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INTEROPERABLE VISUALIZATION OF 3D CITY MODELS USING OGC’S STANDARD 3D PORTRAYAL SERVICE

The demand of serving large 3D spatial data, mainly of urban areas, reflects the need of hierarchical data structures for 3D data. During the last years the OGC community standard I3S (Indexed 3d Scene Layer, ESRI) and 3D Tiles (Analytical Graphics, Inc.) emerged in order to deal with this challenge. Conceptually, hierarchical structures for 3D data operate similarly to web map tiles, differing only in the implementation. Although 3D hierarchical formats can transmit arbitrary sized geospatial data, they are not interoperable with consuming/visualization technologies on the client. A series of prototype implementations focus on rendering of hierarchical organized massive 3D data in various web client technologies employing the 3D Portrayal Service. As a result, the user can query a scene via the 3D Portrayal Service by specifying a spatial region, rather than a specific resource via a URI. The result is delivered either using I3S or 3D Tiles as a data delivery format, depending on which data is available for the specified region. The client APIs are capable of rendering either the I3S or the 3D Tiles content

Effect of lattice volume and strain on the conductivity of BaCeY-oxide ceramic proton conductors

In-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to study the effect of lattice volume and strain on the proton conductivity of the yttrium-doped barium cerate proton conductor by applying the hydrostatic pressure up to 1.25 GPa. An increase from 0.62 eV to 0.73 eV in the activation energy of the bulk conductivity was found with increasing pressure during a unit cell volume change of 0.7%, confirming a previously suggested correlation between lattice volume and proton diffusivity in the crystal lattice. One strategy worth trying in the future development of the ceramic proton conductors could be to expand the lattice and potentially lower the activation energy under tensile strain

Minimizing experimental testing on fish for legacy pharmaceuticals.

This is the final version. Available from the American Chemical Society via the DOI in this record. There was no regulatory requirement for ecotoxicological testing of human pharmaceuticals authorized before 2006, and many of these have little or no data available to assess their environmental risk. Motivated by animal welfare considerations, we developed a decision tree to minimize in vivo fish testing for such legacy active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The minimum no observed effect concentration (NOECmin, the lowest NOEC from chronic Daphnia and algal toxicity studies), the theoretical therapeutic water concentration (TWC, calculated using the fish plasma model), and the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) were used to derive API risk quotients (PEC/NOECmin and PEC/TWC). Based on a verification data set of 96 APIs, we show that by setting a threshold value of 0.001 for both risk quotients, the need for in vivo fish testing could potentially be reduced by around 35% without lowering the level of environmental protection. Hence, for most APIs, applying an assessment factor of 1000 (equivalent to the threshold of 0.001) to NOECmin substituted reliably for NOECfish, and TWC acted as an effective safety net for the others. In silico and in vitro data and mammalian toxicity data may further support the final decision on the need for fish testing.Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertakin

Combined and single effects of pesticide carbaryl and toxic Microcystis aeruginosa on the life history of Daphnia pulicaria

The combined influence of a pesticide (carbaryl) and a cyanotoxin (microcystin LR) on the life history of Daphnia pulicaria was investigated. At the beginning of the experiments animals were pulse exposed to carbaryl for 24 h and microcystins were delivered bound in Microcystis’ cells at different, sub-lethal concentrations (chronic exposure). In order to determine the actual carbaryl concentrations in the water LC–MS/MS was used. For analyses of the cyanotoxin concentration in Daphnia’s body enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used. Individual daphnids were cultured in a flow-through system under constant light (16 h of light: 8 h of dark), temperature (20°C), and food conditions (Scenedesmus obliquus, 1 mg of C l−1). The results showed that in the treatments with carbaryl egg numbers per female did not differ significantly from controls, but the mortality of newborns increased significantly. Increasing microcystin concentrations significantly delayed maturation, reduced size at first reproduction, number of eggs, and newborns. The interaction between carbaryl and Microcystis was highly significant. Animals matured later and at a smaller size than in controls. The number of eggs per female was reduced as well. Moreover, combined stressors caused frequent premature delivery of offspring with body deformations such as dented carapax or an undeveloped heart. This effect is concluded to be synergistic and could not be predicted from the effects of the single stressors.

Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) for environmental development and transfer of antibiotic resistanc

This is the final version of the article. Available from NIEHS via the DOI in this record.Open access journalBACKGROUND: Only recently has the environment been clearly implicated in the risk of antibiotic resistance to clinical outcome, but to date there have been few documented approaches to formally assess these risks. OBJECTIVE: We examined possible approaches and sought to identify research needs to enable human health risk assessments (HHRA) that focus on the role of the environment in the failure of antibiotic treatment caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens. METHODS: The authors participated in a workshop held 4-8 March 2012 in Québec, Canada, to define the scope and objectives of an environmental assessment of antibiotic-resistance risks to human health. We focused on key elements of environmental-resistance-development "hot spots," exposure assessment (unrelated to food), and dose response to characterize risks that may improve antibiotic-resistance management options. DISCUSSION: Various novel aspects to traditional risk assessments were identified to enable an assessment of environmental antibiotic resistance. These include a) accounting for an added selective pressure on the environmental resistome that, over time, allows for development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB); b) identifying and describing rates of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the relevant environmental "hot spot" compartments; and c) modifying traditional dose-response approaches to address doses of ARB for various health outcomes and pathways. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that environmental aspects of antibiotic-resistance development be included in the processes of any HHRA addressing ARB. Because of limited available data, a multicriteria decision analysis approach would be a useful way to undertake an HHRA of environmental antibiotic resistance that informs risk managers.This manuscript was conceived at a workshop (Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment: Assessing and Managing Effects of Anthropogenic Activities) held 4–8 March 2012 in Montebello, Québec, Canada. The workshop was sponsored by the Canadian Society of Microbiologists, with financial support from AstraZeneca Ltd.; Pfizer Animal Health; F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd.; GlaxoSmithKline; Unilever; Huvepharma; the American Cleaning Institute; the Canadian Animal Health Institute; the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety; Health Canada; and the Public Health Agency of Canada

The effect of compressive strain on the Raman modes of the dry and hydrated BaCe0.8Y0.2O3 proton conductor

The BaCe0.8Y0.2O3-{\delta} proton conductor under hydration and under compressive strain has been analyzed with high pressure Raman spectroscopy and high pressure x-ray diffraction. The pressure dependent variation of the Ag and B2g bending modes from the O-Ce-O unit is suppressed when the proton conductor is hydrated, affecting directly the proton transfer by locally changing the electron density of the oxygen ions. Compressive strain causes a hardening of the Ce-O stretching bond. The activation barrier for proton conductivity is raised, in line with recent findings using high pressure and high temperature impedance spectroscopy. The increasing Raman frequency of the B1g and B3g modes thus implies that the phonons become hardened and increase the vibration energy in the a-c crystal plane upon compressive strain, whereas phonons are relaxed in the b-axis, and thus reveal softening of the Ag and B2g modes. Lattice toughening in the a-c crystal plane raises therefore a higher activation barrier for proton transfer and thus anisotropic conductivity. The experimental findings of the interaction of protons with the ceramic host lattice under external strain may provide a general guideline for yet to develop epitaxial strained proton conducting thin film systems with high proton mobility and low activation energy