Enrichment of raw sensor data to enable high-level queries

Sensor networks are increasingly used across various application domains. Their usage has the advantage of automated, often continuous, monitoring of activities and events. Ubiquitous sensor networks detect location of people and objects and their movement. In our research, we employ a ubiquitous sensor network to track the movement of players in a tennis match. By doing so, our goal is to create a detailed analysis of how the match progressed, recording points scored, games and sets, and in doing so, greatly reduce the eort of coaches and players who are required to study matches afterwards. The sensor network is highly efficient as it eliminates the need for manual recording of the match. However, it generates raw data that is unusable by domain experts as it contains no frame of reference or context and cannot be analyzed or queried. In this work, we present the UbiQuSE system of data transformers which bridges the gap between raw sensor data and the high-level requirements of domain specialists such as the tennis coach

Extracting tennis statistics from wireless sensing environments

Creating statistics from sporting events is now widespread with most eorts to automate this process using various sensor devices. The problem with many of these statistical applications is that they require proprietary applications to process the sensed data and there is rarely an option to express a wide range of query types. Instead, applications tend to contain built-in queries with predened outputs. In the research presented in this paper, data from a wireless network is converted to a structured and highly interoperable format to facilitate user queries by expressing high level queries in a standard database language and automatically generating the results required by coaches

Expanding sensor networks to automate knowledge acquisition

The availability of accurate, low-cost sensors to scientists has resulted in widespread deployment in a variety of sporting and health environments. The sensor data output is often in a raw, proprietary or unstructured format. As a result, it is often difficult to query multiple sensors for complex properties or actions. In our research, we deploy a heterogeneous sensor network to detect the various biological and physiological properties in athletes during training activities. The goal for exercise physiologists is to quickly identify key intervals in exercise such as moments of stress or fatigue. This is not currently possible because of low level sensors and a lack of query language support. Thus, our motivation is to expand the sensor network with a contextual layer that enriches raw sensor data, so that it can be exploited by a high level query language. To achieve this, the domain expert specifies events in a tradiational event-condition-action format to deliver the required contextual enrichment

Querying XML data streams from wireless sensor networks: an evaluation of query engines

As the deployment of wireless sensor networks increase and their application domain widens, the opportunity for effective use of XML filtering and streaming query engines is ever more present. XML filtering engines aim to provide efficient real-time querying of streaming XML encoded data. This paper provides a detailed analysis of several such engines, focusing on the technology involved, their capabilities, their support for XPath and their performance. Our experimental evaluation identifies which filtering engine is best suited to process a given query based on its properties. Such metrics are important in establishing the best approach to filtering XML streams on-the-fly

Emphysema and COPD in a young woman

AbstractA 28-year old woman presented with a progressive cough and breathlessness. She had a family history of early onset COPD. Spirometry demonstrated airflow obstruction with no reversibility. An HRCT showed extensive centrolobular emphysema with an upper lobe predominance. Blood tests including an Alpha – 1 Antitrypsin level were normal

The relationship between various live animal scores/measurements and carcass classification for conformation and fatness with meat yield and distribution, and ultimate carcass value

End of project reportAccordingly, the primary objectives of the following study were to: (1) determine the relationship of live animal muscular and skeletal scores, ultrasonically scanned muscle and fat depth measurements of the m. longissimus dorsi, and carcass conformation and fat scores with kill-out proportion, carcass composition and value. (2) Specifically develop and test the accuracy of prediction equations for carcass meat, fat and bone proportions, derived from carcass conformation and fat scores, and develop prediction equations for total carcass composition from hind-quarter composition

