Exploring Environmental Data in a Highly Immersive Virtual Reality Environment

Geography inherently fills a 3D space and yet we struggle with displaying geography using, primarily, 2D display devices. Virtual environments offer a more realistically-dimensioned display space and this is being realized in the expanding area of research on 3D Geographic Information Systems (GISs). Traditionally, a GIS has only limited tools for statistical analysis, and 3D GIS research has concentrated on the visualization of the geographical terrain. Here we discuss linking multivariate statistical graphics to geography in the highly immersive C2 virtual reality environment at Iowa State University using mid-Atlantic streams data.     

Single umbilical artery: Prenatal findings

In 450 patients with pregnancy at high risk for fetal malformation and/or intrauterine growth retardation, the umbilical cord was investigated sonographically for the presence of a single umbilical artery. A single umbilical artery was diagnosed in four fetuses between 23 and 33 weeks of gestation and suspected in two. Three cases were overlooked at sonography. All seven surviving fetuses had growth retardation at delivery and four also showed severe malformations. Whenever a single umbilical artery is found at sonography, further work-up is required to rule out associated anomalies, intrauterine growth retardation, or chromosomal abnormality.     

Suitability of ignition source “exploding wire” for determination of dust explosion characteristics in the 20-L-sphere

Several safety characteristics of dusts are determined in the 20-L-sphere (also known as SIWEK Chamber) according to international standards. Dust cloud ignition is carried out using pyrotechnical igniters. Due to various disadvantages of such igniters the need for alternative ignition sources arises again and again. An alternative could be an ignition source which is known as “exploding wire” or “fuse wire”. The paper presents test results of a comparative study between both ignition sources for the determination of the safety characteristics “Maximum Explosion Pressure” and “Maximum Rate of Explosion Pressure Rise” of five selected dusts in the 20-L-sphere. In addition to that the ignition mechanisms of both ignition sources were analyzed by high speed camera recordings and the ignition energy was determined with electric and calorimetric recordings. The paper shows results of measurements of the ignition energy of both ignition sources as well as sequences of the flame propagation.     

Use of an Area Index to Retrospectively Analyze the Elimination of Fox Rabies in European Countries

Oral vaccination of foxes (OVF) is a powerful tool to combat rabies in wildlife, and large parts of western Europe have been freed from rabies using this tool. Nevertheless, the success of OVF, given with the number of campaigns needed to eliminate the disease, depends on many factors. This article for the first time focuses on and assesses difference in OVF with respect to the spatial setting of vaccinated areas with time. The size of the areas vaccinated with time and the size of the overlapping area of consecutively vaccinated areas are particularly considered. In order to integrate these two aspects into one single figure, an Area Index is proposed ranging between 0 and 1. A statistical analysis indicates that the number of campaigns needed for rabies elimination significantly decreases on condition that the total rabies endemic area is consecutively treated right from the beginning of oral vaccination. Hence, from an economical and environmental point of view, vaccination areas should be selected the way that guarantees an Area Index close to 1. The concept of an Area Index, as described here, is a useful tool not only in the context of OVF, but it could also be used for other control schemes against infectious diseases in wildlife.