Demonstration of PLOTs from the EuroPLOT project

The EuroPLOT project (2010-2013) has been funded to explore the concept of persuasive design for learning and teaching. It has developed Persuasive Learn-ing Objects and Technologies (PLOTs), manifested in two tools and a set of learning objects that have been tested and evaluated in four different case studies. These PLOTs will be shown in this demonstration, and the participants can try them out and experience for themselves the impact of persuasive technology that is embedded in these PLOTs. This will be one authoring tool (PLOTMaker) and one delivery tool (PLOTLearner). Furthermore, there will be learning objects shown which have been developed for those four different case studies. All of these PLOTs have already been tested and evaluated during case studies with real learners

Rotating Gliding Arc: Innovative Source for VOC Remediation

The large-scale plasma treatment of waste gas in industrial or municipal conditions requires high efficiency of plasma conversion process at high processing speed, i.e., large volumetric flow. The integration of the plasma unit into existing systems puts demands on the pipe-system compatibility and minimal pressure drop due to adoption of plasma processing step. These conditions are met at the innovative rotating electrode gliding arc plasma unit described in this article. The system consists of propeller-shaped high voltage electrode inside grounded metallic tube. The design of HV electrode eliminates the pressure drop inside the air system, contrary the plasma unit itself is capable of driving the waste gas at volumetric flow up to 300 m3/hr for 20 cm pipe diameter. In the article the first results on pilot study of waste air treatment will be given for selected volatile organic compounds together with basic characteristic of the plasma unit used

Moduli spaces of toric manifolds

We construct a distance on the moduli space of symplectic toric manifolds of dimension four. Then we study some basic topological properties of this space, in particular, path-connectedness, compactness, and completeness. The construction of the distance is related to the Duistermaat-Heckman measure and the Hausdorff metric. While the moduli space, its topology and metric, may be constructed in any dimension, the tools we use in the proofs are four-dimensional, and hence so is our main result.Comment: To appear in Geometriae Dedicata, minor changes to previous version, 19 pages, 6 figure

Replacement of the First GnRH Administration in the Ovsynch Protocol by Selecting Cows According to the Stage of Follicular Development

The aim of the study was to replace the first GnRH in the Ovsynch protocol by selecting cows bearing corpus luteum as well as follicles in a defined stage of development at PGF2α administration. Additionally, various terms of GnRH administration after PGF2α were tested. Seventy five non-pregnant cows bearing corpus luteum were divided into groups according to the phase of follicular development on D 0 (day of PGF2α administration)-growth (GR, follicles 3.0-7.9 mm in diameter), early dominance (ED, dominant follicle 8.0-14.9 mm) and late dominance (LD, dominant follicle 15.0-23.0 mm). In addition, the cows were divided into groups according to the terms of GnRH administration (24, 48 or 72 h after PGF2α). In this way, groups GR 48 (n = 5), GR 72 (n = 6), ED 24 (n = 10), ED 48 (n = 12), ED 72 (n = 12), LD 24 (n = 10), LD 48 (n = 10) and LD 72 (n = 10) were established. Growth of ovulatory follicle, term of ovulation, insemination and conception rates as well as relation of the size of preovulatory follicle (day of ovulation) to the size of following corpus luteum (day 14) were evaluated. The highest level of synchronization of ovulation (100% on D 3) as well as conception rate (50%) was achieved in group ED 48. This protocol gives an opportunity of timing artificial insemination to 18-24 hours after GnRH administration, as ovulation occurs with a high probability within 24 - 48 hours after GnRH administration

mmView: a web-based viewer of the mmCIF format

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Structural biomolecular data are commonly stored in the PDB format. The PDB format is widely supported by software vendors because of its simplicity and readability. However, the PDB format cannot fully address many informatics challenges related to the growing amount of structural data. To overcome the limitations of the PDB format, a new textual format mmCIF was released in June 1997 in its version 1.0. mmCIF provides extra information which has the advantage of being in a computer readable form. However, this advantage becomes a disadvantage if a human must read and understand the stored data. While software tools exist to help to prepare mmCIF files, the number of available systems simplifying the comprehension and interpretation of the mmCIF files is limited.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>In this paper we present mmView - a cross-platform web-based application that allows to explore comfortably the structural data of biomacromolecules stored in the mmCIF format. The mmCIF categories can be easily browsed in a tree-like structure, and the corresponding data are presented in a well arranged tabular form. The application also allows to display and investigate biomolecular structures via an integrated Java application Jmol.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The mmView software system is primarily intended for educational purposes, but it can also serve as a useful research tool. The mmView application is offered in two flavors: as an open-source stand-alone application (available from <url>http://sourceforge.net/projects/mmview</url>) that can be installed on the user's computer, and as a publicly available web server.</p

A European aerosol phenomenology -4: Harmonized concentrations of carbonaceous aerosol at 10 regional background sites across Europe

Although particulate organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC) are important constituents of the suspended atmospheric particulate matter (PM), measurements of OC and EC are much less common and more uncertain than measurements of e.g. the ionic components of PM. In the framework of atmospheric research infrastructures supported by the European Union, actions have been undertaken to determine and mitigate sampling artefacts, and assess the comparability of OC and EC data obtained in a network of 10 atmospheric observatories across Europe. Positive sampling artefacts (from 0.4 to 2.8 μg C/m3) and analytical discrepancies (between −50% and +40% for the EC/TC ratio) have been taken into account to generate a robust data set, from which we established the phenomenology of carbonaceous aerosols at regional background sites in Europe. Across the network, TC and EC annual average concentrations range from 0.4 to 9 μg C/m3, and from 0.1 to 2 μg C/m3, respectively. TC/PM10 annual mean ratios range from 0.11 at a Mediterranean site to 0.34 at the most polluted continental site, and TC/PM2.5 ratios are slightly greater at all sites (0.15–0.42). EC/TC annual mean ratios range from 0.10 to 0.22, and do not depend much on PM concentration levels, especially in winter. Seasonal variations in PM and TC concentrations, and in TC/PM and EC/TC ratios, differ across the network, which can be explained by seasonal changes in PM source contributions at some sites

The discovery and comparison of symbolic magnitudes

Humans and other primates are able to make relative magnitude comparisons, both with perceptual stimuli and with symbolic inputs that convey magnitude information. Although numerous models of magnitude comparison have been proposed, the basic question of how symbolic magnitudes (e.g., size or intelligence of animals) are derived and represented in memory has received little attention. We argue that symbolic magnitudes often will not correspond directly to elementary features of individual concepts. Rather, magnitudes may be formed in working memory based on computations over more basic features stored in long-term memory. We present a model of how magnitudes can be acquired and compared based on BARTlet, a representationally simpler version of Bayesian Analogy with Relational Transformations (BART; Lu, Chen, &amp; Holyoak, 2012). BARTlet operates on distributions of magnitude variables created by applying dimension-specific weights (learned with the aid of empirical priors derived from pre-categorical comparisons) to more primitive features of objects. The resulting magnitude distributions, formed and maintained in working memory, are sensitive to contextual influences such as the range of stimuli and polarity of the question. By incorporating psychological reference points that control the precision of magnitudes in working memory and applying the tools of signal detection theory, BARTlet is able to account for a wide range of empirical phenomena involving magnitude comparisons, including the symbolic distance effect and the semantic congruity effect. We discuss the role of reference points in cognitive and social decision-making, and implications for the evolution of relational representations