09-15

The carboxylate platform utilizes a mixed microbial community to convert lignocellulosic biomass into chemicals and fuels. While much of the platform is well understood, little is known about its microbiology. Mesophilic (40 C) and thermophilic (55 C) fermentations employing a sorghum feedstock and marine sediment inoculum were profiled using 16S rRNA tag-pyrosequencing over the course of a 30-day incubation. The contrasting fermentation temperatures converted similar amounts of biomass, but the mesophilic community was significantly more productive, and the two temperatures differed significantly with respect to propionic and butyric acid production. Pyrotag sequencing revealed the presence of dynamic communities that responded rapidly to temperature and changed substantially over time. Both temperatures were dominated by bacteria resembling Clostridia, but they shared few taxa in common. The species-rich mesophilic community harbored a variety of Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and {gamma}-Proteobacteria, whereas the thermophilic community was composed mainly of Clostridia and Bacilli. Despite differences in composition and productivity, similar patterns of functional class dynamics were observed. Over time, organisms resembling known cellulose degraders decreased in abundance, while organisms resembling known xylose degraders increased. Improved understanding of the carboxylate platform's microbiology will help refine platform performance and contribute to our growing knowledge regarding biomass conversion and biofuel production processes. (orig.)

Structure and dynamics of the microbial communities underlying the carboxylate platform for biofuel production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hollister, Emily B; Gentry, Terry J [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences; Forrest, Andrea K; Holtzapple, Mark T [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering; Wilkinson, Heather H; Ebbole, Daniel J [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Plant Pathology and Microbiology; Malfatti, Stephanie A; Tringe, Susannah G [DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA (United States)

2010-09-15

The carboxylate platform utilizes a mixed microbial community to convert lignocellulosic biomass into chemicals and fuels. While much of the platform is well understood, little is known about its microbiology. Mesophilic (40 C) and thermophilic (55 C) fermentations employing a sorghum feedstock and marine sediment inoculum were profiled using 16S rRNA tag-pyrosequencing over the course of a 30-day incubation. The contrasting fermentation temperatures converted similar amounts of biomass, but the mesophilic community was significantly more productive, and the two temperatures differed significantly with respect to propionic and butyric acid production. Pyrotag sequencing revealed the presence of dynamic communities that responded rapidly to temperature and changed substantially over time. Both temperatures were dominated by bacteria resembling Clostridia, but they shared few taxa in common. The species-rich mesophilic community harbored a variety of Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and {gamma}-Proteobacteria, whereas the thermophilic community was composed mainly of Clostridia and Bacilli. Despite differences in composition and productivity, similar patterns of functional class dynamics were observed. Over time, organisms resembling known cellulose degraders decreased in abundance, while organisms resembling known xylose degraders increased. Improved understanding of the carboxylate platform's microbiology will help refine platform performance and contribute to our growing knowledge regarding biomass conversion and biofuel production processes. (orig.)

Crowdsourcing Broad Absorption Line Properties and Other Features of Quasar Outflow Using Zooniverse Citizen Science Project Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Crowe, Cassie; Lundgren, Britt; Grier, Catherine

2018-01-01

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) regularly publishes vast catalogs of quasars and other astronomical objects. Previously, the SDSS collaboration has used visual inspection to check quasar redshift validity and flag instances of broad absorption lines (BALs). This information helps researchers to easily single out the quasars with BAL properties and study their outflows and other intervening gas clouds. Due to the ever-growing number of new SDSS quasar observations, visual inspections are no longer possible using previous methods. Currently, BAL information is being determined entirely computationally, and the accuracy of that information is not precisely known. This project uses the Zooniverse citizen science platform to visually inspect quasar spectra for BAL properties, to check the accuracy of the current autonomous methods, and to flag multi-phase outflows and find candidates for in-falling gas into the quasar central engine. The layout and format of a Zooniverse project provides an easier way to inspect and record data on each spectrum and share the workload via crowdsourcing. Work done by the SDSS collaboration members is serving as a beta test for a public project upon the official release of the DR14 quasar catalog by SDSS.

NCEL (Naval Civil Engineering Lab.) Ocean Platforms Seminar.

Science.gov (United States)

1983-11-01

Ido (11a) -. 0 3 -,2 21 C1 = (2UmT/T D)/(pDUm L) f Fm sin(e) de (11b) 0 where F mL = measured force per unit length, CT = 1+C, Cm being the added mass...located around the perimeter of the jacket’s base. These structures are fabricated onshore and then skidded onto a barge, transported offshore...type platforms. Both Cerveza and the Cerveza Ligera platforms[ 7] were launched in one piece and installed in 935 ft and 925 ft of water respectively

The big data processing platform for intelligent agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jintao; Zhang, Lichen

2017-08-01

Big data technology is another popular technology after the Internet of Things and cloud computing. Big data is widely used in many fields such as social platform, e-commerce, and financial analysis and so on. Intelligent agriculture in the course of the operation will produce large amounts of data of complex structure, fully mining the value of these data for the development of agriculture will be very meaningful. This paper proposes an intelligent data processing platform based on Storm and Cassandra to realize the storage and management of big data of intelligent agriculture.

Development and application of knowledge-based subject group integration platforms:A case study of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics,CAS

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yu; LIU; Jian; FU; Huijun; ZHENG; Hao; CHEN; Zhiping; YANG

2014-01-01

Purpose:According to the different requirements of research group users,we established the knowledge-based subject group integration platforms of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics,the Chinese Academy of Sciences(abbreviated as SIC CAS hereinafter),which were designed and constructed to better meet the needs of CAS research groups for their development,collaboration and communication.Design/methodology/approach:We first identified the requirements of users via preliminary investigation,and then chose CASI1 P,iLibrary and XKE technology,respectively as the building tools compatible with the major demands of users.These steps helped us complete the layout design of SIC CAS integration platforms,as well as its knowledge organization and integration.Findings:According to the need of users,we applied three types of platform construction technologies to five SIC integration platforms,and formulated standard norms for the further construction process,which could provide useful reference for a sustainable development for the extensive construction in CAS institutes.Research limitations:In order to make the SIC integration platforms more intelligent and have more functions,we need to enlarge the scale of the Platforms and upgrade the building tools for the platform construction.Practical implications:The nature of SIC sub-project integration platforms is to construct a content-sensitive environment which can embed knowledge services and knowledge applications seamlessly into scientific activities,so the Platform is expected to be a useful tool to help researchers better understand the recent development of the research field and form collaborations with their peers.Originality/value:SIC integration platforms are the only pilot construction that used 3different platform technologies in the first batch of knowledge-based subject group integration platforms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The construction is user-centered throughout the whole process,namely,from the technology

The Science of a Sundae: Using the Principle of Colligative Properties in Food Science Outreach Activities for Middle and High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Wickware, Carmen L.; Day, Charles T.C.; Adams, Michael; Orta-Ramirez, Alicia; Snyder, Abigail B.

2017-01-01

The opportunities for outreach activities for professionals and academics in food science are extensive, as too are the range of participants' experience levels and platforms for delivery. Here, we present a set of activities that are readily adaptable for a range of students (ages 10 to 18) in multiple platforms (demonstration table and hands-on…

An end-to-end microfluidic platform for engineering life supporting microbes in space exploration missions, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — HJ Science & Technology proposes a programmable, low-cost, and compact microfluidic platform capable of running automated end-to-end processes and optimization...

NUCLEONICA: a nuclear science portal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magill, J.; Galy, J.; Dreher, R.; Hamilton, D.; Tufan, M.; Normand, C.; Schwenk-Ferrero, A.; Wiese, H.W.

2008-01-01

NUCLEONICA is a new nuclear science web portal from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. The portal provides a customizable, integrated environment and collaboration platform for the nuclear sciences using the latest 'Web 2.0' dynamic technology. NUCLEONICA is aimed at professionals, academics and students working with radionuclides in fields as diverse as the life sciences (e.g., biology, medicine, agriculture), the earth sciences (geology, meteorology, environmental science) and the more traditional disciplines such as nuclear power, health physics and radiation protection, nuclear and radio-chemistry, and astrophysics. It is also used as a knowledge management tool to preserve nuclear knowledge built up over many decades by creating modern web-based versions of so-called legacy computer codes. (authors)

Mobile platform security

CERN Document Server

Asokan, N; Dmitrienko, Alexandra

2013-01-01

Recently, mobile security has garnered considerable interest in both the research community and industry due to the popularity of smartphones. The current smartphone platforms are open systems that allow application development, also for malicious parties. To protect the mobile device, its user, and other mobile ecosystem stakeholders such as network operators, application execution is controlled by a platform security architecture. This book explores how such mobile platform security architectures work. We present a generic model for mobile platform security architectures: the model illustrat

African Journal of Political Science: Editorial Policies

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The AJPS is published by the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), with the aim of providing a platform for African perspectives on issues of politics, economy and society in Africa. It is published 2 times a year - in June and December, and targeted at the social science community, policy-makers, and university ...

The ELPA library: scalable parallel eigenvalue solutions for electronic structure theory and computational science.

Science.gov (United States)

Marek, A; Blum, V; Johanni, R; Havu, V; Lang, B; Auckenthaler, T; Heinecke, A; Bungartz, H-J; Lederer, H

2014-05-28

Obtaining the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of large matrices is a key problem in electronic structure theory and many other areas of computational science. The computational effort formally scales as O(N(3)) with the size of the investigated problem, N (e.g. the electron count in electronic structure theory), and thus often defines the system size limit that practical calculations cannot overcome. In many cases, more than just a small fraction of the possible eigenvalue/eigenvector pairs is needed, so that iterative solution strategies that focus only on a few eigenvalues become ineffective. Likewise, it is not always desirable or practical to circumvent the eigenvalue solution entirely. We here review some current developments regarding dense eigenvalue solvers and then focus on the Eigenvalue soLvers for Petascale Applications (ELPA) library, which facilitates the efficient algebraic solution of symmetric and Hermitian eigenvalue problems for dense matrices that have real-valued and complex-valued matrix entries, respectively, on parallel computer platforms. ELPA addresses standard as well as generalized eigenvalue problems, relying on the well documented matrix layout of the Scalable Linear Algebra PACKage (ScaLAPACK) library but replacing all actual parallel solution steps with subroutines of its own. For these steps, ELPA significantly outperforms the corresponding ScaLAPACK routines and proprietary libraries that implement the ScaLAPACK interface (e.g. Intel's MKL). The most time-critical step is the reduction of the matrix to tridiagonal form and the corresponding backtransformation of the eigenvectors. ELPA offers both a one-step tridiagonalization (successive Householder transformations) and a two-step transformation that is more efficient especially towards larger matrices and larger numbers of CPU cores. ELPA is based on the MPI standard, with an early hybrid MPI-OpenMPI implementation available as well. Scalability beyond 10,000 CPU cores for problem

Towards a Scalable and Adaptive Application Support Platform for Large-Scale Distributed E-Sciences in High-Performance Network Environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu, Chase Qishi [New Jersey Inst. of Technology, Newark, NJ (United States); Univ. of Memphis, TN (United States); Zhu, Michelle Mengxia [Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale, IL (United States)

2016-06-06

workflows with the convenience of a few mouse clicks while hiding the implementation and technical details from end users. Particularly, we will consider two types of applications with distinct performance requirements: data-centric and service-centric applications. For data-centric applications, the main workflow task involves large-volume data generation, catalog, storage, and movement typically from supercomputers or experimental facilities to a team of geographically distributed users; while for service-centric applications, the main focus of workflow is on data archiving, preprocessing, filtering, synthesis, visualization, and other application-specific analysis. We will conduct a comprehensive comparison of existing workflow systems and choose the best suited one with open-source code, a flexible system structure, and a large user base as the starting point for our development. Based on the chosen system, we will develop and integrate new components including a black box design of computing modules, performance monitoring and prediction, and workflow optimization and reconfiguration, which are missing from existing workflow systems. A modular design for separating specification, execution, and monitoring aspects will be adopted to establish a common generic infrastructure suited for a wide spectrum of science applications. We will further design and develop efficient workflow mapping and scheduling algorithms to optimize the workflow performance in terms of minimum end-to-end delay, maximum frame rate, and highest reliability. We will develop and demonstrate the SWAMP system in a local environment, the grid network, and the 100Gpbs Advanced Network Initiative (ANI) testbed. The demonstration will target scientific applications in climate modeling and high energy physics and the functions to be demonstrated include workflow deployment, execution, steering, and reconfiguration. Throughout the project period, we will work closely with the science communities in the

Health-e-Child: a grid platform for european paediatrics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skaburskas, K; Estrella, F; Shade, J; Manset, D; Revillard, J; Rios, A; Anjum, A; Branson, A; Bloodsworth, P; Hauer, T; McClatchey, R; Rogulin, D

2008-01-01

The Health-e-Child (HeC) project [1], [2] is an EC Framework Programme 6 Integrated Project that aims to develop a grid-based integrated healthcare platform for paediatrics. Using this platform biomedical informaticians will integrate heterogeneous data and perform epidemiological studies across Europe. The resulting Grid enabled biomedical information platform will be supported by robust search, optimization and matching techniques for information collected in hospitals across Europe. In particular, paediatricians will be provided with decision support, knowledge discovery and disease modelling applications that will access data in hospitals in the UK, Italy and France, integrated via the Grid. For economy of scale, reusability, extensibility, and maintainability, HeC is being developed on top of an EGEE/gLite [3] based infrastructure that provides all the common data and computation management services required by the applications. This paper discusses some of the major challenges in bio-medical data integration and indicates how these will be resolved in the HeC system. HeC is presented as an example of how computer science (and, in particular Grid infrastructures) originating from high energy physics can be adapted for use by biomedical informaticians to deliver tangible real-world benefits

Explosives remain preferred methods for platform abandonment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pulsipher, A.; Daniel, W. IV; Kiesler, J.E.; Mackey, V. III

1996-01-01

Economics and safety concerns indicate that methods involving explosives remain the most practical and cost-effective means for abandoning oil and gas structures in the Gulf of Mexico. A decade has passed since 51 dead sea turtles, many endangered Kemp's Ridleys, washed ashore on the Texas coast shortly after explosives helped remove several offshore platforms. Although no relationship between the explosions and the dead turtles was ever established, in response to widespread public concern, the US Minerals Management Service (MMS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) implemented regulations limiting the size and timing of explosive charges. Also, more importantly, they required that operators pay for observers to survey waters surrounding platforms scheduled for removal for 48 hr before any detonations. If observers spot sea turtles or marine mammals within the danger zone, the platform abandonment is delayed until the turtles leave or are removed. However, concern about the effects of explosives on marine life remains

Analysis and experiments of a novel and compact 3-DOF precision positioning platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Hu; Zhao, Hongwei; Fan, Zunqiang; Zhang, Hui; Ma, Zhichao; Yang, Zhaojun

2013-01-01

A novel 3-DOF precision positioning platform with dimensions of 48 mm X 50 mm X 35 mm was designed by integrating piezo actuators and flexure hinges. The platform has a compact structure but it can do high precision positioning in three axes. The dynamic model of the platform in a single direction was established. Stiffness of the flexure hinges and modal characteristics of the flexure hinge mechanism were analyzed by the finite element method. Output displacements of the platform along three axes were forecasted via stiffness analysis. Output performance of the platform in x and y axes with open-loop control as well as the z-axis with closed-loop control was tested and discussed. The preliminary application of the platform in the field of nanoindentation indicates that the designed platform works well during nanoindentation tests, and the closed-loop control ensures the linear displacement output. With suitable control, the platform has the potential to realize different positioning functions under various working conditions.

Towards A Regional Science Academy: A Manifesto

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karima Kourtit

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This Manifesto provides a joint proposal to create a Regional Science Academy as a think-tank support platform for a strategic development of the spatial sciences. The Regional Science Academy is a strategic spatial knowledge catalyst: it acts as a global intellectual powerhouse for new knowledge network initiatives and scholarly views on regions and cities as vital centrepieces of interconnected spatial systems. This contribution highlights its role and presents various activity plans.

Design and Analysis of a Compact Precision Positioning Platform Integrating Strain Gauges and the Piezoactuator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shunguang Wan

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Miniaturization precision positioning platforms are needed for in situ nanomechanical test applications. This paper proposes a compact precision positioning platform integrating strain gauges and the piezoactuator. Effects of geometric parameters of two parallel plates on Von Mises stress distribution as well as static and dynamic characteristics of the platform were studied by the finite element method. Results of the calibration experiment indicate that the strain gauge sensor has good linearity and its sensitivity is about 0.0468 mV/μm. A closed-loop control system was established to solve the problem of nonlinearity of the platform. Experimental results demonstrate that for the displacement control process, both the displacement increasing portion and the decreasing portion have good linearity, verifying that the control system is available. The developed platform has a compact structure but can realize displacement measurement with the embedded strain gauges, which is useful for the closed-loop control and structure miniaturization of piezo devices. It has potential applications in nanoindentation and nanoscratch tests, especially in the field of in situ nanomechanical testing which requires compact structures.

