From dummies to animations: a review of computer-animated stimuli used in animal behavior studies

Traditionally, studies that explored animal communication have been directed towards the observation of natural interactions between individuals. Over the years, researchers have long championed the use of artificial stimuli in place of natural ones in behavioral experiments to precisely control what the observers get to see or experience. The employment of diverse techniques to stage animal interactions has provided an alternative to observations and intrusive experimental methods. Technological advances now allow researchers to develop realistic computer animations of social partners that mimic behaviors with a high degree of fidelity for morphological and behavioral characteristics of tutors. The increasing use of the computer-generated animations technique reveals a desire to deliver standardized visual stimuli and to limit the variable behavior of demonstrators across experimental sessions. In the following review, we provide an appraisal of the computer-generated animations efficiency to stage animal interactions, and consider experimental studies in which this technique has been employed to simulate social interactions. We also present alternative methods that are used for designing animation models. Our aim is to evaluate the merits of computer-generated animations and how this technique may be more appropriate for certain types of staged interactions when compared to other classically employed approaches. We advocate that computer-generated animations appear to be the most flexible technique to date, and offers better control of visual cues that are presented, thus allowing researchers to program a large variety of stimuli. Finally, we suggest improvements of this technique, and especially how it may be used to study signal design in multimodal systems.     

Flame acceleration in unconfined hydrogen/air deflagrations using infrared photography

Flame behavior and blast waves generated during unconfined hydrogen deflagrations were experimentally studied using infrared photography. Infrared photography enables expanding spherical flame behaviors to be measured and flame acceleration exponents to be evaluated. In the present experiments, hydrogen/air mixtures of various concentrations were filled in a plastic tent of thin vinyl sheet of 1 m³ and ignited by an electric spark. The onset of accelerative dynamics on the flame propagation was analyzed by the time histories of the flame radius and the stretched flame speed. The results demonstrated that the self-acceleration of the flame, which was caused by diffusional-thermal and hydrodynamic instabilities of the blast wave, was influenced by hydrogen deflagrations in unconfined areas. In particular, it was demonstrated that the overpressure rapidly increased with time. The burning velocity acceleration was greatly enhanced with spontaneous-turbulization.     

Managing stormwater for urban sustainability: an evaluation of local comprehensive plans in the Chesapeake Bay watershed region

This study uses a developed plan coding protocol in evaluating the quality of 76 comprehensive plans to examine whether local comprehensive plans have adequately integrated the concepts of sustainable stormwater management. The Chesapeake Bay watershed was chosen for the investigation because degraded stormwater runoff from nearby urban and suburban jurisdictions have critically polluted the watershed. The findings indicate that the majority of local governments have not sufficiently incorporated the sustainable stormwater management principles into their comprehensive plans. Five plan components (factual basis, goals and objectives, inter-organizational cooperation, policies, tools and strategies, and implementation) appear weak in realizing the concepts. The current study concludes by providing policy implications and recommendations to increase awareness and understanding of sustainable stormwater management concepts and to produce better implementation plans that integrate stormwater, ecosystem, and environmental planning comprehensively.     

Identification of black plastics realized with the aid of Raman spectroscopy and fuzzy radial basis function neural networks classifier

To accomplish the effective classifier and secure the accurate classification capabilities of black plastics, a comprehensive design methodology of fuzzy radial basis function neural networks is developed with the aid of principal component analysis and particle swarm optimization. Plastics recycling is the competitive method which can deal with the shortage of natural resource. To recycle and reuse the waste plastics, this study is given as the key issue to identify and classify waste plastics by resin type such as polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, polystyrene, etc. To complement the weak points of recognition and classification of the near-infrared radiation equipment, Raman spectroscopy is used to obtain qualitative as well as quantitative analysis of black plastics. To improve the identification performance of black plastics, an intelligent computing algorithm such as fuzzy radial basis function neural networks classifier and preprocessing algorithm as principal component analysis are applied to analyze and classify the obtained spectrum of black plastics. Finally, to optimize the structure as well as parameters of fuzzy radial basis function neural networks, particle swarm optimization technique is used. The obtained experimental results show that the proposed network architecture exhibits high classification capabilities in practical applications.     