Parametrising Star Formation Histories

We examine the star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations, compare them to parametric models that are commonly used in fitting observed galaxy spectral energy distributions, and examine the efficacy of these parametric models as practical tools for recovering the physical parameters of galaxies. The commonly used tau-model, with SFR ~ exp(-t/tau), provides a poor match to the SFH of our SPH galaxies, with a mismatch between early and late star formation that leads to systematic errors in predicting colours and stellar mass-to-light ratios. A one-parameter lin-exp model, with SFR ~ t*exp(-t/tau), is much more successful on average, but it fails to match the late-time behavior of the bluest, most actively star-forming galaxies and the passive, "red and dead" galaxies. We introduce a 4-parameter model, which transitions from lin-exp to a linear ramp after a transition time, which describes our simulated galaxies very well. We test the ability of these parametrised models to recover (at z=0, 0.5, and 1) the stellar mass-to-light ratios, specific star formation rates, and stellar population ages from the galaxy colours, computed from the full SPH star formation histories using the FSPS code of Conroy et al. (2009). Fits with tau-models systematically overestimate M/L by ~ 0.2 dex, overestimate population ages by ~ 1-2 Gyr, and underestimate sSFR by ~ 0.05 dex. Fits with lin-exp are less biased on average, but the 4-parameter model yields the best results for the full range of galaxies. Marginalizing over the free parameters of the 4-parameter model leads to slightly larger statistical errors than 1-parameter fits but essentially removes all systematic biases, so this is our recommended procedure for fitting real galaxies.Comment: 28 pages, 18 figure

Structure-Property Relationships in de Vries Smectic A Liquid Crystals

Liquid crystals (LCs) have become inextricably linked with the display industry in recent years. As screen sizes increase the response time of the LC must decrease to maintain picture quality. A rare subset of the chiral smectic A (SmA*) , known as the de Vries SmA* phase, shows fast switching times, large electroclinic tilts, native gray-scale and small layer shrinkage when driven by an electric field, making it an attractive alternative to SmC* materials for next-generation displays. The de Vries SmA* phase is typically formed by molecules with one or more tails that strongly suppress out-of-layer fluctuations. The first part of this thesis describes a set of mesogens with four different liquid crystalline cores built on a scaffold possessing a phenyl and biphenyl moiety linked by an ester with two peripheral alkoxy side-chains (tails). One side-chain is the (S)-1-methylheptyloxy group ortho to a trifluoromethyl group. The second side chain is varied between an n-alkoxy-, n-alkenyloxy- and semifluorinated tails, all of the same length. The latter two tails have been shown to suppress out-of-layer fluctuations. Only the LCs built on the hydroquinone stereopolar unit (W652/W657/W530) show the desired liquid crystalline phases (SmA* and SmC*) over a convenient temperature range. Surprisingly, W652, which possesses no strong out-of-layer suppressing group, shows the de Vries SmA* phase, suggesting the core may be as important as the tails in the design of de Vries smecticss. The second part of this thesis develops structure-property relationships of compounds built on the hydroquinone stereopolar unit, which is particularly good at promoting the de Vries SmA* phase. The set of lateral polar groups (H, Me, Cl, CF3 or NO2) and achiral tails were varied. The effect on the width of the SmA* phases, the clearing point, saturated electroclinic tilt, layer shrinkage from SmA* to SmC* and spontaneous polarization in the SmC* phase were examined. Materials with a large electronegative lateral polar group and strongly out-of-layer suppressing tails give the most desirable properties.</p

Mapping the Dark Matter From UV Light at High Redshift: An Empirical Approach to Understand Galaxy Statistics

We present a simple formalism to interpret two galaxy statistics, the UV luminosity function and two-point correlation functions for star-forming galaxies at z~4, 5, 6 in the context of LCDM cosmology. Both statistics are the result of how star formation takes place in DM halos, and thus are used to constrain how UV light depends on halo properties such as mass. The two measures were taken from the GOODS data, thus ideal for joint analysis. The two physical quantities we explore are the SF duty cycle, and the range of L_UV that a halo of mass M can have (mean and variance). The former addresses the typical duration of SF activity in halos while the latter addresses the averaged SF history and regularity of gas inflow into these systems. We explore various physical models consistent with data, and find the following: 1) the typical duration of SF observed in the data is <0.4 Gyr (1 sig), 2) the inferred scaling law between L_UV and halo mass M from the observed slope of the LFs is roughly linear at all redshifts, and 3) L_UV for a fixed halo mass decreases with time, implying that the SF efficiency (after dust extinction) is higher at earlier times. We explore several physical scenarios relating star formation to halo mass, but find that these scenarios are indistinguishable due to the limited range of halo mass probed by our data. In order to discriminate between different scenarios, we discuss constraining the bright-faint galaxy cross-correlation functions and luminosity-dependence of galaxy bias. (Abridged)Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures: matches published version -- Astrophysical Journal 695 (2009) 368-39