Features of Inner Structure of Placer Gold of the North-Eastern Part Siberian Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Gerasimov, Boris; Zhuravlev, Anatolii; Ivanov, Alexey

2017-12-01

Mineral and raw material base of placer and ore gold is based on prognosis evaluation, which allows to define promising areas regarding gold-bearing deposit prospecting. But there are some difficulties in gold primary source predicting and prospecting at the North-east Siberian platform, because the studied area is overlapped by thick cover of the Cenozoic deposits, where traditional methods of gold deposit prospecting are ineffective. In this connection, detailed study of typomorphic features of placer gold is important, because it contains key genetic information, necessary for development of mineralogical criteria of prognosis evaluation of ore gold content. Authors studied mineralogical-geochemical features of placer gold of the Anabar placer area for 15 years, with a view to identify indicators of gold, typical for different formation types of primary sources. This article presents results of these works. In placer regions, where primary sources of gold are not identified, there is need to study typomorphic features of placer gold, because it contains important genetic information, necessary for the development of mineralogical criteria of prognosis evaluation of ore gold content. Inner structures of gold from the Anabar placer region are studied, as one of the diagnostic typomorphic criteria as described in prominent method, developed by N.V. Petrovskaya [1980]. Etching of gold was carried out using reagent: HCl + HNO3 + FeCl3 × 6H2O + CrO3 +thioureat + water. Identified inner structures wer studied in details by means of scanning electron microscope JEOL JSM-6480LV. Two types of gold are identified according to the features of inner structure of placer gold of the Anabar region. First type - medium-high karat fine, well processed gold with significantly changed inner structure. This gold is allochthonous, which was redeposited many times from ancient intermediate reservoirs to younger deposits. Second type - low-medium karat, poorly rounded gold with

Platform-based production development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bossen, Jacob; Brunoe, Thomas Ditlev; Nielsen, Kjeld

2015-01-01

Platforms as a means for applying modular thinking in product development is relatively well studied, but platforms in the production system has until now not been given much attention. With the emerging concept of platform-based co-development the importance of production platforms is though...

Research on integrated simulation of fluid-structure system by computation science techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamaguchi, Akira

1996-01-01

In Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation, the research on the integrated simulation of fluid-structure system by computation science techniques has been carried out, and by its achievement, the verification of plant systems which has depended on large scale experiments is substituted by computation science techniques, in this way, it has been aimed at to reduce development costs and to attain the optimization of FBR systems. For the purpose, it is necessary to establish the technology for integrally and accurately analyzing complicated phenomena (simulation technology), the technology for applying it to large scale problems (speed increasing technology), and the technology for assuring the reliability of the results of analysis when simulation technology is utilized for the permission and approval of FBRs (verifying technology). The simulation of fluid-structure interaction, the heat flow simulation in the space with complicated form and the related technologies are explained. As the utilization of computation science techniques, the elucidation of phenomena by numerical experiment and the numerical simulation as the substitute for tests are discussed. (K.I.)

NCI's Transdisciplinary High Performance Scientific Data Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Ben; Antony, Joseph; Bastrakova, Irina; Car, Nicholas; Cox, Simon; Druken, Kelsey; Evans, Bradley; Fraser, Ryan; Ip, Alex; Kemp, Carina; King, Edward; Minchin, Stuart; Larraondo, Pablo; Pugh, Tim; Richards, Clare; Santana, Fabiana; Smillie, Jon; Trenham, Claire; Wang, Jingbo; Wyborn, Lesley

2016-04-01

The Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) manages Earth Systems data collections sourced from several domains and organisations onto a single High Performance Data (HPD) Node to further Australia's national priority research and innovation agenda. The NCI HPD Node has rapidly established its value, currently managing over 10 PBytes of datasets from collections that span a wide range of disciplines including climate, weather, environment, geoscience, geophysics, water resources and social sciences. Importantly, in order to facilitate broad user uptake, maximise reuse and enable transdisciplinary access through software and standardised interfaces, the datasets, associated information systems and processes have been incorporated into the design and operation of a unified platform that NCI has called, the National Environmental Research Data Interoperability Platform (NERDIP). The key goal of the NERDIP is to regularise data access so that it is easily discoverable, interoperable for different domains and enabled for high performance methods. It adopts and implements international standards and data conventions, and promotes scientific integrity within a high performance computing and data analysis environment. NCI has established a rich and flexible computing environment to access to this data, through the NCI supercomputer; a private cloud that supports both domain focused virtual laboratories and in-common interactive analysis interfaces; as well as remotely through scalable data services. Data collections of this importance must be managed with careful consideration of both their current use and the needs of the end-communities, as well as its future potential use, such as transitioning to more advanced software and improved methods. It is therefore critical that the data platform is both well-managed and trusted for stable production use (including transparency and reproducibility), agile enough to incorporate new technological advances and

3D FEM Analysis of a Pile-Supported Riverine Platform under Environmental Loads Incorporating Soil-Pile Interaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denise-Penelope N. Kontoni

2018-01-01

Full Text Available An existing riverine platform in Egypt, together with its pile group foundation, is analyzed under environmental loads using 3D FEM structural analysis software incorporating soil-pile interaction. The interaction between the transfer plate and the piles supporting the platform is investigated. Two connection conditions were studied assuming fixed or hinged connection between the piles and the reinforced concrete platform for the purpose of comparison of the structural behavior. The analysis showed that the fixed or hinged connection condition between the piles and the platform altered the values and distribution of displacements, normal force, bending moments, and shear forces along the length of each pile. The distribution of piles in the pile group affects the stress distribution on both the soil and platform. The piles were found to suffer from displacement failure rather than force failure. Moreover, the resulting bending stresses on the reinforced concrete plate in the case of a fixed connection between the piles and the platform were almost doubled and much higher than the allowable reinforced concrete stress and even exceeded the ultimate design strength and thus the environmental loads acting on a pile-supported riverine offshore platform may cause collapse if they are not properly considered in the structural analysis and design.

Evaluation of stress resultant of offshore jacket platform using neural network

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Mandal, S.; Hegde, G.; Gupta, K.G.

The safety of an offshore platform depends on the predicting environmental phenomena such as wind, current, wave, seismic loadings and accurate calculation of responses of the structure to these loads and determining the strength of the structure...

Restoration Science in New York Harbor: It takes a (large, diverse and engaged) village

Science.gov (United States)

Newton, R.; Birney, L.; Janis, S.; Groome, M.; Palmer, M.; Bone, E.; O'Neil, J. M.; Hill, J.; Dennison, W.; Malinowski, P.; Kohne, L.; Molina, M.; Moore, G.; Woods, N.

2015-12-01

The Curriculum + Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (CCE-RS) facilitates partnerships between scientists and middle school educators on ecological restoration and environmental monitoring projects. The educational model is designed to wrap around the student, including classroom instruction, field science, after-school programs and engagement with the student's community. Its pillars include: a teacher training fellowship at Pace University, student curriculum, a digital platform, afterschool and summer mentoring, and community exhibits. The digital platform includes a tablet app tailored to the project's field protocols and linked to a database shared across schools and partnering institutions. Through the digital platform, data is integrated into a single citizen-science monitoring project, teachers share curriculum and best practices, and students link directly to their peers at other schools. Curriculum development has been collaborative between scientists, science education specialists, and secondary school teachers. The CCE-RS is rooted in project-based learning: the New York Harbor School has engaged high school students in environmental monitoring and oyster restoration in the Harbor for about the last decade. The science partners (U. of Maryland and Columbia) have been working with students and other citizen scientists in outdoor science over about the last decade. Local partners in outside-the-classroom education include the New York Academy of Sciences, The River Project, which will provide field education services, and Good Shepherd Services, which provides after-school programming in schools serving primarily poor families. Scientists on the project engage directly with teachers and informal educators in curriculum development and citizen-science outreach. We present the lessons learned from our first cohort of Fellows, the pedagogical model, and the digital platform, which is extensible to other ecological restoration settings.

Development of jacket platform tsunami risk rating system in waters offshore North Borneo

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, H. E.; Liew, M. S.; Mardi, N. H.; Na, K. L.; Toloue, Iraj; Wong, S. K.

2016-09-01

This work details the simulation of tsunami waves generated by seaquakes in the Manila Trench and their effect on fixed oil and gas jacket platforms in waters offshore North Borneo. For this study, a four-leg living quarter jacket platform located in a water depth of 63m is modelled in SACS v5.3. Malaysia has traditionally been perceived to be safe from the hazards of earthquakes and tsunamis. Local design practices tend to neglect tsunami waves and include no such provisions. In 2004, a 9.3 M w seaquake occurred off the northwest coast of Aceh, which generated tsunami waves that caused destruction in Malaysia totalling US 25 million and 68 deaths. This event prompted an awareness of the need to study the reliability of fixed offshore platforms scattered throughout Malaysian waters. In this paper, we present a review of research on the seismicity of the Manila Trench, which is perceived to be high risk for Southeast Asia. From the tsunami numerical model TUNA-M2, we extract computer-simulated tsunami waves at prescribed grid points in the vicinity of the platforms in the region. Using wave heights as input, we simulate the tsunami using SACS v5.3 structural analysis software of offshore platforms, which is widely accepted by the industry. We employ the nonlinear solitary wave theory in our tsunami loading calculations for the platforms, and formulate a platform-specific risk quantification system. We then perform an intensive structural sensitivity analysis and derive a corresponding platform-specific risk rating model.

Omnidirectional holonomic platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pin, F.G.; Killough, S.M.

1994-01-01

This paper presents the concepts for a new family of wheeled platforms which feature full omnidirectionality with simultaneous and independently controlled rotational and translational motion capabilities. The authors first present the orthogonal-wheels concept and the two major wheel assemblies on which these platforms are based. They then describe how a combination of these assemblies with appropriate control can be used to generate an omnidirectional capability for mobile robot platforms. The design and control of two prototype platforms are then presented and their respective characteristics with respect to rotational and translational motion control are discussed

Platform decommissioning costs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodger, David

1998-01-01

There are over 6500 platforms worldwide contributing to the offshore oil and gas production industry. In the North Sea there are around 500 platforms in place. There are many factors to be considered in planning for platform decommissioning and the evaluation of options for removal and disposal. The environmental impact, technical feasibility, safety and cost factors all have to be considered. This presentation considers what information is available about the overall decommissioning costs for the North Sea and the costs of different removal and disposal options for individual platforms. 2 figs., 1 tab

International Conference of Applied Science and Technology for Infrastructure Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Elvina Santoso, Shelvy; Hardianto, Ekky

2017-11-01

Preface: International Conference of Applied Science and Technology for Infrastructure Engineering (ICASIE) 2017. The International Conference of Applied Science and Technology for Infrastructure Engineering (ICASIE) 2017 has been scheduled and successfully taken place at Swiss-Bell Inn Hotel, Surabaya, Indonesia, on August 5th 2017 organized by Department of Civil Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Vocation, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS). This annual event aims to create synergies between government, private sectors; employers; practitioners; and academics. This conference has different theme each year and “MATERIAL FOR INFRASTUCTURE ENGINEERING” will be taken for this year’s main theme. In addition, we also provide a platform for various other sub-theme topic including but not limited to Geopolymer Concrete and Materials Technology, Structural Dynamics, Engineering, and Sustainability, Seismic Design and Control of Structural Vibrations, Innovative and Green Buildings, Project Management, Transportation and Highway Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Water Engineering and Resources Management, Surveying and Geospatial Engineering, Coastal Engineering, Geophysics, Energy, Electronic and Mechatronic, Industrial Process, and Data Mining. List of Organizers, Journal Editors, Steering Committee, International Scientific Committee, Chairman, Keynote Speakers are available in this pdf.

Design and control of multifunctional sorting and training platform based on PLC control

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Hongqiang; Ge, Shuai; Han, Peiying; Li, Fancong; Zhang, Simiao

2018-05-01

Electromechanical integration, as a multi-disciplinary subject, has been paid much attention by universities and is widely used in the automation production of enterprises. Aiming at the problem of the lack of control among enterprises and the lack of training among colleges and universities, this paper presents a design of multifunctional sorting training platform based on PLC control. Firstly, the structure of the platform is determined and three-dimensional modeling is done. Then design the platform's aerodynamic control and electrical control. Finally, realize the platform sorting function through PLC programming and configuration software development. The training platform can be used to design the practical training experiment, which has a strong advance and pertinence in the electromechanical integration teaching. At the same time, the platform makes full use of modular thinking to make the sorting modules more flexible. Compared with the traditional training platform, its teaching effect is more significant.

Astrobee: A New Platform for Free-Flying Robotics on the International Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Trey; Barlow, Jonathan; Bualat, Maria; Fong, Terrence; Provencher, Christopher; Sanchez, Hugo; Smith, Ernest

2016-01-01

The Astrobees are next-generation free-flying robots that will operate in the interior of the International Space Station (ISS). Their primary purpose is to provide a flexible platform for research on zero-g freeflying robotics, with the ability to carry a wide variety of future research payloads and guest science software. They will also serve utility functions: as free-flying cameras to record video of astronaut activities, and as mobile sensor platforms to conduct surveys of the ISS. The Astrobee system includes two robots, a docking station, and a ground data system (GDS). It is developed by the Human Exploration Telerobotics 2 (HET-2) Project, which began in Oct. 2014, and will deliver the Astrobees for launch to ISS in 2017. This paper covers selected aspects of the Astrobee design, focusing on capabilities relevant to potential users of the platform.

An Aristotelian realist philosophy of mathematics mathematics as the science of quantity and structure

CERN Document Server

Franklin, J

2014-01-01

Mathematics is as much a science of the real world as biology is. It is the science of the world's quantitative aspects (such as ratio) and structural or patterned aspects (such as symmetry). The book develops a complete philosophy of mathematics that contrasts with the usual Platonist and nominalist options.

Product Platform Replacements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sköld, Martin; Karlsson, Christer

2012-01-01

. To shed light on this unexplored and growing managerial concern, the purpose of this explorative study is to identify operational challenges to management when product platforms are replaced. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a longitudinal field-study approach. Two companies, Gamma and Omega...... replacement was chosen in each company. Findings – The study shows that platform replacements primarily challenge managers' existing knowledge about platform architectures. A distinction can be made between “width” and “height” in platform replacements, and it is crucial that managers observe this in order...... to challenge their existing knowledge about platform architectures. Issues on technologies, architectures, components and processes as well as on segments, applications and functions are identified. Practical implications – Practical implications are summarized and discussed in relation to a framework...

GeneLab: NASA's Open Access, Collaborative Platform for Systems Biology and Space Medicine

Science.gov (United States)

Berrios, Daniel C.; Thompson, Terri G.; Fogle, Homer W.; Rask, Jon C.; Coughlan, Joseph C.

2015-01-01

NASA is investing in GeneLab1 (http:genelab.nasa.gov), a multi-year effort to maximize utilization of the limited resources to conduct biological and medical research in space, principally aboard the International Space Station (ISS). High-throughput genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic or other omics analyses from experiments conducted on the ISS will be stored in the GeneLab Data Systems (GLDS), an open-science information system that will also include a biocomputation platform with collaborative science capabilities, to enable the discovery and validation of molecular networks.

Remote sensing image segmentation based on Hadoop cloud platform

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jie; Zhu, Lingling; Cao, Fubin

2018-01-01

To solve the problem that the remote sensing image segmentation speed is slow and the real-time performance is poor, this paper studies the method of remote sensing image segmentation based on Hadoop platform. On the basis of analyzing the structural characteristics of Hadoop cloud platform and its component MapReduce programming, this paper proposes a method of image segmentation based on the combination of OpenCV and Hadoop cloud platform. Firstly, the MapReduce image processing model of Hadoop cloud platform is designed, the input and output of image are customized and the segmentation method of the data file is rewritten. Then the Mean Shift image segmentation algorithm is implemented. Finally, this paper makes a segmentation experiment on remote sensing image, and uses MATLAB to realize the Mean Shift image segmentation algorithm to compare the same image segmentation experiment. The experimental results show that under the premise of ensuring good effect, the segmentation rate of remote sensing image segmentation based on Hadoop cloud Platform has been greatly improved compared with the single MATLAB image segmentation, and there is a great improvement in the effectiveness of image segmentation.

Platform Isolation Using Out-of-Plane Complaint Mechanisms

KAUST Repository

Arevalo, A.

2014-10-08

This paper reports the structural solid mechanic simulation of a MEMS out-of-plane platform that provides thermal and electrical isolation for a device built on it. When assemble, the platform lifted for approximately 400 μm above the substrate level. A mechanical stress analysis is then presented in order to evaluate the feasibility of building it using commonly used materials in MEMS. Our analysis showed that polymeric materials such as polyimide and SU8 may undergo a localized plastic deformation but are not likely to fail upon assembly. Polysilicon on the contrary, showed high failure probability.

Platform Isolation Using Out-of-Plane Complaint Mechanisms

KAUST Repository

Arevalo, A.; Rawashdeh, E.; Foulds, I. G.

2014-01-01

This paper reports the structural solid mechanic simulation of a MEMS out-of-plane platform that provides thermal and electrical isolation for a device built on it. When assemble, the platform lifted for approximately 400 μm above the substrate level. A mechanical stress analysis is then presented in order to evaluate the feasibility of building it using commonly used materials in MEMS. Our analysis showed that polymeric materials such as polyimide and SU8 may undergo a localized plastic deformation but are not likely to fail upon assembly. Polysilicon on the contrary, showed high failure probability.

Science in Society in Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mejlgaard, Niels; Bloch, Carter Walter

2012-01-01

This paper introduces a special section of Science and Public Policy on science in society in Europe. Based on extensive data collected for the Monitoring Policy and Research Activities on Science in Society in Europe (MASIS) project, contributions to this special section explore pertinent issues...... related to the location, role and responsibility of science across EU member states and associated countries. By developing analytical typologies and classifying countries, the collection of papers provides a novel and detailed picture of Europe. It reveals considerable variation regarding...... the interactions of science and society at the national level, and it offers a platform for international learning. The identification of patterns and trends concerning the place of science in society may also feed into emerging European discussions about ‘responsible research and innovation’....

AMMOS: A Software Platform to Assist in silico Screening

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lagorce D.

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Three software packages based on the common platform of AMMOS (Automated Molecular Mechanics Optimization tool for in silico Screening for assisting virtual ligand screening purposes have been recently developed. DG-AMMOS allows generation of 3D conformations of small molecules using distance geometry and molecular mechanics optimization. AMMOS_SmallMol is a package for structural refinement of compound collections that can be used prior to docking experiments. AMMOS_ProtLig is a package for energy minimization of protein-ligand complexes. It performs an automatic procedure for molecular mechanics minimization at different levels of flexibility - from rigid to fully flexible structures of both the ligand and the receptor. The packages have been tested on small molecules with a high structural diversity and proteins binding sites of completely different geometries and physicochemical properties. The platform is developed as an open source software and can be used in a broad range of in silico drug design studies.