Simple ultrasonic diagnosis of osteogenesis imperfecta type II in early second trimester

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) Type II was diagnosed accurately in an at-risk fetus at 16 weeks gestation by real-time sonography. The most important findings were shortening, deformity and possibly fracture in the long bones particularly the femurs. Ultrasonic visualization of these signs in a fetus at risk will provide direct evidence in the diagnosis of OI Type II and any additional investigations are not indicated.     

Preface Coping with hydrological extremes

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change -     

Cadmium ion sorption onto lignocellulosic biosorbent modified by sulfonation: the origin of sorption capacity improvement

Juniper (Juniperus monosperma), a small-diameter underutilized material, has been studied as a lignocellulosic biosorbent for removing heavy metals from water. In this study, juniper wood was modified by sulfonation to enhance sorption capacity for cadmium in water. The origin of the enhancement was investigated by observing the sorption behaviors and the change in surface functional group concentrations. Cadmium sorption by all juniper wood biosorbents studied was fast and the sorption capacity decreased with decreasing pH, similar to results found for other biosorbents. Sulfonated juniper was found to have at least twice the sorption capacity for cadmium removal from water compared to that of untreated juniper, though the sorption capacity increased with increasing pH. A slight increase in carboxylate content after sulfonation was likely responsible for a small portion of the enhancement. Elemental analysis showed an increase in sulfur content after sulfonation. Diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectra showed a decrease in the band at 1660 cm(-1) in the range of carbonyl groups as a result of sulfonation. This indicates that coniferaldehyde groups in the lignin of juniper wood corresponding to this band were substituted into sulfonic acid groups after sulfonation. This interpretation was supported by both the color forming reaction with phloroglucinol-hydrochloric acid and the reaction mechanisms from the acid sulfite pulping process. Consequently, the enhancement of cadmium sorption capacity of juniper wood by sulfonation mainly originated from the production of sulfonic acid groups, which are binding sites for heavy metals.     

Gasification characteristics of sewage sludge combined with wood biomass

The gas products from gasification processes have been considered to have some limitations in gas composition and heating value from the previous studies. Gasification characteristics of sewage sludge and wood mixture were investigated using different mixing ratios with the purpose of better quality of gas product suitable for energy/power generation. The gasification experiment was performed by an indirectly heated fluidized bed reactor. As reaction temperature increased from 600 to 900 °C, the yield of gas product increased with higher generation of CO, H₂ and CH₄ by more activated gas conversion reactions. As the equivalence ratio increased from 0.2 to 0.4, composition ratio of CO₂ increased while CO, CH₄, H₂ decreased as expected. Several operating variables including mixing ratio of wood with dried sludge were also tested. From this initial stage of experiment, optimal operating conditions for the bubbling fluidized bed gasifier, could be considered 900 °C in temperature; 0.2 in equivalence ratio and 40 % in wood mixing ratio within test variables range. These results will be more thoroughly investigated for the application to the larger scale pilot system.     

Chemical characteristics of long-range transport aerosol at background sites in Korea

In this study, background concentration sites of Deokjeok and Gosan, which were deemed suitable for monitoring the impact of long-range transported air pollutants, were selected. An investigation of the source types of pollutants, their locations, and relative quantitative contributions to the particulate concentrations at both sites using appropriate methodologies to make initial estimations was conducted. Episodic measurements of PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and size distribution, along with its ion and carbon components were performed from 2005 to 2007, and a comprehensive analysis of the results was conducted utilizing back trajectory analysis. As for frequency of wind direction, it was quite apparent that the two sites are heavily influenced by air masses originating from the eastern and northern regions of China. For PM_2.5 and PM₁₀, the mass concentrations from north and east China were higher than other cases, originating from the ocean. In the northerly-wind case, meteorological properties for Deokjeok and Gosan and the influence of carbon emissions from northwest Korea resulted in a changing of air mass properties during transport. As was the case with mass concentration, the highest contribution for ionic and carbon components of PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ for both sites appeared for the westerly wind case. A specially high relative contribution, greater than 1.4 times, was apparent in the secondary aerosol case because of a large influence of long-range transported pollutants from east China. Carbon components exhibited different behaviors for the northerly and westerly wind cases compared with secondary aerosol. The major reason for this discrepancy appears to be the carbon emissions from northwest Korea.