Environmental load factors and system strength evaluation of offshore jacket platforms

CERN Document Server

Nizamani, Zafarullah

2015-01-01

This book presents a study for the determination of environmental load factors for Jacket Platforms in Malaysia and a methodology to determine the life extension of aging platforms. The simplified methods described here could be used for determining not only structural reliability but also safety factors. Its content is particularly interesting to design and maintenance engineers who are working in offshore or onshore industry.

OTEC platform configuration and integration study. Volume I. Systems engineering and integration. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1978-04-01

The economic success of an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system is highly dependent on a platform which provides adequate support for the power system, accommodates reliably the cold water pipe, and is most cost effective. The results of a study conducted for the Department of Energy to assess six generic types of platforms to determine the most satisfactory platform for severl potential sites are presented. The six platform configurations are ship, circular barge, semi-submersible, Tuned Sphere, submersible, and spar. These represent directional and symmetric types of platforms which operate on the surface, at the interface, and submerged. The five sites for this study were primarily New Orleans, Keahole Point (Hawaii), Brazil, and secondarily Key West and Puerto Rico. Electrical transmission of energy by submarine cable is the planned form of energy transmission for all sites except Brazil, where chemical conversion is to be the method of transmission. This study is devoted to the platform (or ocean systems) of the OTEC plant which is chiefly comprised of the hull and structure, the seawater system, the position control system, and miscellaneous support/assembly systems. The principal elements in the work breakdown structure for the commercial plants are presented. The assessment of the six platform configurations was conducted utilizing a baseline plan (100-MW(e) (Net)) and site (New Orleans) with variations from the baseline to cover the range of interested platforms and sites.

ART-SCIENCE OF THE SPACE AGE: towards a platform for art-science collaborations at ESTEC

Science.gov (United States)

Domnitch, E.; Gelfand, D.

2015-10-01

In 2013, in collaboration with ESTEC scientist Bernard Foing and the ArtScience Interfaculty (Royal Academy of the Arts, The Hague), Synergetica Lab (Amsterdam) developed a course, which was repeated in 2015, for bachelor's and master's students aimed at seeding interactions with ESA researchers. The participants created artworks investigating space travel, radio astronomy, microgravity, ecosynthesis as well as extraterrestrial physics and architecture [1] [2]. After their initial presentation at the Royal Academy, these artworks were shown at ESTEC, TodaysArt Festival (The Hague), and TEC ART (Rotterdam). These presentations prompted diverse future collaborations and outreach opportunities, including the European Planetary Science Congress 2014 (Cascais) and the AxS Festival (Los Angeles).

Keyword extraction, ranking, and organization for the neuroinformatics platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Usui, S; Palmes, P; Nagata, K; Taniguchi, T; Ueda, N

2007-04-01

Brain-related researches encompass many fields of studies and usually involve worldwide collaborations. Recognizing the value of these international collaborations for efficient use of resources and improving the quality of brain research, the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) started to coordinate the effort of establishing neuroinformatics (NI) centers and portal sites among the different participating countries. These NI centers and portal sites will serve as the conduit for the interchange of information and brain-related resources among different countries. In Japan, several NI platforms under the support of NIJC (NI Japan Center) are being developed with one platform called, Visiome, already operating and publicly accessible at "http://www.platform.visiome.org". Each of these platforms requires their own set of keywords that represent important terms covering their respective fields of study. One important function of this predefined keyword list is to help contributors classify the contents of their contributions and group related resources. It is vital, therefore, that this predefined list should be properly chosen to cover the necessary areas. Currently, the process of identifying these appropriate keywords relies on the availability of human experts which does not scale well considering that different areas are rapidly evolving. This problem prompted us to develop a tool to automatically filter the most likely terms preferred by human experts. We tested the effectiveness of the proposed approach using the abstracts of the Vision Research Journal (VR) and Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science Journal (IOVS) as source files.

Doing Science: A Theoretical Exposition of a Dualized Knowledge ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Doing Science: A Theoretical Exposition of a Dualized Knowledge Platform and the New University Entrant. ... International Journal of Development and Management Review ... And for core students of Science and Technology, the problematic of grasping the idea of the “other science” has been a daunting task.

Comparison of fishes taken by a sportfishing party vessel around oil platforms and adjacent natural reefs near Santa Barbara, California

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Love, M.S.; Westphal, W.

1990-01-01

Since 1958, 29 oil platforms have been sited in the southern California Bight of which 28 still remain in place. However, little is known of the fish populations surrounding these structures, particularly those sited in water deeper than 30 m. In the course of research on the Santa Barbara, California, party vessel sport fishery, it was noted that the platforms off Santa Barbara supported considerable sportfishing activity. Those platforms, located to the southeast of Santa Barbara in depths of 48-62 m, were particularly important and were fished intensively for various rockfishes (genus Sebastes). When fishing a platform, the vessel pulled up to within 5-10 m of a platform and drifts along one side, with the vessel operator using intermittent power to keep it near the structure. Most of the desirable species, particularly rockfishes, remained close to the platforms, rarely venturing more than perhaps 20 m from the structure. The party vessels also spent considerable time fishing over nearby natural reefs. In this survey, it was noted that there appeared to be differences in species catch composition and fish size between oil platforms and these natural reefs. Increased offshore oil drilling off California has raised interest in the role platforms play in marine systems. Questions have been raised regarding what fish live around platforms, how these structures influence populations over surrounding reefs, and whether the platforms act as fish enhancers (promoting recruitment) or only as aggregators. These questions are particularly relevant when the platforms are to be decommissioned and the possibility of allowing them to remain as artificial reefs is raised. This paper describes the results of the study on the fish populations around oil platforms and nearby natural reefs off Santa Barbara

Determining Science Student Teachers' Cognitive Structure on the Concept of "Food Chain"

Science.gov (United States)

Çinar, Derya

2015-01-01

The current study aims to determine science student teachers' cognitive structure on the concept of food chain. Qualitative research method was applied in this study. Fallacies detected in the pre-service teachers' conceptual structures are believed to result in students' developing misconceptions in their future classes and will adversely affect…

Product Platform Modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Rasmus

for customisation of products. In many companies these changes in the business environment have created a controversy between the need for a wide variety of products offered to the marketplace and a desire to reduce variation within the company in order to increase efficiency. Many companies use the concept...... other. These groups can be varied and combined to form different product variants without increasing the internal variety in the company. Based on the Theory of Domains, the concept of encapsulation in the organ domain is introduced, and organs are formulated as platform elements. Included......This PhD thesis has the title Product Platform Modelling. The thesis is about product platforms and visual product platform modelling. Product platforms have gained an increasing attention in industry and academia in the past decade. The reasons are many, yet the increasing globalisation...

Analysis of photonic spot profile converter and bridge structure on SOI platform for horizontal and vertical integration

Science.gov (United States)

Majumder, Saikat; Jha, Amit Kr.; Biswas, Aishik; Banerjee, Debasmita; Ganguly, Dipankar; Chakraborty, Rajib

2017-08-01

Horizontal spot size converter required for horizontal light coupling and vertical bridge structure required for vertical integration are designed on high index contrast SOI platform in order to form more compact integrated photonic circuits. Both the structures are based on the concept of multimode interference. The spot size converter can be realized by successive integration of multimode interference structures with reducing dimension on horizontal plane, whereas the optical bridge structure consists of a number of vertical multimode interference structure connected by single mode sections. The spot size converter can be modified to a spot profile converter when the final single mode waveguide is replaced by a slot waveguide. Analysis have shown that by using three multimode sections in a spot size converter, an Gaussian input having spot diameter of 2.51 μm can be converted to a spot diameter of 0.25 μm. If the output single mode section is replaced by a slot waveguide, this input profile can be converted to a flat top profile of width 50 nm. Similarly, vertical displacement of 8μm is possible by using a combination of two multimode sections and three single mode sections in the vertical bridge structure. The analyses of these two structures are carried out for both TE and TM modes at 1550 nm wavelength using the semi analytical matrix method which is simple and fast in computation time and memory. This work shows that the matrix method is equally applicable for analysis of horizontally as well as vertically integrated photonic circuit.

Ontology-Based Platform for Conceptual Guided Dataset Analysis

KAUST Repository

Rodriguez-Garcia, Miguel Angel

2016-05-31

Nowadays organizations should handle a huge amount of both internal and external data from structured, semi-structured, and unstructured sources. This constitutes a major challenge (and also an opportunity) to current Business Intelligence solutions. The complexity and effort required to analyse such plethora of data implies considerable execution times. Besides, the large number of data analysis methods and techniques impede domain experts (laymen from an IT-assisted analytics perspective) to fully exploit their potential, while technology experts lack the business background to get the proper questions. In this work, we present a semantically-boosted platform for assisting layman users in (i) extracting a relevant subdataset from all the data, and (ii) selecting the data analysis technique(s) best suited for scrutinising that subdataset. The outcome is getting better answers in significantly less time. The platform has been evaluated in the music domain with promising results.

The design and verification of probabilistic safety analysis platform NFRisk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Wenjun; Song Wei; Ren Lixia; Qian Hongtao

2010-01-01

To increase the technical ability in Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) field in China,it is necessary and important to study and develop indigenous professional PSA platform. Following such principle as 'from structure simplification to modulization to production of cut sets to minimum of cut sets', the algorithms, including simplification algorithm, modulization algorithm, the algorithm of conversion from fault tree to binary decision diagram (BDD), the solving algorithm of cut sets, the minimum algorithm of cut sets, and so on, were designed and developed independently; the design of data management and operation platform was completed all alone; the verification and validation of NFRisk platform based on 3 typical fault trees was finished on our own. (authors)

Application and Mechanics Analysis of Multi-Function Construction Platforms in Prefabricated-Concrete Construction

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Meihua; Li, Rongshuai; Zhang, Wenze

2017-11-01

Multi-function construction platforms (MCPs) as an “old construction technology, new application” of the building facade construction equipment, its efforts to reduce labour intensity, improve labour productivity, ensure construction safety, shorten the duration of construction and other aspects of the effect are significant. In this study, the functional analysis of the multi-function construction platforms is carried out in the construction of the assembly building. Based on the general finite element software ANSYS, the static calculation and dynamic characteristics analysis of the MCPs structure are analysed, the simplified finite element model is constructed, and the selection of the unit, the processing and solution of boundary are under discussion and research. The maximum deformation value, the maximum stress value and the structural dynamic characteristic model are obtained. The dangerous parts of the platform structure are analysed, too. Multiple types of MCPs under engineering construction conditions are calculated, so as to put forward the rationalization suggestions for engineering application of the MCPs.

Modeling and Simulation of Offshore Wind Power Platform for 5 MW Baseline NREL Turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Roni Sahroni, Taufik

2015-01-01

This paper presents the modeling and simulation of offshore wind power platform for oil and gas companies. Wind energy has become the fastest growing renewable energy in the world and major gains in terms of energy generation are achievable when turbines are moved offshore. The objective of this project is to propose new design of an offshore wind power platform. Offshore wind turbine (OWT) is composed of three main structures comprising the rotor/blades, the tower nacelle, and the supporting structure. The modeling analysis was focused on the nacelle and supporting structure. The completed final design was analyzed using finite element modeling tool ANSYS to obtain the structure's response towards loading conditions and to ensure it complies with guidelines laid out by classification authority Det Norske Veritas. As a result, a new model of the offshore wind power platform for 5 MW Baseline NREL turbine was proposed. PMID:26550605

Introducing Platform Interactions Model for Studying Multi-Sided Platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staykova, Kalina; Damsgaard, Jan

2018-01-01

Multi-Sided Platforms (MSPs) function as socio-technical entities that facilitate direct interactions between various affiliated to them constituencies through developing and managing IT architecture. In this paper, we aim to explain the nature of the platform interactions as key characteristic o...

The Possibilities and Limits of the Structure-Agency Dialectic in Advancing Science for All

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez, Kris D.; Calabrese Barton, Angela

2015-01-01

In this special issue, the structure-agency dialectic is used to shift the analytic frame in science education from focusing on youth as in need of remediation to rethinking new arrangements, tools, and forms of assistance and participation in support of youth learning science. This shift from "fixing" the individual to re-mediating and…

2015 Science Mission Directorate Technology Highlights

Science.gov (United States)

Seablom, Michael S.

2016-01-01

The role of the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is to enable NASA to achieve its science goals in the context of the Nation's science agenda. SMD's strategic decisions regarding future missions and scientific pursuits are guided by Agency goals, input from the science community including the recommendations set forth in the National Research Council (NRC) decadal surveys and a commitment to preserve a balanced program across the major science disciplines. Toward this end, each of the four SMD science divisions -- Heliophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics -- develops fundamental science questions upon which to base future research and mission programs. Often the breakthrough science required to answer these questions requires significant technological innovation, e.g., instruments or platforms with capabilities beyond the current state of the art. SMD's targeted technology investments fill technology gaps, enabling NASA to build the challenging and complex missions that accomplish groundbreaking science.

Power in the loop real time simulation platform for renewable energy generation

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yang; Shi, Wenhui; Zhang, Xing; He, Guoqing

2018-02-01

Nowadays, a large scale of renewable energy sources has been connecting to power system and the real time simulation platform is widely used to carry out research on integration control algorithm, power system stability etc. Compared to traditional pure digital simulation and hardware in the loop simulation, power in the loop simulation has higher accuracy and degree of reliability. In this paper, a power in the loop analog digital hybrid simulation platform has been built and it can be used not only for the single generation unit connecting to grid, but also for multiple new energy generation units connecting to grid. A wind generator inertia control experiment was carried out on the platform. The structure of the inertia control platform was researched and the results verify that the platform is up to need for renewable power in the loop real time simulation.

The community FabLab platform: applications and implications in biomedical engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, Makeda K; Dow, Douglas E

2014-01-01

Skill development in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education present one of the most formidable challenges of modern society. The Community FabLab platform presents a viable solution. Each FabLab contains a suite of modern computer numerical control (CNC) equipment, electronics and computing hardware and design, programming, computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided machining (CAM) software. FabLabs are community and educational resources and open to the public. Development of STEM based workforce skills such as digital fabrication and advanced manufacturing can be enhanced using this platform. Particularly notable is the potential of the FabLab platform in STEM education. The active learning environment engages and supports a diversity of learners, while the iterative learning that is supported by the FabLab rapid prototyping platform facilitates depth of understanding, creativity, innovation and mastery. The product and project based learning that occurs in FabLabs develops in the student a personal sense of accomplishment, self-awareness, command of the material and technology. This helps build the interest and confidence necessary to excel in STEM and throughout life. Finally the introduction and use of relevant technologies at every stage of the education process ensures technical familiarity and a broad knowledge base needed for work in STEM based fields. Biomedical engineering education strives to cultivate broad technical adeptness, creativity, interdisciplinary thought, and an ability to form deep conceptual understanding of complex systems. The FabLab platform is well designed to enhance biomedical engineering education.

Development of fast wireless detection system for fixed offshore platform

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhigang; Yu, Yan; Jiao, Dong; Wang, Jie; Li, Zhirui; Ou, Jinping

2011-04-01

Offshore platforms' security is concerned since in 1950s and 1960s, and in the early 1980s some important specifications and standards are built, and all these provide technical basis of fixed platform design, construction, installation and evaluation. With the condition that more and more platforms are in serving over age, the research about the evaluation and detection technology of offshore platform has been a hotspot, especially underwater detection, and assessment method based on the finite element calculation. For fixed platform structure detection, conventional NDT methods, such as eddy current, magnetic powder, permeate, X-ray and ultrasonic, etc, are generally used. These techniques are more mature, intuitive, but underwater detection needs underwater robot, the necessary supporting tools of auxiliary equipment, and trained professional team, thus resources and cost used are considerable, installation time of test equipment is long. This project presents a new kind of fast wireless detection and damage diagnosis system for fixed offshore platform using wireless sensor networks, that is, wireless sensor nodes can be put quickly on the offshore platform, detect offshore platform structure global status by wireless communication, and then make diagnosis. This system is operated simply, suitable for offshore platform integrity states rapid assessment. The designed system consists in intelligence acquisition equipment and 8 wireless collection nodes, the whole system has 64 collection channels, namely every wireless collection node has eight 16-bit accuracy of A/D channels. Wireless collection node, integrated with vibration sensing unit, embedded low-power micro-processing unit, wireless transceiver unit, large-capacity power unit, and GPS time synchronization unit, can finish the functions such as vibration data collection, initial analysis, data storage, data wireless transmission. Intelligence acquisition equipment, integrated with high

Applied Computational Mathematics in Social Sciences

CERN Document Server

Damaceanu, Romulus-Catalin

2010-01-01

Applied Computational Mathematics in Social Sciences adopts a modern scientific approach that combines knowledge from mathematical modeling with various aspects of social science. Special algorithms can be created to simulate an artificial society and a detailed analysis can subsequently be used to project social realities. This Ebook specifically deals with computations using the NetLogo platform, and is intended for researchers interested in advanced human geography and mathematical modeling studies.

Use of four next-generation sequencing platforms to determine HIV-1 coreceptor tropism.

Science.gov (United States)

Archer, John; Weber, Jan; Henry, Kenneth; Winner, Dane; Gibson, Richard; Lee, Lawrence; Paxinos, Ellen; Arts, Eric J; Robertson, David L; Mimms, Larry; Quiñones-Mateu, Miguel E

2012-01-01

HIV-1 coreceptor tropism assays are required to rule out the presence of CXCR4-tropic (non-R5) viruses prior treatment with CCR5 antagonists. Phenotypic (e.g., Trofile™, Monogram Biosciences) and genotypic (e.g., population sequencing linked to bioinformatic algorithms) assays are the most widely used. Although several next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms are available, to date all published deep sequencing HIV-1 tropism studies have used the 454™ Life Sciences/Roche platform. In this study, HIV-1 co-receptor usage was predicted for twelve patients scheduled to start a maraviroc-based antiretroviral regimen. The V3 region of the HIV-1 env gene was sequenced using four NGS platforms: 454™, PacBio® RS (Pacific Biosciences), Illumina®, and Ion Torrent™ (Life Technologies). Cross-platform variation was evaluated, including number of reads, read length and error rates. HIV-1 tropism was inferred using Geno2Pheno, Web PSSM, and the 11/24/25 rule and compared with Trofile™ and virologic response to antiretroviral therapy. Error rates related to insertions/deletions (indels) and nucleotide substitutions introduced by the four NGS platforms were low compared to the actual HIV-1 sequence variation. Each platform detected all major virus variants within the HIV-1 population with similar frequencies. Identification of non-R5 viruses was comparable among the four platforms, with minor differences attributable to the algorithms used to infer HIV-1 tropism. All NGS platforms showed similar concordance with virologic response to the maraviroc-based regimen (75% to 80% range depending on the algorithm used), compared to Trofile (80%) and population sequencing (70%). In conclusion, all four NGS platforms were able to detect minority non-R5 variants at comparable levels suggesting that any NGS-based method can be used to predict HIV-1 coreceptor usage.

Use of four next-generation sequencing platforms to determine HIV-1 coreceptor tropism.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Archer

Full Text Available HIV-1 coreceptor tropism assays are required to rule out the presence of CXCR4-tropic (non-R5 viruses prior treatment with CCR5 antagonists. Phenotypic (e.g., Trofile™, Monogram Biosciences and genotypic (e.g., population sequencing linked to bioinformatic algorithms assays are the most widely used. Although several next-generation sequencing (NGS platforms are available, to date all published deep sequencing HIV-1 tropism studies have used the 454™ Life Sciences/Roche platform. In this study, HIV-1 co-receptor usage was predicted for twelve patients scheduled to start a maraviroc-based antiretroviral regimen. The V3 region of the HIV-1 env gene was sequenced using four NGS platforms: 454™, PacBio® RS (Pacific Biosciences, Illumina®, and Ion Torrent™ (Life Technologies. Cross-platform variation was evaluated, including number of reads, read length and error rates. HIV-1 tropism was inferred using Geno2Pheno, Web PSSM, and the 11/24/25 rule and compared with Trofile™ and virologic response to antiretroviral therapy. Error rates related to insertions/deletions (indels and nucleotide substitutions introduced by the four NGS platforms were low compared to the actual HIV-1 sequence variation. Each platform detected all major virus variants within the HIV-1 population with similar frequencies. Identification of non-R5 viruses was comparable among the four platforms, with minor differences attributable to the algorithms used to infer HIV-1 tropism. All NGS platforms showed similar concordance with virologic response to the maraviroc-based regimen (75% to 80% range depending on the algorithm used, compared to Trofile (80% and population sequencing (70%. In conclusion, all four NGS platforms were able to detect minority non-R5 variants at comparable levels suggesting that any NGS-based method can be used to predict HIV-1 coreceptor usage.

Fiji: an open-source platform for biological-image analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Schindelin, Johannes; Arganda-Carreras, Ignacio; Frise, Erwin; Kaynig, Verena; Longair, Mark; Pietzsch, Tobias; Preibisch, Stephan; Rueden, Curtis; Saalfeld, Stephan; Schmid, Benjamin; Tinevez, Jean-Yves; White, Daniel James; Hartenstein, Volker; Eliceiri, Kevin; Tomancak, Pavel; Cardona, Albert

2012-06-28

Fiji is a distribution of the popular open-source software ImageJ focused on biological-image analysis. Fiji uses modern software engineering practices to combine powerful software libraries with a broad range of scripting languages to enable rapid prototyping of image-processing algorithms. Fiji facilitates the transformation of new algorithms into ImageJ plugins that can be shared with end users through an integrated update system. We propose Fiji as a platform for productive collaboration between computer science and biology research communities.

Supporting open collaboration in science through explicit and linked semantic description of processes

Science.gov (United States)

Gil, Yolanda; Michel, Felix; Ratnakar, Varun; Read, Jordan S.; Hauder, Matheus; Duffy, Christopher; Hanson, Paul C.; Dugan, Hilary

2015-01-01

The Web was originally developed to support collaboration in science. Although scientists benefit from many forms of collaboration on the Web (e.g., blogs, wikis, forums, code sharing, etc.), most collaborative projects are coordinated over email, phone calls, and in-person meetings. Our goal is to develop a collaborative infrastructure for scientists to work on complex science questions that require multi-disciplinary contributions to gather and analyze data, that cannot occur without significant coordination to synthesize findings, and that grow organically to accommodate new contributors as needed as the work evolves over time. Our approach is to develop an organic data science framework based on a task-centered organization of the collaboration, includes principles from social sciences for successful on-line communities, and exposes an open science process. Our approach is implemented as an extension of a semantic wiki platform, and captures formal representations of task decomposition structures, relations between tasks and users, and other properties of tasks, data, and other relevant science objects. All these entities are captured through the semantic wiki user interface, represented as semantic web objects, and exported as linked data.

New experimental platform to study high density laser-compressed matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gauthier, M.; Fletcher, L. B.; Galtier, E.; Gamboa, E. J.; Granados, E.; Hastings, J. B.; Heimann, P.; Lee, H. J.; Nagler, B.; Schropp, A.; Falcone, R.; Glenzer, S. H.; Ravasio, A.; Gleason, A.; Döppner, T.; LePape, S.; Ma, T.; Pak, A.; MacDonald, M. J.; Ali, S.

2014-01-01

We have developed a new experimental platform at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) which combines simultaneous angularly and spectrally resolved x-ray scattering measurements. This technique offers a new insights on the structural and thermodynamic properties of warm dense matter. The < 50 fs temporal duration of the x-ray pulse provides near instantaneous snapshots of the dynamics of the compression. We present a proof of principle experiment for this platform to characterize a shock-compressed plastic foil. We observe the disappearance of the plastic semi-crystal structure and the formation of a compressed liquid ion-ion correlation peak. The plasma parameters of shock-compressed plastic can be measured as well, but requires an averaging over a few tens of shots

EIS – European Information Science. Projektantrag, eingereicht bei der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

OpenAIRE

Kuhlen, Rainer; Wormser-Hacker, Christa

2014-01-01

Project application for a publication platform for the discipline information science, including a comprehensive presentation of the publication patterns in information science. The application was submitted in 2014 and rejected by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Using online, crowdsourcing platforms for data collection in personality disorder research: The example of Amazon's Mechanical Turk.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Joshua D; Crowe, Michael; Weiss, Brandon; Maples-Keller, Jessica L; Lynam, Donald R

2017-01-01

The use of crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for data collection in the behavioral sciences has increased substantially in the past several years due in large part to (a) the ability to recruit large samples, (b) the inexpensiveness of data collection, (c) the speed of data collection, and (d) evidence that the data collected are, for the most part, of equal or better quality to that collected in undergraduate research pools. In this review, we first evaluate the strengths and potential limitations of this approach to data collection. Second, we examine how MTurk has been used to date in personality disorder (PD) research and compare the characteristics of such research to PD research conducted in other settings. Third, we compare PD trait data from the Section III trait model of the DSM-5 collected via MTurk to data collected using undergraduate and clinical samples with regard to internal consistency, mean-level differences, and factor structure. Overall, we conclude that platforms such as MTurk have much to offer PD researchers, especially for certain kinds of research (e.g., where large samples are required and there is a need for iterative sampling). Whether MTurk itself remains the predominant model of such platforms is unclear, however, and will largely depend on decisions related to cost effectiveness and the development of alternatives that offer even greater flexibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

OnSight: Multi-platform Visualization of the Surface of Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Abercrombie, S. P.; Menzies, A.; Winter, A.; Clausen, M.; Duran, B.; Jorritsma, M.; Goddard, C.; Lidawer, A.

2017-12-01

A key challenge of planetary geology is to develop an understanding of an environment that humans cannot (yet) visit. Instead, scientists rely on visualizations created from images sent back by robotic explorers, such as the Curiosity Mars rover. OnSight is a multi-platform visualization tool that helps scientists and engineers to visualize the surface of Mars. Terrain visualization allows scientists to understand the scale and geometric relationships of the environment around the Curiosity rover, both for scientific understanding and for tactical consideration in safely operating the rover. OnSight includes a web-based 2D/3D visualization tool, as well as an immersive mixed reality visualization. In addition, OnSight offers a novel feature for communication among the science team. Using the multiuser feature of OnSight, scientists can meet virtually on Mars, to discuss geology in a shared spatial context. Combining web-based visualization with immersive visualization allows OnSight to leverage strengths of both platforms. This project demonstrates how 3D visualization can be adapted to either an immersive environment or a computer screen, and will discuss advantages and disadvantages of both platforms.

Manufacture of an experimental platform with ECR ion source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Changgeng; Hu Yonghong; Li Yan

2007-12-01

The working principle and basal configuration and fabricative process of ECR ion source are introdced. Regarding as an experimental and test device, the experimental platform of ECR ion source may expediently regulate every parameter of ion source, and achieve good character of beam current. Through improving on the components, ECR ion source can is modulated in best state. Above results may be used in the running and debugging of neutron generator. Therefore, the experimental platform of ECR ion source is the necessary equipment of large beam current neutron generator. Comparing the experimental platform of ECR ion source with domestic ones and the overseas ones, it mainly be used in the simulation experiments about neutron generator. It is compact and experimental platform mode in structure. It can focus the beam current and measure many parameters on line in function. The problem of lower beam current to discover is resolved in debugging of the device. The measurement results indicate that the technology character of the device have achieved design requirements. (authors)

GATECloud.net: a platform for large-scale, open-source text processing on the cloud.

Science.gov (United States)

Tablan, Valentin; Roberts, Ian; Cunningham, Hamish; Bontcheva, Kalina

2013-01-28

Cloud computing is increasingly being regarded as a key enabler of the 'democratization of science', because on-demand, highly scalable cloud computing facilities enable researchers anywhere to carry out data-intensive experiments. In the context of natural language processing (NLP), algorithms tend to be complex, which makes their parallelization and deployment on cloud platforms a non-trivial task. This study presents a new, unique, cloud-based platform for large-scale NLP research--GATECloud. net. It enables researchers to carry out data-intensive NLP experiments by harnessing the vast, on-demand compute power of the Amazon cloud. Important infrastructural issues are dealt with by the platform, completely transparently for the researcher: load balancing, efficient data upload and storage, deployment on the virtual machines, security and fault tolerance. We also include a cost-benefit analysis and usage evaluation.

Empowering pharmacoinformatics by linked life science data.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldmann, Daria; Zdrazil, Barbara; Digles, Daniela; Ecker, Gerhard F

2017-03-01

With the public availability of large data sources such as ChEMBLdb and the Open PHACTS Discovery Platform, retrieval of data sets for certain protein targets of interest with consistent assay conditions is no longer a time consuming process. Especially the use of workflow engines such as KNIME or Pipeline Pilot allows complex queries and enables to simultaneously search for several targets. Data can then directly be used as input to various ligand- and structure-based studies. In this contribution, using in-house projects on P-gp inhibition, transporter selectivity, and TRPV1 modulation we outline how the incorporation of linked life science data in the daily execution of projects allowed to expand our approaches from conventional Hansch analysis to complex, integrated multilayer models.

Setting up crowd science projects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scheliga, Kaja; Friesike, Sascha; Puschmann, Cornelius; Fecher, Benedikt

2016-01-01

Crowd science is scientific research that is conducted with the participation of volunteers who are not professional scientists. Thanks to the Internet and online platforms, project initiators can draw on a potentially large number of volunteers. This crowd can be involved to support data-rich or

Innovating science communication: the structure supporting ATLAS Education & Outreach

Science.gov (United States)

Goldfarb, Steven; Marcelloni, Claudia; Shaw, Kate; ATLAS Experiment

2016-04-01

The ATLAS Education & Outreach project has, over the years, developed a strong reputation for supporting innovation. Animated event displays, musical CDs, 3d movies, 3-storey murals, photo books, data sonifications, multi-media art installations, pub slams, masterclasses, documentaries, pop-up books, LEGO® models, and virtual visits are among the many diverse methods being exploited to communicate to the world the goals and accomplishments of the ATLAS Experiment at CERN. This variety of creativity and innovation does not pop out of a vacuum. It requires underlying motivation by the collaboration to communicate with the public; freedom and encouragement to do so in a creative manner; and a support structure for developing, implementing and promoting these activities. The ATLAS Outreach project has built this support structure on a well-defined communication plan, high-quality content, and effective delivery platforms. Most importantly, implementation of the program has been based on the effective engagement of the participating institutes and other key partners, not only to leverage modest human resources and funding, but also to take advantage of the rich imagination and inspiration of a diverse, global human collaboration. We present our current plan, on-going activities, and a few more fun innovations for the future.

Designation and Implementation of Microcomputer Principle and Interface Technology Virtual Experimental Platform Website

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, JinYue; Tang, Yin

This paper explicitly discusses the designation and implementation thought and method of Microcomputer Principle and Interface Technology virtual experimental platform website construction. The instructional design of this platform mainly follows with the students-oriented constructivism learning theory, and the overall structure is subject to the features of teaching aims, teaching contents and interactive methods. Virtual experiment platform production and development should fully take the characteristics of network operation into consideration and adopt relevant technologies to improve the effect and speed of network software application in internet.

EPOS Multi-Scale Laboratory platform: a long-term reference tool for experimental Earth Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Trippanera, Daniele; Tesei, Telemaco; Funiciello, Francesca; Sagnotti, Leonardo; Scarlato, Piergiorgio; Rosenau, Matthias; Elger, Kirsten; Ulbricht, Damian; Lange, Otto; Calignano, Elisa; Spiers, Chris; Drury, Martin; Willingshofer, Ernst; Winkler, Aldo

2017-04-01

With continuous progress on scientific research, a large amount of datasets has been and will be produced. The data access and sharing along with their storage and homogenization within a unique and coherent framework is a new challenge for the whole scientific community. This is particularly emphasized for geo-scientific laboratories, encompassing the most diverse Earth Science disciplines and typology of data. To this aim the "Multiscale Laboratories" Work Package (WP16), operating in the framework of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS), is developing a virtual platform of geo-scientific data and services for the worldwide community of laboratories. This long-term project aims at merging the top class multidisciplinary laboratories in Geoscience into a coherent and collaborative network, facilitating the standardization of virtual access to data, data products and software. This will help our community to evolve beyond the stage in which most of data produced by the different laboratories are available only within the related scholarly publications (often as print-version only) or they remain unpublished and inaccessible on local devices. The EPOS multi-scale laboratory platform will provide the possibility to easily share and discover data by means of open access, DOI-referenced, online data publication including long-term storage, managing and curation services and to set up a cohesive community of laboratories. The WP16 is starting with three pilot cases laboratories: (1) rock physics, (2) palaeomagnetic, and (3) analogue modelling. As a proof of concept, first analogue modelling datasets have been published via GFZ Data Services (http://doidb.wdc-terra.org/search/public/ui?&sort=updated+desc&q=epos). The datasets include rock analogue material properties (e.g. friction data, rheology data, SEM imagery), as well as supplementary figures, images and movies from experiments on tectonic processes. A metadata catalogue tailored to the specific communities

Cross-cultural comparisons of university students' science learning self-efficacy: structural relationships among factors within science learning self-efficacy

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ya-Ling; Liang, Jyh-Chong; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2018-04-01

Science learning self-efficacy could be regarded as a multi-factor belief which comprises different aspects such as cognitive skills, practical work, and everyday application. However, few studies have investigated the relationships among these factors that compose science learning self-efficacy. Also, culture may play an important role in explaining the relationships among these factors. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate cultural differences in science learning self-efficacy and examine the relationships within factors constituting science learning self-efficacy by adopting a survey instrument for administration to students in the U.S. and Taiwan. A total of 218 university students (62.40% females) were surveyed in the U.S.A, and 224 university students (49.10% females) in Taiwan were also invited to take part in the study. The results of the structural equation modelling revealed cultural differences in the relationships among the factors of science learning self-efficacy. It was found that U.S. students' confidence in their ability to employ higher-order cognitive skills tended to promote their confidence in their ability to accomplish practical work, strengthening their academic self-efficacy. However, the aforementioned mediation was not found for the Taiwanese participants.

ADMS Evaluation Platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2018-01-23

Deploying an ADMS or looking to optimize its value? NREL offers a low-cost, low-risk evaluation platform for assessing ADMS performance. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed a vendor-neutral advanced distribution management system (ADMS) evaluation platform and is expanding its capabilities. The platform uses actual grid-scale hardware, large-scale distribution system models, and advanced visualization to simulate realworld conditions for the most accurate ADMS evaluation and experimentation.

A high performance, low power computational platform for complex sensing operations in smart cities

KAUST Repository

Jiang, Jiming; Claudel, Christian

2017-01-01

This paper presents a new wireless platform designed for an integrated traffic/flash flood monitoring system. The sensor platform is built around a 32-bit ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller and a 2.4GHz 802.15.4802.15.4 ISM compliant radio module. It can be interfaced with fixed traffic sensors, or receive data from vehicle transponders. This platform is specifically designed for solar-powered, low bandwidth, high computational performance wireless sensor network applications. A self-recovering unit is designed to increase reliability and allow periodic hard resets, an essential requirement for sensor networks. A radio monitoring circuitry is proposed to monitor incoming and outgoing transmissions, simplifying software debugging. We illustrate the performance of this wireless sensor platform on complex problems arising in smart cities, such as traffic flow monitoring, machine-learning-based flash flood monitoring or Kalman-filter based vehicle trajectory estimation. All design files have been uploaded and shared in an open science framework, and can be accessed from [1]. The hardware design is under CERN Open Hardware License v1.2.

A high performance, low power computational platform for complex sensing operations in smart cities

KAUST Repository

Jiang, Jiming

2017-02-02

This paper presents a new wireless platform designed for an integrated traffic/flash flood monitoring system. The sensor platform is built around a 32-bit ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller and a 2.4GHz 802.15.4802.15.4 ISM compliant radio module. It can be interfaced with fixed traffic sensors, or receive data from vehicle transponders. This platform is specifically designed for solar-powered, low bandwidth, high computational performance wireless sensor network applications. A self-recovering unit is designed to increase reliability and allow periodic hard resets, an essential requirement for sensor networks. A radio monitoring circuitry is proposed to monitor incoming and outgoing transmissions, simplifying software debugging. We illustrate the performance of this wireless sensor platform on complex problems arising in smart cities, such as traffic flow monitoring, machine-learning-based flash flood monitoring or Kalman-filter based vehicle trajectory estimation. All design files have been uploaded and shared in an open science framework, and can be accessed from [1]. The hardware design is under CERN Open Hardware License v1.2.

3D shape measurement system developed on mobile platform

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Zhoujie; Chang, Meng; Shi, Bowen; Zhang, Qican

2017-02-01

Three-dimensional (3-D) shape measurement technology based on structured light has become one hot research field inspired by the increasing requirements. Many methods have been implemented and applied in the industry applications, but most of their equipments are large and complex, cannot be portable. Meanwhile, the popularity of the smart mobile terminals, such as smart phones, provides a platform for the miniaturization and portability of this technology. The measurement system based on phase-shift algorithm and Gray-code pattern under the Android platform on a mobile phone is mainly studied and developed, and it has been encapsulated into a mobile phone application in order to reconstruct 3-D shape data in the employed smart phone easily and quickly. The experimental results of two measured object are given in this paper and demonstrate the application we developed in the mobile platform is effective.

Teleoperated Marsupial Mobile Sensor Platform Pair for Telepresence Insertion Into Challenging Structures

Science.gov (United States)

Krasowski, Michael J.; Prokop, Norman F.; Greer, Lawrence C.

2011-01-01

the interior of a bus whose landing is 44 in. (.1.1 m) from the road surface. This vehicle can position the end of its ramp to a surface over 50 in. (.1.3 m) above ground level and can drive over rail heights exceeding 6 in. (.15 cm). Thus configured, this vehicle can conceivably deliver the smaller robot to the end platform of New York City subway cars from between the rails. This innovation is scalable to other formulations for size, mobility, and surveillance functions. Conceivably the larger vehicle can be configured to traverse unstable rubble and debris to transport a smaller search and rescue vehicle as close as possible to the scene of a disaster such as a collapsed building. The smaller vehicle, tethered or otherwise, and capable of penetrating and traversing within the confined spaces in the collapsed structure, can transport imaging and other sensors to look for victims or other targets.

Wave Manipulation in Metamaterials: A LEGO® Bricks Enabled Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Celli, Paolo; Gonella, Stefano

In this work, we show how simple, reconfigurable arrangements of LEGO® bricks can be turned into the building blocks of an experimental platform for the investigation of wave phenomena in metamaterial architectures. The approach involves the assembly of reconfigurable specimens consisting of patterns of bricks on a baseplate and the use of a 3D laser vibrometer to reconstruct global and local wave features. The ability to seamlessly transition between different topologies makes this an effective approach for rapid experimental verification and proof of concept in the arena of mechanical metamaterials engineering. The intuitive nature of the brick-and-baseplate assembly paradigm can also be leveraged to implement families of intuitive lab demonstrations with significant didactic and scientific outreach potential. The versatility of the platform is tested through a series of experiments that illustrate a variety of wave manipulation effects, such as waveguiding and seismic isolation, both in periodic and disordered topologies. We acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation (Grant CMMI-1266089).

KNIME for reproducible cross-domain analysis of life science data.

Science.gov (United States)

Fillbrunn, Alexander; Dietz, Christian; Pfeuffer, Julianus; Rahn, René; Landrum, Gregory A; Berthold, Michael R

2017-11-10

Experiments in the life sciences often involve tools from a variety of domains such as mass spectrometry, next generation sequencing, or image processing. Passing the data between those tools often involves complex scripts for controlling data flow, data transformation, and statistical analysis. Such scripts are not only prone to be platform dependent, they also tend to grow as the experiment progresses and are seldomly well documented, a fact that hinders the reproducibility of the experiment. Workflow systems such as KNIME Analytics Platform aim to solve these problems by providing a platform for connecting tools graphically and guaranteeing the same results on different operating systems. As an open source software, KNIME allows scientists and programmers to provide their own extensions to the scientific community. In this review paper we present selected extensions from the life sciences that simplify data exploration, analysis, and visualization and are interoperable due to KNIME's unified data model. Additionally, we name other workflow systems that are commonly used in the life sciences and highlight their similarities and differences to KNIME. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Locating Science in Society across Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mejlgaard, Niels; Bloch, Carter Walter; Degn, Lise

2012-01-01

-level and individual-level data, we further show a connection between national differences and the public’s satisfaction with their own role as participants in science and technology. In countries where science communication culture is weak, where science plays a minor role in policy-making, and where institutions......In search of differences and similarities in relation to the role and location of science in European societies, we use empirical information from 37 countries as a platform for developing typologies concerning dimensions of science in society. These capture clusters of countries and reveal...... significant heterogeneity across Europe, providing a point of departure for international learning, while also demonstrating the challenges that the European institutions face in their promotion of a European Research Area, shared priorities and a common model of science in society. Combining national...

Data Science and Political Economy: Application to Financial Regulatory Structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sharyn O'Halloran

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The development of computational data science techniques in natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze large and complex textual information opens new avenues for studying the interaction between economics and politics. We apply these techniques to analyze the design of financial regulatory structure in the United States since 1950. The analysis focuses on the delegation of discretionary authority to regulatory agencies in promulgating, implementing, and enforcing financial sector laws and overseeing compliance with them. Combining traditional studies with the new machine learning approaches enables us to go beyond the limitations of both methods and offer a more precise interpretation of the determinants of financial regulatory structure.

Climate Literacy and Cyberlearning: Emerging Platforms and Programs

Science.gov (United States)

McCaffrey, M. S.; Wise, S. B.; Buhr, S. M.

2009-12-01

With the release of the Essential Principles of Climate Science Literacy: A Guide for Individuals and Communities in the Spring of 2009, an important step toward an shared educational and communication framework about climate science was achieved. Designed as a living document, reviewed and endorsed by the thirteen federal agencies in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (now U.S. Global Change Research Program), the Essential Principles of Climate Literacy complement other Earth system literacy efforts. A variety of emerging efforts have begun to build on the framework using a variety of cyberlearning tools, including an online Climate Literacy course developed by Education and Outreach group at CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, and the Independent Learning program of the Continuing Education Division at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The online course, piloted during the Summer of 2009 with formal classroom teachers and informal science educators, made use of the online Climate Literacy Handbook, which was developed by CIRES Education and Outreach and the Encyclopedia of Earth, which is supported by the National Council for Science and the Environment and hosted by Boston University. This paper will explore challenges and opportunities in the use of cyberlearning tools to support climate literacy efforts, highlight the development of the online course and handbook, and note related emerging cyberlearning platforms and programs for climate literacy, including related efforts by the Climate Literacy Network, the NASA Global Climate Change Education programs, the National STEM Education Distributed Learning (NSDL) and AAAS Project 2061.

Mounted Smartphones as Measurement and Control Platforms for Motor-Based Laboratory Test-Beds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jared A. Frank

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Laboratory education in science and engineering often entails the use of test-beds equipped with costly peripherals for sensing, acquisition, storage, processing, and control of physical behavior. However, costly peripherals are no longer necessary to obtain precise measurements and achieve stable feedback control of test-beds. With smartphones performing diverse sensing and processing tasks, this study examines the feasibility of mounting smartphones directly to test-beds to exploit their embedded hardware and software in the measurement and control of the test-beds. This approach is a first step towards replacing laboratory-grade peripherals with more compact and affordable smartphone-based platforms, whose interactive user interfaces can engender wider participation and engagement from learners. Demonstrative cases are presented in which the sensing, computation, control, and user interaction with three motor-based test-beds are handled by a mounted smartphone. Results of experiments and simulations are used to validate the feasibility of mounted smartphones as measurement and feedback control platforms for motor-based laboratory test-beds, report the measurement precision and closed-loop performance achieved with such platforms, and address challenges in the development of platforms to maintain system stability.

Mounted Smartphones as Measurement and Control Platforms for Motor-Based Laboratory Test-Beds.

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Jared A; Brill, Anthony; Kapila, Vikram

2016-08-20

Laboratory education in science and engineering often entails the use of test-beds equipped with costly peripherals for sensing, acquisition, storage, processing, and control of physical behavior. However, costly peripherals are no longer necessary to obtain precise measurements and achieve stable feedback control of test-beds. With smartphones performing diverse sensing and processing tasks, this study examines the feasibility of mounting smartphones directly to test-beds to exploit their embedded hardware and software in the measurement and control of the test-beds. This approach is a first step towards replacing laboratory-grade peripherals with more compact and affordable smartphone-based platforms, whose interactive user interfaces can engender wider participation and engagement from learners. Demonstrative cases are presented in which the sensing, computation, control, and user interaction with three motor-based test-beds are handled by a mounted smartphone. Results of experiments and simulations are used to validate the feasibility of mounted smartphones as measurement and feedback control platforms for motor-based laboratory test-beds, report the measurement precision and closed-loop performance achieved with such platforms, and address challenges in the development of platforms to maintain system stability.

Documentation of Heritage Structures Through Geo-Crowdsourcing and Web-Mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Dhonju, H. K.; Xiao, W.; Shakya, B.; Mills, J. P.; Sarhosis, V.

2017-09-01

Heritage documentation has become increasingly urgent due to both natural impacts and human influences. The documentation of countless heritage sites around the globe is a massive project that requires significant amounts of financial and labour resources. With the concepts of volunteered geographic information (VGI) and citizen science, heritage data such as digital photographs can be collected through online crowd participation. Whilst photographs are not strictly geographic data, they can be geo-tagged by the participants. They can also be automatically geo-referenced into a global coordinate system if collected via mobile phones which are now ubiquitous. With the assistance of web-mapping, an online geo-crowdsourcing platform has been developed to collect and display heritage structure photographs. Details of platform development are presented in this paper. The prototype is demonstrated with several heritage examples. Potential applications and advancements are discussed.

Offshore Energy Mapping for Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean: MARINA PLATFORM project

Science.gov (United States)

Kallos, G.; Galanis, G.; Spyrou, C.; Kalogeri, C.; Adam, A.; Athanasiadis, P.

2012-04-01

Deep offshore ocean energy mapping requires detailed modeling of the wind, wave, tidal and ocean circulation estimations. It requires also detailed mapping of the associated extremes. An important issue in such work is the co-generation of energy (generation of wind, wave, tides, currents) in order to design platforms on an efficient way. For example wind and wave fields exhibit significant phase differences and therefore the produced energy from both sources together requires special analysis. The other two sources namely tides and currents have different temporal scales from the previous two. Another important issue is related to the estimation of the environmental frequencies in order to avoid structural problems. These are issues studied at the framework of the FP7 project MARINA PLATFORM. The main objective of the project is to develop deep water structures that can exploit the energy from wind, wave, tidal and ocean current energy sources. In particular, a primary goal will be the establishment of a set of equitable and transparent criteria for the evaluation of multi-purpose platforms for marine renewable energy. Using these criteria, a novel system set of design and optimisation tools will be produced addressing new platform design, component engineering, risk assessment, spatial planning, platform-related grid connection concepts, all focussed on system integration and reducing costs. The University of Athens group is in charge for estimation and mapping of wind, wave, tidal and ocean current resources, estimate available energy potential, map extreme event characteristics and provide any additional environmental parameter required.

OWLS as platform technology in OPTOS satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Rivas Abalo, J.; Martínez Oter, J.; Arruego Rodríguez, I.; Martín-Ortega Rico, A.; de Mingo Martín, J. R.; Jiménez Martín, J. J.; Martín Vodopivec, B.; Rodríguez Bustabad, S.; Guerrero Padrón, H.

2017-12-01

The aim of this work is to show the Optical Wireless Link to intraSpacecraft Communications (OWLS) technology as a platform technology for space missions, and more specifically its use within the On-Board Communication system of OPTOS satellite. OWLS technology was proposed by Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) at the end of the 1990s and developed along 10 years through a number of ground demonstrations, technological developments and in-orbit experiments. Its main benefits are: mass reduction, flexibility, and simplification of the Assembly, Integration and Tests phases. The final step was to go from an experimental technology to a platform one. This step was carried out in the OPTOS satellite, which makes use of optical wireless links in a distributed network based on an OLWS implementation of the CAN bus. OPTOS is the first fully wireless satellite. It is based on the triple configuration (3U) of the popular Cubesat standard, and was completely built at INTA. It was conceived to procure a fast development, low cost, and yet reliable platform to the Spanish scientific community, acting as a test bed for space born science and technology. OPTOS presents a distributed OBDH architecture in which all satellite's subsystems and payloads incorporate a small Distributed On-Board Computer (OBC) Terminal (DOT). All DOTs (7 in total) communicate between them by means of the OWLS-CAN that enables full data sharing capabilities. This collaboration allows them to perform all tasks that would normally be carried out by a centralized On-Board Computer.

Data Platforms and Cities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blok, Anders; Courmont, Antoine; Hoyng, Rolien

2017-01-01

This section offers a series of joint reflections on (open) data platform from a variety of cases, from cycling, traffic and mapping to activism, environment and data brokering. Data platforms play a key role in contemporary urban governance. Linked to open data initiatives, such platforms are of...

Application of chemical structure and bonding of actinide oxide materials for forensic science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilkerson, Marianne Perry

2010-01-01

We are interested in applying our understanding of actinide chemical structure and bonding to broaden the suite of analytical tools available for nuclear forensic analyses. Uranium- and plutonium-oxide systems form under a variety of conditions, and these chemical species exhibit some of the most complex behavior of metal oxide systems known. No less intriguing is the ability of AnO 2 (An: U, Pu) to form non-stoichiometric species described as AnO 2+x . Environmental studies have shown the value of utilizing the chemical signatures of these actinide oxide materials to understand transport following release into the environment. Chemical speciation of actinide-oxide samples may also provide clues as to the age, source, or process history of the material. The scientific challenge is to identify, measure and understand those aspects of speciation of actinide analytes that carry information about material origin and history most relevant to forensics. Here, we will describe our efforts in material synthesis and analytical methods development that we will use to provide the fundamental science to characterize actinide oxide molecular structures for forensic science. Structural properties and initial results to measure structural variability of uranium oxide samples using synchrotron-based X-ray Absorption Fine Structure will be discussed.

Application of chemical structure and bonding of actinide oxide materials for forensic science

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wilkerson, Marianne Perry [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2010-01-01

We are interested in applying our understanding of actinide chemical structure and bonding to broaden the suite of analytical tools available for nuclear forensic analyses. Uranium- and plutonium-oxide systems form under a variety of conditions, and these chemical species exhibit some of the most complex behavior of metal oxide systems known. No less intriguing is the ability of AnO{sub 2} (An: U, Pu) to form non-stoichiometric species described as AnO{sub 2+x}. Environmental studies have shown the value of utilizing the chemical signatures of these actinide oxide materials to understand transport following release into the environment. Chemical speciation of actinide-oxide samples may also provide clues as to the age, source, or process history of the material. The scientific challenge is to identify, measure and understand those aspects of speciation of actinide analytes that carry information about material origin and history most relevant to forensics. Here, we will describe our efforts in material synthesis and analytical methods development that we will use to provide the fundamental science to characterize actinide oxide molecular structures for forensic science. Structural properties and initial results to measure structural variability of uranium oxide samples using synchrotron-based X-ray Absorption Fine Structure will be discussed.

Towards Shibboleth-based security in the e-infrastructure for social sciences

OpenAIRE

Jie, Wei; Daw, Michael; Procter, Rob; Voss, Alex

2007-01-01

The e-Infrastructure for e-Social Sciences project leverages Grid computing technology to provide an integrated platform which enables social science researchers to securely access a variety of e-Science resources. Security underpins the e-Infrastructure and a security framework with authentication and authorization functionality is a core component of the e-Infrastructure for social sciences. To build the security framework, we adopt Shibboleth as the basic authentication and authorization i...

Simulator platform for fast reactor operation and safety technology demonstration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vilim, R.B.; Park, Y.S.; Grandy, C.; Belch, H.; Dworzanski, P.; Misterka, J.

2012-01-01

A simulator platform for visualization and demonstration of innovative concepts in fast reactor technology is described. The objective is to make more accessible the workings of fast reactor technology innovations and to do so in a human factors environment that uses state-of-the art visualization technologies. In this work the computer codes in use at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) for the design of fast reactor systems are being integrated to run on this platform. This includes linking reactor systems codes with mechanical structures codes and using advanced graphics to depict the thermo-hydraulic-structure interactions that give rise to an inherently safe response to upsets. It also includes visualization of mechanical systems operation including advanced concepts that make use of robotics for operations, in-service inspection, and maintenance.

Simulator platform for fast reactor operation and safety technology demonstration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vilim, R. B.; Park, Y. S.; Grandy, C.; Belch, H.; Dworzanski, P.; Misterka, J. (Nuclear Engineering Division)

2012-07-30

A simulator platform for visualization and demonstration of innovative concepts in fast reactor technology is described. The objective is to make more accessible the workings of fast reactor technology innovations and to do so in a human factors environment that uses state-of-the art visualization technologies. In this work the computer codes in use at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) for the design of fast reactor systems are being integrated to run on this platform. This includes linking reactor systems codes with mechanical structures codes and using advanced graphics to depict the thermo-hydraulic-structure interactions that give rise to an inherently safe response to upsets. It also includes visualization of mechanical systems operation including advanced concepts that make use of robotics for operations, in-service inspection, and maintenance.

Mobile Platforms and Development Environments

CERN Document Server

Helal, Sumi; Li, Wengdong

2012-01-01

Mobile platform development has lately become a technological war zone with extremely dynamic and fluid movement, especially in the smart phone and tablet market space. This Synthesis lecture is a guide to the latest developments of the key mobile platforms that are shaping the mobile platform industry. The book covers the three currently dominant native platforms -- iOS, Android and Windows Phone -- along with the device-agnostic HTML5 mobile web platform. The lecture also covers location-based services (LBS) which can be considered as a platform in its own right. The lecture utilizes a sampl

Impacts and Characteristics of Computer-Based Science Inquiry Learning Environments for Precollege Students

Science.gov (United States)

Donnelly, Dermot F.; Linn, Marcia C.; Ludvigsen, Sten

2014-01-01

The National Science Foundation-sponsored report "Fostering Learning in the Networked World" called for "a common, open platform to support communities of developers and learners in ways that enable both to take advantage of advances in the learning sciences." We review research on science inquiry learning environments (ILEs)…

ITS Platform North Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lahrmann, Harry; Agerholm, Niels; Juhl, Jens

2012-01-01

This paper presents the project entitled “ITS Platform North Denmark” which is used as a test platform for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) solutions. The platform consists of a newly developed GNSS/GPRS On Board Unit (OBU) to be installed in 500 cars, a backend server and a specially...

The Socio-Technical Design of a Library and Information Science Collaboratory

Science.gov (United States)

Lassi, Monica; Sonnenwald, Diane H.

2013-01-01

Introduction: We present a prototype collaboratory, a socio-technical platform to support sharing research data collection instruments in library and information science. No previous collaboratory has attempted to facilitate sharing digital research data collection instruments among library and information science researchers. Method: We have…

Platform development supportedby gaming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mikkola, Juliana Hsuan; Hansen, Poul H. Kyvsgård

2007-01-01

The challenge of implementing industrial platforms in practice can be described as a configuration problem caused by high number of variables, which often have contradictory influences on the total performance of the firm. Consequently, the specific platform decisions become extremely complex......, possibly increasing the strategic risks for the firm. This paper reports preliminary findings on platform management process at LEGO, a Danish toy company.  Specifically, we report the process of applying games combined with simulations and workshops in the platform development. We also propose a framework...

Innovations in Undergraduate Science Education: Going Viral

OpenAIRE

Hatfull, Graham F.

2015-01-01

Bacteriophage discovery and genomics provides a powerful and effective platform for integrating missions in research and education. Implementation of the Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program facilitates a broad impact by including a diverse array of schools, faculty, and students. The program generates new insights into the diversity and evolution of the bacteriophage population and presents a model for introducing first-yea...

Applications of synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence technique in materials science-possibilities at INDUS-2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tiwari, Manoj K.

2016-01-01

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy has seen remarkable progress over the last few decades. Numerous applications in basic and applied sciences demonstrate its importance. Various advantages of XRF technique have motivated us to construct a microfocus XRF beamline (BL-16) on Indus-2 national synchrotron radiation facility. The BL-16 beamline offers a wide range of usages - both from research laboratories and industries; and for researchers working in diverse fields. Apart from the fields of pure sciences like physics and chemistry, the beamline provides an attractive platform to exercise material science applications, interdisciplinary applied sciences like medical, forensic and environmental studies etc. In addition to micro-XRF characterization, BL-16 beamline allows a user to perform studies using other advanced synchrotron based experimental methodologies, viz; grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence (GIXRF) analysis, chemical speciation, near-edge absorption spectroscopy and X-ray reflectivity studies of thin layered materials etc. The combined XRR-GIXRF analysis feature of the BL-16 beamline offers a novel capability to perform GIXRF assisted depth resolved X-ray studies to investigate chemical state and electronic structure of the thin nano-structured materials. The design aspects and various salient features of the BL-16 beamline X-ray reflectometer will be presented along with the measured performance. (author)

Remote Sensing Information Sciences Research Group: Santa Barbara Information Sciences Research Group, year 4

Science.gov (United States)

Estes, John E.; Smith, Terence; Star, Jeffrey L.

1987-01-01

Information Sciences Research Group (ISRG) research continues to focus on improving the type, quantity, and quality of information which can be derived from remotely sensed data. Particular focus in on the needs of the remote sensing research and application science community which will be served by the Earth Observing System (EOS) and Space Station, including associated polar and co-orbiting platforms. The areas of georeferenced information systems, machine assisted information extraction from image data, artificial intelligence and both natural and cultural vegetation analysis and modeling research will be expanded.

DCA++: A case for science driven application development for leadership computing platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Summers, Michael S; Alvarez, Gonzalo; Meredith, Jeremy; Maier, Thomas A; Schulthess, Thomas C

2009-01-01

The DCA++ code was one of the early science applications that ran on jaguar at the National Center for Computational Sciences, and the first application code to sustain a petaflop/s under production conditions on a general-purpose supercomputer. The code implements a quantum cluster method with a Quantum Monte Carlo kernel to solve the 2D Hubbard model for high-temperature superconductivity. It is implemented in C++, making heavy use of the generic programming model. In this paper, we discuss how this code was developed, reaching scalability and high efficiency on the world's fastest supercomputer in only a few years. We show how the use of generic concepts combined with systematic refactoring of codes is a better strategy for computational sciences than a comprehensive upfront design.

Crystal growth and computational materials science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jayakumar, S.; Ravindran, P.; Arun Kumar, R.; Sudarshan, C.

2012-01-01

The proceedings of the international conference on advanced materials discusses the advances being made in the area of single crystals, their preparation and device development from these crystals and details of the progress that is taking place in the computational field relating to materials science. Computational materials science makes use of advanced simulation tools and computer interfaces to develop a virtual platform which can provide a model for real-time experiments. This book includes selected papers in topics of crystal growth and computational materials science. We are confident that the new concepts and results presented will stimulate and enhance progress of research on crystal growth and computational materials science. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately

OpenHealth Platform for Interactive Contextualization of Population Health Open Data

OpenAIRE

Almeida, Jonas S; Hajagos, Janos; Crnosija, Ivan; Kurc, Tahsin; Saltz, Mary; Saltz, Joel

2015-01-01

The financial incentives for data science applications leading to improved health outcomes, such as DSRIP (bit.ly/dsrip), are well-aligned with the broad adoption of Open Data by State and Federal agencies. This creates entirely novel opportunities for analytical applications that make exclusive use of the pervasive Web Computing platform. The framework described here explores this new avenue to contextualize Health data in a manner that relies exclusively on the native JavaScript interpreter...

Deely on Consequences of Semiotic Ontology of Science, and Religion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brier, Søren

to negotiate a common platform that allows for both science and religion to work fruitfully together and at the same time conserve the ability to distinguish between them, which were Peirce’s vision. This is what Ashley and Deely’s book How Science Enriches Theology is about. In focus will have...

What Happens When a Teacher's Science Belief Structure Is in Disequilibrium? Entangled Nature of Beliefs and Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Anita; Park, Soonhye; Hand, Brian

2017-08-01

This qualitative case study examined the process of change in an experienced elementary teacher's belief structure during implementation of an inquiry-based science program. Difficulties generally associated with ascertaining beliefs were minimized by using Leatham's (Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 9, 91-102 (2006) Sensible System Framework, enabling researchers to obtain rich descriptions of the teacher's belief structure by focusing on words (professed beliefs), intentions (intended beliefs), and actions (enacted beliefs). Models were constructed of the teacher's belief structure before and after implementation of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach (Hand et al. International Journal of Science Education, 26(2), 131-149, 2004), an inquiry-based approach to teaching science. Key beliefs for this teacher were related to how students learn, goals for teaching science, focus of instruction, and roles of teacher and student. Ultimately, the teacher shifted her professed, intended, and enacted beliefs resulting in a shift from a teacher-centered to a student-centered classroom. Findings support Thagard's Coherence Theory of Justification (2002), positing that change in one belief creates a state of disequilibrium that must be alleviated by changing/realigning other beliefs in order to re-establish coherence in the overall belief structure. This research focus is distinct from the general trend in teacher beliefs research in important ways. Most significant is that this study was not focused on the traditional two lists—those beliefs that were consistent with practice and those that were inconsistent with practice—but instead focused on the entwined nature of beliefs and practice and have shown that a teacher's practice can be viewed as their enacted beliefs, an integral part of the teacher's overall belief structure.

The Design:Lab as platform in participatory design research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Binder, Thomas; Brandt, Eva

2008-01-01

The notion of laboratory or simply 'lab' has become popular in recent years in areas outside science and technology development. Learning Labs, Innovation Labs, Usability Labs, Media and Communication Labs and even Art Labs designate institutions or fora dedicated to change and experimentation...... as others have frequently used other metaphors like workshop, studio or atelier in design research. In this article we will argue that the laboratory metaphor is particularly suitable and useful for the design:lab, and we will give examples of how we have worked with the design:lab as a platform...

Geospatial Data Management Platform for Urban Groundwater

Science.gov (United States)

Gaitanaru, D.; Priceputu, A.; Gogu, C. R.

2012-04-01

Due to the large amount of civil work projects and research studies, large quantities of geo-data are produced for the urban environments. These data are usually redundant as well as they are spread in different institutions or private companies. Time consuming operations like data processing and information harmonisation represents the main reason to systematically avoid the re-use of data. The urban groundwater data shows the same complex situation. The underground structures (subway lines, deep foundations, underground parkings, and others), the urban facility networks (sewer systems, water supply networks, heating conduits, etc), the drainage systems, the surface water works and many others modify continuously. As consequence, their influence on groundwater changes systematically. However, these activities provide a large quantity of data, aquifers modelling and then behaviour prediction can be done using monitored quantitative and qualitative parameters. Due to the rapid evolution of technology in the past few years, transferring large amounts of information through internet has now become a feasible solution for sharing geoscience data. Furthermore, standard platform-independent means to do this have been developed (specific mark-up languages like: GML, GeoSciML, WaterML, GWML, CityML). They allow easily large geospatial databases updating and sharing through internet, even between different companies or between research centres that do not necessarily use the same database structures. For Bucharest City (Romania) an integrated platform for groundwater geospatial data management is developed under the framework of a national research project - "Sedimentary media modeling platform for groundwater management in urban areas" (SIMPA) financed by the National Authority for Scientific Research of Romania. The platform architecture is based on three components: a geospatial database, a desktop application (a complex set of hydrogeological and geological analysis

Designing algorithm visualization on mobile platform: The proposed guidelines

Science.gov (United States)

Supli, A. A.; Shiratuddin, N.

2017-09-01

This paper entails an ongoing study about the design guidelines of algorithm visualization (AV) on mobile platform, helping students learning data structures and algorithm (DSA) subject effectively. Our previous review indicated that design guidelines of AV on mobile platform are still few. Mostly, previous guidelines of AV are developed for AV on desktop and website platform. In fact, mobile learning has been proved to enhance engagement in learning circumstances, and thus effect student's performance. In addition, the researchers highly recommend including UI design and Interactivity in designing effective AV system. However, the discussions of these two aspects in previous AV design guidelines are not comprehensive. The UI design in this paper describes the arrangement of AV features in mobile environment, whereas interactivity is about the active learning strategy features based on learning experiences (how to engage learners). Thus, this study main objective is to propose design guidelines of AV on mobile platform (AVOMP) that entails comprehensively UI design and interactivity aspects. These guidelines are developed through content analysis and comparative analysis from various related studies. These guidelines are useful for AV designers to help them constructing AVOMP for various topics on DSA.

Quantum Opportunities and Challenges for Fundamental Sciences in Space

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Nan

2012-01-01

Space platforms offer unique environment for and measurements of quantum world and fundamental physics. Quantum technology and measurements enhance measurement capabilities in space and result in greater science returns.

Astrobiology as an Interdisciplinary Starting Point to Natural Sciences for High-potential Children

Science.gov (United States)

Leitner, J. J.; Firneis, M. G.; Hitzenberger, R.

2013-09-01

One of the corner stones of the Research Platform on ExoLife, University of Vienna, Austria is public outreach and education with respect to astrobiology, exoplanets, and planetary sciences. Since 2009 several initiatives have been started by the Research Platform to concentrate the interest of students in and outside the University onto natural sciences. Astrobiology as a very interdisciplinary scientific discipline with questions like "Are we alone in the Universe?," "How unique is Earth as a planet?" or "How did life originate?" will fascinate youngsters and junior scientists (see [1]).

Elektrisk Design og Styring. Simulation Platform to Model, Optimize and Design Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Iov, Florin; Hansen, A. D.; Soerensen, P.

This report is a general overview of the results obtained in the project ?Electrical Design and Control. Simulation Platform to Model, Optimize and Design Wind Turbines?. The report is structured in six chapters. First, the background of this project and the main goals as well as the structure...... of the simulation platform is given. The main topologies for wind turbines, which have been taken into account during the project, are briefly presented. Then, the considered simulation tools namely: HAWC, DIgSILENT, Saber and Matlab/Simulink have been used in this simulation platform are described. The focus here...... is on the modelling and simulation time scale aspects. The abilities of these tools are complementary and they can together cover all the modelling aspects of the wind turbines e.g. mechanical loads, power quality, switching, control and grid faults. New models and new control algorithms for wind turbine systems have...

DCA++: A case for science driven application development for leadership computing platforms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Summers, Michael S; Alvarez, Gonzalo; Meredith, Jeremy; Maier, Thomas A [Computer Science and Mathematics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Mail Stop 6164, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 (United States); Schulthess, Thomas C, E-mail: schulthess@cscs.c [Swiss National Supercomputer Center and Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zurich, CSCS MAN E 133, Galeria 2, CH-9628 Manno (Switzerland)

2009-07-01

The DCA++ code was one of the early science applications that ran on jaguar at the National Center for Computational Sciences, and the first application code to sustain a petaflop/s under production conditions on a general-purpose supercomputer. The code implements a quantum cluster method with a Quantum Monte Carlo kernel to solve the 2D Hubbard model for high-temperature superconductivity. It is implemented in C++, making heavy use of the generic programming model. In this paper, we discuss how this code was developed, reaching scalability and high efficiency on the world's fastest supercomputer in only a few years. We show how the use of generic concepts combined with systematic refactoring of codes is a better strategy for computational sciences than a comprehensive upfront design.

Platform image processing to study the structural properties of retinal vessel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Ángel MERCHÁN

2013-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a technological platform specialized in assessing retinal vessel caliber and describing the relationship of the results obtained to cardiovascular risk. Retinal circulation is an area of active research by numerous groups, and there is general experimental agreement on the analysis of the patterns of the retinal blood vessels in the normal human retina. The development of automated tools designed to improve performance and decrease interobserver variability, therefore, appears necessary. 

LudusScope: Accessible Interactive Smartphone Microscopy for Life-Science Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Honesty; Gerber, Lukas Cyrill; Chiu, Daniel; Lee, Seung Ah; Cira, Nate J; Xia, Sherwin Yuyang; Riedel-Kruse, Ingmar H

2016-01-01

For centuries, observational microscopy has greatly facilitated biology education, but we still cannot easily and playfully interact with the microscopic world we see. We therefore developed the LudusScope, an accessible, interactive do-it-yourself smartphone microscopy platform that promotes exploratory stimulation and observation of microscopic organisms, in a design that combines the educational modalities of build, play, and inquire. The LudusScope's touchscreen and joystick allow the selection and stimulation of phototactic microorganisms such as Euglena gracilis with light. Organismal behavior is tracked and displayed in real time, enabling open and structured game play as well as scientific inquiry via quantitative experimentation. Furthermore, we used the Scratch programming language to incorporate biophysical modeling. This platform is designed as an accessible, low-cost educational kit for easy construction and expansion. User testing with both teachers and students demonstrates the educational potential of the LudusScope, and we anticipate additional synergy with the maker movement. Transforming observational microscopy into an interactive experience will make microbiology more tangible to society, and effectively support the interdisciplinary learning required by the Next Generation Science Standards.

Prospects and challenges for social media data in conservation science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Enrico eDi Minin

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Social media data have been extensively used in numerous fields of science, but examples of their use in conservation science are still very limited. In this paper, we propose a framework on how social media data could be useful for conservation science and practice. We present the commonly used social media platforms and discuss how their content could be providing new data and information for conservation science. Based on this, we discuss how future work in conservation science and practice would benefit from social media data.

The design of remote participation platform for EAST plasma control

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yuan, Q.P., E-mail: qpyuan@ipp.ac.cn [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei (China); Xiao, B.J. [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei (China); University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei (China); Zhang, R.R. [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei (China); Chai, W.T.; Liu, J.; Xiao, R.; Zhou, Z.C.; Pei, X.F. [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei (China); University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei (China)

2016-11-15

Highlights: • The remote participation platform for EAST plasma control is composed of real time control service and scenario management. • The web based interface has been developed for supporting remote participation. • The functionality module has been designed and assistant tools have been developed. - Abstract: EAST has become a physics experimental platform for high parameter and steady-state long-pulse plasma operation. A new remote participation platform for EAST plasma control is designed, which is composed of gatekeeper system, web-based user interface system, discharge scenario management system, online simulation system and data interface with on-site plasma control system (PCS). The identification and access privilege of remote participator is validated by the gatekeeper system. Only authorized users can set control parameters for next shot plasma control or making discharge scenario for future shot through WebPCS which is a web-based user interface and designed based on B/S structure. The systematic architecture design and preliminary deployment of such remote platform will be presented in this paper.

H-Shaped Multiple Linear Motor Drive Platform Control System Design Based on an Inverse System Method

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Qin, Caiyan; Zhang, Chaoning; Lu, H.

2017-01-01

Due to its simple mechanical structure and high motion stability, the H-shaped platform has been increasingly widely used in precision measuring, numerical control machining and semiconductor packaging equipment, etc. The H-shaped platform is normally driven by multiple (three) permanent magnet

Understanding the promises and premises of online health platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Van Dijck

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article investigates the claims and complexities involved in the platform-based economics of health and fitness apps. We examine a double-edged logic inscribed in these platforms, promising to offer personal solutions to medical problems while also contributing to the public good. On the one hand, online platforms serve as personalized data-driven services to their customers. On the other hand, they allegedly serve public interests, such as medical research or health education. In doing so, many apps employ a diffuse discourse, hinging on terms like “sharing,” “open,” and “reuse” when they talk about data extraction and distribution. The analytical approach we adopt in this article is situated at the nexus of science and technology studies, political economy, and the sociology of health and illness. The analysis concentrates on two aspects: datafication (the use and reuse of data and commodification (a platform’s deployment of governance and business models. We apply these analytical categories to three specific platforms: 23andMe, PatientsLikeMe, and Parkinson mPower. The last section will connect these individual examples to the wider implications of health apps’ data flows, governance policies, and business models. Regulatory bodies commonly focus on the (medical safety and security of apps, but pay scarce attention to health apps’ techno-economic governance. Who owns user-generated health data and who gets to benefit? We argue that it is important to reflect on the societal implications of health data markets. Governments have the duty to provide conceptual clarity in the grand narrative of transforming health care and health research.

Infrastructure-Less Communication Platform for Off-The-Shelf Android Smartphones.

Science.gov (United States)

Oide, Takuma; Abe, Toru; Suganuma, Takuo

2018-03-04

As smartphones and other small portable devices become more sophisticated and popular, opportunities for communication and information sharing among such device users have increased. In particular, since it is known that infrastructure-less device-to-device (D2D) communication platforms consisting only of such devices are excellent in terms of, for example, bandwidth efficiency, efforts are being made to merge their information sharing capabilities with conventional infrastructure. However, efficient multi-hop communication is difficult with the D2D communication protocol, and many conventional D2D communication platforms require modifications of the protocol and terminal operating systems (OSs). In response to these issues, this paper reports on a proposed tree-structured D2D communication platform for Android devices that combines Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi functions. The proposed platform, which is expected to be used with general Android 4.0 (or higher) OS equipped terminals, makes it possible to construct an ad hoc network instantaneously without sharing prior knowledge among participating devices. We will show the feasibility of our proposed platform through its design and demonstrate the implementation of a prototype using real devices. In addition, we will report on our investigation into communication delays and stability based on the number of hops and on terminal performance through experimental confirmation experiments.

Research on acceleration method of reactor physics based on FPGA platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, C.; Yu, G.; Wang, K.

2013-01-01

The physical designs of the new concept reactors which have complex structure, various materials and neutronic energy spectrum, have greatly improved the requirements to the calculation methods and the corresponding computing hardware. Along with the widely used parallel algorithm, heterogeneous platforms architecture has been introduced into numerical computations in reactor physics. Because of the natural parallel characteristics, the CPU-FPGA architecture is often used to accelerate numerical computation. This paper studies the application and features of this kind of heterogeneous platforms used in numerical calculation of reactor physics through practical examples. After the designed neutron diffusion module based on CPU-FPGA architecture achieves a 11.2 speed up factor, it is proved to be feasible to apply this kind of heterogeneous platform into reactor physics. (authors)

Close connections between open science and open-source software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

YouHua Chen

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Open science is increasingly gaining attention in recent years. In this mini-review, we briefly discuss and summarize the reasons of introducing open science into academic publications for scientists. We argue that open-source software (like R and Python software can be the universal and important platforms for doing open science because of their appealing features: open source, easy-reading document, commonly used in various scientific disciplines like statistics, chemistry and biology. At last, the challenges and future perspectives of performing open science are discussed.

Platform Expansion Design as Strategic Choice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staykova, Kalina S.; Damsgaard, Jan

2016-01-01

In this paper, we address how the strategic choice of platform expansion design impacts the subse-quent platform strategy. We identify two distinct approaches to platform expansion – platform bun-dling and platform constellations, which currently co-exist. The purpose of this paper is to outline...

A Typology of Multi-sided Platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staykova, Kalina Stefanova; Damsgaard, Jan

2015-01-01

In this paper we address how the composition of a platform impacts the platform’s business model. By platform’s business model we mean platform features, platform architecture and platform governance. To this end, we construct the Platform Business Model Framework. We apply the framework to three...

Providing Memory Management Abstraction for Self-Reconfigurable Video Processing Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kurt Franz Ackermann

2009-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a concept for an SDRAM controller targeting video processing platforms with dynamically reconfigurable processing units (RPUs. A priority-arbitration algorithm provides the required QoS and supports high bit-rate data streaming of multiple clients. Conforming to common video data structures the controller organizes the memory in partitions, frames, lines, and pixels. The raised level of abstraction drastically reduces the complexity of clients' addressing logic. Its uniform interface structure facilitates instantiations in systems with various clients. In addition to SDRAM controllers for regular applications, special demands of reconfigurable platforms have to be satisfied. The aim of this work is to minimize the number of required bus macros leading to relaxed place and route constraints and reducing the number of critical design paths. A suitable interface protocol is presented, and fundamental implementation issues are outlined.

Modeling and Simulation of Offshore Wind Power Platform for 5 MW Baseline NREL Turbine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taufik Roni Sahroni

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the modeling and simulation of offshore wind power platform for oil and gas companies. Wind energy has become the fastest growing renewable energy in the world and major gains in terms of energy generation are achievable when turbines are moved offshore. The objective of this project is to propose new design of an offshore wind power platform. Offshore wind turbine (OWT is composed of three main structures comprising the rotor/blades, the tower nacelle, and the supporting structure. The modeling analysis was focused on the nacelle and supporting structure. The completed final design was analyzed using finite element modeling tool ANSYS to obtain the structure’s response towards loading conditions and to ensure it complies with guidelines laid out by classification authority Det Norske Veritas. As a result, a new model of the offshore wind power platform for 5 MW Baseline NREL turbine was proposed.

Using Small UAS for Mission Simulation, Science Validation, and Definition

Science.gov (United States)

Abakians, H.; Donnellan, A.; Chapman, B. D.; Williford, K. H.; Francis, R.; Ehlmann, B. L.; Smith, A. T.

2017-12-01

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) are increasingly being used across JPL and NASA for science data collection, mission simulation, and mission validation. They can also be used as proof of concept for development of autonomous capabilities for Earth and planetary exploration. sUAS are useful for reconstruction of topography and imagery for a variety of applications ranging from fault zone morphology, Mars analog studies, geologic mapping, photometry, and estimation of vegetation structure. Imagery, particularly multispectral imagery can be used for identifying materials such as fault lithology or vegetation type. Reflectance maps can be produced for wetland or other studies. Topography and imagery observations are useful in radar studies such as from UAVSAR or the future NISAR mission to validate 3D motions and to provide imagery in areas of disruption where the radar measurements decorrelate. Small UAS are inexpensive to operate, reconfigurable, and agile, making them a powerful platform for validating mission science measurements, and also for providing surrogate data for existing or future missions.

Materials science in microelectronics II the effects of structure on properties in thin films

CERN Document Server

Machlin, Eugene

2005-01-01

The subject matter of thin-films - which play a key role in microelectronics - divides naturally into two headings: the processing / structure relationship, and the structure / properties relationship. Part II of 'Materials Science in Microelectronics' focuses on the latter of these relationships, examining the effect of structure on the following: Electrical properties Magnetic properties Optical properties Mechanical properties Mass transport properties Interface and junction properties Defects and properties Captures the importance of thin films to microelectronic development Examines the cause / effect relationship of structure on thin film properties.

Dynamic Gaming Platform (DGP)

Science.gov (United States)

2009-04-01

GAMING PLATFORM (DGP) Lockheed Martin Corporation...YYYY) APR 09 2. REPORT TYPE Final 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) Jul 07 – Mar 09 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE DYNAMIC GAMING PLATFORM (DGP) 5a...CMU Carnegie Mellon University DGP Dynamic Gaming Platform GA Genetic Algorithm IARPA Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity LM ATL Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories PAINT ProActive INTelligence

Mounted Smartphones as Measurement and Control Platforms for Motor-Based Laboratory Test-Beds †

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Jared A.; Brill, Anthony; Kapila, Vikram

2016-01-01

Laboratory education in science and engineering often entails the use of test-beds equipped with costly peripherals for sensing, acquisition, storage, processing, and control of physical behavior. However, costly peripherals are no longer necessary to obtain precise measurements and achieve stable feedback control of test-beds. With smartphones performing diverse sensing and processing tasks, this study examines the feasibility of mounting smartphones directly to test-beds to exploit their embedded hardware and software in the measurement and control of the test-beds. This approach is a first step towards replacing laboratory-grade peripherals with more compact and affordable smartphone-based platforms, whose interactive user interfaces can engender wider participation and engagement from learners. Demonstrative cases are presented in which the sensing, computation, control, and user interaction with three motor-based test-beds are handled by a mounted smartphone. Results of experiments and simulations are used to validate the feasibility of mounted smartphones as measurement and feedback control platforms for motor-based laboratory test-beds, report the measurement precision and closed-loop performance achieved with such platforms, and address challenges in the development of platforms to maintain system stability. PMID:27556464

The Doktabörse – an innovative online platform for research projects at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolai, Leo

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: One of the most important extracurricular aspects of medical studies in Germany is a research thesis completed by most students. This research project often times conveys relevant competencies for the physician’s role as scientist. Nevertheless, the choice of the right project remains a challenge. Reasons for this are among others, missing structures for a comprehensive overview of research groups and their respective projects.Description of the project: We developed the online platform as an online marketplace for doctoral research projects. The platform enables authorized researchers to create working groups and upload, deactivate and change research projects within their institute. For interested students, a front end with integrated search function displays these projects in a structured and well-arranged way. In parallel, the provides for a comprehensive overview of research at the medical faculty. We evaluated Researchers‘ and students‘ use of the platform. Results: 96,6% of students participating in the evaluation (n=400 were in favor of a centralized research platform at the medical faculty. The platform grew at a steady pace and included 120 research groups in June 2016. The students appreciated the structure and design of the Two thirds of all uploaded projects matched successfully with doctoral students via the platform and over 94% of researchers stated that they did not need technical assistance with uploading projects and handling the platform. Discussion: The represents an innovative and well accepted platform for doctoral research projects. The platform is perceived positively by researchers and students alike. However, students criticized limited extent and timeliness of offered projects.In addition, the platform serves as databank of research at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich. The future potential of this platform is to provide for an integrated management solution of doctoral thesis projects

EURESCOM Services Platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwenhuis, Lambertus Johannes Maria; van Halteren, Aart

1999-01-01

This paper presents the results of the EURESCOM Project 715. In February 1999, a large team of researchers from six European public network operators completed a two year period of cooperative experiments on a TINA-based environment, called the EURESCOM Services Platform (ESP). This platform

Setting up crowd science projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Scheliga, Kaja; Friesike, Sascha; Puschmann, Cornelius; Fecher, Benedikt

2016-11-29

Crowd science is scientific research that is conducted with the participation of volunteers who are not professional scientists. Thanks to the Internet and online platforms, project initiators can draw on a potentially large number of volunteers. This crowd can be involved to support data-rich or labour-intensive projects that would otherwise be unfeasible. So far, research on crowd science has mainly focused on analysing individual crowd science projects. In our research, we focus on the perspective of project initiators and explore how crowd science projects are set up. Based on multiple case study research, we discuss the objectives of crowd science projects and the strategies of their initiators for accessing volunteers. We also categorise the tasks allocated to volunteers and reflect on the issue of quality assurance as well as feedback mechanisms. With this article, we contribute to a better understanding of how crowd science projects are set up and how volunteers can contribute to science. We suggest that our findings are of practical relevance for initiators of crowd science projects, for science communication as well as for informed science policy making. © The Author(s) 2016.

Experiences with Deriva: An Asset Management Platform for Accelerating eScience.

Science.gov (United States)

Bugacov, Alejandro; Czajkowski, Karl; Kesselman, Carl; Kumar, Anoop; Schuler, Robert E; Tangmunarunkit, Hongsuda

2017-10-01

The pace of discovery in eScience is increasingly dependent on a scientist's ability to acquire, curate, integrate, analyze, and share large and diverse collections of data. It is all too common for investigators to spend inordinate amounts of time developing ad hoc procedures to manage their data. In previous work, we presented Deriva, a Scientific Asset Management System, designed to accelerate data driven discovery. In this paper, we report on the use of Deriva in a number of substantial and diverse eScience applications. We describe the lessons we have learned, both from the perspective of the Deriva technology, as well as the ability and willingness of scientists to incorporate Scientific Asset Management into their daily workflows.

Offshore platforms and deterministic ice actions: Kashagan phase 2 development: North Caspian Sea.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Croasdale, Ken [KRCA, Calgary (Canada); Jordaan, Ian [Ian Jordaan and Associates, St John' s (Canada); Verlaan, Paul [Shell Development Kashagan, London (United Kingdom)

2011-07-01

The Kashagan development has to face the difficult conditions of the northern Caspian Sea. This paper investigated ice interaction scenarios and deterministic methods used on platform designs for the Kashagan development. The study presents first a review of the types of platforms in use and being designed for the Kashagan development. The various ice load scenarios and the structures used in each case are discussed. Vertical faced barriers, mobile drilling barges and sheet pile islands were used for the ice loads on vertical structures. Sloping faced barriers and islands of rock were used for the ice loads on sloping structures. Deterministic models such as the model in ISO 19906 were used to calculate the loads occurring with or without ice rubble in front of the structure. The results showed the importance of rubble build-up in front of wide structures in shallow water. Recommendations were provided for building efficient vertical and sloping faced barriers.

Rosalind Franklin and the DNA molecular structure: A case of history of science to learn about the nature of science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Antonio Acevedo-Díaz

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The Rosalind Franklin’s case regarding the elucidation of the molecular structure of DNA is presented as an interesting story of the history of science to address a set of questions related to the nature of science (NOS from an explicit and reflective approach. The teaching proposal is aimed to the pre-service teachers training in NOS issues and its didactics. Attention is given to both epistemic and non-epistemic aspects in the narration and the NOS questions asked for reflecting about them. Also, some methodological recommendations for implementing the didactic proposal in science classroom are offered. This involves the follows: (i in small groups, the students read the controversy and respond to some questions on NOS; (ii they present their responses to the whole-class; and (iii they revise their initial responses in light of the whole-class discussion.

Microblogging as an extension of science reporting.

Science.gov (United States)

Büchi, Moritz

2017-11-01

Mass media have long provided general publics with science news. New media such as Twitter have entered this system and provide an additional platform for the dissemination of science information. Based on automated collection and analysis of >900 news articles and 70,000 tweets, this study explores the online communication of current science news. Topic modeling (latent Dirichlet allocation) was used to extract five broad themes of science reporting: space missions, the US government shutdown, cancer research, Nobel Prizes, and climate change. Using content and network analysis, Twitter was found to extend public science communication by providing additional voices and contextualizations of science issues. It serves a recommender role by linking to web resources, connecting users, and directing users' attention. This article suggests that microblogging adds a new and relevant layer to the public communication of science.

Towards a Disruptive Digital Platform Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazan, Erol

that digital platforms leverage on three strategic design elements (i.e., business, architecture, and technology design) to create supportive conditions for facilitating disruption. To shed light on disruptive digital platforms, I opted for payment platforms as my empirical context and unit of analysis......Digital platforms are layered modular information technology architectures that support disruption. Digital platforms are particularly disruptive, as they facilitate the quick release of digital innovations that may replace established innovations. Yet, despite their support for disruption, we have...... not fully understood how such digital platforms can be strategically designed and configured to facilitate disruption. To that end, this thesis endeavors to unravel disruptive digital platforms from the supply perspective that are grounded on strategic digital platform design elements. I suggest...

Groundwater Assessment Platform

OpenAIRE

Podgorski, Joel; Berg, Michael

2018-01-01

The Groundwater Assessment Platform is a free, interactive online GIS platform for the mapping, sharing and statistical modeling of groundwater quality data. The modeling allows users to take advantage of publicly available global datasets of various environmental parameters to produce prediction maps of their contaminant of interest.

Preparing for a Product Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fiil-Nielsen, Ole; Munk, Lone; Mortensen, Niels Henrik

2005-01-01

on commonalities and similarities in the product family, and variance should be based on customer demands. To relate these terms and to improve the basis on which decisions are made, we need a way of visualizing the hierarchy of the product family as well as the commonality and variance. This visualization method...... of the platform or ensuring that the platform can meet future demands will be very useful in the preparation process of a platform synthesis as well as in the updating or reengineering of an existing product development platform.......Experience in the industry as well as recent related scientific publications show the benefits of product development platforms. Companies use platforms to develop not a single but multiple products (i.e. a product family) simultaneously. When these product development projects are coordinated...

Control Structure Impact on the Flying Performance of the Multi-Rotor VTOL Platform - Design, Analysis and Experimental Validation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roman Czyba

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this research is to examine the different control strategies for the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV. The control task is formulated as an angular stabilization of the four rotor platform, and also as a tracking problem of chosen state variables. The PID algorithm has been considered in three structures in respect of the optimal control signal applied to the actuators. For better performance of the quadrotor in hover mode the cascade control system has been proposed. The simulation results of attitude control with different PID controller architectures are presented, and confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control structure and theoretical expectations. Moreover, the design and the practical realization of the control architecture on the experimental aerial vehicle are described. The fast prototyping method together with Matlab/Simulink software and DAQ hardware are used for both evolution and validation of control algorithms. The capacity of the attitude stabilization system is important in the development process of more advanced functionality of autonomous flying vehicles; therefore it needs to be highlighted and taken into careful consideration.

PRINCIPLES OF MODERN UNIVERSITY "ACADEMIC CLOUD" FORMATION BASED ON OPEN SOFTWARE PLATFORM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olena H. Hlazunova

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In the article approaches to the use of cloud technology in teaching of higher education students are analyzed. The essence of the concept of "academic cloud" and its structural elements are justified. The model of academic clouds of the modern university, which operates on the basis of open software platforms, are proposed. Examples of functional software and platforms, that provide the needs of students in e-learning resources, are given. The models of deployment Cloud-oriented environment in higher education: private cloud, infrastructure as a service and platform as a service, are analyzed. The comparison of the cost of deployment "academic cloud" based on its own infrastructure of the institution and lease infrastructure vendor are substantiated.

Continental margin evolution of the northern Arabian platform in Syria

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Best, J.A.; Barazangi, M. (Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)); Al-Saad, D.; Sawaf, T.; Gebran, A. (Syrian Petroleum Company, Damascus (Syrian Arab Republic))

1993-02-01

Synthesis of available geological and geophysical data in the Syrian Arab Republic permits a descriptive account of the pre-Cenozoic geologic history of the northern Arabian platform. The northern Arabian platform appears to be a composite plate similar up to that interpreted in the rocks of the Arabian shield. The structural and stratigraphic relationships of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary sections in Syria record the transformation of an eastward-facing Gondwana passive margin in the early Paleozoic into a westward-facing Levantine margin in the Mesozoic, at which time the northern platform was closely associated with the creation of the eastern Mediterranean basin. Timing of the margin transformation is inferred from the orientation and thickness variations of Lower Triassic rocks, but the transformation may have initiated as early as the Permian. The diversity and timing of geological features in Syria suggest that the northern Arabian platform did not behave as a rigid plate throughout its geological history. The present-day Palmyride mountain belt, located within the northern Arabian platform in Syria and initiated in the early Mesozoic as a northeast-trending rift nearly perpendicular to the Levantine margin, subsequently was inverted in the Cenozoic by transpression. The location of the rift may be associated with the reactivation of a zone of crustal weakness, i.e., a Proterozoic suture zone previously proposed from modeling of Bouguer gravity data. Thus, the northern and southern parts of the Arabian platform are similar in their respective geologic histories during the Proterozoic and Paleozoic; however, the northern Arabian platform was greatly affected by Mesozoic rifting and the creation of the eastern Mediterranean basin during the Mesozoic. 13 figs.

GeoChronos: An On-line Collaborative Platform for Earth Observation Scientists

Science.gov (United States)

Gamon, J. A.; Kiddle, C.; Curry, R.; Markatchev, N.; Zonta-Pastorello, G., Jr.; Rivard, B.; Sanchez-Azofeifa, G. A.; Simmonds, R.; Tan, T.

2009-12-01

Recent advances in cyberinfrastructure are offering new solutions to the growing challenges of managing and sharing large data volumes. Web 2.0 and social networking technologies, provide the means for scientists to collaborate and share information more effectively. Cloud computing technologies can provide scientists with transparent and on-demand access to applications served over the Internet in a dynamic and scalable manner. Semantic Web technologies allow for data to be linked together in a manner understandable by machines, enabling greater automation. Combining all of these technologies together can enable the creation of very powerful platforms. GeoChronos (http://geochronos.org/), part of a CANARIE Network Enabled Platforms project, is an online collaborative platform that incorporates these technologies to enable members of the earth observation science community to share data and scientific applications and to collaborate more effectively. The GeoChronos portal is built on an open source social networking platform called Elgg. Elgg provides a full set of social networking functionalities similar to Facebook including blogs, tags, media/document sharing, wikis, friends/contacts, groups, discussions, message boards, calendars, status, activity feeds and more. An underlying cloud computing infrastructure enables scientists to access dynamically provisioned applications via the portal for visualizing and analyzing data. Users are able to access and run the applications from any computer that has a Web browser and Internet connectivity and do not need to manage and maintain the applications themselves. Semantic Web Technologies, such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF) are being employed for relating and linking together spectral, satellite, meteorological and other data. Social networking functionality plays an integral part in facilitating the sharing of data and applications. Examples of recent GeoChronos users during the early testing phase have

The Logic of Digital Platform Disruption

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazan, Erol; Tan, Chee-Wee; Lim, Eric T. K.

Digital platforms are disruptive IT artifacts, because they facilitate the quick release of innovative platform derivatives from third parties (e.g., apps). This study endeavours to unravel the disruptive potential, caused by distinct designs and configurations of digital platforms on market...... environments. We postulate that the disruptive potential of digital platforms is determined by the degree of alignment among the business, technology and platform profiles. Furthermore, we argue that the design and configuration of the aforementioned three elements dictates the extent to which open innovation...... is permitted. To shed light on the disruptive potential of digital platforms, we opted for payment platforms as our unit of analysis. Through interviews with experts and payment providers, we seek to gain an in-depth appreciation of how contemporary digital payment platforms are designed and configured...

Proposal for a Mini Wireless Force Platform for Human Gait Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovani PIFFER

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to develop a mini wireless force platform placed in the shoe sole for analysis of human gait. The platform consists of a machined aluminum mechanical structure fixed into a sole, whose sensors are electrical resistance strain gages strategically cemented at the points of greatest deformation of the structure. The strain gages are configured as a ½ Wheatstone bridge connected to an amplifier for output signals and filtered by a signal conditioner. The signals are conditioned using a data acquisition board in conjunction with a graphical interface developed in LabVIEW. The static and dynamic behavior of the eight load cells was evaluated. Calibration at static pressures has shown that the eight load cells are linear within the usage range from 0 kgf to 45 kgf. The dynamic response has determined that the first vibration mode is around 1 kHz, indicating that the load cells have no resonance during the test. Three subjects carried out gait tests to examine the range of force platform use, and these tests demonstrated that the signals obtained are consistent with the classical references in this area.

Achieving Science with CubeSats: Thinking Inside the Box

Science.gov (United States)

Zurbuchen, Thomas H.; Lal, Bhavya

2017-01-01

We present the results of a study conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The study focused on the scientific potential and technological promise of CubeSats. We will first review the growth of the CubeSat platform from an education-focused technology toward a platform of importance for technology development, science, and commercial use, both in the United States and internationally. The use has especially exploded in recent years. For example, of the over 400 CubeSats launched since 2000, more than 80% of all science-focused ones have been launched just in the past four years. Similarly, more than 80% of peer-reviewed papers describing new science based on CubeSat data have been published in the past five years.We will then assess the technological and science promise of CubeSats across space science disciplines, and discuss a subset of priority science goals that can be achieved given the current state of CubeSat capabilities. Many of these goals address targeted science, often in coordination with other spacecraft, or by using sacrificial or high-risk orbits that lead to the demise of the satellite after critical data have been collected. Other goals relate to the use of CubeSats as constellations or swarms, deploying tens to hundreds of CubeSats that function as one distributed array of measurements.Finally, we will summarize our conclusions and recommendations from this study; especially those focused on nearterm investment that could improve the capabilities of CubeSats toward increased science and technological return and enable the science communities’ use of CubeSats.

Transactional Network Platform: Applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Katipamula, Srinivas; Lutes, Robert G.; Ngo, Hung; Underhill, Ronald M.

2013-10-31

In FY13, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) with funding from the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Office (BTO) designed, prototyped and tested a transactional network platform to support energy, operational and financial transactions between any networked entities (equipment, organizations, buildings, grid, etc.). Initially, in FY13, the concept demonstrated transactions between packaged rooftop air conditioners and heat pump units (RTUs) and the electric grid using applications or "agents" that reside on the platform, on the equipment, on a local building controller or in the Cloud. The transactional network project is a multi-lab effort with Oakridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) also contributing to the effort. PNNL coordinated the project and also was responsible for the development of the transactional network (TN) platform and three different applications associated with RTUs. This document describes two applications or "agents" in details, and also summarizes the platform. The TN platform details are described in another companion document.

ISS External Contamination Environment for Space Science Utilization

Science.gov (United States)

Soares, Carlos; Mikatarian, Ron; Steagall, Courtney; Huang, Alvin; Koontz, Steven; Worthy, Erica

2014-01-01

(1) The International Space Station is the largest and most complex on-orbit platform for space science utilization in low Earth orbit, (2) Multiple sites for external payloads, with exposure to the associated natural and induced environments, are available to support a variety of space science utilization objectives, (3) Contamination is one of the induced environments that can impact performance, mission success and science utilization on the vehicle, and (4)The ISS has been designed, built and integrated with strict contamination requirements to provide low levels of induced contamination on external payload assets.

The vacuum platform

Science.gov (United States)

McNab, A.

2017-10-01

This paper describes GridPP’s Vacuum Platform for managing virtual machines (VMs), which has been used to run production workloads for WLCG and other HEP experiments. The platform provides a uniform interface between VMs and the sites they run at, whether the site is organised as an Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud system such as OpenStack, or an Infrastructure-as-a-Client system such as Vac. The paper describes our experience in using this platform, in developing and operating VM lifecycle managers Vac and Vcycle, and in interacting with VMs provided by LHCb, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS, and the GridPP DIRAC service to run production workloads.

The Structural Relationship between Out-of-School Time Enrichment and Black Student Participation in Advanced Science

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Jamaal; Young, Jemimah

2018-01-01

The researchers tested a model of the structural relationship between Black student engagement in out-of-school time (OST) science enrichment and participation in advanced science courses in high school. The participants in the sample were Black students (N = 3,173) who participated in the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009/2012. The student…

Utilizing platforms in industrialized construction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonev, Martin; Wörösch, Michael; Hvam, Lars

2015-01-01

platform strategies, this researchhighlights key aspects of adapting platform-based developed theory to industrialised construction.Building projects use different layers of product, process and logistics platforms to form the right cost– value ratio for the target market application, while modelling...

Year 3 LUNAR Annual Report to the NASA Lunar Science Institute

OpenAIRE

Burns, Jack; Lazio, Joseph

2012-01-01

The Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research (LUNAR) is a team of researchers and students at leading universities, NASA centers, and federal research laboratories undertaking investigations aimed at using the Moon as a platform for space science. LUNAR research includes Lunar Interior Physics & Gravitation using Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR), Low Frequency Cosmology and Astrophysics (LFCA), Planetary Science and the Lunar Ionosphere, Radio Heliophysics, and Exploration Science. The LUN...

Beam Dynamics Simulation Platform and Studies of Beam Breakup in Dielectric Wakefield Structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schoessow, P.; Kanareykin, A.; Jing, C.; Kustov, A.; Altmark, A.; Gai, W.

2010-01-01

A particle-Green's function beam dynamics code (BBU-3000) to study beam breakup effects is incorporated into a parallel computing framework based on the Boinc software environment, and supports both task farming on a heterogeneous cluster and local grid computing. User access to the platform is through a web browser.

Load Identification of Offshore Platform for Fatigue Life Estimation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Perisic, Nevena; Kirkegaard, Poul Henning; Tygesen, Ulf T.

2014-01-01

of the structure and the discrete Kalman filter which recursively estimates unknown states of the system in real time. As a test-case, the algorithm is designed to estimate the equivalent total loading forces of the structure. The loads are estimated from noised displacement measurements of a single location...... on the topside of the offshore structure. The method is validated using simulated data for two wave loading cases: regular and irregular wave loadings.......The lifetime of an offshore platform is typically governed by accumulated fatigue damage. Thus, the load time history is an essential parameter for prediction of the lifetime of the structure and its components. Consequently, monitoring of structural loads is of special importance in relation to re...

Seismic sequence stratigraphy and platform to basin reservoir structuring of Lower Cretaceous deposits in the Sidi Aïch-Majoura region (Central Tunisia)

Science.gov (United States)

Azaïez, Hajer; Bédir, Mourad; Tanfous, Dorra; Soussi, Mohamed

2007-05-01

In central Tunisia, Lower Cretaceous deposits represent carbonate and sandstone reservoir series that correspond to proven oil fields. The main problems for hydrocarbon exploration of these levels are their basin tectonic configuration and their sequence distribution in addition to the source rock availability. The Central Atlas of Tunisia is characterized by deep seated faults directed northeast-southwest, northwest-southeast and north-south. These faults limit inherited tectonic blocks and show intruded Triassic salt domes. Lower Cretaceous series outcropping in the region along the anticline flanks present platform deposits. The seismic interpretation has followed the Exxon methodologies in the 26th A.A.P.G. Memoir. The defined Lower Cretaceous seismic units were calibrated with petroleum well data and tied to stratigraphic sequences established by outcrop studies. This allows the subsurface identification of subsiding zones and thus sequence deposit distribution. Seismic mapping of these units boundary shows a structuring from a platform to basin blocks zones and helps to understand the hydrocarbon reservoir systems-tract and horizon distribution around these domains.

Potential Fish Production Impacts from Partial Removal of Decommissioned Oil and Gas Platforms off the Coast of California

Science.gov (United States)

Claisse, J.; Pondella, D.; Love, M.; Zahn, L.; Williams, C.; Bull, A. S.

2016-02-01

When oil and gas platforms become obsolete they go through a decommissioning process. This may include partial removal (from the surface to 26 m depth) or complete removal of the platform structure. While complete removal would likely eliminate most of the existing fish biomass and associated secondary production, we find that the potential impacts of partial removal would likely be limited on all but one platform off the coast of California. On average 80% of fish biomass and 86% of secondary fish production would be retained after partial removal, with above 90% retention expected for both metrics on many platforms. Partial removal would likely result in the loss of fish biomass and production for species typically found residing in the shallow portions of the platform structure. However, these fishes generally represent a small proportion of the fishes associated with these platforms. More characteristic of platform fauna are the primarily deeper-dwelling rockfishes (genus Sebastes). "Shell mounds" are biogenic reefs that surround some of these platforms resulting from an accumulation of mollusk shells that have fallen from the shallow areas of the platforms mostly above the depth of partial removal. We found that shell mounds are moderately productive fish habitats, similar to or greater than natural rocky reefs in the region at comparable depths. The complexity and areal extent of these biogenic habitats, and the associated fish biomass and production, will likely be reduced after either partial or complete platform removal. Habitat augmentation by placing the partially removed platform superstructure or some other additional habitat enrichment material (e.g., rock boulders) on the seafloor adjacent to the base of partially removed platforms provides additional options to enhance fish production, potentially mitigating reductions in shell mound habitat.

Some Problems of Information-Communication Technologies Implementation in the Activity of Enterprise Structures of Education and Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander A. Galushkin

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In this article author examines some of the issues of information and communication technologies in the activity of enterprise structures of education and science. During study author analyzes views of some eminent scientists, with formulate their own point of view. The study emphasizes that the introduction of information products in the deeper stages of the structure of education and science, implementing educational programs, as a rule, is facing a number of serious difficulties. In conclusion, the author cites 3 evidence-based conclusions.

Conventionalism, structuralism and neo-Kantianism in Poincaré's philosophy of science

Science.gov (United States)

Ivanova, Milena

2015-11-01

Poincaré is well known for his conventionalism and structuralism. However, the relationship between these two theses and their place in Poincaré's epistemology of science remain puzzling. In this paper I show the scope of Poincaré's conventionalism and its position in Poincaré's hierarchical approach to scientific theories. I argue that for Poincaré scientific knowledge is relational and made possible by synthetic a priori, empirical and conventional elements, which, however, are not chosen arbitrarily. By examining his geometric conventionalism, his hierarchical account of science and defence of continuity in theory change, I argue that Poincaré defends a complex structuralist position based on synthetic a priori and conventional elements, the mind-dependence of which precludes epistemic access to mind-independent structures. The object of mathematical theories is not to reveal to us the real nature of things; that would be an unreasonable claim. Their only object is to coordinate the physical laws with which physical experiments make us acquainted, the enunciation of which, without the aid of mathematics, would be unable to effect. (Poincaré, 2001, 117)

Adoption of Mobile Payment Platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staykova, Kalina Stefanova; Damsgaard, Jan

2016-01-01

Numerous mobile payment solutions, which rely on new disruptive technologies, have been launched on the payment market in recent years. But despite the growing number of mobile payment apps, very few solutions have turned to be successful as the majority of them fail to gain a critical mass...... of users. In this paper, we investigate successful platform adoption strategies by using the Reach and Range Framework for Multi-Sided Platforms as a strategic tool to which mobile payment providers can adhere in order to tackle some of the main challenges they face throughout the evolution...... of their platforms. The analysis indicates that successful mobile payment solutions tend to be launched as one-sided platforms and then gradually be expanded into being two-sided. Our study showcases that the success of mobile payment platforms lies with the ability of the platform to balance the reach (number...

The Dynamics of Digital Platform Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eaton, Ben

2016-01-01

Curated platforms provide an architectural basis for third parties to develop platform complements and for platform owners to control their implementation as a form of open innovation. The refusal to implement complements as innovations can cause tension between platform owners and developers. Th...

Epitaxial graphene electronic structure and transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Heer, Walt A; Berger, Claire; Wu Xiaosong; Sprinkle, Mike; Hu Yike; Ruan Ming; First, Phillip N; Stroscio, Joseph A; Haddon, Robert; Piot, Benjamin; Faugeras, Clement; Potemski, Marek; Moon, Jeong-Sun

2010-01-01

Since its inception in 2001, the science and technology of epitaxial graphene on hexagonal silicon carbide has matured into a major international effort and is poised to become the first carbon electronics platform. A historical perspective is presented and the unique electronic properties of single and multilayered epitaxial graphenes on electronics grade silicon carbide are reviewed. Early results on transport and the field effect in Si-face grown graphene monolayers provided proof-of-principle demonstrations. Besides monolayer epitaxial graphene, attention is given to C-face grown multilayer graphene, which consists of electronically decoupled graphene sheets. Production, structure and electronic structure are reviewed. The electronic properties, interrogated using a wide variety of surface, electrical and optical probes, are discussed. An overview is given of recent developments of several device prototypes including resistance standards based on epitaxial graphene quantum Hall devices and new ultrahigh frequency analogue epitaxial graphene amplifiers.

Near Real-time Scientific Data Analysis and Visualization with the ArcGIS Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Shrestha, S. R.; Viswambharan, V.; Doshi, A.

2017-12-01